Amateur Ramblings

Training Day

Some nights, if the wind is coming from the south, we can here the trains arriving back at the Neville Hill train depot over the other side of the park. A couple of weeks ago a pair of East Midland Trains' high speed trains collided (at low speed). But it was speed enough to topple a couple of carriages from one of the trains.

Although the collision happened off the main line from Leeds to York, the local rail network was still tipped into chaos. A crane had to be bought in, and to allow it to safely recover the damaged carriages most of the adjasant overhead wiring had to be dismantled. Recovery took a couple of days, and caused most services to be diverted. Flooding on the line out west to Halifax didn't help the overall situation.

I managed to find the following footage someone took from one of the few trains running on the line:

And while I chatting on about railways, here's what appears to be a genuine video of a nimble track inspector enjoying a double lucky escape:

Top Heavy

We had a lovely, low-key, halloween-tinged weekend. Saturday was the busiest day; Sunday was pretty lazy.

Preparations commenced on Thursday when I harvested our crop of butternut squashes from the garden. Both were looking mighty tasty...

...but size left a little to be desired, as evidenced when compared to an average-sized pumpkin:

No matter. The pumpkin and the ripe butternut went into the big pot, along with some onion, garlic, potatoes and red peppers. Left to simmer for a few hours, then blended, we had our soup for Saturday.

And like clockwork, Saturday came around. The day started with a visit to Baildon to see Dean and Rachel. Andrew and Michelle were also there, and both Olive and Scarlett were dressed appropriately for the time of year.

 

 

Whilst there we met the Viponds new daughter Isabella, who was mainly asleep and most definitely gorgeous.

Then we drove home, The three Davies' couldn't fit into our car so took the train to Leeds, and I went to pick them up. I was concerned enough about the demonstrations that were taking place in nearby City Square to take the back way to the station. There were lots of police around and a couple of helicopters, but no sign of either the English Defence League or the Unite Against Facism. On the way home I decided to go through town, and we were amazed at the number of police on the streets.

The rallies had now dispersed but the police were clearly taking no changes. Clusters of police stood about on every corner, and most of the roads around Greek Street were double-parked with police vans. We felt at once safe and apprehensive.

Back home, we ate soup, and then left Gemma's mum in charge of Olive and Scarlett. We four headed to Bradford to see Daniel Kitson. His current stand-up show is loosely about death and ran for an hour and a half. Of course it was absolutely funny. Wearing a relatively trimmed beard and shorter hair, he looked like a younger Bill Bryson.

Afterwards we had a little difficulty getting out of the multi-storey car park; something had caused a delay, and now there was a large queue of cars lined up at the single exit barrier. It was one of those car parks where you pay before getting into your car; you leave by surrendering your ticket at the barriers. To avoid mis-use, you have something like fifteen minutes from the time you pay to get to the barrier. But it was soon clear that the cars in the queue were taking longer than this to reach the front. Confusion reigned. Some bystanders loitered at the barrier, passengers got out of cars and waived tickets. But luckily nine police forces were not required in this instance, as some remote controller opened the barrier just as we reached the front.

Sunday was scrambled eggs on toast and sitting around chatting. Apart from taking the Davies' back to Wakefield at lunchtime, and popping into the shops for supplies, Sunday was a day for lounging with the family.

Slow Days

You may know I take a subscription from Private Eye. One of the columns I enjoy isFunny Old World, which is a compendium of weird newspaper articles and press releases from around the world. The following was featured a few weeks ago.

Police Blotter; information from the public safety records of the Lake Oswego Police Department. Police recently filed reports on the following incidents (source: Lake Oswego News, 16th April 2009):

6th April 2009, 5.09pm - A dead duck was found at a pond near a coffee shop on Boones Ferry Road.

7th April 2009, 7.30am - A deceased duck was reported on Westview Drive. Standing next to it was a live duck.

7th April 2009, 11.41am - An officer was unable to catch two dogs at large in the road.

