18 April 2010 (Sunday) - This n That

Whilst having a spot of brekky I noticed that Gary Mark had commented on something I’d put on Facebook. Gary Who? Yes – I thought that. I’ve some friends in common with him – his website is interesting. I’m sure he’s a decent chap. But I have no idea who he is.

I have Facebook set so’s that only people on my friends list can comment on what I post. I had a look at my friends list today – there are thirteen people on it that I don’t know. Who are these people? How do they get on my list?

The plan for the day was kite flying with the Friends of Kings Wood. We arrived to find very little (if any) wind, but we thought we’d give it a go anyway. Until we saw the flying area. The kite flying was to take place on an area of heathland which has obviously only recently been cleared of brambles. I say “cleared” – had it actually been cleared of brambles I might have been inclined to have persevered despite the low wind. In fact the brambles had been hacked back, and then left lying about on the ground. Any kite landing anywhere in the designated flying area would have been ripped to ribbons. The Kent Kite Fliers were there, and after exchanging pleasantries, we left them to it. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to fly a kite when it is patently obvious that there isn’t enough wind to do so, and knowing there is nowhere safe to land the kite if you do get it airborne.

We gave up, and went for a mooch round Ashford instead, and then came home. I mowed the lawn and then had this idea to paint the front of the house. I spent half an hour looking for my wire brush, but couldn’t find it. I made do with a plastic one instead. Having scraped down the paintwork I opened the tin of masonry paint. A few months ago I had naively assumed it would not be a problem to leave the paint tin outside over the winter. I was wrong. Somehow the tin had filled to the brim with rain water, leaving the paint useless.

So I fed the fish. They are slowly getting used to the new brand of fish food. Which is probably for the best – I’m not getting them the expensive stuff again. Whilst feeding them I noticed that the clean water wasn’t gushing out of the filter with its usual vigour. That was because water was leaking out of the top – the thing had blocked up again. There’s no denying that with the finer filter mesh the pond is certainly clearer than it has been in previous years. However, it’s only eleven days since I last cleaned the thing out.

Pausing only to put ‘er indoors ^TM best coat in the washing machine (I have no idea how it got covered in fish poo) I then spent the rest of the afternoon asleep in front of the computer.

After tea with the house to myself I sat down to watch the re-make of the sc-fi classic – “V” which is currently airing in the SyFy channel. One has to totally ignore the premise on which the entire program is based: namely that the aliens are reptiles disguised as humans for no adequately explained reason. After all, given the level of technology the aliens have in the show, why do they need to gain humanity’s confidence in any way? Clearly they could just ride roughshod over any objections and do what they want, but if you forget about this minor plot hole, it’s not bad. I’ve seen the first two episodes and despite having “Wash” from Firefly as an alien, and a Cyclon as possibly an alien, I quite like the series so far. I’m hoping it will turn out to be better than “Caprica” – I’ve given up bothering with that…

17 April 2010 (Saturday) - On Yer Bike !

Despite a late night last night, I was wide awake at 6.30am because “My Boy ^TM ” got up silently, and was delicately loading his fishing gear into his car. For some inexplicable reason, the phrase “as quiet as a mouse” didn’t spring to mind. As I was wide awake, I spent a few minutes (an hour) having an avuncular perusal of one of my student’s friend's post-graduate work.

The chap who should have been doing this mentoring doesn’t do it. He does what the hell he likes, when he likes, and if he doesn’t like, he just doesn’t do it. If anyone dares question him, he just rants about various random employment laws and legislations and everyone kow-tows to him on the assumption that he knows what he’s talking about. Over the years he’s lodged so many formal grievances and complaints that nobody dares upset him because of all the paperwork he generates. I can’t say I like the fellow, but I have to admire his stance. He always gets his own way.

In the meantime I’m spending my Saturday morning doing what he should be doing. Who’s the daft one? But his students (more than one) have asked me for my help and advice. And have (on several occasions) asked me for tutorials in their own time. I can’t really say no to them, can I?

Yesterday I ranted about failings in the UK political system. Today I find it’s got worse. In the constituency of the Cities of London and Westminster it would seem that the pirate vote has been split. There is a candidate for the “official” pirate party (a bunch who are out to legalise free downloads for everyone). And there is a candidate for what I can only describe as “proper pirating”; the chap who runs International Talk Like A Pirate Day – Mad Cap’n Tom himself. I know who I’d vote for – after all, “he has policies, he has experience, he has a duck on his head”.

And then on with the business of the day. Last year we started cycling early. In the snow in January. This year we left it somewhat later, and an entertaining few minutes were spent tightening nuts, loosening screws, adjusting brakes and attaching trailers (!) before seven of us cycled off to Shadoxhurst. There was a minor hiccup when the blossom-tandem capsized, but that was nothing that couldn’t be put right. And I’m sure that Singleton Hill has gotten steeper over the winter. But despite two chains coming off, we eventually made our destination where the motoring contingent met up with us.

