iPod frenzy...

I have for a while been thinking about getting some form of MP3 player, reading press reviews & other Blogs such as Darren Adams & Ben's Blog I have finally decided on.... an Apple iPod Mini - to start with! I can't decide 100% what is best, I really like the idea of the Sonos System & I might go down that path later, but in the short term the iPod Mini will suffice. I have also bought the Bose Soundock, I have a couple of Bose systems at home & the sound quality is amazing, hopefully this won't disappoint. This has also required an OS upgrade on the iMac (bought more for its asthetic appeal than computing capability - no comments please, it's only a computer device, not a religion!) to allow me to share the music on my PC, which has also required a memory upgrade for the iMac as well.

I have to confess that now I've ordered it, I might have made mistake & am looking at the 20Gb iPod - colour screen! Doh!

Maybe the Sonos would have been cheaper!?

Update : The Bose Sounddock is fantastic, the sound quality is as good as my Bose Wave Radio\CD. The iPod mini is full already, so the previous comment about going for the 20Gb colour iPod could be reality soon!

More rain please, I'm saving water....

Over the summer months I have a number of hanging baskets & mangers full of plants to make a splash of colour on my red brick house. Watering these with a watering can or hose is a pain, so a few years ago I installed a watering system from Hozelock. Its very neat & saves me a huge amount of time & it also saves on water compared to watering with a hose. With the clear danger of a hosepipe ban in the UK this summer, I have invested in a rainwater saving tank & pump to run the watering system from. With the recent rainfall, its 700 litre capacity should be filling up nicely from the downpipes from my house roof.

Electrical storms

Have just witnessed the most fantastic electrical storm, only lasted 20 minutes or so, but it was stunning. The fork lightning was beautiful, the 2 inches of rain that fell in an hour washed the air clean & it smells fresh & clear again.

Reminded me of a brilliant storm I saw a few years back whilst on a plane back from Sydney to London, we skirted around it at dusk.

Not everyones cup of tea, but I like them. One day I'll work out how to photograph them & post some images.

Another day in the big smoke....

Occasionally I have to make a grand journey to London, normally for some meeting or other. In earlier days I spent a lot of time in London for both work & socialising & enjoyed every minute, but now I don't really like going too much. Its a normal, busy, smelly, violent, hustle & bustle capital city.

Today I had to go to Threadneedle Street, to the office of a competitor to my customer for a team meeting they were hosting (yes, they got to pitch to us all - yawn). Not a good way of selling the meeting to me, but no choice really. Looked at the map, not really one for the tube, but thought, lets take the tube for a change, London Waterloo, one stop on Waterloo & City Line & hey presto. Beats standing in the queue for a taxi for 20 minutes or walking for 35+ minutes in the drizzle. London Transport claimed on their website it would be a quick 4 minute hop?

I have to take my hat off to South Western Train & London Underground, it was clean, good value, on time, safe and not over crowded.

Have they changed their ways or something?

Maybe its something to do with the Olympic bid for 2012?

Lucky bar-steward tastes nectar.....

One lucky bar-steward at the very nice Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot has sold a most beautiful bottle of Whisky. He also got to taste it, as the purchaser offered him a dram - probably worth around £1,000!

Anyone that knows me knows that I like a drink, I normally have expensive tastes when it comes to Wine, Whisky & Cognac, but am not averse to cheaper wine & beer either.

I am lucky enough to taste gems from my collection of Macallan (30 yo is lovely), Highland Park (25 yo is smooth as silk), Glenfiddich (21 yo Havana Reserve goes with coffee & Davidoff Grand Cru no.2 very well), Ch. Lynch Bages (first ever good Bordeaux I tasted - a 1962!), Ch. Pichon Longueville, Taittinger (favourite NV) & Krug to name but a few on a regular basis, but rarely have I experienced anything quite fantastic as I imagine this would be.

However, I did once have a Remy Martin Louis XIII Cognac at a hotel in the Cotswolds, I even managed to get it on my expense account - it appeared as dinner for two!

BBC News Website report

Whisky bottle bought for £32,000

A hotel in England could have sold one of the world's most expensive bottles of whisky.

A businessman paid £32,000 for a rare Dalmore 62 Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky, at the Pennyhill Park Hotel, Bagshot, Surrey, on 24 May.

