Daily doors and funny food

As Christmas approaches, we at WTH Towers are busy darning our biggest stockings (in case anything falls out on Christmas morning). Some of us tend to be a bit humbuggy about the whole thing, so I’ve found some websites to get us all in the mood – including food, which always works.

Don’t wait up

Advent Calendars press the right buttons: they are in synch with the season, they have an air of mystery (as you wait to open the next door), and they surprise and delight us anew every 24 hours. How poetic!

The Westminster Libraries Advent Calendar has all these elements in spades. Colourful numbers are there already but, frustrating us deliciously, each number becomes a clickable link only at midnight on the relevant day.

Now I don’t want you getting in trouble with your mummies by staying awake until midnight every night. The morning will be time enough to discover the calendar’s daily delights, ranging from seasonal recipes to some very odd wintery customs (you’ll just have to wait to find out what they are).
It would be surprising if we had nothing to say about Christmas books. We have two other special pages on the Westminster Libraries website, one with favourite festive books for adults, and one with great Christmas books for children. Having had nothing to do with the choosing, I can say that they are both impressive lists – not just the usual suspects, although you will no doubt find some old favourites among the many new surprises.

Tiny Tim is there of course, but he is in company with Hercule Poirot, the inhabitants of discworld, and a navigationally-challenged wise man. If I were you I’d pop down to the library right now, and when you get back you’ll be ready for something to eat [cue next item].

Pork and apricots, anybody?

I don’t cook. I tried it once, but I didn’t really get on with it. So I eat out or stuff the microwave. But if you do cook, and if you accumulate odd combinations of leftover food, Recipe search can help.

It’s not just there to help you clear out your fridge. This web page, from Sainsbury’s, contains thousands of recipes for all occasions (sorry – a stray cliché got in there). The clever bit is that you can choose by course, cooking time, type of cooking, and several more options. And the really, really clever bit is that you can pile up your odds and ends of food on the kitchen table, bung them into the Recipe Search search box and, with a bit of luck, up will pop a dream meal.

Recipe search is just part of a much bigger website with ideas from the company, ideas from other users, advice on special diets, and a booze guide. Of course they would rather like you to go and buy all the food and drink from Sainsbury’s, but the commercial aspect is not oppressive, and the recipes work even if you buy the stuff elsewhere. Naturally I have not personally checked out the accuracy of the last statement – that would require me to cook!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Home & Garden". Recipe search is under "Food & drink".)





Picture credit: kakisky/morguefile.com

Ken shows us round

Now that Ken Livingstone’s transport empire has been extended to take in "The Overground", it seems like a good idea to revisit the Transport for London (TfL) website, and in particular the Journey Planner.

An onscreen leaflet rack

You can still get maps and leaflets at tube stations about routes, fares, this and that. But the most reliable source of this information is the TfL website.

Underground, buses, river boats, trams, DLR – all these and more are covered in great detail. Taxis and minicabs are included, with details of the "Get home safely" scheme (you text a given number and they text you back the numbers of one taxi firm and two licensed minicab companies).

If you prefer to cycle, or you are interested in that other eccentric activity, walking, there is lots of help and advice. And if you have an Oyster Card, there are special money-off offers. I’m getting my nails done with 20% off – maybe I won’t chew them when they are bright pink with inset rhinestones!

So – lots of lovely info, and then there’s the Journey Planner…

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Transport & tourism". Transport for London is a Key Link.)

The wheels on the bus go round and round (almost)

The TfL Journey Planner makes you purr with satisfaction. It’s just so good! Calm down, David, and tell the nice people why it’s so good.

Where are you, and where do you want to be? – as long as you know that, the Journey Planner will do the rest. You can specify a station, an address (or postcode) or a place of interest. If you do a simple search, it will find you the fastest journeys by any means of transport. But if you only want bus journeys, or you want to walk, just uncheck all the boxes you wish to exclude, and it will work with what you leave it.

If you like the look of one of the offered journeys, you can click to see the detailed breakdown of the journey. Then you can obtain PDF maps of the start, the finish and any interchange. Or – and this is when the fun starts – you can select an interactive map. What pops up is an ordinary-looking map of the start of your journey. But look for the "Wizard" box in the corner, click it and – wheee! – a tube symbol or a little bus (or whatever is appropriate) goes on the journey in front of your very eyes. Talk about bells and whistles!

You can edit your search, check for real-time information on any delays, and find out what the fare will be. And more and more and more.

Go exporing. You’ll have a ball.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Transport & tourism". Journey Planner is a Key Link.)

Picture credit: mantasmagorical/morguefile.com

No experience required

Some people just go out and get a job; many more of us need a bit of help. Here are some online suggestions and an offline oasis…

Beginners please

If you are new in London, maybe with not many qualifications, or you are returning to work after taking time out, it can be difficult to find a job. This is where Fuse Jobs may be able to help. They specialise in "entry level" jobs.

Fuse Jobs is not a charity; it’s a limited company and it presumably makes money out of the website. So just bear that in mind. Apparently two people with experience in recruitment and training set up the site because they thought that more could be done to help people into work, and to help employment advisers. They don’t say so in so many words, but I guess the message is that most agencies and websites prefer you already to be in work – it’s simpler for them.

I tried to find a secretarial job in the public sector (don’t worry – I won’t be applying). I got a list of 94 vacancies, not all of which were really "entry level", so a bit more sifting would be nice. But enough of them were at the right level to encourage me if I were job-hunting. I asked for more details of one, and was linked through to a specialist employment agency (it was a medical job).

