A Dabble At Blogging

CRB nutters try to stop common sense review of scheme

2012-02-09T15:27:00.001Z

Parents warned over plans to cut criminal record (CRB) checks
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16931352

Yeh yeah..shudup man, you are killing the natural easiness between adults and kids. You need to be shudup! These days, thanks to guys like you, when I go to school I feel like I need to hide my hands in my pockets and look straight ahead when passing by little blighters.No matter if they have fallen over on the ice. Of course I ignore that advice - but it is hard.

Here is my proposal:
1/ Kill the CRB check, or at least limit it to common sense proportions.
2/ Bring parental responsibility back to the fore, and for Pete's sake
3/ get a sense of historical proportion - crime is down but the fear of crime us up.

We are reacting to a threat that is declining by treating it as if it is a virulent child killing flu being passed around by adults.We are killing off the adults from the worlds of children.
I have gone on strike over CRBs.
I have hated them since they were introduced, because of the way they were introduced more than anything. I hate the idea that one needs one at school if one already have one at church. I hate the idea that one even needs a CRB to help out at church one's old church, kids of parents largely known to us.

Before 2001, or whenever it was, we did not need one in order to help. Was that such a bad time? Now we have CRBs, I suspect that once received into church admin offices, the CRBs get filed away, and we all fall back to thinking "Now do I trust my kids with that person? No worries, they've been CRB'd. Ergo, I don't need to think about it. Good, I'd much rather get back to feeding my brain some more on Eastenders than thinking about fine judgements like that. Thank heavens. I hate hard work."
Now what does the BBC news article above say exactly? Let me see:
Lord Henley said the current system was "disproportionate" with "unnecessary red tape and discourages volunteering"
But Lord Bichard warned "dangerous adults" would "take advantage" of the proposed changes.
Lord Bichard, whose report after the murder of Soham schoolgirls Holly
Wells and Jessica Chapman by a school caretaker led to the present
system being set up, warned the safety of children "must come before our desire to minimise regulation and bureaucracy".
Lord Henley said that "whatever the setting, we believe that parents
have the primary responsibility for educating their child in how to
react to an approach from an adult if it goes beyond that adult's normal role".
Lord Henley said "what we are trying to do is create a system that will
provide the necessary safeguards but does not make parents feel that
their children are automatically safe - parents must still have the duty of looking after their children by warning them of potential dangers".
Hey - he all but agrees with me. Not surprised - it's called common sense.
Judge for yourself, but if you want volunteers to take CRBs for every single role they volunteer for with every single organisation* then don't count on me to volunteer. Loom after your kids yourself, and turn of your stupid tele!

*some parents help out at church, help at a schools, then at cubs. They go through more checks than shifty eyed hippies arriving in Florida with a suit case loaded with white flour after six months in Colombia

Olympus throws me a lifeline - the OM-D

2012-02-09T13:33:00.001Z

In late 2010, I was in despair at the dead end Olympus had turned 4/3 into, and then the fact that the Spring 2010 release of the E5 - which I eventually purchased when I got the right price - did not even treat video seriously, which was a final insult because it meant I could not even claim that as a mitigating factor for having to buy an eventual dead end.
Roll on early 2012, and Olympus announce today the OM-D range of cameras.
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/olympusEM5/
Well now I can glimpse a road may that I may just fall in love with again. Here's the plan:
I will keep my hefty 4/3 quality lenses and my six month old E5 will produce great shots for years.
Victoria (that's code for get me a second body) will re-enter photography by buying an OM-D body with a couple of nice prime lenses, the clip on flash, and AVCHD video capabilities.
The OM-D will aslo have a 4/3 adapter allowing for specialist use of my lenses - e.g. macro long range narrow DOP, and portrait narrow DOP.
When the "old video camera I have - a 2008 vintage but the first of the internal flash drive full HDs - gives up the ghost I will only have the E5 and the OM-D. When I have to travel light - the E5 will stay behind and the OM-D will travel. When I have to shoot a friend's wedding, both cameras will come along for the party. The OM-D for video and off the piste stills; the E5 for stills only.

Now that was for the record, drafted on the fly just now - after the OM-D was announced today. I became aware of OM-D rumours via the DP review website only a week or so ago - a 24th Jan leak regarding a new OM-D camera.

Get a taste of New Zealand .... in the UK... only cheaper

2012-02-03T08:00:00.000Z

One could conclude, after reading a NZ Herald article that the only good thing about New Zealand is the air you get to breathe there.

The article I am referring to compares the price of New Zealand produce in places like the UK, where I am, with prices back at home, where the produce is produced!

This is an arse about face story.

Why is Steinlager much cheaper overseas?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10783093

The article starts off as follows:

A major New Zealand beer costs almost three times as much here than in the United States or Britain. A six-pack of Steinlager Pure typically sells for about $16 in New Zealand. But travel 10,000km from where it is brewed, to America, and it can be bought for about $6.

And at British supermarket Asda, a six-pack of Classic sells for the equivalent of just over $4.

Lion Breweries, which makes the beer, says the prices fall in line with its competitors overseas and reflect the different marketplaces.

But it isn't just beer; the article goes on, quoting Steinlager's external relations guru:

"In the wine market in the UK, for example, the supermarket environment is very competitive so that's influenced the price of New Zealand wine [being sold there]." Many New Zealand-made products were cheaper overseas, she said. "If you look at any category you will find the same thing. The price of New Zealand butter in Europe... could well be cheaper than here".

Add to this, the galling additional fact that the average net salary in common currency terms - even if these $NZD pumped up currency times - a Kiwi bloke in the UK is even better off than his poor country cousins back in God-zone*.

And now that I know that I can get cheap-as-anything NZ Steinlager at Asda in the UK, I might just go out and get some. I'll send some through to my poor cousins in New Zealand so I don't feel so bad about it.

*Well I don't have any stats to back that up, but it was well true 12 years ago when I arrived in the UK.

Soccer Fans Killing Each Other Off

2012-02-02T13:31:00.001Z

Yesterday, the world watched soccer thugs killing soccer thugs, and also innocent soccer officials.

The article on the riots

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16848473

The Speaker Mohamed Saad al-Katatni said the riots were the "work of the devil".Well the devil is soccer football, fair and square.

Back in England the English captain is heading to court to defend a charge of racism.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16825874

It seems everyday another football player is being had up for attacking black players, or raping a woman, or driving his range rover into a family. In the world of rugby Tindall got bollocked for kissing or hugging an ex-missus in a kiwi pub. That was about it.
Of course it could be an English thing - rather than a footy thing. But this blogrant started off as a result of thugs in Eygpt, and the offenders in the English Leagues are often as not South American players.
I am sure if there were more rugby players in the UK the same would be evident in that game right? Wrong.
Let's face it, football is a lovely game watched by mugs, played by a mixture of mugs and thugs, administered by top class thugs, and prone to in your face corruption - just look at Fifa.
Why should I be encouraging my boy to play with the round version of the ball? Well because all the young thugs do it, and he has to have some sort of relationship with Thug-world. He may even end of being a missionary within footy selling the message of sportsmanship. There is a Christian maxim: be in the world but not of the world.
I always say to my friends that I think footy is an evil occupation, even though most of them are football-oriented. I say it because there is no answer to it, and I like to see the look on their faces. I am losing my friends but winning a silly argument.
Because soccer is the Devil's game, rugby must be the Lord's game!
Well that shows how silly it is to bring the devil into all of this. Let's hope for a clean opening weekend in the Six Nations rugby competition this weekend then, or I am undone.

The Asia-Europe Overlander 1999 Blog Goes Live

2012-01-23T23:04:00.001Z

Roses and the romance of France in Vientiane - Laos (1999)

Folks, one of the great adventures of my life is finding it's way from my hard disk to cyber space.
While the photos can be found at Flickr (Flickr Collection of Photos) , the blog is now at http://theasiaeuropeoverlander1999.blogspot.com/
The blog will be updated nearly daily with a few more days of travel at a time.

Great Great Uncle Nevol Robarts-Arnold (100)

2012-01-21T10:00:00.000Z

This post is to recall a dear family member, whom my children loved dearly, and who loved the children in return.

Summer 2011 on Seaton Beach with the family

Nevol Robarts-Arnold, passed away on January 12th, aged 100. The extended Robarts-Arnold family had only just celebrated his 100th in late October. In January an illness took hold; Nevol knew it was serious, the next day he had a stroke, and the following day Nevol was gone.
It is less than a year that we gathered to say goodbye to Nevol's sister in law, Victoria's Grandmother Evelyn Gwendoline Robarts-Arnold. Evelyn was 98.

Below, a link to some shots of Nevol, a great nephew's tribute by Nicholas Boggon (great nephew), and a bio by Nevol's nephew Peter Robarts-Arnold.

The Link
Photos on Flickr by me

Biography by Peter Robarts-Arnold

Nevol Robarts-Arnold
Born 1911 Hyde, Cheshire.
Attended Taunton School along with his brother.
His brother joined the Auxiliary Air Force and got his pilot’s license. Sibling rivalry dictated that Nevol did the same, but as his eyesight was not up to the necessary standard for pilot training in the RAAF, he went out and obtained one privately. The both were keen Rugby players in South Wales, playing for Penarth regularly, and Cardiff occasionally.
Joined Nat Prov bank, which subsequently became NatWest.
Joined the RAF on the outbreak of war on the Admin side, and saw service at home and abroad, notably in Aden and the Middle East.
Rejoined the bank after the war, where he remained until retirement, moving around the country as required, but ending up in London. He remained an active member of the Auxiliary Air Force for many years, and amongst other interests he rode and owned horses.
On retirement, taken quite early, he moved to Seaton to look after his aging parents, in an adjoining house to his brother’s in Old Beer Road.
He also obtained a degree in Geology from the Open University, and during this period did a lot of traveling worldwide on field trips in relation to his course, and also just for pleasure.
After his parents died,and prior to the site on which his house sat being redeveloped, he bought a flat in Exmouth and went to live there. He was invariably back in Seaton every week for Sunday lunch with his sister-in-law and other members of the family. After a few accidents he decided he’d give up driving when he was 94, and thereafter various family members would collect him and deliver him back for his weekly trips back to Seaton.
Having enjoyed pretty good health for most of his life he started to need more help than could be provided at long distance, so he returned to live in Seaton with his niece, at the house which would have been his brother’s, should he have survived. It was there that he celebrated his 100th birthday with a big family party at the house.
He was in comparatively good health until about a week before he died, his only serious problems being with his sight and hearing.

His great sense of humour carried him through all eventualities, made him excellent company and he was never known to complain about anything.
He never married although he had managed to escape the attentions of many seemingly quite serious girlfriends over his lifespan. But despite having no offspring of his own he supported generously those of his brother financially and otherwise, and was highly regarded by them in this role as well as his fun loving attitude to life.

Tribute to Nevol (Neve) - by Nicholas Boggon

Neve was my great-uncle and a good friend. I was lucky to spend a fair amount of time in his company, a small part of his long life.
Often we would sit and talk over a cup of tea surrounded by all his books, about old times, cars we had owned and dismantled, how teaching me to drive in his old jag was the worst thing he had ever done, the dangers of going sailing with Papa, all the rugby matches, who to support? Wales or England? a contentious subject in our family as you all know.
Sometimes I would ask about his childhood, and Neve would tell me about the time he saw zeppelins flying over London during the First World War, and how he was allowed to ride his motorbike to school. He would talk about driving before the invention of traffic lights (oh the good old days) he would chant. Traveling on tramp steamers, and some of his walking holidays to interesting places. Janie thought he was a spy because chaos usually followed his visits.
He also told me how he went on a bicycle trip round parts of France after WWII, sleeping in ditches at night, he said he was never cold which doesn’t surprise me.

