History of Didcot

Rather interesting

Oxford - odd place

Two things about this article:

One - Oxford really is a strange city.
Two - this counts as the second items of news about Didcot. Says all you need to know about local news round here doesn't it.

Favourite Sports Teams

Teams that I support (in as much as I look for their results in the paper):

Rugby Teams:
1. Wales
2. Pontypool
3. Newport Gwent Dragons
4. Llanelli Scarlets
5. Cardiff Blues
6. Harlequins
7. Wasps
8. Grove

Football Teams:
1. Norwich City (university)
2. Boston Utd (Sam's local)
3. Ethnikos Piraeus (Championship Manager)
4. Oxford Utd (local)
5. Man City (blame 3 years in the same lab as Andy)
6. Pierikos (Championship Manager)
7. Cardiff City (spiritual home?)
8. Newport County (most local team to Pontypool)
9. Hayes (Championship Manager)
10. AS Alghero (I have their red and yellow scarf at home)
11. AS Rodos (visited their ground on Rhodes)
12. Ialyssos Rodos (as #11, Sam didn't come in with me as she just watched a cow tied to the back of a pick up truck by its four feet - it seemed content and was mooing)
13. Segoviana (Championship Manager)
14. Fiorenzuola (Championship Manager)

Least Favourites:
1. Man Utd (see #5 above)
2. Ipswich (see #1 above)
3. Aston Villa (favourite team of my first boss who was an arsehole and a bully)
4. Swindon (see #4 above)

Cricket:
1. Middlesex
2. Glamorgan
3. Oxfordshire (Minor Counties)
4. MC Wales (Minor Counties)

Environmentalism

I'm currently doing the NEBOSH Diploma in Environmental Management, in a futile attempt to take charge of our (or at least make sure that we have
some) Environmental management.

To this end, a few facts:

• There are only seven landfill sites in the UK which can now take "hazardous" wastes. Prior to this year, there were hundreds. Some counties have no landfill sites at all, so rubbish has to be transported 50-60 miles to be disposed.



• Landfill tax, charged to everyone (except householders) who deposits material to landfill sites, was set in the late 1990s at £7 per tonne. This was raised by £1 each year until now - it stands at £15 per tonne. From now, it will be raised by £3 per tonne until it hits £35 per tonne.



• New land remediation legislation means that the owners of any property which is built on contaminated land may be required by the Environment Agency to clean up the underlying land. This is typically due to previous industrial usage, e.g., gasworks, mining, chemical works, tanning, old landfill sites, some agriculture. The Agency will first go after the company or person who introduced the contamination, but then it will go to the land owner. Although it was not specifically intended for householders, about half of the remediation notices (for up to £40,000 of work) have been for private dwellings on brownfield or tip developments. The legislation is interesting legally as it is retrospective. It is a particular problem in the UK as we have just about the longest industrial history in the world, and thus the most contaminated land, most of it dating from times when records and maps were not particularly accurate.



• Dioxins are some of the most poisonous chemicals known to man (outside snake venom). For some, there is no "safe" limit at all (this is not actually that uncommon) - they are generally toxic and vigorously carcinogenic materials and contribute to the poor air quality in some of our cities. They are mainly produced by the uncontrolled burning of organic matter, so all the incinerators in the UK are strictly controlled and regulated by the Environment Agency. Indeed, the annual dioxin output from all these incinerators is considerably less than from one single garden bonfire. The highest levels of dioxins in the air in the UK are found - on the 6th November!!! The most ever detected in the UK were - after the burning of cattle carcasses following the Foot and Mouth panic/mismanagement.



• Just one litre of chlorinated solvent (dichloromethane, chloroform) in a reservoir of drinking water (or a groundwater aquifer) will make the entire reservoir unfit for consumption.

McDonalds vs Burger King

Am I shallow? I avoid McDonald's for two reasons:
Firstly I don't believe they are morally or ethically sound, they exploit third world economies and are environmentally unsound, I dislike their advertising and the way they associate themsleves with children's events, toys, films and sports, presenting themselves as some sort of healthy option.
Secondly, the food tastes like crap.

