Comment

Five thousand laps

The local papers are full of news about Olly Hicks. It's a "local lad done good" story: he's just completed a solo row across the Atlantic. Even the nationals have picked up the story.

What kind of person would love rowing so much they'd undertake this feat? It turns out Olly comes from Thorpeness, a quirky village just up the coast from here that was built round an artificial boating lake. Clearly rowing round the Meare had lost its appeal.

Crossing the ocean is just like lapping the Meare five thousand times, with fewer tourists, and bigger waves. I hope he brings the boat home; it'd be fun to see out there on the lake.

Arts

Film: Red Eye

I must stop describing thrillers as "perfectly acceptable". Either that, or the studios should put out something a little less routine.

I expected more from Wes Craven but since Red Eye is the first film of his I've seen my expectations could have been set simply by hype.

With the exception of one third-reel decision which belies his horror-genre roots, everything here is rather straightforward. There are no twists of note, the good guys live and the bad guys die.

It's a tense, gripping hour and a half. It's just not that special.

Greenbelt

This horse goes into a bar

Sometimes aimless clicking unearths wonderful gems. I've just stumbled upon this great photo of a pantomime horse in the Organic Beer Tent at Greenbelt. Love it Rach! We need more pantomime animals at the festival I think. (Just keep them off the racetrack.)

Update: Liz provides the punch line.

Personal

What cats are for

I've had a really tough few weeks at work.

I won't go into details, but it's taught me one thing. I now understand completely what cats are for.

Personal

Wheels don't go round

Getting a lift to work as Emma set off for home is a good thing. Unfortunately getting back is now impossible. The one bus a day that connects home to work has been withdrawn. Time to oil the bike.

Greenbelt

Bricks and shingle

Yesterday, Brick Lane. Today, Shingle Street.

I'll admit the photo was taken at Thorpeness rather than Shingle Street but I'd have picked the latter village had I cottoned on to the potential resonance sooner.

I spent yesterday afternoon with the Greenbelt Management Group reviewing the festival, then an early evening curry on Brick Lane before the post-festival party at Spitz.

Today Emma and I have been chilling by meandering up the east coast stopping for tea at far too many cafés. Everything is feeling very autumnal. The festival's done for another year, and in just a few days time the new Greenbelt financial year starts as we start to plan the thirty-third festival.

Arts

The Fourth Plinth

I thought it was ugly at first. While it's not my favourite fourth plinth resident, Alison Lapper pregnant is bold and beautiful.

And it's got the country talking about art, which is always a good thing. The next big unveiling is Rachel Whiteread's take on Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. Since she's the artist who won the first - and only - K Foundation Award for the worst piece of British art it should be interesting.

Tech

Get it right

"Computer People reveals IT jargon leaves office workers confused!" exclaimed the headline. Unfortunately when the article goes on to explain what the five most commonly used jargon terms mean, it gets three of the definitions wrong.

Maybe that's the point. Perhaps it's clever journalism designed to make techies think about definitions.

I agree techies should use less jargon. But even more fundamentally, journalists should stop trying to mimic them.

Personal

Neighbourly

Vicky knocked on my front door first thing this morning. Did I want to pop round for a curry with some others from the lane later? Since she used to own the most renowned restaurant in town it would've been wrong to decline. Besides, I'm really getting into this being neighbourly thing.

Greenbelt

One performance

Few will be surprised to hear that my favourite event at Greenbelt this year was Bill Drummond's "How to be an Artist".

I enjoyed the way this event was so hard to categorise. Was it a piece of theatre? A talk? Personal storytelling? An exercise in collaborative painting? Destruction of a work of art? An examination of one particular photograph? Further adventures in capitalism? Just entertainment? In a sense it was all.

But what I love most is the fact that a month later I'm still thinking back to it. Is it all a con? Is the photograph that's been cut up and sold piece by piece a fake? I'm not sure I care. It may be hard to look back at the session and point out what the "art" of the event was, but it's nigh on impossible to claim there was none.

Arts

The answers

Jude wasn't far off with her 'pin the review on the album' guesses.