But there was a lot Neve would not talk about, his time in the RAF during the Second World War, the time he spent looking after his parents when they grew very old, and of course all the help and concern he lavished on all of us.
I would like to thank Janie, Peter, Hillary and everyone else who with love and care have looked after Neve during the last few years, and to Neve wherever you are, I hope you shine as brightly as you deserve.

The email that told us all, from Victoria on her phone while at work

-----OriginalMessage-----
From: Andrew Jansen [mailto:ajvx@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: 11 January 2012 13:23
To: Spratt Phillipa
Cc: Andrew Jansen
Subject: Nev

Not sure if mummy has contacted you yet she has just leftme a message saying Nev has had a stroke and is not expected to recover. Ihaven't yet spoken to her in person (am on the bus composing myself- ) itsounds like he's at woodlands & being kept comfortable.

Big hug

That night, Jane rang up and asked to be able to tell Thomas. As she did, Thomas's jaw dropped open and tears welled up. It is touching thing to see people grieving for one loved. It is a precious thing to be part of a family and to be able to stand beside them.

Evelyn was beside Thomas, concerned for his own state, but not quite old enough to take it in that Nevol has passed away.

I knew Nevol from Christmas 1995, when I met Victoria's family for the first time in Devon, so I knew Nevol for 16 years. He will be missed.

A time for re-connecting, a time for rethinking

2012-01-20T15:15:00.001Z

What happens at work, stays at work.
What happens at home, stays at home.
That makes for damn boring blogging !

But something is happening elsewhere that I can report on; all the instability that is in the world has impacted my life, and so in the search for peace and understanding Victoria and I seem to be delving back into the past.
That means reflecting on the long journey to where we are - the UK- which started with the Asia-Europe overlander in 1999. I have pulled out the old diary, typed up what was untyped still, and started to blog it. http://theasiaeuropeoverlander1999.blogspot.com/ is the blog - just five days added so far - all last night. It won't be interesting yet, because it is boring up to about the time we get north of Bangkok, when we started to meet real travellers, and started to hit weird realities.
I will link the blog to my new Flickr photo collection of the trip. This
collection is also work in progress. It is up to Romania. Check it out
here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjansen

But mostly, thinking back to past days and past friends has resulted in some vital re-connections going on in the last few week - Philip Porter and in the last week Maree Samson. Last summer, Brent Weaver visited. Simone and Rory Graham visited us last autumn, and Maya with them. Occasionally my longest standing close friend, William Rutherfurd emerges from South East Asia on the net. Today Philippine van den Buscche has rung us. There is a more recent but infrequent kinship I have enjoyed - Robert Douglas, and I need to pop over to see you mate.

Jansen - you are a lucky old bugger. Your set of relationships over time has been rich. The one long standing relationship of my life, with Victoria, is most treasured and truly has made me, but friendships with others is what has over time rounded me out.

This is a message for my friends of old - I owe you.

Light pollution: Is there a solution? The Resistance (direct post not email post)

2012-01-19T12:28:00.002Z

I like this article:
Light pollution: Is there a solution?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16470744
Yes there is a solution - resistance!

A few years back, in the days of a Labour-run council in South Derbyshire, just before Christmas, the council put a light up high above my back garden to shine on a footpath from Victoria Mews far below, and behind our back fence. The problem was, the light shone horizontally too, into my bedroom, and all over a formally dark silhouette of roofs to the south. I only became aware of the new light when I arrived home from work at night to find the
beam of yellow murk all over my garden. That night at 0300 as I lay awake fuming at the yellow invading my bedroom, I wrote an email to the council. The very next night the light was off. In a couple of months the lamp itself was gone. The council did not reply, they simple acted. My letter was read out with some amusement at the parish council I was told.

A year or so later, the Labour-run council put another street lamp up, 20 metres further down at the bottom of Victoria Mews, to shine on the path further down. The problem I had with that light was that it shined horizontally as well as downward, onto a very nearby brick end of some houses. My lovely bedroom view of a black silhouette of roofs was shattered by the yellow murk. I didn't put pen to paper this time, as my concern was too trivial, I just stewed and fumed, and swore I would never vote Labour.

On the other side of my house, in another year, another threat emerged. Fortuitously I was home from work one day, and found some workmen milling around on the road outside my kitchen window. I popped out to ask what they were planning to do, and it turned out they were about to put a street lamp up. The pole would replace an old lamp that blasted yellow murk from the side of a crumbling end house on Chambers Row into our north facing bedroom. This old lamp had to come down when the house was repaired, but this pole would have been just feet from our north facing bedroom window. "Excuse me", I said, "we like it dark here as I have a bedroom up there where you propose to put the light." My killer argument was if that they put a pole up here, where the only footpath is on the left hand side barely 2 feet wide, they would force pedestrians onto the road, into the path of Melbourne's reckless fast driving youth in their cars. The council workers responded
that I had a good point, and they would desist for now. The light never went up. But a few years later, the council painted a murky double yellow no parking line all the way up the left hand side of our one lane Blanch Croft to say "No parking". In five years, no one had ever parked on the road. What are they up too? For some reason I did not complain, but I did think of a photo I was going to send into the paper of bemused residents of Blanch Croft standing on the road with hands on hips wondering what the damn double yellow read lines mean.
The point to all this is that the councils seem to have to spend their budgets, and there is somewhere a mountain of yellow lights and yellow paint that has to be used up.

Find that mountain, and blow it up!

The problem is, I am a family man and not an activist. So I never take up my sword, and I don't engage dumbness as I should. I am sure many are like me - armchair warriors who get their exercise just thinking about the fight they wish they had last night.
That is why the Government has as yet failed to start taking those damn lights back down, or at least turning them off and reducing the DEFICIT in the process - as if that mattered. If no revolution then we must wait until the yellow murk can be replaced with movement sensitive LED white lights that shine DOWN!

Tom the Peeping

2012-01-09T23:46:00.001Z

Tom the Peeping
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

We are renewing our acquaintance with our own backyard this winter, bu taking some good walks with the kids.
The Canal and River Walk takes one around the Trent Mersey Canal, and the River Trent just a couple miles to the north.
A week before we set out a couple of miles to the west from Ticknal village to the Foremark reservoir and back. The Ticknal Walk

2011-11-21T20:58:00.001Z

My first studio - a disaster of planning and execution but artistically some promise, and the kids thought it was fun too.

Well it all started off when the school shot of Evelyn was not so hot, and we realised I needed to recoup some of the £1200 I spent on the E5 recently. I used old fashion 500 watt incandescent bulbs and some fill flash - all mixed colour temperatures I know, but fun all the same.

It was Victoria that got them posing like I don't know what. They seem to be good at it. Posing that is.

They did not get it from me. The next barrel I point at my self will not be a lense barrel! Victoria is no poser herself. I am as lucky to shot a red squirrel in Southern England as get a good aim at me lovely these days.

Well perhaps I need to practice what we did above again. I think I enjoy it. But the problem is, it is a sort of manual labour. My brain needs to engage somehow with photography so that it stimulates me intellectually. Any ideas welcome.

Our White Rowan Really Came Out This Year

2011-11-19T22:16:00.001Z

Our White Rowan Really Came Out This Year
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

If I am not careful this blog will turn into twitter-sized, twitter-average, word dumps. I need to get back to writing when I am thinking - wot bloggers do, not what twitterers do.
Our home investment this year has been our big story. Life in our garden is very much part of it.
The Rowan was so prolific this year, I thought I'd ask a tele-evangelist if it meant anything - like end-times perhaps.
But then Victoria told me to oull my head in and read a science book instead. Naturalist!
But back to the berries - they have been prolific on the tree from early September until now - 19 November. I just had to record the moment.
And not to forget the walnuts

My Boy Starts Rugby with Melbourne Rubgy Football Club

2011-11-19T20:50:00.001Z

Last weekend, November 11th 2011. After just two weekends of practice, I let Tom loose on the world.
The tension was palpable. Was I going to get a good shot of Tom on his first day? Was he going to taken off for spearing a Pom? Was he going to drop the ball? Was he going to end up playing for the opposition?
Well all of the above - except one. You guess.
Let's see if this video show uploads and plays. I created it in Lightroom, the first time I have tried this.
I think the level of detail is sufficiently low that no real detail can be seen of any one. It's the sense of movement I wanted to capture

Our House Build - Project Closure

2011-11-12T19:35:00.001Z

The House at Night
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Although we've been enjoying it since March, and it was 95% done by early May, we are still making it homely.
The great thing is we are having friends and family to stay, and it is nice.

Nevol Turns A Hundred

2011-10-23T19:21:00.000+01:00

Nevol Turns A Hundred
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Wow Nevol
You made it and you flew through.
Photo stream at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjansen/sets/72157602771208838/with/6337250247/

The visitor - Grahams and Thomas Families

2011-10-02T19:28:00.000+01:00

20111002-_A020803.jpg
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

This made me feel like going home again - I mean to NZL. Rory and Simone, Maya and Andrew - let's book your next visit.
For the photos of all: see http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjansen/sets/72157627677714289/

Is this what I do next ?

2011-09-03T17:00:00.000+01:00

Well this is it
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Well it's hard work.
Jansen shot his first wedding for friends since 2004.
If I do it again, I need to put aside a full day for processing and distributing the output. It is a lot of work folks.
But at least it forced me to go out and buy a new camera - and that I have not regretted.
And to tell the truth, it was fun. But it pushes you to think hard all day, and to deal with lighting conditions that are hugely variable. The sun was going in and out through a window onto a white table cloth while the bride and grrom sat in shadow signing the register. My poor brain fried. There are only seconds available to decide. I didn't always get it right.
For the set - see http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjansen/sets/72157627908636224/

Evelyn Robarts-Arnold

2011-04-10T19:36:00.002+01:00

Tom and Eve at Great Grandma's house on the day of her funeral before 7am, wander into Grandma's room. Grandma gets some fractions, the bible , science & human biology in the following minutes.
"Grandma", said our Eve, "Did you know God made the night so we could sleep, so our brains could grow?" "No Eve the Earth spins on its axis", spouted our Tom.
"Grandma, did you know I am not four anymore, I am four and a half!"
"Well I am seven and a quarter", replied Tom, "and three quarters is more than a half."
"Mummy", Tom said two days ago, "do you know it takes five days to drive across America?"
No pressure then! We had been talking about crossing America in a camper months back.
Graveside, Thomas and Evelyn watch as Great Grandma Evelyn is lowered. They stand near and follow her with concerned eyes. The whole scene moved me. The grief of children added to the sense that Evelyn was loved by generations. Shortly after Thomas cried in my shirt. I never loved my son so much. His younger sister was moved but not so distraught. They both loved to visit their Devon oldies. To say goodbye was as vital for them as for anyone else. Tom & Eve will remember Evelyn well, with a visit just three weeks prior, videos and photos to boot.
I knew her from Christmas Eve 1995 until March 2011.
She was the capstone of the family. I wonder what now will hold this great descended clan together?
A word for Nevol, her 99 year old brother in law. He broke down graveside. He will have lost the wife of his brother Jim, and he will be recalling Jim's loss almost a quarter of a century ago. He lives on, and he loves Tom and Eve hijacking with him.