However, I (occasionally) eat at Burger King because I like their burgers and King Fries. Are they so different to McDonald's in the rest of the things i have just mentioned. Should I be boycotting Burger King as well?

Oh, the moral dilemma.

Manic Street Preachers

Bloody superb band. Just seen them at the NEC (with the rather good Razorlight in support) - and they were good as always. No encore, but they never had played one. The first time I saw them was at UEA in 91/2 on the "Generation Terrorists" tour - they played 35 minutes in total and walked off. Everyone was annoyed but actually, they had played all the decent stuff from their album, plus "Motown Junk" and "Suicide is Painless", so everyone had seen exactly what they had come to see.

Have a listen to "Cardiff Afterlife", "The Love of Richard Nixon", "Empty Souls" and "1985" on the new album - all realy good stuff.

No-one took any pictures of my beard this time, and I'd trimmed it especially.

Thanks to Ritz for this

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in
waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht
the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total
mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the
huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Fcuknig amzanig huh?

Top 20 Things to do in Athens

Dan and Sam will probably correct me on these. By the time I finish, there will probably be more than 20, as well.

Things to do

• Seeing the magnificent view over Athens from the Acropolis early in the morning as the sun rises over the city.


• Find the pile of artefacts and gravestones behind the Hephaiston in the Ancient Agora


• Discover new archaeological sites (Keramaikos cemetery and the road to Piraeus) even though you've been several times before


• Wander through the Ancient Agora for days on end, finding yet more evidence of a very long period of human occupation, from the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Geometric, Mycenaean, Classical, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian (Latin) and Ottoman periods: find pottery from all these periods in the Agora museum


• Try and trace your route up to the Acropolis, viewing from the big flagpole at one end


• See Piraeus from the top of the Hill of the Pnyx


• Find Socrates’ tomb (alleged) with the caves carved into the shape of a triangular roof.


• Walk around the free displays of artefacts in most of the Metro stations (especially Syntagma).


• Lose yourself in the streets of Plaka, finding jewels of shops (and shops of jewels) and ancient sites in amongst the tourist tat.


• Seeing the Parthenon from just about everywhere in the city.


• See the archaeologists at work from opposite the Temple of Olympian Zeus.


• See the finished Gate of Hadrian leading from the Temple of Olympian Zeus into Plaka and beyond, after it had been in scaffolding for the last few times you’d been there.


• Spot as many tripod bases (prizes in classical competitions) as possible.


• Tzatziki at every available opportunity.


• Trace the water system for the bath house in the grounds of the Temple of Zeus


• Walk around the Museum of the Acropolis and marvel at the relics.


• See the Roman Tower of the Winds.


• Souvlaki


• Walk around the city before the sun comes up to see it waking up.


• Sitting in a café bar on the road from Monastiraki to the Acropolis entrance, overlooking the Ancient Agora, taking in the magnificent view and just generally chilling. OK, it was mainly the only way to get Dan to stop complaining because we’d been walking for about 10 hours and he needed alcohol.


• See the tiny church in the middle of Ermou. Nowhere else has a church literally in the middle of a shopping street.


• Eat at the taverna/restaurant opposite the main Cathedral, and ask them for take-away Spanokopita.


• Watch the end of the Athens Classic marathon in the old Olympic Stadium.


• Climb up to the end of the old Olympic Stadium and look back down its entire length.


• Take the Metro to Piraeus and wander around the port – just seeing the road signs to “The Dodecanese”, “The Cyclades” and “Crete” is quite something!


• Watch the changing of the guard outside the Royal Palace in Syntagma and wonder at its bizarre-ness (is that a word?)


• Go to the new Olympic Stadium and see it as a building site and cement works. It makes the TV pictures of the Olympics all the more special.


