Ports Thoughts

Obviously, probably like you, I spend a lot of my time surfing web sites in The Lebanon. Well OK - that might not be true. But it might be about to change, because our top mate Lisa who lives in Beruit has started to journal her extraordinary life here . You would be a fool not to track Lisa's wonderful world. Expect teething troubles to start off with, then expect erudite analyses of the world and an unhealthy regard for karaoke.

Ali and I got back from a Pub quiz tonight to find that both our cars were covered in snow. So we had a late night snowball fight. Wicked. Obviously this picture is posed. Ali is really a dead shot with the snow ball. Ouch.

Last night the BBC promised that there would be loads of snow in the Midlands. Early this morning I had to drive from London to Lichfield which being just North of Birmingham couldn't be more Midlands if it tried. Cue Midlands joke: A guy goes to a job interview in Birmingham wearing a flowery shirt, flared jeans and platform shoes. "All you need now is a Kipper Tie", quips the prospective employer "Ta very much mate, two sugars", responds our hapless hero. Anyway, back to the snow. I like snow. In fact I love snow. It puts me in a happy Narnia kind of Christmas mood. As I drove up from London the radio informed me of the blizzard going on in the Midlands. As I got off the M1 onto the M6, the rain gradually turned into sleet. And then as I carried on oop North - it just stayed like that. I hate sleet. It puts me in a miserable cold kind of crap mood. No snowman for me :-( Fortunately, the customer meeting I had was very enjoyable as I explained to the IT Directo...

It's a funny thing, if England is playing in a tournament like the World Cup and they crash out (as usual in the semi's) most English fans will start rooting for any of the other British team that are still in the competition. Be it Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland or Wales. However, when our British cousins see their team knocked out they seem to support whoever is playing against England. What makes me ponder this? Well over the next two days four English Premiership sides are playing in the Champions League, Arsenal and Liverpool tonight and Man Utd and Chealski tomorrow evening. Having supported United for 30 years, I clearly demand that they win the Cup. And yet I'm currently watching Arsenal give Bayern Munich a run for their money and I can't help rooting for United's arch nemesis, even though they have just lost a second goal due to awful defending. But a combination of being the underdogs (now they are 2 goals down) and being Brits mean they get my suppo...

I was distressed to discover that my good friend Woody had been burgled a couple of days ago and during the course of the dastardly event his lovely dog Izzy had gone missing. I won't go into the debate about what should be done to scum who burgle people houses, breaking their trust in the overwhelming goodness of most people and making folks feel uncomfortable in their own home. That is too big and serious a debate to be held by angry people and cooler heads must prevail. But as Woody himself wrote in his Web Log entry on the topic, material stuff can always be replaced, but members of the family (two legged or four pawed) cannot. So it is with great joy that I heard today that Izzy has been found and that she is healthy and well. Welcome home girl.

I was overjoyed today to discover that my local supermarket has now adopted Chip and Pin. This is the system whereby you type in a ATM style number to authenticate your card rather than signing your autograph. They have been doing this for years in the States so it is a bit of a surprise that it has taken so long for Blighty to catch up. And can you remember the last time you signed your signature and the assistant actually checked if it was the same as your card? I can't. This really suits me because my scrawled mark seems to be very different every time I write it, especially when they ask you to sign in a really small space (e.g. back of a credit card) or they give you a fat felt tip pen and expect your signature to be the same as using a Mont Blanc fine ink pen. So imagine my chagrin when I got to the check out of the next shop and realised that the till monkey in the supermarket had forgotten to give me my card back and that in my high tech revery, as I skipped back to my car,...

So I'm making a flying visit to Scotland tomorrow to remind a University why Lotus Notes is the collaborative solution of choice. But unusually for me, I do have a critisism of Notes - or more specifically Scottish bank notes. To put it plainly, they are rubbish. Whilst Scottish folks are perfectly happy to accept English notes in Scotland, you trying spending Scottish notes in England. More specifically in South West London. Last time I presented one in my local pub the landlord said he would normally not accept them because as far as he is concerned, "they may as well be Monopoly money". In fairness to him he did accept it due to my honest face and fine standing in the community (or more likely because he knew where I lived if it was forged). I'm saving trying to spend real Monopoly money there until I'm really desperate. Anyway - the point is that now 12 European countries, with numerous languages and cultures, can share a single set of transferable bank notes...

