A tool for every job

A friend and i headed out last Sunday in California for a bit of clay sport! I'm always tickled by the fact that some of the guys get around the layout using modified golf buggy's. You can see the modification here - gun rack and space for cartridges. Didn't get a close look but i suspect there was a cooler and a small BBQ on board as well!

Geekville

Been in california for a week with work. Missed all the bad weather! Did a bit of shooting, wine tasting and shopping.

Had to pop into the Apple store in Stanford shopping mall and was confronted with alot of people huddled around the central display? What was it? the iphone. Couple of days later one of the guys at work demo'd his iphone. It is very cool on a number of fronts!

Scots Invade England

Yes, you heard it hear folks. Spotted at the head of the riverbourne taskforce as it invaded Henley on friday evening! The town will never be the same again!

Henley Royal Regatta

Was invited out by friends for a trip up and down the Thames yesterday at Henley. The Henley Royal Regatta was on. Great event. Crews row in gladiatorial style down a 1 and 3/8th mile course down the Thames! It certainly looked knackering from our motorboat. We enjoyed it whilst drinking beer and eating fish and chips. Brilliant fun.

Just Enough Education to book tickets!

We're off on a musical journey again! Just booked some tickets to go to a gig in Cardiff to see the stereophonics in November with two fellow nutters. Saw the band in Brighton about 18 months ago and it was a cracking night out. Plan is (a) few sherbets (b) loud rock and roll music (c) few sherbets (d) kebab!

Who said middle aged men don't know how to party :)

Weather

We are certainly becoming obsessed with the weather at the moment. Heavy rain storms Friday and we had numerous power outages. Bad weather continued over the weekend - a low hit without any wind, so it just dumped rain on already wet land. One example, Sheffield normally gets 60mm of rain in June, yesterday along it had over 240mm in one day! People had to be rescued by air/sea rescue in the centre of Sheffield. Here we have heavy clay soil, so i have i growing puddle in the back garden. Shortly we will be legally obliged to mark the deep and shallow ends of the puddle!

Paris

Been spending time in Paris with work recently. Nice mix of customers - software ISV's and media work (TV/VOD). Centre of Paris is a great place to hang out. We have a small office between the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. Didn't think you would want to see pictures of the tourist places - so this is the view from the office. It's nice catching up with email, window open on a hot day and listening to the hustle and bustle of the city outside. Also close by are some great little

restaurants just off the tourist routes that my colleagues know very well.

Credit Cards - great when you have them!

My wife has misplaced her purse. We think it's at her place of work, but someone double-bolted her shared office and walked off with the keys and we cannot locate them. Security cannot even open the door. Upshot is we are unsure of what's happened to the purse and are 50/50 on if its in the office or not. So we erred on the side of caution and mentally went through what was in it - cash, library card, gym,credit card, oh and partner credit card to my main account! So i ring card company to cancel her card - "sorry sir we have to cancel all cards including yours!" - "ok do it, when will i get replacements?" "5 days!" "yikes". Now the problem is this is my main card - the other is AMEX which is not accepted often.

It's amazing how I've come to depend on the VISA card. I don't carry much cash and use the credit card all the time for on-line transactions, fuel for the card, travel to work on the train (using the automated machine) and impulse buying!

So we have resorted to old way of working! Had to take some cash out of the ATM today and we have been rationing it today - so there is some upside :)

Problem is tonight we are off to the cinema on a rare outing and i booked the tickets online 2 days ago. You guessed it - to pick tickets up, you use the credit card you used at booking. The cards been terminated and cut up! Lets see if the cinema has a set process and if they can cope with this exception case!

Interesting in this day and age that you cannot terminate a partner credit card even when it has it's own unique number! Ah well, at least we'll spend less over the next 5 days! I hope :)

Big puddle

For some reason 50 foot long puddles seem to attract nutters like magnets!

We didn't just do it once!

More pictures from the course soon.

Step 4

Front brake on, back brake off, clutch in, start engine, let front brake off, stand up on pegs, release clutch, use engine braking to descend!

Oh, and look out for the big puddle at the bottom of the hill. I said - look out for the big puddle at the bottom of the hill