Post Painting Post

Have spent most of today doing a new oil painting. Looking like a Caribbean sea/sky scape, with a setting sun and a sail boat on the horizon...D'oh - why don't I just upload the painting as it is so far... one second.

View from Barbados looking west into setting sun.

It is incomplete - need to sort out the right hand bottom tree/bush. Also the sail boat needs some fixing - but needs to dry a little before I do any more. I like the sea colour, managed to capture some of the turquoise in the sea that was visible - but the photo failed to do justice too.

As ever, room for improvement. Another second and I'll put the photo that this is based on.

I have accentuated the colours a little, artistic licence (Artistic licences are available for £75.65 from all good post offices - ed).

So tonight is a special night, was my 52nd on Monday, and we have saved the minor celebration until this evening. Looks like it is going to be Smoked Salmon & Champagne (Bit cheesey - ed) - absolutely no cheese, but some crispy things for the Salmon to sit on.

So cheers, have a great weekend, I intend to.

But what happened to any Leveson comment. Well, I will have to read up on it before I comment. But given my liberal (note the small L) and libertarian instincts - the thought of the state getting involved with direct regulation of the press looks to me like the thin end of a very dangerous wedge.

Remember Income Tax was a temporary tax that only the wealthy had to pay for.

The week as a series of slopes

People who have spent any time in my company, soon begin to realise that I have some what of an off beat and very dry sense of humour (that is humor for my USA friends - ed). What I am noticing so far, and I fully expect to come out in the wash over the coming days, weeks and months, is that it appears here!

One of my thoughts is how to draw a diagram of the week.... uh? What do I mean. Well I reckon that the lowest point of the week is, not in fact, Monday morning, but Tuesday morning, ok Monday is low, but was it good about Tuesday mornings?. So from hitting bottom Tuesday morning, the week then climbs up until the highest point of the week (note, not the weekend) that is Wednesday lunch time. After that point we are heading down slope, at some speed through Thursday and accelerating through Friday ('Happy Friday', as Rajat used to  say) and off the end of the slope to soar through the weekend and then being falling back around Sunday evening as the start of the next week impinges on us.

Think of Eddie the Eagle and ski slopes.

Well I have to head off now. Eastleigh beckons, and that is a two edged thought at the best of times.

Not Leveson

This is a post that is not about the Leveson report. I have chosen not to listen to any of it so far, as it will be well and truly plastered all of the newspapers tomorrow, and I can catch up with it all there.

So, what delectations and delights do have I to warble on about today. Well saw 'Brave', the movie last night. Have to admit, though pleasant as it was, it just didn't hit the spot for me. Graphics were good, the story just failed to engage me sufficiently, which was disappointing. I have to admit, that given I have watched 'In Bruges' and 'My Name is Khan' over the last couple of days, there is probably not a lot that would have engaged me.

If you have not seen 'My Name is Khan', I strongly recommend it. Brought out the tears (but you are a man - ed), which I am not at all bothered about admitting too. One of the many scenes that did me in, was when Ammi asked for a hug from Rizu, struck a deep resonant chord with me that one. At least my teenage boys still allow me to hug them.

'In Bruges', causing a turning of the tap of tears, which was most unexpected. It is in the genre of 'The Guard' and to an extent 'Perrier's Bounty' - all three of which had Brendan Gleeson. Is it now mandatory for any Irish made films to have either Brendan Gleeson or Liam Cunningham in? Their agent has got a very good deal for them there, luckily for him they are both wonderful actors (is their agent paying you - ed).

Child Support Agency - CSA

Well I for one would like to give this much maligned organisation a pat on the back.

I have been dealing with them since July and after a slight initial hiccup they have been brilliant! Great telephone support and knowledgeable staff to boot!

Now for many reasons, that I am just not in the mood to talk about (ooh ooh hark at her - ed) ... yet;  I have had to deal with more than my fair share of large organisations of late. Just don't ask. The disappointing thing is that my customer experience has generally been poor. One moment, no, that is too generous, rubbish would be more appropriate.

