email blogging

This is a quick attempt at email blogging from a tube train on
the Victoria line from the braillenote.
Its one of those barmy hot days and the temperature down below is
super hot. This train smells of swet and takeaway frys.

More later.

General - Off for the weekend

My  top secret meeting later today will be followed by an excursion over to Somerset and the village of pensford.  I love the southwest of the UK as it goes and really am looking forward to the slower pace of life for a day or two.  Its all rather spontaneous really but should be  a refreshing change.

I’ll be back later to report on the scrumpy and food situation.

Technology - MSP Version 1.0.8 plus the new magnifier beta available

CodeFactory have released a new version of Mobile speak Pocket supporting some new Humanware Braille technology and even more PDAs.  It also has usability improvements and many other fixes and features.  Plus the Mobile Magnifier pocket beta is built-in making this the first Braille speech and magnification solution for the Windows Mobile platform.

A full list of features and capabilities can be found at this link.

General - Exploring a little of Kingston

I volunteered to spread the word about savetheriser at the Kingston beer festavle last weekend.  Such was my devotion to duty that I went twice, once on the Friday evening and then on Saturday afternoon.  I must say the atmosphere was  most pleasant if a little hot because of a warm June.  Everyone I went with commented on the number of young women drinking the various beers available, over 45 plus ciders and other drinks.

I wish to concentrate on the Saturday afternoon and evening as it was outstanding.  After the festival Andrew and I wended our way through Kingston town centre and found ourselves guided by Trekker around the back streets of Kingston.  We stopped at a local that reminded me strongly of the Rising Sun in its presentation.  The beer was excellent and if you’re in Kingston the   Canbury arms is a smashing place to spend a few hours.

We then continued to follow Trekkers instructions and found the
Willoughby Arms not too far away and took advantage of the beer and free wifi.  We then returned back to the  Canbury but rather than go in were tempted by the smell of lovely Chinese cooking from across the road.

The China Royal has to be one of the best oriental restaurants I have had the pleasure of eating in.  the staff were beyond helpful even bringing us a menu out when we were looking in at the window.  Jaid was made most welcome and once again the food was excellent.  It cost £37 for a 4 set banquet and two beers.  I will be returning very soon, I’m normally critical of Chinese restaurants but this was something else.

After our food we walked over to the Grey Horse which is a pub with live  music  I drank a poor pint of Young’s and listened to an  interesting percussion/folk group called Wupa Dupa .  It was really emotionally charged and impressive.  

Somehow I was fortunate enough to get the 11:45 bus back to Epsom and walked home happily through the clean summer air.

General - Michael Palin

Michael Palin was always my favourite actor from the Monty Python troop and his travel books have kept me coming back for more for over 2 years now.  I have the DVD collection but have just splashed  out on the full cd set excluding the Hemmingway Adventure  which I had to purchase separately.

If you want to check out the books and read them online click over to the Palins Travels website.

Music - new Dream Theater Live recordings

I could kick myself for not going to watch DT in 2005 so am looking forward to this release.
‘The 3-CD and 2-DVD sets will be available separately. Both versions will contain the entire "20th Anniversary World Tour" grand finale
recorded live at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on April 1st 2006. (nearly
3 hours of music - over 90 minutes of which was performed with a full orchestra)
The DVD will also contain a 1 hour Documentary tracking the entire career of the
band from the very beginnings at the Berklee College Of Music in 1985 all the way
to the Radio City Music Hall grand finale. Including rare never before seen footage
and interviews with current and previous members of the band.
Also included on the DVD are several live Bonus Tracks from through the years taken
from the Portnoy Archives.’

General - a bit about June

June has been a most enjoyable month for many reasons.  Clare was in Epsom for well over 3  weeks, plus each weekend I’ve had things on.  The sun hardly ever stopped shining
I can’t possibly remember everything but there are some events I wish to note.  

