I got hit!

I was dropping K off in St Ablans this morning (she has a contract there for a few days) and was waiting at a roundabout when I got clipped from behind. Worst of all the driver didn't even stop and I was pinned in traffic. Luckily there is no damage - in fact I cannot believe it, not even a scratch - major good points for the MINI. I am not sure if I should tell the police about this - technically it was a road incident with the other driver leaving the scene. However, with no damage is it realy worth the hassle... Anyway - if you see a light-blue Peugeot 206SE AJ53 WCG driving around beware!!!! I hope they scratched their front bumper :)

UPDATE: I reported it to the Police after advice. My worry would be if the other car sustained some damage and reported it and if I were then to not report it it may look bad on my behalf. I hope the other driver gets a kncok on the door from the law and has to explain!

More photos....

I am having great fun with me new EOS400D. I read the manual cover to cover and as such am starting to understand a bit more about apperture and how it relates to depth of field, etc. Am now waiting for a nice clear sky to do a 30s exposure to see if I can see the stars :)

Canon EOS 400D Digital-SLR

A came over on Fri night and bought his new SLR with him. K quite liked this - so much so that she marched me to the local camera shop to get one for ourselves. So, one new Canon EOS 400D later (and a long lens, 4GB CF card, bag and extended warranty) I am once again immersed in gadgets. I have spent all afternoon playing with the various settings and have come to the conclusion that I need classes or something. Awesome bit of kit though...

MCTS SQL2005

As of yesterday afternoon I am now a MCTS SQL 2005 (Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist). The exam took over 2 hours and was the hardest MS exam I have sat to date. Still, I passed with over 75% giving me a comfortable margin. I am now MCP MCSE MCDBA MCTS - nice! :)

MINI hits 30k miles

It actualy happened a few days back but I only just got the pics from K's phone. 30,000 miles in 14 months - I dirve a fair bit :) Interesting things to note - still on first set of tyres, car has not cost a penny yet, it's still as much fun as when it was new. I quite like this MINI :)

Xmas lights

K told me to take the xmas lights off the tv. She didn't say anything about where to put them. I found a good place for them :)

Neighbourhood Watch

One of the things I managed to catch up on during my recent week off was some neighbourhood watch work. Thanks to knebworth.org we now have a website - have a look http://knebworth.org/knw

New (new) MINI

J and I were invited to the new MINI launch - that's the *new* new MINI. We both got to drive the Cooper and CooperS back to back. The new S feels fantastic, the Cooper a little sluggish - although this could be due to the limited miles on the engine. Overall though we both fealt that the cost-cutting was a bit too evident. The cheap plastics down the centre consol and tacky switch gear spoil the whole car whilst little details like the seat not lowering as much and the mirrors being odd shaped should not have ben allowed to slip through. I am certainly in no rush to upgrade and might even try to hang out until the mid-cycle face lift in a few years.

New hair...

Not satisfied with the shaving of the beard I managed to pluck enough courage to get my hair cut also. Strayed from the usual military style and went, for the first time, with something a little more up to date... I like it!

Secret webcam discovered :(

It turns out that my 'secret' webcam appears to have been discovered...

Rick Stein

Went to one of Rick Stein's restaurants last night with Grandma (am in Padstow). Managed to get hold of a couple of bottles of his new beer (launched last week). It is actually very nice - tastes like 4% but is actually 6.8%!! Not only that but Rick himself was at a table at the other end of the room - looks just like he does on telly :)

I am an Uncle

I got a call last night from K (I am away on business) to let me know that I had become an Uncle. My brother-in-law and wife (M&C) had just had a boy. So - mega congratulations to them, as far as I know all went well and everyone is fine. This just leaves me to contemplate what the meaning of being an Uncle is (I am starting to feel old I think).

Spangly TV :)

K made the mistake of leaving me alone for 10 mins with xmas lights to hand....one decorated TV later :) - I like it!

No more beard...

I fancied a change so I shaved my beard off.... Of course, I went through the usual several stages of novelty beard looks en-route :)

Cambridge

K and I went to Cambridge today - hard to believe that we have lived so close for 4 years and never gone! We parked up in Park Street and walked around the pedestrianised parts. Lovely architecture - loads of nice shops and lots of places to eat. We also found two markets and several of the colleges. Nice day out.

