The music and film loving part of my brain is not as developed as most people I know. However whatever part of the grey mass deals with nostalgia is certainly over developed. Merely mention a soda stream, and I can immediately be taken back to the kitchen of a friends house in the early 80's, I can still remember the smell of his house, what we were eating,his toys, everything.
So it is with great delight that I found a collecters tin of fuzzy felt.
I noticed this story has made the mainstream news this morning:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2983045.stm. I am in for a battering from Rebecca, I always justified my angling, by stating that fish cannot feel pain, I am flumixed now.
I do practice catch and release, wherever it is allowed. My angling club banned catch and release because some people were releasing damaged fish, I think this has been reversed this year.
I would often use barbless hooks when fishing for native brown trout, but rarely do for rainbow trout, I suppose this is a form of racism.
I remember a fish in the Upper Bann he was picking off little Olives from the surface, I cast over him with a dry fly and he took it, I got him to hand, and released him. I sat on the bank for a while watching him and within a few minutes he was back hitting the olives, I cast over him again, and he took the same fly again. This was a wily native fish. This is the story I use to justify my position on angling, I find it is a bit more acceptable to people than calling them ignorant townies.
I was looking through a book last night, it was a collection of WA Green's photos of the Mournes. He had a photo of Maggie's Leap near the Bloody Bridge car park on the road to Annalong out of Newcastle.
There is a picture and story here:
http://www.ulsterplacenames.org/legends_of_the_landscape.htm
I always wondered about the name, the link above says the dyke was named after a girl called Maggie who leapt the gap, carrying a basket of eggs, as she was fleeing soldiers.
The book had another more pleasing story, that she leapt the gap carring eggs, as she was being chased by a suitor, neither she nor any of the eggs were harmed. Either way it was an impressive jump, the leap was over 10 feet.
I am not sure about the geology, hopefully beowulf will be let me know. My GCSE geology tells me that the rock was weak around the hard granite and the sea erroded it, as to what the rock that was erroded is I have no idea.
There was also a picture of the Northern Counties Hotel, the caption read that the hotel was used to house Campbell College pupils during the second World War.
I remember coing shopping with my folks to Belfast when I was a kid, we used to park in a car park over the Queen's bridge from Ann Street. I remember being fascinated by the fish wrapped around each of the balustrades on the Queen's Bridge as we walked past. I noticed them again recently as they appear to have been given a lick of paint.
This Harrison character has some nice images from in and around Belfast and further afield.
The students are off at the moment, and thus all our nice subsidised grub cannot be found. Had to resort to the non subsidised prices of O'Briens. What a nutritious evening meal, a chicken coleslaw sandwich washed down with red lemonade...mmmmm!!
I was out for a run just now,the path at Whiteabbey passes by an area of wetland,and I saw the first hawthorn fly of the year, they have that distinctive dangly bit that hangs down when they fly.
They hatch between late April and mid May, the trout love them, the big brown trout always seem to come up for them at Kernan Lough where I normally fish.
I suppose it is because they are the first big land based insects that hatch after the winter months, they must be too good to resist for the fish.
This is somewhat leaping as we say here in Norn Iron. I left my toothbrush at my folk's house at the weekend. I forgot to get a new one, so I have not used a toothbrush to clean my teeth for two days. However I decided to try some natural alternatives, yesterday I tried chewing a clove, and it wasn't bad but a bit on the sickly side. But this morning I hit gold, and intend to market my new found product. Cardomom seeds wrapped in mint leaves, you can suck this parcel and then chew the cardomom seed to get into all the difficult to reach parts. I am going to market the idea, sell them in those brown hemp bags,twenty in a bag, they will be called Mint Cardopods and I will flog them in L.A for $10.00 a bag.
I have been inspired to look at my logs,I haven't bothered previously because I just used my domain for mail, except for a couple of other bits and bobs, including ebay pic hosting. What I have noticed is the amount of new operating systems hitting my site since launching my blog, you bunch of nerds.
http://www.jaffs.com/webstats.html
Marc at http://www.stray-toaster.co.uk/blog/ mentions having a bit of a thing about Kim Wilde. I remember being head over heels with her in my youth. Another odd teenage crush was Michelle Gayle. Not when she was in Grange Hill, but when she lauched her pop career.
