The good Mrs Mungo and I were very excited about watching the total lunar eclipse this evening. Only to find out that it was this morning...
This is totally normal as far as our astronomy goes.
Tuesday 21 December 2010
Monday 20 December 2010
The Perils of Technology
My fondness for my book reader was diminished slightly last week when it let me down in a way that old fashioned paper books simply couldn't and turned itself off with a flat battery - just as I was about to get on the train. Disaster!
Now obviously I am aware that it is a battery powered device and so I check every night before I go to bed and see if it needs charging. It had been claiming two bars of battery for a very long time, long enough in fact that I was beginning to wonder if something was up. I was still a bit distressing though when it decided that the battery was in fact empty. I used to carry a small rechargeable battery with me for just such emergencies, but that had long given up the ghost. So I was stuck. Or was I?
There was a guy sitting opposite me with a laptop and I briefly pondered whipping out my charging cable and plugging it in to one of the USB ports of 5v goodness he was wantonly flaunting. But only for a second or two. After all, he would have got all sorts of pop up messages telling him a device had connected, so it would hardly have been discreet.
It's another one of those modern ethical dilemmas. Is it OK to borrow a bit of someones electricity if it means you won't be bored on a train? Should I have just asked him?
Now obviously I am aware that it is a battery powered device and so I check every night before I go to bed and see if it needs charging. It had been claiming two bars of battery for a very long time, long enough in fact that I was beginning to wonder if something was up. I was still a bit distressing though when it decided that the battery was in fact empty. I used to carry a small rechargeable battery with me for just such emergencies, but that had long given up the ghost. So I was stuck. Or was I?
There was a guy sitting opposite me with a laptop and I briefly pondered whipping out my charging cable and plugging it in to one of the USB ports of 5v goodness he was wantonly flaunting. But only for a second or two. After all, he would have got all sorts of pop up messages telling him a device had connected, so it would hardly have been discreet.
It's another one of those modern ethical dilemmas. Is it OK to borrow a bit of someones electricity if it means you won't be bored on a train? Should I have just asked him?
Wednesday 15 December 2010
He's Back Where He Belongs
Once again, Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo has reclaimed his rightful place in our downstairs toilet, which can only mean one thing - I've eaten enough fibre during the year.
I've Got Amazing Powers of...
...Inattention.
And that is how I know
When you tell me
You'll put a bathroom cabinet on the wall
I won't notice it's way too big to fit.
Roger Waters eat your heart out.
So, yes. I was rather surprised to realise after two design meetings to discuss our proposed new bathroom that the spot selected for the bathroom cabinet was only about half as wide as the cabinet itself and the designer had made a mistake with the measurements. That's despite using that room twice a day (at least) for the last ten years.
Oh well.
And that is how I know
When you tell me
You'll put a bathroom cabinet on the wall
I won't notice it's way too big to fit.
Roger Waters eat your heart out.
So, yes. I was rather surprised to realise after two design meetings to discuss our proposed new bathroom that the spot selected for the bathroom cabinet was only about half as wide as the cabinet itself and the designer had made a mistake with the measurements. That's despite using that room twice a day (at least) for the last ten years.
Oh well.
National Cheeseware Service
OK, I admit, it's the National Chefsware Service, I just saw the van out of the corner of my eye and misread it. However, as you can see, the logo clearly shows two gentlemen carrying large wheels of cheese. For a few delicious seconds I wondered what cheeseware actually was and whether you could eat it after you'd finished wearing it. Ahh well.Edit: Thanks to Kevin for pointing out that Cheeseware would be the vegetarian alternative to this.
Monday 13 December 2010
Another Unhelpful Announcement
The excuses proffered by SW Trains hit a new low recently. After my train slowed to a crawl and then stopped for around 10 minutes just past Weybridge the driver eventually announced that we would be arriving late "due to slow running at Weybridge."
Thanks for the information, South West Trains, keep up the good work.
Thanks for the information, South West Trains, keep up the good work.
Cultural Differences
I know it's a bit of cliche about the US and the UK being more different culturally than you might expect, but every now and again I run into something that really brings it home to me. A week or so back while I was in New York I realised I had forgotten to pack any toothpaste and popped into a chemist to get some. My usual toothpaste is American, so I didn't think I'd have any trouble finding it. I was wrong. While browsing (fruitlessly) through the vast section of dental hygiene products on sale, something struck me. The vast majority of the toothpaste boxes didn't mention anywhere that they were actually any good at cleaning teeth or reducing cavities, all they touted was how white they could make your teeth. One brand even going so far as to proclaim that it now had twice as much bleach as before!* This is in stark contrast to the UK where we naively seem to think that people clean their teeth to stop them falling out and only smokers need to worry about anything else.
Clearly we still have a lot to learn.
*I was pretty tired and dopey so it may not have actually used the word "bleach" but the point remains valid.
Clearly we still have a lot to learn.
*I was pretty tired and dopey so it may not have actually used the word "bleach" but the point remains valid.
Thursday 25 November 2010
Sceptically Up To Date
Finally, after a marathon 372 hours (assuming 80 mins per episode) I have finally worked my way through all 279 of the excellent Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcasts. I started listening to them in the car when I was driving to Carpetright in Purfleet (a 125 mile daily round trip on the notorious M25) way back in July 09, and had been trying to cram as many episodes into my day as I could ever since.
I've really enjoyed it and learned a lot of interesting science facts and sceptical thinking tips. The only bad thing is now I'll only have one a week to listen to.
I've really enjoyed it and learned a lot of interesting science facts and sceptical thinking tips. The only bad thing is now I'll only have one a week to listen to.
Wednesday 24 November 2010
Post Flood
Yes, it's a post flood. This is what's been on my mind this month, but I didn't quite get round to writing about at the time.
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
Ned's Special Lemon Ale
At last the Holy Grail of ales has been found, which is to say, one that doesn't taste like beer. My clever brother produced a delightful Lemon Ale which is nothing like beer in the slightest and very lemony indeed. In fact it's very like Two Dogs although perhaps not quite as sour (which is a good thing I hasten to add.) Now I'm not sure if his intention was to go quite so far down the isn't remotely like beer route, but I'm glad he did. Sadly no photo, but just imagine a brown bottle with no label and the letter "L" hand written on the cap with a marker pen. Surely, you might think, such a great ale should have an equally impressive bottle to clothe it, but no, for is it not written that the Ale Messiah will be humble and glorious? No, it isn't... Well, I suppose given the preceding sentence that's not entirely true as I very much did just write that. But it's not written anywhere apart from here.
So well done Ned. Keep 'em coming.
So well done Ned. Keep 'em coming.
Commuter Fight Club
I've noticed over the last few months of commuting several incidents which almost became violent and one which actually did when a late middle aged gentleman, well, man had a fight with a young lady.