Well So This Is What Has Been Keeping Me Fully Diverted

2011-04-09T07:30:00.001+01:00

From The Road
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

More later, but at last our family has a family sized house! We can breeze again. All windows and doors secure. For a photo shoot, see the flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjansen/sets/72157624658201036/

I'll Help You

2011-03-26T09:42:00.004Z

I'll Help You - Tom and Eve down at
Seaton-Hole on the morning of the funeral

Thomas and Evelyn's great grandma Evelyn Gwendoline Robarts-Arnold passed away early in March.
They loved her so much, that she (98) and great Uncle Nevol (99) are the reason they have looked forward to our Devon family visits.
When I told Thomas,. around our table on Saturday night that his great grandmother was slowly passing away, the grief was palpable.
At the graveside 10 days later, Thomas and Evelyn both looked over a headstone as Evelyn was lowered into the ground.
There was grief, but I am glad our children went, and said goodbye. They understand something about life and family that will I am sure help them to appreciate what family is.

Christchurch Quake

2011-02-22T06:09:00.001Z

0200 I am back from Frankfurt in our house build wreck, while my family is in Devon. I am watching Libya in revolution, wondering about Daren and company, when the news bursts that Christchurch is smashed by another quake. This time it is a killer. I cannot get through to Kris and Fabish, but I get Mum, who was about to burst into tears. Fabs has a new job and it could be nearer to the centre, so he will have been in the midst. The feeling is that New Zealand is on it's emotional knees, and the costs of rebuilding while hurt further. I cannot reach my sister and Fabs will be in the middle of it. It is now 0253.

A few days ago bmi was empty coming back from Tripoli on its inaugural - we had only just gone on sale thanks to the Libyan CAA. How things change. We came home chocker with the bewildered and the shocked, our own staff among them. Today's was cancelled but there is a chance we'll run tomorrow's. That was Joerg's decision at 1800 before I went in on another topic.
A bachelor in a cold house with no running hot water and no heating I walk to the Packhorse in Kings Newton for a pint and a pub meal. It was like November 1999 in Breedon On The Hill. I walked and I prayed as poorly as I do these days. I thanked the Lord for loving and blessing me/us - even though my faith is wilting, I can't let go of being on the right side of lady lucky - precisely became luck has nothing to do with it.
Later after 35 minutes of walking alone with my thoughts, I got through to Fabs. He was soft and thoughtful - respectful of the dead that he probably saw last night and may see tonight. Kris had been in the town centre in the morning' but decided to come home earlier. She didn't want to be in the city. Fabs was on surveillance in town in his car when it hit. I was watching live news of Gaddafi's shockingly short I am in Tripoli appearance while Libya shook in human terms. In Christchurch the whole world shook. Tyres and absorbers meant it was less shocking and more confusing. He got a text from Kris that just said *%£*&!!. He was worried because that was all she said, and of course she was scheduled to be in the city. She put her phone on silent. Everyone wants silence to think about what it means when the earth goes CRACK! He drove home and was relieved to see her car in the driveway. Then last night was called onto search duty. He is going back in at 2200 tonight NZL for another duty.
A neighbour is missing. She was in town. This is Christchurch's 9-11. Dave was out of New York in 2001 and a neighbour never came home then too. I suspect my sister and Fabs will be in shock soon enough. He has seen some stuff already.
It was great to talk and see the soft underbelly of the man who has had my sister's heart since a month after Victoria took control of mine. It is good to know they are well. The epicentre this time was south of city centre, last time it was west and closer to Rangiora. The reports are now that 85 are dead, but that is just the start, and as Fabs mentioned a city crèche under rubble I think New Zealand will go into a deep mourning

England - Love it

2011-01-10T23:36:00.002Z

Boxing Day Hunt
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Listen, all yee naysayers.
The Poms have been beating themselves up ever since the credit crunch, and the Football World Cup.
You'd think they were doomed.
But I've got news for you - this place is sweet as!
I've not enjoyed a Winter like this. I'll take a Spring in Scotland anyday. I'll close out summer with a hot September spell in Cornwall whenever. I'll hang out in my garden until 10pm in the warm sun afterheat of a mid summer's night. I am in no hurry to evacuate.
The Poms have developed a form of humour that reinforces their negativity about their own back yard. It's a self-sustaining circle of own-bashing that get's a laugh and makes the UK special. The Poms don't take themselves too seriously - not like the Ockers. They need to lose in order to perpetuate their view of themselves. The All Blacks have shown we Kiwis that we need to learn to lose.
Don't be misled - this country is rich intellectually, and beautifully sculptured by centuries of country living. It has ways of living that people emulate all around the world.
England will always be a place to aspire too.
I am not blind to my former pumped up view of kiwiana and Lemon and Paieroa world famous this and that. I don't have the same sense of foolish pride I once had. It's great to be a Kiwi, but I relate to England too - having had a passport for seven out of my 11 here, I am in fact a citizen of the UK.
I am no footy fan, but I even felt sorry for the English FA after England lost the bid for World Cup 2018 to a corrupt and loaded process. My view was then that England should walk out of the World FA just for fun. England does these things better anyway.
The point is - suddenly I really care for Ol Blighty, almost as much as I love Godzone NZ.

I told you it was cold

2011-01-05T16:21:00.000Z

Yes it was cold.
December coldest in Central England since 1659
The BBC article says that " last month was the coldest December documented for the UK since nationwide records began 100 years ago, the Met Office has confirmed. For central England, it was the second coldest December since 1659."
The average temperature was around -1C
We went through 70% of our winter's supply of coals!
But it was good alright.

Sadly, the world cooked in 2010.
Lies Lies and Damned Statistics.

Kids Photography Madness: Opt Out Of Society - Don't Require Us To Opt In

2010-12-26T09:28:00.025Z

It was Evelyn's final Nativity at her nursery.
She had a prime yelling part, and she did it well... but you'll never know.. because, well, read below.

Excited Parent positioned with cameras in hand.
A few snaps here and there in the Preliminaries.
Then...a message over the PA. "We are sorry to announce you cannot photograph your children today" .Unsaid {because one set of parents requested that their child participate in the nativity, but not be photographed).
It should have been said.
A silent uproar on our benches!
Looks and whispers exchanged expressed horror that the curtain of trust between adults and children had been torn apart.
Later we were permitted a few after the child was removed from the Nativity Scene, but the damage was done, the action was over, and our spirits were disturbed

It turns out Michael Grove wrote to all education institutes earlier in the month saying that a silly rule is being abolished; that rule is the one the Labour Government allowed to rise, that a parent had Human Right to include their at risk kid in a play and thern demand that the whole play was not photographed by other parents. What about our Human Rights? Well Michael Grove has given them back. But I say - if this is Human Rights, Human Rights be damned. To bad the letter didn't get around.

Now I have to find it, and publish it myself.

I said to the Nursery, we must never allow this to become the law of the land. It is an offence against trust between adults and children.

Stop !

2010-12-23T16:25:00.002Z

Arresting View
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

"Honey, it is the end of the year. Let's put on the brakes, pull over, look forward, and enjoy the possibilities."
"You crazy man, from here all I see is a frozen waste."
"Ah well we see things diiferently from time to time, but I am sure pleased to be on the same road as you!"

Victoria, you are my true love, my best friend, and I love you more each year.

Andrew

Fairy Lane

2010-12-07T10:06:00.002Z

Fairy Lane
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

It's been hard to put down the camera lately - what with the white frost that grew over 2 days on the trees.
See the big cold photo set at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjansen/sets/72157625528982958/

Carbon-centric life forms watch out, ditto intelligent life forms

2010-12-06T17:58:00.002Z

Wow - Carbon centric life forms watch out, and the message is if life forms on Earth can take to Arsenic, then there could be Arsen-Wengernauts floating around space on their way to Earth right now.
Arsenic-loving bacteria may help in hunt for alien life
Arsenic-based life article
Earth is being invaded by Arsenic loving life forms at the bacterial level.
What would they find on Earth, but a similar cultural phenomenon involving media that is as bad for normal brains as Arsenic is for carbon life forms. This is the cultural phenomenon called Reality TV.
In the pursuit of living in new TV habitats, a whole species has emerged with whom I am already so removed that I am convinced we could never cross-bred. In fact what is good for them is already poison to me. Better that we never talk. They are the X-factor loving lot, who seek out channels of mediocrity to spellbind them. When one highly saturated blue set ends on BBC2, they switch over to a highly saturated red set in ITV, and then some daft Get Me Out Of Here variation on a theme. Then they take a break from the box to internet order the X-factor Christmas single to make themselves feel like they helped make a big thing of a the least of a bunch of mediocrity, while having helped to push the even more mediocre into the despair of loss and degrading humiliations.Well it's a case of scrap eat scrap.

It's now a case of get me out of here.
Don't push!
I'm jumping!
But I am not on my own. Stars stay silent in X Factor protest.
And I'm not listening to Radio 4 either - it's the same old arguments year after year every time there is a cold snap (you know, why don;t we buy an army of snow men and snow machines to do nothing 350 days of the year), and you think, we haven't evolved the argument any further. Radio 4 listeners must be content to sit on a hamster wheel, or perhaps they are just waiting for a sniggering chance when the occasional slip every time Mr Hunt is mentioned, as was the case today on Today.

-10C today, but The World Actually Cooked in 2010

2010-12-02T23:07:00.004Z

The Road To Work
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

It makes me feel good just to drive through this.
But the irony of seeing a -10C 0900 temperature in the countryside is a report that can out overnight on the BBC that said it was the hottest year around the world in 2010.
2010 sets new temperature records
2010 was one hot year article
Parts of Russia, Greenland, Canada, China, North Africa and South Asia all saw the mercury soar to record levels. The three main temperature records show 2010 as the warmest, or joint warmest, year in the instrumental record.
Crazy eh - the Act Global Think Local thing falls apart here. We are all acting to contribute to global warming, but our local view convinces us that it has been unusually cold.

Minus Eight

2010-11-28T10:23:00.003Z

Minus Eight
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Ain't no way it's been dis cold dis early in the year befoorre.

The Wall Of Our New House

2010-11-27T21:38:00.003Z

The Wall
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

This is a section of wall, and the green mossy stone has been gatheribg moss in our garden for 9 years. The Wall is new but peppered with mossy stones already.
For photos of the build go to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjansen/sets/72157624658201036/

Sanity

2010-10-22T18:12:00.004+01:00

No one is more pleased than me that Labour in the UK went down the plug hole.
That motley crew presumed every adult working with children a potential child molester after a tragic case etched into our memories - The Soham Murderer.
I recall my university days at Waikato Uni (81-84) when some similar campaign came out that said Every male is a potential rapist! Well frankly until then I hadn't thought about raping as being a past time for some. The next one was One in 10 males are homosexual, and following that it was backs to the wall for a few months all around the halls. I mean come on! Now as a result of this truly absurd fear of adults talking to children we are no longer in touch with the younger generation.
So at last, some balance.
Child contact vetting system set for major review
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11605868
"There should be a presumption that people wishing to work or volunteer with children and vulnerable adults are safe to do so unless it can be shown otherwise." Meaning under Labour we were recently presumed guilty, now we will be presumed innocent once again.
At the moment the pendulum has swung too far and threatens to drive a wedge between children and well-meaning adults” Tim Loughton, Children and Families Minister, The wedge is already here! We have to remove the wedge. The damage is done already!

