The Tom Gilbert Blog » General

By the way, if you miss me….

giblet — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:22:07 +0000

I’m a bit more active over here these days: gplus.to/giblet

Okay, Charles Stross said it better, read him instead

giblet — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:12:20 +0000

You don’t have to agree with his decision (although it seems my own views are not far from his), but I love his closing paragraph and wish I’d written it last night:

But if you’re voting in this election, I would like you to read not only the main party manifestos, but also to look at the party’s backgrounds and the philosophical values that inform them: and then to question your own values, and look a little deeper into the matter than simply asking whether you like Gordon Brown’s face or David Cameron’s wife. It’s okay to vote against people you wouldn’t mind sharing a bottle of wine with if you think their policies are short-sighted. The political is not personal on this scale, whatever the tabloid newspapers would like you to think.

Source: Charlie’s Diary

It’s General Election week

giblet — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:09:04 +0000

I don’t normally blog about politics. In fact I don’t normally discuss it that much, at least in public, sober – sometimes I argue drunkenly about it in private! It’s just a topic that people can be (naturally) quite dogmatic about and so it tends to be contentious/argumentative and I hate that, and so avoid it.

But, I am having troubles with my vote this year, and am really quite torn between a couple of choices. I thought I would blog about politics for once and give away at least something about how I will vote if only to remind you all that http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ is a fantastic resource if you want to know more about your options. They have a nice comparison based on a (too short but interesting) list of questions at http://election.theyworkforyou.com/ and they have all the usual juicy detail about what your local MP has been up to. The one thing it really helped me do is eliminate one choice very quickly and easily just based on some topics which are important to me:

My local MP is (was) Jim Fitzpatrick for Labour and based on:

Voted very strongly for introducing ID cards
Voted very strongly for replacing Trident
Voted very strongly for the Iraq war
Voted very strongly against an investigation into the Iraq war

It’s very easy for me to decide that this guy has got to go. Obviously this is my local MP but these are national issues which are important to me, as are the economy and the environment. I guess this is a time when we all have to weigh up what’s really important to us. To be honest I don’t think about it often enough but I sure have lately.

So that means as you can see I will be voting for a change of government on Thursday (as the polls suggest a lot of others will too). Have a look, whatever your beliefs, theyworkforyou is a useful tool.

So I have one choice left to make, and there are a lot of variables which don’t make it easy. I only partially agree with either of the other big parties on various topics of importance including Europe, immigration, taxation and let’s not forget our broken electoral system adding concerns over possible hung parliament/minority government, the relative strengths of the local candidates, etc..

I’m trying not to be too specific because I don’t want to necessarily invite anyone to disagree with me – this isn’t a politics blog – of course you are welcome to privately disagree with me because different things are important to each of us, this is why arguing about politics, rather than about specific issues, is generally something I avoid

But anyway, I think I am almost decided now. Please vote on Thursday, if you can!

Okay, Charles Stross said it better, read him instead

Happy holidays all!

giblet — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:08:57 +0000

I still need to blog about my Dubai trip – just got back this week. Was really cool as you can see from the pictures but I have been a bit busy with last minute xmas prep (bad time to go on holiday from that perspective) so I haven’t written up the trip yet. I have lots to share though!

Also I just got confirmation through for my place in the London 2010 Marathon. Woot! More details on that to follow.

In the mean time, I wish you all a very happy holiday. I will be spending the next couple of days with my family so will see you on the flip side.

Back from New York

giblet — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:02:41 +0000

Back home. Can’t sleep from jet lag right now, so thought I would post something…

It was a good work trip – very productive and I got a lot done which I needed to. Unfortunately it was somewhat more frustrating on the personal side, didn’t really get to do what I wanted to do while I was there, work stuff kind of took over instead. So on this basis I was somewhat happy to just get home to rest up this weekend.

Especially as I seem to have picked up a cold, probably from the plane – which is also contributing to my inability to sleep I’m sure!

Off on my travels again

giblet — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:37:24 +0000

I shall be off to New York shortly for a couple of weeks. It’s a business trip but I have at least one weekend to myself while I’m there, so I should be able to find something entertaining to do The first week is going to be a normal work week in Jersey City, with a few all day workshops. Second week I am spending a couple of days at an offsite in Mohonk – which should be very nice.

It’s going to be cold there. I remember NY in November from last year. I am not prepared for this!

These daily lifestream updates…

giblet — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:34:26 +0000

Toying with ditching them. They are a bit verbose!

