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Hilton Stockholm Slussen

This week I’ve been staying at the Hilton Stockholm Slussen. In fact it’s the only Hilton in Stockholm.

I’ve been very impressed. There is an “Environmental Statement” 12-page booklet in your room which tells you how much the hotel has done to help the environment. So I can tell you that, for example, energy consumption in 2005 fell to 78% of the amount used in 2003. Similarly, water consumption in 2005 was only 70% of the amount used in 2003. Since they started “sorting waste” (that’s recycling to you and me) in mid-1997 they have reduced waste by 76%.

Having said all that, the thing which impressed me most was the room key. In most hotels this is a credit-card size plastic card with a magnetic strip down one side. The Hilton have something similar, but it’s made from “Nordic birch”:

The Hilton wooden key card obverse.

And here’s the back:

The Hilton wooden key card reverse.

The room itself is quite woody:

Room interior at the Hilton Stockholm Slussen.

And the bathroom is simply marvellous:

Bathroom at the Hilton Stockholm Slussen

Gosh, how cool is Flickr?

One evening I ended up at a busy restaurant (the Restaurang Aktiebolaget Kvarnen) looking for a table for one. After a few minutes at the bar, the waiter asked me and another chap at the bar if we’d mind sharing at table. So I had a pleasant evening chatting to a Swedish man. The food was excellent. I had “SOS” to start, which was 4 different kinds of herring with boiled potatoes and 2 kinds of cheese. The main course was almost like a reindeer stew, it’s on the bill as “Renskavspanna”. It was all excellent and I heartily recommend it :-)

So, to sum up, I really like Stockholm. It’s a really interesting place composed mainly of lots of islands, the people are really friendly and speak good English too. The only snag is that everything is expensive. Thank goodness I’m on expenses :-)

Posted 22 October 2008 † drjan § dr jan's tip from the top § holidays § lounging ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , , , ,

Mega!

As you may know, the prefix mega- is abbreviated with an upper case ‘M’. So, for example, 5 megabytes can be written as 5MB. A single megabyte is either 1,000,000 or 1,048,576 bytes.

From the Wikipedia:

In computing, mega- can sometimes denote 1,048,576 (220) of information units (example: a megabyte, a megaword), but can denote 1,000,000 (106) of other quantities, for example, transfer rates: 1 megabit/s = 1,000,000 bit/s.

The prefix mebi- has been suggested as a prefix for 220 to avoid ambiguity, but is yet to be widely used.

So, rather cheekily, disk drive manufacturers always use megabyte to mean 1,000,000 bytes, which makes their drives appear larger. A 500MB drive will have 500,000,000 bytes, or about 4.8 mebibytes.

Conversely, the milli- prefix denotes thousandths (10-3) and has the abbreviation lower case ‘m’. 5mA refers to 5 milliamps, or 5 thousandths of an amp. Amps get an upper-case ‘A’ because they’re named after Andre-Marie Ampere.

Under no circumstances should you confuse the two! It annoys me when I see computers advertised with 512mb of memory. 512 millibytes is just over half a byte. OK, it’s fairly obvious in this case that they meant to use ‘512MB’, but all it says to me is they either didn’t know or, worse, didn’t care about the difference between mega- and milli-.

Incidentally, a byte originally referred to a collection of bits, but in these modern times everyone seems to have agreed that a byte is made up of exactly 8 bits. Somewhat amusingly, half a byte or 4 bits can be referred to as a nybble. Beyond that, 2 bits are a morsel, although I’ve never really heard that used in real life.

So, 512mb is just over a nybble :-)

UPDATE: Oh my goodness, it gets worse! It turns out that upper case ‘B’ refers to bytes, lower case ‘b’ is for bits. Which means that 512mb is 512 millibits, or just over half a bit!

Damn! How can I rant about people confusing M with m when I’m confusing B with b myself? :-)

As always, it’s a learning experience ;-)

Posted 18 October 2008 † drjan § Uncategorized § computers § english ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

Weight Loss Continues

I’m pleased to report that last Tuesday’s weigh-in revealed that I have lost 2.5 pounds since the last time. This means that I’ve now lost 2 stones or 28 pounds. That’s 12.7Kg in the new money :-)

Given that I started at 20 stones and 1 pound, I’ve lost 10% of my initial weight, near as dammit.

To celebrate, here’s the weight loss graph.

Posted 17 October 2008 † drjan § weight loss ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

The Proms

Last year we went to six proms concerts at the Albert hall, including the legendary Last Night of The Proms.

This year we didn’t go to any at all, which I’m starting to feel was a grave error.