Now, it was a slightly unusual situation, we were on a small train that was totally packed, to the point that people were standing in the aisle between the rows of seats and the more open section by the doors was also full of people standing. The man in question was leading a procession of people who had obviously boarded the first carriage just as the train was leaving and who were in the process of walking through the train looking (fruitlessly no doubt) for a seat. The procession was halted when they came upon all the people already standing in the aisle. The man stood there for a bit, realised his quest was doomed and settled himself in the corridor. This wasn't good enough for the lady though and after a bit of huffing and sighing designed to indicate no doubt that she wanted to keep walking, eventually tapped the man on the shoulder and asked him to move. He, not unreasonably, pointed out that given the aisle was full of people and that there wasn't really anywhere for her to go (besides which given that it's only slightly more than one person wide, unless he sat on someones lap there wasn't much chance of her squeezing past even if there was somewhere for her to go.)
This wasn't good enough for the lady however, and she announced, rather aggressively I must say, that if he didn't move she would move him. So at this point of course it became a lot more interesting (and I wished I'd been videoing it!) He made some comment to the effect that he'd like to see her try, so she did! She launched a massive shove into his back, but he'd cunningly braced himself on the seats so nothing much happened. This just made the lady even more mad. There was a bit more shoving while the man tried to do his best impression of a traffic bollard. Unfortunately, seeing the kerfuffle, the people ahead in the doorway squeezed together a bit more, giving the people in the aisle room to shuffle forward so the procession started moving again. But just after they got going the man unexpectedly (and rather mean spiritedly) whipped round and shoved the lady hard, knocking her right off her feet and back into the person behind before turning and marching triumphantly on. Sadly, I never got to see what (if anything) happened after that.
Now generally I'd say the man didn't do anything wrong right up unto the point he needlessly pushed the lady back. He was right, there wasn't really anywhere to go and it wasn't his fault, the lady should really have just accepted it and been content to stay where she was but there was no need for him to push her over either.
So, what's the point of this? Well, I was wondering if the trains are designed in such a way that they somehow cause these kind of problems. I've seen another near fight between two guys sitting on a three seat bench over shoulder room. Again, it wasn't anyone's fault per se, it's just that the bench seats really aren't wide enough for three normal sized people to sit next to each other, although there was no need for the men to get quite so aggressive about it.
If you combine narrow aisles with narrow seats and too many people crammed too close together, are fights inevitable? If I've seen four incidents in four months, how many others are happening every day? Could it have been intentional? Perhaps there's a secret government plan to toughen up sedentary commuters by getting them to fight each other.
More importantly, has anyone thought of recording them?
Now, it was a slightly unusual situation, we were on a small train that was totally packed, to the point that people were standing in the aisle between the rows of seats and the more open section by the doors was also full of people standing. The man in question was leading a procession of people who had obviously boarded the first carriage just as the train was leaving and who were in the process of walking through the train looking (fruitlessly no doubt) for a seat. The procession was halted when they came upon all the people already standing in the aisle. The man stood there for a bit, realised his quest was doomed and settled himself in the corridor. This wasn't good enough for the lady though and after a bit of huffing and sighing designed to indicate no doubt that she wanted to keep walking, eventually tapped the man on the shoulder and asked him to move. He, not unreasonably, pointed out that given the aisle was full of people and that there wasn't really anywhere for her to go (besides which given that it's only slightly more than one person wide, unless he sat on someones lap there wasn't much chance of her squeezing past even if there was somewhere for her to go.)
This wasn't good enough for the lady however, and she announced, rather aggressively I must say, that if he didn't move she would move him. So at this point of course it became a lot more interesting (and I wished I'd been videoing it!) He made some comment to the effect that he'd like to see her try, so she did! She launched a massive shove into his back, but he'd cunningly braced himself on the seats so nothing much happened. This just made the lady even more mad. There was a bit more shoving while the man tried to do his best impression of a traffic bollard. Unfortunately, seeing the kerfuffle, the people ahead in the doorway squeezed together a bit more, giving the people in the aisle room to shuffle forward so the procession started moving again. But just after they got going the man unexpectedly (and rather mean spiritedly) whipped round and shoved the lady hard, knocking her right off her feet and back into the person behind before turning and marching triumphantly on. Sadly, I never got to see what (if anything) happened after that.
Now generally I'd say the man didn't do anything wrong right up unto the point he needlessly pushed the lady back. He was right, there wasn't really anywhere to go and it wasn't his fault, the lady should really have just accepted it and been content to stay where she was but there was no need for him to push her over either.
So, what's the point of this? Well, I was wondering if the trains are designed in such a way that they somehow cause these kind of problems. I've seen another near fight between two guys sitting on a three seat bench over shoulder room. Again, it wasn't anyone's fault per se, it's just that the bench seats really aren't wide enough for three normal sized people to sit next to each other, although there was no need for the men to get quite so aggressive about it.
If you combine narrow aisles with narrow seats and too many people crammed too close together, are fights inevitable? If I've seen four incidents in four months, how many others are happening every day? Could it have been intentional? Perhaps there's a secret government plan to toughen up sedentary commuters by getting them to fight each other.
More importantly, has anyone thought of recording them?
Unhelpful Public Announcements
I've been working up in London now for about four months and almost every day the train is slightly late. What normally happens is we get to Woking and then just sit there for five or ten minutes before setting off again. Inevitably the guard or driver will make an announcement apologising for the delay which is because we are "waiting at a red signal."
Now, is it just me or is that announcement totally useless? It tells you precisely nothing about why we are stopped or how long we're likely to be stopped for. They may as well have just say "We apologise for the delay, it's because we've not set off yet, we expect to remain here until we leave. Thank you."
Now, is it just me or is that announcement totally useless? It tells you precisely nothing about why we are stopped or how long we're likely to be stopped for. They may as well have just say "We apologise for the delay, it's because we've not set off yet, we expect to remain here until we leave. Thank you."
The Ethics of Shoulder Surfing
I confess, I'm an avid shoulder surfer. I always snatch a sneaky look at the newspapers being read by the people sitting around me. Partly because my local train station obviously isn't important enough to get a delivery of free papers, partly because newspapers on the whole are messy and annoying (black fingers, lovely) and partly because I just can.
I don't normally bother looking at people's laptops though, not because I have concerns about privacy but because on the whole looking at spreadsheets and the like is rather boring. Yesterday though I spent quite a while doing just that. I was watching a woman from Capgemini working on a spreadsheet which caught my eye because it was about data flows and integration. Yes, I find data flows and integration interesting, what of it? Anyway, as it turned out it was fairly boring, but while gawking I did notice that she'd made a systematic error in the spreadsheet. Nothing serious, in fact it was quite amusing, she was referring to American security behemoth Lockheed Martin as Lockhead Martin. At first I gave her the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe it was some sort of jokey internal project name, but then she flicked to a PowerPoint that quite clearly showed she'd just screwed it up.
