Matt Freestone's Blog

running etc

2011-12-18T15:26:00.002Z

Another slightly longer run yesterday - 7.6 miles in 1h05, I thought it was going to turn out to be a bit further, so might have to step up the distance a bit next time. I delayed the run until later in the day because the weather was treacherously icy when I got up, but it was actually quite nice to be able to go out when things had warmed up a little.

Overall it's been a nice weekend - been into town to get a few last bits, managed to read some of my book, do a bit of work, have a decent run. One more week to go until Christmas now...

Running

2011-11-26T16:18:00.002Z

I'm gradually trying to add a bit more distance to my runs again, as I've entered the Cambridge half marathon next March. Quite pleased with today - 7.2 miles in 1h02 (so just under 7mph) and predicting a finish time of 1h55 ish. I'd like to get that a bit lower, but I guess I have to put the miles on first.

Haven't done too much else lately - work has taken up a tremendous amount of time and energy to stay just about on top of things. I'm hoping that's turning back to a more normal workload now, but we'll have to see. I do have a few social things coming up as December comes around, and then after new year I'm hoping to go back to Pune for a week for work.

My brother and I bought a bench as a memorial for our parents in Sudbrooke, and that's just been installed, so I'm pleased to have that done. It will be nice to go up and see it sometime next year.

Long gap

2011-08-21T19:42:00.003+01:00

Haven't posted here for a long time, but I guess blogging is so 00's now anyway. I do have a few thoughts for posts just to catch up on things we've done that might be of interest to a few other people.

Interesting to read the last post where I wasn't sure what I wanted out of the year. Honestly it's continued like that right up to now. That's not to say I haven't managed to do anything, but it's been a constant struggle of being up and down.

The thing that's really hung over me, and that's only really just shifted is to get mum and dad's estate wrapped up. However, we have now finally sold the house, so it does feel like that's coming to a close, which is a good feeling, but with quite a strong component of sadness. That has prompted me to have another go through their old photos and family docs to try to get them to some more useable state - I do want to do some family history research at some point. I have quite good family trees on both sides, but I also have a _lot_ of completely unidentified photos. There are some fantastic ones going right back to the late 19th Century, so I would love to be able to put some names to faces in there.

Main "events" of the year so far:

I had my 40th birthday, which I actually really enjoyed. We had a great party at our house, and so far I'm enjoying being in my 5th decade.
Went to London with the girls for a few days and saw the sights. We stayed in Greenwich, not so far from where H and I used to live when we were in London. I was going to post on good and bad points from this trip.
H has been accepted onto her MPhil course at Cambridge university, so that's going to be a bit of an adjustment for us all. The girls have been trying out the after school club during the holidays and they really like it, so hopefully it won't be too much of a shock for them.
Went up to the Lake District for a week at the end of July. We stayed in Ambleside - weather was really great, and it was a lovely week. Lots of good places to eat in Ambleside itself, and we managed to do some interesting walks and days out. Again, will post some links for that.

That's all for now, will try to write a bit more regularly in the next few weeks.

and into 2011...

2011-01-03T10:55:00.002Z

I'm struggling to write anything about what I want out of 2011. 2010 was so taken up with sorting out my parents' affairs and then trying to deal with my own response to losing them that I don't really feel like I was able to do anything else for myself last year. If I rewind to how I was feeling at the end of 2009 I think I was struggling with knowing what direction I wanted to go in and so I've emerged from grief into uncertainty again :-)

I kind of hate setting goals and making resolutions but maybe that is what I need to do now. When I think about it I actually do have quite a few things I want to take forward: work projects (which I won't go into here), running (thinking of doing another 1/2 marathon), Tai Chi (I want to try a different class), trying to be a bit more social, learning more about molecular biology, doing a bit of art, finishing off the room in the roof so we can actually move in, selling mum and dad's house (finally), and maybe doing some family history or updating my moribund website.

2010 Valedictory

2011-01-03T10:35:00.002Z

Christmas was quiet - I finished work a bit earlier than normal as I was feeling a bit run down from my cold. I had a drink with Ian and Clare and then we had Christmas at home as usual. The girls enjoyed getting presents, and I was pleased to see they were both keen to give presents as well, and wanted to put some thought into what they gave each other.

My brother and his family came up a couple of days later so it was good to see them again. L got on well with Megan's children, although i think E felt a bit left out. Graham and Megan's baby liked his dinosaur toy and fortunately they were able to get their car started when they went home (it had been a bit unreliable earlier in the day).

Then we had some people over for E's birthday on the 28th which was good fun. The 30th was the 1st anniversary of mum's death so I felt quite up and down throughout the day (and to be honest, throughout the holidays). I've tried to just give myself space to go out and sit quietly, or walk, but it's hard to just be with the feelings without over-reacting towards or away from them.

Since then I've been doing a few bits round the house - clearing up the garden, fixing the house number back up (taken down when the scaffolding was up), replacing the doorbell, that kind of thing. I'm still avoiding re-painting the bathroom ceiling, but I don't feel so swamped with minor bits to do now, so maybe I'll do that a bit later today.

Wedding Present

2011-01-03T10:12:00.006Z

I spent most of the final weeks of 2010 being ill with assorted colds and coughs (cough still hasn't quite gone) but I did manage to do a few things, including seeing The Wedding Present at The Junction. They were doing their 20th anniversary tour of Bizarro (I think I saw them at the Corn Exchange in 92) and they did a great set, including a couple of newer songs I hadn't heard before, of which this was my favourite:

I also liked the fact that they introduced the main Bizarro playthrough with a tape loop of John Peel intros - it always brings me up short to hear his voice again, particularly as the Wedding Present era was very much around the time I was listening to his show.

November with a bump

2010-11-03T21:19:00.003Z

A little catch up while I remember what I've been doing...
We've had a few days off. Last week we drove down to visit H's parents in New Malden. It was good to see them, and the girls always enjoy the visits. H and I went out to Cah Chi in the evening for fantastic Korean food. It's a small restaurant (and you have to bring your own wine) but they do really great food, and they have gas grills on all the tables where they come and cook part of the meal for you.

Saturday I went out for a run and managed to trip over a drain cover. I fell full length and scraped my knees and hands. Check out the horror show at the left.

This week we've walked the Devil's Dyke from Reach, and had lunch at the Dyke's End, which I also thoroughly recommend.

Tomorrow we're thinking about going to Aldeburgh for the day, but it depends on the weather and how organised we are to get out the house. Then Friday it's back to work.

I've also succumbed to technology - I bought a Kindle, and I'm really enjoying it. I read quite a lot of articles on the web, and I've been sending those to the Kindle via email, or using Instapaper. I have also bought a couple of books and it's very slick.

The house is on hold for this week, apart from that we've been choosing paint, carpet and curtains, which has taken a lot longer than I thought it would.

Into Autumn

2010-09-26T19:36:00.002+01:00

Time for a quick update I think. Running is going well with the new chi running style. I haven't had any problems so far with the thin shoes which is a real surprise as I used to think that they were essential to keeping me running with good form and absorbing shock. I am definitely using my calf muscles more, but I'm not getting the tightness I was when I first started, although they do start to get tired more quickly than they used to. I haven't had any knee problems so far (touch wood).

The actual disciplines - keep body in a straight line, lift the pelvis, relax legs, lean forward, etc. are quite hard to keep doing consistently. Sometimes it seems to "click" and I can feel the forward lean while my legs almost move of their own accord, but it's very hard to do for any length of time. It's enjoyable though, and it's given me a renewed interest in running. I might see if I can find a coach for a couple of sessions in the new year maybe.

The loft extension is well underway and so far we're on schedule with no major problems. The guys have worked hard when they've been here, and from what I've seen so far (e.g. the way the side wall has been built up to match the existing brickwork) it's been done to an excellent standard. Hopefully they'll be done sometime in mid-October.

What else - thinking about maybe going away again later in the year, but we've left it a bit late now. Maybe I'll take some days off and we'll think again next year. I'm going back to Pune in November, but that's for work rather than any kind of break (although this time I'm going to stay an extra night and hopefully see a bit more of the local area).

We have a senior manager coming into our office tomorrow, so there are going to be lots of presentations, of which I'm giving one. I've got slides and I've run through it today, so I'm not too nervous, but I hope it goes well. Then on Tuesday I'm starting Tai Chi again at the Buddhist Centre, so I'm looking forward to that. Busy week anyway...

More running

2010-08-14T16:41:00.002+01:00

I've been reading a bit more about running form - I've read more of Chi Running and Born to Run, and I feel like I have a better idea what I want now. I think barefoot itself is going to be too hard (for most of the time at any rate) so I'm going to try running in much thinner shoes - unfortunately it seems to be extremely hard to get hold of Nike Frees at the moment - even Nike Town only had 7.0s in a size 10. This morning I tried running in my Converse trainers, which worked quite well - I got a much better sense of feedback from the ground, and I ran much more midfoot. I'm currently stopping regularly to try to reset my form based on the ideas in Chi Running, so we'll see how it goes for a few weeks. So far I've not had any knee pain, but my calves are much tighter than normal, which I think shows I'm using them to absorb more energy when I put my foot down.

Barefoot Running

2010-08-01T20:17:00.002+01:00

I knew there was something else - I'm trying to gradually convert to barefoot-style running. Well, I say that, I think what I really want is to convert to a lower-impact, less heel-strikey way of running, but I think learning to run barefoot will be a big help. So far I've managed to do five minutes or so on Parker's Piece, which is quite pleasant. I'm waiting for some Nike Frees to arrive, which should let me run on more surfaces without worrying about glass or other small, sharp things.

I've also started reading ChiRunning, which is a lot less woo than the title makes it sound. Basically, it gives techniques to use more of your core muscles while running, but the effect is similar - i.e. you end up leaning forward more, and using your body to lift the legs so you in effect run by controlled falling. But that also brings you more to the front of the foot, so it's quite complementary.

Not sure what's brought it on really - I just read a critical mass of stuff that suggests it's better for you + I think maybe I just need something new to get me interested in running again. I'm almost pleased to discover that the running shops here don't have any lightweight shoes, and give you a funny look if you ask for them. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

Now, the game's afoot (ah, didn't even mean to make that pun) - it's time for Sherlock on TV.

into August

2010-07-31T20:39:00.002+01:00

I've been meaning to update for a while, but just haven't got round to it. We went on holiday to Perranporth in Cornwall, which was great - excellent weather, and it was a really nice spot. The beach was great, the sea was incredibly dramatic, and there were great cliffs and places to run and walk. Only the flat was a bit of a disappointment - it was spacious and well-fitted out, but there was a real smell of damp in the bedrooms. Not much we can do about it in retrospect, but if anyone's reading this I'd be cautious about booking anything in Droskyn Castle with Duchy Holidays.

What else? I went to Lizzie's end of term production of the Tempest at Ridgefield (there are some good pics up on the school website). The end of term marked the retirement of the current head, Ray Doe, so there was a presentation for him (although I was disappointed he didn't decide to ceremonially cast the symbols of his office into the waves as well). Our new head, Anne Morten, starts in September.

I read the new John Crowley novel, Four Freedoms. Not sure what to make of it really. It's beautifully written, and it illuminates a time and a set of experiences that I hadn't thought about before (women and disabled workers at an aeroplane plant in the mid-west during WW2) but I wasn't sure what it added up to at the end. Then on recommendation from people in a MeFi thread, I thought I'd have a go at Caleb Carr's The Alienist. I actually couldn't get through more than a few chapters before giving up on reading a sentence where the protagonist's hair is described as "moist" after he has been out in the rain. "Moist"? Who has moist hair? It should be damp, or wet even. This will seem like excessive pedantry, but it was just the straw that broke the camel's back - the whole book is full of sloppy writing. If anyone wants my copy, they're welcome to it.

After that I seemed to go into a bit of a decline again, leading to feeling pretty awful last weekend. This week I seem to be back to normal again, so it's just one more up and down on the roller-coaster I guess. Next week I have to go up to Lincoln to do a few more things, so that may be a bit tough too.

Fathers Day

2010-06-20T20:13:00.002+01:00

I've had an enjoyable day - I took the girls up to the newly re-opened Histon playground, and they made me lovely cards. This afternoon I managed to go out on the bike for a ride out on the towpath up to Baits Bite lock and back via Milton country park (and the Old Spring pub).

Yesterday we went to a party for some friends of ours who are going back to the USA soon. And earlier in the week I met up with a former colleague for an evening out in London, so it's been a pretty good week altogether.

I'm in a strange state at the moment though. I recently re-read Franzen's The Corrections (which I read last year when I was feeling pretty down) and it seemed even more full of correspondences to my own life than it did last time. It's difficult to explain without explaining the whole book, but it's fair to say that the elderly, ill parents, and the children with various forms and manifestations of sadness and anxiety struck a chord in me. And that's why I wanted to read it - I wanted to have something outside myself that would put words onto the grief so I could maybe explain it to myself a bit more. I'd read it again, except I know it will say the same things.

I'm trying to be kind to myself, but I'm not very good at being patient while I go up and down emotionally. I get through a trough and I think it ought to be the last one, like throwing up the last of something that makes you sick, but it doesn't seem to be like that. It's unpredictable - I feel fine one day, and then I'm crying in the car the next. Also, I'm not sure where to draw the line between being kind to myself and indulging myself. I'm tempted to distract myself from grief with treats and that doesn't really seem healthy either.

And I'm impatient to do... something. I'm not sure what, but I feel like I have to make the most of what time I have (the finiteness seems much more immediate now), and here I am just struggling to get through a week or a weekend.

Fortunately it's a short week at work this week and then we're off on holiday. A week away from home will no doubt do me good, and I'm looking forward to seeing Cornwall again.

General catch up

2010-05-03T14:34:00.002+01:00

Just wanted to catch up on some of the more mundane things that have been going on. I just finished Gene Wolfe's most recent novel An Evil Guest - I think I have similar mixed feelings about as the reviewers on Amazon. There are lots of interesting parts to it, and it moves at a fair clip, but it never quite gelled into anything consistent for me - it could have been a future noir detective story, but there are too many supernatural elements for that. Perhaps the idea is that the horror elements are meant to be concealed deep within the book, but then those aspects are never fully developed. I hate to say that I've gone off Wolfe, but this is certainly not his best work.

Earlier this weekend I was leafletting for the local LibDem candidate. I saw all the Cambridge candidates at a hustings a couple of weeks ago. I was pretty much going to vote Lib Dem anyway - partly because I like a lot of their policies, partly because they're the only local party that can beat Labour (and much as I thought Daniel Zeichner seemed pretty competent at the hustings, I disagreed with him on pretty much everything). I'm still pretty disappointed at the way the parties are concealing the cuts we're going to need to get out from under the deficit though. That's if there isn't some kind of sovereign debt crisis in the meantime - there was a fantastic Paul Mason post on this the other day.

Before that we were appointing a new head teacher for Ridgefield Primary (where I'm a governor). It was very interesting being on the selection panel, and I was impressed with both the candidates we saw. Obviously I can't say anything about the details, but I'm happy that we made the right choice, and I really think the new head will be able to make a difference to the school.

What else? I just started Tai Chi at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre - only had one session so far, but it was enjoyable (although I need some kind of light weight shoe - my trainers are too heavy, but if I don't wear them my feet get cold and cramp up!) and it's something I really want to get into more.

I shall try to get back into a more regular posting habit again. I can feel various thoughts in the back of my mind but that's enough for now.

Gordon Freestone 1933 - 2010

2010-04-26T21:39:00.002+01:00

My dad died last month, not long after my brother and I got him settled into a care home. I miss him, but I don't think I have a lot more to say than that really. I feel like maybe I should, since I posted a long entry about my mum's death at the end of December and it's not like I cared any less for dad than I did for mum. Perhaps it's just too soon and I will come back to it in a few months, or perhaps it's the effect of losing both parents in such a short space of time.

Anyway I wanted to post something so I can get back to "normal" subjects. The big Death post has been hanging over me for too long.

Kathryn Jane Freestone 1947 - 2009

2010-01-26T21:41:00.004Z

We'd just sung Happy Birthday to my younger daughter when I got a call from my brother to come up to Lincoln as soon as I could. I assumed it was my dad, as he had a stroke a few years ago and hasn't been in the best of health, but instead it turned out my mum had stopped breathing and been taken to the ICU.

She died two days later - too much oxygen starvation, and her body never recovered. So it's been a tough month really: I've been back and forth to Lincoln to help make arrangements for mum, and also to help my brother look after dad, and think about what he's going to do next - we can't look after him in his home, so we've been looking at long term care (I'll do another post later on the intricacies of funding). We're going to visit a home he likes tomorrow, so hopefully that will be sorted fairly soon.

Mum's funeral was yesterday - the crematorium was extremely busy in early January - partly because they close over Christmas, and partly I guess the bad weather increased the number of people dying. It was very well attended by folks from all periods of mum's life - old friends, people from Sudbrooke, people from her old workplace, and friends from the last period of her life looking after dad since his stroke. Several people commented that the service was very good. The celebrant's name was Andrew Key - I would happily recommend him to anyone that wants a civil ceremony. he collection raised over 340 pounds for Arthritis Research and Sue Ryder Care. My brother read a poem - Ducks by Frank W Harvey, which I think mum would have liked.

When God had finished the stars and whirl of coloured suns
He turned His mind from big things to fashion little ones;
Beautiful tiny things (like daisies) He made, and then
He made the comical ones in case the minds of men
Should stiffen and become
Dull, humourless and glum,
And so forgetful of their Maker be
As to take even themselves - quite seriously.
Caterpillars and cats are lively and excellent puns:
All God's jokes are good - even the practical ones!
And as for the duck, 1 think God must have smiled a bit
Seeing those bright eyes blink on the day He fashioned it.
And he's probably laughing still at the sound that came out of its bill!

I'm not sure how I feel really. Sad of course, but not particularly upset. I said goodbye at the hospital, and that was quite gut-wrenching, but perhaps it was all I really needed. It's not that we weren't close, but I feel we both understood each other as adults since I had a family of my own: she gave us her love and approval, and we offered her ours in return. I know she loved H, and H said she was the best mother in law one could hope for. She loved L and E, and was always showing people their photos. I'm glad she got to meet them, even if it was for a fairly short part of their lives.

Goodbye, Mum.

Christmas

2009-12-26T16:38:00.002Z

Christmas has been good. We've had the snow which the girls really enjoyed - photies up on Facebook if you like that kind of thing. We had hoped to visit my parents the weekend before but the weather put paid to that unfortunately. Hopefully we can go early in the new year.

Broke up from work on the 24th at inbox zero (at least for a few minutes!) and I'm not logging back in for a week. No, really.

Christmas day was nice and relaxing - presents in the morning. The girls got lots. H got me Charlie Brooker's latest book, which I've been reading from the index (mmm Heston Blumenthal what does he have to say about him...) and we managed to get each other a copy of the exact same book: Gustav Dore's London. Basically we watched the Jeremy Paxman series on the Victorians, and both had the same idea what would make a really good present that the other one would never expect! Be warned - this is what happens to you after 10 years together.

Not sure what to make of Christmas Doctor Who. Seems to have had everything thrown into the plot, but I'm not really sure what it all adds up to. The finale is either going to be magnificent or absolute cack.

into December

2009-12-06T20:00:00.002Z

Finally have the new PC up and running. Mesh completely let me down, and it looks like I may have had a narrow escape: I bought from them because I got my previous (very reliable) PC from them, but when I googled a bit further I found no end of complaints of slow delivery and poor service. That certainly was what I found when I tried to chase up the order, and eventually they tried to tell me that I needed to pay another £50 to get the computer because the spec had changed. Fortunately, I wasn't born yesterday, so I just got a refund instead. I bought a similar spec machine from World of Computers in Milton instead: I had the PC 2 days later, and if it goes wrong they are nearby, and appear to know what they are talking about.

Anyway, it's very nice: I like Win 7, and just generally having a lot more power and memory makes a big difference when using Photoshop for instance.

Other things: my school, Ridgefield Primary, will be looking for a new Head next year, so we as governors have to start planning for the process now: I'm currently drafting the information pack we'll be sending out, while others are looking at the job description and the advert (you have to place a print advert in a national publication, and that basically means the TES). I've also helped the school's IT co-ordinator produce a new website, and he's done a fantastic job.

Friday was H's birthday, but for various reasons we went out for lunch on Saturday instead. We went to Meze on Mill Road and some really nice Turkish food. It was the Winter Fair, so there were lots of people out - we saw the Samba band, but that was about as much as the girls wanted to do (L is a bit under the weather with a cold) so we came home after that.

Next week I may go down to London for work - see how things go.

Oggy and the Cockroaches

2009-11-13T19:58:00.001Z

The girls love this, and I have to admit I really like the visual humour (or perhaps it just reminds me of Tom and Jerry):

Oggy And The Cockroaches - The most popular videos are here

Staycation?

2009-11-13T19:51:00.002Z

Not sure I like that term, but it's been a good week all the same - yesterday we went to Anglesey Abbey and walked along by Quy Water in a nice circular route before driving up to Horningsea for lunch at the Crown and Punchbowl.

Today I met up with H in town and we went to Charlie Chan for dim sum, which I've not done before in Cambridge - the last time I had dim sum was in San Francisco over 10 years ago. I also managed to find a Linux magazine with a live CD that I can use to rescue the data from my old Win XP box. I'm hoping the shiny new PC will come soon (please Mesh) and we can get everything transferred. At the moment I'm using my work laptop, which is a bit annoying, as I don't want to start downloading mail or installing non-approved applications.

November holiday

2009-11-09T16:53:00.003Z

I'm off work for a week and for various reasons we're mostly staying at home and going out for day trips. We had the initial weekend away though - we went down to H's parents, and they kindly looked after the children while H and I went into London for a day out and a night at the Dorset Square Hotel. It was good, but it was expensive too, and there were niggly problems that just took the shine off the experience - notably, no tea and coffee in the room, and room service that weren't up to the job of replacing that facility.

We had a good time though - we saw the Mirsolaw Balka Tate Modern exhibition which looked amazing from the outside, although there were probably too many people to get the full experience when you were inside it. We also had a fantastic meal out at Yming in Soho. The double braised pork in hot pot was amazing.

Back in Cambridge today we went out to Wandlebury Ring, and then drove up to Lammas Land and walked through the botanic garden to Le Gros Franck for lunch. That was very good too - we both had the steak frites, and it was both cheaper and better than Cafe Rouge (yes I know, but we're more often at that end of town, and the childrens' menu is good there).

Just thinking about what to do tomorrow - we may go for another walk somewhere.

Into October

2009-10-03T11:59:00.002+01:00

Been quite busy the last couple of weeks. More governor-y stuff for Ridgefield - I'm helping develop a new website (still in beta), and then I was just involved with the Head Teacher review, which was interesting, as I've not been part of that process before. Alas the training is not until next week, but I'm sure it will come in useful over the coming year.

Last weekend I went to the 20th (god I feel old) reunion dinner of my year at Fitzwilliam college. I think H was a little nervous, as she found the maths reunion dinner a couple of years ago quite intimidating. So being on the high table, next to the Master, was a bit of shock.

However it was actually really good - H got on well with the Master's wife, and I caught up with my former Director of Studies. We did see a few people who I remembered specifically from my year, but to be honest there weren't as many as I thought I might remember - probably, when I think about it, most of my friends at Cambridge were not in the same college as me.

Work is continuing to be very busy - we're just putting the finishing touches to the current release, but we also have maintenance releases going on at the same time, so I am being pulled in several directions.

Catch Up

2009-09-18T20:47:00.002+01:00

Things have been going pretty well since the last post. I managed to fix the media centre, after slightly more fuss than I'd originally hoped - it turns out that to fit all the power leads, you have to also take out the DVD unit. That in turn led me to take off the front of the unit, only to find it wasn't necessary, but not before I found that I'd managed to unplug the front display and couldn't work out how to get it back on again. I managed after a struggle, and now we have IPlayer goodness again.

Wednesday was our anniversary, so I took the day off. Girls were both at school in the morning, so we made the most of it, and then we went out for lunch after picking Ella up. We went to Loch Fyne which we've not been to for a long time. Food was excellent - especially the mussels I had - really fresh and delicious. Ella liked them too.

Since then I've been fairly hard at work as we're coming up to a release date + I'm also quite busy with governor-y things for the school, which I won't post about here. Looking forward to a quiet weekend.

Back Home

2009-08-30T20:45:00.002+01:00

Back home after an overnight stay at H's parents house. Had a nice time there - the girls tested the local playgrounds, and Kathy (H's mum) spoiled us with delicious food. Tomorrow I want to try to fix my media centre PC - I bought an Acer Idea 510 a couple of years ago and it's generally been pretty good - I have a lot of music, photos and video loaded onto it, and it means we can watch IPlayer and other streaming video on the TV rather than on a laptop. However, it apparently has a fairly predictable problem involving the power supply and the external display on the front. I've seen various hackery suggested on the boards but I think the simplest answer looks to be to fit a new power supply. I haven't tried this particular bit of PC surgery before, but it doesn't look too bad - I'm going to take a photo of the cabling before I start, just in case I get in a muddle.

Up to date

2009-08-04T21:32:00.002+01:00

We decided we ought to try a new restaurant (as a family I mean) since Pizza Express no longer uses a mozzarella that H can eat, so we decided to give La Tasca a try since we really liked the Tapas place we went to in Weymouth. I'd have to say it wasn't quite up to that standard, but the food was good - particularly the children's meals - and the service was excellent. So we'll have to give that another go.

After that we went to have a look at Kettles Yard's exhibition from the house collection. Not really impressed - out of their setting, a lot of the works looked pretty lifeless, or even amateurish. They have a big chalkboard though, so the girls were happy + they are giving out these museum Top Trumps type cards to children, which they also thought was good. I think H is taking them to the museum of Zoology at some point (or the Skeleton Museum as E describes it).

I've been reading Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, and finding the characters (especially Gary) and situations altogether too close for comfort. But it's a fantastic book - seems like ages since I read a new novel that I enjoyed.

We also watched Man on Wire the other night - fantastic film, just incredible. Apart from being an interesting story, it's also a kind of poignant memorial to the Twin Towers, before they became known for their terrible end. It's always strange now to see them on screen, particularly having been there almost a year to the day before the attacks.

OpenTech 2009

2009-07-11T10:58:00.002+01:00

I went to OpenTech last weekend, which was a very interesting day. I'm still looking for a way to somehow balance doing some work for a group like ORG, No2ID, or MySociety with the other commitments on my time. At the moment I have, as one of the ORG people put it, "outsourced my activism".

But I'm convinced this is the direction democracy should be going in - transparent communication of as much government data as possible, in open formats, and allow external groups to use that data to provide accountability, new services, whatever is needed. And conversely, the government needs to start taking seriously the problems of collecting masses of personal data and think about how to design systems that are more opt-in for data-sharing, while allowing criminal investigations to take place with appropriate authorisation.

Anyway, there were loads of interesting talks - from the journalist who did all the FoI legwork to get MPs expenses into the public domain, to an interesting session on using Open Source software in schools (particularly relevant to me as school governor, currently looking at rebuilding a school website), to the extremely disturbing talk on Intercept Modernization from ORG and No2ID, which was preceded by this wonderfully deadpan introduction by Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom:

Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom: "Three Pillars of Digital Britain", OpenTech 2009 from Richard Elen on Vimeo.

(there are some more videos on that site too from Bill Thompson, and Ben Goldacre - both worth a look).

After the conference, I went out with my old friend Kath, and we had several pints of what turned out to be very strong lager (or maybe I'm just not used to drinking so much lately) so it was a good evening, but I was not feeling at my best by the time I got on the train back to Cambridge.

Back from holiday

2009-06-28T22:04:00.002+01:00

It seems to have taken most of the last week to recover from going on holiday - I've just felt really tired until the weekend. Still Weymouth was great - we had fantastic weather so we went on the beach quite a bit, which the girls really liked. We did a walk along the coast, from Durdle Door to Lulworth Cove - quite a steep hill, so I was impressed Ella managed the whole distance with no problem (and very little complaint). Lulworth Cove is beautiful - I'd like to go back there sometime.

I also took the girls to MonkeyWorld (Mrs F declined to come) which was really good - it's a rescue centre, so there is a good reason for the apes to be there, and the girls really enjoyed seeing the chimps (who were equally fascinated by the crowds) and the Capuchins. However the thing they really enjoyed was the enormous aerial playground, with big climbing nets and slides.

