This Ordinary Life

Well, the technology that sits behind the blogging phenomenon is getting more sophisticated by the data. I was slow to follow the curve, but now am too putting technology to good use. For instance, this entry is being written with help of ScribeFire, the blogging editor add-on in FireFox. I have to admit that it does make blogging a lot more fun and less code intensive. Apologies go out to my "alignright", "aligncentre" and "alignleft" image style classes, but you all knew it was only a matter of time before you had to go.

After installing ScribeFire, I decided the next logical step would be to update my Movable Type interface to the latest version. I had been working on v3.34, so a full generational jump to 4.2.1 made me giddy with delight. Movable Type's website had very simple instructions to do the update...

1. Make a backup of your database - Whenever you are making a change to your system such as this, it is always considered wise to make a backup of your data just in case you need to undo anything you might have done.
2. Download Movable Type - Once you have backed up your system, download Movable Type to your web server.
3. Unzip Movable Type - Using your preferred unzipping software, unpack the Movable Type archive onto your file system.
4. Copy Movable Type's Files Over Your Old Installation - Copy all of Movable Type's files over your old installation of Movable Type.
5. Login to Movable Type - The first time you access Movable Type, the system will detect the new version of MT installed on your system and take you through the automated process of upgrading your database. When this process is complete, you will be able to begin using Movable Type immediately.  The first time you access the application, you may need to "shift-reload" your browser in order to clear the cache for your css, javascript and images. Doing so will fix any display abnormalities you may experience upon first logging in.

However, I have left a post on the Movable Type Installation Forum and hope that someone will either:

• Explain to me what went wrong and how to fix it; or
• Explain how to do a clean install of v4.2 and the most efficient means of copying my custom templates and archived entries into this.

Posted by this ordinary life at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, finding a venue for a birthday dinner to be attended by all your friends is always going to be a challenge. So, when one of my mates suggested that 16 of us go to Koba, a Korean restaurant at 11 Rathbone Street, London W1T 1NA, I thought that it would be something special. To the restaurant's credit, they did make us feel welcome by giving us on long table to all site at, but that was about it.

The menu was an array of Korean specialities and we did our best to order an arrangement of dishes - the raw beef starter, various versions of Korean BBQ, hot pot stew, etc. It was a veritable schmorgisborg of Korean food. Drinks were flowing with very good Hite Prime Beer and the house read and white lubricating our appetites for the feast ahead.

It was when the food came out that everything started falling apart. Firstly, the raw beef starter (the Korean version of steak tatare) was more than raw it was made of shredded frozen beef. This frozen meat theme prevailed during the provision of all the "raw" meats for the "at table" BBQ. Secondly, their timing was so far off we're glad there wasn't a benchmark to rate them against. The first people were given their meat to cook on the BBQ (their main) 1 hour before the hot pot stews finally were brought out. Finally, the portions were tiny. Our duck BBQ at £8.50 consisted of 4 thin slices of frozen duck breast. Now I understand that there are mark ups, but this amount of duck couldn't have cost them more than £1, particularly as they probably bought it frozen anyway!

It's a real shame that they completely ruined our dining experience through the careless provision of frozen meat and not getting the timing on our mains right. Such carelessness when couple to a £26 per head price tag gives rise to a desire to never eat there again and to advise my friend to not risk going either. There are many other Korean BBQ's in London that do get it it right and believe me when Korean BBQ is done right, you are guaranteed a night of good food, fun dining experience and smiles all around.

To Koba's credit, the Kimchi and other pickled side orders were good (of course, they would be as they come out of a packet!)...

I give Koba...

2 / 5 for food (you just don't serve frozen meat!)
4 / 5 for ambiance (to their credit we did feel like we were foreigners in Korea)
3 / 5 for localness (the food does feel authentic)
2 / 5 for value (at £26 per head, you would have expected a lot more)

2.5/5 Overall

So if you are in Central London and would like some Korean for dinner, whatever you do, don't go to Koba.  The place is run by Korean's that should know better, particularly when they are representing their country and it's cusine in the UK.  I love Korean BBQ, so I will find an good one and let you know about it.

Posted by this ordinary life at 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rumbling along a dusty road in Uganda makes you reflect on questions such as “why do all of the locals wave and smile as we roll by?” Is it that we represent something that they want to be associated with or is it that they are simply happy? I honestly don’t know.

On the one hand the people are blessed with a country of astounding natural beauty and biodiversity. On the other hand it is populated with most of the people subject to immense poverty. The towns are filthy and rife with social problems. It has been many generations since these people stopped living a simply farmers or nomadic tribes, but how can traditions that prove themselves as grossly inappropriate still prevail?