So the dilemma is, should I have mentioned it? Or even better, should I have tried to get her to put Headlock Martin instead?
I don't normally bother looking at people's laptops though, not because I have concerns about privacy but because on the whole looking at spreadsheets and the like is rather boring. Yesterday though I spent quite a while doing just that. I was watching a woman from Capgemini working on a spreadsheet which caught my eye because it was about data flows and integration. Yes, I find data flows and integration interesting, what of it? Anyway, as it turned out it was fairly boring, but while gawking I did notice that she'd made a systematic error in the spreadsheet. Nothing serious, in fact it was quite amusing, she was referring to American security behemoth Lockheed Martin as Lockhead Martin. At first I gave her the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe it was some sort of jokey internal project name, but then she flicked to a PowerPoint that quite clearly showed she'd just screwed it up.
So the dilemma is, should I have mentioned it? Or even better, should I have tried to get her to put Headlock Martin instead?
Another Phoebicdote
Yes, yes, I know I said I wasn't going to post anecdotes about Phoebs, but this is more so I don't forget about it than anything else.
The Lovely Hej and I were both in the kitchen and Phoebe was on her own in the lounge, not in itself an unusual or undesirable situation, she's pretty good at keeping herself amused safely. She'd been quite quiet for a while though, which does usually set alarm bells ringing because it normally means she's up to no good. Suddenly there was a shout of "Weeeeeee" from the lounge. Hayley was closer so ran in to see what she was up to, and found her sitting on a toy catalogue open to a page with a large picture of a slide. It turns out she'd been trying to slide down the slide in the picture! By the sounds of it, she thought she'd succeeded too.
The Lovely Hej and I were both in the kitchen and Phoebe was on her own in the lounge, not in itself an unusual or undesirable situation, she's pretty good at keeping herself amused safely. She'd been quite quiet for a while though, which does usually set alarm bells ringing because it normally means she's up to no good. Suddenly there was a shout of "Weeeeeee" from the lounge. Hayley was closer so ran in to see what she was up to, and found her sitting on a toy catalogue open to a page with a large picture of a slide. It turns out she'd been trying to slide down the slide in the picture! By the sounds of it, she thought she'd succeeded too.
Friday 22 October 2010
Mind The...Fountain?
My journey to work on the tube was disrupted yet again, but this time for a rather unusual reason!
Friday 1 October 2010
A Beery Surprise
My favourite brother was kind enough to provide me with a bottle of Williams Brothers Ginger Beer. I found it quite surprising because I didn't like it much.
Previously I had assumed that the main reason I didn't like beer was because of the hops, but this drink has proven that's not entirely the case. Certainly I don't like the bitter hoppy taste but it turns out I also don't like the yeasty beeriness either. Well, given a complete lack of understanding around what beer taste is composed of, that's what I'm assuming. The label on the back of the bottle proudly proclaims that it's a ginger beer with a distinctly beery taste. And, well, it is. Unfortunately I don't like that much. My sous-taster, the lovely Hej, also took one sip and nearly spat it back into the glass so it's not just me. I did at least finish it but only because it would have been criminal waste not to.
Overall I'd give it a 2/10 - for emergencies only.
Tuesday 28 September 2010
A New Fave
I recently had the pleasure of drinking an amazing desert wine from Spain: Gran Barquero, Pedro Ximenez, Montilla. It's probably my new favourite. An extraordinarily sweet desert wine, which looks (it's dark brown) and tastes almost exactly like liquefied raisins. And it's quite cheap too.
What more could you ask for?
Monday 27 September 2010
Toddler Wisdom
Upon being presented with her home made knitted Easter chick, Phoebe was very thoughtful. She stared at it for a while before finally announcing "Chicken's got a jumper on."
Friday 17 September 2010
The Optimism of Arachnids
I know that spiders like to try, try, try again. They're famous for it. I saw one yesterday though that really shouldn't have bothered and also clearly wasn't paying attention at spider persistence school because it eventually realised that too.
It was amazingly trying to build a web between the ceiling of a train carriage (where it had a nice little hideaway in a ventilation duct) and the top corner of a commuter's newspaper - that he was reading! I missed how the spider managed to make it onto the newspaper in the first place, but it had managed to attach some sort of webby anchor point. Of course, every time the commuter turned the page the poor spider was flung off into space, being saved only by its silken safety harness. It kept climbing back up only to be repeatedly launched across the carriage. The commuter was completely oblivious the drama occurring on the other side of his paper. After about 20 minutes the spider eventually gave up and beat an undignified retreat back up to its ventilatory hideaway.
You've got to admire its optimism though, imagine looking down on a carriage full of people and thinking "You know what, that flapping newspaper looks like an ideal place to anchor my web." No I can't imagine that either, not because I'm not a spider and so neither live in ventilation ducts nor spin webs (although I don't) but because spiders presumably don't think in any way you or I would recognise. But you get the point.
It was amazingly trying to build a web between the ceiling of a train carriage (where it had a nice little hideaway in a ventilation duct) and the top corner of a commuter's newspaper - that he was reading! I missed how the spider managed to make it onto the newspaper in the first place, but it had managed to attach some sort of webby anchor point. Of course, every time the commuter turned the page the poor spider was flung off into space, being saved only by its silken safety harness. It kept climbing back up only to be repeatedly launched across the carriage. The commuter was completely oblivious the drama occurring on the other side of his paper. After about 20 minutes the spider eventually gave up and beat an undignified retreat back up to its ventilatory hideaway.
You've got to admire its optimism though, imagine looking down on a carriage full of people and thinking "You know what, that flapping newspaper looks like an ideal place to anchor my web." No I can't imagine that either, not because I'm not a spider and so neither live in ventilation ducts nor spin webs (although I don't) but because spiders presumably don't think in any way you or I would recognise. But you get the point.
Friday 13 August 2010
The Perseids
Remarkably there was only slight cloud cover last night as we gathered in the garden to gurn at the Perseid meteor shower. We even managed to see a couple!
The good Mrs Mungo and I have a rather dismal record when it comes to seeing astronomical events, having missed eclipses (both solar and lunar), meteor showers, aurora, black holes and flying saucers* due to the UK's rather unfortunately cloudy weather. For the first time in years we weren't denied. Might try again tonight and see if I can get a few snaps.
*OK, so not all of those are astronomical and not all of those are phenomena either.
