Christmas Trainset 2014

In their current house my parents decided to do a train set instead of a huge Christmas tree and each year it grows a little bit see this blog,

this year the top been expanded and a bunch of new bits have been added

 

DCIM100GOPROGOPR0082.

My Dad received a personalised carriage as a gift from work colleges and decided to turn it into a restaurant car

 

a lot of wires and a lot of work with tweezers

 

A new farm and a new farm shop have also been added (with lot of wires)

Here is a video of it in motion

Mad Friends and Colleagues

My friends and colleagues are strange STRANGE people, but I love them

sillybugger1 [9:55 AM]
I like your style, starting your new world order with vegetables

sillybugger2 [9:56 AM]
Dibs on beetroot. And parsnips

sillybugger3 [9:56 AM]
sigh.. he were go again…

the beetroot must be shared . you can however have the fennel

sillybugger2 [9:56 AM]
Very well

sillybugger2 [9:56 AM]
Neeps? Tatties?

sillybugger3 [9:56 AM]
also celeriac

sillybugger4 [9:56 AM]
The celery can fuck right off.

sillybugger2 [9:56 AM]
Oh yes. Celeriac

sillybugger5 [9:57 AM]
as long as I get the roast spuds I’ll be happy

sillybugger2 [9:57 AM]
Come to papa

sillybugger3 [9:57 AM]
we will be keeping tomatoes.. shut up sillybugger1

sillybugger2 [9:57 AM]
And celery

sillybugger4 [9:57 AM]
Chard. All mine.

sillybugger6 [9:57 AM]
if you take the tomatoes the greeks will invade

sillybugger2 [9:57 AM]
You’re welcome to it

sillybugger3 [9:57 AM]
ooh .. yes you can have “chard” i will have rainbow chard

sillybugger3 [9:57 AM]
ha!

sillybugger2 [9:57 AM]
grabs all the horseradish and mushrooms

sillybugger3 [9:57 AM]
damn.. grabs onions

sillybugger4 [9:57 AM]
Carrots. Got ’em.

sillybugger5 [9:57 AM]
Broccoli here thanks

sillybugger2 [9:58 AM]
shuffles towards the pak choi and smuggles out the garlic

sillybugger3 [9:58 AM]
including spring onions and garlic

slackbot [9:58 AM]
BOING!!!!!

sillybugger2 [9:58 AM]
^^ 🙂

sillybugger3 [9:58 AM]
spring!

slackbot [9:58 AM]
BOING!!!!!

sillybugger3 [9:58 AM]
:grinning:

sillybugger2 [9:58 AM]
eyes up the savoy cabbage

sillybugger3 [9:59 AM]
grabs the savoy cabbage and the greens whilst sillybugger2 is making up his mind

sillybugger2 [9:59 AM]
bugger

sillybugger2 [9:59 AM]
ram-raids the sugarsnap peas aisle and grabs mange tout for good measure

sillybugger3 [9:59 AM]
throws artichokes at him as a distraction

sillybugger2 [9:59 AM]
catches them gratefully

sillybugger5 [9:59 AM]
ooh I almost forgot the peppers

sillybugger3 [9:59 AM]
grabs green beans and fresh peas

sillybugger6 [9:59 AM]
we get the baked beans!!

sillybugger3 [9:59 AM]
damn!

sillybugger4 [9:59 AM]
stuffs the cauliflower up his shirt and backs towards the door

sillybugger3 [9:59 AM]
pulses.. i had no idea we were divvying pulses

sillybugger2 [10:00 AM]
Oh we’re on to legumes and grains now are we?

sillybugger3 [10:00 AM]
grabs chickpeas

sillybugger2 [10:00 AM]
Shit!

sillybugger3 [10:00 AM]
ha!

sillybugger4 [10:00 AM]
The puy lentils are mine, all mine.

sillybugger2 [10:00 AM]
grabs kidney beans for the chilli

sillybugger6 [10:00 AM]
Sooooooyyyyyaaaaaa!!

sillybugger2 [10:00 AM]
GRABS CHILLIS

sillybugger2 [10:00 AM]
GRABS GINGER

sillybugger2 [10:00 AM]
laughs triumphantly with the lemongrass

sillybugger4 [10:00 AM]
grabs the pancetta. That is a vegetable, right?

