Baking

I baked a cake yesterday..

It was supposed to be a deliciously soft moist chocolate cake..

Instead it turned out like a flat piece of brown rubber..

:-(

London Archaeology

Getting educated

Just recently I signed up for a short course on London Archaeology at City University this was in part because I've always been interested in Archaeology, along with just wanting to learn something (preferably in an area not related to what I do for a living) besides which I've never been very good at doing nothing!

What I thought to learn

When signing up for this course, I was never really sure what kind of things I'd learn/do over the course of those 10 weeks, perhaps:

• Be Indiana Jones like and go traipsing through secret underground caverns in the centre of London
  
• Getting down and dirty through the mud at an actual dig, trying to find those rare artifacts (some actual hands on experience)
  
• Perhaps just learning about the history of London, from the prehistoric until now..
  

What I didn't expect to learn was the actual process of how modern archaeology works, and the history, not of London (though we have learnt some of that); but of archaeology itself...

I'm going to make this bit short as I'm sure that people's attention span isn't that long (and I've spent longer getting to this spot than I originally thought), so without further ado...

State of Archaeology in London

Archaeology in London is now a legal requirement for any development process, not sure of the exact wording in the books, but in essence:

Developers must cover the cost of any archaeological investigation/recording/retrieval that their development may disturb

What does this mean?
Well aside from it making sure that possible archaeological evidence is found and properly maintained (ie: you're not dumping a huge building on top of a beautiful roman mosaic floor or the remains of a temple), it has also pushed the financial burden of said investigation and process away from the government and squarely into the hands of the person/company that would be doing the damage...

Not a bad thing..?

I agree, actually making it a requirement in law is brilliant! Except for 2 things... The first is contained in the above statement..

Economic burden:
Say you've purchased an old old house that is falling apart, and you decide that rather than fixing up the house the best use of that land is to knock down the house and build a new one, perhaps even you've borrowed money because you're going to build a beautiful 3 story house/apartment block and the money you make from this is going to pay for your retirement! Yay!

You've spoken to the archaeologists and they've said (by giving you a desk based assessment) "nah not much likely to be here." So you've worked out your budget, you've borrowed your money, you've got your terms and conditions and as long as you can have it ready within 1 year, you'll of paid of that loan and be laughing to the bank.

The workmen come in and after demolishing that house start to dig away... and they hit something, it's a coffin (after calling the police and finding out, no it's not a new grave, at least not in the last 1000 years), the archaeologist come along and say "oh, sorry... we were wrong, the romans had their cemeteries outside of the town, this is a new found cemetery! Fantasic! We're going to need 2 years to excavate these coffins because the weight of the apartment will damage anything left insitu"

Suddenly you've hit the problem of rather than the development taking 1 year (with known costs), it's going to take 3 years, and you're going to have to come up with the money to cover the costs of a dozen archaeologists working on the site for 2 years along with termination of the contracts with the builders/plumbers/electricians/etc...

So you declare bankruptcy and now you're in financial direstraits and this possible archaeological find is just left there, there isn't even money to produce a report saying "we found a grave, with evidence to suggest further graves in region x. All graves are being left in situ"...

no one wins under such a circumstance, of course it's an extreme example but it can happen. This is compounded (at least in terms of the negatives to the archaeological side of things), by the Thatcher efforts a privatisation, namely she privatised the Archaeological Services which of course means that the archaeologists are now bound to the developers, with all the caveats and terms in the contracts that they will enforce.

to be continued.... (have a think for yourselves as to what are the effects of having the archaeologists privatised and having to both bid for the contract and accept the contracts terms and conditions)

B

Drop bears!

One of my favourite comics (Bunny) had a fantastic Aussie reference today: out of drop bear repellent"

Fantastic!

B

quote of the day

"Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad."
- Norm Papernick

Thoughts on sport

Being thinking today about how the type of sport a country is a big follower of can affect the cultural identity of that place (or you could say the culture makes it more likely that the sport will become popular)...

For example, take soccer... I saw an add today which said something along the lines of "Take the opportunity when it comes your way, you've usually only got one shot!" (or something like that).. With the obvious reference being to soccer which is such a low scoring game that every shot at goal counts, such pressure on a single moment. Is that an indication of a European approach to life? (in a very general sense) are there a load of brits out there looking and waiting for their one and only chance, and ready to go for it?

Conversely look at AFL.. It's a fairly high scoring game, where anything can happen.. the game isn't over until that siren goes! You've always got another chance to get back to the top, no matter how far down you are... You could be 17 points in the lead with only 2 minutes to go in the game, but those 2 minutes can be enough time for the other team to score 3 goals and take the lead from you. Is this where the 'Anzac spirit' of never giving up comes from? or is it just a manifestation of it?

I don't know, maybe it's all bollocks and it's just sport, or I could be onto something there...

Either way, that's my thoughts for today. :-)
B

The next Big Brother?

Saw this article 'Out-of-this-world sex could jeopardise missions' and it got me thinking...

