Back from NY

Well we're now back from our 10 days in the land of the cheap jeans, endless bargains, and nachos, and we managed to enjoy all of them to one degree or another. The main purpose of the visit (apart from IBM business) wasn't to just do a lot of shopping but to visit our good friends and the places we used to hang-out at when we lived in Fishkill, New York around 10 years ago. This was the first time we'd been back there since July 2002 so it was interesting to see just how well we'd managed to remember our way up from JFK up 687 and into the Hudson Valley – almost without a map in fact! We also managed to skip right over to our good friends John and Martha, with only one minor directional blip on the way, without even checking on directions.

The whole 10 days panned out really well with places seeming so familiar it was like we'd never been away for any time all, and the same could be said with all our friends, they were all just as we'd remembered them, and our conversations carried on as if there had never even been a 7 year gap at all.

We made three trips down to NYC, one on our own, one with John, Martha,and Liam as he had an appointment at Sloane-Kettering, and the third time Sheila went down with Martha, Liam, and Meg to see a show on Broadway. That resulted in me and John being faced with the unexpected, but very welcome, bonus of an evening on our own - yeeha! We were so surprised that it took us over an hour, and a glass or two of wine, to decide what we were actually going to do! We finally decided on a trip out to get a couple of rib-eye steaks and very nice they were too – especially with a couple of glasses of Rioja to help them down.

John and I managed two evenings at the Dutch Cabin in Poughkeepsie to enjoy the amazing nachos they serve there. We were joined by Dave Surico the first time and Sheila, Dave, and Rich the second time - so now she knows what the lure of the nachos is!

We had a really great time, some fantastic meals, some good weather, picked up some super-duper bargains, and of course, lots of happy memories of the fun we had with our truly good friends. Looking forward to our next visit very much...

BA - Hmm

As I write this I'm sitting in a 747 on flight BA177 from London to New York. It's too hot, the guy on front of me can't sit still for more than about 5 seconds, and is therefore constantly banging my knees, the air is stale, and time is beginning to drag. Such are the pleasures of air travel. Most of our recent flights have been travelling east with middle eastern airlines, Emirates, Qatar, and SriLankan (operated by Emirates) and it's so noticeable how much better they are to this wholly unmemorable experience. They have new planes, very attractive and efficient staff, good food choices, and amazing entertainment systems to keep you amused for hours on end.

Here on BA we have stewardesses that look like they'd probably seen better days 15 years ago and a male steward that seems so enthusiastic it's as if he'd taken a couple of Es before we took off. The Boeing seems incredibly shabby compared with the almost new Airbus 300s of the other airlines and from where I'm sitting there seem to be plenty of broken seats and 'entertainment systems'. Oh happy days.

I guess I shouldn't complain too much as we're travelling on a couple of free tickets paid for with our air miles, but it's easy to see why anyone paying with their own cash would give this outfit a wide berth. Maybe the problem is that we're on the very busy LHR-JFK route which I know from regular experience in the late 90's is definitely not one of the glamour trips, America Airlines were even worse than BA then, so business is easy and they don't need to try.

Looking on the bright side we only have another couple of hours to go before we have the joys of US immigration to negotiate. No doubt we'll be met by some of the most unhappy people the US can assemble in one place, who will scour our documentation for any little error we may have made before hopefully grunting and sending us on our way.

Emotional clothing

Last week I saw a show on TV where they take a couple of women to whom 'time has been unkind' and then, via a selection of procedures, potions, and pills, attempt to make them look years younger that they did to begin with. Clearly the examples they pick are in pretty poor shape to begin with and both easily looked 10 years older than their actual age for a whole host of reasons.

After all the various cosmetic magic has been completed on the two woman each one is placed in a room, dressed and coiffured, surrounded by her friends and family, whereupon a mirror is thrust in front of the individual to reveal her new look. Now this hasn't all happened in the space of a few minutes, in fact it must have taken many months in some cases, so how they now look really can't be that much of a surprise at all. However, despite this all the women present seem to break down into uncontrollable floods of tears, of course accompanied by the now obligatory fanning of the faces with hands. I should point out that by now the individuals concerned do look a lot better than they did to begin with, but then I would too if I was being filmed in soft focus after having had a couple of thousand pounds worth of industrial strength cosmetic work.

