Courtesy of Wordle and Tweetstats, here is a "cloud" of some of the words most commonly used since I started 'tweeting' properly back in October.
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Every once in a while I complile an iTunes playlist to try and explore and listen to some of the tracks in my iTunes library that would otherwise just languish there unheard. I have been using LastFM as a service, but recently came across iLike.com that allows me to share these playlists.
Below is the November playlist, ranging from All Saints' Day through to Christ the King. Advent and Christmas will be featured in December.
I've been using the online notebook service Evernote since I came across a useful application for the iPhone in the summer that synchronises notes between desktop and phone quickly.
A new website and initiative introducing children to the organ.
http://www.danmagic.org
This was played as part of our staff training day today; it's a 'must-watch' for anyone with an interest in education.
Monday 1st September saw me bright and early at Newquay-Cornwall airport on the site of the RAF St Mawgan base to catch a flight to St Mary's, Isles of Scilly. Newquay is an expanding airport but meeting a real need providing regional aviation links from Cornwall to the rest of the UK as well as to connect with flights from Gatwick. Indeed in the departure lounge I happened to meet a former colleague from a previous school, now living near St Ives and about to catch a flight to Newcastle to visit her daughter (and possibly end up as the new NUFC manager!). Skybus fly to St Mary's from a range of airports in SW England, but the day trips from Newquay and Land's End are much more affordable. The outbound flight was onboard a de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter, G-BIHO and much of the 35 minute journey was at 3000 feet in low cloud, as it was a pretty grey and overcast day, Nevertheless, a skilful and spectacular approach and landing from Captain Jack Hawkins at St Mary's and I was soon being whisked off down into Hugh Town and ready to start the day.
No sooner than the shuttle minibus had dropped me off than the heavens opened and I sought refuge in a cafe for breakfast. The downpour soon passed and a weak sun enticed me down to the harbour to book a boat trip across to Tresco. This was a fairly sporty crossing, bumpy but more of a theme park ride than anything too dramatic! Once on Tresco, the clouds and rain decided to close in again, and going round the Abbey gardens was slightly damp. A walk upto New Grimsby for lunch at the inn, but it was decidedly wet when I set off back to the quay for the boat back. The return journey was notable for drenching most of those on board, myself included, as waves broke across the boat, and I discovered my coat was not waterproof as advertised! Fortunately I had brought a change of shorts and sweatshirt, and was glad of these, until the persistent heavy rain risked making these wet as well; so I sought refuge in the Museum (exhibits of shipwrecks, oil slicks, stuffed birds and a flavour of island life in the past) and then the church (as featured in the recent BBC series); I discovered some past copies of the Friends of Cathedral music magazine and spent an hour or so drying out and reading these. Finally, I sought refuge in one of the pubs to while away the time before my pickup for the airport.
What I hadn't realised was that all flights in and out of the island had been suspended because of excessive crosswinds, and a message on my phone offering me a crossing on the Scillonian (no thanks) wouldn't reach me until 8pm thanks to poor reception. So, opting not to try and get on the Sikorsky on standby to Penzance and then a transfer to Newquay, I chose to stay overnight and was put up at Tregarthen's, a smart hotel overlooking the harbour. The hot bath and chance to dry my clothes was very welcome, and they even allowed me to enter the restaurant in a normally prohibited state of undress (no shorts allowed) whilst my wet clothes dried- though it was made clear they wouldn't normally allow this and I was put in a (nice) corner where I could hide my legs under the table-cloth! The meal (lamb patty followed by cod followed by poached pear in red wine with Cornish ice cream) was however very nice. And so to bed.
Tuesday dawned sunny and clear, so with an 8.30am pick-up I had time for an early morning (7am) walk around Hugh Town with my camera- I could at last see that on a good day, the islands are indeed beautiful. Better still was the view from above, and photos are included in the slideshow on Flickr.
There were six passengers on the return flight, and I got to enjoy the airport at St Marys- the very helpful staff remembered me from the previous evening and we had a good chat about aviation on the island. Outward the flight was on a Britten-Norman Islander G-BUBN; similar to the three engine variant Trislander I experienced on the Channel Islands a year ago.
Sunday morning saw me at the Eucharist at Truro Cathedral, with a visiting choir from Bristol being somewhat outpowered by the Father Willis which sounded in splendid shape. Thereafter upto Newquay (sorry, but what an awful town centre- parody of the typical faded English seaside resort selling naff souvenirs. I stayed as short a time as possible, and in the end headed back to Padstow, with a visit round to Rock (the 'Millionaire's row' of Cornwall) and Polzeath, near where Sir John Betjamin is buried at the church of St Enodoc. I found a nice B&B near Padstow and headed back in in the evening, which had turned out to be lovely. The combination of battered John Dory from Stein's Fish n' Chips, and the Cambourne Town Brass band playing on the harbour side in the sunset was just perfect!