Breaking in the new flat

giblet — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:31:36 +0000

Well I’m almost unpacked. 2 more boxes then maybe I’ll share some flat photos with you all… It’s been a busy few weeks getting settled in, but I’m 99% there and feeling good.

Today I finally have broadband – this is a huge milestone! It’s crap broadband, but that’s a long story for another day. I will detail my trials and tribulations getting decent connectivity out of the Poplar exchange in due course…

Anyway, Saturday I will have Sky, so then I’ll be all set. Things are looking good! The flat is nice. Not big, but it’s mine, and it feels good. I also have room to hang all my shirts up and have some of my favourite things back out of storage and I can’t tell you what a morale booster that is!

This week I’ve been breaking in the kitchen – it’s been great having my kitchen stuff out of storage and I got a bit carried away using it all, but as you can see I’m eating well

The steak I ate tonight was guilt-free, as I did an hour and a half in the gym today, running, rowing and cycling. Nice to eat and drink whatever you like There’s still time to sponsor me for my 10k run you know – it’s this Sunday!

Summer catch-up

giblet — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:36:45 +0000

During my long hiatus from the interwebs, I have been up to various things. Some of them are marginally interesting! Over time I will try to catch up a bit. Let’s start with this summer, because it’s been a pretty good one! Let’s see, what have I been up to?!

San Francisco and Vegas - 16th May

16th May - San Francisco and Vegas

This was a great fun trip to Vegas for a week for Colm’s birthday. I flew via San Francisco and took the opportunity to stay there one day and night to explore. I really love SanFran! As you can see I took quite a few pictures there, more than I did in Vegas. I spent a lot of time at the pool and at blackjack/poker tables in Vegas and taking photos in those places is generally frowned upon

Highlights:

Turning $300 into $2300 at a $10 blackjack table over the course of 2 hours
Sitting at the same poker table as Steph and the most annoying British poker brat I have ever met - they really went at each other and Steph gave as good as she got
Pulling an all nighter playing blackjack with the group (there were like 12 of us there!), then going for a full Irish Breakfast at an Irish Pub off the strip, run by a Scotsman, watching an Irish Rugby match at 10am local time, quite drunk.
Endless mornings by the pool drinking Strawberry Daiquiris!

Lowlights:

Losing my $2000 winnings on a $100 blackjack table in 5 minutes flat
Dropping a full Gin and Tonic into my own lap at Parasol Down in the Wynn. Much to everyone else’s amusement!

Glastonbury 2009 - 23rd June

23rd June - Glastonbury.

Ah, Glastonbury, always a pleasure. This was my second time - with the same crew as last year. I don’t think anything can live up to the religious moment I had at Glastonbury 2008 watching Leonard Cohen performing a legendary set with the sun setting behind him, but this was also a good year. Great weather (bar the odd little shower here and there), a good line-up, and once again we had a good camping spot and no major drama or incidents

Favourite moment? Probably Friday night when I was a little tired and emotional and pouring my heart out to Colm and Steph I think Neil Young was playing at the time? Or maybe hiding out in a tunnel in Shangri-la during a sudden and tremendous downpour - rain water coming through the ceiling and dripping down my neck - comedy!

London Pride then a Madonna concert - 4th July

4th July - London Pride and then a Madonna concert

I remember calling this my super gay summer day It was a really fun day. London Pride is always entertaining and this time we got to see One Star (Denise Pearson of the former band Five Star) singing. I even took some video of her and she is standing the test of time quite well as you can see.

Madonna was just brilliant. I was not expecting her to be that amazing. High energy, perfect choreography, great singing, and a tribute to MJ that was quite touching and nicely done. If only MJ hadn’t died, I could have seen both my childhood music heroes live this summer A somewhat selfish way of looking at it I know, but I think that’s how we all handle death isn’t it? How it affects us?

After London Pride, we took the Thames Clipper to the O2 for Madonna. This was a really nice jaunt on the river and as a Londoner I must remember to do this more often!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNDm3pysz_s

U2 concert in Dublin - 25th July

25th July - U2 concert in Dublin.

Chance to see U2 live in Dublin? Not to be missed. Having not seen them live before (somehow), I was thrilled to see this show - it was epic, and to the home crowd! Sunday Bloody Sunday was amazing, I could barely hear the band over the crowd!

I had a great time, and sang myself hoarse, along with everyone else

August was very hectic indeed - check it out:

All Points West in New York - 1st August

1st August - All Points West in New York

When a work trip lined up with the APW weekend I couldn’t believe my luck, nor turn down the chance to attend. What a line-up! Jay-Z, Vampire Weekend, Arctic Monkeys, Tool, MGMT, Elbow, Echo and the Bunnymen, Gaslight Anthem and Coldplay! Oh my!

