Thames Ferry to Ease London 2012 Olympics Travel Overload http://ferrytime.co.uk/blog/thames-ferry-to-ease-london-2012-olympics-travel-overload/
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Thames Ferry to Ease London 2012 Olympics Travel…
http://distributedresearch.net/status/thames-ferry-to-ease-london-2012-olympics-travel/
March 17 2012, 9:49am | Comments »
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I posted to youtube.com
One New Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq149bLt6_U&feature=youtube_gdata
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January 18 2012, 5:12am | Comments »
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I posted to youtube.com
Stratford Orbit Tower
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5hj-wDENOY&feature=youtube_gdata
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December 10 2011, 12:39pm | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
WordPress London #7
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/11/18/wordpress-london-7
I went to WordPress London meetup number #7 last night, hosted by Headshift at their office near Shad Thames, along the south bank of the Thames, east of Tower Bridge. Nice to have something on the East side for once, although south of the river, I wouldn’t normally mention the general location but for Londoners, having different travel options is essential and I was pleased to be able to exit the Transport For London system at a zone 2 tube station, Bermondsey. WordPress London is not really a mainly social gathering like some of the bloggers meetups, it’s a business learning event and last night there were three sections, each packed with fast moving presentations full of detail, actionable insights and deeply understood data. First up, a round up of news from the world of WordPress from Chris Adams of Headshift with a peek at the new drag and drop file upload interface for WordPress 3.3, out very soon. There was also a heads up for the ManageWP service launched this month, a service which I use myself and would also heartily recommend for anybody who maintains more than one self-hosted WordPress installation, in fact it’s brilliant if you have dozens or more. WordPress London Meetup Then David Bain delivered a comprehensive briefing about SEO for WordPress, including an outline of a hub and spoke structure for content based on using pages for the main parts of a site, supported by posts All based around keyword targeting, which, while possibly on it’s way to becoming somewhat old-school, is after all what search engine optimisation is all about. One or two plugin tips to be followed up there. Finally, Keith Devon a WordPress developer explained how and why to use WordPress Custom Post Types. Custom post types are not types of posts at all, but other types of content alongside of posts or pages. The example given was that of a real estate property rental site, for which the element “Property” needed to be a thing of itself, with it’s own display template in the theme, neither a post nor a page but with it’s own “add Property” section within the dashboard. This gave me some great ideas for how I might have designed one or two of my existing sites much better had the concept been around a few years ago. Keith showed us how to implement custom post types by dropping in chunks of code into functions.php “because it’s easier” but discussion from the audience suggests that using specialised plugins for the purpose may be the way to go if you want to be able to keep your site up to date with new software releases. Time for some brief discussions and an optional visit to a Samuel Smiths pub afterwards, so I walked back along the south bank and over London Bridge back to dry land. Hashtag: #WPLDN Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogWordPress London #7
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November 18 2011, 2:31am | Comments »
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I posted to youtube.com
Kew Gardens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmqQILFpu0I&feature=youtube_gdata
October 10 2011, 12:19pm | Comments »
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I posted to youtube.com
Cooking Monkfish with Cider
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCs5-w2k8a4&feature=youtube_gdata
September 27 2011, 8:05am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Ash cloud moves towards UK airspace
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/23/ash-cloud-moves-towards-uk-airspace
Ash from Iceland’s Grimsvötn volcano could affect Heathrow by the end of the weekThis article titled “Ash cloud moves towards UK airspace” was written by Dan Milmo and Adam Gabbatt, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 23rd May 2011 10.04 UTCAirlines and airports have been warned to expect ash from an erupting Icelandic volcano to arrive in UK airspace by Tuesday, with the possibility that it could affect Heathrow airport by the end of the week.The safety watchdog for British airlines and airports, the Civil Aviation Authority, said today that particles from the Grimsvötn volcano could reach Scotland by midnight tonight and western England by Thursday or Friday, depending on wind direction.If airspace in western England, Ireland and the Atlantic is affected by the smoke plume transatlantic flights in and out of Heathrow could suffer delays later this week as planes are diverted around the most dense parts of the cloud.However, the Civil Aviation Authority said it was confident that a new Europe-wide safety regime introduced after the Eyjafjallajökull eruption last year would reduce disruption significantly and avoid the continental shutdown that stranded millions. Under the new operating procedures, it is understood that the effect of last year’s plume on commercial routes would have been 75% smaller.Nonetheless, some disruption is expected as airplanes divert around the heaviest parts of the cloud. According to the latest forecasts, Inverness and Aberdeen are the most likely airports to suffer disruption tomorrow, although the most accurate estimates can only predict six hours ahead.“Our number one priority is to ensure the safety of people both on board aircraft and on the ground. We can’t rule out disruption, but the new arrangements that have been put in place since last year’s ash cloud mean the aviation sector is better prepared and will help to reduce any disruption in the event that volcanic ash affects UK airspace,” said Andrew Haines, CAA chief executive.Under previous guidelines, aircraft were summarily grounded if there was any volcanic ash in the air. Now, airlines can fly through ash plumes if they can demonstrate that their fleets can handle medium or high-level densities of ash.The Met Office’s volcanic ash advisory centre will identify the density and location of the cloud, aided by satellite images, weather balloons and a radar specially installed for monitoring purposes in Iceland last year. Once those zones are relayed to airlines, they will need to prove that they can fly through them by producing “safety cases” that will include information from aircraft and engine manufacturers on the airline’s tolerance to volcanic ash.A CAA spokesman said all major UK airlines already had safety preparations for medium-density ash clouds.