Month: June 2014

Blackpool Zoo

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Asian Small-Clawed Otter

Whilst in Blackpool, we made our fourth visit to Blackpool Zoo in as many years. Although we only visited once when Christine was living there, we’ve visited many of the times that we’ve been back to Blackpool, and yesterday was one of those.

In some respects its one of my favourite zoos. The keepers are very friendly, and it’s a manageable size – not huge, but enough to see to occupy a full day. We got there at 10am when it opened, and were still there at nearly 4pm. There are plenty of demonstrations to see and over the years we’ve seen most of them.

The sealions are always worth seeing as the keepers actually swim in the water with them. They have been taught to do tricks, but this partly because they can also be taught to lie still, or raise flippers, when they need to do medical inspections. They do the same with some of their birds, including a macaw who was able to place blocks in the right sized holes and open three nested metal tins to get food, during a demonstration.

Me and a barn owl

A new feature for this year is bird of prey experiences. These cost £10 per head over and above the entry price (which is currently £16 for adults), and allow you to hold and do some basic falconry with a barn owl. Christine and I both did this, and I have the claw marks on my arm to prove it! It’s good fun, especially if you like owls, and the trainer is very friendly and patient. Plus, it means I get an interesting new Facebook and Twitter avatar.

We still have a few friends in Blackpool so I’m sure we’ll end up back at the zoo again at some point. Later this year a new orang-utan house opens, and their female amur tiger has recently had cubs. They’re not currently on display but hopefully will be there for all to see in a few weeks’ time. Amur (also known as Siberian) tigers are endangered so this is an important development.

Naturally, I took quite a few photos whilst we were there. The two above, and eighteen others, are in this Flickr set album.

A quick Blackpool visit

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The tower

This weekend we took a very brief trip to Blackpool, to visit friends. Christine, if you’ll remember, used to live there and still has a few ties with the place. It’s the first time we’ve been in about eighteen months.

Blackpool has a reputation for being rather downmarket these days. Gone are the times when huge excursion trains deposited thousands of holidaymakers into (the now demolished) Blackpool Central station by the tower. Whilst it’s still a popular seaside resort, at weekends it’s hard to avoid the legions of stag and hen parties, and it has a reputation of being rather tacky. The tourist attractions tend to cater for the mass market, so there aren’t many museums or art galleries for the more discerning visitor.

The local council is acutely aware of this and is trying hard to tidy up the town. The sea wall was rebuilt several years ago, and Blackpool’s heritage tram system has been upgraded, with new, modern trams running between the Pleasure Beach and the northern town of Fleetwood. And there has been much work done on the public realm: shopping streets have been pedestrianised with nice paving.

In particular, the area around the town’s main surviving railway station, Blackpool North, has been transformed since we last came with new buildings and paving. Indeed the club where Christine and I had our first kiss, The Tache, has been demolished and replaced by a Sainsbury’s which opens in a couple of weeks (the club has now moved into the town centre thankfully).

The problem is that the council is limited in what it can do with privately-owned buildings. Many of the shops that make up the town’s streets are in a bad way – thrown up in the 1950s and 1960s with little architectural merit. Blackpool does have some lovely Victorian buildings, such as its theatres and old post office, but they’re almost drowned out by badly-maintained low rise buildings and out-of-keeping uPVC windows to keep out Blackpool’s notorious strong winds.

It’s a shame because it’s clear that the council are trying so hard to turn the town around. But with the economy still in a fragile state following the recession, there’s little incentive for private landlords to invest in their estate. Not only are there shops that have seen better days, but better tenants too, with many vacant or with short-term leases. I was surprised and a little saddened by how many ‘to let’ signs there were.

I like Blackpool and think it could still clean up its act. But only if everyone in the town gets behind the cause and does their bit to tidy up. Then it could reclaim its place as the seaside destination of years gone by.

Purchasing a video streaming box

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Raspberry Pi

I’m planning to purchase a video streaming box – i.e. a thing that you plug into your TV to watch streaming video services. Now that we have Netflix I’d like to be able to watch films and TV shows on our TV, without having to run them through my Mac (which is also connected to the TV).

