Arcoarena

Autophilia - or how I learned to stop worrying…..

……and buy a Triumph Spitfire

A few more photos

I can’t quite pin down when classic cars started appealing to me but it was sometime near the end of University. I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a classic for a few years but always got scared for various reasons; not having a garage, not having any experience of fixing engines etc.

So to cut a long drawn out story….I decided just to buy one or I never would. What’s the worst that could happen? (don’t answer that!). So with a bit of research and a few viewings I bought a 1979 Triumph Spitfire 1500 (with overdrive).

So far so good, we went camping last weekend (hence the tents in the photos) and it made the 80 odd mile journey with very few hitches. I’m still getting used to having a manual choke and there was a bit of a rumbling on the near side front corner which turned out to be some loose wheel nuts (which was both scary and a relief at the same time).

As for why a Spitfire. Good question, I guess if you’re going to have second car it might as well be a soft top, being British was obviously nice too. I quite like MG B (GT)s but there are quite a few of those around. Spitfires are slightly rarer and arguably more stylish.

I’ve now got an ever growing list of things to fix on it. The first is very probably going to be fixing the heaters, they’re currently stuck on hot!

Oh The Irony!

I’ve been back on the bike in to work this week. It’s been quite a while since I regularly cycled in (over a year) but my average speed is slowly creeping back up.

One of the bane’s of my life was punctures (sorry, p********s). I was getting one a week on my bike a one point and I regularly carry two innertubes on the basis that trying to repair road bike tires is like trying to hold back the tide. I’m getting a hybrid bike on works newly set-up cycle2work scheme (probably a GT Transeo). My theory is that the wider wheels will enable me to get puncture resistant tyres that actually work.

So anyway…  Monday and Tuesday this week I cycled in and it was painful but uneventful. I decided to have a rest day today and drive in. So I get to the car, reverse out of my parking space and something feels wrong, and bugger me, my car had a flat tyre. Now that’s ironic, Alanis.

OSM and why you don’t copy Google Maps

I didn’t mention this in the previous post as I had a confidence attack.

Looking at this road in Beckermet Google maps, and the post office seem to think it’s called “Lowrey Close”. I was quite careful to check the spelling when I recorded it as I got it wrong on my first try.

I’m certain it’s actually Lowry Close,  after non other than L.S. Lowry  whose sole link to the area appears to be “regularly visiting friends in Cleator Moor”, but I suspect is the closest West Cumbria has ever got to a famous artist.

Of course, I could have got the spelling wrong and whoever supplied the data to Google may indeed be correct. But at least if that is the case someone can correct it.

Open Street Maps

So, over Christmas I got a Garmin eTrex (the basic one) second hand from someone on eBay. When I visited my parents I noticed that my Beckermet looked a little non-existent on Open Street Map. So, I though that I’d do something about it. Tracing from the Yahoo images isn’t possible because at any sort of sensible zoom level everything looks like a brown blob so the GPS was the only way to do it.

Here we have Beckermet before

and now after

I do have one confession. I appear to have missed Kirkbeck Drive, oops, I’ll have to do it next time I’m back. I’m also missing some road names, largely because they don’t have signs on them anywhere. I’ll have to look to see if they’re on out of copyright maps.

Care for a look? - Take Me There

Plans for next time include taking my bike to do some of the roads leading away from the village and some of the national cycle routes obviously.

‘Surprised’ Western Digital to revisit multimedia file-sharing limits

A “very surprised” Western Digital Corp. (WD) may reconsider its decision to restrict certain types of file-sharing using its remote access software, a company spokesman said yesterday.

This appeared on our companies newsletter (they send out a summary of storage related news each week - gripping). I’d already seen the story before because it’s the kind of thing that the news sites I read like to get irritated about.

I do have a few questions that I would like WD to answer though

1. Why are they surprised? (”Here’s your new car, now you can only drive it at 20mph in case you break any speed limits”)
2. Why did they think it was their job to stop people illegally file-sharing? (do Ford feel responsible for all the ram-raids performed in Transits?)
3. What exactly did they think people would use it for?

Now the third point is interesting. Documents on the whole don’t take up much space and can be carried round on a USB stick quite easily (and cheaper). It’s only really video and music collections that are so large that they need an HDD (ignoring CAD files, databases etc. which are likely to be a company who shouldn’t really be using this product, the should probably be using this). So WD produce something that is only really going to be used for sharing video and music…..and then stop people sharing video and music. Nice one guys.

On a side note it’s interesting that nobody supports .ogg files as a rule but WD even stop you sharing those.

Merry Christmas

It’s becoming more and more obvious that I probably won’t get round to sending those Christmas cards I bought so….

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. I’ve not got out and seen people as much as I should have next year so I shall endeavour to do so more next year.

I’ve got a large pile of things I need to do before Christmas so I’ll let you know I’m still not dead after.

Some Sense

It’s good to see a news story or two where someone is trying to inject sense into the proceedings.

