A Stroke Of Genius
As I walked through the centre of Birmingham, I came across a very crowded square.
It was Genius giving out free gluten-free toasted sandwiches.
What a good marketing idea!
I don’t actually eat Genius bread any more as my local Waitrose doesn’t stock it and I do like Marks and Spencer’s new gluten free breads. They also keep longer in the bread bin!
There’s a gluten-free bread war out thereand the only beneficiaries will be those like me, who have or wish to avoid gluten.
The Trams Are Arriving At Birmingham New Street
This picture was the best I could take, which shows the work on the Midland Metro to bring it to Birmingham New Street station.
The Trams Are Arriving At Birmingham New Street
It is scheduled to open in 2015 and will eventually go on to the Town Hall and Centenary Square in 2017.
There is also news today, that the operator will make a decision, whether to order more Spanish-built trams by the end of the year.
Bad Sign Layout At Piccadilly Circus
It’s not often that the London Underground gets its signage wrong.
Bad Sign Layout At Piccadilly Circus
But they have here, as you can’t see the train indicator, as it’s positioned behind the Way Out sign!
How Chemistry Overcame Politics
I sometimes describe myself as an engineer/scientist, despite the fact that I made most of my money by programming computers.
So this morning, this article entitled Thatcher and Hodgkin: How chemistry overcame politics, on the BBC’s web site caught my eye. Here’s the introduction.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dorothy Hodgkin’s Nobel Prize, a play – The Chemistry Between Them – has been written, looking at her friendship with Margaret Thatcher. Its creator Adam Ganz describes their ongoing mutual respect.
Whether you love or hate Margaret Thatcher, you must read the article about the relationship between two of the most influential British women of the twentieth century. There is this significant paragraph.
It’s a peculiar fact that the UK’s Margaret Thatcher and Germany’s Angela Merkel both studied science at university, yet no male leader of either country has had a science degree.
Is the lack of scientific knowledge amongst world leaders the reason, why the world is in such a mess?
I shall be listening to the play on Radio 4.
As regards the play, I can’t think of a serious play or film, with the exception of The Killing of Sister George and Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?, that has two female leads and no significant male parts.
A Bank To Avoid
After lunch with a friend in Hampstead, she needed to pay in some cheques to her account. So she walked into this bank.
A Bank To Avoid
We must have been in there about half an hour.
An automated machine managed to eat my friend’s cheques and only after emptying the machine and going to the counter, was she able to get a human to accept her cheques.
I don’t think I’ll be moving my account to this bank.
As we walked up the road to the Underground, I advised my friend to put her £2 12s. 9p. somewhere more customer friendly, like the First National Bank of Ferguson.
What Do They Mean By An Organic Pharmacy?
I passed this shop in Hampstead today.
The Organic Pharmacy
But what do they mean by an organic pharmacy?
Does it mean that all products sold, have come from an organic agricultural or horticultural route?
Or does it mean that it only sells organic compounds? This is Wikipedia’s first paragraph.
An organic compound is any member of a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds such as carbides, carbonates, simple oxides of carbon (such as CO and CO2), and cyanides are considered inorganic.[1] The distinction between organic and inorganic carbon compounds, while “useful in organizing the vast subject of chemistry… is somewhat arbitrary.
So surely as some important things you buy in a pharmacy like soap are inorganic compounds, if it’s the second definition, you have a problem about what you can buy there. You could certainly buy Vaseline there, as it’s petroleum jelly and petrol is a hydrocarbon, which makes it organic.
I think I’ll march to Boots!
An Interesting Take On Air Miles
I bought two of these little boxes in Waitrose, so I can use them for the second chop, burger, fish or steak, that I have to buy when creating a delicious and nutritious meal for one. My freezer is half full with all this unused food.
The interesting thing is that they were made in New Zealand, so if I put them in the fridge upside down, they might save space as well.
I think it’s the first time, I’ve ever bought anything that was manufactured as opposed to grown in New Zealand.
Was it air-freighted from New Zealand with the lid closed?
If it was, it gives a whole new meaning to the subject of Air Miles!
And also when I opened it for the first time, did it release a whole container full of fresh Antipodean air into my house?
The latter might apply even if it came by sea!
A comedian could generate a whole routine around this simple container.
Is It Really Necessary To Send Out One Of These With Every Holiday?
I got this from the holiday company who arranged my trip to Iceland.
I have loads, so if anybody wants it, just send me your address and I’ll put it in the post.
No wonder holidays are expensive, if agents sent this sort of junk every time.
J And C Reunited In My Kitchen
I needed a few more mugs and just had to buy these when I saw them in Marks and Spencer.
J And C Reunited In My Kitchen
But I did have to buy them on-line, as they seem to be two of the rarer letters.
I’m reminded of a story from my past.
I was working for ICI at Runcorn and I’d designed and built an instrument to measure water in a particular chemical stream. It needed to be fitted and wired into the plant in their Rocksavage works. I was told to arrange the fitting with Charlie Akers, who was the senior electrician on the plant. I turned up one morning at the electrical workshop in the plant and Charlie gave me a tour, which showed me all the dangers and how to do basic things to avoid getting into trouble. To this day, when I’m climbing metal staircases and ladders, I still do it in the way that Charlie showed me, to avoid getting nasty chemicals or dirt on my hands.
Charlie then took me back to their workshop and then proceeded to pull a new white mug out of a box of about a couple of dozen and then with a small brush put my name on it. He then said that now, I’d had no excuse to not come here to have a cup of tea before going on the plant, as no-one wanted any accidents.
It was this attention to detail about Health and Safety that was the reason that Rocksavage Works had at the time, the best accident record in ICI.
A couple of years ago, when I went over SELCHP, one of the guides had noticed me climbing some metal stairs and asked if I’d ever worked in plants like that.
After all I’ve been through, Charlie’s lesson is still imprinted in my brain.
Should I Put A Camera In My Bathroom?
My bath, which is on the ground floor, takes about thirteen minutes to fill and usually I time it by the clock on the BBC Breakfast News.
I’ve had the odd overfilling problem, but normally it’s spot on!
I did think about putting a camera there so I could watch it fill from upstairs, where I normally sit, whilst it was filling.
But such a camera, might make guests think, I had a dark side!
On the other hand, it would certainly make filling a bath easier, but it wouldn’t be as good as the self-filling bath, I proposed earlier.
I wonder whether and if so where I can get an Internet enabled load cell?
It would be wonderful to click a button on my computer screen and then a few minutes later be told that my bath was full.
January 2015 Update – As the television is now working properly and I generally have a bath during BBC Breakfast, I now have a reliable clock in my bathroom.
The Anonymous Widower 