jon – Page 55 – Hello Curns

The Night Ahead

I am off to a leaving party tonight in some swanky bar. I know that I shall drink too much and shall spoil the entire weekend for myself now. Unfortunately, I also know that there is nothing that I am going to do about it and so I will have to live with that. I think it’s an age thing. They always said you would increasingly become aware of own limits as your get old and I know mine. I also know that I am worse-than-awful at stopping when I have hit my limits – weather that’s drinking, staying awake etc. A weekend in a haze is predicted. On the upside, today has been a lovely, normal working day without too much stress and, for once, it looks like I am about to leave on time. Maybe that’s a good sign.

Water, Water Everywhere

The pictures of cars almost submerged are strangely reminiscent of my home town of Shrewsbury

Last night was an underwater adventure for many Londoners. Apparently, 3cm of rain fell in 30 minutes – which is a reasonable amount of water. The strain on the drainage system was too great and we had cars underwater, closed tube stations and some very, very wet people walking around. Many people have a perception that London is grey and always raining but it doesn’t handle rain well at all. I guess it’s all the Victorian sewers (or whatever they are).

The pictures of cars almost submerged are strangely reminiscent of my home town of Shrewsbury – which is prone to flooding. The town is mainly contained within a loop of the River Severn and, as such, seems to get drowned from all sides in the winter storms and spring thaws.

I guess Shrewsbury is my home town. I was not born there, did not live there for the first fourteen years of my life, and have not lived there for ten years. My parents still live there and I go to see them occasionally and I think of it as my home town, but really, it’s just another place I have lived. Of course, I do have very fond memories of the place which, I assume, helps.

Elsewhere: Where Are You Now, Miss Boo?

My review of the story of Boo – an interesting tale of a business with no financial controls.

I submitted another review to Amazon.co.uk today and I was quite pleased with it. Having just finished Boo Hoo (the story of online active streetwear retailer boo.com) I thought I would add another review to my small list. I was particularly fond of the last line: “Live hard, die young and leave a beautiful corpse” could almost have been written of Miss Boo.
My full review submitted to Amazon.co.uk earlier today:

What a fascinating book. Take two Swedes, a desire to be “cool” and throw $135 million at them! Ernst Malmstens story of boo.com is a warning to all new enterprises everywhere: get some strong financial controls and make sure you stay in charge of your costs. Most of all, it tells us that there is no substitute for some experience when running a shop.
I was sceptical that Ernst et al. would hide behind others and not shoulder the blame. However, what comes through clearly is the founders vision, belief and desire to build a world class product as well as the managements failings when developing that business. It is possible to read much by what is not said, as well as what story is directly told and in that, an incredible tale unfolds before you.
The book is well written and highly addictive. As the inevitable end approaches it becomes one of those books you pick up all the time, even just to read the next two paragraphs. As a story it is thoroughly thought-out, well-paced and fascinating. As an insight into online business history it may be one-sided and sometimes lacking but it remains compulsive reading and a captivating look a never-to-be-repeated economic boom (and bust) time.
Boo.com became synonymous with the “live the high live, party hard” culture that many cash fuelled Internet start-ups went (and spent) through. “Live hard, die young and leave a beautiful corpse” could almost have been written of Miss Boo.

To Some People Enola Gay is Just a Pop Song

Did you know that today is Hiroshima Day? It seems to have missed me. I think this is something we should all be thinking about at this time.

While we appear to be on the verge of more war in the world, the good folks at today’s Daypop news point us to The Guardian:

Today is Hiroshima Day, the anniversary of the first use of a bomb so powerful that it would come to threaten the existence of the human race. Only two such devices have ever been used, but now, a decade after the end of the cold war, the world faces new dangers of nuclear attack – from India, Pakistan, Iraq, al-Qaida, and even the US. Launching a special investigation into nuclear weapons, Paul Tibbets, the man who piloted the Enola Gay on its mission to Japan, tells Studs Terkel why he has no regrets – and why he wouldn’t hesitate to use it again – [Guardian]

Did you know that today is Hiroshima Day? It seems to have missed me. I think this is something we should all be thinking about at this time.

