amateur ramblings

changing lanes

2005-01-17T22:53:00.000Z

i've been building for a few days now, and i believe that my new typepad based blog is ready fro viewing. it is not radically different, and i'm sure that there will be a few things to iron out, etc, but hopefully a paid service (less than $4 per month) will give great freedom.

so, click here for more amateur ramblings.

voice your voice

2005-01-17T20:46:00.000Z

in my best black country accent then:

check eout the beeb, thaym doowin a bostin prowjekt cauld voycis, orl abowt 'ow yo spake.

translation here.

people-watching

2005-01-14T21:50:00.000Z

i love people-watching, and could happily spend hours doing it. interesting people i saw today included: four just-arrived-in-town europeans (germans?) with incredibly loud laughs; a man with cartoon stubble. a girl with the coolest woolen hat; a man who got off a bus, then immediately asked someone for some money for bus fare.

free speech

2005-01-12T21:44:00.000Z

the guardian reports that an edinburgh blogger has been sacked for occasionally mentioning his employers (a well known bookmongers) in his weblog:

waterstone's is, after all, a bookseller, whose stock in trade is the purveying of opinion, not all of it palatable to those concerned. the action that has been taken so far bears more resemblance to the behaviour of an american fast-food chain than a company who deal in intellectual freedoms and the concerns of a pluralist liberal society.

recent days

2005-01-12T21:35:00.000Z

so, i have been away for a few days. last monday, i went to manchester with andrew and michelle, where we met friends from liverpool. wagamama's provided the lunch. we visited a gallery that was running a lomo exhibition, but i missed the final touches being added to the b of the bang sculpture.

after work on thursday night, gemma i drove to oxford through gale-force winds, to stop with some of gemma's relatives. gemma's uncle is a professor at the university, and the live in a lovely big house near to the cowley road area. then on saturday, we headed over to bristol, for john's 30th birthday, and the birth of john and rachel's first child. the inconsiderate infant had other ideas however, and rachel at the time of writing, remains firmly pregnant. twenty of us went to zero degrees, the new microbrewery at the top of christmas steps. the food and drink was fine, and the company made for a skill night. we stopped at sarah's, where we enjoyed a high standard of hospitality and home cooking.

lick of paint

2005-01-12T07:31:00.000Z

i think in 2005, i want to operate a slightly tighter quality control policy on my life. now, do not think that this is some kind of new year's resolution, because you know that i do not make those. i don't feel like i want to make any major changes, just slight tweeks here and there. this extends to my online profile, so i decided to change the appearance of my main blog. tighter quality control here means not posting something as soon as it pops into my head. i have recently become a bit frustrated with the limitations of blogger (i know, i know, it's a free service). ideally, i would like to be able to archive post by catagory; this would be especially useful for my overground project. i have been impressed by typepad, and i may yet defect. i also continue to battle against the evil forces of ntl - i am trying to set up my free webspace. it just won't let me in so i fear there may not be any pictures for a short while. at least tom appears to have finally received satisfaction.

mobile privacy

2005-01-04T21:58:00.000Z

if you use a mobile, and feel you would like a bit of privacy, then you need one of these. hopefully it will work the other way round, and innocent people will no longer be subjected to loud, annoying half-conversations. i think they look only marginally more ridiculous than hands-free headsets.

new year's day

2005-01-02T13:27:00.000Z

after having had too little sleep, we like to do precisely nothing on the first day of the new year. we were able to continue in this tradition, after discovering the joys of foster's home for imaginary friends on cartoon network. what a great show; really well animated, cool stories, and a hilarious and surreal cast of characters.
i don't like computer games. but i totally enjoyed andrew playing grand theft auto: san andreas. dean showed him the ropes of the game the daily mail loves to hate, then we looked on through tears of laughter, as andrew proceeded to negotiate his way around town, hi-jacking all manner of vehicles - tractors, pick-ups, lorries, motorbikes, bmx's, cars. there was even a hot dog van. once settled into your new wheels, you can tune the radio (if there is one) to one of ten stations - brilliant. you can go anywhere (within the boundaries of the particular level), and andrew found himself unable to avoid crashing into the sea or the river at least three times. he ran people over, he fought people, he shot people, he got shot. he even punched a car on fire!

