Movie: Hancock

I was intrigued by the publicity for this movie.

It seemed to be a summer (Will Smith) blockbuster, but also seemed rather off-the-wall, different and interesting. Will Smith sometimes manages to pull off some pretty good films, so it was worth a try.

In the end, it was even more off-the-wall and interesting than I would have expected. Hancock is established as a character very quickly, and we get a very definite feeling of the type of person he is and of what the public think of him. However, we are kept off balance by occasional glimpses behind the facade, of contemplative moments where the character becomes far more three dimensional that your normal super-hero. There is a good deal of humour, but it is well considered and the first act is well paced and compelling.

As we enter the second act, as is traditional, the character undergoes changes and we start to see a different side to his personality. There is still humour, and there are some great moments, but the pace falters and the story feels laboured in places. This is a shame, because with a little judicious editing, the pace could have been spot-on throughout the three acts.

The third act comes as a complete surprise and turns this film from a "run-of-the-mill A list actor with a superiority complex flick" into something far greater and more enduring. Many questions are asked, some are answered and there are some brilliant touches, which many people probably missed, which hint at some great ideas. There are some clunky moments, some inconsistencies and more cliches than you can shake a stick at, but in the end the story hits exactly the right pace, the suspense is perfectly timed and the conclusion is satisfying, if not unexpected.

The epilogue is corny and adds little to the film, but lets the American audiences leave with a warm glow in their hearts, and everyone else leave feeling sick to the stomach.

This is a clever, insightful and thought provoking film masquerading as a feel-good summer blockbuster. The violence and language in it mean the 12A certificate (in the UK) is woefully inadequate (remember under 12's can see it with an adult - any adult) and probably mean it will be edited to hell when it comes on TV. But I, for one, enjoyed it - more than I expected to.

7/10

Trivia: I didn't understand the cultural reference to John Hancock, but apparently this refers to a signature. If you look at the U.S. Declaration of Independence, you can see John Hancock's signature is by far the most prominent. This is a nice touch and shows the thoughtfulness and intelligence of the script writers.

Turmoil, revisited

I was wrong.

It is not a better week at all. In fact it's turning into a bit of a disaster.

With lost photos at home, failed ADSL line at work and an inoperable mail server, technology is still firmly in my bad books. Seems wherever I look, everything's gone distinctly fruit shaped (what does that mean anyway?).

Despite a special trip into the office yesterday evening, lots of fiddling around with settings and phone calls to everyone I can think of, there are still about 4 disasters all layered on top of one another. The worst thing is, once I've sorted this out, I've got to get on and deal with the real disaster which is what prompted me to find out about all the other disasters.

The profession of mad old hermit is looking decidedly appealing at the moment.

I hate ADSL, I hate email, I hate Draytek and most of all I hate suppliers who can't put things together properly (or even in the right place). If I was the Hulk, I'd be looking distinctly green around the gills by now.

[12:40]
Things have turned around a little. Found out what 3 of the 4 problems were caused by (in order: hardware failure, IT consultants, disgruntled ex-contractor) and have started tackling the main disaster. An appropriate snot-o-gram has been sent and (gentle) threats made. Time to retire to a safe distance and have some lunch, I think.

Technological turmoil

It's a new week and I've decided it's going to be a better one.

The last couple of weeks have seen me immersed in various technical disasters, both at work and home. I don't want any of that nonsense this week - I want to get back to doing proper stuff and having something (half) decent to write in here.

My Mobile Me mail started working on Saturday night (suspiciously soon after I sent them a snot-o-gram), my iPhone is therefore all working correctly, as is the computer AND the servers at work.

So, time to actually use the technology, rather than just fix it.

Can you hear me, Mother?

Since I swapped to my iPhone, I've had a problem.

This problem basically equates to: O2 coverage is rubbish in my house. This causes me to lose signal all the time and be unable to actually have a voice conversation on my phone - a bit of a problem when you use it for you primary phone number.

After lots of looking around and generally checking things out, because the coverage in my area is _so_ poor (but not non-existant), I decided a cell repeater was what I needed. These aren't exactly bits of kit you get on the high street, so I eBayed it and soon had a few options. Since most of the units originated from China, I decided it was best to deal as directly as I could and went for the cheapest option.

After waiting innordinate amounts of time (not least for ParsolFarce to get their act in gear) it arrived. It got tested and installed and I now have a pretty reliable 5 bars of coverage in my house.