This site cracks me up everytime, University of Bums on seats.
I particularly like the meet the board link describing:
Director of Information Technology Services
Mr Dick Dongle BA(Ed) MBA
Dick is a longstanding member of the university and has served in senior management for over 30 years. Despite his advanced years, and close proximity to retirement, he is still an active member of the IT directorate and has recently been awarded a certificate of attendence for the "Introduction to Microsoft Windows" course.
The course listing is absolutely cracking.
Someone got me a george foreman grill as an engagement present.
There is a nice picture here http://www.readersheds.co.uk/readersheds/shop.cfm?WOSNAMES=Wosnames with the interesting wrongly spelt strapline George Formby Grill.
It's amazing how the weather affects your mood. The last few weeks have been pretty settled, this morning is manky and miserable. Sarah Cox on Radio One was having her text competition where listeners are asked to complete lyrics, this morning was a Feeder song, with the lyric ending..'I can't believe' The winning answer was 'I can't believe I have another 40 years of Monday mornings to get through'. This coupled with the new clamping regulations in work, the enforcement signs are up, just could be the impetus needed to type california & job in to google.
As soon as something positive happens today I will make the effort to post, reading the above probably only adds to other's Monday morning blues.
I was back home in Portadown last night visiting the family, and meeting up with some mates for a few bevvies.
There is nothing better than drinking in a bar where you know 50% of the customers, and where you can get a seat to sit 6 people on a Saturday night at 10.oo pm.
There is a programme on Home and Leisure at the moment about living on canal boats, I wonder why we don't see many on our waterways here.
I remember going on a canal boat trip on a school trip to Morecambe, the canal crossed a river on a viaduct, which is pretty amazing. I have had a quick look on google and can't seem to track it down.
There is an old boy in Portadown called Jackie, he has a dog called Rex and he spends a lot of time on a boat in the Bann, he is permanantly pickled, favouring cheap sherry as his tipple. Quite frequently you can see him pick up fellow winos and go on a booze cruise up the River Bann, I remember rowing past him one day and there must have been 8 people in a 16 foot boat dangerously listing to one side.
Again the Times is my source of inspiration for this post.
One of yesterday's comments was about the revival of sticky drinks (Baileys/Tia Maria etc) thanks to programmes like Sex in the City.
Anyway the article commented on the statement "You are what you eat", but when it comes to what we drink it's more a case of declaring what we want to be. The approach to the bar is a nuanced negotiation between taste on the palate and social-perception.
I judge someone by what they drink, I wouldn't trust a man who drinks alcho-pops. Although I don't drink whisky/whiskey I cringe when someone orders a black bush and coke. I wouldn't want to have a relationship beyond a friendship, with a girl who drinks pints. When drinking back home in Portadown I would choose different drinks depending on who I am drinking with.
I reckon everyone must do it, as drinks are often associated with particular social groups, winos like Mundies, rockers like Jack Daniels, pipe smokers like Real Ale. We all have a social perception of a particular drink, unless we are one of these very secure people, who could walk into the Docker's Club and order a babycham with a peach schnapps chaser.
The Times yesterday had a piece about the conversion of the Crumlin Road Courthouse into an open plan office space.
Here is a great snipping:
The courthouse has been the scene of some typical Northern Ireland black humour. On one occassion the prosecution was cross-examining a man who denied membership of the loyalist Ulster Defence Association, When asked why he had the initials "UDA" tatooed on his hand, the defendant replied: "That's the name of my dog".
Portrush was just as I remember it as a kid, cold wet and miserable. The last two times I have been up have been on crisp clear days, making Portrush look quite appealing. Today was much more traditional.
The Ramore was quality, I had Japanese Tempura Prawns, with loads of dips, wasabi, sweet chilli, and weird brown vinegary dips, that I am too uncultured to appreciate.To accompany the prawns, I had a huge bowl of 'Big Chips' and a pint of coldflow. I hear the howls of anger from the true stout drinkers, however I always hated stout until coldflow came on the scene.
The trip to the Bushmills Railway did not materialise, we hit Barrys instead, taking Rebecca's nephew on all the kiddies rides, he didn't seem too enthusiastic, which is surprising because he is enthusiastic about everything else, yet a carousel does not appeal.
