I've just been for a wander down to the West Pier and it's still smoking. I wonder how long that will go on for.
Posted by Jane at 5:52 PM
I've just been for a wander down to the West Pier and it's still smoking. I wonder how long that will go on for.
Posted by Jane at 5:52 PM
March 28, 2003
There are more photos of the fire, and of the morning after in the gallery now.
Posted by Jane at 8:59 AM
March 26, 2003
West pier on fire
Perfect day for a fire: a week or more of dry, warm, weather and a good breeze to fan the fames. The West ("other", "old") pier caught fire just before 10am this morning. We stood around and watched as the blaze grew and bits of the pier fell in on itself. These are the photos taken with my phone.
In that last photo I was suprised by a helicopter landing on the beach. The photo is actually of it taking off again, but they are big things and make quite an impressive noise up close.
I'm guessing the West Pier web cam is going to be a popular link today. The local news is reporting things like "strong suspicions this was the work of an arsonist" and also that the "West Pier rebuild 'will go ahead'".
Posted by Richard at 12:19 PM
March 24, 2003
Black box recorder (warning: site auto-plays music. duh) have a new album out, which is ever-so good. My copy came from cdwow.
Alas, we couldn't get to see them when they came to Brighton (warning: annoying popups. bah) earlier this month.
We've also been listening to The Electric Soft Parade, and recently found out they're local after watching "Brighton Beats" (6 parts series on ITV, Thursdays 23:30).
Posted by Richard at 4:00 PM
Mandy and Chris visited us over the weekend and took us out of town to the Yew Tree Inn ("Nr Polegate, Sussex, 01323 870590"). It's a pub that serves top food... too much top food, but I couldn't stop myself eating it. Aside from food they also serve my current favourite beer. The tables are maybe a bit too close together, but apart from that, it gets both (yes, both) thumbs up.
Of course, we'll never find it again as it's in the middle of nowhere.
Posted by Richard at 6:36 PM
The house is currently under siege. Seems there was a cat trapped in the bin cupboard (trash or refuse area) outside the house. And now it's out and it's pretty angry, or maybe distressed. No-one really wants to get too close to it to find out for sure.
What are you supposed to do in these situations? The RSPCA web site isn't terribly helpful, so I gave them a call and they more-or-less said "forget it, but call us if you think it's really really hurt". So, my plan is to forget about it.
Posted by Richard at 1:35 PM
- Ahem
The cat turned out to be pretty tame. Possibly hurt. Probably lost.
Posted by Richard on 2003-03-24 18:21:05
- cats don't generally 'do' lost. it's probably hurt.
Posted by SpUnKyTh3MoNk3Y on 2003-03-24 23:32:54
- Our neighbour (with many cats) said she was going to take the cat in. I think she couldn't resist the friendly white thing. Did you see that: from "under siege" to "friendly cat" in three posts.
Posted by RIchard on 2003-03-25 00:04:45
- mmmm
he/she/it is rather cute :)
Posted by SpUnKyTh3MoNk3Y on 2003-03-25 14:00:52
- Owner found
So, I got home from work today and found a "Has anyone seen my cat" note through the door. So, I've given the lady a call and have told her when I last saw her cat and that he was fine, except being a little upset. Hopefully someone will have taken him in for the night and he'll be reunited with his owner soon.
It appears that her builders had blocked up his cat flap (at the back of the house) and so he'd gone out the front of the house - something he'd never normally do. So, the poor thing was a bit confused.
I asked her to let us know that she got him back safely.
Posted by Jane on 2003-03-25 17:38:43
- Pussy rescue
I love a happy ending!
Posted by Carin on 2003-03-26 11:46:42
- Lost and found
There is a lost white cat on here!!
Posted by Lucy on 2004-02-24 21:35:09
March 20, 2003
Winter is over
The sun is shining, Brighton is busy. I think winter is over.
Posted by Richard at 1:32 PM
As a want-to-be photo journalist, the stop the war demonstration at the end of the street was too good an opportunity to miss. Take a look at the photos.
Posted by Jane at 9:47 PM
- a smile
The only bush photo.
:)
Posted by noinsight on 2003-03-23 18:31:44
I have a new picture phone so expect to see random photos appearing on this blog.
Posted by Richard at 11:24 AM
March 19, 2003
So, do you have a Brighton based website or know one that you like? or are you a Brighton blogger? If so, the Virtual Festival want to hear from you.
Posted by Jane at 9:38 AM
So it looks like I won't be getting my cheap Ipaqs then. Shame!
Posted by Jane at 5:44 PM
Today I learned what a kotatsu is. Admit it, it sounds good, doesn't it? I think it's a word I didn't recognize in a book called Asleep.