It's great when technology actually does what it says it will. I am very pleased at the moment. I even got to drill some holes in things - which always helps.

Oscar's legacy

I had to go shopping for a handbag today.

It strikes me as a rather futile activity as handbags have not had a decent memory upgrade or architecture mod since ancient Greece.

The only good part is we (that is my wife) actually got one.

I cannot recommend this activity in any form.

Whose bright idea?

Our gas company sent us some energy saving lightbulbs today.

The big question is why?

This is the company that took 12 months to send us our first bill (having consistently denied that we existed), is actually one of the most expensive suppliers in the country, and we are due to stop being their customer in about 2 weeks (having waited 6 weeks for the privilege). So from a position where even sending us a bill was too much trouble, we now get light bulbs - 4 of them.

Apparently this is supposed to be green. But firstly, we only buy gas from them, not electricity - I can therefore only assume it's a fiendish plot to make us buy less electricity from their competitors. Secondly, if I'd wanted some lightbulbs, I'd have bought some. Thirdly, we can't even use them because out house is full of halogen downlighters, not conventional incandescent bulbs. All in all it's a complete farce.

All this cheap stunt does is to reaffirm my commitment to stop paying them any more money as soon as possible.

Swings and Roundabouts

Today's had its good and bad points.

The computer is now officially working. New graphics card arrived, was duly installed and now we're back up and running. Only slight issue is I couldn't fit one of the fans into the case so the fan controller now throws a fit when you turn it on - but it doesn't affect actually using the thing.

On the more negative side, I've been waiting for a delivery from Hong-Kong and Farcelporce tracking told me it'd be delivered today. I dlilgently waited in all day, and of course it didn't arrive. Why? Because the delivery man couldn't find the house. Everyone else seems to manage - it's the big house-shaped thing. It even has a sign on it with the number and the road name.

We used to get this all the time, because it was a new house, but it's been there for 2 years now and most people have finally managed to update their various systems to actually recognise where it is (except for Google - which points to the middle of a field). When your one and only job is to take boxes to addresses, you would think some kind of up-to-date map might be pretty high on the list of things you need - but apparently not. They have now very kindly offered to take it to the local Post Office tomorrow (because I actually have to go to the office) - I just wonder why they didn't do that today. Or better still, just give the parcel to the Post Office to deliver in the first place.

My graphics card came by Citylink. Far better. The drivers are always friendly, they actually know where houses are and they drive lovely green and yellow vans.

My Mobile Me email is also still not working. This is starting to get silly.

Still Teetering

Despite my best efforts, I'm still at the cliff edge.

No sooner had I unplugged all the extraneous drives from the computer and tidyed everything up, ready to put the whole thing back together, than the graphics card stopped working. I get the feeling this computer is trying to tell me something.

After lots of fiddling and decoding of beep codes, a new card is on order and I hope this solves the problem (otherwise, it's a new motherboard).

Added to this, email on my iPhone hasn't been working since Friday due to some problem with Mobile Me. I'm starting to feel just a little paranoid.

Edge of the Abyss

The World is safe again!

Well, at least, my World is safe again. I have completed my rebuilding efforts and removed my hard-hat and ill-fitting trousers. Although, when I say "completed", the more accurate phrase would be "given up". I managed to recover about 90% of the files but, of course, the particular files that herself wanted were doomed to an early binary grave.

It does however mean that I can tuck the innards of the computer safely back in their case and actually spend some time doing things other than pouring over partition and file allocation tables - like play with my iPhone, and play Mario Galaxy (84 stars, by the way) - oh, and possibly do some work - if I'm particularly desperate.

Big Smoke

I had a trip to London today.

I had to drive to Paddington, which I really wasn't looking forward to. My general experiences of driving in London involve sitting in queues, ridiculous one-way systems, total lack of signposts and a Rolls Royce nudging the back of my car every time I stop at the lights. None of this was to come to pass, though. I had an excellent trip down the A40, managed not to get lost (despite the somewhat misleading signage) and arrived at the hospital about 40 minutes early.

I was giving a demo of our system to some patients - although it seemed likely they were simply there for the (rather splendid) catering that'd been laid on. But I did the demo anyway. One of them fell asleep. But it looks like it was a success and the hospital staff were very enthusiastic. We just need them to actually order something now (not that I care, because I'm leaving and everything, but perhaps I do care, just a little bit).

