tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35399742011-06-21T10:00:08.337ZDesign, wine, eating, walking.Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.comBlogger251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-1084206145472441702004-05-10T16:21:00.000Z2004-05-10T16:25:31.716Z

Exactly one year since the last post. I gave up on Moveable Type because of some technical problems I couldn't sort out. So it's back to Blogger. Wonder what blockquote looks like?

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-941174692003-05-10T20:16:00.000Z2003-05-10T20:58:38.000Z

Lovage and potato soup: finely chop an onion, dice 2 large potatoes and sweat gently in olive oil for ten minutes. Add a pint of chicken stock, a heaped tablespoon of chopped lovage and some seasoning. Simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and liquidise - not too much. The result is pale pistachio-coloured; thick; unctuous; soothing; delicious.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-941168522003-05-10T19:58:00.000Z2003-05-11T10:29:32.000Z

In search of tide tables on the web, in order to go to Sunderland Point tomorrow for a walk with Catherine and her parents, I eventually find what I'm looking for: a neat series of web pages about birdwatching in the Lancaster area which happens to include a link to the tide tables I need. Browsing the birdwatching pages I find a Garden Log. It has an uncanny familiarity. Almost as if it is

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-934200312003-04-28T20:34:00.000Z2003-04-28T20:37:10.000Z

Back pain. My doctor suggests reading Treat Your Own Back by Robin McKenzie. Relief.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-926779252003-04-15T22:40:00.000Z2005-11-15T17:19:31.670Z

I haven't wanted to announce this over the last couple of weeks, but it seems reasonably safe to do so now: the Lancaster University Management School website is now pretty close to being an all-CSS design. The home page still uses tables, but every single other page - well over a thousand of them - now eschews tables completely for layout. All positioning is done with CSS. Smaller file sizes,

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-926762162003-04-15T22:05:00.000Z2005-11-15T17:19:58.296Z

Though a Londoner originally, I have lived in the north of England for 12 years now. Going back to London for a few days still feels good. From the 4th of April to the 7th, Catherine and I spent 4 days staying in Bayswater - not an area I knew very well - partly because I had a presentation to make at the Association of Business Schools, and partly because I had an eye appointment at Charing

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-926411942003-04-15T10:12:00.000Z2003-04-15T10:12:42.090Z

The dullest blog in the world.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-926410142003-04-15T10:05:00.000Z2003-05-12T09:37:48.000Z

My brother has discovered my weblog. And so, evidently, has Google. It's about time I started keeping it more up-to-date.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-901763022003-03-05T14:27:00.000Z2003-03-05T14:27:48.060Z

Just back from a short 3-day holiday in Brussels. Moules, lambic beers, exploring Art Nouveau Brussels - especially the architecture of Victor Horta. Wonderful time, very enjoyable, but Christ, Brussels is a filthy place. Work piling up right now - so more on the trip later.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-887298522003-02-07T23:09:00.000Z2003-02-07T23:09:06.493Z

To use up some of the Seville oranges we had left after making marmalade at the weekend, I made a very simple duck salad this evening. Catherine found this Nigella Lawson recipe on the web. Fried a duck breast very slowly till it was crisp on the outside and pink and juicy in the middle. Then sliced it on the diagonal into 10 pink slices. Made a dressing with the juice of half a lime, juice of a

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-881492002003-01-28T10:52:00.000Z2003-01-28T22:59:23.000Z

Saturday evening (Burns Night) haggis comparison: McSween's: spicy, nice chewy texture with plenty of bite. Scotland Haggis Company: spicier, but with a softer texture. Everyone enoyed both; particularly after a couple of glasses of Scotch. We started the meal with Catherine's Cock-a-Leekie. A lovely recipe that included prunes, along with the leeks and chicken.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-879610142003-01-24T16:02:00.000Z2003-05-10T20:29:23.000Z

Cana and I had a meeting at Nyenrode University, between Amsterdam and Utrecht on Tuesday. Long day. Up at 3.00am for a 3.50 taxi pick-up in Lancaster. Arrive Liverpool 5.30. Coffee and a sausage sandwich. Uneventful flight. Arrive Amsterdam around 9.00. Catch train from Schiphol station to Breukelen, changing at Druivendrecht. Arrive Breukelen. Unstaffed station, building work everywhere. No

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-875542212003-01-16T21:51:00.000Z2003-01-16T21:51:08.943Z

I thought Safari horrid when it was first released. It was the brushed metal appearance that particularly grated. Now, 9 days later, I find I use it almost all the time. What a shame I can't post to Blogger with it.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-875539482003-01-16T21:45:00.000Z2003-01-16T21:57:41.000Z

