Tired of not being able to hit those shots on Wii Bowling? You need this cool Wii Playing Robot. Made of Lego and including two motors it is able to bowl a perfect game every time.

I found this funny story on a website about home exchanges. Basically on one home exchange an American couple were asked to feed the cat in their UK holiday home. However not knowing what the cat looked like, it wasn’t until the end of holiday that they realised they had been feeding a stray cat and ignoring the English couple’s beloved pet. It just goes to show how sneaky cats can be.

It’s easy to assume when shopping with a well known company that your credit card details are kept safe. However the theft of 46 million credit card details from TK Maxx shows that even large companies may not keep your details secure. Personally when shopping online I prefer to use my Paypal account, if I am using a website for the first time, so that I don’t actually have to expose my card details. Like many people though I don’t think twice about using my credit card when shopping on the high street. It makes me wonder whether I should go back to withdrawing cash and avoid paying with my card altogether, or perhaps I am just getting paranoid about the whole thing?

Poor Willow didn’t stand a chance against the power of the monkey.

We have now successfully fitted two of ours cats with a small tracking device which attaches to their collars. Whilst it is not actually meant specifically for cats it enables you to quickly track down a cat that does not want to be found. For more information on this see Rory’s blog.

Oscar being attacked by the cat killing monkey.

There is nothing more frustrating than to have a perfect layout only for items to be accidentally moved and thus appear misaligned when it goes to print. A simple shortcut can help prevent this. To lock the items on a page simply select them and press F6. A black padlock icon will appear when you hover over the items to indicate that they are locked and no amount of dragging will move them. The only way to unlock them is to press F6 again to reverse the process or choose unlock from the item menu.

I read a humorous post on Owens blog today about the importance of choosing the right name for your website. He highlights a few examples where companies have got it wrong with hilarious consequences. I think my favourite was www.penisland.net which may sound like a porn site but is in fact a site called Pen Island offering custom made pens.

One of my cats Oscar was not very well yesterday. Unfortunately he had some sickness and diarrhoea and although he quickly recovered he was unable to clean himself properly ending up with poo all over his rear end, so we had to give him a bath. Bathing Oscar is not an easy task as he hates being picked up and is a very large strong cat. With this is mind we devised a plan that we thought would keep us safe from flying claws. First Rory prepared a washing up bowl of warm water with a generous amount of Herbal Essences 2 in 1 Shampoo added to it. I then fetched a very thick towel and we both put on gloves for added protection. After chasing Oscar around the living room for about half an hour I was finally able to throw the towel over him covering his head and front paws. I quickly picked Oscar up and keeping his head covered to avoid being bitten dunked the whole back end of the cat into the washing up bowl. Then holding him tightly Rory proceeded to rub the shampoo into his coat before rinsing him off with warm water. At this point Oscar was growling very loudly. Next I moved the towel from his head to wrap the back claws whilst Rory sponged soapy water onto the front part of the cat. One more rinse and Oscar was clean although very wet and not very happy. A day later and I am amazed at how soft and fluffy his coat is. Now that we have perfected the technique perhaps we will bath him more often…. Or maybe not.

Ollie seems unaware that there is a cat eating monkey behind him waiting to strike.

The find and replace option in Quark (Apple key and F) can help save a lot of time. I use it primarily for removing double spacing from documents or for making changes to font size and style.

To remove double spacing make sure the text option is ticked and also tick the document option at the bottom of the box. In the first text box type two spaces by pressing the space bar twice. In the second text box type one space. Then click “find next” to locate the first double space. To change all the double spaces in the document at once just click the “change all” button.

You can also use the find and replace option to change styles within the document. Instead of ticking the text option instead tick the style option. Select the style you want to change in the first box and in the second box select the new style that you want to apply. Then click the “find next” button or the “change all” button as before.

Other options available with find and replace are searching by font, font size, colour and type style. These are also very useful: for example you may wish to change the fonts in the document from Ariel to Times New Roman or change all the fonts that are 16pt to 12pt. It is also possible to change font attributes such as making something bold or italic or underlining it by using the type style option. These options allow you to do this just once rather than manually going through the whole document.

Have you ever wanted to ski down an escalator? No me neither but this guy did at Angel tube station.