Paris Rendevous For Kiwi Brothers

2010-09-21T22:11:00.001+01:00

Okay one of my most intensively cold experiences contrasted by a very warm connection with my kin, in Paris last Jan 2009. Wanted to upload here to see how to link youtube to blogger.

The Shape Of Things To Come

2010-09-21T18:53:00.004+01:00

This is actually a positive thing - although you wouldn't believe it if you read the press.

The Shape Of Things To Come

What this means is that in a few years the motorways will become unclogged, and can be turned back to grasslands. Now where is the harm in that?
But oh no, it's a big issue all right - the Japanese are not venerating their old. That's the issue, I've missed the point entirely.
Ah don't worry about that, the young will get their comeuppance - no one will care for them either. What goes around, comes around, or was that the other way around?
As a 90 year old male, I've got a lot to look forward too - women galore.

A Friend's Party - Zach's Seventh Birthday

2010-09-14T20:20:00.002+01:00

The below is an example of verbal flow and vernacular English, so excuse the grammer okay.
Zach has been a friend of Tom's since we met him and his Mum at a Castle Donington Fair bouncy castle when the boys were just 1 or 2. I think they collided.
Now Zach is turning seven. He had a party. I was just sitting around being a bum dad yelling at the football coach Scott - who was doing a sterling job - just because he was there. I was so disatisfied with the quality of English football, that I decided to open up the camcorder which I realised was in my pocket - they are so small these days- and off I went from the comfort of my football Dad's chair with me favourite ale in hand and cam in the udder, and this is the output. I youtubed it, and then sent a link to me experimental blog okay.
Watch the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb4reNyE_v4

It's .... It's ...Arrived... well it's alive, Introducing the E5

2010-09-14T18:18:00.059+01:00

So Olympus you have thrown the E5 at us. We are encouraged - but not greatly. I will be seeking to buy the former E3, much as I bought the former E1.
Reason: the upgrades are smallish, and I have no desire to slip back to 720p film photography AVI files when I've grown use to AVCHD 1080p over the last two years. Much as I'd love to be able to shot HD via my three great FT lenses, it seems I must wait for the E-6. Surely the pressure to deliver full HD into Olympus bodies will mount, and Olympus will just have to deliver such a camera in the near future. I can see that the logic will grown in the DSLR market that if buying a body that does video saves me £800 on separate camcorder, folks am going to be prepared to spend on it, and double the utility from my lenses.
My old E1 could still do with a more capable companion for still photos, and the now cheaper E3 will fit that bill perfectly, now that it comes down in price. Full HD video through my lenses will have to wait. Let's face it, a doubling of quality over the old E1 is no slap in the face if I can pick up the E3 for £400 range. Also I end up with two camera bodies, one able to do heavy volume snapshot work requiring less quality.
Talk of the FT and MFT standards merging in the future only adds to the uncertainty.
Given the sensor quality is still way down the scale, I will not spend £1500 on a new Olympus when I could get a 5D MkII for that.
I posted this to record my state of mind, and to lock in my point of view before it gets swayed.

The very next day, to rub in the salt, Nikon offer a mid level camera with full 1080p movie mode. Now my mind is made up for sure - it's the E3 for now, and if I come into the money later, a full frame Canon 5D to make and sell pictures and movies with.
I 've come back to this post because Panasonic have introduced a killer for the stick with FT argument with their MTF http://www.dpreview.com/news/1009/10092130panasonicgh2.asp with 1080p 24p AVCHD recording, and a 16MP sensor. So why have Olympus only come up with a 12MP sensor for the E5? I am sure they have a good reason, but fact is people will stay away from the enthusiast-only E5 model. Adoption rate will be zero.

test post from windows live

2010-09-09T23:26:00.002+01:00

To be deleted or edited later, but in the meantime here is my grandpa Clarence.
Somehow, in the image on the right, Clarence reminds me of me, and my son Thomas.

Nutters in the church, and the press throw a Molatov Cocktail on a little situation

2010-09-09T18:46:00.016+01:00

Well God , you take us all - even the crazy nutters who have inspired the world to hatred of Pentecostals by whipping up a press storm and protests in the world of Isalm over the last few days - an example follows:
US church defiant despite condemnation of Koran burning http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11223457
The article goes on to say "Despite having a congregation of just 50, the plans of Pastor Jones' church in Gainesville have gained worldwide notoriety, sparking demonstrations in Afghanistan and Indonesia"
I mean really, why would we bother to know about this hicksville purveyor of grossly simplistic antics if it were not for the world's press. I stopped reading newspapers in the new year by the way.
This hatred of Pentecostals is nicely informed and inflamed by this useful side article which nicely slots the Florida nutter into the Pentecostal camp. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11226352 , goes on to say "The church follows the Pentecostal tradition, which emphasises the work of the Holy Spirit and the direct experience of the presence of God by the believer. Pentecostals base their theology on the text of the Bible, which they believe to be the word of God and totally without error. They believe their movement is returning Christianity to a pure and simple form."
I mean what is the point of owning up to being a pure and simple nutter. Who needs enemies, when you've got friends (fellow pentecostals) like these! Nail my colours to the mast I will, but it might be time to change the tint of the flag.
Now the Afhgan people are all protesting. The US president is appealing to the nutter pastor over the airways, the head of US armed forces paid the guy a call. I mean suddup will ya. If the daft press didn't report the daft nutter, we's all be none the wiser, and we'd be thinking about real issues.
This world is fulla crazies. It's gonna burn in it's own self-made hell.

Dream Scape Cardigan Bay

2010-09-02T00:38:00.009+01:00

Dream Scape Cardigan Bay
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

See the little one heading straight for the water, that's Evelyn! Several recovery operations were required during our break. Don't see Tom - he's on the wind-blown sand dunes! See photos of a boy in his element.

What what a break in the weather! And just as we arrived Cardigan Bay for our first family four day camping holiday.
So you see Mr. Stephen Hawking, there is a God - even if the Big Bang can now be explained by physics as not having required God to throw the switch (for Stephen Hawking's latest move towards the position of contributing to the replacement of faith with scientific scepticism, see the BBC article
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11161493 which is headed Stephen Hawking: God did not create Universe).
Thanks mate! Just what an inherently sceptical mind like mine needs at a time of great personal fuzziness and empathetic oneness with Reginald Perrin who, in the original series, finishes off his life walking naked into the sea.
Luckily for mankind in general, we won't all be plunged into the lake of eternal uncertainties by this scientific conclusion because the BBC website also released a pop-science article on some free kick last century is even more popular at this time (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11153466).
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, happiness is better than GDP even! A great way to bury bad news is to release some other news at the same time, as Tony Blair once illustrated on September 11.
But back to the short break. Victoria turned 40 on the weekend, and elected to hide in a tent with her family in the wild west end of Wales, and hope for the best. We got the best. If you don't believe me, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjansen/sets/72157624859305262 for scientific proof.
Hppy Birthday Victoria, my love.
You're the best thing since the Big Bang!
Andrew

I Just Need Some Space - In Order To Thrive Again

2010-08-24T18:34:00.013+01:00

Now here's a way to learn a new bit of theory and in the process destroy it by applying it to your own situation.
Here is an example:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11063939
A BBC news article 23 August headed: Space is the final frontier for evolution
Competition did not play a big role in the overall pattern of evolution
The new study proposes that really big evolutionary changes happen when animals move into empty areas of living space, not occupied by other animals. For example, when birds evolved the ability to fly, that opened up a vast range of new possibilities not available to other animals. Suddenly the skies were quite literally the limit, triggering a new evolutionary burst. Similarly, the extinction of the dinosaurs left areas of living space wide open, giving mammals their lucky break.
This concept challenges the idea that intense competition for resources in overcrowded habitats is the major driving force of evolution.
Well that explains everything. I am not just plain stupid in a world of massively brighter minds. I am currently stumped purely because I am crowded out. I need new grounds. I think this is called something else in socialogocal terms - like running away for instance.
Perhaps I'd better reconsider what this all means for my little old life.

See I told you not to eat pips !

2010-08-12T22:26:00.021+01:00

You're not going to believe this!

The Pea Plant Man

After all those years telling Thomas and Evelyn notto eat pips or an apple tree might send branches growing out out of their ears, it has finally happened... to someone else.
Now I take back all that negativity about being on a couple of bum waves - Google Wave and Four Thirds. Maybe I will be proved right in the end.
See articular proof (new word for proof of an article type): Pea plant grows inside man's lung http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10945050
For those in a hurry a sumary here, from the BBC article: Mr Sveden said the plant was about half an inch (1.25cm) in size. "Whether this would have gone full-term and I'd be working for the Jolly Green Giant, I don't know...."

Toymota Coroda maybe - but US drivers are crappier still

2010-08-12T18:11:00.037+01:00

Those Yankee Congression Men with their short -barrel guns in their holsters blasting foreign-pig companies have possibly been found to be a mite overly trigger-happy once again.
BBC article: Toyota inquiry implies driver error : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10936016
I was in LAX late February when the poor old CEO of Toymota Corroda got dragged over - no doubt kicking and screaming under his breath - to be insulted by US congressapes over his company's crappy car brakes that were sending innocent Americans to their deaths. I heard the testimony of tearful American mums on the East Coast from my West Coast hotel bed early in the morning local time.
Toyota boss Akio Toyoda apologises for faults http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8533352.stm
It now appears possible that all those innocent Americans turned out to be crappy drivers, and the old man was basically just burned at the stake like the good ol days.
Get this (from the article): The US National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration is looking into cases of "unintended acceleration". But in a briefing to Congress members, it said that data recorders of 58 cars involved in incidents suggested brakes had not been applied in 35 cases. The NHTSA said it was drawing no conclusions from the findings.
A BBC podcast from Material World sometime in spring sums it up for me - statistical aberrations can result in mass hysteria. There may be nothing to this story at all, an engineer told the podcast.

In June/July it was a the turn of BP and their very don't mind if I do have a little sail on the weekend what-ho Brtish CEO to get slammed by the president's machine gun. Rat a tat tat, the old blokey shot them up every night on US TV until a mood for war was just short of unstoppable. He re-named them British Petroleum, to rub it in. He then tried to bankrupt them. There goes me pension said many Brits, and ironically a few Americans too.
Any one could be excused for thinking the US Government was the new infallible head of the world, taking on evil foreign pig companies who have presumed to enter American holy ground and then disturb it with car crashes, refinery explosions and undersea oil leaks.
I heard a bloke in the radio remind that BP also stood for Bhopal ! An anniversary of that US triump of environmental murder had just passed, but given it was overseas, most Amercans would have not known of it. A month or so later I was
Facts are - the Amercan people are as fallible as ever, subjected to US news programs (or pograms) and their rampant emotion engendering musical wind ups, and finely tuned by fallible politicians determined to save the people - from whatever - and stay in power there by.
Excuse me, but I was offended over the last few months by Bully Obama and his Cranky Congressmen.

