Vicks Breathing Sensations

Well this was a bit of happy timing (or perhaps not depending on how you want to look at things) - I've spent most of the weekend lolling around the house in my dressing gown feeling all sorry for myself with a really sore throat and some pretty annoying (and sneeze-ridden) congestion...my constant companions have been olbas oil and sudafed tablets, so it was a pleasant surprise this morning at London Bridge to be handed a couple of tiny sachets of Vicks new "Breathing Sensations" chewing gum, which, if I could smell or taste anything at all, I imagine would have tasted of peppermint and blasted my nose with menthol...neither of those experiences were forthcoming, however, my sore throat *does* now feel slightly soothed, and my nostrils are clear for the first time in three days...might have to keep my eyes open for them in the shops!

Link update! Stop Press...

Bruce Lee playing ping pong with Nunchaku...(advertising nonsense, but absolutely awesome)... ;)

Fink's Links #40

Well, the ice rink is finished and we're another week closer to the festive season, can't believe we are nearly at the end November already! Anyway...on to the business at hand! Links of the week (whoever would have thought there was this much crap...(ahem)...quality entertainment on the internet!) ;)

Let's begin with an awesome Japanese alarm clock (involving guns)...

Watch a guy playing Guitar Hero (sort of) on a push bike...really amazing... ;)

A rather cheap stun gun (not sure they are strictly legal in the UK though)...what made me laugh though was it is listed as suitable for (and I quote) "entrepreneurs, taxi driver, guards and shop assistants, gas station attendants, employees of restaurants and bars, kennel attendants, women etc."... ;)

You have got to love the Americans - "Baconnaise - because everything should taste like bacon" bring it to the UK Mr Tesco, I'm there...! ;P

Star Wars (and Star Trek) origami made from American dollar bills which obviously have to be put to other purposes now they aren't terribly useful for buying things (they actually look really cool)!

A slow news day in Australia means I learn a trick to force those "left brain" "right brain" visual things to do what I want (the trick is in the comments at the bottom, won't tell you now or you won't be able to tell which side of your brain is dominant and spoil their story)...

"Solomon's real mine? 3,000 years on, archaeologists uncover fabled site in desert"

"If David Lynch owned a TV station"...

The results of the US government experiment in the 50s when they fed LSD to an artist under clinical conditions...

Incredible video demonstrating a (not exactly new, but still absolutely mind blowing) method for re-sizing images...

Next - 23 tubes, one bowl (check the picture links out at the bottom)...

HOW KEYBOARDS SHOULD BE MADE...(pic)

A slightly scary bit of egg art....

Take a little trip to the border with North Korea...

An amazing cloud (captured by NASA over Africa)...

...and finally an excellent shopping trolley fail (wouldn't you just hate to be those guys) and a little bit of a packaging fail...

...and that's your lot! More next week of course and until then you can find previous sets by clicking this link...! Enjoy the weekend! ;)

IT Crowd Season 3 - Starts Friday!

Absolutely can't wait! The internets favourite utterly absurd TV show is back! If you have never watched it before (especially if you enjoyed Father Ted - as it's the same guy responsible) immediately stop what you are doing and go back and watch season 1 until you have seen all the episodes, then watch season 2 (each show is only about 25 minutes each so it won't take you long)...those links are to youtube, but all the episodes are also on 4OD...

This is the only tears-running-down-your-face, laugh-out-loud television of the last two years (that didn't involve a camcorder, a small child, a bat and someone's genitals)...In essence it's the tale of an extremely uptight young professional female - Jen Barber - (who knows nothing about technology but pretends she does, with cringe-worthy results) being put in charge of one (slightly mad and extremely lazy) Irish help desk technician (Roy "Did you try turning it off an on?" no-surname) and one (slightly confused and extremely innocent) über-geek (Maurice "hot ear" Moss) and the utterly farcical situations they get into working in the impossibly surreal office environment of Reynholm Industries...

Season three kicks off at 10pm tomorrow....Woo Hoo!

Christmas arrives at Canary Wharf

Sometimes I forget quite how tall this building is - you know, it's funny, but when I first started to work here I would be ever-so cautious when I would get near the window (just in case)...where I sit now, my printer is right up against one and I think nothing whatsoever of walking right up to it and peering down at the ants below..quite enjoy the view actually... ;) It seems that one can get used to anything, given time...

