Disappointment....

I have approval's stamped from other half to go buy a MacBook Pro. the VAT dropped today by 2.5% so a little money off...and we are coming to the christmas time with a little RnR....perfect sometime to spent getting everything sorted out/moved across and some much needed time editing photo's ....except i read the following report : http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/11/29/nvidia-heat-causing-macbooks

Bugger. Probably wait till Jan09 before i invest in a Mac (just the pain of moving stuff onto new platform - getting photoshop moved etc) i don't want to move twice if they update the video chipset as it looks like a h/w swap!

Point and click?

It is 150 years since the death of Robert Howlett - the young photographer who took this iconic image of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Robert Howlett died - in December 1858 - from a fever, most likely caused by exposure to the poisonous photographic chemicals that he used.

Intrigued by how the Brunel photograph was created, photojournalist David White set out - using non toxic methods - to recreate some of Howlett's images.

With a specially-made camera, he travelled across south and west England to view Brunel's extensive legacy. Here is his story.

see the video at http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7753000/7753202.stm

just makes you feel lucky to be able to pick up a relatively lightweight camera, point, click and hey presto!

Genius

If you use itunes and haven't upgraded to version 8 - do it NOW! There is a new feature called genius - it takes the hassle out of one of the time consuming activities within itunes - creating playlists.

With genius, you select a track, hit the genius button and it will create a playlist. I've had 5 people try it out and they have all had the same reaction "that's great - how does it do it?"

Ah, its black magic i tell yer!

Frankly i don't care. It does the job very well and builds great compilations. After a while you see if you can fool it by hitting the "refresh" button again and again. It seems to come up with and endless combination of tracks that sit well together. I have to admit i have over 7000 tracks in itunes so i do have a good base for it to work from. But genius is a better DJ than i ever will be!

Great album!

A flurry of new albums have just been launched - oasis, seasick steve, keane, snow patrol......

But my favorite out of all of them has to be Snow Patrol's latest album "A hundred million suns"

Excellent - just go out and buy it!

BMW service - it depends on who you talk too...

Been a frustrating day today. Decided to replace the tyres on the wife's beemer as we have a free day at the end of the holiday. BMW tried to get us to replace tyres with them for £800...i called my usual guy over at Micheldever tyres (i do the landie, beemer and the 2 bikes there)...and was quoted £350 all in (including the tracking). Same tyres! Booked appointment with tyre fitters to avoid queues go out to car and discover there is no adaptor to take off the anti-theft bolts on the rims! Dash over to bmw dealer - sorry we don't stock these - tuesday we can get it in. Bugger i am back to work then. Leave dealership. Call tyre to figure out if they have adaptors - "sorry there are about 20 per bmw model so we would drill then out and replace with non-anti theft device".....err, lets cancel the appointment. I rang same BMW dealer to order the part. Talked to a different guy and after a number of questions he says "why don't you come in, we can use our master set to check which one you need, i can sell you that one, then we can backorder for ourselves"...oh ok! The adaptor was only £4 - but the upshot was i visited the bmw dealer twice in one day, ended up at the tyre shop, missed my appointment and had to wait 30 mins (as they are popular).... all-in-all i wasted 2.5hrs i didn't need to.

Don't get me wrong, the 2nd guy at bmw was helpfull and thought out of the box - but when you buy a premium car you expect a bit of help.

Especially as the recent service was £392 and quite frankly everyone in the service dept was plainly awfull - but thats a story for another day.

If your thinking of buying a BMW in the UK.....try and figure out what the aftersales is like. We have a BMW dealer in hampshire which is part of a big group and they stink whilst on the other hand there is a dealer that own's just 3 dealerships and they act like a family business - keen to help, trustworthy, etc. I just wish i lived nearer to them

Hanged!

By a bit of luck and help from a friend I have had a couple of pictures selected in a photo competition!