They are singing the death throes of Four Thirds again

2010-08-10T22:35:00.000+01:00

They are singing the death throes of 4/3 again on the DP Review Olympus SLR forum. It's enough to make me cry to read the desperate sounds of man dumped by his long loved brand.
OK, I do not want to sound alarmist, but after reading the just released Olympus Annual Report, it seems to be pretty sure that 4/3 is dead.

From the report, goals for next 5 years:
"As for interchangeable lens-type digital camera systems, we will intensify our investment in technology and product development on the new-generation Micro Four Thirds System. We will reinforce the sales and marketing, distribution and after-sales service structure as well. By doing so, we aim to attain a global market share of 20% on an unit-basis for interchangeable lens-type digital cameras in the fiscal year ending March 31 2015."
http://www.olympus-global.com/.../en/corc/ir/annualreport/2010/pdf/ar2010.pdf
Except for brief mention of E-3, it's all about m4/3. No mention of 4/3 whatsoever, like it does not exist at all. So it seems pretty much clear where regular 4/3 is heading. Of course it's nothing we did not know, but stated in that way it clearly shows that Olympus will not continue regular 4/3. So it seems that all we who have bought into 4/3 can congratulate ourselves for being left high and dry. We are doomed.
And so the discussion goes on.

We're All Living Longer - Right ?

2010-08-10T19:04:00.012+01:00

Possibly, but then again a lot of us are binging and smoking and eating our ways to oblivion. We'll be dead with a few weeks of retirement, and just as well, because we have got crap pension savings habits.
So why is the average up then?
Ah you see, it's complicated.
A few of us are living longer - much longer. A whole lot less are dying at 55 because there is no coal in them mines no more, and we don't make no cars no more, and we don't get to breathe white powdery walls like we use to.
But most of us, just keep on plodding to 65, and dreaming irreverantly of a long retirement on Costa Blanca and a new young hussy out there. Unfortunately for us, and fortunately for the young hussy, we drop off around 70-odd like we use to. We would moan about the fact, complain about the expectations of long life not being met, complain that is, if we weren't dead!.
So I'm speaking up for the dead losers, and firing a warning shot over my own pot belly bow at the same time.
Radio 4 will keep on quoting the phrase, "we're all living a hell of a lot longer aren't we?" but no one says "No in fact" in reply. The question is left hanging there, or is it? I never thought to ask. I was advised by a pensions expert next door to check it out. The odd inquisitive mind might take this as a que to go and check out this vile old clap trap from UK Governement actuaries, but most of us will die blissfuly unaware in our seventies still, because well ignorance is bliss, and keeping the population happy is better even than growing GDP!

If You're Looking For Pointers - Don't Look Here !

2010-08-09T16:56:00.002+01:00

Let's face it, I can no more pick winners than the next man, and quite frankly I am beginning to have doubts I about me against any man.
Well today, the Google Meisters have said that the Google Wave is collapsing due to lack of users.
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10877768
In one of my first blogs, June 9th 2009, I got all excited about Google Wave. Follow the tag below to see how wrong I can be.
You think I'm disappointed, look at the google wave blog and on it was last updated July 27th, so the despair for the development team means they can't even being bothered closing down their blog.
I am also suffering a loss of faith in respect of my photographic punting - see my predictions on the four thirds revolution in DSLR technology that is now 7 years old, but suffering a lack of momentum. I mean who ever heard about a seven year old revolution whose only issue was it hadn't got going yet!
This is a good time to drop this blog and never admit you ever followed it. Relax there is a 99.9999999999999999% chance you haven't.
As for me I won't kill the blog either - I am following the Googly-example.

Evelyn Turns Four - Party Lessons

2010-07-26T23:03:00.002+01:00

The Last Fourth Birthday Supper
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Lesson number one - it's as much work to party for 4 or 5 as it is for 20.
Lesson number two- you need help. Grandparents are essential items for such events. Someone has to look after the food and drinks while you get on with entertaining!
Lesson number three - let the photographer be unimpeded by other duties. A few good photos lock in the memories.
Lesson number four - know you have help for tidying up.
Lesson number five - let your hair down at the end of the night and congratulate your beloved on a splendid job done, and all the pain and angst of the preparations will be forgotten

Physicists Incite Us All To Religious Excitement Over Hiding God Particle

2010-07-23T13:12:00.001+01:00

"This is outrageous", I hear the reply. "Physicists are scientists, and scientists are agnostic when it comes to the analysis of their work" Unless of course they come from the Intelligent Design school of thought within the how-did-we-get-here field, but I digress.
But I tell you the naming of the Higgs as the God particle is enough to drive mere un-educated fundamentalists like myself to furies of excitement that soon God is to be proved by Science.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10733747 , and the offending text "Stefan Soldner-Rembold, spokesman for the DZero experiment at the Tevatron, told BBC News: "We have made big progress at the Tevatron… we have collected lots of data over the last couple of years and this will help us to exclude a significant range of possible Higgs masses. "This will make the region where the Higgs boson can hide smaller and smaller."
There you have it. It's a clever ploy to heighten the interest of the average, so that they can believe that science is taking is to the Man Himself, so that the scientists can continue to be funded in their underground muon-bending experiments.
This latest article only continues the tradition. Now the little blighter - if I can be permitted to say that of a God particle - is hiding from us! What next, when Higgs Boson is spotted, will He then Manifest Himself? Will the scientists be observed bowing down? Will He fly all over the place in a mad rage at having being discovered? Will He transmute sending religious shock waves through-out the world of men leading to mass worship at the French-Swiss border where he was discovered, and where the Protestant revolution once took off - I say that despite any hint of correlation, but what the ... Hell.

Proto-Blogger Man and his two luvlies

2010-07-19T23:25:00.002+01:00

You're In Charge ?
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Just a reminder to my huge (not) unsought readership out there, that this blog is still an experiment. I am discovering what it is I want from the experience. I don't wish to be discovered doing a proto-blog. Every species has to be given the space to evolve - even poor ol proto-blogger man.
So back to the experiment idea, I was saying, I know as much about where I am going in my life next, as do my two children know where they are flying this ship.

Two Centenerans in One House - by chance 1 in 16M

2010-07-02T16:22:00.003+01:00

Now here is a mind boggler.
On Victoria's side of the familiy are two long lived souls, one not related to the other through marriage - a brother in law. Nevol will be 99 this Oct, and Evelyn will be 98.
A BBC article says that the chance of living to 100 today are 1 in 6000.
Genes predict living beyond 100

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10475018.stm
The article goes onto say that this "is a rare trait - only one in 6,000 people in industrialised countries reaches such a ripe old age. And 90% them are still disability free by the age of 93."
So I guess the chances of reaching 98 are say 1 in 4000. If two folk in the same family, from the same generation, but not related to each other, and who these days live in the same house 4 days a week, are almost at 100 - what are the chances of that? Is that 1/4000 x 1/4000 = 1 in 16 million? If they both make it to 100 ! ..... one in 36 million.
Now I've blogged this, I'd better sit down and do my statistics properly.
Certainly the stats dispel any thoughts than their carer, could be in any way bad for them. No such myths exist, but if they did.....! Or perhaps it suggests that despite any treatment they may be getting, they are simply hard-wired to go the full distance. Certainly Evelyn's body seems more determined than ever to keep on keeping on. What Evelyn's body is achieving is the equivalent of completing some uphill all the way rocky ground marathon on mangled ankles. I am inclined to view the possibility that where as some bodies die because the mind gives up, some bodies have a mind of their own! Pun no longer sure whether intended.
It is easier to see how Nevol will get there: he has lived all his life without being married. Say no more, next topic please.

Four Thirds - My Infidelities

2010-07-02T15:48:00.004+01:00

A year later, what are my thoughts re four thirds, since I last spilt the beans.
Well, I went through LHR recently and help a Canon 5D Mk II with a 24-105 chunk of glass on it, and I was instantly unfaithful - drooling all over her. Instant calculations about running away with her immediately. I sat on the A380 to Singapore and dreamed of infidelities we could have together. If my Olympus had seen it would have been horrified as much as mystified. Luckily for her, she was safely locked away in a bag on my back. It wasn't until I got to Singapore shops and saw how big the 100-400 zoom was, and how expensive, and relatively slow - per pixel area as full frame of course. Back home, and did some more homework, and realised that the 100-400 was designed in the pre-digital area and sucks the dust in. The 24-105 was quite slow at F4 - slower than my F2.8-F3.5 28-108 equivalent. Of course that slowness doesn't matter, as it is more light over bigger pixel area that creates the slowness, and of course easier to boost the signal without noise. Still, I began to ask my Olympus system for forgiveness. I began to look again lustily at my Olympus, and take her out on missions.
I began to consider the options of buying the E3 and gettingh a bit more bang out of my Zuiko glass. I can get the body for a low as £750 depending on dealer credibility. I could do that. I am expecting the price to keep on falling as Olympus prepare to announce a replacement is in development. They have not done this yet, and the E3 is nearly 3 years on the shelf.
If I start to earn money, then I will need the much more relaible 12-60 fast autofocus. It seems best to buy the two of them together for cost purposes. So there you go, I'd keep the old E1 ticking along with it's 14-54 zoom permanently attached as a second camera doing low grade photography - and get the most out of it. If I had a wedding to do, Victoria would use it.
STUDIO AND LOW LIGHT
If I started earning serious money, I'd still sucumb to the Canon 5D MkII and it's portrait lenses, and use it in low light and in studio settings, or even photojournalism from a car - cause you can't hike with it and all it's one tonne glass.
VIDEO
Where the 5D comes into it's own of course, and for this reason, I am still prone to wandering into infidelities again, is it's full HD movie making. This is seriously sexy stuff, and I am determined that the next time I buy a video camera, it will be a digital SLR that uses my digital lenses. Video using Digital SLR lenses has been a long held fantasy, and it has started to come into possibility with the development of video in camera. Early models with limited HD and bad formats aside, the 5D MkII really made it really sexy. Now Sony NEX bodies (a micro four thirds competitor) and lenses and a professional Sony HD vid cam that uses NEX lenses has been announced in the last month or so. It ain't yet foreseen that full 4/3 cameras that can compete with this, but I could see Panasonic micro 4/3 dedicated video cams before too long.
If the mystical E4 came out with full 1080 24p HD AVCHD video, I might have to sell one of my children of course, but it would be worth it... don't you think.
An Aside
Seven years ago the proposed listprice of the E1 was £1700. I wonder if it ever sold at that level. I recall thinking of it as a £1,100 camera. I of course paid a mere £350 for my body in November 2006, a little under 3.5 years later, and still 10 months ahead of the E3 being available.
1 July 2003 - DPReview.com site Olympus E-1 UK price confirmed
Olympus UK has today confirmed that the body only list price of the E-1 digital SLR (including 17.5% VAT) will be £1699.99. This means that at least initially the E-1 will be approximately £200 more than a Nikon D100 and £450 more than a Canon EOS-10D. Assuming the E-1's street price drops once the immediate rush is over we could see it matching the D100 at £1499 (inc. VAT). In my opinion this price is simply too high for a new SLR system.

26 July 2010 update see my private thoughts blog,and again on 3 August 2010 when I succumb fully to the lusty 5D MkII once again in a powerful argument to myself. This time I think it is fatal to my marriage to 4/3. My 4/3 spouse will need to accept that I want a new mate - the fuller framed 5D MkII.