Amazingly, I had an equally good trip back - a couple more queues, but got back to the office in record time. Then I got stuck in a traffic jam for 45 minutes going into Henley on my way home. Ah! the delights of Henley again.

... and I did it all without the SatNav (mainly because it's so hopelessly out of date now that not only have the roads changed, but the continents have drifted significantly).

Bob the (re)builder

I sometimes hate being a "computer person".

I've spent a lovely Friday and most of the weekend attempting to recover some files from my computer's old hard drives. I've rebuilt, scanned, fiddled, fixed, mended and patched the partition stuff and the wretched thing still won't read the files.

It would be so much easier if I knew nothing about computers because then I could just throw my hands up and say it was broken, but instead I keep on coming up with more cunning ways to get at the data which takes me another 2 hours to execute. And then it doesn't work.

It wouldn't be so bad, but it was my fault the files got lost in the first place (because I didn't back them up) and they're a load of Olga's work files. She's being very good about it, but I'm determined to recover them. Into the 4th day of recovery efforts though and my patience is starting to wear a little thin.

It was never like this in the old days when I used to load Manic Miner off a C60.

Movie: Wanted

I wasn't sure what to expect from this film. It looked like it was probably just a SFX vehicle, but somehow I still thought giving it a go was a good idea.

Having seen it, I'm now still somewhat torn. It is totally unrealistic, but that's fine - I'm happy to leave my disbelief at the box office. It has a rather bizarre, but somewhat compelling storyline, generally weak characters but with occasional glimpses of substance, a strong sense of right and wrong but you're never sure which is which, and some lovely visual moments that you can't help smiling at. The action scenes may be a little protracted and the dialogue forced and artificial but you can forgive it these faults for the moments where there's something visually stunning or a new, strange, development in the plot.

All in all, if you just let the film wash over you, without judgement, I think it's rather enjoyable. It doesn't make the mistake of trying to answer all its own questions, in fact it relishes in leaving things open and unanswered. Cartoon adaptations are notoriously tricky and this film has a unique way of approaching the problem.

Overall this film is too flawed to get a great score, but if you just want to sit back with your popcorn and experience some escapism, it'll fit the bill and add in some extra depth to boot.

6/10

Jobs, apathy and general despair

I had a chat with Vic today.

I used to work with Vic in my second ever job, when I was still wide-eyed and the World was a simpler place. He's one of those people who always seems to have a smile on his face or find the funny side of things no matter what. By a strange coincidence he contracted at my previous workplace and now works in the office downstairs from me. It's nice to have a chat from time to time.

Only problem is, I always comes away from chatting - about work and the like - feeling just how ridiculous my situation with my company is right now. Things really are in a real mess and I don't see it getting any better (no matter what I do). Sometimes, small triumphs during the day make me forget just how far the whole enterprise has plummeted since the heady days of last year, but then conversations like today being it all back into focus again.

So that leaves me thinking that I really must get myself sorted out with another job. But right on queue I get another email from an agent telling me "on this occasion I've been unsuccessful" - when the guy has never taking a single phone call or answered an email from me. I don't mind not getting jobs (even ones I quite like the look of) but I do mind when I don't feel I've been fairly represented. Not even talking to me is a fairly good indication of that, I think. And so then I get disillusioned with the compitence of the agencies and their inability to tell the good people (i.e. me) from all the rubbish people out there and then I think I should give up this whole technology buisness and become a semi-nomadic goat herder in Bromsgrove.

Except the agency say they've had too many applications and they'll keep me on file, but would I like to try for a deep-sea possum fisher in Stoke-on-Trent?

Criminal intent

I forgot the code for the office alarm today.

Don't know why, but I unlocked the door as usual, went to the alarm panel, which was frantically beeping at me, and realised I had absolutely no idea what the code was. I entered a couple of codes to see if I was just thinking too hard, but no "Invalid code", it said. Then the alarm went off.

Several people from the office downstairs came up and peered through the door as I frantically typed random codes into the panel, but to no avail. Eventually I decided that I must have been sent the code in an email, so I dashed over to my computer and fired up the email app. Of course, being Doubtlook it took ages to load, then had to refresh the folder, then have a quick break, pause for thought, several seconds off whilst it checked if the computer was switched on, or something. And all the time, the alarm was going off, and lots of people outside were casting suspicious looks my way.

This must have been going on for several minutes when the alarm suddenly stopped. I was momentarily confused until I realised that Mr. Creepy, one of my bosses, had just walked into the office - apparently they'd phone him to tell him the office was on fire, then phoned back to say it wasn't a fire at all, but a nasty burgler was breaking in.