Anyway, coming into work yesterday it being distinctly cold and rainy, I decided to take the route in through the shopping centre, and behold -

- absolutely hundreds of Christmas trees have materialised (like this one) over the weekend! They are various different colours, variations on red around Cabot Square-

- and purple around Canada Square...and yes, they've done it again...Be Festive (By Order)...any Christmas spirit is tempered by the reminder that your every jolly move will be monitored on CCTV (as if anyone needed reminding)...we are, after all, home to one of Englands few T-Ray cameras (capable of peering right through your clothing)...so more than any other collective public body we are aware not much is going to happen around here without someone knowing about it... ;)

Christmas Shopping - The correct method...

Well, this has to be a record - Flyingpops and I, having taken a day's holiday on Monday, have now largely finished (a few interweb orders aside) the Christmas gift shopping...!

Last year we weren't in this position until the 26th of November (still fairly organised, one might say, but) this puts us well over a week ahead of schedule...and doing it a week earlier actually made a whole lot of sense, the Christmas lights aren't even switched on yet in Crawley, but all the potential pressies are sitting there sparkling away, the point being the very few shoppers who actually dragged themselves out of the house into the drizzle on Monday morning were largely ignoring them, for most people it's simply way too early - in fact I think at one stage we found ourselves on our own in Littlewoods gift section...and shopping for *gifts* (rather than just DVD/CD/Games) is so much better when you can actually pick items up and examine the quality...

When it came to pay it was soooo easy, in fact, when we did hit a queue (in the Disney store) Flyingpops just put what we were planning to buy back on the shelf again and we continued to another shop! The result was that we had a completely lovely time...! Shopping, especially Christmas shopping, is normally a stress-filled affair - screaming kids, battered boxes, millions of shopping bags, millions of shoppers, queues, tripping over (or being blocked in by) push chairs, card machines failing due to increased demand, yelling, no parking places (etc. etc.)...to walk the customer-free aisles at our leasure and calmly browse all the pristine goods was (and I'm astonished at myself for saying this) actually a pleasure...

Poppy the Beetle

Hehe...says it all I think... ;)

Poppy Matilda - Our New Beetle

Let me introduce you to Poppy Matilda ...

She was conceived on Remembrance Sunday (deposit paid), Born on Saturday 15th November (collected)  and Christened on 16th November (splashed with Holy water from Maria's christening).

The name 'Poppy' was suggested by Vodqueen so she has become Poppy's Godmother.  I chose the name Matilda as I thought it was a fun/happy name and reflected the personality of the car!

We have owned Poppy less than 48 hours, driven over 300 miles, have flowers in the bud vase and its absolutely fantastic! 

Oh and the best thing of all, if you drive past another beetle, new or old style, you wave and flash your lights...

Christening

We are just off to Maria's christening, where I will become a god mother... when we get back. we will be opening a bottle of champagne and naming the beetle...

Watch this space!

x

My New Baby...

Since getting married, the question on everyone’s lips is “When will you have a baby flyingpops?” ...If I drink lemonade on a night out, everyone assumes I’m pregnant, and God forbid, I feel a little unwell...Do people not realise that I’m so happy and content having a fantastic husband, amazing house and incredible career that in my contented state, I might just be putting on a little weight? ;)

So, with a big birthday approaching in January and in the middle of a credit crunch... I have gone against my normal, sensible, practical self and have bought a beetle....Much cheaper than a baby, a lot less work and you don’t have to give wait 9 months for it!

I’ve been trawling autotrader for 3 weeks, checking insurance groups, petrol consumption and generally researching what you get for your money... and then last Saturday my hunt was successful... blue Beetle, slightly outside budget, but in Brighton, 1600 engine and from a Porsche garage... Upon seeing the ad, my heart began to race and I knew – this was the car for me! My Golf came from a Porsche garage in Chichester, my last Bug was a blue 1600 and I got the feeling which told me, everything was right and I should check out the car.

We bombed down the A23 – and within no time at all, I was test driving it! Fink was in the back, the salesman beside me and words cannot describe how I felt behind the wheel...I tried to remain cool, calm and collective, but I knew I wanted the car! I drove past another bug and waved at the driver. When she waved back, I could barely contain my excitement. People who drive a beetle know, it’s not just a car to get you from A to B, but a real love affair and way of life! We sat through the sales talk, got a P/E offer for the Golf and then ‘Net went into work mode’ not committing to anything (which totally shocked Fink, who was prepared to pay the asking price and couldn’t believe I had walked out and not left a deposit!)...

