Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Well done Jamie Oliver....

Yahoo! News Reports
Celebrity TV chef Jamie Oliver has delivered a petition to Downing Street calling for better food standards in schools. His Feed Me Better internet petition has been signed by 271,677 people. It comes as Education Secretary Ruth Kelly prepares to unveil a £280 million funding package to improve the quality of school meals.

But the Government says the timing is a pure co-incidence.

Before he handed in the petition, Oliver told reporters he wanted to see the amount spent on primary school dinners increased from 37p to 50p.

To provide secondary school children with a proper nutritional meal, the amount needed was 60p, he said.

Ms Kelly has promised to meet both these demands.


Being the cynic I am, I would like to comment "co-incidence" my arse! Government just trying again to jump on a pre election good news band wagon, originally created by Jamie using his own status in the public eye to expose a seriously under-funded school meals system that feeds kids worse than convicts!

I watch most of Mr Oliver's programmes on the TV, when he took on the task of training 15 underprivileged kids to work in the new restaurant, it brought back lots of memories for me. I undertook the City & Guilds Catering course for 2 years at Cricklade College. Most of the kids on that course were from the lower end of the educational & social spectrum & had been offered a place on the course as a last resort & a last chance of further education. All of the things Jamie's kids got up to, most of my peers at college were doing 20 years earlier. I genuinely was one of the few that actually applied to do the course because I really wanted to - much to my parents dissmay!

Monday, March 28, 2005

All stop, financial diversion on it's way....

Hold everything, the investment in a Canon EOS 20D will have to wait a while (I know I don't NEED the bloody thing anyway, just a gadget\technology trip) and in reality, I probably won't wait, I'll just go get one next week instead!

I have today found the near mecca for Royal Crown Derby collecters up for sale, it may seem like a load of old tosh to the general population, but I've been searching a while for these....

A Bakewell Duck - limited edition of 500 produced by Royal Crown Derby for Sinclairs of Bakewell in 1995.

and a Mullberry Hall large Elephant limited edition of 500 again, produced by Royal Crown Derby for Mulberry Hall, York in 1997.



All I have to do now is negotiate a price!

Update : Couldn't agree price for both, so the Elephant it is. I'm not sure about the Bakewell Duck anyway, its a lot of money for something that really isn't that exciting apart from its rarity. Who knows, if I win the Lotto tonite I might buy it.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

the next digital Camera....

With Spring upon us, the idea of getting out & taking a few photo's of the general scenery or the new influx of helicopters that always accompanies the break in the weather seems like a good way of getting out & about.

I have over the last 20 years or so bought & sold many SLR camera's, from my first purchase with some money my Grandfather left me in his will, an Olympus OM30 bought from Dixon's (I soon realised what a heap of crap this was & bought an OM2SP), I then sacrificed my investment in Olympus kit & moved to the brilliant Canon EOS SLR system with a couple of EOS 5's (why two? - see below). My first venture into digital photography was a Canon EOS D30 (not as bad as my OM30, but still quickly overtaken technology - I get better shots from a digital Canon Ixus 3!) there is a theme here, anything photography related with "30" in it - avoid!

I have superceded the D30 with a Canon EOS 10D which is much better, faster & the images are crisper. I say "superceded" because I haven't actually sold the D30, it's on loan to a friend in the hope that they love it & buy it from me (please Mr Dunbar, go on! You know your lenses fit it!). Given that the trade in value of this is so bad, I might even give it to a local college or school or somewhere that might get some good use from it.

I normally run 2 SLR's side-by-side & always have done since missing out on loads of shots at the Epsom Derby one year. So I am on the lookout for my next model, I can't bring myself to spend any more than £1500 on a camera, so the high end Canon digital stuff (EOS 1D & EOS 1DS etc) are not even going to be considered, my only real choice is the EOS 20D.

Having looked at the latest EF-S range of lenses that Canon are producing specifically for the digital cameras (they claim "they are optically optimized for digital SLRs" but in reality the image receptor [CCD] magnifies the image by anything from 10% to 60%, so they have made an EF-S 10-22mm that converts to effective focal length of 16-35mm in 35mm format), it seems that the current crop of Canon Digital SLR's (20D, 300D & 350D) and onwards are the only cameras that will work with the new lenses. No backward compatibility with the 10D?

The price varies wherever you look, the best I've found so far is £965 for the body only, or £1,110 for body & the very good Canon BG-E2 battery grip from Park Cameras in Burgess Hill.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Modifications....

