Category: Misc
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The Secret Listeners of Trent Park
Last night I heard a man named Fritz Lustig speak. Fritz is 96. He came to Britain in 1939, as a refugee escaping Hitler’s Germany, where his family were classified as “non-Aryans” – an immigrant who was seeking asylum, if you like. At first, like most Germans in Britain, he was interned once war was…
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Predicting Every Fixture at Euro 2016
In a frankly bizarre move, the Vote Leave campaign has offered a £50m prize to anyone who can predict the result of every fixture at the upcoming Euro 2016 tournament. Now, I’m not quite sure what the purpose of this is in terms of politics, although the referendum takes place during the tournament. I’m told…
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Celebrity Deaths in 2016
No. I’m not about to pen a piece about sad the death of Prince. I couldn’t ever say I was a massive fan, although I’m enormously respectful of him and the range of his music. But in truth I never owned much of it. I think the album I must have listened most to of…
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Unseen Avatar
The news that James Cameron has at least four Avatar sequels reminds me that I initially went to see a preview of 15 minutes’ footage back in August 2009. The idea was to whet audiences’ appetites. This is what I said in 2009: …Somehow I wasn’t as completely bowled over as I’d perhaps liked to…
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Govia Thameslink Railways – Closing All Ticket Offices
I like to think I’m fairly on the ball. I pay attention to what’s happening, and that includes transport issues. So I was a bit surprised to learn only this morning that Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), the operator of my local trainline, is busy trying to close pretty much all the station ticket offices on…
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Shetland
In many respects, I chose the wrong time of year to visit the Shetland Islands. Going in November means that the sun rises at around 0800 and sets at about 1545. So not too many daylight hours to see the landscape. Then there’s the weather – if you’re going to remote northerly islands in November,…
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A Microadventure in the Fenlands
A Fenland Microadventure from Adam Bowie on Vimeo. I’ve been meaning to do one of these for ages. I can’t remember what path of serendipity sent me in the direction of Alastair Humphreys and his blog, but I’ve been reading it for quite a while now. He describes himself as an adventurer, author and motivational…
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Risk
Our understanding of risk is very much misplaced. When we hear about fatalities in train or plane crashes, the news is widely reported. New safety regimes are put in place. There are large scale changes made. But the reason these incidents are reported is because they’re so unusual. Sadly, the biggest transport killer is our…
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King’s Cross Pond
At 8am this morning, I was one of only three people swimming in the brand new pool that has opened up near King’s Cross. The pond is an outdoor unheated pool set amidst the ongoing redevelopment of King’s Cross. It’s actually located behind the old grain store that has become Central Saint Martins art college,…
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High Altitude Balloon Flight
Those with longer memories may recall that I once tried to send a camera up on a bunch of helium balloons from a rooftop near work. We had, er, “mixed” results when a knot I tied turned out to be particularly poor. More recently I’ve launched cameras on kites with varying results. But the ultimate…
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Hot Battery
Note: This post is only likely to be of interest to some Sony Xperia Z3 users. I’m writing it as much as anything in case solutions should surface via Google. I’m having some fun and games at the moment with my Sony Xperia Z3 compact. It’s only a few months old, and I bought it…
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Near Miss (Not Me)
Diamond Geezer published these thoughts on “Guerilla Pedestrians” yesterday. Let me relate what I saw happen – and what very nearly happened – this morning, because it scared me. I was walking across the Euston Road – crossing at the pedestrian crossing between St Pancras station and the Burger King just opposite. The crossing is…