tinnion

All work and no play makes tinnion an infrequent poster on posterous :)

Recently, I got my weekends back which has been a bit of a novelty.  I lost my summer to work but I don't look back with regret because I am thankful I have the work especially in the current economic climate.  

When I was in  corporate land I would have to request holiday, put it in a calendar or a spreadsheet of some sort or ask for it last minute. Either way, it didn't matter really - it never got refused and was just a process you were asked to follow. In the world of small business where resources (people) are scarce,  the  process becomes very necessary for planning purposes and you don't always get what you ask for.  Now I have my weekends back I am trying to keep a hold of them and  have started blocking out time in the company calander to see friends or family at the weekend :)  I admit it's a bit ridiculous but it's there to remind me and others that, if possible, i'd like to keep that time for me.  

Last week/weekend my brother stayed with me and we had a good grin.  While he was here he treated himself to a  little ipod nano which these days has a video camera built in and he started to experiment with it especially when he was  in town while I wasn't around (due to work). Before he left he presented me with a podcast.  It was a really nice surprise. I was fascinated by it.  He video'd a lot of the places I go to but it was really novel seeing it through someone elses eyes. The cheeky g*t (hehe) had caught some of our banter together too (in secret) which was funny but one eye opener for me was hearing me talk about having to get back to work a couple of times, which was a bit sad ... the good thing is though  I am more self aware about that now so I am going to make some changes ... maybe I need to start blocking out my lunch hour and occasionally add in an extra half hour  :)

In addition to this blog, I have started a scrapbook to capture some of the things I see, hear and do in and around the area I live in i.e. Reading, Berkshire.
Please take a look :)  rdg.posterous.com

This post is about my love hate relationship with a local eatery. I don't want to name the restaurant because I just want to shoot the breeze about  my experience there and I don't wish ill on the place at all. Writing about food is also very difficult to do well so this will be a living post that could grow or contract in size, even vanish and I say this up front because I don't want to readers to think that I have retracted any part of what I say for anything other than the reason of making a better post.

Thanks to Lent 2009 I took up sushi and banished the burger from my life in the name of sacrifice - a  "sacrifice" that ended up being quite easy to do.

It didn't start off easily - the most common reason why people don't go anywhere near sushi is because of the fear of being sick.  Anything eaten raw doesn't quite sound right so we shy away from trying it out.  I felt the same and it was on my mind especially on my first couple of visits because I used to eat regularly at a place in Paddington, but was really ill one day that my sushi days ended abruptly and I stayed away for years.  To be fair, I have had similar experiences with other types of food (currys) and gave them another chance after a while.

So for the past few months I have really enjoyed regular visits to a local sushi restaurant in town.  The staff there are great.  They're attentive, happy, smiley people. They make sure you get a drink within minutes of your arrival  and are happy to take your order when your ready if you choose not to check out what is on display as the plates pass you on the conveyor. I tend to order off the menu (3 plates) then go to the conveyor if I want more. The eating experience is really pleasurable even when dining alone.  The music is good to listen to and they have WIFI so I can feed my internet addiction at the same time :) The food of course is lovely and the main attraction. There's plenty to choose from - it's not all raw fish - I regularly order Chicken Katsu curry which is fantastic and is well balanced in flavour so can happily be eaten alongside the fish dishes ... After a full tummy,  my bill comes in under £10 (per head) which I think's really good and I get a few stamps on a loyalty card to take away with me that will contribute to money off a future bill.

So today, I go to my favourite sushi place - happy to find it open given I have visited there a few times only to see the place shut unnanounced for a few days at a time.   I go in.  The place is busy - it's a Saturday afternoon, and it's about 2pm - not normally this busy but it's good to see and I  get greeted quickly by what appears to be a new member of staff.  I quickly find out that this guy has a cold and is inexperienced.  He thinks it's fine to serve me a warm can of pepsi that he's opened with the hands he's coughed into. He only hands me a glass when requested.  Now at this point, my mind is now firmly focused on the fact that he hasn't cleaned his hands and I start to develop an OCD on cleanliness because the fear of being ill returns and watch him handle anything he passes to me.  I am unhappy that he has hands so close to something that I am going to eat.  He's managed to touch one bit of food - thankfully just a small bit of lettuce which left my plate quickly on arrival. To add insult to injury the Katsu curry on this occsasion was horrid - the curry sauce was so strong it was nothing like what I had eaten on previous visits.  I finished my food, paid up quietly, declined a  loyalty card and left.