The good Mrs Mungo and I have a rather dismal record when it comes to seeing astronomical events, having missed eclipses (both solar and lunar), meteor showers, aurora, black holes and flying saucers* due to the UK's rather unfortunately cloudy weather. For the first time in years we weren't denied. Might try again tonight and see if I can get a few snaps.
*OK, so not all of those are astronomical and not all of those are phenomena either.
Caveat Emptor
Just had my first epic Internet shopping fail. I bought a book through Amazon marketplace, which was swiftly dispatched. When I opened it, initially everything seemed fine, the cover was slightly damaged but it was a second hand book, so I wasn't too worried but then I noticed there was a chapter called David Lee Roth. "That's a little odd..." I thought. I was eating dinner so put the book down for a moment. I picked it up again and idly noticed that the inside front page of the book referenced Henry Rollins, then my eyes wandered up and I also idly noticed that the title of the book seemed to be "Do I come here often." These thoughts drifted round inside my head for a few moments before suddenly crashing together with a bang. "This isn't the bloody book I ordered!"
Now, you might think that would be the sort of thing that would leap out at you straight away but person or persons unknown had ripped the cover off the book I actually wanted and glued it over the cover of the Rollins book. They'd done a fairly decent job of it too, the Rollins book was almost exactly the same thickness and shape as the original book so to a casual glance there was nothing untoward.
I should add that I contacted the seller and they are dispatching another straight away. So that part at least is working properly.
Now, you might think that would be the sort of thing that would leap out at you straight away but person or persons unknown had ripped the cover off the book I actually wanted and glued it over the cover of the Rollins book. They'd done a fairly decent job of it too, the Rollins book was almost exactly the same thickness and shape as the original book so to a casual glance there was nothing untoward.
I should add that I contacted the seller and they are dispatching another straight away. So that part at least is working properly.
Monday 2 August 2010
Why Are Some People Annoying?
It doesn't happen often, but sometimes I just immediately dislike someone for no reason whatsoever. At my previous job I ended up working with a man I found amazingly annoying, even before he'd ever spoken to me. In the past I've just gone with it, but this time I thought I would try and understand why I felt this way about him, after all, I'd never met him and didn't know anything about him, so there shouldn't be any reason for me to feel that way.
Initially I made some discreet enquiries and found that other people felt the same way. So, at least I knew it wasn't just me. I decided to try and work out what it was about him that was so irritating, but nothing seemed to leap out. Now admittedly he did do some irritating things, the most annoying of which was sending me an email full of questions, despite sitting next to me, then immediately coming over and standing behind me and saying "I've sent you an email..." Then just staring at me while I waited for it to arrive, and read it, before thinking a bit and then answering him. So yes, that was annoying but crucially can't be counted here because I didn't know he did things like that when I first met him.
I never did work out what it was!
Initially I made some discreet enquiries and found that other people felt the same way. So, at least I knew it wasn't just me. I decided to try and work out what it was about him that was so irritating, but nothing seemed to leap out. Now admittedly he did do some irritating things, the most annoying of which was sending me an email full of questions, despite sitting next to me, then immediately coming over and standing behind me and saying "I've sent you an email..." Then just staring at me while I waited for it to arrive, and read it, before thinking a bit and then answering him. So yes, that was annoying but crucially can't be counted here because I didn't know he did things like that when I first met him.
I never did work out what it was!
Sunday 18 July 2010
Like the Proverbial...
One of the great joys in life is coming across an actual proverbial situation. I experienced such a joy this morning at the swimming pool*.
I suppose one of the hazards of going to a toddler session at the pool is, ahem, little accidents. Swim nappies are supposed to keep everything tightly wrapped up, but obviously today either someone suffered a containment failure or forgot to bring one. There we were, minding our own business in the pool when (cue the tuba) a small, but perfectly formed turd came floating towards us. We leaped into action and scarpered over the other side of the pool. But ten minutes later the damn thing was with us again. We kept moving and it kept following us, like some sort of germ laden brown dog. We finally managed to get away from it after about twenty minutes.
Let's just say, it wasn't very welcome.
*The proverb of course being "too many turds spoil the broth."
I suppose one of the hazards of going to a toddler session at the pool is, ahem, little accidents. Swim nappies are supposed to keep everything tightly wrapped up, but obviously today either someone suffered a containment failure or forgot to bring one. There we were, minding our own business in the pool when (cue the tuba) a small, but perfectly formed turd came floating towards us. We leaped into action and scarpered over the other side of the pool. But ten minutes later the damn thing was with us again. We kept moving and it kept following us, like some sort of germ laden brown dog. We finally managed to get away from it after about twenty minutes.
Let's just say, it wasn't very welcome.
*The proverb of course being "too many turds spoil the broth."
Monday 12 July 2010
Money for Nothing
I was the glad recipient of some free money, from the Inland Revenue no less. Well, when I say I, what I actually mean is my company. I was a bit perplexed at first and so was my accountant, especially as the accompanying letter, terse though it was, explained it was interest due to me. Why on earth were the Inland Revenue paying me interest I wondered?
After a bit of thinking the accountant finally worked out that it was because I'd paid my corporation tax before it was due. I was quite pleased about this because the only reason I'd paid it early was because the interest rate on my bank account was the princely rate of 0.0%. So in fact, I got a better rate from the revenue than I did from the bank.
Result!
After a bit of thinking the accountant finally worked out that it was because I'd paid my corporation tax before it was due. I was quite pleased about this because the only reason I'd paid it early was because the interest rate on my bank account was the princely rate of 0.0%. So in fact, I got a better rate from the revenue than I did from the bank.
Result!
Wednesday 23 June 2010
And they're off
Our pet wasps are all grown up and have, quite literally, flown the nest. Either that or something ate them all. Looking forward to a nice bit of waspard in my sangwiches tomorrow.
Friday 11 June 2010
Mrs Mungo Protector of Wasps
We had to remove a wasps nest from the top of our rabbit hutch a few days back. It was a magnificently girlie affair, with both of us scampering backwards and forwards trying to get the nest out without being stung. We did manage it, you'll be pleased to know, and ended up with the nest on a plastic tray on the the patio table.
It was a fairly small affair, probably around 10 grown wasps including the queen and a bunch of eggs which they were still faithfully tending to despite what must have been a fairly traumatic experience of having your house ripped from it's nice warm, dark cave and dumped in a bright cold tray. We didn't really know what to do with them but decided not to do anything obviously nasty like chuck them in the bin. The next day, the wasps were still there, tending their eggs much to Mrs Mungo's surprise. She felt so sorry for the predicament she'd left them in, and so impressed with their maternal instinct, that she moved them to the greenhouse to give them a bit of shelter. Later on she went out to check they were OK before putting the bunnies to bed.
So it seems Mrs Mungo now has some pet wasps! Bless her.
It's also a little known fact that while bees make honey, wasps make mustard. I'm looking to some of that in my ham sandwiches.
