Barry John Williams' Blog

Whilst randomly flicking through XKCD and came along the following cartoon which reminded me of something which happened a few years ago to myself:



Sometime in February 2003 (possibly 18th Feb):

Came in from work at 6:30, sat down to watch Star Trek on BBC2. After Star Trek, realised I was hungry and had a look in the cupboards, not much selection, but enough to make a nutritious meal. But, no bread, that means no breakfast tomorrow and no packed lunch - I could go to Safeway to buy a takeaway curry, a few bits of frozen food and some bread. Right off I go.

7:30pm:
Safeway - pick up a full basket load of stuff, buy it and catch the train back home. No keys. I left them on the desk in the flat, ok, spare keys, on the bottom shelf of the TV Cabinet, damn. Ok, phone a friend, battery is dead on phone, don't know any phone numbers....

8:10pm:
Right, back to Safeway - sorry we are shut - ok then. Get back to flat, security door locked. Leave food in garden, get neighbour to buzz me in. Try to break in using movie tricks, failed. Ok, to the police station. "Sorry, gone are the days we can break your door in, but here is the phone number of someone who will". Hmmm

9:30pm:
(Brainwave). All my phone numbers are stored on my work machine which is switched on and running VNC. Need to find somebody with an internet connection - VMLs technical directory, excellent. Internet connection not working properly.... found a computer that works. The "2" key and "w" key not working, both are required for connecting to computer - use desktop icons as a resource for "cut and paste" to create URL and Password. Connected. Phone friend and arrange to stay over.

10:30pm:
Collect frozen shopping from Garden and take it to friends house. At last somewhere to sleep. I left the tinned food and pizza in the garden. I made sure that I left it in the back garden which doesn't get the morning sun, therefore remaining cold from the nights frost!!

8:30am:
Go to letting agents, agency has moved to a different location. Ok then, walk some more. "We don't hold the keys here you'll have to go to our head office in Canniesburn Toll". Right, begin long walk to East Dumbartonshire (found a bus that goes there, hoorah).

10:40am:
Finally I get back in. And food is still in the garden!!

Labels: aboutme, humour

The Alhambra (viewed from the Generalife)

During our holiday we decided to visit the Alhambra which is only an hour and a half journey away from where we were staying. Rather than drive to Granada we thought we'd use the trains and were absolutely stunned at the experience. We arrived at a somewhat "rustic" train station in Antequera where the crossing across the tracks was a couple of railway sleepers with some tarmac ontop... The train pulled into the station and we initially thought we were in the first class carriage (by British standards) as there was enough leg room for me to stretch my legs out, the seat had plenty of width, had headrest protectors and the carriage was air conditioned. This train cost Louise and I the whopping figure of €6.30 each - for an 90 minute journey!! On the way back we were on a slightly better train which was a larger tilting train, with even more leg room and a reclining seat - a mere €7!! They had vending machines on this train where I bought a bottle of water for €0.60 and a packet of Oreo biscuits for €0.80! Unbelievable!! I have no idea what the "Alta" line (Spain's newest high speed network) is like if this is what their normal network is...

Anyway, back to the point. We've wanted to visit the Alhambra for a while so we prebooked our tickets (essential as they only let so many in each session) and left Bruno (our Boxer dog) at Louise's Mum and Dad's so we didn't have to worry about him and could spend longer there. We arrived at the station in Granada at 11.30 in the morning and our tickets for the Alhambra were for 14.00 so we had plenty of time to get there. We walked and eventually got to where we wanted (Plaza Neuva - a small square in the old town of Granada called Albaycin) which had lot's of bars so we stopped by for lunch. We only found out the day before, but Granada has kept the tradition of free tapas - i.e. every time you order a drink, they will bring out free food!! We bought some tapas anyway and along with the freebies were pretty stuffed for our steep (on foot) ascent toward the Alhambra. We discovered later on there are buses up the mile long hill for a euro each which we should have taken!! The queues at the entrance were enormous, but thanks to the fact we'd booked our tickets we could go straight to the front and collect them; afterwards we joined an even longer queue to enter the complex. Presumably this queue was so long because it was just opening for the afternoon.

