Life in Yorkshire

Was it really better when everything was nationalised?

2009-07-08T19:27:47Z

This evening there was a piece on TV discussing briefly as to whether things were better when the East Coast Mainline in the UK was under Government control, that kinda got me looking at some of the marketing that went on through the period under nationalisation and I have to say there are some fantastic pieces of marketing from poetry to Jimmy Saville, a selection of which appears underneath.

The Past

British Rail advert

TV advert British Rail 80s Jimmy Savile

British Rail - Intercity - I Can Help - UK Advert

The Recent Past

National Express London Advert 2008

The Future

Intercity Super Express train promotional video

Interesting to note the promo video for the new trains that are to come into service in a few years are remarkably like the old BR colours updated!

So were things really any better? I personally think they were, apart from the state of the tracks. However, that was really the problem with the Government of the day not investing! Take a look at those customer service videos - something sadly lacking today!

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San Francisco Visit 2009

2009-07-07T11:27:00Z

I thought I would just share with everybody a couple of videos that I shot while on vacation in San Francisco this year, I hope you enjoy them! At the moment , I am trying to figure out which is the best and cheapest way to put videos together which have been shot on my Flip video camera, these were put together using the new Flipshare software. Thoughts on which software is the best and cheapest way of putting these videos together appreciated. (Software on Windows only though!)

In and Around San Francisco 2009

The California Academy of Sciences

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Redevelopment in Wakefield

2008-08-31T14:06:57Z

Wakefield over the last few weeks has come in for a lot of stick over its redevelopments, that are and have taken place. Westgate is without doubt a mess and I do agree with comments that have been published in the Wakefield Express in the last few months. Is Westgate a no go area? Elsewhere there has been comment about the new Market Hall compared to the old, In someways I do like it, however, Wakefield Council I think got the design wrong, inside there is no proper grid layout to, it's all over the place. The whole place was rushed to completion, even with a delay, they opened just to save face. (Faulty Flooring Story).They should be encouraging more food stalls in and promoting the market alot more than they have to date. They are already starting to lose traders. with Ledston Estate Game pulling out.

However, elsewhere development carries on a pace elsewhere within the city with the new Hepworth Gallery being built (See video top left). Next door The Navigation Mill is also being restored to a high standard, with offices and apartments being built around it. (See middle and bottom left video). Can Wakefield get it right with this development?

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Olympics - Two Days to go.

2008-08-06T21:44:28Z

I'm really looking forward to watching this year's Olympics despite time differences involved. The BBC always have fantastic coverage I love this year's BBC Sport's Intro, which was put together by among others Damon Albarn from the group Gorillaz. Take a look at the video below.

Olympics 2008 Monkey Movie - BBC Sport

Love to hear your views on the video.

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Hobury School Reunion - Class of 1988

2008-08-06T21:23:36Z

Horbury School

Friday 19th September will see the Horbury School, Class of 1988, hold its reunion at The Shepherd Arms, Cluntergate, Horbury, West Yorkshire between 7:30pm and 11pm. If you would like more details e-mail

Deborah Summerhayes (Frazer) at the following e-mail address dlfrazer@hotmail.com. Hope to see lots of people that I've not seen in years! Futher details can also be found on Facebook at the following address.
http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=11184374569.

Who's confirmed already?

To date the following people have confirmed to attend Lisa Sayers, Helen Elford, Ricard Nebard, Deborah Summerhayes, Tracey Dickinson, Anne Dews, Kath Bolton, Yvette Bringloe, Aubz Hemingway, Tracy Crowcroft, Fiona Beverley, Georgina Hollingsworth, Alison Gibson, Angela Wilkinson, Andrea Dransfield, Mark Pittaway, Philip Wall, Melanie Newby, Vanessa Lee, Nina Hardcastle, Sharon Deuchars, Elizabeth Hartley, Andrew Bell, Andrew Greatorex, Angela Smith, Paul Billing, Melanie Shield, Sarah Bell, Sarah Land.

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Mobile Life

2008-06-16T06:14:08Z

After a week of trying to live my life online through my mobile. I have to say that the functionality for most websites and social networks is poor or just limited.

Using Facebook was ok, it has the basic functionalities for working on the move, picking up messages, sending messages and writing on people's walls. Posting photo's is very hit and miss, infact I hate the whole experience of getting photos there. It should be made easier for international users to post photo's on the move, it goes without saying that Europe as a whole as a better cellular network than the United States, so why is it the Facebook interface for posting mobile photos, in the European market so poor?

On Vox the mobile posting experience alllows me to post and comment on the fly.No problems overall with this site
.
Microblogging is basically easy. Twitter without exception is the best, despite it's outages. Pownce, Plurk, Brightkite and Friendfeed also rate highly but sometimes functionality gets lost on the mobile - like adding friends on the mobile version of Brightkite - granted this is still a beta.

It is my conclusion, that life on a mobile at the moment has to be limited, as full functionality and services are just not there yet, until numbers increase using the the mobile web mobile then it will continue to play second fiddle to the PC experience..

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QotD: Summertime Bests

2008-06-08T08:31:02Z

The best thing has to be getting outdoors more. The worst thing has to be the British sense of dress, when the sun eventually comes out...;-)

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First Evening without PC

2008-06-08T06:25:40Z

Well the first evening of this experiment has already thrown up some interesting questions and thoughts. Two items from my social sphere have already thrown some spanners in the works. Firstly, a request to look at an old school photo, this is dogged by the fact that I have to get a photo much bigger than the original. Still working on this one, I need a free piece of photo software, which works with Windows Mobile 6? Ideas anyone?
The second problem is I'm trying out a new service at plurk.com, someone who I follow across numerous websites has asked me to follow them on there and I can't follow them as yet as the plurk mobile client does not have the facility to add friends, unlike Twitter. Thus these two items have already highlighted some of the mobile websurfing issues I'm likely to come across over the coming week.
However, on the plus side, I always think how simplistic some of the mobile clients are without all the third party plugins and all the bells and whistles, e.g. The Facebook mobile interface I guess captures the essence of what Facebook is about and not about all the different plugins. This I guess also shows why Twitter is also popular...simplistic!
Well on with the first full day of thbis mobile experiment.

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Living online without the Home PC for a week.

2008-06-07T20:15:23Z

I was thinking a few moments ago about what it would be like to live without the home pc for a week and just use my mobile to do all my browsing and e-mail? Alas, I have to use a PC at work, so I'm just going to try from mobile for a week at home. Maybe it would save on electric too! This will be my first post for this week from my mobile. Thoughts and comments will be made throughout the week.

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On Chesil Beach

2008-04-14T21:02:20Z

On Chesil Beach

Ian McEwan

Interesting read on a newly married couple...........

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