Only 12 of the bottles were ever produced in 1943, and one was sold at auction in 2002 for just under £26,000.

The Surrey hotel said the man bought the whisky and drank almost all of it in one night with some friends.

General manager David Broadhead would not reveal the identity of the middle-aged buyer - thought to be from Berkshire - saying only that he was a regular hotel guest and a private collector of fine spirits.

"He's not a famous person, you wouldn't know him if you bumped into him in the street," said Mr Broadhead.

The Dalmore 62 is described as "a masterpiece forged from the Highlands of Scotland".

It was derived from four casks of single malt dating from 1868, 1876, 1926 and 1939.

The 12 bottles have their own hand-printed labels and bear unique names.

The one bought in Surrey was called Matheson, named after Alexander Matheson who was the owner of the Dalmore Estate.

One bottle has been kept by spirits company Whyte and Mackay while ten others are in private collections.

A spokeswoman for Whyte and Mackay said she believed the Matheson was the first Dalmore 62 to have been opened and tasted by its owner.

Pennyhill Park acquired it from The Whisky Exchange for £31,000, meaning its sale made the hotel a net profit of £700.

Mr Broadhead said it was bought to add to the hotel's range of fine spirits and he had never expected it to be sold.

The sale happened late in the evening in the hotel's Ascot Bar and the businessman was with around five friends.

"He's got the bottle and he's got the presentation case of course, so at least it's on his shelf as a memento," said Mr Broadhead.

The bar manager - who negotiated the £32,000 price tag - was lucky enough to be offered a glass and told Mr Broadhead it was the "most beautiful thing" he had ever tasted.

Richard Paterson, master blender at the Dalmore Distillery in Ross-shire, Scotland, said he was glad somebody else had experienced the taste of the 62. Paterson said the Dalmore 62 should be enjoyed with Rwandan, Nicaraguan or Colombian coffee, 86% cocoa-fat chocolate and a particular brand of cigar.

He would encourage the other owners to sip and savour theirs as well.

Link to BBC article

Attention all Bloggers, have you registered?

Extract from BBC News report.....

Chinese bloggers posting their thoughts via Microsoft's net service face restrictions on what they can write.

Weblog entries on some parts of Microsoft's MSN site in China using words such as "freedom", "democracy" and "demonstration" are being blocked.

China recently introduced stringent regulations that require all blog owners to register their web journal with the state by 30 June.

The regulations require the writer of a blog to identify themselves to the authorities.

According to Reporters Without Borders, China is using a system called Night Crawler to patrol web journals and make sure that only registered blogs are published. Unregistered blogs will be shut down.

All I can say is thank f*ck that I don't don't use such words on my website!

I appear to be an emotional fuck wit....

I have been subjected to many slurs & bad mouthing over the years, but a recent comment here about my inability to comment on my "feelings" has struck a chord.

I appear to be an emotional fuck wit!

I have confessed to being so on may an occasion over the years, mainly to get away from various commitments with females, but to have it inferred to me on a blog is a first.

Never mind, I think they confuse me with someone that gives a shit, at least I am a happy emotional fuck wit!

Another gadget!

I have over the last few years had an interest in that very British subject - the weather. See earlier post Feb 21st 2005.

I have several Oregon Scientific Weather monitors, but have today gone for the Full Monty version - the Oregon Scientific Professional Weather Station with wind meter, barometer, hygrometer, rain measure, thermometer to name but a few.

All sorts of data can be shared via the software that comes with it, see the Wellesbourne Airfield website for an example.

See here for full details from Oregon Scientific.

Update : all installed & running, wind meter is set on top of flagpole (yes, I have a flagpole!), the whole thing will link to PC via RS232 cable & I will try to make Andover weather reports available to the world via my website! I know how to spoil my readers & viewers!

Updated update : the flagpole wasn't good enough, the wind swirled & generally gave insufficient reading for the device. So tommorrow an Aerial & Antenna contractor is visiting to put the anemometer (wind meter to you and me) on the pole to which my TV Aerial is fitted, on my chimney stack, about 20 metres up(hence the contractor, I'm not going 20 metres up a ladder!) I have made the necessary brackets, so should be a quick visit. Solar power & wireless technology means it should be up there for a while without any maintenance - fingers crossed.