Mein Mercedes ist defekt!

Yet again the little A-Class is back at Mercedes-Benz of Salisbury with a problem. This time it's either a fuel leak(!?) or a problem with the fuel tank sensor or gauge. I have been told that if it's a wiring problem it's not covered by waranty which seems odd, whilst I understand that "working" parts such as brakes, valves, motors etc wear out or if there is damage to a fuel line because I have driven over something then it's not covered - but wiring is fixed and it's not covered?

The only thing that made the taking of the car to Salisbury interesting was that there is a Maybach 65 in the showroom! Then on the way home another Maybach was heading into Salisbury - two Maybach's in Wiltshire - what's going on?

Armistice Day....

I received this by email today....

The average British soldier is 19 years old…..he is a short haired, well built lad who, under normal circumstances is considered by society as half man, half boy. Not yet dry behind the ears and just old enough to buy a round of drinks but old enough to die for his country – and for you.

He’s not particularly keen on hard work but he’d rather be grafting in Afghanistan than unemployed in the UK . He recently left comprehensive school where he was probably an average student, played some form of sport, drove a ten year old rust bucket, and knew a girl that either broke up with him when he left, or swore to be waiting when he returns home. He moves easily to rock and roll or hip-hop or to the rattle of a 7.62mm machine gun.

He is about a stone lighter than when he left home because he is working or fighting from dawn to dusk and well beyond. He has trouble spelling, so letter writing is a pain for him, but he can strip a rifle in 25 seconds and reassemble it in the dark. He can recite every detail of a machine gun or grenade launcher and use either effectively if he has to. He digs trenches and latrines without the aid of machines and can apply first aid like a professional paramedic. He can march until he is told to stop, or stay dead still until he is told to move.

He obeys orders instantly and without hesitation but he is not without a rebellious spirit or a sense of personal dignity. He is confidently self-sufficient. He has two sets of uniform with him: he washes one and wears the other. He keeps his water bottle full and his feet dry. He sometimes forgets to brush his teeth, but never forgets to clean his rifle. He can cook his own meals, mend his own clothes and fix his own hurts. If you are thirsty, he'll share his water with you, if you are hungry, his food is your food. He'll even share his life-saving ammunition with you in the heat of a firefight if you run low.

He has learned to use his hands like weapons and regards his weapon as an extension of his own hands. He can save your life or he can take it, because that is his job - it's what a soldier does. He often works twice as long and hard as a civilian, draw half the pay and have nowhere to spend it, and can still find black ironic humour in it all. There's an old saying in the British Army: 'If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined!'

He has seen more suffering and death than he should have in his short lifetime. He has wept in public and in private, for friends who have fallen in combat and he is unashamed to show it or admit it. He feels every bugle note of the 'Last Post' or 'Sunset' vibrate through his body while standing rigidly to attention. He's not afraid to 'Bollock' anyone who shows disrespect when the Regimental Colours are on display or the National Anthem is played; yet in an odd twist, he would defend anyone's right to be an individual. Just as with generations of young people before him, he is paying the price for our freedom. Clean shaven and baby faced he may be, but be prepared to defend yourself if you treat him like a kid.

He is the latest in a long thin line of British Fighting Men that have kept this country free for hundreds of years. He asks for nothing from us except our respect, friendship and understanding. We may not like what he does, but sometimes he doesn't like it either - he just has it to do.. Remember him always, for he has earned our respect and admiration with his blood.

And now we even have brave young women putting themselves in harm's way, doing their part in this tradition of going to war when our nation's politicians call on us to do so.

So tomorrow at some point and maybe every day, please stop for a moment and if you are so inclined, reflect on the plight of our armed forces in the trouble spots of the world.

IKEA - the only good thing.....

..... is the meatballs.

Why on earth I suggested(!?) then agreed to go in half term week beats me.

Meatballs for lunch in the restaurant\canteen and then buying a bag of mini Dime bars and some Cloudberry conserve in the shop were the highlights of the day.

I don't like any of the furniture or furnishings, the cookware is average, the tableware is below par, the lighting is at best quirky and the customer service is pretty poor - apart from the woman on the food checkout who was a. Swedish & b. very helpful.

Cleaner car....

... I have been wanting to get my car valeted properly for a while. I keep it fairly clean, but of late have thrown it through the car wash occasionally just to keep it tidy, I know the damage they can do to paintwork, but I thought a decent car wash would do less damage.

I had noticed that some of the paint had gone slightly flat in places, so I tried waxing the bonnet, even with Autoglym Super Resin polish & Autoglym Paint Restorer nothing worked.

Years ago I saw some work a chap had done to a friends Range Rover - it was stunning, it came back as new. He was based in Weyhill, so when I tried looking him up he had moved... twice. I persisted and eventually found him and got him to do my car last Friday & Saturday - yes it takes him 2 days. He is not cheap, but he works wonders - he has brought up the flat paint shining like new, the interior is just as when it came off the production line and the leather is soft & supple.

I cannot recommend him highly enough - Mike McPhee - Auto Valeting Services - Unit 135, The Commercial Centre, Picket Piece, Andover, SP11 6RU. Tel. 01264 335000‎. Mike is a busy man, so it might take you a while to get a booking date, but if you want your car looking super smart, it is well worth the wait.

Another gardening success.....

.... in the Strawberry department.

After the success of the Pear crop, I let the Strawberry plants run a bit in the last month or so and have managed to get 20 new plants so far from the runners. I should have another 10 or so by the weekend, so a bumper crop should be had next year with 10 x 2nd year plants and 30+ of 1st year growth plants.

It's easy when you know how!

This weekend it is apple harvest time.

A day out in London....

..... was had today.

Just strolling around doing the tourist thing. Southbank first for breakfast in the excellent Le Pain Quotidien.

Just outside the Royal Festival Hall was this structure, made of paper tubes.

Then along the Southbank for a while, then over Westminster Bridge and a wander about Whitehall, Horseguards & St James's in time for lunch at Fortnum & Mason.

Then at 2pm I embarked on a guided walk - The Intelligence Trail. At 2.5 hours it's a bit longer than I expected, but a very interesting and informative time was had.

Tart....

... of the Pear variety, made by me. Pastry was a bit chunky, but I threw it together in 5 mins.

Pear puree in the base of a part blind baked pastry case, topped with half pears and filled with sugar\cream\egg\vanilla mix.

Twas very nice with a scoop of Green & Blacks Vanilla Ice Cream!

Underneath the seat of power...

Over lunchtime today, I had a tour of the Palace of Westminster, hugely interesting and many thanks to the friend who took me around. Wandering through both Houses was fascinating.... Underneath the palace though is this hidden gem.

St Mary Undercroft is just off St Stephens Hall.

The day got off to a bad start when the trains through Andover were disrupted as one had hit a car on a level crossing at 5.30AM. So I drove to Basingstoke in the hope of getting parked in the works car park and then a choice of trains. Sadly concrete repairs in the multi-storey works car park meant I had to squeeze the A8 into a teeny tiny space next to a fat arsed 911, which I did but with about an inch to spare either side. The trains were then ram packed full of grumpy, smelly & hung over commuters who were generally bemoaning the fact that interlopers had come onto their normally quiet Southampton Parkway to Waterloo train.

To add insult to injury the customer meeting today got cancelled when I was in the office just getting ready to go. So the morning chat to old friends from Lotus days in IBM Southbank, the tour of Westminster (with another old friend from Lotus days) & beer (with old friend from Lotus days + ex boss from Lotus days!) made my day rather better than it looked like being early on.

What a lovely pear.....

.... or really what a lovely glut of pears!

I harvested the cordoned pear tree today, best crop ever of juicy sweet perfect pears. I am convinced that the addition of a leaf cutter bee (or Mason bee) shelter for the last 2 years has paid dividends in the fruit tree pollenation stakes, all of the fruit trees have done so much better this year, providing an abundance of lovely apples & pears.

So tonight (and tomorrow) I have pears for my dessert. A stewed compote made from peeled, cored & diced pears, butter, sugar, a little lemon juice & a fat Madagascan vanilla pod. I've allowed that to cool & then beaten 2 egg yolks through it. Put into ramekins and topped with meringue and then baked until golden brown. The rest of the fruit will be eaten fresh or made into compote & frozen.

First day back and all that...

I snuck last week off to use up some leave, still have loads to fit in, so the occassional week will be had between now & March. So today felt like first day back at school (sort of - but without the preceeding 6 weeks off!)

TTT (Train To Town), interesting conversation on train with a Corporate Lawyer, amazing who you bump into - last month it was a private investigator who I twigged was following someone back to Basingstoke!? A quick Latte & Blueberry Muffin in Starbucks at Triton Square was had before a couple of meetings about things we can do together with potential Business Partner. Agreed to meet up at a conference next week and discuss more.

Diverted on way back to Waterloo to M&S Marble Arch as I thought they would have bigger range of suits than other branches - I was wrong - Hedge End has better selection\more stock. Yes, I still buy M&S suits for work, they last a year & then get thrown out, saving my better suits from the wear & tear of commuting to town too often.

In my mind....

.... tomorrow is the last day of summer. No more Bank Holidays until Christmas, a month of Q3, then the slog that is Q4 where more than a weeks vacation is frowned upon, plus the clocks going back on October 25th.

After a day of miserable grey skies and drizzle whilst working in the garden, I hope that tomorrow brings some sunshine at least.

The garden is almost ready for winter with most of the veg. harvested, nearly all the garden lights fixed, pots weeded and shuffled, bark renewed (20 bags worth!), trees pruned, lawn fed, watered, edged and weeded. Luckily haven't had to put BBQ away as it never came out this year! Just a few more odds & sods left to do outside plus a little tidying in the garage and it should all be finished.

It's just dawned on me.....

.... how small the world is now communications terms.

Phone calls, emails, Twitter & Facebook from all over the world this weekend. Brother in Sydney, friends in Boston, Abu Dhabi, Spain & France all been in [very easy] contact.

Plus the devices I'm using to stay in touch are many and varied too from Blackberry to PC with Skype or browser and best of all... apart from ISP costs all of what I am doing is FoC.

Slingbox is next on the technology acquisition list, then Internet enabled LCD TV for living room.

A weekend of nothingness.....

... I did the sum total of f*ck all this weekend. No gardening, no DIY, no retail therapy, nothing. I didn't even get to watch some DVD's that I had planned to view. Don't know where the weekend went....

Let's hope next week is more productive.

Life in a parallel universe?

Uncanny isn't it? It could be a scene from work.

I just wish I knew the girl in the red dress, as usual the secretary looks to be a bit bonkers.

Thanks to Cali & Carl for pointing me at the website to create these.

After staycation, been busy at work...

.... but good busy, rather than just busy or bad busy.

Loads going on, reviewed twice, but all went well. Customers are responding well to suggestions and ideas. Much the same next week, but without the reviews - so I can get more done.

Spent weekend in garden doing loads of stuff, wiring up patio heaters (pictured right), cutting hedge, mowing lawn (twice!), edging lawn, repairing wiring to garden lights (I cut through them with hedge trimmer!) even managed to get a bit of photography in around Longparish and saw 2 Herons, on way back I saw a Bugatti Veyron, 6 Lambo's an Aston and a Nissan Skyline all belting down the A303 at breakneck speed.

I enjoyed the staycation so much I've booked another at the end of the month for a week, so much holiday to use, so little time to use it in!? A little shooting, hunting and fishing is in order I think.

Moth!

It appears to be a Poplar Hawk-moth (Laothoe populi) common in Europe, and very large!

Noted by the front door light today.

Click on the image for better (full size) view.

Time off.....

.... for good behaviour?

I am taking 2 weeks staycation. Having travelled quite a bit in the past I have to say I liked the idea of staycations way before they became the thing to do in the credit crunch. It allows me to catch up on all the trivial things I never get round to doing, like getting little car niggles fixed, DIY, going shopping off the beaten track, lunching with friends and generally wandering about on day trips.

Various trips to car specialists to get things fixed or tweaked and maybe look at a different car - Bentley GT test drive perhaps? I'll go to Orvis to look at some fishing gear and clothing and maybe Harry Potter beckons on a rainy afternoon. I will also take the Sigmonster out for a walk or two.

Trainers...

... I have recently ordered and taken delivery of a new pair of trainers from NikeID. Starting with a base product of the Nike Zoom Structure Triax, I had the opportunity to customise the colour scheme of the component parts, and even add a personalised ID on them.

On some of the products you can even choose different widths, so very comfortable they are, and unique to me.

The Sigmonster cometh.....

..... done deal. On the way next week is a Sigmonster.

EF600mm has gone - not different enough to lighter EF500mm and the 1Ds Mk III had to go - it's a terrible camera - replaced with a 1D Mk III which will be happier stablemate to existing 1D Mk III.

free email.....

..... then outage.

It appears I have been receiving a free email service from my provider for a while now - I didn't realise this until my email stopped working overnight when they did a bit of an upgrade, so a quick online chat to Customer Support (where they very strangely asked for my credit card details in a web based online help chat session - they assured me it was quite secure - I declined!) the problem was fixed.

Of course there was a knock on effect to my Blackberry and email client from the Dark Side - as the email provider has changed password policy my numerical string password wasn't acceptable, so I had to change to a more complex one containing upper and lower case characters and at least 5 numerical characters!?

The upgrade by the service provider includes spam filters so good that very little is getting through..... sadly thats very little email at all is getting through.

UPDATE 29/06 : Further interupted service today, the upgrade appears to have had some effect on the ability of the email servers to stay up for any period of time. Fingers crossed they sort their lives out before I name and shame them...

UPDATE 07/07 : no email getting through since last week, I can mail out, but zero coming in. I've been onto Register.com support again & again - they are utterly crap and full of empty promises of it being fixed "tomorrow", "soon" and "in hours" - no-one will call me back despite numerous requests for someone to do so. They have several tag lines which are really quite wrong "Experience the difference great service can make" not with this lot & "Don't just make a website - make an impact" in my experience a detremental one.....

Rearrange the following - Insult....

.... Injury, Add to.... I wrote about Audi in May and how they wanted £837.20 to replace my cambelt "One of the hardest working components of the engine...." - oh set my mind off and scare me into replacing a part that doesn't present any symptoms why not!

Well, on the way to a meeting yesterday the car suspension started knocking on the front right whenever I went over anything like an uneven road surface. I took it into Audi on the way home and left it with them to investigate.

At least it is a problem that has presented itself and actually has a symptom, rather than the spectre of the unknown as with the cambelt.

Luckily it appears to be a control arm & rubber bush, so relatively cheap. I thought whilst the car is in I may as well have the cambelt done as well, get the whole lot done and dusted - then they tell me "we recommend that when you get the cambelt done that you replace the water pump at the same time as the renewal of the cambelt can put a strain on an old water pump..." - another £250 please!

Looks like the beer budget for the summer has just been blown away by Audi.

24/06 UPDATE : Picked up car today, and not as bad as I thought it might have been, in the end they didn't replace water pump and a few F.O.C. items appeared on bill, so a few beers can be had this summer! I will also probably be able to afford the Audi wheel that has appeared on ebay to replace the one I buckled earlier in the year! Hopefully getting car back to 100% as I want it.

ISIHAC - It's back!

Long awaited, with some feelings that it wouldn't be anything like as good as when Humph was at the helm. With Stephen Fry as guest chairman, it was no suprise that Samantha was otherwise occupied, so the rippling (if not somewhat effeminate perhaps?) Sven was sat on Mr Fry's left hand keeping score.

Overall very good, with the same writing team still in place, with quite a few laugh out loud moments in the 30 minute programme. I did miss the dead-pan delivery of Humph though.

