Disability - Ryanaire Screwed!

Acording to the BBC:

‘New Ryanair policy states that vision-impaired passengers travelling with sighted companions will no longer have to advise the airline in advance.
These travellers will also not be included in the airline's safety limit of four
disabled passengers per flight.
The Irish carrier announced in what it called a "commonsense change".
At the time of the incident, the compay denied discrimination saying it was only complying with safety guidelines that required aircraft to be evacuated within 90 seconds in case of emergency.’

Fantastic!!!! This refers to an incident in which blind and partially sighted people were made to get off a flight before takeoff because Ryanaire said that they could only transport 4 at once for safety reasons.

Food - Dragon House

Even better than Chow's in Ipswich. if you are ever staying in the doncaster area give the Dragon House a try. consistently splendid!! and they also deliver over a wide area.

General - Just the normal kind of stuff ya know!

The laptop is now back at Misco and to be honest it didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would losing stuff. A few years ago I would have let this wreck my life for many days but I’ve learned over the last few years that it’s just not worth it.

Sheffield station is hardly my favourite place to get stuck at at the best of times. Bloody cold on that platform after 9 at night. I really can confirm that winter is drawing in good and proper with temperatures falling quicker than Kerry Katona’s pants.

Leeds went very well and it was nice to train someone I had previously never met but only corresponded with using phone calls and the web for 4 years, a nice time and we went to a smashing little café for lunch. Home made steak pie and mash, peas and gravy with, wait for it; a pint of strong and fragrant tea. This really was a very good cup of tea, I can’t remember the name of the place as to be honest I wasn’t told, but I could easily find it again.

We, that is my parents and I had a lovely Chinese in the evening and I had a few beers to celebrate the extended opening hours, but not as many as you may think dear reader for I was shagged and wanted to get to bed.

I also made one whisky purchase in Yorkshire. A bottle of The Balvenie Founders Reserve. Yes an awfully nice malt, sure exceedingly good value and plentiful for the time being, but a malt that is to be discontinued or has been as I Wright this, so one to stick away to earn a little cash in the years to come I’d say. It’s worth an £18 punt regardless and if it doesn’t pay its way in the end it will go down well.

I’m off to Darlington in a bit for a show and we have a Trekker demo after that so a long day ahead with a drive over to Penrith tonight.

General - Gone on Holiday by mistake

Things are looking up since yesterday. I am going to Wellingborough today so will be able to get my laptop sent back. I’m not going to miss it too much for work because of my mPower. Leeds is my destination for Wednesday and then I travel up the country to Darlington on Thursday with my final destination Carlisle on Friday. I think we are staying in Penrith thru Thursday evening, that is Lucy and I so I’m looking forward to the Withnail factor. If you don’t know what the withnail factor is, check out the IMDB information on one of my favourite films. Wile in Penrith I will make sure to demand 'the finest wines available to humanity' and cake!! I also find it a little touching that I’ll be near the setting for much of Withnail as the new drinking laws come in to being.

I may not be able to update this week as much as I would like, but never mind

General - Poor Show

My laptop hard drive has gone down, the dog was sick in someone’s car and I had Bluetooth problems. Hardly one of the finest days.

Beer - A nagging dilemma

re Young's. I love most of Young's beers.

From the Publican

the company has been locked in an internal review of the site, which City estimates have valued at upward of £50m.
Releasing this capital would clearly allow Young’s an unrivalled opportunity to expand but at the loss of its traditional home. “Of course we are obviously aware of the brewery’s roots and place in the community here and so this makes any decision about
the future very difficult,” says Stephen.
There are shareholders to satisfy who will ultimately make the decision when the final results of the review are made known.
It’s difficult to imagine the Chairman – as John Young is almost universally known
– countenancing such a move, but business is business and Young’s may be forced to move on.
Younger generations of the brewing family are waiting in the wings, though it is
by no means certain that they will inherit quite the same characterful local brewing mantle that still lives on with John Young.

