]]>
]]>
So far, Lenni has had cycling and tennis courses at Vauxhall Recreation Club, Chris has attended an archeology dig at Stockwood Discovery Centre (their finds are still on display in the museum), and both children have had the opportunity to stretch their legs with Luton's Play Rangers and - of course - their dad.. we went on our first proper bike ride last week, along the new Lower Harpenden Road track - which I'd heartily recommend as an excellent off-road cycle path.
While Lenni had her first day of tennis coaching today, we drove Chris up the M1 to Broughton, near Milton Keynes, for a two hour course at the Inspired Gourmet Cookery School. He had an absolutely brilliant time - Dave, the trainer, was friendly and patient, and the small group created an amazing meal of chicken goujons with roasted sweet potatoes and lemon yoghurt cake for dessert. Chris left the course enthusiastic about cooking (in fact, he'll be making lunch for us on Saturday!) and I have to admit that I'm tempted to have a go at the parent and child cookery course, too... it could be a fun family activity for next year.
Here's our boy with his splendid repast - it didn't last long!
Chris and his cuisine
We have less than two weeks of school holidays left - but that's plenty of time to find some more stories to tell...
]]>By all accounts, though, the wedding and reception went very well - Jon and Lisa had planned everything very carefully, and made sure I was aware of what needed doing - all I had to do was make sure the day progressed smoothly, and (of course!) deliver a speech at the reception. We'd already had a low-key 'stag night' - I'm not sure anything more is possible in the quiet seaside town of Bexhill - but I made sure I was at his house early on the morning of the big day to check everything was as it should be. Here's a camera-phone photo of me and Jon in our finery shortly before the service - it was a spectacularly bright, sunny day, but with enough of a sea breeze that it didn't get too hot. Perfect, really!
I discharged my duties in the church as I ought (with no embarrassed rummaging through pockets for the rings!) it was a lovely service at St Michael And All Angels, which overlooks the sea from above De La Warr Road to the east of the town. After the usual collection of photos around the church, the bridal party, Jon and I drove down to the beach for some pictures at the Colonnade. Although it was a little bright, the photographer, Kev Aylott of Kevpix.co.uk took some interesting and amusing photos which I'm sure Jon and Lisa will enjoy looking through! Here's one of Jon and Lisa that I took over his shoulder (I made sure I picked up some technique tips from watching him - the best way to learn!)
We then went to the Cooden Beach Hotel for the reception - I had installed a sound system the evening before, and the lights arrived in the morning. They're obviously past masters at wedding receptions, since it went extremely well; I was a little anxious about my speech, but - having rehearsed it in the car over the past few days, I think I delivered it without too many mistakes. Jon's dad provided the requisite heckles - I've known him for over twenty years, so it was quite an amusing exchange, and everyone seemed to find parts of the speech amusing. I'm glad it's over, though - it's amazing how unfunny a monologue can seem when one has repeated it ten or fifteen times!
After the meal, Kev took Jon, Lisa, the bridesmaids - and Beth and the children, which was great, since I'd not really had much chance to see them during the day - to the nearby railway station for some more quirky photos. As always, there was plenty of laughter, which gave me a lot of reassurance that everyone was having a good time, and then we returned to the hotel to dance (well, I gave it a go!) into the night.
If there was any disappointment it would have to be the hotel accommodation. From reviews I've read on TripAdvisor it's difficult to predict what sort of experience one might have, but there are always stories to tell!
We packed up and returned the suits, and then drove home - which was something of a challenge in itself, since the M25 had long delays in both directions (fairly normal for a Saturday morning, I think!) We thought it might be interesting to navigate a more direct route through London, but couldn't have predicted the accidents and road closures that meant we traversed about the same distance as if we'd been around the M25 - and, I expect, took as long as if we'd sat in queues. But we certainly drove through bits of London we'd never seen before!
From what Jon's said, he and Lisa are as exhausted as I am as they head away on their honeymoon - but I truly hope they'll have some happy memories to look back on, and that they have a wonderful, longlasting marriage (not least because I'm in no hurry to reprise the role of Best Man!)
]]>
I've been following London Luton Airport's tweets on Twitter (@LDNLutonAirport) since shortly after they joined the 'social networking revolution' - not least because the airport is the departure point for the main part of my commute to work, so it's good to know if anything untoward is happening there!