I pretended that I'd remembered the code but the alarm wasn't accepting it. It has been a bit tempermental recently. It was all rather embarassing and I was hoping that we could forget about the whole incident rather quickly.

Then, of course, the fire engine rolled over the horizon. After a brief search around our business park (probably asking where the building on fire was), they located my office and a number of burly firemen made their way up the stairs. Luckly they were intercepted by Mr. Creepy who was explaining things to them by the time they came through the office door.

Several more minutes of confusion ensued as everyone tried to work out why the fire brigade had been called when the burgler alarm went off, before they all gave up and went away.

Quite an eventful morning really.

I discovered that I had been typing in the right code, sorta. I'd somehow taken the correct code and sorted all the numbers into ascending numerical order - apparently this doesn't work. I think they should fix that in the next version.

As the dust settles

So, this has turned into my iPhone blog for the past few days, but it's hardly surprising, I suppose. I intend to stop harping on about it soon, but in the meantime...

The phone is up and running and my number is being transferred tomorrow. So far I'm fairly impressed.


GOOD

• It's fun to use
  
• The iPod app works even better than I expected - sound quality is good and video playback is good too
  
• I love maps - there's something about a little dot on a map moving around as you walk that I find compelling
  
• Web browsing is a revelation on a mobile device - it works _really_ well
  
• AppStore works really well too - although I'm still trying to work out which apps are worth getting. It seems to suffer from lots of apps being rushed out to meet the deadline - this should get better over time

NOT SO GOOD

• My O2 mobile reception is rubbish at home. This isn't the phone's fault, but it seems to affect the WiFi connection too. I am looking into ways of improving reception
  
• I had lots of problems with Remote when I first got it (possibly to do with WiFi) but now it works a treat
  
• I had a disaster with Caldendar. Mobile Me kindly ported across all my calendar entries from .mac but screwed up all the times. MM thought I was on California time, so when I set it back to BST all my appointment times got messed up. I had to manually correct them all
  
• I had problems with Calendar push sync and am still having problems with mail push. It's working again now, but it just seems to stop working every so often
  
• MobileMe is generally improving daily - it was very poor when first launched, but seems to be getting quicker and more stable
  

Not really used SMS or Phone yet (until my number is transferred).

So, not an unmitigated success, but most of my niggles will either be sorted out when I get the hang of it or (I hope) in a bug fix.

Inflation

I'm getting really fed up of being told

Inflation is running at 3.5%

Does anybody in their right mind (i.e. no one in the government) actually believe this?

Having been dispatched to do the shopping yesterday, and it not being my favourite passtime, I like to reward myself at the end of the ordeal by browsing around the wine section. Now, if a £6 bottle of wine went up by 3% it wouldn't suddenly cost £7.50 - but it does. My revered Peter Lehmann (never the cheapest) is up a pound to £9 and even the old varnish remover which is Banrock Station is over a fiver.

So, it strikes me that someone should come up with an index based upon things normal people actually buy, rather than it being based on the price of cashew nuts in the House of Commons bar. It would then be even more brutally obvious to one and all what a total cock-up our esteemed ex-Chancellor has made of the economy (before craftily switching jobs and blaming it on someone else in a move that seems strangely reminiscent of an episode of Black Adder)

The day we make contact?

Here we go on the second day of my iPhone Odyssey. Hopefully we will get activation today.

My Sony Ericsson phone has stubbornly decided not to allow me to upload the pics I took yesterday, so I still only have the stock thumbnails.

10:20 Just had an voicemail from O2 saying they are still struggling to get people activated. They will let me know as soon as it happens

12:00 Finally managed to get onto iTunes with the iPhone. Cancelled the registration screen, but at least I can get some functionality on the phone now.

12:10 Managed to join my WiFi net and now have web and maps et al. Neat. Still no word about activation though.

14:20 Amusingly, I just phoned the store to check the status of activations, only to be told they were just starting to be processed and they would "definitely be done by Monday". 30 seconds after I hung up, someone else from the store called me back to say they were just dealing with my activation. They're just doing it now and I'm expecting a call back in "3 or 4 minutes".

14:40 A little longer than 3 or 4 minutes, but I'm now activated. Registered through iTunes without an issue. Now waiting for the O2 network to update and recognise my SIM. I can see the O2 network, but it won't let me connect yet.

