I’ve moved! Or at least foolhandy.com has…
The page addresses are a bit different and some of the pictures might not work for a while but I’ll get there. The biggest loss to me is that tenderhooligan’s comments from this morning have disappeared into the ether. Sorry!
I also have a new toy, but more of that another time.
This is the hole we’ve been left with. It’s staying for the next few days until some more workmen come to fill it in and tarmac it over. In the meantime I am childishly excited about the fact that there are roadwork signs up along the road and around the corner. Because of us. Yes, I am a child…especially as how I keep looking at my lovely car in this photo and sighing.
This is quite an important post on foolhandy.com. This is because it’s the last post on the site before I move it to a new server. Things may go a little wrong for a few days, things may not…we’ll see!
During a quick tea break I bring you this…our driveway as activity takes places to connect us to gas.
Just have to wait another week to have the cooker, hot water & central heating set-up…
I’ve been waiting for this to appear on YouTube since it came out. The “…and you could do with an external hard drive!” refrain at around 14 seconds is genius in its Carry On-esque non-entendre. And then there’s the dad’s face at the end…
Although no fan of PC World or (usually) its ads - this is fighting the Gorilla for ad of the year!
I may well have her as my ringtone…
Articles such as this one, which highlight benefit fraud by immigrant Polish workers, really annoy me.
Apparently the piece accompanies a 5Live broadcast tonight which highlights the issue.
Why are there no such programs about the number of UK-citizens ripping off the system, because I’m sure they cost the system at least as much money each year. All this does is play into the hands of The Daily Bigot and their ilk.
I suppose “Some people claim illegal benefits” doesn’t make such an impact in the headlines, but that shouldn’t be a reason for writing a story.
Goodbye Jose Mourinho, I’ll miss you.
It’s English football’s loss, and Match Of The Day won’t be the same.
Roman Abramovich will realise his mistake now you’re gone. We know what you meant about eggs…
Come back soon!
I’ve just listened to the CAR Magazine podcast interview of the Jaguar XF designer Ian Callum. Readers were invited to ask questions about the design and some of them would be put to Callum. So I asked about the lack of concrete visual links to Jaguar’s design heritage. I mentioned that Chris Bangle had kept a few old design traits when he revolutionised BMW design, and that that worked because he wasn’t throwing the baby out with the bathwater - as I feel that Ian Callum has done with the XF. And they asked him my question!
His answer was that you could see clues around the DLO (day light opening - side window shape) and in the surface of the headlamps, but the XF was more about recreating the true values of Jaguar design rather than simply updating the old model. Jaguar’s should be beautiful cars, and that’s what the XF is.
I’m not so sure about that myself. I wouldn’t call it beautiful myself and it doesn’t say Jaguar to me at all either in detail or overall design values. Still, he said in answer to another question that we ought to wait and see it in the metal before we judge it completely - I will do just that.
One final thing. I have been quoted in the press (local papers & various car magazine letters pages - impressive eh?) a number of times and more often that not my name is given as Karl Hardy. It was again in this podcast. I typed an N, it wasn’t my handwriting. It’s an N! It’s Handy! When I read my name ina a paper or hear my name in a podcast I’d like to be called Handy please! It’s just being lazy to presume otherwise. That is all…
I’ve got to stop working for a moment and go downstairs for a drink. I need to compose myself. I never think it’s going to happen, but when I’m sat quietly working or reading or whatever and I’m listening to ABBA’s last album The Visitors I end up crying.
It’s the last two tracks, Slipping Through My Fingers and Like An Angel Passing Through My Room. They get me every time. The words, the music, the way they’re sung. Quite unlike the songs ABBA are famous for, these are two of my favourite songs from any artist. I’d go so far as to say they’re beautiful…
The time spent in the garden on Sunday involved me trying to rid the gravelled area of brambles. I may end up feeling like Canute, because brambles are not a plant that takes being got rid of lying down, but I had to do something because they were taking over a large part of the garden and the trailing branches were going over next-door’s fence.