My wheel man.....

.... has been.

A little bubble of corrosion on the two rear wheels and a small kerb mark (unusually for me) on the front left wheel on the Audi have been fixed by my wheel man.

He was gainfully employed all day on mine and my neighbours cars, restoring the alloys back to perfection. The cars always look so much better when the wheels are 100%. If you live in north Hampshire - I can highly recommend him.

Not quite as good as Springwatch footage....

.... but it will do as a start for me.

Seen over the airfield at Thruxton today, one of three Red Kite's in the summer sunshine, hunting on the abundant dead rabbit population, it was a nice sight to behold.

The place gets a bit congested sometimes, not with aircraft but with a huge number of raptors like the Red Kite & Buzzards galore.

I will re-visit and take a more prepared approach to photographing them soon.

Big bird....

... well birds actually. About 6 or 7 of these gulls (I think they are probably Herring Gulls) were circling over the house today.

After a bit of reading, it seems that it's not unusual to see them inland, they are Ominivorous - aka a scavenger. Acording to the RSPB website they are to be seen inland all year round "especially at rubbish tips, playing fields and reservoir roosts" As they were circling as high as they were, about 800ft or more, it was probably all of the above.

The Hanging Baskets.....

.... of Hampshire have arrived.

The annual splurge on hanging baskets from Choice Plants at Romsey has resulted in them arriving today, instant gardening!

They are looking quite good already with the early heatwave, much better than last year when they were knocked about by the rain within days of being put up. Here's hoping for a good display of summer colour for 4 or so months.

One of those days....

.... a good day, but a long day. Sadly the M3 wasn't at it's best this afternoon, just when I thought I would get away at a reasonable hour and a quick zip down the motorway [it's half term and things are normally quiet on the roads] an accident closed 2 lanes of the M3 near Fleet services, so the journey home was slow, long and arduous.

Stayed awake just long enough to see the disappointing football match, then retired to bed.

A day of plotting and planning.....

... back to work, and a day of plotting & planning was had at my office in Basingstoke with a colleague and Industry Expert. A load of good work was completed, but a load more to be done. I let the train take the strain today as I couldn't be bothered to fight for a parking space - they have closed the top floor of the car park as it has concrete rot!?

Came home and did a couple of conference calls that could end up with some decent business as a result and then at 5:00 a local colleague suggested via Sametime that a stroll to the local pub for a beer was in order - who am I to say no? So at 6.02 we converged on the Southampton Arms and I partook of a couple of pints of Irish export. Nice end to a good day.

Troglodytes troglodytes....

.... also known as the Wren. After a better night sleep, I awoke at 6:00 and decided that although it was overcast, it was probably still worthwhile heading for the lakes early to see what wildlife was out & about.

No Kingfisher, but an unusual number of Mute Swan, Mallard Ducks with loads of ducklings, plus the Great Crested Grebe pair - feeding their ever growing youngsters. [How does such a small bird eat such large fish?] A very noisy, but unseen Warbler, Chaffinch and finally this Wren and a youngster flitting about.

Came home at 8:00 for coffee, toast & honey then went to local council tip, sorry Amenity Waste Recycling Centre! to get rid of defunct patio table, then Thruxton to deliver (now redundant, but intact) garden benchs, plus deliver ebay sale to collecting buyer from Plymouth and pick up some cash!

Yet more jet washing of patio was done (nearly finished) and the day was rounded off with yet another Harvey Wallbanger made with Absolut Citron Vodka, then rare fillet of beef Teriyaki & green salad washed down with some very nice La Montesa.

Back to work tommorrow, ho hum.... but luckily only a 4 day week - hurrah!

Happy, Sunny day....

... slept very badly last night, so planned early start didn't happen, ended up spending the majority of the day in the garden power washing the patio (and then re-pointing the cement where I washed it away!), hid from midday sun by watching F1 Monaco GP, deciding to condemn the patio table & chairs when they fell apart as I moved them, mowing lawn and watching bird life in garden.

Finished the day with a couple of Harvey Wallbangers in the evening sun.

Ended the evening listening to newly acquired Gary Numan CD's - mostly live stuff from recent tours such as Replicas Live, Fragment, Telekon Live and the interview series Replicant 1 + 2.

If they are good enough....

..... to be selected to act as personal protection for a member of the Royal family serving for 10 weeks in Afghanistan, then it's only right that we recognise the entire Regiment as brave as any other soldier that has served in our armed forces and let them live here.

Justice at last for a group of people that has served my country for two centuries.

My father served with some Ghurka's in Malaya, he always told me they were truely fearless fighters who would take no prisoners in combat.

Hat's off to Joanna Lumley, clearly motivated by her family connections, it's good to see people power work for a change.

Talk to Kevin....

.... it's better than being put on hold by a Customer Services Advisor.

I have for years subscribed to Virgin Media Broadband\Telephone\TV services, initially it was ntl: who provided the service, but then Virgin came along and rebranded the services they acquired from Telewest, ntl: and others.

The actual service of broadband\TV\phone is great, very little if any downtime, but their customer service if you have a query is awful.

A couple of things of late have annoyed me, an example being a telesales call to my Virgin phone line offering me a great deal if I took up Virgin TV & phone services to go along with my existing Virgin Broadband service. When I told the caller they were calling me on my Virgin provided phone line and I was sitting in front of my TV watching Sky Sports via my Virgin provided TV services they were somewhat perplexed, needless to say my complaint that they were incompetent idiots fell on deaf and unconcerned ears.

Today tipped me over the edge when I got some mail shots from Virgin offering all sorts of services, sadly to an address in my name, but next door. When I called the Customer Services (haha!) Centre to rectify the address issue (which I thought I had done 5 years ago after many, many attempts) they too were incompetent idiots who put me on hold for minutes at a time, then tried telling me that they were clearly providing the services I pay for to 2 different addresses and that was quite OK.... I got bored after 35 minutes and hung up.

So I decided to call the man who signed the mail shots - Mr Kevin Elliott - MD of Customer Service for Virgin Media on the main switchboard. Now you may think this was a pointless and probably fruitless course of action, surely the MD of Customer Service wouldn't take the call of a mere customer.... well, you are right he didn't. But the switchboard is clearly so well prepared for such calls that I got put through to the UK Executive Group Complaints Dept. where they take ownership of the issue. I actually had a phone conversation with someone who understood what I was talking about, agreed there was a problem, empathised and explained what they were going to do about it.

So my advice, don't bother calling Customer Services, just try calling Kevin - 01256 752000.

19/05 UPDATE : Virgin Media called me back today - twice! To tell me they had fixed the billing\address problems and wanted to give me a discount as I now qualified for a combined tariff! hmmm something I tried last year, but failed miserably at doing, so Virgin have back dated the discount and given me a mega saving on Broadband - more than 50%. They even then gave me a BIG discount on a V+ box as a gesture of goodwill, and agreed an installation date there & then. Amazing difference between calling the normal Customer Services line that should have dealt with my problems and short circuiting the normal channels by calling Kevin directly - even if I didn't get to talk to him.

So, in summary the bog standard Customer Support of Virgin Media sucks, the UK managed Customer Complaint section of Virgin Media are very, very good. So good in fact that they have kept me as a customer, something that wasn't on the cards 24 hours ago. Given my latterly positive statements, I hope they let me off for using their logo!?

Vorsprung Highway Robbery....

... by Audi.

In the post today, a card from Audi UK. Not "Dear Mr Rice as a valued customer we would like to invite you to dinner with Elle McPherson......." instead it just said "Time for a cambelt change on your Audi A8"

Having then read the advice on the Audi UK website "The cambelt is one of the hardest working components in an engine. It should be replaced in good time to avoid damage to the engine. Please refer to your Audi Dealer for guidance."

So I duly call up my local trusty dealer (Dick Turpin Audi) where they merrily advise me that it will set me back £837.20! The thud that Dick heard was me falling on the floor, luckily I fell on my back, that way at least he couldn't come round and take advantage and bugger me at the same time! This could be my last Audi, well maybe an R8 could be tolerated!

Dodging the showers for a walk.....

.... I went to the local nature reserve again this evening and spotted a couple of Buzzard's scouting the area from on high.

Luckily the EF500mm & EF1.4x converter were attached to the EOS 1DIII, so I managed to get this shot, even though they were quite a way above my head.

Not a lot else around, but it's very windy, and a bit colder than expected, so maybe everything (apart from the rabbits!) are in hiding.

Some people have the ugliest kids.....

.... if you compare the beautiful Cygnet I photographed last year to this young Coot photographed today, there really is no contest in the beautiful baby stakes!

Still, it at least it's Mum loves him!

Noisy....

Haven't been to the lake for a while....

..... and how things have changed.

Everything is overgrown (apart from the foliage that has been hacked back), new benches everywhere and little animals have been produced.

Including this clutch of Great Crested Grebes, on the (very choppy) lake this evening.

Smell the flowers.....

... they, like us are only here for a short while.

The Yellow Azalea in my garden is just about coming to the end of it's flowering season.

It smells amazing, particularly in the late afternoon\early evening. During the month of April it's something I try & do every day - go and have a sniff, it's free, and it's wonderful.

Sick....

... still ill, with an ailment the likes I have never had before, never hope to have again (but the re-occurance within 90 days rate is high) and the effects of are grim, painful and generally unpleasant. Have been signed off work for 2 weeks, with another week more than likely.

I have been stuck in front of TV & PC, so I can tell you most of the snooker news and that my helicopter database is 100% up to date. I have pottered in the garden when feeling slightly better (albeit for very short periods of time), taken more paracetamol than is good for me plus a cocktail of various Dr's prescribed medications that I hope never to take again!

I have sort of managed not to fall into the trap of online retail therapy, more through feeling like crap than anything else, but a long desired sniper scope from Blackpool Air Rifles did arrive on the doorstep last week, it is made by Edgar Brothers who made my first parallax scope the 5-20x50 which has been a workhorse since purchase. So I'm now looking at increasing the arsenal with one of the following... a brown laminate stocked Air Arms S510 or a Theoben Rapid Mk II FT but if I can find a mint Theoben Rapid Mk I 17/17 FT with adjustable stock (if you have one for sale and you are in the south of UK, contact me!) I could have yet another expensive dilemma!

Just when I think....

... I have all the gear and no idea!

But I suppose he is at least making a living from photography, which is more than I am.

I have over the years wondered about doing some press\pap work. I watched the TV programme on Big Pictures headed by Darryn Lyons. I saw the mostly feckless camera weilding ex lorry drivers snapping away at celebs at various locations - most memorable was when Madonna jogged past the pap's van with her bodyguards on a road less than a mile away from her (now ex) residence Ashcombe House. The pap's initially couldn't even find the house and weren't ready - the bodyguards came back and offered for Madonna et al to run past them when they were ready with camera's in hand! Whilst I realise it isn't an easy job, a lot of it is based on tip off's and there is a huge amount of rivalry and mis-trust between them, can it really be that hard to do? Sadly, I don't think I've got the balls to give it a go.

THE lens - part II.....

.... about a year or so ago I wrote about the Sigma 200-500mm f2.8 lens.

I knew at the time that Canon had made to special order a fixed focal 1200mm f5.6 lens, but it was so rare that I didn't mention it. I never thought that one would come onto the market, but it did - B&H Photo Video of New York had one last year, the price tag - a cool $99,000 - believe it or not, it sold pretty quickly.

Never again did I think I would see another one available.... but yet again B&H Photo Video have one for sale, this time it's $120,000! It's an amazing lens weighing in at 36lbs, it's 3 feet long. With the current exchange rate and import tax to the UK it would set me back £95,000, I'm not sure if there is one of these in the UK yet - I can but dream!

As usual a brilliant review can be found at The Digital Picture.com website, looks like B&H got Bryan Carnathan to come and have a day with the lens, a video review is here.

Blackberry market dominance....

.... not sure what the big numbers are, but in my mobile phone selection I have become a Blackberry convert. For years and years I was a Nokia fan, they did everything I wanted, the menu structure was familiar, the car kits were good, the battery life was excellent and they were mostly bullet proof.

But, a couple of years ago I was offered a Blackberry Curve as an upgrade on my Vodafone account and I took it, worked out well as it did loads of things that I wanted to do really well (like personal email), the qwerty keyboard was fabulous and little things like the camera\storage were also very useful and useable.

I was then given a Blackberry Pearl with my work contract - crap, big step backwards, shared character non-qwerty keyboard, no email integration (my employer wants me to pay £20 a month for the priveledge of getting work email on my Blackberry - so no thanks!)

With my personal Vodafone contract I have now got a Blackberry Bold, even better than the Curve, and a lot better than the Storm that they sent in error first (and have yet to pick up after a week or so!)

All I have to now is find a good quality 3.5mm over the ear headset - seems more difficult than I imagined!

Some idea's are simple.....

..... and it seems others are making a living from it.

I have said for most of my life "do the small things really well and build success"... reading an ex-colleague [Tony Cocks] blog at Stuff-O-rama it sounds like Seth Godin has similar ideas... "The future is about doing small things really well and growing from there"

Maybe I should become a life coach\mentor\agent of change? Sadly I don't have the mental capability to carry it off and make a few simple lines of knowledge, experience and wisdom into a book or 2 hour presentation. But the basic principles are there - keep things small, simple, easy to understand and then execute - it should then work.

Sick, but still laughing.....

.... didn't get to see Barry Cryer last night as I have been off work all week, I really didn't feel up to going out at all. So have spent some of the week finding and listening to ISIHAC downloads from iTunes, some of which I had bought on cassette for the car 10+ years ago when I spent a huge amount of time driving around the UK demonstrating Lotus SmartSuite.

To me they are hugely funny, and the one-liners are brilliant. I have to assume that parts of the show were written well beforehand, but hope that some were genuinely off the cuff lines from very funny people like Willie Rushton, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden & Barry Cryer.

Whoever wrote Humph's lines is\was a genius - I have a sneaky suspicion it may have been Barry Cryer. Some gems can be found here.

The last word has to be the closing line of Humphrey Lyttelton on his last ISIHAC show......... "And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show..."

Upcoming cultural events....

.... I have seen a couple of upcoming cultural events that I am considering. It's a while since I have been to see anything live, but these might just get me out & about.

April 17th - Barry Cryer at the Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke

May 17th - I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue hosted by Jack Dee at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton - as I write I find it's already too late as the show is SOLD OUT [so I may have to trek to London to see Stephen Fry host it, but will probably find that that is SOLD OUT as well]

July 27th - Gary Numan at the City Hall, Salisbury

Canon admit problem, but they are going to fix it......

Canon have admitted to a problem with their flagship EOS 1Ds Mk III camera, even beyond the initial problems of the sub mirror fix for the 1D Mk III this appears to be a major problem for some users - me included.

I have to confess, I have never been 100% happy with the 1Ds Mk III since I bought one. All of the images were soft, was it me not using the camera properly or was it worth considering sending my lenses in for service and re-calibration at huge expense. Ongoing tests with the same lenses and other bodies such as a 5D & 40D (which I know how to use v well) infuriated me as they were nearly always better and the 40D outperformed both "higher end" bodies.

It wasn't until I tried the same setup of lenses & 1.4x extender with an EOS 1D Mk III that I realised how bad the 1Ds Mk III really was, at about the same time I got an email from Canon offering free collection, repair & delivery back to me of the camera to fix a couple of things - soft focus being one of them - see here for more details.

So, hats off to Canon for addressing the problem, they picked it up yesterday and I look forward to it coming back to me before Easter to try out and finally be happy with it.

