Awesome Graphics!

This is truly incredible...check out the E3 footage of Codemasters' new title - F1 2010...it just looks...well, *real*...!

Weekend update

Well, you couldn't exactly call the weekend just gone *relaxing*, but it was filled with fun, starting with getting up really early on Saturday to look after a little boy who wouldn't stop throwing up - five times in the space of an hour - four times into Flyingpops hair and once all down my front, but luckily I hadn't bothered to get dressed by that stage...we started the day proper with a trip to my folks (who had helped baby-sit on Friday night while Flyingpops was at a "book party" at her sisters house) for a hair cut and then a super-off-road dog walking session through some hugely overgrown paths out the back of Oxted (which the Bugaboo coped with incredibly well), then a quick stroll down the hill for an hour in the swimming pool, this time I went on the 70m water slide *and* had my first ever Sauna - incredibly, the temperature inside was roughly the same that I use to cook my roast chicken on a Sunday (I know because they have a thermostat on the wall), and there are scary signs warning you to remove all jewellery as the metal can get incredibly hot if you stay in too long...but you do actually get used to the heat extremely quickly and it does sort of become rather therapeutic, I swapped myself between there and the steam room (which feels like it's cleaning out your lungs, and probably is) and then (when you absolutely can't take it any more) you dive into the pool (which is 30 degrees, but feels like minus 50)! Thomas enjoyed being in his little inflatable again, especially when the wave machine kicked in (we missed that last week because we were only in the water for about 20 minutes... ;)

Anyway, later on in the day we went out for a lovely meal at the Box Hill Smith and Western, I couldn't make up my mind so I had the combo (where you get steak and chicken and ribs - just to make sure I didn't feel left out if anything tempting looking left the kitchen that I hadn't ordered), then we headed over to Box Hill village hall for Charlie's birthday party (which tried *very* hard to wake Thomas up with extremely loud music, but failed)...

Sunday morning Thomas decided we weren't having a lay-in, so we headed over to Tesco a bit early, discovering happily that they start serving breakfast long before the main store opens (so we totally skipped the normally enormous queue for the cooked breakfast - hehe)...anyway, we got half way round the store picking up our food for the week and then Thomas decided he didn't want to be shopping either, so we cut the visit short and ordered the rest on the Internet, I cooked us up an early roast (lamb) which we ate as we watched the F1 - Well done Jenson! - and then after X-Factor, it was baths and bed...and now I need another weekend (a quiet one this time), and so does Flyingpops (as I think she's coming down with a bug), but we won't get that for another working week...although at least Flyingpops can have a bit of a duvet day - don't think that would go down too well in the office... ;)

Weekend Update

Where did the weekend go? It seemed to vanish waaaay too quickly...Saturday was largely eaten by the heaps and heaps of washing that seems to have accumulated over the last couple of weeks (thanks to me being away/Flyingpops entertaining guests last weekend)...well, I say vanished - apart from an exciting time when we tried to find the source of a rather unpleasant aroma in the back of the Golf, discovered that the carpets had got very damp (somehow?) and some deer food (that had obviously slipped under the seat during our trip to Longleat!  How long ago?) had started to go mouldy and smell (not surprising)!  So we vacuumed the entire car out, then sat there with two of Flyingpops hair driers (in the middle of the road) blasting the carpets until they were dry-ish - at this point I thought it might be an idea to run the internal heaters for a while (just to be on the safe side) but having run them for no more than five minutes with the doors closed - when Flyingpops tried to start the car to get it out the way of the neighbours drive we discovered we had managed to flatten the battery...(which *can't* be right)...

So, Colin to the rescue -  drove him next to the Golf and discovered that his leisure battery was flat as a pancake too...bah...finally, with a real stretch (thank goodness we bought the most expensive, longest jump leads in the world) we managed to connect him up via the main battery and get the car to start so we could at least move it from blocking next door's drive...I mean, we don't drive the Golf a whole lot - it's just popping to and from the station each day (about 5 minutes each direction) so I guess the battery doesn't get much chance to charge, but I was rather suprised to kill it with 5 minutes on the heaters...oh well...!

Saturday night was Tim's Stag do Part 2 (the revenge) which involved much beer/football, some arm wrestling and then a rather good Thai meal...Tim and I got the train back to Redhill and then took separate cabs home (where I fell asleep on the sofa until about 4am when I decided to go to bed and wake Flyingpops up with my snoring...sorry babe)...!