The grower was Kanye West's Late Registration. Andy Thornton's The Healing Darkness is the one I've yet to properly listen to. I love the first track from Goldfrapp's Supernature but none of the others stand out. Thea Gilmore's Rules for Jokers reminds me of seeing her live at 3am in April. Which leaves only The White Stripes Get Behind Me Satan to disappoint.

Since last week I've tried to get to know these new friends a little more but I'm afraid four are at a distinct disadvantage: they're not by Thea Gilmore. Back at the Wake up to Trade Justice event she had the unenviable task of following a remarkable acoustic performance by Thom Yorke but absolutely pulled it off.

Maybe the lesson is that the best way to be won over by an artist is to see them live. I hear The White Stripes are well worth catching but on the strength of this album it'll take some persuading to get me along.

Tech

4,294,967,296

A big moment for me tonight: some software I wrote over the weekend ran out of memory. But not in a "throw more silicon at it" kind of way. I was trying to use more memory than the operating system I'm running on will allow.

Even buying a bigger, better, "64-bit" computer won't solve the problem. To progress I need a new approach, a different angle.

I like hitting these kind of walls. They're always surmountable and conquering them impresses a deep sense of achievement.

This may all be gibberish to you, but you should realise it represents the stimulation, challenge and reward I'm not getting out of my paid job. (Anyone want to employ a software engineer? CV available on request.)

Arts

Avenue of Stars

Two things puzzle me about the "Avenue of Stars" which was unveiled in Covent Garden this weekend.

• Why do we need this when we already have the handprints in Leicester Square?
• Does London have to have an "answer" to everything in America?

Of course the cynical me realises answers aren't necessary when you can tie in with a "lavish television spectacular".

Personal

Stop boozing

Here's another way home has changed while I was away in August. In an attempt to tackle vandalism in the town the Police can now take alcohol away from anyone drinking in public. (It's not clear what they do with it though.)

I don't think anyone was expecting overnight success but so far the news doesn't look good.

Personal

Fizzle

About ten days ago I first heard of the threatened protests this week over the price of petrol and diesel.

I can laugh now at what I wrote during the protests five years ago; I know the situation didn't get bad and that it resolved fairly swiftly. I don't agree with the protesters at all but I was just starting to look forward to a fun few days: quiet streets, working from home, cooking more.

What I didn't anticipate is just how spectacularly the bravado would fizzle out. Was it all just media hype? Reporters trying to stir up a big story in a slow month? (Or maybe the conspiracy theorists would have us believe the "flop" of the protests is just spin to stop us stressing.)

Perhaps the best punch-line is the news that fuel prices are expected to drop today, and that those who, convinced of the impending shortage, filled up their cars earlier in the week would have been better chilling and waiting.

Arts

Film: Cinderella Man

Boxing? Colour me middle-class but I think it's barbaric. And while I know little about the Great Depression, some of the oppression I saw depicted on the screen tonight fitted right in.

Ultimately though, this film is about sport not society. And while it had me on the edge of my seat 'till the final blow I just wish it said more about the setting.

Tech

A mighty month

After using my

It's this scroll ball that's made me realise how much I'm used to the mouse now. At work I keep finding myself trying to roll the scroll wheel of my PC mouse left and right. Those web pages which are just a few pixels too wide for the window now irritate me like mad on the PC whereas on the Mac with the new mouse they're swiftly navigated.

Scrolling hasn't inflamed my hand either - something I'd feared from past experience. I can't say so much whether this is the result of good ergonomic design on Apple's part or new ways of working that I've adopted over the past few years.

Considering the mouse now I realise that I almost never "squeeze the sides" to invoke Exposé. I'd actually forgotten this feature existed. Given that from day one I described this as a "horrible experience" I'm not surprised.

All in all, it's a great mouse to work with. I still don't believe a multi-button mouse is necessary for driving a Mac. (And come to think of it, I rarely "right-click" this one.) But for the scroll ball alone the mouse has certainly been a worthwhile investment.

Arts

Five albums

I almost missed Jude's request amidst the post-Greenbelt blog catch-up.

I'm not really one for filling out questionnaires so I'll take a different slant. Here are the five albums I've most recently added to my iPod.

