Halloween pictures

Bought these lanterns in London Paddington Railway Station last night. I put them in the giant crock covered with shells and pebbles my parents gathered from the beach that my Uncle Joe made.

It's not a good picture.

Below is my coffee this morning. In a mug made at the Rye pottery that I took from my Aunt Lily's place.

Also, my spider candle behind it and a few small lanterns I took off the boughs I bought because they were hidden in the pot.

Monday lunchtime

Today was the first time I'd had the "mature cheddar" baguette at EAT. for about two years, possibly longer.

It seemed improved by the fact that it was on some type of granary/whole grain bread and was not slathered with branston pickle, but has a chili pepper jam on it instead.

Under cover of dark: falling back

Walked over to Lambeth today to get some saltine crackers at a Portuguese shop -- impossible to find these elsewhere, and one thing I really have missed over the years living in London.

The gloomy, grey weather continued today, worsened by the shorter day.

listen to ‘Under cover of dark: falling back’ on Audioboo

Below are some pictures I took with my BlackBerry on my walk, which took about an hour each way.

What I served for dinner tonight.

I served boiled potatoes, asparagus, tinned corn and shrimp with garlic and chili pepper for the main course tonight.

Beforehand, I served three kinds of cheese, radishes, celery, hummus and crackers.

I served chocolate truffles, ginger cookies and strawberries for dessert.

We drank red wine and had stove-top espresso.

I had intended to make soup but couldn't get organised early enough to do it.

I thought it was time to update my blog with a few pictures of my flat. I hadn't posted any since 2009 shortly after I moved here.

Spider candle

Is out for Hallowe'en

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Southwark Cathedral

From Borough Market
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Good morning owl

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Blackfriars Bridge drinking fountain

Here is a picture of a Victorian drinking fountain taken on September 30, 2012. The sculpture is of Temperance.

I think it was raining when I took this picture.

Mysterious boiler switch

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

A single shade of grey

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Ironmonger Lane

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Gloomiest

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Still blah

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Stained glass giants

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Fog and gloom from Southwark Bridge

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Stone girl (s)

My first #hackathon via #ADN

 

I've been to a few tech shows, including LeWeb in Paris and the London Web Summit, but I've never attended a hackathon because I've never been invited to one.

I crashed the App.net (ADN) hackathon this evening. 

There was no central project being undertaken by the developers participating in the hackathon, instead they were working either alone or in small groups on creating or improving their own ADN apps for use on the networking site.

I was amazed that watching a room full of people -- I'm 99.9 percent certain they were all men -- working on MacBook Pro (MBP) laptops at the ADN hackathon @storify headquarters in San Francisco was quite -- dare I say -- zen-like? 

Much better than most of the films available on Netflix IMHO.

A group of ADN people gathered in the "#Patter Peanut Gallery" to chat and observe proceedings at the hackathon as they were streamed live via Ustream  -- At first those of us who weren't in San Francisco tried to figure out who everyone was at the Hackathon. We were trying to put faces to ADN handles and avatars.

Fortunately @orian, who was at the hackathon, took pity on us and helped us identify people. @teawithcarl gave us a talk on a whole range of subjects, including his thoughts on the semantic web and redundancy.

"It's going to be one 'Star Trek' database," @teawithcarl said, referring to a utopian future where online services aren't duplicated.

Unfortunately, at around the time @teawithcarl was sharing his ideas, the stream, which was periodically interrupted by advertisements, lack of audio or a frozen image, completely died.

We switched over to a Google Plus (G+) Hangout, which was started by @po -- at first only @po and I were in it, so we left and went back to the #Patter Peanut Gallery.

Then @po started another G+ hangout and more people joined.

It was fantastic to meet @trine @jdscolam @tonymillion @berg @ajmckee @adrianus.

Unfortunately, @sham, who was central to organising the #patter chat, couldn't really join the G+ hangout as he was without a microphone or webcam -- neither could @Indigo because she doesn't have a G+ account.

@duerig and @q, who had helped set up the original live stream, were in their own #patter room, working on something -- not sure what. I lurked in their room a bit, but couldn't figure it out. [Please see below for an update about what they were doing.]

Meanwhile @kosso tried to set up a video stream via G+, which seems to have worked for a while.

