Bristol

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Spent three days and two nights in Bristol. Arrived in Bristol on the Monday, called my company to book a hotel. The only one they could find was £150 a night. I was able to find a Premier Inn on the waterfront on Kings Street for £65 a night. Was quite adequate, though the mobile phone connection for 3G internet access on the ‘3’ network was very poor in my room.

Trying to remember what I ate. The first night I ate at a Turkish restaurant called the Bosphorus. Started with a very lovely mezes dish, and then a main course of I think chicken, but not sure now. The mixed mezes was very good.

On the Tuesday evening I ate at a tapas bar, very full for a Tuesday evening, probably due to the band playing in the background. Several glasses of wine later I left.

Kick off meeting

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The company I work for had the services start of year conference at the Radisson hotel at Stansted airport. The day was full of talks about the company and its direction for the future. The evening was spent eating, and networking with colleagues who we often don’t see from one year to another, but whom we are in contact with via email.

There was some dancing, some karaoke and a little bit of drinking.

See the pictures here.

Sunshine is my heart’s desire

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Amazing, several days without rain. The weekend was fabulous. The BBQ was used twice. BBQ English leg of lamb on Saturday, and then little, spatchcocked poussins on Sunday. Even now several days later the sun is still about.

At home the birds are nesting, we have four little ducklings on the field pond. Rosemary has yet to see them. Of course there could be a few less with the number of crows, magpies, rooks etc marching around the field. Then we have a great tit nesting. They ignored all the detached homes we put up for them last year. Instead they are nesting in the cavity wall of the utility room, just by the entrance door. Rosemary is very concerned that I don’t go around slamming the door as I come and go.

Preparations are under way for the annual tug of war against Wotton Underwood. I don’t expect we will be seeing Tony and Cherie Blair participating in the event. I wouldn’t think they would have moved in by then. Maybe we will see them next year?

P&A or Plough and Anchor Resturant

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Due to circumstances, like the fridge not working we were destined for supper at the P&A. Yes, as soon as Rosemary came home on the Monday, she asked why was the fridge not working. Didn’t you notice it was 20 Celsius inside the fridge and what about that horrible smell. I said no, and then related my coffee saga. So out with most of the contents.

So to the P&A for a few beers, and then a trial of their new menu. We have not eaten at the P&A since the new lower cost menu has been in place. We went for the standard menu and had a starter and the main course. Rosemary enjoyed her Thai fish cakes, while I ate some mussels. The mussels and the sauce where definitely up in the much better than average ratings. The sauce had a hint of chili, but was also a creamy sauce. Um it was very yummy. Much better than the Edinburgh Mussel and Steak on the Grass Market.

Main course we both had the same, BBQ ribs. I had been tempted by the pasta dishes. The BBQ ribs are the P&A signature dish, and they are massive. The meat fell of the bones, was a massive amount, very filling and very enjoyable. Yep I reckon the P&A is back on track.

The weekend without Rosemary

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Rosemary was away for the weekend. She went away on some girly get together with her mates from school. This left me to my own devices. Alas the sun did not shine much, and there was definite rain during the days, the net result was no lawn mowing and much time spent on the PC upstairs. I turned all my CDs into MP3s. Yes yet again. There had been some problems with the previous rips of the Rammstein albums. Must check the new rips are better.

Had a cup of Cappuccino on Sunday morning, was slightly impressed by the solidness of the froth I produced. It was almost the constituency of expanded polystyrene when it floated on the coffee. Next coffee I approached the milk with a little more trepidation. Decided the milk was off, put it back in the fridge as it was a long way before its expiry date. I was sure Rosemary would want to take in back to Tesco and claim her refund.

Saturday evening was in the pub with George and Annie. Sunday late evening was in the pub on my own with the fabulous staff. The Georgian girl was finding it hard, stuck out in the sticks, no transport, living on the premises.