To make a new colour in Quark, choose colours from the edit menu or the shift key and F12. Then select new from the options. Give your colour a name and select the type of colour from the “model” drop down list, this will usually be CMYK when typesetting a job for print. Uncheck the spot colour option and then select your colour either by clicking on the colour wheel, using the colour sliders or entering the percentages of colour in the CYMK boxes. Then click OK and your new colour will appear in the colours palette. If you need to make a colour from another document for example a PDF you can always open it in Photoshop and use the colours from the CMYK hex values to get a good match in Quark.

Lucy meets the cat eating monkey.

We all know that here in the UK it is very difficult to find a river or ditch that does not include a supermarket trolley. Well now it’s possible to see just how many abandoned trolleys there actually are out there. I found this bizarre website called trolley spotting. Basically it’s devoted to tracking abandoned trolleys in various locations. It includes maps to show the trolleys location and how far it is from its originating supermarket. 

We went to a housewarming party this weekend at Brads, Richards and Neil’s new house. Despite the fact that it was cold and raining someone had the great idea of having a Braai (BBQ). With the help of a few strategically placed umbrellas the meat stayed dry which is more than I can say for most of the guests.

I found this interesting article on The Independents website. A new mobile phone company called Blyk is going to offer free voice and text services to customers who sign up to receive adverts on their phones. I can see how this service may appeal to people wanting to cut their monthly phone bill. Personally I rarely use my mobile phone and have it on a “pay as you go” contract so for me large bills are not a problem. I have noticed that recently I am receiving frequent text messages advertising services that are of no interest to me. There is nothing more irritating than reading through your texts thinking they might be important and finding they are what I have started to refer to as phone spam. I get enough spam through email without starting to get it on my phone.

In many layouts it is necessary to link text so that it flows from one text box to another. This can be done by using the linking tool (shown below). Simply choose the tool from the toolbox, then click on the first box to be linked, followed by the box you wish the text to flow into. You will now see an arrow linking the two boxes to show the direction that the text will flow. You can link any number of text boxes as well as linking text boxes across several pages. If you need to unlink boxes you can do this by choosing the unlink tool, which is found in the toolbox right underneath the linking tool. Simply select the unlink tool and click on the base of the grey arrow which links the boxes to unlink them.

I found an interesting article about what goes into a McDonalds Chicken Nugget. Apparently it contains 56% corn as well as another 38 different ingredients one of which is obviously chicken but disturbingly it also contains TBHQ which is an antioxidant derived from petroleum.

I saw this article in The Metro about a pillow that apparently helps prevent hangovers. The pillow is stuffed with various plant extracts including fennel, juniper, mustard and peppermint, all of which are meant to counter the effects of a hangover. Personally I frequently sprinkle lavender oil on my pillow when I am having trouble sleeping and use peppermint or eucalyptus if I have a blocked up nose. I find that when doing this I awake felling much more rested the following morning. At only £7.50 even if it doesn’t cure your hangover this pillow is likely to help you have a restful nights sleep.

Often layouts require several different text or picture boxes to be aligned along the page. For a long time I used to do this manually, either by eye or by typing the values into the measurements palette. A quicker way is to use Quarks Space/Align items command under the item menu (Apple key and ,). Just select the items that you wish to line up and use Apple , to bring up the dialogue box. Here you can align items either horizontally or vertically and specify how much space appears between each item thus saving you quite a lot of time and creating a neater looking layout.

The Playstation 3 is launched in the UK tonight at midnight. As someone who has owned a Playstation and currently has Playstation 2, I was eagerly awaiting the launch of the Playstation 3 until I read that it was going to cost £425. Although there appears to be the usual hype surrounding the launch and the usual queue of people waiting in line to be the first to own a Playstation 3, I can’t help wondering if Playstation have finally priced them selves out of the market with this new console.

As a regular user of Ebay I am well aware that I should avoid those sales where you get a "buy it now discount" if you contact the seller directly over email. This article on Ebay scams is useful reading for anyone using Ebay and shows how such scams work.

I came across this article about a cat that can pronounce its own name. The cat called Agui apparently pronounces his name when he gets scared, usually whilst his owner is giving him a bath. Unfortunately there is no video of the cat actually talking so it’s hard to say whether it’s true or not. One thing is for sure judging by the picture below this cat really hates baths.

