Vague – where should it go? – Page 10 – Fooyah

November 13 2013December 22 2019

Umbrella

In 1988 I went to the British Formula One Grand Prix with my sister and friends. We were four in total, Nick, Andy, Tracy and me. It was pretty exciting and one of the first “big days out” I had done as a teenager (I was 16).
I remember about five things about the day:

It rained
We watched from the Hangar Straight
Nigel Mansell came second
Andy and I bought an umbrella
We couldn’t hear the radio commentary because the cars were too loud
A car came to a stop right in front of us

Ok, wow, that’s six things about the day. I also want to say that we drove there in an Austin Allegro but I don’t think that is correct. I shall check and get back to you.

According the to Wikipedia page on this race it did rain, which is reassuring for my memory cells and Mansell did come second. It’s the umbrella I want to focus on.

As it rained so much Andy and I decided to buy an umbrella. We didn’t have enough money to each buy one so we put our funds together and bought a Marlboro McLaren umbrella from a stall. This umbrella served us well during the day and from then on we agreed we would share the umbrella between us as we both owned it.

I think this arrangement may have lasted about a year until I lost the umbrella. It’s something I feel a little bad about even to this day [when I remember to]. I had a strange canvassing job for Eissman who were trying to build a business of home delivered frozen food. A group of us would wander crappy (and some not-so-crappy) housing estates delivering the catalogue of frozen delights and then two days later we would ring every door bell and see if we could have the catalogue back, preferably with an order. It was commission only.

For this particular week I was getting a lift with the son of the vicar of Ugley in Essex. We were working in Letchworth in Hertfordshire. The weather must’ve been bad because I had the umbrella with me and then left it in his car when he dropped me off from another unsuccessful day at work. I’m pretty sure he quit and didn’t turn up again. As a job it was pretty bad, I lasted two weeks. What is more annoying is that I lost the umbrella which meant quite a bit to me.

I remembered this recently when I was teaching ratios to a class of mine. I told the story and then text Andy about it. He had forgotten what happened to the umbrella, but for me, I feel the loss nearly every day!

November 3 2013November 3 2013

Personal Air Conditioning

Last June I was in a new lecture theatre at the University of Kent in Canterbury. It was a nice room and well designed, apart from the positioning of the projector screens. One thing that I found surprising (and expensive) was the personal air blowing device. It’s either that or the designers have included some form of personal-gas-recovery-system to save attendees from other people’s smells!

October 15 2013October 15 2013

Random Numbers

I have decided to put a random number generator in this site. Just for kicks.

So, these values are generated using atmospheric noise and are truly random. See Random.org for more information.

October 5 2013

Sexy Stuff

I don’t follow many people on Twitter. It’s a conscious decision that means I actually have the time to read tweets by my friends (see here). I have, however, recently added a couple of new people/things to follow.

@Scienceporn
@CombinedHistory
@MilitaryPorn

I find these generally fascinating and I feel that they actually add something to my life. I’m a complete science whore and so @Scienceporn is awesome. I am unsure about some of the sources and tweets, but the replies to @scienceporn normally ask for references and so it’s a self-sorting system, much like science.

@Combinedhistory is a really clever concept of matching famous pictures with modern backdrops and fusing the two together to give a brilliant time-displacement view of scenes.

@MilitaryPorn is awesome. I’ve always been a fan of military aircraft and in my teenage years I went to lots of airshows. Most of the aircraft that I find gorgeous aren’t really flying anymore and so this tweeter gives me a chance to drool over pictures of planes I’ve always enjoyed. Here’s a selection:

August 1 2013August 1 2013

Bridge

Took this picture while waiting to go into the cinema. I like bridges. When you think about the things we can do as the human race when we put our minds to it, it’s remarkable. We can travel with ease and talk to practically anyone in the world via a small device we can carry. On the negative side we don’t yet have the political ambition to stave off anthropogenic climate change, or even to make sure the end result is the least worst possible outcome because we really are changing our planet and beyond recognition.

August 1 2013

Butt It’s Hot

It was a hot day today. The car said 32C at one point! I decided to spend some time in the direct sunlight in the garden fitting a water butt. That was a bit stupid. Had to spend the next hour drying out the sweat from all my clothes. Mind you, the water butt looks good and we should have its first rain tomorrow.

July 31 2013July 31 2013

Lovely View

Such a wonderfully classic view that makes me feel proud to be British! [that takes quite a bit]

Brilliant Victorians and their wonder at everything new!

