BT Tower

Had a good day today, I "HAD" to go to a conference that just happened to be held at the BT tower followed by lunch on the revolving floor 34 :-)

Just as a side note the conference was actually worth going to !

Lunch was very good. Food included oyster and other little fancy finger foods very good but the views are something else.

Got some good photos of Arsenals new ground Ashburton Grove

Normal View:


And ZOOMED:


There are also a couple of other photos on flickr.

So the tower then. Well we went up at full speed travelling at 7.5 meters a second to get me 158 meters up, The tower is 189 meters up. It closed it's doors to the public before I was born. On the 31/10/1971 a bomb went off on the 31st floor and it was closed. No one ever claimed responsability. The resturant was opened a few months later but that also closed in 1980. I was quite lucky today.

4/4/1961 building work started and and was opened for operation 8/10/1965 at a cost of £2.5 million ! To put that in perspective New Wembley is running at a cost £757 million.

Been a while again

Been a while again and I want to say congratulations to Dan and Lucy on the birth of their son Oliver.

Also congrats to Matt and Michelle on their new home, Congrats to us on selling our house, Congrats to all the people getting married that I know (Been invited to 5 this year), Congrats and good luck to Palace against Watford (Anyone got a spare ticket for the away leg? Sold out while I was trying to get through on the phone)

Hello to the Millwall fans that are stopping by. For some reason this blog comes up 8th when Millwall is searched and gawd knows where when Palace is. Palace Fan also does not get me anywhere.

Off to the BT Tower tomorrow so hopefully I will post a picture from the top for you.

Camden Crawl

Yesterday I went on the camden crawl and had a very good time BUT to be honest it was a nightmare getting in to the places to see bands.

Biggest shock of the night was Supergrass playing at the Dublin Castle, couldnt get into see them and we went there early. Did see them drinking in the Spread Eagle though.

We only went to 3 or 4 venues in the end and never lasted until 4am but hey I'm old !

Bye Bye Brighton, Bye Bye Millwall

See yer !!

That will teach him..... or will it

When I was younger and my sister was born I was around 9 years older then her and when ever she bashed herself or fell over the imortal words of support and advice from my mum would be "She'll learn from that" OR "She wont do that again in a hurry"

Max bashed his foot on the end of the changing table so I turned round to Faye and said "He wont do that in a hurry" turned back just in time to catch him doing it again.

I guess you must be a bit older before you start "learning"



Off soon to meet a mate for a pint before the football game. Crystal Palace V Crewe and hopefully we can get the point to make sure we are in the play offs.

My mate that I am meeting is a Brighton fan and lives at the bottom of the road from the ground :-0, for those that do not know, Brighton are our biggest rivels.

The only good thing that if we dont go up this year is my top 3 teams that I cant stand shouldnt be in the league. Brighton, Millwall and Sheff Utd

Google Calendar

Been looking at Google Calendar and looks quite good that I can use it with the Apple software iCal.

I did a search of Crystal Palace on the public calendars and my calendar of fixtures was on there ! Forgot to be honest that I uploaded it to icalx. I still try and update it when I can and it still updates, wonder how many people link to it. To use my personal calendar though I'm going to have to get a bit more clever because I do not want them as a public calendar so therefore can not just upload and link through iCalx as it requires a password. My thought at the moment is to export the information from iCal and import into google calendar. Now that sounds like a lot of work but the plan is to try and script it so I just click on a button OR schedule the script OR I could continue to use my iPod !!

Wembley

I know Wembley are having all sorts of problems BUT everytime I go past it I find it an amazing sight.

It's a shame Palace wont be there this year BUT I have my fingers crossed for my first Cardiff visit, I missed the play off final 2 years ago because I was on our year out. I have made it to Cardiff City's ground and the fans were quite scary to be honest. The most hostle ground I have been to yet ! including the time I got slapped at Birmingham.

Regarding the video service from YouTube it has not worked for 24 hours but seems OK now, it might of been scheduled maintenance that I never got a message about because I have only just joined.

We went to the Welsh Harp on Saturday in an attempt to fly the kite again but had more problems i.e. no wind, Anyway I took a photo of Wembley and also took a "zoomed" up one and here they are.

Click to view larger sizes:

Rockpool

Hi all this is a test of a video service that I might use. 

It is hosted on YouTube.com, I want to see if it embeds it better then the one I did i.e. I dont want it to play unless you hit start / play

The video itself was filmed while we were on holiday.



Looks like I am going to have to play with the size.
Sorted I had to reduce by a 1/3. If you want you can click on the video for a slightly larger video.

Bouncing

Personally I'm not sure about having the video embeded as I dont like it when I go to websites and they have sound going. At night i.e. now, I browse about with 1 headphone in my ear because I dont want to wake my wife OR Max up.

I guess I best practice what I preach SO I have posted another video here, this was also taken a couple of days ago and is Max using his door boucer.

Soon I will do a "real" blog and think about something to write about but at the moment I am enjoying playing with the iMac and iMovie.