In Quark the position of objects placed on the page is measured by the position of the ruler origin. When you start a new project the ruler origin starts as default from the top left hand side of the page. This means that the x and y coordinates in the measurements palette show the position of a selected object from the top left of the page. However, when setting some documents it can be necessary to change the ruler origins so that objects can be measured from a different point on the page. This can be done by locating the ruler origin currently at the top left of the page. It appears in between the two rulers as show here.

It is then possible to click on the ruler origin and drag it to a new position on the page. You will see a cross appear on the page as in the picture above to show that the ruler origin is moving. Once you have done this you will notice that the ruler no longer measures from the top left hand side of the page, but now starts at 0 from your new origin point. To reset it to the default setting simply double click on the box where the two rulers join and its back to measuring from the top left of the page.

It might come as a surprise to users of programs such as Word but Quark does not have the ability to produce automatic bullet points. There are two way to create the actual bullet point. You can either press the alt (option) key and 8. This creates a small bullet point but it can be a little hard to resize it in proportion to the text as it doesn’t always line up very well the text. Personally I prefer to use the Zapf Dingbats font and simply type a lower case l (L). This produces a bullet point that can be easily resized in the measurements palette in the font size section.

The other problem with bullet points in Quark is that when the text runs onto two lines it does not automatically indent. To combat this problem I insert a tab on the first line of the text after the bullet. Then simply use the format menu to set a left indent also set a first line indent but set it as a minus number. For example if your left indent is set to 5mm set your first line indent to minus 5 mm. This will have the effect that the bullet point is set back flush with the left margin of your text box and the text will be neatly lined up underneath each other.

Stressed at work? You need Virtual Bubblewrap. This site has all the stress reliving properties of popping real bubble wrap and comes complete with a timer to let you know how you doing. See if you are quick enough to get onto the scoreboard.

We all have our problems at work, perhaps you are not paid enough or you work very long hours, now it appears that your office could actually be killing you. According to an article in The Daily Mail there are many factors in every office that can damage your health. Sitting at your desk for long hours can put you at risk of deep vein thrombosis whilst air conditioning in the office can lead to dehydration, as well as making you more prone to viruses. In addition your chair can cause back pain and your computer screen can cause eyestrain, headaches and problems with vision. Even your computer keyboard can make you ill as it can harbour more germs than the average toilet seat. You may also think your phone is clean but it is actually a prime breeding ground for bacteria. So its official work really is bad for us.

It occurred to me the other day whilst I was doing some typesetting how much I rely on shortcuts in Quark, so I thought I would post a series of handy tips which I use frequently.

Sizing pictures can take a little while when using the measurements palette so I use the following shortcuts.

To size a picture proportionally without using the measurements toolbar, first draw a picture box of the size you want the picture to be. Then import your picture using the get picture command (apple key and E). Next hold down the apple key, the alt (option) key and shift, press F and the picture is automatically sized to fit into your picture box. It might sound complicated at first but I find it saves a lot of time as you only need to press the combination of keys once rather than typing different percentage values into the measurements palette.

If you want to change the size of the picture once you have imported it into the picture box, then it’s also possible to do this without typing values into the measurements palette. Simply hold down the apple key, the alt (option) key and the shift key and press < to make your picture smaller or > to make it larger. Using this shortcut also keeps the proportion of the picture so you know that’s its not going to appear squashed out of all proportion on your final layout.

I watched Over the Hedge at the weekend and as with most of the movies from DreamWorks Animation I loved it. The animals wake up from hibernation to find a large green hedge all around their home. On further investigation they find that during the winter whilst they were asleep their forest has been turned into a housing estate and only a small square of their home remains. This means they have to look for other methods of foraging food. At this point a mischievous raccoon arrives in the forest. He has a dilemma, having just upset a very large bear whose food supply he has destroyed. The raccoon decides that the best way to solve his problem is to use his new found forest friends to collect food for the bear so that he can avoid getting eaten. This leads to a series of amusing scenes where the forest animals are introduced to human food and after having a taste of what looks like Doritos they suddenly don’t find their usual diet quite as interesting as before. The raccoon goes on a number of expeditions over the hedge to collect food causing a lot of commotion with the humans who would rather not have vermin running around the housing state. Once enough food has been collected the raccoon betrays the rest of the animals to take the food to the bear and save his own life. Unfortunately because his exploits have upset the humans they call in the verminator, a pest control expert to get rid of the animals. Luckily the raccoon eventually sees the error of his ways and returns to rescue his friends. His plan involves feeding fizzy drinks to a hyperactive squirrel who is then able to move faster than the eye can see and save the day. In all it’s a funny movie and great family fun.