July 27 2013

Current iPhone Background

My current iPhone background is this stunning picture of the Earth and Moon system taken by the Cassini spacecraft from orbit around Saturn. We are so small and insignificant! God must have been having a serious joke when he placed us on this land, there’s so much out there, and we’ll never get to it (do the physics/maths).

June 5 2013June 5 2013

IGN

Talk about worldwide conspiracy theories! This one’s real!

A group of us arrived in Rome and needed somewhere to dance a bit, because one of our party hadn’t been out for four years. We were completely unaware of what sort of establishments were available (it was midnight). Fortunately Mr G knew someone who knew someone etc.

With a phone call to someone in Bologna, that person then recommended Muccassassina and phoned the club to get us onto the guest list. We took a taxi to Rome’s (more likely Europe’s) premier LGBT spot. When we arrived it took three further circular phone calls to Bologna and discussions with the management to get us into the club for free, but we did it, thanks to the IGN. Really impressed.

I was even more impressed with the helicopter sitting in the beer garden. Most excellent.

Muccassassina

May 14 2013May 14 2013

Old Dog, New Tricks

Reviewing my iPhone music has certainly shown up some weaknesses with my brain. I was aware of the limitations of my memory but this has brought it into sharp perspective.

All the songs and albums I have been listening to for many years have been absorbed completely by my brain. I know what the songs are called, the good bits, the lyrics, the bad bits, the drumming, everything.

All the music I have listened to more recently, even though I have listened to it a lot just hasn’t really sunk in. I know the songs when I hear them but they aren’t “recorded” in my brain.

One of the reasons could be that my memory forming neurons worked better when I was “growing up”.

It could be that I’ve just been listening to the stuff for so long that it just had to sink in to my grey cells.

Another could be that I tend to listen to songs now when I am driving or running and I can’t see my iPhone to see the album cover, song title or lyrics.

Whatever the reason I don’t seem to remember new songs and lyrics although when I listen to them I remember [There’s a PhD in there somewhere].

April 15 2013April 17 2013

Bridge Construction

When I was in America I did some running. On my last day in the USA I ran past some bridges. While running up to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge I noticed a curious linkage design in the side of the bridge.

In the UK the majority of bridges are built on rollers so that when they expand in the summer, warmer months they don’t crack and break apart. These rollers can be observed from under the bridge and the expansion joints can be seen on top of the bridge.

This particular bridge in Washington DC is hanging from the cantilever end parts of the bridge to allow expansion in the structure. A close up below:

A close up with my annotations:

This is quite a clever solution to bridge expansion. I also think it is quite clear that I would make an excellent dinner guest, not boring at all! One of the things I love about civil engineering is that it is Meccano but just bigger. Big bolts, big nuts and big cables!

March 15 2013March 15 2013

Cold Morning

It was a touch cold the other morning. I know it gets colder elsewhere in the world but I live in the south-east of the UK where it’s not often this cold. The worst I knew was -10 Celsius, both the dog and I felt a bit cold that morning!

Car in the cold (spot the engine insulation lines):

March 11 2013

I Think It’s A Porsche

Although I understand the connection between sponsorship and sport, especially in the USA, I was somewhat surprised to see a Porsche on the tennis court at the ATP Delray Beach Competition. If you look carefully you can see two people sitting in the car. I guess they are either the dealership owners or winners of a competition. I guess they’d be ok if they have the air conditioning on!

I thought I’d seen it all!

March 5 2013March 5 2013

Crocus

Saw this earlier today in the sunshine and it warmed me through. So nice to see spring flowers and sunshine. It’s been rather grey for the last few months.
A garden in Kent:

March 1 2013March 11 2014

Wow, A Castle!

This morning I might have been having a cheeky couple of laps on Gran Turismo 5. I was possibly attempting to win one of the seasonal events (which for some reason I find quite tricky).
While racing around the GT Original track I noticed a castle in the background. I was so fascinated by this that for a few laps I couldn’t really concentrate on the track. The castle is a rather good looking building and really adds to the atmosphere. Sometimes I wonder whether game designers have bets about the most ludicrous things they can add!

Screen #1:

Screen #2

These two screen grabs were taken using the LG remote app on my iPhone that has a capture function!

January 4 2013January 4 2013

The Country

Here’s some photographs I took while walking the dog yesterday morning. I think next time I want some really good shots that capture the look and feel of what I see I’ll have to take my D-SLR.
Problem is that by the time I have set the D-SLR up properly the moment will be lost!

WW2 Barrack Ruins

Sunrise

The Path

More Sunrise

Even More Sunrise