• Become a tour guide for a party of elderly Japanese women climbing the Hill of the Pnyx


• Sit in the Theatre of Dionysius (avoiding the sleeping dog) and marvel at the architecture and frieze of headless figures that resulted from Roman vandalism and shoddy workmanship (apart from Atlas).


• Watch the turtles in the National Gardens


• Find random art exhibitions in the National Gardens


• Ignore the tourists and scaffolding on the Acropolis, or alternatively get their very early for surely one of the most impressive sites in the world.


• Take the Blue Guide to Athens – it may be 20 years old but is the most valuable guide book there is.


• Getting into the Acropolis for free as it’s a Monday.


• Getting caught up in the middle of (a) anti-something demonstrations (never found out exactly what), and (b) the biggest rainstorms the city has ever seen


• Fail dismally to find any Ethnikos Piraeus football shirts despite that being one of the reasons you went there!


• The airport transport links – compared to the reputation that Athens used to have, it is a paradise for travel now!


• The entertainment (two blokes singing and playing instruments) in a wonderful little taverna in Plaka (up Adrianou towards Hadrian’s Gate)


• Breakfast of a couple of rolls from a street vendor outside the University buildings


• Doing the city in 18 hours so you don’t have to find a bed for the night, but you fly out the same day.


• Having someone waiting at Luton with a Burger King when you touch down.


• Buy a Greek newspaper when its obvious you are English, it gets the owners of the peripstera very confused!

Things to avoid

• Arriving early at the Acropolis to find that you are in the only country in the world where the archaeologists go on strike.


• Ordering Dolmadakia and expecting them to be vegetarian.


• Fail to get to the Archaeological Museum after three consecutive visits.

The very long walk from the inappropriately situated Metro station to the Archaeological Museum to find its closed after all.

• Turn the wrong way out of Monastiraki Metro station and wander towards Omonia through some extremely dodgy areas.


• Walk past the "adult" cinema at closing time (i.e., 5 am) to see the dregs being kicked out, and the person you are walking along with to completely fail to spot anything!


• Stroke random cats that turn out to have fleas. Not much of a surprise there!


• Take some Vaklava home in your rucksack from Piraeus, only to find that it has leaked honey into your camera.


• Attempting to speak Greek at every opportunity and struggling wildly, then when Sam gets annoyed and wants to order in a take-away, she speaks in such perfect Greek that they think she’s a native. She’s too good sometimes!


• Befriend a cat in the Roman Agora as it will follow you around the entire city. Cute though it was.


• Talking to strange Greek blokes at Syntagma who “just want to give you a business card in their bar for when you’re next in town”. You reluctantly go to their bar and decide that it might not be such a good idea once you see the line of ladies at the bar. Time for a sharp exit.


• Man Utd, Real Madrid and Liverpool shirts in Plaka


• Easyjet flights back where they don’t have your flight details, so give you the last numbers and you get the last seat on the flight. Dan, however, goes through first and fails to save you a seat in cabin. Instead, he waits for you to fight your way through the crowd. Crazy fool. He blames it on not knowing the etiquette.

Band Aid 20

Very worthwhile, but its not a patch on the original. Band Aid II (the Stock Aitken Waterman version from 1988) was on one of the music channels last night - even that appears better than the new version.

Having said that, I hope it sells vast numbers of copies!

Traffic on M40 to A34 on Sunday nights

Driving back from Lincolnshire at the weekend, you go onto the M40 at the very strange and counter-intuitive Northampton junction, and then off at the next junction (Oxford/Bicester) onto the A34.

Every Sunday night it seems to attract vast number of drivers. It must be one of the most populous stretches of road in the country. It can't even be the volume of drivers going back into London after the weekend as most of them turn off onto the A34.

Due to the traffic lights at the A34 junction, the traffic builds up and is released in pulses. It can then take another 10 miles before the traffic flow gets back to something approaching normality.

Ludicrously busy road.

Dream Team

"Dream Team" is Sky One's football soap. It's quite entertaining in a bizarre kind of way, even if the storylines are a little predictable. See Sam's blog for more rants.