UPDATE : arrived back on 9th, so a very quick turnaround - thankyou Canon. Very nice letter, thanking for me for my commitment to Canon products... lets see what the weekend tests bring.

Big Brother has started....

.......at last! As of today European ISP's will start capturing and then store the url's their customers visit as part of an EU security directive.

The BBC reports "All ISPs in the European Union will have to store the records for a year. An EU directive which requires telecoms firms to hold on to telephone records for 12 months is already in force.

The data stored does not include the content of e-mails and websites, nor a recording of a net phone call, but is used to determine connections between individuals.

Authorities can get access to the stored records with a warrant. "

Long overdue IMHO, activists and terrorists have been technology users for a long time, it's about time the bat was put in the other hand to uncover those who appear to be regular people going about their daily business as something else.

If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.

Spring chores.....

Lawn cut (twice), gutters cleared & cleaned, ponds drained, cleaned and refilled, garage doors washed & polished, plants re-potted, broken pots replaced, plants in border dug out & repositioned, plus visits to tip.... a busy weekend it was.

Still more to do, hope long weekend brings nice weather.

Mauled by a fox?

A swan at the local lakes appeared to have had a worse night than me. I didn't sleep well, hence the early visit to the lakes, but the swan appeared to have been mauled by something - at first I assumed a dog off the lead, but given the feathers and blood everywhere behind a fence & away from public access, I can only assume it was a fox, or there is a remote chance of a mink.

RSPCA were called and it has been taken to a swan sanctuary for some treatment and rehab. much to the annoyance of it's mate. I hope they are reunited soon.

Gone fishing.....

.... the last day of my week off, and I chose to go to Rooksbury Mill Lakes wildlife reserve again, this time more to see.

Kingfisher was out at his usual spot at 4:30 on the dot, sadly the perch has a twig obscuring the bird from the most convenient vantage point, so another will have to be found.

On the lake, a Great Crested Grebe has returned for the spring & summer seasons, today it was tucking into Perch and baby Pike!

Something good.....

.... or something bad is going to happen, which will it be?

Is this light emerging from the cloud in a god like ray? Or is it a dark cloud of gloom descending upon us?

I suppose we will just have to wait & see.

If I read my Horoscope (which I used to do every day, but really never believed any of it and have now given up wasting the time reading them) then something good is about to happen....

Solace......

..... in a tree.

Seems the only place this Heron could find peace and quiet away from the dog walkers and kids on bikes at the weekend at Rooksbury Mill Lakes was in this tree.

Not the best light, but I thought a nice silhouette would be interesting.

Canon 1Ds Mk III + EF600mm f4 + EF1.4x Extender.

Old kit for new....

I have traded in a load [and I do mean a lot!] of old\not used that often kit to acquire one of these.... a Canon EF600mm f4 L IS USM lens. So gone are the old EOS digital bodies that I couldn't bare to trade in for crap money in the past on smaller items, gone are the TS-E lenses, the EF180mm macro lens and the very old EOS 5 film bodies and associated flash units.

Once again I have assured myself that if turns out to be too heavy to lug around [it weighs in at 11.8 lbs!] or I find I don't put it to good use often enough it can be sold for very good money. I have done the usual refurb with Canon paint to cover up the inevitable chips, so it looks like new again. I will endeavour to find a manual on ebay, it will then be complete & as new, probably making it worth quite a bit more that I paid for it.

So far I have found it to be an exceptional piece of kit, it does weigh a lot more than the EF500mm, but with the 1.4x Extender attached the EF600mm comes in at fully functioning autofocus 840mm f5.6 on a 1Ds Mk III or close to 1100mm on an EOS 40D.

The new weapon of choice.....

Having re-kindled my liking for shooting air weapons, I have recently acquired a Weihrauch HW100KS.

Weihrauch made my 2nd ever air weapon at the age of 16 (less said about the 1st - an Anshutz the better) a Weihrauch HW35E in .22 calibre. It was an absolute mega weapon, and like so many things from the past, I should never have traded it in for something less memorable.

So, the new PCP HW100KS is the latest in technology, being the carbine version it is smaller, shorter and lighter, also as it's a Sporter version, it looks fairly normal versus the thumbhole stocked version.

Results are very good, very accurate and almost silent in operation thanks to it's amazing standard fit sound moderator and pretty near silent trigger and action. So far Mr Squirrel has been targetted very successfully, and with the lighter evenings on the way, I might even undertake some rabbit control.

Harking back to my fondness of the HW35E, I might even start a crusade to find a decent one 2nd hand for my mini collection.

UPDATE : The Weihrauch doesn't hold it's charge very well, filling it to 200 bar, it then levels out at 150 bar pretty quickly, and then drops off. It performs fine, but for a lesser number of shots than I would like. So I am now looking at the regulator upgrade from Ben Taylor & Son in which he replaces the whole workings that are under pressure with his own. The results are a massive increase in full power shots per charge - the downside is that it costs £300 making the gun a substantial investment!

Spring has sprung......

At Rooksbury Mill Nature Reserve late this afternoon I caught up with a Kingfisher, not ideal as the branches were in the way quite a bit, but at least I now know the patch.

I will take some time off work and sit down in a hide and see if I can get some better shots.

Currently negotiating on a Canon EF600mm lens, so will be able to get even closer.

Fighting Moorhens.....

I never knew that such a small bird had such huge feet\claws and that they fought like demons!?

As usual this looks like 2 males fighting over a female, same old story as most animals of this green and pleasant earth.

Not as sharp as I would like, but still a useful capture of the behaviour.

Con of the Year... again

Once again the High Street has thrown up a complete marketing con for Valentine's Day.

Wine Rack\Threshers\Victoria Wine group have released a voucher offering "40% Off All Champagne and Sparkling wine from 4th-14th February".

Sadly for them, all the comparisons I have done with other wine retaillers works out with them being considerably more expensive from the start - and even with the 40% deducted, only slightly cheaper in some cases. If you are wanting a dozen or more bottles I suggest Virgin Wines in most examples.

Example 1 - Taittinger Brut NV 75cl
Wine Rack - £36.99 less 40% = £22.19
Sainsbury's = £31.99
Virgin Wines = £21.99 (in a mixed case of 12)

Example 2 - Moet et Chandon Brut NV 75cl
Wine Rack - £38.99 less 40% = £23.39
Sainsbury's = £25.84
Tesco = £25.84
Virgin Wines = £21.99 (in a mixed case of 12)

Example 3 - Veuve Clicquot Brut NV 75cl
Wine Rack - £44.99 less 40% = £26.99
Sainsbury's = £29.73
Tesco = £29.73
Virgin Wines = £25.99 (in a mixed case of 12)

Example 4 - Bollinger Special Cuvee NV 75cl
Wine Rack - £47.99 less 40% = £28.79
Tesco = £33.98
Sainsbury's = £33.98
Virgin Wines = £29.99 (in a mixed case of 12)

Example 5 - Lanson Black Label Brut NV 75cl
Wine Rack - £29.99 less 40% = £17.99
Tesco = £25.90
Sainsbury's = £25.90
Virgin Wines = £18.99 (in a mixed case of 12)

Everything stops.....

... a little bit of snow, and everything stops.

But in some cases, it also allows for some photography trials.

Bench in garden covered in 4 inches of snow.

A good day....

... arrive at train station, no queue at Coffee shop - order coffee. Go to ticket office - no queue - get ticket. Back to pick up coffee - no queue. Walk to platform - empty & devoid of usual fuckwits who think they own the train everyone else travels on as well. Get seat on train with table - do loads of work on laptop for full journey time! Walk to office at Southbank - easily find hotdesk available [not normal] - sign on, log in and do a load of work. Mid morning coffee with ex-colleague - find out useful information. Back to desk - load more work. Have lunch with colleague, chew the fat, get some useful information, back to desk - load more work. Have tea with new colleague - get useful information, back to desk - load more work. Annual review with manager at 4pm - good result - another year of gainful employment. Walk to station, get train within 5 minutes and home for a Horse Feathers and lovely dinner of lamb casserole with some great red wine. Heaven! If only all days were as easy as this.

There are some advantages....

... to working in central London sometimes.

I took this last week when I was in the central London office, there are some stunning views from a few of the conference rooms - this is one.

Working for a living.....

... sadly involves driving to places and meeting people. It's not I don't like meeting people, it's just a great number of them seem to be on the motorway at the same time getting to the same sort of places.

I drove to IBM Bedfont Lakes four times this week for meetings, the journey of 60 miles takes about 50 minutes on a clear run, unfortunately most of the mornings this week it took close on 90 minutes, the evening runs home took just over 60 minutes. So thats 10 hours spent driving in my car so far this week just getting to and from work.

I won't be driving anywhere tommorrow, but I will be undertaking a similar journey on Saturday when I take my brother to Heathrow on the first leg of his journey to live in Australia full time.

Hoarfrost....

I think most of the southern UK was subjected to a bit of fog and frost last night, resulting in a Hoarfrost, which in some locations looked spectacular.

I drove to Basingstoke first thing to pick up a few bits & pieces and on the way there I saw some fantastic frosty scenes, on the way back I drove back through Longparish and again saw some quite beautiful views.

I stopped off at a spot by the River Test I thought might be looking like a winter wonderland, it was good, but probably because of the proximity to the river, it wasn't as great as I had hoped.

Although it's still lingering on late into the afternoon, looking at the weather forecast, it could all be gone by tommorrow.

New birds in garden.....

The New Year has brought a couple of new birds into the garden, the first to sit still long enough for me to snap it was this Blackcap pictured right.

The other new species seen over the last week or so is the Redwing - same family as, but slightly different to a Song Thrush and a fleeting glimpse of a Bearded Tit

Love it or hate it things......

Whilst in Holland & Barrett yesterday I found some lovely liquorice comfits, there were some samples available which I gladly tucked in to, much to my surprise the shop assistant and my shopping companion both said they couldn't stand the stuff! So I had their share as well.

It got me thinking to things that most people have an immediate love\hate reaction to..... Marmite, liquorice, port wine, red cabbage, liver, garlic, Guinness, aniseed - I like them all.

New Year outlook.......

My brother departed back to Manchester today, but he will return in 2 weeks for another stay of a week here before travelling to Australia for his new life adventure, hopefully he will settle in Sydney. It's a nice place to visit - and he has an apartment in Manly [pictured right], which is a super place to relax and spend time in. It's a 30 minute ferry ride to central Sydney which can be seen in the background of the photo.

Not sure what 2009 will bring overall, I am sure the economic downturn will play it's part and if you listen to the scaremongering, harbingers of doom (the media), then the next 12-18 months are going to be tough.

New Year resolutions include - not listening to the scaremongering, harbingers of doom -particularly Breakfast News programmes. Take more photo's. Blog more. Get on my bike more. De-clutter the house.... I'm sure more will be added.

If I don't post beforehand.... Happy new year reader.

Festive outlook...

My brother arrived on Sunday from Manchester for what will probably be his last Christmas with whats left of the family as he moves out to Australia in January. Various visitations have been made whilst he is here by people that he wouldn't normally see for years at a stretch - cousins, uncles and friends etc., so I think it's been quite a good couple of days for him so far.

All shopping completed, including a mega find - Chambord Liqueur at of all places... Asda! So Champagne (Sainsbury's Vintage Cava) Cocktails made with sugar lump and a dash of Chambord topped with bubbly have been the order of the day for the last few....

My brother and I played the "spot the best looking checkout girl" in Asda & Sainsbury's today - we both swore blind that we had found the bestest looking one!

Glazed Gammon, Mince Pies and now Christmas Cake have all been homemade, ready for consumption over the next week or so. Oh, and work is all done and dusted, with numbers looking suprisingly good given the global credit issues.

Reality check......

Whilst eating breakfast, I have just seen piece on GMTV that has moved me to post this.....

I don't normally fall for the usual GMTV sob story, but this wasn't pitched as a sob story. Melissa Huggins is a 27 year old school teacher from Staines who is suffering from a brain tumor for the 2nd time in 3 years. She was very articulate and put across her plight calmly and concisely, and even made use of the airtime to explain that the UK doesn't have the £100 million equipment that can treat her and a growing number of children with this form of tumor. (yes you read it right! Come on Abramovich, Branson, Mittal, Green, Ecclestone, Rausing, Ratcliffe and Reuben - get your wallets out!)

Having read the more complete story on her website I have decided to contribute what I normally spend on frivolous bits of paper known as Christmas cards to her fighting fund for treatment in the USA. Not a great deal of money in the scheme of things, just £100, but if a couple of dozen of people in a similiar situation to me made the same commitment, it would make a world of difference to a worthwhile cause.

I wish her well.

20/12 UPDATE : I have heard from a source that the fund had tipped over the £100K mark, and that the US hospital had accepted her and given her a place as soon as the money was confirmed. All of which is excellent news and provides a path to the most suitable and effective treatment, on what is the continued long and arduous journey of recovery.

Prikka-Strip

Now installed on my fence, a good number of metre's of Prikka-Strip. A triple row of 15mm high solid polypropylene cones, and as I found out when installing them, they do really hurt when they get you! Luckily, I managed to get the more visually acceptable brown version.

Yet again, in the course of protecting my own property I am obliged by law to put up sign saying "WARNING : these premises are protected by an anti-intruder device. Personal injury may result from unauthorised access" The only exception to this covering of my own backside legally is if a kid decides to try and hop over my fence and injures themselves, I could end up in court for failing to provide a duty of care to the trespasser!? Well it beats shooting them and getting a criminal record! (that was a joke of course!)

Next in line is an upgrade of the security lights all round the property. Although still working well, they are now 10 years old, and probably in need of an replacement by now anyway. I have also ordered a load more Prikka-Strip from Screwfix to get my neighbours fence covered as well.

Unwanted visitors.....

Pictured right is Philip Murray of Wellesley Road, Andover.

This morning at 4am he decided to enter my back garden, luckily the security lights and CCTV worked well, I also heard him and his brother Andrew shouting.

Police were called and as soon as the dog was brought onto site and announced by the handler, the brothers Murray decided to give themselves up. By this time after me initially shouting at them and them running off, they had moved into my next door neighbours garden. It turns out that they were looking for a mobile phone that Philip had lost during his drunken shortcut home over the garage roof of the flats next doors to my neighbour. Clearly a coincidence that during the summer, a couple of youths were seen on the same garage roof, they then jumped onto a parked car below causing damage and hefty repair costs for the owner. I wonder if the Police will link the incidents?

On this occassion there was no damage, so Police let them off with a search and a word. I have subsequently recovered the phone and have found out that I am legally obliged to get it back to them. I have invited them round to apologise and get phone back on Sunday morning. Will wait and see if they have the balls to do so.

UPDATE : The brothers Murray did come round as agreed at 11am Sunday morning, and have apologised to me and my neighbours.

Wine Bargain III (emphatically!)

I have been searching around for a good quality Champagne style wine for cocktails at Christmas, a few years ago I found Heidsieck & Co. Monopole Blue Top on offer at Tesco's for a bargain of £11.00 a bottle, but this year, Sainsbury's has turned up trumps...... This one is a real bargain, on 50% discount at the moment at £4.99 - Sainbury's Vintage Cava 2006. Perfect for Champagne cocktails - add Angostura Bitters, sugar lump and optional dash of Cognac or Orange Bitters\Cointreau\Peach Schnapps, for an excellent festive celebration drink.

Wine bargain II (nearly)

Another trip to the Berry Brothers & Rudd outlet store at Basingstoke threw up some interesting wines.

Firstly a white Rioja, something I had never seen before. So after a quick discussion about grape variety, quality and tasting notes, a couple of bin ends of Allende Blanco were put into my basket. For some reason when I saw it's rich golden colour I assumed it was a dessert wine, but no, it's a clean crisp dry white wine made from the Viura grape which went very well with the chicken stir fry and then the fish pie I had it with the next day.