resolve

2005-01-02T13:01:00.000Z

i do not make new year's resolutions. if i want to start doing something, give something up, or change something, then i will, i don't feel the need to wait for a certain date in the calendar.

new year's eve

2005-01-02T12:57:00.000Z

i had to work on friday, but only until 2pm. we had decided amongst ourselves what hours we would work, and i chose wisely, for quite a bit of work came in around lunchtime. i went to our local library, where i hoped to find some books about the history of crossgates, but failed. crossgates library is fairly small however, so i may call in to the city library in the week.
in the evening (after i had taken gemma to work - the buses stop at 6pm in leeds on new year's eve!) i went to a party in chapel allerton. paul and sarah are friends of friends (andrew and michelle). i can report that they seem like great company, and have a really cool house. i had some amazing vegetarian chilli, which had a fruity element to it - i was later informed it contained chocolate. i understand that paul went to college with leigh francis. michelle, andrew and i then headed over to farsley, for our now traditional end of the year celebrations at dean and rachel's. unfortunately, the livepool gang* did not come this year, so it was a back to basics grimthorpe terrace reunion. as usual, we laughed like drains. at midnight, we headed outside to see the fireworks and shiver.

*the liverpool gang do not necessarily come from, or indeed currently live in, liverpool

wrongy wrong

2004-12-28T21:14:00.000Z

it is the time of year when the thoughts of television producers turn to the top-ten lists of the year. let's see if i can add to this recent tradition, with my exclusive top ten list of things that have been annoying me this year. in no particular order...

1) mullets. who said it was ok to introduce them back into society?

2) george bush winning the election (see previous posts)

3) leeds city council recycling policies. they do not collect glass! still no-one at the council has been able to tell me on what day the collection is, although it has been narrowed down to 'one wednesday per month'.

4) reality tv

5) ntl (see previous posts)

6) drivers who drive in an aggresive, dangerous manner, use mobiles whilst driving (despite it now being against the law), speed, display a complete lack of consideration and courtesy.

7) no snow at christams again

8) shaun of the dead being pipped to a comedy award by school of rock. both funny films, but simon pegg is far funnier than jack black, in my book.

9) john peel dying.

10) mobile phone headset things. what do you look like? (answer = a twot).

traffic-calming measures can seriously damage your health

2004-12-28T10:48:00.000Z

this is doing the rounds on the interweb at the moment, i came across it at duuh celebs. see if you can see whether millisa williamson holds misplaced concerns over her baby's health...

bargin hunt

2004-12-27T21:11:00.000Z

well, i am just back from birmingham, where gemma and i spent a lovely few days staying at my mum and dad's house. we received approximately 1mm of snow, which is a shame, because i love snow. on christams day, we ate the traditional goose (traditional in the smith household), and had some of the family round in the evening. we played trivial pursuits. thank you to everyone for our presents. a large part of the weekend was spent in the bull ring; it was extremely cold and busy both on sunday and today, but we managed to pick up some nice bargins.
i wish i hadn't turned the heating down so low while we were away - it's totally cold in my flat. gemma has started a week of nights at the hospital, 9pm to 8am. ouch!

amateur weather

2004-12-24T07:50:00.000Z

my friend rachel was telling me about bill foggitt (what a great yorkshire name), who died earlier this year. bill is pictured above; he is the one on the left, rachel is not pictured. according to the royal institute of navigation site:

his family had been studying the weather since 1830 and [bill] took over the mantle in the late '60s. foggitt's observations were based on plant and animal behaviour as well as rainfall and barometer readings. he also believed that the weather is cyclical - a hot summer should occur every 22 years and a severe winter every 15 years. foggitt did not subscribe to general theories about global warming but felt that there might be a return to the ice age.

