Holidays

Clare and I had a two-stage holiday this year, starting with 5 days by Lake Garda in northern Italy.



View the Lake Garda album


We then spent a week by the Coast in Wales, with Heather, Joe, Steve and Kim. The holiday involved the usual rounds of 'Ring of Fire', with a vocal accompaniment on the Sing-Star (my singing skills, whilst very entertaining, do not seem to score many points - I need to have a word with Sony about their customer acceptance testing). We also did some walking, went into a dragon infested cave and sat on the beach. Awesome.



View the Wales album


Whilst in Wales, Heather and Joe treated Clare and I to an afternoon of mountain boarding, as part of a 30th birthday present. It was excellent, and surprisingly easy to pick up. Sadly confidence got the better of me and it didn't take me long to sprain an ankle. It didn't stop me though - can't wait to have another go. Here's a video montage of our boarding skills:

BBC iPlayer

I have been trialling the new BBC iPlayer (beta) service. The basic concept is that you can download programmes up to 7 days after they are broadcast, you then have 28 days to watch them before they expire. This is the perfect thing for me, as I'm stuck on a train for two hours a day with nothing to do, and in the evenings I'm normally busy.

I have to say, I've been quite impressed. The files download quite quickly, the quality is almost as good as broadcast TV and the application doesn't take over your computer (like the channel 4 on-demand service).

However, there are some short-comings, firstly the lack of content. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the TopGear Arctic special, there haven't been that many programmes that have caught my attention. Secondly; it's a bit complicated. You have two usernames and passwords, you use a website to browse the programmes, and an windows application to download them. Thirdly, the service needs some features like 'subscribe to this series' or 'favourites' to make it easier to find the programmes you want. This is only a beta, so I'm sure things will improve, but it's a great first step towards a far more preferable way to watch TV.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayerbeta/

Draycote to Rugby

To celebrate the only sunny day of the year (well that's what it feels like anyway) Clare and I cycled from Draycote Water to Rugby, stopping in at the walkabout pub for a much needed Australian beer.

View the album

Warwick castle with the Laughlins

Richard, Claire and the girls came to visit for the day, so we went to Warwick castle to take in some medieval action including dungeons, sword fighting, a giant trebuchet and ice creams. For certain younger members of our party, the main attraction was a giant mirror into which funny faces could be displayed at great amusement.

View the album