Laters everyone,

Giggle movie

You must have quicktime installed to view the giggle movie.

This is the Link

Giggle

Nothing is quite like making your baby giggle !!

This movie has been saved down to web quality so not great. In advance I am sorry about the James Blunt in the background but Max seems to like it.

Mark - As you can see the chops are back !!!

And yes I know I make all sorts of strange voices and sounds !
Here you go it is 1.8 meg and is Quicktime format.

Removed embedded video The link is in the post above

Hope you enjoyed. I hope that the sound kicking in straight away is not too much of a problem but let me know and I will go back to just linking to the page rather then embedding it.

Lazy Frogs

Nope, I have not witnessed a frog getting a cab rather then hopping home BUT I saw this on the BBC website and it made me laugh. Quite a fair point if you ask meLazy Frogs

A furious airline boss has blasted the French as "lazy frogs" after protests disrupted services to the UK.

Philip Meeson, the chairman and chief executive of Yorkshire-based budget carrier Jet2.com, launched his attack in an article on the company website.

The article's headline said: "Jet2.com condemns French strike action and calls for lazy frogs to get back to work!"

The French air traffic controllers' union, CGT, reacted angrily, saying Mr Meeson's language was "not acceptable".

A CGT spokesman said: "It is easy for them to ask some people to go back to work but if people in France do not agree with the government it is a very good reason [to strike]."

In the past week, the airline has twice been hit by protests in France over new employment rules for young workers.

Services from France to Leeds-Bradford Airport were disrupted on Monday when French students protesting against the laws staged a runway demonstration at Chambery airport in the Alps.

More than 250 passengers were prevented from travelling and eventually arrived in West Yorkshire several hours late.

Last Tuesday, Jet2 flights were grounded when air traffic controllers joined a general strike in France.

Another low-cost airline, Ryanair, was forced to cancel about 80 flights on Tuesday because of the industrial action.

Mr Meeson, addressing his comments to the air traffic controllers, said: "After a token stoppage why can't you just sort the matter out amicably without bringing thousands of people around the world, who give your country huge economic wealth, into the argument?


It seems to me that either the air traffic controllers or the students run France at the moment
Jet2 boss Philip Meeson

"Whilst France is undeniably a beautiful country... we are appalled and quite frankly tired of the air traffic controllers' old-fashioned attitude to dealing with any issues they may have.

"In short, we urge the French air traffic controllers to get back to work or get another job."

British Euro MPs said the Jet2 boss was damaging Anglo-French relations.

Labour MEP Robert Evans said: "These cheap and derogatory remarks are beneath even a budget airline. We really have got to be more mature in our relationships."

Chris Davies, the leader of Britain's Liberal Democrat MEPs, said: "This is a stupid and crass remark, given that we want the French to visit Britain as much as Brits want to travel to France.

"But there is no doubt that the French are cutting their own throats by striking at every opportunity."

Mr Meeson said: "The 'lazy frogs' comment was meant to be a bit of fun. It was tongue-in-cheek. After all, the French call us 'les rosbifs'.

"It seems to me that either the air traffic controllers or the students run France at the moment."

Max eats solids

Here is a movie of max
It's 3.7 meg

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to me !

On this Day James Simmonds was born into the world.

Here is a picture of me at 4 months, check out the big feet !!!!



And here is me on my birthday very hung over after a great night out last night.



Yep last night Mrs Palace Fan and I hit the pubs of Hampstead and had a good Thai. It was the first time since Max came along and we had a great time drinking our way round ! We could of kept going but on a Monday night all the pubs closed at "normal" time. Will go to Camden next time because you can keep on drinking there !!

We have now dropped the price of our house to 250K to get it below the stamp duty hike. Anyone want a house in North London? Here are the details. House to buy ! email me rather then calling the agent !!

Max is getting louder and louder at the moment and is "chatting" away all the time. For those just browsing through, Max is my baby boy and not some bloke who cant talk !

He is starting to turn all over the place and yesterday he tried his first bit of baby rice. Dont think he enjoyed it that much. I will try and get a movie up of him tasting it.

I'm off to call the fire brigade and let them know I am going to be lighting the candles tonight !

Been away

Hello All,

Back from our week away in North Devon, we stayed in a place called Ilfracombe and had a nice chilled out week driving around the place. We also went to a town called Combe Martin and for a little more about the place vist this blog, Combe Martin A good read and some cool photos. It's in my RSS feed update list.

I took the laptop down BUT could not get on any wireless links so no updates. I had a go on iWeb and must say that it was good. Biggest problem though is the size of the photo files. I only did some quick testing and the size of the site was huge. One thing I have noticed to do next time though is export the photos as "web size" 640x480 and then re-import them to iPhoto and stick them in a iWeb folder and when you drag your photos drag the smaller web versions into the iWeb application. I have had a look at it uploaded and it is slow but take a look and check out the blog etc., As mentioned it was very easy to do and next time I will load smaller photo files up to help speed things up. iWeb Site

I now have another week off from work and going to use it to visit my Mum, meet some friends, look for a new house and spend more time with Faye and Max. Think they will be sick of the sight of me by Friday !

