8August2008
Posted by Christopher under: Travel & Leisure.
Dear Chris,
Re: 5 Days RYA Dayskipper Practical Course
24 August 2008 - 29 August 2008
Booking No. ##/#####
Thank you for your payment of £???.?? in respect of the above mentioned course. I confirm that a place has been reserved for you. Your balance of account now shows that you have paid in full. I note that you have not taken out our standard travel insurance policy. May I remind you that all deposits are non-refundable and we reserve the right to retain the total fee if you cancel within six weeks of the date your course commences.
Please report to our reception at Hamble Point Marina by 18.30 hours on 24 August 2008. A member of our staff will be waiting there to introduce you to your skipper and the other crew members. Joining instructions containing a list of what to bring and how to find us and a booking form; which should be completed and returned, can be downloaded from our website.
May I take this opportunity of thanking you for booking with the British Offshore Sailing School and to wish you an enjoyable course. I look forward to meeting you. In the meantime, if you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us.
Bring it.
24July2008
Posted by Christopher under: Family & Friends; Travel & Leisure.
It topped Glasto due to sheep with red dye, Sigur Ros on Saturday night after sunset, woodland glades, punting on the lake, car park 5 minutes from the camp site but above all, how incredibly clean it all was. A festival done right. The comedy tent was nowhere near big enough but its hard to fault. No wonder Glasto found it hard to sell tickets when there’s alternatives like this on. Here’s a pic for those that missed out. From r-l, Me, The Girl, The Girl’s Big Brother.
Niki, The Girl and Me at Latitude Festival, 2008
7July2008
Posted by Christopher under: Travel & Leisure.
The first full weekend after the summer solstice arrived and with it the mighty festival that is Glastonbury. The run-up was over-shadowed by the appearance of Jay-Z in the headline slot for Saturday and although there’s been plenty said on the appearance I’m happy to weigh in with my thoughts.
I don’t like rap or hip-hop. Really. I especially don’t like the tendency of rap and hip-hop artists to talk about women as “bitches” and glorify gun use. A case in point being Jay-Z’s first Glastonbury song “99 Problems”, which contains the main refrain “99 problems but a bitch aint one.” In the video he dies at the end of the song in a hail of bullets, gets hassled by the police (yawn, yawn) and apparently also features taking part in dog-fighting. Classy stuff. What I really dislike more than anything else however is the way other music gets sampled and ripped-off. Rap and hip-hop lack originality and I stopped listening way back in the early 90’s when the recordings of Snoop Dogg breaking into the White House and shooting the president stopped being funny.
The festival itself was outstanding. The music was even more varied than in the past, highlights being Elbow, Crowded House, Eddie Grant & The Raconteurs. Practically zero waiting to leave at the end and none to get in. Weather was pretty much perfect as well. Great food, great company, great times. As the blog has been lacking a bit in photos recently, here is one to colour things up - two glasto legends.
23May2008
Posted by Christopher under: Travel & Leisure.
My new job requires me to do a fair amount of travelling. On a recent trip to Cornwall I was talking with my mother about not having the time to see anything whilst I’m down here. Its usually spent “Computer-whispering” as The Girl puts it.
“You have to make it count.” she said.
I knew what she meant so a couple of weeks back I returned to Cornwall and this time stopped off at the Eden project. The visit was a bit rushed but I managed to fit most of it in, particularly the strange hemp garden, grown behind a fence due to licensing laws. The rainforest biome was the star attraction, particularly the asian plantation section with various curry aromas sending my mouth watering.
Purchasing entry using gift aid means that you get a years free entry. I hope to return for a more leisurely visit. Pictures to follow…
13April2008
Posted by Christopher under: Family & Friends; House; Linux & Open Source; Travel & Leisure; White Noise.
Sometimes people conspire to make you feel like you live in a nation of Very Bad People.
Incident One - A few days ago the house was broken into. I was away visiting older brother and so the house must have looked deserted. Said intruder got a surprise when younger brother greeted him when he walked into his room at around 11pm. He left taking with him one of my old mobile phones and leaving us with a hefty bill to replace the windows frame he had used as his entrance.
Incident Two - I was involved in a minor collision (my fault entirely) a week or so ago. I have received a letter claiming personal injury and GBP £1k plus in damages. Err, no.
Incident Three - Two snotty emails at work, one sent late Friday, just in time for the weekend. Thanks!
Not great. Still, here’s the bright side.
Wordpress 2.5 (on which this blog is written) is awesome. Upgrade was a cinch too.
Metal Michael continues his awesome adventures and I continue my persual of travel sites.
Tomorrow is another day.
5April2008
Posted by Christopher under: Family & Friends; Travel & Leisure; White Noise.
Okay, time to name and shame the people who fell for the previous post/email.
Th(Rob)erto (on left)
Older and Better Brown
G.G.B. (second left)
Travel Brown
The Girl (ten minutes of crying followed by ten days of vengeance)
Top prize goes to Mr Clifton Firth (on right, obviously) who thought I was leaving mid-day!
UPDATE: Okay as Rob has pointed out then, I add myself to the above list.
1April2008
Posted by Christopher under: Travel & Leisure; White Noise.
Just to let you all know that within a month or so I will have my day skipper’s ticket. During a recent visit to Cornwall I was offered the chance to sail one of our client’s boats, (the Olof Lipar!), to Sydney as it will be talking part in the Sydney-Hobart yacht race at the year end and of course I’d be a fool to miss the chance. The job hasn’t been working out quite as expected (long hours, not much pay) so of course I jumped at the chance. I’ll be leaving probably around mid-may for three months. Anyone planning on being in Oz around August?
31March2008
Posted by Christopher under: Family & Friends; Travel & Leisure.
So my younger brother has hit the road at long last. Good for him. Already some ace pics on his blog (see right - Metal Michael’s travel blog) and my personal favourite.
24March2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source; Travel & Leisure.
Spent most of the day prodding around in various languages, mainly c++ and python and submitting various trivial patches. I’m getting more comfortable with light tinkering and patch-submission, though the level of feedback varies from project to project. I’ve get to receive any “Argh, that makes my eyes bleed!” responses though. :)
Easter egg count ran to 3 in the end so am content to have had a glutton-free season. There’s snow on the ground outside and due to lack of youngest brother for work transport and lack of car insurance I am once again taking to the cold steel rails of doom to get me to Sheffield tomorrow!
12February2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source; Travel & Leisure.
Richard Hawley provided entertainment on Friday night. Think Morrissey blended with Edwyn Collins - great voice and if he hadn’t gone into music he would’ve been a good stand-up comedian.
The Hacienda was a nightclub in Manchester and is spoken about in oft-reverent terms by those who attended it and even by those who never did. The girl and I visited an exhibition detailing the club and its history at the impressive Urbis on Saturday. Its difficult to see what all the fuss was about though the interior was pretty radical and it attracted a number of famous faces, seemingly on numerous occasions.
Back in the land of geekdom and not one but two Fedora wiki upgrades have taken place. The current wiki has been upgraded to Moin 1.6 and at the same time has been converted to Mediawiki. This is great news - I was whinging about the speed of the wiki yet again on IRC last week as it took about one minute for a small page edit to update. I can’t emphasise this enough - moin sucks harder than a whole cluster of black holes.
Lastly an email from my brother entitled “Look what [I] just installed”:
…Ubuntu Linux…
I have found the way out of The Matrix.
Will let you know how I get on.
It brought a tear to my eye…
