John Fender's Website

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The first roof section being lowered into place at The Hydro.

© John G. Fender 2012

Early this afternoon as I was heading off out for the afternoon, I passed by the site of The Hydro, Scotland's new National Arena that currently being built at the SECC in Glasgow.

This, when completed, will be the largest indoor venue for concerts of all types. Work has been going on since February last year and now the building is starting to take shape.

One of the more spectacular features is the roof which has been designed to span the entire arena without the need for any supporting columns.

The first stage of constructing the roof involved building a massive temporary supporting structure in the centre of the arena. Next the central portion of the roof was fixed in place, supported by the supporting structure in a five day operation earlier this month.

Today, the first of the 16 main roof sections was installed. This involved the use of one of the biggest mobile cranes available and took quite a time to carefully lift into position. The crane than supported the roof section until it was attached to the central section and the supporting wall at the outer edge of the arena. The shallow domed roof will span 120 metres. Once the roof structure is in place, it will be covered with a translucent material that will allow the front of the arena to glow at night and will enable different lighting effects to be projected onto it.

Costing £125 million, the Hydro was designed by Foster and Partners and will seat 12,000, making it the largest entertainment venue in Scotland, but the biggest venue built specifically for concerts and conferences. All of the other large venues in the UK are general purpose venues. The building has been modelled on the amphitheatres of ancient Greece and Rome and is 45 metres high on the south side, with the north side being lower.

The Hydro is scheduled for completion next year and will be the venue for the gymnastics and netball finals of the Commonwealth Games in 2014. It will offer visitors a high quality venue with all the facilities you would expect.

Last week I mentioned the financial crisis facing us through the problems with the Euro and Greece. Over the last week, more and more analysts have been giving the same warnings and today the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, the body that draws up the government's budget forecasts, warned that if Greece withdraws from the Euro, we would face another credit squeeze with lending hit hardest.

If that was not enough, the credit rating agency Moody's downgraded 16 Spanish banks, including Santander leading to Santander UK issuing leaflets to customers detailing the protection available to savers. Santander UK is actually in quite good financial health with better resources available than the Spanish parent bank. The key point Santander UK made was that UK Savers money is safe.

The stock markets dropped again today and the falls over the last two months have seen some £200 billion wiped of the value of shares listed on the FTSE100 alone. The value of the shares I have have certainly fallen! So it looks like we will all continue to suffer from the effects of the Greek situation for the forseeable time.

The answer to the above question is no. The reason is that it is no is because I have not moved. This came about as I got an e-mail from the professional institute that I am an active member of asking for my new address to that they could update their membership records. This was due to mail addressed to me being returned to the institute by Royal Mail.

This is not the first cock-up made by Royal Mail lately with my mail. Not that long ago, a "postal delivery person" left one of those cards letting me know that I had been out when they tried to deliver a recorded delivery letter. I was in fact in at the time. When I went to collect the item after two days, it turned out that it had not been returned to the sorting office.

The staff there did not know where the item was, but said it would be back later that day. They offered to deliver it the following day. They did not manage that. They did leave a message on my answering machine that the letter had arrived back in the sorting office late that afternoon. The result - I had to make a second trip to the sorting office to collect the letter.

I complained nut basically only got the usual Royal Mail excuses and assurances that the matter would be dealt with and the local delivery manager advised of my complaint. In other words nothing would be done. Royal Mail also refused to even consider any reimbursement for the time and effort I have made to collect my mail. So I will be making another complaint, but have no hope of getting anywhere with it.

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The free samples of Azera coffee.

© John G. Fender 2012

It's been quite a while since I last got a freebie handed to me, but today when I was walking down Buchanan Street, past the statue of Scotland's first ever First Minister, I was given a couple of samples of the new coffee from Nestlé called Azera.

This is being advertised as a barrista style coffee so that it should be like the coffee you get from a coffee shop with same the aroma and look. The difference is that it is instant coffee instead of the stuff you get in a coffee shop which is ground on the spot.

So the key question - what is it like? Well, the first thing is that it is a finely ground coffee powder, not granules and yes it does have an aroma, but I did not find it particularly strong, unlike the coffee I get from one of the major chains which does have a distinct coffee aroma.

As to taste, well, I found it not particularly strong and not really like that from the coffee shop. It reminded me of the powdered coffee that you used to get years ago, before the coffee granules became the norm. I think that those who do not like a strong coffee will probably like this, but it does not really excite me.