Given that space travel is looking like it will be commercialised (well... eventually) how long do you think it will be until there's a space trip sent to Mars or the Moon (or wherever) and it's the new 'out of this world' reality TV show... Hell, is that a bad thing?

I mean, if that's how they get the funding together to actually push out commercial exploration of space? Though you couldn't really vote people off the show, just push them out of the airlock or something!

Ed: spotted from: A Serendiitous Intention (and somewhere else I forgot to take note of)

The Wrath Of Grapes

Was catching up with friends recently and found out that Old Matt has joined the infamous blogging circle with the fantastically titled 'The Wrath Of Grapes' :-)

I've also got to agree with him on the joys of hard rublish collections, I remember when he used to spend a fair bit of time around my place and on the occasional hard rubbish collection we'd end up with:

• Couch
  
• TV
  
• Table*
  
• Stereo*
  
• Coffee table*
  

some of those items came in damn useful, of course some of them had to be chucked back out straight away, when they were found to either not work or emenate a strange and pervasive odour! I haven't noticed the hard rubbish tradition over in this country as yet... But I'm sure something similar is around, and I look forward to finding those little gems! :-D

B

* these items may of been obtained independently of Old's help... can't quite remember who assisted in their gathering

What will they think of next?

While looking around some very geeky blogs and news sites (Gadgetopia, Wired & Engadget) I came across this article about adding mp3 devices to breast implants

"If a woman has something implanted permanently, it might as well do something useful... like play audio over A2DP Bluetooth for instance"

Though I do like the suggestion of: "Think of having a tazer-like implant. Anyone who isnt supposed to touch gets shot with an electronic pulsing nipple."

Edited: Apparently Matt was not the one who came up with that suggestion (Though I think it sounds like something he'd come up with), it was a comment against the Engaget article!

Selling out?

I read Gadgetopia quite regularly (really good geek site for various odd and interesting tech news)... and just recently Deane announced that they're joining FM Publishing network of sites...

I think it is a good thing for Gadgetopia, but it did get me thinking what is the difference between selling out and joining a quality network? Frequently if a company gets bought out by Microsoft it will be called selling out, yet if Google did the buying, then no, they're not a sellout, they're joining a quality company which will help them reach their full potential..

Is the difference purely market perception of the buying company? Or are there other factors? I don't really know, but interested to hear any thoughts...

B

Running around

Yay! back in London (again)... Since the family have been over seems as though I now know the route to Liverpool and Manchester in my sleep...

Some stats:

• Driven over 1,000 miles
  
• 6 trips to/from London & Liverpool/Manchester area (that's 3 round trips) in 3 weeks
  
• 10 trips (driving) between Liverpool and Manchester in 3 weeks
  
• 2 trips between Liverpool and Southport
  

And we're back up to Liverpool this weekend! It's nice and all seeing the family and friends but I'll be happy next week when we don't have to go anywhere until Xmas!!! Ah, to just sit and relax of a weekend...

Oh and in all of this, I've started a short course on London Archaeology (just to be different), so far it's been interesting, more about the history of Archaeology (who discovered what, when).. But it includes a field trip and all sorts of interesting stuff. :-)

Anyways, keep having fun and enjoy!
B

Free Wine!! :-D

Have had a busy time running around this last week or so, with my sister in the country... So haven't had time to post this yet...

Last week, my free bottle of Stormhoek arrived... Courtesy of Hugh Macleod (He of Gaping Void fame)

Haven't tried it yet... But it was cool recieving the personalized bottle (had my name and blog address on the label), I look forward to trying it out :-D

B

Oh almost forgot!!! Thanks Hugh! (and Stormhoek)

Good quote and latest news

'You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.'

:-)

Andrea's wedding
Well it's been several weeks since this fantastic event, so a belated congrats!!! :-D Well not too belated considering I was there on the day to witness and be part of their special day... Thank you for asking me to do a reading for you. :-) As soon as I get off my preverbial and upload some photo's you'll even get to see what dress Andrea was wearing, and just how much Mark snogged her (it was lots!)

Grandma's b'day
Well even though it wasn't actually her birthday, we celebrated with a big family day on this Sunday just past... Was interesting to meet up with relatives that I'd heard of... And even more interesting to meet one's that I didn't know that I had, followed with entertaining discussions about how everyone was related, including some interesting family 'stories'...

Namely that we might be related to a fairly famous American who's grandfather (I think) was once a Welsh minister... That is before he disappeared (with all the church gold) one winter... Of course this is all conjecture and can't be proved in any shape or form. Still it was fun to gossip! :-)

B

Freaky shoe

Through gadgetopia I found this:

• adidas_1 The world's first intelligent shoe

It's actually got a processor in it that will adjust the cushioning on the heel based upon weight, speed, etc... doing so every 4 steps aparently....

It's got a cool little video as well..

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

There I was happily catching up on the blogs that I read, when I came across this amusing chicken comic.

Apparently September 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day, so Avast ye scurvy dogs and let the pirate within out... Arrr!!