DERBY day. Journey South were the band picked by the organisers and while not as obscene as last years outfit they blended in to the general hum of the place.  The tawdry acoustic cover versions went down well probably because of the beer company and the fact we were all sitting down on the grass and chilling out.  I mewled up a shed load of beer for our group who were even more plentiful than last years mob.  Donna came down for the weekend along with Dave and Graham even stumbled over for our little outing.  Clare’s dad came up trumps with a good tip and some of our group managed to win a tidy sum.   On arriving back at Swail we all enjoyed a rather rowdy and good natured burn up that lasted until well after 2.  I was justifiably read the riot act for this but it was definitely worth it.  In fact we’ve had many bbqs not just at Swail but over at friends in Epsom also.    I suspect  the local Epsom butcher has really had a good month in June.  I do recall opening a bottle of 1966 Highland Park whisky which was rather good and something I cracked because of the Soccer world cup and Dave’s love of HP.

My parents came over for a weekend and it was particularly nice.  We enjoyed Fathers day in the Riser and Ruth and Dave cooked up a marvellous spread for us.  The same weekend my dad showed me how to brew beer rather successfully actually.  Unfortunately Steve Andrew and I have had to crack the keg as the gas was escaping out of the cap because it wasn’t on firmly enough.  I did get some CO2 to pressurise  the bugger and this has worked a treat.  I shall do another brew probably this weekend and it will stay securely closed for the full duration.  For those who are interested, the beer kits are from http://www.woodfordes.co.uk/Woodforde’s brewery and I purchased some extra fuggles and golding hops for the secondary fermentation in the cask.

On a visit up to some hostelries near Epsom common we stumbled across the East Surrey Morris Men doing what ever Morris dancers do, I can’t say I was impressed with the bells and violins or what ever they were playing and neither was the dog.


Plans for my move to Ipswich are going nicely.  We have a removal quote and I feel really good about it.

To be continued.

Technology - Keysoft 7.2 coming soonA

Humanware will launch Keysoft 7.2 for the BrailleNote family this week and it should be available at the start of the 4th quarter. New features include statistical support in the calculator, more flexible e-mail signatures, a more windows like file manager and the much requested daisy player.

Savetheriser - Handing it in

I'll get back to normal with the blog soon, but I've been diverted away for a bit with the Save the Riser stuff.

Steve Clare the two guide dogs and I set off for Wandsworth yesterday taking a break to grab some much required breakfast. The journey went well and we arrived at Wandsworth town station in plenty of time and earlier than those going by road!

We had a chat with others waiting and then all went across the road to the young’s pub for a drink, the St Georges Ale was on top form and its hoppy nature cut through the hot day. I guess around 15 people came to Wandsworth with us which was a nice number to get our point across with out been confrontational, as we have said before, our aim is constructive and peaceful campaigning and this I believe we achieved.

The majority of us went outside for an interesting chat with Patrick Dardis the sales director of Young & Co who indicated that we may not get to keep many of the beers we love so much in the Rising Sun which was disappointing, but he was a nice enough gentleman and gave us 20 minutes or so of his time and all those who wanted to say something were given a moment to speak.

On a positive note it shows how seriously Young & Co are taking us sending out a director of the company at such a busy time for them. We hope this is the start of a fruitful dialog between ourselves and the company, but next time a smaller number of people and inside a building would enhance the experience and help us all. The petition was then presented along with your letters of support and when Patrick left us we asked if we could present it at the gates of the Ram brewery. He also said he would read through the messages of support and in fact he also has logged on to savetheriser.org in the past.

I clambered in Geoff’s van with Jaid my guide dog and we were a little thwarted by the one-way system in Wandsworth but eventually made it to the entrance ware we stood with the banner for pictures. We handed in the petition plus messages and asked that it was given to Patrick then made our way home.

The 3 of us along with Paul Not his sister and some other campaigners couldn’t resist a drink in the same young’s pub opposite the station before going back to Epsom
The Epsom Post came to the pub a little later than advertised and pictures were taken of the great selection of beers, the smashing customers, plus one or two of Clare and another young lady customer especially for the paper. I personally think they should have got myself and Don in those snaps, but I guess we would provide the wrong impression of the place.

For those who came along to either event, thanks so much.

Steve Clare the two guide dogs and I set off for Wandsworth yesterday taking a break to grab some much required breakfast. The journey went well and we arrived at Wandsworth town station in plenty of time and earlier than those going by road!

