Passenger Focus, the ‘independent rail consumer watchdog’ is running a competition where the prize is a annual season ticket plus the honour of doing a fortnightly blog for their website, talking about the travelling experience. I’m not sure at all I’d like to be called a ‘consumer’ of rail services – I prefer passenger or […]
Ultimate Flight
Last year, Steve Fossett made the first solo non-stop flight around the world. This year, he tries to go one better by attempting the longest flight ever made – targetting 26,000 miles, 3000 miles more than last year. The plane carries 18,000 lbs of fuel and needs 10,000 ft to take off, so it’s using […]
New York Dining
I’m trying to choose a restaurant in New York for a visit at the end of the month for an end of project party (assuming we get the website live by then!). Searching for ‘New york restaurant’ gives me 112 million results on google and even the organic results look like advertisment driven pages. This […]
Hi Calories
The Metro today features a high calory desert that is getting food campaigners up in arms – despite first appearing on the BBC food site over 2 years ago. It may be tied into the news that chocolate companies are going to increase the amount of information on packs to ensure we are educated about […]
Four Things
Where’s the time gone – didn’t think it’s been a week since I posted. I’ve been tagged twice (by Lloyd and Andrew) so here’s a recent meme… Four jobs I’ve had: Bartender Insect Counter in an Entomology lab Warehouse packer Children’s Camp counselor (all of these were before I started working for the current compnay […]
Whale in Thames
This has just turned up in my inbox… London (dpa) – A whale was spotted in the river Thames in London Friday swimming past the parliament of Westminster and Big Ben, eyewitnesses said. Boaters and sightseers reported seeing the mammal, believed to be a pilot whale – which can grow up to 6 metres long. […]
Networking
Last night I went to a business networking event. Unlike some I’ve been to, where it is a ‘come along and chat’ night, this one was more structured in that there were a number of experts who provide free 30 minute sessions during the night on their specialised subject. Even though they are trying to […]
Resolutions
I’ve been looking at a couple of sites that have been designed to support people trying to keep to their New Years Resolutions. The first is from Boots the Chemist, with its Change One Thing programme. They have hints and tips in six categories; the whole campaign is backed up with heavy instore promotion, tying […]
Martin Luther King Day
Download and listen to Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech, made available by Bret Fausett.
Stock Check at the Zoo
London Zoo started theirannual stock check today. As explained on the morning TV, they don’t really concentrate on the bigger things, because I think you’d notice pretty quickly if the count of elephants was out by a couple. It can take up to a month, ensuring a good record is done of all the births […]
Saladtastic
Resolutions were on display in the canteen at lunchtime. The first day back at work found a far larger than usual number of people choosing salad for their lunch instead of any other offering. Walking into Waterstones, another favourite resolution was being encouraged – giving up smoking – with this highly visible display of half-price […]
Happy New Year
A Happy 2006 to everyone. A traditional time to take stock, looking backwards to what has been and forwards to what may be. To make resolutions about how things are going to be different next year, how you’ll improve your life or try and improve the lives of others. Technorati are asking people to tag […]
50 Foods to eat before you die
One of the programmes this morning was 50 things to eat before you die, a viewers poll by the BBC. Here’s the top 10 – not very imaginative are we… 1. Fresh fish 2. Lobster 3. Steak 4. Thai food 5. Chinese food 6. Ice cream 7. Pizza 8. Crab 9. Curry 10. Prawns I’ve […]
Family History
For a few years I’ve been tracking down my family history; it’s been a very slow process and I usually spend only a few days a year on it. Yesterday was one of those. Usually I go to the Family Hostory centre, which is about an hour away, but decided to try the National Archives, […]
Does my bum look big in this?: an academic study
Dr Lisa Macintyre, of Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, has started an academic study to establish what combination of cut and material do make bums look big…and therefore advise clothes designers how to minimise the effect. Volunteers will be photographed in lots of different clothes before the photos get assessed by an expert panel .“This […]
Brothers-in-law and Computers
The wonders of family life! Spent the last 5 hours buying computers with the brothers-in-law and then ripping and transferring multiple CDs and MP3 files into portable devices which have been bought by other relatives who do not own computers to allow them to get music on the devices. I start charging very very soon.
Post Christmas
That’s the day over for another year; the rest of the rest of the week will be spent in that perculiar limbo between holidays, not at work and still doing the family visits. Yesterday, my nearly 5 year niece declared that she now likes me, as she can now speak ‘adult talk’. When she coould […]
Merry Christmas
Season’s greetings from a dull, wet, Midland’s morning. Santa’s been and gone, but he’s still out there according to NASA
Family Time
Up to visit the family for a few days, so blogging may be light…or may not be dependong on how much time I’ll need to escape from chaos ;o). Only a few final gifts to find, and get everything wrapped up and then I’m ready to face the festivities.
Singing together
Singing together Originally uploaded by RachelC. I went along to the carol service in Parliament Sq, testing the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, which bans any demonstrations within a half mile area around Parliament. Over a 100 people (and probably around 15-20 press) sang songs for an hour. The police were not present, A […]