Welcome
to the world of John Robinson the Umpteenth of Upminster

see copyright notice. Page created 2-Jul-2015 updated 20-Jul-2026. Use the button groups above to navigate quickly around the site.

Much as I loved my parents, I do wish they'd given me a more distinctive name! To clarify: I'm the John Robinson who was schooled at Engayne, Brentwood and Cambridge; worked at the BBC, Goldsmiths' and King's Colleges; walks everywhere, takes lots of pictures, and likes big old computers. You can read more about me on the 3 pages of this CV. To complete the profile (and just so that everyone knows): I'm British, male, single, heterosexual and omnivorous (and determined never to be denied the pleasure of eating well-reared and skilfully-cooked meat). I respect all religious beliefs, but personally hold sacred only the balance of nature – howsoever it came about – which I believe to be catastrophically threatened by burgeoning human numbers. Best stop there, before the profile morphs into a mission statement! Oh, and another thing: I can't be bothered with "political correctness".

This website first appeared in 2000 (as www.genre.fsnet.co.uk). Most of the popular pages are still here, with lots of new stuff and more to come. If you're looking for specific content, the site map will locate it faster than the navigation buttons! Throughout the site, red text and red-bordered images are links. I welcome all constructive comments and enquiries via the contact page.

Quick links to popular pages

Sloe Gin recipe
How to make the liqueur (and what to do with the leftovers)

Virtual Paper Tape Reader
Decodes (and encodes) images of punched paper tape

Photos of mammals
Squirrels and foxes are here, with links to many other photo galleries

Digital clocks
and lots more from my electronic projects museum

My working years
in BBC Engineering Designs and elsewhere (part of a 3-page CV)

Site map
A complete list of the 75+ feature pages on this site

Recent changes (latest first)

New 21-May-2026
Dalek dreams
A childhood ambition achieved at last!

Updated 11-Dec-2025
Christmas cards 2020...
2025 design added

Updated 26-Aug-2025
Sloe Gin recipe
Sloe Port suggestion for re-using leftover sloes

Updated 10-Jun-2025
Map-it-Yourself
UI redesigned for a smartphone

(johnr's occasional bloguette)

Reduced imbibitions

20-Jul-2026: You know how it is. You open a bottle of wine, and have two-and-a-bit glasses with the evening meal. Next day, the bottle reappears, gently murmuring "drink me". Same again, only this time it doesn't seem worth keeping the "dregs" – so you finish it up.

It's taken me the best part of a lifetime to devise a solution: don't put the bottle on the table. My new regime is to pour out one large (250ml) glass to accompany a meal, then return the bottle to a cupboard, safely out of sight and reach. So far this year, every bottle of wine has lasted three days...

So long – wave goodbye

9-Jul-2026: Yet another electronic device made redundant by "progress".

I made this headset for a cricket-mad friend 30-odd years ago. It does but one job, namely receiving Radio 4 on 198kHz longwave, where cricket commentary was once available country-wide. It took a long hot day at The Oval to convince me of the need for such a live feed, to provide clues about what was happening somewhere in the far distance, on a pitch obscured from view by hordes of partying "spectators".

Alas, the longwave transmitter at Droitwich has fallen silent, and so too has my contraption. Such a shame, I was quite proud of the design from a technical aspect; it uses a single ZN416E IC, powered by a single AA cell. There are no controls; power is applied via a microswitch that's clicked on by flexion of the headband when the device is put on the head. I must admit though, it was apt to fall off again if the wearer's deportment was anything less than perfect!

Towards Net Zero?

22-May-2026: "Eat more oily fish" the health experts told us. So we did. And inevitably stocks, if not the fish themselves, are going belly up.

First to disappear were those familiar red cans of pilchards. Once a reliable kitchen staple – as cheap as, er, chips – they vanished some time around the end of 2024; overfishing and climate change are cited among the reasons. I'm tempted to keep my last surviving can beyond its BBE date (12/2027) in case it becomes a collector's item!

I duly adapted my fast-fish recipes to use canned mackerel. But now Waitrose is phasing that out too, and I daresay other retailers will have to follow suit as supplies dwindle. Sardines to the rescue? I hear they're also under threat...

To my mind that just leaves salmon, wild and farmed. Heaven forbid we end up with nothing but the latter.

Fulfilling funnel

15-Jan-2026: Solved: How to fill a 175ml bottle with zero spillage!

Along with giant elastic bands and tie-wraps, plastic miniature (50ml) spirit bottles are widely available at no cost – just scan the pavements and verges of any busy street. Having thoroughly cleaned one of these, I used a junior hacksaw to slice off the base and threaded top, leaving something resembling a baby's dummy ("pacifier"). I carefully rotated the thin end of this in the stream of hot air above a gas hob burner, until the plastic showed the first signs of softening. Pressing it immediately into the rim of a (threaded) 175ml glass bottle created a re-usable funnel with a perfectly moulded fit.

Pukka yucca sucker

11-Dec-2025: Another Christmas, another regenerating plant!.

In September 2023, I decided that my ancient Yucca house plant was nearing the end of its natural life. It had been cut back at least twice to encourage new growth, but the latest buds weren't making much progress so I cut two of them off and potted them up; they're both doing much better now as new plants. As for the parent – which I think left Marks and Spencer more than 40 years ago – I threw it onto the compost heap expecting it to rot down gracefully.

Two and a bit years on, here's proof that you can't keep a good yucca down. Now I just need to work out how to get that offshoot safely into a new pot!

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