Until yesterday I didn't really know what it was like to have someone you are close to die before their time. I'd had grandparents die but they were old and you can think things like "well they had a good innings". Not so with the young.
I learnt yesterday that my good friend Phil Hutchinson died on Saturday in a car accident in Canada. He was only 30. I don't know more details about the accident. His flatmate emailed me and has been letting people know.
He was part way through 5 months in Canada and seizing every opportunity that came his way with tales of skiing and getting out in the cold. He'd been on a training course in Scotland beforehand (toolkitting as he called it) and been to the Alps to use those skills. In his usual way he had loved it all and came back with great stories before he went off to Canada. I'll always remember his enthusiasm for things. And the overdoing it. And the switch to a lecturing tone before a random tale about why such and such worked the way it did.
Suddenly every trite saying about death makes sense. I walked numbly into
town after I heard and didn't understand why people were still walking about
normally, chatting, laughing, going round the sales. Didn't they know?
But of course they didn't.
I wanted to scream "Stop all the clocks" at them til they understood.
But they wouldn't and shouldn't have to
And then you do the normal things you do because you have to. Because what else is there. And you put a mask on and get on with things.
But I cry.
I miss him.
So I've spent most of the past few days drinking in a field in Reading. The beer festival is always a good event and this year was bigger and better than before with more choice of beer.
The additional bank holiday was very useful and meant that there were two full days for the crowds to spread themselves over. This along with the larger capacity this year which was also helped by the lack of rain forecast all meant that we didn't end up with quite as enormous a queue as last year and that it took a good long while before it was one-in, one-out. We queue jumped with our Ale Trail tickets though.
Dickon and I made Wednesday evening, Thursday afternoon and evening, Friday all day and Saturday all day. I managed to get through 60 halves of different beers in that time.
The beer was all impeccably kept as you'd expect but this was all the more impressive given the concerns over the hotter weather before the beer festival. Breweries definitely adapt to people's tastes or their perceived tastes and it seems that milds, porters and stouts have in general got a little sweeter. Also Dickon appreciated that there were more pale ales and hoppier ales at the festival than there have been in previous years; some years the festival has been used as a good example of "May Mild Month" to the possible detriment of other styles. This year with the bigger range every style was well represented.
As ever for me the porters were the stars really and I especially
liked:
Mighty Hop - Black Pearl Porter
Box Steam - Steam Porter
Bingham's - Total Eclipse
Plain Ales - Inncognito
Two Towers - Jewellery Porter
In the bitters I really enjoyed:
Bays - Topsail
Arkell's - Moonlight
Dark Star - Partridge Best Bitter
Bewdley - Worcestershire Way
Also whilst I only had a sip of Dickon's pint before the barrel went I
always find Thornbridge Jaipur very tasty.
Oh and Art Brew should get an honourable mention for their Lemon which whilst
I didn't manage to try at the festival I did have some a few days before in
the Hobgoblin; it's a nice drinkable pint that doesn't feel as if the lemon
has been forced into it.
Bingham's are in my list above and their Total Eclipse is a fantastic Black IPA. This is a style that I'm very glad to see and wasn't something I knew at all until earlier this year. We're very lucky to have Bingham's; all their beers are superb and they brew down the road in Ruscombe. They managed sales into lots of the ale trail pubs we went into so I'm sure the people who really care about beer in Berkshire already know about them but if you're just passing through or you see one of their beers on at another beer festival then do try some.
On the down side the over-sweetening went too far for me with Bristol Beer Factory's Bristol Stout and Harviestoun's Black Watch IPA. Also Best Mates beer tasted really quite strange; a couple of friends tried some independently and neither liked it.
Five years ago we all looked younger
I'll stick my photos up on my flickr at some point.
Right, where's my bacon sandwich?
I walked 26 miles on a whim on Saturday. You can see a pretty map of the route.
It was a bit of a crazy idea that kinda just came to me. I knew I wanted
to do more exercise and I hadn't been on a long walk since my 15 miles from
my house round past Mapledurham, Pangbourne, Tilehurst and home. There's
also a really good pub in Frilsham (well, in the middle of nowhere really)
called the Pot Kiln. And I've been
feeling fairly antisocial lately so why not just fuck off on my own all day
long. Oh and the clocks went forward so we have more light during a normal
day.
See, perfectly sane.
