New York, New York!

Was bored last night so spent a couple of hours cutting some of our holiday pics together - enjoy :) By the way - the shots of me look dorky as I was totally out of it with flu!

Circular Polarising Filter

I bought a polarising filter for my Canon 50mm f/1.8 so that I can cut down glare in water/glass shots. The filter screws on to the end of the lens and allows you to rotate the plain of the polarisation by simply turning the end of the filter. You can see the reduced glare on the test shot below when compared to the original.

Ravenswood

Walking around Tesco the other day and spotted a firm favourite - Ravenswood. We went to see these guys at Sanoma/Napa when we were in California with L&P.

MINI Nav updated to 29.1

Thanks to T for the info - Nav OS 29.1 was released and I duely flashed the MINI to it. No real difference noted - apparently it speeds up the route planning a little.

Chicken's feet.... :-/

It had to be done. We were in Oriental City (A5, London) and the menu had several chicken feet dishes on it. So - figured I'd give it a go. It was a bit like sucking skin off a wrinkly old thing, not the nicest. Tasted ok though...

K's Smart Roadster Brabus Xclusive...grrrrrr!

K got her new car today and I must say - I am very very jealous. It looks stunning. It sounds awesome. It has sooo many toys. I have only taken it for a very short drive so far but it is great fun. I know a lot of you voted via sms regarding colour but I have to say that black is by far the sexier choice!

New TIKI atire....

I am proud to present the new 'Spring Collection' from 'House of Tiki'. This collection comprises of comfortable bar-wear with stunning Tiki prints. Fantastic! A big thanks for M&R who sourced this all the way from California - there's a cocktail behind the bar with your names on it :)

K's new car...

K is getting her new car this weekend - a black Smart Roadster Brabus Xclusive edition. We found a 55 plate car from Smart of Ipswich. It has only 10k miles on it and on top of all the normal spec (see below) it has a iPod connector and cup/cd holder added too. K also got a TomTom710 for it - making me just a little jelous!

Specification includes: ABS, ESP, Traction Control, Hill-Start, elec-windows, elec-roof with auto open/close, elec heated mirrors, 6-speed semi-auto box with paddle shift and full auto-mode with gearshift mounted start button, sound-pack, power steering, brabus monoblock alloys and full bodykit, full leather interior with heated sports seats, air-con, boost and temp guages, xeon lights, arm-rest and a whole load of other nice little touches. All that and a 100bhp turbo engine that returns 40-50mpg :)

The pic below is just an example - K's, being the Xclusive model, also has full exterior colour coding.

A's housewarming

I had not forgot to blog - but have only just had time to get the images off my camera. Last weekend we went to A's housewarming. Watched the rugby, drank LOTS of Guiness (it was St. Patrick's day) and ate the first BBQ of the year. All round a fantastic experience - until we started betting who could eat the most pringles in one go....

Doing my bit for charity...

I thought I should do my annual bit for charity. So, I bought a new iPod.

At this point you may not be entirely following me so let me explain. The 'Product Red' 8GB iPod Nano that I have just purchased is special. Special in such a way that Apple gives some money to the 'Product Red' charity for every special edition purchased. That money then goes to help some people in some sort of way. The best bit is that it costs the same as the normal iPod. See?

Anyway, according to K it has turned up already (I am away on business at the moment). I had the back enscribed with the following web address: tinyurl.com/y5u9k7 in case I loose it.

My First HD-DVD

So, we finally got round to watching our one and only HD-DVD last night - Firewall staring Harrison Ford. Good film but I am not overly enthusiastic about the HD part. Sure, the film was sharper and had much MUCH more detail. However, I realised that with a good film, as you get sucked into the story, you stop noticing the details and instead concentrate on the characters and plot. I'm glad I got the HD player but I am not going to be replacing my entire film stock with the HD equivalent any time soon :)

K does porn!!!!

Came home to find a somewhat amused wife yesterday. She'd been asked by one of her clients to do a small bit of Swedish proof-reading. Problem is, they explained ever so slightly embarrassed, it is a porn film. Don't worry though - you won't have to watch the actual film! Not sure how I feel about having a wife in the porn industry ;)

New Laptop :)

I have just been given the ok to order a new work laptop :) This is very good news. my current laptop is now over 3 years old and, despite running, is very slow to do anything. This was worsened by installing SQL2005 :)

I went for a Dell of course:

Dell Latitude D620
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz
Nvidia Quadro NVS 110 256MB
2GB 667MHz DDR2 RAM
100GB 7200rpm S-ATA HDD
14.1" 1400x900 screen
8x DVD+/-RW Drive
Dell Wifi a/b/g
Dell Bluetooth
Fingerprint Reader built in...

Should be here in a couple of weeks :)

18 Degrees! TIKI TIKI TIKI

Well, true to her word, K allowed the grand opening of the Tiki Bar for 2007 after the temp hit 18 degrees. A and J joined us for the evening and thanks to A's generous donation we all had bar stools this year. Drinks for the evening were varied but included cosmopolitans, martinis and even a bikini (and beer of course). Thankfully we had installed an IR heater and blankets - although the day was fairly mild the evening can only be described as ***** cold! I also tried my new barman's head torch allowing me to mix perfect cocktails despite the dark.

The BIG question...?

Well - with the weather warming up and the sun breaking through I know there is only ONE QUESTION on all your minds. One simple request, the answer to which will change life as you know it....

When is the TIKI BAR opening?

Well, officially K has sanctioned that once the temperature breaks through 18C it is official opening time. Me - well, I am more relaxed. As soon as it is warm enough to stand outside and not die of hyperthermia then I am doing the only decent thing and manning the bar! TIKI TIKI TIKI!!! :)

I blame Mr. C...

I've just had the worst dry Gin Martini ever - and I blame Mr. C entirely. You see, until a year or so ago I had never tried a Martini - well, not a proper one. Then one evening Mr. C came over and suggested this new sophisticated drink. 'I like them dry', he said, 'Winston Churchill dry'. I later discovered that by this he means with as much gin and as little vermouth as posible - a taste, it turns out, that is very much to my liking also. The problem then turned out to be finding a hotel bar where the word dry is understood. I like to joke 'just show it the vermouth but don't add any' and usually I am understood. However, tonight in Nottingham I forgot to add my usual caveat to the order and as such I was given a 'normal' Martini. Note the (air) quotes there as a normal Martini is usually something like 2 parts gin to 1 vermouth - a combination to which I wholey dislike and fully proclaim as far from normal as one can get. Anyway, I digress, back to the story at hand... The barman added what I can only presume by taste to be equal parts gin and vermouth and served me a drink tasting so sweet and sickly as to be almost unrecognisable - pfah! It was at this point I realised that my tastes have been spoilt - my expectations pushed far too high - my liking for a normal Martini lost for ever. As such came the stark realisation that I have only Mr. C to blame - when you are shown champagne you will never be satisfied with mere water...

I LVOE TIHS!!!

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

J and S go running..... (mad)

We went to watch S and J finish their 10K run today up at Knebworth Park. We are still not entirely sure what convinced them to go running in the mud on a wet Sunday afternoon but they looked pleased to have finished all the same.

Eclipse of the Moon

Last night J, A and I stood in the garden for an hour and watched the Moon eclipse. I tried to get some photos but by the time I have blown them up enough the very small movement of the moon during the exposure blurred them all a bit. Still, it was an awesome sight - the Moon turning orange as the eclipse happened.