I finally got around to watching a recording of The Last Night on the telly and it’s made me realise that I’ve really missed not going this year.

Remind me not to be so short-sighted next year please :-)

Posted 02 October 2008 † drjan § music ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , ,

The RFH, LPO and Stravinsky

Last night I went to the Royal Festival Hall in the South Bank Centre to see the London Philharmonic Orchestra perform Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”.

It was excellent! I went with Michael and Ricky, and we had a box to ourselves. Boxes are definitely the best way to see a concert :-)

The programme was:-

  • Vaughan Williams: Symphony 8 in D minor
  • Turnage: Mambo, Blues and Tarantella - Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (world première)
  • Ligeti: Atmosphères
  • Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

I really enjoyed the whole evening. Michael was impressed with the Stravinsky - it also featured in the Proms this year, played by the New York Philharmonic, but I’m told they didn’t make a very good job of it.

Posted 25 September 2008 † drjan § music ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Prague Hotels (Again!)

I recently spent a week in Prague at the Intercontinental Hotel. Unfortunately, their swimming pool was closed for maintenance for the entire week. However, they arranged for a hotel car to take guests (for free) along to the Hilton where we were able to use their pool and spa facilities. When I finished, I just asked the Hilton concierge to call the Intercontinental so they could send a car to pick me up. Now that’s what I call service :-)

I have stayed at the Hilton previously, so this gave me a good opportunity to compare and contrast the two establishments.

First, let me talk about the rooms. The standard rooms at the Intercontinental are far superior to those at the Hilton. If you have a Hilton Gold Card or some other means of upgrading to an Executive room then you are approaching the quality of the Intercontinental standard rooms. I’ve never stayed in an Executive room at the Intercontinental, so I can’t comment on them. I seem to remember that the Marriott rooms were similar but slightly better than those in the Hilton - basically great if you get an upgrade, otherwise good.

Having said that, the public spaces in the Hilton are just much nicer. Because the Hilton is so huge (8 floors with over 100 rooms per floor on the non-executive levels) there is a lot of space available. The building is fundamentally square, with the rooms arranged around the edges and a huge atrium in the centre. So there is lots of room available for the lounge, which is actually on a mezzanine floor above the breakfast restaurant. By contrast, the Intercontinental is somewhat more limited in terms of available square footage. Don’t get me wrong, the Intercontinental is very good. But the Hilton is better.

After my swim I stopped by the lounge for dinner and it was superb. Everything about it was excellent; the service, the food (both choice and quality) and the ambience were all exceptional.

In other hotel related news, just to confuse matters, there is a new Hilton in town, the Hilton Prague Old Town. This is what used to be the Renaissance, just opposite the Marriott hotel. I visited the new Hilton in Prague Old Town briefly, and what I saw was a big improvement on the old Renaissance as was. The main restaurant is the Gordon Ramsay Maze restaurant, so it seemed rude not to have lunch there :-) I had a BLT sandwich, which was rather fine :-)

Prague Hotels have appeared previously on Twin Peaks.

Posted 11 September 2008 † drjan § afternoon tea § holidays § lounging § travel ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , , ,

Tea in Milan

If you should happen to find yourself in Milan, near Milanofiori (home of the International Congress Centre, a Jolly Hotel and a shopping centre amongst other things, but fundamentally Central Nowheresville) and you fancy a good cup of tea, you could do much worse than visit Adriano at the Black&Noir café. You’ll find him at entrance C2 - tell him Mr Tea sent you :-)

Posted 07 September 2008 † drjan § afternoon tea § travel ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

Big Martyn’s Big Cruise

Big Martyn has started on his Mega Cruise. Hurrah! I’m pleased to report there’s a daily update from the man himself on his new blog:

http://bigmartyn.blogspot.com/

By the way, did I mention I lost another 3 and a half pounds last week? Check it out!

Posted 12 August 2008 † drjan § canals and boating § holidays § travel § weight loss ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , ,

Another Pound and a Half

This week I’ve lost another pound and a half of weight, bringing the total to 16 lbs. I’m down to 18 stone and 13 lbs.

Posted 09 July 2008 † drjan § weight loss ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

Less Weight

OK, this week I lost 4 pounds, which means my total so far is 14½ lbs.That’s more than a stone in the old money :-)

Because I’ve lost a stone, the Weight Watchers Leader gave me a stone! Frankly, I think the new one is far more attractive :-)

I was concerned because I haven’t done nearly as much exercise this week, although I was able to control what I was eating far more effectively. This is mainly because we stayed at home this weekend, so we didn’t have to eat out :-)

01/07/2008

The weight loss graph is here :-)

Posted 01 July 2008 † drjan § weight loss ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,