Of course, if you are on the move and only have a “biodegradable lifestyle”, it is OK to simply dump bodily and other wastes into the environment. But after almost a century, it must be obvious that the same cannot be done with man-made materials such as plastic. Are cholera, dysentery, stench and other disease not make good deterrents? Does evolution not suggest that the people would find means of adapting to their new ways of living?

Again, I honestly don’t know. Is it a lack of education, motivation or the result of other societal ills? What I do know is that the country seems to be teetering on the edge of a precipice. What lies below is the same demise that befalls most capitalistic countries in the west; however, across the ravine lies sustainable development. The challenge is how to cross the ravine without falling in!

Does Uganda not have the advantage of being able to learn from the West’s mistakes and to use their low development base to move to a state of sustainable harmony? Surely this will make building a bridge across the ravine easier as they will know what not to do. I can see a country that has harmonised local markets and process certain base product for export. Why can’t manjoca (green bananas) become a staple in other markets like India / China? Or the focused planting of forest for charcoal production or eucalyptus oil? Waste that currently lies strewn across the country could be collected and sorted for use in the manufacture of new products and thereby killing two birds with one stone (waste management and raw material supplies). Thus the filth that is choking the country becomes a resource that helps the people rise up out of poverty.

Uganda, I implore thee not to choose the way of the West. You have the potential to achieve something, that we will never be able to do in the Developed World due to our greed and arrogance, Sustainability.

Posted by this ordinary life at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thing that the English do particularly well is a Sunday Roast (if you are not familiar with this it consists of roasted and juicy meat accompanied by piles of veggies and oven roasted potatoes). However, not all Sunday Roasts are alike and in recent times the commercialisation of the meal has seen quality levels at many pubs take a nose dive. Note, pubs are the only real place to have a roast outside the home.

The Skiddaw is a simple but comfy pub located at 43 Chippenham Road, London, W9 2AF, near Maida Vale tube station. They serve an excellent selection of beers, ales and wines with a cold pint of Staropramen being my favourite (however, be warned that they sometimes use warm glasses fresh from the dishwasher which is a not the best at keeping cold beer cold!).

During my last visit I decided to order their special roast of the day – a herby half chicken. Now after being used to meagre portions and hefty pricetags at wanna-be trendy pubs like the Clifton Hotel or the Salt House, I was prepared for the worst. Boy, I was to be disappointed *sarcastic smirk* as what was brought out was a veritable feast of golden roasted poultry, crispy potatoes and a divine selections of veggies - steamed leaks, al dente green beans, carrots – there were all there in force. I couldn’t believe my eyes and all for £8.50!

The food was as tasty as it looked and by the end of it I was brimming with degustable contentment. The two pints of Staropramen rounded out an excellent meal. I commend the Skidaw for bucking the trend of other pubs and serving up simple, good value Sunday Roast. I’ll be back again and will bring my friends.

I give Skiddaw’s Sunday Roast

5 / 5 for food (the chicken is finger lickin’ good)
4 / 5 for ambiance (quite and good music, comfy, but nothing spectacular)
3 / 5 for localness (they don’t make any claims about the sourcing about the food, but the food is locally simple)
4.5/5 for value (it’s a bargain at £8.50 where many places now charge up to £12)

4.25/5 Overall

If you are ever stuck for a place to have a Sunday Roast in West London, keep the Skiddaw in mind. It won’t disappoint and you might find yourself going there for just a general drink another time as well… did I mention their regular menu is not to shabby either?

Posted by this ordinary life at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The World's financial markets are in turmoil. Economic models that we all held dear are in question and who knows how long it will take to return to normality. However, despite all of this and the other conflicts and ills befalling the World, I implore you all not to lose sight of all that is good and right.

Today, just for a moment, I want you to stop and reflect on something that makes you really happy. Choose a person, place, activity, food, whatever gives you true joy and happiness. For that moment I want you to shut out all of life's destractions and completely saturate your mind with focused thoughts. Once you lips curl up into the biggest smile, you can stop focusing and return to your day with renewed vigor.

Do this every time you get stressed or even when you have an empty moment that is going to waste. I think you'll find that you will be generally more happy and might even find that all the World's woes are a bit easier to deal with.

Posted by this ordinary life at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I called it… Following my trip to the US in May, I wrote a piece about an economic model that caused me great concern, parasitic capitalism. Who would have thought that only a short 6 months later my concerns would find solid ground?