What the heck is that all about! I can't ever remember getting emotional about getting tarted up in a suit just before I head off despite my wife telling me how well I scrub up. I've never even had a lump in my throat when one of my friends has been wearing a new pair of jeans after just having his new haircut. What is it about clothes, a bit of make-up, and a new hairdo that makes women want to cry?

Vince is the man

I can't stand politicians. I think that they have only one issue in mind - how to ensure they get re-elected next time around. If they do manage to achieve something for us, the people, it's probably through some good fortune rather than any real effort on their part. To be honest I think they should all be rounded up and send to a distant planet where they can do no harm.

There is however one guy who I do have an enormous amount of respect for and he is Vince Cable of the Liberal Democratic party. I would never vote for that party, infact few people do, but I would willingly vote for Vince if it was all about people and not party politics. I seem to find that he always says exactly what I'm thinking and what no other political figure ever has the sense to say because doing so might damage their precious re-election hopes.

Vince is a member of a party that stands little chance of ever being elected so maybe that's why he's the only politician to actually speak any real sense.

F*@&$#g AOL

I've just spent a total of about 6 hours trying to sort out a friends AOL broadband access. It's been working fine for the last two years, but a couple of weeks back the USB modem broke and needed replacing. As USB modems are pretty useless anyway, and prone to all kinds of problems, I decided to replac it with a Belkin wireless modem/router, firstly because I have one and it's been faultless for the last three years, and also because my sister had one which she used, trouble free, to connect to AOL.

I installed and configured the new modem and everything's worked fine for the last three weeks until last week. The modem could no longer connect to AOL. A (lengthy) phone call to the AOL support people, in India!, resulted in them basically saying that "this happens sometimes" with Belkin modems and we really should be talking to them, and by the way, Belkin modems are not supported by AOL. What the heck is that supposed to mean. When we called Belkin they quite reasonably said they're sorry about the problem, which they'd heard about before, but the problem is definitely with AOL. I must agree with them as this modem works just fine with my ISP (BT), and why shouldn't it work with AOL? - surely they should provide a service that works to an industry standard. They don't tell you that it's a non-standard service when you sign the contract.

A trawl through the web gave me a lot of hits with many other frustrated people having had very similar problems - everything working one minute and not the next. Thankfully I got lots of clues as to what I could try in order to resolve the problem and one of them did (amazingly) work, although for the life of me I can't understand why it did. Even more annoying was that none of this information was available on the AOL website.

Next week my friends will be terminating their AOL contract and moving to BT, and will even save a couple of pounds each month on their subscription. AOL seem to be an example of a company that's very happy to take your money but offer little in return. They seem to have no interest in making life easy for their customers, and I hope they go bust as soon as possible.

JC and the PM

So Jeremy Clarkson's in trouble for calling the PM a 'one eyed Scottish idiot'. I'd say that's about right really - Gordon Brown does only have one eye, he is Scottish, and he is plainly an idiot. And yet there seems to once again be a band of people appearing from nowhere accusing JC of all kinds of terrible things for basically speaking the truth. Maybe I have to concede that calling him a complete idiot is based partly on an opinion and he may in fact do some things well, whatever they may be, but there does also seem to be rather a lot of evidence to back-up the PMs idiot-like behaviour.

Despite all this, some nutcases are saying that Clarkson is linking blind people to idiocy and that, of course, is a bad thing. Well yes it would be if he was saying blind people are idiots, but he's not saying that at all. These people are accusing him of saying something that he hasn't and are being give airtime on TV to try and re-enforce this lie and gross exaggeration.

Why do we pander to all these complete lunatics who are all so quick to jump onto bandwagons berating anyone who says something that is just a bit too honest for them to take. They are the ones that the rest of us should be worried about - not controversial TV presenters with strong opinions.

B Service

I had to take the SLK in for a service today and was more than a bit worried that it might need a lot of things done to it to keep it in perfect shape. In fact on the way to the dealers Sheila asked me what I though today might cost me and I said I wouldn't be too surprised if it was somewhere around £1000, after all it was a B service and the car's now covered over 60,000 miles.

So, for most of the day I sat by the phone anticipating a call telling me that my pride and joy was about to suck large sums of money off my credit card. By 3pm having heard nothing, and growing a bit suspicious, I called them myself. It turned out they had found a few things wrong and the bill would be about £720 although they would give me a 20% discount off all the parts. I was over the moon, and when I arrived at the dealers was more than happy to hand over £606 and was even further delighted by being told that my SLK was a very nice example and it was clear I really looked after it. I guess flattery always takes the sting out of a large bill!

