Belbin Team Profile test

At a team meeting in Suresnes (Paris) I was introduced to the Belbin method of testing individual team members personality to create a complete team profile.

In essence any team needs to cover all of these personality characteristics: Plant, Shaper, Coordinator, Implemeter, Resource Investigator, Monitor/Evaluator, Team Worker, Completer/Finisher, Specialist.

After the meeting I was asked to enhance the flip-chart which grew (I am a plant!) into a complete questionnaire with chart and everything.

Therefore if you fancy taking the test, try out the following spreadsheet (click on the link). At the bottom after the chart is a PDF attachment, describing the details of the characteristica as well as the strenghts and weaknesses.

Let me know your results...

Weller's auctions

Herbert, my Swedish colleague, told me about Weller's auctions the other day. Basically every Tueday, they have an auction of unwanted retail items.

These items can be returned goods, factory refurbishments etc. that are completetly fault free but possibly without box.

I have had a look at the auction items and they include everything from trousers and socks to LCD TVs and agricultural machinery.

The auction is in Chertsey, which isn't far from Kingston at all.

I would like to go there one day and check out all the fab items you presumably can get at bargain price.

Visit to Paris

After an early start to the day and a long days work did I manage to get to
enjoy Paris.

This morning I managed to sort out a biometric passport to France,
P.E.G.A.S.E
This consist of a chipcard which is associated with your fingerprints. When
you enter the contry you enter a secure box and apply your fingerprints. No
need to queue for passport control anymore.

Nicole, rocking at Knebworth

Nicole has in her capacity as marketing executive for Kinetic Partners been working long and hard on arranging the company's presence at the Hedgestock event at Knebworth 7-8th June 2006.

5% good weather and 95% hard work made Kinetic Partners presence such a success that they were even featured on CNN! (click the link to see the video clip).

Also the BBC and New York Times covered the event.

With the World Cup also launching that week, Nicole decided their theme should evolve around the footie and thus she hired a fake grass carpet and two football tables. With the main price being 2 tickets for the WC semi final, there was plenty of interest in taking part.

Knebworth is well known for hosting massive rock concerts, Robin Williams played there around 2 years ago, which basically resulted in the collapse of the public transport in the area by the sheer number of spectators travelling at the same time.
This time it was the Who's turn to play and they performed their first live concert in 2 years for the people in the hedge fund industry, who all paid GBP 500.00 in entrance fee for the exhibition. The proceeds went as a charity donation to the Teenage Cancer Trust. (which is tax deductible in the UK for the contributing company - nice one).

Legitimate music download

At the time of our wedding, I was looking into downloading some important Danish tracks that could be played at the wedding.

There are a number of Danish providers, such as TDC Musik and Bilka Musik where you can find the Danish artists that you can't find abroad. They both accept international creditcards as long as they have been issued in Denmark!? so what is the point?

This negative experience put me off music download for a time and only here the other day did I decide to give it another try.

I decided to give the English equivalent of Bilka Musik a try, Tesco, Britains largest supermarket chain. All went well and at GBP 0.79 per track it seemed reasonable. I chose 5 popular songs and entered my credit card details for the charge, GBP 3.95.

I managed to download the WMA formatted files. As the HiFi in the lounge is connected via the KiSS DVD player to the PC, I got my self ready for a blast. I managed to find the tracks and pressed PLAY... Error - the files are subject to Digital Rights Management....

If you consider an average CD to contain 13 tracks and cost 12.99, I would think that by paying GBP 4 for 1/3 of the number of tracks, it would be fair to asume I can play my music in the car, on the DVD player in the lounge, on the PC etc. etc.

Nothing has changed SONY and Billy Bob Gates have got it as they want it. You are guilty as sin of trying to copy music and that is it. Theoretically they should take legal actions against anybody downloading legal music, because that is at the end of the day what is happening... It is the same as restricting a Renault Clio to drive faster than 30 Mph because it is a car designed for driving in towns and do shopping and you can't have genuine intentions by taking it on the motorway...

The world is controlled by a bunch of short sighted fat cats. Just remember how the national mail companies where complaining about danger of collapse when the email was invented. No one was to send a letter anymore. At the end of the day their roles have changed because people are buying box after box of goods on the internet which is then sent by mail and thus they are still making great revenue. (The fact that the fat cats aren't cost-contentious and thus making losses because of bureaucracy is not the stamp buyers fault).

Same scenario is now happening with the music industry; only that the music industry is retaining their profitability as people are so buzy filling up their prestigious MP3 players with rights managed music such that they don't have time to dispute the fact that they lock themselves down. The last 2 years Apple's iPod has been the thing. Nokia is now launching their new N91 and in essence that means that all the gadget addicts that has to have this one instead now have to purchase their music all over again...

It is great however to see how Gnarls Barclay's Crazy song is stirring up some sheit by reaching number one without releasing a CD..

TV License for you PC ?!