We raced back to Oxted for a very late lunch with the family (sorry Alan/Krysia) and 20 minutes into the journey, I got a call from the garage offering more money for the Golf...this negotiation was going to be one I would enjoy...they wanted our business...and would have to wait for it!

We finished our family day, went to Brockham and then I went to bed, thumping headache (excitement, anxiety, running around) .. Woke up on Sunday morning still feeling rough, so took tablets and went back to bed.. when I got up at 12.00 I had 2 voicemails from the garage! So, again going into work mode, I constructed my case, put forward my arguments and entered into a 4 hour negotiation! Needless to say, it was hard. The saleman has probably been on the same courses I have and after lots of offers / haggling (including free servicing and MOT next year and a fresh flower when I collect it) – I got a deal! Fairly standard text book negotiation, but it takes nerve and patience and I really enjoyed it! When we finally got to a win/win state – I paid the deposit ... then bounced around the house with Fink celebrating...before sorting out the insurance and then ordering a flower for the bud vase!

I’ve spent the last week trying to find a name and all my friends on facebook have put forward some excellent suggestions.. But I think we’ve chosen one! When we get the car home later, there will be a small christening involving champagne and she will be named... watch this space for pictures, names and thank you Yam, for being a fantastically reliable Golf.

Fink's Links #39

Another week passes us by (with a cheeky gesture from the rear window), and as Galileo Galilei once said "I have never met anyone so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from them" and so in that general spirit lets peek out from behind our fingers and see what all the "anyone"s of the internets had to say (or show us) just recently -

Shall we start with "and then Toby heard the 'snap' of the rubber glove"...

Look at what happens when a balloon is dropped in liquid nitrogen for a second or two...

Sad shark is sad... :(

...but it's okay because happy planes are happy... ;)

A self balancing unicycle (about half as difficult to ride as a normal one, apparently)...

A nice "Wake me up at xxxxxx" sticker set for sleepy commuters...

The anatomy of a lego man...

Learn about NASA's floating Sky Crane...

Sticking with NASA, an incredible shot of a solar eclipse (from orbit)!

An amusing (and practical) way to settle parking disputes...

Witness the strange phenomenon "Dead Water" caught for the first time on film

A walking house (of sorts, perhaps "hut" would be more accurate)? Actually looks like something "the Empire" would have built...

A cheap way to become an astronaut...doesn't look terribly comfortable though (spaceship one this certainly isn't)! Scroll down for the pics...

Woken by a bump in the night? How about a bedside table that breaks down into a shield and club?

And on your table, how about a noose table lamp? Remember to put it carefully on the floor before you go charging downstairs though... ;)

Read about the "Last Voyage of the Cúlin"...a tale of modern day piracy...

...and just to finish off, how about a nice "headline fail"... ;)

That's all for this week...! More next Friday, until then you can find previous collections over here...!

Brockham Bonfire 2008

Set your wayback machine for last weekend (okay not so wayback) and join us as, despite the fact that it had been raining really very hard all day, and Flyingpops mum had already called us in the morning to cancel attending (she normally walks along with us), we decided (perhaps unwisely) to go to the Brockham Bonfire...the easiest route for us, as we discovered before, is to drive to Reigate, park the car in Morrisons car park and then pay to get the special bus service (which this year was actually quite a posh coach instead of a broken down semi-retired double decker) -

- it's not actually that far to Brockham from Reigate (about a ten minute drive), so in no time we were trudging through the dark past the odd stalls selling glowing items for draping around one's person and over the river -

- to join the surprisingly (considering the way the weather had been) swolen crowd awaiting the festivities and gorging themselves on the constant stream of burgers and sausages coming out of the bustling kitchens -

- we went and checked out the hog roast, overheard the guys cooking it saying that it was totally burnt, but that they couldn't take the heat shield off it as they feared it would be ruined if it rained (and it was starting to drizzle) -

