Living Room Tour December 31, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a commentBraving the nether reaches of the Metropolitan line with friends Leanne and Craig, I went out to a New Years Eve Eve party in the wilds of Harrow last night. The party was a good one, with a nice mix of people I knew and many new but friendly faces, lots of bubbly and far too much food.
The highlight of the evening was a short set by a guitarist / singer, Tom Lillywhite. He’s been doing a ‘Living Room Tour’ playing at people’s house parties to small groups, and is just about to release his first hit single. He plays unamplified, original songs, and is rather good. Classical concerts aside, its the first time I’ve heard live music at a reasonable volume for ages. Lest you write him off as appealing only to the forty-something there’s lots of youthful angst going on in the lyrics. They’re good pop songs.
So go and have a look at his website, and see, or hear, his music. The videos are definitely of the ‘geek in a bedroom’ variety, and don’t add much to the music, but you never know, he might be the next Arctic Monkey.
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Camley St Nature Reserve December 23, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden,Environment , add a commentI had a surprise call from Adrian Oliver, one of Camden’s new Green councillors, the other day, asking me if I’d be prepared to be on the steering group for a little gem about a mile from here, the Camley St Nature Reserve. Apparently the Council, which provides funding, gets to nominate someone, and the post was allocated to the Greens.
Its a wonderful example of local community involvement in an environmentally positive way, so ideal for Green involvement. Apparently it was started in the late eighties by concerned locals who saw the need for a little bit of green in an industrial area, and has gone from strength to strength. Nearly twenty years on, it provides a chance for local children, many of whom will not even have a garden, to learn about native wildlife, and a good place for adults to relax or volunteer.
Local politics at its best, this sounds like a good way to be involved.
Technorati Tags: Camley St, Camden, Green
Long walks and suit jackets December 3, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , 2 commentsIt has been a while, hasn’t it.
Suffice to say, I have a new contract, at a venerable City institution down by Bank and, for the first time since I came to London, I’m working in an environment where I’m less formally dressed than anyone else. Those two tailored pinstripes are getting a workout as it’s compulsory to wear one’s jacket in public areas.
On the first day, I discovered that it takes 45 minutes by tube, desk to door, and only an hour to walk, such is the chaos at Euston and Bank stations in the rush hour, so in the morning, my trainers go on and I trot briskly down through Somers Town, Bloomsbury, the back streets of Holburn and Leather Lane to the City at Holburn Viaduct, before hitting the main road and dodging umbrellas for the final mile or so. Walking seven miles every day leaves me exhausted, but sleeping better than usual and hopefully getting fit and de-stressed.
I had been planning on offsetting my travel carbon emissions, as a little way of showing myself as a green business, but, apart from shoe manufacture, they’re zero already.
China opens a coal fired power station every week November 12, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Environment , 3 commentsThere’s a perfect excuse in Britain to ignore climate change, and keep on living as if there were no tomorrow, and that’s the way that China opens a coal fired power station every week.
But, if you use that excuse, consider this. China has, in the last twenty years, turned from a backward, poverty ridden nation, to a powerhouse economy. It has done that without worrying about planning regulations, human rights or any of the other, deeply desirable, ideas that may slow the West’s ability to respond to the need to reduce carbon. Its geography means that it may suffer more than Britain will, with encroaching deserts and sea level rise threatening delta and coastal cities. Its bright youth study engineering and science.
The first hydrogen refueling plant has opened in Beijing, and will be used for fueling a hydrogen vehicle fleet for the 2008 Olympics.
If China, its government and power brokers, decide that they will reduce their own carbon emissions, and perhaps use their economic power to encourage others to do so, they will do it, and quickly.
It is complacent, and somehow patronising, to assume that China will fail to recognise the problems its industrial revolution and economic boom are causing and, having recognised them, will fail to deal with them. We, who have had 200 years of industrialisation, need to look to our own dirty back yard now, before we are passed by in this as well.
vi in my fingertips October 27, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a commentI first learned to use the Unix visual editor, vi, in 1987 and it was old then. Before mouses, or even the wide range of keys on modern keyboards, vi was developed to allow files to be edited with a full screen, a huge improvement on the older line editors (ed, ex and, for dos types, edlin). All commands are via short, sometimes cryptic, keystrokes. dw deletes a word, ~ changes the case of the current character, 2>> indents the next two lines by a tabstop. If you actually want to insert text, you go into insert mode with :i. A silly game to play is to type your name in and see what happens.
A couple of weeks ago, I was offered some work supporting a website written in php and mysql. I needed to use their tool, rather than HTML-kit which I use for my own websites, and they gave me terminal access to the machine running the system. And so, for virtually the first time in 10 years, I find myself using vi again.
I still have the crib-card from my first Unix course, and started trying to remember all those cryptic commands. After an hour or so, I was stunned to realise that I was using it fluently, while barely thinking about it. Somehow, my fingers remember and that arcane, esoteric knowledge has surfaced from the dim recesses in which it had lurked all these years.