“We are in a much better position than last time,” he said. “Safety will still be paramount but we will be able to drastically reduce disruption compared to last time, provided there is not a huge amount of high-density ash.” The spokesman said a similar level of ash to the Eyjafjallajökull incident would not result in a mass-grounding. “It will be a different picture.” However, jets will have to divert around high-density clouds, causing delays on some routes, because no UK airline has submitted a safety case for flying through heavy ash plumes.BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports, has convened a crisis support team to prepare for a reduction in flights, as airlines and airports await a further briefing from Eurocontrol and the UK air traffic controller, Nats. “We are working closely with the CAA and Nats in preparing contingency plans if ash enters UK airspace,” it said.Under the new ash guidelines, cloud densities are split into three levels: low, medium and high. Once the Met Office assigns a particular density of ash to a section of airspace, airlines must prove they have the safety case to fly through it. A low density cloud is 2g of ash per 10 cubic metres of air, with medium being 2g to 4g of ash per 10 cubic metres. Anything above 4g is deemed high density.The Grimsvötn volcano began erupting on Sunday, causing flights to be cancelled at Iceland’s main Keflavik airport after it sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam 12 miles into the air. Experts have said the eruption was unlikely to have the dramatic impact that the Eyjafjallajökull volcano had in April 2010.“At the moment if the volcano continues to erupt to the same level it has been, and is now, the UK could be at risk of seeing volcanic ash later this week,” said Helen Chivers, a Met Office spokeswoman. “Quite when and how much we can’t really define at the moment.”She said the weather situation was likely to be different from last year, with the wind direction set to change continuously. She added: “If it moves in the way that we’re currently looking, with the eruption continuing the way it is, then if the UK is at risk later this week, then France and Spain could be as well.”While the ash has grounded aircraft in Iceland, it is not anticipated that it will have a similar impact in the rest of Europe.Dr Dave McGarvie, volcanologist at the Open University, said the amount of ash reaching the UK was “likely to be less than in the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption”, and the last two times Grimsvötn erupted it had not affected UK air travel.“In addition, the experience gained from the 2010 eruption, especially by the Met Office, the airline industry, and the engine manufacturers, should mean less disruption to travellers,” he said.The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in south-east Iceland in April 2010 caused the worst disruption to international air travel since 9/11. Flights across Europe were cancelled for six days, stranding tens of thousands of people, and the eruption was estimated to have cost airlines £130m a day.Eurocontrol said in a statement: “There is currently no impact on European or transatlantic flights and the situation is expected to remain so for the next 24 hours. Aircraft operators are constantly being kept informed of the evolving situation.” guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogAsh cloud moves towards UK airspaceRelated posts:How to pronounce EyjafjallajoekullAsh Grounds Planes, Rest Of World Cut OffTag Cloud
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May 23 2011, 4:09pm | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Flybe profit warning sends share price crashing down
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/05/flybe-profit-warning-sends-share-price-crashing-down
Flybe shares drop 25% as airline admits cash-strapped consumers are cutting back on air travel
This article titled “Flybe profit warning sends share price crashing down” was written by Dan Milmo, for The Guardian on Thursday 5th May 2011 16.42 UTC Flybe’s £215m flotation has come crashing down as the carrier’s shares shed 25% of their value in the wake of a profit warning over waning consumer appetite for air travel. The Exeter-based regional carrier bases its appeal on “affordable travel from the most convenient airport” but admitted that lower high street spending in the UK had affected demand for cheap flights since the new year, with domestic routes among the hardest hit. Despite warning of cash-strapped customers, Flybe also announced a £3 fuel surcharge on all flights from September. Flybe said the slowdown in consumer outlay, already indicated by trading woes at high street names such as HMV and Mothercare, had affected “discretionary spend” on air travel and triggered significant analysts’ downgrades. Flybe said it expected pre-tax profits for this year to be broadly in line with the 2010/11 figures, which put it heavily out of kilter with analysts’ expectations. Investors ignored Flybe’s defence of its “resilient and flexible” business model of flying from small airports such as Southampton and Norwich, and sold the shares heavily. Shareholders had expected a pre-tax profit of about £36m, not the £22m indicated in the trading update, and Flybe’s shares slumped 25% to 172.50p, far below the flotation price of 295p last December. Flybe’s new investors included George Soros, the hedge fund tycoon, who acquired a 3.4% stake on flotation and whose more assured bets included starting a run on the pound in 1992. British Airways owns a further 15% of the business. One of the pioneers of add-on charges including baggage fees when it rebranded from British European in 2002, Flybe said the £3 fuel surcharge would be dropped if the price of Brent crude fell below $75 (£45.60) per barrel for 28 consecutive days; its current price is $117 per barrel. Flybe also indicated cutbacks on its domestic routes as it flagged the possible disposal of surplus aircraft, believed to include the Bombardier Q400 turboprop planes that are used on its UK services. In its trading update the company did not expand on its strategy of building its presence in continental Europe but it is understood that Flybe is standing by plans to add 35 Embraer aircraft to its 68-strong fleet, with the option of buying 105 more. The £66m float proceeds have been earmarked for the expansion, which includes codeshare deals where it operates flights on another carrier’s behalf. Iata warning The International Air Transport Association (Iata) warned that the financial markets have taken a bearish stance on airlines. Airline share prices have underperformed stock markets by 17% this year, Iata said, and investors now fear that carriers will be hard hit by higher fuel costs – about a quarter of the industry’s cost base – and the consequent effect on demand as higher prices hit sales. “Financial markets, bullish over airlines through 2010, now believe the industry will suffer more than most in this high fuel cost and demand-shock environment,” said Iata. Flybe said demand from business travellers, who account for 45% of its customers, remained strong. “This sector has proved very resilient,” said Flybe, echoing recent comments by Iata, which said demand for business class travel was holding up more strongly than in the back of the cabin. The premium airline market grew 7.7% in February, compared with a 3.3% improvement in economy class traffic.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogFlybe profit warning sends share price crashing down
Related posts:Oil price surge risking global recovery, says IEA chief Oil price soars after UN resolution against Muammar Gaddafi Oil price jumps nearly $2 on continuing concerns about Libya and Bahrain
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May 5 2011, 12:46pm | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
An insider’s guide to book fairs
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/03/an-insiders-guide-to-book-fairs
If you’re not in the trade, book fairs can be confusing occasions. These are some useful pointers for novice buyers attending book fairs in the UK and abroad.
