Tuesday January 31, 2006

Morse's sidekick earns his stripes

Watched a recording of a pilot of what is going to become a new detective series last night. The program had Lewis from the Inspector Morse series as its main character. He is now an Inspector himself. The program is based in Oxford and a jet lagged Lewis nearly gets run over by a Red Jaguar just like the one his boss used to drive in the original series.There are any throw backs to the Morse programs which is ok as this program had the blessing of John Thaw's wife - he played Morse and Colin Dexter who wrote the books the original series was based upon. Sadly Thaw was to die soon after the Morsecharacter was killed off in the last of the series. This story has Lewis return to Oxford after two years abroad having lost his wife in a hit and run incident. He soon becomes involved in solving a series of murders with his own sidekick a startlingly intelligent sergeant who seems to know everything about nothing. The plot is weak but the shots of Oxford are wonderful to see even if they were taken at a time of the day when there is no sign of the usual endless traffic jams that plague the city. Even a visit to a supermarket shows the store being ridiculously empty. So expect more of these in the future not a patch on the Morse series but to their credit thats not what the producters tried to create.

Dry Bones that Dream - the second part of the Peter Robinson omnibus

This book is the second novel in the Peter Robinson omnibus I wrote about before . I fear reading the second novel straight after the first was not such a good idea. Anyway a brutal murder takes place in a barn where an accountant has his head blown off by a hotgun. His family seem very unshaken by this turn of events. Initially he seems to be a harmless accountant (are there such things?) but soon a web of intrigue develops around him. Bank soon has one of his old partners with him in Yorkshire which gives the case an unexpected twist and complication. It then seems like Banks might have to leave a few loose ends at the end of this case something that clearly annoys him. At the end they catch up with one of the henchmen but there are still twenty odd pages to go. Without much background information we find Banks in Greece but I won't say why. It becomes even stranger when the end of the book appears and leaves you in a state of suspense now knowing what Banks decides to do. Perhaps when I read the follow on book I'll find out. Not a bad story.

Monday January 30, 2006

A cold weekend and a nice Sunday lunch

A very cold day with significant windchill and overnight frost had temperatures hardly above zero. But we ventured out for a walk near where we live. We started just off the old Bath road named as the A4 used to be the main route to the city of Bath. We took a path across a large meadow where as you can see the sun was casting long shadows on the ground. The ground itself was actually frozen solid in places so mud was not so much of a problem. We were heading to Pinkneys Green a meadow expanse of land. The name comes from a Norman knight Ghilo de Pinkney who was given the land of this area as a reward for supporting William the conqueror. Alas the Pinkneys are no longer the lords of the manor the last being Catherine Pinkney whos illegitimate son was adopted as heir of the Hoby estates at nearby Bisham. Pinkneys Green main claim to fame is that it was the birthplace of the Girl Guides the first troop was formed here in 1910 by Miss Baden Powell. We followed several wooded paths and wide grass rides that are common in this area.

We soon came to the second pub the first not being open at the time we arrived at it. It is called the Shire Horse and takes its name from the now defunct Shire horse centre next door to it. This was built by Courage breweries to house its heavy horses used for pulling drays. We went in and I had an excellent duck pieces in a baguette with a chinese sauce (celebrating Chinese New year of course!) . Our final part of the walk had us walk back through Maidenhead thicket back to the car park. The thicket and Pinkneys green are both owned by the National Trust. The thicket was an excellent place for highwaymen of olden times to hide out before and after attacking stage coaches. In the late 18th century as many as eight mail and ninety stage coaches went by along the old A4 road each day. The vicar of Hurley was paid extra to brave the dangers of the thicket as he headed to Maidenhead to take services there. Where we left the thicket and crossed the busy A404 by way of a pedestrian bridge several trees had their catkins out. These are the flowers on many trees where the seeds will develop after pollination. The most common of these trees are Willow, Hazel, Birch and Alder. The idea of producing the flower so early is a you get the pollination process out of the way before the leaves get in the way.

We returned to the car and headed home for a few frustrating hours of DIY in the kitchen putting new lights up on the ceiling finally ending up with a successful completion of the work - after a few choice words...

Sunday we celebrated my birthday by going to the Royal Oak at Ruscombe for Sunday lunch. It is a pleasant walk to the pub which means there are no concerns about drinking and driving. Beforehand I got this years seed potatoes and onion sets from the local allotment society.