A new template, with some minor changes by me. Added some links to what might be useful websites (if you share the same interests as me - unlikey!?) and some links to Blogs by people I know. Not sure about the colours, might be another change on the way, when I can work out how to do it.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Mobile phones (plural) in cars....

I have an Audi S8 car, very very nice, with a built in Nokia cradle (from Cullman - if anyone knows anything about Cullman please let me know how I can get hold of them. I want to see if they do cradles for other Nokia's) for the rep's standard Nokia 6310i mobile phone. Works very well, integrated with the Bose\Audi TV\Nav\Radio\CD system etc.

I have 2 mobile phones, one for work, one for personal use, I have in the past run two 6310i's, but last year I upgraded to Nokia 6230 free of charge with my personal contract as Nokia ceased production of the 6310i (why!?, they are now selling reconditioned 6310i's for £244 & they are selling because they are good workhorses). The upgrade to the 6230 wasn't very useful given the I didnt want to have a 2nd car kit installed to accomodate my 6230 - so I continued to swap 6310i's as I merrily drove along. Leaving the 6230 in a draw at home.

I have today purchased an Icon Bluetooth Handsfree kit (also marketed by Expansys as the AiroBlue Bluetooth handsfree kit for £10 more than Argos have it for?). I don't understand why prices differ so much - a Nokia HDB-5 Boom headset from Expansys is £7.62 + vat of £1.33 which equals £8.95, add P&P of £2.80, that makes a grand total of £11.75, my local mobile phone shop (complete with spotty Assistant) wants to charge me £24.99 saying that its usually £29.99, but they are "doing me a deal". Yeah, bloody right, you're taking the piss & trying to rip me off!!!!! Hall of shame beckons I think.



Having had a little bit of time fiddling with it tonight (no Mr Jackson jokes please!) it appears to be OK, only trying it in the car will tell if I will be as happy with it when on the M3 travelling at 70mph(ish).

Update : All seems to work OK. Can be moved from car to car (as long as you have a cradle to put the phone into to keep Mr Plod happy [£15.99 from Halfords]) can even be used as a speaker phone in the office to save frying your brain with a mobile up to your ear.

Monday, March 14, 2005

Conference calls & how to survive them....

I seem to spend an incredible amount of time on conference calls, some I host & take an active part it, others I am merely one of many bored participants listening to some Europrat or Yank going on about the 1 product they manage for the whole of EMEA or Worldwide business (oh how challenging that must be!?) try managing multiple businesses in just one country!

Clearly different people have different approaches to how they utilise their time on these calls that don't really inspire or excite - yes, its a good time to catch up on emails, or others simply sit there & throw waste paper into the bin from a distance.

Now comes the virtual waste paper basket challenge - it saves picking up all the bits of paper that you will no doubt have surrounding the waste paper basket after 30 minutes or so.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/papertoss.html

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Anything they can do.....

Over the last couple of months my next door neighbours have had the builders in to convert their loft space into 2 additional bedrooms with another bathroom. Not an easy path to tread as like most building "professionals" they have employed these guys are completely useless at estimating how long a job they have done many times before will actually take - initial estimates were 8 weeks, we are now in week 9 & have probably another 2 to go. They also plonked a flippin Portaloo on the driveway within hours of arriving - tasteful (not!) The neighbours are withholding payment installments & moonlighting plumber (brother of main contractor) is having a nervous breakdown. Needless to say, these "professionals" are not top of my list as prime candidates for working on my house, but I will utilise the experience of my neighbours to try & make my experience slightly easier.

I have to say that the idea of taking the smallest bedroom in the house & converting into an additional landing\stairwell area & gaining another bathroom & 2 double bedrooms does appeal, if only from the aspect of increasing property value & easy access storage space.

So I am going to put pen to paper & start squiggling some plans (I would like a different layout to next door) & jot down some ideas that accomodate my ideas of how best to utilise existing services & where to put stairs & bathroom etc. whilst still gaining 2 double bedrooms.

Photo's & sketches to follow....

Friday, March 11, 2005

Another collection on its way.....

I have over the last couple of years built a collection of Royal Crown Derby Paperweights, (I did think about this path for a while, as I'm sure that the Imari Pattern is a favourite of the local Gypo clans) I specifically only collect one type - birds.

I have however always liked the RCD Fish paperweights, they weren't very popular and were only in production for a couple of years. This year Royal Doulton commissioned a Pacific Angelfish, this spurred me onto collecting all of the fish paperweights as well. I'm sure that Royal Doulton may well ask Crown Derby to make one or two more in the coming years as well.

