snood time on the bicycle

I decided to go for an early-ish morning spin this morning, but the elements are conspiring to provide dis-incentives.

It's not that I don't have suitable clothing, but it just takes those extra few minutes to assemble everything.

I think the technical cycling term for this delay is known as faffing.

Gloves are a case in point. I have some of those ones with cut off fingers, which are small enough to fit compactly into my jacket pockets. Today I'd hardly gone outdoors when I realised I'd need proper ones that covered my entire hands. Something about the need to actually feel that I am gripping the handlebars.

Then there was the special form of rain that I don't have a word for. It was a kind of hybrid drizzle with intermediate lumps of white heavy rain included.

It was like being gently dabbed on the face by a cheese grater.

Now the bicycle thing is supposed to be fun. I found one of my 'free gift' screwed-up stretchy cycling snoods in the same pocket as the cut-away gloves. It had pictures of cogs on it. I plonked it over my head and then pulled it up across my face.

I know, it wasn't a great look, but I did find myself grinning.

Then for some actual cycling and after a few miles I was both smiling and warm.

Now I'm back indoors I've just checked the week's mileage. Just over 100, of which maybe a third involved the snood.

such stuff As dreams are made on

I couldn't resist a few minutes of google time to check out some of the dreams stuff from my last blog entry although the field of cigarettes didn't get a mention.

The interweb versions have an aspect that's quite like magazine horoscopes, appealing to a kind of pop-psychology. A few examples are:

• Being chased: avoiding something often emotional - very common
• Naked in public : vulnerable
• Snakes: Being threatened (apparently the most common threat animal in dreams)
• Spiders: weaving webs/ deceit
• Falling: things not going so well
• Flying: superior and sexy
• Lost: er - being lost in life
• Water: renewal and purification
• In an out-of-control vehicle: anxiety - ambition obstacles
• Late for something: anxiety at work/school/life
• Unprepared for a show: afraid of under-performing
• Hot and steamy: apparently it's only 8%-11% of dreams for most people - but everyone will always claim it to be top
• Being shot: Apparently more common in America to get this dream?
• Can't use phone: can't communicate
• With celebrity: may reflect low self esteem
• Paralysed: going no-where, something holding back
• Feeling of frustration: Commonly used as a threat rehearsal

What strikes me is that nearly all of these popular dream fragments have an overt downside.

I think I may have to be somewhat more elemental in my own outlook so I'll propose the fun going forward of:

• Earth : expansion, success and happiness;
• Water : Purification and renewal;
• Fire : Cleansing and warmth;
• Air : Freedom, exhilaration.

How does it go?

Earth water fire and air/ met together in a garden fair/ put in a basket bound with skin/ if you answer this riddle/ you'll never begin?

Cue Montage/ Dream Sequence.

more ballads for the brain keeper

I've been driving around to various meetings this week and have so far clocked around 350 motorway miles in the process.

I decided to create a smart playlist for the car before I started and just typed in "2012" as the album year and hit shuffle.

My original plan was to see which of the 2012 albums stood out to me for travelling in a sort of 'maybe I could do a list for the blog?' kind of way.

Instead, I found myself having an interesting dream in a hotel on Monday night, most of which seemed to take place in the short time before awakening again.

I really should find out about the timing of dreams in sleep patterns. I know about Rapid Eye Movement and the the safety shutdown of the body during REM to avoid acting out the dreams (sleepwalkers take note, your brain superhighway pons might be differently configured), but I think there must be some more stuff that would be useful to know.

Anyway, my dream was one of those ones where you kind of know you are dreaming and there was a bit in it that was getting rather tricky, so I baled from that dream into another one (sort of like Inception, that film with di Caprio).

Phew. The next dream found me in a field (I know, I should dig out that dream meanings book - I used to use it for brainstorming sessions) - It was very supersaturated colour and there were cigarettes growing in amongst the grass.

Now I worked out the cigarettes in a few seconds. Breaking Bad Series 4 middle episodes. I've just been watching it.

But for the rest I might need some help. I didn't need that group of Mumford like folk singers and a combine harvester at getting up time. It was beginning to go like a margarine commercial. So I woke up instead.

Then I realised the tracks I'd been listening to in the car the previous evening may well have included a subliminal message. I'd flicked through some of the albums quite quickly (unsuitable for motorways) but pretty much listened to every track on one excellent album.

It was by Hannah Louise Clark's "Foe"

And the name of the album?

"Bad Dream Hotline"

January's emerging challenges

I will be setting the alarm for an early start tomorrow.

I've also booked some hotel nights away and filled the car with fuel ready for the start of a busy week.

My calendar shows I'll be partly around Westminster and partly further afield. January always seems to be a long month after the accelerated speed through December and has the other joys of 'Debt Day' around the 14th when all the bills roll in.

That's ahead of Blue Monday - which this year is the 23rd January - the pseudo scientifically derived low point of the year. It's a blend of poor weather, maximum debt, time since feel-good factor of Christmas, disintegration of resolutions and general low motivation.

I'll class it as hokum, but it's best to be prepared to side step it in any case.

visions of sugarplums were gonna dance in my head

A few minutes to sit quietly now the new year is beginning to spin up to full velocity.

Yesterday we started the complicated meetings (4 sites together in a call) and next week I'll be on the road for at least part of the week.

I've still a few end of 2012 archiving things to do with various rashbre computers. I'll be resetting Outlook to a fairly empty state, shuffling some folders around and also restarting a new Aperture photo library for 2013.

I know I could just let things roll along, but it feels like the right time to reset things at the start of the year. The 2012 Aperture library is around 85Gb, which still takes a while to copy.

