I was reading my book on the train on the way to work today, Remote Control by the British author (and ex-SAS soldier) Andy McNab, and came across a line that made me laugh.  It wasn’t just any laugh though, but a sudden outburst, the kind that makes you look like the special autistic child or some kind of greasy pervert, the kind that directs eyes toward you.  Hundred’s of the beady little f$%kers.

I should prefix this with a bit of background, after about thirty or forty pages of the authors build up to an action scene, the main character, Nick Stone,  describes in detail how stealth is the key to any subtle operation.  He describes in full the surveillance required in the stake out, and how each part of the target (IRA headquarters) was broken into without extreme force.  This goes on, and on, and as you’d expect thing’s eventually go hay wire as Stone is discovered and is seconds away from death via handgun down his throat after being taken out by a fire extinguisher to the back of the head.

By this point, I’m engrossed, the build up was enormous, and I’m literally hanging off the end of my seat wondering what on Earth is going to happen next.  There’s a small scuffle and Stone jams the gun, temporarily disabling it and a scuffle breaks out eventually resulting in the enemy being shot in the head.

This was followed by:

“He was going to die soon.

Tough Shit.”

It’s a pillow, what a horrible prank!

In hindsight it doesn’t seem anywhere near as funny, but it blew me away at the time.  After such an enourmous build up with everything and every moment described in such precious detail, the climax was abrupt, like a kick in the guts.  I have to liken this to getting amazing sex, mind blowing passion with the ultimate build up:

"mmmm...."

"ah..."

"MMMMmmmmm yea!"

"Oh.  Job's done"

"Yea, would you like a cup of tea?"

I’d half expected another ten pages describing the blood as it made its passage from the chest driven by the last few beats of the heart, up the arteries, and out the convinient new escape vent in the head.  But no.. He was dead, and that was it.

Bloody good book though, both Andy McNab books I’ve read so far have been an excellent read, which makes them incredibly hard to put down.

The topic of tonights discussion is taste, and what made me think of that is the slowly changing choice of music that sits on my iPod every week. But this could be attributed to anything in day to day life, like the sandwich I used to find tasty from Marks & Spencer is now quite bland, and a similar Sainsburys one is twice as good (and half the price).  Things change over time, for sure, but I often wonder just how permanent these kinds of changes are:

Music

I brought up my ipod before, and the reason I did this, is that anyone who knows me (or those who don’t and are devote readers of this HD911 prodigy, I’m a huge trance music fan.  In fact, since I got this handy little music device over 18 months ago it would have been cleared on average once a week, and contained anything but trance/electronic/DnB music ever so occasionally.  I now find myself on a half Trance/half Other basis, which is a big shift in Dynamic, as it’s a huge difference swapping from Armin van Buuren’s set at LoveParade 2008 straight to Johnny Cash, The Shins, Damien Rice or any other slow rock hit that sits between the uplifting euphoric forest.

Loveparade - It’s even better, with sound!

Yes, I did just say Johnny Cash, whom seems to stand out like a sore thumb even from the older music I’ve liked in the past.  But it’s no surprise, I seem to have taken a liking to a bunch of music that my Mum listened to when I was a kid, and I just thought was the same old country crap…  I’ve liked Dad’s music for years, from Beatles, Dire Straits, The Doors, Simon & Garfunkel, Genisis/Peter Gabriel/Paul Collins, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Bread, America, etc  It’s about time I picked something out of her music collection right?

Gotta be better than Frank Sinatra, Celine Dion or Patsy Cline, anyway.

Lame Web Idea:  www.whatsonmyipod.com

The Sandwich

I’m making an effort to eat healthily at the moment, I’m still not doing very well mind you (nothings changed), but after seeing this news article on TV the other night (similar to this) about false labels, unhealthy and downright bad for you sandwiches that are available in London, it got me thinking.  I love most of the sandwiches available from the nicer shops, (i.e M & S, Sainsburys & Pret a Manger), but according to this article most all of these lunch treats are packed full of Salt and Saturated salt, even when you’re under the assumption they’re relatively healthy.

Pret - Home of the tastiest lunch time snack in all of England

Stupidly, there’s a sandwich from Pret which I assumed was at least relatively healthy, which is the roasted tomato and cheddar cheese on grain bread.  Really, if I wanted to eat unhealthily, I’d make the trip to a McDonalds and get a large Quarterpounder Meal.  You can imagine my surprise when the man in the television claimed that this particular sandwich was worse in salt and saturated fat content than the Maccy D’s meal.  I get it, there’s nothing specifically healthy about any type of cheese (especially cheddar), or tomato’s that have been dried and stored in oil since last year, but you don’t go out for a sandwich expecting it to be that unhealthy.

