I just read this article and not that I am in any way pro the Olympics, but I think that it will be good for Southend's ambition to become a top cycling town.  By the way Hadleigh is where we sometime go to see the animals.

My parents received a postcard on Friday from Alisdair - it's only taken about 6 weeks to arrive! Anyway it clearly shows that he was having a fantastic time in Bulgaria and I know it has made everyone feel much better.

The original title for Alisdair's poem that Rory wrote in his post was "Soup Kitchen" and not AA which is an abbreviation for Alcoholics Anonymous.

Alisdair opened the Muswell Hill Soup Kitchen in 1994. The Soup Kitchen is still a great success. He wrote the poem more recently.

A Poem by Alisdair McPherson

The sun streams through the trees
Like candlelight dancing across the table

Leafs and twigs
snap and crunch
Like pretzels between my teeth

My dog barks
breaking a silent tranquility
that grow strong in my heart

I feel calm and free
as I
Walk in the woods

Alisdair loved the forest in Bansko. He felt happy and free there and had made friends with a wolf. He told me he was alone, but not lonely. He could always talk to people when he went to the nearby Hotel for hot chocolate or a meal or snack.

I wrote the text below on 23 June 2008. I have now come to terms with Alisdair's death, although I do miss him - I will leave the post as I wrote it.

My brother died on his own, in an apartment complex on the outskirts of Bansko, Bulgaria sometime in the last few days (probably 18 June - I found out on 22 June) just before his 40th birthday which would have been on 6 July.

Today and tomorrow is Southend's annual airshow. I just popped out to take a few photos of the Red Arrows. This is about the best photo - I think I need a more powerful zoom lens. The weather was much better than the weather forecast, I just hope it stays like it for our holiday...

Here is a copy of an article in the Southend Echo. This is of interest to those of you who have stayed at the Roslin which is on the sea front at the bottom of our road. I am not sure of the long term prospects for the hotel. Regis don't have a very good reputation, see here.

One of Southend's premier hotels has been sold for a figure believed to be in excess of £2million.

Keith Oliver and his family, who owned the Roslin, on Thorpe Esplanade, Thorpe Bay, sold the three-star hotel after running it for more than 30 years.

The 49-bedroom hotel features the 65-seat Mulberry Restaurant.

The buyer is one of Southend's largest property owning companies, Regis Lodgings, which is part of the Regis Group, based in Warrior Square.

Paul Seager, a spokesman for Regis Group, said: "We are pleased to be committing a management team to immediately take over and continue running the Roslin as a hotel and we are currently putting together a substantial refurbishment plan."

Mike Gray, managing director of Dedman Property Services, which handled the sale, said: "I am delighted the hotel has been sold to a company which will continue to run it as it has been run and is aiming to make improvements to the existing facilities.

"The new owners have already put in place a new management team who will continue to run the hotel and continue to honour all existing bookings."

Mr Gray said the Roslin would continue to cater for both holiday-makers and business customers and expansion in the future was a possibility.

I have just been reading about teleworking at 50 or so McDonald's outlets in the US (see NY Times article). This seems to me to be yet another way to keep labour costs down, whilst putting the employees under maximum scrutiny - and I mean a high level of surveillance. These guys have to click on a small red box on the screen in 1.75 seconds or they are deemed to be underperforming.

This is most certainly Big Brother watching you. The use of this technology is likely to spread to this side of the Atlantic in the next couple of years - I reckon some CEOs will love the level of control it gives them, but at what social cost?