You are browsing the archive for 2007.
Programming, 8/10 – Aug 2007 The chapters on algorithms and efficiency (performance, code tuning and space tuning) make this book brilliant. The explanation and benchmarking of the different sorting and searching technique’s (especially quicksort) are almost fundamental reading for anyone that has a programming interview with a top company. Beware, in amongst the pearls there [...]
Fantasy, 8/10 – July 2007 I was dreading the possibility of a dark close to this series but I was delighted with the happy fairy tale ending (Harry Potter is a children’s book after all). I’m going to miss Harry, but I’ve decided if I ever have children, I’ll definitely read it to them. Harry [...]
Thank goodness the flood never reached us. The only thing that happened was that we had a few inches of water in our cellar and the park got closed off due to a potentially toxic oil leak. So we moved all our things back downstairs and decided that when we buy our next house we [...]
Whenever I see flooding on the news I always feel sorry for the people involved but never imagine it would be me. However, last night a lady from the Environment Agency knocked to say that they are advising our street to be evacuated as the Thames is due to burst it’s banks early in the [...]
The electrics and plastering and windows were done at the same time as the main bedroom. The only thing we didn’t replace was the original skirting board and window sills as they still seemed solid. We gutted the airing cupboard and put in some new shelves. We painted the room neutral, then bought a new [...]
I have found a great shortcut for my bike journey out of Heathrow airport to my office. Instead of following the road, I can climb a disused fire-escape staircase and cut out a big slow uphill loop. I love streamlining travel routes I do have a bit of a nightmare on the way home though. [...]
Fiction, 8/10 – June 2007 I had heard of Jeffrey Archer from various political scandals in the news and I was curious to read one of his books. Kane and Abel considerably raised my opinion of him because I really enjoyed it (apart from the monstrous death of Wladeks sister in the castles prison which [...]
I took Chloe to Venice for our “paper” anniversary. It’s a very charming place. I like how there’s no cars and how most of the streets are narrow and maze-like. Once or twice we ended up at a dead end with nowhere to go except if we had a boat. I liked the waterways, especially [...]
Dahon D7 Folding bike My company started a government sponsored scheme called “bike to work” which gives a significant discount on bicycles as long as they are used for getting to work. I chose an entry level folding bike and also a large frame mountain-bike. I have been thinking about how to streamline my commute [...]
Until now, I have never bought a mobile phone because my Criteria for buying one was pretty damn strict. But, finally (after waiting pretty much 5 years) one that meets most of my requirements was on sale and as soon as I had a chance to test it out for real I bagged it (there [...]
We painted and resized 2 bedroom doors, changed the handles and mounted some hooks. We put up a curtain rail, chose and hung some curtains. We Bought a bedroom Hi-Fi which has an alarm clock and we got a dressing table chair. So apart from some art work on the walls, the bedroom is finished [...]
I finally got round to fitting a boiler cupboard door in the kitchen and doing the last of the skirting and architrave. I’ve wanted to do this ever since we moved… a before and after pic: Before After Removing the partition wall was definitely a good decision as it made the room a little bigger.
Our bedroom needed a Hi-Fi with a nice DAB radio with sleep and alarm functions. This also takes a memory card so it can play mp3′s and record radio. We chose this model because we thought it’d match our Squeezebox nicely.
Fiction, 3/10 – April 2007 It’s a light-hearted read about the temptation and pain of infidelity. Tom Cartwright, a ghost-writer living in Edinburgh, throws away his girlfriend of 5 years, to chase a unrealistic dream. The characters in the book have a number of brilliantly described personality flaws which I could laugh at but otherwise, [...]
We got the bedroom plastered and we painted the walls and ceiling and fixed some new skirting board. We had a new bedroom carpet fitted and have just finished building 6 pieces of flat-pack furniture. It’s so nice to finally get some upstairs storage space, it’s going to feel so luxurious compared to living out [...]