read his obituary here.

heading home

2004-12-23T08:00:00.000Z

my journey home last night was unpleasant. i met gemma after work, and we had a lovely meal at little tokyo. i then realised that i had lost my bank card - luckily i had my credit card to pay the bill. i then had to finish my christmas shopping. i still don't feel christmassy, but i am looking forward to going to my mum and dad's tomorrow night, where i will be able to do nothing for a few days (well, i might help with the washing up).
anyway, i caught the indigo line to crossgates. the driver looked like he was 17; his bottom jaw hung loosely and he wore a burberry baseball cap. he looked like matt lucas. it became immediately apparent to me that he was only recently qualified to drive a double-decker - he drove too fast around corners, mis-judged the space require by his vehicle, and clumsily thumped into the guided bus lanes. as i go off, i noticed he was using his mobile phone.
i sat upstairs, always a gamble after 7pm. the bus was pretty full,but as usual the rear seats were occupied by townies. there were a couple of lads, and maybe four or five girls. all were being loud, and i was annoyed by their liberal use of swearing (there were kids on the bus), their clothing, their banal conversations, and their laughter at things that were not funny. at least one of them was smoking. these selfish children were too interested it projecting their 'hard' image to think about how annoying and ridiculous they were being.

lovely day

2004-12-20T22:16:00.000Z

i went for a bike ride on sunday, just a short one. i went up to colton sainsburys, down bullerthorpe lane, then picked up the trans-pennine trail, following the river and canal back into leeds. i ended by looping back through temple newsam.

wow.

this rusting corrugated fence reminded me of a stegosaurus.

look at this. why do some people not get out into the countryside more often? i saw about seven people in as many miles.

i think the underneath of bridges can be really striking and interesting. here is the m1 extension near rothwell.

link dump

2004-12-19T19:54:00.000Z

i have been having a tidy up, and i have decided to share some things with you. some links first, a la i like, and first up (all the way from 2001) is this edited transcript of when nicky campbell interviewed will self and richard littlejohn - it is very funny.
fun for the kids; pixel-based super heroes, and a bit of blue; b3ta's if advertisements were honest, and snurfer's celebrity data base.
my friend mark timmins had some involvement with evil fringe records, and i enjoy the t-shirts peddled by lucky horse, bogus, kung-fu nation and cotton factory. ideas can be stupid or reasonable clever. can't wait until 2012? you don't have to, the world beard championships are in london as soon as 2007. the idler's crap town site seems to compliment chaver central nicely. other people's dirty laundry can be viewed at not proud.
if you are still stuck for xmas ideas, check out jones' soda, quantum sleeper, superdeux, pocket mr t, lunchboxes.com, top ten, the folks on this list could afford just about anything. tv doesn't seem like it is as good as it used to be. maybe that's a good thing.
a spare few minutes online would be well spent at the world's most detailed digital photograph, zoom quilt, frosty welcome, coffee-break arcade, dodge-block, different greys? (you'll need photoshop or similar for this), or playing one of the penguin games; terminal cases of tedium should visit mirror sytes.

film review

2004-12-15T23:44:00.000Z

tonight i went to see the incredibles. i met dean, andrew and michelle at the light, which was a co-op (i think) and then a large hole last time i lived in leeds thank you very much. The screen was massive, the entire wall was taken up by screen; the toilets were futuristic and clean. what more could a man want?
but i digress. the film is the latest disney/pixar collaboration, and was the best film i have seen in a long time, it was liquid enjoyment. the animation was amazing, almost completely realistic, but not quite, in a stylish way; the script was funny; the story gripping. the 50's feel to the music, scenery and references lent the film a cool feel. i would say definitely one for the adults more than the kids.

whatever, the weather

2004-12-14T08:07:00.000Z

there appears to be some disagreement between the bbc and weather outlook as to whether this christmas will be a white one.

that's not the way to do it.

