New Triops and National Flour

Late Saturday evening, shining a light into the aquarium revealed a tiny motile organism, still less than 1mm long. Sunday morning found at least three of these small organisms in the tank. At present it is still impossible to establish whether these are truly Triops but my hopes have been raised.

Mrs Thomas has been busy baking oat biscuits today and as we perused the collection of wartime recipes, in "We'll eat again" compiled by Marguerite Patten (ISBN9780600325246), we came across mention of "National Flour". Intrigued, I was tempted into a serious online search to establish the exact nature of the flour.

Basically, National Flour was a less refined flour that still contained wheatgerm. It was promoted on health grounds by the then Ministry of Food in the UK, between the years of 1942 to 1956, when it was discontinued. 

During my search, I also found that the colonial government of Kenya had in turn promoted a National Flour, though this comprised a mixture of 70% wheat flour and 30% maize flour. Apparently this made baking bread much more difficult, until an enterprising baker found that adding some oil to the bread dough dramatically restored the quality of baked loaves. The story is recounted in Madatally Manji, “Memoirs of a biscuit baron”.

The gathered information has now been added under "National Flour" to the Wikipedia page on Wheat Flour.

2012 gradually accelerating, New ideas and opportunities

At last, the winter inertia is gradually diminishing. This was prompted in part by an unexpected invitation from Germany to visit for exploratory talks. This came totally out of the blue and was due to the host remembering me from a 2006 event.

With the book "A View from the Lodge" now printed and Mr James the author actively pursuing sales, attention turns to "Dark Seeds 3AM" by Mrs Lowry which is close to completion, following talks with the cover photographer and designer of Perfect Yellow.

A message left on the New Scientist group of LinkedIn requested mentors for US High School science projects. One of these was in the area of molecular biology, an area in which I have considerable experience. Contact with the student resulted in a favourable response and i now await the project initiation.

A casual internet search on certain technology matters revealed a dramatic change in accessibility and cost-effectiveness in certain areas. This has led to the exploration of a new venture which I am researching further assiduously.

Sadly, Hermione Triops is now deceased. Triops, like all arthropods, grow by repeated shedding of old skin and expanding before the new skin hardens. Hermione had a small amount of old skin was not shed, around her tail after one moult. The subsequent moult proved laborious because the old remnant made it impossible to fully shed the next skin. I did attempt microsurgery which did remove most of the old shell, but the tail was now so constricted that food waste could not be ejected and after two days, Hermione passed away.

Sad though this incident is, the different forums on the internet suggest that moults are a known crisis point, leading to premature death.

I have set up a new hatch of Triops two days ago but have yet to see any sign of life.

The headlines are currently dominated by the holing and capsizing of an Italian cruise ship, the impugned conduct of the captain during the emergency and the continued search for the missing passengers, numbering 20 or so.

Innuendo in pictures by Vermeer and other Dutch artists at the Fitzwilliam Museum in “Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence”

Yesterday, we went to the Vermeer exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum “Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence”. A bit of a misnomer as it should really be “An exhibition of 32 pictures by Dutch 17th Century Artists, including four pictures by Vermeer”. However, it prompted me to buy and read “Vermeer: The Complete Paintings”, by Norbert Schneider (a bargain at circa £9) from the museum shop. Consequently, I now want to go back and have another look at the paintings, as there is a more detailed symbolism in the images and finer detail to look at that suggests why Vermeer has gained such importance again.

The fast guide to the images of women in their domestic settings is the constant struggle between chastity and the potential eruption of passion in an age where more conservative values on marriage and chastity were being promoted by the authorities. Two Vermeers with women at the virginal are alternatively; The link between music and love in “The Music Lesson”; Hints of a lover's  departure before painting began in “Lady seated at a Virginal”, indicated by the abandoned cello and the picture of “The Procuress” on the wall behind the lady at the virginal.

The contrast is the chaste purity of Vermeer's “The Lacemaker” with her demure gaze downwards on a proper lady's activity, with a very uncluttered composition. This picture is on loan from The Louvre.