Here’s the evidence of my labours, with before at the top and after at the bottom…
It’s a slightly different camera angle but it is the same spot in the garden. Some of the trailing branches were 2-3 metres away, and I had to cut back most of the bush the brambles were in because they’d become one and the same. It’ll need another going over because I couldn’t find the secateurs to use on the fiddly bits, and there’s still a large multiple-root clump sticking through the under-gravel plastic which will recreate the problem if it’s not dealt with, but other than that I’m quite pleased with the job. And only two small scratches to!
I’d been told about this by Geoff at work, but saw it for the first time today. I think it would work a little better without the tag line at the beginning, but that’s just being picky. It’s inspired, odd, funny, and a blessed relief from most of the adverts today. The PC World External Hard Drive one runs it close (please someone put it on YouTube) but when the not-really-going-to-happen foolhandy.com Advert Awards are held at the end of 2007 this one will be close…
His website today.
I’ve just read that his five year old son was in the helicopter too. I know thousands of people die every day, and not due to an accident in a rich man’s toy. And I’m not about to join in with any “People’s Rally Driver” nonsense either. It’s not because he’s famous that I’m feeling the way I do, it’s because I know something about him. I know that his wife and daughter are grieving the loss of half their family right now, and it’s hard not to imagine yourself in such a situation and how you’d feel. If you sit down and think about all of the tragedies in the world this very day (I count 36 specifically mentioned untimely deaths on the BBC News home page alone - and that doesn’t include references to Darfur and Iraq) you’d never stop feeling. When something like this happens I can’t help but think about them all. Maybe it’s bad that it takes the death of a man I’ve never met and know only because I’ve marvelled at his skills to make me feel this way - but you can’t feel for everyone can you? Really. You’d never stop feeling. With the number of times I write it on this site it may come across as glib, but I really do mean it - it makes me realize… I send my condolences to Colin McRae’s wife and daughter, and to every other person who is grieving the loss of a loved one today. With them all in my head I’m going to go out in the sun and tend my garden and enjoy the world that we live in. Today. Here. Now. For me. For them. For us all.
There’s nothing more I can add.
Comment has been made on the fact that the last three posts here were about cars. I can only apologise, but that’s what the Frankfurt Motor Show does for a fan of the motor car.
Non-car related posts will follow but whilst you’re waiting please try and say “basically” and “literally” as little as possible, unless of course you’re going to fly in the face of current convention on TV, radio and the high street and use them correctly.
I’m far from being a word-fascist, and have of course been known to use the English language incorrectly, but we’re on the brink of a national epidemic in the UK and it’s up to us all to fight it. Good luck.
My dislike for VW is no secret, their cars and image being automotive magnolia.
Their latest advert for the Passat sums it up really. Why follow your whims and fantasies when you can be a smug dullard wanker and buy a Passat?
The tagline is “When all around are losing their heads, keep yours.”
PLEASE let me lose my head, PLEASE…
There will be posts here about things other than cars, but it is major European Motor Show time.
Here’s the Toyota iQ which is so cool my head has been turned. If ever I needed a city car…
So much better than the bland VW Up!
I’m an open top man, but my head can be turned by any type of car - I just couldn’t imagine owning them. I was quite excited by the scoop shots of the new Renault coupe, and whilst the reality is slightly less dramatic it’s still a fine looking car. Here’s the Renault Laguna coupe…
Also released recently is the Peugeot 308 RC Z, which is a concept apparently heading for production. I’m not an enormous fan of Peugeot’s current design direction (the 407 coupe is a Basking Shark) and from some angles this is a bit ungainly with its very long boot, but again it’s a very striking design…
Finally, this is from Kia - the Kee. It’s got some great detailing - the lights and side window shape in particular. It’s also got some nice surfacing. Very impressive, especially as it’s a Kia.
I hope they all make production is a form as close as possible to these forms. Not so I can dream of owning them, but so I can ogle them when I’m driving along with the roof down…
(All pictures from CAR Magazine - click on them for the accompanying story.)