We visited the Generalife gardens first and walked around the palaces there before walking to our pre booked entrance time to the Palacio Nazaries (they give you a predetermined time to enter these palaces to stop everyone walking around at once). After this we walked around the Carlos Palace and around an Art Gallery there (free for EU passport holders). We then walked around the Alcazaba before calling it a day; I think we only covered about half the Alhambra and could easily do it again. We bought a souvenir booklet which will certainly help on our next visit! I noticed a few people had radios which gave audio information depending on the area they were in which was a good idea and can presumably be hired at the ticket desk. Also the Alhambra was "bluetooth enabled" unfortunately I didn't know what this did as neither of us had a mobile with us which has bluetooth...


Palaces in the Generalife Gardens

We walked back down the hill to Plaza Neuva and since our train back was after 8 we decided to find a restaurant in Albaycin which was open (unusual since it was only six, but we tried anyway). We should have stuck with the tapas bar we were in earlier, but we found an open restaurant and had an "acceptable" meal. We got a taxi back to the station before waiting for our train.

Well worth the trip!! Highly recommended. The Alhambra was absolutely stunning and we discovered a little more about Granada which we didn't know, we'll definitely return!

All my photos have been added to flickr!
Alhambra Flickr! Set

Labels: aboutme, holiday

I've not blogged in a while, with many different projects going on I just haven't found the time; Louise and I are on holiday at the moment in Andalucia where we drove down through Europe in our converted LDV camper van. We stopped for two nights in France on the way down to Spain and we booked into a campsite in the Pyrennees (Camping Ariztigain, Sumbilla); this campsite was absolutely stunning! A huge steep hill on the way up provided a small challenge for our diesel engine - first gear only - but worth it! The staff were very friendly and we discovered that one of the members of staff used to live in Edinburgh!! We only stayed for a night however since we wanted to visit Pamplona.

The next day we travelled the 90KM to Pamplona arriving mid afternoon in a much busier and more "butlins" style campsite called Camping Ezcaba. Not quite as nice as Ariztigain and the staff were a little ignorant to us because we were British (despite us speaking to them in Spanish - perhaps they were Basque or Castillian...). This campsite was only 5KM outside Pamplona so gave us an ideal jumping off point for visiting the historic city. In Pamplona we walked the "Encierro" or more commonly known as the bull run and we admired much of the architecture! The bull holding barriers were still in place from the San Fermin fiesta 2 weeks before. A very picturesque and enjoyable visit!

The following day we decided to crack on with our journey and get to our destination in the Mountains of Malaga that evening, we arrived after a 11 hour drive on one of the hottest days so far this year... The number of cars stopped at the side of the road was unbelievable - presumably with over heating problems. Thankfully, we arrived without a problem!

We've had a few relaxing days here and we visited a mountain top town called Comares where I took a few photos and read about the moorish history of this town.

Today we're off to Olvera to do a little bit of work on our house there.

I've uploaded the photos I've taken so far onto my Flickr! and put them into different sets within a collection.

Check them out below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjw/collections/72157606338658289/

Labels: aboutme, camping, holiday

I haven't posted in a very long time, too many projects going on at the moment and not even enough time during my work day to make a post :)

One of the projects my wife and I have been working on is converting an LDV panel van into a camper, we started this last year and did the bulk of the work almost straight away. However, it's an on going project where over weekends I'll potter away fitting shelves, cutting holes in the side of the van or doing something... We decided to take it out for a test camp last weekend near Loch Lomond. Louise was recommended a campsite called Cashel run by the Forestry Commission and we booked it for the May holiday weekend.

We were lucky enough to have some good weather - though it did rain quite hard on the Sunday! For the most part we just spent the weekend relaxing or going on short walks with our dog. Thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend this peaceful site for anyone! It also got me photographing again after a long period of taking progress pictures of the campervan conversion it was great to get out and take pictures of the countryside!!

We arrived on the Friday night and left the site on Monday morning, on the way back we decided to stop off at Balmaha which at 11.30 was very busy! The car park was overflowing so we decided instead to travel to Balloch. This had more parking so we were able to park up and walk around. I think we left at around 2pm and were amazed at the amount of traffic queued back on the A82 waiting to visit the Shores of Loch Lomond! Glad we got out when we could.

A great little trip, helped us decide where to build cupboards and their contents in the van and also test out all the functions which worked fine!

I've uploaded my photos to Flickr!
Cashel May 2008 - a set on Flickr

Labels: aboutme, camping, holiday

Earlier in the year Louise and I had an eventful drive to the south of Spain and a small part of that was spent waiting at the side of the AP-15 just outside Pamplona in the Provincia de Navarra, Spain. We waited for about 5 hours whilst our UK breakdown company Green Flag (via Churchill Insurance) mis-communicated with Linea Directa, their Service Provider in Spain.