Pearls, by the way, represent either vanity or purity – depending on their use. Any picture of that age featuring a woman and wine (in a glass or porcelain decanter) hints at attempted seduction. Onions are erotic symbols and hanging chickens apparently indicate carnal desire! The symbolism of the day was codified, for example in Cesare Ripa's "Iconologia". Items that look innocuous to us had special significance in understanding the underlying message within a painting. A picture within the painting or a bowl of fruit, a gesture or particular posture and dress add meaning (as do the copulating dogs in "The Soldier and the Prostitute" by Frans van Mieris, 1658, though here the message is a bit more obvious).

Vermeer's artistic technique also differs from that of his contemporaries. Here are more aspects to look for.

1. The presence of slight visual and perspective distortions, blurring around the edge of the paintings and highlights. These are seen by some as evidence that Vermeer made extensive use of a camera obscura (a lens system that projects an image onto a screen) to aid his painting. Some of you may remember David Hockney's excellent TV program on the evidence for use of camera obscura by classical painters.
2. Point 1 and the use of colours and shade enraptured the early expressionists who saw in Vermeer a kindred spirit in the way he viewed and painted the world. In fact, when you visit the Fitwilliam Museum, go in at the main entrance, progress upstairs and wander through the Impressionists gallery on your way to the Vermeer exhibition. Then compare Vermeer's brush strokes and hints at detail to the perfect representations in some of his contemporaries' work.
3. Maps. Vermeer regularly and deliberately incorporated representations of real maps in his pictures to make a point. In fact Norbert Schneider uses the pre 1609 map of the Netherlands by Claes Jansz. Visscher and other elements, to re-evaluate the symbolism in Vermeer's painting commonly known as “The Art of Painting”.  Where most art critics see the entire imagery as referring to - the Art of Painting, Norbert sees the picture as a political statement. He claims that it plays homage to the re-ascendant House of Orange and recognises the positive change in popular opinion towards the Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire; all this in a critical period in the Franco-Dutch war, just before a favourable outcome in 1674. This would date the painting to about 1673, much later than others think.

With my interest in microscopy, an additional fascinating fact was that when Vermeer died, Antoniew van Leeuwenhoek took over the responsibility for managing the estate when Vermeer's wife fell into financial difficulty.

What this ultimately also reveals is that beauty and art is really in the eye of the beholder. When I go back to revisit the exhibition I will be evaluating the pictures in a totally different light.

From international finance to repairing a webcam dropped in tea

I visited Mrs Hales-Tooke, who's two books I had published, after my brush painting class. Her son, photographer, artist and author Mr H Hales-Tooke was visiting from the US and I heard of his narrow escape during the floods in Spring. Our discussion also turned to the merits of printed versus digital books and the different strategies for marketing them.

Wednesday was a day trip to London for a talk on The Future of the international Monetary System, part of the OMFIF Golden Talks series. It was held in the Armourers' Hall, Coleman Street. The talk  was illuminating – concentrating on the longer term – there is a blog article on it now, “The International Monetary System is to local crises like the climate is to weather”. It provided a marked contrast to the immediate dramatic fluctuations and contagion in the Eurozone area.

The Armourers' hall itself was worthy of note and I spent some time photographing there (see article “the Armourers' Hall of the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers”) before taking a walk through London from Coleman St to Holborn Station. The route was a slight meander, taking in the stained glass in Wrens rebuilt church of St Lawrence Jewry and the Occupy London tent city still outside St Pauls.

Thursday I visited Mr Woolnough, author of the Understanding and Using the Stereomicroscope. We had worked together closely on the book as I edited the design, layout, redrew some of the illustrations, added extra photographs and the quick start guide. The book is published by the Quekett Microscopical Society.

We were working together on the start of a new exciting project and made a lot of progress on the initial planning.

This morning began with a telephone call to Mr Ebert of Feinkaeserei Zimmermann, a friend from his previous visit to the UK looking for potential distributors of the Product of Designated Origin, the Altenburger Ziegenkaese. Today's call was a social catchup on mutual news.

The annoying and yet amusing immediate aftermath of the conversation involved my accidentally knocking off the web-cam from my PC right into a full cup of tea. Quickly retrieved, I could see the milky tea sloshing behind the lens. A search online gave instructions on how to open up my particular model and I set to flushing out the tea with water and then placing the opened web-cam to dry in a warm place.