It was a nice surprise, for a change, to really notice the difference from all the work they'd done. The boot shut nicely without trying to chop off my head when I bent over to put my bag in, the heater was pumping out lots of hot air, and the lights were working like a pair of lasers, and hey - the big bonus - I'd saved £400!

The car got a B service and I think I got A service - all in all, probably worth a complementary letter to the dealers.

Stuck at home

We've just had the biggest dump of snow for the last 18 years, and as a result we've been stuck indoors for the last two days as it seemed safer than attempting to get out of the drive. That meant I had to work from home which I'm really not a fan of. Still, all things considered, it went pretty well and did go to prove that as far as IBM is concerned we can all function perfectly well when we're not all in the same building.

But it is pretty pathetic that such a small amount of snow can cause so much hassle when other countries can get five times as much with a lot less impact. The excuse is always that we're not used to it, but I prefer to think that it's actually down to organization, or lack of it. There was little sign of any coordinated effort to solve the problem, but just a lot of people complaining that 'someone else' hadn't done anything to actually solve the problem.

Boring pastimes

The two most boring things I've ever had to endure are ballroom dancing and American football. I just don't get ballroom dancing as a spectator sport, it seems like it's possibly an OK thing to do if you like that kind of thing, but to me it's about as much fun to watch as paint drying, and some of the Latin American dancing is really just over made up women showing off. American football, on the other hand, would be OK to watch if they didn't keep stopping every 10 seconds. The whole game is so disjointed that it's virtually impossible to maintain any interest whatsoever. It's even worse if you're actually at a stadium watching a game as they also stop at frequent intervals for TV commercials too if the game is being televised.

Maybe if they could get those dainty ballroom dancers to play American football we might have something that could be worth watching.

Obama's big moment (and the fat lady)

I watched the inauguration of Barak Obama this afternoon on the internet, and I have to admit that to my surprise it was quite an emotional experience for me. Not because I'm a fan of these ceremonies, and neither am I particularly impressed with the significance of these occasions. What really gave me the first big lump in my throat was from when I was watching the behind the scenes feeds that CNN were showing. And the particular piece that got me was where Obama was seen walking alone through the Whitehouse corridors seconds before he was announced and emerged to face the waiting crowd. The look on his face was screaming 'yes, this really is happening to me and I'm going to savour every last second' - you just knew that this was a really magical moment in his and a lot of other peoples lives.

Unfortunately as the ceremony moved on, and before the swearing-in began we were subjected to an excruciatingly painful din being emitted from a huge fat lady in a very odd looking hat. I think she was attempting to sing a song called America but she was clearly way out of her depth. Her name was something like Urethra Wanklin and she wailed on for what seemed like an endless period of time. It's a shame someone didn't have the foresight to simply drag her off and do us all a huge favour. Hopefully though, someone will be severely reprimanded for her attempts at ruining Barak's big day.

Endurance was obviously the name of the game in this ceremony as some kind of preacher (another very large person) was produced and rambled on and on for ages about God, God, and (yawn) God. Why Americans love ramming religion down everyones throats is beyond me, and it really does take the edge off these occasions. For a while I was actually hoping that God did exist and would throw a little thunderbolt down at this chap. Not enough to kill him of course, that really wouldn't be good, but just enough to stun him so that the events could finally move on to the eagerly awaited climax.

So, fat ladies and preachers all finally dispatched, we had the swearing in and poor old Barak fluffed his words a couple of times, and so I think did the guy who was feeding him, but who could blame him. He was living his dream in front of millions of people all hanging onto his every word, and anyway it only went to prove he's human. Finally he turned to his wife Michelle and gave her a kiss - and I got another lump in my throat.

Stupid planning rules

A friend of mine has just been refused planning permission to build onto his house, and the reason for the refusal is that what he wants to build is 50cm too wide. It's hardly going to make much visual difference, and in fact none of the neighbours objected, but some moron in the local council has decided this is unacceptable. Of course if he was to simply go ahead and build it anyway he would almost certainly be told by someone that it had to be pulled down. I've also recent heard of someone being refused permission to fit widows in his house that were 'not in keeping' with other houses in the area.

