Cranking it up

Snap!

A few weeks ago I was unlucky enough to suffer a snapped crank whilst cycling to work. As you can see from the dirt in the stub above, this must have been a fairly old injury that had been gradually worsening over time. Even though I am not very mechanically minded, I set out to find the tools and parts to repair. (If you aren’t interested in bikes stop reading now.)

Snapped Crank

Snapped Crank

So the latest bit of news in my second hand Brompton saga was this mornings snapped crank. Luckily about half a mile away from home so I could walk it back and set off for work again… looks very much like there was metal fatigue or a crack there already from the dirt engrained in the scar.

Dead crank

All a bit disappointing really, had a good 15 mile run on it on Saturday… if anyone is London based and has the tools to teach me how to change this myself I’d be very interested!

To the edge and back

Lunch atop of the edge

This post has sadly loitered in my drafts for far too long… A couple of weeks ago I headed out with the guys I am doing the c2c with in June for a test run from Manchester down to Alderley Edge – a fairly steep incline, with Mr Potter kindly lending me his Revolution tourer for the trip.

Looking towards Manchester (behind us!)

Apart from the stop start nature of the inner Manchester roads (so *many* traffic lights) we had a fairly good run out, though we did prove that I am not really for the hills of the Lake District. Picking up some food in the posh end of Alderley Edge (fantastic pork pie from the butchers, mmm) we then took to narrow lanes and were due to head to the Middlewood Way, a cycle trail heading from Macclesfield to Marple. Sadly for me, a mechanical issue on the tourer kicked in just before we went ‘off road’ and I was forced to take the train home.

Home on the train

Sad times. But, it has spurred me on into planning some more hilly expeditions ready for the c2c trip!

If you live in the Manchester/Cheshire area, it’s worth going up to the Edge to to check out the view – Manchester’s Beetham Tower is visible even on really hazy days…

Man and Big Van

Man and Big Van, originally uploaded by Alan Perryman.

I hope that isn’t the ‘big van’ in question!

Spotted just up from Leyton tube on the way to the Piglet Beer festival at the Orient.

Austerity in the canteen

Austerity in the canteen

Recently the caterers changed at work.  Those of you who know me in real life will know that I do not appreciated salad*.  So as you can imagine I was ‘well happy’ when the canteen decided to cut down on the potato fillings (the only real hot food on offer) by filling the pots with an inch of wilted greens.

I understand we’re ‘all in this recession together’. There’s a perfectly good salad bar out of shot – put the greens in there and make them opt in. If less cheese really will save the world, make the cheese pots smaller or just have an inch of air!

Windows 7 Fail

This (for geeks anyway) is brilliant.

Beautiful Fail

So, the “Problem signature” – is Blue Screen. Yep a proper fail. And the Windows version is actually 6.1.

Bill, can I have a refund now?

o2 fail

Not impressed with the o2 customer service. Last week I did a bit of searching to find out what was happening with the firmware on my N96 – to see when it might be upgraded. Indeed, Nokia have released updates (V20 and now V30!) to the Symbian OS – but o2 customers are stuck on V12! So I thought I would ask o2 when they might get round to releasing their version of the software to receive this garbled reply…

—————————————————–

Good morning Alan

Thanks for emailing us about the Nokia N96. I understand you wish to know when is the firmware upgrade for your phone going to arrive. Also, you’re interested in knowing the realise date for Nokia V30. Let me see what best I can do for you.

Alan, I’m sorry as we’re unable to comment in regards to the firmware software for Nokia N96. I’ve checked the Nokia website and I can’t find any phone named V30 or V20. I’d request you to visit the nearest Nokia store, as they’ll be in a better position to help you with more details about the software and answer your query.

I’d like to tell you that any new phone available with us, it’ll be updated on our website. As there are demands for new phones, I’d request you to kindly keep a tab on our website by clicking on the link given below:

http://www.o2.co.uk/shop/latestoffers

Alan, I’m pleased to tell you that we have a excellent range of other Nokia phones available online. To view the same, please click on the link given below:

http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phones/Pay_Monthly/Nokia

To know more about the best deals available, simply contact our helpful sales team on 08442 020202 between:

– Monday to Friday 8.30am to 9pm

– Saturday and Sunday 10am to 6pm.

They’ll definitely help you with the availability of the phones.

Alan, I realise this isn’t the answer you were looking for. I hope the above information is of some help to you. Have a nice day. If you need any further help, feel free to contact us or visit our excellent online Help Centre at:

http://www.o2.co.uk/help

When you email us please provide: full name, first line of address, postcode, mobile number and registered email address as it helps us answer your query faster.

Kind regards

<name removed>

O2 Customer Service

More Olde Worlde Tube

On Friday I stupidly trusted the bus. Going up to Marylebone from work would be easy I though – I have 45 minutes, the no2 runs from Victoria. Easy.

Epic fail.

By the time I had crawled all of 10 metres along Oxford St I was late. Very late.

But… this did force a change of plan. A new meeting place and a trip into Marble Arch tube which is currently closed a lot for refurbishment works. It seems they really do just put adverts over adverts:

Great to see that history is sort of preserved – even if it is hidden most of the time!

Holy Fuck, Scala London

Scala London

Holy Fuck

Holy Fuck

Dial Porn!

Just a quick entry as it’s already late on Sunday night and I should be getting ready for work… Thursday night I went to see a band called ‘Holy Fuck‘. I guess the name kinda prohibits mass radio play or chart success, but it was a really good do. Electronic music made with a few keyboards and lots of dials (see above dial porn…).

Support band was called “it hugs back”. They weren’t awful but neither were they really interesting.

Friday night we went to go see QI. Except our ticket got us as far as the queue where it was then first come first served. We were about 50 people too late. Bit pants, so instead went for a curry near Bond St which was nice enough 🙂

March Madness

Quick picture thread tonight on some of the mad March things I’ve missed out. Very careless indeed.

Bogle 09 – some more photos.

 

Big Dave at Bogle - Manchester Uni

 

Bogle 09 - Welcome to Macclesfield

Illuminating eh?

 

Lights at the Camden Centre

Lights at the Forum, Kentish Town

Lights at the Royal Albert Hall

And lastly… some epic fail:

 

5 a day Fail!

Estate agent trying to be clever fail. It was like this for over a week!

 The last one is actually from February but had escaped…

Danger! Fail!