I took a photo of the only bright thing I saw in Portrush:
I am off to Portrush for the day, a crowd of us are going up to the Ramore for lunch. Then we hope to have a look at this new bushmills railway, apparently there is a steam train which now runs to Bushmills. It is a narrow gauge railway. Rebecca's father used to live in Sandown Rd, his neighbour used to have the very same train and 3 feet gauge track in his back garden. What a toy!!
Del Boy doesn't have a look in. What about this for an ebay result? I put these jeans on yesterday, I bought them a few years back, when I had more money, hence the £100.oo price tag. They are described as low crotch, every time I wore them my Dad told me I needed a pair of braces, or a good belt. Looks like the low crotch suits the youth of today, they are on £41.oo already.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38379&item=3414420866&rd=1If you go trawling through my other items for sale, you will get an odd incite into the crap I have lying around the house. Only need another 19.00 quid and I will have raised £220.oo for getting the front wall rendered, all from ebay.
Look at my lovely new outside tap, not the neatest job, it doesn't meet any standards, I don't care if it can talk to my watering can, it makes water come out and that's what I want from a tap.
Where next? Anyone need a new bathroom installed, I even have photos of previous jobs?
I remember reading some guy's blog, he was talking about searching for your postcode on google. He talked about all the interesting people who came up within spitting distance of his loft apartment in San Francisco.
I did a search on google recently, the number one search uncovered this piece of lyrical genius from one of my neighbours, I am afraid
You see us joking, you see us smiling,
you see us smoking tears of joy,
but aint there ever gonna be the perfect life.
We are lovers, we go out,
and we drink ourselves into the ground,
and yet we know it aint ever gonna let us go free.
You know i'm here, you know i'm there,
you know i'm every fucking where,
and tomorrow i'll be there still if you want.
Bridge
Cos when i bring myself to my knees,
and i'm so fucked up that i cannot breath,
and the twisted lives i once knew are gone.
You know its not my fault,
every single person has his part to play,
in life,
i'm not the only messed up soul.
Chorus
We are running, to stop the rythem.
We are prayin', that we'll have a meaning.
Cos when i come back inside, and when i rest on my peace,
i'll look at you,and i'll know my lifes been a feast,
with my D.E.G.R.E.E.
I did a search a few weeks back and discovered one of my neighbours plays a part in the
distortion project. That search result does not come up anymore, I was wondering did the guy see the search for his postcode appear in the logs and freak out. I have now linked from here, so go visit him, so he can trace the hits back to here and ease his fears about an internet stalker.
The wee kids across the road asked if they could wash my car, there were 4 of them, I asked how much they wanted they said 1 pound, as they wanted 25p each, not very astute business men, I said I would double it if they did a good job. They have been washing the car for over half an hour now, child labour is the way forward. Anyone need their chimneys swept?
I went to B&Q today and bought a garden tap kit. The concept is really simple they give you a self-tapping tap which you screw into your cold water mains, attach a length of felixible pipe to that, drill a 16mm hole in the wall, push the pipe through and attach your fixing plate and tap to the length of pipe.
However I powdered out of the operation and went for a run instead. I don't like the idea of a self tapping valve, it just seems wrong, how can the seal be as good as a normal connection. The beauty is you don't have to turn the water off, nor hack away at your pipes. When we fitted our new sink recently I got the plumber to fit a couple of isolating valves, I have decided to attempt the tap install within the bounaries of this isolating valve, so if it messes up I can cut the water off.
I am off work until next Monday, which is fantastic. No-one else is off, so my fishing trip may take the back burner, as I prefer to go with my mates.
Today I intend to buy an outside tap kit, and perhaps attempt the install. I also went to a cracking Salvage yard in Jellymount Street off the Shore Rd recently, and managed to track down two decorative bricks to match those missing from the decorative row above our bay window. Unfortunately the ones I bought are an inch too long, so I spent an hour trying to cut them with a blunt angle grinder, I want to see if they fit today and mortar them in.