This article titled “An insider’s guide to book fairs” was written by Rick Gekoski, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 3rd May 2011 09.26 UTC Just recently home after five days displaying our stock at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, and I’m resting. You need to: it’s a peculiarly exhausting business, exacerbated by the fact that I had flown in from Sydney via London, and kept waking at 2am longing for bacon and eggs. For the first three mornings I eventually got up at 6am and went out to dinner. Worked for me. Great steaks in New York.
We do three fairs a year – California, New York, and London – and none of them are much fun. In the olden days (I feel an old fart moment coming on) fairs had a real buzz about them. During set-up (when dealers unpack their trunks and shelve the books) other dealers would crowd round, checking out each book as it emerged, picking up the occasional bargain. Set-up was why you were there, to see if you could buy something before the public got a look-in, and sell enough in that hectic first few hours to cover your costs.
No more. Things are tighter and tougher, we’ve seen each other’s books in catalogues and online, and there is no excitement during the two-day (too long!) set-up period. We sold one book for $5,000 (£3,000), which is better than five for $4,000, and pretty much in line with what I would have expected. The key to surviving a fair emotionally is to keep expectations realistic, which means low. I set our bottom line hope at sales of $40,000, though whether such a sum is profitable depends on what you have sold. Sometimes we have books on consignment at 20% to us, at others we may be selling something we own – better yet, have owned for ages – and get an entirely positive cashflow boost.
I need one. I have, alas, taken my eye off the ball this last year, with reading for the Man Booker International prize, and the effect on the business has been predictable. Even my bank manager is starting to twitch an eyelid. So it was essential both to get some money in from New York, and to generate a project or two with clients or other dealers: find a collection to buy, an archive to sell, a line to pursue.
But I’m getting ahead of myself, and it may be hard for you to envisage what I’m talking about. People in specialist trades often do this, and lose their audience in a welter of trade jargon and inappropriate assumption that one will be understood. So:
What is an antiquarian book fair, anyway? It is an arena for members of the rare book trade publicly to offer their stock, and for collectors to peruse it.
That sounds a little dull, doesn’t it? OK, then. Dealers sit in their little, lit booths, displaying their wares like girls in Amsterdam windows. A few potential customers drift by. Sometimes money is exchanged. Some pleasure is had. Usually nobody gets hurt, but many wives are not told of the transaction. Or husbands.
What sort of things might one see at the fair? Enticing ones, naturally. Hand-coloured antique maps, letters by Freud or Dickens, leatherbound sets of Jane Austen, rare books on travel, nature or military history, books illustrated by Arthur Rackham or Beatrix Potter, first editions by most of the greatest writers.
Why are first editions valuable? They’re not. Most first editions are worthless, because most books are first editions – that is, not worth reprinting. A tiny number of these first editions are desirable because they are by collected authors, and were printed in small numbers.
How can you tell if a book is a first edition? Generally, it can be assumed unless there is any evidence to the contrary.
Why are some authors collected? Most, because they deserve to be: John Milton, Jonathan Swift, John Keats, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, James Joyce, Graham Greene. Some, because whatever their deserts, people love them: Agatha Christie, Ian Fleming, JK Rowling.
Does the condition of the book matter very much? Hugely, as with all collectibles. If a book looks fresh and near-as-damn-it new, it will fetch many times more than a tired and worn copy. With 20th-century books, the presence of the original dust wrapper is crucial. A first edition of Brighton Rock (1938) without the dust wrapper is worth, say, £2,000. With it? I just paid £80,000 for one, on behalf of a customer.
Isn’t that silly? Very. But the argument is that a book without its dust wrapper is as incomplete as a Chippendale chair without its legs.
Do you think that’s a fair argument? No.
