Wincle walk

Last night's walk was around Wincle - south of Macclesfield Forest. I was working until 7:30 so - as usual - couldn't go but my earlier finish enabled me to get to the pub for drinks. The terminating point was The Ship -mmmm Belgian Rasperry Beer. For some reason the party thought that the first item on the pub's menu - A 16 oz Mycock well hung steak - was amusing...
I just need to work out how to get the photos off my new N343i NEC mobile phone onto the computer...

Tales from the checkout

On Monday I had a customer buying (only):
six tubes of toothpaste
two bottles of red wine
There were - I assume - expecting the red wine to stain...
Later that day I - very gently - accidentally knocked over a bottle of extra virgin olive oil and the glass broke! A litre of oil on the checkout! at least it smelt nice if it had been a bit warmer I could have grilled meat on the metal surface.

Create!

There appears to be a link between this video and the previous posting!

Though it would be hard to find two more different pieces. Roger Muraro performing the amazingly difficult 'Par lui tout a été fait' from Messaien's Vingt Regards, looks to be from this concert - that's guessing - but suggests the building is Saint-Simond’s Church Aix-les Bains.
Disclaimer - I have never even attempted to play this piece - though I've tried the central Lisztian section - the face of God behind the flame and the turbulence - well the bass chords anyway!
Thanks to r.m.c.r and Wayne Reimer for the link. Unfortunately the video and the audio are slightly out of sync in a few places.

Survive!

In extremely bad taste

But very, very funny. Thanks to Simon R for the link

Just trolling

The work schedule for the last two days has me down as professional troll - well the word professional may have been missing..but I have been out pushing trollies around whilst the usual guy had a trip to Ascot. At least it didn't rain too much and it was wonderful for observing stupid behaviour in a supermarket carpark!

Latest USB toy

Very cute and just bizarre enough for me to need one though unfortunately it may be a mock up.

Security - what security!

Went into a local shop this weekend and during the transaction the assistant got some information from the company website - and modified something else - the login she used was an obvious username and there was a 3 character password.
I suppose there may have been some intricate port knocking going on to get there but I doubt it especially in view of a bug that featured when entering the data. I was nearly having palpitations!

Trying to be as unspecific as possible....so as not to further weaken the integrity of their system!

Here kitty, kitty

Tabby terrorises bear

A black bear got more than it bargained for after straying into a family garden in the US state of New Jersey.

The unwelcome intruder was forced up a tree - twice - by the family pet, a tabby cat called Jack.

Shhhhhh!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Don't tell one of my employers - the merchandise is ok it's just the use to which it's put!!

Busy....

Things have moved rather on the job front in the last seven days. I've now done 2 days with my ex-employer at their new base in Didsbury supporting one of their software products and that's going to continue on a contracting basis. Meanwhile I'm still working at Sainsbury's - and intending to continue unless the hours become too much. Currently wishing to decrease my checkout hours as for the next few weeks it is going to be 4+2 days a week and on some Sunday's I'm preaching doesn't leave many days off!

Macclesfield Team - Vision and Strategy

A copy of the draft - for comment and discussion is now available - I pdf'ed it, any errors in the conversion are all mine! My first impressions are very positive - and it should provoke discussion!

All Saints' Summer walk

Last night the Thursday evening walk took place on Tuesday(!) so as not to clash with the Ascension day service (on Thursday) - as Thursday evenings are out for me as I work until 8:30 that night I was keen to go and we enjoyed a walk despite the torrential downpour. Went along Macclesfield canal - and saw a number of geese and a heron looking rather damp - and then through Lyme Park, unfortunately we were too early in the year for the rhododendrons. No view of the house from the route of the walk and with the conditions only one of us braved an extension of the walk up a hill to see if the house was visible. Then back to drinks and chips and the Miners Arms Adlington.
Looks like being the only one of these walks for me this summer unless my working hours change... full photo album of the evening om my web site - though with the rain there weren't many photos taken!

Saying farewell..

to Ron Clarke. Just returned from Ron's funeral - he was head of history at my school and a lay preacher at the church I now attend. There were various reminiscences where his impish humour shone through,

Stop doing that boy, don't you realise that (some English king or other) died whilst doing something very similar - Ron's son put it far better

I still haven't forgotten a wonderful King's magazine cartoon in the early 1970's depicting Ron's struggles to balance the class's school dinner money.
On the darker side was his war experiences, he was a captain and was one of the first offices into Belsen and spent 5 weeks after that helping to run the camps converting gun covers into babies cradles.

26 links - again

Back 18 months ago I tried this meme, go up to the address bar in your browser and type in a letter. What link does it suggest? I've used the first one that is fairly generic and excluded web email accounts. I've got a new machine since then so there isn't as much browser history, hence some gaps. Still in there from last time are a,c,f,g,j,p,r and t.

• Astronomy picture of the day
  
• This is broken
  
• Jane's world
  
• my del.icio.us bookmarks
  
• Webcam tricks - video site doesn't work for me so as an addition an emacs demo
  
• ship of fools
  
• Google
  
• Robin Walker's broadband speed test
  
• A recent Boondocks ucomics now doesn't work well with Linux as Macromedia haven't released a version 8 for Linux
  
• J-Walk
  
• k - a dead link (well two dead links and nothing else!)
  
• localhost/~robert
  
• Mad musings of me - Music and the Home Office (and Domingo)
  
• A deeply broken UK government website
  
• Opensource.org
  
• Piled higher and deeper
  
• q - nothing
  
• Here!
  
• Geoff Coupe's weblog
  
• The Register
  
• Dilbert
  
• The Easter Bunny hates you video
  
• Java applet collecting weblog emotions (should have been Web gallery of art Caravaggio but that site wasn't working until just now!)
  
• x - nothing
  
• Right wingnut rumour jumping on the lests spread a rumour about Iran campaign.
  
• z - nothing
  

Ah well

Came in a resounding third in Alderley Edge this morning. Probably partly due to a fight with the sustaining pedal- a resounding clang every time I changed pedal and it took me two lines to (I think) get it under control! Still it's good practice and I did get the sostenuto pedal to work and enhance the final line.

Thames water under fire

From news in brief on the Guardian's website - well I enjoyed the image.

Climbing Expeditions

Todd Skinner Climbing Expeditions These galleries represent a photographic documentary of the climbing life of Todd Skinner. Found this via the Mali gallery having found a single picture in a newspaper I was clearing out.

Wish me luck!

I'm busy geting ready to perform the Menuet movement of Ravel's Sonatine at the Alderley Edge Music Festival on the morning of 20th May. Physical support welcome! I'm guaranteed at least third place!

I'm still getting my head around some of the nuances of pedalling and the relation of the themes - I've found some internet articles useful here - see recent additions to my del.icio.us bookmarks.

Tales from the Checkout - 3

Last couple of weeks have seen a number of meetings where I've served people I haven't met for a very long time. Week before last it was two people from school - though one I did meet once later as we were at the same University.
Then last week it was Dave Sellars with whom I went to Euro-VHDL back in 1991 where I was presenting a paper when it was in Marseille. I didn't recognise him - he no longer works for Fujitsu - and I'd nearly forgotten the event.

SPCK

From Dave Walker's cartoonchurch.com:


Save the SPCK!
Unfortunately the Manchester one has long gone and Chester is a place I visit infrequently.