- so we wandered back away from the grassy area (as it was starting to get extremely muddy and slippery), I slipped a few times trying to get up the little slope away from the hog roast fence and then back onto the road and we made our way up to watch the torchlit procession from a position not far away from the organisers watchtower...and it was here that we spent the next 25 minutes waiting, at one stage we did catch a glimpse of the procession, but we were then told (as the rain continued to build into a proper shower) that because the conditions were so bad in the car park we would have to wait for everyone to park before everything would kick off, so the torches vanished back round the corner again as the rain did it's best to soak everyone through and dampen our enthusiasm...when the final stragglers from the car park did finally manage to drag themselves to the green the procession started up again, the guy was hoisted onto the top of the (increasingly saturated) pile of wood -

- and this time the torch bearers managed to make it all the way to the bonfire (which we were jolly pleased about as we were now completely soaking and getting rather cold, Flyingpops muttering something about "rather being curled up on the sofa in front of X Factor") -

- unfortunately the wood was so wet by this stage that the flames took *forever* to reach the top -

- it was literally another 20 minutes before the bangers started to go off (one or two at a time, not the usual cacophony at all, which was a bit of a let down), during this time we made our way back along the road so the massive amounts of smoke coming off the bonfire wouldn't be in our way of the display -

- and then (thank goodness) the usual having to cheer louder/"I can't hear you!" cycle was broken as on our first (as cheerful as possible in the circumstances) collective yell was answered by the start of the fireworks (making me think the guys controlling it were perhaps getting damp and cold too) -



Shame about the weather, but an excellent display (as usual)...when it all finished we made a mad dash for the buses, got on the first one and then had another mad dash through Reigate from the Red Cross in an absolute cloudburst (couldn't have got any wetter if I had jumped in the bath) and all the way across the car park at Morrisons (as I had stupidly advised Flyingpops to park near the pick-up bus stop rather than the dropping off one)...oh well, maybe we'll remember for next year!

20,000 picture landmark - 102_FUJI

Not sure how many people manage to hit this particular milestone, but my camera (on Saturday) had to create it's *third* storage folder - 102_FUJI (I use continuous numbering rather than risk having any with the same name and accidentally overwriting anything), which basically means I've taken over 20,000 pictures since I bought it back in May last year! That's about 1111 per month, or roughly 37 pictures a day...in reality of course it's all in fits and starts, some days I don't even pick the camera up, and others it's never out of my hands...That is still a pretty crazy number though, even by my standards! ;)

Say cheese... ;)

Fire Drill - One Canada Square

The fire alarm system at One Canada Square is a bit different to any others I have experienced...I guess it goes off about once a fortnight (when someone burns their toast in one of the kitchens or a birthday cake incident occurs), the first indication it's about to go off is a series of polite tones, a long low (and slightly crackly) 'boop' noise (accompanied by lots of people groaning and rolling their eyes), then a posh woman's voice comes on over the PA system "May I have your attention please, may I have your attention please, the fire alarm system in this building has been activated. Please remain at your workstations while the cause of the alarm is investigated"...at this stage, all the lifts in the building are locked down (it's happened at lunchtime before and we've all been trapped in the office muttering discontentedly) and down on the ground floor security guards will be running over to (and locking) the doors to stop anyone else coming into the building...then (normally) about five or ten minutes later the 'boop'ing noise will return and the voice will announce "May I have your attention please, may I have your attention please, the fire alarm incident is now over, the lifts and other services are returning to normal operation, should you hear a further emergency announcement after this one, please follow the instructions given, thank you for your cooperation"...

Today it was a bit different - the same wording apart from our attention being called to the fact that there actually *was* a fire and we were to evacuate immediately...and we are on the 20th floor... :(

I guess it took about 10 minutes stomping downwards to pass the sign that said "Concourse", but to add insult to injury the escape route then continued down through several other floors (a few called M and a number - nope, no idea) and then into the basement where we had to loop round through a few heavy fire doors that didn't want to open very far and then go back *up* another flight of stairs (grumble, moan) out into the cold bright autumn sunshine...at this stage about 20% of the people evacuating either headed straight into Starbucks or disappeared into the Cabot square shopping center leaving the rest of us to walk to our evacuation point (past lots of disinterested security guards) -

- where we assembled...so we waited there, the DLR clattering past above -

- no-one counted us, no role call was done...nothing like that at all, and within five minutes a small lady in a high-visibility jacket was waving us all to go back into the building...