The Kings Head in Shadoxhurst is (usually) too close to home for a weekend cycling destination. It’s somewhere that we call in for a crafty half on the way back from another pub, or somewhere that me and ‘er indoors ^TM visit on a mild summer’s evening. The place is unusual for a Shepherd Neame pub in that it always has a good selection of ales, and we’d heard reports that it had won awards for the food. We weren’t disappointed – the food was excellent, and a couple of pints of “Dragonfire” (brewed for St George’s Day) slipped down well.

The plan was to come home via Great Chart for a crafty pint, but somehow we missed that one. So on the spur of the moment we got the barby out and cooked up some burgers and sossies. A wonderful way to spend the evening.

And then we sat down to watch Doctor Who. A week ago I commented that Matt Smith was too similar to David Tennant. I stand corrected – he’s great. Tonight’s episode was good; I liked daleks being relegated to just one mid-season episode. But weren’t the daleks great? If you’ve not seen the episode, activate the BBC i-player. Now!!!

And then having said goodbye to everyone, I went to work for two hours to deal with a totally predictable problem. Work owes me three hours for today. I wonder when I will get my time back……

16 April 2010 (Friday) - Little Bit of Politics...

One of the girls at work collected her cat from the vet’s last night. A week ago the thing had staggered (literally) home, having broken its leg somehow. After surgery and a week in cat-hospital, the moggie was ready for collection. The bill - £1,700. I would suggest that any of my loyal readers with pets seriously consider pet insurance.

Last Saturday I mentioned that I had the cooked breakfast at work. Today one of my colleagues was boasting that he’d just had the breakfast. That gave me the taste for it, and so I had some. And I spent the day wishing I hadn’t. I’ve had guts ache ever since. Being in a bad mood, I phoned Toys R Us and complained about the headache that I got from the noise in their store last night. The girl on the phone listened politely to my rant, but clearly couldn’t care less.

And then home to assemble the new bike. It seems to be together properly, but in the absence of any instructions I’m left hoping I did it properly. It all seems OK, but the acid test will be tomorrow when the thing is ridden in anger for the first time.

I see the whole world watched the big political debate last night. I didn’t. Despite having applied for a postal vote, I am fast coming to the conclusion that there is little point in my voting at the upcoming general election. For all the hot air the party leaders spouted last night, we don’t get to vote for them. Having done a little research, I can’t believe how sucky the UK electoral system is.

There is not “a” general election. There are 650 elections for local MPs, and it is then a count-up of MPs which determines which party forms a government.

But it’s not as simple as that. These 650 mini- elections don’t all have an equal number of voters. And in each election, all that any MP has to do to win is to get more votes than anyone else. Which means that given that Party A wins in one town with a majority of two votes, and Party A also wins in another town with a majority of three, then they have two MPs. Party B might win somewhere else and so would have one MP. However the fact that Party B might have won their one seat with a majority of fifty thousand is irrelevant. It’s quite possible (and actually happens) that Party B has more votes, but actually has less MPs than Party A.

A “first past the post system” makes no allowances for the amount of votes cast for the losing parties, which is why I am seriously considering not voting. At the last election my current MP got more votes than all the other candidates put together. It’s going to need over a quarter of the local voters to change their minds to unseat the chap, and he’s the only one for whom I’ve seen any election posters.

I’ve heard it said that by voting for those who are clearly going to lose, I could send a message to the floating voters, but I don’t see that somehow. How many people even bother to vote, let alone show an interest in the mathematics of election?

And as a P.S. to all this, if you feel your vote isn’t quite the wonderful thing you once thought it was, spare a thought for the voters in Buckingham. Their current MP is the Speaker of the House of Commons, and it is a tradition that whoever is Speaker stands for election unopposed by any candidates from the other main political parties…

15 April 2010 (Thursday) - Stuff

Being on a late start again, I had planned to do all sorts of things this morning, including…. Well, I don’t know what I had in mind. Last night I had a mental list of things I needed to do, and I can remember it being a rather long list. I thought about writing it down, and decided against doing so, because what I needed to do was so obvious. But this morning my mind was a blank. All I could remember was that I had a long list of stuff last night.

So with nothing better to do (that I could recall) I decided to watch “V” that I’d recorded onto the Sky Plus last night, but “Daddies Little Angel ^TM ” had things to watch, so I was left to my own devices. We spent a few minutes wrestling the Sky Anytime into action. I’ve never used it before – I wonder if it’s free. I hope so.

Last week I commented that the “change oil soon” alarm had come up on my car. Today I arranged to have the thing serviced and MOT-ed in a couple of week’s time. Arranging it was painless – I suspect paying for it won’t be.

Talking of paying for things, the insurance cheque (for the damage caused by our leak) came today. I’d better bank that. Having had a leak, I’m now wondering if I ought to re-felt the flat roof over the top of the bathroom. It doesn’t seem to be leaking at the moment, but maybe preventing a problem might be better than curing it?

I finished work at 8pm, and together with ‘er indoors ^TM , I went to Toys R Us in Chatham to get her a new bike, as the old one would seem to have been co-opted by “Daddies Little Angel ^TM ”. We got a new bike, and also a headache. The too loud in-store music was competing with the din from the Play Station games to make pure unadulterated noise.

