Sonisphere

Yay - Sonisphere starts tomorrow and I'm ready!  Me and two others are heading up for a weekend of heavy metal and rock.  Highlights include Iron Maiden, Therapy, Alice in Chains, Alice Cooper, Skunk Anansie and Pendulum.  I am looking forward to a full weekend of beer and music :)

A bug behind my monitor :(

With all this hot weather there are thunder-bugs all over the place - one managed to get behind my computer screen - just hope he doesn't die there and stay like a dead-pixel forever :(

ST350041 8AS

I had a rare occurance 2 weeks back - one of the 500GB drives in my Home Server failed.  Seeing as it was less than 3 years old I sent it back to Seagate - who duely replaced it with a new one.  Just installed and all back and running - thanks Seagate!

Flip Mino HD 2nd Generation

I finally cracked and bought a FLIP.  The new MINO HD 2nd Gen came out.  It does 720p, good low light and will record 2 hours of footage - all for £130.  Only problem so far is that it takes AGES to charge the battery - was wondering if it was DOA for a bit!

Salomon XA Pro 3D GTX

The VERY NICE guys at Salomon made my week.  Nearly a year back I bought a pair of Salomon shoes whilst in Sweden (it was snowing).  They've been great but despite light use one of the internal seams split and a hole soon appeared in the inner liner.  Depsite buying from a different country and not having the receipt - the guys at Salomon UK took the shoes and a credit card bill and happily offered a replacement.  The ones I bought were out of stock so they offered me my pick as replacement.  I now have this fantastic goretex pair which came after only one week.  THANKS SALOMON - THAT *IS* CUSTOMER SERVICE! *****

Xbox360s

I've been waiting for the new hardware revision Xbox360 to be launched - and on Friday it did.  So, I popped by and got one on my way to work.  It is smaller, lighter and has more I/O than the last revision and is much quieter in opperation.  Let's hope it doesn't suffer from RROD :)

Knight Bike Rider - Insomnia at Bedgebury 2010

It's getting near the time of year again when Mountain Biking gets a lot more fun (and muddy).  Last year I went on the first every BHF Insomnia Night Race in Bedgebury, Kent.  We raised over £1500 and had a great time.  So, I've decided to do it again this year.  I hope they'll be four of us again - riding throughout the night.  Am also hoping to get some of the guys at work to come along.  This year it is on Sep 18/19.

Please pop over and sponsor me at http://original.justgiving.com/knightbikerider/

New Sony Vaio P Series

The new Mk2 version of the Sony P-Series is about to be released.  I'm selling my white P11Z in anticipation but am wondering which model to replace it with.  I definately want black this time (see pic) but the 2.13GHz model is pretty exepensive and the 1.8GH model doesn't have the US15X chipset....  I think the VPCP11Z9E/B is the only option!

Star Wars in ASCII art

You'll need a cmd line telnet client: telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

TIMBER!

I took Friday off work and spent 10 hours cutting trees with R.  It was a very long and hot day - but we felled all 9 in the end - exhausted!

iOS4

Downloading iPhone OS4 for my Touch at the moment - it says there are 100 new features - wonder how many I'll notice :)

UPDATE: took *forever* but is quite nice!

C&L's Wedding

Am currently recovering from yesterday - C&L got married at the Priory Barns in Little Wymondley - and we went along to be part of their special day.  Highlights include the band, the food, the drinks and of course, the company :)  We finally made it home around 00:30 and J finally left for his home at around 04:30 ;)  Pics linked in title...

Tiki on 2

Last night we officially celebrated the opening of the second floor at work.  V and I organised a TIKI themed house-warming party and invited the company along for cocktails.  I made a margarita and a daiquiri despite my sugar syrup, lime and triple-sec order being cancelled.  It was a good night - pics linked in title...

Lightroom3

Adobe Lightroom 3 is out - it offers some nice extras such as improved noise filters, flickr integration and lens correction.  I hope to get it installed over the weekend: http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshoplightroom/

Update: it came, installed with no problems and auto updated the LR2 catalog.  I then uninstalled LR2 with no issues.  LR3 seems much faster (especially to start).

Still Painting...

We've been here nearly two months now - and the house is starting to come together.  There's still a lot of work to do though (I've just finished a 08:30 to 19:30 painting stint!).  I do however have my study in place at last with a nice shiny new black desk.  Only problem is that my brown leather chair no longer fits :(

UE46C8000

Another busy weekend of housework.  We painted the lounge, the study and half the upstairs floors.  I also moved all the audio equipment to the server room into a rack.  We had a few luxuries though - firstly we ordered our new firelpace and secondly we got this 46" monster :)  It has skype, can be controlled from an iPod and looks gorgeous!

iPad 64GB

I knew it - we went to have a look and walked away having bought one.  We got the dock and case too  - along with AppleCare.  It's downstairs sync'ing and charging as we speak.... more photos linked in title.

