The Light From IKEA
As I said here, I bought a light and here it is installed by the front door.
IKEA Orgel Vreten Light
It looks good for something that cost just £20.47. It also uses three small SES bulbs. I got three in Sainsburys in Dalston for just £2.99 each. They were 8W Phillips Tornados.
I think that possibly the one from Selfridges may be more elegant, but at £75, it should be.
Sainsburys should be congratulated in pricing energy-saving bulbs at a competitive price. John Lewis are cheaper, but most retailers charge about £4 for this bulb. Especially, as you can buy tunsten bulbs for pound or two in the market next door.
Northumberland Park Station
I made a mistake to get off the 341 bus and take the train from Northumberland Park station.
It might better be called No Rthumberland Park, as it had no staff, no timetables on the wall, no train information indicators and no trains for an hour. I actually had to phone rail information on 08457484950 to find out when the next train would arrive. There was though a betting shop on the corner and one of London’s last level crossings inside the M25.
Eventually, a train did turn up and I went all the way to Stratford for interest, rather than a quick journey. I then took the North London line and a bus home. If I’d stayed on the 341 bus, I’d have been home thirty minutes earlier. I will travel from Tottenham Hale to Stratford again, as it gives good views of the Olympic site, HS1 and the train sheds for Eurostar and the fast trains to Kent from St. Pancras.
How To Get A Chair Home From IKEA on a 341 Bus
I went to IKEA today to see if they had any suitable lights. I did buy one and it might be suitable, but I’ve got to buy some bulbs first.
However, when I went to get the bus home, this chap was taking home a basket chair on the 341 bus, by sitting on it in the wheelchair space.
How To Carry a Basket Chair on a 341 Bus
I hope he got home without any trouble from Health and Safety. He seemed happy enough when I got off the bus at Northumberland Park.
Now Is The Time For All The Good To Come To The Aid of Universities
A friend and I recently gave some money to Liverpool University for pancreatic cancer research.
What we hadn’t realised was that as Liverpool University is in tier three of the government’s Matched Funding Scheme, this means that they add one pound for every three pounds raised. So if you say give £100, which with Gift Aid is actually £125 to the University, another £42 will be added. There are conditions and not all universities get a one to three topup.
Full details of the scheme are detailed here.
The scheme ends in July 2011, so if you are thinking about giving some money to a University, perhaps now is the time to do it!
Olympic Ticket Problems
I had no problems with getting my places in the Olympic auction for tickets. But then I reserved them three weeks ago.
When will people learn, that the deadline is not the day you actually do something? With the Internet, you can set transactions up early, so they happen at the right time!
People Look Different on the Radio
I’ve listened to Louise Perry many times on BBC Radio 5 doing the traffic reports and I suppose I had a picture of her in my mind.
But today she appeared on BBC Breakfast and if it wasn’t for her voice and the caption underneath, I wouldn’t have known it was her.
But as the late great Brian Redhead said, “If television had been invented first, radio would be the dominant medium, as the pictures are better.”
Melvin Bragg on the King James Bible
Melvin Bragg has just said on BBC Breakfast that the establishment was very much against publishing the bible in English, as then everybody could read it. He then said asomething like they thought it would destroy society and that there is still a view in the establishment that the general public shouldn’t know anything.
He also said that once the bible was in English, then everybody could discuss religion.
So did the King James bible break the superinjunction of its day?
Andrew Marr Comes Clean
Having watched Have I Got News For You and seen what Ian Hislop has said since Andrew Marr has come clean over the superinjunction, I think that he made his statement just in time. I think if Marr hadn’t broke his silence, it would have been all over the place within a week.
This always happens in the end, as someone makes a mistake or perhaps sadly one of the parties dies and then it gets published.
These privacy superinjunctions may have their place in some areas, like the protection of children But in many places they are just being used by indivduals and companies to hide wrong doing. Or should I say delay publication, as inevitably that’s what happens.
It would appear now that the tabloids are looking for the next person to come clean.
There is also a serious side to all this. Read this article in the Daily Mail. One person, who has found a serious health problem with paint, has even been prohibited from talking to his MP. It’s getting to be all very Kafka!
The Mail is also getting its claws into Fred the Shred in this article. At one time the injunction said that we couldn’t refer to him as a banker.
I’ve just typed his real name coupled with the w-word into Google. You get a lot of very funny articles.
Superinjunctions have now created this new game of Googling the Internet to find out the truth. You usually can! The google Toolbar is particularly useful, as it knows the common searches. Let’s say I’m a sportsman, who say has been associated with a Z-list celebrity, but I’ve taken out a super injunction to stop my wife finding out and divorcing me, thus relieving me of a lot of my money and half my salary, which would mean I’m unattractive to bimbos. If I continually type my name and that of the celebrity into Google, I can check that no stories are appearing. But all I’m doing is making it easier for people to find the association.
You can run, but you can’t hide.
London Is Heaving
There must be something going on in London later in the week.
I was trying to locate some lights for my hall, so I decided to take the Underground to Warren Street and then walk to Selfridges by way of Habitat, Heals, John Lewis and Marks and Spencer.
A couple of years ago I bought some bedside lights from John Lewis, that are touch on and touch off. I would show you a link to their web site, but they are not there, although they were in the Oxford Street store. Here’s a picture of the bedside light.
John Lewis Touchable Table Lamp
They work well and what I want is three tall ones, so that I can place them at strategic points in my hall. And as I walk past in the dark, they will automatically switch on, when I touch them.
In fact, you can play lots of games with this type of concept. Perhaps, when you are out or it is pitch dark, they should switch on and they could text my mobile phone to say that someone was about.
The possibilities of this sort of technology are endless. The text message facility could even be used to locate where you have put your mobile phone. I once had an e-mail from a friend, asking to call his mobile phone, as he’d left it somewhere in his house and couldn’t find it. Like many these days he didn’t have a landline. He does now!
I finally found an elegant tall lamp in Selfridges, but why are there so few?
I can’t be the only person, who when they enter their house in the dark, doesn’t have a light in the hall, that is close to hand. But I have a space between the door and the wall, where I could put such a light.
A Space for a Tall Lamp
Ideally it would be touchable, but a foot switch would be an alternative. Note the switches on the wall. They are for the outside lights, or at least I can’t get them to work any others. At least, I’ve got a suitable powerpoint, but note the cracked plaster above it. Jerry’s electrician didn’t have a clue.
You might argue, why I don’t have a light in the hall? Jerry didn’t put one in to save money and to put one in would mean trunking all over the place as the ceiling is a concrete slab. Wall lights are so naff! And yes, I’ve got lots of really hideous ones, probably bought in some bastion of good design like Fred’s El-Cheapo Lighting Emporium in Dalston Market. Don’t knock that market, as I think, Lord Sugar started his business careeer there.
The trip wasn’t helped by the fact that London seemed to have many more people about than normal. To make matters worse there were lots of smokers lining up outside the shops having a cough and a drag. Some were even sitting on the floor, creating more unseen hazards for people with limited vision. I did think about deliberately falling over a particular well-upholstered couple dragging away with one hand and eating a burger with the other but I decided against it, as I would have hated to have contact with such an awful pair of individuals.
Let’s hope that London gets a little bit less busy as the week goes on. I have a lot of shopping to do!
The Anonymous Widower 