Baby News

The christening was yesterday. It was great – apart from the rain that soaked us as we walked to the church

The christening was yesterday. It was great – apart from the rain that soaked us as we walked to the church. Even though I did not understand a word of the ceremony (and there were two babies being christened and a confirmation) it’s still quite a thing to see all these people stand in front of a congregation and wet the babies head. Of course the party afterwards was good, meeting people that I had not seen since Cheryl & Thomas’ wedding some eleven years ago. It’s always great food. For some reason, I love Norwegian food (although some would say I just love food). The evening part was spent sitting on the patio as the sun set talking about old times and house-buying. Shame to be back really – although I would really love my bed right now.

The Taxi Cometh

I head off to the airport shortly. I spent a good proportion of last night packing and, therefore, seem to have only had three hours sleep. I really need to organise my life more to prevent this kind of thing from happening. I do not like the lack of sleep and yet, every time I travel, I seem to end up in this kind of situation.

Somehow, I seem to ignore the five golden rules of travelling without stress

Buy gifts a week in advance
Iron two days in advance
Pack a day in advance
Get to bed early before travelling
Have bottle of water to take to airport

A Weekend Airbourne

A weekend flying is ahead for me.

Weekend plans. I am going to a christening, which in itself does not seem an odd thing to do at the weekend. I am, however, flying at 0630 tomorrow morning to Amsterdam, then to Stavanger and then on to Kristiansand, Norway. I arrive mid-afternoon. The christening is on Sunday. Come Monday morning, I board the 0700 for Copenhagen and then on to London to get me back to make it into my office mid-morning. There are several people who think I am, somehow, unbalanced in attempting to do this and stay awake.

Seven Wonders

I really want to visit Britain’s seven wonders. If you’re visiting the UK then these places should be on your itinerary.

I want to visit all seven wonders of Britain. I’ve done four leaving only these to visit:

Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland
Eden Project, Cornwall
Windsor Castle, Berkshire

The Guardian also lists The Angel of the North as the eighth wonder. I haven’t seen that either! If you’re interested, the others (that I have seen) are:

Big Ben, London
London Eye
Stonehenge, Wiltshire
York Minster, Yorkshire

Nearly The End of July

More unease about war plans – Iraq attack plans alarm top military [Guardian]. It’s all made me think how little I really understand a) the politics of the middle east and b) the culture of the middle east. Then again, everyday I realize how little I know about the culture and politics of my own country.

In random wanderings, these caught my eye on Metafilter today: America’s CEOs aren’t greedy enough [Philly.com] and Vanguard Airlines intends to file for protection under Chapter 11. Imagine having your termination notice posted on a web site!

Continue reading “Nearly The End of July”

Ministry of Truth

The anti-Iraqi messages coming from The West (and most importantly, from The White House) reminds The San Francisco Chronicle of Orwell’s 1984. While everybody with a weblog on this planet may be linking to this article at the moment, it’s not going to stop me from pointing you in that direction too.

I keep hearing that tension is mounting and we’re heading for some kind of war with Iraq. The West, apparently, wants rid of Saddam. The thing that concerns me most is that I have not heard or seen any evidence so show that it is right for The West to start throwing their weight around in that part of the world again. It is always suggested that we should fear this man (and maybe we should) but can somebody please tell me why we are doing this? Reason would tell me there is some terrorist threat. President Bush is going after the terrorists in every country. I would like to believe we have some sound arguments (and, of course, some evidence) for any attack. In a democracy, aren’t we supposed to know why our leaders may send fellow citizens to war?

Apparently, the church even think it’s immoral. However, as they don’t appear to have any more of a clue than I do what all this is about, how can they say that?

How do you say Happy Birthday in Russian?

And it’s my Dad’s birthday today. My mother is with him somewhere the former Soviet Union for five weeks while he tries to do some work. Unfortunately, his mobile ‘phone doesn’t seem to work and he isn’t replying to emails, so Happy Birthday Dad!

