Ed Vogue's World

As part of my job I sometimes need to come up with creative ideas. More often than I would like these ideas are judged. Coming up with an innovative approach is usually half the battle and allows for a positive outcome. When faced with a situation like this I like to consider, muse if you like the options before settling on my final decision. Sometimes like a writer suffering from the dreaded 'block' I struggle for inspiration and need time to think and consider. For that I need peace, quiet and time to relax. If I can find myself in that place then creative ideas start to flow. http://www.self.com/beauty/blogs/beyondthebeautypages/photo-1.jpg This is one of the reasons I prefer a bath over a shower. It's not the only reason. I hate showers that are not powerful enough, or where the water is initially cold and then scalding hot or the way a wet cold shower curtain sticks to your back and bare bottom. Ok, I admit that the bath takes time to run but that gives me time t...

I have never really been good at clothes shopping. I really can't be bothered to find clothes and then try them all on and then spend time making decisions about which one of five pairs of trousers to buy. I expect this stems from learnt behaviour from my father whose sage advice I well remember, "If you can't find a pair of shoes you like in the first shop then go home." This was sound advice and I still try to apply it to all of my clothes shopping. http://internationaldisplays.co.uk/images2/products/shoeshop_268.jpg This is in stark contrast to the way many people shop. I well remember shopping trips of old where I sat on a lonely chair outside the changing rooms waiting. After the wait comes the question, the question that no one truly wants to answer, "What do you think?" To be fair it has been a long time since I have had to wait outside some changing rooms and provide an answer to that enquiry. However, today slightly surreally, that experience c...

I don't remember learning to read. I'm sure that I learnt to read using the ladybird reading scheme and learnt about the adventures of Peter and Paul. I remember the Mr Men books and also a series of books about an Ant and a Bee, imaginely titled Ant and Bee. Now that I have my own children I feel a little for my Dad who when my brothers and I were young was forced to read the same stories night after night; stories like Scratchy Spider (who stole buns from old ladies) and the Colonels Sausage (about a stone statue that became animated by sausages!!!). I kid you not. These stories were found in a book called "I Can Choose my Bedtime Story" by Mary Parsley . This book made such a mark on me that when my first child was born I tracked down a copy from America and I relived some of my own childhood memories. http://www.mumsnet.com/cms/uploads/microsites/zog-dragon1.png There is now so much choice in children's stories, beautifully written and illustrated with ti...

There are certain smells in the world which can remind us of good memories, transport us back to our childhood or just make us smile because they are amazing. One of my favourite smells is the smell of bitumen being heated in a large open cauldron ready to be laid on the road. There is something about that warm oily smell which I like. I can't put my finger on why, I just like it. This morning that smell was in the air as the local council resurfaced the roundabout at the end of the road. As I went for a little walk this morning I lingered ever so slightly near the hot bubbling black goo to take in a few lungfuls. I am sure that breathing this in is not good for my respiratory system but what the hell I felt like playing with fire and taking a risk. I had visited the plot on my walk and had picked some fresh runner beans and courgettes. These vegetables afforded me another olfactory delight. The smell of the fresh greenery was delicious this warm summer morning. The smell o...

The kids are really into their bike riding this holiday and the weather has been perfect. Today we have been out for a monster ride through the woods. They have become more confident on them and are getting quite fast. Although the youngest still seems to end up in the brambles when negotiating a tricky path. It doesn't seem to bother him too much. I have been following behind ambling through the woods occasionally getting concerned upon reaching a junction and not really being clear which way my munchkins had gone. I nearly lost one...but only for a couple of minutes. A pleasant way to spend the afternoon walking along leafy paths, musing on life. As I write this I am sitting underneath a tree, the only thing that could make it better would be a comfy bench, a pond and maybe a fishing rod.   Oops, an accident...I don't think it's serious maybe just a graze on the knee but I better go check it out... All good, not a problem.   Posted with Blogsy

There seems to be something up with our post. A couple of weeks ago I was expecting the delivery of an important letter. The sender claimed he had sent it and even emailed a scanned copy of the letter with the date of postage included.   I was also expecting a quote in the post from what I thought was a reputable business man. He told me that he would send the quote the next day, first class. That was a week ago and still it has not arrived. I spoke to the man in question today and he confirmed that he had indeed posted the quote last Friday. True to his word he emailed me the quote straight away with an apology. The thing is...he does not need to apologise. He IS a reputable business man. These two incidents suggest to me something afoot with my local postal service.   So today I decided to stake out the postman. When he arrived I confronted him; in a polite middle class way of course. He told me that he was unable to help as he had just returned from a two week h...