The ability of organisations to lose information (is it an ability - ed) , ask for the same information multiple times, ask totally irrelevant questions, use no longer relevant information, magically lose physical mail and then miraculously find it when challenged is quite simply breathtaking. I have had to jump through hoops and then some more hoops and to cap it all more hoops!

Governor of the Bank of England

It is wonderful to read in the papers that a new Governor of the Bank of England has been appointed. What is astounding is that everyone (well politicians, The City etc.) seems to think he is a good selection. The man on the Clapham Omnibus was not asked as the answer, 'Who He?', doesn't make for good television.

What I understand is that he is going to single handedly save the Economy! It is therefore such a  disappointment (for a girl - ed ) that he is not due to start the job until July 2013.... makes you wonder whether the Economy is going to continue to flat-line until then or maybe we should all just hold our breaths until he arrives.

So what happens in the mean time - we shall have to hope that Merv the Swerve will continue to pump billions of pounds into the coffers of the banks. It seems to me that in the not too recent past farmers were paid large amounts of money to not grow stuff, not it is the bankers that are on the end of this largesse, they are being thrown large amounts of very cheap money, but they don't lend it! That wonderful phrase, 'Go Figure!', leaps to mind like a somewhat uneasy gazelle.

A song also comes to mind, 'Banks Uhhhh - What are they good for! Absolutely nothing, say it again'. Maybe the dark winter nights of cynicism are coming in early to roost.

Something For The Weekend - Sir?

Well, it's been a busy old day today. A number of firsts (you should have had that cup of tea - ed). Joining the 21st Century appearing to be one of them. But to finish the day off I shall recommend something for the weekend, (now, now - ed). 

A short while ago (to tell the truth if it is up to 5 years ago, it is a short while in my head) a friend (thanks SteveyC) recommended a book, 'The Blade Itself' by Joe Abercrombie. Simply 'wow'.
Having been an inveterate (you were never in the armed forces - ed) consumer of fantasy books; particularly the cheap and trashy fantasy paperbacks with scantily clad women and for some reason that escapes me, heavily muscled men all looking like an early Arnie on the front covers, I had grown somewhat dulled by the same old same old plots. However, reading Mr. Abercrombie (btw - this is a real book - ed) I was totally blown away by the realistic language and excellent characters.

I have now read all of his books, and can't wait for more, write faster Joe, but keep up the quality!

So thanks Joe, you have restored my faith in the fantasy genre, though your latest is a double genre book - both Fantasy and a Western - brilliant. (Please Note: The blogger is in no way related to Mr A, does not work for his or any other publishing company, has never proofread any of his books, and has no real understanding of the word 'genre' - ed)

Mr A's latest is called 'Red' and strangely so is Taylor Swift's latest Album (so so dates you Mr C - ed). Is there some connection we are missing? Or is Red the new Black, Grey, Pink, Blue - or whichever is the fashionable colour (for our USA readers that last word is known to you as - color' - ed).

Will have to cover fashion at some point, but not today.

Pre-punditry

I am not sure whether it is due to the longness of tooth (time to see the dentist - ed) or I have heard the same things so often. But pre-punditry seems to be getting easier with age.

Pre-punditry, what is that I hear you ask? (there are no voices - ed). This is the game where you say what the pundits are going to say moments before they say it. The more words/phrases you get correct the more points you achieve.

Admittedly, football pre-punditry is as easy as pie and points won from that are therefore worth so much less than some other more difficult subject matters . You may recall that football pundits are restricted to certain words and phrases arranged in slightly different orders so as not to confuse the viewer/listener. I direct you to the book ,'The Art and Artistry of Football Punditry' by A Fowler as it is the definitive work on the subject. It is somewhat difficult to get a hold of these days, but any decent second hand bookshop should be able to find you a copy for a small fee.

Political pre-punditry is unfortunately also rather easy to play and so it also garners fewer points than you would hope. Political stock phrases and canned responses are so easily regurgitated by modern MPs (are they allowed to think for themselves these days?) that this particular avenue of pre-punditry has lost a lot of fun and excitement.

What is the most difficult subject to pre-pundit? Announcements on trains giving the reason for the delay and or cancellation of the service you really needed to catch for that important appointment (not that I am in any way, shape or form, bitter about train delays/cancellations.)

