shopping expedition

I'm trekking up and down the UK again this week, to various meetings. Today has featured London, a business park and then a haul along the M40 and M6 to the outskirts of Manchester.

I managed to choose the worst services in Britain for a stop on the way.

As I pulled off the road, my satnav was still saying everything was fine, but there was an immense line of traffic to get into the services, which were across the other side of the motorway via two roundabouts.

I'd only picked them because they claimed to have a reasonable shop where I could get some supplies for the evening instead of Yet Another Late Night Hotel Meal.

I eventually discovered that the line of traffic was all going somewhere else but effectively blocked the access to the services. After a long wait, I drove into the services and had the dawning realisationthat I'd been there once before after it had caught fire or something.

There is now what I assume is a temporary huge tin shed whilst they rebuild the damaged one behind construction fencing.

Anyway, I did get some modest supplies, which was reassuring because when I arrived at my last-minute choice of hotel, the person in front of me was complaining about the long wait in the restaurant.

target acquisition noise

Its interesting to watch how the adverts sent to me on Google and through Blogger are adjusting based upon the material I've been posting.

They seem to be quite sensitive to current posts and activity, so that I've had recent suggestions about bolt cutters, bicycle tyres and theatre breaks in London. None on 'heists' though.

Add to that the automatically generated posts on Twitter that are sensitive to words like 'estate agent', 'pheasant' or 'railway' and there's a whole microcosm of automatically generated 'stuff' happening behind the scenes.

Some would say this is responding to a target market. Others might suppose its all just noise.

mamil moment

Another bright, sunny morning, although the temperature was low enough to chill my fingers as I started out for a spin today. Luckily I'd added a jumper on top of my tee-shirt, so I was soon warm enough.

I was ahead of most of the traffic again except for squirrels, ducks and pheasants and at one point a startled shrew which froze in the middle of the lane. I missed it and even missed the furry centipede that was inching across the road at another point.

There were a few other cyclists, including fully paid-up mamils who brightly sped past me. There were plenty of runners and a few dog walkers about too, and some opportunities to exchange early morning greetings.

There's a sort of protocol though, based around not startling people or interrupting peaceful reverie.

On a quiet road, my white bike is quite stealthy, so its a good idea to make gentle brake scraping sounds as one approaches, to avoid peoples' look of surprise. My silver bike is better for that because it's rather more tractor styled tyres make a gentle rumbling sound at anything over about 5 miles per hour.

I was still back before most of the area had stirred for Saturday, and next on the list will be the continuation of some domestic painting and decorating..."aahh, the smell of fresh Dulux paint in the morning"...

leveraged buying

I've a pretty good, if somewhat random, selection of tools which are kept mainly in the garage.

If truth were told there are some tools (investments) that are best left untouched. Some electrically operated devices can do enormous damage very quickly. And don't get me onto the ones that use petrol.

The manufacturers have got wise to this over time though, and cunningly include batteries and battery chargers that take ages to boost the tools back into life. Just long enough to have second thoughts.

But there's a job I need to do now that really requires bolt cutters. I could make do with tortured hours using hacksaws, but I'd have to go out and buy new blades anyway.

The thing is, I'd no idea how much a bolt cutter costs. It looks like a big and impressive item - the sort of things that television robbers carry to heists - or that heroes find in the nick of time to cut the heroine free from the chains that are being hauled over the acid tank.

There are big and impressive devices which probably require both hands to lift, but I've discovered that perfectly serviceable ones can still give change from a tenner.

I suppose it will reduce two or three hours of struggling to cut some items down to about a minute.

Pretty good leverage, as some might say.

authentic

There's been a gap in my blogging since I returned from Amsterdam. It's been a kind of technical exile because of the identity thief.

I first noticed a few days ago when I received a strange invoice related to an internet advanced server offering that I hadn't taken. It was way too sophisticated for me and had the hallmark of a 'pop-up store' on the internet. I contacted the supplier and explained that it was nothing to do with me. They didn't seem too surprised. But for me it was an extra $200 per month that I shouldn't be charged.

We agreed that one of my accounts had been compromised, which led to certain systems being "frozen" whilst it was investigated.

As it happens, the combination of my trackers and their hosting service journal meant it was pretty easy to trace the person who had been borrowing my bandwidth and money. It was easy to find the service, IP address and even the real email address.

The follow up is not my concern now, and I've got my money back.

However, it took me out of blogging for a few days.

Through Low Light and Trees with the Smoke Fairies

We were sitting in the kitchen yesterday listening to old Roy Harper tracks and chatting. "You haven't posted about any new music recently?" came the comment.

"Er nope, I've not had much time..." came my reply.

Then today a little padded bag dropped onto the mat. In it was the brand new Smoke Fairies CD and a little pack with a set of postcards.

This delicious smoky folky New Orleans influenced duo's new album conjures more of their atmospheric and sometimes dark lyrics.