When we returned from our trip there was a questionnaire lying in the hallway asking me to rate the service received for this breakdown. I took great delight in expressing my feelings including specifying the weather as 40 degree direct burning sunlight. On the back they had a suggestions box which I used to highlight (what I thought) were the main problems which could and should be rectified.

A week ago I received a letter stating that they have admitted the lack of communication and apologised for the inconvenience. They explain that they will discuss this with their service partners - presumably so it doesn't happen to somebody else in the future. Anyway they refunded £40 as a gesture of goodwill.

I'm quite happy that something is being done and I've scanned in the body of text for everyone to read:



Link to my blog post about the journey

Labels: aboutme, travel

We visited Olvera again on Friday to do some final bits of work in the house before we head back to Scotland. The main task was to get the water switched back on... I walked down to the workmen who were laying the new street next to ours and in my best Spanish asked if they had a key to switch the mains water on for me. "Neccesito Fontenero" - You need a plumber was the reply... Goodey! However they did point over to a chap measuring the road who looked like a plumber because he was wearing blue trousers; so over I went. The guy walked up with me to the house armed with a small spanner - I tried turning the tap last week with a spanner and knew this wouldn't work... To his credit he wondered off and got the real tool. He explained they didn't turn the water on unless the owners were there just in case of ruptured pipes. Well what did you know, a large gushing noise was heard and water came spurting out some brickwork in the kitchen - damn! I then asked him to switch it off and again in my best Spanish asked him to switch it back on once I've turned the water tap off at the water meter in the front of the house. It held and we had control of the water in our hands. Our neighbour was with us during this work and was egging us on to ask the guy for the tool so we could do this ourself!!

Anyway, we had to smash away the brickwork to get to the mains pipe, cut it out and replace it with a temporary rubber pipe giving us back a supply of water!

The rest of the day continued where Louise painted the front room getting rid of the grey concrete brickwork we left from last year - much brighter now! The following day we pulled in more tiles of the kitchen to investigate for termites and removed the kitchen cupboards and chimney wood.

Removing the chimney wood was quite fun - there is an extractor fan underneath along with a switch. The cable was wrapped around the wood and would have been live, so I isolated the electricity from the mains and armed with my screwdriver immediately electrocuted myself on the "neutral" which in Spain appears to be constantly live. My father in law always carries around a testing kit when he works on anything in Spain and now I know why - don't trust anything!! I cut the cable out and left it hanging. I manage to shock myself again by inadvertently touching a slightly bared portion of the cable insulation - dammit!!

I also rewired the light on our second floor to use new black metal lights we'd bought a while back which converted more lights from the old 125V to the new 240V. I did this really carefully since I didn't want another electric shock!

We feel a lot better about the house now since we know the termites have probably been attracted to the house because that water pipe has been leaking for a while! Pulling the tiles off revealed good solid walls with little activity in them and confirmed the termites are subterranean. We have water and 240V electricity and most importantly - no termite food - so it is now practical to spend time in and do up as we go!

Flickr Set

Labels: aboutme, olvera, termites

Removing Kitchen - 1
Originally uploaded by barry_williams.

Some people go to Spain for Holiday, some go for work. Well, Louise and I have also gone to remove termites from our house!

The house we purchased a while back has a bit of a termite problem. We've been slowly removing all the original wood from the property (thankfully the structure is concrete) such as door frames and whilst we thought the kitchen was safe - we discovered last year it was infested.

Armed with gloves (lot's of), paraffin, insecticide and a hammer we set about removing the old kitchen and replacing it with a temporary stainless steel one.

This flickr set shows the state the kitchen was in - the picture above required no tools to lift this 1.5 inch thick worktop up off the cupboards below!

There are two types of termites, "subterranean" and "drywood". We suspect we have subterranean which require baiting and poison to totally irradicate!

In the process we also found an insect we couldn't quite identify.

Flickr! Set - Kitchen Removal

Labels: aboutme, olvera, termites

Beta Blogger is now out of beta and now just Blogger. It comes with some new features such as tagging which I've wanted for a while - now you can obtain all my crap jokes with one click...

Still getting to grips with it, I've had to use one of the new templates or 'layouts' to get the label feature working, but I haven't yet figured out how to get it in the sidebar.