A few months back, I saw a tweet saying that Servisair, who look after a lot of Luton Airport's functions, had issued a competition to name their new executive lounge. After a little thought, I decided that the obvious answer would be "Someries", since Someries Castle lies just the other side of the runway, and it gives the name to the scout group to which Chris and Lenni both belong. In fact, I'd not visited it until April 2006, where we sought our first geocache - which I wrote about in an earlier blog entry.
As often with such things, I had forgotten about it - and hadn't really paid much heed to the prize - until I received an email to say that my suggestion was the winning one, and that I'd won a year's access to the lounge (for me and a guest), and an invitation to the naming ceremony.
Yesterday was the naming ceremony. I'd exhanged emails with the marketing office, and we'd come up with rather a nice notion - to bring the children in their Beaver and Scout uniforms with us, to be photographed with the Servisair team, but the airport has strict rules about where children can go, and they weren't allowed 'airside', where the executive lounge is. Coincidentally, Christopher had a barbecue at his new school to attend, so Lenni was looked after by Servisair staff with her 'goodie-bag' (Chris was given one, too, which he very much enjoyed investigating once he returned home!), while Beth and I were taken through airport security - with all the fuss of shoe and belt removal (it really did feel like we were going on holiday, especially since we left the car in the airport car park!)
We then met up with Elliot Renton, the finance director of the airport, and we all chatted for a while as we posed for photographs with a framed poster depicting Someries Castle and the name of the executive lounge. It was all very good-natured, and not at all formal (just how I like it!) and we had a good time. Apparently my idea was unique, among many suggestions of "Lorraine Chase" and "Campari" - I'm not entirely sure a seedy beige television advert is quite the image they'd want to portray, especially in such a luxurious lounge.
After the photos (of which I'll hopefully get a copy, so I'll upload them to the gallery), we walked back to.. whatever the opposite of 'airside' is (groundside?) via a very strange tube thing, that was designed only to let one person through at a time, and, after picking Lenni up, we left for home. It was like the shortest holiday ever!
Now, of course, I'm waiting for an opportunity to make the most of my year's free use of the Someries Executive Lounge at Luton airport - will it be for business or for pleasure, though? I'll be sure to write about my experiences, in either case!
Here are a couple of photos from the naming ceremony...
Elliot Renton and me with the Someries framed poster
Celebrating with champagne (shame I was driving!)
An audio recording from audioboo.fm
An audio recording from audioboo.fm
]]>
It's long been my intention to write a blog post about a game to which I was introduced through the wonders of the internet.
As you're no doubt aware, my Twitter username is 'syzygy' (which basically means alignment of celestial objects) - a name chosen because of its quirkiness, lack of vowels and the use of the letter 'z', and although I am certainly not the only syzygy on the internet, if you type it into Google, my twitter account is fifth entry down (cool!)
I was contacted out of the blue by Lorraine Spiering from www.thatwordgame.com who introduced me to a game called 'syzygy', and asked if I would be interested in trying it.
Word-based games are as popular as they have ever been - especially with the huge take-up of Scrabble on Facebook, and the emergence of similar games like Words With Friends on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, and the children are now of an age where their vocabularies are developed enough to be able to enjoy participating - certainly when they're in a competitive mood - so I accepted enthusiastically!
Syzygy is a game very much like this, but with a slightly different take - it's not creating words on a single board, it's about getting rid of letters by making a mini crossword puzzles based on the letters that are in-hand (obviously containing real dictionary words!). Rather than ponderously scoring points, it is a much higher-tempo game, since as soon as a player completes their valid 'crossword puzzle', they shout "draw" and everyone pulls another random letter from the bag, box or pile to create a new crossword puzzle or as an adjunct to an existing one.
As a result, this requires quick thinking and dexterity as much as a strong vocabulary and knowledge of all those sneaky two-letter words on which experienced Scrabble players rely, and I think, if anything, that is the game's only drawback.
I played with Eleanor (who is only seven, bless 'er) a couple of times, and ended up helping her, since I would be able to shuffle my letters around without too much trouble, but she struggled both to keep everything neat and to formulate new arrangements as quickly. To get the best out of this game, I think it requires everyone to be of a fairly similar level, since it could quite easily become rather one-sided and frustrating if one person constantly dominated the play.
Maybe I could bring the game with me for the next 'family get-together' - my brothers and sisters are all of a similar age and ability to me, and we used to enjoy the occasional game of Scrabble that didn't result in rioting - that, I think, will be the true test of this game's success: can it be played without one of us getting injured?
