funny how the distance learns to grow

Saturday night and I'm at a going-away party for a friend.

He's off to Beijing on Sunday to work. It's not that long since I was with a different friend who had a similar plan. Not to Beijing, but instead to Shanghai - hardly in the same vicinity but only 4 hours on the bullet train.

In amongst the drinking and music, the inevitable questions were asked around how/what/why? and some of the people there were expecting detailed explanations. I didn't go along that route and am much more able to settle for the 'It is what it is' type of explanation.

For the moment I'll have to make do with Chinatown in Soho, but it's got me thinking about a visit.

hold your breath till the sun goes down

I was in the supermarket when I spotted the latest edition of Uncut magazine. It's not something I'd normally buy, but the cover with its Tom Waits' Jukebox drew me towards it. Usually it carries quite a few retro articles about (e.g.) how Deep Purple wrote their 1970 hit single "Black Night" (they jammed it as a b-side) or what Bob Dylan was doing in 1976 (Rolling Thunder).

It reminds me of that recently launched magazine that carries slightly old news. There was a copy in a hotel where I stayed recently, and although it was all elaborately printed and typeset, I couldn't really be bothered to read news from the last three months, ending in August.

But I'll make an exception with the Tom Waits article, which was a longish and recent interview as well as the song selections, which feature sufficient bar-rooms, brawls and gasoline references to keep me engaged. I know I reference Mr Waits here from time to time, and to be honest I don't really know how many of his albums I have, except that its quite a lot, including some on vinyl but usually repeated as CDs.

Aside from the lyrics and interesting music, there's often a reason to get the physical packaging with his albums too. Who can forget the cover of Real Gone, with its handy match striker surface? or the little book included with Orphans, Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards? I personally think he missed a trick by not including any glitter or confetti with Glitter and Doom, but the second CD of talk tracks more than compensated.

There's a new album out now too, Bad as Me, but I shall wait until after my birthday before considering purchasing it.

Well, you play that Tarantella, all the hounds they start to roar
The boys all go to hell, and then the Cubans hit the floor
They drive along the pipeline, they tango till they're sore
They take apart their nightmares and they leave 'em by the door
Let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair
Deal out jacks or better on a blanket by the stairs
I'll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past
Send me off to bed forever more

I appear to be starting a Mexican hat dance for Nanowrimo

The trouble with even thinking about NaNoWriMo is that I then start to think about the plot-line for the next novel.

If it was a completely new story then I’d probably get away with ignoring the whole thing, but as the next one is supposed to be the third part of the Triangle, then the characters are pre-formed.

It means that they start to do things again of their own accord. It doesn’t help that when I was in the desert a few months ago I had a few ideas pop into my head which would fit nicely into book three.

Or that when I was in a rather agreeable hotel in the middle of Santa Fe I worked out a pretty cool idea for a scene which I’ve not seen anyone do yet.

And don’t get me started on the Vauxhall train station plotline that could be worked into the story. I picked that up when we were delayed on an inbound train to Waterloo.

It means that the characters that I’ve left by the roadside on US Highway 163 in are already on their way to the Utah border and might even pick up some horses to cut across the Colorado Plateau.

It’s all getting out of hand and I haven’t written a single word yet.

Then there's those two Navajo truck drivers who have pulled off the road by Mexican Hat and are transferring all manner of things between what appears to be two almost identical trailers. There’s clearly something going down, and it isn’t just a refreshment stop.

Oh, well maybe just a little peep...

no nanowrimo this year?

It's not that I don't want to, but I just can't rationalise doing the NaNoWriMo again this year. My hazy desert picture is indicative of the plot forming in my head.

The thing is, I have two partially complete novels from previous years that it would make more sense to complete.

One is the second part of the Triangle trilogy. It's called 'The Square' and is at that 80% complete status. I still need to write the last 3-4 conventional chapters and then I'd have a reasonable first draft on the basis that I've already polished some parts of it. I already have someone in mind to help me with a sub-editorial review as well.

Then there's last year's effort - which is called 'Pulse'. It's a different genre, but still with a London based theme around it. That's probably more at the 60% stage at the moment and as it involves more countries the various cast of players need to be scooped back into a single area for a sort of denouement.