I also have some re-pointing work to do, but don't like ladder work when no-one else is around, yes I am a big ginny. I tracked down a lime based mortar that you can inject using a pump gun, which is the type of easy job I like. The company is called easipoint, they are very helpful. I called them one day and they gave me advice on the correct mortar, the postage of two 25 Kg bags was going to be 32 quid from Lancashire, so they called a customer in Northern Ireland who ships pallets of the stuff from them, I met them in Central Station where they were doing stone work on the new building and they sold me two bags for cost price. That's what I call service.
I have been buying and selling on ebay for a few months now. It is one of those things I often looked at but never got round to doing.
If you don't use ebay, start now. I have bought all sorts of useful bits and bobs, but the best bit is selling. I have made about 300 quid since Christmas selling old vinyl, bits and bobs from my folk's loft, old mobile phones people were throwing out, and general junk people have been throwing out.
I even sold a pair of worn DM boots for £16.00.
There are freaks out there who buy worn DM's, there are even freaks you may have seen on Graham Norton who buy worn football socks. Here is a freaky example:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3604897450&category=19301 but if you search for worn socks on ebay anytime you will uncover loads of pairs selling for over a fiver.
The pink pound is where the moneys at. Those who used to work in Blackstar will remember the huge amounts of money that guy made referring customers through his collection of gay interest sites.
Logged on to the web there to put some more of my junk on ebay to raise some cash for a bit of work on the house, which is beyond my abilities. I came to my blog and noticed that today's date had no link on my calendar, couldn't be having that, so here is my story for the day.
I got engaged last month, since then it has been like a steam train taking off, today we booked the reception for the 27th August 2004, would you believe, it was a stroke of luck even getting a date at that much notice.
We are having it in the Galgorm Manor in BAAAAlymena, which is a long drive as the church is in Holywood.
Galogorm is a lovely spot, Rebecca's other two sisters were married there, and they were both great day's out.
The River Maine runs through the grounds and the hotel owns the fishing in this stretch, which is a plus point. There is a run of Dollaghan on the river, this is a species indigenous to Northern Ireland and in particular the rivers which run into Lough Neagh. Dollaghan are similar to Sea Trout but run to the Lough instead of the sea, and then come back into the rivers to spawn. As you would imagine they grow a lot bigger feeding on the rich harvest in the Lough compared to the relatively sparse larder available to the brown trout in the trout streams.
Just watching the music channel Box on cable, the Cheeky Girls are dispensing useful advice on this damp day. 'Take your shoosies off' before you come into the house.
I thought of a funny quote earlier relating to my fly tying, and how my hobbies are slightly at odds to the views of my 'vegetarian, animal loving, tree hugging hippie' fiance.
On one of Chris Rock's stand up tapes (I know this may seem intellectually challenged but Chris Rock gets me in crinkles every time) he talks about being into the same shit as your woman. (yes I am aware this is a derogatory term and akin to calling your wife..her indoors)
He says if you are a crackhead your woman had better be a crackhead too.
You can't come home from work, put the feet up and load up a crack pipe, while she bakes cookies in the kitchen.
Not exactly true, but very funny.
I am sure most web savvy people have come across the Portadown News. Putting to bed the theory that the only good thing to come out of Portadown is the road to Belfast.
I actually have an article published in one of the first editions of the PDN, don't really want to go looking for the link. Newton used to hang around on the Knowhere Board for Portadown and asked for contributions, I think he realised the error of his ways pretty quickly, and decided to write it himself.
There is a whole brilliant story around the Portadown News, resulting in the editor losing his job at the time, but I don't think it is my place to tell it here.
If anyone is particularly interested there are a few old hands still knocking about on the spin off PDN message board at the curiously named Free the Eritrean One.
Easter Monday is a difficult one. You have to be selective to find somewhere decent to go to avoid the crowds of piss heads. Translink has stopped services to Portrush, as they cannot guarantee the safety of their passengers or staff. I used to live up that direction and it's like something from the 'Village of the Damned' on Easter Monday, crowds of sovereign ring clad spides swarming over Portrush.
Although the thought of the food in the Ramore Wine Bar would almost tempt me up.
I also have a lot of fly tying to do now we are well into the trout season. Although the fact that I am soon to be marrying an animal loving vegetarian, makes tying flies a non option when she is about. Will have to wait until she is back to work on Wednesday, before I get my illicit box of Hare's Masks, Seal's Fur and peacock feathers out....MWAHHHHH!!
