Mammoth Wasp

The little criter pictured on the left landed in my swimming pool for a drink and decided to stay. I mention it here because I was struck by the size of the chap and wanted to advise the unwary that this is a wasp and will sting. It is scolia flavifrons, the mammoth wasp (identified by my friend and widlife expert Judi Swift). I've since read elsewhere that they can grow even bigger than this - up to a couple of inches - and that the sting is more painful than you can imagine. Why they need to carry around an AA battery with them remains a mystery!

DELETING FILES FROM THE REMOTE SERVER IN DREAMWEAVER MX

This should be straightforward but isn’t. If you delete a local file and it isn’t synchronised because you chose not to sync automatically or you don’t wish to sync manually because you are wary of overwriting something else, you may get a ‘widow’ file on the remote server. The windows->files panel when switched to remote view will reveal the file but there is no delete icon on the panel, nor is there an option on the first level of the right mouse button menu. You need to choose EDIT from the right mouse button menu and then you will find the option to delete. Why they do it like that I’ve no idea.

Mad Madrid

Visited Madrid for the first time on Friday 1 June 2007. The picture on the left was snapped as I was driving away from the Puerto de Alcalá. Unfortunatly I was concentrating on driving a bit too much to get a good snap!! Had a good day though.

I went to renew my British passport which expired a few months ago. Here is a good tip - going in person to renew your passport is a great idea, because the new rules for biometric photos are stiff and you may find as a friend of mine did, that you end up sending a postal application two or three times before you get it right. BUT IF YOU DO GO IN PERSON THE OFFICE CLOSES AT 13:30 AND DOESN'T OPEN AGAIN UNTIL THE FOLLOWING DAY. After a four hour drive I made it with 15 mins to spare but If I were going again I'd leave myself another couple of hours.

Howler!

I'm having fits of giggling at the moment. I keep thinking back to what happened on the way to work this morning.

I saw my neighbour’s car, apparently abandoned at the side of the road. This is a blonde (with the big boobs) who shall remain namelss and who should have been doing a school run at the time. Just around the next bend I found her looking somewhat distressed. I wound the window down and she told me she was trying to help two dogs who seemed to have their bums stuck together!

We went over and sure enough, there were the two dogs, shaggy terrier types, bum to bum. They had obviously been copulating and had the knot still in.

Now the wretched business was over, the male had jumped down and managed to turn around. Although still bound at the groin, they were trying to escape their embarrassment by pulling away in opposite directions.

I explained to her as delicately as possible that this was a common problem and often happened when two dogs were mating. She looked at me with a puzzled expression and said

"Mating? What, facing away from each other?"

DKIM at last

An end to spam?

Well I'd like to think so. CNET News ran a story today about Domain Key ID being approved as a standard by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Basically a digital signature is inserted in the header of an email which can be verified by the recipient. This should enable the elimination of much spam, but only if we all adopt the system and upgrade our mail software. Chances of it happening anytime soon then are zero!

Oh so it wasn't a real policewoman then?

Well perhaps she was during the day! this was taken at the Cartoon in Croydon back in, erm... well it was Gary Brewer's 30th birthday (Hence the strippergram). Thing I remember about this was theat the girl left the stage without taking her clothes with her. I guess she had a bag somewhere with her 'civies' to change into, but I remember thinking 'it's a bit cold outside to be strolling about like that love!'

A rainy night in North London...

I took the picture on the right on 27 March 1987 at the Hare and Hounds pub. I can't believe it was over twenty years ago now. Anyway this is numero uno acoustic guitar solosist Adrian Legg before he got quite big in America.

I'd met Adrian previously when he was working as a techie/salesman for Rose Morris a couple of years before. Then he was working on a stand at the Sandown Park music show around about 1980. He was manning an exhibition stand flogging guitars and we struck up a conversation, during which I mentioned I played a bit of acoustic. I remember bragging a bit, saying I'd been working on some pieces where I keeping a pattern going while incorporating some string bends. Little did I know (nor did he crack on) that he was already the Master of the Universe at this sort of thing. Instead in his avuncular manner he suggested I stayed around to listen to the concert he was giving later. Foolishly I didn't. Some months later I got hold of his Technopicker album and was really put in my place.

Anyway I bumped into Adrian several more times doing shows around London. I remember seeing him demonstrating for Roland/Boss at the Surbiton Assembly Rooms. I remember afterwards asking him why a talented bloke like him was doing that sort of work and he took umbridge, saying that he was a professional musician and did whatever was necessary to support his art. Fair play to him! That was a rainy night too. I began to wonder if he arranged the rain for dramatic effect.

While I think of it...

Color Blend

I came across this neat website this morning...

www.colorblender.com

It allows you to create and manipulate colour for web use and even exports to photoshòp colour table files.
How have I got on all these years without it?

Daft Names in Spain

I bought a scrubbing brush for the pool yesterday and the tradename turned out to be Zeppelin. Typical of the Spanish though, they just don't attach emotional baggage to name in the same way that Brits do. Junkers is a really big brand in Spain, and Spanish parents can happily call their child Jesus without fear of the lad growing up a figure of fun. As I continue to live here I expect I'll come across Adolfs, Attilas and Maggies!