Whistle Binkies

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Spent the a week in Edinburgh. On Thursday had an evening in Whistle Binkies where I managed to watch three bands play. Managed to get some photographs of them as well. The bands of course were all rock bands and played some excellent music. music.[jalbum_iframe_album:http://www.blasdale.com/pictures/2008/WhistleBinkies/index.html,100%,600px]

The first grass cut of the year

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Today was fabulous. Dry, and the temperature rose to 21C. The hottest day of the year. What was more remarkable the day was a Saturday. Alas the forecast for Sunday is rain, can’t be having too much of a good thing can we?

 There was quite a drying breeze, so out with the lawn mower and I performed the first cut of the year. Also did a little bit of strimming, cutting down the butterfly habitat, otherwise know as stinging nettles. Took a look at the graveyard, will have to put the brush cutter on. Seems some 60 little saplings have grown up over winter, and they are already too tough for a nylon cord strimmer.

The six sheep in the field were unhappy with me. I built a lovely big fire from all the small bits of wood from the willow trees I cut down earlier in the year. The sheep migrated to the furthest corner of the field where they have stayed all afternoon.

Now the evening has started, it’s a well earned Gin and Tonic after the day’s hard labours. While drinking my G&T and with the aid of Google I reckon I have the solution to my mobile phone problem. I have a Nokia 6151, it’s a 3G handset. Alas it always tries to locate a 3G transmitter in preference to stronger 2G transmitters. It often can at home connect to a 3G transmitter, but the signal is so weak, I can’t make sensible phone calls. When it connects to a 2G transmitter there is no problem with the phone call. So I had this ridiculous problem that phone calls upstairs never worked when it connects to 3G, but down tairs they work when it cannot find the weak 3G signal, so has to use the strong 2G signal. Friday was a trial, I would receive a call when I was working at home. I would answer, the call would break up and disconnect. Downstairs I would go, place the phone on the floor to hasten the switch over to 2G, once in 2G mode I would pick the phone up and make the call hoping it would not go back to 3G.

There was not option to force the phone to use 2G in the settings. You can force 3G, or select a setting where it will use with 3G or 2G. It always though prefers to use 3G.

The solution I read on a search of Google and implemented was to turn off automatic connection to the the service provider, and to use manual connection. With manual connection you can then select the 2G service, ignoring the 3G service. I wonder if I will get problems when I go to other areas of the country. Only time will tell. What worries me slightly is my phone is from 3, and don’t they have some roaming agreements with other services providers where they have not got their own transmitters. Maybe I will end up selecting the 2G service at home, and then re-enable automatic selection when I leave home.

Entity Beans

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Oh woe is me! I had to update an Entity Bean in some Java code. Must be several years since I have done that. Last time was when I used Visual Age for Java. So now not only was I adding a new property to an entity bean, but I had to learn the tooling in Websphere Application Developer. I made absolutely sure I had a backup of my workspace before starting on this endeavour. Ah well it all went without hitch.

Out celebrating this success, and saw a band play at Whistle Binkies. Paranoid Monkeys are an experimental indie band. When they were playing it was actually quite good for a free band in a pub. The talk overs between the songs was a little odd. Extracts from Radio talks in the 50s and 60s about the atomic bomb and what you should do when it exploded. Well they were tongue in cheek, so I suppose were modern.

Whenever I phoned Rosemary I was told to ring back. She seemed to be entertaining friends until late at night.

The olde reekie

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This is my second week in Edinburgh. Last week I was here for four days, and this week it is a full week. It’s back almost to the old days, no rain, or at least when I am out walking there is no rain.

So what have I been doing, not a lot really, just working and going out in the evening for a meal. Last week at the Radisson Hotel I forgot to sign my bar/food bill. The next day I remembered and found the waitress. She said no problem, we put it on your room, I know your name, you won’t be able to get away with that.

This week as I had one meal in the hotel, she asked if I would be signing the bill tonight. I visited the Mai Thai for one meal. Had the spicy, hot duck. As usual very good. Last night I ate at the Mussel and Steak. Had a nice steak. Not quite as good as usual and was to my taste a tad over cooked.

Another blast from the past has just completed our comment book. Ashley Pickering, used to work for Walker, and here I am still working for a continuation of the same company.