You would think after 26 easters I would be more restrained with the chocolate consumption, but no, 9.30 this morning I was getting stuck into a crunchie easter egg. I have also demolished a huge slab of yorkie in the past two days.
Today I feel a bit like the Carter Unstoppable Sex Machine song, I think the lyrics went something like this.
When you are young , you can eat what you like and still manage to fit into your size 26 inch waist trousers, when you reach that age 24, 25 the muscles give up and wave a little white flag and without any warning at all, you are r suddenly a fat bastard.
After graduating I worked with eastbelfast.com for a month or two working on their website.
We did a gallery for a local guy who did cartoons with an east belfast theme.
He never made any money out of it, but was a great character. He used to be too fond of giving people personalised cartoons for free.
http://www.eastbelfast.com/gallery/ernie.htm
I was digging in the garden the other day, and came across a couple of big chunk of glass.
These chunks were about an inch thick, the only thing we could think of which would need glass that thick was portholes.
Being close to the shipyard this shouldn't have been much of a surprise. A vast majority of houses in this area will have had work done by very skilled craftsmen using tools and materials from the shipyard. There is an old boy who lives two doors down who was telling me how all his work for thirty years was done by his mates from the shipyard.
The kitchen in our house was very old, so Rebecca decided we should fit a new one.
Dad and I spent about 4 hours ripping out the old one, it was a bespoke kitchen with beautiful joints and made from solid hardwood, I am sure it was built using the facilities of the shipyard.
We fitted a new kitchen from B&Q, which is a real shame, cosmetically it looks good, but will never survive the length of time the other did, and could be ripped out by one person in about 10 minutes.
There used to be a couple of model makers at my Dad's office who came from the shipyard, they were real characters and got a real buzz out of telling stories about how totally lawless life was in the shipyard. One guy used to be sent to Strangford for the whole summer to work on his foreman's private boat for four months at a time on the shipyard's money.
The story I loved was about a machine that they knocked up, which was a blackbox, with a handle on the side, that made shilling pieces. They used to take this to the pub and set it on the bar, order a couple of pints, pull the handle of the machine a shilling would drop out and they would pay for them. The bar man made a big scene out of this, checking the validity of the coin, and then accepting it. They would drink on, order a couple more pints, then one of the blokes would say 'the machine needs refilling lads' catching the attention of the other drinkers, he would reach into his pocket get a handful of solder and refill the machine, pull the handle and out would drop a shilling and they would pay. Undoubtedly one of the drinkers would enquire as to where they got the machine, they would say they built it in the yard and would sell them at two pounds each.
The drinker spotting a real winning formula, purchases one. Little did he know there was two chambers in the blackbox, one where they put the old solder, it just collected and stayed there. The other chamber was where they had put three shilling pieces, pulling the handle merely opened the hopper door for one of the shillings to drop out.
Another great story was about the toilets in the yard, there were individual cubicles with a seat, these seats emptied into a channel of running water which ran from the far end of the row of cubicles out under the seats of all the workers emptying the waste out into the sewer at the other end.
The men would all be sitting in a row at lunchtime reading their papers and having a quiet moment.
The joker would get the end cubicle, into the cubicle he would take the tools for his mischieve, a rag soaked in paraffin and a match. He would light the rag and send it down the channel scalding the arses of all the workers perched on their toilets.
My sister is getting married soon, I was buying her wedding pressie today. She is getting married to a bloke from Katesbridge, which is a small townland on the road to Newcastle from Banbridge.
I was talking to him about the origin of the name Katesbridge. He has been told that there was a crowd of roadworkers working on a bridge across the Bann at the area, and there was a woman who owned the bar nearby called Kate. Every day Kate used to feed and water the workers, and when they had completed the job, they named the bridge after her.
Stephen at Carisenda talks about Coney Island in Lough Neagh, we used to go camping on Coney on the boat from Portadown. There is a full time warden on Coney paid by the National Trust, the bloke who used to do it was a divorcee who decided to live on Coney for a few years in solitary isolation. What we call here in Norn Iron as getting the head showered.