Turns out on of our office's was looking for some photo's to brighten up the office. Folks from that office were asked to submit. I think they had about 100 photos submitted. My friend pinged me and asked if i had any to submit. Luckily i had a few on my work laptop under Google screen saver. I sent 5 images up and two were selected. At least one has been printed at A0 size. (the image to the left of this text!)

Absolutely chuffed to bits. Hope it's not hanging in the loo! Just got to find an excuse to visit the office near Manchester. Probably have to wait to November. Can't wait.

Stourhead - Part II

Lovely gardens - laid out in the 18th century. Well worth a visit if you near warminster, wiltshire.

Stourhead - Part 1

Always good to look up when your taking pictures. Spied this opening in a cave whilst in the stourhead gardens.

National Trust volunteers

We visited stourhead estate last weekend. It's as National Trust trust property and is fantastic for a number of reasons. The trust took it over from the Hoare family (yep those private banker folks).

Any how. Picture the scene. We are inside the main house having a look at the grand public rooms. In each room there are fact sheets and national trust volunteers to guide and keep an eye on the light fingered! Most volunteers are retired folks.

We enter one room, i head for the fact sheet whilst J likes to talk with the volunteer (in her late 80's - prim and proper) . J notices in this room there is as small TV, copy of the radio times and a small tray with bottles of booze on it. Mmmhh not very 18th-century. What's up here ? J starts the following conversation:

J: "So does someone live in these rooms today?"
Vol: "Yes outside of visiting hours"
J: "are they descendants of the original owners?"
Vol: " Yes they are Hoares (pronounced "whores")"

(at this point i have to leave the room through bouts of school boy sniggering)

Volunteer realises what she said and adds after a short pause in a dry and serious voice "in name only".

All you can hear at this point is one seriously creased up 40yr old laughing his head off somewhere at the far end of a long corridor.

Perfect script + comedy timing made it even funnier

£2000 in old money

Having got back from holiday i've downloaded over 1000 photo's taken over the two weeks.

If i had used 35mm that would have cost me £2000 in film + D&P.

Amazing to think how technology lowers the cost in some areas.

Now i just have to sort through them (which is a time cost) and then print some out (some cost in ink and paper). Though i think i win out here as i have 1,000+ memories of our holidays.

and you think your commute's bad!

We just got back from 2 weeks in North Devon. We stayed on a farm, 1 mile down a country lane from the nearest "main road".

On the way home we found a £250,000 combine trying to get down the lane. Funniest bit of driving i have seen for a long time. Brings a new perspective on the commute to work.

No way to spend 2hrs

Thursday evening i just got home after a 11hr day at workand i hear "oh, i don't think i should have opened that!"

Yup - Virus uploaded on our XP machine at home. It downloaded what looked like its own Virus checker to the machine by backdoor as well. Managed to shutdown malicious processes fairly quickly.

I spent 2hrs with regedit, deleted programes and DLL's and generally being grumpy! I think i might look at a Mac for home!

Final 40th celebration!

The 40th birthday celebrations have been a long road (pun intended). From shooting in Gleneagles, shoot/support with Alan, , family weekend at centreparcs, the BMW offroad skills course and now last weekend I got to spend the 40th birthday vouchers from my mates - a morning at castle combe racing school! After some instruction in a ford focus we got let loose in a single seater formula ford. Castle combe is 1.85 miles long and bumpy. Overall a good circuit. Comments from the instructor assessment were - "a great drive, very good lines. remember - slow in and fast out. brake early @ quarry. Very good in all other braking zones". Seems being a biker helps hook up turn-in, apex and exit of corners. Obviously has never seen me on public roads! Seems i was trying to be fast in and fast out! Might try this single seater lark again. Top day out.

Motorsport weekend!

Forgot to post some photo's from a country show we went too in June. Not your typical event as they had a round of the UK lawnmower championship! No kidding. The picture is from the warm-up practice. As you can see there is allot happening. I like the fact that if you take out part of the track it's your responsibility to put it back!

Anyhow, off tonight to Fully's for a couple of beers in prep for final 40th celebration - a morning doing Formula Ford at Castle Combe.