7th April 2009, 11.42am - A man with his left leg hanging out the window was seen driving down Boones Ferry Road.

7th April 2009, 11.56am - A solicitor left a flyer at a residence despite a sign saying 'no solicitation'.

7th April 2009, 1.35pm - A psychology student made a loud rasping noise in her front yard. A police check discoered she was gardening.

7th April 2009, 3.08pm - Officers were unable to locate a mewing cat.

8th April 2009, 9.21pm - A woman keeps smelling almonds in her laundry room.

6th April 2009, 9.30am - A neighbour has been allowing a frog to hop outside his shop window.

Let them read cake

Now, I've got a lot to get through this week, on account of me accruing a whole bunch of interesting links. So listen up while I crack on.

Today's arises from an article featured on the Telegraph's website about the Cake Wrecks blog that Michelle sent to me. The uncredited piece compiles seventeen of the best images from that blog, and in tribute to the increasingly common journalistic practice of trawling the Internet for stories that perhaps are not worthy of publication in quality publication, I present two of the best of the best (thus making my blog eight-and-a-half times better than Britains 'best selling' 'quality' 'paper').

 

Transport News

I'm wouldn't be at all surprised if one of the factors that leads to our inevitable extinction is our blind trust in technology. Evidence of this comes from a story I read last night about a man from round these parts Doncaster to be precise).

Robert Jones claims to be a 'professional driver' by trade. But there seems nothing professional about his standard of driving last weekend, as he slavishly followed the instructions given by his satellite navigation device down a steep, rocky and ever-narrowing footpath, stopping just shy of what has been described as a 'cliff edge'. Quite rightly,the police intend to charge him with the offence of driving without due care and attention.

Another story that caught my eye this week was actually a free advertisement for the admittedly wonderful Miniatur Wunderland. This is an £8m, 12,000 square foot model railway built by twin brothers Frederick and Gerrit Braun in Hamburg. Miles of track take in an impossible journey from the Alps of Switzerland, the fjords of Scandinavia, and the rocky presidential faces of Mount Rushmore. Plans to extent the network to include Italy, France and the UK should be realised within the next five years.

Entry is only €10 for adults, which seems reasonable given that the exhibition employs a staff of over 150 . I found that none of the individual photographs of the model do not do it justice, so I have the pleasure of enclosing the 'Official Corporate Video' below.

La Weekend

We had a lovely time at my mum and dad's this weekend. Thanks, as ever, for having us.

We mainly got down to some serious R&R (that's rest and relaxation, stoopid). The only activities we undertook were to get ourselves over to Harbourne on Friday lunchtime to have lunch, and a Saturday walk along the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal from the Stewpony into Kinver. The following images are from the latter outing.

 

 

 

The big news from the second city is that the leader of the city council has decided that the apostrophe is a waste of time. While a small part of me thinks this is reasonable, given that language is transient, I mainly think like a pedant and would argue that currently the apostrophe is a requirement of the English language and therefore should be used. And if the story is some kind of PR stunt (as I now suspect nearly all stories appearing in newspapers and on television news are), I struggle to see who is benefiting.

On the way back to Leeds we called in on my friend, perpetual student (she's currently undertaking a PhD), and dare I say, drummer, AnneMarie. She lives on a narrowboat with her husband in a tiny village south of Derby. We had a drink in the local pub before spending a few minutes in her floating home.

News-Free

The BBC News channel ran a story last night that was really no more than an advert for the company involved. I won't name them (I can't actually remember the name of the firm and I'm not inclined to look them up) or link to the story, but I'll give you the gist.

Apparently, a travel company is offering 'chav-free' holidays. Er, that's it. Hardly an important piece of information, and I don't think should be worthy of a mention on the BBC. Isn't there anything more vital that we should know? Aren't there more informative nuggets that need to be put out there?

The 'news' reader claimed that the decision to offer this product had caused a minor controversy. I'm sure the owner of the travel company isn't too bothered, given that he was being given free advertising. In fact, I am certain that was the plan.