UKC Alumni Forum

My University has launched an Alumni forum - http://www.kent.ac.uk/alumni/forums/

SQL2005 MCTS

Ufff - my brain hurts! I have set myself two challenges by xmas. The first is to get my head around a new(ish) web publishing platform we have developed at work. It involves an understanding of XSLT along with a bespoke editorial application. The second is to attain my MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist) on SQL2005. I have an exam voucher for the latter that runs out late Dec. However, I have found an exam centre just down the road which will allow me to book with 24 hours notice. So - my plan is to get the MCTS out of the way asap leaving me a clear run at XSLT coding. Today was my first uninterupted day of studying - something I have not really done since Uni and my brain feels squished as a result. Beer!

Pumpkin soup

With the help of two pupkins (see below) I made some pumpkin soup yesterday for lunch. Actually, it was pumpkin, coconut and chilli soup - sounds strage but tasted quite nice. J and S came for lunch and I even managed to restrain myself from adding my usual ammount of chillis :)

R says I never blog about him....

R was winging at the pub this evening about how I blog about everyone except him...so, well, here is a blog about R. We love you R!!!!

A moves to Knebworth!

We heard yesterday that a good friend of ours (named A for the purposes of this blog) has bought a house just down the road from us. Not sure who was more excited - A for doing the buying or J for having another beer partner :) Anyway - surveys aside he should be resident by xmas - woohoo!

New V1605 - 4th one :)

I received my 4th (yes - 4) V1605 today. It is a long story but basically the first one I had was faulty and was replaced. The second was dropped and as I had a trade show to go to where I needed it to demo I had to buy a third. The second made it for repair and was lost by Vodafone. They then replaced this with a fourth which turned up this morning. As such I now have number 4 on ebay hoping to sell it to make up my loss from when I bought number 3. Confused?

Pics below show what NOT to do to your new and expensive gadget!

It's my birthday!

You know when you are a geek when you get more automated 'happy birthday' messages from web bulletin boards than you do your friends :)

Had a great weekend though with lots of drinks cumulating with 4 of us in the Embassy playing Perudo until 04:00. Got a very cool t-shirt (see below) and a wide angle lens for my camcorder (see demo below). Managed to make the entire weekend without waking up in the kitchen once which is nice. The last year of my 20s doesn't feel any different yet but I am wondering what things I need to get done in the next 12 months...

Evolution of beauty

Saw this on youtube and thought it was pretty good....

iPod has hiccups...

I have been noticing lately that my podcasts have hiccups. Every few minutes they seems to garble or stutter for about 1 second. If I rewind the podcast and replay it the garbling does not re-occur. This has happened since I updated to the 1.2 version of the iPod firmware which came with iTunes 7. A bit of digging found this apple discussion detailing the problem. Have not had a chance to try the 'spoken word' EQ setting yet but will do as I am not overly happy downgrading to V1.1. Fingers crossed...

Update - the EQ setting works and my podcasts sound nice and clear again. I also found that by disabling shuffle on the iPod I can once again hear the podcasts back to back. Seems this new firmware was no so great...

Aston Martin Day

As reported earlier in this blog I won a competition for a day with Aston Martin and their Vanquish S supercar. I had to fly to Amsterdam on Mon for IFRA (see below post) but managed to catch a last minute flight back to allow me to accept the prize....

The day started with breakfast at the Aston Martin factory - full VIP treatment was given to me and the other 3 winners. In fact, this was the first time they have done this - until now the ONLY way to do what I was doing was to actually buy an Vanquish S (a mere £177,000 before options). Breakfast was followed by a brief introduction to Aston Martin by their PR guy whilst we were waiting for the race drivers to get ready. After this we split into 2 groups of two and I was assigned to drive in the morning and visist the factory in the afternoon.

I opted for the perlescant white Vanquish S and we set off towards Milbrooke proving grounds. Once there I spent two hours driving and learning about the Vanquish S. Highlights were many but included a 67m 100-0mph brake test, being told to try and keep in under 120mph through the puddles, 135mph forcing Porches out of the way and to top it all driving several miles with no hands at 100mph in the rain steering the car with the throttle round the banked circuit!!!!!

After the best 2 hours driving of my life we went back to the factory for lunch (again VIP treatment) and spent the rest of the afternoon seeing how the Vanquish S is built - fascinating! We also had a chance to look around the Heritage restoration works were we saw Paul McCartney's old DB5 and the DB5 that had just come back from 007 Casino Royale filming :)

Best driving day of my life yet - thanks Aston Martin!