I personally hate the idea of a DNA database as, I believe, it would lead to more false convictions. Look at the McCanns at the moment (I’m not saying anything about their guilt or otherwise) but people get the slightest sniff of DNA evidence and are ready to convict, when it isn’t necessarily the case.

The liquid ban itself it merely annoying. I feel it symbolises the kind of knee-jerk, everyone’s a terrorist culture that appears to be going on at the moment (at least in the media).

How To Succeed

So “How To Succeed In Business Without Realy Trying” is over. It’s been over for a while but I’ve only really just started catching up on everything that got left during show week.

It was a really good show. I’m a little surprised it doesn’t get produced more often as it’s a fun show, a little dated maybe but that doesn’t stop it being funny. It was my first time lighting a musical, especially in a venue as big as the New Theatre Royal, but it all went really well. I was stressed and worried on the Sunday night as I’d reached the point where everything was rigged and it was too late to change so if I couldn’t sort out any problems during plotting I was stuffed. Fortunately with a bit of work on the Monday it all looked quite good by the end of the Dress Rehearsal. I was actually quite proud of it in the end.

Anyhow. Now that the show is over I haven’t got any plans to design anything else for the rest of the year. I know I’m not lighting the HumDrum summer musical next year, although I did offer to help out backstage elsewhere (it was at the after-show party so whether anyone will remember….). I’m planning to use the spare time to fit a kitchen.

The Philippines

Right so this is quite a long post but it might be worth it. I went to the Philippines for work a couple of weeks ago. It was quite a surprise as I only agreed to it on Wednesday evening and I flew out on Friday morning. It wasn’t even my project I was going out for either. Anyway I wrote this whilst I was out there and thought someone might be interested.
Friday 22nd & Saturday 23rd June

Flight to Hong Kong - not very comfortable so didn’t sleep that well, this, I knew was going to be a problem later. The movies were ok (”Starter for 10″ - a reasonable english romcom about a poor kid who gets on the University challenge team and falls in love yada, yada, yada. “Music and Lyric” a romcom with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, this was, frankly, awful; well not awful, maybe just awfully trashy - I couldn’t face “A Beautiful Mind” and I’d already watch the Friends and Top Gear episodes twice that flight)

HongKong airport is nice, as airports go, Manilla airport is grotty, and they are quite strict, it’s the only airport I know that actually checks the luggage tags against the tags you get given to make sure you haven’t got someone else’s bag.

The Shangri-La hotel in the business district, Makati, is very posh. So posh infact that I’d almost prefer a cheaper one….almost. Everyone says “Hello Sir” as you pass them, I’ve just got out of the habit of looking round to check to see if they’re talking to someone else. It just feels a bit odd, Give that the only people at work who do something if I ask them to are the secretaries, and I even feel guilty doing that.

Anyhow, I get to the hotel at around 12:30 localtime (some time around 5:30am BST I think) and find out I’m going into the vendor at 2. A quick shower and then lots of work (I left at around 10:30 that evening), most of which I tried to do standing up, or at the very least typing so I didn’t fall asleep.

We ate that evening in a Pirate themed italien restaurant run by some Italians who had somehow ended up in Eastwood city. Even at around 10 in the evening the office buildings were quite busy. A lot of call centre work is being located in the Philippines, probably due to the price and the obvious advantage of english speaking workers. Dell have a large call centre there so there is always someone around

Sunday 24th

Today is a day off, they don’t work Sundays (they don’t work Saturdays either but they came in since I was there). I got up late as I haven’t quite got used to the time. I headed out to have a wander.

Manilla is quite a cosmopolitan place. If you removed the people from the business district only the temperature and humidity would give away the fact you were in S.E. Asia. As a rule most Philippinos are Bi-Lingual and all the signs are in english. I think they are fairly westernised. That’s certainly the impression you get as you walk out of the hotel and past the one of the many Starbucks in Makati.

Just opposite the hotel is a large complex of shopping centres, many of the shops were recognisable, even Marks and Spencers & Crabtree and Evelyn. Near a park type area was a series of restaurants, all I could find that would even vaguely resemble Philippino food was a Japanese restaurant, so I did what any sensible person would do…and went to a Creperie. I was sat there feeling guilty about eating european food when two French women came and sat down, I felt a bit better after that.

After lunch I decided to head for Rizal park in the city center in the hope of it being a little more ‘authentic’, it seemed a pity to leave without getting a bit of an idea what the city is really like. In the taxi on the way to the park the driver was talking about the corruption of the government and how the value of the Peso has fallen since the new head of state got in to power. The park was very nice, lots of flags, there’s an auditorium opposite and there was a Christian concert going on. The Philippines has only been independant since 1946 and it was occupied until 1899 by the Spanish. I suppose that explains the corruption, a young government. The Spanish occupation explains the religion, most people converted to Catholosism at some point during their 300 year rule.