As i had the afternoon off and the weekend to myself a last minute long distance run on the beemer to Cornwall/Devon with tent! Should be either great or wet. Pictures to follow Sunday!

Naturale Bike Wash!

30 foot drop into fast flowing river. 30 foot out with a 90 degree left handed through trees. Easy

I got very wet.

The trick is to come down hill, wheelie so the front wheel does not hit the water with the rear driving you through. That will be for the next course then!

You want us to go where?

First off - spot the instructor. Yep that little figure top of the hill on the left of the track. Aim for there! Now spot the bike just over half way up. Now try and figure the gradient out. Lets put it this way, with the loose gravel you would have difficulty to walk up it as it was so steep!

Now how do i get from where i am sitting taking the picture to where the instructor is? Err, first avoid the deep water filled ruts, go downhill a bit, cross a deep rutted fire road that goes left to right, staggered junction, get the bike into second, floor it and aim for the top, whilst trying to stay on! Easy when you know how. Oh, and just where the bike is, remember there is a 10 foot flat bit, so roll off the throttle a bit, then back on to ensure you get to the top.

Great instruction, the right machinery and a bit of bravery gets you to the top. What did we all do when we got to the top - laughed so much it hurt and asked to do it again! Were all just a bunch of big kids with big toys.

Sorry officer the accidents always seem to be behind me!

Sorry for the delay in posting. Been traveling around like crazy with work (Paris, Zurich etc), but Friday and Saturday i got sometime to myself. Got off flight Thursday evening from Zurich and 3hrs later i find myself in mid-wales.

It's time for the advanced off road bike course. Luckily there were only 3 others on my course and we zipped through the theory and got out on the trails. This is the aftermath of riding too close together - i lost a bit of traction on a steep climb at the top, dean launches 240kg of BMW into the trees and Jeremy panics and drops it mid-way up! I did the decent thing and took a photo then went to help pick the bikes up! You will notice the the bike at the back of the photo 2 blokes are picking it up! More photos soon!

Commute to Work

Decided to ditch the taxi and walk to the office on Wednesday.

26 degrees + blue sky. Some interesting sights on the walk in - beats Maidenhead any day!

Whisky galore!

Thanks to one of my colleagues (Mr McG your a star) i am the proud owner of a bottle of Balvenie whisky. I received it whilst in our Cheshire office on route to Paris. Couldn't resist a wee nip when i got to Paris. Very smooth and as it's matured in two casks it lovely! Apologies for the coffee cup. It was the only thing i could find! http://www.balvenie.com/

Friday evening went to a clay shoot and supper with Alan courtesy of my wife (the final birthday celebrations). Alan also found me a bottle of whisky for my birthday that i have never tried before. Old Pulteney from Wick. Also superb. http://www.oldpulteney.com/whisky.php

Thanks guys - one happy Scotsman :)

Before it got dirty.....

2nd bike has arrived. Been out for x3 seperate hours. I always come back knackered. Today i went out and tried some routes over the south downs. Managed to get 73mph on a road section and then experienced a tank slapper! That woke me up! Also towards the end i was kicking it down the box to slow down and then it would cut out. Couldn't work it out to begin with as it was a bugger to restart - thought i had flooded it! In the end i figured out what it is. The fuel feeds from the back of the tank. I was low on fuel and as i was slowing down rapidly i was starving the bike of fuel! I am pampered on the GS as it has gear indicator and a fuel guage. No luxuries on the KTM! Also learning how to deal with chalk paths, tree routes and the bank end stepping out.

Gleneagles

As part of my 40th I was asked what i wanted for presents. I decided it would be good to do activities and see friends and family rather than go mad on things!

My dear wife organised a surprise trip for me on the Friday before my 40th. 7am flight from Southampton to Edinburgh, pick up rental car then 1hr drive up to Gleneagles for 200 clays and a gun dog lesson, before heading back home on the late night flight.

