Oh I do like to be beside the sea side

Oh I do like to be beside the sea...

Yep, I am posting this from spare oom in deepest Dorset, courtesy of my sister's WiFi. I just switched my Mac on, Airport found their network and off I went. Magic!

Seasonal Felicitations!

OK, a bit belated, but Happy Christmas to everyone!

Scenes from Buncefield

Most of the roads surrounding the oil depot are open now, so it's possible to get fairly close to the site. Here are some images of the office buildings nearest the fire showing the damage caused by the blast and shots of the tanks. The oil depot is most definitely off-limits! If you want to see more pictures go to my website. All images © Wizzard Prang.

Did the earth move for you?

If you heard (or felt!) the Hemel Hempstead oil depot explosion on Sunday 11 December, then the British Geological Survey would like to hear from you.

Who goes where?

Well the 2006 F1 season is nearly upon us (12 March 2006 but who's counting!)

If you want to know who is going where, click here !

F1 lives

In case you were getting withdrawal symptoms (I was!) the testing season ramps up. Schumi has been testing the new V8 at Jerez. It's looking good!

Here he is between runs trying not to listen to Alonso's singing! Image © www.pitpass.com.

Out!

Fires completely extinguished last night. Drove past on the M1 this morning, it was an incredible site. Even inside the car I could smell Kerosene, while lumps of foam drifted across the adjacent fields like tumbleweed.

Nearly out!

The fires are nearly out. All credit to the fire fighters for a superb job. They've tackled the biggest oil fire of its kind in Europe ever and in my opinion they did brilliantly!

It's still burning

The fire still burns, although the fire fighters are making good progress. The smoke goes for miles. All local roads remain closed. Stayed at home today, managed to get some work done by phone and email. Watched the news crews watching the fire. Took a few pictures. Images © Wizzard Prang.

Explosion!

At 06:03 this morning we were woken by the loudest explosion. The house shook, at first I thought the house had been hit by something, like part of an aircraft. We looked outside to see everything bathed in a bright orange glow. The nearby oil depot had suffered a massive explosion. There were flames 200 feet high.

12 hours later it's still burning. The whole area has been cordoned off, the local roads are all shut and we can't get anywhere. Some people have been evacuated from their homes. All day there has been this enormous plume of smoke which has spread for miles!

I took some pictures, pretty rubbish due to the low light levels. I sent some to Sky News and the BBC - Sky bounced the message because their email system was full but the BBC showed some of them! I've posted a few here, you can see more on my website. All images © Wizzard Prang.

Can I help you?

Amusing day to finish off a tiresome week. Spent the afternoon with a couple of colleagues "back to the floor" covering the switchboard while the switchboard girls had their Christmas lunch. This was the 3rd year I've done this and I still manage to cut people off or transfer them to the wrong number! It's a real hoot, and some of the callers, well what can you do!

Caller: "Hello can I speak to Ron?"
Op "Do you have a surname?"
Caller: "No"
Op: "We have 11 Ron's, 2 Ronalds and a Ronnie in the directory. Do you know the department?"
Caller: "No"


Caller: "Can I speak to Anne Smith?"
Op: "We don't have an Anne Smith in the directory. What are you calling about?"
Caller: "Don't worry I'll call her home number"

Caller: "Can you tell me the email address for Fred Bloggs"
Op: "You are internal?"
Caller: "Yes"
Op: "He's in the email address book under Fred Bloggs"

Duh!

Run

Managed to spare some time to practice the guitar again. Those chords are really mean, even the ones my guitar book says are "nice and easy". I know this is going to take time, so I'm not worried.

As a break from "lessons" I've been looking for an easy song to learn. I've started to learn Snow Patrol's "Run", which doesn't look too hard. Hmm....

Duh! Why did I pick that domain name?

Amazing as it may seem, when they come up with their domain name, some people just don't think it through! For example...

Here is Who Represents?, a database for agencies to the rich and famous:
www.whorepresents.com

Next we have the Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views:
www.expertsexchange.com

Looking for a customised pen? Look no further than Pen Island:
www.penisland.net

Need a therapist? Try:
www.therapistfinder.com

Check the links - I didn't make them up!

Music News

This week I have been mainly listening to Nirvana.

The Sliver album is particularly good. It gives an insight into how Nirvana sounded outside the studio. Brilliant!

The end of the week

Thank God!

Overall it's been a bad week. One of those weeks where you are just waiting for Friday to arrive. Work has been a real pain!

I've hardly had any free time to practice the guitar, which has been particularly disappointing.

And the weather! Sometimes I wonder why I live in this bloody country!