sillybugger6 [10:00 AM]
ginger slaps sillybugger2 ‘s hands, and goes back to Fred

sillybugger2 [10:01 AM]
slow clap

sillybugger2 [10:02 AM]
peppers the sillybugger6 with maltesers

sillybugger1 [10:02 AM]
After the dust of battle settles there is nothing but a huge pile of coleslaw

…..go out in the midday sun

Listen while you work

As I might have mentioned before, I like company when I work or at least the background drone of an active office, it turns out that this noise is good for you as studies such as this one from the Journal of Consumer Research state, this is currently breeding a whole pack of apps that generate this kind of noise such as http://coffitivity.com/

Now this is all just telling IT staff what they have known for years, and anyone that has watched productivity and staff retention plummet due to a petty manager banning headphones will be able to attest to the advantages of a none “silent as the grave” working environment.

Over the years I have built up my own bank of favourite audio media, which have in the last year or two moved solidly to my phone, I though I would share

Music

Most of my music comes from http://www.di.fm/ the most amazing site for digital music (I have been a member since April 2005), they have a huge range of channels for the different styles of electronic music with excellent web and native mobile app players.

Favourite Channels

This is supplemented by Spotify though I have learnt not to rely on a track or artist permanently staying on the platform, to this end I tend to use Spotify as a discovery platform then go buy the DRM free music from amazon

The BBC IPlayer is not just for music but holds a full week of BBC radio, it is really worth installing and regaining access to all those stations we lost when we stopped being near a radio, though I suspect if you are not from the UK you are out of luck (Americans this is how were feel all the time so tough)

Podcasts

Podcasts are my staple access to current news

Constant listens

Other Recommends

  • Mahabharata Podcast – an excellent English language re-telling of the ancient epic.
  • German pod 101 – very very good language pod-cast (variations for all major languages)

For Android my podcast client recommendation is Doggcatcher feature and usability wise I have found it just cant be beat.

Audio Books†

I have loved these since my very first one in 1981 “2 ADVENTURES OF THE SECRET SEVEN read by Roy Castle” and they fill a large part of my culture gap. now-a-days Audible (or rather Amazon) has pretty much nailed this market down with their fab app.

However while Audible is great, the content providers are as normal being a pack of arses with 81983 unabridged titles on the UK site vs 111016 on the US site, I have even phoned up Audible UK to ask about this and they are no more happy about it than we are, so Audible is not the be-all and end-all of Audio books if they don’t have something keep looking.

In addition some of the best narration was done ages ago and the companies that supplied these books to libraries (back when audio books were mainly for the sight impaired, elderly or dyslexic) have still not moved these masterpieces to the modern world so you might want to have a hunt around off line for some classics.

My personal recommendation for a Android player for Audio books is Music Folder Player it’s very well behaved, plays all sorts of files, has things like sleep timer and such but most important plays files by OS details (file name, folder etc etc) rather than ID tags)

There we go hope that provided a moments amusement

 

† As many of my clients read my blog and other social media, I will point out that I tend to not listen to audio books while working, as they are kind of distracting, I tend to listing to them during beak (to give my eyes a rest) and while travelling

Life and Work update

Its been ages since I’ve shared what I’ve been up to in here. My bad, how can I justify such a terrible absence of updates?

Well the major news is that I’ve taken the plunge and I am going properly freelance in line with our plans for LDC. Its been good to see my LDC compadres Matt and Julian make a success of it and its exciting to now be on the same road. The stuff I’m doing is varying hugely, from dealing with the security and standards implications of the storage of details for minors, though application clustering on cloud services for the lowest cost, past IBM connections customisation and freaky Java on domino and finishing with cutting edge mobile on the latest frameworks.

And its been great, I’m enjoying the variety and getting to grips with new projects. Plus I’ve been doing some fascinating development work for start-ups which enable me to work on things that are truly objects of grace and beauty.

So it’s going well, and if you have stuff you want doing please give me a kick (all my contact methods are on the top left of this page). Always glad to talk it over.