Isomatic UK Weblog

On Sunday evening we went to The Europa in East Molesey to see the Urban Gin House jazz band. This time it was a quintet comprising leader Richard Wilcox (baritone horn), Alan Brock (trumpet), Ivor Elliott (Tenor Sax), Nigel Fox (keyboard), Mike Bennett (string bass) and Mike Knipe (drums). The guests from the audience were Roy Stokes, Mike Byrne and Peter Talent (slide trombones) plus John Shepherd (pocket trumpet) and John reader (alto sax). Colin Lewry (keyboard) played during the breaks. Our favourite number was 'Perdido' with fine tenor playing by Ivor. We wish he played at the Europa more often as he enhances the band enormously.

On Saturday evening we went to The Wych Elm in Elm Road, Kingston Upon Thames, for the monthly performance by the Gatsby Jazz Band. This is a fun band featuring comedians Mike on banjo and Alan Jenkins on trumpet and vocals. On this occasion they were joined by the fine trombone and vocals of Bob Dwyer (not as shown in picture).

On Thursday evening we went to the Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton for the weekly Magna Jazz Band gig. Special guest (pictured) on clarinet for three numbers was Norrie Cox, resident in the USA for decades. Our favourite number did not feature Norrie; it was again 'Saratoga Swing', with fine performances from all of the band.

On Saturday we saw Marie Antoinette at the Guildford Odeon Cinema. A well made film with good actors; pity it stopped well short of the end of the story !

On Sunday evening we went to The Europa in East Molesey to see the Urban Gin House jazz band. This time it was a quintet comprising leader Richard Wilcox (slide trombone), Alan Brock (trumpet), Roger Limb (keyboard), Mike Bennett (string bass) and Mike Knipe (drums). The guests from the audience were Roy Stokes, Peter Clancy and his brother (slide trombones) plus John Shepherd (pocket trumpet) and Audrey Stokes (vocals, pictured) joined by her husband on string bass. Our favourite number was 'Mood Indigo' with fine playing from Alan and Roger.

On Thursday evening we went to the Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, where Brian White's Magna jazz band performs every week. On this occasion Brian was replaced by Goff Dubber, playing Clarinet, Tenor Sax and Soprano Sax. As usual he was brilliant, including some great vocals.

On Monday night we saw the Pete Skivington Swingfellows at the Epsom Jazz club. The band comprised Pete Skivington (bass guitar), Mike Cotton (cornet), John Barnes (Clarinet, Tenor Sax and one vocal), Dave Hewitt (slide and valve trombones), John China (piano and vocals) and Bobby Worth (drums). A band full of great musicians, we particularly enjoyed John Barnes' tenor on 'It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing' and Dave Hewitt's slide trombone on 'Tin Roof Blues'. The instrument lends itself so well to blues numbers !

Labels: Jazz

On Sunday evening we went to The Europa in East Molesey to see the Urban Gin House jazz band. This time it was a quintet comprising leader Richard Wilcox (baritone horn), Alan Brock (trumpet), Colin Lewry (keyboard), Mike Bennett (string bass) and Mike Knipe (drums). The guests from the audience were Roy Stokes, Peter Clancy and Peter Talent (slide trombones) plus John Shepherd (pocket trumpet). Our favourite number was 'Black and Blue' with fine trumpet playing by Alan. When he steps down for a guest the standard drops significantly; he is essential for a good performance.

I have lost patience with Lloyds TSB, which seems to be a street-corner bank for private individuals and has no interest in business customers' requirements. The worst feature is the lack of any plans to introduce internet banking for foreign currency accounts, ever. To transfer Euros or Dollars to suppliers I have to complete a form in black ink and take it to any branch from where they fax it to a central location (Chelmsford) where it might be unreadable.

This wastes much of my precious time. Taking it to Guildford branch requires me to park the car half a mile away and walk to the bank at a time of its choosing, i.e. when I should be by the telephone. Bracknell branch is easier for parking but the staff like to give customers the third degree, inventing different problems each time. The also use misleading jargon that can cause confusion, e.g. referring to currency accounts as 'off-shore' even if they are not those run by Lloyds-TSB in Jersey or IoM.

Also, if I try to reduce exchange rate rip-off by transferring euros to Travelex, Lloyds charges extortionate transfer fees even though the movement is between two UK banks. If I pay in a Euro cheque into my Euro account there is a charge although none for the equivalent sterling transaction. If a cheque is fraudulent I have to pay 50 pounds even though I am the innocent victim.

I rest my case with regards to Lloyds-TSB. Now to my search for an alternative.

Boost Energy Systems uses HSBC so I tried HSBCnet from there with training by telephone from the call centre (in India ?). It certainly handles the Euro account via the Internet, although it is not free and using it is non-intuitive. I have appointments with Barclays and NatWest in the coming weeks to see what they can offer.