1. Kanye West / Late Registration
2. Andy Thornton / The Healing Darkness
3. Goldfrapp / Supernature
4. The White Stripes / Get Behind Me Satan
5. Thea Gilmore / Rules for Jokers

And this is what I think of them.

1. Beautiful late-night memories.
2. One track is perfect. The others have yet to make an impression.
3. A grower, and I'm drowning it in Baby Bio.
4. Scarcely listened to this but I like what I've heard.
5. Disappointing. The album doesn't stand up to the single's form.

Your task: match the album to the notes. (Of course there may be more than one correct answer.)

While you work that out I'll be open about one thing: the record which cuts me deepest at the moment remains Drunkard's Prayer.

Comment

Irresponsible

I feel bad about this. I've just placed another order at Amazon.

Keen to take advantage of my trip to London on Friday I headed over to Sicilian and my favourite tech bookshop. The PC Bookshop has become a café. Actually, it's become virtual: holbornbooks.co.uk.

Another bookshop was my favourite during my student days. Last time I was there it didn't look so healthy and this evening I learnt that the Modern Book Company on Praed Street has also closed.

The first floor of Folyles is the last place I know in London with anything like a decent selection of IT books. How long before it too succumbs to the wide, fast-flowing river?

In the meantime I'm not exactly helping. I must learn to plan ahead a bit more. Buy books from the sellers that love them.

Personal

Hometown tourist

As part of Heritage Open Days, all the museums in Woodbridge were open to the public for free this weekend.

Try to keep it quiet: I became a tourist in my home town.

Of most interest was the guided walk round the town this afternoon. After a few clear mistakes I had less confidence in the authority of the guide, but what he said was still interesting. He also managed to point out a few things I'd not noticed before. (Who'd have known that the 'bricks' on the estate agent were just tiles designed to make a poor timber-framed building look like a posh brick house?)

Sadly I didn't learn anything more about the Lane. I'll have to keep my eye out for future walks.

Tech

Precise communication

"The website doesn't work on Macs" is something I hear from time to time.

I'm always surprised and disappointed. I use a Mac at home and rarely have trouble with any website.

When I'm asked to look at such a problem, the root cause is almost always the same: the page itself was wrong. The language of most web pages is HTML, and just like spoken languages HTML has a vocabulary and a grammar.

On hearing a grammatically incorrect sentence we make assumptions about what the speaker's intended meaning was. When the original wording isn't precise you and I may infer different interpretations.

It's just the same with software. Abuse HTML and all bets are off. Unless you stick to the rules

What really surprises me is that I - and others - have been harping on about this for years yet some still haven't understood the message. There are freely available tools that make it easy.

I'm also rather saddened that some new technologies which aim to simplify content creation can be persuaded to emit illegal HTML. (Try putting "*foo _bar* baz_" into Textile.)

There's no excuse really. Ten years on this shouldn't still be a problem.

Personal

First impressions

As we pulled out of Ipswich the tattooed man opened his second can of Stella. It wasn't yet eleven in the morning. His head was shaved. He seemed agitated. He kept asking the time and how far we were from London.

My first impression wasn't good.

As the train rolled on towards the city we started to chat. He's been inside. He was let out this morning. (I'll grant him a celebratory drink or two then!)

"It did me good," he said. He had a glint in his eye. Not one of mischievousness. One of expectation and hope. "My whole life is ahead of me." But this wasn't someone appealing to his parole board. These words came from the soul.

My first impression was way off.

Greenbelt

One gig

I saw a lot of good music at Greenbelt, but there's really only one performance that's stuck in my mind: Carleen Anderson.

I only caught the tail end of her set but what I saw was phenomenal. Such passion and energy. And those notes - especially the high notes.

I find her albums difficult to listen to all the way through, but live she was the most captivating performer I've seen in a long while.

Personal

Role reversal

Today someone at work referred to me as the "Pune helpdesk". (I think it was a joke.)

But it's interesting to view what I'm doing in those terms: acting as telephone support for people in India. I've been seeing the 'other side' of things: trying to get over language and cultural differences, constantly looking at the clock to check I've got the timezone right, trying to tease the out the information I need to solve the problem rather than the information the caller thinks is important.