The thing is, I've already got the hazy idea for the third book of the Triangle series, which happens to be set partly in Arizona. The rationale for the location is like the other ones; pretty much that I happened to be there and I think all the Navajo and pueblo elements can add some other textures.

Did I just hear someone say 'Step away from the typewriter"?

No bats

I was booked into a hotel for Halloween, but actually dining in a different one with some work colleagues.

I don't think any of us noticed Halloween during the evening, although at lunch time in a different venue with a colleague we had noticed the lone Christmas cracker on the table as we hastily ate jacket potatoes before heading to a meeting.

I'm guessing it's all a factor of the pre-scheduling of everything now. My best Halloween encounters were Friday night, when I sat in a pizza place which had a pretty good pumpkin and then later in the evening the pub had a full complement of scary people spilling out across the late-night pavement. The iPhone pizza place pumpkin picture (pause for breath) is above, but the picture at the top shows my 'creature of the night' performance after we left the Hallows Evening restaurant. I'd decided early evening to go home instead of back to the other hotel. It was a case of a 2h30 mid evening drive versus a 3 to 4 hour drive with an early start the next morning.

And I was back well before the witching hour.

our kitchen always has its own time zone

Time was, when the clock change meant everything had to be adjusted individually to the new setting. Nowadays it kind of works in reverse. Everything changes automatically except for a couple of old battery clocks.

Even getting into the car I was treated to that moment when the ignition is switched on and the clock then spins around 11 hours without me touching anything.

It can be confusing though. We keep the kitchen in a special +20 minutes time zone. Its a sort of tradition to try to avoid being late for things and just enough to be almost forgotten about in routine matters. On Sunday evening, as we returned from a couple of days away, it was at one of those times where we just didn't know any more what the right time was.

"Shall we make the kitchen only plus five?" came a suggestion.

We've left it plus 20.

gullibity

I know, I should have taken the picture from a lower angle.

There was actually someone else trying to take the same picture so I just snapped away. The puddle in the foreground is a clue though. We were scoping out a few boat trips around Poole, with a view to taking a short trip on Sunday.

The modest sunshine on Saturday was probably indicating the last fine weather we'll get before the season finally changes but we'd already got plans for the day so Sunday seemed like the best bet for boating.

However, the little weather forecast on my phone was showing rain, rain, rain, rain, rain for Poole on Sunday.

The gull probably took a trip around the harbour, but we didn't.

barrels of oil equivalent at the car service

Wednesday was car service day.

Its a whole year that I've had the current car and its little message popped up a few days ago to remind me to take it for a service. By the time I was ready, it had slid into "5 days past service" on the dashboard message and required me to tap "OK" before it would give me the normal read-outs.

Of course, the car is like a giant computer now anyway, and it only mildly surprised me when the chap in the service depot was explaining what they'd done.

"We've updated the command control software from version 1.3 to version 6."

I must admit I was slightly unnerved by this (thoughts of Windows updates in my mind - and especially for something that's only a year old). He was anticipating my reaction and said "Don't worry, it's a routine update."

I shall be interested if the change means that the very occasional playfully wrong "Now turn right" messages have been eliminated.

Then he went on to explain how they had "connected the car to Germany" to have the engine software updated. That it was all 'free' under warranty. And they'd done some modifications to some injector cables also under warranty.

So far, so good and all sounding inexpensive.

They got me on the oil though. I'm sure it needed changing, but I think I must have bought a whole barrel.

Heston Mince Pies - Are they Ecc?

A quick way to replace those calories burned from the wilful effort of cycling is to start eating mince pies.

We all know they are not really supposed to be eaten until December, although the shops start selling them by the pallet load from early October.

I'm pretty good at tuning out the bright red aisles until at least after the new Beaujolais arrives in mid November, so it is unusual to have mince pies in the house this early.

These mince pies are by Heston Blumenthal, the well known experimental chef. Last year he produced a type of Christmas pudding that sold out everywhere in a stampedes of wild adulation, but I'm less convinced about this year's project.

