03/27/2006 - 04/15/2006

Bank Holiday Madness

Doh! I've just called the newsagent to ask why my paper hasn't been delivered this morning. It turns out that the reason for this is that I only have a paper delivered on Saturday and Sunday and today is FRIDAY! Luckily, I reaslied this just as the guy answered the phone and due to some superb quick thinking I decided to ask him to ensure we get our paper tomorrow as we didn't get one last Saturday, he bought it ;-)

Planet Earth

The new BBC series Planet Earth is probably the most incredible thing I have ever watched on television! If you haven't seen it you must, if you have I am sure you will agree, and if you have an HDTV, can I come over next Sunday!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/planetearth/

Duck Tongues

I have to admit that I never thought I would title a blog entry 'Duck Tongues' but then again I forgot the Stuart Brett factor!

Ellen and I went out for dinner with Stuart and his missus Vic last night and guess what Stu decided to have as a starter...

Yes folks, that is a bowl of steamed Duck Tongues! Stu 'kindly' offered me one and the best word to describe the experience was, chewy.

Spring is here :-)

After yesterday's weather related fiasco it was so nice to walk home in the glorious sunshine that once I got home I decided that I would mow the lawn. OK so the picture isn't actually our lawn but you get the idea. Anyway the point is that Spring is finally here and before you know it it'll be BBQs and sitting out until late into the evening :-)

What was I thinking?

I usually walk to work, in fact the last time I cycled rather than walked was probably about 8 months ago. So with this in mind, why oh why did I decide to jump on my bike and cycle in this morning!?! To set the scene a little more, not only did I decide to cycle but I also decided that a coat would make me too hot and of course an umbrella would be no use to me on a bike.

I think you can guess what happened - yes, it rained! I left the house in stunning sunshine but then 2 minutes into my 7 minute journey it chucked it down. Now, I'm sitting at my desk, damp, looking out the window at stunning sunshine again, grrrrr!

A whole new world!

So, as anyone who knows me will tell you I am quite a geek when it comes to gadgets and technology in general, and it is precisely for this reason that I have to share with you just how impressed and amazed I am with the XBOX 360!

My expectations were very high for this particular gadget but Microsoft have still managed to blow me away completely! Here are just a few of the reasons why...

• The quality of the High Definition picture through my projector is simply stunning
• Having plugged in the wireless adapter the XBOX immediately found my wireless router and connected to the Internet
• I then turned on my PC upstairs and within 5 minutes (after I had downloaded and installed the relevant software) I was able to stream music and pictures from my PC, through the XBOX 360 directly to my 5.1 surround sound system and projector respectively
• Reliable wireless controllers (which can turn on and off the XBOX), the user interface, Ghost Recon, Project Gotham Racing, optical audio output, etc etc

Anyway, so you get the general picture, IT'S REALLY GOOD :-)

But just as I thought there were no more surprises left I discovered XBOX Live! There is again plenty to say about this but the picture below sums it up quite nicely...

... this is a picture from Gotham TV, which in a nutshell is part of XBOX Live where you can watch the best players, from around the world, race against each other, LIVE! You can even select the car/player you want to watch and then choose from about 5 camera angles, including in the car! I know all this may seem boring to many of you but trust me, this is the beginning of a completely new type of entertainment. Whether you play computer games or not, you will find yourself watching an online car race, football match, firefight or similar in the next couple of years - even sooner if you know me ;-)