Getting to grips with it…..

Around Christmas I splashed out on a new camera – an Olympus EM-5 – it was a bit of an extravagant move, but I felt it would help me further develop my photography which had been in the doldrums for a number of years until I purchased an Olympus PEN EP-1 a few years ago. The time was right for the next step…..

I was right and have been amazed by the cameras capability to produce stunning results even in my hands! It is well up there with the quality of a full frame digital SLR (it is a 4/3rds camera). And it has allowed me to hopefully develop my artistic side a bit more….

This photo was taken at the orangery at Calke Abbey in March, I quite like it, especially the way the shadows run…..

 

A brilliant new building….

We have been without a library in West Bridgford for some time – the old one was closed to allow for a refurbishment and extension to be done. There was a temporary library in some first floor offices which was a good effort, but was rather like a large cupboard by comparison to the old library!

However the new building has now opened (actually over a week ago) and I had a visit this last weekend. My initial impression is of a light and spacious library with the feel of a book shop more than a traditional library. This is not a criticism – it works, the space is very inviting and relaxed – it is very busy as well! It is so good to go to a public library and literally find it full of all ages and frankly buzzing with activity.

The building we have ended up with is a scaled down version of the original proposal that got ‘canned’ due to the cuts. If the result we see today is anything to go by that would have been amazing!

So credit where credit is due – the County Council have done a first class job here. Well worth a visit if you are local to it.

 

We are all working harder – well most of us….

The general theme that comes across when I talk to people in business is that we all appear to be working harder than ever (generally for lower fees), this is not a complaint (that comes later) – it is a fact of life. The economy is in a bad way so we have to ‘dig in’ and work through it, or at least most of us do – but not it seems the Royal Mail…..

courtesy of Viz…

I will admit to not being one of the Royal Mails biggest fans, I have blogged various times before about them and can’t recall any of them being positive, and this one isn’t either!

I accept that if I am not in the Royal Mail can’t deliver packages to me, and I have asked them not to deliver them to my 85 year old neighbour. Previously the card left asks me to wait 24 hours for the package to return to the sorting office – around 2 miles away. That is fine, I really don’t have an issue with this.

However, it now appears that it takes 48 hours to do this – why?

All I can assume is that the package is placed back into the Royal Mails own post – as we all know everything (even first class post) takes at least 48 hours these days……

 

Not great being proved right…….

As a family we have ‘suffered’ more than most in relation to mobile phone theft. My stepdaughter has had two iPhones stolen now over the last 6 months, both in Nottingham when on a night out. The first was taken from her in Rock City which apparently is well known as a hot spot for this crime (they are working with the police on the issue I gather).

The second was in a pub in town – in both cases the phone was taken from a closed bag – so we assumed it was professional criminals.

This has now been confirmed by information released recently by the police that shows that teams of criminals are descending on our cities to carry out this crime – to then export the phones abroad (where they are not locked and can be used or sold).

Yes this is a problem the police and venues need to address, but is it not more of an issue for the manufacturers and networks? The ability to reuse the phones abroad is a massive ‘loophole’ in the supposed security provided by blacklisting phones. The networks need a world wide system to block phones – and they need it now.

 

Clever carparks!

I do like something that is clever, slightly ‘techie’ and makes life easier….

This weekend I was in Leicester collecting a new iPhone from the Apple store in the Highcross Centre for my daughter to replace the one that she had stolen just before Christmas. Normally I would park at our leicester office and walk down, but this was to be a swift hit so the shopping centre carpark was the chosen venue for the car.

I had not parked there before but found it a very pleasant experience. It was very well lit and the spaces appear to be a good size. But most impressive is the way in which cars are managed in the carpark by the system. As you enter the facility there is a board indicating which floors have spaces available and how many there are free. The best part is that this is a dynamic system so it changes as cars leave the relevant floor!

So finding a space is faster and much less stress free as there is no hunting a floor for a space – you already have an indication that a space is available! There are also red and green lights in the roadways – green means you can go that way, red is no entry – simple but very effective. This is so much more useful than the system we have in Nottingham which tells you a mile or more from the carpark if spaces are available!

Top marks to Leicester!

 

The Queen of the East Midlands

In real terms I am a relative newcomer to Nottingham and the East Midlands – I arrived in 1980 as a student and have never left. Nottingham has always been described as ‘The Queen of the East Midlands’ in my time here, and I would have to agree – it is a great city (and stands above its neighbours in my opinion).

