Owner: London Calling URL:http://beansmail.blogspot.com Join Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2008 01:15:18 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Daily (well sometimes) observations on living and working in London Site statistics:Click here
Stormy weather 2008-03-10 07:57:21 As promised the country was battered by gale force winds and driving rain this morning. As promised during the morning rush hour. As promised general travel chaos ensued (as it always does whenever the weather
varies from mild and sunny).
I got to the bus stop to find that the temporary bus stop had been moved back to the regular bus stop, not officially - I think by disgruntled passengers who
Frog emergency and other garden matters 2008-03-09 11:44:59 My nearly-mother-in-law and I were out at the fish pond this morning. She was topping up the water levels when she noticed that the netting (which was earmarked for replacement) at the far end of the pond had sagged into the water and the frog population was using it as a platform for frog-spawn laying. Time to replace the netting as a matter of urgency, otherwise when it gets pulled taught out Read more:matters
Sunday, lazy Sunday 2008-03-09 04:55:04 The whole going back to work experience has left me completely exhausted this weekend. So much so that I haven't left the house, and indeed yesterday spent quite a lot of the day in bed.
I did potter around in the afternoon, to the extent of playing the piano for a while. I murdered some Mozart and bashed up some Beethoven... it had been a while and my fingers were slow and generally a bit rusty Read more:Sunday
Getting sociable 2008-03-08 05:19:47 Yesterday afternoon my colleagues and I finally went out for our Christmas lunch. Given that this should have been at the beginning of December it is quite impressive that we are only three months late!
We took ourselves off to a restaurant in Soho. The food was pretty good, although my boss perplexed the waiting staff by enjoying his starter so much that he asked for another helping as desert.
New Phone 2008-03-07 07:56:08 My new phone arrived this morning from the insurance company. I was quite pleased to take it out of the box and find that rather than black (as the pictures I'd seen when I googled it) my K510i is actually red. Very stylish.
Disappointingly the phone has no memory card - but as I have my camera back now I shan't be needing to use it too much to take photos. The screen is also quite small
Buskers and other underground things 2008-03-06 07:24:10 Green Park have had an absolute rash of really good buskers this week. Busking used to be illegal on the Underground (punishable by a £500 fine). However recent years have seen an initiative to authorise buskers. There are authorised busking pitches at a number of London's larger underground stations. They used to be sponsored by Carling, but are now sponsored by Capital Radio and there is a Read more:things
Insurance 2008-03-05 07:28:56 Last night my phone had a fight with the sharp corner of the coffee table. The coffee table one and the screen on my phone now boasts an enormous crack.
This morning I called the insurance company to make a claim on the insurance. That was the easy part. If I paid the £30 excess they told me they would be able to send me a new phone in the next 2-3 days. Sure, I thought easy. Not so much. They
A sad tale from modern life 2008-03-04 07:51:32 One of the features of modern office dwelling are the pigeons who will colonise any suggestion of a ledge attached to a building. I think that every office that I've worked in has had a pigeon population, usually outside the toilet windows incessantly cooing!
My mother works in a very modern office building. Glassy and tall with non-opening windows as the whole place is air-conditioned. Even
What a difference an hour makes! 2008-03-04 07:31:05 For one reason and another I was late getting off to work this morning (part of the slow start, I think, was being quite tired after my first day back yesterday). This meant that instead of leaving the house between 7 and 7:30 I left he house between 8 and 8:30. Oh dear. Morning rush hour. I ended up on a 422 as I missed two 486s, I should have known better. Always a bad move at that time of day Read more:difference
, makes
Back to work at last 2008-03-04 07:30:35 After two and a half weeks stuck in bed I finally got back to work today. The delight of Monday morning commuting is not something that I have missed, however.
As I left the end of the street I managed to miss two 486s and a 422. Not a promising start. I then had to schlep up towards the Cemetery Lane bus stop. The roadworks are still performing their 'rolling roadblock' along Littleheath and
New look 2008-03-02 08:15:00 With some time on my hands this morning I decided to delve deeper into the world of my Blogger template.
A few tweaks here and there - you probably wouldn't notice if I hadn't told you! I think that the overall effect is sharper though.
I've managed to re-do the whole "3 column layout" and fit the header image properly across the page. I've also added a 'favicon' of my own to replace that
The old woman who swallowed the fly... 2008-03-02 04:46:29 I feel like that old woman
from the Nursery Rhyme...
"There was an old woman who swallowed a fly, I don't know why she swallowed a fly, Perhaps she'll die."
It then goes on... "There was an old woman who swallowed a spider, That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her, She swallowed the spider to catch the fly, I don't know why she swallowed the fly, Perhaps she'll die."
The old woman
All about Mothers 2008-03-02 04:44:25 Today is Mothering Sunday (really, it isn't called Mother's Day in the UK!). Like most 'holidays' in this country the origin is religious, and now largely forgotten.
Mothering Sunday is a 'moveable feast' (and that almost deserves a whole post to itself). Moveable feasts are those who dates vary according to Easter. Easter itself is calculated by the rule of Computus which I am not even going to Read more:Mothers
Shopping and Tagging 2008-03-01 11:53:41 I had to 'pop' out to the shops this afternoon to buy something for dinner tomorrow (as you do). I had pretty much decided to go to Asda - based on the fact that I also needed some wrapping paper and I know they have a good card/gift department there. Unfortunately it seems that the entire population of the Borough were also off to Asda/Greenwich Shopping
Park this afternoon. The traffic for the Read more:Tagging
For the love of vinyl... 2008-02-29 12:10:27 Once upon a time I bought an iPod. I bought it not for a huge memory, or video capability... but because it was Pink. It served me well for some years until finally the battery was fried. Then I bought a new iPod. This time I didn't buy a pink one - I bought it for a huge memory and video capability. My first iPod had and 8GB memory. Given my extensive (not so much) music collection this seemed
Stories I've been reading... 2008-02-28 09:05:38 I've been having a wander around the news sites of the internet (as one does)... mostly occasioned, it has to be admitted by listening to a radio phone in this morning whilst stuck in traffic on my way to the Physio.