How does one know if the asking price is right? There is no “right” price for a rare book, though there are certainly wrong ones. If you buy from a reputable member of the trade, and you are happy with your purchase, then the price is probably right enough.
But isn’t a book worth whatever it fetches? Certainly not. If I convince a muddle-headed plutocrat to pay me £1m for a common book, it doesn’t mean it is worth it. It means I am a crook, and he is an idiot. Books can be under- or over-priced. That’s part of the fun: trying to locate the former and avoid the latter.
When I find what I want, should I ask for a discount? Yes.
Will I get one? These days, for sure.
What advice could you give to a new collector? Only buy what you like. Always buy the best copy you can afford. Buy fewer books, at a higher level. Buy from someone you have reason to trust. Spend 30% more than you can afford.
What about buying and selling at auction? Auctioneers claim that (1) you get the best bargains if you buy at auction, and (2) you can get the best prices if you sell at auction. Both can’t be true, though it is amazing how many people believe it. But about 90% of the books at auction are sold to members of the book trade. It’s best to know what you are doing.
Can’t you get a better deal on ebay, and cut out the middleman? Every now and again you might. You are more likely to end up roasted with an apple in your mouth.
How do you explain the allure of rare books? You either feel it or you don’t. It’s a matter of taste, and inclination, and, like love, doesn’t need to be justified. I think holding a copy of the first edition of Ulysses, or Great Expectations, is thrilling, especially with a presentation inscription by the author. If you don’t feel similarly, you haven’t got the makings of a book collector. In fact, I don’t even think I would like you.
Final note: we ended up with takings of $60,000, which was not bad, and buying three or four things at reasonable prices, that will make one or two of our collectors very happy. I am now eating breakfast in the morning, and dinner in the evening. Maybe I will sleep through the night one day soon.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogAn insider’s guide to book fairs
Related posts:The New Book Schmap guide to London The Kindle and the Tube
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May 3 2011, 5:25am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
The wacky world of May Day
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/30/the-wacky-world-of-may-day
From a horned Justin Lee Collins, to a big biscuit tin with the face of a vampire cat, Stuart Goodwin rounds up some of the best bets for a bonkers bank holiday and May Day.
This article titled “The wacky world of May Day” was written by Stuart Goodwin, for The Guardian on Friday 29th April 2011 23.05 UTC Another long weekend – yay. But also boo. Because with the big wedding out of the way (my auntie Doreen’s, it’s her third), you might be struggling to think of things to do. But worry no longer! May Day is a treasure trove of, how shall we put it, eccentric British days out. Basically Christmas for grown men who like lobbing around with bells on their toes, your May Day weekend starts here … Jack-In-The-Green Festival Hastings, Sat to Mon Traditional May Days have tended to go one of two ways; fire or fauna. For fire go to Edinburgh. But in Hastings it’s all about the shrubbery. Essentially a garland competition that got out of hand, where folk used to sport tasteful daisy chains, some poor soul now has to spend the bank holiday drowning in leaves, roaming the streets like a panto triffid. Thankfully, some nice morris men are on hand to make him feel less of a prick. Cerne Abbas May Day Dorset, Sun For fans of impressively chalked tips, there’s two options this week – but if you can’t be doing with the snooker in Sheffield, join the Wessex Morris Men at dawn on this hillside near Dorchester, home to the Cerne Abbas Giant and his 40ft alabaster cock and balls. There’ll be singing, there’ll be dancing, there’ll be dew. Also present will be the Dorset Ooser, a masked morris man that’s basically a startled, oversize Justin Lee Collins with horns. Dorset Knob-Throwing Contest Cattistock, Sun More knob-based fun in Dorset, albeit of the non-phallic variety. A “hard, dry, savoury biscuit”, the Dorset Knob is ideal for throwing about. Current record: 26.1m. Not only will the Knob appear in the main event, it will also star in a Knob & Spoon race, Knob Darts and a Hunt The Knob competition. Thomas Hardy was apparently partial, although it’s unclear if he was ever a proud owner of a commemorative “I’ve thrown a Dorset Knob” carrier bag. Stilton cheese rollingCambridgeshire, Mon Note: not the event at the sharply-inclined Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire, scene of many broken limbs and jolted tail-bones.That’s now cancelled, due to danger, so head to Cambridgeshire, where teams coax a large wheel of cheese along a disappointingly flat high street. Risk of paralysis: minimal. Meh. Rochester Sweeps festival Kent, Sat to Mon Three days long this, but the main event is a flashmob of gleeful Dick Van Dyke wannabes, evoking a time where men were men and children could reasonably be asked to scrape toxic dust off brickwork that nobody ever sees. Eliza Carthy features, so we’ll tread carefully for fear of having to give her two pages of a future issue where she tells us off for making light of dying artforms. Padstow ‘Obby ‘OssCornwall, Mon Apparently a stallion, but really an oversize biscuit tin with the face of a vampire cat – the ‘Obby ‘Oss plucks women from the crowd, drags them ‘neath his cloak and daubs them with coal, all in the name of aiding fertility. Yep, that old chestnut. Evidence from last year showed the ‘Oss to be sporting a smart pair of white old-school Nikes.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
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Related posts:Millions will watch as Boat Race is re-branded as ‘world-class event’ The world wide web is shrinking Online CoP meets face to face
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April 30 2011, 6:50am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Viewfinder competition: win a £150 hotel voucher
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/26/viewfinder-competition-win-a-150-hotel-voucher
Name the place and win a £150 voucher from Hotels.com, letting you stay at thousands of hotels worldwide.