Then it was an HBN day where Mrs Burbidge was notable for ensuring that every guest arriving was welcomed to the event.

Returning late afternoon, I set about ensuring that the visible and accessible parts of the webcam were clean before reassembling it.

With great anticipation, I reconnected the webcam and started a video. All seemed to be working well until I saw the picture on screen – the image was as blurry as viewed through cold tea. I had to admit defeat and order a replacement!

Escalating Eurozone Crisis to watching a Magistrate's Court at work

These have been turbulent times economically. Since my last entry a couple of weeks ago we have had a change of Government in Greece. The Eurozone crisis then moved to Italy and resulted in the departure of Berlusconi as Italy's cost of borrowing soared and it was thought that only a change of government would suffice.

Currently the crisis has shifted to Spain. Germany and France, but mainly Germany, are trying to react to the crisis by suggesting further Eurozone political integration – but without much more financial commitment, whilst the UK is diametrically opposed to this policy. Prime Minister Cameron has already been publicly snubbed for his comments by the French Prime Minister. Mr Cameron is heading for a meeting tonight with Mrs Merkel of Germany where warning shots have already been fired across his bow.

The cubs evening treasure hunt based on science using light physics clues went extremely well. This was indicated by the general low level of noise as the cubs got into each activity. There were two activities that surprised us for the interest they generated.

The first was the fascination created by looking through 3D specs, front to back, as a laptop screen whilst rotating the glasses. The fact that suddenly the screen would turn dark (at about 45 degree angle) alone kept them occupied, even before we presented them with plastic film that would reveal colour effects.

The second was making periscopes and trying them out – the children would wander around the room with a periscope just fascinated by the fact that a different view could be seen.

Preparations for the Cambridge Open Studios EGM went well, the event itself being almost an anticlimax. I was complimented for bravery by demonstrating the COS website live. The failure of my first attempt at logging in demonstrating that even supposed experts are human. The key element was that at last the revised COS website went live yesterday.

Mr James' book is now with the printers. We have had a proof returned, the colour of the cover needs adjusting but it is close to completion.

Having helped Mr Heker with his dental technical business, it was now my time to receive some dental treatment for the premolar that had caused me agony in Egypt and that had required a second antibiotic treatment to calm it down again. The result was a full hour of root canal treatment. Strangely painless after the anaesthetic injections, it was still had an effect for the day psychologically.

Today, I had the second part of the treatment, preparation and generatation of an imprint in order to permit the production of a crown. Ironically, this affected me more than the original root canal treatment as the work was at gum level.

After some comfort shopping in Waterstones for two books, I found myself drawn to the Magistrate's court, situated where the city post office used to be. The staff were very helpful when I expressed an interest in the court. Using an empty court, the layout and roles of people within it were explained to me before I went into Court 1 as an observer. Only intending to stay for an hour, I was there for three watching the system at work. Fascinating and a great distraction from the dental treatment earlier that day.

Shubunkin and Light

Mr James has decided on using Optima at 11 point for his book so I reformatted the text and also included drop capitals for the chapter beginnings. The six images to be used in the book were then introduced into a separate word file with the same margins in readiness for insertion.

At Mrs Evan's Chinese Brush Painting class, I battled with fish. Strangely, the normal carp shape was the more difficult to master than that of the rotund Shubunkin. Unencumbered by dental pain this week, as the antibiotic appeared to have achieved its effect, I had more success and time this week to master the fish - at least in part.

Met up with Mr Cooper in the evening to discuss an evenings entertainment and education for the cub scouts. We explored a variety of options to play with light, using ubiquitous materials such as DVD disks.

Gadaffi's body and that of his son were buried at a secret location in the Libyan desert, to avoid his grave becoming a shrine or focal point for followers or opponents.

In Turkey, two days after the Earthquake, people are still being pulled out of the rubble alive. Over 400 dead so far and several hundred still missing.

Am now watching the luscious Joanna Lumley on her Greek Odyssey – Lovely!

Earthquake and Floods

Yesterday was a day of rest, with a walk amongst the autumnal trees of Anglesey Abbey. Children running towards a mobility bus for the elderly and infirm were called back with and we heard the parents tell them earnestly “That's only for naughty people!”