Have you ever been at the train station and noticed people apparently dancing randomly. Well they could just be crazy but the chances are that they are at a mobile clubbing event. Basically people are notified on the internet when an event is going to be held. All they then have to do is turn up at the designated time and place with their ipod and choose a song to dance to. The same company also runs a pillow fight club which works along the same concept. You just need to turn up at the venue with a pillow in your hand ready to fight at the allotted time.

It was Rory’s birthday this weekend so Tamsyn, Brad and Jim came over for a Braai (BBQ). We spent much of the evening playing on the Wii console on Wii Sports having tennis and boxing tournaments. Although I proved to be fairly rubbish at the Wii Tennis I managed to emerge as the ultimate champion of the boxing knockout.

Brad and Jim playing Wii boxing.

From the left: Rory, Tamsyn, Me, Brad and Jim tired out after the Wii Sports tournament.

Tamsyn and Jim visited this weekend just before they went off to a Barbie and Ken themed party. These blonde wigs are available online from the joke shop.

I have heard of many DIY disasters but this story in The Metro about a pensioner who managed to stick himself to his own roof has got to be one of the most amusing. A police spokesman said "when we got there, he was like a beetle on its back, with his arms and legs sprawled out and completely glued to the roof."

Want to know how English you are? Try this English Test from the bombardier website. I managed to score a rather poor 52 per cent.

I read an article in The Daily Mail about dolls being confiscated from a village shop following allegations of racism. Apparently a woman customer complained after seeing the dolls which she thought were racially offensive because they were based on a golliwog. The following day two police officers arrested the offending dolls which were taken away for questioning. A statement was taken from the owner of the shop and he was told he could be convicted of a public order offence and could also face a large fine. However after an investigation it was concluded that no offence had been committed and the dolls went back on sale. It makes me wonder how much police time was spent investigating such a trivial issue. It seems if you call the police to investigate a burglary it can take several days for them to investigate but if you say the word racism then its given top priority even when there is no case to investigate.

In an another article also in The Daily Mail a junior school renamed the story of the Three Little Pigs to the Three Little Puppies so that it would be more sensitive to a multicultural cast and audience. The organisers thought that Muslim children in the school might have an issue singing about pigs. The change however has been widely condemned by Islamic leaders who said the issue is with eating pork not with stories about pigs. These decisions always seem to be made by white middle class people who assume other faiths are going to be offended. Often they could save themselves a lot of embarrassment by simply asking people whether they find the matter offensive before making silly decisions. Many of these fairytales have been around for hundreds of years without causing any offence but it seems nothing is left untouched by the today’s overly politically correct culture. Does this mean that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will now be changed to Snow White and the seven perfectly ordinary sized people? And looking deeper into the issue it is also apparent that fairy tales are filled with discrimination against ugly people. All princesses are beautiful and all witches are ugly, indicating that not attractive equals bad whilst beautiful is associated with good. Let’s introduce more ugly princesses and more beautiful witches to redress this balance and change all our most loved fairytales. One problem is it makes the story less attractive, which little girl wants to read a story about the ugly princess who marries the fat prince; we can do that in real life.

It was my husband’s birthday yesterday and as one of his presents I gave him these cool mini tanks from iwantoneofthose.com. The tanks have infra red guns and when you hit your opponent their tank spins around before becoming invincible for several seconds. Each tank has five lives, once you have been hit five times you need to reset the tanks before starting another game. After playing with the tanks for nearly a day and recharging them several times (battery life can be a little short) we discovered it was very hard to hit your opponent. We eventually realised that we had forgotten to remove the covers over the sensor points on the tanks although the instructions supplied with the tanks don’t appear to cover this. Anyway sensor covers removed and we were happily shooting each others tanks on our improvised terrain made of CD boxes.

I saw this story today in the Metro about a man who was arrested for crashing his truck into a lamp post. His excuse was that a unicorn was driving his car at the time. Apparently no unicorns were spotted at the scene of the crime and its been assumed he was using this as an excuse.

According to an article in The Telegraph the secret of being sexy is all in the way you walk. Women should sway their hips when walking to appear most attractive and men should walk with a swagger. The article also has a useful video showing exactly how to walk to best attract members of the opposite sex.