UPDATE: You may also want to check out next year’s entry for more information.

City Hall

I may not agree with everything our delightful new Mayor does but I have to say that I think the London Assembly building, which was opened by The Queen yesterday, is a stunning building.

I may not agree with everything our delightful new Mayor does but I have to say that I think the London Assembly building, which was opened by The Queen yesterday, is a stunning building. I am pleased to see that, in this age of taller, squarer buildings, we (occasionally) still strive to build something that is visually stunning. Now all I have to do is get down there and see it with my own eyes.

Try the M11

You can see what this is about when I say, “eventually, the car is unloaded outside my house at 2.45am (with apologies to all my neighbour who would have been woken up by the noise)”. Obviously, I didn’t win a brad new car.

I feel it was an interesting weekend. Some of it I don’t want to repeat but mostly good fun and the kind of things that should be done at weekends if you slave all week in an office. It started yesterday afternoon when my brother arrived and we spent two hours in a car driving round south London roads to get across the river and on to the M11 motorway. It’s not the easiest thing from South West London and should really start another rant about the state of London’s roads but I am too tired for that! (it’s also good to see somebody else wondered what the strange tower was)

Arriving in Takeley for a family christening and all is well. It is nice to see some of the members of the family who I do not see too often. We had planned to leave around 8pm and head back for SW17 but we were having a good time and partied until 11pm. It’s hard partying drinking only water but I still had a good time.

So, off we set. 10 minutes on the M11 and the radiator overheats, I lose all power on the car and just about manage to get it onto the hard shoulder before it grinds to a halt in the middle of the carriageway. Then, 50 minutes later a bloke from the RAC arrives and, without really looking at the engine because he can tell it would do no use, loads the car onto the back of the truck and me & my brother into the cab for the ride south. Then we hit the Blackwall Tunnel. At 1am (Sunday) we are caught in a traffic queue for an hour as traffic try to negotiate one lane in the tunnel (cue for another rant about London traffic). Eventually, the car is unloaded outside my house at 2.45am (with apologies to all my neighbour who would have been woken up by the noise).

A Cool Forty Million

Apparently we need £40 million to cope with our rising fridge problem. I don’t have a problem with my fridge but if I was recycling it then I would be contributing. To be honest, that’s all there is in this post so you don’t need to read anymore.

Apparently we need £40 million to cope with our rising fridge problem. £40 million! It amazes me how much we need to spend to recycle. Wow. And I can’t get the council to deliver my recycling bags. [recycling link]

A Non-Existent Dream

If we’re not careful, the UK will topple over as the South East of Britain sinks into The Channel under the weight of all the people migrating from other parts of the country.

After last night’s little rant on the state of the London Underground system, I heard about this morning’s nonsense from the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) to start charging commuters more to sit on over-crowded, dirty, late-running trains. I guess the plan reasons that charging higher fares means fewer people will travel by train. Surely, this proves that an integrated transport policy for London’s workers remains a non-existent dream. Ken Livingston wants to charge people for driving into central London. The SRA wants to charge more for travelling on trains. How are people expected to get into work? The answer is they will still drive and take the train and it will cost them more – status quo remains. It seems to me that nobody is prepared to do what it takes to sort transport in the South East out. And that still stinks.

So then, I got to thinking about John Prescott’s [John Prescott as Boss of Bosses?] little plan to build more affordable housing in the South East of England (to ease the cronic housing shortage, apparently). Affordable housing implies that this is aimed at people on a lower wage (am I taking a big leap here?). How, exactly, are these people going to get to work in London if train prices rise and roads get tolls? Again, it appears inconsitnet and badly thought out. Why not take some of these £4 billion and encourage businesses to move out of the South East to areas where there are too many houses or where there is less congestion. If we’re not careful, the UK will topple over as the South East of Britain sinks into The Channel under the weight of all the people migrating from other parts of the country.