Priest in the Church of England. Father, husband, son. Keen biker.

Category: General Ramblings (Page 2 of 19)

General thoughts on bikes… and stuff.

Take note

I occasionally drop in great marketing ideas here – normally that’s a particularly well executed TV spot – but on this occasion it’s a piece of packaging. It doesn’t take a great deal of explanation, mainly because it’s been everywhere in the last couple of days – and that’s rather the point.

Panasonic have driven massive, free advertising and that elusive ‘buzz’ around a pretty ordinary product through the simple application of packaging design. In this case there’s no clever narrative, no clever social media viral idea, just simple, effective packaging – of course the fall-out is that these photos have gone a little viral and created a buzz amongst the easily excited amongst us…. but the beautiful side-effect is that these will fly off the shelves when they’re stood next to  a plain ordinary pack of Sony buds. Genius.

View the pics of the new earphones packaging below, or read about them via 2modern Design Talk (via Lovely Package) Designers are Scholz & Friends.

An introduction to keeping chickens (for the total novice)

Hello home!It’s odd, you would have thought that there would be an easy to find, easy to digest introduction to keeping chickens somewhere on the net – and perhaps there is – but frankly, I can’t find it. So here, in a slight change of direction for this motorbike and travel blog, is a short introduction to what you need to know in order to keep chickens. No complicated feeding patterns, no brain-dump of house building materials and no overly long political statements!

Is it difficult?
No. Really, you just need a house, some food and a little time.

What do I need?
A house for them to live in, food, water, and a safe place for them to wander in.

What kind of house?
Sophie on guard dutyAnything, turns out all chickens really need is a perch, a nesting box, and somewhere safe to wander. There are loads and loads of sites and companies out there offering many different designs and solutions for housing our feathered friends. There’s a list of useful links below you may want to try. We went to the local feed store (Widmer Feeds & Country Store) who were very helpful and put together a package with everything we needed for about £250.

What do I need on day one?

Food is really complicated right?
No, not at all. To start out all you need to do is feed your wonderful new friends layers pellets. There are hundreds of options for these, but again your local store can recommend something, or just pick them up at your local pet superstore – they all carry this stuff now. Also provide them with a little grit – most important. Other than that it’s all personal preference and you’ll figure it out as you go – there are many schools of thought on chicken feed – so just get yourself going with the most basic and then work it out for yourself.

Looking outside

What happens when they arrive?
If like us you opted for a simple starter solution from your local country store or from someone like Omlet then you’ll have everything you need on hand. Get the bedding into the coup, set up the water drinker and the feeder, and then quietly put your birds in their new home.  Keep the feeder in the perch / nesting area for a few days so they have a reason to go back in there and don’t let them out of their run for the first five days.


At dawn open the poop door (that’s the door from the nesting area to the run) and at dusk make sure they’ve gone to bed (they generally take themselves) and shut the door. That’s really about it. Chickens bought ‘at point of lay’ wont actually produce eggs for a good few weeks so don’t expect miracles.

What then?
In the first few days just get used to having them around, and them having you around – handle them, talk to them, go about your business in the way you always did. Don’t let them get used to an non-normal routine from you.

Useful links
I’ll add to this list over time but these shops and websites are a good starting point.

Are you some kind of chicken expert?
No, I bought our chickens last week, they arrived on Saturday – I know absolutely nothing – all of this information has been gleaned from several books, many magazines and a whole bunch of websites – it’s the simple starter information in one place – for me, as much as anyone else.

This is the first of what will form a series of posts talking about chickens and the reality of keeping them – what you really need to know – rather than a complicated debate about feeders and housing.

Millets, I’d avoid buying online

Millets seem to have a new (outsourced?) warehouse team – this warehouse team don’t seem to be able to understand what you should do when shipping glass lamps. What would you do? Put it in a small box filled with those nice foam pellets? Maybe you should put it in a large box with all your other items, but wrap them in bubble wrap or cardboard to stop them bouncing around?

That would of course be beyond the staff at Millets Online – here’s how my lamp turned up this morning.

The box with all that nice wrapping
Millets Packing - or lack of packing

The pristine lantern box that made a funny sound when I lifted it
Broken Lamp

And finally the expected result
Broken lense

Lesson of this story? If you’re looking for simple camping gear… avoid Millets. Oh, and even though I paid extra for ‘next day delivery’ it took two days to arrive – I’ve had an email to apologise and give me a 20% discount on my next order (that actually hasn’t turned up – they’re posting it to me – an online shop is posting me a paper voucher with a code that I can use online – go figure)…. um… there wont be a next order.

Powering on

There’s no doubt the modern traveller carries more gizmos and gadgets than the first Apollo missions. That of course brings it’s own problems; how on earth do you keep everything charged and running?

I’ve riden all over the world on the motorbike, but I’ve managed to keep my cameras, laptop and other electronic paraphernalia running. You can carry a mass of chargers and international plugs, or you can buy a handy combined international plug with a series of USB cables – there are lots of options out there. If like me you don’t know where your next electric socket will come from you need the broadest range of options – something to plug in, something to charge off 12v, something that will charge from a solar panel (usefully). That really only leaves one option – the range of gear from a UK company called Power Traveller.