Most of all I'm learning about patience.

And next time I make a call that ends up in a helpdesk I would do well to think back to this time.

Greenbelt

The feel of the festival

My lasting impression of Greenbelt 2005 is one word: "busy".

Not so much me, but the site. It was buzzing; there were people everywhere. Wonderful!

There is a down side though. In the past you might guarantee bumping into everyone you know on-site daily. This year there are a few people who were at the festival but who I didn't see all weekend.

But all those people... enjoying the festival, getting hooked. Taking Greenbelt away with them.

Personal

Chicken

My estimate was way off. The council have corrected the signs along our 'cyclist priority route'.

They've also turned the back road into a great venue for a game of chicken. A white line on either side has trimmed the edges of the road to provide cycle tracks so there's now only room for one car at a time.

Lots of fun can be had driving down the middle wondering whether you or the oncoming driver will be the one to swerve into the cycle lane so that there's room to pass.

Personal

Five out of six

Home after two weeks away, and there's only one piece of news I'm busting to tell you:

My herbs are still alive!

Or rather, five out of the six are. The mint, chives, sage, parsley and bay are happy. The coriander and I never really got on so its demise is no great loss.

Ceredigion Coast Path , Coastwalk

Pigeonsford → Aberporth

Distance: 7.36 miles
Ascent: 556 metres
Duration: 3 hours 8 minutes

Still chatty
« New Quay | Cardigan »

Today's walk echoed the one from a fortnight ago in many ways. The steep path inclines, the long road segments and the same chatty bus driver.

Today's lesson taught us of a former home of the Earl of Kent, the true location of the oldest church in Wales and the best place to get goats' milk cheese this side of the Cambrian Mountains.

It's the last time we'll be catching the Cardi Bach. We have high hopes for the driver of the 550.

Coastwalk

Aberdyfi → Dovey Junction

Distance: 9.32 miles
Ascent: 172 metres
Duration: 2 hours 54 minutes

The wooden bridge
« Tywyn | Ynyslas »

Remember how I said I was generally law abiding? Well I didn't pass any signs that forbade me from taking my route of choice although I did have to climb through a hole in a fence. Get out your map wheel and you'll see I didn't exactly cross the Dovey at the recommended point.

That's a ten mile round-trip to Machynlleth saved then.

Coastwalk

Cadoxton → Cardiff

Distance: 18.5 miles
Ascent: 375 metres
Duration: 5 hours 59 minutes

Pedestrian-hostile
« Llantwit Beach | Newport »

It's unfair of me to admit it, but the lasting impression I have from today's walk to Cardiff is of a city that's actively hostile to pedestrians. On reaching Penarth Marina I should have been able to complete the walk with a one-mile trundle across Cardiff Bay Barrage. Unfortunately although there's a toy-train that'll take you across, the footpath isn't planned to be opened for another three years.

Since I'm generally a law-abiding person I headed inland. The first bridge bridge across the Ely River - the A4055 - is closed to walkers; the next, the A4232 Grangetown Link can't be reached. The most faithful alternative route is to follow the A4160 Penarth Road into Grangetown, then head south on Clive Street and Ferry Road to pick up the A4232 across the River Taff.

The redevelopment of Cardiff is in full swing, and already full of icons. The Millennium Stadium and Millennium Centre are well known. The new Welsh Assembly building is well on its way towards completion, and today - on loan from across the border - the red and white England team bus was parked proudly outside the Cardiff Bay Hotel.

My first glimpse of Cardiff came from the cliffs above Penarth. This viewpoint gave me another opportunity: for the first time I could trace land on the horizon all the way from Wales to England. The Severn Bridges link the two countries. The Second Severn Crossing was visible with the naked eye but more exciting was catching a glimpse of the original Severn Bridge through my binoculars.

Here thankfully, road planners support walkers. A cycle- and foot-path across the old bridge saves coastwalkers a 100-mile round-trip up and down the Severn to Gloucester. Crossing the bridge was my original goal for this week but I've fallen short. Tomorrow it's back to mid-Wales. The Severn can wait until next summer.