Ananova - Prostitutes threatened war effort

Newly-released archive material reveals there were fears the transatlantic alliance
could be damaged. High-level meetings were held to try and resolve the situation with US Army chiefs
worried about a VD outbreak.
The GIs themselves wrote home to complain that they were constantly accosted and
sometimes robbed.
There were also fears of a propaganda coup for the Germans if they found out, as
the Nazis could have portrayed Britain as a "decadent" nation where "immoral" women "preyed" on unwary US troops.

Technology - No chance of the Queen getting lost

The systems have been installed in her three Rolls-Royces, two Bentleys, and three
Daimlers reports The Sun.
The Queen enjoys keeping up with technology. Earlier this year she bought an iPod
- and Prince Harry has told how he and brother William get mobile texts from their
gran.
A Buckingham Palace source said: "The Queen enjoys driving but usually takes the
wheel only on Royal estates. The sat-nav systems will be of great use to her chauffeurs
on the road."

Technology - More on Trekker 2.7

Just a bit mbre info for you from the horses mouth. Also maestro has some nice improvements with the way it handles large documents and some other bug fixes.

Whisky - WMDII� - The Yellow Submarine

Still got a headache but had to post this. I'll buy a bottle just for interests sake.
'Local fisherman, John Baker, fishing 7 miles from Bruichladdich discovered a large
drum-like object floating beneath the surface - a hazard to shipping. To his surprise
it was a mini-submarine bristling with hi-tech surveillance equipment. There were
Ministry of Defence markings.
Having towed it to port, the £500,000 submarine, was craned out of the water and
positioned on the fisherman’s driveway. The MOD were dutifully alerted.
The MOD at first denied it was theirs, then denied the vessel was missing – then
implied the fishermen must have stolen it. The fishermen at first, out of pique,
refused to divulge it’s whereabouts. A stalemate ensued'.

General - Headache

I’ve had just under a day now of nasty headaches.  Very bad, I’ve never felt anything like it moving through my head and understand the meaning of a blinding headache.  I know what a hangover pain is like, and no sir this is not one of them.

More when my head’s not thumping.

Birthday - Birthday Bash 2

After arriving in to Ipswich on Thursday and clambering aboard the bus I met up with Clare and her mum coming back from town. We went to Clare’s place and had mugs of tea and a natter and I was given presents.
Later on that evening we ate a Chinese together from Chow’s one of the finest takeaways it’s ever been my pleasure to masticate my way through. I had the chicken curry and wile it is the Chinese version the roast meat was succulent and plentiful. It’s just a shame this takeaway is in the middle of a potential re-development area and it’s future is a little up in the air. The owner Mr. Chow has had a successful business in the local neighbourhood for many years, so hopefully he will find some place nearby and keep his custom. Clare got me bottles of beer in for the occasion including Adnam’S SSB and Broadside and Young’s Special London ale which I chose to drink with the curry. She also bought champagne but we were too tired to drink it and instead stuffed ourselves on rich chocolate cake before saying goodbye to her parents and going up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire.

Friday was mostly spent in bed with talking and naughtyness...., but that was fine with me!! In the evening Clare cooked a smashing chicken Jalfrezi, my favourite curry and it truly was something special. She spent hours over it and made it from scratch and really did a fantastic job!! She also made a lovely trifle to munch after. It was very large and kept us happy until Sunday such was it’s size.

Saturday saw us in town having a byte to eat at the Mile Stone Beer House they had around 12 real ales on with the majority in the tap room and definitely the beers I tried were spot on. We went around town in the afternoon outfit shopping for Clare and then went home for a nap and to prepare for the evening.