Power Traveller in action

I’ve mentioned these guys on my blog before – in fact they’re top of my 5 things I always pack list – but it’s worth re-visiting the range and why they work for me.

The first item I bought was the Power Monkey Explorer. It’s a small device capable of charging cameras, phones and other low power devices. It’s perfect for keeping my iPhone and Cannon Exilim fully charged. It comes with a solar panel that worked really well in Morocco and less well in Russia.  It’s designed so you can plug your phone in and still hold it to your ear, with the charger sitting in the palm of your hand. It’s rugged and mine has been through the works and still powers along well. It charges from my 12v socket on the bike, via a wall socket or via it’s solar panel.

Power Traveller in actionThe second device I had from them was the Mini Gorilla. This unit will charge devices requiring up to 19v – which means I can charge my MacBook and my Canon HD Camcorder. It will re-charge from the very large and very efficient solar panel that is also available, or from a socket in the wall. Practically I find that a full charge of the Mini Gorilla will give the MacBook an empty to half-full charge (about 2 hours worth of use) and will recharge the camcorder from empty to full three times. It’s also perfect for charging the Panasonic G1 DSLR and my Sony Radio Mics as it has a full 12v output, which combined with off the shelf chargers makes it incredibly flexible.

As if that wasn’t enough I got caught out last week when friends came to stay at the house. Having misplaced my standard airbed pump I was left with my 12v version… I just plugged it into the mini gorilla and it powered the pump and blew up the bed!

I’m quite excited by some new products coming out of Power Traveller – including the new Silverback Gorilla – full 240v AC supply from a unit that will fit comfortably in my motorbike pannier. Genius.

You can read more tips from me and others at Lonely Planet in the new book ‘Lonely Planet’s Best Ever Travel Tips‘. </end plug>

Weight loss and fitness update

There’s not been an update for a while. That’s mostly because since I’ve been back in the UK about all I’ve managed is to stay the same, I could blame the weather, or a whole host of other things but the reality is I just stopped trying.

Interestingly during this period I’ve actually lost 5kg – without putting any effort in – and that shocked me a little and I’ve decided I need to pick the baton back up and get on with it. I always knew as I got to sub 110kg things would get much harder, in fact I knew that the target weight loss would have to drop from 1kg to .5kg. That doesn’t sound much but it is a ‘sensible’ amount that means actual change to my routine – sustainable change. Limiting my loss to 1kg a week over the last (almost) year does mean I have changed the way I eat and exercise – demonstrated by the small loss over the last few months with no effort.

Here’s the new chart – updated with current weight and new figures for the coming months. 99kg is still the target for the moment. I feel another hard year ahead in battling with the final 10kg – and perhaps more after that.

My moustache was untrustworthy

Whilst I was growing the ‘tache to raise a little cash in Movember, I had a few comments along the lines of how creepy / un-trusty it made me look. And now I know why.

It turns out I was trying to grow the ‘Curly’ which is listed here as ‘questionable’ I urge everyone to consult this chart before attempting to grow any facial hair.

Tache chart
Click the image to enlarge.

Thanks to Matt McInerney who made the actual graphic and Culture Popped where I actually found it.

Willies, gangs and conversations

Yes, I’m talking chatroulette.com. What else could it be? The low-tech, random and slightly exciting way to see what people all around the world are up to via the now ubiquitous webcam. I’ll be very honest with you – I had a look because I’d seen many many posts saying how many people were up to naughty things…. that’s kind of exciting, especially when you consider the simplicity of the site – and the fact it’s dressed up as nothing more than a way to talk to people – and people – inevitably do a bit of everything when presented with that degree of freedom.

WTF!?The internet, as well all know, is for porn (safe link btw). But chatroulette really isn’t, despite what you may find on a five minute browse of the site. The invitation to ‘start a new game’ lets you in on the sites success, the sites secret if you will. It is a game – and it’s any game you want to play. How long until I see three drunk men in a room laughing? How many willies do I need to see before I see a face? How many people frown before moving on instantly? It really is a lesson in the ‘I want it now’ nature of the net – an anonymous way to instantly decide if you want to connect, ignore, insult or ‘connect a little more’ with absolutely no consequences. Well, unless you get caught by this dude.

So today, my score is: 19 willies, 7 conversations with an actual person, 12 groups of teenagers (boys & girls) and a sign asking ‘if you want to see me cum just smile’. I frowned. I like chatroulette, long may it continue without interference, without silly things like ‘design’ and most importantly as a little window into what we’ll all do if left to our own devices on a broadly anonymous web connection.

Platform piece on Conservative Home

Following on from my last post here I wrote a piece for the blog ConservativeHome. Much along the lines of what I’ve already said but concentrating a little more on how a Welsh Valleys boy can consider voting Tory.

I used to think your politics was something you inherited, like ginger hair or knobbly knees or a love of Marmite. Growing up I thought your political persuasion was a bit like a religious belief, that you could slice someone open and see the word Labour or Conservative or Liberal written on their inside.

Read the full article on Platform at Conservative Home.

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