My issue is with the quality of the acting, and this probably goes for a lot of dramas, soaps and other entertainment. We have so much television on so many channels that the acting talent is spread very very thinly. Dream Team has approximately three decent actors, the ones who play: Jaws (the mad goalie); Clyde (the one who has just jumped from the top of the stand); and Don Barker (the bullying manager). The rest of them would really struggle to act their way out of a string vest (and this definately includes the tattooed ex-Boyzone member as the club owner, Eli Knox).

New swear words

Knackersplat.

Has rather a good ring to it, don't you think?

Beards

I went to see The Darkness in Birmingham. They were extremely good, but I still can't work out whether they are being even remotely serious. Highly entertaining stuff.

However, while in the queue for some very nasty microwave chips, a small Brummy with a camera came up to me and said, "Excuse me mate, can I take a picture of your beard". I allowed him, he took the photograph and buggered off. At this stage, everyone else in the queue was in utter disbelief.

Am I likely to be on a dodgy website? Is there a new craze for photos of blokes with bears. Maybe http://www.blokeswithbeards.com ??

Driving (Part 1)

This may turn into a very long rant about the state of driving on the UK's roads. Several things were annoying me on a long drive back from Lincolnshire at the weekend.

(1) Coach drivers
If you have a very long coach, you should be driving in a similar way to a lorry, not pretending you are a car and nipping out in front of other cars into the fast lane. Apart form anything else, you've probably got 50 other lives dependent on your driving.

(2) Cars overtaking slowly
This one frequently annoys me. Imagine you are driving down a mtorway or dual carriageway, and you are coming up behind a lorry or slower vehicle. You can't overtake as there is someone in the next lane just behind you. Behind them, there is empty road with a load of cars in the background. How come the car that is overtakig manages to go so slowly past you that the space behind them fills up, and when then finally crawl past you there is another stream of cars you have to wait for. Anticipation is all very well, but you assume that the car in the outside lane is going about 5 mph faster than they actually are (to allow a safe margin for error), so you don't overtake. When you realise that you could have gone, its too late and they are next to you. For miles. And finally when there is a gap, all the cars flying up behind you pull out before you have a chance, as you are now travelling at the speed of a small stuffed gecko behind the original lorry.

I might just carry this one on later.

Inflatable Snowmen

Not only is the electric consumption of Didcot increasing due to the vast number of unnecessary lit adornments to houses, but the good burghers are indulging in on-upmanship with their lawn displays.

Inflatable snowmen! They are appearing across Didcot (and I suspect other places). So bloody large they need to be tethered down! Why does anyone see the need to spend a fortune on external lights that:

• cause accidents (car drivers stopping to gawp)
  
• increase power consumption and thus acid rain and global warming
  
• look incredibly tasteless (OK, not to may taste)
  
• cause light pollution
  
• could well be defined in civil law as a nuisance
  
  As for the snowmen, I really want to go around the town late one night and slit the tethers, just to see the majestic sight of hundreds of the things floating into the horizon (more likely into the flight path of the nearest UFO or soldiers returning from Iraq to Abingdon).
  
  Humbug. Humbug. Humbug, Mr Baldrick?
  

Tea

I am British. I cannot stand tea. Why do I feel that I am some sort of pariah due to those two statements appearing mutually exclusive? I have been given three cups of tea in my life which I have drunk for politeness only. If you refuse a "nice cup of tea" it is almost seen as a stab to the heart of your host, you may as well have kicked them in the genitalia and crapped on their floor.

I don't even like the smell of tea - in Tesco the other evening (yes I really know how to live it up), the tea aisle smelt horrible, just because somewhere down there a bag had split.

The rest of the country seems to function on tea, there are numerous people who cannot face the world without tea in the morning, and at every break they can imagine. Other people can't face the world without soft or hard drugs - they are pitied or criminalised. Should we not do the same for the tea-drinking majority?

I'm off for a can of Coke.