Despite my best intentions when enquiring at the very helpful Tourist information in Penzance, I ended up at what was almost a parody of the English seaside guest house- floral curtains, lots of trinkets on the landings, and a strict instruction that breakfast would only be served between 8.30 and 9am; and despite a full dining room at that time, hardly a word was spoken, other than by the serving landlady. Hmm, so much for requesting somewhere nice...
I wasn't far from St Michael's Mount, and, it being low tide, I walked across the bay, only to find the castle was closed, it being Saturday! I don't know of many other NT properties where the only closing day is Sat!
Following my investigation of Cables and Wireless at Portcurno yesterday, I was keen to visit Goonhilly on the Lizard Peninsula, home to a family of Satellite dishes, some of the first in the UK but now mainly decommissioned by BT who have shifted most of their satellite operations to Herefordshire. It now has the compulsory visitor centre, interactive hands-on exhibits, film show, coach tour of the site, gift shop, café etc, and it was clear it was the Saturday of the great return East for most people, as it was pleasantly quiet; I opted for a tour of Arthur, the oldest of the dishes, and turned out to be the only person on it! This has advantages, but also means I have to appear extra-interested and think of intelligent questions to ask, even if I'm not really interested in the answer. Having said that, though some of the technical details went over my head (science was never my strong point!), it was quite interesting and the young guide knowledgeable.
Goonhilly has plenty of BT marketing in the exhibits and the shop, not surprisingly, but also what they claim is the fastest cybercafe in the country with its own 1 gigabit pipe and 100mbps to each iMac- it seemed fast, but not that fast!
In the afternoon up to Truro, and a look round the wonderful John Loughborough Pearson designed Cathedral- I'd been before, but my last visit to Cornwall was about 15 years ago, so it was good to remind myself of the features and of this pleasantly compact city. Tourist Information were somewhat more helpful in my request to find somewhere nice to stay- on this occasion on a farm a couple of miles out of the city, being tastefully restored to offer B&B in a wonderfully peaceful setting at the end of a very bumpy and pothole-ridden track.
Despite my Sat-Nav leading me via the 'scenic' route, I reached a quiet Eden Project to visit the giant biomes. Though the Mediterranean biome was cooler than I expected, the tropical biome was much like the real thing, as my lens kept steaming up! Down to Penzance for a late lunch before the Porthcurno telegraph museum- the HQ and arrival point for many transatlantic and undersea communication cables. A quick visit to the tourist trap that is Land's End before a return to Marazion, ready for St Michael's Mount in the morning.
It's a fair time since I last visited Cornwall and somehow what stuck in my mind were childhood memories of crawling through Okehampton. Well it now has a bypass, indeed the A30 was fast and quiet and I was soon well into the county at the end of England. First destination was Padstow, small village made well known by TV chef Rick Stein, whose presence is just about everywhere- a seafood restaurant with celebrity prices to match, a hotel and bistro, a seafood cookery school, a deli, a patisserie and a fish and chip shop. I joined the queue for cod, avoiding the more exotic fish available- though I'd like to try sometime. First a queue to pay, then a ten minute queue for the fish to fry to order. It was just a little dry for my taste.
A busy day at the wheel, though it had a slightly iffy start when I had to get some of the fluid levels checked on my car, as I was a bit suspicious of one of the gauges. All was well, and I set off towards the SouthWest with a rather wide detour via Hampton Court. It had only recently occurred to me to visit whilst planning the Tudor topic, and whilst I hadn't left myself much time, I did make the most of the chance to get some video footage of those Tudor parts of the Palace where such activities are allowed. This will be very useful for interspersing with footage of the children and providing an authentic backdrop. I then had the decision to make to stay in London and hear John Scott play Duruflé and Messiaen at Westminster Cathedral, or to head west. Heading westward won, and I made remarkably good time down the M3 and along the A303, through Hampshire, then Wiltshire, then into Somerset- still going strong, and eventually over the Devon border and Honiton- time to stop.
As the Beijing olympics ends, the baton (and hype) passes to London. Since 2000, it has been something of a tradition for me to make an Olympics collage of images, and Beijing 2008 is no different, though this time I could do it with Final Cut Express rather than Powerpoint! Same music each time, a song that has become almost an alternative Team GB anthem, so especially suitable this year with all the British medals. Apologies if I missed any!