Back home for a freshly baked cake and tea.

The major news of the day was the Earthquake in Turkey. 7.2 on the Richter scale, with its epicentre in Tabanli in Van province, near the border with Iran. Over 100 deaths so far.

On Monday, played catchup with e-mails for the morning. Received a visit by Dr Maunders, delivering a box of assorted microscope slides prepared by Mr Bailey.

MR Heker had arrived back home in Germany and called briefly. Corrected a few minor errors in the translated brochure for Mr Juengst via Skype and then looked at trying different fonts and line spacings for Mr James's book. Caught up with Mr Dodsworth on current international projects.

Today's catastrophe is the flooding of Dublin by torrential rain.

Wednesday - Poll and preparation for Birmingham

Mr James came back to me by e-mail, stating that he was undecided between the fonts Optima and Baskerville and could I decide please. Well I am biased strongly in favour of Optima, so had some qualms about choosing it outright.

My solution was to initiate a Linkedin Poll and get some external input. At the end of the day, the votes were 4 to Optima, 1 to Bakerville.

The rest of the day was spent preparing for the trip to Birmingham to support Mr Heker.

In the evening, Mrs T and I went to see the Johnny English Reborn film, which was a hoot for the most part.

The word of the day was "Interlocutor" by Mr Howell - as someone who mediates in communication between two parties.

Short press release in the morning, book formatting pm

Mr Heker had sent through a previous text which had been used as a press release for past BDTA exhibitions. Taking into account all the publications he had written and I had translated in the past year and had published there was an opportunity for a rewrite. Additionally, Mr Heker had generated some roadsigns to indicate his “no clasps” principle.

To me, the dental clasp with a red bar through it looked like a cartoon velociraptor head. There was an excellent photograph of him with the sign. Since his stand at the BDTA was to introduce new techniques of telescopic crowns and invisible attachments to unsuspecting UK dentists this afforded opportunity for a play with meaning. The press release was therefore retitled “No Dinosaurs, No Clasps!” and a more interesting phrasing introduced to emphasise the expert nature of Mr Heker, his published articles and willingness to talk shop with dentists at his stand at the BDTA Dental Showcase.

For the afternoon, my attention went to Mr James's book draft, checking the amendments and finalising them. Then it was onto the next stage, ensuring that the text formatting was consistent throughout, including removing unnecessary spaces.

The page size was converted to Royal and the margins set for a perfect bound book, where the inner margins is larger, not smaller than the outer margin as is usual with a manuscript or stitched book. The reason being that perfect bound books are glued an the pages cannot be opened fully flat. Then different font examples were prepared as we began to look at the aesthetics.

Impregnation and Hydrophobization

Author Alan James and partner dropped by to pick up his watercolours that I had photographed for his book in production. The humour in his true biography of a college porter was reflected in conversation but we also discussed more serious issues such as styling and font to use.

At last I had a clear run to complete the translation and formatting of Mr Juengst's brochure, which did indeed take the rest of the day.

Two words stood out in translation, which rang as strange in my mind.  The first of these was “impregnation”.

The word was used in relation to impregnating the surfaces of historical buildings and monuments with protective agents. I looked up the definitions, I looked up its use in relation to restoration. The word is used in the industry, there is even a company called Impregnation Services that works in the area. Yet the word constantly niggled in my mind as I was working though the translation. I suppose it was the other use of the word, “to inseminate”, “to make pregnant”, with all its sexual connotations that falsely triggered my translator's instinct to say “are you sure this is the right word?”

The second word was “hydrophobization”. The immediate temptation was to replace the word with “water repellent”. But in respect to treating sensitive surfaces, façades and walls, water repellent almost implied a total sealing and waterproofing, such that a building might not be able to breathe.

Hydrophobization seemed to mean more a coating of particles within a structure, so that water would not penetrated into the particles, whilst still allowing the surface to breathe.

The problem with thinking too hard about a translation of a word can be that even the most obvious and appropriate words become suspect in the mind of the translator.