So following the awesome Losers gig, I had an excellent day on Friday. I met with a business partner at IBM's South Bank office and we spend a good 3 hours setting the world to rights. Between us we had over 20 years of Lotus experience so we were very much on the same wavelength. And it is very nice when a business meeting begins with you being wished Happy Birthday. That night I had a great Birthday bash. A dozen or so friends came round to our house and drank stupid amounts, listened to cheezy music and ate a wicked chilli that Ali had cooked. Perfect. The next day my twin sister Ginny and my eldest sister Sue, brother in law Kev and nephew Jonny came round. Not a normal event because Sue, Kev and Jonny live in Leeds which is 230 miles away - but they had been down in London for the weekend. It was great to catch up with them even though I had forgotten to buy Ginny a present. I was made to look even more thoughtless when Ali came in with a present for Ginny. Doh! The next night...

Happy Birthday to me Happy Birthday to me Happy Birthday to me - ee Happy Birthday to me Since the witching hour has now passed, I am now 37 years old (I know, mother nature has been kind :-). That being said, I know that I was actually born about midday. How do I know this? Because my lovely mum was really aggrieved that she missed her Sunday lunch because me and my twin sister Ginny decided to arrive just as she was getting ready for her Beef and Yorkshire Puds. I should point out that even though me and my twin sister were notially born at the same time - I was first by 10 minutes. So twin or not - I'm the eldest (and any other twins out there will know that this distinction is really important) And what an excellent night to welcome in my Birthday. The Beautiful Losers gig was magnificent. It was sold out and the atmosphere was amazing. They are playing the Borderline in March. Check them out - they will be Huge. And the band will be at my birthday party later today/tonight - ...

I had a brilliant meeting today with a UK national newspaper company who are using Lotus Notes Release 5. This has been out for about 6 years so is beginning to show it's age and Lotus have done loads of work to it in later releases. So I was demonstrating the new features in the current Notes 6.5 release, Domino Web Access and Sametime integration. Every time I showed a new feature, the senior managers were looking over to the Domino Admin guy saying "I want that now". I started to feel a little sorry for the guy as I was creating him more and more work as I went on. Still, it was nice to see the look of relief on his face as I showed them what was coming in Notes/Domino 7 and when the managers predictably asked to have it now I told them that they would have to wait because it won't be released until summer. (By the way - if you don't get the joke from the picture then check http://www.littlebritain.tv/characters_andy_lou.htm for a rather literal explana...

My top mates Neil and Al have a band called The Beautiful Losers and they are playing a gig at the Halfmoon in Putney, London on Thursday evening (10th Feb). They are very good. They even have an album out. It's called " High in the Tall Grass " and you can check it out here or you can get the details here . Doors open at 8:30pm and the Losers who are headlining are on at about 10pm. They are supported by bands called Society and KITT. So that is a pretty good night out for 4 quid. So if you are at a lose end it would be great to see you there.

Some folks choose to access Web Logs using a news reader or some such RSS/Atom reader. This is quite a good idea because it means you can see new Log entries appearing in the client much like receiving new email. This will prevent the gut wrenching disappointment of surfing to Ports Thoughts only to find there are no new entries :( To access the feed click on the icon on the left sidebar and all will be revealed. If you are looking out for a reader then http://www.feeddemon.com/feeddemon/index.asp is very good. If all of this sounds to you like it makes about as much sense as handbags for camels then just ignore it. It isn't important.