I really was unsure about what to do after dusk A pub would be in order but we are spoilt for choice in Ipswich with 3 of the best real ale bars in the country in the Mile Stone, the Dove Street Inn and especially the Ipswich Fat Cat. I elected to go to the Mile Stone because they had a band on called RIFF RAFF. Who could resist a name like that? on further investigation of the RIFF RAFF WebPages I found out that they were a rock cover band going from Punk to grunge to metal so that really floated my boat. They also say. ‘There's a lot of good new music so instead of going down the staid old rock road
we decided to mix it up a bit, lose our muso egos (ahem) create a party atmosphere
and well..er..rock!
THE OLD AND THE NEW EH, LIKE WHO?
Aerosmith, Buzzcocks, AC/DC, Queen, Blink182, Feeder, Dandy Warhols, Nirvana, The Clash, Sex Pistols, Bucks Fizz*, Ash, Kula Shaker, Oasis, Sum 41, REM, Green Day,
Stereophonics, Blur, Foo Fighters, The Cult, Primal Scream etc.’

After a slightly shaky start they were fantastic and most enjoyable, very bouncy they got the mix of the sound and music about spot on. We didn’t stay for the last two or 3 songs but went back to Clare Castle tired and happy.

Sunday was a roast day at the King’s a local pub and mostly spent watching TV and it was back to working on Monday. I had meant to take the two days off, but I was doing the boss a favour and he’s a nice bloke so no probs at all with that especially as I get to take the day in December to make my holiday that little bit longer. I really did have a lovely and very enjoyable time thanks to Clare over last weekend. It more than made up for the crappy birthday itself.

Back at home on Monday night by 10 to 11 in the evening and after getting stuff sorted out for today and checking out the Malt Maniacs awards I went to bed. This posting finds me on the move again, but more about my adventures in the north later this week.

Politics ' Pub plans face crunch MPs' vote

The Conservatives will seek to scupper the Government's plans for extended pub opening hours.
They will table a Commons motion to annul the order which brings into full effect
the Licensing Act 2003.

‘licensing minister James Purnell said the act was intended to treat people as
grown-ups and included measures asked for by the police to allow tough action on
binge drinking.
He told the BBC: "The hours are part of the problem, because by having a firm cut
off time at 11pm, people engage in speed drinking... the only places able to stay
open after 11pm at the moment are those which put on music and dancing... exactly
the kinds of places that people might worry about most.
"And what we said was, instead of us having a firm curfew, we should allow local
people and local councils to decide when pubs close according to their local circumstances - and I think that's quite right."

I am hardly shocked or even taken aback at all by this turn of events brought on by the controlling draconian Tory party and the rest of the snivelling puritan do-gooders. Please, spare me this petty chomping at the bit of an out of touch party for those who still think the working classes can’t be trusted to control themselves. Granted in the short term this act may pose difficulties wile people adjust, but it will bring us in to line with the majority of Europe, and only by learning from mistakes can people police themselves with the amount they drink. I think most people in this country tend to get drunk between the hours of 10 and 11 when they try and down a few pints because of outdated measures put in to force by world wars which means our pubs shut.

From the 24th of November pubs can apply for licenses to stay open as long as they think business is viable and will only be constrained by opinion within the locality and by the police.

Technology - Maestro and Trekker updates available!

The next upgrade to Trekker and Maestro is out as a free download. It allows people to use a variety of Bluetooth GPS receivers and also ads support for grade two Braille input from the screen overlay and support for the external Bluetooth Braile keyboard.

Go to Humanware Canada and select downloads, then English North American for the language and select the latest Trekker or Trekker with Maestro download.

The new Trekker hardware packs will be shipping out of the UK very soon, but if you are a user of this system you can grab a supported Bluetooth receiver and go wireless!!

Stuart Lawler dot com - Home

I was surprised and delighted to get the following mention on the above cool page. Stuart is a nice bloke and I'll be having more than one drink with him in Ireland in a few weeks. Check out his audio reviews and radio show.
'What I will do though, is direct you to one of the best blog sites I have yet come
across.
Martin Roberts, who now works with the company
Humanware
in the UK, is a cool guy who's bloggs are very entertaining and extremely well written.
So go on,
visit his website
and see for yourself!'

Thanks mate!!

