Tom Paxton

Tom Paxton in concert at Birmingham Town Hall - just fantastic!

I know he's been singing since I was in junior school, but he's still got it. A great night (Robin Bullock was - as ever - a fantastic guitar, mandolin, bouzouki (?) accompanist) but the highlight for me was the final song: a genuinely acoustic rendering of The Parting Glass (not bad in an auditorium that seats 1086!).

I continue to be impressed by the songs, the performance, the talent  - AND I'm on his last DVD!

Computers ...

I work at home quite a lot in the room I call my 'study' (actually the smallest bedroom in the house). I have a wifi/wired network with NAS, network printer, etc., etc. Just moved to fibre-optic broadband (so far from the telephone exchange that copper can't give me any real speed) and now have most of those transition issues beaten.

So (glutton for punishment), I've moved to my 'new' PC - really a refurbished Dell that I've been running in parallel with the old Acer desktop. It's only when you finally do this that you realise what still needs to be done ...

What fun!

Don't use Toptable.com

Toptable.com are an on-line restaurant booking system. Restaurants subscribe and pay a fee for successful bookings. (The service is 'free' to diners). There is also an opportunity for diners to comment on the restaurant and food with these comments published on the website.

In my experience:

1. They don't publish bad reviews (I posted a review of a restaurant in Nice that was far from complimentary: it was never posted. Toptable told me that they discussed negative reviews with the restaurant)
   .
2. This week I booked a restaurant for Saturday night. It was confirmed on-line and by email from Toptable who later rang to tell me that the restaurant was fully booked. I wouldn't have minded, but we'd already made some arrangements. What's the point of a system that doesn't work?

I won't use them again. Tell your friends.

A couple of weeks in

The new academic year's going OK. Busy, busy ...

NEW TERM TOMORROW ...

Just spent a week in (sunny) Bordeaux. Lots of good food and even more good wine.

Tomorrow marks the start of the new academic year -- always a joy with those keen new students setting out to change their lives.

Bordeaux photos to follow ...

Thai Edge

Went to the Thai Edge Restaurant in Birmingham's Brindley Place yesterday...

Food wasn't great: restaurant was very noisy: service was on the slow end of 'ordinary'.

The main problem with the food was that it was hotter than advertised. A green chicken curry had 3 chillies (the hottest description) and was OK. Some beef (2 chillies) was too hot to eat [and we have some experience of this sort of food].

We won't bother again.

More Vancouver

I'm way behind in my postings, partly because of a new computer that's stolen several days of my life by being faulty! (Then there's printers -- but that's another story).

Anyway, one of the little trips we did was to Capilano Suspension Bridge. It's really quite dramatic (and not very scary) ...

If you're a good customer, you can stamp your entry ticket at all the places where you can spend money (OK, some of them are just places where you can look at the scenery) and then you get a certificate!

We shared our trip with a lot of older US citizens who'd been on a cruise (I've never met more selfish people) - they loved these certificates!

Vancouver

Is awesome!

Visas

Travel to China from the UK requires a visa (unless it's to Hong Kong). I spent some time getting the correct information together (it wasn't always available, but everyone pulled together and it all arrived). In England there are 2 places to get a China Visa: London and Manchester. In terms of time, they're pretty-much equidistant from Birmingham. However, peak-hours travel to London is £140 (+ tube travel) and you're only allowed on certain trains. To Manchester (by the most expensive route with no restrictions) it's £61 (and the visa office is a 5-minute walk from the station). Guess where I went?
Because I had to wait for the office to process the paperwork, I had the opportunity to visit the Museum of Science and industry. It isn't as good as Birmingham's was (before they ruined it) but it's sited in the oldest surviving railway station in the world and is a great place to visit. Particularly liked 'Underground Manchester' which is, largely, about sewers - still wondering how they got the smell ...

China

Somewhat to my surprise, I've got a scholarship to spend 3 weeks on a cultural/language exchange in Wuhan, PR China. Delightfully (!) I get to fly Aeroflot via Moscow [some of you may remember my last rip via Moscow -- I really hope that this isn't a repeat).

Temperatures in Wuhan may be 45C, which will be interesting.

All have to do now is get a visa!