To this end, I have now bought 5 of the collection & the other 3 are reserved with a dealer for puchase next month.

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Back at work two days, and its OK....

Back to work for a couple of days now after a week away from it all, re-energised & refreshed, not exactly, but I am finding it easier to get to grips with a few of the issuettes that get fired my way every day.

Having said that, I am still only half way through the 407 emails that greeted me upon my return - how can anyone keep up with 400+ emails a week & do all the shit that everyday work throws up at you? Answer - you can't. I'll just keep plodding along & what gets done gets done & what misses out is just tough.

Friday, March 04, 2005

How can they get it so wrong?

The inquest into the crash that killed 3 men I knew has in my opinion come up with the wrong conclusion. Even the AAIB have stated that they think the accident was caused by the wrong coating being applied to part of the gearbox. At least they did state that none of the men on board were to blame in any way for the accident - something the general aviation community already knew. I wish every success to the families if they do take up civil action against the German manufacturer - it will never bring back their loved ones, but it will at least give closure to the families affected by this terrible accident that took away 3 highly experienced men, an accident that could have been avoided.

From ThisisHampshire.net
"A defect with a helicopter's combination gearbox led to the aircraft crashing in north Hampshire killing a Romsey man and two others.

North east Hampshire coroner, Andrew Bradley, recorded a verdict of misadventure at the inquest into the deaths of Neville Moger, 45, of Hogarth Close at Woodley and the pilot Captain Ian Shoobridge and engineer James Gordon Stables - both from Wiltshire.

All three died instantly when their Twin Squirrel helicopter came down in a field and burst into flames at Hurstbourne Tarrant, near Andover, in December, 2003. The helicopter had taken off from Thruxton airfield where it was based, shortly before the tragedy. The families of the dead men were hoping for an unlawful killing verdict.

The Air Accident Investigation Board acknowledged father-of-three Mr Moger, Mr Shoobridge and Mr Gordon-Stables were all highly experienced and they were not to blame in any way for the crash that claimed their lives.

Accident investigators are continuing inquiries into the crash and a full report into the tragedy will be published in due course.

It has been suggested the wrong coating on components within the aircraft's mechanisms may have led to the accident but the German manufacture has disputed the claims.

This week's three-day inquest at Basingstoke heard that the aircraft's had been taken on a test flight after undergoing major engineering works on its two gearboxes.

Air Accident investigators told the inquest one of the helicopter's gearboxes was detached at the site where it crashed.

Stephen Moss from the Air Accident Investigation Branch said the craft's freewheel drive had moved and this had allowed the engine to over-speed. As a result the freewheel re-engaged, leading to a sudden reapplication of power. This caused a structural failure to the tail boom and ended with catastrophic results.

Mr Moss, an inspector with the AAIB, said the authority believed the rollers in the freewheel mechanism had slipped because they were coated in error with the wrong product manufactured by the German component company FAG Kugelfischer."

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Therapy (of sorts)....

As I said last week, retail therapy was on the cards for this week. Salisbury yesterday threw up a couple of thousand shotgun cartridges & a potential new shotgun for the ever expanding collection - a Beretta AL391 Urika in 20 bore!



Collection on Saturday seems likely after Greenfields have found all component parts such as chokes & ABS case etc....

Basingstoke today uncovered a couple of new belts, some replacement wine glasses and another pestle & mortar for the collection gracing my kitchen, I'm sure at some point in the future I will post photo's of said pestle & mortar collection here or on PBase - don't get too excited!

Who knows what tommorrow will hold, maybe a quick trip to yet another shopping mecca?

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

How things get put into perspective....


In December 2003 three people I knew were killed whilst flight testing a helicopter from Thruxton Airfield, near Andover.

Ian Shoobrodge was the pilot, Neville Moger & James Gordon-Stables were engineers that had been working on the drivetrain of G-XCEL, a Eurocopter AS.355F1 Twin Squirrel.

I didn't know any of the men very well, although I did go to school with James & had spent a fair amount of time with Neville when visiting Aeromaritime. Ian had been a more recent acquaintance but was more than happy to spend time chatting to me about something we both loved - helicopters. Albeit our interest was from different angles - he was an experienced pilot with thousands of hours & I was merely an enthusiast. All too often I have been ignored by pilots, engineers & the like who look down on such enthusiasts, Ian, Neville & James didn't & they all took time to chat to me & share knowledge & experiences, something I will never forget & really wish I had the chance to say "thankyou" for.

An inquest is being held this week into the events & circumstances of the accident. Makes you understand how lucky you are when you really do think about it.