I didn't quite catch that...

Random things to do

ejh — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:01:52 +0000

As part of Operation Big Day, several of my family schlepped all the way from Norn Iron to London in vehicles of their own. Which meant that I had an opportunity to politely encourage them to bring stuff over for me. In this instance, my own PC.

Yes, instead of using TLW‘s laptop, I now type this on my own desktop. Which is vastly preferable; big screens, sensible fan noise, and a properly sized keyboard that makes reassuring clicking noises with every key-press. Put simply, I am not really a fan of laptops and much prefer a decent desktop.

It also means that a properly usable archive of old emails and photos has arrived, resulting in a strange hour last evening when TLW and I sat going through a selection of emails that had gone between us over the majority of the last decade.

The upshot of this is that we’ve realised that a) we’re both incredibly dumb and b) we’re both rather blind. The flirting that went on in the middle of the naughties was clear for all to see, yet it took us several more years to catch on.

And now, I shall password protect all archives. Who knows what embarrassments might be dredged up…

Another weekend, another wedding

ejh — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 05:58:14 +0000

Barely two weeks have passed since our own wedding, and yet this last weekend saw TLW & I heading to deepest, darkest Gloucestershire for the wedding of another friend.

Their venue was pretty special, but I think that the main thing I’ll remember was the mental banjo that accompanied all the travel round those parts.

Yes, the place may be less than three hours from London, but it definitely gave of an air of local… That said, some of those locals were busy pouring alcohol down the throats of us visiting townies, so I shouldn’t really complain too much.

Temptation in motion

ejh — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 05:24:58 +0000

A simple thing popped up on my facebook feed last evening:

TLW has decided she wants a kindle…

Now, those who know me would not be surprised to find out that I have tech-lust for the Kindle. It fills a little gap in my geek wardrobe – I’ve yet to find an easy way to carry enough books to keep me properly happy on a long flight. So that’s what I need.

So a fairly reasonable number of hours were spent, idly browsing Amazon and finding out that I could quite easily have spent several hundred pounds: his’n'hers Kindles, matching accessories and a number of books were sitting happily in my Amazon basket before I got a grip and realised that perhaps hundreds of pounds on geekware wouldn’t be sensible 13 days after a wedding…

So, I shall be without a Kindle. For now.

But only for now…

I expect another spectacular end

ejh — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:05:30 +0000

Many moons ago, when the identity of Black Stig came out (in a book, fittingly enough), said Stig was ejected from Top Gear in a sensible and fitting fashion.

They said that he drove off the front of HMS Invincible, and the last we saw of him was his glove floating on the top of the ocean.

Black Stig had been there for two seasons, and they borrowed the flagship of the Royal Navy to get rid of him. White Stig has been in place for 13 seasons – what will they have to do to get rid of him when his identity comes out?

I can’t wait to find out…

That hand-cart trip to hell just got more expensive

ejh — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:31:13 +0000

I am on record as being a fan of Ryanair. They may treat people like cattle, and their chief person may be a gigantic horses ass, but they are openly bastardish and they have done more than any other airline to bring prices down on the routes that I fly most.

Which is why I think that the people who are celebrating this decision are a) in the wrong and b) quite possibly buffoons.

Belfast City Airport has been there, doing its thing, for far longer people have been complaining about it. Back before relatively sensible passenger jets were using it in accordance with noise abatement procedures, freaking Canberras were doing it, and newly built planes of all shapes and sizes. And in recent years, Ryanair have been using it to bring much cheaper air travel to the city, in a more convenient place than Aldergrove.

Ryanair’s decision to fly into BHD saved me literally hundreds of pounds; they were consistently about a third cheaper than easyJet and the City was close enough that people were happier giving me regular lifts than they would have been if I’d been asking them to go twenty miles into the Antrim countryside. Also: Ryanair fly Boeings, which are just nicer aircraft than the Airbuses of easyJet.

I’ll admit that the noise was sometimes annoying, but Ryanair were far from the worst cuplrit (say hello to BMI’s A320s for that honour). My house in Belfast was on the flightpath, and on the outward leg I could often check that my car was appropriately parked outside the house. But be honest: no big city in the UK is without aircraft noise. It’s part of the cost of the world we live in, and it’s cheap at the price.

But the NIMBY brigade have won this round, and now we’re going to be left with easyJet (whose fares I expect to rise, because of the lack of competition), flyBe (who are by no definition a lowfares airline), BMI (who are at least honest about being expensive) and Aer Lingus (who fly to places I don’t want to go).

Brilliant. Giant steps backwards for the integration of NI into the wider world. Chalk up a big loss for us all…