Posts from August 2006

Just returned from the annual torture of the seemingly simple task to renew two parking permits. Yes folks, we have to pay for the privilege of parking our cars in a nearby road, miles from our house.

To secure the parking permits, you need a wad of paperwork. In fact, you probably need to produce fewer documents to adopt a Romanian orphan. If you have two vehicles registered to one person but used by two different people, the documentation requirements and level of complexity increases exponentially.

This year, I didn't do too badly. I only had to make two separate trips and enjoyed one lengthy, heated discussion. Despite this, my paperwork was still deficient in two areas but the kind lady let me off with a thinly veiled warning: 'I'll issue the second permit on this occasion but next year, please ensure you bring everything with you.'

Just encountered two very talented buskers, attired in an immaculate dinner jacket with bow tie and a lovely, long, sparkly dress, singing the most beautiful opera.

I was about to toss them 3 Norwegian Kroner but found they only accept credit cards.

Rugby players spend a lot of time physical training Compared to other form of sports. I have read the Rugby laws mentioned on this site. Its a gripping sport which targets the grip strength and the active mindedness of a player. American football and rugby league are also primarily collision sports, but their tackles tend to terminate much more quickly. For professional rugby, players are often chosen on the basis of their size and apparent strength and they develop the skill and power over the passage of time. In modern rugby considerable attention is given to fitness and aerobic conditioning as well as basic weight training.

There really are some sick people out there.

TechCrunch (with a focus on the UK) launches.

[Via BlogHerald]

I honestly didnt think I would see this Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wear a Red shirt again, let alone score in the Premier League.

Three long, hard years fighting a recurrent knee injury. Well done Ole.

Norton Canes Services - M6 (Toll). Three clocks behind the till:-

Clackett Lane - 13:59\ Norton Canes - 13:57\ Watford Gap - 13:58

You genuinely could not make it up.

I was enjoying a stroll along The Embankment yesterday morning, dressed in my Pearly King outfit, listening to ChasnDave tunes on my iPod, munching on cockles and mussels, when I noticed banners hanging from each lamppost proudly proclaiming We are Londoners'.

The letter 'D' was shrunk to accommodate the rest of the letters. Just like a kid writing a Thank You letter to Auntie Joan and suddenly realising he's going to run out of space.

Inevitably, this brilliant campaign is the brainchild of Ken Livingstone and sponsored by British Gas so if you pay the congestion charge or are struggling to meet the recent increases in your gas bill, rest assured your money is being spent very wisely.

Or, as Doug once memorably commented: 'And your point is ?'

All together now - 'Knees up Maather Braawn'.

I heard an interesting interview on Radio 5 yesterday with UK blogger, Tom Reynolds. Tom works for the London Ambulance Service and his blog is a mixture of amusing anecdotes and real-life experiences.

I really like Tom's blog title ('Random Acts of Reality'), his tagline ('Trying to kill as few people as possible'), the dry sense of humour (summary of his recent holiday) and his general writing style.

Tom started his blog in 2003 which has just been made into a book ('Blood Sweat and Tea') which is pretty remarkable.

Most definitely, one for the blogroll.

The first blog I ever saw was this one (this entry to be precise) and to be honest, I just couldnt see the point whatsoever.

Then I stumbled across Tom Kyte's blog which was relevant, interesting and sparked my interest in reading other technical (Oracle related) blogs.

Just over a year ago, I started a blog (on blogger.com). Little did I know it but WordPress.com was launched the day before.

The creation of the blog was simply a quick experiment to play around with the blogging software. Secondly I was interested to see how long it would take to get a comment on the blog from a standing start. Then I fully expected to lose interest completely.

The first comment 'Great blog!' from a German reader duly arrived after 6 weeks. Looking back, this was probably comment spam so I was lucky enough to count this as one of the first proper comments.

Initially, I thought I would produce more technical content but, to be honest, the blog is done for fun in my spare time and I think there are a wealth of more interesting, amusing subjects to write about than Oracle and Siebel. In any case, a lot of very intelligent, articulate people are already producing a raft of excellent technical blogs.

So, a year on, and much to my surprise, the blog is still going strong. I discovered that I actually enjoy writing. Maybe this is because I have to produce fairly dry technical reports as part of my job.

Over the year, there were bursts of activity (11 consecutive days in January) mainly from lonely European hotel rooms while on another occasion, inspiration dried up and my finger was poised over 'Delete this blog'.

I have made some new contacts and met up with some old friends which was also quite unexpected and welcome. Anyway, one thing's for sure; if there was no-one out there reading and occasionally commenting, I would lose all interest in blogging in isolation so thanks for reading.

And finally, please forgive my self indulgence for a moment, but here is a list of my favourite Top 10 posts from the last year:

1. A narrow escape.

Yes. That's it. After one year, the only memorable post is one written years before I even started this blog. I simply must try harder this year.

The annual Brightside family vacation in Norway is now over and the nominations for Highlight of the Holiday have just been received:

Norma - The fantastic scenery, the awesome mountains and unspolit beauty of the fjords coupled with the feeling of absolute peace, solitude and tranquility.'

Norman - 'The 3 hour hike on the Jostedalsbreen glacier with spiked boots, roped together in a group, taking in stunning views back down the mountain, sticking an ice-axe into ice that is thousands of years old.'

Norman Junior III - 'When I drove the motor boat at full speed, head on, into the wake of the massive fishing trawler to ride the waves and Mum got absolutely soaked, gathered her composure, turned around and then got absolutely soaked (again).'

Norma Jean - 'When Norman Junior came into the jetty too fast and ignored Dad saying 'That's fine. Just stop the engine now. Turn the engine off now. Kill the engine now. I SAID - KILL THE BLOODY ENG - AARRGGHH' and Dad fell out of the boat.