We ate out far too much - I'd particularly recommend the Statue House Tapas Bar on the seafront - great view, nice food, and pretty reasonably priced. There were some very nice looking expensive restaurants by the harbour, but it didn't seem fair to the girls to drag them out there in the evening, and not fair to us to rush through a meal. On the last evening we went to Rossinis, near where we were staying and had a really nice meal. Lizzie drew a portrait of H on the tablecloth, which was so good we've kept it.

Back in Cambridge, we went to a party on the Saturday at Guy and Susie's house, which was really good fun. I stayed quite late, and drank too much red wine. Didn't feel ill, but I was pretty groggy and slow on Sunday. Then on Tuesday we'd arranged a babysitter, and so we decided we'd go out while we had the chance! We were going to go to The Bridge at Waterbeach, but the service was pretty surly, and we were promised a delay of up to an hour for food, so we skipped it, and went back to the Crown and Punchbowl, where the waitress was incredibly friendly and helpful, and we had a really nice meal (albeit a somewhat more expensive one than we were anticipating).

This week I'm probably working in London one day, and then maybe back in London on Saturday for OpenTech.

European Elections

2009-06-03T21:32:00.002+01:00

I went to the hustings in Cambridge on Monday organised by the local Amnesty, NO2ID, and Oxfam groups. Since I've been inactive in both the AI and NO2ID groups for a while, it was good to see quite a few people I know but haven't met up with for a while.

The panel was quite interesting - they had UKIP, LibDem, Labour, Green and Conservative candidates and there was a good selection of questions. UKIP fell at the first fence when David Campbell-Bannerman said that he wasn't convinced of the case for climate change. To me, this kind of statement now puts you outside sensible political discourse.

The Conservative candidate suffered from the problem set by the UK party to leave the centre-right grouping in the European Parliament and start a new one with various loony and disturbing groups. I can't take their positions on Europe seriously while they are taking this stance.

That leaves Labour, LibDem and Green. To be honest, I could potentially have voted for any of them. I thought the chap from the Green party was very articulate, although unfortunately he isn't the candidate for the EU election. The Labour guy seemed very genuine, and certainly seemed to have a record of achievements. I didn't take to him personally though, and to be honest, I just can't bring myself to vote Labour in this election*.

So Andrew Duff for the LibDems gets my vote. I am pretty much a natural LibDem anyway, but his answers to the questions on climate change, data retention (which Labour weaseled on), and the position of Britain in the EU were by far the closest to my own views.

Overall a good evening, and I hope we'll have a good turnout tomorrow, and that the extremist groups don't profit from the venality of some mainstream politicians.

* I'm making an exception for the council elections, for various reasons.

Caught Up again

2009-05-31T20:38:00.002+01:00

I feel like I've managed to finally catch up with all my ideas about what I want to do. This seems to happen periodically - everything will get in a big mess, then I finally decide to sort it out, get back on the GTD wagon, and review it all. Of course the trouble is that knowing what you want to do isn't the same thing as actually doing it, and I have terrible trouble getting my non-work projects started, or sticking to them over time. Anyway this time, the main ones are to re-start learning Hindi, to write some kind of web project to learn more about Javascript and PHP, and to do some more swimming practice before I try to have any more lessons.

The weekend has been really nice - beautiful weather (although I have to be very careful in the sun). I took the girls to Cherry Hinton playground and we all had a nice paddle in the pool there. E met one of her friends from nursery, so that was good.

L has been out on her new bike a couple of times - I'm still just holding onto the back, but she is really close to being able to ride independently now. Annoyingly the front tyre has a puncture already, although it seems to be a slow one.

Went out for a bike ride this afternoon - round through Fulbourn, Wilbrahams, then up to Teversham and back through Cherry Hinton. It was good, although a bit too hot, and I finally remembered where I found a little path which I walked a couple of years ago, and which I then completely lost.

Morrissey at Cambridge Corn Exchange

2009-05-17T15:03:00.002+01:00

Went to see Morrissey last night with my friends Ian and Clare. It was a really good gig, and we managed to get very near to the front (with all the squashing and jostling that entails). There's a set list here - pleased to see quite a few Smiths songs in there + quite a few more recent crowdpleasers.

There was a little incident when someone heckled Julia Riley after Moz gave her a birthday shout-out. Moz asked him to leave, and when he didn't really want to, Boz Boorer came over and gave him what looked like a pretty good line in verbal abuse, after which he went. To be honest I don't see how he could have done otherwise really - I doubt Morrissey fans are quite up to the standards of the Hell's Angels at the Isle of Wight festival, but I don't think I'd want to be surrounded by them when you've just pissed off the main man and his biggest fan in the middle of a concert.

May Update

2009-05-09T10:11:00.002+01:00

Looks like it's quite a while since I wrote anything, so here goes with a quick update:

swimming - I had another lesson, and I was able to do some full lengths swimming independently. I think a couple more should do it, and I need to work on being able to float and try going in a pool where I'm out of my depth.
running - I've been doing gentle runs with walk breaks (1 min in 5 or so) every weekend, and so far no problems, so I'm going to start doing a run in the morning during the week again.
last week or so I've had a nasty cold - felt quite grim + sinus pain - ugh. Seem to be over it now, but it was annoying to get it just when I was having a day off. Still I managed to go out with E and visit the Museum of Zoology, which I'd never managed to do before. They have a fantastic collection of skeletons of all kinds of animals - including whales, elephant, rhino etc. Went back to work on Friday to discover over 200 unread mails.
I'm going to see Morrissey next week at the Corn Exchange. I saw him last year at the O2 festival in Hyde Park, which was great, so I'm really looking forward to it. As luck would have it, I just completed 5 years at my current job, so they gave me some Amazon vouchers, which I've used to buy the last two albums (among other things). Ringleader... didn't do that much for me, but I really like Years of Refusal - particularly All You Need is Me.

Finally Done...

2009-04-18T12:08:00.002+01:00

I've finally finished re-posting all the material from Furthermore, except for a few bits and bobs I want to re-work, so hopefully I can get onto writing some new material here, and also taking down the old blog so I can do something new on that site.

What else is new: dining room is done, and everything is re-arranged - I'm now working at my new desk in the corner. Just got to put up my picture.

After last week's disappointment, swimming went well this week - my teacher was away, but he arranged for me to get a pass to Quy Mill, so I just practiced on my own. The thing I realised during the week was that I needed to get over my fear of going under the water when I started to swim. So I found a way to trick myself: I practiced quite a bit with just putting my face into the water and holding it - I don't like it so much, but I can do it if I feel prepared. So then the trick is kind of obvious: to overcome my fear of going under the water when I start swimming, I just start with my face in the water, and then I have nothing to worry about but getting it out! This worked really well, and I was able to swim several metres independently. I thought that was a good point to leave it, and I hope to pick up from there with Ed next week.

I also saw the physio again on Friday, and that went well. I cycled in with no problems, but annoyingly, I found cycling home triggered some knee pain again. Still I think I'm on the right track, so I did a short run this morning - some twinges but nothing major. I think I just have to take it gently and be more conscious of how I control my leg from the hip.

Furthermore: November 2008

2009-04-18T11:49:00.001+01:00

November 19, 2008

ORG Founding Thousand Badge

Hey, it’s nice to be recognised. I will eventually get this pasted into the sidebar when I get round to fettling the blog a bit.

November 9, 2008

Long Past Time

Not sure what makes me want to post again after so long. I find myself remembering quite a few things I’ve done, but not blogged or recorded, so it seems like I’ll forget about them. One of the things I like about the blog is looking back to see what I was doing at different points in the past.

So on Saturday I took the girls to Ely fireworks in the evening. H was feeling a bit ill so didn’t come along. We were going to meet up with some friends but a combination of bad mobile reception, darkness, and crowds meant we couldn’t find each other. Ella found the evening a bit wearing - too long stood around before the fireworks started. She did enjoy them - and her descriptions of the sounds were very impressive - she said some sounded like bubble wrap, or people crunching on gravel. L enjoyed them too, and it was a good evening generally.

Working back in time a bit, let me think - we had half term week off and went up to Lincoln to visit my parents. We stayed at the Hillcrest Hotel again for 2 nights. It’s friendly, the food was good, and you can borrow a baby-listener to just keep tabs on the girls so we could eat dinner as a couple - the hotel dining room is at the top of a hill looking out onto a park and the city, so it’s a beatiful place to eat.

Before that, hmm, I went to India for a week - I was in Pune for work. Very interesting trip - the most jarring thing in some ways was the way the city seems not to be planned to any great extent, with different types of business and residential use thrown together without the largely invisible guiding hand that makes British cities look coherent.

Anything else - I went to see Morrissey play at Hyde Park. It was a one day mini-festival, so there were lots of bands. I managed to get right to the front for Morrissey himself - it was a fantastic gig. I do feel it rather made up for the very poor concert I went to of his when I was around 18 - only had to wait till my thirties for another chance.

That’ll do for now - I’m going to go and watch Stephen Fry in a few minutes.

Furthermore: June 2008

2009-04-18T11:44:00.000+01:00

June 14, 2008

General Catch Up

Seems like a long time since I wrote anything, what have I been up to?

I just finished Season 3 of The Wire - in some ways the best yet I think. Almost anything I say about it will spoil some aspect, so just go and watch it.

Running - not much happening. I’m doing 2-3 shortish runs, and I’m still trying to get my time down on the Cherry Hinton circuit. I seem to be able to get to about 26.30 and struggle to get beyond that.

Just got a new bike through the cycle scheme - there’s some sort of tax break if you use your bike to commute, so you can effectively get about 40% off the cost. I got a decent road bike with dynamo and hub gears, so if anyone wants my old bike (still serviceable) I’m open to offers.

I also just had a big clear out of books and old stuff - I’m fairly good at getting rid of clutter, but I just felt the urge to make a clean break with a load of old things I’m never going to look at again. I do feel better for it too, although possibly it was just a kind of work avoidance scheme so I don’t actually have to get on with any new projects. I’m currently trying to get back up to speed with some more advanced maths, and I want to learn more about web programming. Oh and I started learning Devanagari script.

We’ve also been on holiday, to Weymouth, but I think I’ll save blogging that for another time.

2009-04-18T11:31:00.002+01:00

April 20, 2008

Not Dead

Only the blog is a bit moribund. Everything else is going fine. Work is keeping me very busy trying to get up to speed with my new role, which I’m really enjoying so far. At home I’ve finally finished laying the path I started 2 months ago. I’m hoping it will give the girls a bit more opportunity to practice with bikes and scooters than going across the patio could.

Furthermore: March 2008

2009-04-18T11:28:00.001+01:00

March 5, 2008

Latest News

Lots going on, so I’ve not really been blogging. I’m very busy at work - I’ve started a new role managing all the maintenance development on our product. We’re currently testing the latest release, so plenty busy with that really.

Running is going okay - I got back down to 28.22 on Tuesday, but my knees are still not quite right, and I just seem to be in maintenance mode for running at the moment anyway, which is okay.

We downloaded our first bit of TV the other day (I know this makes me positively medieval compared to some) using the BBC iPlayer. The interface is a bit shonky, and it’s a bit crap they don’t make it clearer that the p2p stuff keeps running even when you’re not using the iPlayer. Still it did remind me of the first time I used a video - suddenly a whole different way of using the TV opened up. What did we watch you say? Being Human - a BBC3 one off/pilot about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost sharing a flat. I thought it was really good and well-written. Knocked spots off Torchwood anyway.

Last weekend I filled a 6 yard skip with garden rubbish and rubble from breaking up the old concrete path. The girls helped a bit, but I did it nearly all myself, which I found quite therapeutic. Now I’ve got to get the new path laid - need to get some boards first to edge it.

Tomorrow I’m taking the car to have the cam belt replaced, before I go up to visit my parents on Saturday. It will be good to see them again - I’d like to go more often, but it is hard to fit it in with everything else.

Furthermore: February 2008

2009-04-18T11:15:00.000+01:00

February 17, 2008

Weekend

Quick catch up as I’ve not written anything for a while. I finally started running again this week - I did my normal circuit on Thursday (29.50), and a somewhat truncated run at the weekend. I seem to have lost a lot of fitness, or at least oomph while I’ve had a little break. I stopped partly because I seemed to be getting some knee pain, and I wanted to try to strengthen the muscles up a bit, and also get some new trainers. See how it goes I guess.

H had her Latin OU tutorial on Saturday, so we met up afterwards at the Fitzwilliam museum, as L had been saying she wanted to go (although I think she actually just wanted to go for lunch!).

Today I’ve just been fettling the car and bike a bit. I’ve also got a book on PHP web projects, so I want to have a play with that (if it’s any good I’ll talk a bit more about it). I’m still waiting for Amazon to send me my MP3 -> cassette adapter for the car, but that’s another story.

Also just got the first disc of The Wire season 3, which is already shaping up to be a classic. Go get season 1 now - you can still beat the crowds. Season 5 is underway in the US, so I’m assiduously trying not to hear anything about it.

L has lost her first tooth - apparently the tooth fairy’s going rate is now £1 per tooth. This could ruin me…

February 3, 2008

It’s my birthday…

Unfortunately H is ill, so I’ve also been looking after the girls (so they got quite a bit of TV - they were watching Laputa - Castle in the Sky as we’re working through the Miyazaki films).

It hasn’t been very birthday-ish, but it’s been quite satisfying.

Furthermore: January 2008

2009-04-18T11:05:00.000+01:00

January 20, 2008

More Music

More tracks from my ancient past:

Cud - Only a Prawn in Whitby - there’s lots more on that site btw, it’s a real treasure trove of old indie stuff.

Madder Rose - Beautiful John [YT] - another very good example of the twee genre. This was in the 1993 Festive 50 at number 36. The one I really want to find from the same year is Attagirl by Heavenly. So far no joy.

StereoLab - French Disko - from the small sample I’ve heard, this seems to be the only StereoLab track I like.

Palace Brothers - Ohio River Boat Song - beautiful melancholy American folk music.

I think that’s about it. If anyone’s ever heard of a song by Mighty Mighty called Imaginary Girlfriend then I’d love to hear that again. Oh, and somewhere there’s a really eerie recording of Ghost Riders… at about half normal speed.

January 16, 2008

Running

I seem to have been a bit slack since the start of the year. Still I’ve managed one midweek run this week and last week as well as the weekend run. As a baseline for the year I seem to be doing the weekend circuit in 55 mins (I think it’s about 6.5 miles) and the midweek one in 27m30. That’s a lot slower than my best times of just over 25 minutes last year, but at least I haven’t gone right back to 30 mins or so. So the goal is to get that down under 25 minutes, and then to work on distance.

January 12, 2008

Music History

I recently had a final clear out of audio tapes (well, nearly final - the car still has a tape player, so there are a few there). The only things I had left were a few compilation tapes from the early 90’s, mostly consisting of John Peel’s Festive 50.

I went through them to extract things I still liked, and came up with a few bands I’d like to get “Best Of” compilations for - Billy Bragg, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Nick Cave. There were also various one-off tracks I liked, and I’ve been trying to look some of those up on-line.

Apparently there was a defined genre which covers most of what I liked C86 or “twee pop” - strangely I’d never heard either term until I started looking for some of these. But there’s a blog devoted to the genre and it’s descendants.

Anyway, I found a few oldies that I enjoyed, and tantalising references to some others that I couldn’t quite pin down. So here’s what I turned up:

Bob - Convenience - Myspace page plays the track as background. An perfect example of the indie-pop genre. There’s a podcast that includes the track as part of it. They actually play the same recording from the Peel show that I have.

I, Ludicrous - Preposterous Tales - once heard, never forgotten comedy song, quite similar to Half Man, Half Biscuit. Alas, the site merely allows you to buy the music, you can’t hear the track there.

Field Mice - Sensitive - covered by the C86 All Stars (so the scene even has a covers band).

Eggs - Government Administrator - I like this one a lot. Quirky.

Hmm, I think there’s quite a lot more still, so I’m going to leave you with those and do another post later. Enjoy!

January 5, 2008

Over Christmas

I eased back into work this week - I took an extra day off after new year, so I only had to go in for two days. I think I’m mostly back into the swing of things now, and it’s now official that I’m taking on a new role: from March I will be managing bug fixes for our product. I’m looking forward to it.

Christmas and New Year were both good - we had Christmas at home with the girls, and they both now have a mountain of new stuff. I went to see my parents on the 27th, which was good fun, and dad was in good spirits. Then the 28th was the little one’s birthday, so we had a few people over for a small party. 29th we went round to Guy and Susie’s so Lizzie could play over there. Then New Years Eve we went over to Stevenage to see Neil and Justine - this was all in the afternoon, as everyone present had small children. Finally New Years Day some friends of ours from Japan came round - they were in Cambridge for a few days and their daughter had been in Lizzie’s class for a while when they were staying in Cambridge for a year.

Running has been a bit slack, but I’ve been managing to go out once a week for a leisurely run round the city. I think I may need some new shoes though - my current ones are the same ones that got me through the marathon, so I think they’re nearly a year old now.

Good Friday... eh, not so much

2009-04-10T21:20:00.002+01:00

Well okay, it wasn't bad, but I ended up fiddling with an idea I had about a work problem, which sucked up time, but didn't prove anything conclusive, so it was a bit annoying.

I think I'm also a bit annoyed with myself for not making more progress at swimming too. I had the lesson, but I just sort of froze up when I had to get rid of the float. It's weird - I know that it isn't really supporting me as I'm only holding it with one hand, but I just panic if I don't have it.

Partly I think I put too much pressure on myself to improve in that lesson though, and so I didn't want to mess it up when I had to try to set off solo because it would make it more of a block to doing it again. Naturally that meant I couldn't do it at all.

That and certain work issues just make me feel like I'm kind of stuck, or blocked, and it's generally quite disagreeable feeling that way.

Oh well, we have a nice weekend to look forward to - it's the new Doctor Who tomorrow, which L is very excited about, and on Sunday we're going to visit some friends. Plus Monday off as well... what's not to like?

Pre-Easter

2009-04-08T21:23:00.002+01:00

Various stuff happening lately:

finally finished the dining room - H did the painting, I did the lifting and carrying, and building the new Besta units, which I'm very happy with. So we now both have desks downstairs + enough storage for our stuff. The new colour is much better too.
I'm still learning to swim - I have another lesson tomorrow, and I'm hoping to finally get over some of my hang-ups about the water. I've narrowed it down to quite a small thing: I have a mental block about going forward into the water without something to hold onto. With a token float to hold I'm quite happy, but without it I tend to freeze up, which then means I sink! Getting close though I think.
We've now got a Wii + balance board and Wii Fit. Mainly for H, but I'm enjoying having a go on it too. I like the Wii Sports Golf, and the skiing on the Wii Fit. H has progressed to a snowboarding game, but I haven't logged enough time yet.

Furthermore: December 2007

2009-03-07T11:37:00.000Z

December 17, 2007

Busy Week

I managed to go out a few times last week - I met Chris on Monday evening for a quick drink in The Brook - I’ve lent him our stair-gates as he was about to buy one.

Thursday was our work Christmas meal. We went to the University Arms for lunch, which was good, then onto Revolution, which was bad in my opinion, particularly as we ended up on the roof (sorry, Vodka Terrace) which was freezing cold. After that the party split, and I ended up going to The Maypole, and then a curry at The Maharajah (which I don’t think I’ve been to since 199x.

Friday I met up with Ian and we went to The Blue, and then The Salisbury, where we met Clare and some of her work colleagues. I felt fine after the work do, but I was a bit rough on Saturday morning.

I finally managed to fit my new car battery on Sunday, after Ian had tipped me off to the existence of socket sets with extension arms. For some reason this idea had never occurred to me, so I had no idea what to try to buy to undo the retaining nut.

I’ve had today off, so H and I went to The Wrestlers for lunch (E tried a bit of the mild Panang curry, and liked it). I’ve been working in the garden and trying to cut back the wild growth of the summer. Unfortunately that means I now have a huge pile of branches and thorny stuff. Bonfire maybe? It would be a big one!

Back to work for a final burst tomorrow. I’m feeling a bit frustrated with my current project - ie, the last bit isn’t going very well. Oh well, perhaps I’ll have more luck this week.

Furthermore: November 2007

2009-03-07T11:35:00.001Z

November 26, 2007

Fitz and that

My old college had a reunion for mathematics on Saturday. There were some short lectures in the afternoon, so I went on my own for that bit - my old Director of Studies, Michael Potter gave a talk about some of the philosophical problems in maths which I found pretty interesting. I was very interested in this area at one time but it seems to have worn off - Dr P lent me a book of essays on the topic, but I just don’t find the issues of much moment one way or the other.

H joined me for the dinner, as Jay came over to babysit. The food was not bad, although they were a bit stingy with the wine (I’d forgotten how colleges are the last places that have those tiny glasses for everything). It was good to see a few people from my era (3 of the chaps from the year above me were there) and I got to talk to some others too.

November 13, 2007

Capturing Mary

I quite liked Joe’s Palace last week, so I thought I’d give this one a go as well. I really wish I hadn’t bothered. The main problem seemed to be that there was no real drama in the present, and the story in the past was all at one remove, so you never felt there was much at stake. Plus it was one-note - Mary and Greville, and how he (pretty much) showed her something nasty in the woodshed and she never got over it.

The remaining mystery of why he said “help me” the last time she saw him was not at all satisfactorily resolved by the encounter she has in the present day when she sees him again, unaged. Is he a ghost (she says not), or perhaps a hallucination? We never find out, and by then I, at least, was past caring.

The only way it makes any sense to me was if he was really some kind of projected aspect of the unconscious - we see him at the start telling everyone they’re not as good as they think they are. Perhaps he just represents those negative parts of our psyche that we must fight against. Still doesn’t make it a good story.

November 11, 2007

Behind the times

Still seem to have a cold dragging on. Good run time on Thursday though - 25.30. At the weekend I felt quite tired by my normal circuit round town, I sort of feel like I’ve lost the cushion of being able to run much further. Maybe I need to try to extend that run out a bit more - trouble is then it eats up so much of my Saturday morning.

November 7, 2007

Cold Crow

Still have the cold, which I think accounts for me slipping back to 26.45 on Tuesday. Still, I seem to be mostly fighting it off. Tomorrow I’m going to Joel Spolsky’s talk in Cambridge - you can still try to sign up here if you’re interested (may be full by now though). Quite a few of the guys from work are going, so I get to call it training.

At lunchtime I was sitting outside for a few minutes (I figure while it’s still mild I should make the best of it) when I saw a crow hopping around the grass. I haven’t seen one around the Vision Park before, but it seemed quite tame. It was croaking in a fairly pitiful way though, so I looked in the bin next to the bench and found a big apple core. I threw it down on the grass, and after a couple of exploratory pecks, the crow picked the whole thing up in its beak and flew up to the roof of the nearest building, thus proving its superior intelligence to the ducks who invariably chase each other round and round after finding the smallest crumb of food. It improved my day quite a bit to feel I’d done something for the crow.

November 5, 2007

Fireworks

I seem to be coming down with the cold Mrs F has had all weekend. Hope I shall feel better tomorrow.

We decided to skip the Cambridge Fireworks this year as it was on a Monday, and we’d have to take both the girls (E has been too young up to now, and so I’ve taken L on the bike) in the car, which would mean a very late night right at the start of the school week. Instead we went to the Histon and Impington fireworks on Saturday, which were excellent - I thought it might be a bit feeble, but the range of fireworks was excellent, and there were even some types I’d not seen before, as well as some kind of controlled fuel explosion that caused an impressive fireball.

Running went well too last week - after my 25.53 time on Tuesday, I got it down to 25.45 on Thursday. I’ll try to get down to 25mins and then see.

Friday I went to London for work, and then met up with my friend Kath for her birthday at Ruby Grand in Hammersmith. It was a good night out, but I don’t think it did much for my run on Saturday. I cut the circuit a bit short and did 50 minutes or so.

This week I feel quite lethargic - maybe it’s just the cold, but it’s difficult to settle down to actually doing anything.

Furthermore: October 2007

2009-03-07T11:22:00.000Z

October 30, 2007

Paris with Children

I thought I’d write a bit about our experience of staying in Paris with our two young daughters (now 6 and nearly 3) as it was the first time we’d taken them abroad and we didn’t know how it would work out.

We went on Eurostar and I think it was the right choice - you can turn up less than an hour before the train goes, and despite saying you can only take two bags each (although that was plenty) they don’t seem to enforce that rigidly. There was no problem getting the push chair on, and there’s enough room that the girls could draw and play with toys in their seats. Taxis were no problem at Gare du Nord.

We rented an apartment in the 16th, just off Rue de Passy. I found it on paris.craigslist.com, and it was just what we needed. The street was nice and quiet, the area similar, and we were right near a supermarket and a chinese takeaway, so dinner was sorted. Rue de Passy also has loads of shops, including some toyshops, which L and E both love (of course), and we were able to get L some nice boots, which she was very pleased with.

We did try going out one evening, but it wasn’t ideal - restaurants were happy to accomodate children, but few places were open before 7.30 by which time both girls are flagging (particularly after a day out). Eating out at lunch generally worked better. In the evenings we just ate picnic style, and the girls watched Mary Poppins before bedtime.

We were quite close to two metro stations and the RER. We found ourselves using the RER most often as it went along the river, and also out to Versailles. Mrs Furthermore and I both bought Cartes Orange for unlimited travel. We bought a carnet of half-fares for L and E is still young enough to ride free.

So where did we go - I think I mentioned Versailles. We only went round the gardens (and we didn’t do nearly all of that) - the queue for tickets to the Palace was still gigantic, even in October, and I don’t think the girls would have enjoyed a long tour. They liked the gardens and statues though, and we found a nice open-air cafe in the grounds for lunch.

The Eiffel Tower was close enough to the apartment that we could walk there, so we got the view across the river from the Trocadero as we approached. We didn’t go up - again big queues and neither L nor E were particularly keen. We took the Batobus (L decided the scenery en route was of no interest compared to the leaflet she’d found) from there to Notre Dame to get some lunch, and then looked at Sainte Chapelle.

As for more child-oriented activities - we went to the Jardin d’Acclimatation in the Bois du Boulogne which was great. There’s a miniature railway to take you in, and there are loads of things to do - a little fair, lots of slides and climbing frames. There are quite a few cafes, but we found everything was full when we went on Sunday - I think we just arrived at a bad time, and also the weather was good and everyone had come out for the day.

We also went to the menagerie in the Jardin des Plantes. It’s a good little zoo, although a bit expensive to get in. The reptiles and spiders were a particular favourite. Nearer to home, we found a little park near Muette with a playground (with a train exactly like the one in the Jesus Green playground here in Cambridge). There were also slides and climbing frames in the park at Place des Vosges, which was quite welcome as it meant we could admire the Place and the girls could have fun.

Overall it was nice to have a holiday which was a bit more of a balance between what Mrs F and I enjoy, and what the girls like, and there are still loads more things we didn’t get to see in Paris. The travelling was more stressful - particularly the journey back as we did it all in one day, and the girls got very overtired. The overall cost was also much higher than staying in the UK, mainly because of the cost of Eurostar tickets (where we’d otherwise just have driven within the UK). I recommend the apartment, both for the facilities and the location - if we go back to Paris, I’d certainly consider staying there again.

teh quick

I managed my run in 25.53 this morning, thus smashing through the 26 minute barrier in style. Seems quite strange to me, as I haven’t really been making much progress for ages, and even seemed to be getting slower before I went on holiday. That’s about 7m30 mile pace, so I’m pleased with that.

I’m aiming to get down to 25 minutes, then I’ll maybe extend the run out a bit.

October 26, 2007

Do Gooder

I went to the Cambridge City Amnesty letter writing meeting in The Castle (Castle Hill one) last night. It was pretty well attended as these thing go, and I think we did about 30 or so letters. I brought some on Shi Tao who I also campaigned for when I did the London Marathon. There’s an AI page on him here if you’d like to help - basically he wrote an email which the Chinese authorities didn’t like, and Yahoo shopped him so now he’s doing 10 years in prison.