The Freesound Project

The Freesound Project aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, ... released under the
Creative Commons Sampling Plus License. it looks a good store of treasure for you sound geeks and those working in or on sound productions.

beer - Britain�s First Premium Lager leaves Bond Shaken and Stirred | Cains - Robert Cain Brewery Liverpool

James Bond may have a license to kill, but he doesn’t have a license to chill – like
the beer that has just beaten him to be chosen second by uber-style magazine GQ in
their annual 100 Best Things in the World poll.
Liverpool’s favourite son, Cains
Finest Lager, has also beaten the iPod Nano, George Clo
oney’s Las Vegas Casino and Ruinart Champagne
in GQ’s annual poll.
Cains
is set to become a British cultural icon and national phenomenon.

General - Can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!!!

I had a bit of a shit time yesterday, but that’s ok I guess as birthdays can’t all be pissed up silliness and exuberance or so people tell me.

I thought today was going to be a sow's ear, but instead fate is strange sometimes and a silk purse was dredged up from the murky depths. Fortune turned for the good with a splendid day. Though I’ve been at it long hours and am just travelling home now a client gave me a bottle of Talisker for the effort I’ve put in so that was so cool as the thought is just so nice, and it’s a looooooovely malt too!! Oh, plus 4 bottles of Bush Belgium ale.


To Clare’s tomorrow after slaving away and then two days off work!!! Yeeeeeh!

Technology - Say hello to Windows Defender

'Developers are priming the application for inclusion in Vista, the next version of Windows. The next pre-release version of the product will obtain signature updates from the Windows Update software distribution channels. The technology will to available
to Win XP users as well as future Vista users'


Lets just hope they keep it updated unlike the old DOS AV product!

Birthday - Iriver File System

I’m now another year older, a little wiser, oh and a tad heavier than this time last year.  On the upside I have a job with a good company, a lovely GF and lots to look forward to!!   Jaid and I are in the process of hurtling towards Wellingborough in first class with a cup of tea.  Nearly didn’t make it today as my left shoulder is really giving me some jip. I have a lot on at the moment in the office so I really had to go in even  if the dog would rather have not made the trip.

So to get on to the grit of the post.  If you have an mp3 player, especially an Iriver H hard drive player, please don’t make the mistake of formatting it under windows XP/2K as was my downfall a few weeks ago.  It will only format in NTFS and you will essentially end up with an expensive small portable hard drive!!  I with the help of Google found a solution to my problem involving 5 minutes with that lovely but occasionally dangerous miracle of disc management partition magic.  I did create a small ntfs partition 2 gig on my player in order to use it for the storing of files I don’t want appearing within the Iriver file system!!  Don’t ask!!!

Winamp has selected Counting Crows Live tracks for my enjoyment.  So I’ll tuck in to my chocolate cake and tea and be gone.

L8R

Birthday - Birthday bash1

Dave appeared down  at Roberts mansions in Epsom last week in order to enjoy a few days of celebration for mine and his birthday which are in November and October respectively.  We made good use of the time catching up on some classic DVDs including Phoenix  Nights series 1, some Alan partridge and in tribute to the late Mr Barker a spot of Open All Hours.  We also found time to go out.

Highlights include a night out in Covent Garden at the Porter House and a nip in to the Maple leaf Canadian Bar.  Dave’s another convert to the food and beer in the Porter House I’m glad to say exclaiming that the porter was better than Guinness.  We felt nothing but contempt for the brand led buffoon who looked along the bar and ordered lager because of a lack of the same.  The Canadian bar was entered with some excitement but we left after trying the beer.  Yes, we both left our pints of honey beer too.   This particular evening was topped off by drinks in the local and then yet more with Don at my place.

A pub quiz in the Railway Guard was enjoyed merrily with our splendid team ‘a load of old bollox’ coming 5th out of around 10, so I guess reasonably respectable.