It was a fairly small affair, probably around 10 grown wasps including the queen and a bunch of eggs which they were still faithfully tending to despite what must have been a fairly traumatic experience of having your house ripped from it's nice warm, dark cave and dumped in a bright cold tray. We didn't really know what to do with them but decided not to do anything obviously nasty like chuck them in the bin. The next day, the wasps were still there, tending their eggs much to Mrs Mungo's surprise. She felt so sorry for the predicament she'd left them in, and so impressed with their maternal instinct, that she moved them to the greenhouse to give them a bit of shelter. Later on she went out to check they were OK before putting the bunnies to bed.
So it seems Mrs Mungo now has some pet wasps! Bless her.
It's also a little known fact that while bees make honey, wasps make mustard. I'm looking to some of that in my ham sandwiches.
Tuesday 8 June 2010
What I did on my holiday by U. Mungo aged 40 3/4
Yes, it's true I've been more than a little slack about updating the blog. I can only blame complete and utter laziness.
However, I got up to something pretty spectacular last Friday thanks to a groovy birthday present from my lovely wife. I got to drive round Thruxton Race Track in:
A Porsche Cayman
A Ferrari 430 Scuderia
And a Formula Renault Single Seater
Needless to say it was excellent fun, great instructors, great cars and superb weather.
While the Ferrari has excellent pose value and the Porsche very easy to drive, the car I enjoyed the most was the single seater. Despite being rev limited to 4,500 RPM it was still good for around 115 down the back straight and presumably the wings gave it some measure of downforce for the corners. It felt absolutely astonishing and cornered like it was on rails. It's also the first time I've ever felt the wind on my face like that, presumably nothing new to motorcyclists but a novel experience for me. It'll go round corners a lot faster than I will, that's for sure! A quick back of an envelope calculation based on the photograph creation times (yes I bought the CD of photos) puts me doing lap times of just over 2 minutes, which is pretty weak but I wasn't actually trying to go fast, just to drive the lap properly like the instructors had showed me. That said over 2.4 miles that works out at about 70 miles an hour so I was hardly hanging around. The lap record though is under a minute, so I've got a little way to go yet!
However, I got up to something pretty spectacular last Friday thanks to a groovy birthday present from my lovely wife. I got to drive round Thruxton Race Track in:
A Porsche Cayman
A Ferrari 430 Scuderia
And a Formula Renault Single Seater
Needless to say it was excellent fun, great instructors, great cars and superb weather.
While the Ferrari has excellent pose value and the Porsche very easy to drive, the car I enjoyed the most was the single seater. Despite being rev limited to 4,500 RPM it was still good for around 115 down the back straight and presumably the wings gave it some measure of downforce for the corners. It felt absolutely astonishing and cornered like it was on rails. It's also the first time I've ever felt the wind on my face like that, presumably nothing new to motorcyclists but a novel experience for me. It'll go round corners a lot faster than I will, that's for sure! A quick back of an envelope calculation based on the photograph creation times (yes I bought the CD of photos) puts me doing lap times of just over 2 minutes, which is pretty weak but I wasn't actually trying to go fast, just to drive the lap properly like the instructors had showed me. That said over 2.4 miles that works out at about 70 miles an hour so I was hardly hanging around. The lap record though is under a minute, so I've got a little way to go yet!
Monday 19 April 2010
A Bolt from the Blue
One of the great things about being a parent is how your child continually surprises you. It's also one of the least great things. Yesterday Phoebe surprised us both enormously by locking us out of the house! Let me set the scene...
I was cooking a roast dinner for Sunday lunch and had a few minutes to wait while the oven heated up enough to pop the Yorkshires in. Earlier in the day we had moved the furniture onto the lawn so I could pressure wash the patio and clean the bits underneath it. Standing in the kitchen looking out of the window with a bit of time on my hands I suggested to Hayley that we should quickly nip out and move it back. She agreed, so we ran out the back door grabbed the stuff and moved it. I estimate we were gone at most two minutes. When we returned though we found we couldn't open the back door! It seems that in addition to her obsession with closing doors, Phoebe has discovered a new game called "turn the handle of the bolt." Hayley was a bit stressed about this but I wasn't, after all, I had my house keys in my pocket, so I nonchalantly strolled round the front, smiling to myself and tried to open the door. Unfortunately we routinely bolt the front (and back) doors before going to bed and sometimes fail to unbolt them the next day until we actually need to open them. Needless to say today was one of those days and it was still bolted. Oh dear, I thought. Still, not to worry, it was a sunny day and the Lovely Hej is a fresh air fanatic, so I went round the back of the house again planning to clamber in through the inevitably wide open kitchen window. Sadly, no. As I mentioned, I had been pressure washing the patio so of course all the windows at the back of the house had been firmly shut to prevent muddy water spraying into the kitchen and subsequently not reopened.
At that point I realised we had a bit of a problem. We had a small child running round the house unsupervised, a roast dinner that needed imminently taking out of the oven and no access to the house or even any way of summoning help. I wasn't even wearing any socks! There was a faint glimmer of hope though, Phoebe's bedroom is at the front of the house and so her window at least hadn't been closed as part of operation Mud Stop. Unfortunately it's upstairs and we don't have a ladder, but nevertheless, there it was, taunting us with it's openness and promise of access, if we could just get up there.
With nothing to lose at this point and seriously pondering which window would be the cheapest one to break I went over to our neighbour to see if she had a ladder. Fortunately she was in and she did! I breathed a huge sigh of relief, until I actually saw the ladder that is. It was a step ladder and nowhere near high enough to reach the window. Undaunted, I thought I may as well give it a go, after all it's not like I had a lot of options, and soon discovered that (and don't try this at home kids) by standing on the handle of the ladder I could just stretch high enough to get one hand through the window and grab the edge of the windowsill inside the house. I was at a really awkward angle (the window is above the border and the only solid place to put the ladder was to the left of it) with the window frame digging uncomfortably into my arm and the external windowsill hanging over my head making life even more difficult.
I'm not entirely sure what was going through my head at this point, in fact I can't really remember much about it at all, but basically I must have decided to just go for it and found myself jumping sideways and upwards off the top of the ladder with the aim of getting my other hand through the window to join the first. The next thing I know I was dragging myself up the wall, over the windowsill and into the bedroom, headfirst, with fortunately only a few scrapes and bruises from the variously jutting window sills and frames for my trouble. With a quick pause to give a thumbs up to the anxious audience below I bounded downstairs and opened the front door. Hurrah! The day had been saved in a death defying Spiderman stylee.
The only casualty was my Grim Challenge T-Shirt, the newest t-shirt I own, which got fairly well shredded when I dragged myself up the wall and over the windowsill. I consider it a small price to pay.
