Monday 17 December 2012

Snowpenhagen - Denmark


copenhagen 2012
a few weeks ago we went to copenhagen, what a fascinating place!, it was covered in snow and full of crazy angled design!



cakation
What started out as a weekend away turned into a 3 day marathon of exloring the town and the baked delights of copenhagen, now i know why the danish is so popular, ive heard denmark described as a "Culinary black hole" with the only thing to really make it outside of the country being the danish, i can understand why!, there is such a plethora of danishes, cream cakes and everything baked, as long as it has marzipan it seems to pass the danish cake standard and can be sold, dammmmn they are tasty!







england and sweden
denmark is a very very interesting mix between england and sweden, on the one hand it has the brilliant architecture, excellent public transport system, the people are friendly, the apartments are many and the balconies big, the environment is taken care of and the krowns are many which takes care of the swedish side, on the other side beer and alchohol is freely available anywhere, even burgerking, so many buildings are in a state of disrepair and chaos

its a very strange mix, but it seems to be working well for them



metro

the copenhagen metro is fantastic and tacky at the same time, they are all automated, so there is no drivers cabin, just some seats to sit at the front, they are a very strange mix, on the one hand it feels great to have technology wotk in an automated way, on the other hand it feels like a fantasy from the 1970's, this feels like something that was designed in the 70's, both on the outside and the inside



when you get inside and you can sit at the front you feel like your in black mesa touring through the facility, its brilliant!, for this reason alone i could take it every day




i do wonder how they work in rush hour, as people are inherently stupid when they need to get somewhere, they do random stupid things like try to jump on a train they know they cant, i wonder how good the sensors are on the doors or do those idiots get bruised by the closing doors on their faces, i hope they do, there is something to be said of a good dose of Darwinism


hotel

the hotel was the Bella Sky hotel in Bella Center, this was a brilliant hotel bit just because it shot out into the sky like a testament to Danish design but all around it was fantastic..... and it had its own wind turbine! :D



we got the joy of being on the 19th floor!, what a fantastic view but the fun part was the room numbers, it looks fun and is very stylish!


at night the hotel is a shining beacon to those who like colour! 




from the 19th floor the view is just fantastic!, snow everywhere





i do have a tip though, if its really windy, go through the tunnel to get to the metro, its a wind tunnel and pushes you back, exactly what you need to wake you up and start your journey!

if your unsure of where to stay in copenhagen, definitely consider this one: http://www.bellaskycomwell.dk 


emmerys

in the midst of exploring the town in the snow, and intense wind, and great sense of being lost we needed somewhere to take a coffee and leech some WiFi  we passed some fancy pubs and some uninviting places, but in the midst of a random street near a random part we found the best coffee shop in Copenhagen , it was minimalist, clean, had a great simple brand and turned out to be a great bakery too!, with friendly staff what more could you want!

if you go to Copenhagen, you MUST go to emmerys

Link: http://www.emmerys.dk/



cakes

ahh one of the best bits, the cakation

the heart blueberry danish, nyam!

the tasty breakfast pastry "FRØSNAPPER", this pastry is simple, flakey pastry with a sweet taste and seeds on top, strange but tasty and not overly sweet



honning-kage, or honey cake, its a sponge with a thick honey taste, it was a bit much and more bitter then tasty but still, cake!



the vaffelstick!, tasty warm with snow everywhere



selection of cake!!!



a rhubarb muffin that had marzipan in the mix.... fun!



a marzipan sponge cake from the lagkagehuset! 



and ofcourse a danish!, covered in chocolate and marzipan, it was was a little too dry though!


saving the best till last, this little gem is the epitone of all danish cakery!, its called the kartoffelkage, or potato cake, its a light pastry with a vanilla cream covered in a slab of marzipan, its fantastic, light, airy and full of flavour!, nyamnyamnyam!!!


Link: http://www.lagkagehuset.dk


random
viking blood!, first time ive seen it bottled, bet its a tasty brew!


the skinny bitch, that was an utter bitch! one i dont want to see again, the taste and body was displeasing!


a spire!



snow!



crazy cheese cutter, the plate raises so it always slices the right amount of cheese, it looks like a finger slicer!



green!!!




"field's" the biggest shopping center in scandanavia



Wednesday 14 November 2012

Creating a Clock App for Windows 8 with HTML/JS/CSS

Ok!, today we are going to create a basic windows 8 clock app, the idea is to use nothing but web technologies to get an app up and running

Windows 8 apps are perfect for dashboards, reporting and apps which are all inclusive, so I thought of making a basic one that shows a clock, its simple and shows the very basics of app dev

So lets get started!

Step 1: Open VS
Step 2: Click create, new project, Other languages, JavaScript, Blank App
Step 3: Enter your suitable project name



 Step 4: This now creates the standard project layout


Step 5: Lets change the metadata of the project so its more meaningful, the display name and the description


 Step 6: Now lets change the icon so it looks a bit snazzy, open the logo.png file and do whatever you like to it


Lets see how that looks!, press F5 then windows key, you can see the app as the last tile, ooooh shiny!