Anyway, I plotted out a route to the pub and decided it made most sense to go via the canal. And then I plotted out a route back and it seemed to make sense to come back a different way and well when you totted it up it made 26 miles. I realised I'd have to leave early but I was up stupidly early, went and bought some provisions, got my haircut, made sandwiches, got organised and left at 9:50. I reckoned I could get a taxi from Tidmarsh or walk to Pangbourne and get a train if I got fed up.
Like I said, I walked round this route. The pub is at the 14 mile marker; there's a small dog leg if you zoom in. I made Aldermaston Wharf (8.2 miles) at 12:15 and ate a couple of sandwiches, got near Bucklebury by 13:40 and the pub by 14:15. I had a pint of West Berk's Mr. Chubb's lunchtime bitter and a packet of crisps at the pub. But I gave in to temptation and had a pint of Dark Star Espresso stout; still I managed to be out of the pub and back on my way again by 14:45.
I enjoyed the walk through to Bradfield but around the 19 mile mark I was thinking I'd just get a taxi from Tidmarsh. I made the A340 south of Tidmarsh for 17:00 and had a bit of a burst of energy so decided against the taxi. I also stopped at the Greyhound in Tidmarsh but only to ask if they'd fill my water bottle; thankfully they were happy to do so. I must go back and buy something. I made the edge of Tilehurst (22 miles) by 17:00 but my thighs were really aching by this point and the backs of my feet. It was road all the way back from here so not very exciting but I made it back for 19:00. I average 3mph on the whole route; 3.2 to the pub and 2.8 on the way home.
I'm glad I did it though I ached last night. A bath and stretching at home seem to have stopped anything worse happening; I wasn't sore this morning. I took my camera around with me and the photos are up.
So I've been working in London for a year and three months now and I'm still commuting in. I do constantly think about moving house or moving jobs though.
Today was a tube strike and I walked from Paddington to work. It was a bit of an eye-opener really; I don't think I'd realised that each different bit of London was so individual. I constantly debate with myself the pros and cons of moving in to London. Being able to stay out later, having a better commute to work, being more sociable with the Londoners I know vs living on top of everyone else, not being able to escape as easily, not being able to afford as nice a place to live, missing Twyford friends. But today made me wonder if there is a part of London that's quiet but close in that would suit me. Maybe I should look.
I've also been considering a place closer to the centre of Reading because the annoying bit of my commute is the bus to/from the station too.
Maybe one day I'll make my mind up.
Holger, you don't seem to allow commenting on your blog but the Debian versions to tell people to get involved seem to be How can you help Debian? and How can you join?. There are probably more.
About 4 weeks ago I started working for ScanSafe. I keep forgetting who I've actually told so there you go :)
They do web scanning and I work in Holborn now, commuting in from Reading. Working in an office is good actually; the people are all really friendly though there are obviously some characters. I'm working on the operational team doing project work for them.
Ultimately the commute might kill me so I might move closer to Reading station or closer to London. I don't really know yet and I'm not sure either is an obvious win given I'd have to move out of here.
Anyway, that's my news, what's yours?
It's all Paddy's fault.
Back in May I bought a Nikon D80 which is lovely and since then I've been taking lots of pictures. I've also been discovering how easy it is to spend money on camera bits. Anyway, Paddy suggested I get some of the photos I really liked printed up as they look a lot better that way. I was a bit skeptical at first but I got some printed up by fotopic.net in 6x4 to start with.
It took a bit of work cropping them to exactly the right size but I was really impressed. They do a great job of getting the prints to you quickly and my photos looked better printer somehow (though a couple that needed rotation became obvious). Fotopic lets you blow prints up to 15x10 inches and I chose five of the ones I really liked and get those reprinted larger. They look amazing. You can just see so much more.
The only slight technical hitch was that then I had to frame them to put them on the wall. Noone does 15x10 inch frames (if you know of someone that sells clip frames that size tell me). You can get frames in the A4, A3, A2 etc sizes easily. You can get frames in metric sizes that are the same aspect ratio like 60x40cm and ones that aren't like 40x30. Ho hum. I didn't do my homework and expected that fotopic would only sell enlargements that anyone on the high street would easily frame for me.
In the end I went to picturelizard and got them to make me up frames to the right size. They arrived the other day and putting the pictures on the wall makes it all worth while. It's just a shame I paid more for 1 custom frame than I would have paid for 5 almost-the-right-size-but-not frames. They're also not amazing quality (the 3.50 wrong-sized frame from John Lewis is better) but they're on the wall now.