Ely parking, crop smudging and child trafficking

Off to Ely for the pre-breakfast event “Business Support is Changing”. Arriving for a 7:30am reception, this meant that the parking in the all day car park had not yet started; anyone arriving before 8:30 had to leave the car park after 90 minutes.

After the meeting there was a bacon butty breakfast, to be followed by a consultation between the county council and interested businesses. The start of the consultation was briefly interrupted as the realisation set in that our cars were at risk of exceeding the 90 minute parking time. Indeed, a car park attendant was counting down the minutes and gave us a good natured good morning as we all dashed out to move our cars to another car park before returning.

The main message of the meeting was that business support was being dramatically pared down by the UK, whilst there was still free support from EU programs promoting cross border partnering between businesses.

After lunch and catching up with mail, I photographed the watercolour paintings that author Alan James wished to use in his book. The images were optimised for contrast and then both colour and grayscale versions saved.

The afternoon passed quickly with other work interspersed with an uncharacteristic number of Skype calls.

My mind was slightly disconnected by the early start and so some of the messages that I received took on separate meanings. A tweet by London's Mayor, Boris Johnson, “Mayor secures more than £11m to boost homeless hostels in London...” raised the spectre of a fleet of hostels without a home. A friend attending a meeting “Inspiring Entrepreneurs” was equally ambiguous.

Later that evening, watching “Midsommer Murders”, one of the key items was protection of apple blossom from frost damage by “smudging” - creating a protective smoke blanket to keep frost at bay.

A search revealed that smudging was indeed a possible method for frost protection as listed in an Ontario Factsheet. However there more successful methods that could be used, including using the downdraft of a helicopter to displace the cold air boundary close to the ground. Spreading lots of small heating units through out an orchard would also work - more so than fewer large heaters which would create counterproductive convection, drawing in colder air from the surroundings.

The other reason that I would also have thought that smudging was less adviseable is that if the smoke is generated by combustion, it will invariably contain significant amounts of ethlylene, a gas known for its ability to induce senescence of leaves and flowers. Indeed this ethylene effect had beenfirst seen when the first gas street lights were installed – causing damage to nearby trees.

The most horrific news story of the day was of Ugandan children being trafficked into the UK (several hundred a year) for abuse in black magic blood rituals. Apparently the perceived value of blood in rituals is rising.

Three weeks of Tweets, Blogs, Interviews, Travel and a new PC

I give in. I will never catch up the past three hectic weeks. A relative's need for assistance with a new central heating installation meant a journey to the cathedral city of Hereford. This time, there was no opportunity for photography. Instead, I returned to the Point4 centre run by the RNIB on a daily basis, because of the cafe with its free WiFi. I was able to at least keep up with work both on Ms Lowry's book editing and the press release for the German restorators. Tweeting about the facilities in between led to a chance meeting with the Marketing manager and an interesting conversation that in itself led on to a blog article (Blindness - disability or different life style?).

Returning to Cambridge, there was an opportunity for a longer interview on Huntingdon Community Radio, with its founder Bill Hensley, on the Sunday. Being part of a program where the interview extended over 40 minutes with breaks for music and snatched sips of tea was a more relaxed experience. A wider range of topics including HBN, Toastmasters, publishing and local authors was covered. I was able to speak more slowly and clearly as there was not the feeling of telescoped time prevalent in a short few minute interview.

The following week, I managed to get a last minute booking with the joint Inspired Group and Business Club charity event, a motivations talk by Evelyn Glennie. It was a rewarding interlude to the catchup and mundane work inbetween. I remembered Ms Glennie for her percussion performances. Her talk gave a much deeper insight into the determination and acumen she had to create a multifaceted career for herself that defied pigeon-holing as explained in the article “Who is Dame Evelyn Glennie?”.

The weekend was the beginning of four days of travel, with two days travelling to another Cathedral City, Lincoln, and back for a social call on Miss T. The evening included shadow games with the lights on the Cathedral. The next day began with a small cruise on the Foss Bank in the mellow Sunday sunshine before a lunch at the top of the hill and return back to Cambridge.

On Monday, I went to pick up a small van to help take University clobber to Lancaster and returned with a much larger one. This meant that the two hundred plus mile journey transported a considerably more air than luggage, but it was a comfortable ride to the city and back, again over two days.

