Damn Top Gear and damn Jeremy Clarkson! Until last week I had decided that, in the unlikely event of me winning the lottery, I would rather fancy having as a day-to-day runabout one of those new Fiat 500s. Although it would be hard to resist an Aston Martin, Merc or Jag in the garage I […]
Entries from November 18th, 2008
Relax
November 17th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Music
On Saturday I bought a couple of CDs while shopping in France. I have been picking up French music for about 20 years now with mixed results. It started when I mistakenly thought that it would help with my language skills. This was before the days of the Internet and its many lyrics databases, so […]
City of Blinding Lights
November 17th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Technology
I would like to have seen this ‘Aeolian Tower‘ in London. One thing the story does not point out is that a few metres away there is another tower of lights controlled by the wind. It was originally part of an exhibition in 1971 but never got removed afterwards and is a kinetic light sculpture […]
Go West
November 17th, 2008 · Comments Off on Go West · Politics
Forget the North-South divide: down here in Sussex we are suffering from an East-West divide. According to the Politics Show every council in East Sussex has signed up for the government’s free swimming for the over 60s scheme. The programme is contrasting that with Kent, where 8 out of 13 councils have opted out, with […]
Tags: Crawley Council·Horsham
Paint It Black
November 16th, 2008 · Comments Off on Paint It Black · Politics
I figure that enough time has passed since the US elections to be able to reflect on it a little more objectively, rather than in the over-cooked excitement of the immediate aftermath – and perhaps that is something Trevor Phillips should have done.
Tour de France
November 16th, 2008 · Comments Off on Tour de France · Life
I’m a little bit knackered right now, having really got out of my normal (lack of) sleep patterns.  Mostly this is the result of popping over to France for the day only a day or so after getting back from there – also from missing out on my now-traditional Friday afternoon snooze.
Sailing On The Seven Seas
November 15th, 2008 · Comments Off on Sailing On The Seven Seas · Life
It is good to see some results in the fight against piracy in the Aden Gulf area. According to the Guardian, at least 32 ships have been hijacked in the area this year. It has been going on for years, and also in other parts of the world, but doesn’t really get much prominence in […]
Tags: WTF
Parisienne Walkways
November 14th, 2008 · Comments Off on Parisienne Walkways · Life, Work
I’ve just got back from a little trip to Paris. I can’t even call it a flying visit because I took the Eurostar again. They are up and running after the fire, but not so frequent and the journe takes even longer. It was another visit to our French offices for a union-related meeting where […]
Tags: France·Paris·Photos·Railways·Trade Unions
Rock The Casbah
November 11th, 2008 · Comments Off on Rock The Casbah · Music
From Wikipedia’s entry on Punk Rock: Punk rock (often referred to simply as punk) is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the […]
There’s No Home For You Here
November 11th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Politics
I didn’t like the headline I saw on the frontpage of the Times today: Council homes for life ‘to be scrapped’. While a lot of the arguments in the piece make sense on their own, I think that they are all founded on a false premise – or at least missing the point.
Tags: Housing
