Joe found this art-generator. It must be good if it results in something that looks artistic even when created by me. There are quite a few variants available.
Posted by Jane at 1:35 PM
- i saved a few of mine yesterday afternoon...shall have to post them later...
Posted by joe on 2004-10-01 10:04:54
September 29, 2004
The Boarder had a useful link the other day - it's a page showing all European School Holidays. This should come in useful for booking the next snowboarding adventures.
Posted by Jane at 11:52 AM
New York, New York
Posted by Jane at 8:17 PM
Bagels
I made my first bagels yesterday - and they turned out to be a success. We've had a bread maker for 2 years now, and have progressed from pre-mixed bread-mixes, through the recipes that came with the machine, to those in a recently bought book. Yesterday I attempted my first "internet" bread recipe - for bagels. I had to adjust the recipe slightly as I didn't have any Barley malt syrup or Molasses - so I just put them in plain boiling water. They also floated the moment I put them in, but this recipe suggests "cooking for about 30 seconds on each side" which is similar to how long I boiled them.
Posted by Jane at 8:59 AM
September 28, 2004
I was out of town yesterday, so I don't have any first-hand experience of the pro-hunt demo outside the Labour conference. I've been catching up on the whole dead horse thing via various blogs: Jamie, Iestyn, Tom's Blog of a nobody, Adactio, their side of the story and more importantly the Sky News report: Hunt supporters strip.
Posted by Richard at 7:19 AM
- Animal dumping folow up
Two men charged yesterday:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3742106.stm
Posted by Richard on 2004-10-15 08:21:44
- ...guilty and fined:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3756438.stm
Posted by Richard on 2004-10-20 09:29:49
September 26, 2004
The BBC have a news story about rural transport today, and one of their "Related Internet Links" is for the Government guide to public transport. This website allows you to put in your start and end points and travelling time and it will provide you with a list of journey options. Sounds pretty useful.
Posted by Jane at 9:28 AM
September 24, 2004
We were at Milton Keynes with Paul to put a couple more hours of snowboarding under our belts. There are photos.
Posted by Richard at 9:45 PM
September 20, 2004
The Economist has a short write-up on how the seaside is changing with younger people moving in.
Posted by Richard at 3:22 PM
Don't send me flowers when I'm dead. If you like me, send them while I'm alive.
Brian Clough died today. Cloughy was my Grandmother's favourite football manager, and always one she respected, and used in a "Cloughy wouldn't have done that" kind of way. This was of great amusement to my Father as he used this to wind her up on all possible occasions. I still don't know why my Gran was a Nottingham Forest fan as she lived in Hull and surrounding areas for all of her life, but she was. One of those things I guess.
There are some great Cloughy quotes at IOL: Soccer - I guess these are the kind of quotes my Dad liked to remind Gran about.
Posted by Jane at 3:21 PM
September 16, 2004
We visited Steff, Simes, Daisy and Noah over the weekend which was smashing. I'd just like to thank Steff for introducing me to the concept of serving Ben & Jerry's in slices: it makes perfect sense.
Oh, the photo? It just goes to show that it's hard to make a Red Panda balance on your head for very long.
Posted by Richard at 8:33 AM
September 15, 2004
A new game
Inspired by our trip to NY, here's a new game you can play anytime you buy anything. The objective of the game is to have the last word when ending a transaction, with a secondary aim of scoring as many points as possible, with a point won each time either you or the shop person says something.
An example of how not to play... let's say you've just handed over payment and been given a receipt:
- You: Thank you.
- Shop person: You're welcome.
- (you leave the store)
You lose: you didn't have the last word, and it's a short exchange anyway. Let's try again:
- You: Thank you.
- Shop person: You're welcome.
- You: (smile expectantly)
- Shop person: Have a nice day.
- You: And you have a nice day too.
- Shop person: Why thanks.
- You: You're welcome.
- (you leave the store)
Yes! You win, and you score 6 points. Good work.
Posted by Richard at 12:32 PM
September 14, 2004
Medieval history... dull dull dull. Except when Terry Jones does it. I only caught the last two episodes of Medieval Lives, but it was just smashing. Much was learned: Good King Richard I (actually bad); Bad King Richard II (actually good); Hunchback King Richard III (complete fabrication). Or that medieval society was very litigious, spending much time in court rather than, as I probably thought, eating mud or something.
Reading an interview it looks the whole series would be pretty good. There's also a book of the series, but I don't know what that's like.
Posted by Richard at 8:08 AM
September 13, 2004
Flights
On our trip to New York we flew with 2 different airlines, using 2 different UK airports. We left Gatwick on Continental and returned to Heathrow on Virgin - this gave us a pretty good opportunity to compare the service provided.
The service on Virgin was much better, including bringing around ice creams half way through the flight, but Continental was adequate, they weren't rude or inattentive or anything. The entertainment on Virgin was again better, having a decent selection of films/TV/radio, whilst Continental had a lot less options. The legroom was far and away better on Continental. I'm not especially tall, but when a heavy person sits in front of you and moves around a lot it's a lot less painful when your knees aren't actually touching the seat in front. According to Global Airline Seating Guide there is no difference, but on our flights (of course, the different aeroplanes may make a difference, between a Boeing and an Airbus) it felt more like 3 or 4 - quite a noticeable difference.
Update: Just spotted that Pete has blogged on a similar subject, and he found SeatGuru. SeatGuru also seems to display the legroom per plane model per airline. Mind you, this claims that Virgin should have more legroom than Continental on the specific planes we used which wasn't our experience.
Posted by Jane at 10:42 AM
We're back from a trip to New York. I'll just mention one thing before I forget: the crossing signs on the streets spoke (not so unusual in itself) but it was more like a song. We got "Wait... Wait.... Wait.... Sixth Avenue! Walk sign is on to cross Sixth Avenue. Sixth Avenue! Walk sign is on ...". There's something about the pause between "cross" and "Sixth Avenue" that made it flow so well. There's an example WAV sample of something similar you can listen to, but it's much too flat - not the same at all. We should have recorded it.
Posted by Richard at 9:17 PM
September 02, 2004
It looks like there will be a parade around London for the Olympic athletes - it'll be held on Monday 18th October. Other details aren't known yet, but the BBC mention that it will end in Trafalgar Square, with highlights of the Games being shown on big screens.
Posted by Jane at 1:58 PM
Slow down, take a different road, and see things differently
Wired had a story yesterday about a guy Segwaying across the US. Another mad scheme. This one seems to be being done to make a documentary out of - rather than just because they can as he counts a "Writer and independent filmmaker" amongst his 4 strong support team and their plan states "And when we're finished, we'll wrap it up with a feature-length documentary." This still counts as an adventure in my books though!
Meanwhile, my friends Vic and Banz and their friends Spencer and Cath continue to make good progress in their respective world trips - both sets are travelling from the UK to Australia - Vic and Banz by bike, Spencer and Cath in a more traditional way.
Posted by Jane at 12:01 PM