We also went for drinks in Wandsworth and in particular to the Young’s Brewery Tap.  Once again enormously friendly.  We met up with some random people and went to two more Young’s pubs.  The Grapes is particularly worth a mention for it’s local approach  unspoilt cosiness.

Another reason for the trip to Wandsworth was for us to enjoy a top notch fish and chip supper, and this was partially fulfilled at Brady’s, a restaurant opposite the railway station.  The idea came about because of an e-mail I received from a friend giving a list from a few years ago of the top ten chip shops in the UK.  My fish was superb as was Dave’s, but the chips were dodgy southern efforts.  Small and wile home done, just not thick enough, bloody useless actually I mean, chips, what in the name of arse were these anorexic efforts all about?.  The place was steep too, but we enjoyed ourselves none the less.  This is the evil little paragraph or two that gave us the idea to go.

‘10 Brady's
513 Old York Road, London SW18
020 8877 9599

Step off the train at Wandsworth Town station, and it's more than likely you'll amble past Brady's, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it fish bar with the finest
fish and chips in south-west London. Once inside, simply scan the wall-mounted menu and choose your weapons. From crisp, battered cod to sublime salmon
fishcakes, from rollmop herrings to potted shrimps with brown toast, Brady's offers the choice of taking your fish grilled or battered, before tempting
you with its range of traditional English desserts, including treacle tart, if you have any room left.’

I’m tucking in to a pint of Young’s Christmas Pudding beer at the moment.  It should have been called Young’s Coconut Beer thinks I on first wif.  Heavy malty and full of sweet coconut.  Maybe something went wrong with this?  I don’t think so actually.  It would be good with Christmas cake and I couldn’t drink much at all.

Whisky - Can a whisky made in Norfolk really prove a winning blend?

Whisky connoisseurs say Mr Nelstrop should have the three key ingredients for a successful malt whisky - high quality barley, a ready water supply and Scottish expertise. Dominic Cornish, the editor of Whisky Magazine said: "Norfolk is already the champion
beer region for the UK. The region has excellent barley. It also has a good water supply from the Brecklands aquifer. And I understand [Mr Nelstrop] plans to bring in a Scottish expert.
"On paper, there is absolutely no reason he can't produce a fine whisky."

Technology - Window-Eyes 5.5 now available!

If anyone reading this blog uses w-e or is thinking about it, it's now time to download your upgrade or the 5.5demo. some nice new features include a rout to tooltip option, much faster performance, the best stability, BrailleNote with full keyboard support for typing in to windows applications, FireFox support, MSN 7.5X, at last a run from systray option, um and Window-Eyes now has preliminary support for the beta versions of Windows Vista. Note that XP video drivers are required for Window-Eyes to work successfully under Windows Vista betas.
and much more.

Technology - Nude Brits shop while drunk |

I think I've done this once before. um, or maybe twice.

The survey also found that people disconnect their inhibitions when surfing the net,
with six per cent of Britons claiming they know someone who has shopped online in
a state of undress.
But whether they are buying birthday gifts in their birthday suits or are just plain drunk, Dawson said the message here is that web customers are hard to predict.

General - Winter's coming!

Today while traveling back from Liverpool street I went to my favourite Young's pub on London’s Bishop's Gate in my lunch break to check out the offerings. I found the usual but with the added extra of winter warmer. This surely signifies the oncoming wintry weather and Christmas time. also whilst walking through the Ashley Centre in Epsom this Monday with Clare we could hear that abominable Ewell tide dirge white Christmas on the Pa.

The winter Warmer is a lovely malty and spicy brew of which I shall undoubtedly fortify myself with over the next few cooler winter months. It was also pissing it down as Jaid and I ran home.

It’s all a bit too soon. Surely the Christmas trappings shouldn’t start until the beginning of December at the very least?

Holiday - Dublin Planns

We finally have our holiday plans worked out at last, well for the moment!!  It really start son Friday the 9th of December with works Christmas party near Wellingborough so Clare and I will get the train up and stay in a hotel near the railway station.