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This is our lovely 4 year old God daughter Milly sitting on the equally lovely Ali when she came over to visit last week with Si and Sally her mum and dad. This is the same Milly dancing to Hayseed Dixie playing a Bluegrass version of Motorhead's the Ace of Spades (really :-) [if you do bother to click the link then you are going to have to wait - it is about 17MB - but it is worth the wait]. If you don't have broadband you might have to go and make a cup of coffee - it will take a while. But we (Marcus, Ellen, Al, Lynne, Tom, Laura, Ali and Me) are going to see them next weekend at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. It should be great. Milly solves the worlds problems on a Thinkpad (She's certainly not just watching Pingu on DVD, oh no :-) And it certainly isn't the new Pingu Snowboarding video. Ahem. Well maybe...

First of all, a big thanks from Ali and myself to all our lovely friends who have been in touch to share their thoughts about Ben passing away. It is really nice to know that so many folks loved and will miss the little fella. Also to my many colleagues who have expressed their sincere condolences. My friend and colleague Derek wrote "...Sorry to hear about your cat, people trivialize the loss of a pet, at least those that never had one do...". I know that it's really hard for folks who have never lived with a pet to understand that they really become a part of the family and their passing is a bereavement just like any other. Mentioning Derek as a friend and colleague makes me worry. I read so many Web Logs that refer to "my friend and colleague" that I think perhaps it is a waste of bandwidth. So may I suggest that folks who you work with but are also friends should from now on be called Frolleagues. It just saves space. Whilst I'm handing out the gongs, m...

This is a very sad day for me and my wife Ali. Our beloved cat, Ben, passed away quietly in his sleep last night. He was nearly 18 years old so he was a bit of an old timer. We are pleased that he passed quickly and didn't suffer. In fact he was sitting on my lap last night purring as we watched United beat Arsenal together. He could be a bit of a grouch sometimes and he did like a good moan when we wouldn't let him share our Sunday roast, but overall he was a happy, funny and good natured little fella and we will miss him very much. Tonight, we opened a bottle of Moet & Chandon Champagne and drank a toast to his memory. We then went through 18 years worth of photos finding all the pictures of Ben we had ever taken. It may seem like it would be a bit maudlin but in fact it was lovely to remember back to what a happy life he had led. So here are a few pictures of Ben from over the years, from when he was a tiny little sprout to just a few weeks ago. A couple of them fe...

Ok - so I got it a bit wrong. Rooney didn't score and Lehmann wasn't in goal for the Arse (it was Manuel Almunia), though Rooney did hit the woodwork. But 2 goals for Ronaldo and one each for Giggs and O'Shea means that United opened a serious can of whoop ass on Arsenal. In fairness (not something you hear from Gooners very often) Arsenal were the better side in the first half, but in the second half United were rampant, despite losing Silvestre (quite correctly - headbutting is just not on) to go down to 10 men. Isn't it strange that teams that go down to 10 men so often beat 11? With teams of the quality of Arsenal and Man U, you would have thought that they would take the advantge of a man over, but so often it actually gives the reduced side a lift. Wierd. Still, it was nice to see that no pizzas were thrown this time. It is good to return to sport and not spats. And what did Marucs think? His text response to my cheeky SMS gloating was "3 goals at hom...

What's a boy to do? Two offers of entertainment tonight. Option 1: I could go to my friend Marcus' house and watch the epic Man Utd vs. Arsenal clash on his spiffing 50inch TV with much beer and the promise of his excellent Thai Green Curry. This would be especially sweet because all the other lads are Gooners and I would be the only United fan. And last time I watched an Arsenal/United match with them it was the FA Cup Semi Final and we whooped them. Still - quite a high risk strategy. Option 2: Go to my regular Tuesday night pub quiz in Mortlake with my friend Brendan who's celebrating his birthday. (Top trivia fact: The quiz is sometimes frequented by Olympic Gold Medal winning Oar botherer Tim Foster - and rather appropriately he drinks Fosters). Well, I think loyalty to Brendan's birthday must prevail. I'll watch the game on the Pub TV between questions. But it would have been good to see Marcus' face as Rooney screams one past Lehmann.