4 interesting facts about Leicester
18 February 2008
1. The Shires Shopping Mall doesn’t allow cameras. Well that’s what the security guard told me after I was spotted trying to photograph the interior of the building.
No cameras allowed? Weren’t we standing in a shopping mall bristling with CCTV cameras, surrounded by shoppers with mobile phone cameras? I could only conclude this was a vain attempt by their marketing department to prevent the wider world from viewing the stark awfulness of this cloistered hanger. Almost as a act of desperation, a large banner outside the building shouts “Welcome to the Shires“, as if we need to be reminded that they are pleased to see us.
The sterile interior of the Shires
A few yards across the road from the Shires, and a pleasant contrast in every respect, is Leicester Market, the largest covered market in Europe. Full of colour and life. So that’s my second interesting fact…
2. Leicester Market is fantastic - 300 stalls selling vegetables, fish, meat, clothing and cloth. The quality is excellent and the prices reasonable. Three mangoes for £1 - amazing! Apparently the market has been on the same site for 700 years.
My third interesting fact continues this vegetable theme…
3. The best vegetarian Indian food in Leicester can be found at Bobby’s at 154-156 Belgrave Road. Bobby’s had been recommended by my cousin. We arrived for a take-away at 6pm on a Saturday evening when it was very busy. I needed some help ordering so asked the guy behind the counter for advice. He left his post and ushered us to a seating area where he explained the family history of the business, the issue of ‘hotness’ and how Bobby’s focusses on bringing out the natural flavours of the vegetables rather than masking them with fried onion and garlic. He was right. The food was delicious and very reasonably priced. We’ll be back! - www.eatatbobbys.com
4. There is a great Big Issue seller in Market Street. This gentleman allowed me to photograph him. “A good face” one of my family commented when I got home. I thank him and wish him well.
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A walk on the Preseli Hills, Pembrokeshire
12 February 2008
Yesterday we went on an 11km walk on the Preseli Hills, Pembrokeshire just west of Newport. The weather was glorious and I got some nice photos, particularly at the end of the walk at around 5.00pm when the sea mist rolled in to engulf Newport. It moved up the hillside towards the rocky backdrop of Mynydd Carningli, before receding like a slow-motion Tsunami.
The walk began at the Bedd Morris car park 1,000 feet above sea level and descended to the sea at Aberrhigian Bay through a network of ancient drovers tracks called green lanes. Some are sunken and flanked by dry stone walls. Many are gloriously muddy and contain streams! From the pebble beach of Aberrhigian Bay the route went along the cliffs half a mile to Aberfforest and then inland for the long climb back to the car
This 4 hour walk was taken from the book Bluestone Country - the Carningli Walks edited by Brian John [ISBN: 0 9524071 0 8].
Photos © Webs Wonder Design. For usage terms please contact me.
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Goodbye BBC iPlayer, hello TVCatchup
9 February 2008
Update February 14th 2008: The TVCatchup website is offline. For those who never got a chance to try it, bad luck. It was excellent. Clear and simple controls - Easy to understand and use - worked on any platform or browser - didn’t gobble up your bandwidth. So now we simply sit back and wait for the BBC/Microsoft iPlayer to hit the DRM buffers then watch the emergence of something uncannily similar to TVCatchup. It’ll probably be called ‘BBCFinallyCaughtUp.com”
February 9th 2008. As I wrote my item on the shortcomings and annoyances of the BBC iPlayer back in September 2007, already a new service was launching, allowing people to view programmes after they have been broadcast. The difference between TVCatchup.com and the BBC iPlayer is that TVCatchup is cross platform, DRM free, and covers all ‘free to view’ channels, not just the BBC.
TVCatchup.com is a free, TV programme recording website which is exploits a legal provision (The TV companies would say a loophole) in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allowing the recording for private or domestic use of programmes for later viewing.
“The making for private and domestic use of a recording of a broadcast or cable programme solely for the purpose of enabling it to be viewed or listened to at a more convenient time does not infringe any copyright in the broadcast or cable programme or in any work included in it.”
TVCatchup will record programmes on your behalf and allow you to watch them later. You cannot watch them as they are being broadcast.
The site has a clear programme guide and a one click selection of programmes. Users are given 10Gb of storage. Programmes can be watched any number of times and are stored for a maximum of 60 days. The interface and usage are intuitive, the videos of good quality at 640 pixels wide. You will need a 1Mb broadband connection to view programmes without pausing for buffering, but that shouldn’t be a problem for most people. I haven’t found a way of saving the programmes yet, but I’m sure there are some. Maybe someone will let me know of how to do it.
Like Napster, which was closed down by a short sighted music industry which then spent years trying to reproduce the concept, TVCatchup will probably be closed down by the BBC and others, but re-emerge under the control of the TV industry big hitters in the future.
TVCatchup Player Screen
TVCatchup Programme Guide and Selector Screen
TVCatchup Saved Recordings Screen
Other articles on TVCatchup.com
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