It's hot and muggy and after a busy morning what do you want more than a beer? Well, the joys of working at home mean I can :) Ok ok, actually it is the last alcohol free Cobra we have in the fridge and I topped it up with lemonade to make a shandy - will leave the real beer until tonight...
Lately I have been in Bath - a lovely town but with an infestation of Pigs! Almost every other corner had a decorated pig on it. Most strange...
On Sat night we travelled to Trader Vics (under the Park Lane Hilton) to celebrate L's birthday. The food was great but the cocktails were even better. More photos linked in the title...
Poor K - driving home from work the other day she hit a pothole and trashed one of her wheels. She is not very happy. The alloy alone will cost £346.63, and then there's the tyre, the tracking to be corrected and this is presuming that there is no damage to the suspension. A stiff letter to Herts Highways is en route for compensation! you pay your car tax and do not expect roads to kill your car in return...
Update - total cost to fix is just under £700!
After years of wanting one - I finally got myself a Breitling! OK OK - it's a cheap knock-off from China - but it looks good...
We were at Smart Hertford today for the kick-off to the 2008 Brooklands run when I spotted this in their delivery area. One of the first new shape A-Classes. A quick chat with a salesman later and K and I had a sit in it and a look around. Cannot wait for mine in Sept now :)
I can't believe it - 08:25 this morning my new phone turned up - usually it is 16:30 before I get a delivery. Anyway - behold - the new shiney HTC Touch Diamond. Would love to tell you how cool it is but I must charge the battery for 3 hours before turning it on :( More pics linked in the title...
Update: it rocks!
I have a new toy arriving tomorrow - an HTC Touch Diamond bought from Clove Technology. Not at all excited :)
My latest order of goodies came through today - four 2GB CF cards for the camera. I figure alongside my current 4GB card I should have enough to shoot all of Egypt without having to upload to a computer en-route.
I chose multiple smaller cards over one larger one after hearing a pro tip. This way if I lose a card or it breaks I don't lose all my holiday pics in one go...
So, a couple of weeks ago Apple announced movies in the UK for the ATV (Apple TV). This weekend I thought I'd test it so I bought a non HD movie (Juno) and rented a full HD 5.1 movie (The Mummy). Juno took about 30 mins to download whilst The Mummy took nearer a couple of hours. Both movies were good qaulity but I noticed jitters a few times on fast moving scenes. There were not too many compression artifacts and the sound was good. The rental lasts for 30 days but once you play it you only have 48 hours to finish it. The purchased one backloaded to my PC and is mine to keep forever. Overall I am prety impressed - Blockbusters watch out!
K got a bass this weekend - awesome! A nice shiney perl white Ibanez (she has taste!). So far, in two days she has mastered an REM song and is busy - as we speak - bashing out some riffs from a book she is self teaching herself from.
She got herslef a GSR200. It is nice and light and has a small pre-amp built in to give an overdrive sound.
On the amp side she went for a Marshall MB15 which has a built in compressor too.
I like coffee - not just like - I like coffee A LOT. So, it has surprised me that it has taken me this long to buy an espresso machine. We had a half-hearted attempt for some time but it was never quite right. So, this lunchtime I went out and got a proper one. The De 'Longhi EC300S is a pump driven machine with removable water container, single or double sized filter, steam pump with seperate thermostat and best of all can take either pods or freshly ground beans. It is a nice shape and easy to clean - hopefully K won't mind it in the kitchen (she has yet to realise we own it). Just made my first espresso with it and it seems great - only small problem is the noise and vibration it makes!!
I have my results for the year, for Agile Project Management I received an A2 and for Comms and Leadership I received a B1. So, total scores so far after 4 of the 8 modules are 3 As and 1 B. Bit annoyed about the B but the course did not spark my imagination in the same way the other 3 did.
The lovely people at Virgin Media have shipped me a new modem (came this afternoon) which allows me to get 10Mb/s - even better is that it is a free upgrade from my 4Mb/s - nice!
I finally found it - a near as perfect Indiana Jones hat. Now I am ready for Egypt :)
I was shot by A2Zoom studios for the Parish Council yesterday. Great little studio and a VERY nice 1Ds MkIII :)
K and I went to Hertford last night to the Safer Neighbourhoods Awards. As a heat winner I had been invited to receive a certificate. The evening started with drinks and then the ceremony - which went on and on. I reckon of those on Neighbourhood watch I was at least half the age of the rest! Afterwards we left and had Thai which was much more entertaining - although it felt wrong to be there without Linda :)