The other thing I’ve been following is the campaign to get asylum for Iraqi employees of British forces (some of whom may be being Black-and-Deckered to death even as we speak). The pressure on the government does seem to have had some effect, but the current position is apparently that Iraqis have to show 12 months continuous employment to be eligible for any help. So more letters to MPs are required. David Howarth has been pretty good on this so far, but if you feel moved to help, check out Dan Hardie’s latest post.

October 25, 2007

Running to Catch Up

I’ve done 3 runs since we got back from holiday - all on the same shortish circuit round Cherry Hinton. Saturday I think I did about 27.50, Tuesday it was 27.25, and today I got it back down to 26.40. I can’t remember what my best time was so far - somewhere around 26 mins I think, so still a way to go to get back there. I was pleased with 26.40 though - I didn’t feel like I’d really run faster than I did on Tuesday (plus I had to stop for a cyclist), and I had the minor triumph of getting past the Cherry Hinton level crossing just before the barrier warning started going. It’s a right pain if you have to wait for the train to pass.

October 24, 2007

O Superman

I was playing an ancient compilation tape in the car this morning, and I heard Laurie Anderson’s O Superman for the first time in many years. It obviously made some impression on me before or I wouldn’t have taped it, but hearing it again it seemed much more powerful than I remember it. Partly I suppose I can now hear the influence of people like Glass on the music so the repetition doesn’t seem so weird, but whatever the reason I found it quite moving.

October 20, 2007

General Catch up

I see I haven’t written anything for ages. Well, let’s see:

The kitchen is finally finished and it looks really good. Induction hob, dishwasher (originally against my better judgement, but I’ve come round to it), and all drawers and cupboards have soft-close, which always seems like magic to me. More cupboard space than we had before, although perhaps not quite as much more as we anticipated. Anyway, I’m very happy and I’m happy to recommend the guys who worked on it (with one exception). Feel free to get in touch if you want phone numbers etc.

We’ve been away on holiday to Paris. I’m going to post on that separately so I won’t say much here, except that it was fun, but it seems to have left me completely tired out all this week. That may have been the drive home, which was rather stressful, as we missed the turn from Mrs F’s parent’s house onto the M25 and ended up travelling a long way down the A3 heading further and further away from home.

Haven’t done much running - I did one shortish run in Paris, which was fun, and then nothing last week until today, when I did my normal early-morning circuit (3.5ish miles) as a way of easing back into the routine. Next week hopefully back to normal.

I’ve finally finished Gene Wolfe’s The Wizard which I have rather mixed feelings about. I’ll try to post about that separately too. I see I’m now two books behind Wolfe again - the long awaited Soldier of Sidon is available, and there’s also the shiny new Pirate Freedom (of which I again hear mixed reports).

We’re meeting some friends for lunch a bit later - it’s L’s 6th birthday, so she’s very excited today.

Furthermore: September 2007

2009-03-07T11:19:00.000Z

September 26, 2007

Burma March in Cambridge on Thursday 27th

via WheeliebinLand:

Hello

You have probably heard that Burma is at a pivotal point: thousands of Burmese monks are marching peacefully for democratic reform, and the military junta have started clamping down with violence, with several people killed already.

I would like to show support for the monks by having a silent march through town to the Guildhall, with press coverage. Time is critical, so it will happen tomorrow, Thursday lunchtime.

We will gather at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre, 38 Newmarket Road, CB5 8DT, at 12.45, to leave promptly at 1pm. We will walk in a silent, dignified column through town to the Guildhall, where we will probably arrive at about 1.30. People can remain if they want for a while to meditate in the market square, hand out leaflets, and have petitions to sign.

If you would like to meditate, you might want to bring something to sit on. It may also help to show some visual cohesion if there’s a dominant colour clothing: so wear blue if you have it. I will leave it to you if you want to carry a banner. My main request is that the Junta does not use force to squash the Burmese demonstrations. But of course there’s 101 things on the wish list for the Burmese people. Please respect the peaceful, respectful nature of the march, both in action and any slogans on banners.

While this is being organised by Buddhists, anyone is welcome to show their support for the peaceful demonstrations by Burmese monks. Foreign pressure is probably the only thing that has any chance of stopping the military junta from cracking down with extreme brutality. I hope you feel able and enthusiastic to show your support in this way.

Best wishes

Vajrapriya

PS Please forward this email to anyone you know in the area if you feel inclined.

September 2, 2007

Catch Up

H and I drove up to Dunstable on Saturday for one of H’s aunt’s Ruby Wedding Anniversary. Bit of nightmare drive unfortunately, but it was nice to go out as a couple during the day. H’s parents came up to stay with us rather than drive straight back to London. The girls were thrilled to see them - especially as they brought presents with them.

Kitchen is going well - lintels are in, the loo is plastered - hopefully this week most of the heavy work will be finished, and then the fitting can begin.

Haven’t been running during the week - I’ve had a cold and haven’t felt up to it. I did go running on Saturday as I’m feeling somewhat better - although I’m still very blocked up (parental aside - I blew my nose last night and E said “can I see your snot, daddy?”). I’m in the Metafilter running challenge on Runnerplus - I’m crocomancer on there.

Moving Earth and Being Human

2009-03-03T19:58:00.002Z

I am now the proud possessor of a raised bed, having spent most of the afternoon filling it with soil. Annoyingly, I overestimated how much I needed, and now have about a third of a tonne-bag left over, although I can probably use it in other parts of the garden. Finally we can start planting - the girls have been keen to help with the construction, and I think they will like helping with picking things to grow too.

Just re-read William Gibson's Neuromancer after a very long time (my booklist says I read Count Zero in April 87, so it was before that). Oddly, I could remember hardly any of the plot - the things that stuck with me were really the mental images of cyberspace, the AIs, and Molly of course. The description of cyberspace still seems quite contemporary, provided you think of it as a "cinematic" way of portraying the actual experience of interacting with computer networks. The parts that seem more futuristic are the bio-tech modifications - something that I don't think I noticed much at the time.

Anyway, I'm off to watch the last bit of Being Human on IPlayer. I've really enjoyed the series, and I think it's something of a tribute to the writers that it survived the cast changes and transition from one-off to series. It's also managed to steer clear of huge morass of cliches just waiting for any series that mixes ghosts, vampires and werewolves. Although I still don't believe Mitchell would not have realised what Herrick's plan implied for humanity.

Nearly done

2009-02-28T11:30:00.003Z

I'm nearly up to date with transferring posts from Furthermore - just the end of 07 and 08 to go + a few longer pieces that I want to maybe re-work a bit. I seem to be quite busy at the moment with work and home projects - I'm building a raised bed so we can grow some veggies, and we're just starting work on packing stuff up so we can re-do the dining room.

Running is on hold again due to more knee problems, but I have finally booked a swimming lesson, so I'm hoping that with a bit of help I can get some confidence in the water and then I can mix and match swimming in with running so I can do some exercise when my knee needs a break.

I've been fiddling with various tasks on the PC this morning, and surfing youtube while I'm doing it. I stumbled on various covers of Smiths songs - there are a couple by Jeff Buckley, which were interesting, but the recording quality is bad. Muse have done Please Let Me Get What I Want but while it's quite original, I can only agree with the commenter who labelled it an unpleasant surprise. My favourite of the day is this Radiohead cover of The Headmaster Ritual. I wasn't a big fan of Meat is Murder but seeing someone else do this song with a little bit of a harder edge really makes it stand out for me:

Furthermore: August 2007

2009-02-28T11:24:00.001Z

August 24, 2007

Kitchen Update

It’s progressing, albeit more slowly than we’d like. To be fair, it’s not the builder’s fault - he’s been very good about getting on with things - it’s more to do with needing a steel lintel to support the bit of wall we want knocked out, and arranging to get the structural engineer to tell us how thick that has to be.

However, we’ve now got the new room built for the toilet, and the new back door and windows are in place at the back (giving us a temporary open-plan toilet back there). Hopefully at the weekend the toilet can be plastered and then that can be fitted out. Then next week the lintel should come and the kitchen should finally move forward.

Running

I skipped last weekend’s run, but on the Thursday before I did 26.02 which is another best time. Interestingly this Thursday I did 28.40 - partly because the weather was terrible, but also just general tiredness I think. It was quite amazing just how the change in mental approach slowed me down - by the corner of Cherry Hinton Road I was already 30 seconds behind the 3.30 I’d expect to get there.

August 13, 2007

Ian and Clare’s Wedding

Had a really good time at Ian and Clare’s wedding on Saturday. Weather was great, the college was a beautiful setting, and the food and drink were excellent. Too much of a good thing for our younger daughter, who ate a whole adult portion of chocolate mousse and then had to throw it all up afterwards - fortunately H had decided to take her outside as she didn’t like the clapping during the speeches. Also fortunately, someone lent us some clothes for her. Ella’s comment “I ate too much chocolate”. I don’t think it will put her off somehow.

We took the girls home in the afternoon, and then I went back for the evening do, which was also good fun - met several people I hadn’t seen for quite a while, and generally had fun drinking and dancing to the indie hits of my youth.

While I remember - Thursday’s run went really well - I did 26m05, and I would have been quicker if I hadn’t stopped to warn a cyclist about an eye level thorny bit of hedge sticking right out across the footpath.

August 7, 2007

Stag Weekend

I went up to Sheffield last weekend for Ian’s stag do. It was good fun, and good to see some old friends. I felt slightly strange going out in a big group of “lads” - clubs and pubs are not keen on you, and since nearly everyone already has a wife/partner, the point of the game is less clear than it used to be. Also, once you get past 30 or so, the attractions of being in a loud, over-priced club seem to pall somewhat compared to sitting in a quiet pub where you can talk to your friends (about house prices or something

I got back to Cambridge on Sunday to find that summer had arrived. I went over to Jay’s boat to have a look round (it was the boaties open day, and I hadn’t seen inside Jay’s boat before). Ended up staying for most of the afternoon, drinking wine and chatting to Jay and Al while a steady stream of visitors came by. Very relaxing.

Running seems to have suffered a bit - I skipped a couple of Tuesdays for reasons I won’t go into here, and my times have slipped back to around 27.15. Hopefully I can get it back down again. I’ve just binned my London Marathon magazine for 08 - I may do another in a couple of years, but I don’t feel the urge to just do it again for the sake of it.

Furthermore: July 2007

2009-02-28T11:18:00.001Z

July 19, 2007

Kitchen

After many false starts, it looks like our new kitchen is finally going ahead next week. We were originally going to do a big extension, but we eventually decided against it after finding it wouldn’t add any value to the house (and we might want to move to get more space at some point, or if they put bus lanes on Perne Road). So now we’re just moving the loo from the back of the house to be off the hall, and the kitchen to the back so it will face into the garden. Builders should be coming next Wednesday or Thursday - I’ll let you know how we get on.

Another good run this morning btw - 26.29.

July 17, 2007

Things

Went up to visit my parents over the weekend - we were all going to go, but then dad had a fall and broke his pubic bone (very painful apparently, although you can still move about). Since he’s a bit frail now anyway he had to spend some time in a home before mum could get him back to their house (hopefully he’s back today). Anyway, it didn’t seem fair on the girls for them to have to just sit with me and mum and dad all Saturday and Sunday, so I went up on my own. It was nice to be able to spend some time with them both - just a shame about the circumstances. I’ve brought back a big load of their old photos which I’m going to try to put into some kind of order.

This was also the first time on a long journey in the new car - ahh, so much easier to drive. Faster, much more powerful - the kickdown is really good fun. For some reason, this was also the first time I missed the turn-off towards Newark and Lincoln so I had to go on a bit of a loop to get back to where I should have been.

I took Monday off, which was a good break. I ran this morning before work - 26.40, so that’s another best time.

July 13, 2007

Bit of a catch up

Let’s think, last weekend I took the girls to the Big Day Out - great fun. L went on the bouncy slide and bouncy castle. E tried to have a go on the bouncy castle but it was too big for her. We had ice cream, and then the girls had a go on the roundabout. H was feeling poorly that day, so I went out in the evening (instead of her I mean) to meet Jay for her birthday. Met some interesting people.

Started running again in the week after feeling ill with colds and general blocked-up nose stuff. Thursday I got back to 26.49 so hopefully I can get that down further next week.

This weekend I’m off to see my parents in Lincoln. Dad’s not well after a fall, so hopefully I can cheer him up a bit with some stuff from the girls - I have a very cute video of E saying “hello Grandpa”. It’s my first chance to take the new car on a long journey too.

Furthermore: June 2007

2009-02-28T11:08:00.000Z

June 21, 2007

Runs this week

Tuesday - 27.10

Thursday - 26.45 - below 27 minutes for the first time.

June 14, 2007

Runs this week

Tuesday - 28.30 - not bad, particularly as I had to stop for a minute to check something.

Thursday - 27.16 - best time yet. Maybe next week I can beat the 27 min barrier.

Mrs F has also started running again, and seems to be enjoying it so far.

June 13, 2007

I can has a car?

(sorry). We’ve bought a shiny new-to-us Skoda Octavia. It’s a real joy to drive compared to the Citroen - much quieter (petrol rather than diesel), more powerful, and oh yes it’s an automatic. Neither of us had tried one before, but we both immediately took to it - I feel like driving a manual is a peculiar kind of practical joke that’s been played on me - why would I want to be constantly fiddling with the clutch and gears when the car can do it all for me?

June 10, 2007

Looking for a new car

The Citroen has finally reached the point of being more expensive to fix than to replace, so I went out on Saturday to look at some potential replacements. I saw two Mondeos, and a Skoda Octavia - the latter looks promising, so I brought Mrs F along today to have a go. I’m going to take tomorrow off and we’ll check out a couple more Octavias before we make a decision.

If anyone wants a K reg Citroen ZX to run into the ground (it still goes okay) then get in touch.

June 5, 2007

Tuesday Run

27m30 - I think that’s about a minute better than last week.

June 4, 2007

Le Weekend

Quick roundup on running - didn’t go Thursday as I played 5-a-side at work on Wednesday and it pulled muscles I don’t normally use. Saturday I seemed to be a bit off form - I started off well but I was well over 1h08 by the time I got home. I think I was a bit distracted by various things, and also it was a lot hotter than it has been lately, so maybe I was getting a bit dehydrated.

Apart from that it was a pretty good weekend - I managed to do some good work in the garden edging and weeding, I started looking at my new book (Wilmott Introduces Quantitative Finance) - so far it seems much more user-friendly than Hull, and I played with the girls and generally had a good time.

Annoyingly, the car now seems to be slightly broken - the rear suspension isn’t right, so that’s yet another thing to add to the list of stuff that must be fixed, along with dripping taps and leaking roofs.

Furthermore: May 2007

2009-02-28T10:58:00.001Z

May 12, 2007

Endless Things

I just got my copy of John Crowley’s Endless Things today. The booklist shows I read the first part of the AEgypt quartet at the start of 1989, so that makes it over 18 years to get to read the last part. There aren’t many authors I’d have this much patience for.

Shiny New Blog

I’ve found a WP theme I’m reasonably happy with (AndyBlue if you were wondering) so I’ve made the switch to WP and also demoted the blog from the root - I have vague plans to do some other projects on this site as well as the blog.

Furthermore: April 2007

2009-02-28T10:52:00.001Z

April 24, 2007

Valedictory

I think that just about wraps it up for Furthermore in its current incarnation. I shall leave the current pages up for a while, but then I think I’m going to move the site and its archives (yes, I know, a blogging sin - so shoot me) and start using Wordpress. There will be occasional updates, but I doubt it will be more often than monthly.

I’m also thinking about posting to my LiveJournal. I use it for private posts and commenting at the moment, but I’d like to have somewhere to be able to blog some more personal stuff without having it easily linked to me by anyone who cares to google my name. So if you want to see that (I’m not promising how much there’ll be yet) and you don’t know where my LJ is then mail me.

post Marathon

I did it! I ran the London Marathon in 4.43 and finished 19,360th! It was a hot day - I remembered to bring a hat, but I forgot suncream. I think the hat was a lifesaver in actually allowing me to get round - I was very worried I’d get heat exhaustion. The suncream would have been nice though - I’m quite burnt on my arms, neck, and backs of my legs.

I felt pretty good through the first half. The low point was at around mile 17 when I somehow lost track of how far I’d gone and was expecting mile 18 to be coming up. Big disappointment when I saw the marker.

Fortunately I got a lift soon after when I saw my friends Alison and Chris - it definitely helped to see some friendly faces on route. If I do another then I will get my name printed on my shirt - I hadn’t realised people gave shout-outs as they saw names pass by.

The last section was tough. My legs were very tired, but I stuck to my run/walk cycle and it did seem to help stop me seizing up. The feeling when I finished was incredible. I can’t really describe it - just a kind of cathartic wave of emotion. I shall probably look very strange in the photo.

After the race I staggered across the river to meet H (we thought it would be a bit less crowded on the South Bank). We had a snack at the NFT cafe and I got changed. Then we went on to eat at Strada - it was pretty good (though I suspect almost anything would have tasted good) and then back to H’s parents in time to see the girls before they went to bed.

Here’s my official time, and here’s a random picture of me on Flickr - I literally picked it out a big page of thumbnails.

Furthermore: March 2007

2009-02-28T10:37:00.000Z

March 21, 2007

Marathon Sponsorship

I’m running the marathon for myself primarily, but I wanted to raise some money for charity too, so I’ve chosen Amnesty International, as I’ve been involved with them for a long time now. I’ve got a JustGiving page up here, or the button below should also link to it.

Thanks in advance to anyone that will sponsor me! Amnesty have been campaigning for the human rights of victims of oppressive regimes for many years, and unfortunately there are still many countries that practice torture, arbitrary detention, and “disappearances” - ie state sponsored murder.

March 18, 2007

Marathon Training

Looking out the window now, it looks like I did well to go running yesterday. Still, it was the toughest run I’ve done yet - my body seemed to rebel from the moment I set off. My left foot had been aching a bit in the week and it started playing up almost as soon as I set off. I think a lot of this was also psychological - all the negative parts of my brain trying to make excuses for me not to finish. Normally it wears off after a while but this time it just seemed to be continuous.

Fortunately, after a couple of miles, my foot felt better and I did have a fairly good run for an hour or so. But I wasn’t even up to 2 hours before I started feeling a bit tired - which is quite unusual.

By 3 hours out I was really suffering, and my right leg almost cramped. Fortunately that kind of made me realise that a big part of the problem was dehydration. I stopped at a random stranger’s house and asked them if they’d refill my bottle (thanks, random stranger). Previously I seem to have got round nearly 20 miles with just 500ml of water and whatever I drank before I set off, but yesterday I just needed more - I had to stop and ask again before I finished.

Anyway, I finally struggled home in about 4.13 (predicting a marathon time of just under 5 hours). I’m pretty pleased I did it, and didn’t jack it in - I think it will really help build some mental toughness for the big day. OTOH, I’d really like to do better than 5 hours on the day, so I need to make sure I stay more hydrated.

I got my pack through from the Marathon telling me where I’m starting and such like. And Amnesty have sent me various sponsorship stuff - I’m going to set up a justgiving site, so it should be available in the next few days - I’m just waiting for some Amnesty bits to customise it.

March 6, 2007

Winding Down

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I don’t seem to have posted for a month or so, and I think that may be a sign that this blog is going out of commission, at least for a while. There may be a new Furthermore when I have something new to talk about, but don’t expect many more updates here. I will let you know how I get on in the marathon though.

Furthermore: February 2007

2009-02-28T10:23:00.001Z

February 4, 2007

100 miles

I did 20 miles on Saturday, in just over 3 hours 30. I think that takes me to just over 100 miles run so far this year. Conditions were good on Saturday though - I did the same route as for the 17 mile run, but I just added on a couple of loops of the science park, and a wrong turning to make it up to 20 miles. Definitely more aches and pains on this run though - my right ankle started to twinge, and every walk break I had to stop and rotate it a few times to get it feeling right again.

For some reason the big psychological hurdle for me was the 17 mile run - maybe because I hadn’t run so far before. Ironically that went very well, but this one was much harder. I definitely got some kind of second wind towards the end though - I felt tired, but my form imroved, and I was able to run strongly to the finish.

Next long run though, I have to find some more places for comfort breaks!

Cotto

It was my birthday yesterday, so Mrs F and I went out to Cotto for dinner. It was fantastic. We got off to a slightly shaky start, as we were greeted by a woman who looked at us in a sort of “what do you want?” way, until we said we had reservations, at which she rather directed us upstairs. Anyway, the food was really nice - I had a salad with stilton, and then mackerel with a dhal. H had pork rillette and then a tagine of lamb. All really full of flavour. They were able tweak the dishes slightly to cater for H’s dairy intolerance (always a good sign), and they even had a dessert she could eat. Fairly expensive (~?80) but I’d definitely go again for a special occasion.

Furthermore: January 2007

2009-02-28T10:15:00.000Z

January 31, 2007

Tuesday

I had an amazingly productive day on Tuesday - I got up about 6.30 and went running, then spent the morning at work fixing a problem that had been bugging me for several days.

I took the afternoon off, did a bit of shopping and then went to CB2 to meet the MySociety people to see what I could help them with. They were very friendly, so we had a good chat, and Tom put me in touch with Richard Pope who’s hopefully going to help me get going with a screenscraper for his planning applications website.

After I left there I bought some food for tea, then headed home to eat and help put the girls to bed. Then back out to the Alexandra Arms to host the Cambridge Amnesty group’s letter writing evening. Fortunately for me I had been given a bunch of template letters by a friend in the Blackheath and Greenwich group, so we were able to use those to write about 20 letters between the five of us.

Still managed to get home in time for a reasonably early night.

January 20, 2007

Not blogging but running

Not a lot to say at the moment I guess. I am thinking of porting this site to Wordpress (that is, I’ve done it, except the style sheets, but I can’t be bothered to finish) so maybe that’s why I’m reluctant to post here - it’s the Furthermore-original-flavour epilogue.

Anyway, running is going well - I did just over 17 miles today, in just under 3 hours, so that’s about a 10m15s per mile. For some reason the 17 mile run had become something of a source of anxiety. I’ve never run that far before, and I was afraid I was going to screw it up I guess. As it was, the weather was nice, and I even managed to get on the road before 8am so I was back just before 11. Here’s the route - the section by the river up to Baits Bite, and then Milton Country Park was very nice. Running back down Milton Road, not so much.

January 6, 2007

Running this morning

I did my longest run ever so far this morning - just under 15 miles. Took me about 2 hours 40, which is a bit slower than I’d like. Conditions were okay when I set off, but my hands started to get really cold after about an hour - I think I need some thin gloves that I can take to prevent it as this has happened a few times now. I find if I take my normal gloves my hands get too hot, and the gloves are too bulky to easily put in my waist bag.

It rained too in the latter half of the run, and I finished the circuit by going round Nine Wells, so there was quite a lot of muddy ground to cover. Bit of a slog to be honest, but I feel good now I’ve done it. I’m going to aim for 17 miles in a couple of weeks time, and that should pull me back just ahead of the schedule in Galloway, and give me some slack in case I lose more time later on in the year.

January 2, 2007

Torchwood

We watched the Torchwood finale last night, and I think that’s it for me and Torchwood. Much as I love Mr Barrowman, the penultimate part jumped the shark during his snog with the doomed airman. We got the point already - can the writers not express a subtle emotion without smacking us over the head with it?

The last one was even worse - pure self indulgence by the writers. There’s a scene where Capt Jack berates his team for all being idiots, and for a moment I thought there might be an explanation why the whiny, hysterical fools had been recruited to their positions of global importance. But no, it was just more emo wank before they brought on the demon that they’d already shown us in the trailer. Then the whole sorry mess finally dragged itself to its obvious conclusion.

What annoys me is that it has moments of brilliance, and that the same people who seem so able in Doctor Who, seem to lose all sense of characterisation and ability to write a good plot as soon as the constraints of a family drama are relaxed.

Furthermore: December 2006

2009-02-01T16:12:00.001Z

December 30, 2006

More about Today

I wibbled on so much about running and coughing that I forgot to mention that after yesterday’s rather disastrous trip out, and with today being such fine weather, we thought we would go out into town today.

So we had a good lunch at Teri-Aki. L protested, but then she did try a few things - she liked tempura, and she even tried one of the fish eggs from the sushi, but decided that was nasty. That’s the sushi that is marked “challenging” in some restaurants I’ve been to, so I don’t think she did to badly.

While we were there, we saw Prof Hawking - nice to see that he’s still able to get out and about. After lunch we walked up Castle Hill - none of the family but me has been up there before for one reason or another. When we reached the top, the rain immediately began to fall, so we quickly descended again. The rain then stopped, so we walked back into town through Trinity College, and stopped for coffee and cake at Michaelhouse.

Back at home, Mrs F found that her new OU course material had arrived, so she was pleased, having started the day a bit down after a bad dream and a poor night’s sleep (see below about coughing).

It was a really nice day out, and it’s so nice to be able to relax with my family and not feel the need to be constantly doing things. I want to have more of that kind of fun in the coming year.

Post Yule

Haven’t updated for a bit as I’ve been feeling pretty ropey since before Christmas. I’ve had a mix of cold and cough, but it’s mainly the cough that’s been bugging me - it’s very dry and it just seems to have been going on forever. It was keeping me awake for several nights, but I’ve now discovered the wonders of Cough Nurse (ie like Night Nurse but for coughs) which seems to have just taken the edge off it.

So apart from sickliness, what else:

Christmas itself was good - we had duck for lunch, with a bottle of Chateau Musar (my favourite wine). Lots of presents were exchanged, with Mrs F particularly pleased with my getting her the DVD of Miyazaki’s animated film of Howl’s Moving Castle.

Then the 28th was E’s birthday, so we had a few people over (there would have been more, but it seems we’re not the only ones who are ill) but it was really nice to see Jay, and Guy + Susie and family again - Ella loves playing with their older boy Gabriel. I don’t think E could claim to have been hard done by for presents, given the proximity of her birthday to Christmas.

Yesterday we tried to go out - we thought to go to St Ives, but the weather and traffic were against us, so we ended up having a rather disappointing lunch at Bella Italia (which has previously been quite good).

Today I managed to go for a run for the first time in over a week. Possibly I could have gone before - it’s hard to judge when running will make you feel better rather than worse when you feel a bit off colour. Anyway, I did about 6 miles, so I shall treat that as the run I should have done last Saturday, and treat myself as just a week behind on my schedule. Of course I didn’t think about losing time in the training schedule when I started running, so I haven’t left any spare weeks to catch up the time I’ve lost. Hopefully I can make up the distance on some of the later long runs, but I think there’s a lesson there for another year.

That’ll do for now. I want to do some end of the year personal round up type stuff, but I need to think about that a bit more.

December 20, 2006

Up and Running

The new site is now officially up and running, if incredibly hideous at the moment. Hopefully that will spur me to actually do something about it.

Quick list of what needs doing:

fix problem with delicious sidebar being indented so far. Some kind of stylesheet madness I assume?

make the header links work, particularly the archives.

change the style of the left sidebar - I don’t like the boxes.

turn the colour scheme into something more palatable. Probably different than the old Furthermore, but with a hint of how it used to be.

either work out how to redirect URLs, or redo a bunch of links (eg in the booklist)

restyle the booklist and CV to the new site style.

rewrite the main Furthermore page to say what’s happened.

uninstall Movable Type.

add a link to Amnesty International in the worthy causes section.

Update 22/12/06

fixed the archives and the header links (mixture of removal and moving to sidebar).

December 19, 2006

Nothing to see here

I’m just fiddling with WP with a view to converting from MT. There’s quite a bit more to do yet.

Well, I’ve got all my posts migrated. I’ve got a three column layout. Now I just have to turn it into something less hideous.

Harmonica

L got a toy harmonica on the cover of one of her magazines. Turns out to be a swizz, as it only has two notes - the others are intentionally non-functional. This means you can’t get any kind of tune out of it, and the notes that do work produce only a kind of plaintive squeaking - the sound you imagine a gerbil might make if it were pulled slowly into a mincer.

December 18, 2006

The Big Opt Out

I just sent off my opt-out letter to my GP, asking them not to upload a summary care record for me to the NHS data spine. I’ve thought quite hard about this - I don’t have any medical data that I’m actually that bothered about keeping strictly private - but the government’s implementation of central NHS records seems likely to undermine doctor-patient confidentiality, and is yet another facet of the database state (see past rants about ID Cards, the ridiculous children’s database etc).