Before leaving for the final university year, Mr T. had, on my request and with much prior consultation and deliberation, constructed a new desktop PC from bespoke purchased parts. I held off till the weekend before beginning the transition from the existing PC to the new one. The task included a dual strategy, ensuring that existing files were backed up and then beginning the transfer. I spent most of Saturday alone esuring that I had a complete e-mail record from 2004 to the Friday to export and then import onto the new PC.

Today, Monday, the new PC went live, beginning with the first e-mail download and replies. There was a glitch in sending that was resolved by a call to Mr Beal – a pesky little tick box in the account settings had not been ticked. Drove to Mr Beals afterwards on Cambridge Open Studios website business. The evening included the installation of most of the important programs that I expected to use in the near future. Then, in turn, it was the all important precaution of conducting the very first back-up of the new PC.

Humorous manuscript review

Checked out the registration details of the new car to be purchased and ensured insurance in place for switchover later in the week.

The rest of the day spent reviewing a manuscript. It is a very amusing biography of an accident prone teacher and porter. I managed to progress just over half way through today.

The news today from Libya was of the rebels having made significant inroads into Tripoli, with the last strongholds of Colonel still holding out in some quarters. Whilst last night there were some predictions of an early end, tonight there was a more realistic expectation that it might take more time, with some gains by rebels being lost in the city to Gadaffi troops.

Writing and proofreading

Battled on with the press release for last week's NRW visit to London, tidied up the first draft and sent off for approval and correction.

The rest of the day taken up by proofreading a scientific manuscript by a non-native speaker. At eighty pages, managed to work half way through the document.

A mundane day and the despicable rioting

A working day on the computer, interrupted by a consultation with MS Lockyer of the Currency Exchange with regards to arranging suitable safe money for travel on an impending trip to Egypt.

At the end of the day, a short Skype call by another author trying to format his text for Kindle. The call extended as the apparently simple task proved ever more difficult – for trivial reasons. I played on with the book later whist watching television until finding a suitable solution after a couple of hours.

In the news, the lumbering giant of justice was finally gaining speed as Magistrate courts in London and elsewhere began to haul the offenders in. 805 arrests have been made in London alone. Three deaths of people trying to protect property by a hit and run driver have added a very serious note to the days events.

The sickening site of “assistance” being offered to an injured Malaysian student, which turned into blatant casual robbery, has made one YouTube video go viral as the scene is spread through Facebook to winkle out the culprits.

The streets of UK cities are calmer tonight, perhaps in part by the onset of wet weather as much as policing.

Lost in Suffolk and rioting spreading to other cities

This morning's news was of flare ups in Liverpool and Manchester. Everyone is waiting to see how the government ad police respond today.

Set off to meet with a new author, Alan James, in the depths of Suffolk, south of Bury St Edmunds. The satnav generously took me to highpoint prison, perhaps in anticipation of future misdemeanours. After some driving around unexpected blocked roads, I arrived half an hour late. Fortunately, my hosts were not unduly put out.

The following hours were busy in establishing some simple guidance on formatting the first manuscript and setting up file sharing, as well as finding a wealth of paintings that could be used to illustrate the book. Numerous cups of tea and a lunch later and it was almost 5pm before I departed, the route back being more straightforward.

Unfortunately I had missed an afternoon call, but the new client called back later with a request for some work on commenting on a text in the next week.

This evening, found myself suddenly committed to looking after some cats for the weekend and a chicken too, as well as volunteering for a cub scout activity lead later in the year.

A German video order had arrived and I settled down in anticipation to watch episode one of the cult German sci-fi TV series from 1966, “Raumpatrouille Orion” (Space patrol Orion); Black and white, with the best effects of the day in shaky spaceship models and examples of the future of dancing in the year 3000. Very enjoyable.

The financial markets had recovered after falls during the morning

With 16000 police descending on London, violence was present in Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham and Birmingham. Looters already active in daylight and cameramen attacked, with frightened women stranded due to the cancellation of buses and trains in the centre of Birmingham. London was relative quiet.

Car fires and shop looting and arson of stores appear to be the main activities captured on camera. Fortunately, plain stupidity is also apparent with some London looters tweeting or posting YouTube videos on their activities. Sadly, someone is already cashing in with London Riot T-Shirts.