Then a case of my current favourite red [pictured right], La Montesa Crianza, Bodegas Palacios Remondo. A wonderful, rich and smooth Rioja.

And lastly a couple of Magnum's - one a bin end of lesser known Claret for £22 which went particularly well with a fore-rib of beef from Robinsons at Stockbridge, the other was a freebie Berrys' own Good Ordinary Claret, which went well with a Chilli Con Carne I made for after the Fireworks at Hursley Park - which were fantastic as usual.

Latest wine bargain....

An introduction to this by my neighbour as an aperitif was a pleasant suprise, even better when later we found it on offer at Sainsbury's.... at £4.50 a bottle - half price from it's normal £8.99 price tag.

Jacob's Creek Sparkling Rose is an Australian bottle fermented wine made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes. Strangley not dry, nor overly sweet, it has hints of fresh strawberries and is very drinkable. As with all mass produced Australian\Californian wine it is 100% consistent. I have yet to try the white version, but in reality, much like Perou - one has standards, so I'll stick to Taittinger.

Do you know what yours is and do you....

.... know what it is supposed to be?

Having gone through the last couple of weeks, looking at my general well-being and monitoring symptoms such as cholestorel, I have had to pay particular attention to my blood pressure.

I had already invested in a blood pressure monitor, but hadn't paid much attention to using it with any great regularity, or worse understanding exactly what the numbers meant.

So post stent procedure and the new regime of drug therapy I have paid much closer attention and it's with great pleasure I can report that acceptable and normal levels of blood pressure have been achieved.

A very useful chart and explanation of the mysterious numbers can be found here.

I have been a bit quiet of late.....

.... because I am now the permanent owner of one of these.... a coronary stent.

At the age of 41, I have been fitted with a device that opened a blocked artery in my heart. Not entirely unexpected as my father had a quadruple heart by-pass at the age of 45. But nonetheless a sobering and frankly shocking turn of events in a very short period of time.

Hats off to GP, insurance company, specialists and North Hampshire Hospital at Basingstoke, I went from GP visit on 19th September to stent fitting on 6th October, with various appointments and milestones inbetween.

I am now recovering at home by watching Harry Potter and too many episodes of QI to mention. But in the future a return to the gym and regular walks are on the cards, plus cutting out any crap food that I did occassionally partake of.

The mighty Gulls!

I knew at some stage in my intermitant interest in Brighton & Hove Albion FC there would be something worth celebrating - and today is the day with a win over Manchester City!

I think you should support the football team you were born closest to - so I got stuck with Brighton & Hove Albion FC.

I only glance at the results most of the time, crack a smile when they win, wince when they flog star players like Bobby Zamora and shout obcenities at the TV when they sell the stadium to Tesco's and end up playing in Kent for a couple of years!

But, you have to take the good with the bad... and today is a good day.

Ryder Cup

Sorry, couldn't resist posting a comment on this weekends sporting failure......

Ian Poulter - superstar! All of the pre-match banter about him getting a wild card over others was total crap, well done to him, let's hope he makes it in next time as well. It's the one descision Faldo got right in his captaincy. Sadly his appointment of DJ Spoony at team motivator defies belief!

My notes to the organising comittee for 2010... sack Faldo, never let him near the team or competition again. Bring back Ian Woosnam as team captain, appoint José Maria Olazábal and Colin Montgomerie as vice-captains (ready for Oli to be captain in 2012). Sack whinger Westwood and dull (but previously in form) Harrington, replace them with Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke - at least they've got some passion about winning!

Coffee.....

I like coffee, so much so I invested a couple of years ago on a DeLonghi Magnifica beans to coffee machine. Plug it in, fill with water & coffee beans of your choice (see later), press button, it whizzes, whurs & splutters, then moments later a fresh cup of coffee is deposited into your favourite mug. Expensive, but convenient.

I searched for ages to find a nice balanced coffee bean and finally arrived at.... bog standard Sainsbury's Medium Roast, couple of pounds per 500g & easily available in the 2 local stores.

Year's ago during my quest for the coffee of choice, I stumbled across "Jamaican Blue Mountain" coffee, said to be the finest in the world. I bought some at Fortnum & Mason in ground form for my Cafetiere, it was hugely expensive, but at the time I thought it was excellent. So during my time off last week, I undertook a retail therapy day in Knightsbridge and visited the Harrod's Food Hall and procured more of the "best coffee in the world" as you can see it wasn't cheap at more than £106 per 1Kg.

Sadly it dissapointed, bitter & sharp. Much like the Taittinger experience, I'll stick to what I know I like.

Garden life

Having spent a few weeks at home on holiday dossing about, I spent today in the garden tidying up and noted a Leaf Cutter Bee using the bamboo shelter I had installed in the spring, so out came various camera's, lenses, extension tubes, flashes and tripod to catch the fast moving thing.

Shot with a Canon EOS 5D body with a Canon EF180mm f3.5 Macro lens attached with Canon Extension Tube 25. ISO 200, 1/250th at f5

Holidays....

... are here again!

I've decided to take 2 weeks off and do a couple of things for me..... retail therapy, photography and relaxation are high on the agenda.

I combined all of these yesterday evening by going to Stockbridge to take some photo's of a barley field, popped into Orvis for some new shirts (I just have to comment on the girl who was at the checkout.... beautiful is the only word!) and then went to the 3 Cups pub for a couple of pints of draught Peroni in the garden.... fantastic.

A review of the food at the Three Cups is in the pipeline as I will be visiting to partake of their evening menu in the very near future.

UPDATE : went to the Three Cups for lunch on Friday 8th. Hugely complex menu with probably 60+ dishes available, every one had some twist of ingredient - e.g. Hake with Paella and Razor Clams or Salt March Lamb & Green Olive Wellington with Jerusalem Artichoke Cream. Gordon Ramsay would have a field day here, they need to cut the complexity and number of dishes down dramatically, it would save having 2 chefs on a lunchtime and the probable large amount of food wasted.

I went for the most simple dish I could find and had Roast Garlic Chicken Salad with tomato's, parmesan, capers and croutons, my companions had steak & chips and soft shell crab tempura. The best thing of all was.... the chips. Tough Chicken, tough steak (that came minus portabello mushroom & beef tomato as described) and crab was 50% edible.

Dessert however was spot on, Eton Mess with Shortbread and the Strawberry parfait with marinated Strawberries were both 100% perfect.

Rumour has it that Gordon Ramsay has bought the old filling station in Stockbridge High Street, if it's true, existing Stockbridge eateries with delusions of grandeur will have to watch out, a serious restauranteur with great idea's, a clear business head and a stack of cash to invest is on the way to your town.

Bird watching excursion.....

my first dedicated trip to a bird reserve at Titchfield Haven was interesting, but I did feel a bit of a nerd.

Nice weather was a bonus, sighting of a Kingfisher, Little Egret and various dippers, waders and gulls added to the day, but photographically it was a bit of a challenge from the hides as they are a new environment for me.

Lens envy was clearly in evident in hides, various Canon (500mm & 600mm) & Sigma (300-800mm) lenses on show. Noise etiquette and keeping still also clearly high on list of requirements of serious twitchers!

I have finished reading a book....

..... you may well think thats not very impressive, but in my mind it is.

I do read a lot, I mean A LOT, but almost exclusively online and nearly all for reference, whether it be online news, Teletext\Ceefax sport, information on helicopters or the latest magazine report on a bit of photographic equipment. The Sunday Times sections that interest me are picked out & the rest discarded almost blindfolded, add to that the copious amount of email I have at work and personally, it all stacks up to a lot of reading.

I have never really been a reader for pleasure, I only really realised why this week - in my O-level English literature exam we were told to read The Hobbit, the well known epic tale of Bilbo Baggins et al. Sadly I didn't like it, in fact I just couldn't get on with it, so I didn't read it past the first chapter on several occasions. This event probably turned me off reading for pleasure forever.

I have since read few books from cover to cover, (un-authorised biog's of Al Fayed and John Delorean are most noteworthy thus far) I now add another - "Bearded Tit - confessions of a birdwatcher" by Rory McGrath. I like the writer, his appearances on "They think it's all over...", "QI" and "Three men in a boat" demonstrate a fast wit (mostly directed at Jonathan Ross & his attire) and an irreverant attitude to anything "establishment". Add to that the books premise around bird-watching, drinking and womanising all make it really rather good.

Sign of the week.....

... saw this & it made me smile at least.

Shitty week, stress, stress & more stress. Chest pains (muscle strain after lifting 100+kg pot in garden [full of soil & plant!] not heart attack) all week have merely added to the pain.

All topped off by physio visit where the pain was enhanced with deep tissue massage - why didn't I show them this sign first!?

FYI - the sign is in the cockpit of a Westland Scout helicopter.

Sleeping Cygnet.....

This was taken a few weekends ago when it was dry! There were 2 Swan nests at Rooksbury Mill Lakes nature park, it appears that only one Cygnet has survived the hatch.

I have been messing about with a few settings on the cameras to try & get them right, with mild success, but mostly HUGE frustration!

Anyhow, pictured right is an edited RAW image, processed in DxO Optics Pro v5 and then modified in Paint Shop Pro v7. Taken with a Canon EOS 40D with my EF500mm f/4 & EF1.4x converter at 1/2000th sec at F5.6

Memories.....

This Camellia was given to me by my old Solicitor, now sadly passed away, it always reminds of her when I walk past it in the garden.

Pictured in the rain a few weeks ago, just beautiful.

All the flowers now gone, but the plant seems to have thrived in the recent warm & humid conditions.

When feeding smaller birds in the garden.....

..... always be aware that bigger birds are watching!

This male Sparrowhawk swooped in on the Goldfinches tonight, don't think he got anything, but I suppose it's only to be expected given the numbers of smaller birds around at the moment.

Sort of nice to see, but always hope they might get a Pidgeon or two versus a Goldfinch or Greenfinch.

Shot through a pane of glass in the Dining room, so not as great as it could have been, but needed to act quickly as it was gone as quickly as it arrived. Luckily the EOS 40D with EF500mm f/4 and EF1.4x was at hand already set up.

Garden visitors.... and departures

A welcome visitor has been the Goldfinch, a couple of them in fact, all feeding on the black thistle seed (also called Niger seed) feeder I put up about a month ago.

I was just about to take the feeder down as nothing had shown any interest - when they turn up and start feeding like crazy, taking it in turns to feed & then preen.

Also present in the garden have been Greenfinch, Dunnock, Starling and the usual Blue Tit's, Blackbird's, Thrushes and many Robin's. Haven't seen the Goldcrest for a while, but hope to get a good photo of it later in the Summer.

Grey Squirrel's continue to get shot upon entering my garden, I must have taken 30+ now!

Still trying out the new lenses....

...... the Canon EF 15mm Fisheye lens used in a slightly different way.

A much over done subject, the yellow sea of Rape Seed that is so beautiful (if pollen filled & smelly) in early May in the UK.

Dodged the April showers which are still hanging around for my birthday week to take this in a field close to home.

Took a couple in landscape, then a few more in portrait & decided I liked that orientation better with vivid colour of the field with shadow in foreground and large expanse of bright, but cloudy sky. Critics have said they don't like the tree in the top left corner as it distracts the eye, but I think it works.

Bad news......

..... the lady who owns the biggest plot on the road where I live has sold out to developers, sadly for me it means the view I have had for the 10 years will change.

As you can see from the photo taken from my neighbours loft conversion window just 2 weeks ago (left), it's a beautiful large open garden, but it's a crappy delapidated house, and if my 70 year old mother was in the same position I would have advised her to flog it for £1.2m as well.

Banner Homes Wessex Ltd. have applied for 8 houses to be built, having looked at the planning application I have made my objections known, so now it's in the hands of the Test Valley Planning committee to consider them.

12/06 UPDATE : well, well, well. I have now received letter from Banner Homes saying that they have modified their plans in accordance with my suggestion and deleted the 2 windows I said would overlook my property, they have said that they will also frost glaze the 2 remaining windows on the same elevation. They haven't mentioned any of my other suggestions, so assume that they were too much to ask. At least they listened to my main objection, only time will tell whether they are as keen to listen when they start work on the site....

Bad days.....

..... just when you think you are having a bad day because of something trivial like dropping a plate, burning the dinner or things just not going your way. Spare a thought for these two.....


BBC News website reports that a stunt driver delivering the ONLY Aston Martin DBS available for filming of the new James Bond Film - Quantum of Solace, crashes it on a wet road & it then plunges into Lake Garda! Oppps! Luckily he was OK.





Then, photo left shows a minor incident in Mexico to a Eurocopter AS365N3 Dauphin helicopter. It was being towed from the hangar when a part of the undercarriage gave way, I do hope that the proud customer wasn't there to witness it!

Photographers rights....

.... as I have been taking loads of photo's recently, this caught my eye on the BBC News website.

There have been many stories of late of photographers being challenged, and at some point if you take photo's in public places I suppose a stop & search is at some point inevitable, however if anyone (even a Police Officer) asks you to delete photo's or surrender Compact Flash cards etc. - YOU ARE NOT OBLIGED TO DO SO.

This link provides a very useful 2 page PDF file for reference.

You can sign up to the Downing Street petition to stop over zealous local authorities preventing us from doing what we have done for years & years.

Sadly, advertising like this from the Metropolitan Police doesn't help. It goes without saying (or advertising) that if anyone is taking any kind of interest in noting where things like CCTV camera's are in any location it should be reported.

Some of the more intelligent and enlightened forces have adopted some aircraft spotters as another set of eyes. Even the Metropolitan Police worked with Scotland Yard & BAA a few years ago with a scheme of registration for aircraft enthusiasts with LAAS International. The MoD have just started a similar scheme at RAF Coningsby.

They're back......

It may have something to do with my neighbours insistance to feed the birds in the garden with peanuts, or my feeders full of "Robin Bird Feed Mix" which they seem to like as well, but the little bastards a.k.a grey squirrels are back.

So, along with my trusty Theoben I have despatched 3 in the last 2 days (so I've probably got 20 or so in the past 6 months). Keep 'em coming as far as I'm concerned, I've got a couple of thousand pellets spare!

Lot's of coverage in the media about how the grey squirrel does so much damage to bird life and how it carries a virus that wipes out red squirrels, but people still think of them as little fluffy darlings - they're not, they are tree rats & vermin!

Royalty free picture by nvmdigital.com

Things could get a bit samey.....

.... if I over use this lens.

Just a close up of the car, weird how it cuts of the headlights, windscreen & roof.

I'm sure I'll take a load more just like this of many different things that I stumble across, but I'll probably spare you looking at my whimsical snaps.

Fisheye frolics.....

This is a shot I have wanted to try for a while, with the new 15mm Fisheye, I thought it would look a bit different.

Just a snap at the bottom of the garden at the moment, I will try & explore for some more densely populated woodland at the weekend.

A different perspective.....

.... through a newly acquired Canon EF 15mm f2.8 Fisheye lens.

I've always wanted a fisheye lens for my camera, so when one or two came up on ebay I decided to get one, saving s quite a bit on the list price for a new one from Canon.

I don't this it's going to be the most used lens in my camera bag(s), but a useful addition none the less.

As you can see from the quick snap taken earlier today at Rooksbury Mill lakes (home of the Kingfisher), landscapes are big with this lens. Closeups are also interesting as the distortion becomes more noticeable, particularly if the subject has straight lines.

New kit......