Great. A fire drill...I put my poor old knees through 45 flights of stairs for absolutely no reason...bah...Still, at least the building was okay...actually, I was kind of pulled between wanting everything to be fine and anticipating the excellent pictures I could have shot if it really had been on fire... ;)

Anyway, once we finally all made it back up to our desks I did query why no-one seemed bothered if we had made it out alive or not and discovered that it's actually normal procedure here - two people on each floor are paid an extra £60 (per month) to be fire marshalls, their job (in the event of an emergency) is to scour every part of the floor they are responsible for to make sure that everyone is out, this (apparently) is much more reliable than trying to make sure everyone doesn't just nip off for a cup of tea or to browse round the designer clothes shops while One Canada Square burns to the ground (full of fire fighters sacrificing their lives to find people who are currently sipping a skinny latte and laughing)...

Grafitti on the 435 Bus

Spotted this on the 435 the other night on the way home from Redhill...nothing odd you may think, a bit of grafitti on the bus - quite the usual number of individuals seem to be "gay", oddly named people are still routinely announcing that they are "4" other oddly named people and colourful meaningless scribbles that wouldn't look out of place in a 3 year old's colouring book are all perfectly in place just as normal...so what did I spot that made me smile?

In a medium that lends itself (on occasion) to acts of considerable creativity, and is as flexible as any artists pad, what form of expression is starting to appear that I (for one) have never seen before?

It's (most oddly) those used in the *extremely* inflexible creative medium (in a graphical sense) - the text editor - yes, people are using marker pens to grafitti simple ASCII text character representations of images...

<3 - a heart
(y) - as in choose (y) or (n), confirming the gayness as the correct option chosen
=] - an alternative smiley face

The mind boggles...  :S

Thames Clipper - Fare Dodging

Goodness only knows what's been going on the last couple of days, waiting at Earlswood for the normal train to London Bridge each day it's been delayed (only by about 5-10 minutes) but when it's pulled into the station it's already "full and standing" (like twice the number of people that are usually on it), luckily in each case we've got seats fairly near one another (so not anything like the end of the world, just a bit...well...strange)!

Yesterday the train managed to take about twice as long as usual to get into London. I *think* because it was so full, and the tracks were so slippery (leaves on the line) it just couldn't seem to get traction when it was trying to move away (luckily the tube was pretty empty when I got down there so it made up for it, was only about 5 minutes late as I leave a big buffer just in case of problems like this)...today we arrived at Earlswood to find it was delayed by 10 minutes, and finally crept into East Croydon at just about the time we normally pull into London Bridge...kissing Flyingpops goodbye there I told her I was going to have to leg it and flew towards the Jubilee line (praying for similar luck to Monday), but as I cut through the crowds I began to fear the worst as announcements echoed "Passengers please note, the DLR is currently suffering severe delays, we advise all customers to seek alternative methods of transport" (which basically means the Jubilee line), and lo and behold! When I got down the escalator the queue was backed right up into the shops in the vault...*never* seen it that bad before...so I span on my heels and rapidly reversed course, stamped back up the escalator and made a run for the secret footbridge (empty as usual) over to the London Bridge dock...

Damn...the queue there must have been 250 people (stretching right back up towards King William Street) and I now had 10 minutes to get to my desk...I trudged miserably to the end and peered over my shoulder to see if there might be a boat due soon and (Yes!) one was just pulling in...! The queue moved really rapidly -

- and I was getting seriously near the front, but we could all hear the two crew members counting people on (they can't overload)...I crossed my fingers in my pockets and scrunched up my eyes (pleasepleaseplease!)...and they called a halt to boarding two people behind me...phew!

So this, to my knowledge, is the first time I have been on a fully loaded Thames Clipper...and I have to say I wasn't terribly impressed with how they coped, for example, the ticket office at London Bridge was closed, and no-one was going up the queue taking fares, so when these hundreds of people got on, all of them still had to cough up...and guess how many people were selling tickets on board? One...

So it's no surprise to learn that 10 minutes later when we pulled into Canary Wharf only about 15 people had managed to buy them, then began this absolutely crazy scene where the two members of staff at Canary Wharf were both trying to issue tickets (their machines take *forever* to issue them especially if people are trying to pay by card) and check and punch (yes, they have a punch system like the old days on British Rail) existing tickets and check season ticket holders out...it didn't take long before the impatient crowd just gave up trying to pay and walked out via the entrance ramp, and of course when others saw the staff failing to check (or even really seem to care) many, many more people (I'm guessing about half the number waiting) just left the queue and legged it while the poor woman was struggling to juggle money (endless searches for change in terribly inefficient bum bag)/tickets (literally handfuls of paper tumbling into the water below the dock - now lost to any auditing process)/ticket machine/ticket punch/etc. etc...