Basically, if you take digital photos, choose some and get them printed. Even 6x4 they look a lot better than on the computer and it's harder to pass round a computer than a pack of photos. And if you get things enlarged then work out how you're going to frame them first.
I'm sure I am only have legs and a brain so that I can keep my stomach happy. Food rules my life. I don't understand people that can miss breakfast; my stomach would be moaning at me if I did. It does have a good side though as it means I really enjoy food and I enjoy cooking it too.
Since I have some more time on my hands these days, I've been experimenting a little more and trying some more things out so I thought I should post about them.
I asked for a bread maker for my birthday. I worked from home and ate bread all the time for lunch but it always went off quickly and supermarket bread isn't always amazing. The machine has been great. The even rapid bake loaves it churns out in just two hours are great. It has a timer so you can put a loaf on over night and come down to lovely fresh bread smells. The dry ingredients are easy to keep around and you just bung them all in the pan, hit a few buttons and later on a loaf appears as if by magic.
I especially like the granary loaves especially if I add a little rye flour but all the standard recipes seem good. The French bread one seems to give the right texture and taste but it's odd eating it in a loaf shape so I might have to make that one as dough and then shape and bake it separately one day.
I didn't like the olive and passata loaf; it came out an interesting orange colour flecked with the chopped olives but didn't really taste of tomatoes or olives. There's a tomato foccacia that uses sundried tomatoes that I might try out though.
There's a croissant recipe which seems to be a quantity of French dough that you put butter in, wrap around butter, and then more butter. How can it possibly go wrong? I need a free morning to try it but I think I will soon.
Basically if you don't have a bread machine you probably want one.
I watched a series of cooking programmes on BBC (Kitchen Criminals) and they seemed to be making pasta from scratch every two minutes so I was intrigued to try it. I mentioned it to my Mum and she had a machine that she'd never used that I borrowed. Sadly it's not quite as easy as it looks after TV editing.
Basically the first bit is really easy: whizzing flour, olive oil, an egg and some salt in a food processor, kneading it a bit and making it into a ball. Bung it in the fridge to rest and then the fun begins of trying to make it into a flat sheet. Lots more flour (in fact my kitchen was covered with it) and lots of patience and many attempts got me something that was vaguely what I wanted. Every time I got close it would stick together or it would rip or it would go in at an angle and I didn't have enough hands to fix all these problems at once. Even using smaller amounts of the dough is tricky. I was making ravioli the first time and it was nice but took lots of time and I didn't feel it was entirely worth the effort. I tried just simple tagliatelle last night but again it took a long time and you end up thinking that you could have just bought fresh pasta in a bag and be grabbing a handful of it instead of spending 40 minutes faffing just to get some strands.
It might be worth it if you had some amazing idea for ravioli filling but I think I'll give Mum her machine back and not buy one.
I've always really loved Pizza Express's cheesecake but never really understood how they did it especially with the texture at the edges. I'd always thought cheesecakes were just an assembly job really; my standard one is lime and mascarpone and icing sugar and it is tasty but not the same. Chatting to various people it seems the Pizza Express one is baked so I tried a recipe from a book Mum had lying around that I was flicking through.
It was a chocolate baked cheesecake and it sort of worked but was almost a little too chocolately and didn't have enough other interest. It probably wants some zest or some stem ginger or something through it. It's a terrible hardship but I think I might have to make another one to perfect it.
Like I said, I want to try croissants and I've always been looking for a good recipe for gingerbread; I really love ginger as a flavour. I never really cook with pastry much so I should perhaps try some pies or similar whilst I'm not working and have time to do these things. Any other suggestions welcome.
Sorry Bastian, but your "Why don't we aim for something simple, like improving our New Maintainer process." seems a little naïve. People have tried to improve (read, mostly speed up) NM for years and I don't believe the blockers are particularly simple to solve. We want a rigourous NM process adn we're a volunteer project so it's hard to do quickly. I know some talented people who have to be sponsored which means waiting on others being available. I know I've failed them at times when my life has been busy and I've not dedicated as much time to Debian.
The DM proposal is a great way to get valuable contributions into Debian sooner without people losing interest in the project all together.
The other issue anyone considering voting against the DM proposal should bear in mind is that it's going to be easy to remove people from this keyring if you have a decent reason. I really can't see any downsides.