Although the event was held @Storify HQ, apparently no one has yet Storified it.

NB***After I published this blog, @duerig told me that he, @ryantharp and @q were working on a system whereby people can post a YouTube song on ADN with the hashtag #jukebox and it will play automatically, becoming part of a stream of songs.

Visiting http://vidcast-app.net allows users to create a stream event that others can join. If users want to try "jukebox mode", which will play the tunes as if by an automated DJ, they can visit http://vidcast-app.net/view and the feed will play YouTube links with the #jukebox hashtag.

Other related posts:

Being @po

Patter of tiny feet, lulz in App.net 3rd dimension

App.net: User utopia? 
Posting a picture from BlackBerry to Shrtmsg.com, app.net

Horsham history

I sent this hasty message to my father on Saturday. 

From: Me

To: Dad

Subject: Horsham
Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2012 13:43:28 +0000
En route to Horsham and can't remember what places to look for -- there's the street where the pic is taken and then a pub he went to, but not sure where ...Julie xo

I had decided to go to Horsham in West Sussex to see where my Canadian grandfather, Harry Mollins, was stationed during World War One before being deployed to the battlefields of France, where he fought in the Battle of Vimy Ridge, among others. The weather was very touch-and-go and I didn't get out until quite late in the day, so I decided this would be the day I would go to Horsham.

My father has Harry's war diaries, so we know a fair amount about what he did in Horsham, although he died when my father was 14 -- and long before I was born.

He kept small leather-bound diaries for three years during the war. We don't know what happened to the fourth -- if it was lost or destroyed, but we assume he had kept one because he did so all throughout his life. 

My father transcribed all the diaries and visited Horsham in 2000 with my mother.

My sister summarized my grandfather's Horsham experience on her blog, and I have summarized her summary and posted some of the pictures I took today :)

Harry trained at Roffey just outside Horsham until April 12, 1916. 

He wrote in his diaries about the rain, physical drills, letter-writing and waiting to receive letters, attending church, reading books, and a social life that included teas, theatre, dates, musical evenings, skating and cycling.

This photo is of Harry Mollins (far right), Harry and Fred Fownes (we think) also from his hometown of Moncton, New Brunswick, and an unidentified friend on rented bikes in Horsham.

My father replied to my email:

From: Dad
Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2012 02:27 PM
To: Me 
Subject: RE: Horsham
 

JGM:
The only other thing we can think of was the King's Head Hotel, but your Mum understands that it no longer exists. 
   He took singing lessons nearby and I'll send the teacher's name if I can find it.

   Also this I wrote for a diary report:
    

Before facing those life-threatening actions across the English Channel, Harry spent happier times during recesses from combat training in southeast England and in days off up in London or down in Hastings.

During his training time in southeast England, in a camp on the outskirts of the Sussex County town of Horsham, Harry also spent hours polishing his powerful baritone singing skills. He took lessons from a lady in town.

And on a pass of 12 hours or longer, he occasionally, as his diary puts it: "picked up a girl for the fun of it."  

At times, he would also treat himself in a local hotel. 

[About 80 years later, son Carl and his wife Joan on a trip to Horsham visited that hotel, donated to the owner copies of Dad's diary references to the pleasing place--and that turned out to make our meal free.]

I took the picture above of the King's Head Hotel -- where he stayed -- which is now an Ask Italian restaurant.

My father followed up with a second email:

From: Dad

Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2012 03:09 PM 

To: Me

Subject: RE: Horsham

Also, from your Mum's diary and memory, on our visit in March, 2000, to Horsham we met a citizen living near the place on the road where Dad and pals were photoed on Clarence Road. Mum sez they were interested in the history of their neighbourhood. We gave them copies of the photos. Mum also mentions our interest in pleasant local church, St. Mary's, dating from 1247 -- so now 765 years old.

As well, a theatre where Dad went. now an Arts Centre.

Here is another picture I took:

And apropos of nothing

 It was actually quite a hike around town and out of town to Roffey. I know why they rented bicycles. I managed to catch a bus from Roffey to the Horsham Railway Station. 

From there I took a train bound for London Victoria to Three Bridges and changed to one that would take me to London Blackfriars instead.

listen to ‘Horsham where my grandfather was stationed in WWI’ on Audioboo