In my last post I eluded to the fact that I had successfully found all the elements of photographic kit I was spurred into getting by my chance meeting with a wildlife photography enthusiast a few weeks ago.

The photo left shows some of what I now lug around...

When I attach the EF500mm lens [the taller lens pictured left] to my EOS 1Ds Mk II with a 2 x Extender II and Manfrotto monopod it all weighs in at 7Kg (15½ pounds) which has meant further investment in lens\camera specific bags.

I'm hoping that once I get used to using the kit, I may even start to derive some earnings from photography for a change, maybe try & sell some stock photo's or even get a commission or two for some wildlife images.

Updated kit brings results... but could do better

I've found and procured all the elements of the camera kit I wanted, all 2nd hand, but still mad silly prices - I keep telling myself I can sell them for what I paid..... yeah right!

At least the equipment has proved capable of getting results, I think it's now a matter of me getting better at using it.

Simple things like covering up the dirty great big white lens with something green or even camoflauge would help, I don't think I'll be getting myself decked out in Realtree though.

Rent a stalker.....

... but it actually sounds like a great idea in the end.

London Photo Bloggers reported a few days ago about a new idea of taking candid shoots of a person going about their normal day & presenting them as gift portfolio.

"MethodIzaz is a unique photography experience. Using information provided earlier about their weekly routine, the photographer will arrive on the scene, and unseen, take shots of the subject. Subjects are unaware of the exact moment they will be photographed and of the photographer's identity. Instead, the subject is photographed completely naturally, living life as normal. "

Looks like it's only in New York at the moment, but I'm sure someone will start up in London soon enough.

The image [left] is of a bronze somewhere in Bratislava, I think it's a really good piece. It apparently is on the corner of a building housing a restaurant call The Paparazzi.

Just when you think you are making progress......

.... someone else comes along and pisses on your parade.

I'm talking photography, yet again. I was told a few weeks ago that at Rooksbury Mill Park lakes which is close to my home, there are a number of Kingfishers to be seen.

So, on Sunday morning with the sunshine making an unexpected appearance before the well forecasted approaching storms, off I went in search of said bird with Canon kit in hand - not an insubstantial setup of kit - EOS 5D, 70-200mm f2.8 L USM IS with 2 x Extender attached. Only to find that a local wildlife photographer had beaten me to it. He was fully decked out in Realtree camoflauge jacket with EOS 1DS Mk III and a Canon 500mm f4.0L USM IS in hand, similar to that as shown above.

To add insult to injury, no Kingfisher (wasn't expecting to get any shot's on first attempt, so I will try again) it pissed with rain, and of course I hadn't taken coat as the sun was shining when I left!

Having seen what can be done with the EOS 1DS Mk III & Canon 500mm, I have to confess that plans are afoot for an upgrade! Watch out Mr Mastercard, your about to get a short term beating!

If you really want to see what can be done with kit like this, check out this link... Ophrys Photography in Kent, UK. A wonderful array of amazing & beautiful wildlife photographs. I have to admit that I have half hinched the image of the Canon setup from their website, so I do hope they don't mind as long as I give them a plug here!? If you do have a problem with me doing this, please mail me.

I hadn't thought about this until today.....

.... who owns today? Leap year day, added to the working week without any mention by employers.

Except for the National Trust who have granted its whole full-time workforce the day off. Calling it the Great Green Leap Day, they are asking staff to use it for the environment. "We're giving them this opportunity to look at steps to green their own lives at home," explains Mike Holland of the Trust. "Anything from converting to greener energy to starting a compost heap."

Think I'll just be a bit greener, by turning off a computer or two....

A mine of useless information......

......I have been called many times.... about many things.

But I have been amazed at how little I really know about subjects that interest me, like photography. It was only when Carl Tyler made a comment about taking a photograph of the lunar eclipse & that he didn't have a fancy camera like his brother.. how he didn't understand f stop values etc that I realised I don't know them 100% either, I know how to use the equipment & what the values translate into when using the kit, but where they come from or how they are derived - no idea. Until now.....

Excellent easy to understand articles on lens apertures, focal length, lens speed and a whole host of other photography subjects can be found using these links from the Canon Professional Network Infobank website.

It's broken, one of two things should be in mind.....

..... either I should jump for joy at the thought of being freed from my continual reliance on email & Sametime (not self imposed!), or I should feel lost without it?

I think I feel more of the former.

Screen went blank today, sadly the IBM fix it squad can repair it in about a week & have kindly supplied a replacement.

I did go out for lunch in London today feeling a great release at being PC free for a couple of hours though.

Waddesdon, wine & poor weather....

Another Sunday spent visiting a National Trust property, this time Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire.

Very grey day weather wise, interesting place, will visit later in year when all the statues, gardens & grounds are looking a bit better.

Nice lunch in the main house, and yet again free entry included in National Trust membership. Interesting shop with a range of Rothschild wines.

Couldn't find corkscrew big enought for this bottle though!

I think Lacock Abbey could be next on the list of NT places to visit, it has photographic museum & the cloisters were used in the Harry Potter films, see if I can find myself a Dobby!

A brief history from Olympus to Canon.....

I've been taking photographs for 20+ years, I'm not particularly good at it, given the chance I put a camera into full auto mode & snap away. But given my interests in aviation, fully automatic\sports mode\landscape mode have suited my requirements.

I started out using some money left to me by my Grandfather to buy an Olympus OM30 kit from Dixons, it was over priced & totally shite, but I was hooked. I soon progressed into getting some after market lenses for it & then trading up to an OM2SP and I lusted after the OM4Ti, god knows why, not because the camera isn't great, it's just I would never have got any benefit from it's capabilities, they even made a gold plated OM2N! I had accessories like the Winder 2 which enabled me to waste film at a much faster rate of 2.5 frames per second and flash guns that would blind someone at 50 paces.

I then discovered that Olympus Zuiko lenses were clearly streets ahead of after market ones & set out to obtain one of these..... the Zuiko 85-250mm f5 [see above photo right]. What a revelation, the ability to zoom across such a wide range. Perfect for the work I was doing at airfields and events like the Epsom Derby.

Nowadays I use Canon kit, I think that the DSLR's they do are the best on the market. So an EOS 5D is now my main camera which gets attached to a wide variety of Canon lenses, the next of which will probably be one of these.... Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS USM, everyone I have spoken to who has seen & used one say it's the best Canon lens in the entire range.

At last a seat worthy of my patronage....

...... I am the King of the castle!

Went to Stowe today in the lovely sunshine & took a load of photo's which I will post on my pBase gallery later.

National Trust membership may be perceived as an old fart pastime, but I have discovered that it's a wonderful gateway to lot's of nice places to visit.

Stowe Landscape Gardens in the winter sunshine being one of them, fantastic day, not a cloud in the sky, just a load of plebs with kids screaming & shouting, even they couldn't spoil my day.

I hadn't quite realised the size of the problem......

..... yes, squirrels. I hate them! They are tree rats to me (as pidgeons are flying rats to me as well!).

I had over the winter thought that the numbers were high in my garden & surrounding area, but only when I saw 5 in the same space did I decide to take drastic action by culling them.

So I started to shoot the little furry sweet looking things [not my terminology, but my neighbour thinks that way - my view is a little different - disease ridden, bird nest raping, tree bark stripping little bastards!].

So I quickly and quietly got to 5 clean kills with my Theoben .20 Rapid air rifle, but there were clearly more to be had - 12 so far! More to follow, I'll give them a couple of days to feel more comfortable moving around & see how many there are to be had before they start breeding!

THE lens......

...... I want one, but the £17,000 (yes, seventeen thousand pounds!) price tag might put me off somewhat.

Sounds impressive specification though... f2.8 throughout the full 200-500mm zoom range, comes with a dedicated 2x converter that makes it a 400-1000mm f5.6 with autofocus working all the way. Sadly it has no Image Stabilizer and it weighs a hefty 15.7Kg. I also think the way it looks is more likely to get you arrested as a terrorist than a pap or bird watcher.

Take a look at this link to get the true scale of the lens.

It happens every year....

... at the first sign of good weather, I dust off the camera & go on a wander.

Lucky enough to catch this Heron stalking something in a meadow just off the River Test in Longparish today. Also saw a Kestrel & Buzzard circling about overhead.

1/500 f11 ISO 400 with an EOS 5 and Canon 100-400mm with 1.4x extender attached.

I've seen a new lens from Sigma I quite like the idea of, but not the costs involved.... more later.

Can you guess what it is yet?

Do you think (like me) that it looks like feathers?

Spotted this morning on a cold & frosty start to the day in the rising sun...... ice on top of my car roof.

[Click on the picture for full size]

Value for money from South West Trains.....

Everyone moans about how expensive train travel is nowadays, and most of the time with very good reason. I had a different experience that has been added to this week.

I buy a weekly season ticket for my journeys to & from London, it costs a good deal of money, currently £87.50 for 7 days. I don't use it every day, but if I travel into London twice in a 7 day period (which I invariably do) it saves my employer money - yes, I am lucky enough to be able to expense my travel costs, but I still watch what I am spending. If I were to buy a ticket on a daily basis, a standard day return would cost £44.50

Add to this a journey on Friday which I undertook from Andover to Reading (via Basingstoke) for a meeting with customer in the morning, then travel into London for meeting in afternoon, then travel home with the herds at 5.50pm Friday evening - all still covered by my weekly season ticket at no extra cost - bargain!

As football stadiums go.....

.... Arsenal's Emirates Stadium is quite nice. Large scale development, good conference facilities etc... Just a bit of a bastard to get to. Waterloo, Northern Line (3 stops), Piccadilly Line (7 stops) and a 5 minute walk in the sleet & rain.

Coffee was good, food was shite. Speaker at lunchtime was brilliant - Tim Smit. If you ever get the chance to hear him speak, go along, particularly if it's your third invitation.... (You will find out what I mean by this when you go!)

His irreverant tinted spectacles and ability to communicate are clear for all to see, well worth seeking out.

How many workmen......

....... does it take to change a speaker on Andover train station platform 1?

You might think the answer is 5. As in the 5 you can see in this picture [2 feet on the ladder shows workman number 5!] but I didn't photograph the 3 other pillocks stood on platform 2 watching from afar!

What a sorry state of affairs, no wonder the infrastructure provides such a shit service.

Cool plates.....

As a number plate fan & owner of what I think are some pretty nice vehicle registration plates, I saw two plates this week that made me smile and think how good they were - 81 RDY was seen on a VW Touareg in central London & WE57 HAM was on a Bentley GTC on the M3 heading northbound.

The BBC have just reported on the plate F1 which has been sold at auction for Essex County Council who had it since its first issue. It was apparently sold for a total of £440,625 to car designer Afzal Khan from Bradford, he runs the Project Khan business that does bespoke Range Rovers etc. The previous UK record for the most expensive plate was M1 which went for £331,000 in 2006 to a Cheshire businessman who bought it for his sons 6th birthday!?

The article gives some examples of who & how much has been spent on some amazing combinations such as the plate COM 1C which is owned by Jimmy Tarbuck (don't know why?), K1 NGS for which the Sultan of Brunei reportedly paid £231,000. In April 2006 a Sikh businessman paid £254,000 for the number plate 51 NGH.

All of the UK records pale into nothing when you consider that £3.5 million was paid last year at auction by Talal Ali Mohammad Khouri for single digit 5 plate in the UAE state of Abu Dhabi. This however might be trumped later in the year when the single digit 1 comes up for sale in Abu Dhabi.

UPDATE : Edited to appease local resident and ex-college class member. Respect? Remember the word "Germanic" Mr B? It's term I used at Cricklade one day in lecture with Mr Lees, you seemed to take the piss at my then superior wine knowledge. You have earn respect, if you start with a deficit, you have a longer journey...

UPDATE 28/06/08: MDB 64 is still for sale Mr B! NewReg want £8k for it.

Gate to nowhere.....

.... spotted this on way home from work today.

Seems a shame that such a nice gated entrance is now bricked up & forgotten. Logical if no longer is use, and an alternative entrance is in place, but still a bit weird.

I have plans (in my own mind) to have such a gated entrance to my house fairly soon, but with electric gates, rather than bricked up!

1/8W+(D-d) 3/8xTQ MxNA

They're right....... it's the most depressing day of the year.

The formula is made up of the following variables....

W = Weather
D = Debt
d = Money due in January pay
T = Time since Christmas
Q = Time since failed quit attempt
M = General motivational levels
NA = The need to take action

Some, but not all apply, but nevertheless, what a grim day this is.

STOP! - Stop Tesco's Oversized Plan

As a resident of Andover I have long known about the proposed Tesco development of what was the now disused RAF Andover site, but only recently found out more detail, sounds hideous......

Tesco plans to build its largest distribution centre in Europe - you might claim this to be good news locally with perceived investment of £120m & lots of jobs. Reality is local contractors won't get the work to build or manage the development. The warehouse is highly automated, so when completed, employment opportunities will be scarce. If as is thought Tesco close two other depots in the South of England and relocate to Andover, a lot of the skilled workers such as management & drivers will migrate with the depot.

The site concerned has outline planning permission for a business park but on a much smaller scale than that being proposed by Tesco. As is usual Test Valley Borough Council Planning claim that a small business park & hotel will be built adjacent to the Tesco development, but in reality who in their right mind would build a a hotel & business park next to a traffic junction that is choked to a standstill with Tesco HGV's? The business park & hotel won't ever happen, they are just a distraction in the plan to make it sound more attractive. (Much the same tactic as when TVBC suggested building homes on Andover Golf Course & they reassured people that they made provision & plans for a Golf Course in the new housing development planned for Picket Piece - sadly TVBC were never going to fund the construction of a new course & were looking for private investment to do it - again, it was never going to happen, but TVBC could state in their plan that they had made provision for another golf course to be available for the displaced membership of Andover Golf Club).

Estimates vary massively between 1,200 (Tesco estimate) & 3,200 (campaigners estimate based on other Tesco depots) vehicle movements in every 24 hour period. There are two direct results of this massive traffic flow, the first is increased levels of road noise from the biggest HGV's on the road, the second is that the A303 will become choked with traffic desperate to overtake convoys of Tesco lorries blocking each other as HGV's do today on roads like the A34. Net result will be businesses moving away from Andover as their productivity declines & costs increase due to more time spent travelling to & from customers.

It looks like a well thought out plan when viewed in the Tesco & developers glossy brochure as seen below, but all the gloss & proposed development mean nothing, the biggest impact will be to every single driver that uses the A303 in increased journey times.

Sticking to what you know....

... and like, sometimes isn't a bad thing.

I've been a fan of Taittinger NV for 20+ years, I was first introduced to it in my college days, when I was given a bottle as a gift for working extra long hours at a now defunct arts centre near Winchester called Sutton Manor.

Taittinger was the house Champagne served to the masses at the evening classical concerts where I was lucky enough to see such artists as Andre Segovia & Yo-Yo Ma, but at the time I didn't really appreciate who they were. Krug NV was the sole choice of the estate owner and his personal guests, a certain Mr Alex Herbage who later served at the US Governments pleasure for fraud.

Don't know where Alex Herbage is now, but he employed his brother Mr Peter Herbage to run the catering on site. "Mr Peter" as he was known (so as not to confuse with brother Alex Herbage) was an absolute gent, he was a past Master of the Worshipful Company of Cooks and was hugely generous with his knowledge to all the staff he employed, he also appreciated the long hours some of us worked to get things done, hence the gift to a few of us who finished clearing up at 3am one night.

After consuming several hundred bottles of Champagne over the years, a large proportion of which have been Taittinger, I can now identify Taittinger NV in a blind tasting, with my eyes shut and hands tied behind my back just by the smell of stuff, to me it's like nectar.