Which begs the question, what on earth are you supposed to eat, whilst on the go in a big city, which won’t add to the body’s fat content.  A stick of Celery perhaps?  Nope, probably not good enough, it’s probably had salt artificially added to it.  I’m realising that added salt is this invisible villian, but then I wonder why it’s been added in the first place?  Personally, the only food I’ll ever add additional salt to is Chips/Fries, and don’t see why it needs to be added to other foods, especially not a roasted chicken sandwich.

Yes, the connisours (spelling?) will probably say that its not tasty enough, but I don’t notice the difference in taste.  Seems the only way I’ve got of winning the health war is to make my own lunch, though I think the Salmonella and other harmful bacteria/disease acquired by chicken bits on my 30 minute train ride to the city and 10 minute in the tube/sauna is probably a whole lot worse than even Salt anyway.

Celery it is, just hold the salt… OK?

Here I am, the summer-seasoned Australian wishing it was Winter again, because the English summer may have got the better of me.  I’ve been away from Perth for a while now, but I can feel I’ve got a relatively good memory of what the 40o+ celsius days were like, and even going to work in those temparatures for weeks on end didn’t seem as bad as this last week has been in London.

I still feel like a nance, especially as I keep seeing others wearing long sleeves, and even layers (one thing I will never understand about English people, their ability to layer clothes is second to none), but I can’t wait for the winter to come back again.  It was nice being able to walk to work without sweating, and sit at the office without sweating, though that is partly due to the terrible quality air conditioner we’ve got in our basement Nike factory, despite the fact its in most expensive area for office/business rent in all of the European Union.  Perhaps that’s the reason the air conditioner doesn’t work.

Here comes the worst part, it was only 28 degrees today, which is only just bordering on acceptable swimming weather in Australia, but I’d have happily taken a swim in the Thames to cool down.  Yesterday was a little hotter again, at 31 celsius, but its a different kind of heat, and there’s a whole lot less air conditioning.

What have I become? My sweetest friend…

Johnny Cash - Hurt

Johnny Cash - Hurt (Nine Inch Nails Original)

I seem to be suffering from one of the most debilitating illness’s, which can be described only by the term, The Mental Blog.  The issue is, I don’t feel like I’ve got anything much to post to HD911 these past few days, and even when I attempt to think of something, I seem to be hitting a wall.

It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, there’s a billion thoughts swimming around in my head, but s….

Shit, hit the wall again!

At the office, we, the Web Services team form a team of four people who handle the core data storage and communications centre for the companies main application.  It’s by no means the most complex (it’s extremely simple in fact) or even the most important, but none the less, it forms the glue between each of the client applications and hosts the file/data store for all shared information used throughout the system.

As part of the build process we’ve done a recent refactor which improves performance and security and aims to generally make our service easier to consume by every device that uses it.  This process has taken the better part of six weeks next to full time work by four of us and at least two weeks work from a fifth person that left recently.  I don’t want to say I’ve poured my heart and soul into it, that would be lieing, but its definitely been something that we’ve become immensely proud of.

Anyway, today the decision was made to drop all the work completed toward the new version, and continue where we forked off on the previous release, which really is a huge shame.  Now I feel like we’ve taken a step backward, erasing a bunch of work that would have ultimately made the project a lot more stable and laid a few of the foundations for future-proofivity, if thats even a word.  I shouldn’t get too aread of myself though, in reality it was months away from the final goal, but at least there was move towards that goal.

I shouldn’t be surprised though, there seems to be many examples of this and far worse (mal)practices in the IT industry around the web, and it seems to me to often be the way the things work, especially in smaller Software Development situations.  I’ve even seen it before at previous jobs, and its never pretty.

The thing that gets me though, is the absolute waste of resources and man-hours that goes into a mistake such as this.  Assuming we worked two thirds of the week each, I’d put the time spent at:

4.5 staff x 27 hours x 6 weeks  = 729 man hours

By my crude calculations this is just about enough man hours to build a small skyscraper, or the Titanic if you will, but… That’s Life, after all!

Who knows, in another month, the project will probaly take another path altogether requiring a complete rewrite, refactor or perhaps disbanded altogether!

It’s been a long while since my prevous post about possibly the most underrated movie of this decade, but a lots happened since then.  Firstly and semi-importantly, HD911 has passed a new milestone (yet again) by getting over the 21,000 page hit count since September of last year when the site was put up.  This number seems to be increasing at a quicker and quicker rate, though I can’t say exponentially as that would be riduculous.  But it does mean that the site has received just over 2,000 hits a month on average since it’s birth, which seems to me like an awful lot, considering the quality of my content.

After all, it’s no Isaac Newton thesis, or Oscar Wilde novel.