Shooting was great. Didn't miss much and i always like shooting at gleneagles. Staff are great, layout is varied and i always have a good time. Was not sure of the gun dog lesson going up - but i found it educational and great fun. Gleneagles is the only place in the UK where you can "borrow" a dog and learn. Everywhere else you have to take your own dog.

Rental company gave me a convertible. Blue sky's all day, 21 degrees, no rain or wind. Both flights on-time. Perfect day.

4th decade here we come!

Worrying i look like the guy on the right today - but i think that has to do with the last 2 weeks of birthday activities - Centreparcs joint 21st, 40th and 50th birthday weekend, a surprise day to Gleneagles (more news on this), black tie ball last night and the new bike getting delivered. I will not mention the alcohol, the dancing girls or the rock 'n' roll or the activities to come this week!

If this is what your 40's are like - bring it on.

Start Ya.....

At work today got chatting with young Richard - a native of Australia. The discussion was about the KTM being delivered this weekend and how it gets started. Luckily for me its got an electric starter but backup is a kick start! This reminded Richard of past difficult engines in the past and a product that's made in Australia called - "start ya bars^%d".

How i laughed when i read the product description - "Nulon's SYB high potency, highly concentrated, highly flammable formulation is designed to instantly fire-up difficult-to-start engines"

Gotta love the ozzies.

I have seen the future....and he has a career with a clipboard

All i can say is that the National Trust has a sinister side to it. Oh yes, very good at preserving historically important things, restoration and keeping the older generation off the streets and in voluntary jobs.

The dark side? it's introduces youngsters to the art of the clipboard. When i was proofing a set of photos all that came into my mind when i saw the attached photo are careers like - planning inspector, civil servant, health and safety. Surely our kids have better prospects? What about rocket scientist, rock star, racing driver...you know those high income bracket jobs that help their kids ensure their Dad figures out what the phrase "semi-retired" and "retired with kids" actually means!

Thank you national trust for screwing up my retirement and introducing my kids to the dark side!

New addition to the family

Finally did it. I bought a 1 yr old 250cc enduro bike today. 1 yr old, only 15 hrs use and 280 miles on the clock. Dealers ex-demo bike. Dealer admitted he had probably had it on for too high a price - so a 10% discount, some handguards, free delivery (saving me a 40 mile round trip+ a van rental) and a new road legal exhaust and the jobs a good 'un! Everyone happy with deal. Good work.

So we are now a two-bike household!

Motorbike taxi - the video

Back to Paris for 2 day gig. I just had to take motorbike taxi again. On the return leg i decided to use the video function on the Canon IXUS compact camera i carry with me. The video below is just down the road from our office. We enter the Arc de Triomphe. Watch out for the silver Renault! Sorry for noise but this is the normal soundtrack for bikers. The bumps are due to the cobbles!

TAXI

So this is the way to get around Paris. MotoTaxi! This is Eric. He picked me up at Gare du Nord station after i got off the eurostar and 20 mins later we were at the office in central Paris. Great if you have small luggage (i had 1 laptop and an overnight bag). You get waterproof coat, full face helmet (with mike so you talk to the rider), gloves and a waterproof cap that covers your legs. The rider has satnav so can find anywhere in France if need be and it's a flat rate of 30 euros anywhere in downtown Paris. Now I'm not the worlds best pillion as i ride a bike. I have to say i really enjoyed it. You get to "feel" the city as you whiz through. It's safe. It's also quicker than a car as i found out the next day. I booked Eric to come pick for the return journey me up via email. We went back to gare du nord in rush hour. We only took 20 mins through really heavy traffic which would have probably taken over 60 mins in a car. The fun bit? Just after leaving the office i realised we were heading towards the arc de triomphe. I can now claim to have gone around it on a bike in heavy traffic and survived!

can you tell what it is yet?

I had dinner with some of my team in Paris. We went to a restaurant away from the tourist area but on the menu was this dish. It was a weird combination that i just had to order it and see what it was like. After much amusement and mickey taking i had everyone taste it. The outcome - 100% really like it

Can you tell what it is?