I've also reset my cycling goals for 2013. I hardly cycled at all in December (I just checked and it was 85 miles).

I've decided to use the 2012 cycling outcomes as the basis for 2013 targets. It is good as I now have a full year of recorded numbers, month by month.

When I started at the beginning of 2012, I set a 40 mile per week, 160 mile per month, 1800 mile per year sort of target. I was aware that I'd need to fit cycling back into my 'habits' for it to work and I decided that a lower target was probably better psychologically.

I also rapidly discovered that it was best to have a week that started with a Sunday and finished with a Saturday, so that I had a chance to (a) get ahead or (b) recover if I was behind.

The 'actuals' from last year were pretty good and I think I finished at around 4,600 miles and just over 110,000 Calories which was well beyond my original target and sets a bar for this year.

I've been using one of those heart rate monitors throughout which is a kind of way to measure input. My next foray is into 'Watts' which is a measure of output and I'll see how that works over the coming months.

I haven't really got started properly yet this year because of little bike issues - I am slightly amazed that a short term unused bike has managed to pick up a couple of minor glitches. Fortunately there are others to pick from so I'm still cycling. So far its 87 miles this year, so it's a bit of a look uphill at the moment.

starting windows again?

I've obtained a replacement for the little PC laptop that died a couple of days ago. It came with Windows 8 on the desktop.

What I've found with this Windows 8 'Modern UI' aka 'Metro' interface, is that it's quite good if you want to concentrate on single tasks which take over the whole screen. Great for use with a tablet, phone or interactive television type environment.

However, this clean big button interface falls down for someone like me who is used to working with several things open at once.

Take the internet browser as an example. In Windows 8, it can easily be fired up in a kind of 'sealed unit' mode where it takes over the whole desktop. It is very clean and simple to use and would no doubt appeal to a certain type of user.

But if you are used to working with Word and dipping in and out of the browser and maybe a spreadsheet to check things, then it's not as convenient. I also find that every so often I carelessly bump the cursor against a screen edge and after popping up the so-called 'charms' it can flip back into single focus mode.

I have a simple (and some would say Luddite) fix. I have re-installed the Start button onto Windows 8. That way I can run Windows 8 but when I want to I can bypass the Metro interface and use Windows in the traditional manner, with multiple applications open on the desktop. I don't think I'm alone with this approach.

Microsoft appears to have removed the original Windows code related to the Start Menu. I can see that this makes sense for a touch screen / Surface kind of interface, but I wonder how it will play out for more conventional laptops and desktop systems?

It's hard to estimate precisely, but some of us have been using Windows interfaces for many years and we get used to how to do things. This can create a frustration when a familiar approach is no longer available.

Maybe a start button return for Windows 9?

broken windows

Well, we are all progressively getting back to work.

My additional (failed) domestic task for yesterday was also to take down the external sparkling lights as rashbre central returns to its normal operating state.

I had a couple of irritants along the way which deflected me from my purpose.

This included the first technological failure of 2013, when the quietest household PC stopped working. It's only used for modest duties but now it's flashing lights refuse to come on at all and the whole device lies inert.

I've tried all of the usual remove power, remove battery, use a replacement power supply, reset the hardware type things but it looks as if something on the motherboard has died.

I googled the failure on the internet and it seems to be quite a common occurrence. I have already surrendered to the inevitability of buying a replacement machine rather than attempting to repair this particular piece of hardware.

So now for the new flashing lights of the slightly mysterious Windows 8...

Back to Work with Misery Bear

Thanks, T-Hedgehog, for the tip-off.

Reset the counters for 2013

Time to press the reset buttons again for another fine year.

rashbre central's year in 3 minutes video (2012)

The end of the year is the right time to do one of those bonkers videos summarising the year.

Sometimes people say they think the year has passed quickly.

I tend to disagree when I look back over all the things we've done.

Even when it's edited down, it all still looks pretty busy - and that's without showing work or shopping.

Enjoy this skittish 3 minute version of rashbre central's year. That's around 1 second for every weekday. There's some pictures from the blog and a few other stories too.

Happy New Year.

pause awhile with three jolly wheelers

A late afternoon visit to the Three Jolly Wheelers in Woodford Bridge, Essex.

It was a pub which I hadn't visited for a very long time. Someone asked me if I remembered the inside and I had to confess that I'd treated it as if it was a new location, because of the changes to the layout.

The original pub dates from around the 1830s. What I remembered was a substantially different layout which had separate public and saloon bars. The beers used to be sold at different prices depending on the level of bar decor. There had even been a small off licence tacked on to the side.

Of course, all of that has been obliterated in various modernisations, through the times when pubs had become more open plan and egalitarian. On our particular evening it was very quiet, but bracing itself for the next and densely packed New Year's Eve.

Just along the road, another Grade II listed hostelry from the 1500s hasn't survived as a pub. It used to be called Ye Olde Kings Head (yes, really), and had been a Charles Dickens inspiration for The Maypole in Barnaby Rudge.

Then Lord Alan Sugar bought it a few years ago and it is now operating as a somewhat black and gold Tudor Turkish restaurant. I guess it's handy for Lord Sugar, who lives just around the corner in Chigwell, within walking distance of the establishment.

I normally focus on 'fun going forward', but what with year end and all, it is also interesting to briefly look at 'fun going back'.

let me tell you what I want - steppin' out

We moved the operations centre for rashbre central to somewhere with a big staircase for part of the Christmas break.

It turns out that our venue was also the one where the Spice Girls broke into the party at the start of their first video.

Then someone else told me it was the same location used in one of the Batman movies and then it also turned out to be featured in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

We aren't making any movies here, but will still enjoy the theatricality of the enormous staircases and magical artefacts.