Given a preference, I'll stick to the coffee I normally have which is from the same maker, but is, in my view a much better coffee which is more like the coffee from the coffee shop.

Today's post required the postman, or should that be "delivery operative" in today's politically correct speak, to knock on the - something that has not happened for a while. The reason was that I had to sign for a letter which was an ominously official looking brown window envelope. I signed the slip and took the envelope which turned out to be official. It was from the Sheriff Clerk at Glasgow Sheriff Court citing me to attend for Jury Duty. So I had to re-arrange a couple of meetings and drop other plans to accommodate the needs of the legal system. At least it's only once every few years.

Broadband speeds are something I have an interest in, particularly due to the long running saga with my BT connection that you can read about elsewhere on this website. So it was with more than passing interest that I read about the results of tests run by the Guardian newspaper to find out what people actually get as opposed to what the ISP's (Internet Service Providers) say customers get.

The results of the survey show that there is a consistent shortfall between the advertised speeds you should get and the actual speeds supplied. The ISP's are all at pains to point out that their services are "up to" whatever speed is advertised and that you should not expect to get that speed in the first place. This type of advertising should, in my view, be banned. It's the same with shops - you see huge sings in windows advertising a sale and 50% off everything, only to find when you get much closer that there is very small print saying "up to" above the number.

Ofcom and the Advertising Standards Authority did try to tackle this issue and new rules were introduced on 1 st April 2012 which means that ISP's cannot now advertise a service as "up to" unless the headline speed is achieved by at least 10% of customers. So for the most commonly advertised speed, 8Mb, at least 10% of customers of that an ISP has with that package must get the 8Mb. The rest can get whatever they get, even if it is way below the quoted speed.

If you pay for a service advertised as, say 8Mb, then you should get that, or certainly get something within 10% to allow for variations in the line quality and the amount of traffic on the internet at any given time. The best solution is to make the ISP's give every customer a written guarantee of the actual speed they will get. This guarantee should be issued free of charge to any prospective customer and annually to existing customers or prior to contract renewal time. Customers could then compare what they would get from different suppliers and make their choice accordingly.

I would recommend that people run a speed test every day and log the results using a spreadsheet. Once you have got a couple of months results, you will be able to calculate the monthly averages and when you get a speed drop, you will have evidence to argue your case with your ISP - that's what I do. Every time my speed drops below 5Mb, I get in touch with BT. They may not like it, but I can prove my line connection can deliver speeds in excess of 6Mb consistently, so I will complain when speeds drop. If everyone did that, then I think we would see a better service. So start testing and logging your speeds and don't be afraid to complain.

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The RRS James Cook sailing up the river Clyde past Renfrew on its' way to Glasgow.

© John G. Fender 2012

Arriving in Glasgow early this morning was the RRS James Cook, the ocean going research ship owned and operated by the National Environmental Research Council.

This is not the first time the RRS James Cook has been in Glasgow. I saw it arriving in April last year (see Another interesting arrival...- Saturday 16th April 2011).

Costing £40 million, the RRS James Cook was built in 2006 by Flekkefjord Slipp & Maskinbabrikk AS in Noway although the hull was built at Gdansk, Poland and was one of the last vessels built by the company before it was declared bankrupt in 2008.

Named by HRH the Princess Royal, it was ordered as a replacement for the RRS Charles Darwin and entered service on 5 March 2007. The ship is 89.9 metres in length with a beam of 18.6 metres and has a displacement of 5,800 tonnes. Powered by a Wärtsila 9L20 diesel engine is is capable of 16 knots.

The ship has a compliment of 9 officers and 13 crew and technicians and can accommodate up to 32 scientists for up to 50 days. The ship carries a wide range of scientific equipment and has already undertaken an impressive list of research voyages.

The RRS James Cook is in Glasgow this time to load stores and embark 23 scientists and equipment for a cruise in the North Atlantic with the aim of investigating the implications of ocean acidification and warming and in particular will look at benthic ecosystems - these being the ones at the lowest level of a body of water, such as the Atlantic ocean. During the studies, a remotely operated vehicle will be used to take samples and carry out surveys of the cold water coral habitats.

This cruise is scheduled to start on 17th May 2012 and end on 13th June 2012 when the ship will return to Glasgow to disembark the scientists, equipment and samples.