And so, dear readers, the moral of the story is this: keep practising the pull-ups, some day you might need them for something!
I was cooking a roast dinner for Sunday lunch and had a few minutes to wait while the oven heated up enough to pop the Yorkshires in. Earlier in the day we had moved the furniture onto the lawn so I could pressure wash the patio and clean the bits underneath it. Standing in the kitchen looking out of the window with a bit of time on my hands I suggested to Hayley that we should quickly nip out and move it back. She agreed, so we ran out the back door grabbed the stuff and moved it. I estimate we were gone at most two minutes. When we returned though we found we couldn't open the back door! It seems that in addition to her obsession with closing doors, Phoebe has discovered a new game called "turn the handle of the bolt." Hayley was a bit stressed about this but I wasn't, after all, I had my house keys in my pocket, so I nonchalantly strolled round the front, smiling to myself and tried to open the door. Unfortunately we routinely bolt the front (and back) doors before going to bed and sometimes fail to unbolt them the next day until we actually need to open them. Needless to say today was one of those days and it was still bolted. Oh dear, I thought. Still, not to worry, it was a sunny day and the Lovely Hej is a fresh air fanatic, so I went round the back of the house again planning to clamber in through the inevitably wide open kitchen window. Sadly, no. As I mentioned, I had been pressure washing the patio so of course all the windows at the back of the house had been firmly shut to prevent muddy water spraying into the kitchen and subsequently not reopened.
At that point I realised we had a bit of a problem. We had a small child running round the house unsupervised, a roast dinner that needed imminently taking out of the oven and no access to the house or even any way of summoning help. I wasn't even wearing any socks! There was a faint glimmer of hope though, Phoebe's bedroom is at the front of the house and so her window at least hadn't been closed as part of operation Mud Stop. Unfortunately it's upstairs and we don't have a ladder, but nevertheless, there it was, taunting us with it's openness and promise of access, if we could just get up there.
With nothing to lose at this point and seriously pondering which window would be the cheapest one to break I went over to our neighbour to see if she had a ladder. Fortunately she was in and she did! I breathed a huge sigh of relief, until I actually saw the ladder that is. It was a step ladder and nowhere near high enough to reach the window. Undaunted, I thought I may as well give it a go, after all it's not like I had a lot of options, and soon discovered that (and don't try this at home kids) by standing on the handle of the ladder I could just stretch high enough to get one hand through the window and grab the edge of the windowsill inside the house. I was at a really awkward angle (the window is above the border and the only solid place to put the ladder was to the left of it) with the window frame digging uncomfortably into my arm and the external windowsill hanging over my head making life even more difficult.
I'm not entirely sure what was going through my head at this point, in fact I can't really remember much about it at all, but basically I must have decided to just go for it and found myself jumping sideways and upwards off the top of the ladder with the aim of getting my other hand through the window to join the first. The next thing I know I was dragging myself up the wall, over the windowsill and into the bedroom, headfirst, with fortunately only a few scrapes and bruises from the variously jutting window sills and frames for my trouble. With a quick pause to give a thumbs up to the anxious audience below I bounded downstairs and opened the front door. Hurrah! The day had been saved in a death defying Spiderman stylee.
The only casualty was my Grim Challenge T-Shirt, the newest t-shirt I own, which got fairly well shredded when I dragged myself up the wall and over the windowsill. I consider it a small price to pay.
And so, dear readers, the moral of the story is this: keep practising the pull-ups, some day you might need them for something!
Friday 16 April 2010
A Farewell to my Chinese Commenters
I admit to being a little slow on the uptake here, but I've only just noticed that all the comments in Chinese are actually spam pushing various dodgy porn sites. I was obviously a bit dubious about them, as I wasn't exactly targeting the Non-English speaking Chinese demographic, but hadn't noticed that all the dots at the end of the posts were actually links to the aforementioned dodgy sites. Ahh, well they've gone now.
Still, they had some lovely things to say, at least according to Babelfish:
"Reads your BLOG article, is really a joyful matter"
"The human wants to study forgetful, is unpleasant forgot, only then can be joyful."
"The good tribe standard needs to share with the good friend--Thanks share"
I'd like to think that my articles are joyful too, who wouldn't? And now that I think about it, maybe I should study forgetful to be joyful. And while I'm doing that I suppose there's no harm in sharing with the good tribe.
So all in all I think everyone benefited. I got some helpful advice and they got a bit of free advertising. The weird thing is some of the comments do sort of seem relevant to the posts, I'm afraid though that's almost certainly just a coincidence.
Edit:
Oh the irony, my post about deleting all the Chinese porn spam has been Chinese porn spammed. Apparently "Young and strong not diligently, the eldest child person is sad." Wise words for us all there. So, unfortunately, I've had to enable comment moderation.
Still, they had some lovely things to say, at least according to Babelfish:
"Reads your BLOG article, is really a joyful matter"
"The human wants to study forgetful, is unpleasant forgot, only then can be joyful."
"The good tribe standard needs to share with the good friend--Thanks share"
I'd like to think that my articles are joyful too, who wouldn't? And now that I think about it, maybe I should study forgetful to be joyful. And while I'm doing that I suppose there's no harm in sharing with the good tribe.
So all in all I think everyone benefited. I got some helpful advice and they got a bit of free advertising. The weird thing is some of the comments do sort of seem relevant to the posts, I'm afraid though that's almost certainly just a coincidence.
Edit:
Oh the irony, my post about deleting all the Chinese porn spam has been Chinese porn spammed. Apparently "Young and strong not diligently, the eldest child person is sad." Wise words for us all there. So, unfortunately, I've had to enable comment moderation.
Arrrgh! Volcano!
OK, so it's not like there's a volcano in the back garden, although it did smell a bit like it this morning. No, this is much, much worse. I had been planning to blog a bit about Dara O'Briain who we were supposed to be seeing in Woking last night. But no, the stupid Volcano had to go and spoil it for everyone with its big clouds of ash. Dara is currently stuck in the Isle of Man, the gig may or may not be rescheduled for sometime in July.
Grrr.
Grrr.
Friday 2 April 2010
The New PC
So, I had to buy a new PC...I was in a bit of a rush so I ended up with this mean looking one because the special silent case I wanted was going to take 10 days to arrive.
But it's rather excellent. I was a bit worried that all the mesh would mean that it was going to be really noisy, but in fact the opposite seems to be true. Because there's plenty of airflow the fans don't need to work so hard, which means the major cause of noise is eliminated. Unusually for me, I didn't go completely mental on the spec and stuck with a Quad Core i7-960 (3.20GHz) ,12 Gigs of RAM (only the 1866 MHz), a Rampage II Extreme motherboard, dual Radeon HD 5850 graphics cards and a Raid 0 boot drive. Most people would consider that a fairly extreme setup but for me that's quite sensible and restrained. I could have gone for SSD drives, a 980X Extreme processor, 5970 graphics cards, phase change cooling, well suffice to say I could easily have spent a lot more. It's probably just as well I was in a hurry.