You can read more at The Big Opt Out. There’s a form letter you can use to send to your GP.

December 13, 2006

As of yesterday

I don’t seem to be doing much blogging lately. Maybe it’s the running using up my time. Saturday I did a ten mile circuit of Cambridge - knees felt fine, but it was very cold, and I foolishly didn’t take my gloves, so my hands got absolutely freezing. I thought they’d warm up after I’d been out for a while, but no such luck. Then in the afternoon Mrs F’s sister came to visit, which was nice - she brought up some presents for the girls, and they like playing with her. Unfortunately Mrs F started to come down with a bug as the afternoon wore on, and ended up having to go back to bed. So that meant I had to cancel my night out at the BBC Backstage party at very short notice (sorry, Ursula). One of those things I guess, but I was pretty pissed off at the time.

Sunday Mrs F was somewhat better. I took the girls up to Histon playground (L likes the little helter-skelter there). It was a bit cold though, so we went back quite early, except that I left a bag behind with all the changing stuff (+ drinks, snacks etc) behind. I had to go back after lunch to look for it - fortunately it was still there. As I was still in quite a bad mood about the previous evening, I thought I’d take a bit of a drive round. I ended up at Upware, so I had a quick pint at the Five Miles, then negotiated the tiny back roads back to Cambridge - I love the sensation of being in the middle of nowhere, and the fen landscape is great when you just want to be on your own for a bit.

I took Monday off as Mrs F had been planning to go to London to meet a friend and see the Holbein exhibition at Tate Britain. Unfortunately her friend had to cancel, and she was still feeling a bit off-colour, but she decided she’d go anyway, and just not stay out too late. I took E into town (had to wait ages for the bus in the rain) and managed to get Christmas cards + various other things I’ve needed for a while. Since Mrs F was back early I was able to go out and see (at Jay’s suggestion) The Scissors at The Cellar Bar. It was pretty good - Jay has blogged it more amusingly than I could. You may have to be one of Jay’s imaginary friends to read that though.

December 3, 2006

Sickly

Ah, it’s all been sickness in the Furthermore house this week. Wednesday night L woke up very poorly, and Mrs F had to stay up with her, with me doing backup vomit-cleaning duties.

Then Friday I came down with the same thing (although not so badly) so I had to leave work early. Saturday was a complete write-off, and today I merely felt grim. Actually I’m starting to feel a little better now, which is good, as tomorrow is Mrs F’s birthday, and I booked it off work so we could go out together.

Furthermore: November 2006

2009-02-01T16:02:00.001Z

November 19, 2006

bits and bobs

MeFi meetup was good fun, and it was great to go to a formal hall again - real hit of nostalgia for me. I cut my run a bit short the next day - only did an hour.

Today I managed to do quite a bit of my finance course revision + worked on the family tree program for quite a while - I can see it’s going to take a lot of effort to get all the information into it that I have now, never mind adding new people in.

It’s good though, I feel like I’ve caught up with myself a bit, and that I’m doing the things I want to do. I seem to have got through my mini mid-life crisis. I don’t think it was any single thing that did it, just a combination of GTD, and reading and thinking about what I wanted to get out of my life. It’s helped as well that the children are a bit older and more able to play by themselves or with each other.

Now I just have to get over my procrastination demon - but I’ve found quite a good book on that too - The Now Habit by Neil Fiore. Interesting stuff - maybe I’ll write a bit more about that too.

November 16, 2006

Wire and Rain

Had to run in the rain this morning which wasn’t so great. At least it wasn’t cold.

This evening I watched episode 1 of season 1 of The Wire, which teh internet people seem to rave about. I thought it was good, and I’m going to carry on with at least the other episodes on the first DVD (1,2&3). Since it’s on rental, I’ll see what I think after that - all the series DVDs seem pretty popular at Amazon so it may be a while before I can get the next one anyway.

Tomorrow evening I’m off to the Cambridge Metafilter Meetup, so we’ll see what that’s like. It’s going to be at Trinity Formal Hall, which should be good fun at any rate - I haven’t been to a formal hall since about 1993.

November 14, 2006

Roots Magic

I’ve downloaded the basic version of Roots Magic. It looks like exactly what I need to manage all the family history info I’ve accumulated in one place. I’m particularly impressed they’ve thought about the fact that you might want to add sources for where you found pieces of information.

It imported from my parents’ old Family Tree Maker file without complaint, and I’ve added a couple of things since then. Don’t bother with the Platinum edition - the basic is fine unless you need a lot of help with PC applications.

November 13, 2006

This weekend

I increased the distance a bit this weekend - I did an 8 mile circuit + 3 runs from the corner of Chesterton Road and Castle Hill up to the top of Castle Mound. Each run up is just under 1/5 mile, so that’s just over another mile altogether. Time was around 1 hour 30, so I’m reasonably happy with that.

I seem to be getting a bit of soreness underneath the outside of my right knee though, so I’m going back to the physio to get it checked out.

November 7, 2006

Le weekend

Friday I was in London again for a presentation skills course. It was pretty good, but a secondary reason for going was to see the shiny new offices in the CitiGroup tower in Canary Wharf. We were pretty high up and the weather was clear, so the view was incredible - you could see right across to Wembley (if you had good eyesight like I don’t). You could really see the smog over the city as well. The course finished quite early so I managed to meet up with Rachel, who had to leave early to revise for a ton of job interviews she has lined up, and then Tony, who I was at college with, and I haven’t seen for a few years. He and his wife had just had their second child, so he was quite tired, so we had some food at a nice Italian place near Farringdon, and then I headed back home.

Saturday H went into town in the afternoon. The girls and I went out in the garden until teatime, when I thought H would be back. Since she hadn’t turned up, I thought about what to get them for tea and came up with boiled egg and soldiers. Just as I was about to put the eggs on, H arrived home. “Sorry I’m late - the bus didn’t come. Did you get my message?” she said.

I didn’t know anything about the message because we’d been out in the garden. H played it and it suggested that I give the girls boiled eggs and soldiers for tea. Obviously the mind-melding is proceeding apace.

I took L to the fireworks in the evening. Really good this year I thought. L liked them, but she got a bit bored after a while. Next year I think we might try to bring everyone into town, which will make the logistics harder - with just L, I can take her on the bike (although I need to get a trailer bike, as she doesn’t really fit in the child seat any more).

H and I watched Torchwood on Sunday, which I was quite looking forward to from the trailers. It was absolute cobblers though. (Spoilers follow). I don’t believe for a second that Ianto could keep his partly cyber-converted girlfriend, Lisa, in the Torchwood base for months on end without anyone knowing. And that was just the start, after that the implausibilities came thick and fast, culminating in Lisa’s self administered brain transplant into a Pizza delivery girl (whose brain death doesn’t even rate a mention from the team). The team then casually shoot her body dead to kill Lisa. No consequences follow for anyone (although I guess it’s going to be hard for them to get any more pizza).

Might give it one more go, but that’s it.

November 2, 2006

Bike bits

I’d been thinking for a while of buying a mirror for my bike, but having now done it, I have to warn you not to waste your money. At least, not on a handlbar mounted one. It doesn’t stick out far enough, it moves when you steer (duh) and generally I got no information from it that I wasn’t already aware of by just listening and glancing behind. Don’t bother.

Gloves on the other hand - I just bought a pair of “sealskinz” waterproof, breathable mountain biking gloves for a small fortune, but they’re great. Finally, gloves that actually keep my hands warm now the weather is cold. I got them in the outdoor shop on Green St - can’t remember the name I’m afraid. I did try Halfords, and they had some quite good ones, but they had incredibly tight cuffs - I don’t have outlandishly large hands, but I could hardly get them on.

Londonist

I had a course in London on Tuesday, but it was only in the morning, and they even finished a bit early, so I booked the rest of the day off. I went up to Euston and met one of my Woolwich-era friends for lunch. Then I went to Tate Modern to have a go on the slides.

Unfortunately I hadn’t reckoned on how popular they would be. Tickets (free) for the highest levels had all gone, and the level 3 slide only had times for about 4.30 which would have meant hanging around for 2 hours. I’ve been on slides before, and it didn’t quite seem worth it. Fortunately, there were two slides that were just queue and go, so I went on those and called it a day.

Then I did a bit of shopping, although I only managed to buy a few stocking fillers for the girls. Probably a good thing really as I would have spent a fortune otherwise.

Finally I met up with a couple of friends at a pub and we had a good evening of catching up. Gotta go to London again tomorrow for another course, so hopefully I may be able to catch up with some other people after work then.

Furthermore: October 2006

2009-02-01T15:52:00.001Z

October 29, 2006

Weekend

It’s been a pretty good weekend. I cooked on Friday night - just steak with potatoes+bacon in a vinaigrette and some purple sprouting broccoli. The Jamie Oliver 21-day matured steaks in Sainsbury’s are actually very good - I cooked them properly this time, but last time they were still tasty even after I overcooked them horribly.

We started watching Sideways, which we rented from Amazon’s DVD rental service. We’re on the basic ?5 a month for 2 DVDs package, but I don’t think we’ll get through many more than that. We both enjoyed the film - very nicely observed, and there are some hilarious scenes - mostly nearer the end. Not much happens in the film though - it’s just two middle aged guys in the wine country of California.

Today I took the girls over to see Chris + Kirsty and Xav in March. We took the train, and got there just before 12. Had a good lunch, and L and Xav played together. Neither L nor E were very happy to meet Holly (the family dog). They would both scramble onto my lap whenever she was around, although they did relax a bit eventually. Got home about 5, which meant H had most of the day to work on her history and Latin.

Next week I’m in London on Tuesday and Friday - I have Tuesday afternoon off, so I’m thinking I might go on the slides at Tate Modern or something.

October 26, 2006

Talking to my daughter

(skip if you’re allergic to cute kids stories)

L often asks to have a little talk with me before she goes to sleep. Here’s yesterday’s:

Me - What would you do if you were really rich?

L - Buy 10,000 scooters.

Me - What would you do with them all?

L - Ride on them, and give them to the children.

Me - That’s very generous. Anything else?

L - I’d buy 10,000 glasses for the grown-ups. And 10,000 dressing gowns for the poo-poos.

Me - Why does a poo-poo need a dressing gown?

L - To keep it warm in the toilet of course!

October 23, 2006

Birthday

My eldest daughter L was 5 on Friday. She’s been very excited about this prospect for months now. I took Friday off and H’s parents came to visit. L hasn’t seen them for quite a while so that was nice for her + it meant she got two lots of presents in one day.

Then on Saturday she had her birthday party. We had 5 guests, so fairly manageable, particularly as one of the mums stayed to help, and Jay also came round to provide wine and make party food. My contribution was a treasure hunt, and Pass the Parcel, and that just wrapped it up nicely. L was pretty grumpy the next day though - I think partly because of tiredness and partly because of the comedown to normality.

Her sister E is now saying “Happy to You”, and “Birthday Cake” at every opportunity.

Thursday night

The weekend started on Thursday evening as I had Friday off. I went out to a leaving do from work. Cycling down Mill Road I was knocked off my bike by a woman who walked into the road without looking where she was going. I was knocked flying and was lucky only to bruise my arm and leg (and ruin my coat, break my pen and damage the bike).

The woman immediately blamed me for not having lights. I pointed out my lights, the well lit street and the fact I was wearing a bright yellow high-vis jacket. I suggested she look where the fsck she was going and then one of her friends intervened to calm the situation down.

I’m mostly glad I didn’t notice the damage (particularly to my coat, which I got in New York) till later, as it would only have made me more angry, and I don’t think that would have helped. Still I don’t feel I was as angry as I should have been, given how dangerous the incident was to me. If I’d been driving the car, I think she’d have looked more carefully.

Best to chalk it up to experience - it’s only my second serious incident cycling in Cambridge for over 5 years.

October 14, 2006

Saturday

Here’s today’s route - 7 miles in 68 minutes. that’s about 9.45 a mile. Turnover was about 170, and my legs felt okay most of the time - the left knee was a bit stiff, but the right ITB felt okay this time - I have been stretching it.

My Amazon stuff arrived - two more books to add to my productivity/self-help collection. Dave Allen’s Ready for Anything which looks a bit of a swizz to be honest. Just recycled columns from his website and stuff like that. I bought it largely on the strength of the fact that Amazon users reviewed it favourably. Oh well. The other one is The Now Principle which looks much more promising. Hopefully it will give me some ideas to overcome my woeful habit of procrastinating.

Perhaps it’s working already - I started reviewing my Risk course, and I got through 6 chapters. And I played with L & E in the garden too, and H has finished her OU exams, so a good day all round.

October 10, 2006

34 mins

Got up at six, it was dark but surprisingly warm (given that it’s frickin’ October already). I felt pretty good running, and I measured turnover at around 174, so I’m quite happy with that. I’ve noticed some tension in my right ITB though, so I’m going to have to remember to stretch it.

Other news - been off work since Friday - Mrs F had a minor op (saw consultant Friday, op on Saturday - wonders of private cover) and it kind of knocked her out for a few days. She has an exam for her OU course this Friday, so I wanted to give her as much time as possible to get back to feeling well. Fortunately she seems much better today, and I was able to go back to work in the afternoon.

October 5, 2006

Another day, another run

I did my short circuit this morning. I seem to have got into the habit of doing it twice a week, and then a longer run at the weekend. Hopefully that will see me through my marathon training.

I think I’m going to have to buy some more running clothes though, and also look at getting some energy bars and stuff - I’ve been taking bananas with me to eat, but they don’t react well to being knocked about inside the waist bag, and you end up with a rather soggy banana.

Incidentally does anyone have a waist bag that stays still when running? I can only get mine to keep still by using safety pins. If I don’t it bounces like crazy, and it’s really distracting.

Furthermore: September 06

2009-01-24T21:22:00.001Z

September 25, 2006

Saturdays Run

Here’s where I went - courtesy of Gmap Pedometer.

I tried to raise my turnover a bit, and found I could run comfortably at around 160 just by paying a bit of attention to it. That’s quite a big improvement on what I was doing before, so I think it should be possible to incrementally raise it further before next year.

Based on the gmap results and my run time (about 1.02 for the whole circuit), my best current estimate for my marathon time is about 4.15. I’d like to get it down to 4 hours at least, but again, it’s early days yet. Plenty of time to get injured…

Legs are quite stiff today. Next short run is tomorrow - it’s getting harder to get out of bed now the mornings are getting darker.

September 24, 2006

Big year for weddings

We went en famille on Saturday to Donna and Simon’s wedding reception at Bassmead Manor just outside St Neots. Although they are the third couple we know getting married this year, they’re the first where we’ve actually been able to get to the wedding (the others were in Wales and Australia, respectively).

Bassmead Manor was beautiful and very peaceful. There was a nice garden area for drinks and nibbles on arrival, and then the reception meal was in a marquee set up to adjoin the converted barn where the ceilidh band played afterwards.

The food was good, and there was plenty to drink (although I was driving unfortunately). A lot of thought had gone into the planning - L and E got party bags with toys appropriate to their ages. H got dairy free food with no problems. We had lots of little amusing things on the table to help break the ice - little quiz cards, and puzzles and sweets etc.

A bonus for me was meeting an old friend from school - Jim, who I knew before I met Donna in fact, so I’ve known him over 20 years now - a terrifying thought.

Anyway, it was a really good afternoon and evening. We had to leave about 9, although the girls were enjoying the ceilidh - E kept pointing and saying “DANCING” in a very excited way. They both did a bit of dancing, but you could see they were really tired by then (to say nothing of their parents).

September 21, 2006

Out on the road

I’ve managed to run both Tuesday and Thursday morning this week, which I’m quite proud of. Not particularly far - just round Cherry Hinton and back. The short version of the route takes about 35 minutes.

I’ve been looking at my turnover - currently about 152-154. I wasn’t sure what was considered a “good” turnover, but apparently 180 is where it’s at. So I’m going to look at gradually picking up my turnover - apparently higher is actually better at reducing injury too, as it means you tend to run lighter and without raising your foot so much.

September 16, 2006

Catching Up

I seem not to have been blogging for a while. No particular reason, but I just haven’t felt like it. Anyway, this is just a quick catch up post.

Running is going well - I did an hour this morning and felt fine. Whenever I look down to see where my right knee is going, it’s going to the right place (ie above the second toe, rather than collapsing in like it used to). My physio was pleased with progress when I saw her on Monday, so I don’t have to go back again unless I have problems. Now I just have to start doing a third run in the week, and I have the basis for my marathon training all set.

What else? I’ve been out a couple of times - once in London after a day working onsite for one of my company’s clients. I saw an old friend and we had sushi at Moshi Moshi in Liverpool St. She’s looking for a new job, so if anyone is looking for an experienced C++ developer in London let me know and I’ll pass your details on.

Then the other Thursday I went out with some old friends from college at the Kingston Arms in Cambridge. We were joined by Jay and one of her friends and a good evening of drinking and talking ensued. I can’t drink beer like I used to though - I was wasted after 5 pints, although I didn’t seem to suffer too much the next day.

That’s about all, except to recommend the Thursday night comedy on BBC2 - Extras didn’t quite get going, although there were some excellent cringe-making moments. Mitchell and Webb were genius - I loved the SS Officers sketch (”our badges are skulls - does that mean that we’re the baddies?”) and the drunks who think they are heroic crime-fighters (that one could have come straight out of my brother’s imagination in fact). I wasn’t expecting much from Mock the Week, but it was great. The bit about the dinner witch had me creased up, but too long to quote. Maybe it’s on YouTube somewhere.

Furthermore: August 06

2009-01-24T21:15:00.000Z

August 28, 2006

Out and About

I’ve had the week off, so we’ve been out to eat a few times in Cambridge and nearby. Friday night Jay babysat for us, so Mrs F and I went to the Riverside Restaurant at the University Centre. Last time we went was not long after we moved to Cambridge and it was deathly quiet. This time it was reasonably full, and the food was very good and good value for money too. The service was less impeccable - the staff were quite friendly but didn’t seem to be entirely on the ball - eg we were brought pre-starters but the waiter couldn’t remember what one of them was called, and eventually just gave up trying to describe it. Coffee was not so good either, and the sweet trolley seemed a real touch of the 70’s. I quite enjoyed the fact that the place seems quite out of time - I assume it can’t be making money for anyone, and is presumably kept as a sort of vanity adornment for the University.

For Saturday lunch we went to Teri-aki at the Quayside which was great. I haven’t had good sushi really since I left London so it’s really good to have somewhere like that in Cambridge. It’s similar to Wagamama but better executed. Only gripe would be that there’s no baby-friendly seating. Fortuately E was well behaved and didn’t try to throw herself off the bench. She also ate like a horse (well, a horse that likes Japanese food perhaps). Even L seemed to enjoy the dumplings and tried a little bit of some other things too.

Finally today we ventured up to the Five Miles Inn at Upware. Great location right on the river, and the food and service were both pretty good (although my steak and ale pie needed some gravy or something grumble grumble). Unfortunately it seemed to be raining over a small radius around Upware but nowhere else, so we couldn’t sit out, or go in the playground. I slightly preferred the Fish and Duck for shear remoteness and eccentricity (although last time we went we immediately bumped into Jay) but when we went past the little road leading to it the sign was gone, so I think it is probably still closed.

August 21, 2006

Preaching to the uninterested

I saw one of those guys in town on Saturday who have to get up on a box and talk about Jeeesus for the benefit of the rest of us heathens. I was quite impressed though, that he’d come up with a novel approach. Rather than the usual straightforward haranguing, he was offering a test with a cash prize of ?20. You had to answer a few questions to prove you were a good person, and then he’d give you the money.

I’m not quite sure what the catch would have been - if unsubtle, it would probably be that you don’t worship Jesus; if subtle, it would probably be a more Socratic attempt to show that nobody lives up to their own standard of goodness, and that therefore we all need - guess who? - to help us on our way.

The whole scene was ironic on so many levels though: firstly, nobody was taking him up on his offer. Everyone could see it was a trick, or they didn’t think they needed someone offering them ?20 to know whether they were good or not, or they thought it politest to ignore him. At any rate, the effect was that the chap was standing there offering free money, with no takers.

Except one. The whole time I was there, there was a guy standing right in front of him, his hand slightly raised in an attitude of supplication. The preaching guy was desperately trying not to pay any attention, only acknowledging the man’s presence by saying “Take the test! You just have to be sober and speak English!”

So to sum up, the preacher is trying to do good by spreading the gospel. He wants to give away his own money, except that the only person who wants to take it is seemingly not worthy to receive it.

Personally, I’m tempted to say that Jesus would have given the drunk guy the ?20. As an example of charity, I’m sure it would have had more effect than any number of hours of preaching.

August 10, 2006

A somewhat Jonathan Carroll moment

I was eating breakfast when I noticed some movement in the street outside the front of my house. It looked as if a person was bobbing up and down outside my garden, so I went to the window to get a better look. Outside was a metallic helium balloon.

I thought maybe someone dropped it so I went out to look. At first I couldn’t see where the balloon had gone, but then I noticed it about 20 metres further down the street. It was tethered to a small weight, so it was bobbing along as the wind picked it up. There was nobody in sight and no indication of where it might have come from.

I took it in the house and gave it to my children. It says Happy Birthday.

August 9, 2006

Happy Blog Anniversary

Three years blogging at Furthermore today. I’ve posted about 330 articles in that period, so I guess that’s roughly one every 3 days.

You’ll notice there’s been a fair bit of family history just recently - I was spurred back into it when I got an email from someone who is another descendant of my great great grandfather, John Freestone. The Freestones seem to fairly well covered now, and one of my mum’s relations has done a lot of work on my mother’s maternal line, so I thought I’d pick up the remaining two and see what I could do.

August 8, 2006

Walter James Freestone (1897-1954)

Walter Freestone was my grandfather on my dad’s side. See the Freestone Family Tree page.

He married Mabel Humberstone, and they went on to have the following children:

Cathleen Freestone

Dennis Freestone (1924-1999)

Gordon Freestone (my dad) b1933

Colin Freestone b1936

Walter died well before I was born, so I don’t know that much about him. He ran the Duke William pub in the Bail in Lincoln from about 1940. I have a note that around 1930 the family were working in the Clinton Arms, Princess St, Lincoln. Apparently my dad remembers looking into a flour mill that used to be near there.

Humberstone Family Tree

This will be the permanent link page for the family tree of my dad’s maternal ancestors (Humberstone family).

Matthew Humberstone (b ~1841) m ?

Martha Humberstone (b ~1874)

William Humberstone (b ~1876)

George E Humberstone (b ~1878) m1897 Gertrude Alice Vamplew (b ~1881)

Mabel Humberstone (b 1898)

Eva Humberstone

Ernie Humberstone - no children

Dorothy Humberstone m Ron ?

Tom Humberstone m Pat

Harry Humberstone (b ~1897) - killed in WW1. [Commonwealth War Graves Commission Record]

Mildred Humberstone (b ~1883)

Notes: all this information is from the 1891 census, based on my finding the marriage record between George Humberstone and Gertrude Vamplew in FreeBMD.

Hmm, and now I’ve found George in the 1901 census and he’s single and still living in Matthew’s household. There’s only one Gertrude Humberstone of the right age, and she’s single and living in Nottingham. None of the children seem to findable at all - not even Mabel and Harry, who should certainly have been born by 1901. I think the marriage record I found in FreeBMD is the right one but I may well have the wrong George and the wrong Gertrude from the 1891 census.

The census record records Matthew as a widower, and includes in his household a Martha Goddard, 28, described as his sister in law, which suggests he had at least one brother. He’s a gardener by occupation.

The family are living at 14 Foundry Street, Horncastle, which is significant, as a newspaper cutting reporting the death of Harry Humberstone says he was “residing for some time with his parents at 39 Foundry Street”. As a bit of local colour, William Marwood the hangman who devloped the “long drop” lived in the same street, and would only have died a few years before the 91 census.

I haven’t pursued the Vamplews as yet, but the 1891 census has the following:

Joseph Vamplew (b ~1857) m Lucy Ann ? (b ~1859)

Fanny M Vamplew (b ~1878)

Gertrude A Vamplew (b ~1881)

Herbert Vamplew (b ~1885)

The family are living in Horncastle Road, Woodhall, and there are two servants in the household - Joseph is an agricultural foreman and the servants are described as agricultural waggoners.

August 7, 2006

Adorable Child Blogging

I was putting L to bed last night, and she asked me, “Daddy, what does ’startastic’ mean?” - I assumed it was something she’d heard on kids TV so I was trying to explain about making up words based on other words but then she said, “no, no, it’s like when you say ‘I really like your dress’ but you mean ‘I really don’t like your dress’”. Finally the penny drops. L can do a really good sarcastic voice, and I’m just a bit worried who she’s going to use it on.

I also discovered that L sees (at least some) words as colours - she volunteered the information quite spontaneously. I say the word, she closes her eyes, and opens them, and then she tells me what colour she can see. Everything I’ve tried so far seems to be purple or pinky purple though. My mum and brother both have some synaesthesia, so maybe she’s picked a bit up too.

Meanwhile E has acquired a fantastic new trick. She’ll say, “dot, dot” (knock, knock). If you say, “who’s there?” she says “dotta hoo” (Doctor Who). She’s been listening to L of course, who is obsessed with knock, knock jokes. She can repeat quite a few, but she still doesn’t quite understand what makes the format funny. Until recently she’d make up jokes like this:

Knock Knock

Who’s there

Elephant

Elephant who?

Elephant lampshade

Now we’ve progressed to a more sophisticated version, where the “who’s there?” is likely to be answered with just an initial sound or letter, and then the reveal will be something beginning with that letter. So now she gets the importance of the link between the responses, but she’s not quite sure how to make it funny.

Furthermore: July 06

2009-01-24T21:09:00.000Z

July 30, 2006

Running when it’s hot

Huh, having just read this Making Light thread on heat stress on Friday, I went out for a run on Saturday morning about 8am (thinking it wouldn’t be too hot) and I didn’t drink enough water before I went, and I ended up with what I’d diagnose as mild heat exhaustion.

Fortunately I realised I didn’t feel quite right and cut the run short, but it left me kind of vulnerable for the rest of the day. In the late afternoon, I mowed the lawn and felt fine, but when I tried to do a bit of work in the garage after that, I started feeling really stressed, and making stupid mistakes. Again, fortunately I realised something was wrong, and went to lie down and drink more water till I felt better, but it was amazing how quickly I went from fine to really-not-right-at-all.

Today the weather is cooler, but take heed from my lesson kids: be careful if you are running (or otherwise exerting yourselves) in the sun.

July 28, 2006

Up and Running

I seem to be fixed now for running, all being well. I saw Dr Speed again and she was happy, and my physio says she’ll see me one more time in 6 weeks or so, unless I have any more problems.

The main things I’ve changed to fix the PFS are:

exercises to strengthen the inner quads

exercises to strengthen the butt muscles

hamstring stretches - although I still seem to be very tight there

motion control shoes - I’m using Saucony Grid Stabil now

So far I’ve only noticed minor twinges, which is probably just me being hyper-sensitive to anything in the right knee. I have felt a little bit of ITB tension, so I’ve been given a stretch for them too. Have to see how that goes.

I just added a short run in the week, as well as a weekend run. I’ll just build up the times gradually, then add another one in the week if all goes well.

July 22, 2006

Cambridge Galleria

Went into town this morning to help out with the No2id stall. We actually had a lot of people there today so I went out into the market square to hand out leaflets - I think I got through a hundred or more over the hour and a half or so I was there.

After that, I met up with H and the girls and we decided to try somewhere new for lunch. So we went to Galleria on Bridge Street. It was really good - H had a salad (very tasty but a bit on the small side), I had a steak, which was very tasty, and done to perfection. They were quite happy to do pasta and tomato sauce for L and E and the restaurant was nice and cool, given it was pretty hot outside. I think we’ll go back with just me and H and try out the terrace by the river.

July 18, 2006

Google Talks

As if surfing the web didn’t already consume enough of my time, I’ve now discovered the online Google tech talks (on Google video). So far I’ve seen Doug Lenat talking about Cyc (now there’s a long-term AI project). I should have skimmed more of it, but you never knew when he was going to say something very interesting - the stuff about using Cyc to generate fragments of English then feed those to Google to generate more knowledge for the Cyc ontology; the large number of special purpose reasoners within Cyc (Lenat: if we have to fall back on the general theorem prover then we’re doing something wrong); and the presumably funding-related quest to make Cyc think about terrorist plots and attack and defence plans.