I’d forgotten how fast and efficient it is to keep your fingers on the keyboard, never moving to mouse or menu. And how satisfying it is to work on code, seeing it develop before your eyes. Its a role I’ve long moved away from, but this short interlude is deeply satisfying, like coming home.
A brief reply to Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali October 26, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , 1 comment so farThe mufti of Australia, reported in the BBC (from The Australian) as saying, with reference to women who do not wear the hijab:
“If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside…
and the cats come and eat it… whose fault is it, the cats’ or the
uncovered meat?” he asked.
Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali, my cat would eat the meat. But she is a dumb animal. Are you seriously suggesting that men are so lacking in self control or basic human decency that they are comparable to the animal who takes every temptation placed before it? Are you yourself perhaps as unable to control your appetites as a cat? You have insulted women, but far more deeply, you have insulted men.
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Recycling in Camden October 23, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden,Environment , add a commentThis blog has had a visit from Councillor Alexis Powell, Lib Dem and ‘Eco Champion’ of Camden Council with a lengthy comment on the best posts page. Its interesting to see how the new Camden Council are dealing with green issues, particularly as Green councillors have been elected. The new Sustainability Task Force is apparently intending to suggest policy, rather than be a scrutiny committee, although exactly how it sits within the Council is still not entirely clear.
Camden Council is proud of its recycling record, though its hard to see why given our low rates of recycling compared to many parts of Europe. We’re better than most in London, but that’s hardly a major achievement.
One of the reasons recycling is poor is a policy which says that bins will only be given to buildings with six or less homes in them, therefore eliminating doorstep recycling as an option for many people who live in larger blocks of flats. The usual ‘health and safety’ nonsense is cited, as if it is more difficult to take away bags of recyclable material than bags of rubbish. I’ve questioned that, and have now been promised a visit from a ‘Recycling Officer’ within two weeks, so it will be interesting to see where that leads.
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Torchwood October 22, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , 1 comment so farFor years after I moved to England, I didn’t have a TV, and I never really missed it. You get out of the habit, and I listen to the radio, read books, surf the net instead of watching the telly. I did regret not seeing the occasional series, particularly the new Dr Who, and sometimes felt I’d missed an essential cultural experience, never having seen Big Brother or I’m a Celebrity. A few weeks ago, I finally succumbed and bought a TV dongle for the laptop, which gives me everything that’s available on Freeview, including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and quite a few others.
Tonight, the first episode of the Dr Who spinoff, Torchwood, screened. Its good Sunday night viewing, very light, a bit silly but lots of fun and starring some nice eye candy in Captain John Harkness. It won’t have you hiding behind the couch, nor is it is compelling as the X Files, but its worth watching.
This first episode was a double bill, with PC Gwen Cooper being recruited to the Torchwood team after accidently seeing an evil alien tear the throat out of a hospital porter, and then an alien taking over the body of a woman and killing men by having sex with them. Its definitely beyond-the-watershed stuff, but not very serious, clearly aiming at those of us who liked Dr Who first time round and are still quite happy with simplistic plots so long as the aliens and gadgets are good enough.
I’m glad to see the BBC are making good use of my brand new TV licence fee.
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This Thing of Darkness, Harry Thompson October 15, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , add a comment
This book brings the scientific discoveries which led to that mind-shifting change to life, describing the voyage of the Beagle and the friendship, and later enmity, between its captain, Robert FitzRoy and the young Charles Darwin who he takes on board as natural scientist and companion. It’s done as faction – a fictional account heavily drawing on fact – with the conversations between the two and their daily life on board the ship at extremely close quarters dramatised, but with the details of the voyage itself drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle and other factual sources.
By no means does it concentrate on Darwin alone. This is as much a novelised biography of the brilliant but flawed Captain Fitzroy as it is the story of Darwin’s rise. Fitzroy’s contribution to modern meterology, and the shortsightedness of the Admiralty who cut it off just when it might have made Britain a leader in the subject is a poignant chapter and his brief sojourn in New Zealand a sorry but interesting one. His bravery, and his struggle with what appears to be manic-depression , come through strongly.
Normally if I take a beach holiday on my own, I’ll get through 2 or 3 paperbacks in a day, so the fact that this took nearly three days when I was in Crete in June gives an idea of the sheer size and detail of the novel. This one would bear re-reading, so I’ll have to find something of a similar size to give to Amnesty.
Technorati Tags: Darwin, Fitzroy, evolution
Espresso Tales, Alexander McCall Smith October 14, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , 1 comment so far
This is another of Alexander McCall Smith’s elegant, thoughtful and somehow relaxingly uplifting novels, set this time in his native Edinburgh. The tales of the residents of 44 Scotland Street weave around each other, sometimes intertwined, sometimes merely meeting on the stairs.
You can’t help but feel sorry for poor wee Bertie, sent to school by his mother in pink dungarees and forced through interminable sessions with the psychotherapist who has more interest in her, and cheer him on when he finally breaks free and tries to go to the local school, even though the attempt ends in disaster.
The narcissistic Bruce is just asking to be ripped off when he decides to go into the fine wine trade, but people do not always get what they seem to deserve, although perhaps Pat MacGregor does, and maybe Matthew and Gordon too.