I did switch the original CPU cooler (a CoolerMaster V8) for a supposedly super quiet Freezone Elite Pro. I sort of wish I hadn't to be honest. It's certainly a better cooler and there is a huge degree of nerdy satisfaction from having not only a liquid cooled CPU but one with a thermoelectric chiller. This means the CPU can be cooled to below ambient temperatures (a standard liquid cooler can only cool to temperature of the room) which gives me extra nerd points (and I get double for fitting it myself.) Unfortunately it's a lot noisier than the V8 despite the claims on the side of the box which is very disappointing and realistically I'm not going to be really needing super cooling most of the time.
Still, the V8 actually looks pretty funky sitting on the desk...
...gehog News...Hedgehog News...Hed...
We here at HNN take our job very seriously. So it's with great excitement that I can now report that we have had a sighting. The hedgehogs are definitely back. Not sure which one though, it was too small to be Harry and not stripy enough to be Harriet, so it was either one of the twins or a completely new one.
More hedgehog news as it's made!
More hedgehog news as it's made!
Beginning of the End?
I'm almost too embarrassed to admit this, but I have recently developed a taste for the old lady's tipple of choice, the G&T. Surely I'm too young and possess too many Y chromosomes to start drinking them? Well, obviously not, given that I already have.
Oh dear.
Oh dear.
Wednesday 31 March 2010
...gehog News...Hedgehog News...Hed...
It's not exactly a sighting, but we've seen plenty of, um, hedgehog evidence scattered about the garden. So it looks like at least one of our nocturnal visitors managed to survive the roads and the winter to visit us again.
More news, as it's made.
Or a few days after.
More news, as it's made.
Or a few days after.
Tuesday 30 March 2010
Insomnia
Insomnia
I must have
accidentally
tripped the switch
that turns
the stillness on.
Thanks to the Late, Great, Robert Calvert for those words of wisdom. Not quite sure what's going on today, but I was woken up at around 2:30am by some annoying scrotes shouting in the street and I've been awake ever since. Finally gave up trying to sleep at 5 and now I'm sitting here thinking "I'm getting up in 45 mins..."
I must have
accidentally
tripped the switch
that turns
the stillness on.
Thanks to the Late, Great, Robert Calvert for those words of wisdom. Not quite sure what's going on today, but I was woken up at around 2:30am by some annoying scrotes shouting in the street and I've been awake ever since. Finally gave up trying to sleep at 5 and now I'm sitting here thinking "I'm getting up in 45 mins..."
Sunday 28 March 2010
Stairgate SG-2
Finally got round to fitting the second stairgate at the bottom of the stairs. There was something mysterious, presumably of alien origin, behind the plasterboard which made it a bit of an adventure. We never did find out what it was, but it was close enough to the board that none of the myriad plasterboard fixings I have would work and mysterious enough that we didn't just want to drill into it in case it turned out to be a water pipe or electrical conduit. It also seemed to possess some sort of rudimentary chameleonware being invisible to my stud/pipe detector. Eventually we managed to chop a plasterboard fixing short enough and use smaller screws to get it fitted. It seems solid but I suppose time will tell.
I am looking forward to just walking through the bottom one and zooming straight through the top one. Should make life a lot easier after a hard day.
I am looking forward to just walking through the bottom one and zooming straight through the top one. Should make life a lot easier after a hard day.
Wednesday 3 March 2010
Your Unfriendly Neighbourhood Gremlin
I'm beginning to suspect that we've got an evil creature lurking in the dark corners of the house and coming out at night to sabotage various items around the household. Since the start of the year we've had:
*Two because I realised that even though the NAS runs a RAID array, and thus we are protected against disc failure, we're still not protected against NAS failure, so I have to backup the NAS as well. Obviously the best way to back up a NAS is to use another one.
- A hard drive failure on the main PC - had to buy a new disc.
- A RAID controller failure on our NAS - had to buy two new NASes*. Fortunately I did manage to get our data off it.
- A leaking roof.
- A CPU or motherboard failure on the main PC - had to buy a new PC (more on that later.)
*Two because I realised that even though the NAS runs a RAID array, and thus we are protected against disc failure, we're still not protected against NAS failure, so I have to backup the NAS as well. Obviously the best way to back up a NAS is to use another one.
Sunday 14 February 2010
Beer! Beer! We want more beer!
All the lads are cheering...
Yes, I admit it, the rumours are true. I drank some beer. I even quite liked some of it.
My brother's ceaseless (some would say pointless) efforts to brew a beer that would be to my liking have finally borne fruit. In fact, he nearly managed to make two. The ales in question were HSP (Honey, Spice and Pine) and Phoebe's celebration ale.
So here are the marks:
HSP was unhopped, which is always a good start in my book but it was perhaps a trifle over pined. The spices didn't quite work either although they made for an unusual flavour. However, that said it was certainly drinkable if a little eau-de-toilet. Not a bad effort at all, 5.5/10.
Celebration Ale
An impressively strong beer made using champagne yeast and magical beer enzymes to sustain fermentation well past normal levels, with a very heavy, sweet, almost chocolatey taste, it's more like a cocktail or desert wine than beer. Which again, is a very good start in my book. This would benefit from being slightly less hopped (I think, after drinking most of it I find that my subsequent memories are a little hazy) but otherwise quite drinkable. A very creditable 7.5/10.
There is a downside to all this beer drinking though. The next morning. As a habitual drinker of clear spirits I don't usually suffer too badly with post session syndrome. Not so with the beer, unfortunately.
Yes, I admit it, the rumours are true. I drank some beer. I even quite liked some of it.
My brother's ceaseless (some would say pointless) efforts to brew a beer that would be to my liking have finally borne fruit. In fact, he nearly managed to make two. The ales in question were HSP (Honey, Spice and Pine) and Phoebe's celebration ale.
So here are the marks:
HSP was unhopped, which is always a good start in my book but it was perhaps a trifle over pined. The spices didn't quite work either although they made for an unusual flavour. However, that said it was certainly drinkable if a little eau-de-toilet. Not a bad effort at all, 5.5/10.
Celebration Ale
An impressively strong beer made using champagne yeast and magical beer enzymes to sustain fermentation well past normal levels, with a very heavy, sweet, almost chocolatey taste, it's more like a cocktail or desert wine than beer. Which again, is a very good start in my book. This would benefit from being slightly less hopped (I think, after drinking most of it I find that my subsequent memories are a little hazy) but otherwise quite drinkable. A very creditable 7.5/10.