Smart?

How i laughed when i saw this smart car + wheelie bin attached to the back. I noticed it because of all of the tools poking out the top. Great way to keep the city of Vienna clean.

What ever happened to road sweepers with the old push cart?

On the road again

Been on the road the past two weeks. Technically in the air and on the train. Spent couple of days in Vienna and then onto little town 90 mins from Zurich. Then last week was Paris for a couple of days.

Great news was i got about 90 mins to myself in Vienna so got out with the camera. Beauty is that it was at 8am on a Tuesday morning so the parks in the centre of Vienna were empty!

If you have never been to Vienna i can recommend it. Nice place, great architecture and the people are very pleasant

Inquisitive minds

Your 6, your on holiday and you find a big hole in the ground! What are you supposed to do? This is what happens when an inquisitive mind gets the better of you!

Fowey

So been playing with a trial version of Adobe lightroom and Photoshop CS3. Managed to take this to greyscale very easily and adjust in lightroom before exporting to CS3. Had a problem though with file formats! Used RAW on camera -> Lightroom then exported to CS3. In CS3 this came in as a TIFF. Trying to save as did not give option for JPEG so had to use Save for Web/mobile which is all new. Not sure if this works as well as previous photo's!

Break time

You may have noticed a shortage of posts recently. We've been on a wee break to Cornwall.

First though lots had to be done around the house and garden. With all the work being done we had to stop for a break for tea/cake!

Holiday photos to follow soon. You have been warned!

April Snow!

It started snowing at 7am this morning. By 8am we had 2 inches.

Lots of snowball fights, sledge out and then the kids went in! The adults continued to play though! Kids these days - no stamina!

Switzerland

Went to see a client in Switzerland this week. Client is very Swiss and a well known optic brand. They made us feel very welcome and were a pleasure to work with. Coming back last night i was on a 5pm flight out of Zurich. 50% full so i slide over and sat next to window. Glad i had the compact camera in the hand luggage. Yes, its the Alps poking through the cloud base! Splendid sight indeed.

T5 - whats all the fuss about?

Flew in and out of Terminal 5 at heathrow this week. Don't know what all the fuss is about. Checked in on line. Took 1 bag into aircraft. Only problem is i forgot about the 100ml rule for toiletries. Had to throw allot out before security. Baggage screening was 5 mins. No queue, but funny has hell watching the shock on an Italians face as his sunglasses vanished into the x-ray machine. You get a plastic tray delivered by machine at the start of process, you fill it up, it goes through machine, you take stuff out and the plastic tray drops onto a lower belt to be delivered back to the start. The Italian wasn't quick enough and his sunglasses went with the tray! Funny as heck. After that it was a quick sandwich and a leisurely walk to gate. Thing to watch out for is there are no departure announcements so you have to keep an eye on the monitors. All in all. Good experience. There are still bits and pieces to be finished off, but when they finish it i think it will be a great terminal.

Church Road!

So i decided today to go out on the motorbike. Decided to stick to the green lane and headed east! No pre-determined route, just rode where i wanted to go. If I came to a junction, i would pick the route i had never been before, as long as i thought it went east! Ended up on a quaint road called "church road". Church was at the start of the road, it went up hill, into the sun. Decided to stand on pegs to stretch legs. bumbling along at 40mph.....when all of a sudden...no tarmac! It just disappeared at the crest of a hill. If you look closely at google image you will see faint tracks.....yep that's the road. Once i got over the change it was quite a good road. Certainly will feature in the future. I am not religious but God thanks for the road :)

Out and about

So had sometime to myself and decided as it was sunny and dry i would get out on the bike. Was just going for a wee spin - which turned into a 3hr 25min run! Some offroad included (more on this in a mo) So i managed to cover a 226 sq mile area totaling 126 miles. No tea breaks. Average speed was 37mph! Slow you might think...well check out the church lane image i will post in a moment!

Thanks to garmin for the plot and stats!

Happy Blogging birthday to me!