While away though some Bastard has reversed into my car and it now has a shape of a tow bar in the bonnet ! I'm quite sure that it is 1 of 3 4x4's that always park near me so i am going to be measuring the height and with a bit of luck get a match. I will also if possible drive right up to the tow bar and check the shape. What got me as well was that the dent has been "cleaned" i.e. someone has actually rubbed the dent to see how deep it is (I have a dirty car !) Will be out tomorrow with tape measure in hand. This is on top of getting smacked up the rear last week by an old fool in a car without ABS and I still need to see a body shop about getting that sorted. It's only a few scratches or at least that is what I hope because years ago a friend of mine thought that and when she had her MOT it turned out the car was a write off because it had put the sub frame out of shape.

Take care,

Dont work too hard !!!

My boss sent this out and has asked us to give each other a small nudge as we go past !



I have had to make it smaller so it fits, click on it, view a diff size and go large. Sure there is a joke there !

BBC in press error

Not sure myself.....

Dear James,

Thank you for your interest in the 2011 Census, and in particular our
intention to collect information on national identity.

I can confirm that we are intending to collect information for each UK
national identity, including a tick-box allowing people to identify
themselves as English. The omission of this category in some press reports
was simply an error.

Yours sincerely,

Alexa Courtney

Research Officer
Questionnaire Design and Content
2011 Census

How sat-nav rats brought jams to country lanes

A story from the times online:

How sat-nav rats brought jams to country lanes
It may be the quickest route according to your in-car guide, but increasingly the technology is sending drivers on rat runs through obscure rural byways – and the locals aren't happy, report Dipesh Gadher and Luke David of The Sunday Times
Full story.
Sat Nav Rat runs

Here is my post from a while ago.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Chelsea Tractors
What is the point of these 4x4's? This is one i saw earlier I am thinking that anyone that does not own a farm or at least goes off road and I'm not talking about mounting the kerb outside the local school should have to pay more road tax to drive them. Well lets face it they take up half the bloody road. Reason for the moan; well since everyone has got the system of a national banks computer system in their BMW X5's they all can navigate themselves off the M25 jams and use my "secret" way to work. I use the country lanes to navigate myself to work and now they are turning into jams as well :-( The only bonus is that I get my little 206 behind them and know that they dont give way so all cars coming the other way end up in the hedges and I sneak along behind them. Thinking of selling spray on mud so they can at least look the part.

Census to include Welsh, Scottish, Irish or British option - what about English?

My 100th post and I go political:

Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4786672.stm


Census to gauge national identity
The national Census is to include a question on national identity so people
can say if they consider themselves Welsh, Scottish, Irish or British.
Census co-ordinator Joy Dobbs announced the Office of National Statistics
(ONS) had decided to respond to a "strong demand... particularly from the
Welsh".

The ONS received 2,000 submissions from central and local government,
academia, business and members of the public.

The 2011 survey may also ask people their earnings and preferred language.

A possible question on earnings will ask which of a series of income
brackets people fall into and to indicate, from a list of options, how they
earn it.

Local authorities asked for a topic on languages to be included as many were
now dealing with "a range of communities speaking a wide number of
languages".

Questions on marital status are being extended so there is a series of
equivalent ones on civil partnerships.

Ethnic diversity

But the £300m poll for England and Wales will not ask about sexual
orientation, following concerns about the quality and accuracy of responses,
given the forms are addressed to whole households.

Questions asking whether people live in a tower block or have a bath, shower
or toilet at home are being replaced by more relevant enquiries about their
quality of housing.

The census monitors population age, ethnic diversity, household size and
housing demand.

It is used to decide how to allocate local authority cash and where to site
schools, old people's homes, shops and neighbourhood renewal programmes.

I ask you to send an email to them:
To: 'info@statistics.gov.uk'
Subject: Census to include Welsh, Scottish, Irish or British option - what
about English?
Importance: High

Office for National Statistics,
Customer Contact Centre,
Room 1.015,
Cardiff Road,
Newport,
NP10 8XG. Email:- info@statistics.gov.uk


Dear Sir/Madam,

I am strongly objecting to The Office of National Statistics National
Identity Census giving options for people to say if they consider themselves
Welsh, Scottish, Irish or British, but giving no option for people to say
that they are ENGLISH.

I am ENGLISH and I always say that I am if asked, and there a millions of
people who say they are English when asked about their national identity.

Please ensure that you provide the option for people to say that they are
English. Not having this option in your survey amounts to racial
discrimination against the English.

Yours Faithfully

Well it looks like it is me that is a jinx for the poor Palace.

In the first half it looked the Eagles had bird flu we we're not at the races and Leeds we're so much better then us.

We looked better in the second half and guess what...... Scored when I had left :-0 I left with about 5 minutes to go so I could get the fast train back to London Bridge.

Lots of police because it being Leeds and Millwall playing at home as well.