Two stories particularly caught my eye. Number one - Marks and Spencers who are to start charging 5p for carrier bags. Good for M&S... may others follow in their footsteps. Regular Read more:Stories
Ladybug Exodus 2008-02-27 07:21:12 Spring must be well and truly here! The ladybugs have woken up and are ready to leave. The last few days have seen them fluttering all over the bedroom in attempts to find their way out. The noise itself is becoming quite irritating!
So, as Good Samaritan and ladybug protector I decided to give another few dozen a helping hand on their way to freedom this morning. I spent some time painstakingly Read more:Ladybug
, Exodus
Total Gridlock 2008-02-26 07:53:06 This morning I had to go to a Doctor's appointment. Running a bit late I left the house with 10 minutes to spare and thought that given the speed at which the stick and I progress I had better break my environmental principles and jump in the car to get there on time.
I pulled out the end of our street to be met with completely stationary traffic in both directions. Traffic coming up the hill Read more:Total
, Gridlock
YouTube and IP addresses 2008-02-25 03:24:36 I have never been a great participant in the YouTube
revolution. Let's face it... I've been pretty slow to pick up on a lot of new internet trends (Facebook, MySpace, etc.). I was always right in there with blogging though!
So, YouTube. Occasionally I like to watch really funny TV adverts again. Or see a bunch of cats miaowing Christmas songs. The rest of it I'm afraid I rate up there with Read more:addresses
Another Technobimbo moment!!! 2008-02-24 07:29:55 I don't know what is going on with me at the moment. I never used to be so useless with technology.
This morning I got my coffee maker out. It has been a while. It is my special Sunday treat, you see. Rich doesn't like coffee (huge understatement!) - he can't stand even the smell. I'm not a coffee addict. Ergo, if I want coffee in the week I drink instant. I like 'proper' coffee though. So,
Parking in the Street 2008-02-24 02:18:09 It is still pretty busy out in our street. The replacement of "London's Victorian Water Mains" continues along Littleheath (as well as numerous other places in the Borough) and the traffic control continues to be located just past the end of our street. This continues the interdiction for parking along large parts of Littleheath as well as the continued use of the end of our street for site Read more:Parking
, Street
Bagless Society? 2008-02-22 12:13:55 I am interested in saving the planet. Aren't we all? It's not weird to be green anymore. It is barely worth commenting on. I like Marks and Spencer's view on it. They have their "Plan A"... because there is no Plan B.
So having said. We all went to have a world to live in tomorrow (so to speak). There are little things that we can all do. Little ways that we can do our bit. Most of them aren't Read more:Society
Technobimbo 2008-02-22 12:12:53 Sometimes things are just too darned simple for me to work out! So absolutely obvious that I manage to confuse the whole process with issues that just aren't.
Case in point. My iPod.
The library is finally back to where it should be. All the songs have album art (yep, my strange little obsession). But that wasn't it. I wanted Podcasts!
Travelling with bags and sticks is chaotic and
Art of Letter Writing 2008-02-21 08:14:43 Often my thoughts turn to technology and how the rapid rise of computers, internet and mobile phones has changed the world around us in a very short period of time.
I have been thinking about this again a lot recently. Being in bed the only people I see are the rest of my household (my nearly-mother-in-law, Rich and the cat). The rest of my interaction must rely on email and telephones.
This Read more:Letter
Down the tube 2008-03-12 08:25:26 This morning I was going into work a little later than normal. I arrived at the Jubilee Line around 9am (so, about an hour later than normal). According to the irritating announcement "a good service" was operating on the Jubilee Line.
I got down to the platform to find passengers 8 deep at the doors and 4 minutes until the next train. When it arrived it was predictably packed to the gills.
No time for news 2008-03-11 08:25:48 Here's the way it used to be... here's how I used to find out what was going on in the world.
Firstly, I used to listen to the radio... which of course would give me a news bulletin once an hour. Since the advent of iPod and iTunes and other such things I don't really listen to the radio. Very occasionally if I am in the car I will have the radio on, but as you can get gadgets that let the iPod
Bus stop and weather update 2008-03-10 14:59:29 This evening I found in my inbox a reply from London Buses. They tell me that the Cemetery Lane bus stop is being "returned to use" today, and that Greenwich Council will be cleaning the area. Further, that their "Infrastructure Controller" will be visiting the area to ensure all is in good order.
I do not really think that moving the temporary bus stop to within a few feet of the actual bus Read more:weather
Sluggish Saturday 2008-03-15 11:31:27 Despite having now spent the best part of forty-eight hours resting in bed I am still feeling weak and feeble (feak and weeble as we use to say when we were kids). This leads (obviously) to more time pottering with the laptop... as previously established, often a dangerous occupation.
Not always though. I've had some good customisation experiences in the last couple of days. I've 'tweaked' my Read more:Saturday
The Frog Blog? 2008-03-14 14:32:19 After our hard work at the weekend in making sure that the pond was 'netted-up' and ready for the onslaught of the frog-spawn season I thought that we were done with worrying about the fish pond for the year. I was wrong. Yesterday the pond looked fine. There were a couple of sagging bits in the netting, but OK apart from that. It seems that the frog population really went to town over-night.
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