Yak & Natter

Jeremy and I attempted to go on another bike ride today but it was not to be. The plan was to get the train to Southease and then cycle back to Devil’s Dyke along the South Downs Way.

We went to the station and bought our tickets, and then discovered that there were no trains running beyond Lewes because of emergency engineering work and so there was a bus replacement service – they didn’t tell us this when we were buying our tickets which was somewhat annoying. We consulted the map during the journey and decided on an alternative starting point for our ride, and so arrived in Lewes with a plan.

As we cycled up the high street my bike started to misbehave and my chain jumped off the deraileur. I fixed it, and cycled on about a further 5 metres before it came off again, this time with the deraileur being in a really odd position. It looked like there was a fracture in a piece of metal which attached it to the bike, and after only a gentle movement it snapped into two pieces. Bah! We took a quick look around Lewes for a bike shop, but drew a blank and so ended up getting on the train and returning to Brighton.

Pete mentioned a Brighton Bloggers meetup a few days ago, and its starting to look like it might happen. So, I’ve offered the BrightonBloggers.com space as a home for it where we hope to have details about meetups etc eventually. In the mean time there is just a list of all the Brighton Bloggers that were registered during the Virtual Festival.

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Hey, I won a photographic contest. The Underexposed group I belong to have a monthly contest and this month’s theme was “After Dark/Sunset”. I haven’t won a photography contest since I was about 15, so I’m really pleased, especially as the other entries were all excellent too.

Last night I attended my first Skillswap event. These are free events where the emphasis is on learning a new skill, and presented by a local expert. It was presented by Matt Zandstra (author of Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours) and was all about PHP, Objects and Patterns. Matt also delved into some of the new features that PHP5 will provide when it’s released towards the end of this year.

I must admit that Design Patterns are something that have been on the fringe of my knowledge for a long time, but that I’ve just never got around to learning more about, so it is good to now have a bit more of an idea. There were a couple of book recommendations mentioned during the night – Design patterns : elements of reusable object-oriented software and A Little Java, a Few Patterns which I may have to take a closer look at.

Today’s Guardian G2 section was written on the beach here in Brighton, so they could try out the free wireless internet access.

Yay! I’ve been offered a job . I’ve had the paperwork through, and it all looks good. So I’ll be starting on the 4th August at Glass’s Information Services, and will be spending my days in their Crowborough office.

It is now a month since we left California, and I’ve finally got around to finishing the photos.

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Jeremy and Kirsty have a guest staying with them at the moment, a small, cute, furry, four legged friend called Freddie. He’s a very enthusiastic cocker spaniel. We met up with them last night to take him for a walk along the beach. Dog walking is fun, but that’s easy for me to say because Jeremy was the one picking up the dog output.

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While I was in San Francisco Goul took me to see Finding Nemo (watch the trailers: they can do water now). It’s a Pixar and Disney thing, and if you liked Toy Story, you’ll like this too. I’m looking forward to going to see it again, but it’s not due in the UK until October.

We’ve spent a lot of the last couple of days catching up with Jono and Emma who have been on holiday over here from Oz. It’s been great to spend some time with them, and also to catch up with the rest of the New Scientist crowd last night.

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