From Cambridge News Online

Fifty firefighters tackle warehouse blaze

Around 50 firefighters tackled the blaze after crews were called to the former John Lewis warehouse on Mill Road shortly before 1.15am today.

The flames are now contained but are still burning, and firefighters remain on the scene.

The warehouse is owned by the Muslim Academic Trust, in partnership with the Cambridge Muslim Welfare Society, who had intended to demolish to make way for a new mosque.

It is now thought the fire could require it to be demolished immediately.

Alexander McCombie, who worked at the John Lewis warehouse for 17 years, said: “It is sad to see it end up like this. I don’t know what on earth might have caused it.

“It will have to come down now. The fire has gone all the way through. If you go to the back there is a hole in the wall and I can see a steel girder is bent.

“It must have been a wee bit hot.”

Families living on Mill Road have been describing the scene that unfolded in the early hours.

One, John Smith, said: “I heard the engines arrive, and you could see the fire glowing out of the top, but the firefighters seemed like they had it all under control.”

Another, who asked not to be named, said: “We managed to sleep through the initial part of it. Then I saw flashes behind the curtains. I looked out and saw orange smoke coming out of the building.

“It seemed to me the firefighters were very professional and it was extremely organised.

“It seemed to take quite a long time to get it under control. The only thing that worried me at one point was that it might spread to the garage next door.”

During the blaze, staff at nearby Brookfields Hospital were told to keep doors and windows closed.

Mill Road is closed is shut in both directions between Perne Road and Coleridge Road, and motorists have been advised to expect lengthy delays or to find alternative routes.

A diversion is in place using using Coleridge Road, Cherry Hinton Road, and Perne Road, but pedestrians and cyclists can still use Mill Road.

Once firefighters are able to enter the building they will carry out a full site search and launch an investigation.

After about a half an hour of them shining the spotlight on the next street over and in our window they took off.  Good thing too, at only around 500pounds an hour+ to operate they must have thought half an hour was enough to suss out whatever hooligan they were after.  Seems a bit unfair to me, kind of like spotlighting for deer.

And the recipe (courtesy of Ukrop’s):

Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (4 oz/113g) margarine or butter, softened
• 1 cup (8 oz/225g) sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups (8.8 oz/250g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3 medium-large over-ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup (2 oz/57g) chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. With electric mixer on medium speed, cream margarine or butter with sugar until thoroughly creamed. If you don’t have a mixer, you can do it by hand without too much trouble. Add eggs, one at a time; mix until well blended. Sift the next 5 ingredients together; add to creamed mixture, alternating with mashed bananas. Stir in nuts. Do not overmix. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan about 8 1/2 x 4 1/2. Bake for 55 to 60 miutes or until just done. Do not overbake. Allow bread to cool completely in pan before slicing. Yields 1 loaf.

The conference was well worth going to with lots of economists from different areas of infrastructure research and regulation. It was difficult for the financial crisis not to feature strongly in discussions of future infrastructure investment; and speculation about the next US president’s role in shaping climate policy abounded. One of the best presentations I went to was by a researcher from the University of Maryland on investments in low-carbon energy research and development in the US; best not only for the content but also for his presentation style. I think a lot of academics really need to learn that less is more with slides. I’ve been getting better at making my presentations more effective (with a little help from my talented husband) but I’d like to learn more and keep putting it in to practice.

My presentation (on smart metering and electricity demand) went pretty well. I was very nervous but I don’t think I let it inhibit me too much. I’m always so much more confident and relaxed during the question and answer session for some reason. You’d think it would be the other way around really. I don’t know what it is but it’s almost as if I’m not even the one talking during the presentation and I suddenly snap out of it and get back to being myself when people start asking me questions. Weird. It was also my first official outing as a Haney, well Brophy Haney to be precise but the Brophy part ended up in small print on my name badge.

Rebecca very kindly let me have the run of her apartment while I was in Berlin. She was off gallivanting in DC until Sunday and I kept myself busy with the conference until then anyway. She lives in a very central part of town, Prenzlauer Berg, and it was so easy to get around by tram, train and bus. What a public transport system; so much to learn from the Germans. I did a good bit of walking around on Friday morning and all day Sunday but have very few photos to show for it. I just wanted to get a feel for the city and how it all fits together really. There’s just so much to think about in every corner of the city and so much recent history to absorb, it’s just incredible.

I fell in love with Ampelmann, the traffic light man found all over East Berlin. They were going to replace him with his boring counterpart from the West after the Wall came down, until a passionate grass roots campaign stood up for him and turned him into quite the little icon (now also featured on our fridge). Rebecca brought me to a Tajikistani tea room on Sunday evening and we indulged ourselves in a Russian tea ceremony for two complete with shots of vodka. It was just great to catch up and relax after such a busy and tiring few days at the conference. I can’t wait to get back over there, next time with Ryan and for fun only not business.