Funny stuff

A friend has recently joined the blogging world (It that IT then?), and posted up an amusing first post... :-)

So welcome Ryan, I look forward to some entertaining posts (I still think you've got sitcom writer potential)... And for all my regular readers, highly recommend bookmarking his site... Or if you're technically savvy, the rss feed will be: http://is-that-it-then.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Cheers,
B

Congrats to England!

I've just been informed that England has won the ashes, well done, from what I've heard you've played brilliantly and it's been a very exciting series... So congratulations you deserve that win!

For all the brits out there that actually know me, may I offer my apologies... As I'm sorry but gloating over that victory isn't going to be as fun as you are hoping, given that I really don't care about cricket... I've been known to go out an watch grass grow rather than sit through another boring afternoon...

As a nice Welsh bloke I met recently said.. "Cricket's a nice game, but like darts, it's not a real sport"... ;-)

Sorry couldn't resist throwing that one in... Either way congrats on a well deserved victory. Can we talk about something I have an actual interest in now?

B

PS: In case you haven't guessed, I'm tired of hearing about cricket... It got the stage over here that I could tell when England was losing by the fact I wasn't getting any comments of 'So how do you feel about the cricket... eh?', I've been trying to be a good sport and take their jibes, but I'm just not interested in it and after getting identical comments 20 times a day... To be honest, even though not interested in the game, I do actually think it's fantastic that England have really played well, because this'll mean that a higher level of competition will be occuring around the world. When you have a single team winning year after year, everyone else gets sick of losing, and so you lose your supporters, people stop playing it, and it gets boring. Maybe now with a higher level of competition I'll actually find it interesting, I doubt it, but you never know....

English Summer

What have I been up to?

After a quick trip to Belgium (for Marks stag do) myself and Matt have been up in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival and the world famous Tattoo..  Had a very fun time seeing lots of shows, and catching up with Ronnie, Paul & Lydia…  (

Some of the highlights:

• Tao martial art of the drum (a very cool group out of Japan, go see it if they make it to your neck of the woods!)


• Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen (a seriously fun, morbid, entertaining, cabaret/gypsy/odd group performing in the Spiegel tent!)


• Lots and lots of entertaining street performers and comics! (

Back to London

So now I’m back in London, it’s summer, the sun is shining…  And I’m wondering is it a testament to the fabled English summer (or simply me being me..)  but I’ve gone and got myself a mild form of Pneumonia…  Coughing up lots of bright green and yellow goo is not my idea of fun, but hopefully should get it sorted real soon!

Anyways, gotta head off and finish cleaning and moving stuff about in preparation for some guests arriving for Mark & Andrea’s big day…  (I would link to their blog, ‘cept they haven’t posted anything since they first created it 3 or so months ago!  I mean, you’d think they’ve been organising a wedding or moving house or something…)

Keep well everyone, and keep smiling!
B

A year on!

Well this time last year, I had just arrived in London, and well it seems absolutely amazing what's happened over the last year and a bit...

• I've left Australia to travel the world, quitting my job (highly recommend doing it! Nothing like the feeling of handing in your resignation without having a plan to even start looking for a replacement job)
  
• Spent 2 months travelling around the USA and Canada (Found the Amish, spotted a whale jumping)
  
• Visited Scotland & created a small movie of a friends exploits
  
• Found some fantastic friends
  
• Written some odd and geeky posts!
  
• And announced some news that I never thought I'd announce in my life! :-D
  

Just thought I'd follow with that classic tv soap opera tradition of: I don't know what to write about, so let's have a recap episode, looking back on where we started and where are now

So there ya go! A year in this country of Rain & Pubs, and still with a big grin on my face :-D

B

Appropriate quote

Spotted on my Google homepage:

"Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art."
- Tom Stoppard

Thought it was appropriate give my last (very odd) post. :-)

B

Something random

hmmm... it has been a long time since I've posted anything and here I am posting two things in a single night... and guess what? I have no idea as to what I am going to write about in this one, I just want to write something, I want to be creative, I want to produce something spontaneous....

Art is odd in a lot of ways (stay with me here), I've always wanted to learn how to sketch or paint or carve sculptures or even just come up with a fantastic storyline for a book... But in my strange mind the way to do that is to almost do it impulsively, to see in that overly large twig the makings of a charging elephant, complete with mouse trying not to be stepped on... and then to pick up that paint brush and bring out that impressive beautiful picture from the canvas, bring out the picture that only you can see hidden in the leaf, the smile, the cloud formation (or whatever inspired you in the first place).

But there's a problem here, in fact there's several. Skill & Effort. I enjoy what I write (most of the time), I even enjoy what I draw (even if I have to explain to other people what it actually is), but neither of them seem to come close to the picture that is in my mind when I first put pen to paper. It's like the difference between making a little twig house in the mud when you're a kid, when what you really see in your minds eye is the Sydney Opera house...

So why keep picking up that pen, that paper? Quite simply because I enjoy it, I write and draw for myself, that is why I keep doing so. I hope I always will, and I hope I will still take my best and most favourite pieces to the people close to my heart in the hope that they will see past the mud and broken twigs to the beauty that my mind first found and wanted to share.

B

like I said... Something random...