The other one I saw was Seth Godin’s All Marketers are Liars. Godin says something like “great technology gives you a chance at marketing”, which I thought was quite insightful. There’s quite a bit of good stuff in this one too - particularly where he talks about the “new” model of attracting an audience to your core product, then getting permission from them to tell them about something new, and then letting them spread the word because your product is so remarkable (a purple cow, as Seth would put it). Of course, first you have to catch your purple cow.

July 10, 2006

Palm to Phone - the end of an era

I’ve been using a Palm 3c for about 5 years now, and it’s been a really useful little machine. Lately though I’ve found that I’m using pretty much only as an address book so I find myself with the Palm in one hand and the phone in the other, typing in the number from the Palm to dial on the phone. This is clearly insane behaviour: the phone has a perfectly good address book, but I’ve been holding onto the Palm for some reason.

Anyway, once I looked into what it would take to move the data across, it wasn’t too hard. Fiddly, yes, but not difficult. With the thought that there might be someone else out there who needs to move from Palm to Sony Ericsson mobile, here’s what I did:

Export all addresses from the Palm desktop app as vCard format. I exported them a category at a time, because I thought I might not want to put all of them onto the phone.

Just to be on the safe side, I also exported everything as CSV, and since I was going to stop using the Palm, exported all my memos too. I haven’t thought of a good way to import them to the phone yet, but I don’t use them that much, so it may not matter.

Install the Sony Ericsson phone sync application for Windows. For address purposes, it syncs with Outlook (which I don’t use), or the Windows Address Book, which I didn’t realise existed. If you are like me, just go to Start: Run… and type “wab.exe” in there.

Now you have to import the vCard files. Before you start though, if you have addresses you don’t want to sync to the phone, you can create either a separate folder, or a separate identity and import them to there. When you set up the sync it asks which identity and folder you want to use, so you can exclude rarely used stuff that way.

If you exported separate categories, you can create groups in WAB to import them into. Select the group you want before you start importing, and all the imported vCards will be added to that group.

When you import, for some reason WAB makes you press enter for each new card. Very annoying, but unless you have thousands of entries, not a huge problem. I also found that I couldn’t import multiple cards with the same person’s name. If that’s a problem for you I suggest you disambiguate the names either in the Palm desktop, or by just editing the vCard file - it’s plain text.

Now sync the phone with WAB and you’re done.

July 7, 2006

Importing from exported Livejournal XML

I recently wanted to move LiveJournals, for various reasons. So naturally I thought it would be good to take my old LJ posts with me to the new LJ. This turns out not to be as easy as I thought.

You can export entries, a month at a time, from the Export Journal page. However, there’s no easy way to re-import them into another LJ. I admit I haven’t looked into downloadable clients, so that might be another way to do it. In my case though, all I wanted was just to re-import the exported monthly archives as single entries.

The problem here is that you can export either as CSV, or as XML. You could write a program (or quite possibly an Excel spreadsheet) to turn the former into formatted text, but I thought I’d have a go at a simple stylesheet to turn the XML back into simple HTML I could paste into the LJ rich text editor.

Turns out to be quite easy, with even my limited XSL skillz:

Download my simple Livejournal XML to HTML stylesheet - just use “Save Link As…”

Export your journal, a month at a time, to XML. For each page, use File: Save Page As… to save the XML to the same folder as you put the stylesheet in.

Now, open the XML file in a text editor, such as Notepad, and insert the following line as the second line in the file. So, after this line
```
&lt?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt
```
insert this:
```
&lt?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="lj.xsl"?&gt
```

Now save the exported XML, and re-open it in a browser - just double-clicking should work. You should see a very plain HTML rendition of all the entries. You can just cut and paste this straight into the LJ rich text editor.

If you want to tweak the layout, have a look at the lj.xsl. I’ve left a comment about how to re-order the entries, and I’ve commented out some additional tags in the XML (mood, music etc) that you might want to pull in. Just delete the &lt!– and –&gt to uncomment the line.

Hopefully that will work for you. If not, drop me an email or leave a comment and I’ll try to help you if I can.

Reporting Faults to Cambs County Council

I’m quite impressed by this - I contacted Cambs CC on Wednesday to report that there was a big dip in the road near where I live. I used their online fault reporting service.

Thursday lunchtime they phoned me at work to report that they’d filled in the dip and passed the problem onto Anglian Water to check out the sewers beneath the road there. They weren’t bluffing either - I checked on the way home and the road has been patched.

July 5, 2006

Cafe Adriatic, Cambridge

Mrs F and I had a parents’ evening at L’s school last night - she starts reception in September. Didn’t learn much that we didn’t know already from the nursery class. The teacher seems good though. Since we had to get Jay to babysit for us so we could go to that, we decided we’d make night of it, and went on to Cafe Adriatic on Mill Road. The food was very good - I had a smoked tuna salad to start, and then linguine with mussels and prawns. Mrs F had a great starter - chicken livers and goats cheese salad, but her main was a rather limp pizza. Fortunately, they replaced it without demur so overall we left very satisfied with the food and service.

Do I recommend it. It’s not the cheapest, but it’s not outrageously expensive either. Don’t have the pizza though - Jay thought they only did them still because there are still customers coming who used to go when it was Pasta Fresca.

Furthermore: June 2006

2009-01-13T22:17:00.001Z

June 30, 2006

Man Bags

Man bags seem to be in the news at the moment, thanks to Mr Roddick. I’ve been carrying various kinds of courier bag for several years without thinking much about it, but recently Mrs Furthermore pointed out that my standard bag was rather too big if all I needed to carry was say, a novel, notebook, phone and PDA.

So I went looking for bags. Nowadays, I tend to look on AskMe for this sort of recommendation. I liked the sound of the Timbuk2 stuff, so I ended up buying one from Ebags (UK link) as they seem to be able to get Timbuk2 stuff in the UK.

I bought a Metro - described as a “small tote”. Lots of useful inner pockets and cunning features. You can, at a pinch, fit an A4 notebook in, but it’s really designed around A5 kind of sized objects.

When I first got it I was kind of horrified - I really thought it looked a bit handbaggy. So I put it in the cupboard for a couple of days to see whether I’d really made a bad error. When I got it out again, I quite liked it, and now I’m using it all the time (except when I actually need a big bag).

When I showed it to Mrs F, she said it looked like a handbag too, but (as she put it) like a manly handbag. I’m kind of glad I didn’t show it her right away though - I think that comment would have done for me. Now, I kind of like that it’s a handbag - clearly, I just need a handbag, and at least mine is manly.

June 25, 2006

Great Weekend

We have had a really good weekend - yesterday we went to a party at our neighbours over the road. They did a fantastic barbeque, and we let the children stay up later than normal - E was fine, but L slept in till nearly 9 this morning - very unusual for her.

Then today we went to the fair, which L really loved - she went on a big inflatable slide, then the helter-skelter (which would have terrified me at her age), then a kind of tiny rollercoaster thing with a barbie car to ride in, and several others, including a traditional “galloping horses” carousel.

Of course, when we left she complained bitterly that we hadn’t been on a bouncy castle, and sulked all the way home. But apart from that, it was lovely.

June 13, 2006

Cute child related stuff

Feel free to skip this one. E is really starting to talk now - she’s beyond just saying mummy and daddy, and she’s now saying garden (taga), spoon, nose, mouth, bath and quite a number of other things.

She recognises things like “garden” especially, and goes to get her sandals so she can go out. If you were just mentioning that “I need to water the garden later” then she’s most annoyed that she can’t go outside.

L is discovering cheek and basic profanity - when I was putting her to bed last night I pretended to listen to her balloon whispering to me. I told her it told me a secret. So then she had a go - she told me the balloon kept saying that I was a poo-poo. I said she’d better tell it to stop, or Mr Balloon might suffer a nasty accident…

Back on the Road

On Saturday while England were playing, I was busy buying new running shoes from Hobbs (Grays as was). It was very quiet, so the guy was able to spend some time advising me and looking at me walk (he was impressed with how relaxed my hamstrings were but not in a gay way oh no). Anyway, I ended up getting some Saucony Grid shoes, my usual Asics not being up to correcting the pronation enough.

On Monday I had physio so I got her seal of approval on the shoes as well. She seemed to be happy enough for me to start doing some short runs (10-15 minutes), so I shall get out there and give it a go, probably at the weekend. Just have to see how the knee behaves itself.

June 12, 2006

Perfect Sunday

I think Sunday was just one of those days where everything you do goes well - I managed to get the girls up, bathed, and out to the Coleridge playground. The paddling pool had been filled up for the nice weather, so they both had a go in there - although E decided she didn’t like it this time, and L fell over and got completely soaked - next time remember to bring swimming costume.

After lunch I fitted a triple socket in the hall (I found that Homebase do a single to triple converter - you just take off the original plate, wire up the new one, then it fits onto the same screws at the back as the single one). Then since I was on a roll I fitted a double socket in the garage - the one in there has been broken for ages because if you plug something into it, it will get hit with the up and over door and smash into pieces.

Then L wanted to go out on her bike so I walked with her up to the corner and back - she’s got the pedalling pretty well now, and she’s learning how far she can turn the handlebars safely.

After that I had a fantastic idea about how to fit another shelf into the bookcase in the hall (something that we’ve needed for a while). Even with my rudimentary skills, there’s something quite satisfying about making things from wood with saws and drills. And the result even looks quite good. Still need to make another one - and paint the bookcase too I think.

Mrs Furthermore and I got the kids to bed, then we had an enjoyable evening together without them :-)

June 6, 2006

John Crowley news

One of my favourite authors, John Crowley, now has a livejournal. Perusing there the other day, I found this speech that he gave in December 2005. There are some very interesting comments in there about the role of “romances” in literature, but more interesting still to me is that he says that the final part of the Aegypt series is done - there’s even an extended quote from one chapter. In the LJ comments he implies that there will be news sooner rather than later. I’m on tenterhooks - I enjoyed The Translator and Lord Byron’s Novel, but I’ve been waiting since 1990 for the Aegypt series to be completed.

Furthermore: May 2006

2009-01-13T22:04:00.000Z

May 30, 2006

Some Kind of Denouement Occurs

I had quite a busy week for me - went to the beer festival on Tuesday, which was good. I split my time between work colleagues, and meeting up with old friends - Ian, Chris, Donna. The beer fest is often a place where you meet people serendipitously (there’s only so many geeks my age in Cambridge after all). Not that night though.

Saturday I was doing the door for the penultimate Amnesty Big Gig event at the Romsey Labour Club (the final event is tonight, at The Junction - tickets still available as they say). The music was a mixed bag - there was some Celtic-ey folk-ey kind of group on first (Emily something - I can’t be bothered to google right now), then Indie rock - The Pony Collaboration. I quite liked that.

Then there was a Capoeira group. It’s not music, it’s a Brazilian martial art combined with dance. You know the two guys who mock-fight on a rooftop in the BBC programme links? That’s Capoeira. Anyway, some of them were fantastic - you have to be really strong to perform the moves all in slow motion.

Finally there was another band called The Beards. I think it was kind of funk perhaps. Didn’t do much for me anyway, but it went over well with the crowd. We took quite a bit of money (I’d guess ?250-?300) and the place looked quite full towards the end.

Didn’t do much over the BH - just a bit of gardening, played with the kids, tried to do my finance course (forwards and futures, feh). I did come across a lovely little short story sketch by John Crowley, from which I’ve taken the title of this post. Check it out. On the literary theme, I’m also quite taken with Jonathan Carroll’s blog - he has a lovely eye for the poignancy of everyday life.

May 24, 2006

Things to do in Swanage

We were on holiday in Swanage in Dorset last week, so I thought I’d just mention a few of the places we went. We stayed in a cottage we rented from Swanage Holiday Properties - nice little place, just up the hill a bit from the beach. The town itself is quite pretty - lots of Purbeck Stone buildings, and the beach is lovely (although we only managed to get on there one day because the weather was quite unpredictable). There’s a pier, and a tiny museum, and just up the coast there are some fantastic cliff walks. We were hoping to walk up to Durlston Country Park but there doesn’t seem to be a pushchair accessible route unless you go by road. So we just drove up instead. I mainly just wanted to see the Great Globe they have there.

Places we ate that were good included:

Beavers (14 Institute Road, 01929 427292) - a nice cafe, very child friendly, and with fantastic cakes

Cauldron Bistro (5 High Street, 01929 422671) - fantastic steaks. Only open Thursday to Sunday. Child friendly but they have no highchair.

Less good were the fish and chip place on the seafront - very soggy batter, and Antonio’s Italian Restaurant - not that there was anything wrong with the food, but it was horrifyingly expensive.

There’s quite a few places to go nearby, but the nearest and most obvious is to get the steam train to Corfe Castle. There’s a model village of the village itself (and yes, it does have a model of the model village in it) with a very good cafe. If you go there first you get a two for one entry to the castle + you get a further discount for going on the steam train. The castle isn’t really good for pushchairs, but they actually had some back pack baby carriers you could borrow, which I thought was pretty good. The only problem with the castle was that the top bit (ie where all the most interesting stuff is) was actually shut for some kind of conservation work when we went. Not sure how long that’s going to last.

We also went to Dorchester, where we visited the dinosaur museum. Our 4 year old really liked it, especially the activity room upstairs. I’d say it’s a bit overpriced for what it is - the interactive stuff is running on an old Commodore Amiga for instance. There are some more museums there too - one each for Tutankhamen, Mummies, and The Terracotta Army. Didn’t try those. We did have a very good lunch at Potters Cafe Bistro.

Just outside Dorchester (we discovered, as we got slightly lost on the way out) is Maiden Castle. There’s a good path up to the top - our 4 year old was fine on it, and it’s not too arduous to get up there.

There’s quite a lot of other stuff locally - Lulworth Cove, Portland and Chesil Beach, apparently Bournemouth now has an aquarium that looks quite good. We also kept seeing signs for Monkey World. Didn’t get to check those out, but there’s enough to make us come back again. Probably when the 1 year old is able to walk too, then it will be easier not having to worry about accessibility so much.

May 11, 2006

The Big Gig

I went to my first gig for many years last night - saw The Morning People supporting Cath Coombs and the Awesome Soul Collective at the Portland Arms. The gig was the first night of The Big Gig for Amnesty, which was one reason I thought I’d go along. I liked The Morning People - guitar pop with keyboards. I won’t embarrass myself trying to say who they sound like. Cath Coombs was impressive - I’m not a big fan of soul, but they played really well, and her rendition of I Put a Spell on You was awesome.

Lots more to come in The Big Gig - check out The Big Busk in the marketplace on Saturday.

While I’m talking about music, let me do a bit of pimping by mentioning my friend from work, Tim, whose new band is playing the LEL in St Ives on May 26th. They’re called The Wayback Band and they play a range of Soul, Funk and Pop tunes from the 60’s to the 90’s. If you’re in St Ives, check it out.

May 5, 2006

Amnesty Big Gig

Cambridge Amnesty International is organising The Big Gig for Amnesty in venues across Cambridge between May 10th and May 30th. Come along and help raise funds for Amnesty and celebrate the Cambridge music scene!

The programme is below, or you can get a nice PDF (about 83K)

Wed May 10	Cath Coombs	Portland Arms	Cath Coombs and the Awesome Soul Collective + The Morning People. ?5
Fri May 12	PeaceJazzLove	CB2	The Hot Club of Cambridge + Jazz Wave. ?5
Sat May 13	BIG BUSK for AMNESTY	Market Square	More performers wanted! Get in touch! (outdoor no amplification)
Mon May 15	REPEA*T	Man on Moon	Gouge, Jet Set Willy, The Perfect Crime, Light. Colour. Sound. ?3
Mon May 15	Acoustic Routes	CB2	Bernard Hoskins, Roland Chadwick and folk duo Megson. Free
Tue May 16	KAMI’s Open Mike	Kami’s, Hills Road	Jade + Clifford Ward + Ronan Boyle
Wed May 17	Elm Tree Jazz	Elm Tree	Pamela Givens and Friends
Thu May 18	PeaceJazzLove	Sino Tap	Redhouse + The Ouse Brothers
Fri May 19	Teenage Riot Night	Romsey Labour Club	TBA
Wed May 24	Godfather	Portland Arms	Godfather + Fargas
Thu May 25	The Furious Sleep	Man on the Moon	PiNATA!, There Was an Accident Here
Sat May 27	BIG GIG CARNIVAL	Romsey Labour Club	Collective, Senzala Capoeira, the Calabocas, the Afro Cuban Hair Styles, DJ Kid Klave.
Tue May 30	The BIG GIG Junction Fiver	Junction	Emily Maguire, The Rude Mechanicals, Arco Iris Samba Band, HoraceX

May 1, 2006

Renew For Freedom

If you’re worried by the imminent introduction of ID cards and the National Identity Register, but you have to have a passport, now is your chance to renew and stay out of the system for 10 years. There’s a number of good reasons to do it, and I recommend the factsheet at RenewForFreedom.org if you still have some unexpired validity and you’re not sure why you should bother.

Really though, do you need any more incitement than that Charles Clarke has said that anyone who opts out of the NIR scheme is foolish? Here is the UK Passport application site. Download the forms and you’re away.

Furthermore: April 2006

2009-01-11T16:42:00.001Z

(I also had some posts on saving for retirement, but I think I shall pull those out to a separate group)

April 26, 2006

Physio

I had a second appointment with Dr Speed last Thursday, where she put me on a treadmill to observe me running. The thing that was immediately clear to me on the video was that the front of my right foot splays out as I land, which inevitably forces the knee in and contributes to the PFS. Anyway, Dr Speed thought I should try physio first, rather than seeing the podiatrist about orthotics. Just as well, as the podiatry appointments are pretty expensive, and not covered by my insurance. I’d go anyway if I thought it was necessary, but best to leave it in reserve.

Anyway, I saw the physio, Jane Warrington, on Monday. She focused a bit more on the muscular imbalance between the outer and inner quad muscles - she reckoned this was pulling the kneecap out of alignment. So I have exercises to strengthen those muscles, and my glutes. They’re quite subtle exercises, but when you isolate the muscles you realise how easily they tire. The other interesting thing to me that I’ve noticed doing the quad exercises is that if I lunge / squat down the way I’m supposed to, with my knee over my second toe, it tends to put my weight more on the outside edge of my foot, and I realise that the fact my feet are quite flat may also be causing my knee to roll in. So I think when I start running again I’d better have a look for some motion control in my shoes. Not sure what make and model to go for yet - I’ve used Asics for a long time, so I guess I’ll look at their range first.

April 23, 2006

Last week or so

Nothing very exciting happening. I saw the consultant about my knee again on Thursday, and I’m seeing a physio tomorrow - I’ll talk about that after I’ve had the appointment. It’s strange really - I watched the marathon this morning and I didn’t really feel bad that I wasn’t there, but I do miss running.

Doctor Who was too scary for L last night. She watched about 15 minutes then asked to go to bed. Fortunately she was already in her night clothes and just had to be tucked in. Smart decision, as I think it was one of the most scary episodes so far. L also seems to have suddenly gone to another level in maths - she’s started telling me things like “3+2+1 = 6. Because 3+2 = 5 and one more makes 6″. I don’t think I could do that when I was 4.

Oh, I’ve started a “my adorable family” post haven’t I. Oh well, while I’m at it, I may as well add that L is currently planning to be a ballet dancer for her hobby, and a private investigator for her job. She’s going to live in a pink house near to us. And she’s decided that since her house will be pink, no boys will want to live there, so she’s not going to get married. Except possibly to a girl.

Smallest of all has learned how to throw her arms up in the air and go “raaaargh” like a monster. Kawaiiii desu ne!

April 20, 2006

East Africa Famine Appeal

From the Oxfam email:

East Africa is in the middle of a serious food crisis. Water is scarce.

Food is running out. People have died and more will die if sufficient aid

is not delivered fast. Nomadic herding communities are most at risk, with

over 70 per cent of the animals on which they depend already dead in many

areas. Recent rains, far from solving the crisis, have actually increased

the risk of disease and are hampering the transportation of relief.

To donate to the Oxfam appeal, you can:

Donate online

Call 0870 333 2500

Donate at any Oxfam shop

April 16, 2006

Finance Links

Composing Contracts: An Adventure in Financial Engineering - Simon Peyton Jones - MSR paper on a combinator library for valuing financial derivatives. Looks very interesting.

LexiFi - company set up to capitalize on the research in the MSR paper above.

Review of Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat - Edward Leamer - more than just a review. It’s a jumping off point for looking at economic geography, and what globalization means for the US economy.

The Volatility Smile by Don Chance - helped me to understand this concept.

April 14, 2006

Fixing my knee

So I got a referral from my doctor, and by the power of private medical insurance I saw Dr Cathy Speed at the Lea hospital on Tuesday. She was very good - she runs herself I think - and she seemed to think I do have PFS, and that it is fixable by a combination of physiotherapy, and possibly orthotics.

She’s referred me on to a physio Jayne Warrington and a bio-mechanics specialist, Sophie Cox. Plus I have to see Dr Speed again next week and she’ll put me on the treadmill to confirm what she thinks is causing the PFS - she reckons its lack of core stability, basically causing my leg to collapse inward as it lands.

All pretty hopeful really. It’s the marathon next weekend of course, so it would be nice to get going again around that time.

April 10, 2006

Links

SF Futures - my friend Jonathan Cowie runs an SF website which I helped set up a long time ago. He’s just launched a new section with short, short stories from Nature. Some good authors in the initial selection - Ted Chiang, Charlie Stross amongst others.

Global Imbalances: The New Economy, the Dark Matter, the Savvy Investor and the Standard Analysis - Barry Eichengreen [pdf] - good survey article of the standard analysis of the problems of US Budget deficits compared with recent ideas on why things are different this time.

Edge Magazine - Kevin Kelly on the future of science. I like the triple blind experiments - collect lots of data upfront and you can mine it later to test hypotheses you hadn’t even thought of when you started.

b3ta.com - reasons for getting sacked. Pretty funny.

Boohbah - great site for very young children. Much easier to navigate and more intuitive than CBeebies. My 4 year old still gets something out of it, but it’s probably a bit babyish for her.

Our place in the universe - remarkably precarious.

via Making Light - painted room illusions

Deadprogrammers cafe - how to advertise on your blog. Interesting stuff on using Amazon associates etc. I’ve kind of given up on that here.

April 4, 2006

Self Motivation Links

While I’ve been thinking about what I want to do with myself, I’ve accumulated a number of useful links, which I’m posting here.

Paul Ford on Good and Bad Distractions - trying to make the difficult distinction between being distracted by something you need to know about, vs aimless fact-gathering. There’s too much to know, and it’s now too easy to know it. Make it harder for yourself to be distracted pointlessly.

Michael Nielsen on Tough Learning - how to learn difficult material. The key points of the talk are that you need a purpose or meaning to get you started, a vision of where you’re going, and a social environment that promotes the behaviour you want to achieve.

Steve Pavlina on Self Discipline - six part, thorough account of building up your ability to do what you tell yourself you will.

Richard Hamming - You and Your Research - interesting talk on what it means to dedicate yourself to your work. A bit like the Tough Learning talk, but more hardcore.

One Quality of a Leader - interesting comments thread on what makes a good leader.

AskMe thread - on soul searching, and knowing what you’re looking for.

How to stop procrastination - very interesting psychological account of different types of procrastinators and what the underlying causes are.

April 2, 2006

Bits and Bobs

Just a quick summary of what I’ve been up to:

been to visit my parents just outside Lincoln, taking Smallest of All with me. H told me afterwards that L said she missed her little sister, even though she didn’t think she would. She’s actually been nicer to her since then as well, so perhaps it was a good thing for them to have a day or two apart.

wireless goodness now infuses both machines in the house, and I’ve also got a workgroup network set up, although I think there are still some glitches with that. Installed Google desktop search too, and it’s worked really well - I have thousands of files and emails that I’ll never be able to organise in any other way than search.

Jay babysat for us on Saturday night, so H and I went to the Peking restaurant on Burleigh Street. Really good food. I highly recommend it - it’s not cheap, but I’d say it’s the best Chinese I’ve had - certainly in the UK.

disappointment - the John Crowley Little, Big 25th Anniversary edition hasn’t got enough subscribers yet, so I have to wait another year to find out if they’re going to produce it or not. I’m kind of annoyed that if they were not getting the sales in quickly enough, that they didn’t publicize it a bit more - I’m sure a lot of the subscribers would be keen to recruit other suckers, ah, customers.

Furthermore: March 2006

2009-01-11T16:16:00.000Z

March 19, 2006

Mid-Life crisis blogging

My reader tells me that this is what I’m engaged in at the moment. The project has stalled a little though> I started reading Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and I’ve kind of got stuck.

Parts of it are good, parts of it are just kind of cringe-making, and there’s a sort of taint of Christianity to the whole thing - not that I have anything against Christianity per se, just that it reminds me a bit of reading the Narnia books - you get the impression that Covey is not-quite stealthily-enough trying to tell you that this whole principle-centred living business would be a lot easier if you’d swallow the damn wafer already. Mmm, cynical today.

Anyway, I think the point is that the relevant bit of Covey’s advice for me is to decide what it is I really want to do - Start With The End In Mind as he would put it. Some part of me really doesn’t want to do that, and it’s driving me slightly mad at the moment. Maybe I’ll read Getting Things Done again, that one was much easier to deal with.

Dan Dennett Talk

Summary of Dan Dennett’s talk in Cambridge on Friday via cam.misc

Broadband and WiFi

I’ve finally entered the 21st century: I signed up with NTL broadband, and bought a Linksys wireless router and cards for both PCs. For once, NTL seem to have been pretty competent: the engineer came the same day I ordered the service and installed the cable modem. The WiFi kit came the next day, and then the fun began.

It’s working now, on the desktop PC at least - Mrs F’s laptop is proving more reluctant, but I think that may be a problem with the machine itself (or possibly the wireless card).

I can see wireless networking taking off in a big way (I can reach two other networks just from my house) but the setup has to be simplified. It took me the better part of a day to make it work correctly, and I work with computers and networks all the time. I don’t know what you’d do if you weren’t technical - I think you’d be stuck at step one as soon as the NTL CD failed to connect you to the network.

Oh well. It’s working now so hooray for me.

March 16, 2006

Spin - Robert Charles Wilson

(Tor, ISBN 076534825X )

Spin seems to have attracted a fair bit of praise for skillfully combining a mainstream character-driven novel with big SF. Knowing that before I read the book, perhaps I set my expectations a little too high - this isn’t quite a super-hybrid of Annie Proulx and Greg Egan. Nonetheless, it’s a really impressive SF story with real characters. It’s not the first, but perhaps it’s a sign that the DMZ between the genres has softened a little.

Spin is narrated by Tyler Dupree, a young teenager when the book starts. He is out one night watching the stars with his friends Jason and Diane Lawton, when the stars disappear, hidden by a membrane that encircles the Earth. The world gradually learns that beyond the membrane, time is moving faster, leaving only 50 years or so on Earth before the sun expands to the point where the planet will be uninhabitable.

The story of what happens in that time is the subject of the novel. Jason becomes a powerful figure in the aerospace industry, struggling to understand the nature of the Spin membrane. Diane turns to religion, and Jason becomes a doctor, bound into the orbit of Jason through friendship, and suffering from a mostly unrequited love for Diane. Saying almost anything about the plot would reveal marvellous surprises and inventions by Wilson - suffice it to say that the Earth’s response is to use the time distortion effects of the Spin to their advantage, and that the ending does make sense of the strange times through which the characters live.

While the immediate cast of the novel is quite small, Wilson also manages to consider the response of the wider world in a fairly realistic way. Civilization does not collapse when the Spin descends, but the changes that come as people reconsider their place in the universe, and the fact that they may personally see the end of the world, creates a quite stark parable about the way we currently use the resources of Earth. That this doesn’t make the novel into a diatribe (*cough* Forty Signs of Rain *cough*) is another mark to Wilson’s credit.

So overall I really enjoyed this book. I wanted to know what happened next, and I found it hard to put down once I’d started. Does the world end with a bang or a whimper? Read Spin and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I was.