Things I’ve already tried

Last year I bought a Raspberry Pi, and for a while I used that to watch BBC iPlayer, but it’s not a great experience. It’s a bit slow and as I had XBian on a different SD card to everything else I had to shut it down, swap the cards and reboot it. The BBC iPlayer interface in XBMC leaves a lot to be desired, plus I’d been using a smartphone app as a remote which is a bit clunky.

Our Freesat box and Blu-Ray players also technically support BBC iPlayer, and the latter also supports YouTube, but they’re so fiddly and slow that they’re not worth using. In particular the remote control for our Toshiba Blu-Ray player is awful – it’s often unresponsive and the buttons are confusing.

Comparing video streaming boxes

A couple of weeks’ ago Pocket Lint did a good review of several boxes available in the UK. They looked at the Apple TV, Roku, Roku Streaming Stick, Sky Now TV, Google Chromecast, WDTV Play, Amazon Fire TV (not currently available in the UK), plus a couple of less-known Android-based boxes.

As much as I like Apple, the Apple TV is out of the question. It’s one of the most expensive boxes on the market, at £99, and doesn’t support many UK streaming services – iPlayer and 4oD are missing, for example. Though Apple does add new channels from time to time, there’s no schedule and no way of adding custom apps without jailbreaking. Apple really needs to consider creating an app store for the Apple TV if it’s going to be more than a niche product.

I also think that the Google Chromecast is a bit too basic. It’s useless without a smartphone or tablet, but it is cheap. And the WDTV Play, as you’d expect from a company like Western Digital, is more about playing content that you already have on your own hard disks, although Netflix is supported.

Sky’s Now TV box is by far the cheapest at £10, and is basically a re-branded Roku box, but without the ability to (easily) add other apps. Indeed, there’s no Netflix because it competes with Now TV, but it does offer the main British streaming services like iPlayer and 4oD. And Amazon’s Fire TV box is US-only at present.

Rockin’ the Roku

So that basically leaves the Roku devices. They support the largest range of streaming services, including all the big British ones. The only notable omission is Amazon Instant Video, which we don’t subscribe to. And you can easily add extra services with custom apps if needed.

The Roku 3 offers more features, such as both ethernet and wifi (and not just the latter), as well as a remote control that can be used with headphones. But it’s larger and needs its own power supply. The Roku Streaming Stick, though less powerful, can run from a USB port and can be hidden away behind your TV. It’s also significantly cheaper at £50, versus £100 for the Roku 3.

So, it looks like I’ll be buying a Roku Streaming Stick soon. In my opinion it offers the best platform support and the best value for money.

Joining Netflix

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A screenshot of the Netflix home page when logged in

Christine and I decided to sign up for Netflix last week. I’d been pondering it for a while but we decided that the price (£6 per month) was worth it considering the number of TV shows on offer. Unlike in the US, Netflix in Britain is online streaming only.

We’ve previously had a DVD rental by post subscription – originally with Amazon, which then got taken over by Lovefilm, and is now back in with Amazon again. That was £3 per month but we were barely using it. We were mainly renting films, and whilst we often have a spare half hour or so for a TV show it’s harder to find time on an evening for a film lasting two hours or more.

Amazon’s takeover of Lovefilm also meant that it was a lot easier to cancel. I almost cancelled Lovefilm a couple of years ago, but whilst on the phone I got talked into taking a cheaper package. Now Amazon just let you cancel in a rather nonchalant way online. I get the impression that Amazon see the DVD rental by post part of their business as a niche that it doesn’t have much of a future when compared to streaming.

Of course, Amazon has its own Instant Video service which does the same thing as Netflix, but we decided not to sign up; Netflix is available on more devices, and you can access everything on Netflix at no extra cost. Amazon, on the other hand, charge extra for some premium content.

What we’ve watched on Netflix

So far we’ve only watched a few things – in fact, Christine has watched more than me, mainly because I was out quite a bit last week whilst she was at home, on call. We’ve started watching Heroes together, as I never watched it when it was on, and Christine’s not seen all of the episodes. Considering it was shown in 2006, it already looks dated, with big CRT monitors in the background, non-smartphones and it being filmed in standard definition. Christine has also watched Grimm, and… Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. Yeah. We’ll get around the watching Orange is the New Black as well at some point, as I hear it’s very good – and a Netflix exclusive.