I took the kids into London today. It was again a gorgeous summer day. Probably a little hot for those ladies in the park ( see yesterday's entry ) but I thought it was a fantastic day. We walked along the South Embankment from Vauxhall and looking across the Thames to the Houses of Parliament there was not a breath of wind and the old capital city was looking marvellous. In the busier parts of town you could sense something. Literally an excitement in the air. Finally after seven years since winning the bid the worlds most spectacular sporting event is about to happen and the capital seems to be excited it. The theme across the city is the Olympics. Every tourist attraction has somehow managed to find a link, for instance the zoo is showcasing the athletic abilities of some of its most popular inmates. On the tube are people here in The UK to support or take part in the games all sporting their 2012 ID cards and corporate sports wear. Those of you that regularly read my mus...

What a wonderful warm summers day today was. According to my car, the temperature was a balmy 31C. Just a slight change from last week. Maybe that jet stream really has moved! I spent a bit of today walking through the woods of the surrounding area. This morning the kids were on their bikes and I was forever playing catch up ambling along behind them. In the woods the weather was perfect; a gorgeous temperature and the trees in full leaf providing ample shade. During the afternoon following a delicious ice cream (toffee and honeycomb flavour) another walk in some different woods (hopefully soon to be our local woods) which the kids described as awesome whilst playing hide and seek and planning where to construct the best camps. An idyllic day...so why the title you may ask? Well that relates to a conversation that I overheard between three mothers at the park. They were discussing the weather and were bemoaning the fact that it was just too hot. "When it gets this hot you j...

If I was a betting man I might have had a few quid that it was going to happen today but it seems that I would have lost that bet. There are a few days of the year that I really look forward to not withstanding, Christmas, Easter and my birthday, although to be honest I don't really look forward to my birthday much. These other days cannot be predicted too far in advance, they can't be pinned down to an exact date and sometimes they don't materialise at all. The first two relate to the weather, I love a really good thunderstorm, the type that makes the windows shudder with the boom of the thunder and the way the wind suddenly picks up and the rain hammers down. The second is that all important first snow day. The excitement when the curtains are opened and there is the perfect winter wonderland scene, it's still snowing; the phone call comes with the message not to bother travelling to work. Priceless. Of course everyone loves the first snow day, it's the subseq...

One of the problems the weather has caused me over the last couple of weeks is that the rain has prevented me from keeping my allotment tidy. Until this weekend I was struggling to remember when I had last been over to the plot. I returned yesterday and it was reminiscent of the jungle forests of Mauritius. http://www.travellersworldwide.com/Images2000/photos-mauritius/mauritius-landscape-2.jpg The weeds and grass had grown to quite a magnificent height and their flowers were threatening to disperse their pesky seed across the fertile land. The slugs and snails were in abundance and the broad beans had overgrown to large tough beasts. A lot of hard work was needed and I have spent a number of hours over the last few days on my knees hand weeding. Now - the plot looks in good shape. The bind weed has been controlled the grass has been cut and the cabbages are not competing for light, water and nutrients with unwanted flora. The red onions and shallots have had a chance to grow and swe...

When I was in the 3rd or 4th year at school (Year 9 and 10 in today's language) the teaching unions were slightly disgruntled about how the government of the day was treating their terms and conditions. This led to the inevitable industrial action involving strikes and work to rule. The work to rule meant that the teachers would not supervise any students during the lunchtime. For my school this led to all the students being forced to leave the premises for the entire lunchtime.  My school was not small, about 1600 students. We all left the school and headed towards town. This was great. I went to school in a seaside town and if you were quick enough you could make it to the beach and the amusements. Most of us went to the chippy and hung out on benches around the town centre. Occasionally we would visit the local burger restaurant. This was before the golden arches, which on it's arrival seemed to out compete the restaurant in question. It was an interesting establishme...

An opportunity arose today for me and a colleague to combine our efforts in a joint venture to cross the boundaries between Art and Science. We were looking at how to use chromatography to separate coloured inks and how to use this technique to make some original artwork.  Chromatography is a technique used to identify and separate chemical components in a mixture. It separates by utilising the differing interactions the chemicals have with a stationary phase and a mobile phase. Most people at some stage in their school career would have separated inks using blotting paper and water, this is paper chromatography. In paper chromatography the paper itself is the stationary phase and the water (solvent) is the mobile phase. The inks are placed on the paper and water moves up the paper by capillary action. As the water hits th ink depending on the nature of the chemical it will move along with the water. A chemical that interacts with the mobile phase more than the stationary pha...

