On Wednesday evening I took a jaunt off to Manchester to see John Mayall and The Blues Breakers play live at the Bridgewater hall. Before John and his band came on stage we were also treated to another awesome blues band, Stan Webb’s Chicken Shack. Basically it was a very bluesy night! A number of jazz and blues society members were supposed to be going but in the end only myself and Heather could make it. It didn’t spoil the enjoyment of it though and on the way there we tried to contain the excitement of seeing such an amazing act by recounting tales of our respective cat’s antics back home - its amazing how much mischief a cat can get up to in its lifetime! Anyway I digress, back to the blues

First onto the stage was Stan Webb’s Chicken Shack. The great blues name had great promise and we weren’t disappointed. They opened their set with a lively blues number and then Stan Webb chatted to the audience. Turns out he’s quite the comedian as well as a blues artist and soon had us all chuckling with comments about political issues and having been in the pub all day. His band was what I call guitar heavy, with a large amount of guitar work going on, but after the first few songs it was easy to tune into and pick up the sheer range of guitar work going on - a truely great sound. Stan’s vocals were also superb and really made the whole experience very enjoyable. I was soon foot-tapping my way through the set and applauding loudly at the end of each piece. This all really came together when he played Sweetest Little Thing, a Jonny Cash influenced tune, and his singing really did sound like Jonny Cash in many places. The song literally blew myself and Heather away and at the end of the set when we went out for the interval we both unanimously agreed that it had been the best song out of the whole set by a mile. If you’re thinking about going out to get a CD or to try and see Stan and the band live then this song should be the reason you actually do it.

We were called back to the concert hall rather swiftly after the interval to see the start of John Mayall’s set. As is often the case with blues bands the band came onto the stage before John Mayall and played a couple of numbers. You always know when you’re seeing a band that is both amazing and one of your favorites because each song is unmistakably the band in question. This is how it is with the Blues Breakers. You’re sitting there and even if you’ve never heard the song before you immediately recognise it. The sound was very reminiscent of some the groups more recent releases and most enjoyable.

When John came on stage a large amount of people around us went crazy with whoops and cheers. I then realised we were seated amongst some seriously hard-core John Mayall fans and that was sure to make the experience a whole lot better. As John started to play I realised why I like him and the band so much, his talents are so wide ranging, sounding great on the keyboards, harmonica and guitar, not to mention vocals. I recognised a vast number of the tracks that the band played and it was great to be able to hear them all live. Theres something that just doesn’t get accross on the CD - the atmosphere of hearing live blues. It just fills you up untill all you can percieve is the sound in your mins, its a truely amazing feeling. Without a doubt the best track of the evening was John’s final song, Room to Move off the album Turning Point. This was one of his earlier pieces and the harmonica and vocals in this track are simply outstanding. The song got the biggest cheer of the night when it was done and John and the band got a standing ovation afterwards. In fact we refused to shut up or sit down till himself and the band came back on stage to play a couple more songs. When they tried to leave the stage we got them back again for another superb keyboard piece with vocals, a great way to finish a gig - two encores, you don’t see that very often.

All in all this was a truely amazing gig, and one I’m so glad I didn’t have to miss out on. It was a bit of a trek into manchester but I don’t think I’ve ever heard live blues quite as good as this. My enjoyment of John Mayall’s music will no doubt continue with even more enthusiasm from now on

Last night was really cool, I hadn’t been to a bonfire or fireworks night in a number of years but this year I went to Hyde Park with Heather, her house mates, some of their friends and met up with Claire, Chris and Phil when we got there, to see a great fireworks display and one of the largest bonfires I have ever seen.

There is something so nice about watching such a large fire burn. For a start it was a freezing night and yet even at the distance we were standing it was really warming. Also its hypnotic, really hypnotic. Stare at it for long enough and you start to see shapes, faces and all sorts in the flames, dark becomes light, and the flames do literally dance. It really is magic, reminding me of the last time I sat in front of an open fire at Christmas in the dark with only the fire lighting up the room. I got a picture to indicate the size of the fire in the park, although it doesn’t give you any idea about the heat!

After the fireworks we went back to Heathers house to chat and to have drinks and pancakes, very nice pancakes in fact. Its always the simple (and often tasty) things that make life great

Users of AVG free for windows may have recently been confronted with a dialogue saying that their anti virus support would cease in January 2007. This is in fact not true and is just an adertising gimmik to try and make you buy one of grisoft’s paid for products. Do not hand over your credit card details!

While it is true that AVG free version 7.1 will cease to work in January 2007 you can download AVG free version 7.5 that will continue to work after that date and long into the future without paying a penny. When you see the dialogue pop up, click the tiny link on the bottom left, then on the web page that comes up you will see a load of products. On the bottom of that page click to download AVG free 7.5, again the link text is small. Installing this file and restarting your machine will leave you protected (as long as you download regular updates as normal) for a long time after January 2007.

Just thought I would warn everyone who might otherwise end up feeling they have to pay to get continued protection - you don’t - AVG free is still going to be just that, free.

It really has been hectic these last few days, with my only real break being seeing John Mayall & The Blues Breakers live in Manchester on Wednesday night. Today though the end is finally here, at least for a few days. This morning I handed in my SE20 coursework, all 15 or so diagrams along with over 1000 words of explanatory text, not to mention various use case description sheets along the way.

While I got down to the research fairly quickly and did the desk work etc. shortly afterwards I stalled somewhat on the actual report and diagrams because I preferred to tinker with other courseworks and various bits of code lying about. It turns out that I had to put in quite a concerted effort towards the end before the dealine to make sure I got all the required pieces of work completed according to the coursework specification, but this I seem to have managed fairly well although I guess you never know until you get the marks back.

This UML lark is the only bit of computing so far that has actually made me nervous. I can safely say that all other work to date I have felt confident about knowing that if I read around the module and attend lectures the courseworks will be straight foreward to do if not an occasional enjoyable challenge. I say nervous because my mind doesn’t seem to work in the way that UML is designed; I start thinking about tables in the database before I have thought about how the manager likes his reports, and I tend to think of things in a much more linear fashion contruary to popular belief that the average person considers things in an object orientated way.

I can see this is something I am going to have to get used to and practice what with the skills being required in both the January exams and SE24 next semester, but still, its not the most enjoyable aspect of computing I’ve laid my hands on thats for sure.

The only consolation in all of this seems to be that I’m not the only bewildered one and so at least I’ll be amongst friends who can discuss and iron out issues not to mention of course cause the mark boundaries to reflect the overall atainment of the yeargroup, which should mean none of us are hard done by.

I read with delight on the BBC news website this morning that a rescue mission to renew failing systems and install new instruments to the Hubble space telescope will be going ahead after it was canceled after the space shuttle Columbia disaster. This important for several reasons. Some of the most amazing discoveries have been made about our universe with the help of Hubble and given the rate of these discoveries its entirely possible that there are many more waiting to happen if Hubble is given the chance.

This is of course not to mention that some of the most beautiful images of our universe have come in through its mirror system - images that have left the world in awe. In an attempt to share with you the importance of this rescue mission I’ve uploaded a set of images from Hubble that I feel justifies all the effort being made and some more.

Long live Hubble!