The basis of the holiday being 'chav-free' appeared to be that names of prospective holiday-makers are vetted, and anyone with a chav-like name (such asTiffany, Daz and Britney) will be declined. That's surely got to be shaky legal ground hasn't it?

Anyway, if someone wanted to take such a holiday, they can. They simply need to select a suitable destination. There is a whole world beyond the Spanish coast, you know.

I am presently pretty hot on spotting non-news stories that have been planted by PR companies, on account of me reading the excellent Flat Earth News by Nick Davies. I think a book like this should be on the curriculum, and it is a must for anyone with even a passing interest in the world of current affairs, or a sneaking suspicion that news today is broken.

New Year's Beans

Less of a gap between posts than last time, but a significant one nonetheless. Who knew a baby could demand so much time and attention? Ha ha, I actually suspected it would, but it's nice to have it confirmed in the form of me neglecting to update this blog.

So, happy new year then. 2009, eh? This is a vastly different world to the one that surrounded us twelve months ago. The roots of world financial troubles that were poking through in January 2008 have gotten out of control in such a short space of time, like some kind of fiscal knotweed. How this affects me is that (at least) I won't get any profit share this spring, because RBS has made no profit, and (at worst) redundancy is a small possibility. Also my division could be sold (though this now appears less likely than it did in the summer, partly because we make a profit, partly because no one else can afford to buy us). This means no new bathroom this year.

I only had one day's holiday over the festive period, but added to the bank holidays, I have had sufficient time off to do the things I want to do and see the folks I want to see. And tonight, I feel pretty much rested and ready for a new year.

On new year's eve eve, we, plus Andrew, Michelle and Scarlett, stopped over at Paul and Sarah's in Chapel Allerton. I probably always mention this, but I am reasonable and justifiably jealous of their house. After four years, the decorating is now finished. It is simply wonderful, at once bold and understated, modern and traditional, reserved and outspoken.

The next day, new year's eve, we reverted to recent tradition and made our way over to Dean and Rachel's in Baildon. Also present were the Davies' (again - you just can't get rid of them!), Deb and Neil, and Steve and Helen. Since we last got together like this, three children have been born. Scarlett is twenty-one months, Nathanial had just turned into a one-year-old, and our very own Olive was twelve weeks exactly. Additionally, Steve and Helen are expecting in a couple of months. So I think this year's gathering was ever-so-slightly more adult than those of the past. But not much!

Olive continues to impress with her development. There is no sign of the tooth that Gemma keeps going on about, but I still may be proven wrong on this point. Since I mentioned Olive had slept through and commenced sucking her thumb, I have been a little scared to report on this in case fate is tempted. But no, since 18th December she has slept though every night for around twelve hours. And she almost always rejects a dummy in favour of her left thumb. Now, she can do a reasonable job of holding up her head. She is often in a good mood, and can easily be coaxed into a smile and a chat. She was even due to start at a local parent and child swimming class tomorrow, but the pool called this morning to advise the heating is broken.

The cards and the tree came down this weekend. This morning I took the tree to the local tip, and had to spend around an hour vacuuming and sweeping the needles from the floors, and carpets in both the house, the back yard, and the car. And to this very moment I am still finding little green reminders of Christmas about the place.

The Curse

It seems that the title sequence for the BBC local news program Look North is cursed.

Underneath the off-the-peg Big British Castle news music, images of local landmarks, including a GNER express to London pulling away from Leeds train station, the Tinsley cooling towers in Sheffield, and the Yorkshire Wheel were, until earlier this week, shown.

But someone now seems to have noticed that these scenes no longer exist, and so the titles have had to be updated. I haven't seen the revised sequence, but I don't imagine it includes Tetley's Brewery in Leeds. 

Phew

Well done to Barack Omama. In case you missed it, he won the vote to become the next United States president.

He starts the job in January, and he has a lot of cleaning up to do.