Netflix’s library extends into the few thousands, although there are some interesting omissions. For example, the second Iron Man film is there, but not the first or the third. Such is the weird world of entertainment rights I suppose. Still, you get a lot for £6 a month, and you can dip in and out of series as you please. And there’s no DVDs to return.

Save The New Bradford Playhouse

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It seems like Bradford can’t go any length of time without its cultural institutions being threatened with closure. There’s the long-running saga of the old Odeon cinema, now subject to two rival regeneration plans, last year’s threat to close the National Media Museum, and now The New Bradford Playhouse is at risk.

The Playhouse has had something a troubled history. I first became aware of it as The Priestley Theatre, which had recently re-opened following a fire and subsequent extensive refurbishment. That closed down and a few years later was reborn as the Bradford Playhouse, but that too failed financially.

More recently a company called Takeover Events & Theatre Ltd, trading as The New Bradford Playhouse, has been running the theatre as a going concern, as tenants. However, the building’s owner has gone into liquidation, and so the theatre will be sold at auction next month. And there’s a real risk that whoever buys it will want to convert the building into something else.

This would be a terrible shame as the theatre still has many of its original features despite the fire damage. It’s Bradford’s only medium sized theatre, seating 290 people, and also houses a small studio space. I’ve been privileged to be able to help out with some of the shows there, such as Little Shop of Horrors which Christine performed in earlier this year. The operating team is well-connected and has been able to draw upon a lot of goodwill to get the theatre to where it is now, and it would be a huge shame if their hard work came to nothing. Especially as they have some ambitious plans to re-invigorate the theatre, with a new entrance, wheelchair access and a proper café or restaurant on site, subject to funding.

If Takeover Events can buy the theatre outright at the auction, then I’m sure it will have a bright future – I personally trust them to be able to turn it around and break the vicious cycle that has seen it closed down so many times in the past. But my worry is that it will end up being sold to someone else who will turn it into flats or offices, and an important part of Bradford’s cultural heritage will be gone for good.

So, here’s what you can do to help. If you can spare some money, please contribute to the Indiegogo campaign. They need £125,000 in less than three weeks, to be able to buy the building at auction. Also, simply buying tickets and going along to their shows will help.

If you have no money to spare, then please sign this petition to Bradford Council, asking them to refuse planning permission to anyone wanting to change the use of the building. That way, if another company buys it, there is a reduced risk of it being converted into anything other than a theatre. And if you’re local to Bradford, get in touch with the people running the theatre to see if you can volunteer any of your time to cut down on their running costs in the meantime.

With the new Westfield shopping centre opening around the corner from the Playhouse in less than two years’ time, the theatre could have a really bright and sustainable future for the first time in many years. So it’s critical that the theatre is saved. It will be such a massive shame if it isn’t.

Update: Some coverage from the local paper. With two and a bit weeks to go, they are unfortunately a long way from their target.

I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue comes to Bradford

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Garden of Light

Last night, the long-running BBC Radio 4 show I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue came to Bradford, for the recording of the final two episodes of its 61st series. On the air since 1972, it has featured mostly the same participants throughout all 400+ episodes.

Unlike some TV and radio recordings, the tickets for ISIHAC were not free – but not expensive either; our restricted view tickets were £5 each, and others were £7.50. Although each episode of ISIHAC is broadcast in a 30 minute slot, the recording takes around three hours, with an interval. This is mainly because two shows are recorded at a time. If you’re a listener, the second, fourth and sixth episodes usually start with the host, Jack Dee, announcing that it is their second week at whichever location they are recording. In reality, the week is compressed into a twenty minute interval.

As you’d perhaps expect, a lot more is recorded than broadcast, and some bits have to be re-recorded at the end if the producer wasn’t happy with it. There was also a reference to the Tour de France having happened, as it’ll be broadcast in six weeks’ time, whereas in reality it’s still a couple of weeks away.

It was a really enjoyable experience, with the usual rounds of Uxbridge English Dictionary, One Song To The Tune Of Another, Sound Charades, Late Arrivals, Swanny Kazoo, and – of course – Mornington Crescent. As it was the last episode to be recorded in the series, ‘bog standard’ rules were played on this occasion. Christine wasn’t familiar with the game so I had to give her a quick overview of the rules, and there was controversy when Tim Brooke-Taylor tried to play Turnham Green after Parsons Green.