After the park I headed into the walled bit of the city to see the San Agustin Church, it’s a UNESCO world heritage site etc. It’s quite nice, it looked really nice inside but there was a mass going on so I couldn’t go in.

I then headed back. Another ‘interesting’ taxi ride. In the Philippines they tend to take the rules of the road as guidance more than rules. It’s not they don’t have red lights, it’s more that they don’t pay them any attention. Rights of way don’t exist either. That’s not to say pedestrians are any better. So much for, ‘look left, look right, look left again’ it appears to be wander out into the road and assume cars will stop for you.

Anyhow, back at the hotel doing some writing up of the trip so far (I’m sure I’ll have to prepare a trip report for work so I might as well do it now). I’m considering heading out for dinner soon, I’ll propably have a mexican

Sunday 24th Continued….

I did actually have an oriental meal in a ‘Asian Fusion’ place, a bit of a fast food place really but I didn’t feel like walking too far. I was sat opposite a flatscreen TV on the wall which advertised various things inbetween showing pictures of the food and tips on texting etiquette.
One of the adverts was for Brown Rice Tea “Stop frequent night urination”, the other was for a cooling company that bizarrly both made the air con units for the hotel I’m staying in and have a base in Havant. It’s a small world. Quite why one would sit eating Singapore Fried noodles (or whatever) and think “I really want one of those hemetically sealed, horizonal screw refigeration units” is beyond me.

Monday 25th

Mostly work today. On the way in to work we passed through the chaos (or something closely resembling chaos) of rush hour traffic. As the driver weaved his way through the traffic we slowly passed through the less weathly areas of Manila. Staying the in Shangri-La makes it even more shocking to see the huts and cobbled together shanties in the middle of the city.

I found out today why English seems so common despite having a native language. The Philippines was tribal for a long time, it was only with the colonisation that it was attempted to bring the tribes together. The tribal nature means that there are several vastly different dialects, so it seems easier to use English.

The Rest

Work took up most of the rest of the trip. The only other remarkable point of the trip was leaving. Manilla airport is quite grotty and much like the rest of the country the security was really tight and as a white male on my own I figured the chances of being pulled aside were quite high. Fortunately everything went fine but I’ve never been quite so glad to get out of an airport.
Photos are here

I know I’m going to miss something…

….after all the last time I wrote anything was in March. That implies I’m either going to forget to mention something or my life is meaning less and empty, I’m going for the first.

To start of with something geeky. I got a laptop for my birthday (well when I say got I mean I paid for it my self, when I say paid for it myself I mean it’s on the credit card and will be paid back at some point in the near future). It’s a HP nx6325, more of a business laptop allegedly but I didn’t want Vista (it’s got XP Pro on it) and I didn’t really want a widescreen (sort of defeats the point of a portable device if it gets too big).

Anyway to cut a long story short I barely use XP as I have installed Ubuntu Feisty Fawn on it, which was one of the least painful installations of anything I’ve ever done. Most stuff just worked out of the box, wireless was a bit of a problem but I realized I was using the wrong driver and got it sorted. Basically everything just works, I was very impress.

It’s been quite busy at work and barely less hectic at home. I guess the real reason I’m writing this is because I was up in London recently on Phil’s stag do and it was a little shocking that I hadn’t made more of an effort to see people. I’m quite bad a keeping in touch with people I don’t see everyday. It’s odd how quickly it seems like you’ve never left though.

I’m already running out of things I’ve done since last time. Went to Cornwall for a week in March (the week just after the really hot sunny week, yep that’s the one, the one where it rained most of the time and battered me with hail-stones for the rest of it, still beats being sat in the lab at work though).

I went to Oxfam Live in London, it’s a sort of conference for volunteers and supporters. I’ve been being dragged into doing stuff for Andrea’s shop so I figured I’d go along. It was quite interesting, I was surprised to see a few volunteers around my age, unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to ask them how they found the time to actually work in the shop. I obviously don’t as I’m at work during the week and I’m too selfish to give up half my weekend. I have given up all the bank-holidays so far this year (apparently pensioners don’t work bank holidays, don’t ask me why). The event was cut short by a fire alarm but it was quite interesting anyway, some of the figures are amazing.

I’m still doing some theatre stuff. I helped out down at the Station Theatre on Hayling Island. It’s been converted from the former engine shed of the railway station (the Billy Track still runs down from Havant but is now a cycle-path rather than a railway). It’s run by the Amateur Dramatic Society (both in man-power and financially I believe) and is really well equipped for a venue of it’s size so kudos to the people that run it. I’m also going to light ‘How To Suceed In Business’ at the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth (can’t be bothered to find the links, just google them if you’re interested). I’m slowly getting prepared but obviously I’m slightly nervous about it as it has to be good.

I’m sure there’s more but I won’t bore you with anything else. I’d say I’ll write sooner next time but I’ve done that before and then haven’t so I won’t lie. Expect something around September at the current rate of posting.