Re-nesting

Regular readers may have noticed that recently it has been a little quite at komadori’s green corner. I’ve been busy, so much so that there’s been little time to comment on the ongoing saga of wifi (not) happening in Swindon, nor on the prolonged attempts by the council to remove street traders from town centre streets. I’ve not even had time to observe, until now, how the recent law allowing people to petition councils is now exposing the atrocious behaviour of some Swindon councillors to a much wider audience. I’m still watching, but have not the time to write much.

Today komadori is undertaking a short migration, to a new nest near the edge — for the moment — of town. Normal service should resume once the new nest has been adequately feathered, and duties elsewhere return to a less frenzied level. Blogging will remain light until then.

Christmas interlude

Normal service will resume after the festivities.

A new location

As you may or may not have noticed, I have relocated this blog to a new internet address, www.komadori.me.uk, but, by the wonders of Google, links to the old blogspot address will all redirect to the new location.

Reconnnected

My internet connection is restored. ’Tis sods law that I’ve been disconnected whilst Swindon has been making the national news. Once I’ve cleared a backlog of other correspondence I hope to resume posting late this evening.

Unscheduled absence

Owing to a distinct lack of service from Virgin Media — they have ‘accidentally’ disconnected both my telephone and broadband and the earliest they can make an ‘emergency’ reconnection is next Thursday — there will be few, if any posts here for the coming week. Normal service will resume as soon as normal service from Virgin Media resumes.

Merry Christmas

With the season of over-consumption now definitely upon us, komadori wishes his small band of regular readers a merry Christmas and prosperous New Year. Normal service will resume once the festivities are over.
(For those that wonder, the odd-one-out in the photo is komadori’s North American relative.)

The Railway Village as you’ve never seen it before

I don’t usually post just to link to other blogs, but this photograph from Rotund Pictures of the Railway Village and former railway works is as dramatic a view of the area as you’ll ever see. (It’s been produced with some photo-manipulation, but is impressive nonetheless.) It makes a change from the significantly less impressive view down at street level.

The campaign for weekly rubbish collections

The rather active populous at the other end of central ward have set-up a new blog for the campaign against fortnightly rubbish collections, as opposition extends in Swindon beyond the local area. For those interested in the campaign, it has some useful information. The same people have also reported a certain level of confusion from the council workers as to who will have a wheelie bin collection and who will not. To tell people that a wheelie bin is only for storing rubbish in and that rubbish will not be collected from it (they need to take the rubbish out of the wheelie bin before putting it out for collection) is to bring the whole process down to the level of farce.

An accolade?

I’m not sure whether being described as ‘an enjoyable though at times a arsely read’ by the current deputy mayor is a compliment. Quite a unique accolade though.

Update: Apparently, he meant ‘prickly’ but a quirk of internet forum programming converted it to ‘arsely’.

Having a spot of electronic bother

It seems that most things electronic have taken a disliking to me this week. Both mobile phone and hifi, amongst other things, have suffered an untimely death. Normal blogging service will hopefully resume at the weekend, once I have finished dealing with the repairs.

Green beer

May I recommend Windsor Castle Brewery’s Green Man beer… real ale for lager drinkers. I also commend the Hogs Back Brewery for the choice of colour for their steam-powered dray. Blogging will be light and/or inconsequential for the remainder of the week, whilst I continue an in-depth study of British beers.

Liquid engagements

komadori will be busy at a few social engagements for the next few days. As a consequence, blogging will be light to non-existent for the remainder of the week.

Virgin snails

On the same day as a piece of paper arrived with my monthly internet & ’phone bill, telling me how wonderful Virgin Media’s broadband is, my connection has slowed to snail-like. Timing to match the quality of service!

Murmur on the TransWilts Express

The TransWilts Express (Stagecoach appear not to do hyphens) is to get some new buses. Being an ‘express’, they’ll be luxury coaches then? Err… no. Double-decker buses actually. Route 49 may start off at a fair gallop from Swindon across the Marlborough Downs to Avebury (where Eric is no longer behind the shop counter to disorient tourists with his american accent), but then slows to a canter to take a detour to the well known citadel of Bishops Cannings before heading into Devizes. Then a trot through Seend Cleeve and Hilperton before reaching Trowbridge, a mere one hour and twenty three minutes and thirty miles after leaving Swindon. A stunning twenty miles per hour! More Trans-Wilts Trundle than TransWilts Express.

Still, with 147,780 passengers per year, there’ll be plenty of conversations you can listen in on to keep yourself entertained.