In previous nights, much had been made of the use of social media to coordinate the looting and fast paced change of locations. Today, a positive alternative when social media were used to bring together a large group of volunteers who met in London to help clear up after the trouble.

Presenting the speech “Write it down”

Wednesday, 3rd August: Continued with the two themes of writing the final report for a project (in German) and preparation for the Huntingdonshire Speakers speech tonight.

By lunchtime the speech “Write it down” had taken on more detail with a structure:

• Introduction
• Why write it down (door to the past, present and Future)
• Where to write it down (mentioning additional media)
• When (and when not) to write it down
• Call to action - “Write it down”

I've planned five visual aids; a 1000 year old quote from Sei Shonagon's “Pillow Book”, Dr McArthur's book “Ka Sefofane”, One of Mr Heker's technical articles, Mr Juengst's white paper and finally the Kindle with my “Your business startup: Twelve pillars of advice in brief” which has appeared published on Amazon today!

Since this talk will be given without notes, I prepared a series of visual mental cues as a skeleton to hang the talk on. The most difficult and nerve racking was learning the Sei Shonagon quote off by heart.
Not sure whether to pass around the visual aids or hold them up.

The evening was then spent at Huntingdonshire Speakers and fortunately my speech was the first. I had practiced to give it in seven minutes. In the event, I was just under a minute over. The decision to pass round the visual aids when they arose during the talk worked but might have proved distracting – next time hold them up! However, received a lot of positive feedback from all the attendees in the short written comments that are part of the Toastmasters experience. Mr Wellman evaluated my speech positively with constructive advice for the future.

Other entertaining speeches came from the two minute “Tabletopics”, based around an geographic theme, using the colours of the olympic rings to define regions to be talked about. There was a hilarious foray into the consequences of cross dressing and a passionate lament on the current economic crisis in the Eurozone by Mr Slezak.

A satisfying but exhausting end to the day.

Bought a copy of Mr Frost's autobiography, “Growing Forward” and made the mistake of beginning to read it. I continued till the end, around 3am. A fascinating youth of involvement in a strict religious group, rebellion and even breaking the law before reforming, and of love gained – and lost. All before the age of 25.

White paper and kindle book development

Monday, 1st August: Completed the conversion of Mr Juengst's discussion document into a fully formatted White Paper and sent it to him.

Went through numerous formatting and reformatting stages of the business startup booklet until I had a version that looked satisfactory on the Kindle. This was then uploaded and published on the Amazon Kindle publishing page. Now, I just had to wait for it to appear as accepted and published on Amazon, “Your Business Startup: Twelve pillars of advice in brief”. Finally climbed into bed at about 4am in the morning.

Battling with Kindle formatting

Sunday, 31st July: Having established yesterday that the formatting of my trial Kindle booklet using illuminated capitals was unsuccessful, I chose an alternative solution, where the illuminated letter and the title, available in the book designed originally in Scribus, was converted into an image that would span a kindle page width. Simple in concept but a time consuming process.

The stages were: exporting the Scribus pages individually as images; Editing these in the image processing software, GIMP - first cropping to the headings alone and then sizing the images to be 520 pixels wide. The images were then incorporated into Sigil as an e-pub format document with the correct text underneath.

The original cover that I had designed was a bit bland too. Since the title was to include the phrase twelve pillars, I set out to design an ionic column, following Greek proportions of column height being eight times column height nine times if including upper and lower units). This was achieved using the software Inkscape, whilst sitting on the garden bench.

Then it was back to editing and extending the text in Sigil that Mrs T kindly proof read for me.

A working Saturday

Saturday, 30th July: Mainly a work day, concentrating on translating a discussion document for Herr Juengst.

Revisited the notes on Business Startup prepared for the radio interview of the previous week with a view to converting it into a Kindle book.

I had prepared illuminated letters for each of the twelve sections that I wished to include. I used a software, Sigil, to do the editing in the computer language HTML. Here they could be aligned with the remainder of the chapter heading text alongside. However, when converting into a mobipocket book using Calibre, the formatting was not as desired when exported and viewed on a Kindle e-book reader.