In our Garden, Victoria Said This Reminded Her Of Us

2010-06-30T23:42:00.003+01:00

English Rose Meets Kiwi Fern
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

What can I say.
Except she is my true companion.

NZ 1, Italy 1, World Gob-smacked

2010-06-21T16:34:00.002+01:00

On Friday in Brussells at a meeting some German colleagues quizzed me as if I was English about my football team;'s hopes. They had polished off the Aussies 4-0 a few days back, while England laboured to a 1-1 with the USA.
I reminded them I did not like being called English, but I was supporting a team of rugby rejects who were thrown a round ball because they didn't make it into the school rugby 1st or 2nd XV. Presto we had a kiwi football team. Damn we knocked off some other countries and found ourselves in something called the Football World Cup. We thought the World Cup was the one the All Blacks keep on throwing.
Well that evening my German colleagues, who has snuck off to watch the game, saw their team lose 0-1 to Crotia. Later than night the English drew a gormless 0-0 with Algeria. On Sunday, while I was watching the SE England Welsh Cob competition in Surrey, a bunch of rugby rejects from New Zealand held the World Champs of soccer, Italy to a 1-1 draw. The full of guile and deceit soccer girls from Italy threw themselves on the floor in order to win a penalty. The commentators noticed and noted the contrast - the NZ'ders are too bloody honest for that soccer crap.
Big deal alright - but apparently it is the game of the world cup so far.

Message for England Footy Team: You go on and try to score a goal or two against the world's minnows boys, we'll go on and score a goal or two against the Titans.

We're in the Shit, so what we need is More Shit !

2010-06-16T17:30:00.003+01:00

Sperm whale faeces 'helps oceans absorb CO2'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10323987.stm
Oh boy, we really are getting desperate. This article chokes me. The fact the science was reported says something about our sense of humour. The fact it hit the BBC most read charts today says it all - we love it when the shit is out.
Australian researchers calculate that Southern Ocean sperm whales release about 50 tonnes of iron every year. This stimulates the growth of tiny marine plants - phytoplankton - which absorb CO2 during photsynthesis. The process results in the absorption of about 400,000 tonnes of carbon - more than twice as much as the whales release by breathing, the study says.
The problem is some one decided it was a good idea to examine a shitload of whale. No doubt, an ex-editor of an under-world student grunge mag with nothing better to do.
The article goes on: Crucial to the idea is that sperm whales are not eating and defecating in the same place - if they were, they could just be absorbing and releasing the same amounts of iron. Instead, they eat their diet - mainly squid - in the deep ocean, and defecate in the upper waters where phytoplankton can grow, having access to sunlight. Releasing the iron here is ultimately good for the whales as well.
Great! So can I get on with my life please. I've got to go to the toilet. Where - down pond of course!

Hallelujah! Comment: Child abuse vetting scheme cancelled

2010-06-15T11:27:00.003+01:00

Hooray - Another Labour scheme dumped. This much hated set of new measures has been dropped by the new coalition.
Child abuse vetting scheme cancelled as 'draconian'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10314055.stm
Back in July some UK writers went ballistic. I recorded the event in my experiemental blog that is designed so that no one bothers to read it. I just wanta record of my thoughts.
http://adabbleatblogging.blogspot.com/2009/07/all-adults-are-child-killers.html
Well good job.
The article today in the BBC says In its original version, the database would have covered one in four of the adult population. As well as widening the vetting process, the registration was intended to bring together information from a number of separate lists. Adults were going to be charged £64 to register in England and Wales and £58 in Northern Ireland.
Well if that ain't a racket I don't know what is.
Labour child protection racket ministers with nothing else to do, will no doubt continue their rant on BBC R4 last year that a single child saved is worth it, but the argument does not stack up. Okay then, Labourites, let's ban child birth as families are far more dangerous than kids clubs.

Download Festival - From Work

2010-06-12T12:28:00.001+01:00

Spot The Red
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

As seen from the boardroom

Monsters Ball - Melbourne Infants School

2010-06-11T20:05:00.001+01:00

Monsters Ball - Melbourne Infants School
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Oh Tom you are a cad !

This time the Yankies have gone too far - Go Get Em!

2010-06-10T12:52:00.001+01:00

Right that's it ! This time the Yankies have gone too far!
All that UK Presidential stomping on the ground saying he's gonna kick some British arses.
Well I've got a British Passport now, so I'm gonna get mad back.
Now the Yankies are destroying my pension value with all their vain threats to rob BP's filthy oil coffers. Filthy indeed! BP's filthy activity down in the Gulf of Mexico feeds a filthy American appetite for filthy big fat cars to carry fit fat Amercan asses around, and it should be stopped. America should be stopped too - stopped from driving big fat arses around in big fat cars, and stopped from accumulating big fat arses in the first place (as a result of driving everywhere and walking not).
Oil spill: BP shares plummet on US penalty fears
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10281079.stm
Well fat boys whadda ya going do now? Deny me a visa? Well probably not because my design this blog is just not followed. It's just me haveing a rant for my own satisfaction.

A Knights Day - Castleton

2010-06-07T21:02:00.005+01:00

A Knights Day - Castleton
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Even seen The Princess Bride?
When I bought the DVD lately, and relived the cult days of 88/89, I became sure that it was shot from around Castleton in the Peak District, some 90km north of where we live.
My kids have fallen for the movie big time, which of course thrills me.
In 1988/89 when a returning uni student, I had a small group of very good friends who would sit down on a rainy Sunday and watch this and A Room With A View with me in a ritual double bill. Afterwards we would be seen proclaiming famous lines of both movies with the sort of cult-fanaticism you could expect of university students. Two of this group are married today - troo love - although I must recheck my facts as to whether Ross Wilson was part of this cult group, as well as Linda.
This shot is taken at Peveril Castle, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peveril_Castle , and the limestone gorge to the east of the Castle reeks of scenes prior to the descent into the fire swamp in the movie The Princes Bride, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peveril_Castle . The wiki entry goes on to say that the movie was filmed at Castleton, and another old jaunt of ours, Haddon Hall.
This shot takes you to the descent into the fireswamp http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjansen/4657257870/ and this one to the Ridge where the Prince Humperdink rides with his men and spots Wesley and his Buttercup reunited, before they tumble into the valley, and descend to the fire swamp.
A short movie of our kids in the valley is to be added MOVIE WATCH THIS SPOT
swamp

New Marina Developments

2010-05-28T07:00:00.000+01:00

New Marina Developments
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

I haven't been to Singapore since Victoria and I passed through in March 1999, to start our overland journey to the UK.
All I can say, is Orchard Road was just the same old consumerist rush hour, but I loved Little India, Arab Street, China Town. I had dinner on the streets Arab Street one night, and Little India the next.
In this image, early morning 28 May the Marina has taken shape on reclaimed land, and vistas have emerged that were entirely new.
Singapore is still growing.

Close Shave - BA strike and Icelandic Volcano Ash narrowly avoided

2010-05-20T13:05:00.003+01:00

Don't Burst The Bubble
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Sun 16th flew over to Chicago. The aircraft takes a bender to avoid ash and flies southwest over Cornwall, and well south of County Cork, and 1700 out swings north to resume the great circle route to Chicago. I am dreading the return because BA crew are due to strike from Tuesday, and the volcano could mangle the rest of available capacity. When I get there I hear that 3 ORD/LHR flights the same day are xxd, which means the flights I took Sunday was xxd Monday. LHR and AMS are closed from Sunday 1200 UK time for 6 hours. They do re-open on Monday and then news comes that the BA striked was ruled illegal by a court. That news, plus the ash relenting, that meant BA resumed flying and UA was flying also.
The UA flights were bumping people throughout Tuesday. I was very lucky to get on the last flight that night.
Now the news is out that the BA strike can proceed. BA strike: Ban lifted by High Court http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10130274.stm
Someone is looking after me !
When you consider how I got my family of four to NZL and back unscathed during April - that is definately remarkable.

Chicago - Love It

2010-05-20T13:04:00.002+01:00

Chicago
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Check this photo out. It takes you to a set of Chicago photos from my visit on Sunday.

Hip Hip Hoorey - HIP's are a gonna.

2010-05-20T12:23:00.001+01:00

The much hated Labour invention called Home Info Packs, which cost money and distributed the wealth of home owners to a new class of Labour-philes called HIPP's, is dead. Home Information Pack Providers are now on the scrap heap. It's terrible really, all this human suffering, but now at least I can sell my house free of these Government-sponsored parasites.
The article says "Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP) estimates that there are between 3,000 and 10,000 people whose livelihoods are either directly or indirectly dependent on Hips. "
This BBC article marks the day. Hips scrapped by coalition government.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10130254.stm

No Fear

2010-05-15T10:18:00.000+01:00

No Fear
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

These English fields are nothing if not colourful, lush, and best of all accessible. The access to the English countryside via the ancient footpath rights of way is one of the best things about England.
Of course these comments bear no relation to the photo, as it is located in Calke Abbey, a National Trust site a couple kms west of Melbourne.

The Yellow Peril

2010-05-11T23:20:00.000+01:00

The Yellow Peril
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Okay, so there's blue skies of New Zealand, and the yellow May fields of South Derbyshire. It's hard to choose you know.
We've been back a week from my home country, and love it as we do, we realise little ol' self deprecating England is not so bad.
For some more yellow photos, follow the link.

Out of One Hole, Into a Bottomless Pit

2010-05-10T09:55:00.003+01:00

Okay so the Brits hung themselves in the elections, and the EU have had to launch a rescue fund around which there is talk about how growth is the only way to climb out of the current debt hole Euro Zone economies find themselves in.
Meanwhile the threat to our mortal bodies - in the form of hostile airs, water wars, rising seas, and soil erosion - has faded from view while we worry about whether we can still afford that next HDTV set. Clearly growth is a good short term solution to climbing out of the economic hole, but my fellow idiots, we are blind and will promptly fall into the environmental bottomless pit.
Don't we understand that less economic activity (and therefore less CO2 emissions) is a good thing! Reduced activity staves off the whirlwind we are fast-breeding for our kids to cope with when we are gone? Go on everyone, take a rest in the back garden. Don't go to work. Don't go on holiday. Don't go into the city. Don't eat out. Don't order furniture - even on the internet!
Look at these articles running side by side - in time terms
Nature loss 'to damage economies' - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10103179.stm , and EU ministers offer 500bn-euro plan to support currency http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8671632.stm . Hey this way we can recover the economies, and damage nature back - yeh ! On Radio 4 the commentary was that growth was the only way out on the economic hole. Here we go again - the growth mantra.
We don't need growth, we need to grow up!
Scientific American Podcasts last few weeks have been about a new book could Eaarth - Making a Life on a Tough New Planet , and a SCIAM magazine article Boundaries for a Healthy Planet. These have had me thinking again in that direction, along with an April BBC4 TV series Beautiful Minds which features James Lovelock and his hypothesis that the Earth will survive alright, but it's correction mechanisms will be fatal to humanity.
Which brings me back to my long arrived at conclusion late 2006 - we have to talk about world wide population (and therefore GDP) decline as a policy. And why not - the object is to reduce total human suffering after all. The simple equation is this: fewer humans - fewer to suffer nature's kickback, less suffering per human by those left to plan a new world way of living because of reduced CO2 output and less competition for resources.
I suppose this logic could lead to accusations that I am a kind of one world government nutter. Actually I have been since youth a small government fanatic of the Atlas Shrugged variety, so the above is hardly my default intellectual position. Never mind, if our governments won't rebalance the world for us, nature (Gaia) will achieve it far more effectively.
Then we will be in something akin to the days of Noah, the end times, the tribulation. The religious right will have a field day. That's the last thing we need, and would be bad religion because in fact we bought this crisis on ourselves by exercising or creative power, and not just because we are a godless generation.