Friday January 27, 2006

A new team in F1

So this team are finally going to be in this years championship. The engines are sorted, the tyres clever them are going to be Bridgestones - expect tyre data to be heading to Honda's team who will be using those tyres next year. The only slightly important thing they are missing is a chassis. All sorts of rumours on them using modified ex Arrows chassis as they can't use another teams chassis like the one Honda/BAR used last year. Sato will be driving for them it seems with the second seat still up for grabs. Lets hope they get to the grid on time - the state of their web site most likely indicates frantic activity on the car with publicity taking a back seat...

Foiled bread or a breadmaking tip

I got a great tip from my wife's sister when we stayed with them over New Year. She has a breadmaker like ours and she covers the bread with foil after it comes out of the machine. This has the effect of stopping the bread drying out as it is cooling and since using this idea our bread is even better. The good news is if you are careful you can reuse the foil many times. In fact I store ours in the mixing bucket inside the machine out of sight. After the bread has cooled it goes into a sealable plastic bag again to keep the bread moist.

Thursday January 26, 2006

Return to work

Or so his constituents hope... after his part time job is over..

Lets have a punchup!

Sun has challenged Dell to a benchmark challenge . Its another sign of our confidence in these products that have won fifty world records ( and counting) and are drawing applause from industry experts. So Dell have until the end of this month to accept the challenge. The brawl will be undertaken in a third party lab using industry standards benchmarks. Lets hope Dell agree to the challenge...

In a dry season, another Peter Robinson book.

I have just read the first story in the second omnibus book of Peter Robinson. The story is called In a dry season . It seems a lot of crime authors take to writing a novel where a suspicous death occured many years ago and in modern times the remains are found and a belated murder hunt starts. So Thornfield reservoir is dried up by the drought during one summer and the village that was left when the reservoir filled up becomes exposed. Banks the chief inspector featured in these books is given the suspect job of finding out what happened. This is where the book gets interesting. What Robinson has done here is interleaved two story lines; the investigation in modern times and a diary that leads up to the death of the person whos remains are found. Banks sidekick Annie who was featured in the first book I read before but this time there is a romantic involvement... Out of all the stories I have read about belated murder investigations I would say this is by far the best. I won't mention anything else about the story so I don't ruin anybody elses read of this book.

Wednesday January 25, 2006

Early winter testing

The testing part of the F1 season is in full swing and several 2006 cars have been announced. Here is a blow by blow list of who has done what so far... The number of *'s show how good I think they are doing - but no one really knows until the first race...

Renault. Not tested their new V8 on the track yet - something they might regret if they have major problems. So they have had to take their existing engine and lower its power output. But vibrations and other differences do mean this is no real test of what the V8 will be like... ***

Mclaren. The engine for them was the weak link in their package and clearly they don't want a repeat of the engine blow ups this year. They are using Gary Paffett as their new test driver and he has been subjected to one spectacular engine failure already. ***

Ferrari. Broke the usual test ban after the 2005 season finished. Schumi has also broken his usual keep out of the car and have a long holiday policy he has done in previous years. Badoer has had a couple of nasty front suspension failures . They have been testing their own V8's. ***

Toyota. A team to watch perhaps. The first with their 2006 car on the track and tested V8's last year too. The car will have an aero upgrade in Feb and they are doing well. They are changing to Bridgestone tyres so there is a lot of a learning curve there perhaps. ****

Williams. A new engine Cosworth and tyres Bridgestones mean there is plenty to do. They seem to have reliability and it is usually easier to make a reliable car fast but not a fast unreliable car reliable ( as we saw with team Mac last year..) **

BAR. Still puzzling over last years car but they are also running their usual Concept car before the launch of the defacto RA106. The engine is reliable which is good and they have shown a good consistant turn of speed. ***

Red Bull. Using Ferrari engines, which they had to wait for, they used restricted Cosworth engines for testing purposes. The team will benefit when Adrian Newey

BMW Sauber. It will take a while before the impact of being owned by makes its mark and the extra money buys new employees and other resources. I don't think anyone is expecting miracles. **

Midland. The Jordan name is gone and the yellow paint job. not much seems to have changed and the Russian owner has hardly been spending plenty of cash on the team. The Dallara chassis they will use for 2006 is not expected for a while yet but they have tested the customer Toyota engine in last years car. *

Scuderia Team Rosso. What a mouthful and another new paint job for the old Minardi team. They are going to use a restricted V10 in 2006 and that might leapfrog them ahead on the grid. They will however be using modified Minardi 2005 cars in 2006 not ex Red Bull ones.. *

Tuesday January 24, 2006

Pink paint

Product of the week. Pink paint . Paints on pink but dries to be a brilliant white. Why ? So as you paint you can see where you have and have not been. Whatever next...