Festivals in the US are funny - especially this one, with bizarre and annoying rules about a) how much alcohol you can drink and b) which areas of the site you can drink it in. Most of the weekend was spent finding creative ways around these rules

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqUX0BssS50

Amsterdam Weekend - 7th August

7th August - Amsterdam Weekend.

I’d never been to Amsterdam, so when Rick and Colm suggested it (primarily as a means to get air miles and tier points with BA via a discounted business class return), I couldn’t say no!

It was a weekend in Amsterdam, so about what you’d expect really! i.e. lots of museums, culture, and canals, of course (what did you think I meant?!)

We stayed in a 3 bed private room in the Bulldog hotel (hostel really) - good location and atmosphere. Good value too - recommended.

U2 in Wembley - 15th August

15th August - U2 in Wembley.

They were so good in Dublin, I couldn’t resist seeing them again in Wembley. Amazing concert - in Wembley it was fully a 360 degrees layout (unlike Croke park in Dublin where it was about 270 for safety reasons). This was the 360 tour so I’m glad I got to see that

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJaceKLzMQ0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc5Wefznke8

Cannes and Monaco weekend - 21st August

21st August - Cannes and Monaco weekend

Summer drawing to a close - must go somewhere hot and beachy stat!! Managed it. Cannes was beautiful, I spent the whole weekend on the beach sunbathing, eating and drinking Popped into Monaco for lunch on Sunday “on the way” back to Nice airport.

Reading festival - 28th August

28th August - Reading festival

I really needed a weekend at home at this point - what a month! But what the hell, it was Reading festival and I’d not been to that before. Rick scored me a ticket and even got there early to score a good spot for me so all was set for a great weekend

Reading had an incredible line-up this year. Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, Vampire Weekend, Yeah yeah yeahs, The living end, Gossip, Glasvegas, Gaslight Anthem,The Maccabees, Florence and the Machine, Faith no More, Prodigy, Radiohead, among others!

That said it wasn’t all roses. I must say having been to Glasto twice Reading was a shock. A much younger, more hectic, rude and “nasty” crowd. Some scary moments of pushing in dense crowds, people throwing stuff into crowds at gigs, and the absolute craziness of the last night….

It was like ‘nam - I’m telling you man, it was crazy! You weren’t there man, you weren’t there!!

…breathe. Okay, so anyway, picture a campsite at 2am on the last night. Groups of young kids roaming the site looking for trouble like something out of Lord of the Flies.. Flares and fireworks going off horizontally (occasionally hitting tents). Mushroom clouds on the horizon from kids throwing camping gas canisters and aerosol cans onto bonfires (!) Fire engines hurtling around… Crazy!

I’m not going to reading next year. (Unless the line-up is awesome again…)

Anyway - that was my summer. Not a bad one eh? How were yours?!

Back from Ireland

giblet — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:16:14 +0000

Back from my weekend in Dublin – was most enjoyable – couple of really nice meals and a good long cliff walk along the coast. Also maybe a few too many drinks on Friday Pictures to follow, I have had a bit of a hectic day and not got to uploading them yet.

The day was hectic as I picked up the keys for my new flat today, and spent my evening shuffling things around from storage, picking up some missing essentials etc. Will be a few more days before I’m anywhere close to settled in there but already I have a bit more space for my things which is nice.

Checking in

giblet — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:22:22 +0000

I am in the middle of writing a big catch-up post detailing my adventures this summer, but it’s not ready yet. In preparation for it I am uploading a million images to my flickr stream which I seem to be a bit behind on. It’s taking a while, so the post will have to wait a bit. After such a long silence I’m sure you won’t mind a few days?

In the meantime, I’m off to Dublin this weekend, then I’m back on Sunday to move into my new flat!!

Resurrecting the blog

giblet — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:58:25 +0000

It’s been a while, I know. It’s complicated. I will explain soon

Off to New York again

giblet — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:32:03 +0000

So work has me travelling off to NYC again – but this time for 5+ weeks. I guess this means I won’t be going back and forth so much but it’s sure a long stay. I think I will overpack for this trip I’ll be staying in a corporate appartment downtown. If you’re in the neighbourhood, look me up!

Back from Glastonbury

giblet — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:11:02 +0000

Too exhausted to do anything now but shower and sleep. But got some great pictures and stories to share. Here’s a teaser before I upload the rest, from our best and last night at the festival:

One comment: Leonard Cohen on the Pyramid stage with the setting sun behind him, singing Tower of Song, Suzanne and then Hallelujah, was the one of the most amazing things I ever experienced. Unforgettable.

