Broken Tail Gears

Second flight - stripped the tail gears out - making flying a bit dizzy... Luckily this was a 10 min fix - have to order some spares now :)

Walkera 4G6S First run

So - here it is spinning up for the first time. Nothing dramatic and I am taking it very slow! Made a couple of hops... but no serious flight yet... to be honest - am not sure if it is set up properly yet - have lots of reading to do!

Walkera 4G6S - RC Helicopter

Been wanting a rc heli for several years - but the technology just wasn't able to provide what I wanted. Well, at last I found something suitable after reading a Wired ad. It's small, electric, fully articulated and way WAY less than the £1200 I was looking at a few years back. I got a pack with 5 spare blade sets and bought some training gear :)

Tree Disaster!

Disaster - it appears a tree has fallen over and crashed through our fence at the back of the house.... Luckily there appears to be nothing hurt other than the fence panel. Am now wondering how to remove said tree without causing any more damage...

New Android Blogger App

Thought I'd test it...

Wallpaper

So - we got rid of the large white wall by making it a feature wall with contrasting wallpaper. Once the white sofa turns up it should look pretty cool... I hate wallpapering btw!

New sofa

Finally found a sofa that we both like and will accomodate Roomba and cats. The actual one will be here in 8 to 12 weeks and will be ice white!

Thomsons Conference Brighton

Have just been to Brighton for two days for the annual Thomsons conference. This one was themed 'back to the future', hence the Robocop costume for the Fri night party - more pics linked in title. Awesome time, some great speakers, some good strategy pieces and a LOT of fun :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Wow - 2010 has been a fantastic year. New job, new house and some new friends to boot! We celebrated over dinner with a few friends, much champagne and some very nice port (and a large firework - see link in title). Here's to 2011!

Google Nexus S

Picked up my Nexus S today - fantastic phone but never used Android before so am learning as I go along.... tips/hints?

Sweden

Mac Air 11

Whilst waiting in T5 for our delayed flight to Sweden I bought a small impulse purchase... a Mac Air 11".  Well, I was fed up waiting for the Sony P to get any good (and the Sony store didn't have any in stock!!).  Nice little netbook actually - not sure about OSX but no choice but to live with it for a few days as the Win7 disks are at home...

Padstow

K and I have just returned from a short visit to Padstow to collect Grandma for Xmas. We braved the snow - and missed all the closed motorways! Padstow was quite sunny and had no snow - due to the weather in the rest of the UK it was also deserted.  We took advantage of the situation by grabbing a table at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant where we dined on lobster :)

Mom's Birthday/Xmas

K and I braved the snowstorms to make it to Mom's for her Birthday (and early Xmas) celebrations. The snow was getting worse and worse as we travelled to her - by the time we were there it was a complete white-out with 6" on the ground. Somehow we managed to make it back out the following morning - good little car the Merc :)

Xmas Tree

Our Xmas tree went up today - much more room in this house so we can have a bigger tree than normal.  Also decorated the rest of the rooms - very Xmasy now!

Thomsons Ball

WOW - what a night. Thomsons had their 10-year anniversary ball and K and I were invited. We were put up in the Royal Gardens Hotel for the night but the ball itself was at the Natural History museum - which was lit up pink :) The night started with Champagne and got better and better. Some great entertainment and excellent company. It was all over far too soon.... but not to worry - we found a club afterwards and then trapsed back to another hotel. My evening ended around 05:30. BRILLIANT!

Loft Insulation

With the recent cold (very cold) weather we've been looking at how to make the house more efficient.  Have applied for a cavity wall survey (should be able to get a Government 50% grant) and also ordered more loft insulation via an offer from nPower: http://www.npower.com/web/diyloftinsulation/index.htm

Bathroom Designing

Starting to get the hang of this - here's a first draft of the bathroom.  Can't get it to look exactly as I want it - but gives me an idea of layout.  What you can't see is the moisture proof TV, in-ceiling audio, underfloor heating and auto LED mirrors :)

Kitchen Designing

K and I have been trying to design a new kitchen for the house.  It's an awkward space but this seems to work...  Features include servo drawers, a quooker, fridge that does ice for cocktails and eye level ovens :)

London

I've been training on the 27th floor of Portland House (Victoria). It has a great view over the City (when there is no fog). Took my camera in for a few snaps...

Pioneer VSX-920-K

I wasn't particularly looking for a new amp - but an ad in WIRED caught my eye - controllable with an iPhone app!  Currently I have the TV, AppleTV and Sky+ being controllable from the iPhone/iPad/iPod but the amp is missing and therefore needs a RF-repeater (which sticks out of the wall and violates K's minimalist pricipals).

I found a store nearby to work (HiFi Confidential) with one in stock that would price match and ended up carrying it back on the Tube (14KG box in rush hour!).

The amp is good - key features are auto-speaker setup with an included mic, the iPhone app and built in internet radio (we can get Swedish stations).  However, I cannot figure out the best way to use the HDMI Control and the HDMI switching is quite slow.  Sounds great though - more warm than my old Sony kit.

Coventry

K and I went to Cov this weekend to see M. Whilst there we went to a charity gig at a hotel in Birmingham. The hotel was....well....a little Fawlty Towers. I managed to knock a pint over my 7D (thank god it is weather sealed). Fantastic Sunday lunch today though...

HiSpek Electronics - LowSpek Customer Service!

I am in the market for a new AV amplifier - and have my eye on the Pioneer VSX-920-K (more later in this blog).  In my usual way I went about researching on the internet to find the best price and was suprised/delighted to find a store very near me in St Albans with 'internet' prices - HiSpek Electronics.  I called first thing in the morning to check they had one in stock that I could look at and was told they did :)

So, K and I drove to HiSpek - cash in pocket - ready to return home with the amp.

At this point it all went wrong from a customer service point of view...

Firstly the chap seeing me told me that actually I could not have a demo. When asked why he said it would take an hour to swap the cables over. AN HOUR! I enquired why so long for 6 speaker cables and an HDMI – something I could surely do in under 5 minutes. He then changed tack and told me that it was due to the complex wiring situation. YOU DEMO WIRING IS SO BAD IT TAKES AN HOUR TO SWAP AN AMP! He then hit home with the fact that his manager would not let him change an amp on the weekends. I looked around at a mostly empty shop – maybe 6 or 7 customers including us and we were the only people in the demo room looking at AV equipment. I explained that I work in London during the week and therefore could not attend at the weekend. He refused to budge.
At this point I left HiSpek, furious and vowing to buy elsewhere as a matter of principle.


I sent them a note the following day expressing my frustration in the hope that they might at least acknowledge the problem - but no, not even the smallest of apologies.
 
So - be warned - trying to buy locally might not always be the best solution... back to the internet!

Exposure Joystick Mk5

Finally I've joined the 'joystick' club - this light is awesome and with the helmet mount will give superb visibility when night riding. The Mk5 is 30% brighter but burns just as long as the previous models.

It comes with a nice padded case too - more pics linked in title...

Halloween

Bwahahahahahahaha!