Now I didn't actually buy them, and don't want to sound ungrateful, but I am slightly confused. Firstly, they are square instead of round. Maybe that's why the box doesn't show a picture of them. Secondly, they are made of puff pastry. Thirdly the filling is rather more of a smear than a dollop. Then the pastry itself is a little rubbery to cut with the edge of a fork. The 'pine sugar' has a pine zing when its tipped from the packet but doesn't really offset what I'd describe as a poorly executed Eccles cake.

That'll be another 15 minutes on the bike.

Garmin Edge 800 and Tacx Booster

Today, it's a slight case of needing to read the manual. Or it would have been if there had been one included.

I've been using one of those Garmin units on my bike for quite a long time. It has that ANT+ wireless telemetry and reads out speeds, cadence, heart rate, calories and my route. I originally just tapped in a few basic setup instructions, clipped it and a couple of sensors to the bike and was in business. There's even little guy riding another virtual bike to act as a pacemaker on the display.

Then, a few days ago I decided to start some preparation for the colder and potentially slippery weather. Time to pump the tyres on the metal bike with lights, mudguards and the other paraphernalia.

It got me thinking that I could hook the summer bike to one of those turbo trainer things in the now reclaimed garage space.

So I connected together the two or three components of a Tacx Booster, which is a kind of magnetic turbo unit with about ten settings (of which I am only capable of using 1-2-3 only at the moment.)

I'd left the Garmin on the bike and it seemed quite happy to function statically although the route map admittedly looked a bit strange. That's when I noticed the workouts menu. It lets me build little training regimes into the Garmin. Along the lines of 'pedal till heart-rate =x. Then pedal in range x for 100 calories. Then pedal at cadence x for y minutes. etc."

I'd never really noticed these menus before and so spent a few minutes making up some test scripts.

Then to test it on the bike. It all worked fine. The sensors would tell me if I was going too slow or too fast (yeah right!) and after each step was complete the Garmin would switch to the next one automatically.

Pretty good and with the display scrolling around there was enough going on to prevent boredom whilst pedalling. The main difference compared with road was the ability to set a constant pace in a suitable 'Zone' and then pretty much stick to it, which is quite difficult on roads with hills, traffic and so on.

I know I'll prefer being out on the road, but this little setup with the turbo trainer and some basic telemetry can be quite fun.

And back to the manual. The small print in the box said the big manual was available on-line where it also explains how to use another feature - the training centre, which turns out to be quick way to set up training programmes and review their results.

Next plan is to charge up the spare iPod for 'garage use'.

Bat flash trigger Tigger tale

There' a complicated chain reaction that led to these pictures.

I decided to take another picture of the bats flying in the garden, this time with a flash. It really isn't much effort because they seem to appear punctually at around 20 minutes after the sun sets, which has been around 6:30 or so for the last few days.

I found a flash gun and connected it to a camera and when the bats appeared I simply fired a few shots. The effect was almost blinding. A white wall of light that looked as if we were under alien attack. The bats seem unperturbed and carried on hunting for insects.

"There's lighting!" I could hear a neighbour calling out, "It must be very close!"

I decided to abandon the experiment which was starting to divert aeroplanes.

As I returned indoors I noticed that the camera was remote triggering the flash. Cue Tigger to pose for a couple of test shots.

wild-eyed iCloud?

I've converted one iPhone to the new iOS 5 launched a few days ago by Apple.

Unlike the various press reports of disaster, it transferred without incident, albeit taking the best part of two hours.

The phone in question isn't my main one; I preferred to transfer something less critical to check that the various email and calendars (which include Exchange) all worked before I took the plunge with what I consider to be my 'work' device.

It's raised another interesting set of questions about the iCloud transfer, which is a sort of inevitability because the old .mac/.me mobile system is being phased out sometime next year.

It's one of the few times where I need to read the small print before I start moving things though - because some services are no longer supported.

My issue will be with the Apple Macs I still use that are "pre Lion" and non-upgradeable. The main need will be for them to still access email and remain generally synchronised.

I think everything will be ok, but once I've typed 'Yes' into the relevant 'move to iCloud' boxes it looks like a one-way-trip.

Maybe I'll paint the garage doors today instead.