Nexus One

I resisted for so long… but last week I caved and order myself a Nexus One, direct from Google.  I’ve been very happy with my HTC Hero for the past 7 or 8 months, but the lure of a super fast processor and a nice big AMOLED screen was too much for me.  On Wednesday I place the order, I got an e-mail around 11pm saying it was being shipped, it landed around 9pm on Thursday and went to collect it from DHL Friday morning.

Google's Nexus One

I’ve now had it for 6 days and I’m thoroughly loving it!  There are few things missing from the Hero, I’m in the camp that SenseUI is a good thing and of course that’s not incorporated in the Nexus One.  The jazzy bits and peices like rolling the numbers when selecting a date or time are not there.  The contacts widget on the home screen, which I used to use quite a lot, is not there.  That’s pretty much where the negatives finish though. Continue reading Nexus One

Happy Birthday Me!

So, they average life expectency of a man in the UK is somewhere into his 70’s.  Does this mean I’m now at the half way point?!?

Well, after the last few years where I’d tried to arrange something with my friends from work when nobody has any money… I decided this year to have a quieter afair.  On Saturday night there were two NFL games (Cardinals @ Saints and then Ravens @ Colts) in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs so I invited some friends over to watch them. In all there were seven of us (Rob, Pete, Paul (Chuck), Lee, Mark and other Rob) I’d stocked up on pizza, hot dogs, nacho’s and coke so there was plenty of junk food and we watched Reggie Bush dismantle the Cardinals Defence.  Lee, Mark and Rob headed off around 1am but the hardcore stayed to see the Colts smother the Ravens and progress into the Championship game next week. Continue reading Happy Birthday Me!

Car Repairs and Financial Issues!

I decided last week to get my car fixed after the Christmas Day issues, so I dropped it in to the local garage.  I got a call later in the day with bad news about what was wrong…  three new tires, a control arm as well as the faulty alternator and battery would bring it up close to £800!  I wasn’t even sure I still wanted a car, but I guess I need to get these things fixed, even if I wanted to sell it.  A couple of days later I get a call, they can’t find the reason it keeps stopping charging.  Today I picked it up and had to pay out £938 for the repairs!

Continue reading Car Repairs and Financial Issues!

Merry Christmas!

IMG_0162.JPGAround 10am Christmas morning, me and Robert set off to Wyndhurst, near Wollerton, Shropshire. A nice easy journey meant we arrived just in time for Robert to make the Prawn Cocktail starters.  There were seven of us in all this year, me, Robert, Mum, Auntie Marg, Aunti Elaine, Uncle Normal and Sarah. It was probably for the best there were a couple less than usual as we were eating in the kitchen this year, with the dinning room full of mothers boxes while she finds a house in the area.

Continue reading Merry Christmas!

White Christmas?

So the snow’s back  and as before London seems to slow down to a miserable pace.  We saw a little snow last Wednesday and Thursday, in fact I played some 5-a-side football for the first time in a couple of months in it (the knee held up pretty well) but it didn’t effect things too badly.  I was off Thursday, but took the bus to work on Friday, to be safe. Saturday and Sunday are okay for me to drive in, so I avoided public transport over the weekend.

Continue reading White Christmas?

Ireland Biking Weekend

This last weekend was quite an adventure, I got Friday and Monday off from work in order to ride over to South West Ireland with some friends.  Some of the guys met up on Thursday to ride to Wales which is where the first drama occurred when a silly lady decided to turn right, from the left lane of a roundabout, knocking Mike off his bike!  So, after separating his shoulder, he was in no condition to carry on the ride.

Continue reading Ireland Biking Weekend

i37

Last weekend I went along with Lee to Warwickshire to take part in the latest i series LAN, i37.  iSeries are LAN’s run 3 times a year for 2,000 gamers in a huge hall.

2,000 gamers at i37
2,000 gamers at i37

We arrived on Thursday just afternoon and got the drinks in.  This went on until we finally decided to join the queue to check in at around 8pm.  It was a fairly large queue and Lee was now rather drunk, but by 9:30pm we finally got our passes.

Continue reading i37

Bike Upgrade

After over two years on my Honda Transalp I decided it was time for me to trade it in.  A leek had once again started in the right hand radiator, just 2 months outside of warranty.  This, along with a wearing clutch, rear pads and ball bearings meant I thought I should take out a Varadero for a test ride.

Varadero
The 4th bike I've ever owned. A Honda Varadero XL1000V

The Varadero’s an even bigger bike, possibly the biggest on the market at around 270 kilo’s with a full tank.  This does mean it’s very comfortable for the larger gentleman such as myself.  The extra power from the 1,000cc engine also felt very nice, giving it around 92 bhp compared to my Transalp’s 57.

Continue reading Bike Upgrade

Another Busy Bank Holiday Weekend!

This past Bank Holiday weekend was once again a busy one.  It started with our 34th Lanarchy event in Watford, but that didn’t start too smooth.  I flashed my Touch HD on Friday night, but it seemed bug riddled, so I flashed it once more in the morning to a more stable ROM.  Unfortunately the file server then stopped working and I couldn’t sync my contacts back on.  I set of to the venue, but no-one was there to let me in… and I had no numbers to call anyone…  Luckily, my car kit had some and I could call someone else to get the number I needed. Continue reading Another Busy Bank Holiday Weekend!