Crazily Enhanced Skies

2010-05-10T07:17:00.003+01:00

The Idiot
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

I've rediscovered a thing called sky after my recent visit to NZ, and the Canterbury Nor'Westers.
An angry sky suits my current fascination with climate change and science fiction, and End Times biblical passages.
If you want to remind the masses that the Earth is a violent ecosystem currently kind to humans, then paint an angry sky, show a powerful Earth, and then write some expressively worrying words. It gets them every time. It's so easy to push people's buttons!

I am going to create a flickr collection of sky images as a result. It is available here at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjansen/sets/72157624013251944/

Back Just In Time - More Ash On The Horizon

2010-05-05T06:11:00.004+01:00

Anyone For A Drink ?
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

A BBC article on Tuesday attests to our uncanny timing. We arrived back Sunday afternoon after the last of the NZ clearance of delayed passengers was cleared out. Staff Travel listings were still being denied on the week up to Friday 30th April, and NZ had said they'd only start selling tickets again from about Fri 30 April, in a TV interview a week earlier. A BBC news item on the 30th also attested to people still being stranded in HKG http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8653489.stm
Yesterday, Tuesday, 36 hours after our arrival, Ireland and Far North Scotland airspace was closed for a while, and today parts of the UK are, as a fresh cloud comes UK way. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8661096.stm
Now that I am back in the UK, I might ponder just what happened in the world up north at the very time (April 14) we lost ourselves in the volcanic steam valleys of the Southern Hemisphere.
An in depth BBC site looks at it. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/europe/2010/iceland_volcano/default.stm

Evelyn Makes Momumental Things Look Small

2010-04-30T02:05:00.003+01:00

Evelyn Makes Momumental Things Look Small
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

We spent the day before flying out visiting Rory and Simone and their family, and the night before we saw old cell mates Grant and Vicki Raynor. These two visits were great fun - we experienced the strong desire the return to our old country as a result.
The remainder of the day, was for climbing around the old volcano crater on Cornwall Park with Rachel (my sis) and Greg's boys - Ben and James.
Here Evelyn appears to be looking down on the Monument on a hill NZL still calls One Tree Hill - a tree massacred by a activist about 10 years ago. The iconic tree and monument are still being mourned I think - old photos of footage were seen on the the Air NZ worldmap show images of Auckland as we arrived on NZ1.
I mainly took film footage of this day. That will one day find it's way onto YouTube, and a link from here will be provided.

To The Back Of Beyond

2010-04-29T10:08:00.001+01:00

To The Back Of Beyond
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

We fly up to Auckland today to connect with long haul flights back to the UK on Saturday. This view is from the Christchurch departure lounge, so the glass reflection is just visible. The 3 poles at the bottom are the only thing that give any sense of perspective or size to this unworld cloud scene.
In the lounge Thomas is running around introducing himself, and Barbarby the school mascot, to a number of folks in the lounge. He lack of natural fear of man, is mainly amusing. Some kids know better. Tom just barrels up. Adults appear to respond well to such brazen openess in a child. I am sure it is the better option to veer on the open and fearless, rather than withdrawn and fearful.

Nor'Wester From The Port Hills

2010-04-28T01:59:00.000+01:00

Nor'Wester
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Like A Volcano

2010-04-26T01:55:00.002+01:00

Like A Volcano
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

The only time we hit rain, was at the far end of this round trip up into Arthur's Pass. It hit us on the main divide as we walked our way up to a waterfall called the Devil's Punchbowl.
Further back down the road, where this shot was taken, the weather remained dry, and the sky was exciting. The north wester created the cloud- escaping-vent illusion we see here.
Frankly I don't know why I told you that; if I had said it was an active volcano, most of you non NZ'ders would have believed me.
Of course I keep forgetting, this is the most unpromoted, unsearched blog of all time.

Only One Loo In The Entire Lees Valley

2010-04-25T01:52:00.001+01:00

Family Line Up
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Inland from where my sister lives, west of Rangiora, on the road to Oxford, and then northa few kms, we cut into the Lees Valley up the Ashley River. After a climb over low mountain roads we emerge 20km later into a large valley set amongst the Southern Alps foot hills.
There was only one place to stop - and when we found it, boy was it popular!

We Pick Up Pip and Head Into The South Island

2010-04-24T14:48:00.001+01:00

Kaikoura Coast Stop
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Pippa is living in Canberra with her man Dan. She has been there about 4 months, and has a job. We last saw Pip and Dan in Devon about October for Great Grandma Eve's and Great Uncle Nevol's 97th and 98th b'days.
Pip flew into Wellington, we met up the night before, and today took the ferry over to the South Island. This stop on the NW coast of the South Island at a very kiwi cafe on the coast which gave the impression of being moulded out of the driftwood that littered the beach.
It was great to see Pip. She stayed with us for 4 days before returning to Canberra. Tom and Eve were most pleased to see their Aunty Pip down under.

Here She Comes

2010-04-23T17:28:00.000+01:00

Here She Comes
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

A storm threatens to tip over the Ruahine as we drive south down Highway50 towards the Manawatu Gorge and Wellington for a rendevous with Victoria's sister Phillipa.
In the end, we encountered only a drizzle on the west of the divide. The day still counted as sunny as we were shouted lunch by Andrew and Jo Dowley at a vineyard outdoor restuarant - bless them.

Te Mata Peak

2010-04-22T15:23:00.000+01:00

Te Mata Peak
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Shadows of Te Mata Peak march over the land swallowing hills then vineyards, then the river flats beyond.
Nothing can stop the creep of the shadow of the sun - er except a cloud.
We've been visiting former South Derbyshire family friends - the Dowleys - who moved out to Havelock North last September.

Tom is Lakeside

2010-04-21T01:43:00.000+01:00

Tom is Lakeside
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Lake Taupo - My Spiritual Home

2010-04-20T17:16:00.000+01:00

Mum and Eve
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Taupo put me at rest. But should I have been on edge? The volcanoes at the other end of our lake act up too - I was a 12 year old at Intermediate School looking down the lake at Mt Nguruahoe eruption in 1975, and I was living in Singapore in 1995/6 when Ruapehu put on a great and dangerous show. The Lake of course is a Caldera Volcano responsible for some of the Earth's biggest blasts.
But mainly Taupo is restful - most of the time.

Four Clouds

2010-04-19T16:33:00.000+01:00

Four Clouds
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Hey, while the world grinds to a halt, we take a wander north over headlands from Waihi Beach to a beautiful bay, and then back in the evening over low tide we catch brilliant reflections.

We're In Trouble

2010-04-18T12:37:00.001+01:00

We're In Trouble
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

We are in Waihi Beach, miles from anywhere it seems. It is Sunday and the local rag is reporting scarily that Air NZ may be halting operations to the Uk until May.
[Post Script: It seemed quite unbelievable at the time, and so it turned out to be. Operations resumed within 6 days of the cancellations, and the airlines - including NZ - put on extra flights to clear the backlog].
I went back to having my holiday, oblivious to the future, because even the airlines couldn't predict, and let's face it, if they couldn't why should I bother.

Waihi Beach

2010-04-18T09:11:00.001+01:00

16:9 Door
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Dave and Mike's families, and my Mum, we all head up to Dave's bach for a great day on the beach. We overnight here after the family headed back to Tauranga.

My Bro Mike and Jorgi

2010-04-17T17:08:00.001+01:00

Mike and Jorgi
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Tauranga is where two of my sibling brothers Dave and Mike live with their families. Here is Mike and his eldest Jorgi at the Scribling Wall on the Sun God lovers' pilgrimage around Mount Maunganui.
I say pilgrmilage because it sure felt like one - everyone was marching around the coastal mini-mountain to get back to the point where they came from, and in haste as well.
David and Helen's Jack has taken off ahead of us at pace, his Mum Helen shot off anticlockwise to intercept him, and we trailed in her wake.

Opepe Punga

2010-04-15T12:03:00.000+01:00

Opepe Punga
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Opepe Bush is above Taupo on the road to the Hawkes Bay. It was a chance to experience the scents of kiwi ancient bush again.

While Observing This Bit of Active Planet Earth - A Big Disturbance in The North

2010-04-14T15:16:00.002+01:00

Never Seen That Before
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

A volcano over Iceland has gone nuclear, on April 14th.
The BBC says that "On 14 April, the eruption entered a new explosive phase which was to bring European airspace to a standstill.

The eruption threw thousands of tonnes of mineral ash into the air - forced higher by steam plumes created as glacial ice melted. Most of it was very fine particles which formed an ash cloud, rising 6-10km (20,000-35,000 feet) into the atmosphere.
As the ash cloud spread south and east, air traffic controllers responded by closing airspace due to safety fears. First Scottish airspace closed, then the whole of UK airspace, then most of northern European airspace. It was the biggest disruption to flights since 9/11.
The cloud moved with the weather systems, some of it drifting over the Atlantic. Test flights allowed aviation authorities to identify safe thresholds of ash concentration in the atmosphere and most flights were given the all clear to resume on 21 April. "

A Soujourn To KareKare - Essential Stuff

2010-04-11T21:22:00.000+01:00

Big Ben Hit
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Jansens vs Hutchison Decadal Match

Thresher

2010-04-10T12:39:00.000+01:00

Thresher
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

We Take A Break in Santa Monica

2010-04-07T23:20:00.000+01:00

On Santa Monica
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

The kids have been awake for 20 hours by the time we pick them off the beach at Santa Monica for the onward flight.
Not long after this shot, Tom and Eve collapsed into virtual comas on the bus back to LAX airport. We slumped them over our shoulders as we took them through check-in and immigration control (where I recall cruelly waking them up to walk through the detectors).
Well, if I was travelling to NZ again, I'd do the same thing thing exactly. It worked. We were in NZL within 30 hours of driving out from our home in Melbourne.

The Last Time I Took a Holiday to Escape an Election

2010-04-06T12:45:00.003+01:00

Bintan New Year 1996-Our Digs
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

...was 1996/7 new year in Singapore.

Victoria and I were working in Singapore, and election fever was on.
The Government kidly turned election day into a holiday, so we foreigners took the opportunity to head for non-political lands.
Our specific jaunt took us to Indonesian Island just to the south by ferry.

Well we seem to have avoided most of ther UK election run up too. The election was announced today, and we are on flights tomorrow morning. We return in the week of the election. I am sure I will not miss the arguments. I've already decided how I will vote. It's all over Labour, and who do you think you are Lib Dems, and shut up UKIP, and no it's not you either Conservatives.... !!!! ... well of course it is, but buck up or I might not turn up.