This article titled “Viewfinder competition: win a £150 hotel voucher” was written by , for guardian.co.uk on Sunday 24th April 2011 00.30 UTC guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
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April 26 2011, 11:05am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Talk About Local Unconference 2011 gets under way in Cardiff
Tweets and news from the first Talk About Local unconference to take place in Cardiff, Wales – looking at issues around local publishing 2011
This article titled “Talk About Local Unconference 2011 gets under way in Cardiff” was written by Hannah Waldram, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 2nd April 2011 13.53 UTC Community publishers met in Cardiff today to talk about issues surrounding promoting your local area online. The first Talk About Local Unconference to take place in Wales, roughly 80 people met at the Atrium in Adamsdown for a day of tea, coffee, tweeting and sessions on all issues which affect local bloggers. Sessions, organised ad hoc in an ‘unconference’ style, looked at hyperlocal bloggers and councils, elections, law, issues around content, making money and supporting each other in a community were all discussed throughout the day. Attendees included Twitterers, bloggers, web publishers, photographers and anyone with an interest in producing content online about a place important to them – travelling from Edinburgh, Leeds, Isle of Wight, London and across the UK. Session topics were pitched and then posted onto a day schedule to run throughout the day. Networking and chatting among hyperlocal publishers will continue into the evening at Gwdihw Cafe Bar. The event was supported by Guardian Local and Rightmove. We’ve been tweeting from the event today along with others on Twitter using the hashtag #TAL11. Scroll down this Storify to follow tweets from the beginning of the day. Also see this live blog from Talk About Local here. If you went to the unconference or have any comments about it – feel free to leave them in the comment box below.
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Related posts:Talk About Local Unconference to take place in Cardiff Pub of the year award goes to a London local for first time Why would councils want to exclude bloggers and tweeters?
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April 2 2011, 3:00pm | Comments »
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Kiwi berries – are they the new Yorkshire pudding
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/28/kiwi-berries-are-they-the-new-yorkshire-pudding
Leeds Markets are selling immature Kiwi fruit known as Kiwi Berries. Nothing to do with Yorkshire Pudding or Cornish Pasties really.
This article titled “Kiwi berries – are they the new Yorkshire pudding” was written by Martin Wainwright, for guardian.co.uk on Sunday 27th March 2011 22.03 UTC When I came back to the north in 1987, I did a series of programmes on Radio 4 called That’s what I like about the North, in which I explained how excellent the move was. For balance, I had to try to find some disadvantages, and the best I could manage was that my wife and I and our two sons had been obliged to leave behind Chiswick Waitrose, whose offerings included nasturtium flowers as a novelty salad. There’d be none of that up north. We weren’t great consumers of it, as it happened. Nasturtiums looked better in flowerbeds to our way of thinking. But I was put in my place by several correspondents who said: well, if you want nasturtium salad, it’s available at Headingley Safeways – just down the road from us in Leeds. The same thing may happen with my latest excitement: the discovery of Kiwi berries in that wonderful Aladin’s cave, Leeds markets. I’d never come across these tasty little objects before. They’re basically immature Kiwi fruits, but a lot tastier than the grown-up thing; a great alternative to blueberries, raspberries and so forth; or a complement to them if, like me, you conscientiously try to get your Government five-a-day in fruit and veg. Are they well-known? I’ve not yet found any regular berry-eaters up here, and the general reaction of punters at the markets, where Chris Thomond and I were filming the latest in our Britain’s Best View series, was suspicious caution. Subsequent Googling has, however, turned up a Kiwi berry website. I’d be interested to know how widespread they are. Meanwhile, I long for a northern supermarket to reintroduce bilberries, which make blueberries taste like watery nothings. Ken Morrison used to stock them, in tins from Poland, but his successors have given up on the line. The New Zealand connection A brief mention of this Kiwi berry conundrum on my Facebook page has prompted an interesting revelation about the modern history of New Zealand and its fruit industry. Over to Gus Scott, a Northerner reader in Santa Monica and a friend from my Chiswick days. He and his family may well have bought nasturtium flower salad from Waitrose. He says: “in 1961 my mother in law, New Zealander Chris Cole-Catley, was working in an advertising agency which had the task of re-branding an ugly fruit whose name made it unacceptable to American consumers because of its Communist overtones.: Chinese Gooseberries. Chris was struck by the fruit’s resemblance to a Kiwi and came up with the name Kiwi Berry – but on checking with a botanist was told CG’s were not in fact berries, but fruit – so she modified it to Kiwi Fruit – and the rest is history. Fascinating that Kiwi Berries have crept back in! And Chris, now in her late 80′s, is still active as one of NZ’s leading independent publishers and about to publisher her autobiography.” Well, well. On your bike Great to get an email about a cycling opera. It will take place in July next year at Scunthorpe with more than 2000 performers, singers and cyclists. The idea is to get people excited about the Olympic games by celebrating Scunny’s once-famous son Lal White, a local steelworker whose dedication to cycling in his spare time earned him a silver medal in the 1920 Antwerp games. He and his brother also constructed a static training bike out of washing mangles. The score will be written by Tim Sutton, judge for BBC Radio 3′s Choir Of The Year and Young Musician Of The Year and responsible for the score for BBC Radio 7′s adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. The libretto is in the safe and talented hands of Barnsley’s Ian McMillan, poet-in-residence for English National Opera, The Academy of Urbanism and Barnsley FC.