There is a downside to all this beer drinking though. The next morning. As a habitual drinker of clear spirits I don't usually suffer too badly with post session syndrome. Not so with the beer, unfortunately.
Contributing to Global Warming
It's Valentines Day today, so as is traditional we had a Valentines Eve supper of haggis last night.
I do love my haggis, unfortunately it seems it doesn't like me too much. Since this morning I think I've produced enough methane to raise global temperatures significantly. Poor old Hayley has had to bear the brunt of these emissions which hasn't done much to inspire a lovey dovey Valentines Day atmosphere. It's a good job neither of us smoke..!
I wish I knew what it was that's in the haggis which causes me such malodorous problems. I can't imagine it's the oats, I have porridge every day without problems. I can't imagine it's the "meat" - in fact, let's not try and imagine the meat at all. So that only leaves the onion or the spices. Weirdly, Hayley seems immune to this problem, it must be her Scottish heritage.
Thankfully for us all, Valentines Eve comes but once a year.
I do love my haggis, unfortunately it seems it doesn't like me too much. Since this morning I think I've produced enough methane to raise global temperatures significantly. Poor old Hayley has had to bear the brunt of these emissions which hasn't done much to inspire a lovey dovey Valentines Day atmosphere. It's a good job neither of us smoke..!
I wish I knew what it was that's in the haggis which causes me such malodorous problems. I can't imagine it's the oats, I have porridge every day without problems. I can't imagine it's the "meat" - in fact, let's not try and imagine the meat at all. So that only leaves the onion or the spices. Weirdly, Hayley seems immune to this problem, it must be her Scottish heritage.
Thankfully for us all, Valentines Eve comes but once a year.
Wednesday 20 January 2010
Time For A Change
After spending what seemed like most of my life on planes I had managed to accumulate three hundred thousand EuroBonus points. Unfortunately due to an incredibly annoying and difficult to use flight booking application (you can't just ask for all available flights you could buy with your points, you have to spend ages putting in your exact required itinerary only to be told there aren't any seats) I've never been able to spend them. Even worse, SAS points expire after five years so I lost 100,000 of them at the beginning of last year. I was pretty much resigned to never being able to do anything useful with them, when SAS introduced a EuroBonus shop which allows you to spend your points on actual things. So with another 100,000 due to expire at the end of the month points burning a hole in my pocket I finally had something to do with them and an incentive to actually spend them because soon they would be gone.
Now, the things you can buy in the EuroBonus shop aren't too dissimilar to the things you can buy in an in flight magazine. Which is to say, a load of overpriced designer bollocks. And the flights, assuming it was actually possible to book one are much better value for points than the stuff in the shop. But obviously, even overpriced designer bollocks is better than just letting the points expire unspent, so I applied myself to the store with vigour, determined to find something, anything, that was worth spending my hard earned points on.
After two days I was beginning to lose heart. Yes, I could buy an Eva Solo Smiley Nut Bowl, but really, I didn't think it was something I was prepared to give house space to. I had originally intended to get a watch but there wasn't anything that seemed remotely comparable to my previous one. And then in desperation I clicked onto the sports/climbing section and saw a watch that for some strange reason wasn't listed with all the others in the, er, watch section. It was the iROX iClimber and I knew it was the watch I was looking for.
It arrived a few days later and I'm very pleased with it. I admit it doesn't quite have the looks of the Tissot and yes, it doesn't have a fancy touchscreen either. But let's face it, although the touchscreen is quite effective it's hardly an essential in a watch. In terms of sheer functionality though, it does everything the Tissot does and more. Yes it's got a compass, yes it's got a thermometer, an altimeter and a barometer. But, it's so much more than that.
The barometer has a full on weather station including min/max temperatures and most excitingly a weather forecast! It's fairly accurate too, although it does seem to be a little confused by high pressure in the winter, it keeps predicting sun when that's hardly what we've been having lately. It's been childishly exciting to set the watch to the forecast screen last thing at night then check it first thing in the morning before opening the curtains.
The altimeter has a fancy "vertic log" which charts your progress up and down in meters, hence the iClimber bit I suspect. But realistically I doubt I'll be using that much as I'm not a climber. Still, you never know. Other cool things include user replaceable batteries (take that Tissot!), it even comes with a spare battery supplied, and two countdown timers which can be set to interleave. You can't set them for seconds though unfortunately so no use for the Tabata protocol.
Anyway, so far I've been delighted with it. Hurrah for EuroBonus!
Now, the things you can buy in the EuroBonus shop aren't too dissimilar to the things you can buy in an in flight magazine. Which is to say, a load of overpriced designer bollocks. And the flights, assuming it was actually possible to book one are much better value for points than the stuff in the shop. But obviously, even overpriced designer bollocks is better than just letting the points expire unspent, so I applied myself to the store with vigour, determined to find something, anything, that was worth spending my hard earned points on.
After two days I was beginning to lose heart. Yes, I could buy an Eva Solo Smiley Nut Bowl, but really, I didn't think it was something I was prepared to give house space to. I had originally intended to get a watch but there wasn't anything that seemed remotely comparable to my previous one. And then in desperation I clicked onto the sports/climbing section and saw a watch that for some strange reason wasn't listed with all the others in the, er, watch section. It was the iROX iClimber and I knew it was the watch I was looking for.
It arrived a few days later and I'm very pleased with it. I admit it doesn't quite have the looks of the Tissot and yes, it doesn't have a fancy touchscreen either. But let's face it, although the touchscreen is quite effective it's hardly an essential in a watch. In terms of sheer functionality though, it does everything the Tissot does and more. Yes it's got a compass, yes it's got a thermometer, an altimeter and a barometer. But, it's so much more than that.
The barometer has a full on weather station including min/max temperatures and most excitingly a weather forecast! It's fairly accurate too, although it does seem to be a little confused by high pressure in the winter, it keeps predicting sun when that's hardly what we've been having lately. It's been childishly exciting to set the watch to the forecast screen last thing at night then check it first thing in the morning before opening the curtains.
The altimeter has a fancy "vertic log" which charts your progress up and down in meters, hence the iClimber bit I suspect. But realistically I doubt I'll be using that much as I'm not a climber. Still, you never know. Other cool things include user replaceable batteries (take that Tissot!), it even comes with a spare battery supplied, and two countdown timers which can be set to interleave. You can't set them for seconds though unfortunately so no use for the Tabata protocol.
Anyway, so far I've been delighted with it. Hurrah for EuroBonus!
Thursday 14 January 2010
Post Shortage
Yes, I've been quiet. Not much going on really, but fear not faithful readers I've got plenty more posts in me yet. At least some of which should be appearing fairly shortly...
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