How can planning officials and councils be so petty about such relatively trivial issue towards people who are genuinely trying to improve their properties while at the same time they are happy to allow others to let their home get run down and shabby without penalty. Wouldn't it make sense to penalize anyone who allows their property to become run down, or allows their garden to become overgrown, or fills their driveway with scruffy beaten up cars. These people are the real nuisance and can cause no end of annoyance and aggravation to everyone around them and, because they can get away with it, have no motivation to stop doing it.

Wouldn't it make sense to either reward people who keep the general appearance of their homes up to a certain standard a financial benefit, or give those who don't, a financial penalty. Maybe if we had a process of this kind we'd have more neat and tidy neighborhoods, happier communities, and the planners could spend their time making the communities work better rather than simply handing out petty and arbitrary rulings on things that no one is bothered about.

Cheesy footers

I really hate those annoying and supposedly 'meaningful' messages that some people are fond of appending to the bottom of their emails. One I saw today read, "Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons." - what a complete load of crap! What does it mean?. I suppose it's saying there is always some good to be found somewhere in your world everyday and all you have to do is look for it and you'll find it. I don't think so.

Try telling that so some poor sod who's just been told he's going to lose his job, or anyone who has just been told they have a terminal illness, or even worse, to an Iraqi mother who's just found out half her family has been wiped out!

I assume the people who use these messages feel that in some way they are promoting a positive feeling and are acting like nice little morale angels and dispensing their profound statements and making the world a better place. Actually I think all they're really doing is completely pissing off everyone who's not happy, and annoying the heck out of many of the rest of us that already are (happy).

Don't do it!

Yikes it's cold!

We've just been through one of the coldest periods I can remember over the last 25 years (or more!). It's been below freezing for almost two weeks until today and although it meant we had some very bright sunny days, it was a welcome change to finally see temperatures approaching double digits at last. I guess it shows how we're just not used to these low temperatures, but it really has been the main topic of conversation almost everywhere you go, and has prompted quite a few unexpected things to happen and others that have had to be dealt with.

At work we had freezing underground pipes that caused buildings to be closed, and at home we needed to heat places we normally don't worry about. I was even getting worried that the wine in the garage might get too cold and start to crystallize! In fact the heating has needed to be on constantly since Christmas which is really unusual here.

Anyway, at last the poor old fish in the pond can finally relax from the fear of being frozen alive and the ice on the pond became thicker and thicker as the days went by. Right now the ice has all gone and the fish are happily swimming all round the pond.

LCD Screens

Maybe I'm just unlucky or maybe it's a consequence of being an early adopter but... I've had two LCDs pack up on me in the last few weeks, one being a 26" LCD TV and the other a 19" monitor.

I'm particularly upset about the monitor, a Dell, as it was only about 18 months old and just outside it's warranty period, either way not exactly an old age and I'd barely had my money's worth! I just won't by a Dell again.

The most recent failure, today, was a 26" TV which I'd bought about 4 years ago when they were still pretty expensive. New it was about £750 and I'll probably be able to easily replace it for about £300 with a new TV which will probably much better technically. I really don't mind this failure anything as much as the Dell and realistically I'm quite happy to replace it.

The thing I noticed with both of them is that they are basically impossible to fix from the amateurs point of view. A few years ago if I had a problem with a TV I could just whip the back off, poke and prod around for a while, and nine times out of ten fix the problem. With these sets there is no chance of that. Everything seems to be hidden away behind metal shielding that invariably can't be removed, and even if it could, who knows what would lurk behind?

Oh well, I'll probably give them away to anyone that's interested and has the inclination/skill/determination to do something with them, but not me. I'll take the easy way out and just buy replacements, but then I'm sure that's just what the manufacturers want.

Eco Nazis - parking

It really annoys me the way the eco-nazis are trying their hardest to piss-off just about everyone that doesn't see the world how they do, and the fact that they are being allowed to get away with it.

The latest stupid idea seems to be emission based parking charges! - what the hell is that all about. People are actually being taxed even more for not using their cars. London councils have decided that it's a good idea to base their parking charges higher for people with cars they deem to be more 'polluting' at a higher rate than those they consider to be less polluting. What an absolute load of rot. Why not go the all the way and base parking charges on how much pollution was generated producing the cars - that would be a good poke in the eye for all those smug self righteous idiot Toyota Prius drivers.

This would seem to be a completely discrimatory tax that has nothing to do with addressing the problems of removing congestion from the streets which is surely the problem most people would like to see addressed.