The World has leveraged itself too far and now there’s no more debt to carry things forward. Sadly, the tax payers in most countries are footing the bill and the fat cat bankers that cooked up this mess are in many cases sitting pretty by living off the ridiculous bonuses they earned the last few years. Perhaps a windfall tax on the last 3 years bonuses of bank executives involved in CDO’s and subprime lending might be a good starting point? Surely, there are a few billion of “ill-gotten gains” that could be put to better use getting us out of this mess.

Bankers have always called for deregulation and self-regulation stating that free markets regulate themselves. It’s a shame that we believed that their motivations were honest and not, as they actually are, self-serving. Free markets are not controlled by market forces, oh no, they are controlled by people and people are inherently selfish and greedy (sorry guys, it's in our genetic material).

I hope the lessons learnt from this crisis include the recognition that capitalism is far from perfect and we should stop trying to cram it down everyone’s throats. What’s so bad about a bit of socialism? So what if certain industries are run effectively “not-for-profit”? It’s been proven that when company are run “for-profit” they end up doing whatever is necessary to produce good number for the next quarter. In the case of banks, this was supposed to deliver superior returns for shareholders. Well, oops, many of these banks are now nationalised or bust as a result and the shareholders have nothing…

I wonder if all of the bailouts will have the desired effect. I hope they do and some strict regulation is put in place to ensure that this mess doesn't happen again so soon. However, I suspect that this is only the beginning as soon more tranches of debt will become due and can't be rolled over...

We seem to be in market limbo. How low can it go?!?

Posted by this ordinary life at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Soft jazz playing in the background and stunning photo prints lining the walls, this is how breakfast is supposed to be done on a weekend morning. Known to me previously only as a restaurant that serves up top quality French dinners, it now also one of my favourite places for an English Breakfast. No really, the French can...

£6.95 gets you either Eggs Benedict (fried egg, smoke salmon, English muffin or a devinely creamy Hollandaise sauce) or a full English Breakfast (spicy sausage, 2 bacon rashers, choice of eggs, beans, tomato and toast and a hot beverage of your choice.

My girlfriend and I ordered one of each and spent the next hour enjoying the food and most of the atmosphere (most is the result of the place being almost empty as, like us, no one else seems to know that they do breakfast.

I give Le Chardon:

5/5 for Food
3/5 for Ambiance (5 is it was buzzing)
4/5 for Localness (it might be French, but they do an excellent job being British at breakfast)
4/5 for Value (the coffee could be bigger at no real extra cost)

4/5 Overall

If you are stuck for a place to have breakfast that is a break from the pub/cafe norm, check out Le Chardon on 32 Abbeville Road, Clapham, London SW4 9NG. You won't be disappointed, but make sure you bring a friend as you might be a bit lonely. Well, only until the word gets out and this place starts getting packed.

Posted by this ordinary life at 11:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have just come back from a trip to a place above and beyond the realm of normal holidays. About 6 months ago, my girlfriend suggested that we travel to Uganda to try and catch a glimpse of some gorillas. At first, I was quite apprehensive. The holiday had all the makings of a nightmare, Africa and a package holiday. Only a year before I travelled to South Africa for a friends wedding. The wedding was in Johannesburg and it scared the living daylights out of me. A city ruled by fear where people don’t stop at stop lights after dark, children are kidnapped without ransom in mind and barbed wire is replaced by electrified fences. The rest of the country (with exception of the wine regions) all had the scent of fear in the air (Despite this, I do think that the country has some amazing things to offer, so don't let me put you off!). When I came back I decided that I’d prefer to try some other places before heading back to Africa.

However, my girlfriend is the adventurous type and therefore I decided to throw two sheets to the wind and go. We booked a tour through Guerba Intrepid that would see us sharing a safari truck with up to 21 other people for two weeks of touring and camping.

When we arrived, it turned out there were only 7 of us and the country was more than amazing. The source of the White Nile, cold bottle of Nile beer and more animals than you can shake a stick at all made it a memorable experience. No only did I see gorillas, but we also saw hippos (they came right up to our tents to graze), lions (these again were in our camps), elephants (one even charged our truck), warthogs (they were always running away) and chimpanzees. It was more than I could ever have wished for.

Of course, the country has it’s problems. In the late 1980’s around 30% of the population was HIV positive. Now this is down around 6% supposedly down to great management of the disease, but I wonder how much of this is down to people dying and isn't being helped by the US's supposed demand that any support for combating AIDS has to focus on abstinance and not contraception. Furthermore, the legacy of Amin and years of financial mismanagement have deeply scarred the country. Roads that were once straight and smooth could now be classified as off-road and infrastructure is in many places crumbling almost to the point of disuse.

However, overall Uganda gets my recommendation of the perfect country to get an introduction to Africa. The people are friendly, the animals wild and the scenery breathtaking.

Posted by this ordinary life at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)