Sony is going to introduce its own 3D universe for the Playstation 3. Apparently it will allow people to chat and share content within a 3D universe as well as purchase furniture and clothes similar to Second Life. Personally I don’t really see the appeal of these virtual worlds, if I want to buy a pair a trainers I would rather have a pair that actually exist not a virtual pair within a game. It does also make me wonder whether the increase of these sorts of worlds is partially responsible for the breakdown of social skills we see in many children/teenagers today. I mean what’s wrong with actually meeting up with your friends and having a conversation rather than interacting through a virtual world. Perhaps I am just missing the point?

I watched the new Borat movie at the weekend. The first thing I would say about this movie is don’t watch it if you are easily offended. On the surface the movie goes out of its way to be politically incorrect on a number of issues mostly on its treatment of the Jewish faith and Borat’s attitude towards women. However, I think it’s the more subtle references that for me provide most of the humour. I like the part where Borat speaking to a bunch of rednecks at a rodeo says he supports “America’s war of terror” note the subtle slip which the rednecks appear to put down to Borat’s poor grasp of the English language.

I also particularly like the part where Borat when driving an ice cream van accidentally turns the music on causing children to run towards it only for a large bear to appear at the window. The most interesting thing about this movie is that it is shot with a mixture of actors and real people whom are not aware of Borat’s real identity. In some scenes it is obvious that the actors know what is happening but in others we have real people thinking they are talking to a real journalist from Kazakhstan instead of a comedian posing as one.

This makes for very interesting viewing, for example when Borat is talking to a feminist group and asks why do we bother educating women when they have such small brains. The boundaries between real and scripted scenes are frequently blurred. I would hope that the redneck who shows such strong prejudices about homosexuals and Muslims is an actor and not a real person but we can’t really be sure. It’s either a very good example of real racist prejudices in American society or clever acting.

In all I enjoyed the movie although there are a lot of moments where you find yourself cringing at Borat’s treatment of innocent unsuspecting Americans. Still thats part of the films appeal.

The worlds longest hot dog. It measures 60.3m long.

When my parents came to visit this weekend Rory set up the Wii to show them how it works. I don’t think my Dad has every played a computer game but before long he was trying out the tennis game and hitting the ball like a pro. After several games of tennis Dad proceeded through the other games, trying out the bowling, golf, boxing and finally the baseball which was his favourite. Within a short space of time he had learnt how to play all the games and it was difficult to tear him away even when we suggested going to the pub. It occurred to me the real appeal of the  wii is that people such as my Dad who may have never played computer games before can pick up the remote with no knowledge of how it works and within a few minutes can be happily engaged in playing a game. With most other games consoles this is not really possible.

Well its just as we have all suspected, people in Britain are really not getting enough sunlight. This is the claim made by an article in the Daily Express which blames the gloomy winter weather for British people spending too much time inside. Being exposed to rays from the sun provides the body’s main source of vitamin D. The article states that 87.1 of people in Britain have lower levels of vitamin D than are recommended for good health and predicts a “substantial public health problem” with people likely to suffer from heart disease, cancer and bone problems.

Having been a collector of toy monkeys for many years I naturally rushed out to pick up this cute little guy who is currently free with packs of 160 PG Tips Teabags.

I read an interesting article in the Daily Mail about some of the tricks supermarkets use to make customer think they are getting a bargain. It has already been publicised that when Tesco recently ran a promotion on half price fruit and vegetables they had in fact raised their prices before reducing them. In fact they nearly doubled some prices before cutting them back to half price and advertising a huge 50 per cent discount prompting an investigation by trading standards. I wonder how many customers monitor prices so closely that they would have noticed this sneaky tactic. It’s very easy to pick up a product with a half price tag and just assume you are getting a great deal.
Tesco price link

Other tricks that supermarkets use to try and confuse the customer are things like reducing the pack size on items when they are running “buy one get one free” promotions. In other words you may get two packs of strawberries each of 225g but the normal pack size when the items are not on promotion could be 500g.

Many supermarkets also offer special offers or low prices on a few staple goods such as bread and milk. By making prices of everyday items cheaper customers may naturally assume that the supermarket will also have cheap prices on other groceries. Often the reality is that these cheap prices on staple goods are subsidized elsewhere by putting up the prices of other goods.