The guest was Andy Hamilton, along with the regulars of Barry Cryer, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden. These three are all in the 70s now and I’m sure this will be the only time I will have been able to see all three of them together. Sadly I didn’t have a chance to see the show when former presenter Humphrey Lyttelton was alive, as he sadly passed away aged 86 in 2008. But we did get to see the lovely Samantha, who, as always, was keeping the teams in check, and the state of the art laser display board.

There are usually two series of ISIHAC recorded each year – this being the first – so there will be another series being recorded in the autumn. I would definitely recommend going to watch it.

So long, Thunderbird

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It’s with something of a heavy heart that I’ve had to give up using Mozilla Thunderbird for my email altogether. You may recall that I now use Airmail at home, but have been using Thunderbird at work. Sadly, Thunderbird is no longer fit for my purposes and so it’s had to go. I’m now using Outlook 2010, just like (almost) everyone else at work.

The reason for the change has been because of our move to Office 365. We’ve migrated from an old Unix system for email, and a proprietary calendar system called Meeting Maker, which also has various other nicknames not to be repeated in polite company. Meeting Maker was a separate application but the server had a CalDAV servlet which could also produce a subscribe-able internet calendar (.ics) file. And the email system was IMAP-based.

Office 365, however, primarily uses Exchange. IMAP and POP3 are provided for email, but it doesn’t support CalDAV for calendars, or CardDAV for contacts. So whilst Thunderbird would be okay for using just as an email client, I’d still have to go back to Outlook for my calendars – at which point, there’s no reason to carry on using Thunderbird.

‘But wait’, you may be saying, ‘you linked to a Provider for Exchange extension only last month!’. I did, but sadly I couldn’t get it to work, and development on it has ceased in any case. There was no way I was able to get my Office 365 calendars working in Thunderbird’s Lightning extension.

The really sad thing is that I’m not missing Thunderbird as much as I thought I would. Unsurprisingly, Outlook works much better when it’s used with an Exchange email server than a generic IMAP one, and it’s nice to be able to set out of office replies without having to go into webmail. It’s also a lot faster in my experience.

To me, Thunderbird’s problem is that it seems to be falling into a power user niche. It’s too big and complicated for basic users, or even people like me who want a relatively straightforward interface for use at home. But it also lacks enterprise features, like support for Exchange. And I’m surprised that Lightning is still an extension, rather than being offered as part of a bundle, given that Outlook comes as a complete package. It needs some love and attention, but with the Mozilla Foundation’s focus on Firefox and its Firefox OS phones, I can’t see it getting any.

Happy Valley

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Rainbow

Last week we belatedly started watching the BBC One drama series Happy Valley. It stars Sarah Lancashire as Sergeant Catherine Cawood, a policewoman still coming to terms with the suicide of her daughter, when the boy she blames her death on is released from prison. A parallel story thread sees a businessman dabble with the criminal underworld to get enough money to send his daughter to a private school.

All six hour-long episodes of Happy Valley have now aired, but they are available on BBC iPlayer for a couple more days (and you can download the episodes to keep for 30 days). I also expect that it’ll be available on DVD and other digital download services before too long. Happy Valley has been a very well-received series and is tipped for a BAFTA, and there’s talk of a second series.

Happy Valley is shot, and indeed set, in the Calder Valley where Christine and I live. Indeed, the police station where the lead character is based is our local station in Sowerby Bridge, which I pass on the way to work every day. Earlier in the year there were frequently film crews outside, and the signs on the front had been changed from ‘West Yorkshire Police’ to simply ‘Yorkshire Police’, a fictional police force. Unlike its portrayal in the series, the police station is no longer open to the public – an issue that our local MP took up in parliament several years ago. Other scenes are filmed elsewhere in Sowerby Bridge, and also further up the valley in Hebden Bridge, Heptonstall, Todmorden and in the shadow of Stoodley Pike.

Despite the title of ‘Happy Valley’, the series is quite gritty and, though it’s fictional, focuses on some of the area’s social problems. As an example, whilst Hebden Bridge has a reputation for being a tourist-friendly hippie lesbian preservation area, it also has high rates of drug abuse and suicide. The steep sides of the valley, and gentrification, are frequently blamed for the area’s ills.

We’ve only watched episode one so far, so no spoilers please.