We then fly out to Dublin on the Saturday with the tossers from Ryan Air and get the train to the small town of Bray to find Derry and Martha. Our hostelry for the night is the Porter House Inn.  I really am looking forward to the food which I know is exceptional and the fine selection of proper Irish stouts and ales.

We’re off back to Dublin on the Sunday afternoon through Wednesday.  Our lodgings for this leg are the North Star Hotel which I’m reliably informed is near the centre of the city.  Clare found the place online, so it had better be good, or she’ll never hear the end of it!!  GRIN

We fly to Doncaster on Wednesday afternoon and spend some time before Christmas with my parents. This will be special enough anyway, but we have a good chance of another member joining the family on the 17th of the month as Isabel is expecting to drop the sprog then.   Saturday should find us travelling to the house of Williams for a few gloriously drunken days in Preston celebrating with the festive spirit so to speak.

So a hectic week and a half planned.  Updates will I’m sure be posted.

General - Backat last

Clare was over last weekend and we had a practise run at a Christmas lunch.  Early I know but we won’t have time to do a turkey roast with just us two before the event.  I cooked it and it was good, especially the turkey which just melted in the mouth.  In fact for the majority of the weekend we ate British food like bangers and mash and cottage pie, and that really did make a change.

We really had a weekend of doing very little but after last week at work it’s just what I required to recharge the batteries as it was one of the hardest weeks I’ve ever had.  This week has been much nicer and I’m travelling to London from a place called Ware after doing a Trekker demo.  Last night was lovely Clare took me out for an Indian which was really sweet of her, but unfortunately I couldn’t stay awake for very long afterwards. We also managed to finalise our plans for our pre Christmas Irish trip and I’ll note those down in a future post just encase anyone’s interested.

Dave’s coming over tonight for a few days as part of a joint celebration for his and my birthday and I’m sure we can find some good stuff to do in and around London for a few days.  I’m having Thursday and Friday off work so intend to make the best of it.

More L8R

Beer - Hogs Back

Better late than never I guess, and in the spirit of a post way after the event I’ll try and remember what I can about the Hogs Back trip for Steve’s birthday celebration.

Steve and I went to the riser and managed a quick pint before the rest of the bunch turned up and piled in to the mini bus provided by Cathie from Cathie’s Cars.  The journey was pretty fast and the views of the Surrey country side were apparently lovely.  The Hogs Back is especially worth a mention  It is a road going between Gilford and Farnham lined with trees and at a distance and because of the shape looks like a hogs back.

Snuffling around the Hogs Back

Arriving in plenty of time we had a look around the brewery shop which had beers from many other small breweries and also beers from other countries.  Many of our group were also impressed with the range of real ciders on offer, although that doesn’t really float my boat to be honest.  I purchased 4 bottles of the Durham Brewery beers including 2  of the famous 10 Percent Temptation stout.  Plus assorted Hogs Back memorabilia including a lovely stone flagon and a selection of beers, oh and 5 pints of First Gold in a Carrie out pack.

The tour was something different and rather special.  After gathering together in the entrance to the brewery a huge jug of Hair of the Hog beer was passed around, and most of the group sank a couple of pints of this hoppy and light brew before we moved on to the next part of the process.  At this point a jug of TEA did the rounds, then to the next part and our poison was England’s Glory, and then to the gift shop for First Gold.  The tour was well done, interesting and very informal making the previous Young’s one appear very stayed in comparison.  They let us take away the glasses we used on the tour and it really is a good idea not to take a car if you’re going to  indulge in this particular experience.

I did like all the beers, but don’t think they’re anything special, and my favourite was actually the Hair of the Hog.  I’m looking forward to trying the bottled versions I picked up though.

The evening was capped off with a trip to an Indian Restaurant and pints back in the Riser.  Everyone agreed it was an enjoyable and successful day.  I did find it hard to plan and coordinate because of not been around Epsom much over the last few weeks, but it  well merited the time and effort.

Cathie was great too and came around on the trip with us, so thanks to her.