I have for years been wondering about the Cuvee Prestige of the Champagne House - Comtes de Champagne, but never had the impulse to put my money into some investigation and actually buy a bottle or two at £100 each to do a tasting... until now.

Clearly I can read a label & should have known what I was in for. Blanc de blancs means made entirely from white grapes, which in this case it is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes. Taittinger NV is made from 40% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir and 30% Pinot Meunier, so a completely different wine is to be expected, but my blinkers were clearly on & I had over looked this.

My favourite wine merchant BBR reviews Comtes de Champagne as follows... "Its top Champagne is Comtes De Champagne - first produced in 1952, it is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes from 6 Grand Cru sites in the Côte de Blancs. This is finely aromatic, rich, creamy Blanc de Blancs at its best, though patience is required as the wine should not be approached for at least ten years."

Other reviews were equally impressive.... "This wonderful vintage champagne from the very good 1995 vintage scores 95/100 Parker points and the hugely impressive 1995 Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs displays ripe apple and pear scents. Broad, rich, deep, and medium to full-bodied, this dense (yet admirable balanced), powerful wine is packed with concentrated layers of white fruits, flowers, and toast. Notes of tangy green apples appear in its awesomely long finish to reinvigorate the palate. Drink now - 2012."

Great I thought, splash out on a bottle or two & give it a whirl at a special occasion or fine meal. I can only say now that having tasted it, I'm disappointed. My over riding view is that it was sharp on the palate, not particularly rich and in my mind very much over rated. I should have known, I have bought other vintage Champagne in the past & been equally disappointed.

From now on, I think I'll stick to the NV.

PS... Sutton Manor Arts Centre as it was known was previously the private home to the late Lord Rank of the film & business fame. I have fond memories of the place and a few wonderful stories.... one of which includes an alledged interlude between the butler, a certain (now departed) flambuoyant male jazz artist and a £1200 bottle of Armagnac. Needless to say, the butler got sacked and the keys to the private cellar under the house were kept well away from the staff afterwards. Sutton Manor is now a residential care home & some of the grounds now form the base for Naomi House.

A plank from the past.....

.... or to be precise an Optica Industries OA7, which started out life as the Edgley Optica EA7 but after crisis after crisis followed by a few ownership changes (Brooklands Aerospace, Lovaux, FLS etc..) things weren't going too well & they stopped production.

Such hopes had been pinned on this aircraft as a viable surveilance platform, but sadly the fatal crash of the Hampshire Police aircraft put an end to that scheme and was probably the nail in the coffin.

The last 3 remaining registered aircraft have turned up at my local airfield at Thruxton, so very unusually for me I took a photo of one, even though its a plank wing & very much against my better judgement to snap things with wings on them.

Unusual aircraft with local connections to me, as they started out life being produced at Old Sarum near Salisbury - until a suspicious fire burnt the hangar & its contents (including a number of OA7's and a civil registered Gazelle helicopter [G-SFTE]) down to the ground.

UPDATE : Looks like my anonymous commentator is right.... link. I wonder if the presence of the aircraft at Thruxton is linked?

Working for a living again....

... back on the road.

I get to go to all the nice places - even those that charge you £5.20 to get in!

Yes, I've been to Wales. Bridgend in fact to see a customer data centre, all very interesting [yawn].

I did however discover the The McArthur Glen Bridgend Designer Outlet just off J36 of the M4 motorway, I'm sure a visit there when I have more time will be on the cards & make the whole journey more bearable, retail therapy whilst on a business trip always seems to make the day go along a bit better.

New Year....

...... New cookware.

It's been time for a change for a while, but I've finally taken the plunge and replaced my pots & pans.

May not be important to everyone, but as I enjoy my cooking and spend a fair bit of time in the kitchen it's important to me.

Loads of bargains to be had at the moment, but the best place to buy I've found is Cookware Online or Bhs Home in Reading.

For once the marketing blurb is spot on.... "Tefal and I see these as the ultimate set of pots and pans, giving you control and comfort, ease of use, value for money, durability and the versatility so you can be the best in the kitchen you can possibly be" - they are also dishwasher safe (unlike the Tefal Circulon ones which end up going white!!).

So far, I'm very impressed with them.

The coolest camcorder in the world so far.....

.... from Sanyo!? I've been looking for a while for a new camcorder to replace my Sony DCR-PC5E which uses MiniDV tapes and is a bit of a pain in terms of digitising the clips.

I've arrived at the Sanyo Xacti HD1000, seems the only place that stocks it is Jessops. High Definition recorder that uses SD\SDHC cards & can record 85 minutes of full 1920x1080 HD MPEG-4 material on a single 8Gb SD card.

A stunning 38-380mm optical zoom range (35 mm equivalent), with 10x digital zoom added make it a combined equivalent of 100x zoom total.

Battery life is good, but the best bit is the way it handles, ergonomically it's just perfect, sits in the hand very comfortably. It really is easy-to-hold and easy-to-shoot with.

Loads of other features such as adjustable resolution modes, image stabilizer, in-camera editing, super fast startup at under 2 seconds, easy PC connectivity and a HDMI output built in all stack to make this a very impressive small camcorder.

Car of the future......

.... I have often wondered about what to do about my next step in the car market. I currently drive a 4.2 litre V8 audi A8 that isn't very carbon footprint or wallet friendly. I also expect these types and size of cars to be priced off the roads in the next couple of years by the Scottish interloper and his cronies, so it's days are numbered.

I've thought about getting the next generation of Smart car with an electric motor for local journeys, but then the electricity bills will spiral, so if I invest in a wind turbine and\or solar panels for my house I could be close to self sufficient in motoring terms, albeit with a hefty upfront investment. I would also have to hide a small petrol sports car away in the garage for high days & holidays!

But then today I hear of a car that runs on hot air (honest!), all I need to do now is find a wife who can power it!! No really, it's a new French (oh dear) designed small car that runs on compressed air, with a range of 200km on one charge & speeds of 110kph it sounds interesting, particularly when you also find out that one of the of worlds largest car manufacturers has bought into it - Tata Motors of India - they have a massive market to tap into and with the worlds oil reserves dwindling, could this be the small car of the future? The greens are already complaining that creating compressed air from electric compressors isn't very energy efficient or eco-friendly as most of the electricity is coal, nuclear or gas power station produced! But in my mind, it's a start.

Link to BBC News website with video of car & designer is here.

Designer shite.....

I had the misfortune of finding these in the interweb today.... As you will have seen from my previous posts, I'm into conspicuous consumption and excess, I even have a passing interest (okay, great interest) in guns, but these caught my eye as a complete load of old shite.

The sales patter...... "Philippe Starck's intention for the Flos Gun Lamp for was to create objects which remind us that our state of well being is the result of somebody else dying - contentious maybe?"

"The gun light has a body made of die cast aluminium with an injection moulded polymer overprint and gold plated finish. The diffuser or shade is matt black plasticized paper with a silk screen gold printer inner."

The reality - artist trying to cash in on tools of war made from die cast aluminium with an injection moulded polymer coating (plastic coated gold plated aluminium replica to you and me). Hurry now, they've been reduced in price! No suprise there then! And given the artists name the price tag is ludicrous - the full set will cost you £2,830.00

Ever wanted to fly a helicopter......

...... but thought it was too expensive?

Then thought about getting a radio controlled helicopter, but discovered that they are really difficult to fly and they also cost a load of money to buy and then repair (repeatedly!)?

Well, there is now an answer to your dreams - the Air Hogs Helix - available at Argos for just £59.99, it is an amazing bit of kit. Easy to setup, very easy to fly, very stable and a great deal of fun both indoors and out.

The contra-rotating blades make it very stable, the small thruster propellers make it highly manoeuvrable in all directions and best of all the on board rechargeable battery gives about 10 minutes on a 50 minute charge.

UPDATE : it flies better and longer if you take the oversized polystyrene body off, I might even look at fitting a bigger battery as minus body it now has more payload so it can fly for even longer. Also, if you have the misfortune of knackering the blades (and then the spares that come with it!) you can order more from Spin Master Toys UK Ltd. for £4.99 incl. P&P on 01628 535000

To Wii or not to Wii......

I found one, online at Argos in my home town store. It was available for reservation and collection. So I reserved it and collected it, easy or what!?

The store Manager was asked to take item from locked storeroom & gave it to me, as she did, she said "here's your own little bit of gold dust", at which point most of the people in the queue started looking closely at what I had bought!

I can't work out whether to unpack and try it, or post it on ebay and make on it.

I've had a go on a friends Wii & its quite a bit of fun, seems like Wii sports that comes with it would be of most interest to me, maybe a driving game if there are any good ones for it?

I have a sneaky feeling, it will get unpacked and installed....

Yummy bargain.....

On a recent trip to my favourite wine merchant, BBR Outlet in Basingstoke, I noticed what can only be best described as a "boringly labelled magnum of Champagne", if there is such as thing, this was it. Maybe uninteresting would be a better way of putting it.

Luckily the name on the label rang a bell... Roederer is well known in the Champagne world with the name Louis Roederer, but I had also heard of Theophile Roederer somewhere and decided that the £29.00 being asked for the last magnum on the shelf was worth a punt.

Turns out to have been an inspired choice, it was fantastic. Sadly only bottles left at BBR now, but at less than £15.00 still a bargain. Strangely labelled altogther differently.

Also noted after a bit of searching was a Theophile Roederer history from the Irish Post, where he is linked to Champagne Cristal, which as everyone knows was the toast of the Russian Tsars and current tipple of P Diddy, Nelly et al (oh and Dr Evil!)

Come back, all is forgiven....

.... even if you do look like a cartoon character!!

BBC News reports of an article in Autocar magazine for a new, revised updated & green version of the Routemaster bus that was synonymous with London Transport for decades.

Apparently the new version will run on electric motors which would be powered by battery packs which, in turn, are charged by a hydrogen-fuelled engine and generator.

Sadly the whole scheme has been completely damned as it has been endorsed by none other than Henley MP Boris Johnson, who is the Conservative candidate for London mayor, he backed the plan which he said was the "shape of the future". Oh and the cost, about £600m!

Its only taken me 6 months.....

... but I have finally got a load of images together for my birthday present (from May!) - a Philips Digital Photo Frame.

I don't think it was the cheapest item ever bought for me, but it is a really clever & useful bit of kit.

I've taken a few of my own images & added quite a few from the internet from various sites.

Whilst looking for some images on pBase, I came across the stunning work of Ian Cameron, he has his own website called Transient Light as well. Definitely worth a look, and if you're anything like me, you will glued to your screen for a while in awe of the beautiful images & maybe even prompted into taking a course with him in Scotland, something I plan to do in 2008.

Do you expect me to talk.....

..... aucun M. Bond, je m'attends à ce que vous mouriez!

Yes, it looks like the new Bond villain is a Frenchman. At least he looks a bit scary.

Actor Mathieu Amalric is reported to have told film magazine Empire "I play the villain, yes." No official confirmation by Bond producers Eon or distributor Sony Pictures yet.

New film set for UK release on 7th November 2008 is based on the novel called Devil May Care, written by Sebastian Faulks is apparently set in 1967?

UPDATE : the movie itself has reportedly had a number of working titles such as Bond 22, B22, Agent in Risico, Risico, Risico Hessi, Risico Quessi and The Royal Creed. The actual title was announced on January 24th 2008 as.... Quantum of Solace.

Bad day Darling?.......

.... or just another fuck up by this incompetent Government.

You have to ask, what the hell will be next?

Data CD's (twice, or maybe 3 times), illegal party donations which senior party officials appear to have attempted (badly) to cover up with lie after lie.

Maybe the "Smile coach" for Brown will finally be uncovered!? I really cannot comprehend how any of his advisors, family or friends haven't had the nerve to say "stop smiling like that - it's sooooo easy to see through & so insincere - please stop, it's losing the party votes!"

Sadly the Conservatives and Liberals are equally crap with a probably equal amount of skeletons in cupboards.

Mobile device\SmartPhone call it what you like....

... at the I think we are spoilt for choice for Smartphones & media devices that allow all sorts of things that a few years ago we would have thought impossible, thus making a descision as to which one to choose is proving extremely difficult...

First up is the RIM Blackberry Curve 8310. I've got one of these through my UK contract with Vodafone. First impressions weren't that good, but I am growing to like it now. With a bright 320x240 screen, quad band phone, Bluetooth 2, GPS, browser, push based e-mail, 2 megapixel camera, media player and a whole host of other things I haven't played with yet, it's not short on features - maybe too many? Fairly intuitive to pick up how to do things email & alerts are coming through thick & fast & fairly convenient to deal with on the move. I can't help feeling though at something else might be better.........

Second in line is the Nokia E61 Smartphone. I've been a Nokia mobile user for 12+ years, I've stuck with them, even when I got some freebie Motorola piece of crap. Haven't seen this in the flesh yet, but I can't imagine that Nokia would get this new bit of kit wrong.

I'm off to read a few reviews, more later......







Third is the Apple iPhone. I've seen one & liked it a lot, I'm a big fan of Apple iPods & this follows as a great looking & performing device. It appears to have everything you could ever need 320 x 480 screen, 2.0 megapixel camera, iPlayer, quad band phone, Bluetooth 2 & Wi-Fi to name but a few features. It's very cool to operate with the screen scrolling & auto rotate images etc.. It's just all the crap that comes with it contract wise in the UK, if you want one now, you have to sign up to O2. You can buy an unlocked one from the US, but not all the features work. So Apple, why not just sell unlocked handsets to whoever wants to buy one for £300? You would sell a whole lot more than you are now.

And lastly the DataWind PocketSurfer 2, not so much of a phone, more of a browser. No camera, no phone, just real 640 wide (free?) browsing. It comes with 20 hours browsing per month for the first year included in the purchase cost. "Unlimited" browsing can be gained for an extra £5.99 per month. Second year costs are £39.99 for the year. I like the idea of this for using when I'm on the train or travelling, as I have web based email client I could stay in touch quite easily, apparently the device uses some smart software to proxy & cache all your pages, making it super quick. All yours for £179.99 from eXpansys.com

In my humble opinion.....

.... the best wine merchants in the UK are Berry Brothers & Rudd. With a flagship store at 3 St James's Street which appears to have "changed little since 1698" !? But now & very conveniently near for me a new Factory Outlet opened up at their warehouse in Basingstoke - offering at least 25% discount, but if you look around (and ask), probably even better deals than that are to be had.

Courteous, knowledgeable & friendly staff are always in attendance, with a great willingness to share their knowledge & even crack open a bottle for a small ad hoc tasting if required.

Latest gems found have been... Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc, cheaper & better than Cloudy Bay in my opinion. A fantastic Rioja - Vina Arana Reserva La Rioja Alta both recommended by the staff at the Basingstoke shop - I have been back & bought more since the couple of bottles I picked up at the time.

Also worth a try are the Berrys' Own Selection range for good every day drinking wines, I have yet to try their New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or La Rioja Alta, but I'm sure they will be great alternatives to the favourites listed above.

If you know what you want, you can even buy online, then pick up a few days later.

I want one.....

Having had the chance of getting one of the first deliveries (I was invited to order one by Audi). I wish I had bitten the bullet of the final spec car I put together. However, I think the V8 ones may loose some value though when the W10 engined version hits the streets next year.

Press reports say the Audi R8 is a Porsche beater, its should be for £90k+, but it also looks really good in the flesh, much better than I expected.

Fashionable or old fart....

I have recently taken delivery of a couple of jackets that I had made for me.