On Sunday night we got home from our week long jaunt through Russia, from St Petersburg (4 days), to Novgorod (1 night) and finally to Moscow (3 days).  All I can say is what an amazing country, the food, drink, sites, everything.  The whole week I was there, I don’t think I had one bad meal, which says a lot for a foreign country, especially one which serves pretty much anything in a pancake (pork roast, caviar, salmon, etc) or an omlette (pork steak omlette, mmm).

But it wasn’t without it’s dramas, like me leaving my card in a cash machine on the first day of the holiday.  I can still recall the moment it happened too:

• Walk up to machine, insert card
• Perform transaction, receive cash
• Hear funny beep, assume it means end of transaction
• Put cash in wallet, walk away with ATM still beeping.

TopDecks Tours - Vodka Caviar 2008

Yet another case of the stupidity of me.  But, the holiday went on.  The other biggie was the tour group we with for the week, a Topdeck Tour, called Vodka Caviar 2008.  The tour itself was fine, with ample time to go off and do your own thing, whilst still seeing an awful lot of the tourist attractions and each city.  But the group itself pretty much consisted completely of 30 post high school age Aussie people, or at least some older people who acted like they were this age.  Honestly, the whole trip was like a soap opera, with sex, bitching, crying, and the horribly annoying Australian habit of groups of friends at the complete exclusion of others, something which I haven’t noticed since leaving the home land.  And thats a good thing.

The Amazing Moscow Underground

The reason we chose to go on a tour instead of battling it on our own was purely due to the fear and perceived danger in Evil Russia.   Looking back, this was a silly point of view and apart from few things its no worse, than anywhere else we’ve been so far like Paris, or Prague, and I’d consider our weekend in Brussels last year a lot more intimidating than anything we saw in Russia.  A few things that you need to do when you’re over there though:

• Always carry a passport with your travel Visa, as police can request this at any time, and you’ll (apparently) be locked up without it.
• Whilst being questioned by Police, never hand over passports of wallets, as these apparently have a habit of going missing (according to guide books, police corruption is an apparent worry)
• Before arriving, make sure you’re travel insurance is up to date and active, given the visa/passport situation it’d be a hell of a country/authority to deal with without outside help.
• Keep yours wits about you, and common sense, common sense, common sense.

We weren’t actually questioned at all on our time in the country, but the police/army/guards/etc were quite intimidating, as they were pretty much everywhere on the streets in the city, though this was a slight comfort as well.  I’ve never been anywhere yet in my travels where there were so many uniformed officials everywhere.

The Church of Spilled Blood, St Petersburg

I found the key with Russia was definitely to keep an open mind, and take pretty much anything anyone else has said about the country with a grain of salt.  Friends/people I’d talked to before the trip had warned me that St Petersburg was dodgy (whilst Moscow was nice), and vice versa, and the whole country was terribly expensive and everything is a complete rip off.  In fact, our tour guide seemed to do whatever he could to diss the country with warnings of muggings, cons, bad water, bad food, dodgy cops, expensive travel.  Though I guess thats his job, to make sure nobody gets hurt or loses anything on his tour.

Anyway, I’d definitely recommend Russia, it was a fun packed week.

So amidst all the stress about money, and pressure to get stuff ready for the trip to Russia, I’d almost completely forgotten about our four day trip back down to Cornwall again.  Although I’ve now seen it several times before, its sure to be a fun relaxing weekend with some sunshine, good company and of course good liquor.

Going down there as a foursome should be interested, just like old times again.  It has its advantages too, I wasn’t there to pick up the hire car, which means I don’t have to drive.  This is a good and a bad thing, bad because I desperately want to drive an automobile again (even if it is a four door Focus), but good because I’ll compensate by drinking, and catching up on some further reading of a new book or Arrested Development episodes.  I swear, this show gets better every time I watch it.

I’ve taken it upon myself to come up with a challenge for this extended weekend, but this challenge won’t involve the best sub £1,000 replacement vehicle for a UK Police Astra Diesel (ala the latest episode of Top Gear). I’m going to attempt to try every Cornish beer I can find, and write a small set of notes on each, The Great Cornish Beer Review.  This will involve going over my favourites from previous trips down to the foot, such as:

• Tribute Ale - A deliciously smooth brown ale, continuously drinkable all night, available in both Oxford, and the Twickenham Tup (20m from our front door), plus probably many other locations around London.  (Warning: ghastly when warm).
• Sharps Doom Bar - If I remember correctly, this bitter had a deceivingly strong taste to it, not that it’s in anyway a low alcohol beer.

The hardest thing about this of course is, despite my vast vocabulary (riiight), I have a pallete about as sensitive as the calloused palms of a full time grave digger.  Indeed, I think the words are in there, but picking the taste of raspberries from a 20 year old bottle of Shiraz doesn’t come to me naturally, at least not without reading the label.  I know what i like, but why I like Guinness, Tribute, Victoria Bitter and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale even though they’re vastly different types of beer, I don’t really understand.