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March 27 2011, 6:27pm | Comments »
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London walks podcast: Poetry and literature in Kensington Gardens
Sarah Crown strolls through Kensington Gardens, the Serpentine and the ponds, an enduring source of inspiration for authors and poets
This article titled “London walks podcast: Poetry and literature in Kensington Gardens” was written by Presented by Sarah Crown, produced by Francesca Panetta and Lucy Greenwell, with field recordings by Pascal Wyse, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 23rd February 2011 12.08 UTC London’s parks have been a source of escape and inspiration for centuries. Kensington Gardens has seen the likes of JM Barrie, Matthew Arnold and Ezra Pound scribbling lines in pads of paper as they sit on the park’s black benches. Sarah Crown explores the city sanctuary with Nick Lane, the park’s education and community engagement officer. They set off from the ornate Italian Gardens where the fountains play their own sort of music. To test the old adage, “inspiration doesn’t come by appointment”, poet, and Costa Book of the Year winner Jo Shapcott takes a parallel journey on her own through the gardens – with notebook in hand – to get her creative juices flowing. Sarah and Nick meander along the Serpentine towards the statue of Peter Pan, worn down over the decades by the hands of little children. JM Barrie erected the statue in the dead of night as a surprise for the park’s young visitors, to remind them that Peter Pan was dreamt up here, under the bows of the huge plane trees. Author William Boyd values the escape that London’s parks offer and explains why parks are so important to urban writers like him. Ever since he was a child, and especially after his wife died, poet Dannie Abse has sought sanctuary in London’s parks, and reads a poem that reminds him of his own park life. The bridge over the Serpentine is a good spot to survey the Lido, where the Serpentine Swimming Club members plunge into the waters every morning of the year, even if they have to bash through the ice first. Sarah stops by the Serpentine Gallery and then onto the Round Pond, where Paul Cavel, circle-walking meditation expert, takes us round and round the pond as a means of calming our minds, and healing our bodies. They finish in the shadow of Kensington Palace, where you can stop for a cup of tea in the Orangery. You can enjoy this documentary at home by listening here or you can download it on to your phone or mp3 player and take it out as a walking tour. Click here to download. And there is a map to go with the audio too.
Many thanks to: Nick Lane, education and community engagement officer for the park William Boyd Dannie Abse Jo Shapcott The Serpentine Swimming Club The Serpentine Gallery Paul Cavel of Circle Walking
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March 25 2011, 2:01pm | Comments »
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London 2012: Ten best of the web
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/25/london-2012-ten-best-of-the-web
Lots of sites about London 2012 Olympics tickets including Oscar Pistorius, ticketing guides and Visa’s new Olympics ad
This article titled “London 2012: Ten best of the web” was written by Steve Busfield, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 25th March 2011 12.52 UTC 490 days to go As promised, here is this week’s selection of the best London 2012 Olympics content on the web (please add links below the line or send via email or Twitter. 1. Top 10 Olympic travel tips from Diamon Geezer. He also has a pretty good ticket guide (Via Owen Gibson) 2. There’s an (unofficial) app for that. 3. Visa has a London 2012 ad featuring plenty of Olympic stars. Eat your heart out Mastercard. Oliver Holt in the Mirror had this to say about it. (Via Penny Woods) 4. Worried about staying in London during the Games? Matt Beard of the London Evening Standard reports: “Top hotel chains in crisis talks with 2012 Olympics organisers over ‘rip-off’ re-sale packages.” 5. Have you looked at the terms and conditions of Olympic Tickets? Nick Pearce did and here’s what he found. 6. Oscar Pistorius’ dream of running in theOlympic Games at London 2012 moved a step closer when the South African set a new personal best, just 0.06 seconds short of the ‘A’ standard needed for automatic Olympic qualification, reports the BBC. 7. Want to know more about the BOA v Locog row? This piece by Alan Hubbard uses boxing metaphors to explain. (Via Owen Gibson again) 8. The mountain-biking arena is ready. 9. Should handball be an Olympic sport? There was a brief but entertaining below the line debate on our Watching The Games series. 10. For 2012 refuseniks, here’s an apposite cartoon from the Daily Telegraph’s Matt. (Via Chei Amlani) Please share your thoughts or more links below the line or send via email or Twitter.
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March 25 2011, 8:31am | Comments »
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Bordeaux uncorked
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/23/bordeaux-uncorked
The city of Bordeaux is gleaming after a makeover and the region’s conservative vineyards are casting off their haughty image and welcoming visitors for city breaks in Europe.