I saw something similar to this tweed a few months ago & last year at the Game Fair (oh those lovely Dubarry girls in short skirts!). Once I had got over the thought of "a tweed jacket at 40 years old!?" I went ahead & ordered them.

I think they are pretty smart & just a little different, just have to wait for the cooler weather to wear them. Made by Magee in Eire.

I think they might turn out to be quite popular & even stylish? But then again, maybe not...

Goodbye... at last!

Bye bye Mr Prescott. Good ridance to bad rubbish.

You are a political lightweight who survived on a ticket based on links with unions, who has abused his position of power repeatedly. Without your only sponsor - Mr Blair, you have no choice but to go back into the cosy shadows of the back benches to earn a few more quid, until some twat makes you a peer.

Let's just live in the hope that Gordon Brown does try to do something right & not promote you to the Lords.

Prescott is pictured (right) responding at last in the right way when a member of press shouted - "Why don't you resign Mr Prescott!?"

Time flies.....

... when you're too busy to write in your blog! Well, not really busy, but just prioritising things ahead of rambling on a load of rubbish here!

What have been up to I hear you whisper? Work for one thing has taken up far more time than I normally allow it to - I have been covering for my boss whilst he was on holiday for 3 weeks - and at the end of a financial quarter as well - never again!!

Spring normally entails something to be done inthe garden & it is now looking good, patio jet washed with new Karcher attachment, all set up for summer with table, chimenea, parasols & BBQ etc

I will attempt to commit myself back to scribbling here more often from now on....

These are just going to get stolen.....

... it's probably an offence that would get you on death row if convicted - tampering with US Postal Service equipment, but I have to confess if I saw one of these on the street I would steal it!

Postboxes across the US are to be dressed up as Star Wars robot R2-D2 to celebrate 30 years since the release of the sci-fi series' first outing.

400 boxes will get the new look, including outside Hollywood's Grauman Chinese Theatre, one of first cinemas to screen the film in 1977.

Comic Relief.....

... Brian Potter and Andy Pipkin sing.

I have bought the video & song on iTunes already, I urge you to do the same, it is a classic.

It will be #1 next week on downloads alone, and deserves to be, not just for the good cause, but for the fact that it is comic genius!

Blair also goes up in my estimation by about 100%, to have the piss taken out of him by Catherine Tate in that way was just brilliant.

Link to iTunes

Heart, sleeve - sorry it's not me.....

... in the past I have been criticised, both in my life & here on my blog as being far too matierialistic - I make no apologies, I am a product of the Thatcher era. The Gordon Gekko "greed is good" speech in the film Wall Street struck a chord somehow with me as a 19 year old.

Back to the heart on sleeve comment.... it appears to come more easily to others, recent blogs I have discovered where people seem to open up in a way more easily than me are Wife in the North [I discovered her before the book deal! Maybe I AM cool? Then again probably not] and Perou. Both give insight into real [and very busy] day-to-day lives, I really cannot believe how busy Perou is, it seems another day equals another country, seems like a very cool man.



In an attempt to diversify my comments.... Brits 2007 - Russell Brand - excellent, Amy Winehouse - very good, Take That - excellent (but they should have mentioned RW!), Oasis - as Liam might say - best band in the whole wide fu**ing world.



Buzzcocks - Preston - what a twat!

Paintshop Pro.....

I've been using Paintshop Pro for a while now, it does the very basic stuff I want to do really well. Whilst playing around with it the other day I discovered new effect filters I could use.

Below left is photgraph that I took last autumn in Harewood Forest, Hampshire. Nicely framed, nice light, good mix of colours etc.

Below right is a slightly different and possibly some might say surreal view after its been through a filter or two in Paintshop Pro..... (click on images for larger versions)

After weeks of inactivity.....

.... I have finally managed to get the camera out again, take some shots & post them! Inspired by a recently discovered blogs http://london.photobloggers.org/ and http://www.perou.co.uk/ I thought it was about time to get my arse into gear & record the world around me again. I'll try & post something like this once a week from now on.

So here goes with a rainbow from Dec 30th.

Taken around 16:40, it was a double rainbow, with a complete arc visible end to end, taken from my front doorstep, absolutely beautiful and completely free!

HP Media Centre PC.....

Over the New Year my brother visited from up north, he spent a fair amount of his time here talking over his idea for a Media Hub & browsing the internet looking for a new PC. He wanted to replace his ageing laptop that is on it's way out with a Media Hub PC of sorts, but he couldn't decide on whether to build his own, or buy something in the online sales that had the basics he could build on.

In the end he decided on the latter, after he left I also decided that I would use the New Year sales as a way to get together a Media Hub PC for my home.

So I have embarked on the plan to get my newly purchased HP Pavillion t3660 stuffed full of upgrades & goodies that will enable me to use it as a Digital Media Hub in the home, a touch more RAM, loads more storage, a Digital TV tuner and a Remote Keyboard for Windows XP Media Center Edition are first on the list. I'm sure a lot more additions in the future will make it nearly as slow as my creaking Sony Vaio desktop!

Dubarry boots.....

Although not part of the horsey fraternity, I have invested in a pair of Dubarry Wexford boots (right), mainly for my shooting activity, for years I have sworn by the Le Chameau Vierzonord neoprene lined wellies (below left) which have served me very well indeed for a good number of years, I will still retain them for very wet days & fishing.

I know several people who have Dubarry boots & not one has anything negative to say about them (apart maybe the price!), everyone who has a pair speaks in high praise of them & I have to say they really are as good as people say. I am very impressed, very comfortable, warm & completely waterproof. Excellent for walking around on rough ground & they appear to be comfortable enough to spend a day in without getting tired feet.

I first saw them in the flesh at the CLA Game Fair in the summer when I saw very nice young ladies wearing them with very nicely tailored short tweed skirts & jackets looking very aloof & some posh looking chap wearing a panama hat, check shirt & cords standing in a bucket of water drinking a cold beer in the 90 degree heat demonstrating how waterproof they were - what a great job - I might apply!?

Christmas & New Year washout!

At exactly 4pm on Christmas Eve I noticed that I had the beginnings of a sore throat. Needless to say it escalated to worse on Christmas Day itself, followed by two weeks of general cold & flu symptoms, followed by an eye & ear infection, interspersed by visits to various chemists, dispenseries & Doctors surgeries.

It was such a shame to end up not celebrating in any great way, and worse still throwing away a lot of food that I just wasn't interested in consuming - which for me is highly unusual. Luckily the un-opened bottle of alcohol will keep for a while yet!

I'm still not 100% back on form as I am struggling to shake off the cough, but I am at least back at work & not bored shitless.

Santa was very kind again this year, followed by a little dive into the online New Year sales which threw up bargains from Dubarry, Hewlett Packard (media PC!), Iomega & Le Chameau - reviews to follow idc.

Blog-Tagged from down under...

....not quite as painful as it may first sound, but nonetheless a response is required.

Tony Palmer (it had to be him as his lovely wife wouldn't do such a terrible thing!) Blog-Tagged me - click here for a description.

So here are 5 facts that you may not know about me.....
1. I was born at a very early age in Worthing, West Sussex - my father was a Hoover sales rep!

2. I spent my formative years growing up in St Thomas' Close, Charlton, Hampshire - this time was regularly interspersed with fights between the rival children of the Close, in one altercation I (aged 5) kicked a rival in the testicals & then promptly ran away - good clean fight then!?

3. My current favourite quote - "A man with an obsession is a man who has very little sales resistance" - C.S. Lewis

4. Helping my parents clear some scrub ground at the house we lived at in 1978, whilst having a bonfire with the cleared undergrowth, we burnt down the adjacent wooden bus shelter!

5. I have infra-red motion detecting CCTV installed around my house that I can view from every TV & PC in the house.


The 5 victims of my choice - Darren Adams (if he ever updates his Blog), Mat Peterson-Pearce, Mr Ports, Capt. Fickwut, Iain Dale

What the hell kind of hair brained scheme is this......

.... the BBC News Europe website reports of a scheme to give sunlight to a previously sunshine starved village in the Italian alps a few rays during the winter months.

Amazing solution to a weird problem where the slopes of the surrounding Alps cut the winter sun from falling onto the village for nearly 3 months from the middle of November.

"The mayor of Viganella, Italy, holds a computer that controls a giant mirror on the hillside behind. The steel mirror tracks the sun’s movements, reflecting light into the town. Viganella used to suffer from a complete lack of direct sunlight in winter."

Can something related to James Bond be nerdy?

... can't make my mind up whether this new watch from Omega is one for the nerds & hence to be avoided, or whether in fact, it's a tasteful homage to Bond for the watch collector?

As a Rolex fan, I'm not 100% convinced by the Omega, but I will have a look at it in the flesh & see if it's all that it's made out to be.

It's the 2nd in a series of watches by Omega, the first being shown here has a face that it made to look like the barrelling of a gun, al la the opening titles of most of the Bond films.

Limited production runs don't appear to bump the price up from the standard base models of the SeaMaster 300 & SeaMaster Planet Oceanwatch, but they all don't come in cheap as they are all at least £1,600+

As I write this, I am thinking that they look more and more nerdy and thus a bad idea, although the 2nd watch does look a bit more useable than the 1st.

UPDATE : Christmas Shopping in Basingstoke on Saturday, I found that 2 jewellers had a good selection of the Omega range in stock, including the SeaMaster & Planet Oceanwatch models. Sadly the SeaMaster dissapointed, but the Planet Oceanwatch looks pretty cool, but build quality isn't as good as Rolex. I think I'll give them a miss.

Casino Royale.....

...... I have been to see the new Bond movie, and in my opinion it is brilliant, so much so, that I will be going back to see it again next week.

Daniel Craigs first outing as Bond is convincing & a quality performance. Same sort of formula for the film, an excellent villain (Mads Mikkelsen) glamourous girls (Eva Green and the beautiful Caterina Murino [see right]), very cool guns, gadgets [this time a defibrillator!?], fast cars [keep to Aston Martin please!], watches [Omega Seamaster Professional 300M , though this should go back to Rolex Submariner imho] and amazing settings (the house on the lake in the last scene is just stunning), but somehow it's different. Bond gets a real fight, the opening scene in B&W is filmed a bit like Lock Stock..., another scene where Bond strangles a villain to death is quite graphic, and probably makes it more than a 12A cert in my opinion. It's all very different to the previous Bond movies where the likes of Roger Moore didn't get a hair out of place when tackling a villain like Jaws.

Production has already started on the next installment, currently with the imaginative working title of "Bond 22", scheduled release date is now Nov 7th 2008, so only another year to wait!

I would highly recommend a click to the excellent fan website called MI6, packed full of all sorts of news, history, wonderful facts & information.

I've been robbed!!

some nasty little bastard in the far east - Bangkok to be precise has managed to get the details of my credit card (probably from another equally nasty little bastard over here in the UK) & clone them onto another card and then withdraw a large sum of cash from an ATM!

So much for Chip & PIN making life more secure then?

Luckily, my bank managed to spot the unusual withdrawal quickly & contact me within 90 minutes to see if I was in actual fact in Bangkok, which I wasn't. Given that I was in the UK & my card was with me, they understood that I've nothing to do with the fraud & will refund me completely.

First Swede in space......

BBC News Science & Nature Section reports that the first Swede is about to be sent into orbit on the Space Shutte Discovery, my question is one of vegetable discrimination - when are they going send a Turnip into space?

I think I may have been listening to Jonathan Ross too much!?

7 days and counting down....

....until the latest installment of the Bond movie series is released to the general public - Casino Royale, starring the new James Bond - Daniel Craig.

From the clips I have seen, it looks fantastic, sounds great (score by David Arnold again) and the new Aston Martin DBS featured looks beautiful. Let's just hope the reviews saying that the plot is better & all round the characters & actors that play them are more convincing are true.

Last night on ITV1 David Walliams hosted an hour long special fetauring interviews with various Bond related celeb's & fans, most of whom he asked the question "do you think I would make a good Bond?", nearly all said no.

Having grown up with the movies from childhood to the present, almost every man in his 30's or more probably thinks like David that they would make a good Bond, sadly they are also deluding themselves.

Time is everything....

Latest research by Akamai (didn't know who these people were until I read this article, they look interesting from a technology viewpoint) & reported by the BBC News Website confirms my thoughts & way of browsing & shopping on this interweb thingy....

Websites face four-second cut-off
Shoppers are likely to abandon a website if it takes longer than four seconds to load, a survey suggests.

The research by Akamai revealed users' dwindling patience with websites that take time to show up.

It found 75% of the 1,058 people asked would not return to websites that took longer than four seconds to load.

The time it took a site to appear on screen came second to high prices and shipping costs in the list of shoppers' pet-hates, the research revealed.

Speed is everything....

The BBC News Website reports on the latest Supercomputer in use by academics in the UK has been upgraded. Makes my current research for a home PC upgrade look a little insignificant.

Still a long way behind the US based academic stuff & probably a little behind what is sat in an MoD bunker somewhere secret, but all probably a giant leap behind the computing power available to the CIA\US Secret Service.

UK supercomputer sets faster pace

The UK's fastest-proven supercomputer used by the academic community has doubled in size and performance.

The HPCx machine, based in Warrington, is now capable of operating at speeds up to 15.4 teraflops, or 15.4 trillion calculations every second.

The speed boost follows the addition of more than 1,200 processors to the four year-old, IBM-built number-cruncher.

The high-performance machine is used by scientists to simulate everything from ocean currents to biological cells.

The upgrade will allow scientists to run more complex models on the machine. "What we've done throughout the computer's life is to keep the machine abreast of the way that computers are getting faster as a whole," said Professor Arthur Trew, director of the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre which heads the consortium that runs the system. "The problem is that the demand for computational ability always outstrips the machine's ability to deliver it."

When HPCx first came into service in 2002 it was one of the top 10 fastest supercomputers in the world. Despite an upgrade in 2004, it has since slipped to 59th place in the Top 500 supercomputers list.

Although the upgrade will undoubtedly push HPCx up the rankings in the new list, published on 14 November 2007, the UK government and research community have already decided to replace it with a higher spec machine known as Hector.

Hector, or the High-End Computing Terascale Resource, will be owned by the Research Councils of the UK and will start operating in 2007. HPCx is planned to cease working in December 2008. Hector could run at speeds of up to 100 teraflops, 100,000 times faster than an ordinary computer.

However, its normal operating speeds will be far less as supercomputers are only able to achieve their maximum speeds for short bursts of time.

UFO's in Norfolk.....

For years I've seen TV programmes on UFO sightings in the UK saying that Hampshire\Wiltshire is a haven for UFO crop circles and that the Norfolk\Suffolk area has been the "Hotspot" for UFO sightings & activity, most people put the fast moving lights down to the US Airforce flying either conventional stuff or secret stuff out of their bases there, but no-one could explain other strange things that happened like power surges or cars cutting out, all these things that made the UFO believers case even stronger (in their own minds). Until now....

The Ministry of Defence has admitted that a fault at a radar dome was responsible for causing electrical problems with dozens of cars.

Engines and lights cut out and speedometer dials swung up to 150mph as motorists drove past the dome.

At the time the MoD said there was no guarantee that the Trimingham radar on the north Norfolk coast was the cause.

It now says it will consider claims for compensation after an inquiry found the radar was "out of alignment".

Just when you think you are having a bad day.....

.... there is always someone else who is having a worse one!

The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) is being sued for $350m (£185m) by a trading company at the centre of a giant share sale error.

A trader with Mizuho Securities mistyped an order and sold 610,000 shares for one yen instead of one share for 610,000 yen last December. 1 Japanese yen = 0.00839066958 U.S. dollars!