Only last week I saw a note that FOWA needed volunteers.  The only other conference I’ve ever been to was one a couple of years ago, and I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed myself at that one and I thought maybe getting involved would be a little more exciting.  I think it was, but I also thought the people at this conference had a little bit more to say.

So for most of the conference I sat in the back helping out with the video production.  Not a bad way to go, I got to see most all the sessions I wanted to see and got to work with some great guys.  You can see a picture of Piyush and I hanging out by the camera stand in the second picture.

Not only did I get to hang out in London for a few days but also got to spend some time chilling with Clare (of the Clare and Greg duo, not to be confused with Claire and James our other friends).  It was really nice as a lot of Aoife’s friends I know from going out the odd time we’re in Dublin but rarely do I get to talk to them one on one and get to know them.  Thanks Clare for your hospitality, hope I wasn’t too much of a hassle taking over your living room.

After two days of hard work I came back to Cambridge yesterday and crashed pretty hard.  It looks like it’s going to be a fairly hard week ahead as well with lots going on.  I’m trying to finish a couple of things and also start building on Jake’s site which I’m really getting excited about.  It will be good to catch up with Aoife tomorrow and we might try to go out and use one of our wedding presents this week which was a gift certificate to a nice restaurant in town.

You can check out what I thought was one of the best talks and one of the sessions I helped film (I use this word loosely, by film I mean I pushed record and changed data cards when needed) with on Simon Wardley’s engaging talk titled “Innovation, the future and why nothing is ever simple.”

Credit: Thanks to tö for putting the photos up on flickr.

It was the first wedding we’ve been to since our own and the first time we’ve been back to visit mum and dad as husband and wife. I still can’t help smiling every time I refer to myself as Ryan’s wife or to Ryan as my husband. Mum and dad celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary the same weekend and more than any other year I admire their commitment to each other and the energy and youth still at the very heart of their relationship.

It was great to see Claire and James this weekend.  Homemade pizza, open-toed shoes, wedding talk, Teri-Aki and the flapping wing dance (clip to come) were a few of the highlights.

That’s where our super duper, incredibly sturdy,  wonderfully eye-catching bike trailer comes in! Daniel and Alicia (our very good friends from Richmond), thank you for making our lives not only so much easier but just far more entertaining all round with this fantastic wedding gift. We made a little video of the grand return from our first shopping adventure with the trailer to share with everyone; we really should make another video of us taking the trailer around the supermarket with us because that’s where we really come into our own. I have to say it draws a fair amount of attention but mostly the good kind and mostly from little kids. We’ve also transported a surprising amount of furniture, a couple of pretty big duvets and a large picture frame without too many hitches.

So ends the first in our series of wedding present profiles. We will be writing more over the next few weeks about each and every one of them and no doubt there will be more bike trailer tales to tell very soon.

P.S. The video will be up a little later today hopefully - technical difficulties.

Mum made it over for a long weekend in the middle of July and it was great to get to spend some time together relaxing, biking and punting around Cambridge. It was the first time any of us had ever punted on the river before; we got off to a bit of a slow start thanks to the lack of any advice from the punting pros in the rental place but we soon caught on and made it up to Granchester meadows, just south of the city, for a very tasty picnic.

We took the opportunity while mum was here to have a bit of a housewarming party; it was also the smoker’s debut but I’ll let Ryan tell you more about his pride and joy once he’s finished slaving over our website. Let me just say though that you haven’t lived until you’ve tasted pulled pork from a homemade smoking machine.  A nice piece of fish will be next I suspect.

Ashley, Allison and Kelly stayed with us on stage 2 of their first big European adventure (stage 1: Dublin; stage 3:  Amsterdam).  Ashley and Ryan worked together in Domino’s a few summers ago and they’ve kept in touch ever since. Not only did the girls taste the sumptuous pork while they were here (leftovers, I worship you), they relished in our snail feast (snails fresh from the back garden, prepped in the cosiest of snail homes) and got to see plenty of Cambridge and London too. Snails will be back on the menu very soon girls so plan your next trip over accordingly.

Our crazy triathlete friends Clare and Greg drove down from Edinburgh for the weekend and ended up staying for the week we were all enjoying ourselves so much. More punting, bike riding along the river Cam, a visit to Ely Cathedral and lots of good eating were the main highlights. Oh and in between all that, Clare interviewed for two jobs in London and was offered both of them straight away. Nice one Clare (go Eurostuds!). There’s also some serious talk of us all going to see the Tour de France together in a camper next year - watch this space.

We have one day left with a very special little visitor who has taken to the couch and our laps like a duck to water. April, our neighbour’s cat, is adorable; she’s blind as a bat but it doesn’t stop her from getting in to every little nook and cranny of our kitchen and living room. Her brother Tiger, beautiful and very elegant, occasionally stops by to say hello but he’s a bit on the cantakerous side and has a tendency to wander off for days at a time. April just wants to be held and loved; and we’ve been very happy to do just that.

What a mix of visitors. Anyone else fancy a sojourn in Cambridge?