This article titled “Bordeaux uncorked” was written by Oliver Thring, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 22nd March 2011 12.30 UTC The English have always liked Bordeaux. It presents them with a neat and nifty range of familiar French staples: old patissiers, echoey churches, pretty cafes with unsmiling waiters, old cobbled streets, and women who swoosh past, helmetless, on bicycles. For a couple of hundred years, this land, Aquitaine, was English, a chivalrous region roamed by troubadours and ravaged by plague and perpetual war. And it’s near the sea, of course, just a few miles over the dunes from the chilly Atlantic breakers. Or perhaps the English see something of themselves in the proud, reserved character of the Bordelais. This is a town that never bothered with tourism, that didn’t have to: it had already made its money on spices, slaves and grapes. In 1855, Napoleon III oversaw a list classifying the “best” Bordeaux estates, a census of allegedly top “growths” that still dictates the hierarchy and prices of specific wines. Twelve bottles of Chateau Lafite 2009, a “premier cru”, are yours today for around £14,000. Whatever else, the 1855 classification was a shrewd piece of marketing. It cemented Bordeaux’s entitled, Gallic haughtiness even as the town itself went to seed. A decade ago, Bordeaux’s buildings were soiled by age and neglect, the town a shabby sump of rotting docks and stagnant industry. Things are visibly changing. Modern trams now purr and whine through scrubbed boulevards; in the main square, the Corinthian columns of Victor Louis’s Grand Théâtre seem to glisten. Over at the Place de la Bourse, they’ve installed the “miroir d’eau” or water mirror, the most beautiful puddle in Europe. We stayed at the renovated Hôtel de Normandie (7 cours du XXX Juillet, +33 (0)5 56 52 16 80, hotel-de-normandie-bordeaux.com, rooms from €95, breakfast €15pp), brilliantly placed in the city centre and near the successful, funky wine school, Ecole du Vin de Bordeaux (3 cours du XXX Juillet, +33 (0)5 56 00 22 85, bordeaux.com, two-day course on Bordeaux wine from €218pp). The city is cleaning up the knackered old cathedral, too, which the Pope consecrated in 1096 in an early example of urban planning. Sweaty local students pedal tourists around the town in flimsy plastic rickshaws, pointing out the sights in broken, demotic English. Food But parts of Bordeaux still seem timeless. The old city is spliced by rue St Catherine, one of the longest shopping streets in Europe, flanked by boutiques and shoe shops. Near the big clock, one of the few surviving landmarks from the medieval period, a spice shop called Dock des Epices (20 rue Saint-James, +33 (0)5 56 44 41 57, dockdesepices.com) fugs the street with the smell of cumin and cassia. I bought some livid purple salt flavoured with local wine – it goes beautifully with fish. A rather grand cafe, Baillardran (55 cours de l’Intendance, +33 (0)5 56 52 92 64, other branches at baillardran.com), serves exquisite canelés, the local delicacy of tiny cakes of caramelised custard. La Tupina (6 rue Porte de la Monnaie, +33 (0)5 56 91 56 37, latupina.com, lunchtime menu from €16, evening tasting menu €60) is a stalwart side-street bistro that’s been open for almost 40 years. It was one of food writer Jonathan Meades‘s favourite restaurants, and it appeals to a very English ideal of French hospitality. Inside, a huge hearth roars and spits, roasting chickens and braising lamb, and there’s a vast board of pink, fat-studded charcuterie. The restaurant is famous for the heavy cooking of south-western France, but my starter was a huge slice of beef tomato, thick as a pack of cards, criss-crossed with padrón peppers, while a main of roast veal with vegetables was similarly light. They play birdsong in the loos, which is somehow a very French conceit. Another fabulous restaurant is Le Petit Commerce (22 rue du Parlement Saint-Pierre, + 33 (0)5 56 79 76 58, le-petit-commerce.com, two-course lunch menu €12), a bijou fish place with rickety tables, brusque service and a refreshing lack of tourists. Wine Bordeaux’s wine industry has been typically slow to welcome visitors. Max Bordeaux (14 cours de l’Intendance, +33 (0)5 57 29 23 81, maxbordeaux.com) is a wine shop with a couple of spartan black and white rooms and almost nowhere to sit down. But you can drink some of the most expensive vintages in the world here on a relative budget: they serve it in 2.5cl thimblefuls. A scant sip of Mouton Rothschild is €15, and Lynch Bages and Château Margaux’s second wine are both only €4. It’s a cracking idea – borne, perhaps, of a sudden realisation that the world is threatening to overtake Bordeaux, that lazy reliance on history and standoffish tradition might no longer do in a future of cheap long-haul and boxed Rioja. Driving through the gnarled and corrugated vineyards of the Médoc, you can feel Bordeaux’s persistent sense of entitlement or noblesse oblige. Prim, privileged chateaux sit like dowager aunts behind forbidding iron railings and old stone walls, staring with miserly joy at the writhing lucre of the vines. Billboards of the most famous names in the wine world flick past: Latour, Lafite, Margaux, Pichon Longueville. The signs could just as easily say “Keep Out: visiting these places is almost impossible for ordinary people”. So it’s exciting that a few of the younger chateau owners are beginning to open up to visitors. The “tasting room” of Château La Tour de Bessan (Route d’Arsac 33460 Cantenac, +33 (0)5 56 58 22 01, marielaurelurton.com) is a rusty old telegraph building that somehow Tardises into a sleek, elegant space. They teach people how wine is blended here, letting visitors mix tannic and complex cabernet sauvignon with hot, boozy merlot. One rather grand chateau, Gruaud-Larose (33250 St-Julien-Beychevelle, +33 (0)5 56 73 15 20, gruaud-larose.com), even holds cookery courses alongside its wine tastings, while a wing of Château Marojallia (marojallia.com) is now a comfortable hotel. Perhaps the most innovative recent development is a place called, in bolshy Franglais, La Winery (Rond-Point des Vendangeurs 