“Buy one get one free” deals may also seem like a really good deal and perhaps they are for the customer. However, the supplier often loses out here. Most of the large supermarkets have agreements with their suppliers that they have to cover the costs of these special deals rather than the supermarket themselves. Unfortunately this means that smaller suppliers are often squeezed out the market as they cannot afford the low profit margins often associated with getting their products into the supermarket.

Of all the excuses I have heard this has to among the most bizarre. When accused of stealing women’s underwear from a shop Robert Boyd said that when he committed the crime he thought he was in fact a female elf. Apparently after playing the game Shadowrun he became confused and thought he was a female shaman. The prosecution however believe he is simply making up the story to try and avoid answering questions. Honest Officer, I really am an elf.

This is interesting from The Times online. A list of fifty nine things that would have stayed a secret, if we didn't have the Freedom of Information Act. I think my favourite is that The Thatcher government looked for the Loch Ness monster using a team of dolphins.

Also 1980s school dinners could be the cause of three young Welsh people’s deaths from the human form of mad cow disease. I always knew I was right not to eat those school dinners, no matter what my Mother tried to tell me.

Vindaloo cheddar. Cheese with a kick to it. Apprarently it's a "He-mans cheese" I'm not sure it appeals to me.

YouTube has been banned in Turkey after a video insulting the country’s leader was posted on the website. The video which sparked the ban claimed that the Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was a homosexual. This led to a Turkish court ordering that access to YouTube should be blocked. Insulting Ataturk is currently a criminal offence in Turkey.

Levi Roots maker of Reggae Reggae Sauce has just launched his sauce in Sainsbury’s. I remember seeing Levi when he appeared on Dragons Den to try and get the investment he needed to take his business to the next level and start mass producing his sauce. Until then he had been making the sauce and selling it on his own website but he required further investment in order to rent a premises and machinery for mass production. It’s always nice to see the small businessman becoming successful especially in a time when many rules and regulations can make like very difficult for those to trying to start a business. It’s also good to see one of the major supermarket chains supporting a smaller supplier for a change. Levi has also released the song he sang to the dragons.

Further to my post about the frog invasion there was a large clump of frogspawn in my pond this morning.

I found this interesting website global incident map that shows you a map terrorism events and other suspicious activity. It allows you to zoom in to get a better view of a particular area and also shows the 25 newest events.

It will soon be possible to download music and games from the ATM as well as top up your mobile phone and print photographs. The company Max Box who owns around 1,400 cash machines in the United Kingdom is due to introduce these new services this spring. Max Box currently has most of their cash machines in areas such as garage forecourts and convenience stores and the majority charge a fee for withdrawing cash. The new services will also be fee based. Personally although I find this article interesting I don’t think I would use it as I can already top up my mobile phone online as well as download music on my current broadband service. This service is likely to appeal more to those with a dial up internet connection (yes there are still some of you out there) who don’t have always have access to the internet. I think I would probably only use it myself if my mobile phone ran low on credit and I needed to top it up urgently even then the cheaper option would probably be to buy a top up card.

Research has been conducted by BSM that suggests playing computer games make younger drivers drive faster. The survey on the BBC website suggested that a third of young drivers are more likely to drive faster after playing a computer game. Whilst 34% of the drivers questioned thought that computer games could help improve driving ability. A quarter of drivers also imagined that they were driving for real when playing a driving simulation game. If we believe these statistics it could go some way to explain the high number of road deaths caused by and involving younger male drivers in the 17 to 24 age range. However I do think that other factors probably influence younger drivers more. Younger drivers are more likely to be more influenced by peer pressure, driving faster to look cool in front of their friends for example and playing music so loud that they are less aware of the dangers surrounding them. As someone who plays a lot of computer games myself I used to be very fond of destruction derby on my Playstation (on which the main aim is to destroy all your opponents cars) when I was learning to drive and would often play it directly before going on a driving lesson (my driving instruction didn’t really see the funny side when I mentioned this). Whilst I loved the game and enjoyed smashing up all the cars I was able to draw the line between the game and the reality and I think perhaps we should credit other younger drivers with a little more common sense

I came across this interesting umbrella today. http://www.senzumbrellas.com/ It claims to be able to withstand winds of up to gale force 10 without being pushed inside out. It also has a cut away front section so that you can see where you are going and cuts down on the risk of running headlong into a lamppost. The extended rear portion is designed to stop the rain running off and dripping onto your back. Apparently this new design has been tested in wind tunnels and approved by aerodynamics experts who have also worked on the wings of planes and speed skating outfits. Not owning one myself I’m not sure whether they are really as great as the manufacturer claims but needing a new umbrella (as mine met its death in a storm at the weekend) I think I will try one of these out. Watch this space where my review will follow. If nothing else it’s still worth visiting the website to see the “case study: what’s wrongs with my old umbrella” which shows humorous clips of people using umbrellas in strong wind.