Your opinions on subjects that are difficult to pre-pundit would of course be most welcome (I knew you would write that - ed). Maybe we can try and put together a list and define the rules of the game? Hmm, I can see a board game come out of this...

Floods & Droughts

The thought for today must be with all those people who's homes have been flooded over the past few days and some worry for those who are going to get flooded real soon now.

We have to wish them luck with their insurance companies - as no doubt that those wondrous companies will all do their very best to payout the least possible over the longest possible time.

The only people who will benefit at the end of the day will be the publishers Delay, Prevaricate & Deny who's  'Insurance Book Of Tricks - 176th Edition' is bound to sell well. Almost forgot - the loss adjusters will benefit with a lot of overtime - so it is not all doom and gloom.

Alternatively, we can be sure that the companies will do their best to help out these people in their time of need and will do their utmost to ensure that all claims are handled with speed and efficiency.

It would be pleasant to have some good stories about insurance claims going through without a hitch. It does happen, doesn't it?

Is it me - or wasn't it the case that earlier this year there was a drought across a large swathe of the South and the Water Companies were saying that we needed to have more than average rainfall to refill all the reservoirs and aquifers otherwise there would be water shortages in 2013? They got their wish - it appears big time. How a country as wet at the UK can ever be in drought astounds me. Will look into the figures and get some statistics (lies, damned lies and statistics - ed) to see what the facts are.

First Post Is The Hardest

Well - that all took a lot longer that I thought to do. Not so much stream of conciousness as conscious of the stream of verbiage. Managed to hook it up to twitter and facebook as well. So finally, after much humming and haarring (spelling? - ed) the first post has been done.

Now I can wind down and have a cup of tea and a lemon drizzle cupcake before heading out to brave the weather and make the rest of Monday happen.

Mirror Mirror On The Wall

So what is this blog about? Hmmm - hard to say really. I plan to give my views on many subjects - this might elicit opinions from others (assuming anyone reads the blog - ed) - and that would be fine. My views have room to change and I am sure that I will get things wrong and argue both sides on the same subject just for fun - as I find it gives a certain perspective.

But what kind of subjects I hear you say (well not really - the voices in my head have gone into abeyance at present (appears the drugs are working - ed) ).

Software development and project management are a couple of things I have some views on. Do have some hands on experience of that over the last few decades (and didn't they go quickly.) and some of it is very probably worth sharing (don't sound too sure - ed)

Politics will definitely be in the mix - as I am now of an age (gone on tell us how old - ed) where I think I just about know enough to give fair comment (fair? - ed). 

Economics (he reads The Economist - ed)  is a favourite for a good rant about the inability of economics to explain what has happened, what is happening or what will happen.

There will be the occasional photograph - probably of the sky (proud member of  The Cloud Appreciation Society - thanks Tom)  

Above Bristol Temple Meads Station - October 2008

or trees (particularly trees in Autumn - and Autumn 2012 in the South of England has been outstanding.) 

Though this is from 2009!

There will almost certainly be the occasional photo of a painting thrown into the mix - as it is something I have taken up very recently and seem to enjoy. There is nothing quite like the mix of good music, white spirits and oil paints to get the creative juices flowing.

Nearly forgot the books - I am an avid reader (though he appears to have slowed down of late - ed) and will highlight books that I think are worth reading and some that are not, but naturally only of books that I have read. The genres are from software development, economics, business, popular science, history, fantasy, science fiction etc. Eclectic taste moi?

What about music. Well might mention a few of the things that I listen to on occasion, I will listen to anything with no preconceptions (wow - what about Rap? ed)  in case I might like it. Though have to admit I still like my music in physical form - started from vinyl - still lurking in the attic - no turntable any more (sob) - and still buy CDs. Why? I worry about Vendor Lock-In.

There are bound to be other subjects that crop up (though I can tell you for certain that there will be no talk of celebrities or soaps - as I neither follow or watch either)

So who is the ed character that pops up with a certain regularity. Used to read Private Eye and liked the comments by the editor - ed. As this is not edited by anyone other than me - a few asides from an imaginary editor in my head appear to me at least as necessary. We will see how it goes.