33460 Arsac, +33 (0)5 56 39 04 90, winery.fr). It’s run by a family of Algerian winemakers who came to Bordeaux in the 1960s. La Winery is a gigantic greenhouse branded in Trainspotting orange, its crystal panes in stark, intentional contrast with its forbiddingly opaque neighbours. They sit you in a bright room and you answer a series of questions to determine the wines you might prefer. The quiz asks whether you prefer pizza or curry, for instance, or the smell of “honey and apricot” over “loose tobacco and undergrowth”. A person working there told me, rather unsurprisingly, that they faced scepticism and hostility from the old Bordelais winemakers. La Winery’s approach might seem dumbed-down or gimmicky, but it makes a refreshing change from the esoteric babble of much of the wine world, and its very existence signals a partial shift from the reactionary model of the established Bordeaux wine industry. Outside the ludicrous prices of its most famous wines, Bordeaux faces a difficult task: how to retain its relevance against increasing competition from the rest of the world, a currency situation making export difficult, and a perception that it’s fusty and overpriced. But most Bordelais know they can ill afford to jettison the heritage that is the source of their fame. The true winners in this debate are visitors to the region, who can both experience a newly gleaming city and inspect those few vineyards that have opened their gates. Getting there
By plane: Easyjet (easyjet.com) flies to Bordeaux from Bristol, Gatwick, Liverpool and Luton; British Airways (ba.com) flies from Gatwick. By train: Eurostar (eurostar.com) from London to Bordeaux starts at £109 return.
Further information: Bordeaux Office de Tourisme (bordeaux-tourisme.com/uk)
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March 23 2011, 3:16pm | Comments »
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UK nominates 11 sites for Unesco world heritage status
The Forth bridge, St Helena and Lake District have been put forward for consideration as worthy sites alongside Stonehenge for Unesco world heritage status. The decision will be made in June not in Bahrain, as originally planned but in Paris.
This article titled “UK nominates 11 sites for Unesco world heritage status” was written by Maev Kennedy, for The Guardian on Tuesday 22nd March 2011 01.00 UTC
The Forth bridge, the remote island of St Helena in the South Atlantic where Napoleon died in 1821, and the Lake District are among 11 places the government will nominate today as worthy of becoming world heritage sites to be ranked alongside the Pyramids and Stonehenge. The government will also make a third attempt to have the corner of Kent where Charles Darwin wrote the book that changed the history of science recognised as a world treasure. John Penrose, the tourism and heritage minister, said: “Few places in the world can match the wealth of wonderful heritage we have available in the UK. The 11 places that make up the new ‘UK tentative list’ are fantastic examples of our cultural and natural heritage, and I believe they have every chance of joining famous names like the Sydney Opera House and the Canadian Rockies to become world heritage sites.” Places that failed to make the ‘tentative’ list include Blackpool, the former RAF airfield at Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire, the Rows shops and half-timbered houses in Chester, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway. The government has been consulting on the type of sites which Britain should put forward after concern from Unesco, which has maintained the list since 1972, that it was increasingly dominated by castles and cathedrals in western Europe. There has been a conscious determination to broaden the geographical spread of the list and the types of sites nominated, leading to the inclusion of penal sites for transported convicts in Australia, four hydraulic boat lifts on a Belgian canal and the wonderfully named Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump prehistoric butchery site in Canada. Britain is nominating a judicious mixture of natural, built and industrial sites, including the slate industry of north Wales with its spectacular shale heaps still bearing witness to the days when Welsh slate roofed half the world, the Jodrell Bank observatory in Cheshire, Scotland’s beautiful Flow Country, the endlessly repainted Forth railway bridge which had the longest single cantilever span in the world when built in 1890, Gorham’s cave complex in Gibraltar, and Cresswell Crags, the limestone gorge honeycombed with caves which has some of the earliest evidence of human habitation in Britain and the country’s only known Ice Age rock art. The list is completed by two leftover scraps of the British Empire: St Helena and the Turks and Caicos. The government has still not given up on Darwin’s home, now in the care of English Heritage, where he wrote On The Origin of Species. Once the scientist found Down House in 1842 he left as rarely as possible for the rest of his life. He wrote the Origin and all his later work there and conscripted his children as assistants in taking observations on the fauna and flora in his own garden and the surrounding fields, which are remarkably unchanged. The government first nominated it in 2007 but withdrew on being warned the Unesco advisers were not convinced of its genuine scientific importance. It was resubmitted, with the ingeniously coined description “landscape laboratory” in 2009 to mark the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth, but still failed to make the cut. The government, undaunted, will again add it to the list of proposed sites. The list of sites judged among the world’s most precious now runs to 911 in 151 countries: 704 cultural, 180 natural and 27 mixed. The new nominations were due to be considered by the world heritage committee in June in Bahrain but, due to the turbulent state of politics across the Arab world, the meeting has been switched to the Unesco headquarters in Paris.
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March 22 2011, 10:31am | Comments »