We had a chat with others waiting and then all went across the road to the young’s pub for a drink, the St Georges Ale was on top form and its hoppy nature cut through the hot day. I guess around 15 people came to Wandsworth with us which was a nice number to get our point across with out been confrontational, as we have said before, our aim is constructive and peaceful campaigning and this I believe we achieved.

The majority of us went outside for an interesting chat with Patrick Dardis the sales director of Young & Co who indicated that we may not get to keep many of the beers we love so much in the Rising Sun which was disappointing, but he was a nice enough gentleman and gave us 20 minutes or so of his time and all those who wanted to say something were given a moment to speak.

On a positive note it shows how seriously Young & Co are taking us sending out a director of the company at such a busy time for them. We hope this is the start of a fruitful dialog between ourselves and the company, but next time a smaller number of people and inside a building would enhance the experience and help us all. The petition was then presented along with your letters of support and when Patrick left us we asked if we could present it at the gates of the Ram brewery. He also said he would read through the messages of support and in fact he also has logged on to savetheriser.org in the past.

I clambered in Geoff’s van with Jaid my guide dog and we were a little thwarted by the one-way system in Wandsworth but eventually made it to the entrance ware we stood with the banner for pictures. We handed in the petition plus messages and asked that it was given to Patrick then made our way home.

The 3 of us along with Paul Not his sister and some other campaigners couldn’t resist a drink in the same young’s pub opposite the station before going back to Epsom
The Epsom Post came to the pub a little later than advertised and pictures were taken of the great selection of beers, the smashing customers, plus one or two of Clare and another young lady customer especially for the paper. I personally think they should have got myself and Don in those snaps, but I guess we would provide the wrong impression of the place.

For those who came along to either event, thanks so much.

Save the Riser

Off to the horses soon.  Andrews just cooked breakfast.

More importantly click and help save the riser

Pilgrim Local under threat from Youngs

I’d like to thank a friend for putting this together.

This could also mean the end of the Pilgrim Brewery as well as the Rising Sun as we know it.

Dear Friend,



Hi it's me and I'm writing to see if you can help with a matter that
has come to my attention.



Firstly don't worry, this is a plea for a little written support and not
some sort of email virus or circular, it's just that I've had to write to as
many people about this as possible.



Secondly, please read on because the reason for all this is that today I
received some very bad news that the Rising Sun pub in Epsom.



London brewing giant, Young's & Co, has decided to make a hostile take-over
of the Rising Sun in such a fashion that it will become financially
impossible for Ruth and Dave Roberts, the current management, to stay in
charge.



Ruth and Dave have slaved long and hard for many years to make the Rising
Sun a welcoming, non smoking, family pub with a loveably unique atmosphere
where like the fictional pub 'Cheers' from television - "everybody knows
your name and they're always glad you came", except infinitely better
because it's real. Even those of you who this email has gone out to who have
only been once or twice to the Riser, as it's affectionately known, will
have noticed there's something special about this centre of the community.



Details at this stage are a little vague as to how we might stop Young's &
Co removing Ruth and Dave and turning the Riser into just another average
'take or leave your money pub', but there is talk of sending Young's & Co a
petition to keep the Riser as we know and love it - with Ruth and Dave in
charge.



As Young's is a large and powerful company, whatever we do might have no
consequence, however, one thing big companies do understand is where their
money comes from, so it may be worth sending them a letter describing how
you will take your business elsewhere (albeit in some of your cases small
and rare custom) if they press ahead turning the nice and homely Riser into
just another link in the chain of Young's & Co pubs.



If you think you would like to make you feelings known to Young's & Co,
please do it as soon as possible, as it seems they have only given a few
days for Ruth and Dave to co-operate or be forced out.



Of course, the final word on this lies with Ruth and Dave, and as of yet
they are still in a state of shock at the prospect of seven years work
disappearing under a corporate steam roller, so it is best that you send any
letter of support of the Riser's current form care of them.



What I would suggest is that you write to any or all of the Young's & Co
management listed below care of dave@pilgrim.co.uk or The Rising Sun Pub, 14
Heathcote Road, Epsom, Surrey, KT18 5DX, England.



John Young
Chairman

Stephen Goodyear
Chief executive

Peter Whitehead
Finance



Please help the Riser live on with Ruth and Dave at the pumps.



Many thanks,