There is advice on things like writing a CV and preparing for interviews, and a "skills match" service is promised soon. Fuse Jobs I probably not the answer to every job-searcher’s quest, but well worth a look.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Education & jobs". Fuse Jobs is under "Jobs & careers".)

Browsers welcome

After mentioning a jobs website, I thought I would desert cyberspace and remind you about the Education & Careers collection at Marylebone Information Service. This is – shock! horror! – books and other printed material collected over many years but (I hasten to add) constantly updated.

As well as directories of schools, colleges and universities, there are prospectuses for individual institutions, guides to international study, and books giving tips on all aspects of getting a job. Then there are the Red Boxes.

The Red Boxes contain advice on many different categories of career. In front of me now is Box E: Fashion & Beauty. It’s full of books and pamphlets, some so specialised and thin that they would get lost if they were shelved individually.
A dear little book on modelling tells me that I might get to be famous, but that it can be a rewarding career even if I don’t reach the super-league. That’s reassuring, isn’t it? I must say immediately that it packs a huge amount of practical information into 36 pages, with "I never thought of that" stuff like the advantages of speaking a second language if you want to do modelling abroad.

A lot of this can be found online, and the Gateway to websites’ "Education and careers" category has a range of sources, but a trip to Marylebone will provide a good complement.

(Marylebone’s Education & Careers collection has its own page with many more details.)


Picture credit: mantasmagorical/morguefile.com

Everything's green except the cheese

Now I’m as green as the next man… as long as he’s not too green. But it’s all very well paying lip service to conservation – politicians show us the way. What about a practical approach?

A net benefit for nature

The "about" blurb for Naturenet includes the following: "Naturenet is a voluntary enterprise to provide a good online resource for practical nature conservation and countryside management." The website was started by the Isle of Wight’s countryside manager, for the very good reason that he couldn’t find anything already doing the job. But is there anything in it for the rest of us?

I had a look at the information about rights of way. I rather expected some general stuff about keeping clear of cows, together with large chunks of legalese. But no: they’ve written and published here articles about the subject in plain English. Whatever next?!

It’s the same with the greener bits. They don’t just tell you that it’s a good idea to plant a tree or a hedge on your bit of land, they tell you what would work best and how to go about it. Their blog is even funnier than this one (I particularly liked the bit about a Talking Heads album being all about the Town & Country Planning Acts – that had never occurred to me before. Just in case you don’t believe it, a YouTube extract is included).

If you want to be preached at about conservation, I can recommend some very worthy official utterances. If you want an approach which is down-to-earth and fun, Naturenet is for you.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Science". Naturenet is a Key Link.)

It’s not rocket science (actually it is, sometimes).

Because the Gateway’s "Science" category was getting a bit top heavy with Key Links, How Products Are Made has been moved to "Engineering", but this is not intended as a slight on what remains a great source of information.
Mind you, first impressions are not encouraging. A list of volumes 1 to 7 doesn’t give much away. And using the search box often takes you to a rather bewildering list of articles, some but not all of which are from this website. But be a bit persistent – it’s worth it.

I tried cheese. "How cheese is made" was first in the hit list, linking to an incredibly detailed rundown on the cheese making process, with diagrams, a reading list, and even some tempting adverts. Since I assume that the ads probably pay for the other stuff, I didn’t mind them, and they didn’t flash or pop or anything like that.

Now, where did I put my rennet?

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Science". How Products Are Made is under "Engineering".)


Picture credit: Herbert Hoskins/Juicy Orange

Gone with the fairies

Let’s face it: if you work in a library, you’re likely to get asked questions about other libraries. You could just gasp in amazement that anyone could wish for more than the treasures immediately around them, or you could read on…

What’s out there, Tink?

I know I’m easy to impress, but I still think What’s in London Libraries is a little bit of magic, a sort of Tinkerbell of the libraries, flitting around London and finding us the books we need.

If all that tosh doesn’t put you off, the first impression of the site is not very magical. You get a welcome, and you can click to search across London. Then it starts to get clunky. You have select "public library catalogues" and click" next", then click on "full list", then click on "select all" and "search".

Only after all that faff can you do a book search and start the magic: before your very eyes, the page whirrs and clicks as the catalogues are given a good shake. Out pop the hits, and you can then click through for more details of where the books are.

OK, it’s not perfect. There are always a few catalogues which are "temporarily unavailable" (only three when I last tried), and as with all catalogue searches what you end up with is a series of allegations that the books (or other items) are where the catalogues say they are. But you should be able to get enough information to check by phone and, if you belong to the relevant library, you can often reserve the book online.

I’m not sure that I really believe in fairies (gasp!), but this bit of cyber-magic has me hooked.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Libraries". What’s in London Libraries is just under London Libraries in the Key Links.)

Superheroes of simplicity

Sometimes you just need an efficient A to Z list. Some A to Zs, of course, make life more rather than less complicated (I name no names), but UK Public Libraries is great.

It’s put together by a couple called Sheila and Robert Harden. I checked up on them – it seems that they are legends in their own lifetimes, pioneers in enabling libraries to get the most out of the Internet and in persuading public library services to co-operate (not something which came very easily to most of them!).

UK Public Libraries is not snazzy, but it works. It provides links to each library service’s home page, its online catalogue if it has one and, in a few cases, to a source of local images.

If you need to know which library service covers a particular place, there is a link to a gazetteer. There are other links, and they give gold stars to the library websites which they find especially attractive. But mostly it starts at A and goes through to Z (Y actually) with a clear, unambiguous list. How often do you see that? Thank you, Hardens!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Libraries". UK Public Libraries is a Key Link.)

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