Northern Ireland is bad at making the most of it's attractions. One such resource which would be utilised to the full in any other part of the world is the Newry Canal which linked the coal mines of Coalisland through Portadown to Newry.
Something different to visit at Easter
I used to live in Portadown and used to cycle the path from Shillingtons Quay to Newry through Scarva and Poyntzpass. This time of the year is the last time you can make it the whole way before the Giant Hogweed takes over. It is a little used route, part of the path near Acton Lake passes by the site of a section of the Black Pig Dyke a massive ditch which protected Ulster from invasion. Legend has it was dug by a ravaging pig as it ploughed through Ulster.
If it was any other part of the world we would be able to buy battery operated ravaging cuddly boars.
Right I am off to make a dent in a nice bottle of Oxford Landing.
This is something you may or may not know. Opposite Opus One in University Street there is a row of houses with false facades. Apparently when Queen Victoria came to visit in 1888, these houses backed on to the street and looked untidy, so at the back of the yards they built a false frontage, complete with doors and windows, if you look through the windows all you can see is the yards of the houses, yet it looks like a row of lovely Victoian houses.
Elegant code is nice to look at, nicely commented code is pleasing, writing nice concise, useful pod gives you a fuzzy feeling inside. However this usually matters little to the customer/user.
Your perl is nicely commented, your database is normalised to pefection, your html validates, you provide a wonderful RSS feed, does the customer/user care?
Function in my mind is more important than elegance. My father is a very practical man, I remember him fixing exhausts on cars with exhaust bandages and baked bean tins, he didn't care if it won him kudos at the local exhaust fitters guild, he cared that the exhaust gases got pushed out the back of the car.
I have done websites for small businesses before, they don't mind about standards, they want a functional website and email system. I never try to introduce them to standards, they don't care. I build them a website it works,they are happy.
Obviously if you are working on a huge system, transferring data between diverse legacy systems, then it does matter.
I think it is important to let go a little, don't panic if something doesn't validate, don't work overly hard finding that erronous tag, if it works and the customer is happy, that's what counts.
I remember decorating hard boiled eggs on Easter Sunday as a kid, it was great fun. Then rolling them down a hill at Dundrum castle, until they crack.
Apparently this is not a common tradition outside Northern England,Scotland,Ulster,Isle of Man or Switzerland
http://www.petticoated.com/curious28.htm
Following on from the geocaching link, there is a geocache hidden in Redburn Country Park in Holywood. I was there for a dander with Rebecca and her sister a few weeks ago. Rebecca's sister seems to know a lot about local history. Apparently Redburn was owned by the Dunville family, who used to own the world's biggest whiskey distillery, which was based in Belfast. They had a menagerie in the grounds of their house, and you can still see the bear pit, as you walk up towards the top of the park. The lady of the house was an adventurer and pioneer aviator and balloonist.
There is a great view from the top across the Harbour Estate to the Lough, and you can watch the planes coming and going into Belfast City Airport.
Listen to old american radio shows on mp3:
http://www.radiolovers.com/
I spent another evening in the garden, can't believe how much my life has changed in recent times. Gardening,DIY,blogging.....madness.
There are a row of the dreaded leylandii at the bottom of the garden, and they suck the moisture from the soil and throw a large area into shade. Nothing appears to grow under these trees, except one 'super plant' which I have been alerted to. So if you ever have a similar need the plant is the Cranesbill geranium
http://www.geocaching.com/ looks like fun.
"A GPS device and a hunger for adventure are all you need for high tech treasure hunting. Here you can find the latest caches in your area, how to hide your own cache, and information on how to get started in this fun and exciting sport."
Tap in your postcode an find all the hidden caches in your area.
Now how can I justify a GPS?, does anyone know of any DIY tools that have built in GPS. :-)
There is a cache in the park 2 minutes walk from my house, which is surprising.
This is sad, I have never visited this pub, but have been assurred by reliable sources that it serves the best stout in Belfast. When the planning application was being pushed through I remember the manager being interviewed, and he had been told by the developers that the Kitchen would be integrated into the new development...Nasty business. Compulsory purchase now.
Anger as time called on pub
By David Gordon
ENVIRONMENT Minister Angela Smith came under fire today for calling time on an award-winning Belfast pub.