Everyday I get a chance to work alongside people who have amazing talents. Sometimes those talents are obvious, sometimes a little more hidden.Today I had the privilege to watch a number of young men and women showcase their amazing musical talent.   They stood on stage and performed hits by the Buzzcocks, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and The Animals to name a few and they were tremendous. What was even more enjoyable to watch was how much fun they were having during their performance. It was fabulous.   I have to admit to feeling a touch of envy, these guys and gals have got the whole of their lives ahead of them and just seemed to be having a really great time. It was the first time that I felt a bit old and made me regret that I never learned to play the guitar when I was eighteen.   This made me think about talent. I truly believe that everyone is talented in their own way. Maybe the talent, like the band, can be used to entertain, maybe it can be used to educate, may...

Today's blog is a little bit about maths. Let me ask you a question... Now, I am betting that most of you said rectangle B. Apparently this is no coincidence. This is to do with something called the golden ratio. The golden ratio is a special number that appears in art, architecture and nature; it has a value of approximately 1.618 - and is also known as phi. If you take a line a divide it into two parts so that the longer part divided by the shorter part is equal to the whole length divided by the longer part. This is the golden ratio. If you put this into a rectangle you get this, the golden rectangle; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rectangle Phi can be calculated by looking at Fibbonacci's sequence, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89... Etc. can you spot the pattern? If you then find the ratio of a number and the number that proceeds it in the sequence you get the following; 1/1 = 1, 2/1 = 2, 3/2 = 1.5, 5/3 = 1.666, 8/5 = 1.6, 13/8 = 1.625, 21/13 = 1.61538, 34/21...

In the UK we are obsessed with the weather. We love weather statistics and the effect that the weather has on our daily lives. Our economy is affected by the weather and so is the amount of Pimms consumed and the number of ice cream vans in our nations parks and residential streets. As a population we have always been interested in weather records, the coldest June on record, the wettest May since records began, the hottest February 21st in Stoke since 1876 etc. http://www.crystalinks.com/jetstream2.jpg But now a new phenomena is starting to enter our weather vocabulary. It started with the odd progressive BBC weather forecaster trying to impress the audience with their knowledge. Now the term jetstream has spread so fast that grannies on their way to the supermarket are discussing it with their fellow bus passengers. http://www.weatherquestions.com/jet_stream.jpg In preparation for todays blog entry I wanted to find out a bit more so I consulted google, I often consult google, I thin...

Ok, so I'm getting towards middle age and in Roman times probably would have been considered old but I'm not quite over the hill yet! Today I have felt just a little bit older. My back has been hurting I believe brought on my some high jinx at a party on Friday night.  I was being sensible; driving so no drinking for me. However, the music plays and a bit of dancing just had to happen. Not Dad dancing mind you, well I don't think so anyway, no, no, no some good dancing; dancing with the beat, flashdance style (of course onlookers may have seen more Dad dancing than I care to recall). Then another partygoer, who had had a bit of flavoured ethanol beverage, decided to jump on my back. In itself this was ok and no damage was done.   http://topnews.in/health/files/backpain-backache.jpg   The next morning I was innocently bending down to put a saucepan away in the kitchen cupboard and then I felt the twinge of the muscles in my back complaining. No doubt fuelled by my ov...

A sacrilege happened in our house this week. A crime so heinous I have not until now be able to speak about it. I returned home a few days ago to see the remains of a tub of vanilla ice cream melting in the sink. Yes, the ice cream had been thrown away! Now, this should never happen, usually under no circumstances is ice cream treated in such a cavalier manner. I can only assume that the tub was an old one and the remaining ice cream had developed that darker yellow colour on the outside and the substance itself had grown the dreaded ice crystals that so spoil the texture. In the freezer I am pleased to say is another tub. This country provides amazing choice in terms of ice cream. From the bulk standard supermarket vanilla to the premium brands with flavour names that entice the taste buds and loosen the trouser belt not to forget the tinkling of the ice cream van selling Mr Whippy 99's with sprinkles that must contain colours banned by the EU. http://www.michiganelectrofree...

I think that there has been a major revolution in children's films. It began with the awesome Pixar studios and the release of Toy Story. Their genius idea was to make films for children that adults would want to watch too. Not only are the story lines engaging and in some cases very moving - consider the opening scenes of the film Up or indeed the last few minutes of Toy Story 3, I cried- they are also filled with references to other more grown up films or contain adult jokes hidden away in the dialogue. The cinema (http://www.frontroomcinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/c3.jpg) I went to the cinema today to see Ice Age 4 - Continental Drift. Too be honest I wasn't expecting very much. The three ice age films that came before it have not been my favourites of the genre but I joined the family and settled down to a box of shared popcorn obediently donning my 3D glasses when the screen told me so that I wouldn't miss the advert where a cartoon polar bear jumps on some ...