Singapore - Day 5

My last day in Singapore - and a national holiday.  Woke up late - 11ish - after getting back form last night's awards at 04:00 (thanks Martin!).  Packed and checked out.  Spent the rest of the afternoon with Jus being shown around Arab Street, Little India and various other places.  Did some shopping including gifts and an iron (don't ask).  Flight was at 23:30 so lots of time to kill - went gadget browsing (saw the New Sony Vaio P-Series - WANT) and had Thai for dinner.  Long flight back next to most fidgety girl in the world - paid her back by snoring.  Back in the UK at 06:00 Sat morning.... am now quite tired but what a brilliant trip - can't wait to return.

Singapore - Day 4

Woke up today and made my way into the office for 08:30.  A busy day ticking off as many tasks as I could, followed by a 2 hour meeting to discuss Implementation and then a VC back to the UK.  Left work at 18:30 and headed back to the hotel for a shower.  At 19:00 I made my way to the top floor (Equinox) where the company had booked a private dining room for the first Singapore Annual Awards.  There was a massive buffet waiting with some fantastic food - followed by speeches and awards.  Afterwards we went to the New Asia bar and drank champaign until midnight.  A few of us then sauntered off to some of Singapore's bars and clubs for a few more before bed.

Singapore - Day 3

My third day in Singapore started with breakfast in the hotel.  Work was fairly busy culminating in a 3 hour QA meetings to discuss their processes.  Lunch was spent in a restaurant that hosted many smaller food suppliers.  I chose to eat a chili and ginger chicken with rice dish from the aptly named 'economical rice' store.  It was lovely - right up to the point where I ate one of the chilis - crikey - they were hot.  So, for the first time in Singapore it was not the heat and humidity making me perspire!  Work finished around 19:00 and I returned to the hotel to change and get ready for the evening.  Whilst there I was captivated by the massive thunder storm crossing the north of the island.  The lightning was fantastic - mostly air-to-air in great sky-filling forks and occasionally crashing down to the ground in massive, bright-orange streaks.  It turns out that this is very hard to photograph!  I then spent a very entertaining evening with the manager of the Singapore office at a wonderful Chinese restaurant where we dined on crab and I ate my first every bird's nest - for real!

Singapore - Day 2

Breakfast at the hotel and into work.  A full day of communications to the rest of the team out here - and some time with the Dev guys to see what they do.  Lunch was at a local favourite - 'Chicken and Rice' with deserts at a Bean Curd shop (thankfully air conditioned - the midday heat is overwhelming in a shirt and trousers).  I left the office around 19:30 and headed North to Singapore's Night Safari.  Here I spent nearly 3 hours walking around thick jungle looking at all sorts of fantastic animals (more pics linked in title - although difficult to get as no flash allowed and it was really dark).  On many occasions I found myself alone, in the dark with only the noise of the jungle around me - just brilliant!  I then jumped in a taxi and headed to the Raffles Hotel - to the Long Bar - for a Singapore Sling at its birthplace.  Expensive at S$29.75 (around £15).  After this I met up with a college and we went to a local bar to drink some cold beer and watch a rock covers band.  An awesome day!

Singapore - Day 1

Left London on Sunday night around 22:00.  The A380 flight over was fantastic - very quiet and plenty of room.  Managed a couple of hours sleep too.  Singapore is HOT - very HOT - and HUMID - very HUMID!  Checked into the hotel and was upgraded to a suite - on the top floor - very nice!  There are some great views over the city (the one here is sunrise this morning).  Popped into the office for a few hours to check emails and catch up and then went for some food and beers with M - culminating with a drink on the 71st floor overlooking the city at night.  A great way to be introduced to Singapore!

Roomba 580

My (just under year old) iRobot Roomba 560 went back for repairs a couple of months ago due to a failed gearbox.  It was fixed but came back not quite right.  So - off it went to Germany again for investigation.  This time it didn't return - instead, in its place, iRobot sent me a top-of-the-range 580 :)  I was sooo happy :)

Super-Scanner gadget cat-flap!

New house - new doors - new cat flap needed.  Now, you know me, wanted something different and gadgety.  Well the 'SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap' is just that sort of thing.  I know what you are thinking - nothing new - cat has chip in collar, gets let through door.  Well - NO - this *IS* different.  It uses the RFID chip already embedded in the cats (the ones we had surgically implanted when they were young) so they cannot lose them - awesome!  Link in title...

Upstairs - clean!

Another hard weekend of housework.  We manage to clean and paint the walls of the spare room, clean the study and paint the floor.  I also got around to laying some Cat5 to start to network the house.  This now means that after a month of living here the upstiars is completely clean!  This is not becuase we have been lazy but should give you an idea of how filthy the house was when we moved in,

We also let the cats out for the first time today - they've been in for 4 weeks.  Max took ages to venture out - Rasmus not so.  Sat went well, but on Sun they both dissapeared for hours - making it back just before dark!  At least they seem to know where they live though so all in all it was a success.