We'll see how it goes!

Labels: aboutme, blogger

Fog at Luton Airport
Originally uploaded by barry_williams.

I flew with work into and out of Luton Airport yesterday and managed to avoid the cancellations due to the fog. We only really noticed the fog just as we passed inside of the M25, on the way back the fog eventually crept into the airport about 2 hours before our flight left...

Our easyJet flight departed about 30 minutes late, but made up some time on the way which was good!

I've seen some severe fog before - particularly in Dover when sometimes you couldn't see more than a meter in front, but never in a built-up and inland area like central london!!

Labels: aboutme, travel, weather

A flickr! contact (letskyce) invited me to join a flickr! group called 'Pick Your Best 12 from 2006'. I think this is a great idea to use fd's Flickr Toys' Mosaic Maker to form a single image with your 12 best shots from 2006. I've created a flickr! set of my best pictures from 2006 and created a single mosaic of these pictures which is posted above and on flickr!

Labels: aboutme, flickr

I was at this restaurant on the 8th April, didn't realise they shut the place down for a day a mere 3 weeks afterwards due to hygeine... afterwards it was shut for a week and now would seem to have been fined £18,000 for simply being 'filthy'.

I don't recall seeing mouse droppings on plates or dirty cutlery - mind I wasn't looking, I do recall receiving oranges after the meal as a pudding which I thought was different.

From the article:

We are grateful that the sheriff reflected the severity of the offence with the fine imposed.

Blimey! Not sure if I'll be heading back here in a hurry then!

Labels: aboutme

My Palm Z22 crashed over the weekend never to return to life... The palm displayed a repeating pattern of coloured noise across the screen during usage, then again during a failed hotsync. My mac and palm were pretty much in sync so I don't think anything has been lost, but the Z22 never survived the second reset. There are 2 reset systems available - one a simple reboot and another is a complete refresh of the system, neither worked and the unit simply 'hangs' at the Palm Powered screen.

I purchased it in April at a Dixons Tax Free store and thought I'd take it along to one of the new Currys.digital stores. They were not particularly helpful, being totally obsessed with the charger - the Z22 charges over USB so you can use either a power charger or a USB lead but they really couldn't be bother to help (this was the Jamaica Street store in Glasgow). However, they did give me Palm's technical support number which I then called when I got home. Palm have agreed to fix it under warranty and I should get a repaired Z22 in the next 2 weeks.

If a bricks and mortar store really can't assist in after sales support with just a little more effort - why should I use them? There is now no difference between purchasing something at Amazon/Expansys and Currys/Comet other than price... That Treo 680 on Expansys is looking more and more appealing...

Labels: aboutme, grumble

I was reading about the New Nintendo Wii along with some action shots (numerous) on YouTube and I have to admit I started wanting this thing - it does look pretty sweet!

Then I discovered Amazon.co.uk had an over supply and were selling them today between 3pm and 4pm. So on I went to Amazon's website and used the new automatic reload feature in Firefox to reload the page every 5 seconds. As fast as the 'add to shopping basket' button appeared I clicked - and waited, then waited a little more. Got through to the shopping basket to pay and then - 'Sorry, your item is no longer available, it has been saved in your shopping basket'. Arrggh!

Moral of the Story - Use 1-Click dammit! These things must have sold literally within a minute!

Oh well, impulse buying urge over. Saved me £179 too! Although that one on eBay for £200 is rather appealing :) must switch off, internet...

Labels: aboutme

Champagne on Arrival
Originally uploaded by barry_williams.

Louise and I spent the last weekend (1st, 2nd and 3rd December) at the Rowardennan Hotel on the banks of Loch Lomond and foot of Ben Lomond. We were on an 'all inclusive' package to celebrate our first wedding anniversary together.

The hotel allowed us to take our dog Bruno at no additional cost and they were extremely accomodating for him! The food was lovely and so too was the champagne in our room on arrival and the open bar in the evenings!!

Despite the rain and wind (December in Scotland after all) the weekend was very enjoyable and we did do some short walks around the hotel including an hour up the West Highland Way and back again.

We both would highly recommend the Rowardennan Hotel, it is situated in a lovely area, the staff are very friendly and helpful, the food is lovely and the rooms are comfortable!

Thanks again to the staff at the hotel!

A flickr! set is available for a selection of the photos taken that weekend.

Loch Lomond Flickr! Set

Labels: aboutme, flickr