16:00 OK, this is getting silly. Still can't connect. Time to reboot the phone. Ah ha - now we see the network. I have now successfuly received texts and a call on the phone. Finally, all is well - hoorah!

2008: iPhone Odyssey

So, today was the day. After a text from O2 yesterday, I know it's going to be difficult to get a phone at all, but I'm willing to give it a shot at my local store.

07:05 Left the house, headed for the Didcot O2 store

07:30 Arrived at the Orchard centre in Didcot and walked to the O2 store. A small queue had formed - 15 people were already waiting in line. The general mood was good and people were chattering away. Quite a nice, sunny morning, but a bit of a cold wind. All but one were male, about half seemed to be upgrading from 2G iPhones.

07:45 I was officially given queue number 16 by one of the O2 staff. They were already saying I probably wouldn't get a 16GB version.

07:50 Everyone was asked to confirm they had proper ID and required documents - to speed up the process.

07:59 First group of 8 people let into the store.

08:15 Told that the systems had crashed. They were waiting to process the 8 people who were already in store.

08:20 Told that they were now running on contingency systems - filling out paper forms for data entry later on.

08:30 Cups of water were distributed to the queue. Still, no one had emerged with a phone.

08:35 O2 iPhone T-shirts were given out to anyone who wanted them after one staff member rummaged in the back room to find them. They are a lovely shade of blue.

08:40 Told that there had been a fire at one of the processing centres which was delaying everything. Nothing was going through and everything was on hold.

08:45 First sign of someone emerging with a phone. 3 more people were let in the store.

08:55 Over the last 10 minutes, several people have left the line. One man emerged from the store, annoyed because they insisted on a credit or debit card for the credit check, and he had neither. He defected to Carphone Warehouse up the street, another queuee followed suit.

09:05 Told that processing is actually starting to happen now.

09:15 I was let into the store

09:25 I was ushered over to a table and filled out the contract. I had all the correct ID and information and so it was fairly quick. Selected the tariff, declined the insurance and my new iPhone (8GB) was whisked from the back room onto the desk. A bit more form filling and several signatures later and I'm off to get my accessories and to pay.

09:45 Leave the store with my shiny phone

However, it's not quite that simple. Because they can't run the credit checks, the phone is not activated. I have to wait for a phonecall to tell me that they've processed my details and accepted me as a customer. I was told they _hoped_ this would be this afternoon. In the meantime I have a device which isn't particularly useful (but at least I can charge it).

From what I could glean, it seemed they had 22 iPhones in total. They were quite cagey about how many of these were 16GB, although I did hear the number 4 mentioned. The comment from one staff member was that they had more stock that most of the other shops in the area - not exactly impressive. The staff were friendly and helpful and doing their best. They were obviously frustrated by the total failure of all the support systems and were trying to make the best of it all. Most of the people waiting were vary patient and understanding. It didn't prevent the general feeling of chaos in the shop. O2 should be ashamed of itself for failure to prepare on such a grand scale.

[12:05]
After some scratching of my head and a quick search on the net, the SIM is now installed. Phone is now charging since there's not much else I can do with it.

[15:55]
No word from O2. Just tried to call the store and got no answer. Am rather reluctant to try syncing to iTunes until I know the SIM is active.

[16:08]
Just spoken to the store. The systems are still down and he doesn't think they'll be up again today. The store manager is going to go through and process all the contracts tomorrow morning. Until then I have a useless, if attractive, slab of plastic and glass.

[17:05]
Have tried to sync with iTunes several times, but keep getting network timeouts - guess the servers are busy. My iPhone is stuck with a "please connect to iTunes" screen

Shiny ... and rare

O2 have today posted a warning on their website that stocks of iPhone 3G are very limited. This confirms earlier reports from some gossip sites that stores will only have a few dozen units each. The article goes on to explain the sign-up process and what you need to take. The process of signing up for iPhone is expected to take 20 minutes - so I guess you don't activate at home like you do with the mail order ones.

I hope heads are rolling, either at Apple or O2. Because of the coverage it's received - and the early announcement of the launch - there was always going to be a huge surge of demand on the first day. Only allocating 20 or 30 units per store seems totally ridiculous.

I'll be interested to read reports of the launch from other countries - Australia is just over 6 hours away from launch.

I still plan to be at the store when it opens tomorrow - but it will depend on how many others are there.

Far too shiny

It seems the new iPhone is far too shiny.