Well it's just over a year since i started the blog! Not bad for someone who has never been able to keep a diary for more than a week!

Had sometime to kill on way back from London before being picked up. So ended up in HMV. There was a CD playing and it was so distinctive, different and good I went and asked what it was.

Seasick Steve. Blues CD but great music to chill out to.

Told he was on Jules Holland one evening - but i obviously missed that one.

I recommend it.

Stag do!

After tank driving, quick dash into London for a stag do!

Meet at Slug and Lettuce (beer), London Bridge followed by Vinopolis (wine and champagne), back to slug (london pride) then dinner at Roast (very good though expensive - they sell Hogs Back T.E.A beer), then back across to brompton rd for a few whiskys at the Hilton Kensington, followed by a pub till about 1am (i think it was whisky and JD and coke...which normally i will not do, the JD and coke!)

Some photo's were taken but all I can publicise is the view I had at 8am on way from hotel to train station!

Tank II

....and to show you i didn't stall it or hit anything....

Oh lord, won't you buy me a tank!

Apologies to Janis Joplin for ripping off the lyrics and adjusting for the title!

Wife bought me a tank driving experience last year for my birthday. Finally got around to booking it. Poor organisation skills rather than lack of enthusiasm.

Managed to drive armoured personnel carrier (left in picture), 105mm self propelled gun (right in picture), 4x4 quad bikes and also the 35-tonne Chieftain tank! All a scream. Well organsied and for £10 wife and kids got taken on rides around the land on top of Chiefton, APC and SPG! Plenty of tea/coffee and just well thought out and executed.

Who should you be afraid of?

Friends have just taken over a large farm which has not had the hunt on for over 40yrs. The family decided that they would have the local hunt over. Interestingly the son farms the land these days and I asked him about the controversy of having the hunt on the land. His response? "I shoot more foxes in a year than they catch". Seems the hunt throughout the season get about 3 foxes a year. He gets over 30 with his shotgun as the foxes attack his animals and do considerable damage around the farm.

Did the hunt catch anything? Did they heck! Most people came out to dress up, drink a bit of port/whisky and then get to ride over countryside that they would never normally be allowed to ride on (under the pretence of hunting the fox!)

Back in the Good olde UK

Back from a week in California. 10hr flight yesterday. Time to get out in the fresh air today for a walk! Last week was between 18-21C (65-70F), today back to 0-6 C(32-42F) this morning. Sure as heck woke me up!

Photo from walk up winchester hill. In distance is the Isle of Wight in background

Considerate car thieves?

In the borders of scotland, a quiet rural community, a spate of car thefts have taken place. Why write about this? Well the theives break-in, take keys, drive away, come back, break in again, replace keys and leave the car outside house before anyones noticed! Full story here.

Sounds to me like "Yoofs" who can't afford insurance, want to kill the boredem, and fancy a wee joy ride!

Part of me is concerned by the breaking in and stealing but you have to admit there is a bit of "style" about returning the property before the theft has been noticed. Reminds you of those ealing studio black and white films where the bad guys are viewed as the "loveable rogues". Ah - thieving the "old way"

Power Cut

About 6:30pm we had an unexpected power cut. Not only was it confusing as the power went out -- it took me a couple of minutes to work out what was going on as i still had power on the laptop (from the battery of course) and was typing up and email. Boys upstairs, parents downstairs - but all hell breaks lose as it's very dark in house without power and the boys freaked big time! They couldn't see a thing o happy times suddenly went bad! Good news is that the amount of shrieking and shouting going on we could locate them quickly. Took us a while to calm them down and explain to a 6yr old and a 2yr old whats happening. Managed to get emergency phone installed, locate so torches, candles (and a single match!) and get some sort of normality resumed. I rang power company and whatever happened seems to take out about 5 major market towns/villages in the local area! It took just over 2 hrs to restore power (if we have a cut it's normally on within 15 mins!) Be interesting to see what the power company has to say about the outage. Equipment failure, vandalism or too much load?