A fault in the TSE's computer system meant the trade could not be cancelled and Mizuho lost $225m. Doh!

Chinooks anyone?

The answer should be, "no thanks, I've already got some sat in a hangar in Wiltshire!" read on....

The Independent on Sunday reports....

"Britain is so short of helicopters in Afghanistan that military chiefs are being forced to scour the world for civilian aircraft"

"An ageing fleet of just eight Chinooks is working around the clock to supply and reinforce soldiers in remote outposts facing waves of Taliban attacks. The only Chinook in the Falklands was taken away for use in the campaign."

"the MoD has been forced to seek out commercial operators for non-combat operations, to free more military craft for use at the front line. So urgent is the need that Britain is understood to be asking other nations that have ordered Merlin helicopters from Westland to allow the MoD to requisition them. " I understand that these Merlins are on order for Denmark.

Given that we appear to be is such a tight spot, I ask one simple question - why the hell are there at least 6 brand new Chinooks sat in a hangar at Boscombe Down doing nothing? My understanding is that they require some kind of software upgrade that will cost millions of pounds to rectify - well Mr Blair, put your money where your mouth is, get your chequebook out, the soldiers risking their lives at your instigation need these machines, and they need them now.

Weekend road warrior....

... a few weeks ago I saw a re-run Top Gear, it had an article where Hamster (yes, the one who crashed the jet-powered car) was driving an Ariel Atom (pictured right).

At the time I did some research, it all looked very nice - price OK(ish) at £35k, performance excellent at 0-60mph in 2.91 sec.! but, would I fit my 6'3" carcase into one? Don't know, so decided to put it in the pile of "Things to do". Ariel are only based in Crewkerne, about an hour West of where I live down the A303, so one day in the Spring when I'm next down their way, I will pop in & see it in the flesh.

Whilst browsing around today, I find an article on a car that takes a modified Ariel chassis, throws away the supercharged 2.0 litre Honda iVTEC 300bhp engine and replaces it with.... can you guess? A 3-phase, 236hp AC induction motor! I've always know that electric motors can deliver a great turn of speed, but the batteries required to power them are frankly shite. But it appears that Wrightspeed have developed a concept car - the X1, that delivers these great performance figures - 0-60 ~ 3.0 seconds (0.09 behind the petrol car), a top speed of 112mph (electronically limited) and a range >100 miles in urban use (sinking to ~25 miles if driven on a track day!), they promise better endurance in the production model.

Take a look at this video to get an idea of how good an idea this is, let's hope the creator - Ian Wright get's the X1 into production soon.

It doesn't make any sense....

.... why is it that petrol prices are on the way down? Clearly they are not down to the levels we saw a few years ago (see right!), but nothing has changed to any great degree in the Middle East, excise duty hasn't changed, VAT hasn't changed & production levels haven't been changed greatly by OPEC? I know that there has been a major oil find in the US, but would that change the price by this much?

If you look at the table left from the excellent site petrolprices.com, you will see a split as to where the pennies might go if a litre cost 90 pence.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a happy chappy if the price continues to fall, I have 4.2 litres of Audi engine to feed on a regular basis, but why the hell has the price gone from 99.9p a few weeks ago to 84.9p now?

It's also further compounded for me as I appear to live in one of the most expensive places as far as petrol is concerned. Why would a small town in north Hampshire always be singled out for being a few pence more expensive that anywhere else (apart from the rip-off motorway services). Don't try to tell me it's distribution costs, there are plenty of large scale distribution businesses that choose Andover as it's operating base because it is so convenient to the road network.

New binoculars....

... I have always had a liking for optics, be they camera's, spotting scopes, telescopes or telescopic sights for rifles.

To this end I have had a succession of camera's both film & digital, I have in the last couple of years stuck with Canon as a brand, the lenses for the SLR camera's are interchangeable, thus protecting my investment. I've also had a good number of telescopic sights for my rifles, and managed to get some very good zoom sights for reasonable money.

I have for years looked at getting a good pair of binoculars, with good magnification, large objective lens to allow enough light through for a bright image & lusted after the Canon versions with Optical Image Stabiliser Technology, but thought them far too expensive. Something has happened over the last year, they appear to have dropped in price by about 40%! So this week I succumbed to a pair of Canon 15x50 IS binoculars.

I highly recommend Ace Optics in Bath, they sorted my requirements in a few minutes & then promptly delivered the very next day.

UPDATE : on Thursday last, I saw the Canon 18x50 IS binoculars in a Jessops photostore in of all places Basingstoke!? for not a lot more than I paid for the 15x50's, hmmmm me thinks, shall I? One pair for home, one pair for the car...... They also had a hugely impressive range of Canon SLR lenses in stock, including the 70-200mm f2.8 and the 28-300mm f3.5-5.6, I might be going back soon.

Mr Faldo, I think you may have a problem.....

..... I think we have already found the right man for the job!

Ian Woosnam proved himself more than worthy with his Captaincy of the European team in the 2006 Ryder Cup. I have to say that I've not been his biggest fan over the years. Firstly, he's Welsh (no, not a racist comment, just a fact that I generally don't see eye to eye with the Welsh - he was actually born in Oswestry, but now lives in Jersey), and second he's a short arse (no, not a heightist comment, just a fact that I generally don't see eye to eye with the vertically challenged - I use to live in Epsom, land of the 5 foot jockey that "wants a fight with the big bastard in the corner who think's he's hard!")

But Mr Woosnam, I take my hat off, I would have given anything to be in your team this weekend. The fact that I roared (at the TV set!?) nearly as loud as the Irish when Clarke, Harrington & McGinner arrived on the first tee on the last day - speaks volumes that you as Captain created a team spirit that the Americans could only dream of having, and sadly (for them) never will have.

So, humble pie in large quantities for me - Ian Woosnam, should in my opinion have the job for life!

A brave man......

.... just got a little of what he deserves.

I don't think I have ever seen such an emotional event as the Ryder Cup final day, words cannot express the admiration I have for the courage that Darren Clarke has shown.

Darren, from what people who know you & your family (McGinley, Westwood & Woods et al) have said in interviews, Heather would be most proud of you, and rightly so. I'm not a believer, but I do in this instance hope above anything else that she is up there, looking down on you with the biggest smile on her face imaginable, saluting you with a glass of something nice.

Good luck to you for the future, there will be dark times ahead. Anyone who had the priviledge to watch you over the last couple of days would willingly support & stand by your side.

Bounce, gone!

I have a mountain bike, I bought it many years ago with a bonus from work on a whim, it was at the time a radical design - a Mantra Comp made by Klein (pictured right). I bought it mostly based on it's weird looks rather than it's performance. I upgraded a couple of things like front forks to RockShox Judy XL's, I then used the standard RockShox Judy T2 forks to a hardtail Scott, which I ride more often as I never liked to ride the Klein a great deal as the rear suspension bounced like crazy.


I have now taken the step of upgrading the rear shock from the standard Fox Vanilla spring, to an air based rear shock called Fox Float R, I have engaged the services of rear shock guru Tim Flooks at TF Tuned Shox - his team have created a setup specifically for me codenamed "FB", or Fat Bloke. It works! Little bounce when pedalling, works well over the bumps. It's also saved a lot of weight too, from over 550g to less than 200g, may not sound a lot, but dragging my carcase around on a bike is bad enough without adding to the weight in heavy metal!

I'm normally a cynical bastard.....

.... and it's unusual for anyone to impress me, I have 39 years behind me & 21 of those have been in the big wide world working for a living. I've met literally thousands of people in my work over a long period of time, trying to sell to them, or get some kind of agreement from them for a business partnership or something.

I think I'm a fairly good judge of the characters that I meet (not that it's my place to judge anyone), but I'm usually fairly good at sussing out whether someone will do what they say or commit to or whether they are taking the piss, I would even say that I can see through a fuckwit in a matter of seconds.

Today I went to a Technology Briefing at IBM Hursley Laboratories for my customer & met the Director of the Labs - Graham Spittle (biog) . I have been in meetings with him before, but never sat with him & chatted over customer stuff face-to-face.

Today I was impressed, very impressed. It made me understand that IBM really is a league apart from any other business and re-kindled my enthusiasm for working for them.

I've just got connected when mobile...

... with a Vodafone 3G Datacard. And I have to say, it's the muts nuts! It does exactly what is says on the marketing blurb, which in these days is a rare occurance.

The ability to replicate emails or databases on Lotus Notes & personal email on Microsoft Outlook, send relatively large file attachments, browse & send SMS all from my laptop whilst on the move in a central London Starbucks, customer office or on the train (see previous post!) is a godsend and actually makes me more productive & responsive.

If you have been wondering or figuring out whether its worth the monthly investment, my answer is a resounding - YES!

Train strikes....

... with my responsibility for a London based customer, regular train journeys to & from London Waterloo have added a couple of hours of boredom, frustration and general unhappiness of being at the behest of a train operator - South West Trains. (Although of late the boredom & frustration at being dis-connected has been fixed with a Vodafone 3G card for my PC which works brilliantly - apart from losing signal in the huge railway cutting at Weybridge & for some reason Clapham Station!?)

I have in the past, on this very blog praised South West Trains, but last week came the news that because of a disagreement over taxi fares paid to drivers based out of Waterloo, today then the 8th & 11th September there would be strike action - not one train leaving my home station.

As far as I can tell, South West Trains agreed in some way to pay for taxi fares for drivers working out of Waterloo either very early or very late, the drivers then found themselves being taxed on this benefit.

Well Mr Train Driver, f**king wake up! We would all get taxed if the journey to work was paid for in that way!

And as for the Aslef General Secretary Keith Norman said: "I believe the company is using its passengers to try to score points over the union", which begs the question.... was it the company that went on strike - NO it wasn't you f***ing tosser!!!!

I knew it was good for me....

.... an article on the BBC News Website explains the story about a research group in Scotland trying to establish a link between the health benefits of eating an apple a day & drinking cider!

It appears that my youthful enjoyment of the stuff, re-found of late with the advent of Magners Original and Sainsbury's Taste the Difference West Country Cider may not be alcoholic folly after all!? It has to be better for you than those lurid coloured cheap vodka fuelled alcopop things anyway!






Cider 'may have health benefits'

Scientists in Glasgow are examining whether drinking cider may offer the same health benefits as eating apples.

The researchers have found that English cider apples have high levels of "phenolic antioxidants" - linked to protection against strokes and cancer.

The next stage of the study, partly funded by the National Association of Cider Makers, is to analyse how humans absorb these chemicals from cider.

Twelve volunteers have been recruited to take part in the tests.

They will each drink a pint of cider, while avoiding all other dietary sources of antioxidants, and urine and blood samples will then be analysed.

Serena Marks, who is leading the study, said: "Previous research suggests there may be an association between phenolics and protection against some serious diseases, so we are trying to find out how we get phenolics from our diet."

Cider production

The scientists have already found that some varieties of apples and some types of cider have higher levels of phenolics than others.

Ms Marks said the production methods of cider could be adapted so that the phenolic levels remained high, even after fermentation.

The research is part of a project funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the National Association of Cider Makers.

Professor Nigel Brown, of the BBSRC, said: "This exciting research shows how scientists and industry can work together to improve manufacturing techniques, not just for economic gain, but to bring about potential health benefits for the public too."

We are The League....

.... and they are coming to a town near you (and me!)

A band that bring back many memories from my teenage years, like drinking pints of cask Cider at the Sparkford Inn aged 15, wondering why it tasted so shit for the first 1/2 pint, then thinking it wasn't so bad after the first pint, then feeling like shit the morning after only having had 2 maybe 3 pints!?

The League are back on the road & coming to The George Inn on Andover High Street on the 19th October - I will be there. I hope to hear such classics as "We are The League", "I Hate People [they hate me]", "Woman", "So What!", "Animal" and "Streets of London" [yes the one by Ralph McTell!!!]

The other tour dates can be found here. Even if you read this in Australia - Tony & Hazel P & Matthew B you can go along to the Empire Hotel on 11th November.

If you remember with any glee the beginning\middle (delete as appropriate - note I haven't put end as loads of bands are still going) of the punk era and by some strange quirk you never heard these lot, then you missed out, don't miss out again! It was only a few weeks ago that Mr Ports reminded me via his Blog of a gig he went to - The Reoffenders they play covers of punk bands, and from what I can make of it they are a bit good as well.

A grand weekend out.....

.... at the CLA Game Fair at Broadlands, near Romsey.

The CLA is the Country Land & Business Association - an influential body whose primary objective is to "help to protect our members’ interests" Originally founded in 1907 as the Country Landowners Association, today their membership encompasses landowners, businesses and a diversity of professions. Of note is the fact that the CLA members own and manage more than half the rural land in England and Wales. This annual event is held at various stately homes such as Broadlands (Hampshire), Blenheim (Oxfordshire), Harewood (Yorkshire) & Belvoir Castle (Lincolnshire)

Sadly, they couldn't organise traffic management on Friday morning any better than a 4 year old playing with a Lego set! For an 18 mile journey to take nearly 1 hour 50 minutes was incredible, luckily I cut across country, otherwise it would have been a whole lot worse. Feeling relieved to have got there I parked up, only to be faced by a 20 minute walk to the entrance gate! I heard of someone travelling from Oxford to the event who blindly followed the signs that took 5 1/2 hours to get there!!!

The event itself was vast with over 140,000 visitors, hundreds of stalls, loads of exhibits & interesting things to do & see. Friday was particularly hot with masses of people & temperatures into the 90's. I watched the John Bidwell exhibition for 20 minutes or so, he is clearly a very gifted shot, but it got a bit boring after he showed us his trick shots shooting from the hip.

With my interest in Shooting & Fishing [and food!] there was a lot to look at & talk about. I got a new pair of ear plugs custom made by Green Leopard, something I've been planning to do for a while now.

I gave the show a miss on Saturday, but managed to do the same journey Sunday morning in 29 minutes - much better. Once through the gates, I had the best bacon sandwich ever (honest!) from the Northfield Farm stand, I will be ordering some more from their mail order service soon! A good look around Gunmakers Row followed, but didn't provide anything interesting in the Gun Dept. other than looking at an amazing side-by-side 4 bore gun! In the afternoon I had a chat to the Greenfields of Salisbury staff who were looking a bit weary by this stage, but they had a good show from the sound of it.

I then went to the clothing aisle! Hackett, Charles Tyrwhitt, T.M. Lewin, Dubarry, Orvis et al were all more than capable [and willing!] of taking my credit cards & swiping them through their little machines. Dubarry won hands down in the assistant stakes - very pretty [mostly blond] young women in knee length leather boots with very nice short tweed skirts with flesh between, very nice, if a little public school for my liking.

Overall a very interesting event that had loads of interesting things for me to see, but if you are not into shooting, fishing, falconary, stalking or food don't bother.

Are IT peripherals time lifed......

.... because BOTH of my printer\scanner\copier\fax packed up this week - 2 days apart from each other!!!

So I have been out & bought a new one, this time HP have made their Photosmart Multi-function products Network ready with a built in Ethernet port.

Very clever - just plugs into the Router & the software enables it to be shared on your network by all attached PC's & Mac's. So I can now throw away the Print Server - thats one less item sucking power from the National Grid!

Bird of prey in next door garden....

... spotted this morning was this bird of prey, not sure what it is yet, but looking to identify.

Taken with a new gizmo hence the blur! A 30-60x spotting scope with an attachment that allows you to line up a digital camera to the viewfinder - it's like having a compact camera with a 4000mm lens!!!

This was taken from approx 200 metres away with a Canon Ixus!

It's called Digiscoping apparently & is big in the bird spotting world. I just like the idea of getting long range images from my spotting scope.