Last Monday I launched the LUMS online CV system. We've not undertaken any publicity yet, so unique site visitors are averaging only around 30-50 per day, and most of those are students logging on to use the system to update their CVs. Today, 4 days after launch, we received 3 contact forms from employers. In each case, the employer had searched in Yahoo, identified one of our student CVs,

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-874947572003-01-15T21:11:00.000Z2003-05-10T20:27:35.000Z

People talk about spilling coffee on the keyboard... ...but what about Port (Andy's Port)? Oops. At least the keyboard still seems to be working. The keys are a bit sticky, and the caps lock is a problem. Think I've got the broken glass out now (so we're down to 3 red wine glasses). But these Mac keyboards are transparent. And Port is sort of...dark, and purple, and sticky... Sam's

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-864345262002-12-23T13:57:00.000Z2003-01-15T21:38:01.000Z

Yesterday - Sunday - was Catherine's birthday. We spent most of it in the office while Catherine tried to finish off her Open University assignment and mail it off before the deadline of the 23rd. While she worked on her site diagram, I started reading Joe Clark's Building Accessible Websites. Catherine's done a lovely job, in the face of a badly-organised and ill-conceived course. It's designed

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-833688492002-10-22T20:59:00.000Z2002-10-22T21:02:33.000Z

Here's a really nice CSS design. But it doesn't seem to render quite right in IE5.5/Win. But in Mac OSX it looks lovely.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-833684922002-10-22T20:52:00.000Z2002-10-22T20:52:03.116Z

Yesterday my employer, a university, ran its first ever staff course on CSS and 'making your site accessible'. 3 people turned up. Today, in part 2, I was the only participant. How depressing.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-812049702002-09-05T21:17:00.000Z2002-09-05T21:20:13.000Z

For the last few months I've been using Chimera for most of my surfing. Now IE has started getting jealous. It bounces up and down in the dock when it thinks I've been using the opposition for too long.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-809228342002-08-30T16:43:00.000Z2003-05-10T20:25:22.000Z

Managed to fix a few of the remaining problems with OS X.2. Sorted out Word's US-letter default by editing the 'normal' template (just change page set-up to 'A4' and save the template); and got my HP printer working nicely too. Now everything seems hunky-dory. Smooth and unruffled performance. As usual, my favourite browser - Chimera - crashes on me now and again; as does my least favourite

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-806491742002-08-24T08:11:00.000Z2003-05-10T20:24:15.000Z

Installed Mac OS X.2 at home last night. Sweetest and most problem-free operating system upgrade I have ever done. I'm at a loss as to how to import my old Mail app Address Book, and my old iTunes library to the new system, but that is no doubt due to my own idiocy. Microsoft Word still exhibits a lot of annoying behaviour. Most frustrating: the application forgets the default paper size setting.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-798854982002-08-06T10:30:00.000Z2002-08-06T10:30:59.600Z

Catherine's lost luggage finally turned up at 9.50 yesterday evening. That's nearly a week that it was missing. I'll never understand why it is that the airline industry can be so cavalier in the way they treat passenger luggage. Just how did they manage to leave behind 10% of the luggage on a half-full flight from Amsterdam to Manchester? Beats me.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-798476672002-08-05T15:30:00.000Z2005-11-16T17:12:44.090Z

Back again after 10 days in Italy. Sunday 21 July: Flight out from Manchester delayed 1.5 hours. That meant we'd miss our connection to Turin in Amsterdam. Woman on Help Desk at Manchester Airport didn't know where Turin was. Re-booked us on new flights to Amsterdam and then to Zurich and then to Turin. On arriving in Amsterdam we found that itinerary didn't work. Ended up with 6 hours to spare

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-778596302002-06-17T20:47:00.000Z2002-08-05T16:13:06.000Z

Finally seem to have got blogger working. Bye bye those 503 template errors. Have been fiddling with the template, and still can't get that published. Catherine diagnosed me as narcoleptic yesterday. Sleep liable to descend at any moment. Must be stress-induced. Question: is it the 21.5 hour shift a week ago? Or the threat of audience participation inflicted by Nederlands Dance 2 at the Lowry?

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539974.post-770282252002-05-27T16:58:00.000Z2002-06-17T20:07:35.000Z

After 5 days of heavy rain and storms the sun is out in Lancaster. Pondlife basks just beneath the water surface.

Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08754379538711211693noreply@blogger.com0