There’s a good discussion of the book and related topics on Making Light.

March 8, 2006

Ivor Cutler is dead

Very sad. Good links of appreciation here on MeFi.

Mrs F and I saw Ivor when we lived in Blackheath - he performed at the concert hall there on a sweltering summer night. I first heard him on the John Peel show of course - The Aggressive Onion Vendor is the one that sticks in my mind from that time. I also have a couple of his books with fantastic illustrations by Martin Honeysett.

March 7, 2006

Links

NYer - Malcolm Gladwell on pitbulls and profiling

Greenspun - on early retirement

Surname mapping - shows dispersal and prevalence of surnames across the UK

Google Video - walkthroughs of ZX Spectrum games

NYer - Gladwell again, on social problems with a power law distribution. This is really interesting stuff.

AskMe - interesting discussion of bullying in public spaces that turns into something of a general talk on strategies for dealing with bullying

rotten.com - bio of Richard Scarry - click through if the name seems vaguely familiar but you can’t remember why. It’s safe, honest, despite the domain.

March 5, 2006

Never Eat Alone - Keith Ferrazzi

(Currency, ISBN 0385512058)

I bought this book because I’d been reading Keith’s blog for a while, and I thought some of what he was saying seemed interesting and original. This is a book about networking, or rather, it’s a book about how to work with other people - both in terms of what you can do for them and what they can do for you - rather than on your specific skills.

I think the main benefit for me was simply to get the perspective of someone who lives 100% like that. To me it’s quite alien, although I thought it was something I could learn from. I feel that although I’m not going to turn into an extravert, I can connect with more people and achieve things with them that will be fun and creative, rather than thinking only about how I should hone my “internal” skills - technical or managerial or whatever.

There are sections on many aspects of networking - some (eg on conferences) are quite arcane unless you are in specific areas of business like sales - but many have quite wide application, although it’s fair to say that the book is written from a very US-cultural perspective. Some of the things Keith recommends would just get you a funny look in this country.

To me the best things are the sections on learning to build and maintain a personal network - he’s very keen to stress the importance of giving as much as you can to the communities and people you want to reach out to, without counting the cost. The tips for just maintaining contact with people without doing idiotic things like mass email are also useful. Another thing that struck me was the “build it before you need it” quote. Having been made redundant once, I now fully appreciate the wisdom of this statement.

March 3, 2006

The Ode Less Travelled - Stephen Fry

(Hutchinson, ISBN 0-09-179661-X)

As someone who occasionally writes poems I was intrigued by this book when I saw it in Waterstones, so I grabbed a copy to skim while I was having coffee. I was immediately hooked, and dropped very unsubtle hints about what I’d like for Christmas.

You can almost hear Stephen Fry talking as you read, and his explanations of the various aspects of poetics are never less than interesting. It’s like getting private lessons from a well-read and witty teacher.

For me, the most interesting section was the first, on metre. I’ve wanted to know more about how it works for some time, but I’ve never found a textbook on it that I actually want to study. There are also sections on rhyme, form and “Diction and Poetry Today”.

There are lots of good example verses - both Fry’s and others. There are also exercises which Fry strongly encourages you to have a go at. There’s an only half-joking “user licence” for the book, where you agree not to read any further until you complete the exercises up to that point.

It’s a fine book, and I will do the exercises eventually (honest). It also confirms your notion that Stephen Fry really does know everything, and is annoyingly good at it.

Furthermore: February 2006 - Self Analysis (part 2)

2009-01-10T21:22:00.002Z

(The third part of this never materialized, but I might try to write a "3 years later" post when I've finished the importing)

So this part is a bit more general, about a few things that I’ve been reading lately, and how that’s made me think about what to do next. The key quotes are below:

The most dangerous form of procrastination is unacknowledged type-B procrastination (MF - working on unimportant things), because it doesn’t feel like procrastination. You’re “getting things done.” Just the wrong things.

Any advice about procrastination that concentrates on crossing things off your to-do list is not only incomplete, but positively misleading, if it doesn’t consider the possibility that the to-do list is itself a form of type-B procrastination. In fact, possibility is too weak a word. Nearly everyone’s is. Unless you’re working on the biggest things you could be working on, you’re type-B procrastinating, no matter how much you’re getting done.

- Paul Graham, Good and Bad Procrastination

Ow. To be fair, GTD is pretty agnostic about what you should be doing. Dave Allen’s take is that he gives you a tool to make you more effective at whatever it is you choose to do. The interesting thing he also says is that if you do it for a while, most of the clutter in your life will disappear, leaving enough space for you to consider the question above.

Onto another one:

If you encounter difficulties in choosing a life purpose, the problem may be further upstream. Dive deeper into your understanding of reality. Question your beliefs, especially the ones you were taught never to question. What if you're wrong? My current beliefs about reality bear little resemblance to those I was raised to adopt. Through interaction with the real world, I found my initial beliefs to be inaccurate. And that led to more than a decade of searching for truth, one that still continues to this day but which has gotten a lot easier.

- Steve Pavlina, Deciding what to do with your life

There’s a lot more on living consciously on Steve’s site, and a lot of it makes good sense. Steve is either one of those scary people who can do everything and still be a nice guy, or he’s a brilliant liar. I’d bet on the former.

So I guess that’s the core of it. I’ve reached a plateau where I’m feeling good. Now along come Paul and Steve and say, “yes, but are you really pursuing your dreams? Do you even know what they are?”

I think those are very serious questions, and I don’t want to immediately start an answer of the form, “I can’t do something great because I have to code to put food on the table for my family”. Having said that, listen to Paul again for a second:

Some errands, like replying to letters, go away if you ignore them (perhaps taking friends with them). Others, like mowing the lawn, or filing tax returns, only get worse if you put them off. In principle it shouldn’t work to put off the second kind of errand. You’re going to have to do whatever it is eventually. Why not (as past-due notices are always saying) do it now?

The reason it pays to put off even those errands is that real work needs two things errands don’t: big chunks of time, and the right mood. If you get inspired by some project, it can be a net win to blow off everything you were supposed to do for the next few days to work on it. Yes, those errands may cost you more time when you finally get around to them. But if you get a lot done during those few days, you will be net more productive.

This advice may be a necessary condition for doing something amazing, but it’s also going to make you a total pain to live with unless you are rich enough (as Paul is, I guess) to have a PA or someone who doesn’t get to blow off their errands.

The thing I don’t like is that it seems like only some kind of self-selected elite get to do “great” things, and the rest of us have to pander to their whims. Plus, by definition, you don’t know you’re going to do something amazing up-front, so it may be that all you’ll achieve is being really annoying for many years.

Perhaps this is a bit of Buddhism in me coming out, but I feel you’ve got to try to be a good person first, and then try to fit your passions in to what you’ve already committed to (although the Buddha is a pretty bad exemplar, as he left his family to seek the truth).

There’s a fine line between using your commitments as an excuse to not get things done, and accepting that you have responsibilities to other people that are not optional. I’m sure Paul Graham is lovely in person. I’m just saying that achievements are not everything.

So in the final part, I’m going to look at my own answer to Paul and Steve’s question, and try to resolve the tension between pursuing what you want with doing what you’ve got to.

Furthermore: February 2006 - Self Analysis (part 1)

2009-01-10T21:18:00.001Z

(fair to say I've moved on a bit from this, but I haven't edited it)

It was my 35th birthday on Friday 3 February. I’ve been taking stock of my life for a while now, and my birthday makes me want to try to draw together a few of the ideas that have been in my head.

I’m going to do this in 3 parts. This part is about where I am now, and how I got here. The next will be about what I’ve been reading, and my responses to that. The third will be some sort of thought experiment about where I go from here.

This is a bit more personal than I usually blog, but I want to see how much of this I can make public. Partly to make it more real for myself, and partly in the vague hope that it will be useful to other people.

The main thing I’d say is that I’m really happy at the moment. Although they’re almost too obvious to think about, it’s worth remembering the basic things that I take for granted:

* I’m healthy
* I have a place to live
* I have enough to eat
* I have what possessions I need
* I live in a (moreorless) free country

More specifically personal reasons:

* I have a lovely wife, and two beautiful daughters
* I have an interesting job, which is reasonably well paid
* I have a life outside work
* I have a pleasant environment to live in

I’m not trying to boast here, I’m just saying I have all the necessary conditions to be happy. A lot of people don’t have those things. A lot do and are still not happy for a variety of good and not-so-good reasons.

I’d say in the last year or so that a couple of things have happened that have made me evaluate what I’m doing. Firstly, back in October 03 I was made redundant from a job based in the City. I got another job in Cambridge, which I didn’t enjoy, and so I had to leave that pretty quickly and start another new job. Around the same time as that, my dad had a serious stroke, and I was pretty worried about him.

So, I think the combination of the redundancy, the bad job experience, and my dad’s health meant I just didn’t really settle in at my new job, and I ended up having a few problems there because they still weren’t sure about me. I think that gave me a bit of a shock and fortunately I responded positively to that.

I started working harder, but fortunately I also discovered Dave Allen’s Getting Things Done book around that time. Once I’d grokked his system I was able to get control of a nagging sense I’d had for a long time that I had a large number of things I wanted to keep track of, but no way of doing it that would ensure I actually got reminded of what I wanted when I needed it. I won’t go into why GTD works here - there are loads of sites on that. For me though, it has gradually sunk into the framework of my life, and made me much more focussed and efficient at getting done what I want to get done, and also reduced the amount of mental clutter I deal with.

So, having got to this state, and having succeeded at work (I’m now managing a small group, which I’ve wanted to do for a while), I’ve reached a plateau - I feel relaxed, productive, open to new things - it’s a great feeling. At the same time, it’s given me a space in which a new question has opened in my mind: what do I want to do with the rest of my life?

This is maybe the first time I’ve consciously asked myself that question. It seems strange to me to say that in a sense I’ve been on autopilot since I was a child, but there’s a lot of truth in it.

Now I don’t really want to psycho-analyse myself, but I think a little history will help make it clear how I got to be where I am today. As a child I was a classic brainy, shy kid. I found it difficult to make friends (although I always had some) and I was teased and bullied quite a bit. I was good at maths and science, and I got a ZX Spectrum at an early age and learned to program it.

So I enjoyed those things, and found human contact difficult and often unpleasant, although I also craved affection. So I emerged from the education system with a good degree in mathematics from Cambridge University, and very little self-confidence that I could do anything other than hard thinking.

I initially thought of carrying on into further study. I tried that, and it didn’t work out for me. I did Part III maths (not a good choice of course, I think) and just found it an incredible struggle. In retrospect I think I was actually depressed during that year, and when it was over I had no desire to continue with academic study, at least in mathematics.

So what then? Get a job of course. I didn’t question the idea that I should. That’s just what you did when you finished studying. I thought software development sounded like the nearest thing to what I knew already. It required technical knowledge, abstract thinking, and little interaction with the “grubby” side of actual business.

So having got into that, I slowly followed a technical career path: CASE tools, analysis and design, C++ and object orientation, Java. I had an idea that I should try to keep myself marketable by learning skills that were generic, such as OO, C++ etc, but it never occurred to me to look outside the box marked
“software development”. Not until I was at Mercator, and even then, not until quite late on was I thinking that I had skills that weren’t just writing code and specs.

My wife tells me that ever since I’ve discussed moving out of development and into management with her, I’ve talked about it in terms of managing my career - ie, I believe that as a guy in his mid-30s, I’m now surrounded by people who are younger, cheaper and in many cases better at programming. That’s certainly true where I work now, where the standard is really quite high. I think that to still have a career in 10 years time, I’ve got to be more focussed on the business side of what I’m doing.

So there’s a lot of things there that I “have” to do: I have a wife and a family, so I need a certain level of income to stop us being thrown out of our house. I want to stay in Cambridge, so I have only so many companies I can go to. To get the kind of salary I have now, I need to be either a developer or manager. As a developer I think my career options are limited, and will get more so as we get more outsourced development going on in India or Eastern Europe. So I “have” to become a manager. But what do I want to do? Apparently I never talk about that, and I think it’s because I’m scared that the answer won’t be “become a software development manager” and then how will I reconcile my life with what I want to do?

So in Part 2 I’ll link to a few of the things I’ve been reading lately that have stuck with me, and try to say a bit about how I responded to them.

Furthermore: February 2006 (part 1)

2009-01-08T20:56:00.002Z

I also posted several items in February reflecting on my life and what I wanted to do. I'm going to pull those out to a separate item.

February 27, 2006

Frivolous and Various Links

MSN - various little health hacks

Arbury Camp - the website for what’s happening in that mudbath full of bulldozers just north of Kings Hedges Road.

NYTimes - [no reg] intelligence linked to calculated risk taking

WaPo - interesting article about a children’s entertainer in the DC area. Oblique comment on the child-rearing culture, and much more (it would spoil it if I told you).

Guardian via Chris L - children tested on a standardised developmental basis are not as advanced now as they were 15 years ago. Education, education, education.

via Chris L - George Orwell’s school memories

What qualities do parents want in their children?

February 23, 2006

Political Links

The K Street Project - good summary of the background to the whole Abramoff corruption story now playing out in the US

Will Iran be Next - fantastic piece from The Atlantic on a desktop exercise to wargame US options for Iran. Conclusion: basically the Iranians won the Iraq war.

The Torture Papers - The New Yorker on the background legal justifications for torture at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib etc. Fascinating and disturbing in equal parts.

Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill - David Howarth (Cambridge MP) in the Times on new insanity from our government. See - it’s not just the Americans.

February 10, 2006

Quote from Mrs F

We’re watching TV when an ad comes on for the George Foreman grill. My wife turns to me and says,
“Is that the George Foreman that fought Idi Amin?”

I would have liked to see that fight.

Being Human

2009-01-08T20:48:00.002Z

I really enjoyed the pilot for this, so I have high hopes for the series, although I reserve judgement until I see what changes have been made - I see two of the cast have been replaced for example.

Progress has been made

2009-01-06T20:55:00.002Z

I'm gradually getting the old Furthermore posts moved over here. I've done from 03 - 05, so there's a similar amount left to do. Oddly, Furthermore is not letting me access my monthly archives at the moment, the site is up, but Wordpress is not happy for some reason. I'll have another look tomorrow - it may just be some temporary glitch.

Once that's done, I think I shall strip Furthermore down completely, and hopefully I'll finally get round to using it for some web projects. I have now started my book on PHP web mashups, so I should be able to knock up some trivial app fairly soon.

Furthermore: January 2006

2009-01-06T20:47:00.000Z

January 26, 2006

The Book of Gold

The Book of Gold is the name used by the librarian in Gene Wolfe’s New Sun books to describe the magical book encountered in childhood that opens up the great world within books for a particular child.

It was also a short-lived Gene Wolfe fanzine, published twice in 1989 by a chap called Jeremy Crampton in the USA. Both editions are largely concerned with the Soldier of the Mist series, although they touch on other works.

Jeremy was also good enough to make copies of Castle of the Otter available when it was pretty much unobtainable outside the US, for which I am very grateful - I still have my copy, even though I have the more recent, expanded version too.

Why am I telling you this. Mainly, I’m telling Google. I’ve responded to a couple of requests for copies from the Urth mailing list, but I don’t read it much anymore, so if anyone else wants a copy, they can contact me here, and I’ll send them one.

January 22, 2006

Another quote from my daughter

Okay, so I said I wouldn’t do this, but I thought this was great. L and I have been playing at swordfights with rolled-up tablemats. I’ve been killed several times over and I decide to rise from the dead and fight as a zombie.

“What’s a zombie, daddy?”

“It’s a dead body that comes back to life again.”

“Jesus was a zombie, wasn’t he daddy?”

January 20, 2006

Going to the Gym

I tried out Keeping in Shape on Mill Road on Monday evening. It’s a fairly small gym that runs circuit training sessions. Rates are not too bad - about �25 a month for one session a week + access at weekends. Users (on the night I went) were a mix of men and women of various ages. Dave (who runs the gym) seemed to know his group pretty well, and spent time with me to make sure I was using the right weights etc.

I enjoyed it, and I need something to help keep me fit while I’m not running, so I think I’ll sign up from next week.

January 11, 2006

Ugly

Sorry the site is currently looking very ugly (if it still is). I’m just in the process of upgrading to a 3 column stylesheet, and I’m kind of doing it by trial and error. I’ve looked at Erik Heels Movable Type braindump and basically copied the stylesheet from bluerobot.com.

So far the basic design is working, but I need to put back all the Furthermore specific styles, or think of updates that I like better. I have been meaning to get a proper banner for instance.

Update: It’s now looking pretty good, once I understood which stylesheet elements affected which bits of the main template. You should be seeing delicious links and blogroll on the right now.

January 8, 2006

Out of the mouths of babes

Well, I’ve waited 4 years, I figure I’m entitled to one post of amusing things my daughter has said. This won’t become a habit, I promise.

L - I don’t believe in god, but I do believe in fairies. Fairies are real aren’t they daddy?

Me - umm.

L - I know fairies are real, because there’s the tooth fairy.

Checkmate. I did win one over Christmas though:

L - Even if I don’t get anything from Father Christmas, I’ll still get the presents under the tree won’t I daddy?

Me - (thinking quickly) I think Father Christmas takes them to give to the good children.

L - (considers whether to cry)

Me - (quickly) but you’ve been a good girl haven’t you? So I’m sure you’ll get presents.

L - Oh yes.

Furthermore: December 2005

2009-01-04T16:50:00.001Z

December 31, 2005

The Goodies

I watched the Goodies anniversary show on BBC2 last night. I dimly remember some of the sketches from my youth - mainly the tomato ketchup squirting one, and the beanstalk one for some reason. Having watched the show, I feel it’s probably best left in the past - I don’t think I’d watch it if it was on now, although I think my older daughter would enjoy it.

The thing that struck me though, was how much visual humour there was in the show, and of course it was all done with “real” effects since there was no CGI to speak of in those days. Tastes in comedy have moved on since then of course, but what goes around comes around, and I wonder whether we won’t see some kind of blend of comedy and computer graphics. Where is the Terry Gilliam of machinima?

Just as I wrote that, I thought - why would I expect to see that stuff on TV (although no doubt it will appear eventually). It’s already happening on the internet. You only have to look at sites like b3ta or somethingawful to find photoshop parodies and funny little animations in Flash. I can’t think of any individual creator who I recognise, and I’m not sure if it’s just a matter of time, or whether the medium has become more like the joke-telling culture - you never know where the originals came from.

December 30, 2005

Secret Sites and Personal Blogs

I just linked to this piece: Secret Sites at Kottke. It’s about using “private” web journals as personal journals. I’d been thinking about similar things for a while - one of the things that I’ve begun to find frustrating about Furthermore is that I don’t feel comfortable posting a lot of personal stuff here because it’s effectively going to be preserved for ever, which is a long time for transient thoughts to be kept. At the same time, it is meant to be a personal blog, rather than being “about” some particular topic - I’d quite like to keep all my personal stuff in one place rather than have a lite and full-fat journal. Possibly what this shows is that you shouldn’t associate a personal blog directly with your real identity.

What I really need I guess, is fine-grained access control. Maybe I should move the blog elsewhere and just keep Furthemore for projects (which I never get round to).

Feh. Maybe this is all just a post-Christmas slump - I feel like I’ve had a week off and accomplished basically nothing at all. Which would be fine, but I don’t really feel relaxed either. Just fed up.

Links

Meat - fantastic Terry Bisson short SF story showing us as others might see us.

Kottke - on secret sites. Maybe more to say on this one in a bit.

Cringely - on the Google box. Very interesting speculation.

Bike videos - insane urban cycling around New York, SF etc. Mrs Furthermore found these videos made her feel nauseous because of the movement. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Alternative Last Calvin and Hobbes - apparently well-known on the internets. I’d never seen it before though, and I thought it was good.

From Google Cache - The Harry Potter Nimbus 2000, with all the original comments still in place.

December 23, 2005

Out of the marathon

Unfortunately, I’m out of the 2006 marathon I think. My right knee started hurting after my run on the 11th, and it’s the same problem as before - PFS. So until I can work out what’s causing it (gait, footstrike, could be various things) and whether I can fix it, I’ve had to stop running, which is basically going to destroy my training schedule for the marathon. So I’m pretty much decided that I’m going to defer until 2007, unless I recover by a miracle.

By some sort of irony, I saw this link the other day: How Running Made Us Human - quite interesting theory.

December 22, 2005

External Links Clicked

I’ve been using MyBlogLog to track outgoing links from the site since about July. The free service seems to work pretty well. I’ve aggregated all the outgoing links and the top 12 are below. Why 12? I had about 920 outgoing clicks, so I took the top half. As you would imagine, the distribution looks like it follows some kind of power law.

Gmaps pedometer (120 hits) - the original site. You should probably use this link now.

my survey of Cambridge blogs (90 hits) - somewhat moribund. Try Geoff Jones wiki for this instead

Realist personality type (60 hits) - from the BBC Myers Briggs personality test show

Gmaps pedometer route (37 hits) - a running route around Cambridge

Freesat from Sky (33 hits) - I was surprised how many hits I got on this.

AAA Watch Club (22 hits) - 24 hour dial watches

ThinkGeek (18 hits) - more 24 hour dial watches

cam.misc (17 hits) - lunch recommendations around Cambridge

pic of me from Wiki Wednesday London (17 hits) - taken by Geoff Jones, I now notice

Myers Briggs personality types (16 hits) - a more in depth site than the BBC show

Tony Robinson (15 hits) - but not Baldrick. A chap in Cambridge who had a site with info on estate agents

Dunster Castle (12 hits) - well worth a visit

December 8, 2005

Marathon Training

Well, I got up at 6 today and on Tuesday and ran a four mile circuit. Took me just under 50 minutes both times - which is pretty slow, but I’m not so worried about times at this stage. Just getting out and round is enough.

I’m going to try skipping the short run for a while at least - I’m not sure if I’ll get the benefit from it. I may try to start doing it if the training isn’t hurting me too much later on. I discovered that running to work is not a sensible idea - I’d realised I’d have to take in spare clothes the day before in order to have something to wear when I got to work, but I forgot about a coat, and at that point, the idea just began to seem absurd. All these logistics? Why bother when I can just do a circuit from home?

Useful things so far:

gmap pedometer - I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s really handy for working out distances for run routes. Here’s the coming Sunday’s 8 mile run from my parent’s place.

Google Groups search - on energy bars. Pro-bar opinion seems to centre on CLIF bars (not tried yet myself). The anti-bar sentiment seems to think it’s all hype, and you’d be as well to eat, say, a Jordan’s Frusli. I looked at those in Sainsbury’s but the sugar looked very high as a proportion of the carbs. I got some reasonably priced bars from Holland and Barrett (3 for �1) which were quite nice: CarbWise Caramel Peanut Crisp. V popular in the Cambridge store apparently. I may stick with those unless I find something better.

December 4, 2005

London Marathon

Fantastic news this week - I’m in next year’s London Marathon. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but the amount of training has always put me off. Ironically, now I have two children, I have less time to run in than when I was single and lived in Blackheath (where the race starts), but what the hey.

Moments after the initial elation come the doubts about whether you can actually do it. Fortunately, I had read about this book:

which sounded ideal for me - I think I saw it on Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools. A quick Amazon later and I’m reading it.

Jeff’s method, in short, is that you have to run and walk from the start. There’s a lot more to it than that, but the idea is to stop your legs getting so fatigued. Also you run the full distance before the day itself, so you don’t have a “wall” to hit.

The program is really for 26 weeks, but I only have 20 till the race, so I started at week 6 of a 4 hour time program to see if I could do it. Today was to run 11 miles. I got round okay - the run walk thing really works well. He also recommends short, low steps, and eating while you go. Anyway, it’s by far the longest run I’ve done recently, and my knee problem didn’t bother me, so I’m sold so far.

In the coming week I’m supposed to do two 40-50 minute runs on Tuesday and Friday + a 30 minute run on Wednesday. I’m thinking I can do the longer ones by running to work (although it’s a bit further than is ideal and it means I have to use the godawful buses to get home). The short one maybe I can do at lunchtime, but I may just have to drop it this week as I’m not sure how I’m going to fit it in really.

I’ll try to blog what I’ve done against the program, and how I think I’m going to do. I’m hoping for about a four hour time, but my run today suggests more like 4.30 - 4.40. Still, early days.

Furthermore: November 2005

2009-01-04T16:43:00.000Z

November 20, 2005

Links

via MeFi - insanely great new Dr Who adventure staged with GI Joe dolls and basically whatever comes to hand. It’s incredibly professionally done.

Charlie Stross - good, if rather terrifying piece about the requirements of a good chemical weapon for terrorists. The point of the piece is that both terrorists and counter-terrorist agencies tend to think in terms of “movie-plot” threats. I hope some of the good guys read this piece. I’m sure the bad guys will.

via CT - videos of basically insane cycle races through New York, SF etc. Mrs Furthermore was rendered quite ill by the motion of the video (helmet cam footage). You have been warned. Also, big downloads on that site.

CT again - I found the link above in the comments to this piece, about a short video of a chap driving through the centre of Paris at top speed in a Ferrari. This in 1978 I believe, but even so, it’s still damn fast. More arty than the cycle vids, but I kind of prefer them to this. It’s still cool though.

The Knight - Gene Wolfe

I put off starting this book for several weeks after I bought it. I love Wolfe, but something about the look of it perhaps - Knights in armour, high fantasy - it just looked a bit lame. Anyway, I’m pleased to report it’s one of the most enjoyable books by Wolfe I’ve ever read.

It’s interesting to note the themes which Wolfe has used repeatedly, and which are employed here once again. In no particular order, we have:

a multi-leveled world with different orders of beings inhabiting each level. In this case a Norse-based middle world (Mythgarthr) with a world of Faerie below (and further worlds below that), and above, the worlds of the gods. Interestingly, Wolfe has the world of the Norse Gods immediately above Mythgarthr, then above that are seemingly Christian angels (and unmentioned above that is, presumably, God). It’s not hard to think of the Whorl, with its Gods in Mainframe, and beyond them the Outsider. Or Severian’s Briah and Yesod.

a protagonist who doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do, but who has been equipped for his mission before he began it. In this case, Sir Able of the High Heart begins as a young teenager in our world, but is rapidly transformed into a powerful, fully grown man in the world of Mythgarthr. It’s apparent from the text that his background has been interfered with by the faeries of Aelfrice - he knows things that he doesn’t remember learning for instance. Other variations on this theme are seen in Silk who has both a genetic inheritance and a special enlightenment by the Outsider. Or Latro, whose memory is hidden from him by the gods. Severian also has been pre-selected for his role by the Hierogrammates.

Something that was noticeable in the Long and Short Sun books, is the “fantasy of integrity”. Able is a particularly well developed example of this - he starts of with a particular mission (to win the sword Eterne so that he can see his elf-mistress Disiri again). He won’t carry any other sword. As the tale progresses his goal is continually transformed by his circumstances: he has to take ship to serve Lord Marder against the giants. The ship is attacked and he finds himself in Aelfrice, where he promises to kill a monster. Later he has to defend a caravan travelling to Jotunheim, then rescue his servants from the giants there. Able develops an almost dizzying stack of interlocking obligations which have to be unwound to get back to what he originally set out to do. His refusal to compromise makes him fun to identify with: we’d all love to think that we should stand up for ourselves more, always do the right thing, always tell the truth. To be fair, doing these things doesn’t always get Able what he wants, in fact it often gets him into trouble. However, it does ultimately get him to his goal, rather than just getting him his ass kicked, which is what would happen to the rest of us.

this ties into the theme of people being of different quality. This appears in a number of Wolfe’s books, but it’s very explicit in this one that knights are just better than regular folks.

a minor one: talking animals. Since Oreb was such a hit, this time we have both a talking dog and a cat. Echos of G Gordon Kitty from Castleview perhaps. The Arthurian themes are certainly common to both.

There are also stylistic elements that have been used repeatedly:

jumps forward in time with no cues. This is one of Wolfe’s stocks in trade to keep the readers on their toes. New chapters or even paragraphs can begin a whole new medias res, with the intervening time filled in briefly by dialogue as the story progresses. You have to try to remember what was happening before, work out where you are now, and also how everyone got from here to there.

slightly folksy speech mannerisms rendered into the text. Like the talking animals, this seems to be something Wolfe has become very fond of. Funny accents are the new funny hats, although Wolfe doesn’t carry it to the annoying extremes seen in Long Sun.