I'll keep you posted... until then, please let me know if you'd like to borrow the game to have a go - it'd be great to get your opinion of it! If you're in the US, you can buy it in stores in various states....
Links
syzygy - that word game on twitter : twitter.com/thatwordgame
syzygy - that word game on Facebook : www.facebook.com/pages/SYZYGY-That-Word-Game/80313361877
]]>
I've mentioned that my younger brother Dave and I have had some fun Monday evenings together playing with musical instruments. We've not quite finished anything yet, but spending time with him playing with different sounds has certainly inspired me, and I've certainly not let the dust settle on the kit, despite the busy nature of modern life.
We've both long shared a passion for old computers, too, and on Sunday - as a Father's Day treat from our families! - we spent the afternoon at Bletchley Park (a fantastic museum as it is) enjoying the Vintage Computer Festival which was being held there. It was a historic haven for some absolute gems of computer kit, including some rarities that I'd never even heard of, let alone seen, including three out of the five prototypes that were built of a 'business' version of the Dragon 64!
As we ambled past row upon row of carefully preserved and customized pieces of computing history, and attended a performance of a work called "Obsolete?" by an artist known as Pixelh8, crafted from samples of computers and systems based at the museum, it became clear that one afternoon simply wasn't enough to take in all the delights, so I'm hoping we can have a 'day pass' for the next time there's a Vintage Computer Festival!
There are more photos of geek heaven in the gallery.
I could easily bore you with a list of the classic home computing kit that Dave and I share, but it's fairly extensive and quite tedious (so perhaps it merits a separate blog entry!) However, I have a lot of affection for the first computer we ever had as a family - the Sinclair ZX81, and was really pleased that Beth was able to buy one of eBay that still worked. Using a piece of Java software called TapeUtils, I was able to turn tape 'images' of software for the computer into WAV files that I could load onto my iPod Touch and play them in through a slightly modified audio cable - they worked perfectly, and I could play such classics as Galaxians and Catacombs. Yeah, you can play both of them on an emulator (like "EightyOne") but it's more fun plugging it up to a real television - although modern flatscreen TVs have a real problem with a black and white UHF modulated video signal!
I also have a lot of affection for the Atari STF which was kindly donated to me by one of my university housemates in our second year at University of Kent. The children have enjoyed playing the very basic 16-bit games, but my favourites were always Virus (based on the amazing Zarch for Archimedes) and Wizball, which I have come frustratingly close to completing on a number of occasions, but never have because I didn't have the right combination of colours on the final level(!)
One Saturday morning last month, I had another go at completing it - the children were intrigued by the basic graphics but ingenious gameplay (modern Flash-based games are much more colourful, but are thay any more interesting?) - and very much enjoyed hearing the unique timbre of the computer generated music through my studio speakers. Inspired, I sampled a number of the sounds from the game and made a rather lo-fi but quite fun 'techno' remix of the theme using nothing but sounds from the game and some wizardry inside Logic Audio. It might not be to everyone's taste, but here it is in all its glory:
jamelopoeia - Wizball Theme (zappy techno lofi remix thing [1:52]
jamelopoeia - Wizball Theme (zappy techno lo-fi remix thing).mp3 (2 MB MP3 @192 kbps)]]>
The amusement park to which we've taken the children more than any other - certainly, since they've been a little too young for the big rides in the likes of Alton Towers and Chessington - is Wicksteed Park, near Kettering in Northamptonshire. It was originally set aside as land for local people to enjoy by the founder of Wicksteed playground equipment.
Parking costs £6, and even without going on the rides (which, during busy times - such as the half-term weekday we visited earlier in June, have fairly long queues) there are lots of things to see and do, with the biggest adventure playground I've ever been to, and a huge amount of green parkland to run around.
Lenni enjoyed the 'umbrella' ride the best - she's not really into the 'high G-force' rides, and has always wanted to fly, so gliding around high in the air, with legs free to swing was about as close as she's ever got!
The 'Laser Tag' was much more up Chris's street - in fact, given the chance, I think he would've played there all day!
It's been - on the whole - a very sunny June, so I was glad of some factor 20 suncream and the breeze on that busy, but fun day. Below are some photos from the day; as ever, there are more in the gallery.
Before that, here's an audioBoo I recorded on the day:
