Live in Watford. Work in London. These are my thoughts.
Wunderlist is a very nice task management tool. Very simple, quick to use, cross platform and totally free.
Watched Something about Mary and the first Naked Gun Film for the first time in ages this week, still find new funny things each time I watch them!
Eric Schmidt on lack of Computer Science in schools. So true.
Learnt what Payola is (secret payments to media so that they broadcast certain music).
You can (try to) rent out your home for thousands during the Olympics.
Canberra Milk Kid continues…
Neal Bates and Coral Taylor drive and navigate for the Toyota team in the Australian Rally Championship. Apparently.
And Mark Webber makes an appearance in a second advert:
Last week’s episode in Utah and Israel were rather goods one and contained a few memorable quotes.
Each show follows the same pattern. Out of control children, often blamed on lack of a father. Children go abroad. Agree to follow rules. Don’t follow rules. Get pissed off. Arguments. Heart to heart with host parent. Grow to like host parent. Go back home and promise to be good.
The teenagers are two spoilt British teenage fuckups, who all smoke. At least one is addicted to weed. Normally at one will have bizarre facial piercings. There’s a mix of private school drop outs, chavs, emos and goths.
Last week’s episode featured a girl who was a mum at 17, obviously not with the father and living on benefits whilst her mum looked after the baby so she could go out and get drunk with her friends.
The families they go to live with abroad are normally, but not always, rather traditional and extreme in their views. Recent examples include living with a vicar, or with home-educating mormons or a very strict traditional family.
Quite a dramatic outburst turnaround/reconing from Hannah in the recent Utah episode. (Incidentally in Utah you can drive at 15, drink at 21 and have sex at 18.) A rather sad ending as both the children and host family were in tears when the children left to head back to England when their trip abroad had come to an end.
Good show even though it is trashy!
World’s Strictest Parents Quotes
“Sex, Drugs, Alcohol – they destory lives”. Hang on?
“I’ve been smoking since I was 12.”2 minuites later. “I’ve been smoking since I was 9.”
“God gave us shoulders for a reason”. One week on I can’t remember what the reason was.
“I really think you’re been totally unreasonable”. ”It’s the community norm”
“Obviously you have not been brought up to be respectful of adults…” “Shut up and listen to me!”
Next week one of the Lebonnease hosts wants one of the children to “find a cave somewhere and live in it all alone”.
Chris Froome, currently second in the Vuelta a España, became the champion of Kenya because he made the jersey.
Good piece in the Daily Mail about more migrant workers applying for lower skilled jobs than British citizens.
Stephen Fry’s top 100 gadgets.
Yet another report of Computer Science graduates having poor employment prospects.
People who buy and don’t deny buying Linkedin recommendations don’t want you or anyone else to know that they have done so. That I can’t be bothered to deal with this/these <opinion>condescending twat(s)</opinion>. Chilling Effect.
On the recent bank holiday Monday I went for a nice long walk with some of my school friends.
Along a mixture of wood, country, field and tow-paths we avoided as much as we could of the towns and villages of Watford, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth, Chorleywood and Loudwater as we headed to Sarratt.
We were lucky with the weather. The day was forecast to be cloudy after several days of rain but the morning was rather too bright and sunny to be contemplating such a long walk. Thankfully when we set of in the afternoon the sun wasn’t so bright.
It was surprisingly quiet for a warm bank holiday in the middle of summer except for cyclists along the tow-path of the Grand Union Canal which we followed from Cassiobury Park.
We then headed past our old school and on to the Chess Valley Walk. As if on cue when we reached Loudwater Lane a large black Bentley slowly rolled past. Jon then started to count houses with Tennis Courts in their garden and bemoaned the lack of swimming pools.
After Loudwater we walked along the most scenic of paths between an industrial unit and the M25 before heading across the motorway. The Chorleywood House estate was pretty empty except for a dog walker until we reached the bridge crossing the Chess where lots of families with small children had taken it upon themselves to sit and play various sports right in the middle of the path and not be terribly helpful as we tried to cross the bridge. As you do.
Once we got close to Sarratt and headed up the steep hill to the village the footpaths got a lot busier after we passed a load of parked cars. We arrived at the Cricketers in Sarratt for some snacks and a couple of drinks before heading back to Watford some dinner.
The route was planned using an OS map and Google’s satellite imagery in an attempt to avoid as much as possible of the “normal” route to Sarratt I have taken on a few occasions previously. Not having navigated down most of the chosen paths before I was pleasantly surprised that everything connected up properly. We did take a couple of wrong turns but these can be blamed on a now-blank signpost near the Chorleywood House Estate and an OS map which had a petrol station marked on the wrong side of the road in Sarratt.
Jon had his shiny new HTC phone with GPS which helpfully told us that we were in the middle of nowhere for most of the time. I thought OpenStreetMap might be better than Google Maps for countryside mapping (after all what do Americans know about walking) but the “Street” bit of the name doesn’t exactly give me hope! A dedicated walking GPS or app that uses large scale Ordnance Survey maps would be better – I wonder if there are any?
I’d like to do some more of the Chess Valley walk at some time.