I enjoyed the lighter tone of this book compared to the Short and Long Sun books. I don’t mean the material isn’t quite dark in places, or that the book has no substance. It’s just that Wolfe seems to be having more fun with the material, and the characters show it. The pace is fast too, and Wolfe obviously enjoys taking fantasy cliches - wicked giants, bold knights, sexy elves and showing us his own perspective on them. The finale (I won’t spoil it) is so over the top that I think few writers would be able to bring it off in a way that wouldn’t seem ridiculous. Wolfe manages (just about). Now I really want to read The Wizard.

November 7, 2005

A couple of literary notes

I just heard on the news that John Fowles had died. I’ve not read much of his work, but The Magus made a lasting impression on me. I re-read it recently, and it was still powerfully evocative - the sense of being on that island in the mediterranean is so strong.

Also, quick link - I just saw an interview with John Crowley from earlier this year. I don’t think I’ve seen it before. He talks mostly about Lord Byron’s Novel but also a bit about The Translator and the forthcoming Endless Things which will conclude the AEgypt series.

November 3, 2005

Links

Open Rights Group - now has its permanent home on the web. The Pledgebank pledge only needs another 80 or so people to complete.

George Dyson at Google - via Kottke I think. Interesting discussion of some aspects of computation from a historical viewpoint, plus a quick look at what’s happening at Google.

Skyscraper database - via MeFi. The page I linked shows the tallest in the world, but you can get all kinds of views out of it. Nice drawings too.

The Register - ATM fraud and the British banking system. Interesting stuff about phantom withdrawals and security weaknesses that could have brought down the whole banking system (maybe).

That’s all for now. I’ll probably be at the No2ID pubmeet at The Regal this evening (from about 8.30 I’d guess).

Furthermore: October 2005

2009-01-04T16:31:00.000Z

October 24, 2005

Not much happening

Bit of a blogging hiatus I think. No particular reason, but don’t expect any updates for a bit.

October 12, 2005

Avian Flu Preparedness

I read a couple of things recently:

Making Light - a bit US centric, but interesting stuff on being prepared for emergencies

Charles Stross - how “just in time” supply makes economies brittle and susceptible to shocks

Without going all tinfoil-hat about it, it made me think that I could usefully be a bit more prepared for the very likely case that we will have a flu pandemic. The main thing that seems sensible is to buy in enough food, medicine and supplies to last a week or so without having to go to the shops. Stuff that will keep, stuff that’s easily digestible when you’re feeling ill. Stuff that doesn’t need to be prepared more than just heating up - Mrs Furthermore and I could both be ill and someone would still have to look after the children.

Realistically, I don’t think there’s much I can do against serious breakdowns of power etc other than keep the car fueled to go somewhere else. Not sure where, but better to have some options than none.

Ah, very cheerful.

Osteopaths in Cambridge

I have an occasional problem where the left side of my neck stiffens up and makes it painful to turn to that side. I’ve found osteopathy very effective in fixing this (turns out the problem is related to posture and I’ve had a lot less trouble since I stopped sticking my head forward all the time).

Anyway, normally I go to the Gilbert Road osteopathic clinic and see Clare (46 Gilbert Rd, Cambridge. Tel: 01223 563704). They were all booked up though, so I saw went to John Lant and saw Francesca. They were efficient and friendly - a bit more expensive than Clare, but if you need an osteo either of these places seems pretty good.

October 10, 2005

Links

Kottke - GoogleOS etc - lots of interesting thoughts about applications migrating to the web and how the main players are positioned around this idea.

BoingBoing - long Charles Platt piece on the neutron bomb and its inventor.

Robotic Nation - I read this a long while ago and found it again recently. It’s about how low skill jobs can increasingly be automated, and kind of a thought experiment about what happens if you robotize all labour. The author comes to the conclusion that we need to start sharing that wealth via a citizens salary or end up in a situation of extreme inequality. To some extent it’s not even necessary to assume robots - people in China working for very low salaries (compared to the EU/US) have a somewhat similar effect on our economies. I’m not sure I have the right background to think about what flaws there might be in this analyis, but it’s certainly thought-provoking.

First steps back on the road

I did my first run for several months yesterday - just under 20 minutes round Cherry Hinton Park on a lovely autumn afternoon. My knee felt fine (apart from one minor twinge) so I’m hoping that I can gradually build up the amount of running I do again.

I’m thinking maybe two shorter runs a week would be better than a single longer one, so I’ll try that. I’m also thinking of getting some gait analysis done - anyone know a good place? - in case I’ve developed a problem in that area that caused the knee inflammation.

Good to be back on the road again though.

October 8, 2005

Links

Tim O’Reilly on Google Text - Tim kind of sums up my own view on this in his post on September 27, 2005 08:19 AM (near the bottom of the thread at time of writing this). Interesting to me that this ties up with Brewster Kahle’s talk on access to all human knowledge that he gave at NotCon in 2004. I’m sure it’s more than coincidence - I’m not sure what happened in Kahle v Ashcroft though, and I can’t be arsed to google for it at the moment.

And I for one welcome our new * overlords - I thought I was all clever doing this search pattern a la Robot Wisdom. Turns out Language Log did it over a year ago. And coined a term for these fill in the blank template sentences. They call them snowclones.

New Yorker - Genesis redone by designer deities.

Making Light - how to do triage. No really, it’s very interesting, and potentially very useful in certain kinds of terrifying situation.

Guardian - Stan Robinson interviewed. I kind of gave up after Red Mars, but I’m thinking I need to read the new eco-gloom stuff, if only to see what the future’s really going to be like. Maybe should re-read Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up

Rolling Stone - depressing stuff about the process of US government. I’m not sure ours would look much prettier close up, mind.

Steve Pavlina - life lessons from Blackjack. Some interesting thoughts in here. I like the bits about the danger of losing out by being over-cautious when things are going your way.

Cambridge in Colour - fantastic deep colour photos of the city.

FoldedSpace - digest of How to Get Rich - type books.

Bob McNamara - on US foreign policy and nuclear deterrent.

October 7, 2005

The Fish and Duck

I can’t remember where I heard about this place - probably on cam.misc. Anyway, I have a week off work so I thought we could go and then wander round Ely for a while. It really is one of the most isolated pubs I’ve ever been to - you turn off the A10 from Cambridge to Ely towards Stretham, drive through the village and then eventually you cross a railway line. Turn left there and follow a long track and eventually you get to the pub at the confluence of the Cam and another river.

Beer was good, and the food was pretty good. The pub had a good atmosphere too. It’s really nice being somewhere that’s just quiet. If I’d come by bike it would have been nice to just stay there a while and have a few beers - alas I was driving. It looks like the present buildings are going to be knocked down and then rebuilt, so if you want to go, go soon (and ring first) or wait till sometime next year.

Hopefully my phone data cable will come soon and I can start posting some of the photos I have been taking of places.

Furthermore: September 2005

2009-01-04T16:24:00.001Z

September 29, 2005

Nor am I out of it

Shameful admission time: I switched my home PC back to Windows XP from Mandrake Linux. Why? Well, I thought it would be good to use Linux - get some experience of a Unix platform, stop supporting the kind of idiocy perpetrated by Microsoft, open formats yada yada - all that good stuff.

However, there are just too many niggling problems - my printer stopped working one day, and I can’t figure out how to make it work again. I can’t easily sync my Palm to my PC. Hardware generally is harder to get working. It’s harder to install or upgrade anything. I used to find this kind of thing was a spur to learn more about the platform, but now I just find it’s a pain.

On the other side, Windows is now much more stable, more secure - provided you do sensible things like using a firewall, using Firefox, not running as admin when you don’t have to - and generally more familiar to me when things don’t work right.

So back to Windows I go - at least for the time being. I’m still not enamoured of Microsoft, and I’m not keen on the proprietary file formats (not that it affects me that much - I don’t use Outlook, and I can convert Word and Excel to Open Office if need be). I think next computer I buy may be a Mac (Unix and Shinies, as someone put it) but that’s not going to be for a year or two.

New phone

I’ve been thinking for a while about getting a new phone. I was considering replacing my Palm IIIc with a Treo, but it looked too expensive to justify. I realised that the feature I really wanted was a decent camera in the phone - I want to be able to take photos for this blog - probably using Flickr. I know that if I buy a separate digital camera that I’ll forget to take with me anywhere, plus I can’t see I’m going to need all the resolution and features of a separate camera, so a decent camera phone is really two birds with one stone.

So, I googled, and I found this useful MeFi thread. Checking out some of the recommendations from there, I found the best compromise of cost and function looked like the Sony Ericsson K700i.

I got an unlocked one from Ebay for a reasonable price - now I just need to get a SIM and a cable to copy pics to my PC (I’m not so desperate to upload things that they can’t wait a few hours). I’ve had a play with the phone using my wife’s SIM, and it looks pretty good - the joystick control is a bit fiddly, but the display is good, and the camera looks fairly easy to use too.

Oh, look, you can get them on Amazon too (yes, I signed up to Associates - I’ll post about that too I guess):

September 11, 2005

Wiki Wednesday

Here’s a reasonable pic of me talking to Suw Charman at London Wiki Wednesday last week. The event was on the 22nd floor of DrKW so there was a fantastic view of the city. Check out some of the flickr photos of the evening

Thanks to Hugh McLeod for blogging this - I’d not have known it was on otherwise and I had a fantastic evening.

Smile Banking Site

I’ve been banking with Smile for a while now, and I recently sent them an email on what I’d like to be able to do with their website. I’ve had a generic response, but I thought I’d blog it here to see how much of it actually happens:

back button - minor thing, but it keeps catching me out: make the back button work. I know there are some security problems to work out, but it’s so annoying to be logged out when you inadvertently press it.

security - Passwords and security challenge questions are okay, but leave you vulnerable to man-in-the-middle type attacks. Are you thinking about either a second channel for authentication - I’ve seen sites which send a text message to your phone with some generated key that you have to enter to complete a risky transaction (eg big withdrawal) - or some form of transaction authentication would be good. You could give account holders (optionally perhaps) a hardware or software security app. I seed it with a PIN you send me and then when I want to do a big withdrawal, you send me a challenge code which I enter into the device. It spits out a response based on some well known crypto protocol (which you should ideally make public) which I then put in the site to authenticate that transaction.

statements - My immediate gripe is that 50 statements seems ridiculously low (and is it per account, or for all accounts?). The storage is minimal so I’m not sure what the reason is - why can’t all statements be online forever (or at least for 7 years, which I seem to remember is the statutory limit). It seems to me that now you’re online, you have a great opportunity to improve the functionality here beyond basic statements. I’d love to be able to search transactions, and even better, to tag them with personal categories which I can then use to create ad-hoc statements of some budget category (eg personal spending, household budget etc). At present I do that locally with spreadsheets, but you could add tremendous value to the site by making it possible to do some of this online. Or, with a web services API, I could write a spreadsheet that would pull data live out of the site and let me analyse it locally. I realise that as a slogan, “Smile - now with web services API” probably won’t directly appeal to a lot of people. It might create a community that would build services for you though. Plus, get in first and you have the de-facto standard.

notification - I don’t want email (I have too much already). What I would like is RSS or Atom.

Horror and Terror

My brother has now got a website up at HorrorAndTerror.org

You can hear a related piece of work by him here

Furthermore: August 2005

2009-01-04T16:14:00.000Z

August 26, 2005

Sky Freesat

Well, the NTL TV contract was coming up to the point where we’d have to start paying for it, and then it stopped working properly anyway (a little box saying “Loading” appeared in the screen and lots of features stopped working on the remote). So rather than face their customer service again, we just had Freesat installed and It. Just. Works. All the same free channels, �150 install and that’s it. You can upgrade to proper Sky at any time if you want to.

Of course, even cancelling a service with NTL is painful. The woman wanted to know why I wanted to cancel (I told her), and then launched into a long explanation of why it would be more expensive for me. No doubt this performance was more for her benefit than mine, but it still shows the contemptuous view NTL have of their customers.

NTL are you listening? We still have phone from you, but if anything goes wrong with it, we’re out the door and never coming back.

Sentences ending with prepositions

I’ve been meaning to post this for ages - I first saw it on Groggs when I was at university. Credit to Jonathan Partington, inventor of the March March March, who would also have been my Director of Studies had he not left Fitz after he interviewed me, for posting this.

A traveller was showing a geologist friend around Duke Bluebeard’s castle.

“One used to be able to look out down on to the plain,” he said, “but it looks as if the Duke has taken the window the plain could be looked out down on to out of away.”

“I wonder,” pondered the geologist, “what he has walled the window the plain was looked out down on to out of up with.”

“I should like to find someone to take the question of what he took the window the plain was looked out down on to out of away for up with.”

“Or indeed what it is walled up with,” murmured the other.

Out of the darkness, the Duke’s voice was heard:

“I am the one to take the question of what I walled that view I could no longer put up with up with up with.”

I’m sure there are longer strings possible, indeed I’m sure I vaguely remember an Archimedeans article with an inductive proof that an arbitrarily large number could be achieved, but I like the neatness of “up with up with up with”.

August 12, 2005

Gmap Pedometer running routes

I saw the Google maps hack this guy did (he wanted to work out distances for running) so I saved my basic 3 running routes around Cambridge:

round the city - about 6 miles

Cherry Hinton Park (includes a hill) - about 5 miles

Nine Wells - somehow the URL for this got lost - I’ll re-record it.

Hey - 2 years blogging as of a couple of days ago.

August 3, 2005

Links

Yes, I know, it wasn’t meant to be a link blog, but I want to get rid of what I keep accumulating in delicious, since I seem to be no nearer to actually integrating my delicious stream into a sidebar

Whiskey Bar - quite old now, but a post that sums up some of the reaction to the re-election of Bush. I kind of think that come the next US election, we’ll either be looking at this and laughing at how over-wrought we all got about the Christian Right and Neo-Cons, or it will seem horribly prescient.

via delicious popular links - wildly inappropriate Japanese ad for The Passion of Christ

Drowning By Numbers - my favourite Greenaway film, and not just because it has Joely Richardson in it. Greenaway’s site has a lot of interesting stuff, although it’s not so easy to navigate. I like the idea of DBN as a version of The Three Billy Goats Gruff which he mentions. Lots of notes on symbolism, where all the numbers are, list of games, stars etc.

Furthermore: July 2005

2009-01-04T16:08:00.000Z

July 31, 2005

Couple More Links

Etymology of Grimpen - you have to scroll down to Sherlock Holmes adds a Word. I thought this was interesting - I only realised the other day when I was watching the drama about Arthur Conan Doyle on BBC2 that he coined the term in The Hound of the Baskervilles. I’d thought it was a proper word because I thought I remembered reading it in a translation of Dante. Turns out I was half-right - I was mis-remembering reading TS Eliot’s East Coker but he lifted the word from the Holmes story. Very interesting.

Kevin Drum - typical, go visit progressive US websites for political news, come back with a big thread on the ending of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Lots of interesting stuff here, but major spoilers if you haven’t read the book.

Bloody Pledgebank again - looks like the Opentech conference (couldn’t make it unfortunately) saw the start of something like a British equivalent of the EFF - a kind of clearinghouse for UK digital rights issues. Click the link if you want to give these people money to get going.

July 26, 2005

New anti-ID cards pledge

No2id have successfully received 10000 sign-ups to their pledge on refusing to sign up for an ID card. I didn’t sign that because I didn’t think I could realistically afford not to have a passport, a driving licence — or indeed afford the potentially large fine for not signing up when the scheme becomes compulsory.

So, now there’s a new pledge, which you can sign if you will support (with money) the people who will refuse to sign up. I’ve signed this one, but we’re still looking for nearly 50000 more people to sign too.

Links

I seem to be accumulating many links:

BBC Cambridgeshire - long interview with Peter Greenaway. I’m quite intrigued to see some of the Tulse Luper stuff, but I’m not sure I’d actually like it.

Crooked Timber - well out of date I’m afraid, but I just re-read this round up of the Lancet study of Iraqi deaths as a result of the invasion. D-squared does a great job of defending the basic methodology against the more egregious slanders levelled against the study.

MeFi - good round up of the reports that the US blew the cover of Naeem Noor Khan last year which may have compromised UK anti-terror operations that now have some links to the London bombers. I haven’t seen this on the news, so it’s either nonsense or just too hard to put over in soundbites.

via cam.misc - open air sculpture in and around Cambridge.

1up.com - pretty amazing stuff about people being hired to perform repetitive tasks in MMORPGs in order to build up credit that can be traded for real cash. Read it and see.

ICE - just spreading the meme a little. Add ICE to your mobile phone address book for In Case of Emergency contact.

via Kottke - David Foster Wallace commencement speech. Good stuff.

July 20, 2005

Cambridge Open Studios

We went to an exhibition by our neighbour, Ellis Hall as part of the Cambridge Open Studios events.

Ellis takes photos often using reflection or distortion to create unusual perspectives. This year a lot of the photos used the horn of a tuba to create strange panoramic views. Of course, L, my eldest daughter was fascinated when the actual tuba itself was produced. The lady who owened it played a tune, and L had a go too and actually managed to get a note out of it (she’s only 3).

I hope she will want to learn to play an instrument, but I’m also rather hoping we can persuade her to something other than the tuba.

July 9, 2005

Watchet, Somerset

I’m not going to get round to the full journal thing, so I thought I should just do a few highlights of our holiday in case they are useful to anyone else planning to visit that area.

We stayed in a flat overlooking the harbour - beautiful view, and it was nice and quiet, which I always appreciate as I live near a busy road, and the noise is always there in the background. We booked through Welcome Cottages - we’ve used them before for self-catered accomodation, and this was up to the standard we had last time.

Watchet is a nice little town - the main disappointment was that it doesn’t really have much beach - there’s some shingly areas, but no good sand. You need to go down the coast to Blue Anchor or Minehead to find proper beach.

We didn’t really eat out, but there are some nice cafes - the Corner House was good, and I recommend the Star Inn for beer. It has a little beer garden too. There’s good fish and chips from the takeaway under the flat. There’s not much in the way of food shops either - there’s a little Co-op for the basics.

I should mention that all the roads in this area are quite narrow and twisty - it’s quite fun to drive them, but it can be a bit hairy in some places when you suddenly round a bend to find a huge lorry trying to come towards you. Everyone drives alarmingly fast.

Things to do:

West Somerset Steam Railway - we took the steam train from Watchet to Minehead which was fun. Minehead was nice for a look round + it has a beach (and there’s a big Butlins, if your kids are that kind of age).

Dunster Castle - looks really interesting, and Dunster village is nice. Beautiful grounds if you’re an idiot and go when the castle is shut like we did.

A bit further afield, we drove up to Lynton and Lynmouth. The drive includes some of the steepest hills and sharpest turns you’re likely to find on any roads in the UK. You have been warned. Lynton and Lynmouth are beautiful - set at the top and bottom of dramatic cliffs on the coast. There’s a cliff railway to carry you up and down. I last came here when I was a kid - we stayed in a terrible guest house, and went walking on Hollerday Hill in the evening. We got lost and probably would have fallen over a cliff if I hadn’t been obsessed with carrying a huge black rubber torch everywhere at the time.

We carried on from there to visit the Broomhill Sculpture Garden. To be honest, it wasn’t worth it - not that there’s anything wrong with the garden as such, but it wasn’t nearly as big as I’d imagined, the price is pretty steep for what it is (we should have sneaked in - nobody would have noticed) and the roads mean it’s a pretty long drive there and back.

Heading out the other direction from Watchet, we visited Cheddar Caves and Gorge. Again, I’d say the official tour is pretty expensive for what’s basically a quick spin up and down the gorge in a coach, and entrance to the cave. I don’t think you can buy separate tickets for different bits, or I’d suggest you just drive up the gorge in your own car (which is pretty spectacular). If you don’t have small kids, I would suggest skipping the caves and just doing a bit of walking round the area.

We went on from there to Wells and saw the Cathedral, which is quite beautiful. You could also do Glastonbury which is nearby, but we skipped it this time.

Beech Woods near Cambridge

2008-12-30T21:55:00.000Z

Furthermore: June 2005

2008-12-30T21:27:00.000Z

June 29, 2005

Book Stats part 2

I thought the long tail of the author distribution would be of some interest (to me if nobody else), so here it is. These are all the authors who I’ve read 5 or more times (including re-readings):

Brian Aldiss - read a whole load of these in my teens. A great SF stylist.

Greg Bear - also in my teens. Terrific SF ideas - Blood Music was way ahead of the curve on nanotechnology ideas.

James Blaylock - whimsical fantasy - I liked The Digging Leviathan and The Last Coin. Couldn’t read his recent stuff.

John Brunner - another SF master - read The Sheep Look Up and Stand on Zanzibar. I was at the 95 Worldcon in Glasgow when he died.

Raymond Chandler - I love these.

GK Chesterton - terrific sense of wonder and paradox. Somewhat dodgy politics.

John Crowley - number 2 in my most read authors list.

Robertson Davies - complex, satisfying novels with a great depth of humour and wisdom.

Dan Dennett - I started reading his philosophy at University before I knew who he was. Consciousness Explained is a really good study even if you completely disagree with it (I don’t).

Philip K Dick - great SF with a huge helping of paranoia.

Greg Egan - a terrific SF writer who really knows his science.

Umberto Eco - not so keen on the recent stuff but I liked The Name of the Rose and some of the non-fiction.

Philip Jose Farmer - read the Riverworld books. Shouldn’t bother with the rest.

George McDonald Fraser - Flashman of course. Read Black Ajax too. Great sense of history.

William Gibson - king of cyberpunk. Not sure how Neuromancer etc would hold up now, but they blew me away at the time.

Frank Herbert - Dune and sequels. A great bit of SF worldbuilding.

Stephen King - a master storyteller.

Joe Lansdale - fun crime novels in the deep South.

Ursula LeGuin - terrific SF.

Primo Levi - I love The Wrench.

Armistead Maupin - number 3 in my author chart.

Robert Pirsig - re-read both his books at least once.

Anthony Powell - makes it onto the list because A Dance to the Music of Time is in 12 books. It’s worth it though.

Terry Pratchett - I read no end of these in my teens and 20s - I got the first 3 discworld books as a school prize after reading Dave Langford’s review of The Colour of Magic - “my ceiling is covered in brown spots from where I tried to read Pratchett and drink beer at the same time.”

Chris Priest - strange, psychological SF and fantasy. Later stuff is actually better - check out The Prestige

JK Rowling - ’nuff said.

JD Salinger - especially Franny and Zooey

Dave Sim - the Cerebus comics were collected in about 6 graphic novels up to where I gave up. The guy is a loon, but the first parts of Cerebus are good.

Ian Watson - terrific SF imagination. I haven’t read anything by him for a long time though.

Gene Wolfe - my number one fave author.

June 28, 2005

Book Stats

I just looked at my reading list and I noticed that at the end of 2006 I shall have been logging books I’ve read for 20 years. Since the rate has dropped off to almost nothing I thought I’d pre-empt the anniversary and see what interesting stats I can derive from it.

The numbers are that I’ve read about 700 books - that’s about 35 a year average, but the numbers are skewed as my reading habit has dropped right off in the last couple of years (partly having children, partly not commuting to London). There are about 630 distinct titles, but only 240 distinct authors - so I don’t re-read that much, but I do read more by the same person if I like something.

Top re-reads by Title:

AEgypt by John Crowley

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

I’ve read both of these 4 times it seems, and funnily enough I was just talking about both these authors recently. I’m not sure they have much in common, apart from both evoking very fully realised characters in a world that seems just a little richer than the one we inhabit day to day.

3 readings:

Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger - my favourite Salinger. Short, but wonderfully drawn characters.

Little, Big by John Crowley - start here with Crowley if you have time to read it.

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons - I re-read this quite recently and it holds up well. The ending now has (to me) a layer of sad irony since 9/11.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig - I read this when I was very unhappy at college and it resonated with me then. I’ve read it again since and it still seems to say some smart things.

The Mathematical Experience by Philip Davies and Reuben Hersh - I read this first in 6th form and it was one of the books that inspired me to do my degree in mathematics. It bears re-reading, and it gives a real insight into the range and depth of the subject.

The strange thing about the lists above is that they omit my favourite author - Gene Wolfe. I don’t seem to have re-read any of his stuff more than once - I’m not sure why, maybe they seemed too daunting. Also, Wolfe is a lot more prolific than Crowley. If you look at the list of most-read authors though, you get a more accurate view of who I read the most:

Gene Wolfe - 40 readings

John Crowley - 18 readings

Armistead Maupin - 16 readings

The author distribution has a more interesting long tail than the books, so I might post about that later.

June 23, 2005

Reading

I’ve really not managed to read very much at all so far this year, but while I was on holiday I re-read two of the Tales of the City books that I didn’t re-read before: Babycakes and Significant Others. I enjoyed them both a lot - there’s something about the atmosphere that the books conjure that I just want to be there in San Francisco.

Then two things I discovered on the web - Charles Stross’s Accelerando is available for free download. I read the first part - Lobsters - when it was in Asimov’s but the rest is new to me and I’m really enjoying it.

The other is kind of the apex of literary anticipation for me - John Crowley’s new book is out. It’s called Lord Byron’s Novel - The Evening Land. I’ve ordered from Amazon already. There’s a good review by John Clute available. I’ve read pretty much everything by Crowley and I’m really looking forward to this.

Clute suggests that the fourth AEgypt novel may also be done soon (although that’s a bit of a relative term for Crowley) and will be called Endless Things. True Crowley fiends may also be interested in the Little, Big 25th Anniversary Edition - check it out, it will be a tremendous edition if the subscription succeeds.

June 20, 2005

Back from my holiday

Just back from a week away in Watchet (near Minehead). It was really nice to get away from work, email, blogs etc for a while and just spend some time with my family.

I’ll try to work up a post about what we did and where we went, but I’m not really feeling up to it at the moment. I still seem to have the tail-end of a cold that started the week before we went away, and just about lasted through to the end.

I meant to write about going to the London Geek Dinner, which was great fun - everyone I met was really friendly. I got to meet Bob Scoble - ironically he’d been up in Cambridge all day, and I’d just come down from there to meet him in London. I spoke to him about the idea of having a geek dinner in Cambridge but since then my cold and the holiday intervened so I haven’t pursued the idea any further yet. Bob - I will get in touch, and you can tell me if this is a really a good idea or if you were just being polite to me

June 6, 2005

For any newcomers who may have wandered in…

I’m going to the Bob Scoble + Hugh McLeod Geek Dinner in London tomorrow night so I’m unlikely to be posting again till I get back. Since a few people might check out the site as a result, I thought I’d just post a brief intro to what’s going on here.

So, I’m Matt Freestone. I’m married with two young daughters, and I live and work in Cambridge (UK). I work for Sungard as a software developer in their trading and risk group. I don’t really blog about that, but I’m happy in my job - I’m working with some smart people, the company doesn’t mess me around, and I’m close to home. My CV lives here if you are interested in that sort of thing.

I’ve built various websites pretty much since I got a Demon account with some webspace in the early 90’s. Furthermore is the latest incarnation - it’s been going nearly 2 years now. As you can tell, it’s a personal site - I get about 20-30 site visits a day, according to latest stats. Some things you may want to check out:

Cambridge - posts about living and working here. I’ve been back here nearly 4 years now - I studied my degree here, then moved to London for several years. I’m currently cataloguing Cambridge blogs - you can see my list on Del.icio.us, or there’s an OPML file you can use if you want.

Book, film, and TV reviews.

Family Tree - I’ve been trying to get some of the family tree online. This is the tree so far.

Jobhunting - from late 2003, but it still gets a lot of hits. I was working for a company called Mercator that was bought out. Pretty much all my office were made redundant. These pages are about how I went about getting a new job.

Existential Horror Song - written and performed by my brother. Just the thing to cheer you up.

Charity Gig - Portland Arms

There’s a gig at the Portland Arms (near Mitchams Corner) on Friday 10th June at 7.30 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. The money is going to Comic Relief.

Tickets are �3. Confirmed bands: (don’t ask me who any of these people are)

Christena Maloney Band

Quite a Smaller Believer

Knights of Spring

Triple H

More details from liveaid20 at gmail dot com

June 3, 2005

Freestone Family Tree

This will be the permanent link page for the family tree of my dad’s ancestors.