Step 7: In the default.html create a new div to hold the clock, give it a class, we want to do the same with the date so we can display some more information


Step 8: Now the magic, the JavaScript, open the JS file and add the following code, And viola, here we go!, press F5


 As you can see it’s a bit unstyled so lets change that


Step 10: Open the default.css, you can see the file is prefilled with the various states allowed so you just need to add your CSS within this, make sure to apply the styles for the other view states of the app


Now press F5!, its just like magic, here is your clock all, simple and beautiful


Now get that bad boy in TFS and published and your ready to go!

Thursday 26 April 2012

Shoes go on holiday to wales!

this is a short post about the shoes that wanted so badly to see the world, the wanted to experience the glory of human creation without having the constant smell of someones feet and someone standing on them

so i took them on a day holiday to newport!

we walked through reading to to train station, on the way the shoes saw an old cattle market, as the shoes are suckers for architecture they insisted on a holiday pose!


happy with that the shoes skipped off and almost missed the cows!, they do so love cows and couldn't resist feeling the grass in their soles, the smell, the feel, ahh they love them!


after a long walk we finally got to the train station, we had a bit of time till the train left so the shoes decided on doing a "pouty2 glammer shot infront of the station, can you see the poutyness?


the shoes love travelling, so when i told them about the world and how you cant travel to other countries without a passport they instantly wanted to get passport photo's done, i asked them who would be on the photo as you have to take them separately, they just stared me down and said "we come as a pair or not at all" but when they got in the booth, they soon realised that the world doesn't want shoes to travel on their own, the camera wouldn't take their photo, they were too short :(


sad about this they walked away, i could hear the sad squeak of their soles as they walked away, but then i reminded them that they were on holiday now, they snapped out of their sadness and got excited again, at least they could see England and wales!, they were jumping with joy!


we got to the ticket barrier, then they got happy the world doesn't cater for shoes, they didn't need a ticket, they just slid under the barrier like it wasn't there, they were mocking me for being so human!!! :(


we got to the platform, 5 minutes to our train, i couldn't contain the shoes excitedness!!! they were jumping, i even had to pull them back past the yellow line once a non-stop train went past, they almost got blown away!!, but they were first on our train when it arrived!


the train journey was long, a couple of hours, the shoes, so unused to walking on their own were already tired from our walk to the station, so they snuggled up in my arms and started snoozing

once we got to Newport, we saw all its glory and wonder, we went straight to the river, the glorious river "Usk" which had seen better days but it was still a sight to behold!


the shoves were talking in the fresh air of the coast and the river, it was nippy, the shoes were shaking a little from the cold but they were still so happy they could see this, that they had the time to just enjoy and not be on someone else's time line!

so they wanted a holiday pose snapshot to commemorate their freedom, their holiday


they poked me, they wanted a side photo so you could see the great architecture of the bridge


we found a shroom!!, walking along the river we found random things, a see through head and a shroom, the shoes dint really like shrooms, they have found through bad times that shrooms give people smellier feet and they have to put up with it, but this time it was different, it was a colour full metal shroom the shoes jumped on and had fun with, the shoes see shrooms in a different way these days, they think back to the memories of the holiday and it almost makes the shroom smelling feet bearable.... almost!


one of the other things on the river was a world map of old, i bet the shoes they couldn't find us and Stockholm, after a bit of time studying the map they both found where they thought they were, they were close!, Lefty just wanted a little surfing time so he purposely jumped on the water next to us on the map


it was time to head into town, so we stood at the lights, waiting for the green man, the shoes were really enjoying this, they could feel the nobbles of the pavement ooooh it was so relaxing and therapeutic, they were pressing themselves on the bumps making little purring noises, we almost missed the green man!


once we got into town we had to take a little time for a coffee and a break so we found the nicest coffee shop "#1 coffee", it was great in there, really old style, brushed wood, the shoes were just enjoying the relaxed atmosphere and feel of the place


i surprised them with a coffee!, they were so tired and thirsty they sucked it all out of the cup in a heartbeat, left was a little greedy but righty always forgives him


after that, i was relaxing but the shoes were pumped and ready to go, they just started walking out, i didn't want them to be lost and alone so i jumped up and joined them


Newport has some nice roads, we were exploring them and what the different ground felt like for the shoes, they liked the paving stones, they were flat and with the shoes new soles, spongy!


i took a sneaky pic of them when they wearnt looking, muhahaha!.... they heard the click and kicked me in the head for not warning them :( ow!


we were walking down random roads, seeing the different sneaky paths of Newport, the portals to the world and found a little road, it was full of graffiti and grime but it was still standing strong, still enduring, the shoes respected this, they felt like they understood the pain of the road and wanted to make the road feel a little better too, so they snuggled up to the road and good some holiday snaps with it, the road got a little happier, it thought no-one wanted to see it with its graffiti but the shoes are kind, they never want anything to feel sad, so the shoes snuggled more and made great friends with the road, as we walked away we could hear the words "thaaaaaaaank youuuuuuuu" on the wind coming from the road, the shoes and i will never forget the road!


the shoes don't care much for people, people are always mean to them, they always stare and say rude things to the shoes but the shoes always stand proud, they always endure, when they walk on their own, they feel the sun is on their side and they are unbeatable, as they walk like equals in the world of humans


this was a few weeks ago, since then, the shoes have moved to Sweden and are now enjoying the life Sweden and beautiful Stockholm offer them but they will never forget the holiday, they day that was theirs and the time they could enjoy life

thank you for reading

Regards

The Shoes and Ben