It was with great interest I read my Danish news paper, Politiken Online, today. DR, Denmarks Radio, the national equivalent of BBC and SABC, have managed to get approval for legislation which grant them the right of charging TV license fee if your PC is capable of viewing DR news and media.

All liable media are charged as a non-optional package of DKR 2,150.00. At least most Danish households are already having TV and radio and thus it is not going to be an additional expense, which is probably how they managed to get the legislation through. In the event you do not own a TV or a radio, you will now have to pay license because you have a PC!!! I am sorry to say that I don't see the why having a PC for doing internet banking, gadget shopping or publishing a web site is any of DR's business....

Any other business reporting to shareholders would have to create a secure domain where you by entering credit card details would be granted access to the chargeable material and thus it is a mystery how DR has managed to justify this ludicrous charge. Who said there is no longer a monopoly in Denmark?

The question is whether you get a rebate for a dial-up modem as opposed to a fast broadband connection? Furthermore you today have the benefit of being able to review archived material but the good stuff is always removed after 4 weeks - is that going to change now that people are paying for having access?

In essence this is just another tax to a suffering business and I suppose the next proposal is for TV shops with window displays to pay license per pedestrian walking by their windows?!

GPS satellite navigation

After Andrew introduced me to a 2,800 KM long demonstration of his Navman satellite solution, which went pretty smooth, I had to get onto the wagon.

The demonstration was our trip from Kingston to Kokkedal to collect furniture over a bank holiday weekend. The only thing that went wrong was that I drove all the way there and back, including Copenhagen sightseing in flip flop sandals. This is another story though.

My solution is an installation of TomTom version 3 which enables for download of speed camera locations and all the point of interests (POIs) you can think off. I can find any cashpoint, petrolstation, Tesco, B&Q etc. in the UK.

TomTom doesn't deal with POIs very well and thus I have installed checkPOInt 3.2 on my Pocket PC. Via a client software on your home PC you can select TONS of interesting points. There are loads from the UK e.g. buslane cameras, Sainsbury, etc etc and for Denmark Bilka, Foetex, Brugsen, Netto etc are represented. Should you find errors, you can update their database here.

Every time I synchronise the Pocket PC (PPC) with the PC, it checks my selected interests for any updates and thus there should be NO danger for missing a shopping opportunity anymore.

As TomTom (although expensive enough) doesn't incorporate European maps with their UK version, I bought a discontinued version of the Navman software, which allows me to download European maps to my PPC every time we are going to Continental Europe. These maps are a couple of years out of date but works perfectly fine for our needs.

Regarding the GPS receiver, I waited a year or two before buying and thus benefited from the extensive research & development resources that are put into this field. By having 12 receivers, the unit called GlobalSat BT338, is capable of receiving from a pocket or a glove compartment, which the first versions weren't. (They almost had to "see" the sky to work).

As there is an extensive development going on, the products are continously enhanced and thus it is recommended to browse pocketgpsworld for latest reviews.

Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK

You have probably already heard about the new legislation regarding application for Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK (ILR). In short this impacts us as the "probation" period has changed from 4 years to 5 years.

For the past 2 years we have been eligible to apply for a fiancees VISA and subsequently Nicole would for 2 years have had the freedom to work where-ever she would want to. Had we gone that route, Nicole would in two years time be able to apply for ILR.

As we have been in the firm belief that if Nicole could remain working for her sponsor she would as of April this year be granted ILR and thus a British Passport holder as of next year.

With no notification the rules were changed as of 3rd April such that you now require 5 years of sponsorship before being eligible to apply for ILR. This rule change happened on the same date as Nicole was eligible to apply and thus we went to the Immigrations office in Croydon to defend our case albeit with no luck.

We wrote a letter to our local MP, Edward Davey, whom confirmed the ridicolous in the new law and promissed to write to the Homeoffice. We still haven't seen this letter.

We have now taken contact with a VISA agency whom have confirmed that I am eligible to back-date my application (as a EU citizen) for ILR upon which Nicole will be eligible to a two year probation period as opposed to the normal 4 years. And yes, new VISA - new counter... You can apply for 10 VISA's and sit here for 40 years and still not be eligible to stay in the UK.

Having said this there may finally be a bit of light at the end of the extended tunnel.

Tourist in Copenhagen (winter advice)

Strøget:

Strøget (best compared to Oxford Street) is probably the longest shopping street in Europe, closed for motorised traffic.

The street is connecting Central Copenhagen from east at Kongens Nytorv to west at the city town hall. Local tip is to go off Strøget and visit "Gråbrødretorv". The restaurant "Peder Oxe" is very popular amongst Danes. The square in itself is also well worth a visit.

Also just off Strøget is "Vandkunsten", "Løngangstraede", "Brolaeggerstraede" all medieval street. If you can find cafe Sorgenfri (I think BadstueStraede), they are famous for there luxurious open sandwiches as only the Danes can make them.