Olympics 2008 Slide Show from rogbi200 on Vimeo.
I've taken the decision to turn this into my main blogging platform, moving away from the iWeb based blog. This is because I was restricted to one machine when it came to updating it, and this was becoming rather irritating. iWeb creates a good-looking website, and doubtless the next version will improve matters, but who knows when that will appear. I've also been setting up other blogs using the blogspot engine and have found it more and more flexible, so another good reason to move.
I'm in the process of transferring all old posts but this will take some time. I've also been looking beyond the default templates, though the one I've chosen has some oddities which still need to be ironed out!
The Downing Street Official Site has been considering an online petition signed by thousands to make Jeremy Clarkson Prime Minister...
Some video and photos taken during the England Lions match against South Africa at Grace Road, Leicester, on August 14th 2008.
A quick video entry can be seen here- a quick 60 second guide to Dunchurch. It was to test some footage from a Sony TG3e Handycam- which seems excellent and any inadequacies in the filming are completely due to the cameraman!
Dunchurch in Just a Minute in High-Definition.
A quick excursion to Belgium, as part of a school choir trip, this last week. EuroTunnel makes the journey very quick- at least it does when all is working well, which it wasn’t on the outward journey, necessitating a transfer onto the Dover-Calais ferry.
Ghent is a lovely compact city and very attractive- I have been before and it was rather gloomy weather, so that rather reflected the city- in the sunshine, it is rather nicer! Perhaps like Bruges but less touristy! We didn’t get to see much of Brussels other than an interesting Musical Instrument museum and the Cathedral, so perhaps enough sights remain to justify a long weekend on Eurostar at some point in the future.
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Perhaps the blog entry yesterday didn’t do justice to the title, and I can’t go by without reflecting on the place of Istanbul at a great crossroads. Not just as the place where Europe meets Asia, but also where two tectonic plates meet- Istanbul is a disaster waiting to happen.
The Bosphorus (which incidentally means the same as Oxford) divides the two continents and together with the Golden Horn is one of the world’s great waterfronts. Two suspension bridges now link East and West, both saturated with traffic between the rapidly expanding suburbs of the city, as I discovered on my transfer back to the airport at Sabiha Gökçen at the end of the day. A cruise up the Bosphorus gives excellent views of the settlements on either side, with centuries of history, and the fine houses on the Asian side in particular.
I simply had to return to Galata Bridge for lunch, in one of the fish restaurants under the bridge- a shrimp casserole followed by grilled Sea Bream- splendid!
In the afternoon I decided to cross the Bosphorus again; after all, how many transcontinental ferries cost 50p each way?! Just across from the Golden Horn on the Asian side is Üsküdar, formerly Scutari, known as the place where Florence Nightingale became famous as the ‘Lady with the lamp’ during the Crimean War. The barracks at Selimeye do have a museum but only open at the weekend unfortunately. However good views of the city are to be had from here, especially Leander Tower.
One more Mackerel sandwich, then back to the hotel to collect my bags and set off for the airport. Heavy traffic for Friday evening, so the journey took nearly two hours! Check in was quick, though the airport bar was understaffed and couldn’t provide any food in time. I managed to secure the overwing legroom seat again, much to my satisfaction, and despite a slightly late pushback, the flight was uneventful, passing quickly with the assistance of ipod video, and we were on stand at Luton at 10.35pm. Getting through passport control (No IRIS at Luton unfortunately) and baggage and back to the car took 35 minutes (rather better than having a Terminal 5 experience, I think!) and I was back home at 10 minutes past midnight!
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
As I have been getting to know my Squeezebox, I have also set up accounts on Live 365 and Last.fm. The first is an Internet Radio service, in which DJs, amateur and professional, in the USA (licence and copyright rules restrict broadcasting to here) can set up playlists for webcasting. I’ve found a number of interesting stations, including Classic Church Music, which has a good playlist for Lent and Holy Week. It set me thinking that I had a lot of music on iTunes that might be hidden away, so I set off exploring and creating my own Lenten playlist. It’s been a good exercise to remind me of many tracks that I had forgotten about; I then set the playlist to random/scramble, and can play it on the Squeezebox (often to send me to sleep!) or via computer.
This playlist can also scrobble, or submit what’s been played to Last.fm, which aims to build up my listening habits and statistics, recommend similar new music and do some basic social networking should I wish it. It will also make a record of recently played tracks- see above- so the world can see what’s in my Lenten playlist- I’ve yet to get it to scrobble my iPod, but I’m sure there is a way!