In recent years the young pretenders (Derby and Leicester) have done their best to catch up and pass Nottingham – new shopping centres and general improvements have helped. Nottingham has also managed to shoot itself in the foot by totally missing the boat on the Broadmarsh redevelopment. The damage this has done to our city cannot be underestimated and in time the main culprits will become known and will most likely pay for their lack of action.

So it is great to see in this last week that Nottingham, not Derby or Leicester has the most ‘desirable’ residential street in the East Midlands. The attractiveness of the street is based on average value, it is still a long way behind top UK values, but is a sign that Nottingham is still the place to live in the East Midlands!

The street in question is Valley Road in West Bridgford – average values over the period January 2007 and October 2011were £810,000 the figure is lower than last year when the average home in the street was priced at £823,000. The figures come from a Lloyds TSB report that reveals the most expensive streets in the UK. Perhaps unsurprisingly the 40 most expensive streets are all in London and the south east, with Egerton Crescent in Kensington and Chelsea taking first position with an average house costing almost 10 times the East Midlands level at £8.14 million!

 

Street View is back!

You would have had to have been on a deserted island not to have seen the details of the Apple Maps debacle in recent months. Apple sent Google packing – they had previously had a close relationship with them over many things in iOS (the iPhone operating system). But, in IOS 6 they finally got rid of Google maps with its amazing detail and street view and replaced it with their own Map App – which was (and is) rather poor by their standards (actually by anyones standards!).

Heads have rolled at Apple and they have made a public apology about the Maps – a rare event from Apple. There is talk about them buying TomTom who provide the data to enable a faster solving of issues – time will tell.

But now we have Google Maps back on iOS (iPhone at least) in the form of a new app – and it looks great (much as it did before – but better).

It will be interesting to see what Apples response will be – the pressure is on!

 

Trying to find a positive spin?

It was pointed out to me a few weeks ago that blogging ‘negative’ stories was not such a good idea (thanks John), perhaps that is true, and if I am honest I do try not to go into ‘grumpy old man mode’ if I can help it – but sometimes I just can’t help it!

So in an effort to put a positive spin on something that drives me to the verge of insanity please read on;

Morrison’s self scanning tills – one of life’s more trying experiences! I have blogged about them before (so won’t say anymore). A recent visit confirmed my previous experiences and I do wonder just how much trade this loses Morrison’s – particularly from the casual ‘small purchase’ market. That is something only they can quantify, and if the lack of activity on improving their scanners is anything to go by they haven’t considered it!

However, after giving up on the self scan I went to a ‘real’ till with a young lady (showing my age here) who was both pleasant and swift. I mentioned to her my problems (with the scanners) and she said she hated them as well – but it did make me realise that it also protected her job – which is a good (and positive) thing.

There you go – not always grumpy after all!

 

A very impressive hotel!

We are very lucky in Nottingham to have two first class universities – both very different in terms of their campuses. Nottingham Trent is a city centre university and so visiting people have all the usual city centre facilities. Nottingham University has a wonderful landscaped campus, on the edge of the city. Consequently it has the potential for conferences, but limited local hotel accommodation – until now as a £20m eco-friendly hotel – The Orchard – has opened its doors right next door to the conference centre in the centre of the University main campus.

Designed to complement the university-owned De Vere Venues East Midlands Conference Centre, The Orchard features technology to minimise carbon emissions, including a green roof, solar panels and energy-efficient lighting, heating and ventilation systems.

The 202-bedroom hotel also features a roof garden, brasserie and gym. It is also a quite stunning piece of design and is something the University can be justifiably proud of. It is just a shame that we don’t have such ‘interesting’ buildings being built in the city centre.

A challenge for our local architects and developers perhaps?

 

Nottingham Parking – a change for the better?

So, as of today the new ‘improved’ parking scheme is in force in Nottingham – will it help, or is it too little too late? Retailers and restaurant owners were up in arms when the council decided to start charging for evening on street parking – and quite rightly so in my view – it was a typically badly misjudged thing to do in such a depressed economy by our local council.

The decision to now remove the time limit on the on street parking is an interesting approach – parking will be £1 for 30 minutes up to 2 hours depending on which zone you are in. But, more importantly, the evening charge will be £1 for the entire night – a much better approach and one that hopefully will help the evening traders in the centre of town.

The removal of time limited parking may have a knock on effect though – up to now it has always been possible to get a space on a meter in town for a quick visit – they may now be taken all day – which would be a retrograde step.

Time will tell…….