We went shopping today trying to find me an outfit for a wedding we have coming up in May. Whilst I appreciate my husband accompanying me on these shopping trips, it usually involves me trying on anything from ten to twenty different outfits and then coming home with nothing. As frustrating as this can be for me, it is far more frustrating for my husband who spends most of his time waiting outside nearly every changing room in the shopping centre. Noticing the gathering of other boyfriends and husbands doing exactly the same thing (you can spot them by the defeated look in their eyes, the many bags they are carrying and the look of immense boredom) I realised there is a huge untapped resource here. If only shopping centres would realise this, they could fill the area around the women’s changing rooms with a variety of cool gadgets guaranteed to interest bored men. I’m sure if shops started doing this their sales would increase dramatically and perhaps my husband would look forward to going shopping with me.

Yesterday we went to a braai (thats a BBQ to all us British people) at our friend Bradlys house in Colliers Wood. Brad has just come over from South Africa to work here for a couple of years and it’s the first time we have seen him since we got married last June so it was great to catch up. Despite it being quite cold we observed the usual braai etiquette of standing around admiring the fire and all paying homage to the tongmaster. It reminded me of the following short video which outlines the do’s and don’t of braai etiquette including the all important rules which prevent the female members of the party interfering in the manly business of taking care of the fire.

Rory and Brad.

Well I always knew it would happen. My husband is obviously so successful they finally named a town after him. The first step towards world domination.

I and my friend Petra had dinner at Jade Garden in Staines last night. We both agree that they serve the best crispy duck ever. The rest of the meal was also very good. One thing I always find odd about this restaurant is that despite it being so good and so reasonably priced for the quality of food and service it always seems to be very quiet. Last night for example there were only 2 other tables filled.

It could be that from the front the restaurant appears to be simply part of the attached hotel. In fact you need to go into the entrance of the hotel and walk straight through to Jade Garden. Being such a good restaurant this place really should fill every table even in the week. In all for a two course meal with a bottle of nice wine the total bill was only £45.

If you want good food, good service and fantastic crispy duck this is the place to go. As always we over ordered, although from past experience we have learnt that you can take home what you can’t eat in a doggy bag to enjoy later. Obviously my husband has also learnt this because when I arrived home he was eagerly waiting to claim the left over’s and greeted me with the words “what did you bring me this time” before snatching the bag from me and heating it up in the microwave.

I came across the following site http://www.krumble.com that allows you to review local businesses and have added this and other reviews. It seems like quite a good idea.

The government has recently brought in tougher penalties for people who use a mobile phone whilst driving. These new penalties apply to using a hand held mobile phone whilst driving; so it is still possible to use a hands free set with your phone. The fine has now doubled from £30 to £60 and it is also possible that three points could be added to your licence if you are caught.

I’m not sure that these changes are going to have any effect on drivers that persistently drive whilst using a mobile. As someone who uses my car rarely I find that my safety as a pedestrian has been compromised on numerous occasions by drivers who are simply having a good chat on their phone and are more intent on the conversation than watching the road. There has been legislation in place to fine these people since 2003 and I still see just as many drivers flouting the law. Only the other day a driver failed to notice me on a pedestrian crossing because he was talking on his mobile and was lucky to stop before hitting me. Of course the driver seemed to think that this was my fault.

The fact is that even with this legislation in place and even if people were to obey it, you still have the option to use a hands free set with your mobile whilst driving. Independent research shows that this can be as dangerous as driving whilst drunk because it reduces you concentration and awareness of your surroundings. While I appreciate that it is reassuring to have a mobile phone with you whilst driving in case you get lost or break down I think that this legislation needs to be still tougher to discourage drivers from putting others in danger. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6382077.stm