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