Known as “The Bracket Fungus Desk”, “The Dead Fish Desk” and “The Far Too Tasteful For Karl Desk”, here is the lovely new desk that Dad fitted in the study this weekend.
Despite the limitations of my W880i’s camera you can make out the ‘floating’ design, three tierness, lovely wood and how right my new phone looks on it. I haven’t decided yet whether to have a set place for the Mac or just use in front of the PC as I did today, but it’s been great working at it today - such a pleasant working environment!
The desk was imagined by me and then created and fitted by Dad. My bit was very much easier… Thanks Dad!
I have been toying with the possibility of getting an iPod, so when I heard that Apple were releasing the iPod Touch I was eager to find out more. And now I know more I’m a bit disappointed…
Yes it’s lovely, and yes that means lovelier than the (newly re-christened) iPod Classic, but look at the stats :
iPod Touch : $399 and 16GB memory
iPod Classic : $349 and 160GB memory
I know one’s a flash drive and one’s physical so there’s a reason for that difference in memory size. I know that the Touch is based on the iPhone and has wi-fi and internet capability and that’s why it was going to be costly. I know that the Touch has that fantastic touch screen interface rather than a simple click wheel.
But.
It’s a device for playing music. Sure it does other things too and Apple is to be applauded for adding features that lift the iPod beyond being just a digital Walkman, but in the end it’s core function is playing music. The beauty of an iPod Classic is that you can store every song you’ll ever need (and much more besides) on one device you can take anywhere. That’s why I want one. So what is the point of the iPod Touch? It’s an iPhone without the phone bit. It’s $50 more for 10% of the storage capacity. It’s taking the reason for buying one an awful long way down the road away from rational towards purely emotional. I’m sure it’ll sell like hot cakes…
For me though sometimes lovely - even this lovely - isn’t enough…
If you count a day trip to Chamonix via the Mont-Blanc tunnel, last week’s holiday to France was my fifth visit to the country. The first couple weren’t spectacularly successful : a skiing trip during which I didn’t ski because the heights got the better of me, and a beach holiday with friends with whom I’ve subsequently had no contact in the fifteen years since our return. Then two years ago Helen & I popped over to Wissant (a lovely, unspoilt seaside town down the coast from Calais) for a few days, and I no longer viewed France as having it in for me when it came to holidays. This year we were heading off for a wedding in the Loire Valley, which I mentioned here and is described in detail by Helen here. It was to be my longest visit to France since the heady days of up-and-to-the-left abscesses in ‘92…
We caught the 2am P & O Ferry from Dover and promptly fell asleep. I drove to Dover, Helen drove from Calais, and barely awake we arrived in Rouen in time for a pain-au-chocolate for breakfast. After ruminating on Catholic France’s love of dramatic cathedrals and not being able to find the car in an underground car park we headed off to our first camp site in Le Bec-Hellouin, which has apparently recently been voted one of the most beautiful villages in France. The camp site was run by a lovely couple who directed us to our pitch on an electric bicycle and made us feel most welcome. The village itself was indeed beautiful, and we spent a time walking around the near-1000 year old Abbey for which it is most famous. We had a very expensive drink sat outside a local restaurant and enjoyed a wonderful conversation between an English father and his teenage son, during which the son was tempted to try Orangina. He was warned off it by the father who described it as “not as sweet as Fanta, and it’s got bits in. It’s a bit like orange juice and soda. It’s not sweet, it’s not like normal orange drinks” in the most negative tone of voice possible. For heaven’s sake, why bother going to France if you’re not going to try anything a bit different?! I felt like offering up one of the sugar cubes Helen had with her coffee in order to make sure it was sweet enough for the poor lad. Notably, the son sank the Orangina swiftly, but his younger brother wouldn’t touch his Coke because it had a slice of lemon in it…
Although we’d been cooking on our little gas stove, we decided to go out for a meal on our second night in the area. We looked at the map and decided to head to the town of Brionne, which we guessed would have places to eat which would not be as expensive as the places in Le Bec-Hellouin. The website seems to paint a vibrant picture of Brionne. Maybe it’s just that Thursday evening is the quiet time of the week when everyone recovers from being exciting, but Brionne was dead. Nowhere was open, no one was about. Hungry, and desperate for facilities, we headed off into the countryside in the rough direction of Pont-Authou in the hope of finding somewhere to eat.
