Isomatic UK Weblog

Today (Sunday) we went to the art exhibition 'Impressionism abroad' at the Royal Academy of Art in Picadilly, London. It was the first art exhibition we have really enjoyed in 2005, all exhibits coming from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA.

Today we take the plunge and decide on a new computer. It just has to be the new iMac G5. The small desk top footprint together with wireless keyboard and mouse are irresistable even before we consider the advantages of UNIX-based OSX, etc.

On Wednesday evening we again saw the Blue Moon Jazz band at the Watermans Arms, Hersham, joined by anyone who wanted to play with them. Of particular note was the fine jazz voice of the reverend Tony Pyle who also played banjo for two numbers.

On Sunday evening we paid our first visit to the Sutton Jazz Club, hosted by Neville Dickie on piano. The guests were Ralph Allin on violin, Adrian Cox on clarinet and Nick Milward on drums. This line up worked really well despite playing together for the first time.

Friday evening, after a hard day doing the quarterly accounts, we went to The Star pub near Leatherhead, right on the boundary of London and Surrey. It is the ideal place to meet people from elsewhere because it:
is easy to find
has a huge car park
serves food all afternoon and evening.

For those outside the UK, I should explain that most people here have a paper driving licence with no photograph. Modern driving licences are in the form of a card with photograph plus a separate piece of paper. My wife and I decided to change to the new format to provide ID without carrying our passports with us, e.g. when travelling to Guernsey. This will also serve us well in South Africa next year.

Changing to the new format is not proving easy. Firstly, young people such as the girl at the post office counter, do not see photo-ID driving licences as 'new' because that is all they have ever had. The 'current majority' driving licence is 'old' to them. When I ask about changing to a new style licence I am greeted with a baffled stare.

Secondly, the form we are required to complete is complicated, confusing and requires information from other sources. Lastly, there is the photograph requirement. The two places we would normally go for photographic prints cannot produce the required small print from a 35 mm negative. We are trying a new (to us) organisation that say they can do it.

On Wednesday evening we saw the Blue Moon Jazz band at the Watermans Arms, Hersham. An interesting approach to pub jazz, with the floor open to anyone who wanted to play with them. The musicians all played well individually but not necessarily well in ensemble. The finale with every musician joining in was not so bad this time !
Many of the audience were familiar from The Cricketers at Horsell Birch, Woking, including Dave Lowe (cornet player with the Panama Cafe Orchestra).

We are updating our web pages, removing many that have served their purpose and are now obsolete. Those that remain will have a new E-mail address, coded to prevent automatic collection by 'spammers'. This is because the isomatic.co.uk domain is swamped by over 500 spam/scam/porn messages every day. So far we have updated:

Table of Contents
Home page
Index page
3 phase converters
and its equivalent pages for other keywords and misspellings

On Monday evening at The Cricketers in Horsell, we again saw The Panama Cafe Orchestra. We would like to mention particularly the sweet cornet of Dave Lowe and the fine clarinet of John Lawes.
Unfortunately I could not stay long as I was too tired (after a day of juggling money around) to maximise the instant availability.

Today we drove to Lymington, on the South Coast of England, and travelled as pedestrians on the ferry to Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. Weather was superb, not a cloud in the sky but a light breeze to cool us.

Our E-mail messages are almost entirely composed of spam, scams and pornography. These have reached 500 per day and are making it hard to spot the messages we want to read. Therefore we are starting the long haul of changing our E-mail address, informing everyone and coding the new one on every web page. To make the latter step easier we have deleted many web pages that had outlived their usefulness.

Now that we are coming to the end of the Seinfeld DVDs for seasons 1-3, I have ordered season 4 from HMV. Seasons 1 and 2 were not that good but by season 3 the series was into its stride.

On Sunday evening we went to the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank to see Jack Gibbons playing the music of George Gershwin. Not only is Jack a superb pianist, he is a great showman who can communicate with an audience.

We have now seen Phil Brown's Swingtet two evenings in succession, Sunday at the Saddler's Arms, Send and Monday at The Cricketers, Horsell. Great swing band that also plays the blues.

Today we went to Tate Britain to see the exhibition 'A Picture of Britain'. We were somewhat disappointed to find only two paintings that we liked. Perhaps our taste in art has become too jaded with age !