Posted by Richard at 5:06 PM
Part of the weekend was handed over to painting wood and messing with lighting in the house. There's something quite special when you unscrew a ceiling lighting fixture expecting to find three wires only to discover ten. Mmm.. I just love our British wiring standards.
Anyway, today I was in our local shopping centre looking for a few bits a pieces and there was a lovely dog running around - friendly thing, dashing up to people and sniffing and being all curious the way dogs are. Then I found this sign: "POLICE - DRUG DOG TRAINING". And I thought s/he was being friendly, not frisking me. Still, they'd probably make great pets when they retire.
Posted by Richard at 2:36 PM
- Police - Drug Dog Training - retirement
When you've retireed you can always send the dog out to get you something if you are feeling a bit down.
In fat thinking this through if all pensioners were given such a dog - it would save a fortune on the NHS drug bills.
Posted by Pau Odtaa on 2003-03-20 17:36:23
- !!A pedant writes...
Assuming your house uses the usual loop-in lighting design,
there should be nine wires supplied in three cables to your
rose (or six in two if you're working on the last one on the
circuit), plus the two that feed the bulb/fitting, making 11
connections in total.....
If you've only got ten, you're missing one!
Love the rest of your site, esp. the West Pier photos, which is
how I found it! Cheers, Lucas
Posted by Lucas the 'Lectrician on 2003-04-02 17:26:09
Amazon were selling two models of HP Ipaq at a ridiculously low price this morning (the Ipaq H1910 was selling for £7.32 and the Ipaq H5450 was selling for £23.04). The story has been picked up by the BBC and by The Register. I ordered one of each, and received my confirmation email. The history of other such mistakes doesn't make it likely that they'll honour it. Shame
Posted by Jane at 1:53 PM
March 18, 2003
For hisory's sake I thought I'd mention some of the sites I'm reading at the moment.
Posted by Jane at 10:16 AM
- Kevin Sites - Kevin is a war correspondent for CNN currently in Iraq.
- Where is Raed? - updated from Baghdad
- Back to Iraq - an independent journalist who is trying to raise the money (through donations) to go back to Iraq
- BBC News - the BBC News conflict with Iraq section
- Guardian - the Guardian's Special Report:Iraq section
- [New]BBC Correspondents Log - BBC News reporters tell of their experiences wherever they are.
March 12, 2003
So, it looks like war will have started before the end of the week. I remember the start of the Gulf war. I was at university, in my first year and one of the lads, Phil, ran along the corridor of our halls of residence knocking on our doors and telling us that we were at war. I remember turning on my tv and watching the news coverage.
This time, I think, I'm much more aware. I don't remember the ramp up to war last time, but this seems to have been going on for months now. It's also interesting to see the number of people (celebrities, politicans and everyday folks) who are taking what seems like 101 different stands on the subject. Some are pro-war, some are anti-war, some are anti-Saddam, some are anti-sanctions etc.
I was looking at some of the news coverage on BBC News yesterday, and I was shocked to see quite how much Tony Blair seems to have aged in the last 6 weeks or so. He looks very drawn now, and has started to resemble Richard E Grant! Compare that to how he looked when he first became Prime Minister.
Posted by Jane at 9:36 AM
Our friend Karl (guy in the middle of this photo) is going to run the London Marathon in April this year. He's running in aid of the British Lung Foundation and is trying to raise £1,500, so if that's a cause you want to support then sponsor him here.
Posted by Jane at 5:58 PM
March 10, 2003
We had a visit by the police at work yesterday in relation to an attack that happened on Friday night/Saturday morning just outside. It was routine questioning - "were you in the office between midnight on Friday and 5.30am on Saturday" - wonder if they'll find anyone who was. The guy who was attacked sometimes works as the cook in the cafe in the office and so is someone that we all recognise.
Sounds like a good reason, if I needed one, to make sure that I've left the office before it gets dark.
Posted by Jane at 9:37 AM
March 06, 2003
We had a lovely weekend in Stratford and Warwick. We stayed at the Swan's Nest Hotel which was one of the MacDonald hotels covered in the recent 2 for 1 deal which Sainsbury's have been running. The hotel was good, but I think overall I would have been a little dissapointed if I'd paid full price for it (the service wasn't that great). The food in the restaurant was pretty good though both for breakfast and for our Saturday evening dinner.
I hadn't been to Stratford since I was at school when we went to see Macbeth at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Unfortunately the RSC weren't "at home" and so we didn't get to go and see a play. I was surprised by how busy everything was, even on a wet Saturday in March and I'm glad that we didn't decide to go during summer.
Having explored Stratford on Saturday we decided to head off to Warwick Castle on Sunday and spent the day exploring (and taking photographs) there.
All in all a great weekend, it just finished too soon.
Posted by Jane at 10:26 PM
The site has been slow lately, and now we know why...