2004-12-13T18:32:00.000Z

last week, one of our customers returned a letter that we sent to him. our letter was sent automatically by our system, and only if we haven't received required documents from the policyholder. his reply to our simple reminder was a torrent of expletives.

we politely wrote back explaining the need for proof of his no claims discount, and explaining that we will not tolerate such language. he replied, again in crazy handwriting on the back of our letter, with an even more rude text. so we cancelled his policy, like so:

we are writing to inform you that we are exercising our right to invoke the cancellation clause under condition 5(a) of your policy and hereby give formal notice that all cover in relation to this policy will cease with effect from noon on 20th december. the reason for this is that it is clear the professional relationship that must exist between client and insurer has broken down and as a result of the content of your recent letters, we are unwilling to continue with the contract of insurance.

in accordance with the road traffic act, you are now required to return the current certificate of motor insurance to us as quickly as possible. it is an offence to fail to return this document once it has been requested by the issuing insurer.

mctime-warp

2004-12-12T14:50:00.000Z

we lunched in wimpy yesterday. i suppose this establishment is best described as a cross between a little chef and a burger king - it certainly holds a certain outmoded feel.
wimpy is a british take on an american idea; this makes for an interesting combination of fast food with waitress service. the company found inspiration for their name from the popeye comic strip, and celebrated their 50th birthday this year. i was glad to see that they still sell benders.

gas

2004-12-08T18:37:00.000Z

above is the view from my kitchen window. the picture shows the gasometer situated at the back of crossgates shopping centre. the picture was taken early morning. i knew that gasometers go up and down depending on how much gas is contained, but i didn't realise just how quickly they can change. the picture below shows an evening vista.

disappointed visitors

2004-12-08T08:11:00.000Z

i am enjoying using statcounter to see the keyword searches that lead people to my site. the most recent searches include justification for the clifton suspension bridge and aunty spanks.

stitch

2004-12-07T22:32:00.000Z

today at work, gemma was learning suture (stitches). she bought home her practice equipment, comprising silk thread, skin clamp, tweezers and pig skin. i had a go, and it was fun.
we are now wrapping presents; i suggested we could use pig skin instead of paper, and stitching instead of ribbon, but gemma wisely pointed out that a stinking, decomposing pile under the tree might not be the best idea.

is this a local shop?

2004-12-05T16:27:00.000Z

yesterday we bought a christmas tree. we got it from a local garden centre to try and ensure a locally grown tree. gemma has taken charge of decorating it - i am not allowed to get involved, despite having a degree. still, it looks really good. last night, friends andrew and michelle came over for tea. we watched amelie, which i think is one of my favourite films ever; a really nice, cool, funny film.
yesterday morning i walked to the shops, to pick up one or two bits. i decided that crossgates reminds me of halesowen (my home town). not the present day halesowen, but a halesowen from the late seventies/early eighties. it has the same mix of bigger stores (tesco, wilkinsons, boots), a post office and a library, a small (now indoor) shopping centre, good independent butchers, bakers, greengrocers, etc, and plenty of smaller shop - generally cheap card shops, fast food outlets, and charity shops. mysteriously, there appears to be no newsagents - i guess tescos fills that gap. the people also put me in mind of the people i mingled with some 20-25 years ago. either old people, or young mums with at least two kids in tow, but frequently three generations of the same family going about their business, stopping to chat with others they know. most people seem to know each other, a real sense of community.
this afternoon, i continued my exploration of my new home by going on a short walk (around three miles), through an area my map tells me is called brown moor. my route took me across the railway line, along side the m1 (still called the new road round these parts), and passed the ricmond ice-cream factory. they are apparently the uk's number one ice-cream manufacturers; unfortunately they appear to have some involvement with nestle. i also walked along the perimeter of the massive, now closed, vickers tank factory. from what i can gather, the factory closed in 1998, and it was here that the challenger II was built. i think that the site was previous owned by royal ordnance. it is certainly a large site - it took me five minutes to walk the length of the main factory.