They've moved beyond their two guitars in places but even their stripped down sound is quite haunting. You might want to take a listen to them playing their old single "dances with ghosts" before finding a way to obtain their new album. Click the shop to jump to their site, join their mailing list and get a free track.

rotterdam or anywhere

A few days away this week, on business.

Planes, taxis and a ship included, as well as some high speed water taxis.

We arrived in Rotterdam in a grey rain, paid the taxi and walked along a metal corridor onto what turned out to be a surprisingly large ship.

I hadn't really comprehended the scale until I got lost the first two or three times and then later when we took a speedy small boat to a nearby restaurant and had a chance to look back at the temporary home.

I wasn't the only one to think of that Beautiful South song.

Skyride London 2010

I cycled to Parliament Square around 09:30 to join the London Skyride and was surprised to see quite so many people already circulating.

Various areas of central London get road closures during the summer for all manner of reasons, but the Skyride, which only started last year, is a particularly good one for some casual sightseeing whilst pedalling.

This year's route was slightly different, with a one-way system along the Mall (last year was two-way) and Trafalgar Square removed but Parliament added. I'd originally thought this year's route may be longer, but I suspect its about the same as last time.

When I started out, there were still moderate amounts of free road and not too many stops at pedestrian crossings, which had special "stop go" traffic management. It was also relatively easy to get into St James' Park to collect one of the High Viz vests and check out the various exhibits and vendors sprinkled around the edge before heading for St Paul's Cathedral.


By the time I was at the far end (for me) of the route, by the Tower of London, there were some acute traffic management challenges, with what seemed to be an ever increasing volume of bikes pouring into the area.

The route back towards the Queen's house required good low speed steering and some effort to keep rolling forwards in places and back at Parliament Square we ground to a halt. It was all very good spirited though, with most people simply enjoying the experience and chatting amiably. There were plenty of younger riders, some notably loud ones with training wheels on their bicycles.

At the other extreme were the stunt bikes and quite a few silent carbon fibre speed machines, although most were circulating at the same leisurely pace.

Thoughts on the event? I'm guessing the organisers might be thinking about scale for next year. I suspect they have been caught out by sheer volume this time and may need a bigger circuit / set of circuits to cope with the volume. The same with St James Park, which is the refreshment and event area but was showing signs of becoming overwhelmed - at least on the ways into it.

Still good fun, and a positive contribution towards extending bike culture within London. Also checkout the pictures at London Cyclist

the wilderness downtown

An interesting experiment with media by Chris Milk and Arcade Fire using the Google Chrome API set.

It will build a personalised movie (based upon a standard song track and premise) for any viewer. It asks for a postcode of somewhere you grew up and the builds the little movie.

Worth a play, although its best to clear the desktop before you start.

Here it is

pining ping pong penguins ping pingu

So I'm sitting this afternoon, listening to the gentle delights of Sleeping Giant by Jónsi & Alex from Riceboy Sleeps, when I decide to hit the rating key on my iTunes to remind myself I like it.

Maybe a 3. No a 4.

It'll drift off into my last.fm playlist and charts and I thought it might also show up in that new ping thing from iTunes.

Nope.

Its only stuff you buy or rate through the iTunes store.

Not exactly social connectivity.

sky ride 2010

Two maps of London in two days on this blog and both bicycle related. This one is about the Mayor of London's Sky Ride which takes place on Sunday.

I did it last year and it was quite good fun, what with London's central roads closed to traffic and the whole place turned over to cyclists.

This year's route is similar to last time, but its also possible to go past the Houses of Parliament, which was still open to cars last time.

I guess its a slightly longer route, but presumably there will be more people taking part. Lets hope it's also good picnic weather, like last time.

cyclemeter GPS track experiment

A little experiment today, using one of the iPhone GPS trackers whilst I took a short spin around part of tourist London.

I was really more interested in how the Cyclemeter iPhone software drew the route rather than exactly where I travelled. The phone was thrown into my backpack amongst car keys and various other electronic miscellanea, so GPS reception was far from ideal.

My start was by The Navigator in Belgrave Square and then out towards the eastern extension of King's Road before heading towards Westminster Abbey with views of Parliament, Big Ben the Eye and then around the back of Downing Street and past the Spitfire parked on the pavement.

The Mall is currently closed to traffic giving an easy run to Buckingham Palace which I did twice because it was quite fun zipping along such a deserted street, except for the roadblock quantities of tourists taking photos. Back past a busy Victoria station and then through a few twists around Eaton Square and back to where I started.

Only a few miles, mainly flat with thousands of tourist spots. A good example of how one of the London hire bikes could do simple sight-seeing in a matter of minutes.

Okay, so the map isn't perfect, but its not bad, and sufficiently good for anyone to be able to work out the route.

And, alright, I'll admit I was using my own bike today, but I did have to pump one of the tyres before I could start.