Monday January 23, 2006

Another walk around Penn

Only one walk this weekend household chores preventing a second in ever increasingly colder and brighter weather in the UK. We repeated a walk I did on my own last year a fairly short four miler and three pubs dividing the four miles into three short stints. We started at Penn church built of many different materials; flint, sarson stones, Roman bricks and limestone clunch. It goes back to the 11th century. Inside is Penn Doom a 15th century painting of Christ in triumph on judgement day. However it seems to be on loan to the Victoria and Albert museum a lot nowadays. We set off down a lane and then into woods and across fields. Our first stop was at the pub The Royal Standard of England which is a wonderful old building. I had a very tasty sausage sandwich - hand made sausages and chips. We noted that the pub was to be used for filming of Midsomer murders on Monday. We will look carefully at new shows to see if we can spot the interior of the pub. The pub was given its name after Charles II hid in its roof after the battle of Worcester in 1651. His gratitude was shown by his bestowing the unique name on the pub. I could not get a decent picture of the pub but took a shot of one of its interesting chimneys.

Feeling full we then set on for the rest of the walk. We followed paths enclosed in narrow strips of woodland and open fields. Apart from a few muddy stretches it was most enjoyable.

We then came across Tylers Green where clay deposits have been used to make floor tiles installed in many famous buildings in the UK. (Hence the name Tylers - Tilers). We decided not to stop at the pub here but carry on. The next part of the walk had us slightly lost but the sight of the spire of the church at Penn had us back on track. After taking our boots off we had a liquid refreshement in the Crown again a very old pub. A bit more history about Penn apart from its link with Pennsylvania that I mentioned when I did this walk the before the village has a reputation of beng a healthy place. During the plagues in the 15th and 16th centuries children were often sent there to benefit from the fresh air. A Edmund Burke the noted parliamentarian who lived in nearby Beaconsfield setup a school for the sons of French gentlemen killed in the revolution. A churchwarden's son a Jack Shrimpton was a successful highwayman at the start of the 18th century very often pulling in one hundred and fifty pounds of swag every day until he hung from the gallows in 1713.

Friday January 20, 2006

Foyle's war

This is a most excellent TV detective series set in Hastings in the second world war. Michael Kitchen plays Detective Foyle who is in the police force based in Hastings. He is a reluctant policeman and has tried on more than one occasion to have a bigger part to play in the war effort. He has a sidekick Paul Milner played by Anthony Howell who lost a leg during the war and helps Foyle in his investigations. For reasons that are never clear Foyle does not drive so he has a driver Samantha Stewart played by the very attractive and ginger haired Honeysuckle Weeks. Foyle has a son in the RAF who makes an appearance every so often.

The series are gradually following the chronological path of the war; we have seen the events in Dunkirk and this series started with the US forces making an appearance in Hastings. The stories usually involve a murder or two but are quite gentle just the right sort of program to watch on a Sunday night. The episodes are on 9pm Sundays ITV1.

Thursday January 19, 2006

Sleeping policemen

Over the years I have lived on roads where traffic calming has been put into place to slow the speed at which drivers go along the road. In Oxford the scheme was put into place on our road which was a one way street. Cars parked either side of that road and people used to wizz along the road at terrific speed. The council did a consultation where they showed us what the intended to do. The whole scheme cost a fortune and comprised of several areas where the road height was raised and also several teak wood planters were installed to cause traffic to slow as they were passed. The raised areas were high and the angle between the normal road level and the elevated bit was very acute. It went right across the width of the road. Cyclists must have had a nightmare negotiating these. The only good thing about the scheme as far as I was concerned was the fact the road was closed for these works to take place and it was nice and quiet for a few months. Where we lived was on the last stretch of the road and for whatever reason the traffic calming stopped right by our house. So drivers after having a frustrating path through the calming could floor the accelerator by our house and resume crazy speeds until the road met the Cowley road at a junction. The planters were attractive and were filled with nice plants. Those that could be were stolen and taken to peoples gardens. The trees were broken off as often happens to small trees in urban areas. A year or so later the planters were removed. The platforms they sat on remained and the raised areas.

In our current area in Twyford a traffic calming scheme was announced. Our road is two way but acts as a short cut for some cars to avoid the traffic lights in the centre of the village where bad congestion can occur. This time we have restricted parking on one side of the road and humps that most cars can go over without reducing speed - as they do not cover the entire road width. Restricting parking to one side of the road makes matters worse as before with parking on both sides cars were forced to slow down or even stop. Some drivers see the humps as a challenge - how fast can they go..

So two schemes different costs pretty much the same results ( no change in general speed of cars). I don't know what the answer is and it is not speed cameras.