I know someone who works for that firm – I shall have a word, because much as I like their shops, I certainly will not shop there again with that volume of racket going on.

And as the weather gets a tad colder, spare a thought for those camping out in East Anglia this weekend. The Kelling Heath Star Party is an annual event in which people from all over the UK camp out, and sleep during the day time so’s that at night they can see the UK’s darkest skies and photograph all sorts of astronomical objects to their heart’s content.

Much as I’m into astronomy, I can’t see the attraction of travelling hundreds of miles to shiver to get a photograph which (it has to be said) won’t come close to something you could call up instantly on Google images.

I suppose that, like all hobbies, it’s something inexplicable – you love it or you don’t. Me – I’ll let the Hubble Space telescope do the photography…

14 April 2010 (Wednesday) - Roof Fixed

I see that yesterday’s blog piccy went up sideways. I wonder what that was all about? Let’s hope that the blog software isn’t going west too. I had a look at the hit tracking software this morning. As well as seeing who’s visited from where in the world, it tells me what operating systems are being used, and what browsers. And what key words people use in search engines to find this blog. I’m reliably informed that one person found my blog by typing the phrase “christopher eccleston motorbike” into Google. I tried it myself, to no avail; but what do I know?

I then spent a few minutes totting up my shopping bills this month. I make a point of recording all my credit card purchases on an Excel spreadsheet. I know that there are those who point and laugh ant me for doing this, but I find it useful – it’s amazing what I find that I’ve forgotten that I’ve bought. Small things add up. Take the last few days for example – on Sunday I bought a memory stick from PC World and a tub of fish food. By this morning I’d no memory of buying them, and they came to over fifty quid. And I’ve spent a total of over sixty quid in Tesco’s this month in small amounts here and there. It soon adds up.

I need to stop frittering away cash on little things – especially with various jobs around the house I need to pay for.

“Roof Man” came today and re-felted the flat bit above the bay window. Whilst it was cheaper than I was expecting it to be, I can’t help remember a conversation I had at school (thirty five years ago) with one of the teachers. I commented that my friends at the local secondary modern were learning woodwork metalwork and useful stuff like that. We on the other hand were learning Latin. Which would probably be useful if ever I wished to speak to a dead Roman. But so far has never proved to have been a useful way to have spent five years. The teacher at the time, one Mr Hooper, told me that in years to come, as an ex-Grammar School boy I would be paying the working classes to do household maintenance jobs for me. Such manual labour would be beneath my dignity.

An admirable sentiment I’m sure, if you can afford to subscribe to that school of thought. Whilst I’d rather pay someone to do the roof than do it myself, it don’t come cheap. I can only suppose that Mr Hooper was prepared to pay far more for his dignity than I am. With the outside now done, I’m inclined to let the inside dry out and have a go at doing it myself….

13 April 2010 (Tuesday) Fish and Chip

As children at school, we all learn of Brownian motion (named after the Scottish botanist Robert Brown): the seemingly random movement of particles suspended in a fluid. The motion of dust seen in sunlight is a good example of Brownian motion. As is the walking style of most of humanity. Oh I get so wound up….

The next time you are out in public, just watch the normal people. Not one is looking where they are going: they all just blunder along, bouncing off of walls, parked cars and each other. Every time I’m in a hurry, the world is awash with these people; pootling along, walking into all and sundry without a care in the world. If people had to take walking tests in the same way they do driving tests, I am sure that 99% of the human race would be grounded.

Something else which wound me up today was an employment tribunal which was called to rule on a case of unlawful sexual and racial discrimination. A single mother has successfully sued the Army. Personally I’m under the impression that soldiers are ready to defend Queen and country whenever and wherever required. And those with families are able to leave their families behind to go soldiering. The Army has gone on record taking the line that they are "unsuitable for a single mother who couldn't sort out her childcare arrangements". Personally I tend to agree. I wouldn’t dream of dragging my children into work in a hospital, much less a battlefield. But as always I am in a minority.

Having been given the heave-ho , a young mother has gone to an employment tribunal, and the tribunal has found in favour of this single mother, who cannot fulfil her military duties because of the need to look after her kiddy. Said tribunal is now deliberating how much money she should be given in compensation.

How about “none at all”, and charging her for wasting the Army’s time?

And then the Koi smiled to have their photos taken. But I think it’s probably fair to say they were more interested in the food than the camera….

12 April 2010 (Monday) - Mondays are Always Dull...

Up with the lark and on with the laundry. Some things remain constant in an ever-changing world. Today I specialised in socks. Putting the things into pairs takes some doing. I am told that this was done over the weekend. It may well have been; however this morning I found a living room strewn with socks, and very little in the way of pairing done. I sorted out my own and chucked the rest into the undercrackers basket; you can get too much of a good thing.

I had half a plan to go fishing this evening, but “My Boy ^TM ” had better things to do with his time. Which was a shame. I may well take up fishing again – if nothing else it’s rather cheaper than drinking to excess on a regular basis.

And then ‘er indoors ^TM went off out and left me in charge of supervising the baking of the bread pudding. A mistake, if ever there was one…

I don’t like Mondays – after an eventful weekend, Mondays are so dull…