So will I go again?  Yes. I am going to give it a month and return to see if things are better.  The other eateries will get my business in the mean time.
What would you do?  I don't think I should complain.  I think this blog post is good enough to get closure on the experience.  If you think what I have written is over the top - it probably is but it shows how much I like the place.

Today, on the way to see some friends in London I stopped off for coffee and saw a lady holding up her phone doing what looked like filming her surroundings.  I took the photo because I was curious but you can clearly see the suspicion in the eyes of the lady sat on the table next to her.

:)

Saw this motor car just ahead of me as I was walking into Caversham. I'm no Top Gear fan so I don't know what make this car is. Tis nice though.
 
Btw the video clip was recorded on my new iPhone. I'm still getting used to using and somehow stopped the recording as the car drove past :)

[edit: this post is a bit of a FAIL :) I just got home and found that the clip plays back nearly twice as fast on the computer vs the phone - i'll know for next time]

I don't want this blog to be serious so I have posted a picture of a cat I found lurking by a car while I was on my way into town. And Yes, I did contemplate buying readingmeows.com and pointing it to this site but felt better not just in case I cause an uproar (pun intended) with the owner of a very well respected blog known well to the Reading community :)

I personally would like to know what the cat was thinking. Maybe it was conjuring up a plot of some sort. Whatever the moggy was doing  it looked cute at the same time.  btw. If you didn't know, I adore cats and would love to have one of my own some day.

If you have a cat please post a piccie in the comments :)  Small dogs are cool too.

:D

There's been a flurry of interest in Twitter recently from local businesses in my home town of Reading.

It's been great to see the press kick things off, and there has been some notable engagement between people from a paper and the local community.

One of the best things is getting to see the names and faces of the people behind these organisations.  They're doing it right because they engage on a personal level as well as talk about what they do and this allows us to grow more of a natural interest in what they do..

Unfortunately, not every one has the innate ability to use a platform like Twitter in the same way, so recently we (the #rdg followers) have dealt with lots of what could be considered spam - one way/one dimensional tweets.  For me, it is super important to engage us with a face, a personality and not hide away behind the curtain of your company name.  Please let us know about _you_ and get involved in the conversation first then after that start to set a tempo to talk about what you do.  It's quite simple really, show that you're genuinely interested in us and we will do the same, and if we like you lots then expect to see the locals talking about you positively and drive business naturally your way.

This post is a massive about me page.  It's like an executive summary for those that are in a bit of a hurry and need to get the low down on what this tinnion bloke is all about.

The content was inspired by Delia (@vivdora) who asked me to write about myself in response to an internet meme (25 things about me).

Here goes ...

So here’s my 25 (not too random) things about me.

25 Things

1. Background - I was born & bred in the North West of England on the border of Lancashire and Merseyside.  Some say I have a scouse accent, some don’t.

2. Nomadic life style …. Lived all over the shop : N.London (Holloway),  S.London (Surrey Quays),  West London (Ealing, West Ealing) North England (York); Surrey (Redhill, Reigate) Midlands: Staffordshire, Northhamptonshire (MK, Stoney Stratford),  South Coast   (Shoreham-by-sea). North east (Newcastle),  Berkshire (Reading),  South Wales (Cardiff) all in the last 15 years.

3. I currently live by the River and love it.   The city life is not really for me.   I was brought up by the sea and a nature reserve.  I like the countryside too. I like seeing wildlife at play and take many pictures and video clips of my surroundings.

4. I left home 20 years ago to see what I can do.  I come from a big family and have many brothers and a sister.  They all do very different things and have different personalities, even accents given some have lived away from home for many years. Going home or calling my mum to catchup on what everyone is up to is always interesting.