Wednesday January 18, 2006

The last Forgotten voices book - The Second world war

This is the last book in the series Forgotten Voices by Max Arthur. As usual it is a series of interviews from the sound archives of soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians. The book is written chronologically and each chapter is divided into events that happened in the Second World war in the various regions. The thing that struck me after finishing reading it was the nature of this war, a truly global one covering most parts of the world.

As with my reviews of the other books I will go over items that stood out for me. One last thing to say, after the British Expeditionary force was forced to return to the UK you got a real sense of rejection failure and depression. As soon as the allies were on the offensive you sense a very different fighting force. Prepared to deal with and handle really bad situations. I am not suggesting that these men were cowards beforehand in any way or gave up easily but I think the Montgomery and Churchill effects on them are easy to see.

An airman told a story about an attack on a Dutch airfield. It had been captured by the Germans. As they started the attack only one aircraft could be seen. The rest were wrecked. So the RAF attacked this one. It turned out the Dutch had recaptured the airfield and were going to use that plane to escape...

The stress of the battle of Britain can be seen by one airman who during an air battle pressed the button to fire his gun. Nothing happened. He got back to base and drew his pistol in front of the armourer "I'll shoot you if you ever do that again".

One of the WAAF girls was cycling home near Duxford (Cambridgeshire). In the distance was a red glow but it was dark and after sunset. She asked someone what it was and they said "That's London burning".

A picture in the book shows people sleeping in the underground stations. Some people had to try and sleep on the rails themselves.

We think modern warfare is clever but the Germans attacked London knowing the tide times. This meant there was a severe lack of water in the river to put the fires out.

In the desert soldiers reported that to save water, they washed themselves in petrol and shaved in the dregs of their morning cup of tea.

There are more memories of the sinking of the HMS Hood ship, just as traumatic as in the Navy book in this series.

The sinking of the Bizmark is also covered, only a hundred and fifteeen escaped the sinking of that ship.

Very few Russians and Germans are featured in this book who fought on that Eastern front. I imagine the lack of German's was due to the fact most of them were captured and taken to Russia and at the time of the tapes being recorded no Russians would have been prepared to be interviewed.

I learnt at least one thing. During the Pearl Harbour attack HMS ships were also attacked.

Some airmen visited the people they shot down. One group stopped this when the talked to a Italian airman. In civilian life he had been a violinist. After he was brought down he had lost one of his hands. He would never play again.

The well known effect on Barnes Wallace of the loss of men during the Dambusters attack is mentioned with vivid descriptions of the attacks. He was in tears after hearing of the number of losses.

The use of a corpse dressed up as a Major with false plans on him is mentioned. The body was found and the false plans misled the enemy.

The Italian invasion is covered in detail. Churchill called Italy the "soft underbelly of Europe". But the Germans helped their allies out and made the going hard.

An amazing story is told where an RAF Sergeant climbs out on the wing of his bomber to put a engine fire out. He ended having to leave the plane and crashed into the ground. He was awarded the VC.

Something else I learnt was the use of gliders on the eve of D-Day.

The D-Day landings are described in much detail and one soldier mentions that they were told "Don't worry if all the first wave of you are killed". " We shall simply pass over your bodies with more and more men". The soldier said "What a confident thought to go to bed on".

During the land campaign over Germany one soldier got friendly with a family on a farm. They had planned to give his unit their farm cat at Xmas instead of a turkey. He was glad to leave before Xmas...

The V1 bombs are mentioned and also the brave pilots who brought great numbers of these things down before they inflicted any damage.

Dresden and the resulting firestorm as a result of the attack is described by airmen and civilians. The fact so much of the building was made of wood contributed to the ferocity of the fire. A daughter describes finding her mother by the fact that she found her earings. That is all that was left of her.

The horror of the concentration camps is relived by soldiers who came across them as they swept over Germany. Some inmates are also interviewed.

Finally the two Atom bomb attacks on Japan are described by allied soldiers who were nearby. At last this war was over. A pity we still find reasons to have had more since 1945...

Tuesday January 17, 2006

A failed dessert

I decided to make profiteroles which are made with choux pastry. As you can see they did not work! I took two recipes and compared the ingredients and method. They were pretty much the same. You start with water and some butter and after the butter has melted you bring it to the boil. Take it off the heat, add sifted flour in one go while stirring rigorously. Delia suggested the mixture should all bind together and be quite stiff. My effort was quite runny. I pressed on and added the beaten eggs. It was still runny. I decided to cook them anyway and put a small hazelnut blob on a flat steel shelf that went in the oven. I also sprinkled the shelf with water to create steam to help the profiteroles rise. As you can see they did not rise. The birds ate them anyway. Does anyone have any tips?