A Fabulous Building! Shame About The Art!
These pictures show the quality of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
Unfortunately, it had a collection of the most indulgent and useless art I’ve ever seen.
Except of course for the marvellous Puppy. But you don’t need to go in to see that.
That was the only art with any colour, except grey and brown.
One whole floor was given over to enormous curved steel structures. They would have been so much better in a public space, rather than hidden in a museum.
But the worst piece, was a slide carousel showing continuous images on the wall. All of the slides were blank. If that’s art, I’m a Chinaman!
I would advise visiting the museum on a fine, sunny Monday, as I did.As then, the museum is closed and you can just enjoy the building, the Puppy and their setting.
Grooming The Puppy
Puppy is an artwork by Jeff Koons outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
As it was Monday and the museum was closed, the puppy was being spruced up a bit.
One Down To BT Sport
A friend, who has Sky, missed his team; Sheffield United. win the FA Cup today, as the match was on BT Sport.
All of these channels must get their act together, so we can all watch our favourite sport.
It would be nice if all matches were available through the Internet on a dedicated UK Football portal. But that would probably be illegal under EU Law.
But then what does the EU know about football and technology?
Looking For Some Brass Knobs
I have lots of these IKEA Expedit drawers and cupboards.
IKEA Expedit Drawer
As my house has chocolate brown steel beams with brass details, I’d like to replace these knobs with brass ones of a similar form.
Does anybody know someone, who could anodise me about four dozen in brass?
Why I’m Unlikely To Shop At Ocado!
Yesterday, I looked at Ocado, as a source of Celia gluten free beer.
All I did was look at the site and now every other site I look at shows me an Ocado advert.
So if they are going to hassle me, they can go and park their vans in the Thames
High Buildings And High Winds
This tragic story from Leeds about high winds round a high building is a cautionary tale.
All too often we don’t fully test a building’s affect on the environment properly, before it is actually built. Look at the problems of the Walkie-Talkie in the sun.
I tend to not linger in the bus station at London Bridge, as sometimes the downdraught from The Shard is more than too much for me.
The only thing that would make architects think more, is if one of these troublesome buildings had to be demolished.
nPower Says Sorry
I’m leaving nPower after three years to go to OVO Energy. This is mainly because I want to try out one of these new energy suppliers and see how easy it is to swap from one supplier to another.
I will save myself just over a hundred pounds a year, although the price changes announced by the Government may mean that this figure changes.
Today though, I received an apology from nPower for bad service. Here’s the start of it.
We look after 5.4 million customer accounts in the UK. Our aim is to make sure everyone has the best possible experience as an npower customer.
However, we’ve let many of you down recently in the overall levels of customer service we’ve been providing. We apologise unreservedly. We promise that if you have been impacted by the billing system problems we’ve had, you will not lose out financially as a direct result.
It goes on to give a good explanation of their problems.
I should say though, that I’ve not had one negative issue with the company.
So even if prices aren’t as low as we’d like, the customer service of one of the Big Six power companies is doing things properly.
I’ve Finally Got A Washing Machine In A Convenient Place
Ever since I’ve lived in this house, the washing machine has been perched on a crude shelf beside the boiler. You can get a glimpse of the installation here. It was impossible to get anything in or out of it without giving yourself a bang on the head or getting your hand trapped in the cupboard door.
So now the washing machine is in the garage and my excellent plumber has threaded the pipework through the floor.
Note the Sanivite to pump the water away. What surprised me about this device, was that it will pump grey water five metres vertically and fifty metres horizontally. So it might be ideal, if you want to put a sink in the shed at the bottom of the garden! Other devices from the same company, will cope with toilets!
One good thing was that the plumber found that the infamous Jerry had installed the underfloor heating correctly.
Obviously, I do have a scar in the tiling after the installation, but when the hall is finished, it will be carpeted.
A Silly Mistake Whilst Shopping
I needed to buy something from a well-known company.
However, because what I wanted was a little off the web site, in that I needed a special part, I ordered it by telephone.
The money was deducted from my credit card and I knew delivery would take a couple of weeks.
Yesterday, as I still hadn’t had the product, I phoned the company and they said the courier had been unable to deliver my goods.
It then turned out that two digits in my address had been reversed in the address used in their computer system. But the credit card details had obviously been entered correctly.
This to me says, that companies need to get their on-line businesses as comprehensive as possible.
For instance, with this special order, they need a form, where you enter your details and your requirements, so hopefully these go straight into the company’s system. Even, if it’s just a cut and paste.
Is Now The Time To Visit Chernobyl?
Chernobyl isn’t that dangerous a place to visit, unless you go very close. Especially, if you go on a properly organised tour.
Today, the BBC web site has a report on the construction of the steel umbrella to go over the reactor.
I’ve looked up tours to Chernobyl and it would appear they run daily from Kiev according to this web page.
So an ideal itinerary would be to fly to Odessa to see the Potemkin Steps and the Black Sea coast.
Then it would be a train to Kiev and after Kiev and Chernobyl, it would be a series of trains home, by way of Warsaw and Berlin.
If anybody fancies the trip, just put a comment here.
Only those with a serious love of travel, trains and engineering need apply. Being slightly off your trolley might be a good idea too!
The Anonymous Widower 