It is not widely known that there are three basic forms of electricity supply to UK premises; single phase, three phase and (usually on farm premises) split phase. The latter uses a centre-tapped transformer with 230/240V at each end and neutral in the middle, providing 460/480V across the ends. We offer the option of split phase input supply for our 3 phase converters, thus reducing input current to half that for single phase. For this purpose we use a split phase input transformer in place of the normal single phase one.
Testing these 'specials' is a problem because we don't have split phase at our premises. Therefore we have to use a second external split phase transformer connected the other way round, i.e. feeding single phase in and taking split phase out. It is very easy to make mistakes when doing this. On Friday we suffered a near short circuit, complete with flames, that blew the main fuses for our part of Park Farm. Unfortunately this caused the electric main gate to stay closed and the fuses are on the other side. I did not see how our technicians overcame this; they did not climb out of the window so they must have scaled the gate or the fence.

On Thursday evening we went to the Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, where Brian White's Magna jazz band performs every week. Our favourite number of the evening was 'Davenport blues' featuring Pete Towndrow on cornet and guest Johnny McAllum on guitar. This is the best version we have heard, including the original; not one of Bix's best recordings. The photograph shows Johnny as he came to the end of another number. However, this might not be present as Blogger seems to be failing to publish pictures lately.

Today our Suzuki Ignis Sport is in for its third 9000 mile service so we have a loan car; a new Suzuki Swift. First impressions are very favourable; it is comfortable and drives well. The major snag for us is the deep lip down into the laggage compartment. This would make loading and unloading one of our medium or large 3 phase converters almost impossible without help.

Labels: Cars

On Monday night we saw the Mike Piggott / Nils Solberg trio with Peter Morgan on bass at the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking. Once again this group provided an evening of fine swinging jazz with every number enjoyable and superbly played. Any gig involving these musicians results in rescheduling the venues for that week but here they were playing on our doorstep. Picking a favourite number from so many favourites is impossible but we particularly enjoyed the Django Reinhardt numbers 'Nuages' and 'Vous et Moi'.

On Sunday evening we went to The Europa in East Molesey to see the Urban Gin House jazz band. This time it was a quintet comprising leader Richard Wilcox (baritone horn), Alan Brock (trumpet), Roger Limb (keyboard), Mike Bennett (string bass) and Mike Knipe (drums). The guests from the audience were Roy Stokes, Peter Clancy and Peter Talent (slide trombones) plus John Shepherd (pocket trumpet). Our favourite number was 'Girl from Ipanema' said to be the only Bossa Nova number the band knows.

On Saturday evening we saw The Devil Wears Prada at the Guildford Odeon Cinema. A 'chick-flick' but still a great film, mainly due to the usual superb performance by Meryl Streep. She must be the greatest film actress currently working. Anne Hathaway was good too !

Labels: Film

During the last few days I have undertaken the drawing of metalwork for an electronics enclosure, something I have not done since the days of pencil and paper. Having no proper drawing package I opted to use the drawing facility from NeoOffice, the Mac version of Open Office. It coped reasonably well, better than MS Word or PowerPoint, but with the following problems:

1) using 'snap to grid' limited me to a 5 mm grid
2) turning off 'snap to grid' produced kinked lines as often as not
3) small circles, e.g. for screw holes, were difficult to get right.

It is sad that the wonderful MacDraw was discontinued; it would have been great on my 20 inch screen.

On Thursday evening we went to the Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, where Brian White's Magna jazz band performs every week. Guest drummer was Colin Miller (pictured) who left the band about 9 years ago to join Chris Barber for 7 years. Our favourite nunber from the full band was 'Perdido Street Blues' with fine cornet playing by Pete Towndrow. However, highlight of the evening was Alan Dandy's keyboard solo 'Nuthin' Blues'.
Pete gave us a good laugh by observing that his doctor had this weblog on his computer screen. Elizabeth Cole complimented Selina, saying she brightened up the place as soon as she walked through the door. I am not sure if she meant the big smile or the leg display !

On Monday evening we saw the Phil Brown Swingtet at the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking. It was the full band with no deps., the front line comprising Phil Brown (trombone), Lester Brown (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Mark Aston (tenor sax, clarinet) with the rhythm section of Andrew Clancy (keyboard), Ken Ames (guitar), Mike Bennett (bass) and David Clancy (drums). Guests were Peter Clancy (string bass), Roy Stokes (trombone), Chris Lowe (trombone), Colin Lewry (piano) and Ray Poole (piano. Axel from Denmark sat with us and the three of us agreed that the numbers from the trad era through to swing were all great but the modern jazz numbers were boring due to the lack of melody. This not just a question of date but of musical content. Centrepiece by Harry (sweets) Edison was from the 1950s but we enjoyed it.
The Phil Brown Swingtet plays the widest range of jazz of any band we see so I suppose we must be grateful for that and expect to be dissappointed by some numbers.

On Sunday evening we saw Megumi Fujita giving a piano recital at the Wigmore Hall. She played an all Schumann programme in honour of the 150th anniversary of his death. Very enjoyable.

On Saturday evening we went to the Guildford Odeon Cinema to see Children of Men. It received rave reviews from the amateur critics on IMDB and advertised Clive Owen, Michael Caine and Julianne Moore as the stars. Clive Owen played his part well and was unrecognisable from his appearance in earlier films. Michael Caine and Julianne Moore were only in a few of the early scenes. A very violent film; good but not brilliant.