Toms View of the World

No, not that Blue Lagoon…

I’m referring to the Waterpark at the new Bluestone resort in South Wales, which is conveniently located right next door to the Oakwood themepark.

After a great day at Oakwood, with light crowds and great weather (although one criticism would be that they were only running one car on Speed, it really needed a second to be added as it had the longest line in the park) – a day at Oakwood tends to be more about chilling out with friends than riding the rides – although the rides they do have are a nice quirky collection of attractions – dare I say “rabbits” – alongside one of the best wooden coasters in the UK and a notable example of the Eurofighter – which puts it’s counterpart at Thorpe Park to shame!

This is a stunning facility – far beyond anything I’ve seen elsewhere in South Wales, and is presented to a very high standard indeed – with a lazy river, spa pools, wave pool and several slides and chutes (some of which are pretty extreme…)

Saturday night also featured a Carribean Barbeque, which had good food being served poolside for a nice feel, and steel-drum versions of some fairly well known songs being played over the PA.

If you’re spending the day down at Oakwood, you could do far worse than spending an hour or two in the pool at Blue Lagoon afterwards to relax before heading home.

Here in the UK, we’re having elections for our representation at the European Parliament this week.

So far, all the leaflets that have been dropped through my letterbox have almost exclusively been reminding us about things of “local” interest. Yes, the LibDem councellors have done this, the labour councellors have done that etc…

What I want to know is simply this – “Why should I vote for you to represent me in Europe?”

I’ll admit I don’t keep up to date on the issues being debated in the European Parliament, so you, the potential MEP, needs to TELL ME not just what the issues are, but what your position on them is. Without that, I cannot make an informed decision.

Much as I’d hate to place my European vote based on my opinion of politians here in the UK (i.e. there all a bunch of corrupt self-serving beurocrats who’ve nobody’s interests at heart except their own bank balance) – without a positive message from the candidates, I’ll be left with no choice.

The only parties who’ve made an effort to use European issues as a “selling point” are UKIP and the BNP. To the rest of you, you need to get your act together. Fast.

(note, here in Wales, we’re not having local council elections at this time…  just the European ones… at least, as far as I know…)

There’s been a lot of hoo-ha in the media recently on the subject of the excessive expenses claims made by MP’s. I’ve heard a few comments recently, and I for one don’t see why MP’s need “second homes” in London.

They should be living in their constituencies at their “main home” – after all, those are the people who they’re serving. If they live far enough from London that attending parliament is not feasible on a commute (i.e. journey time of less than 1.5 hours each way) then accomodation equivalent to a 3* hotel should be available. Expenses are not claimable for daily commutes to the consituency office.

Given the number of MP’s doesn’t vary much, why do they need to source accomodation themselves – the government should buy some properties in central london which are managed and provided to an acceptable standard by a private company (i.e. have basic services, kitchenette’s to allow for food preparation, plus satellite/cable TV, broadband internet etc) and are clean and comfortable. I’m sure a company like Travel Inn could provide these type of accomodations at a competitive price – These rooms could then be “stayed in” by MP’s needing to be in parliament and living too far away. No need for a second home. Use modern communication – video conferencing etc. there’s no need for MP’s to actually be in central London to take part in debates and votes.

Travel costs should be limited to the normal HMRC limits for milage of 40p/mile (if a private car is used), or a reasonable route first-class rail ticket, plus private-hire or black-cab rates – best endevours should be used to obtain cheaper tickets by booking in advance. These are the kind of rules that apply to any private-sector business expenses, there’s no reason our MP’s should be different.

Down to under 255lbs

I’ve recently been pushing a bit on the weight loss, and have reached a nice milestone – 30lbs less than my highest weight.  Still got at least another 30 to go, and hoping it’s not going to take 18 months to do that!

Yes, this is one of those Google interactive graphs. so you can alter the ranges, zoom in etc…

Well, it seems that the fire brigade will actually come out to rescue a cat…  it’s not just in kids TV programmes…

Cat on a roof

One of my neighbours cats appears to have gotten itself stuck.  It’s been there a while and has refused to be enticed down with food…  (yes, the RSPCA apparently know)

As is often the case on the first day of this month, Google have gone to quite a bit of trouble to produce a new product which is only just too far-fetched to be true…  and has been presented to a depth that makes anyone consider – “did they really go to all this effort for a joke?”

This year is no different, as they launch the 3D version of their Chrome browser.  Complete with “print them yourself” red/blue 3D glasses, and a button on the toolbar that actually colour-shifts any page (see pic to the right!) to make it look kinda like those 3D images you got about 20 years ago on the back of cereal packets…

What kinda amazes me is that they went to the trouble of producing a build of Chrome that is actually capable of producing the red/blue colour shift effect (although it’s obviously only applying a standard shift, there’s no real “depth” information present) – although I suspect if you had a real pair of red/blue glasses you might see a page floating in front of the monitor…

Of course, the flaw in all this is that desktop colour printers can’t turn normal paper transparent, and it doesn’t explain what to do if you only have a monochrome printer…

It actually appears that this is just part of a much bigger event Google are running known as CADIE – which is being touted as a self-aware artificial intelligence personality.  Which now has it’s own blog.  And appears to be doing things to several other Google products too – including posting it’s location in Google Earth…

As is traditional with such japery, I’ve time-delayed this post to 12 noon so I can have a bit of fun with it first…