Recent Happenings

So another reboot later and we were on our way; then the train was terminated at the next station.

The train gave up on the strain.

We had a reasonable mix of doing and seeing things, highlights included (in the order I remember them) -

• Seal trip with Bean's
• Wells to Walsingham light railway
• Holkham Beach – twice
• Wells beach – once, briefly
• Sheringham to Holt railway – the Poppy line
• Various coastal trips taking in Cley-next-the-Sea, Morston, Salthouse
  

Purchases and food included (again in the order I remember them) -

• Dinner at both The Globe and The Crown
• French's Fish and Chips
• Saltwater Gallery – including a good chat with Gareth Hacon and the purchase of a couple of prints
• Big Blue Sky

Just watched the latest Top Gear – the one with Jezza in the train, May in the car and Hammond on the bike. There is the problem, it would seem that Hammond did the journey on a different day; the weather so different. 

There you go - not only did he have little hope of winning on that old nail, but he couldn't win as he wasn't on the same road on the same day...

Also, the thing about Schumi being the Stig is cobblers. What's the bet that Top Gear wanted that black Ferrari on the show and were told they had to have Schumi to drive it at its best, then TG thought – why don't we get our money's worth out of him?

See, anyone can be a TV producer – not difficult is it?

It is said in some productive countries like the Netherlands and Finland that people who walk around with this much paper are not effective. It not as clear cut as that as sheer overload often applies here as opposed to simply being ineffective.

My real grouse here is that I can see what this woman is reading, whilst its probably not sensitive in the the greater scheme of things – its papers for an academic institution's Council – they may be sensitive at the drafting stage.

What is needed to get into these people's heads?

PS – Ive just seen her with a sheaf of printed emails! Arrrgh.

I've given the SB-600 a bit of a workout over the last few days, and its amazing that this has turned a camera with IMHO mediocre indoor performance, into a very capable device. I now need to get the manual out and work out the wireless capability.

Another fortnight away, this time with the added bonus of the purchase of an SB-600 for the D80, at about £50 less than the UK. The car was a Pontiac Grand Prix, during my stay GMC announced it would be ending the Pontiac brand, by my singular assessment of the Grand Prix, this was overdue. The 3.8l V6 engine was punchy, to the point where other team members weren't keen on driving it. The brakes had no feel and the steering was heavy.

They say travel broadens the mind and whilst these trips always make sure you and those with you grow a little more each time, seeing Georgetown and experiencing the extreme weather (well, extremeish anyway) was fun. The tree pollen being so thick on the bonnet and boot of my hire car it was as if a shake-and-vac had been used on the car. This same pollen then being washed away by the rain to form a slimy goo on the black-top was a new sight.

I also experienced a banana latte, or at least a sip of the same in a coffee shop in Georgetown. I very much wanted to loathe it and pull a screwed-up face, but it was actually rather pleasant, though whether I could drink a venti size cup of it is debatable.

Other new things included using the netbook to do a video conference with the folks back home, which after some teething troubles, worked quite well.

So here I am, back on Virgin VS021 to Washington Dulles. A few observations so far, air travel appears to attract strange people, or is there a class of people who fly who are strange only when they fly. There are the endless sky blue trouser wearing weirdo men, fidgety women who have 1001 strange habits, people who shout – we have them all.

Taking the latter, the shouter is embodied in a middle aged man trying to look about 21. He is a man whom by the shouting at his colleague (wearing noise canceling headphones – natch) has an opinion on everything, yet knowledge of very little. He has an iPhone, he plays with it regularly, he must be a dork. We also have two aged sisters who argue with each other, one of whom is reading Hello magazine about the '..secrets of Celeb A and Celeb B's fairytale wedding'. Excuse me whilst I vomit...

Yes, O2 appear to be on planet Zob again. This gem was a note and leaflet exclaiming that I was now an O2 Priority Club member; apparently I am now a priority to them. How nice. This means that I get priority on tickets to events at the Dome, spiffy. Although I'm only on the ground level of this club, because to get to the hallowed tiers of super-plebs all I have to do is spend £45 a month. That wont be happening, principally for one reason – their network coverage is dire.

Even at home now, its almost impossible to pick up a GPRS connection, let alone Edge- my Blackberry simply reverts to plain old GSM.

Please wake-up in Bath Road, Slough. Now I am dependent on O2 it is painfully obvious how poor the coverage is compared with Vodafone. It'll be interesting to see if and how the network coverage increases come June this year as I was told some weeks ago, after the network upgrade.

Well my previous positive thoughts were dashed, its a mere sharing of cell sites and facilities – power/HVAC etc. No network sharing. Well there is a surprise.

A meeting in Brussels sees me on the Eurostar again – this time the experience was more pleasurable in that rather than being the last minute tickets at a considerable cost, this was a longer planned trip, so a return Leisure Select ticket was £80. Better still, the meals were all available, no missing choices as were the wines. The satnav on the Blackberry still showed 187mph though.

Got to see a bit of Brussells this time and can't say it did much for me. The beer at Midi station did though.

This last guy in particular was sheer class. Every time the trainer made a point he would manage to see a facet of that point that either wasn't there, or was so obtuse that you really wondered what were in his cigarettes!?
 

Is it any wonder the world is in the shape it is when people, this close, speaking the same language can't even understand each other.

Is this the worst film ever? It should be, it has the right ingredients – poor (non-existent) plot, laden with famous actors desperately out of their comfort zone and worst of all - trying to sing.