Where do you start? We're just back from three days in London watching a terrific Test match between England and Pakistan. Also took in some shows, "Avenue Q", "The 39 Steps" and "We Will Rock You". All fabulous and worth making the effort to see.
However, things took a turn for the worse on the journey by train home. A train journey that reminds me why I should in future always drive. And more than that, the news broke on Twitter about the betting scandal. I know there's been talk of bit for years, but the evidence on this one is damning.
I'm not going to let it spoil what has been a great few days, it's just a sad day for a great game.
M.
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Thursday, 19 August 2010
The Rose Bowl experience....
Well, now back from our weekend away watching the T20 finals down at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.
An excellent drive down there, we set off at 5.30am and were in the car park four hours fifteen minutes later. We've never been there before, and must comment from the outset it's a fantastic spectator venue, even though they're still building bits of it. Once complete, it'll be up there and even surpass some of the more "traditional" cricket grounds.
But now for the gripe(s). Two really, one the timing of the games. Trying to squeeze two semi finals and the final into one day is always going to be tricky. So from that point of view, starting at 11.30am isn't going to get you off to the best start. By the time it was all done, it was damn near 11pm. Way too late in my opinion. I understand it's right to have all those games on one, day, but surely start a little earlier? There were families there with young kids and it was clear some of them needed to get off earlier than 11pm. And number two, although it's only a short term problem I believe, is to address the parking situation. There's no parking near the ground at all, you have to park miles away and get the park'n'ride in. Trying to ferry nigh on 25,000 people away at the end of the last match, even though there were loads of buses around is always going to take a while. For us it took nearly 1.5 hours, and that's just to get to the car.
All that said, I'd go back, I just hope that next time, it's a little quicker on the transport front.
A great day of cricket too, just a pity that Lancashire weren't there.
M.
An excellent drive down there, we set off at 5.30am and were in the car park four hours fifteen minutes later. We've never been there before, and must comment from the outset it's a fantastic spectator venue, even though they're still building bits of it. Once complete, it'll be up there and even surpass some of the more "traditional" cricket grounds.
But now for the gripe(s). Two really, one the timing of the games. Trying to squeeze two semi finals and the final into one day is always going to be tricky. So from that point of view, starting at 11.30am isn't going to get you off to the best start. By the time it was all done, it was damn near 11pm. Way too late in my opinion. I understand it's right to have all those games on one, day, but surely start a little earlier? There were families there with young kids and it was clear some of them needed to get off earlier than 11pm. And number two, although it's only a short term problem I believe, is to address the parking situation. There's no parking near the ground at all, you have to park miles away and get the park'n'ride in. Trying to ferry nigh on 25,000 people away at the end of the last match, even though there were loads of buses around is always going to take a while. For us it took nearly 1.5 hours, and that's just to get to the car.
All that said, I'd go back, I just hope that next time, it's a little quicker on the transport front.
A great day of cricket too, just a pity that Lancashire weren't there.
M.
Friday, 13 August 2010
Wish Google would think things through sometime....
Google encourage you to use gmail, to the extent there's all sorts of bells and whistles to integrate all your email accounts into it. It has tools to import, filter, and, most importantly, when responding to a mail, make it appear to come from the address it was sent to.
So, you could have john.smith@myworkaddress.com john.smith33@somepersonalemail.com jsmith@xhotmailx.com all arriving in your gmail account automatically. Nice. When you hit reply, the mail is sent as if from the address it was sent to, i.e. your works address, personal address, whatever. It keeps everything nicely backed up in your gmail account. No lost mails, all archived. Perfect.
So, bring on the gmail app written by google for the google android phone. I'd sort of assumed the functionality above would be there. Sadly not. When you hit reply from you gmail app, the mail always gets sent from the native gmail address. How naff is that? If you google "send as" and "gmail map" you'll see I'm not the only one complaining.
So, it's back to poxy pop or standard imap in the email client and set accounts up individually. What a pain.
M.
So, you could have john.smith@myworkaddress.com john.smith33@somepersonalemail.com jsmith@xhotmailx.com all arriving in your gmail account automatically. Nice. When you hit reply, the mail is sent as if from the address it was sent to, i.e. your works address, personal address, whatever. It keeps everything nicely backed up in your gmail account. No lost mails, all archived. Perfect.
So, bring on the gmail app written by google for the google android phone. I'd sort of assumed the functionality above would be there. Sadly not. When you hit reply from you gmail app, the mail always gets sent from the native gmail address. How naff is that? If you google "send as" and "gmail map" you'll see I'm not the only one complaining.
So, it's back to poxy pop or standard imap in the email client and set accounts up individually. What a pain.
M.
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
A general catch up....
It's been way too long since my last update. I always have the best intentions of being "regular" on here, but never quite seem to make it happen.
Right, so what's to catch up on? Playing much more golf for a start and thoroughly enjoying it. Handicap's back down to 18, but can still improve on that. So far this year have played the Brabazon at the Belfry and both Royal Lytham and Royal Liverpool. Old Thorns down in Hampshire too. All great courses.
Recently booked to go and see Professor Stephen Hawking's lecture at the Royal Albert Hall in October. Can't wait for that, just wish my brain had some more bogomips behind it to assist with the understanding.
Have a few shows to go too, Spamalot tomorrow, and the touring Les Mis soon.
Later this month me and Mikey are off to Lords for the Test Match against Pakistan. We're likely to take a show in there too, just depends what we can tickets for. While in London we're hoping to get to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
All in all, lots of good stuff on. Work fine too, busy as ever, but still enjoying it, far better to be busy than bored.
Finally, (for now at least), very content with 2.2 Froyo (official) on my HTC Desire. Although it doesn't do some things as well as other phones, it is the first phone I've had that will actually do everything I want.
M.
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