Edit:Rest of the pics are up now: Glastonbury 2008.

Edit: So here is my glasto 2008 music schedule:

Friday

Vampire Weekend – great set, started raining halfway through but noone cared
The Feeling – one of my highlights.
The Ting Tings – were on the John Peel stage (which is small) and it was packed – fun stuff
Sinead O’Connor – was great. Hard to get into her newer stuff because the noise of the crowd took away a little from the acoustic atmosphere, but she was on fine form and once we found a good spot it was ace
Kings of Leon – rocked.

Saturday

Crowded House – so good. Better than I expected – when the sun came out, and they did Weather with You… Oh man.
The Raconteurs – utter genius, and an amazing set. One of my highlights.
Manu Chao – unexpectedly amazing – I had never heard of them but Steph talked us into hanging around for it and wow. High tempo Mexican/Cuban/Reggae mix and the way they maintained the energy of the crowd for an hour at that pace… Wicked.
Amy Winehouse – as expected, she was a mess. I think Steph coined the term “hot mess” and it suits. Very wobbly, ended in a fight with the crowd but somehow her voice was still perfect throughout. Worth seeing
Jay-z – he rocked the place, and was a good headliner. Loved the opening (playing video of Gallagher moaning about him then opening to Wonderwall), and 99 Problems was brilliant.

Sunday

Neil Diamond – good. Not great, but good.
Goldfrapp – aw yeah. Started with some of her newer, more flowery stuff, which I enjoyed a lot, then finished in style with Oh La la and others. Great vibe during this gig to match the great weather.
Leonard Cohen. See above. A religious experience for me. Worth the ticket price alone.
The Verve – great Sunday night choice, lots of crowd pleasing stuff. However it couldn’t top Leonard and I could have done with him staying on another hour instead.

On Sunday we stayed out all night in Trash City and Shangri-la then watched the Sun come up from the Stone Circle. Sunday really was the most amazing day. Then on Monday on the way home we saw the sun going down over Stone Henge. What a weekend

Magic Moments

Thursday night in a bar in Shangri-La (”the first class lounge”), James asking “when do you close?” and the bartender shrugging and replying “Monday”.
Sitting in the tent playing hold’em and drinking while it rained.
When The Feeling covered Video Killed the Radio Star.
Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. And the rest of the set.
Stumbling into the Cuban Brothers in Dance West, wow they were awesome and crazy funny
The cider!
Watching the sun come up from the stone circle.

Some more highlights from my flickr stream:

Travel madness

giblet — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:12:10 +0000

You’d think all the time I spend bored in airport lounges lately, I would remember to update my blog…

I just got back from San Francisco – I was attending TUCON and this time managed to spend a full week there. I love that place so much. Conference was good, and had lots of fun in the evenings too. Places we ate (mostly paid by vendors yay): Aqua, Tadich Grill, North Beach Restaurant, One Market and The Cheesecake Factory (the one overlooking Union Square) . Also got a chance to explore the city a little bit this time.

So I am back for a couple of weeks but then I am off again on my travels. First Singapore for a week, then a few days in Germany, then New York for a week. Basically I am all over the place at the moment.

I think I will just close my eyes, and think of the airmiles…

In Boston for the weekend

giblet — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:11:05 +0000

…but only just! They closed the airport on approach due to snow storms, and we circled for quite some time before being allowed to land. But this is great, we didn’t get any proper snow in London this year so it’s cool to be here in Boston where there are currently 3-4 inches of snow [...]

...continue reading In Boston for the weekend

Travel

giblet — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 02:05:13 +0000

So I’m back in New York again – but not for long. I do love this town though, and this time I brought my camera!

Oh and last week I was in San Fransisco (yay) but only for 20 hours (what?!)

Holiday postcards

giblet — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 03:06:12 +0000

From me to all of you, merry christmas and a happy new year

See the full xmas photo album on my flickr profile.

Bike riding

giblet — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 16:10:56 +0000

Did a couple of rides this weekend, trying to build up my fitness. Yesterday I rode 10 miles and today I managed 18. My favourite new GPS gadget (a garmin edge 305) faithfully recorded my travels – here’s the map for yesterday, and here’s the map for today. Today was a nice route, I ended up cycling along the Thames path, around the Millennium Dome and out to the Thames Barrier. Very scenic.

By the way, I recently succumbed to peer pressure and created a Facebook profile – so if you’re on there, feel free to reach out.