Graham Robinson

Camera to town

// July 31st, 2010 // No Comments » // Days Out

We never seem to take our cameras anywhere, but they went to town today.

I don’t think Amy was impressed with the hat shot though…

New site, new blog

// July 31st, 2010 // No Comments » // Website, Wedding

If you’re seeing this then you are viewing my new website on my new web host.

My last website had a lot of problems with WordPress (the blog that powers this site) and it has stopped Amy and I from posting as much as we would like. We couldn’t install plugins nor upload photographs without going through a large number of manual steps, and it isn’t worth it.

So while the Internet was working out where to find my new site I decided to update it! Hopefully the pictures and tweets will be a bit easier to read (seeing as I update those a lot more often than this site). Bloggingit and Robinsonic will follow shortly (once I’ve told my parents their site is moving).

Hopefully once I’ve sorted the wedding site out I’ll update that too.

The 2 W’s: Work and Weddings

// February 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Wedding, iSolutions (ISS, Central IT)

We’re definitely getting places with the wedding arranging and Amy and I have updated the wedding website with some more details. Passwords for a private area should be with you (who are on the list) will be with you soon.

On the work side we’re getting ready for the battle of lecture recording systems. Interestingly they are all very different. We tested out a Windows Media / Silverlight solution for the LLAS e-learning conference last friday (videos are here) and are also looking at a H.264 / Flash solutions too.

Protected: New Phone number (type my current number to see it)

// September 17th, 2009 // Enter your password to view comments. // Personal

Breville Breadmaker

// September 14th, 2009 // 5 Comments » // Personal

Horray we have a breadmaker! It has taken us three goes to make a good loaf of bread in our Breville Auto Bake (VBM003) but we are finally there.

Now to write something that will help everyone who like us types something like ‘My breville breadmaker keeps failing’ into Google. Ignore the instructions…

We’ve found that the flour websites are normally a lot more accurate than the breadmaker instructions. We’re using the instructions here now – http://www.carrsbreadmaker.info/recipes/stong_white_flour.html and after two failed loafs with 180-odd ml of water we’ve found that some idiot made the manual. After changing it to 300ml the loaf has come out great.

Biggest annoyance

// August 31st, 2009 // No Comments » // Personal

Today everyone around me in Southampton city centre found out what my really annoys me. And that’s other people during a fire alarm.

Now I’m not a very shouty person but I nearly shouted at a good 50 idiots today in West Quay because they don’t seem to be able to follow this very easy set of rules for escaping during a fire alarm

1. When a fire alarm goes off with ‘wait for further instructions’ then listen
2. When the fire alarm goes off with ‘leave the area immediatly’ then find the quickest way out

Number 2 shouldn’t really be that difficult. If you’ve ever been in any public building you’ll see a little green man running towards an exit. This man will literally be running to wards an exit as there is an arrow telling you where to go. Just go in the f**king direction the arrow is pointing. It really isn’t that hard.

We have just walked through a fire exit from the main shopping walkway. The room is about 20 metres long and people are not moving. The people are trying to walk through a small walkway (we think because they’ve seen a member of staff going down there) when there is a giant two door exit with a fire escape sign above it straight in front of them.

48 people turn left (the walkway is actually the walkway above a road, if there was a fire they would all be trapped). We go through the fire exit, the people behind us go through the fire exit only because Amy says “This is the fire exit” to them. The 50 people behind us ignore everything.

I wish natural selection would work on these sheep.

So to re-iterate when you see this sign

You do not turn left. Easy. Stupid people…

Weight loss – 13 stone barrier

// August 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Personal

Over the weekend I hit the first step in my little weight loss plan and got under 13 stone for the first time in ages. I started off at 13 stone 11 after my Lynmouth holiday and weighed in at 12 stone 13 on Satuday and today (six weeks).

I’ve been tracking it all on the healthy living chart (link is on the right) and have a nice graph. Everything is better as a graph.

Talktalk – Problem before we start

// July 31st, 2009 // No Comments » // Personal

For a company that I don’t have a contract with, nor intend to, TalkTalk have really annoyed me today.

It seems as though the flat we are going to move into has TalkTalk as its phone supplier. This in itself isn’t bad, but we don’t want it.

We intended to move with BT, taking our number with us. However when the current tenants cancel TalkTalk it seems as though the line just goes dead.

BT won’t automatically re-connect a number. There is a simple reason for this and that’s the £122.50 reconnection fee that muggins has to pay. Despite it being a TalkTalk line even TalkTalk will charge a £30 reconnection fee and force an 18 month contract on you.

We always intended to go to Sky for our Broadband and phone, but planned for it to be a BT landline underneath it all. But we’ve found out that Sky will charge a £39 reconnection fee (yesterday it was £25, but you can’t have everything). This gives us exactly what we want for £80 less than BT.

In actuality we can get

• A phone line reconnection
• Sky+ box
• Sky installation
• A months line rental

For about £115. And although it sounds a lot of money it is still £7.50 than BT just reconnecting the line.

It’s all go…

// July 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Eyes, Personal

So much has happened in the past few days that this might seem like a twitter post (140 characters per topic).

Good news:
Looks like we’re moving to a nicer place. Gas central heating, double glazing, proper shower, working tv and satellite feeds. Like moving out of the 1900s

I ate Pizza on Friday and Curry on Saturday. By Sunday I’d lost 5 pounds in 2 days. Now there’s a diet I can follow.

Bad news:
New places mean new months rent, deposits, administration charges. All just after paying the wedding deposit. It’s never a good idea taking money out of an ISA but we might have to for the move.

My right eye has gone a bit out of focus. Hopefully nothing too drastic but it is affecting my ability to see a computer screen clearly. Will see Ultralase tomorrow and see what they say. Re-treatment (if needed) is only possible after 6 months and it’s been 2. Long distance doesn’t seem too bad, it’s just the 75cm between me and screen that affects me.

Typical…

// July 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // Health, iSolutions (ISS, Central IT)

It’s a typical that just as I start writing down how well I do with the gym something happens that stops me going.

At the moment it is the Graduation ceremonies at the university. I’m streaming them with Cam3Media and it means I have to start work at normal and work through to 6.

At the moment I’m trying to start the ceremony at 4:45 and then try and catch 20 minutes between 5 and 5:30. Better than nothing I suppose.