Of course I did the right thing and waited and paid my money, but they really need to find a better payment system, it's all very well when 20 people use the boat on a normal morning, but all too often they seem to get caught with their pants down when the other services fail and they become the only option...normally it would just mean a huge number of people standing in long queues, however today, from the looks of things, it cost them a whole lot of money for their inefficiency...

Wedding photograph update

After absolutely *months* and many failed attempts to go through all the wedding photos and choose the tiny amount we are allowed to have printed for free as part of the package, this is our latest attempt at a solution...Flyingpops (with some incredible negotiation) managed to get every single picture printed out for around £70 (or about half the best price they offer!)...and I bet the guy in Jessops was cursing our name by the time he had finished, the photos were extremely high resolution (just around 8gb in total), it managed to completely crash their system the first time they tried and Flyingpops had to go back in with all the images files the next day so they could have another go, in the end they had to chop them up into batches (meaning they all came out in a funny order) and when she went to collect them (three days later) they came in two (jam packed) carrier bags...thus far it's taken two hour-long sittings, one for Flyingpops to sort them roughly into the right order and one to make a start on putting them into the two albums we have - as of yesterday night she has got as far as having her hair done on the morning of the wedding day...this is an epic mission...!

Autumn Sunset over Canary Wharf

Well well well...cherry on top of the amazing sunset, we look to be coming full circle again - they are putting up the Canary Wharf ice rink again (as I type) outside the window...looks like that's just over a year working here then... ;)

Fink's Links #38

Just in order to keep this blog in line with that original "blogging" concept from very birth of the "weblog" I offer to you my latest collection of everything decent "out there" that I splashed past during my week surfing the tubes...a firm and fruity selection this week -

We'll kick things off this week with a forgotten, 55 year old experiment that may explain the origins of life...

Guy spends 20 years building a fortress under his house by hand (and then decides to sell it)...

Got something really small you need to keep secret? How about some reproduction hollow spy coins (as used during the cold war era)...?

Cerberus as a puppy (hehe)...

Gaming's most evil pranks (and they *aren't* kidding - "The Maze" - is particularly brutal - you could probably argue child abuse)...

Did you know about the "Great London Beer flood of 1814"...? Lower lip quivering at the thought...

Find out about the man who reads dictionaries...

Take a nip of Dan Aykroyd's Crystal Head Vodka...

A fantastic collection of photographs of Sol...

A really wonderful pop-up book called "ABC123", don't miss the shockwave video at the bottom of the page...

Check out "The things he carried" an article all about airport "security theatre" in the US - "I focused my efforts on bringing bad things through security in many different airports, primarily my home airport, Washington’s Reagan National, the one situated approximately 17 feet from the Pentagon"...good read...

Keep safe if things spiral out of control at breakfast time with a knuckle duster shaped coffee mug!

Plantbot - walks your plant around the room finding the area of brightest sunshine...

...and lastly a great "mascot fail"...

All done! There will, no doubt be more next week, but if you crave further mental sustainance, then head in this direction...now clear off and enjoy the weekend...! ;)

The Amazing Race

This is just such an excellent treat....right off the back of discovering (thanks to a friend at work) that the televisual treat HBO's "The Wire" existed at all (the show that actually kicked American TV into life after years of total drudge - I'm now about 8 episodes into season 5 and have loved every minute of it), last week I discover another incredible US show called "The Amazing Race"...this one has been running for an astonishing 14 seasons(!) (very naughtily) without my knowledge and is just spectacularly good television (perfect material for me to consume on the commute)...in each competition 11 or 12 couples set off from somewhere in the States on a journey vicious race around the globe competing for a $1,000,000 prize...each stage is set in a different country and the teams must beg, borrow or steal their way to each objective and challenge (some of which look absolutely impossible) including booking all transport, one couple being eliminated at each stage if they make it to the "pit stop" last...no joke - it is just electric!

A load of episodes are available on YouTube if you fancy having a peek, or they run on Challenge TV on NTL/Sky from time to time too by the looks of things...

Why is there *nothing* like this being produced on British TV at the moment??  It's all just talent shows (which are sooooo boring in comparison)!

Come back Anneka Rice, all is forgivedid! ;)