James Lovelock scents final doom as I prepare to burn CO2 all the way to NZL

2010-03-30T15:03:00.001+01:00

Lovelock: 'We can't save the planet'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8594000/8594561.stm

Perhaps we should be taking a sail ship!
In this BBC article, and Radio4 interview, which I caught the end of, I was again considering one of the most interesting fears of mankind.
Lovelock was interviewed on BBC R4's Material World during 2009. I've listened to the podcast a few times, and I like his intellectual self assurance. I am sure lots of folk hate it.
His conclusion, according to the BBC would make many mad! At least he speaks with a candour that politicians cannot. The BBC go on to say "At the age of 90, Prof Lovelock is resigned to his own fate and the fate of the planet. Whether the planet saves itself or not, he argues, all we can do is to "enjoy life while you can".
My idea is being shot on horse back high up in the Hindu Kush. What's your idea?

The Tom and Eve Show

2010-03-29T21:35:00.003+01:00

The Tom and Eve Show
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

Our kids, on Saturday Morning, in the Spring sunshine, in the northern hemisphere.
Yes it feels good to be here.
For a HD version go to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dt3AwWuONQ

I Should Be Arriving In New Zealand Right Now !

2010-03-28T12:39:00.002+01:00

I Should Be Arriving In New Zealand Right Now !
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

He isn't really that sad.
And to tell the truth it's worked out well. We have to make some ground up with the architect who had a week ski holiday, Victoria has a cold and is tired and sleepy, and my work has important early April milestones to pass.
I will be able to go with all that behind me, and a longer holiday ahead of me.
Now there is always a reason on Earth - even in this mechanical natural law driven, non-feeling universe.

Lost the Battle -, Won a Better Holiday

2010-03-26T21:11:00.001Z

So it would have been a miracle, and frankly I don't know of any man of faith who would subject his family to wait out such compellingly stacked odds against getting 4 subloaders on a raft of oversold flights without a possible 4 day wait in an airport. I deferred to the logic, and opted to re-start the holiday plans for 7th April.

Blessing in Disguise ?? - BA Strikes while I try to fly home with the family

2010-03-19T15:32:00.003Z

News just in!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8576727.stm
BA cabin crew strike to go ahead as talks collapse!
Page last updated at 15:17 GMT, Friday, 19 March 2010
The sad story says "A strike by British Airways cabin crew will go ahead after talks between the airline and the Unite union collapsed. The three-day walkout begins at midnight, with a further four days of action set to commence on 27 March. BA chief Willie Walsh said the strike was "deeply regrettable". The airline has said 65% of passengers will reach their destination during the action "
Well that's good for me, and the bottom of the ruck.
What's worse is that BA report 40% of their long haul flights are being cancelled! Well that is this weekend, who knows what will be the case next weekend?
Seven years ago in Feb 2003, our last visit to NZL with the kids (well Thomas was in the tummy at the very beginning of his existence) it was an Air NZ crew strike being threatened, and it nearly happened I recall. We got on in the end.
Now I am faced with a wash out, and all capacity booked to hell and back 5 times over. Of course what could happen is the strike next weekend (our date of travel) is avoided after the pain created this weekend, and the capacity on other carriers clears as BA's loyal pax re-book onto their favourite airline.
Ironically, what is good for bmi, a BA competitor, and the source of my salaries, is bad for me. So I find myself wishing the worst outcome for bmi, and the best for me, and thousands others - a cancellation of the strike.
Time to Pray!
[Post Script 7 May - If I had left as planned on the 26th March, our retrun date Friday 16th April would have been two days after closures kicked off in the UK, and my NZ flight would have been stranded in LAX, and I would have been looking at a 2 week delay before we got home. The flights only cleared after Fri 30th April for staff travel purposes, and we were a lowly other airline subload group of 4 passengers. Phew!]

Sex mad BBC - More bad news

2010-03-17T16:17:00.004Z

Even the BBC new readership is sex-mad. This is off the front page of http://www.bbcnews.com/ , and it says a lot.
MOST POPULAR STORIES NOW (BBC 16:10 17 March 2010)
1/ SHARED READ WATCHED/LISTENED Man assaulted officer with penis
2/ TV bosses sorry after porn mix-up
There is no escaping it - the universe swings on a dark energy that is the result of serious deep down sexual fascination on Mother Earth - the most sexually active planet in the universe. I've just decided, that this dark force is what is ultimately creating a increasing void across all creation, as well as between all mankind. The end of the universe is a lonely cold existence, the very outcome faced by the dirty old men (..er..like me) who read the BBC newsite.
I could always go to the FT for my news - but then I'd be called a capitalist pig!
Make Love, Not Money !- my friends would holler to me, It's more ethical!

My sister Kris live er! (Boundary Road, Rangiora, NZL)

2010-03-16T21:58:00.001Z

IMG_0387
Originally uploaded by Kris D Jansen

When we travel to NZL, we'll check out Kris and her man Fabish, and their kids Jozef and Alex. Our kids will mingle with kindred souls like they've never done before as they work their way north and check out their 11 NZL cousins.

Another February Wintry Blast

2010-03-10T21:00:00.003Z

Snow Atol 2
Originally uploaded by Andrew Jansen (beginning to end)

This was a month back. I posted these shots into my Calke Abbey set, as yet incomplete.
Skipped church but had to, the snow was falling hard but it was feeling warm. Spring is around the corner, and it's heat kicked back immediately, and the melt set in.
The Ticknall Limeywards have been a favourite of ours for a decade. Ten years ago we were living just two hundred metres away in Rose Lane - just before we moved into our home.
Today was such a day to be there.
To see the Calke Abbey set - click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjansen/sets/72157602554101078/

New Zealand beckons

2010-03-06T07:44:00.002Z

I like ...
Originally uploaded by Deirdre McCoskrie - Light and Time

Deidre,
We are coming to New Zealand, but can you remind me - How big are those Praying Mantis' ?
My sister Kris is up Boundary Road, outside Rangiora.
Do the have any Praying Mantis up there?

My Daddy met his maker on a horse in the Hindu Kush

2010-03-04T16:03:00.002Z

I love this article by John Lloyd. I was on my way to LAX when I read it. These long flights gives one time to reflect on one's mortality in this orb
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d043816e-1fe7-11df-8deb-00144feab49a.html
Boomers rage against dying of the light, By John Lloyd. February 22 2010 20:23 FT.com
Joh writes of Sir Terry Pratchett in his Dimbleby Lecture three weeks ago " ... Sir Terry knows that his illness will progressively disable his faculties – and thus, he said, he would die “before the disease mounted its last attack, in my own home, in a chair on the lawn, with a brandy in my hand to wash down whatever modern version of the Brompton Cocktail some helpful medic could supply ... I would shake hands with Death”.
Well it made me think, I have long had my own futures contract with Death - bodily at least, as unlike most of you I hold out that my soul is immortal. Anyway, a minor diversion from the subject at hand - our bodily demise and how to have fun getting over it. My solution has long been told to my friends: if I go missing, you will find my body parts being dragged about the Hindu Kush by a fine stallion who was under me when I was shot. What a way to go! My eyes will be open to the marvellous mountains and sky, and I won't even be feeling the cold. The family won't have to bury me. The kids will be able to say my Daddy met his maker on a horse in the Hindu Kush, which will help them to get on with their lives knowing he died romatically rather than a grey fade out on old dotties home down the road which soaked up their inheritance.
I passed by that way in 1999, so I could work out my path up into the mountains. It's all sorted, okay, so no worries - you know where to find me.
But in the meantime, I am planning a short holiday to New Zealand with my family.

Their Destiny Was To Split

2010-03-02T12:47:00.000Z

It appears the uproar in 2009 was more than a storm in a teacup, and that the I don't know what all the fuss is about I am not sleeping with my secretary remarks were misplaced
The headline today reads: Destiny split triggers exodus
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10629377
However, read a little closer and you'll see that it is only a split at an offshoot - the Brisbane Branch of 100 members. 70 left along with the pastor. The NZ Herald article says "up to 70 people of the just over 100-strong congregation followed Pastor Andrew Stock, after a four-minute speech, as he walked out of the church with his family."
I wrote about this last Autumn. Follow the tags Brian Tamaki, Destiny Church.
But of course it was obvious, and since I don't publish my blog, and no one really has found it except by mistake, what I say is of no consequence.

Hey Honey.. From now on it's official - I can't trust you

2010-02-19T11:41:00.001Z

Oh dear, I am distracted.

A BBC article Sex at work: weapon or repression?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8458938.stm
makes the comment ".... it might be hard to believe that six out of 10 colleagues are involved in an intimate relationship, and that the reaction of the other four out of 10 is: "I don't believe you."

So Victoria, what are the chances we are both in the 40%? You're the stats one with your research hat on, but I think that is 4/10 x 4/10 = 16% chance we are both in the I don't believe you category, and 84% at least one of us are in the "Damn I've been busted" category.

Damn!
Honey, if you stop work that brings the odds up to 40%.
But I'm not so sure about the maths - can you check it out for me.... luv?

Koreans told to make babies - So they can drown or starve in 2070 !

2010-01-20T10:40:00.001Z

This is crazy
The best answer to world climate change is to have fewer people living on Earth.
One of the most humane ways to do that is by reducing the birth rate, and fast.
But the Koreans, Singaporeans, even the Italians, are trying to induce their all-consuming populations to breed.
Their subplot: what we need is more little critters to keep the old fuddy duddies - that's us - alive!

In a story in the BBC South Koreans told to go home and make babies, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8469532.stm, we see this madness at first hand.

It appears to be non politically-incorrect to state the obvious - population decline is the our best hope. The Earth doesn't care. It will adjust anyway, and simply turn us back to dust until a few a left.
Even on the more politically-relevant (but ultimately lessimportant) short time scales, the argument is almost the same: England would be better off in we were not all queuing to get into schools, hospitals and motorway junctions.
To hell with GDP - but hey ho said Solomon of old, "There is nothing new under the sun!" Robert Kennedy talked about this stuff back in 1968. I think a recent set of articles about happiness versus GDP was what got me saying I am going to switch off the news, in my blog yesterday.

No More News !

2010-01-19T15:29:00.003Z

There is nothing under the sun that has not happened before.
All things are tiresome. So said Solomon, long ago.

And right now, nothing is more tiresome than hearing BBC R4 recount the same old arguments that were gone over last disaster, or same time last year, or last similar scandal. I find now that the presenters occasionally can be predicted to respond with a particular well worn argument - one that has not even progressed since last year. When that happens I realise I am bored to death with news. And here is an example from the website.
Why does God allow natural disasters? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8467755.stm

What's my problem with it - well after a decade of BBC Radio 4 Today I've started to realise I've heard it all before. Radio 4 is a good program, but it is current news. My problem is really with current news - the themes are the same, the lessons are the same, the emotions are the same.
I am turning to books. I have switched off the newspaper stands over the last year, and now I am switching off the radio, and news web sites. Books are a reflection on what was the news. Books are thoughtfully created. Books pick out patterns, they ignore the details, they help you to make sense of whats been in the new, of life.
The news however, it just locks you into a cycle of thinking that progresses not, and as a result - you progress not!

Our Month Long Freeze

2010-01-10T15:18:00.003Z

snow-avenue
Originally uploaded by johnb/uk

John is a guy I met here in the cold before Christmas. This is his photograph.
I tend to take photos with kids and my lovely in near vicinity, and then process them only very mildly back at home due to time pressures - but below is what I'd liek to achieve.
So we also got out on the 9th - at hit Clake mid-snow flurries, then the sun followed.
You can see us also The Family Marches On