We’ll see how that goes, anyway.

Россия, здесь мы приезжаем! (Russia, Here we come!)

In just less than 12 weeks, I’ll be drinking Vodka (and eating Caviar apparently), in a Russian tour group, over the course of 7 days from St. Petersburg, through Novgorod and finally to Moscow.  I’m sure it’ll be great, and I’ve been checking the weather for Moscow recently, and they’ve been enjoying 21º Celsius temperatures, which may even be warm enough for shorts.  But we’ll see.  One thing I’ve learnt about the world (in my vast travels), is that the brisk 15-18º (almost sweater weather) in Australia is perfectly fine for shorts and a T-shirt in the UK.  Going by this logic, I’m going to stock up on thongs (no, not flip-flops), as I might just enjoy it.

When in Russia, I guess!

The tour we’re going on is the Vodka Caviar 2008 tour run by Top Deck Tours, which seems to be jam packed with included food, outings and theatre/circus tickets, though it’d definitely want to be for the cost.  But, all in all, it looks to be great fun, and I’m looking forward to seeing parts of the former Soviet machine.

We’ll be travelling around in a “modern air-conditioned bus”, and the group usually consists of about 20 people (of which 16 I’m expecting to be Brits).  I’m hoping for a fun piss-up, but I hope its not like all these Contiki Tours I’ve heard about friends doing over the years, I think I’m getting too old (hell, I am 25 now). Soft, I know!

The last thing we had to do in preparation for the trip was get the Visa organised, which as always was an annoying process (the two visa applications and postage cost (just over £40) almost £150, but amazingly enough, the website told me we’d have the passports back on the 20th of June, what do you know, they turned up on Friday night.  Perfect timing.  A little too perfect perhaps.

Shannon looks around suspiciously…..Шпионы, они всегда наблюдают

Similar, except mines got a hologram (how very 2008)

I’m not the kind of person who gets homesick, and I don’t really miss much about Perth, but sometimes I catch a smell, miss a taste, or see a photo which really brings it all back:

Perth, Australia by night

And, even in the year since I’ve been gone, Perth seems to have changed a fair bit now.  We now have a fifth, metro train line, which even has a section underground.  Definitely something to check out when in a little under a year when I get home for a holiday.  I’m sure it’ll be an enlightening experience.

Just like the 11pm train from Kings Cross

The Things I’d do if I was back in Perth :-

• See Family/Friends (of course)
• Drink up a storm at the Queens Hotel in Mt Lawley
• Eat Twisties
• Stock up on Aussie red wine, and Coopers Beer
• Get the best pizza in the world from Il Padrinos (The Pizza King) in Northbridge
• Take a weekend down south in Margaret River
• Ride the train

And that’s about it!

Home Sweet Home!

A quick one, and not the best title I know.  But there’s been a noticeable increase of late in police numbers onthe streets around the office, and in tube/train stations on the way home.  Over the last fortnight, I’ve noticed at various times during the week there being at least 20 or 30 (and possibly many more on platforms and other lines) police officers putting in a presence at both Green Park station, Waterloo and Twickenham stations.

One of the guys at work was stopped randomly was searched (padded down, emptied bags, etc) under the terrorist act (can’t say No, basically), in Green Park station on the way home the other night, nothing came of it, of course.  And completely unrelated, but the police have closed off a lane outside the office and are searching cars too.  Though that’s probably licensing, more than anything.

A completely unrelated sign I spotted whilst on my way to the rugby on the weekend

It really makes me wonder though, since I’ve been here (especially since attempted car bombings in June* last year) there’s been an on/off police presence, which in a weird way I find oddly reassuring.  But it begs the question, “Why the sudden spikes in activity, and then nothing for a few days?”. Are these really just random, routine acts in a way that could make the public feel safer and feel like the government/metro police are doing something?  Or is there something more sinister going on?

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but suspicious one inside me notices an alarming difference between one police/security officer whom you may see at a stationi entrance or patrolling the street, and literally an army of officers stopping/searching/charging people as they go about they’re daily commute.

I still can’t help but think these stop and searches could be better conducted in the problem areas, not the terrorism problem, but the problem that is still gripping London, and thats youth gang stabbings and warfare.  I’d have to guess and say you’d be far more likely to find a butterfly knife on a dodgy looking youth in Brixton, than anything of Terrorist nature in the bag of an otherwise innocent Software developer in Mayfair.  Priorities!

But, in the end, we’ve just got to forget about it and get on with the task of getting home, god knows I’m not going to walk the whole distance.