Events

I only had a day in Edinburgh, and catching up with a friend I hadn't seen in three years took precedence over photography. I took a few dozen shots, but none except this really hit my standards: That's the Observatory House atop Carlton Hill. It's hard to see the 30 km/h wind blowing us over in this photo, or my unbelievable jet lag, but I assure you, dear reader, both contributed to the dearth of good photography I produced Monday. The last time I visited Edinburgh (in June 1992), I only had a few...

Remember the Google Street View Tardis Easter egg I mentioned? It's real: That's right in front of the Earl's Court Tube stop this past Sunday. Apparently the Doctor has installed a CCTV camera on his roof...hmm...

I'm a big fan of the Ed and Dave show, also known as Prime Minister's Questions, which C-SPAN airs live when the House of Commons is in session. Today's game included a series of set pieces in which Conservative MPs had batting practice with the PM who hit a bunch of pop-ups that any competent infielder should have caught.* Unfortunately, Ed Milliband leads the Labour Party right now, and—continuing the metaphor into extra innings—his side of the house play like Cubs. Here's a typical exchange...

The Economist Gulliver blog reported today that Korean Air has partnered with CSA, a strategy that may help both of them in Europe: Prague offers something that larger airports cannot. Passengers are weary of the congestion and long distances between gates at the mega-hubs, as Which? highlighted. Switching planes is even more of an ordeal if you do not speak the local language. In Prague, connecting times are short and all signage is provided in Korean. Mr Moreels said the Czech capital is styling...

I didn't intend to go dark for the last 48 hours, but it turns out none of my devices (laptop, tablet, phone) could connect with the WiFi hub where I've been staying. Not that I tried any more than the most basic troubleshooting (reset laptop WiFi, reboot router, change router channel). I've been in Edinburgh, with only one full day to explore the city, and struggling with my computer for half an hour seemed like a bad way to spend it. I've also not shaved since Sunday morning because of Scottish energy...

I've spent the day all over London (oh, so that's Brixton), and I've just got a few minutes to check email and finish this morning's post about the Southampton Arms in Gospel Oak. This is England: That is a Curious Pale Ale and a packet of cheese and onions crisps. Later I had an ELB Pale Ale (not as good as the Curious) and a Mosaic Pale Ale, which was better than the first two. Already present in the pub were a group of visually-impaired people and their guide dogs (3 dogs in all). This is Keira...

One was able to make do yesterday. Here, for example, is the dreariness on Hampstead Heath: Also, yesterday I was able to prove conclusively that there is no Airbus A320 hovering over Russell Square: After suffering through all this non-English weather, I wound up once again at the Southampton Arms: I will have more to say about it in my next post. (It's getting on to noon and I have to check out of the hotel, so I don't exactly know when that will be.) Suffice it to say that a new show came through...

As London continues to suffer with perfect weather this weekend, I'm taking a moment to get in from the cool sunny breezes and small cumulus clouds obscuring almost 10% of the sky. Yesterday the temperature soared to an unimaginable 24°C, causing Londoners to seek solace by standing outside pubs in groups drinking lagers. Today things have cooled off to more realistic levels (19°C right now), but the sun continues to make Londoners miserable and wait the restoration of normal weather. Anyway, I've been...

Actually, that's not true. I don't even have one bear. *rimshot* I've arrived at Heathrow, taking advantage of another benefit from using frequent-flyer miles: the arrivals lounge. Shower, breakfast, tea, checking email. Also my second experience in two days of a government adequately staffing their immigration and customs checkpoints to get us through in just a few minutes. Thank you Canada, thank you UK. All right: now to London.

Fortunately, I'm in an airport with lots of power outlets. Because my laptop just warned me that it was down to its last few milliamps, even though ordinarily the 90 W/h battery I lug around can last about 8 hours. What happened? Windows Search decided that consuming 50% of my CPU (i.e., two entire cores) was a good idea while running on battery. So since I have an hour before boarding, and since I'm now plugged in (which means I don't have any worries about driving my portable HDD), here is a lovely...