5. I am currently single.  A girl from county offaly, (s.ireland) broke my heart.

6. Workaholic - I have always done some work from being a paper boy, to working in a bakery when I was young (sometimes got the job of putting jam in donuts and put loads in them to the point they’d probably explode on you as you bite into them). I even used to sell video games at school and I had a group of rich kids who I would tap for the games and shared the profits with :)  Now i’m in the pre-startup phase of a software dev business, which I am really enjoying and is challenging me way more than than the big consultancy shop I used to work for.

7.  I have a well developed imposter syndrome :)  I mix with lots of super clever people even though I left school with very little.  I have a degree to make up for my day dreaming days at school and had the pleasure of telling an old school teacher at my little sisters school leaving ceremony that I was unemployed.  My mum was quick to tell my old teacher that I had just qualified and was taking the summer off before job seeking but seeing the teacher’s initial reaction was a golden moment :D   btw. I don’t think being well qualified makes you clever - it’s just a bit of paper.

8. Sport - I am far from sporty these days :) When I lived on the South Coast  I used be into dinghy sailing and mountain biking.  I did Polaris (a 2 day MTB event), and Mint sauce races so used to be very fit.  I was on SKY TV once as I came in with the race leaders in a MTB event - only the organisers and my friends knew I had been lapped :D  I  never took it seriously but it was good fun.

9. Football - I never got into following football or rugby.  My Dad was into swimming and boxing.   I support all the teams in Merseyside but if asked to pick it has to be Liverpool Football Club.   I tried to follow Reading FC and went to all the home games for over a season but I  felt like a traitor and stopped.

10.  Music - I listen mainly to electronic music these days but I like all sorts really.  I sang once in a choir with the Liverpool Philamonic Orchestra.  I am a rubbish musician (I play keyboards).  When I was working my sandwich year in Newcastle I was in a band and managed to get on the radio in my early twenties (nothing major).  I decided to finish my degree while the band toured and the bassist nearly killed himself doing a gig which the Sun picked up on.  I currently play the stylophone and various music apps on my ipod touch :-)

11. Film - I like Star wars (the 1st three) and I particularly like the Dirty Harry films, which inspired many mad moments in my youth.  I used to shoot guns in a local club and at a rifle range and owned various air pistols that would be taken off me from my parents and would get me grounded for months at a time because they didn’t allow them.

12. Food - I Like eating out .. mainly I go to the local cafe but dining out with friends and family is fun.  I love  crispy duck, roast dinner and trifle.

13. Cooking -  The most complicated thing I have ever made is Chili Con Carnie.

14.  Drink - Stella of course but Red and White wine are my 2nd favs.  I stay clear of spirits.

15. Mobile Phones - I love the mobile internet. It’s a great way to occupy yourself while on long train journeys and a way to keep in touch with people while you’re out and about. My first steps on the mobile web were in the days of WAP way back in 2000 when I had a big hand in creating a mobile e-banking site for a high street bank.  I have since worked on many other things outside of mobile but some of the work I am getting into is starting to take me back into that scene.

16. I am good at keeping secrets.

17.  I don’t wear a watch or care much for jewelry.

18.  I don’t need much.  I reckon I can get by with a bag of clothes, my work kit and a mobile.

19. I used to be addicted to Lypsl.

20. One day I would like to move back to the North West.  I regularly check the house prices and all being well I could be back there in a few years time.

21. I am hopeless at DIY to the point that I don’t try in fear of creating lots of trouble for myself :)  I have lived in two places that needed work after water leaks.

22.  I love cats and they say the way you describe your favourite pet is what you seek in a partner :D  When I am settled I will get one for sure but in the mean time I am giving serious consideration to becoming a cat cuddler at a local rescue place.

23.  I would like a boat. Just a little one.

24. Pet Hates - People who don’t wash their hands after going to the loo. Chavs. People who always moan about their work but don’t do anything to improve their situation.

25. I’ll have a coffee with no sugar and a drop of milk, please.