On Amagertorv right at the middle of Strøget is The Royal Danish Porcelain factory's exhibition which is very much addressing the tourists BUT on first floor getting close to Christmas they have an exhibition of "Royal" Christmas table settings which (even as me being a guy) are quite impressive.

Kongens Nytorv:
Is the East connecting point of Strøget. It is a big open square (Trafalgar) with Copenhagen's probably most expensive hotels (d'Angleterre). What is probably more interesting is Magasin (du Nord) which is in my opinion the best department store in Copenhagen.
Here up to Christmas you should try find a table in Hviids Vinstue, right next to Magasin. It is the oldest still existing bars in Copenhagen, and there Gluhwein (Gløgg) is to die for (well a tradition at least). This place is ludicrously busy so don't expect to get a seat anywhere.

Just east of Kongens Nytorv is
Nyhavn:
Which is the colourful house front you see on every single tourist book. During November it is too cold to sit outside, but still take a walk down and maybe have a look in Nyhavn 17, which is one of the most popular of the bars, they are all bars.

At the end of Nyhavn further East is Amalienborg, walk down to the end of Nyhavn and bear left walk along the water down towards the castle. This is where the queen lives.

If you are in the mood for more brisk walking, this will take you all the way down to "Langelinie" and the little mermaid. rather than seeing the little statue, bear left and walk up to the parks of Kastellet which is the oldest existing parts of the Copenhagen defence walls.

***

At the other end of Strøget at the town hall you should pay a visit to Tivoli. At summer it is a bustling amusement park (Not like Blackpool, more like Kew Gardens with restaurants and rollercoaster's). During the winter most of the amusements are closed but there are winter stalls with Christmas decorations and what not. More important is, if you didn't get your Gløgg at Hviids Vinstue, try find a place in Tivoli to enjoy it.
The "Lake" is likely to be frozen (artificial don't worry) but it might be too early I don't know. If it is frozen this is the Copenhagen version of a ice skating ring.

If moving outside the centre:

Christianshavn has got some cute canals and "vor frelser" kirke is quite cool with its staircase on the outside of the church spire.
Don't bother about Vesterbro as this is the rougher BUT up and coming area.
Nørrebro is where a lot of students are living, thus many "funky" cafes and restaurants. "Sankt Hans Torv" is worth a short visit.
Splitting Nørrebro from Central Copenhagen are the 4 "Lakes" which are artificial but place for a nice walk.
østerbro is the nicest residential part of Copenhagen but besides from "Rosens kvarter" and "Brumlebyerne" it is quite residential.

***

Traffic wise Copenhagen airport is very well connected with the town. Don't bother with taking a taxi in, as it will cost you an arm and take 3 times the time.

In the basement in the arrivals is a train that takes you to the central station in 11 minutes. Before leaving the arrivals terminal, stop at the ticket booth just before the escalators and enquire about "klippekort" (If you are planning to take buses and trains around). A blue one with 10 x 2 zones cost DKR 105.00 and each person will need
4 zones into the town centre (4 stamps).

***

If you are into art, Louisiana north of Copenhagen is a very famous museum with after Danish terms a comprehensive collection of art together with short term exhibitions.

Helsingør is on the same train stretch as Louisiana museum. Helsingør is a quaint town, famous (in the world) for being were Hamlet said his famous words. (The the Swedes it is known for its liberal approach to alcohol)...

Ryebread recipe

Day 1
500 gram Rye grains
340 gram Wholewheat flour
70 gram Rye flour
0.75 litre Luke warm water
Sour dough from last batch

Day 2
600 gram Rye flour
2 tbsp Salt
2 tbsp Syrup
0.75 litre Luke warm water



Stir all the ingredients for day 1 together i a large bowl.
Cover the bowl and let it rest for 24 hours.

1) Add all the day 2 ingeredients and stir thoroughly.
2) Lubricate 2 baking forms with a thin layer of oil (the more oil the more crusty bread).
3) Take dough aside to generate sour dough for next batch. Put it in a small container and sprinkle genereously with salt.
4) Distribute the remaining dough evenly in the 2 baking forms and set aside to rest for another 4 hours.
5) Brush a thin layer of oil on the top of the bread (the more oil the crustier).
6) Bake in the oven at 200 C for 90 minutes.

If you don't anticipate to be baking the next batch within approx. 3 weeks, freeze the sourdough otherwise just keep it in the fridge to become nice and sour!!!
Be warned that if the container is not thoroughly sealed, the lid can burst open and make a mess in the fridge.

Don't be shy to ask for sourdough. I won't be able to accommodate your request immediatelly but will take dough aside next time I am baking.
The secret is to plan in advance. There is only 20 minutes worth of work here but the resting does take the entire weekend and thus you need to sure you are at home 28 - 30 hours after you start baking.

Enjoy baking and enjoy a great traditional Danish lunch box.