The Minister has now cleared the way for the historic Kitchen Bar is to be demolished to make way for the £250m Victoria Square retail development.
Heritage campaigners had hoped for an 11th hour reprieve for the Victorian pub through planning permission conditions laid down by the Department of the Environment.
But the Belfast Telegraph has learned that no such stipulation is to be imposed on the developer, Dutch company MDC.
The Environment Minister yesterday announced that MDC is to get planning approval for its scheme which is backed by the Department for Social Development (DSD).
A public inquiry last year concluded that the Kitchen Bar should be preserved.
Inquiry Commissioner Trevor Rue said there was "impressive" evidence on the building's architectural and historical qualities.
He said: "DSD accepted that retention of the building would represent a surmountable problem in design terms."
The Kitchen Bar is not listed but is located within a conservation area.
The purpose of this entry is merely to allow me to blow my trumpet about getting to California in July. (if it is approved, fingers crossed);-)
We do a lot of flash work here. Our main body of work is building online courses, and more often than not a concept can be most easily described with a nice animation. This lead us in to building interactive quizzes etc and has resulted in some of us from the department going to San Diego in July for the annual WebCT Conference to show case some of these quizzes.
The quizzes are easily customisable from a web interface and allow academics to quickly build quizzes to pop in to their courses.
We are working on an all singing, all dancing broadband quiz at the moment, for the showcase. It's similar in style to 'Who wants to be a millionaire', part of the quiz allows you to ask an avatar what she thinks is the correct answer from the list of three choices, part of my brief was to make her correct 70% of the time.
The easiest way I could think of making her selection weighted in such a manner, was to read the correct variable from the database, for this example selection 2 is the correct answer.
I then populated an array like so
(2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1,1,3) and picked a random number from the array, which then told the flash player to play a clip of the avatar speaking based on the selection.
In theory she should say 'the answer is B' 70% of the time based on the above.
It is however not very random, I am not sure if it is the Math.Random function in Flash which is bucked or my woeful math.
I remember when I worked in deathblack star over hearing complex discussions about random , I should have paid more attention.
My house has a small garden at the back, it is about 45 feet long by 25 wide. This year I decided to try my hand at sorting it out, I dug a few borders, spent 60 quid in B&Q on plants and it still looks crap. My parents always had a nice garden, and I now realise how much effort and thought goes in to making it so.
It's a real science, I spent last Saturday morning looking for a decent magnolia bush, for Rebecca to give to her parents as an anniversary present. We couldn't find a suitable one, so ended up with some other bush (the name escapes me). The owner was chatting to us and said 'make sure that the plant avoids morning sun after a frost'. How did she learn that? I have great admiration for gardeners now.
Belfast has seen an influx of bars in and around the city centre, thanks mainly to the Jaz Mooney empire. Many people slate this new breed of bars. I like them however:
http://www.worldsbestbars.com/city/Belfast/
My personal favourite is Bar Bacca,
mainly because they stock Nastro Azzurro, which I am dreaming of on this fine day.
Next on my hitlist to try is Opium Bar in Skipper Street, the sound of the Papa Doble is making my mouth water
Our own special tribute to the great Ernest Hemmingway. Papaya puree,fresh lemon,fresh lime,sugar syrup and a splash of Chardonnay strengthened with a generous shot of melon vodka.
Amazon recommended a CD to me last week, and I bought it from Play because it was cheaper. Here lies a problem, in my utopia one site would collect the data from all the places I shop and then make selections combined with a
http://www.kelkoo.com/ style list of where it is the cheapest. Obviously I would not want to pay for such a service.
The CD they recommended was Bent Everlasting Blink
Warning all below sites are flash heavy
It's a great wee CD in the style of Röyksopp or Lemon Jelly who have ky domain incidentally. I hope I am not the only one to make the connection.
Bent's site is great, and very flash heavy:
http://www.bent-world.com
I just wrote a huge entry concerning something in work, however I just deleted it. I think I am going to err on the side of caution.
One of my girlfriends favourite shops was ram raided the other night:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2951333.stm
If anyone knows anything about the whereabouts of the items stolen could they call Me Crimestoppers.