"Just nipping out on the bike for a pint of milk" !

Booked the BMW advanced off road motorbike course in the Brecon Beacons for July 08! Two days of advancing my knowledge and skill in riding off road.

So the wife had better be worried when she hears "just nipping out on the bike for a pint of milk" as it might mean slightly longer distances covered!

She did want yaks milk didn't she? :)

Stacy's Mom!

Thank god for itunes music video section!

Finally, the fountains of wayne song - Stacys mom - has finally been uploaded to the itunes store! A classic song from a bunch of fine upstanding gentlemen. I have to confess the interest in this group had nothing to do with the lyrics, music or the ability of the band. These guys had the smart idea to include rachael hunter in their video!

Route Log from the bike

So i found sometime tonight to download the route log from the Garmin Zumo from Sunday's ride.

You can load the data back into Garmin's software and then export it to Goggle Maps!

It's great as i can locate some of the off road sections i did and with my newly acquired Ordnance Survey Map of Salisbury Plain i can now see where there a vehicular rights of way!

I feel a new route coming on with more off road sections!

1000th Legal Download

Just realised tonight that I broke through the 1,000th purchase from iTunes tonight! I can't remember the last time I went into a record store and browsed CD's, just don't have the time to do this any more. It's far too easy to either buy the CD off amazon or just sit quickly for 20 mins trying to find either something new to listen to or maybe find something i heard on the radio earlier.

What was the 1,000th item? A music video called "numb" by Linkin Park. It joins over 200 other music vid's on my video ipod.

Interesting my music collection is now nearly 6,500 tracks and 15% of it's been downloaded from legal sources [just for the record the other 85% were legally ripped from CD's I own]

Just off to work out how much money I have given to Steve Jobs!

The Germans have invaded....

...with a little help from the Americans!

If you look closely this is me heading southwest for 1.4miles down an unpaved road in the middle of Salisbury Plain. For those of you who don't know this is the main training area for the British Army. Not a great place to be riding a German motorbike! But thanks to Garmin (programmed by the Americans!) I ended up on this road.

It was great. The surface deteriorated and there were puddles all way across the road. So there was only one way to deal with it. Stand up on pegs and go for it. Bike coped well on the Metzeler road/touring tyre. They are groved, but only just.

Couple of other unpaved roads and will attempt to upload sat nav log and plot some more routes across the plain. Shelling permitting of course!

An experiment with public transport

I went up to our Cheshire office last week - just over 450 mile round trip. Driving takes about 3.5 hrs to drive up on a good day. Flying is 1hr flight time (plus the getting to the airport, check in delays, etc) so it makes it about 4hr trip. So i looking into the train. Cross country from Winchester to runcorn, avoiding London with a change at Stafford - 3.5hrs!

Upsides - £81 return and leaving at peak time as well. Sleek new Virgin trains. Power at your seat. I get to read paper, cup of tea and then do some work.

Downsides - Blooming cold standing at the stations waiting for the train, gets a bit crowded around Birmingham, but the big problem - the women sitting next to me for part of the return journey had a bad case of the flu! Just hope i stay bug free.

Might try it sometime soon on a long journey. Sure as hell beats sitting on the motorway around Birmingham or getting stuck at an airport!

Blu-ray wins over HD-DVD!

Interesting press release from Warner Brothers studio last week. They were one of the big guys to support HD-DVD and Blue-ray formats. Seems during 08 they will stop HD-DVD and only produced high-def material for distribution using Blue-Ray only! (DVD remains in play for a wee while!)

Why so interesting? 20% of DVD sales in the US of A belong to Warner!

Major victory for the Blue-Ray camp.

I've also seen UK disc retail figures just for November. Blue-ray were outselling HD-DVD discs by a significant factor. Be interesting to see what Decembers figures are like.

So the PS3 is starting to look like a good play (US PS3 console sales show they shipped 1.2M consoles over Christmas period. Looks like Sony are getting back in the race!)

(the image? could only find dull images of blue-ray stuff so this looked fun!)