Rushing Water
It’s been a bit wet over the first few months of 2014 and the consequences are still pretty visible. This video doesn’t really do it justice but the water flowing through Reading is still pretty strong and powerful.
Say No to 01189
Many years ago in 1995 I was involved in the PhONEday number change when UK telephone numbers had an additional one forcibly inserted into the dialing code so, for example, Reading went from being 0734 to 01734. The purpose of this was to allow for more capacity across the network as a whole. My part …
Bletchley Park & The National Museum of Computing
Bletchley Park is somewhere that I have wanted to visit for quite a while given it’s historical significance to both the country and myself. To the country for the work on cracking Enigma and to me as so many of the iconic computers I have worked on are housed in the separate National Museum of …
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Canterbury Tales
I’d never been to Canterbury before last week and that’s a shame as it is a lovely place. Even better was that the sun came out after nearly three months with enough rain to make Russell Crowe consider building a boat. The heart of Canterbury is the cathedral. I made the mistake of assuming that …
USA '14 – The Countdown Begins
So with less than a month to go there is a real sense of excitement in the Thompson household as we prepare to go back to Orlando. Notwithstanding that this is the sixth time that we will have been to Florida as a family we still all really enjoy it and it is a true …
Mike + the Mechanics, Roachford and Genesis
There is a joke, attributed to John Lennon, that when asked if Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world he replied that he wasn’t even the best drummer in the Beatles. Something similar could be applied to Mike Rutherford, the guitarist from Genesis. That accolade would probably go to first Steve Hackett and …
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Tracks Added – February 2014
So a real bumper crop this month, although somewhat skewed by De La Soul releasing their back catalogue for free for 24 hours. So this months additions are: King King – Take My Hand Samantha Crain – Kid Face (SoS) LSO – Bruckner – Symphony No 9 (SoS) De La Soul – AOI: Bionix De La Soul …
King King, Arlington Arts, February 2014
So I attended another gig at the superb Arlington Arts Centre on Thursday. It is a small venue, maybe only 300-400 people but they seem to manage to get some really good acts there. This time it was the excellent blues band King King who had first come to my attention at Weyfest last year – I recommend …
Much Maligned Birmingham
I’ve decided that Birmingham gets a bad rap. This last weekend Helen and I spent the weekend there, ostensibly to visit our younger son who is studying at university there but also as a chance to spend a weekend away. And Birmingham is really not as bad as people make out. In fact it is …