Thomas Freestone

b. c1795 m Mary Ann (Mansfield?)

William Mansfield Freestone b1818 d1819

Caroline Mansfield Freestone b 1820

William Mansfield Freestone b1821

George Freestone b1823

Charles Freestone b1825

James Freestone b1825 d1829

Eleanor Freestone b1828

James William Freestone b1830

John Freestone
b1831 m Elizabeth Jane ?

John William
Freestone b1857 m Fanny Crossley

John W Freestone b~1878

Edward Freestone b~1881

Thomas Mansfield Freestone b~1883

Elizabeth A Freestone b~1887

Herbert Freestone b~1890

Fanny Freestone b~1893

Alfred Freestone b~1895

May Freestone b~1899

Sidney Freestone b~1901

Caroline Freestone b~1860

Thomas Mansfield
Freestone b1861 m Ellen Ryalls

Edwin T Freestone b~1885

Frederick C Freestone b~1888

John W Freestone b~1890

Alfred Freestone b~1893

Ernest Freestone b~1896

Walter Freestone b~1898 - my grandfather

Ada Freestone b~1900

Charles HM Freestone b1866

Benjamin Freestone b1833 d1833

Eliza Freestone b1835

Thomas Freestone of Chelmsford (~1795 - 18??)

Thomas Freestone was my great great great grandfather - see the Family Tree

I haven’t looked at these records myself, but a person from the Freestone mailing

list kindly did this research for me.

Date	Event	References
~1795	Thomas Freestone born in Chelmsford?, Essex
~1815	Married Mary (or Mary Ann) Mansfield(?)
19 Oct 1817	Mary Ann Freestone born in Chelmsford	parish records
31 Dec 1818	William Mansfield Freestone born in Chelmsford (buried 5 Jan 1819)	parish records
28 Jul 1820	Caroline Mansfield Freestone born in Chelmsford	parish records
27 Dec 1821	William Mansfield Freestone born in Chelmsford	parish records
17 Aug 1823	George Freestone born in Chelmsford	parish records
6 Mar 1825	Charles Freestone born in Chelmsford	parish records
1 Aug 1825	James Freestone born in Chelmsford (buried 29 Aug 1829)	parish records
23 Jul 1828	Eleanor Freestone born in Chelmsford	parish records
11 Jul 1830	James William Freestone born in Chelmsford	parish records
5 Apr 1831	John Freestone born in Chelmsford	parish records
3 Apr 1833	Benjamin Freestone born in Chelmsford (buried 9 Apr 1833)	parish records
12 Mar 1835	Eliza Freestone born in Chelmsford (buried 9 May 1835)	parish records
3q1870	?Mary Ann (wife) died age 58	parish records

The family seems to have lived in Union Yard/Barrack Lane. Thomas was

feltmonger/leather dresser.

Other factoids I have from my correspondent’s email:

A Mary Ann Freestone of old Barrack Lane was buried in 1 Jul 1835 age 40yrs. Not sure

who that is.

I could not find a marriage for Thomas and Mary Ann.

There was a girl named Susanna Mansfield who had about four illigitimate children

around this time period. I was wondering if she was a sister to Mary Ann.

Also I could not find John Freestone in the 1841 census, it was so faded

I could not read it.

He was not in 1851 census, but: In the 1851 Census there was the following

Family at Chelmsford.

At 4 Conduit Square Thomas Freestone, Head, Mar, 35, Glover, born in Chelmsford.

Ann Freestone, Wife, Mar, 38, born in Chelmsford

Elizabeth Jennings, Sister-in Law, 40, born in Chelmsford

This Thomas Freestone could be another son of Thomas and Mary Ann. He

would have been born about 1816, but there was no christening record for him.

Thomas and Ann were in the 1861 Census, but Thomas was a widower in 1871.

Thomas Mansfield Freestone (1861-1940)

Thomas Mansfield Freestone was my great-grandfather - see the Family Tree

Date	Event	References
3q1861	Thomas Mansfield Freestone born in Sheffield to John and Elizabeth Freestone	GRO - Sheffield 9c 398 3q1861
3q1882	Married Mary Ellen Ryalls	GRO Sheffield 9c398 3q1882
~1885	Son, Edwin T Freestone born in Chelmsford	1901 census
~1888	Son, Frederick C Freestone born in Grantham	1901 census
~1890	Son, John W Freestone born in Nuneaton	1901 census
1891	Family living in Nuneaton at 6 Seymour Rd near to John W (brother). Thomas M working as skinner in leather factory.	1891 Census
~1893	Son, Alfred Freestone born in Nuneaton	1901 census
~1896	Son Ernest Freestone born in Havant, Hants	1901 census
~1898	Son, Walter Freestone (my grandfather) born in Worcester
~1900	Daughter, Ada Freestone born in Worcester	1901 census
1901	Boarding in Lincoln with son Edwin at 10 St Marks Sq, with Nicols family. Other children with Ellen in Sheffield.	1901 census
1q1940	Died, Lincoln � recorded age 77	GRO - Lincoln 7a1637 1q1940

John William Freestone (1858 - 19??)

John William Freestone was my great-grandfather’s brother - see the Family Tree

Date	Event	References
2q1858	John William Freestone born in Sheffield, son of John and Elizabeth Freestone.	GRO - Sheffield 9c 365 2q1857
3q1877	Married Fanny Crossley	GRO - Sheffield 9c 585
~1878	Son, John W Freestone born in Sheffield	1891 Census
~1881	Son, Edward Freestone born in Sheffield	1891 Census
~1883	Son, Thomas Mansfield Freestone born in Sheffield	1901 census
~1887	Daughter, Elizabeth A Freestone born in Grantham	1901 census
~1890	Son, Herbert Freestone born in Grantham	1901 census
1891	Family at Seymour Road, Nuneaton, John working as skinner in wool factory. Thomas M (brother) also in same road. Children present: John W, 13, Edward, 10, Thomas, 8, Elizabeth, 4, Herbert, 1	1891 Census
~1893	Daughter, Fanny Freestone born in Grantham	1901 census
~1895	Son, Alfred Freestone born in Grantham	1901 census
~1899	Daughter, May Freestone born in Grantham	1901 census
~1901	Son, Sidney Freestone born in Grantham	1901 census
1901	Family living at 7 Temperance Place, Grantham. John W (son) and Edward not present. Tom working as grocers asst.	1901 census
19??	died

I’m looking for the following on John William (father):

a death record - can’t find one on FreeBMD

I can’t find John W (son) in the 01 census. Edward is present - he’s working as a master baker in Worksop. I haven’t looked at his household record for children.

Furthermore: May 2005

2008-12-30T21:14:00.000Z

May 26, 2005

Political Links

Hopelessly out of date as usual. With a surveillance flavour this time

The Register - UK Automated Number Plate Recognition

The Register - The Met Chief on ID Cards

Bruce Schneier - comment on a report on Global Surveillance Infrastructure

Statewatch - the report on Global Surveillance infrastructure (big PDF)

Cambridge Links

Cambridge 2000 Project - lots of photos of the city

John Beardsworth - lots more great photos. I recognised some of his Cambridge ones from our calendar.

May 23, 2005

John Freestone (1831 - 188?)

John Freestone is my great great grandfather - see the Family Tree

Date	Event	References
5 April 1831	John Freestone Born at Union Yard, Chelmsford, Essex to Thomas and Mary Ann Freestone	1881 census. Parish records
~1850s	Married Elizabeth Jane of Gloucester	1861 census
2q1857	Son, John William Freestone born in Sheffield	1861 census GRO - Sheffield 9c 365 2q1857
~1860	Daughter, Caroline Freestone born in Sheffield	1861 census
1861	Census shows family living at Brightside Bierlow, Yorks. Children present John W and Caroline. Also Elizabeth R Cleveland b1849 and Alexander Cleveland b1854 marked as d.in law and son in law (can be step children or other).	1861 census
3q1861	Son, Thomas Mansfield Freestone born in Sheffield	1871 census GRO - Sheffield 9c 398 3q1861
1864	Insurance claim for flooding � 62 Mowbray Street, Sheffield Working as a feltmonger (skinner) for George Mills at Neepsend	Sheffield Uni
2q1866	Son, Charles HM Freestone born in Chelmsford	1881 census GRO - Chelmsford 4a174 2q1866
1871	Lodging in Brightfield Burlow	1871 census
1881	At 8 Wood Street, Nether Hallam, York	1881 census
?	Died

For John, I’m looking for:

a death record. There’s a possible match at EcclesallB 9c 183 4q1883 but this may be another John. I can’t find John on the 1901 census so it seems likely to be before then.

census records for 1841, 1851.

more information on Elizabeth R Cleveland b1849 and Alexander Cleveland b1854 and their relationship to the family.

May 16, 2005

Investing - Introduction

I’ve been meaning to write about this topic for a while, and I haven’t got round to it because there’s too much for one post, and I only really get to think about blogging during the time I’m doing it, so it has to be fairly off the cuff.

So I’ve decided to do this in bits and use my personal experiences to hang the various bits on.

I’m now in my mid-thirties. I left University at 22 and started work on a modest graduate salary with the Woolwich Building Society (as was). Probably the first couple of years I didn’t save anything - I spent what came in on rent, food and going out. So on that basis I’ve been saving for about 10 years.

Once my salary hit about 18k (after I’d been at the Woolwich for a while) I started putting some money into a separate account. In fact that’s probably Lesson One as far as I’m concerned: hide the money you don’t want to spend. Just having it in a different account makes you think about it separately.

I’m going to stick to my small chunks rule: more soon. Probably on IFAs.

May 10, 2005

LibDems take Cambridge

Way too late, but I was pleased to see the end of Anne Campbell’s time as my MP, and her replacement by David Howarth of the Liberal Democrats. This election was the first time I’ve been involved in campaigning for a political party and it was nice that it was the winning one.

I was inspired to get involved after going to the No2id meeting in January. I spoke to a couple of LibDem councillors after the meeting and they gave me the impression that Cambridge was winnable. Since I was well fed up with Labour by then, I started leafletting for them, and I even did a bit of knocking up on Election Day - a slightly nerve-wracking experience, I have to say.

Still, I’m hoping to do a bit more, particularly as youngest Freestone gets old enough not to need a feed at 11pm - that really buggers your evening up (although I am grateful for the fact that she doesn’t need feeding at 2-3am now).

Update on Things to Come

Writing the piece on Henwood below makes me realise I really do want to post a bit more about investing - I have various thoughts on investing and pensions and what I’m trying to achieve, and it would be good to get them out there to see how mad they look when exposed to public scrutiny.

While I’m thinking about my list of things to post about I see I also mentioned redundancy consultations - I think that will have to go on the back-burner for a bit (uh, if there is a burner any further back that is). Touchy subject at the moment.

After tentatively trying to formulate answers for Options, Futures and Other Derivatives into blog posts I’ve given up on the idea - I’m getting through the questions now, so I don’t really feel the need to post.

Updating the site is still on the agenda - just a question of time. I’m also still monitoring my Cambridge blog list so I’ll be updating that at some point with an idea of how regularly the various journals are updated.

Wall Street - Doug Henwood

(Verso, ISBN 0860916707)

Okay, it’s not really a review, but this is so far the only book I’ve read lately, and that only because I heard it was available online for free (via a thread on Crooked Timber). I enjoyed After the New Economy and I thought this was also good.

It’s partly a primer on what the markets are all about, what they’re for and how they work. Since it’s by Henwood, it’s from a left perspective, which in a book about high finance, is kind of a unique perspective. For that reason, even if you know about the markets, you’re likely to learn some new things, or at least have your ideas challenged in an intelligent way.

I thought the chapters on company financing and debt were very interesting - the relative unimportance of raising money in the markets is quite striking, and makes me think twice about getting back into equities.

Furthermore: April 2005

2008-12-27T20:54:00.001Z

April 28, 2005

Gmail invites

I have a bunch of these, if there’s still anyone left that wants one. Reply here, or to matt dot freestone at gmail dot com

April 26, 2005

The Plough, Fen Ditton

Went to the Plough at Fen Ditton on Sunday for lunch. The food’s not the greatest, but it’s okay - Brewers Fayre I think. The main attraction is to be able to sit outside by the river and enjoy a drink and a meal with friends.

More on Cambridge Blogs

After a little work, I have a list of about 50 blogs that have been updated within the last year at least. You can see my list here:

del.icio.us/crocomancer/cambridge+blog

or if you look in the left column of the main page of this blog you’ll see all the feeds I could find in the blogroll. If you want to use them yourself, I have exported them to OPML here

If you have a blog you think I’ve missed, then by all means post a comment, drop me a mail, or just add an entry to delicious with the tags cambridge and blog - I have a feed for that page so I’ll see it sooner or later.

My plan now is to just sit on the links in bloglines for a couple of weeks or so and see what gets updated regularly, occasionally and not at all. I’ll probably add some more tags to the delicious list after that.

April 19, 2005

LibDems and NotApathetic

Just been out leafletting for the Cambridge LibDems and also for NotApathetic.com. I resisted the temptation to put deliver both sets of leaflets to the same houses - didn’t seem right somehow, so that added quite a lot onto the time it took.

Also just dumped my lazyweb idea for a living will generator onto the mysociety wiki.

Still lots of Cambridge blogs to sort through - I want to put as many of the feeds as possible into my Bloglines blogroll + update the delicious list with a quick comment on each blog.

April 14, 2005

Cambridge Blogs

I’ve been doing a quick (hah - it’s taken much longer than I thought) survey of Cambridge (UK) blogs. By a blog here, I basically mean something with an RSS or Atom feed. I’ve also restricted myself to individual or small group blogs.

So far I’ve found about 35 active sites using a mixture of Google, Technorati, and following other peoples blogrolls. I’m in two minds whether to list the sites here directly or just keep them on delicious. So far I’ve not really added any description for the sites, but I’ll go through the list now and have a go at that as I get some time. I’ll also try to add the rest of the feeds to my Blogroll.

I estimated there to be somewhere between 100 and 200 blogs in Cambridge before I started (guessing 1 in a 1000 are bloggers in the city basically). I haven’t really searched everything yet, so there could easily be as many again that I haven’t found, which would give 70 or so, which is not far off.

Anyway, if you are blogging in Cambridge (UK) and you see this, post a comment and I’ll add you to the delicious list (or just post there with the tags Cambridge and blog and I’ll see it when I next check that feed).

Update: I’ve now got about 45 sites, and I’m starting to see links back to sites I’ve seen already. There seem to be a lot of LiveJournalists in Cambridge. I’ve turned trackback on for this post (it’s going off again if I get a lot of spam) so you can use that too now.

Places to Go

I’ve just created a new category of Places to Go, which I’ll be using for all excursions, holidays, and suchlike. There’s a few pieces there already - Burghley House, Cromer, Wimpole Hall. More soon.

April 12, 2005

Election Links

I seem to have seen a fair number of election-related links, so I thought I’d gather them together here.

Chris Lightfoot on the polling evidence - lots of interesting stuff, particularly if you live in Cambridge. I’m supporting the Lib Dems here (for this election at least) and there’s at least some hope here that the seat might be winnable, although it depends a lot how you massage the numbers. We’ll see on the night.

Not Apathetic - one of the MySociety projects. I’ve sorta volunteered through the as-yet unfinished PledgeBank to deliver 100 leaflets in the local area. Blogging should reach at least 3 more…

Pledgebank - another one I just saw. Mr Lightfoot wants some help comparing reasons for not voting logged on NotApathetic.

VoxPolitics - just saw this the other day. Politics and social software for the UK

Make My Vote Count - online petition for fair votes. via Paul Oldham on cam.misc

April 7, 2005

Links

I’m using del.icio.us for links now, and I want to push the feed onto this site, but I haven’t got round to writing the bits of script yet, so here’s a little catch-up:

Petals Round the Rose - yeah, everyone’s seen it, but it’s still a nice little puzzle.

Joseph Mugnaini - when I was very little, my dad read Ray Bradbury’s The Hallowe’en Tree to me and my brother. This guy did the fantastic illustrations.

cam.misc - interesting thread on the workings of Cambridge City Council.

How ID Cards were abolished - I heard David Howarth tell this story at the No2ID public meeting, but I couldn’t remember the details. Thanks to Richard for posting this.

British Roads FAQ - via cam.misc. Ever wondered how the roads are numbered?

How Rich Are You? - rough reckoner for your position in the global wealth list. Lots of quibbles could be made (and are in the CT comments) but it’s still a bit of an eye-opener.

More on Knee Problems

I went to see someone who actually knows about knees, and I’ve been diagnosed with chondromalacia - also known as runner’s knee as it is apparently pretty common in runners. Anyway, I have to rest the knee for a bit, and then I need to look into what might be causing the underlying problem - could be overpronation, although I’ve been using the same kind of fairly neutral shoes for a long time now without any problem.

Furthermore: March 2005

2008-12-27T20:48:00.000Z

March 29, 2005

Excel Trick - counting lists of things

Probably there’s some neat built in way to do this, but I don’t know it if there is. Suppose you have a list, which may contain multiple copies of each item in it. You want to know how many of each there are.

ie, suppose I have a, b, a, c, b, a, d, c, b - how many of each thing do I have?

Okay, put all the items in a column, then sort it, so that all the a’s are together, all the b’s etc. Call that column A. Now in column B, put a 1 in row 1, then starting at row 2, use this formula: IF(A2=A1, B1+1, 1) - fill down to the end. The successive cells in the column will count up from 1 to however many of each thing you have.

Ah, but how can you extract the highest numbered item of group of identical items easily? Simple: column C - use this formula: IF(B2

March 28, 2005

Things to Come

I feel slightly nervous writing about what I’m planning to write about, but maybe it will give me some impetus to actually get on with it. Let’s check back in a month and see what I’ve managed to do:

pensions - I’ve just managed to turn my mass of work and personal pensions into something I actually understand, so I figure some notes on what I did might be helpful to a few people.

redundancy consultations - I was made redundant from a software company in late 2003. I was an employee representative in the consultation, and while there are things I’m not allowed to say about the process, a lot of what I learnt generally would be useful to people dumped into the same situation.

Options, Futures and Other Derivatives - I’m in two minds about this - my idea is that as I do the exercises, I should blog them. It’ll give me an incentive to actually do them. Or will it just make me nervous? I’m going to give it some thought.

Site design - I want to tweak the design a bit - I want a right hand column into which I can push my delicious entries. I know it’s only a template away, but it might take me a while to get round to it.

March 25, 2005

Knee Problems

I’ve been having some trouble with my right knee for several weeks now. It aches just on the inside of the joint when I’m running, and it persists after the run, which made me worried about doing too much with it.

I’ve been to the doctor and she said there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it, so after a bit of rest, I’ve started running again with a knee support. I suppose I should be grateful that I’ve had about 10 years without any injuries, but it’s still annoying when something that’s become such an important ritual in my life is suddenly threatened without there being any apparent cause as to why the knee should suddenly start playing up.

March 20, 2005

Wimpole Hall

We went to Wimpole Hall yesterday. Didn’t see the Hall itself, but we saw some of the grounds, which are beautiful, and we visited Wimpole Hall Farm which was a big hit with eldest daughter (3). They have lots of animals to pet, and it was a really nice day out. It’s about �15 for 2 adults + 1 child 3 or over to do the farm. You have to pay separately for the Hall itself, or I think you can get an inclusive ticket.

My only gripe: if the weather’s nice, bring your own food - the restaurant was very overpriced and not much good at all. Apart from that, we’ll definitely be coming back to do some of the walks, and probably see the farm again.

March 8, 2005

For Sale / Free

I’ve got a few things I want rid of:

high chair - good condition, it’s just a bit big for our house and doesn’t fold down much. If that’s not a problem for you then you are welcome to it - free to good home.

Big collection of 2000AD comics. Everything from prog 2 to about prog 750. I think there’s one missing. The early ones are variably well preserved, but all readable. More recent ones (about 400 onwards) are in good nick - �50 ono. These are at my parents’ place, so if you are interested, let me know, and I’ll go up there and bring them back here.

I’ve also got annuals from 1978 to 1991. Make me an offer.

Interzone - issue 27 to 176 (maybe one or two gaps). �50 ono.

If you’re interested in anything, email me: matt at this domain.

March 3, 2005

Amazon Yellow Pages and Keyhole

I love sites that let you zoom into maps or aerial photos, even better are the ones where you can navigate at street level such as the late, lamented DizzyCity.

Anyway, to fill the gap left by DizzyCity, Amazon are now doing Yellow Pages for some of the big US cities. For instance I was pretty impressed with this Yellow Pages link to New York which shows the part of 8th Avenue where the Incentra Village House Hotel is (stayed there last time I was in New York). I think it’s pretty amazing the way you can walk up and down the street. They cover SF and some other places too.

Over at Google, if you have broadband, you can download a trial version of Keyhole. It’s like having a geographical globe you can zoom right into. Coverage is better for some places than others, but I was impressed with it as something to play with - I can imagine the educational value for instance.

Furthermore: February 2005

2008-12-27T20:40:00.000Z

February 28, 2005

Not Reading

Back after another longish hiatus. I just finished my first book of this year: Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Looking back at last year, I see I only read 19 books altogether, and it looks like I may do even worse this year.

I’m not too happy about that, but I just don’t seem to have the concentrated bits of time in which to read anymore. Or at least, when I do have them, I have other things I want to do more than reading. It makes me uneasy though - I’ve always enjoyed reading, and I think it’s important. What does it say about me that I’m ceasing to be a reader (or at least, a book reader - I still read online sources).

February 7, 2005

Timisoara cathedral

Another old picture, this one is from August 1999, when I went to Timisoara in Romania with some friends to see the solar eclipse. I stayed with a Romanian family and it was a great experience.

February 1, 2005

Letter to Anne Campbell MP

Thank you for your prompt reply to my somewhat intemperate letter. I amvery pleased to hear that you are unhappy with the idea of detention without trial.You’ve made a number of points that I feel I should respond to.

Firstly, on the question of the existing detainees at Belmarsh: I actually take the view that law governing their detention that was recently ruled unlawful by the Law Lords actually sidestepped the difficult issue which we now confront quite neatly.

Obviously, I would prefer nobody to be detained without trial (we all agree that it’s a Bad Thing), however, in the case of the existing detainees we are dealing with foreign nationals who we would normally deport (I assume).

The reason we don’t do so in these cases is the threat to their human rights in their countries of origin. However, as I understand it, the detainees are free to leave at any time if they choose to return home, or can find a third country that will take them. I don’t mean to be flippant about the difficulties that they face in this, but they do have options.

Conversely, because the law applies only to foreign nationals, I don’t see it as a threat to the freedoms of UK citizens. I’ve tried to give the Government this much credit: that the measure imposed was as limited as possible.

Now the Law Lords have taken a higher stand on principle, but the Government’s response to this seems wholly disproportionate to me.

I feel sure that you understand at least as well as I do the idea that we are free people, and that the Goverment is our servant. Central to that is the idea that if we’re accused of something, we get a day in court to argue our case before our peers.

The current proposals undermine that fatally - Governments cannot be trusted with the sole power to determine who shall be detained. Nor can a secret review process be trusted to uphold the rights of the people detained. It’s not a question of the goodwill or integrity of the people entrusted with the power. It’s just a fact of those kind of systems. Only openness ensures justice will (eventually) prevail.

I’ve read the summary on Abu Qattara, and he sounds like a dangerous fanatic. You ask how we should deal with him - implicitly I suppose you mean if not by detaining him without trial? If I see someone in the street doing something dangerous, and I tell them to stop, I don’t think I’m actually obliged to offer them an alternative occupation.

The Government has access to much smarter people than me, and I can’t believe this is the best they can do. If you want my opinion, then I would say there seems to be plenty of scope for prosecuting Mr Qattara with, say, receiving stolen money, or perhaps incitement to racial hatred.

In the more general case, I appreciate the difficulty of exposing secret operations in the course of prosecutions, but I think it’s wildly overstated - we know that phones and emails can be intercepted (the Government must be the only people still pretending not to know what Echelon is) and that evidence should be admissible in court. Everyone has a right to a fair trial.

I would appreciate it if you would pass my concerns on to the Home Office. I’d also like to know whether your distaste for detention without trial would extend as far as voting against the current proposals.

Furthermore: January 2005

2008-12-27T17:17:00.001Z

January 26, 2005

Grand Arcade

I just saw the Grand Arcade project website the other day. If you hunt within it, you can find some pictures of what the new mall will look like when it’s finished.

Nine Wells

I discovered this site the other day, which has a variety of walks around Cambridge. Since I’d recently been reading about Hobsons Conduit, I decided to do the Nine Wells walk as a run. I enjoyed it (although my right knee started playing up - probably a sign I need new trainers) and it looks like I can extend the run by going up the hill past Nine Wells towards Shelford.

January 24, 2005

Ancient Cartoon

I’m hoping to do a some new cartoons, but as everything in my life is currently undergoing tiny-baby chaos, I thought I should at least put down a marker for my efforts. I have a few of these old ones, which reflect being a maths student when the Farside was very popular. Not sure what new cartoons might look like yet.

January 19, 2005

New Baby

The reason I’ve not really managed to blog anything for a while is that Mrs Freestone and I just had our second baby, Eleanor. She’s just starting to go crazy in the baby carrier strapped to my chest as I write this so it looks like I’m not going to get anything more done this evening either.

Piccy for those who are interested.

Furthermore: December 2004

2008-12-26T16:35:00.001Z

December 27, 2004

Fentimans Ginger Beer and Orange Jigger

One more while I’m in blogging mode. Fentimans Ginger Beer has long been a favourite in our house (although often rather hard to get for some reason - it seems to come and go at Sainsburys, although I’ve also sometimes seen it in one of the off licences on Mill Road). So when I saw Fentimans Orange Jigger in Sainsburys, I thought I should give it a try.

Verdict - it’s okay, but probably not worth a pound a throw. Mrs Freestone described it as being like a “weak St Clements - not orangey or lemony enough”. That seems to about sum it up I’m afraid. Buy another one of the Ginger Beers instead.

Hotel Felix and Loch Fyne Restaurant

While I’m in catch-up mode, I went to both of these places recently. The visit to Hotel Felix was for a work Christmas do. I thought the food was good - and there were good alternatives to the standard turkey. While I wouldn’t say there was not enough food, you also couldn’t accuse them of being over-generous. I think this was mainly about style rather than stinginess, but it depends on your taste I guess. The hotel itself is nice, although the modern extension looks a bit jarring to my eye. A good place for a special occasion, although I’d take the Crown and Punchbowl over this any day.

Loch Fyne is a nice relaxed place to go - we went as two couples with two small children + another grown-up and nobody felt at all out of place. I’ve always had good food there - this time I had kippers followed by bream, all of which was delicious. The service was very friendly and overall it was a lovely occasion. Be prepared to pay accordingly though - not much change out of 200 pounds for 5 adults and 2 children once you include the tip.

St Ives

So, no post for a while - been busy with work and other stuff. Anyway, today we had a drive up to St Ives, which I’ve not seen before. To be honest, it’s not that exciting, plus the weather was absolutely freezing. We had lunch at the Golden Lion in the High Street - kind of generic chain pub food, but it was cosy, and the food was fine.

Then we walked up to the Ouse and I saw the Dolphin Hotel (may be called something else now) and I realised I had been to St Ives before. When I was a student and secretary of the CU Humanist Workshop, I had lunch there with Gerd Sommerhoff. I remember the food being good (although since I was a student, I was hardly accustomed to eating in hotel restaurants) but I’d totally forgotten about the meal until I saw the hotel again. Quite a strange deja vu experience really - uncovering a little bit of lost past.

December 7, 2004

ID Cards

I’ve become involved in the No2id campaign to prevent the Government from introducing ID cards and a national identity register. The local group here in Cambridge had its second meeting last night, and managed to rather overwhelm our chosen venue of The Old Spring. This was partly my fault as I posted the time and place to cam.misc, from where it reached Indymedia. Anyway, the upshot was that from a first meeting of 3 people, we had a second of nearly 30.

We had a good mix of backgrounds and views, and the current plan is to organise a public meeting for early next year. If you are interested, do drop me a line, visit the No2id site, or subscribe to the local group email list.