Restaurant Madame Durand in Freneuse sur Risle doesn’t have its own website. It’s not at all that sort of place. If you’re in the area I recommend it wholeheartedly - it’s on the D130 roughly half way between Le Havre and Rouen (map here) and the picture below, although of excellent technical quality, totally fails to demonstrate how much like someone’s living room it is…
As we sat down we were given a bottle of local wine and some Cassis. Bread and a plate of anchovies and prawns followed, and fearing that my vegetarianism might spoil things a little Helen explained to them that I ate “no meat, chicken or fish”. The woman who had brought the wine over stared wide eyed and sucked her teeth, the other woman (we believe they were sisters) who was stood behind the open stove tops in the middle of the ‘living room’ looked at me in astonishment and in French even I could understand asked how, if I didn’t eat all that, had I got so fat! Much laughter ensued, from the three other guests too, and she assured us that they would sort something out for me. It was a set menu, and Helen found herself eating food she wouldn’t necessarily have chosen to, but which with one small exception was excellent. The anchovies and prawns were followed by home made pate and fois gras, left in their bowls on the table for Helen to help herself to. Then came the escargots and moules in a rich garlic sauce. Then came the duck which was very rare and not really to Helen’s liking - the one small dislike. I was supplied with vegetables, potatoes and salad for my main course, and then the cheese board arrived which again we were allowed to help ourselves to. Apple dumplings in a delicious berry sauce followed, with a bonus crepe for me whilst Helen caught up. Penultimately we were given blackcurrant sorbet with creme brulee ice cream. We were encouraged to splash home made Calvados on our deserts - with the bottle left on the table for us to help ourselves. Finally, Helen had a coffee and the Calvados was offered by way of a digestif - again for us to help ourselves to. Throw in the fact that the chef proudly proclaimed to our amazement that she was 75 and kept in shape by only eating cheese once a day and by not partaking of food after 3pm, that the (perfectly clean and appropriate) bathroom was also like a living room, that there was softcore French TV porn on in the background, and that the final bill came to just £50, and this seven course meal was the find of the holiday. If you’re in the area, make sure you go and visit - the restaurant we’d chosen in random desperation was a fantastic French experience.
I still have to write about the French roads and my desire for idleness, but that will have to wait until later in the week when I’ve not got work to do.
It’s the third of the month, and due to the wonders of Excel equations I’ve updated the scores on time!
Here they are, with August’s positions in brackets at the beginning and August’s scores in brackets afterwards - we’re all doing much better (to one degree or another) now the season in moving on and the table is looking more sensible.
(3) 1. Murph 827 (414)
(4) 2. Gay 731 (403)
(2) 3= Alex 713 (454)
(5) 3= Helen 713 (397)
(7) 5. Karl 708 (313)
(10) 6. Steve 690 (244)
(1) 7. Rob 681 (469)
(6) 8. Kimberley 675 (359)
(9) 9. Kyle 609 (293)
(8) 10. Alfie 552 (304)
(11) 11. Colin 429 (-47)
So there we are. Well done Murph for rising to the top but remember that the scores aren’t accumulative so within reason it’s possible, especially at this early part of the season, for positions to change considerably month-by-month.
The next update will appear here on the 3rd October…
I shall write my thoughts on our holiday to France in due course, but wanted to tell of the chateau which hosted the wedding. Chateau de Saint-Loup is in Saint-Loup Lamaire in the Loire Valley and is a fantastic place - perfect for a gloriously grand wedding weekend.
You can use the Google Map below to discover exactly where it is, and zoom out to see exactly why we drove in excess of 1200 miles during our French holiday.
More will follow including an astonishing meal of the sort you’d never find in Britain, a statement of praise for French roads, and musings on the path to idleness…