Phil Leggetter - Software Consultant » Community

Running in Hertford

Phil Leggetter — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:19:05 +0000

My girlfriend was out at the Take That concert at Wembley so I was left on my own this Saturday afternoon. Not knowing what to do with myself as the evening approached I decided to go for a run. Normally I find running quite difficult. As I run my mind tends to concentrate on my breathing which puts me off the run. The difference today was that I went exploring.

I commute in to London most days from Hertford East. Over the past few weeks taking the train journey has been quite painful for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the heat on the train is really uncomfortable and secondly because the train goes through a beautifully scenic area between Hertford and Ware called Kings Mead which makes you wish were out walking through the nature reserve rather than in a hot stuffy carriage.

So, tonight I went for a run around Kings Mead and really enjoyed it. I took a couple of Qik videos, some photos of St. Leonards Church which was en-route, and I’ve even created a map of my run.

43 Feet Stone

The stone that is shown right at the start of the video says “43 Feet” on it. It did have some other writing on it but I couldn’t get close enough to read it. The other interesting point in this video is the penalty of FIVE POUNDS for violating any of the rules on the sign. The sign could maybe do with being updated.

Crossroads

St. Leonards Church, Hertford

Run around Hertford Map

View Run around Hertford 04-07-2009 in a larger map

Snow in Hertford

Phil Leggetter — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:36:49 +0000

Me in the snow in Hertford

Jo took some great photos and a couple of videos of Hertford in the snow today.

See more photos in Jo’s Snow in Hertford Album

Sunday Lunch Review – The White Horse Hotel, Hertingfordbury

Phil Leggetter — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:18:35 +0000

Jo and I have decided that we are going to start going for Sunday lunch and are going to keep a list of where we’ve been and what we thought of it. What better place to keep a note of this than on a blog. Here’s our first effort at a review.

Venue & Atmosphere

The White Horse Hotel, Hertingfordbury
Hertingfordbury Road,
Hertingfordbury,
Hertfordshire SG14 2LB

The White Horse, Hertingfordbury

The White Horse Hotel photo by Steve Chilton

Location
Website

Hertingfordbury is a village near Hertford. We walked from Hertford to Hertingfordbury along a designated foot and cycling path in around 40 minutes. It’s a woodland walk and is a nice way to get your appetite up for a Sunday lunch.

For a Sunday afternoon the bar area was pretty quiet. It is credit crunch time so I guess that is to be expected. We sat in the bar area which was comfortable and warm. There’s an open fire place, which unfortunatley wasn’t on, but would certainly help create a nice atmosphere if it was. We did expect the place to be a little more “oldie worldie” and cosy. So, although the place is nice enough it’s not quite our cup of tea.

Our rating: 6

Service

The service was fine. The barman brought us our meal and was pleasant. The only gripe I have is that the White Horse do a 3 courses for £14.95 and we initially ordered a starter and a main but the kitchen closed as we were eating and we weren’t informed so wouldn’t have been able to order a dessert even if we had wanted one.

Our rating: 6

Presentation

The roast came out on two plates. The main plate contained a single yorkshire pudding, some roast potatoes and two good slices of beef. A side plate also came out with a selection of vegatables; carrots, courgettes and mange tout. The picture below shows the main plate but has been partially disturbed – I was hungry All in all the presentation was pretty good. The reason we’ve only given it a seven is that it was clear that the yorkshire pudding had dried out and the vegetables looked as if they were the last of the day and had been sitting for a while (sorry, no picture of the veg).

The White Horse, Sunday Beef Roast - partially devoured

Our rating: 7

Taste

We had a tomato soup for starters which was served with warm rolls. The soup was very tasty and had a nice kick to it. The main course wasn’t quite as good. The White Horse finish serving at 15:00 and we arrived at 14:40 to make our order. With this in mind I can only assume that they cook everything early on and keep things warm during serving times. So, the yorkshire pudding had dried out quite a bit, the beef was slightly overcooked, the veg had gone a bit soft. We were very happy with the roast potatoes

Our rating: 6

Value

Since we didn’t get the 3 courses for £14.95 we were charged £12.95 each for the two courses.

Our rating: 5

Overall

We might go back again, once we’ve tried a few other places, but we would definitely arrive earlier on in the serving. Hertingfordbury is a nice place, The White Horse is a nice enough place but the Sunday lunch itself didn’t quite hit the mark.

Our rating: 6

Train newspaper recycling

Phil Leggetter — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:06:48 +0000

I recently took a job back at Caplin Systems in London and as a result have started commuting into the city every day by train. Once you’ve done the same journey a few times there’s little new to see when looking out of the window so most people listen to music, read a book or read a newspaper. A newspaper doesn’t generally take all that long to read – or generally only contains a few interesting articles – so people tend to leave their papers on the train when they alight. London has a plethora of free papers (Metro, London Lite and The London Paper) so people think nothing of leaving a free paper behind.

“National Express have teamed up with Metro Newspapers” blah, blah, blah. This is a new message that is announced at most stops to encourage passangers to take their papers with them and keep the train tidy. Never mind recycling. In all fairness the London station I get off at does have a “Newspaper recycling team” that are occasionally seen making their way through the trains to collect the discarded papers. The train station must have hundreds of trains through it a day and there is no way that this team will have time to collect all papers for recycling.

My solution to this problem would be to place newspaper bins or containers on each stations and encourange passangers to simply take their paper off the train with them and pop them in the newspaper bin on the platform. This is easier than having to take the paper to work or home with you and then recycling it. This would be a good idea for two reasons:

1) Most papers will end up in these paper containers and recycling teams can just collect from there at a given point in the day.

2) If you want a paper to read on the train you know exactly where you can get one from at each station.

I’m surprised that this isn’t in place as I think that the green and useful sides of this idea make it a winner. Maybe there’s something that I’ve not considered?

Report problems to your council with Neighbourhood Fix It

Phil Leggetter — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:30:25 +0000

Rob of GIS Consultancy fame recently sent me a link to a website dedicated to tracking and fixing of neighbourhood problems. The Neighbourhood Fix It website is a great idea and it actually works. I reported the dumping of a load of newspapers and leaflets outside of our flat that were just waiting to be set on fire. That same day the Edinburgh “Rapid Response Team” had been out and picked up the papers and leaflets.

Neighbourhood Fix It must have a mapping of post codes to councils and automatically inform the council of any reports in their jurisdiction. The site has been developed by mySociety who aim to “give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives”. I think that Neighbourhood Fix It is a great piece of work and a great example.

Read more on the launch of Neighbourhood Fix It.