As I know, the O2 site went down pretty soon after the pre-order emails went out. Seems the order rate went totally ballistic and the site just crumbled.

Current wisdom is that it's going to be really tricky to get one (esp the 16GB) for a few weeks, so I still think it's worth having a go on Friday. Each store is supposed to have stock of "a few dozen", it's just going to be a question of picking the right store (and deciding what time to go and start queueing) - I'm hoping for bad weather on Friday!

Having just spoken to my local store and they're definitely getting some, but don't know how many - they'll be opening at 8:02.

It'll be interesting to see the fallout from all this and how many phones actually were pre-sold and sold on launch day.

PACs, Shops and O2

I received an email from O2 today saying I could pre-order an iPhone.

Didn't really want to do this, as it means hanging around waiting for a bloke in a van to turn up rather than the heady joy and hustle and bustle of the _real_ shopping experience.

Didn't matter anyway, I got as far as checkout and then the whole O2 shop went down. Now that I can finally get back on to it, the 16GB has sold out - so it'll be the shop on Friday for me.

I also this morning received my PAC from Orange. Strange, I've never known them be so efficient as when I want to leave. I got a standard letter as well. It's interesting that the advisor asks you why you want to leave, but this has no bearing on the letter you get - obviously a bit _too_ difficult.

Now, I just need to find out if the rumor about O2 opening shops at 7am on Friday is true or not. I'm going to feel a right plonker turning up and having to wait for 2 hours for them to open.

[14:01]
O2 are opening at 8:02 on Friday. However there is a proviso about store in shopping centres opening at the normal time. Since most of the shops are in shopping centres, I'm not sure what this means. Guess I'll have to ring my local store(s) to find out.

[17:50]
Just had an email from Carphone Warehouse about pre-ordering, but they're out of stock of the 16GB version too. O2 are now out of 8GB as well.

Starry, starry night

Yeah! 42 stars on Mario Galaxy now.

Things are starting to get a little tricky though.

PACs

I have started my crusade (yes, I don't underestimate the enormity of the campaign) to get my PAC from Orange so that I can change my phone.

Not going well so far as I got fed up waiting for someone to answer the phone (after the lengthy navigation through the menu system). All in all it underscores why I'm leaving them. Well, that and the obvious reason of avalability of my chosen upgrade.

Hopefully I will have better news soon.

[20:37]
Shiver me timbers!
Just waiting for about 3 minutes to get connected, spoke for about 60 seconds to an advisor and the code is on it's way ... seems they can do some things right after all! - although when I told them I was leaving because of poor customer service her response was "that's fine" - Hmmmmmmm. I also think it's ridiculous they have to send the code out by post!

Never mind, hopefully I should be all set come the 11th.

Blast from the Past

It seems to be a week of blasts from the past in the news this week.
I read a couple of days ago about Clive Sinclair talking about flying cars (possibly not the best choice of topic because he never lived down the whole C5 electric car incident). I now read about Alan Sugar stepping down from Amstrad.
I know Sugar is not a blast from the past in some ways (thanks to his TV coverage on The Apprentice) but the name Amstrad is certainly a throwback to the 80s where they made their name in early personal computers (with a varying degree of success).
Of course, Sugar bought the Spectrum from Sinclair - which is possibly why the two names rang such loud bells in my head.

Any talk of stepping down from long held posts is bound to bring thoughts of Bill Gates right now, with lots of talk of ends of eras and soforth. It strikes me that you can look at that particular exit in two ways - either as a man who is satisfied with the buisness he's built moving on to bolder and better things, or as a coward jumping ships before the whole edifice crumbles around him.

Regatta

It is the time of year again for the Henley Regatta.
You can always tell this because there are lots of signs warning people not to go anywhere near Henley, signs for car parks for the event at unfeasible distances from the town itself and the smell of Pimms in the air becomes ever more powerful as the riverside drinking establishments wind themselves up into overdrive.

I am astounded at the popularity of such an event, but popular it most definitely is, and what is normally somewhat of a traffic bottleneck in the area (due to it being the site of one of the few bridges across the Thames) transforms into a complete traffic disaster area. If you are forced, as I am, to drive through Henley en-route to work, this becomes somewhat problematic. I have a solution. I work from home - which I'm doing alot anyway at the moment. But I drove through Henley today, thinking the event hadn't started yet (which it hadn't) and already it was very, very busy - so much so that it added nearly 30 minutes onto my travel time.

I wish they would build another bridge (or possibly several).