I'm part of a web co-op: we all chip-in to pay for the up-keep of a couple of machines on the web. This site is running on one of the machines. Another of the many sites on the machine is audioscrobbler.com, which has been causing all sorts of problems. I didn't know anything about it until I read a story in the Guardian today. Interesting stuff, and you'll be happy to know it's being re-worked to not kill our machines, and will probably be moved somewhere else soon.
Posted by Richard at 2:59 PM
- More on audioscrobbler today at BBC News Technology [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2888431.stm]
Posted by Jane on 2003-03-27 15:50:48
Someone has "borrowed" one of my images... Take a look at this and compare it to the image in the header bar, second from the right here.
Posted by Jane at 2:45 PM
- Professional photographer, eh?
So what'dya get in royalties?!
Posted by Carin on 2003-03-06 22:12:06
- tossers
i hate that...makes you wonder how many more people you never catch are up to that...
Posted by SpUnKyTh3MoNk3Y on 2003-03-07 01:23:08
March 05, 2003
The Brighton Festival (May 3 - May 25) programme dropped through our letter-box today. There's nothing much that's leaping out at me. Depressing. There's "A Seaside Album" photo exhibition of pictures from 1840s to 1990s, which might be good. Lou Reed is down, which is probably something we should go and see. But apart from that...well, maybe if I read the text a little more I'll find some good stuff.
There's also the Brighton Festival Fringe and Brighton Fringe Festival, neither of which I've looked at in any detail yet.
In related news, this year we're going to help out with the web site for the Virtual Festival. More on that another time, because I think I've gone over my allowance for the word "Festival" today.
Posted by Richard at 2:25 PM
March 04, 2003
Yesterday was Pancake day, and in a change from tradition we didn't have a pancake party at our house. Instead we took our "mobile pancake solution" (batter, maple syrup, lemon juice, sugar, chocolate and bananas) around to Paul and Tess's house and made pancakes there instead. James (2 years) wasn't too impressed by the whole idea, preferring to play with his trains instead. Whilst baby Max (4 weeks) slept, fed and vomited his way through the proceedings.
Top pancake filling of the evening was Madagascan vanilla ice cream, with maple syrup and grated chocolate. Or at least it was for the none-Atkins-diet people - Paul had his own special pancake mix which made the most yellow pancakes I've ever seen and had his own special fillings although he was spotted stealing some of the ice cream
Posted by Jane at 10:29 AM
- Flipping
Maybe we should study this for next year:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2817093.stm
"The angular velocity of the object equals the square root of Pi, times the gravity divided by the distance the pancake is from the elbow times four - that is how to get the pancake back in the pan."
Posted by Richard on 2003-03-06 18:18:15
- Slightly late, but my top filling is Greek yogurt and lemon curd whipped up together. Sounds weird but you have to try it to believe how yummy it is.
Posted by suey on 2003-03-07 19:00:04
March 03, 2003
Birthday blog (from yesterday)
Yesterday was my birthday (huzzah) and I have many exciting things to blog about, but for now here's the summary.
I have a stack of Raymond Carver short stories to read, I now have a nice looking chunk of moon, Jane found Ripping Yarns on DVD and also found me a very cool retro-looking mini DV recorder (need to find another photo, because it doesn't look like that).
Update: This is what mine looks like
If that wasn't "woohoo!" enough, we went out to see Brighton Bears win 107-92 against the Newcastle Eagles. I won't post up any of the video we took during the game because I need to spend more time learning how to use the DV recorder...
This isn't going to sound right, but one of the interval "fun things" is the Duck Chuck: people buy ducks and throw them onto the court, and if they land in just the right places prizes are won. Just imagine sitting down, not quite knowing what's going on, and then 200 small plastic ducks flying through the air onto the court. It leaves a lasting impression, trust me.
We ate at Picasso as part of our quest for find the very best pizza in Brighton. What we found was Pizza for £3 and a lot of students. It was fine default pizza, better than many other places with the obvious benefit of being amazingly cheap. We'll be back there, but our quest for the very best in pizza continues...
Posted by Richard at 7:05 AM
- digital diary...?
Happy belated birthday - hope it was a good one. Does the digicam mean you'll be posting live action/ voiced blogs in future?
Posted by Carin on 2003-03-05 18:56:53
I was cycling down Preston Street this morning and was wondering how come it was so foggy at the bottom of the street and clear at the top. As I got closer I realised it wasn't fog, it was smoke. And it was really nasty, smelly smoke too. Once I'd got across the traffic lights, and into the clear air again I had a look back and could see a little red mini (old style) on fire. There was one policeman there with it, and as I turned and cycled away I could hear the sirens as the fire brigade came to the rescue.
Posted by Jane at 9:31 AM