Apparently the Iraqi Information Minister has a son living in Ireland:
http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/
Buy the tshirt:
http://www.football365shop.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=900
I drive a Ka, but I want this Ka
What a weaker automobile, and all for 12 grand, check out more at
http://www.ford.co.uk/streetka
This guys site has been doing the rounds on the web for a while now, MTV have just picked up on his success, and he is being aired in the States next month.I am sure we will see more of him soon. I like his site:
http://www.tuckermax.com/
I have a liking for this type of internet tripe. I suppose it is the Internet equivalent of You've been framed.
and another one,
http://maddox.xmission.com/
The old museum arts centre is hosting 'Hurricane' the unforgettable portrayal of the rise and fall of the legendary Alex Higgins.
Thu 1 - Sat 10 May.
Just back from a run along the coast path. It's nice working out in Jordanstown, it's easier to run along a coast path, than through the city centre.
I think it was Stephen in his blog Carisenda that once talked about exploring Northern Ireland and how many cracking things there are all around us that we take for granted.
There are a number of places I think are worth visiting in and around Belfast that I have discovered in my couple of years living here, a couple for starters are:
- The Rocky Road, drive up the Ormeau Rd, turn left before Sainsburys pass Burger King on you reft, go right up to the T Junction at the top, turn left and then take the second(?) left on to the Rocky Rd, the view of Belfast is unbelievable.
- Climb Cavehill. If you have never done it, it is a must, park at Belfast Castle and follow the path up to the cave then scramble up the sheep path to the top of Mc Arts Fort (Didn't know this but researching the link uncovered: The Fort served as a lookout and a place of refuge for the native Irish against Vikings and anglo-Normans. In the year of 1795 Wolfe Tone and his fellow united Irishmen spent two days and nights in the fort planning the independance of Ireland.)
Incidentally while I was changing for going for a run, there was poster for Weight Watchers, it said
'Last year our weight watchers club lost a total of 22 stone 3lbs.'
Someone had written underneath it
'One of the fat bitches left'
I love politically incorrect views.
This story has been rattling around for sometime, it is slightly sad, but funny in an eccentric aristocratic way.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2947161.stm
The place where I work has decided to introduce parking charges and clamping for unauthorised parking.
It seems there will be a tiered system, staff paying £200.oo a year and students paying £85.oo. Already I can see a flaw, especially since we have 3 placement students starting this year, one of whom I hope will not have a car, and may just wish to earn themselves £15.oo to apply for a permit for me.
There have been other novel workarounds surfacing recently, a couple which I think are worthy of mention.
This time last year I made the decision to get my foot on the property ladder, and purchased a house in Belfast. Purchasing a house was not as difficult as I expected, and I have enjoyed the year immensely, especially the manual labour of gutting a 100 year plus dwelling.
I can't help but feel there is something much more satisfying spending your day working hard, feeling like you have earned a beer, rather than being hunched over a computer screen.
Anyway to get back on track, I have had to buy a house in a slightly dodgey area. The area (Sydenham) has suffered terribly by the demise of the shipyard and the job losses at Shorts and has become so run down in places that it is now stamp duty exempt which means it is attractive to first time buyers like myself and Rebecca.
The vast majority of my neighbours are very nice, and I get on well with them, however one of my neighbours has just ditched a 40 year old caravan in the bit of land between my house and his. Now this is no ordinary caravan, I had a peek inside it at the weekend, and it appears he has opened a shite sanctuary, for various items which have escaped from the local amenity site.
In true East Belfast style, the local kids have broken both windows and dragged all the crap out on to the street this evening, I just went out and filled two bin bags with all the disgarded rubbish.
The funny thing is when I moved in I spent a day clearing the land, and he never thanked me for it, instead he thinks,
'brilliant a nice bit of clean land for me to ditch my monstrosity on'.
I have been watching with interest, the growth of the blog in recent times, and trying to work out what makes a successful blog. I have read the blogging tips, I have lurked in the undergrowth, taking quick peeks at success stories such as
http://www.stray-toaster.co.uk/blog
Finally I got round to installing
I must admit I was rather sceptical prior to install, but I have been blown away by the functionality and the rather snazzy graphics, and am looking forward to dipping my toes into the fantastically self-indulgent world of my personal blog.