To make it up to her I went and did the Tesco shopping on my own in the morning, we then watched the F1 (very good race) and then I popped Flyingpops over to (and from) Fanny's Farm Shop (I kid you not) for Gayle's hen do (sandwich/tea/cake and Cava in a tree house), during which time I played a bit of Bully on the Xbox 360 (really enjoying it, about half way through now but a bit stuck on "Lola's Race" - my arm gets too tired tapping the dash button and I loose it on one of the last couple of corners - it's about a 5 minute long race, stupid! Think I'm going to have to cheat and do it using a moped or something)...and then Sunday night I cooked a roast but Flyingpops was too full of sandwich and cake to eat much of it (oh well, more for me!)...then we watched Wife Swap (typically inflamatory pairing of a gay pair and two homophobes, but it actually worked out much better than expected)...then bath and bed...

So...the Knee and F1...

...the doc said that my knee was much improved, but that I should take it easy (no running for buses) for one more week, just try not to stress it too much...and I'm to return next week, so no real progress I'm afraid...

In other news, the four week gap in the F1 calendar is almost over, we'll see what that time has done (development-wise) for the teams over the weekend! Alonso has the home advantage, it being the Spanish GP (which he won last year), but I'll be cheering for Hamilton...oh and David Coultard, who managed to set a new lap record during practice in his funky new Red Bull...wtf?

It's looking like the Circuit de Catalunya might actually host an exciting race this year, especially with the new track layout (supposed to allow more overtaking)! ;)

Surrey Heatwave

It is scorching here...three degrees centigrade lower than it is in in Bahrain (where today's F1 race is, yes, in the middle of the desert!), and they obviously have a lot of wind over there...not a breath in Whitebushes...anyway, good luck Hamilton! ;)

London Motor Show 2006

So (getting really behind again with my blogging), back to Saturday, and Flyingpops and I headed off to the Docklands to see the 2006 London Motor Show (free tickets - woo hoo!)...took the train into London Bridge, then hopped on the Jubilee Line until Canning Town, then onto the DLR to Custom House -

- (only my second ever journey on that line! ;) Very quick and efficient service...(from what I saw, anyway)...Never been to ExCel before, very impressive entrance, no queue to speak of even though there were *lots* of people arriving -

- then quickly in through the imposing entrance -

- now, there are two halls of this size (enormous) -

- one on the right and one on the left separated by a wide, tall corridor littered with numerous overpriced ways to sell food and drink to the visitors (take sarnies), saw lots of regular road cars (and sat in a number of them), and loads of amazing concept vehicles -

- a number of F1 cars -

- and even a small waterfall that Range Rover had thoughtfully provided -

- then outside to watch the 4x4's doing their thing -

Suffice it to say, the *proper* Range Rovers did a *lot* better than the Chelsea tractors - it was quite scary to see how poor some of them really were when faced with a small ramp...then around the corner to watch some guys messing about on the river (in spectacular fashion) -

- then it started to rain, so we checked out the last few cars (the Merc I tried on for size fitted like a glove, but I discovered that I had left my £97,995 pocket change at home, so I had to leave it) and then headed back home... ;)

Conclusion?

• If you were here seriously in the market for a car there would simply be far too much on offer, it would be a dizzying and terrifying prospect unless you had a clear idea of exactly what you wanted to try out for size before leaving home...but then you might as well do your research and go to the relevant dealerships...
• If you are along just for the experience (like me), there actually wasn't a huge amount on offer, there are only so many cars you want to try sitting in "for a laugh"...however, we got in for free, so I can't moan too much... ;)
• If you are a rabid petrol-head (i.e. as long as there are 4 wheels on it you want to hold it and kiss it?) - Dream day out...

Oh, and I took loads more pics than this lot, if you like this kind (latter category I guess) of thing the Flickr stream is here...

Bug Jam pics later... ;)

Weekend Report - F1 returns

Spotted in Balfe street this morning on a green bin (that hadn't been set on fire)...

Weekend report time (yep, sorry, but not lazy, broadband was down most of the weekend, I'm already not paying for this month thanks to the earlier outage though so I can't really complain)- Friday night we had dinner with my folks (venison, which was jolly nice), Saturday I went and did a bit of shopping in Redhill as I had a few pressies to buy, a 9 volt cell for the bathroom scales (in order to weigh the suitcases) and some superglue to stick the crappy hooks from Homebase up properly so we can have net curtains again (seems to be working, they are still up this morning!), also got the holiday cash converted into European dollars (just got to pack my clothes now)...Saturday night was DJmathu's birthday party over in Dorking, which involved much drinking, karaoke and (pretend) gambling (in that order)...Sunday's highlight was the start of this years F1 season, and what a start! Bahrain is an awesome circuit and the battle between Schumacher and Alonso couldn't have been much closer or more exciting (Flyingpops is supporting Schuey for some reason, so when Alonso took the lead we were both leaping around the living room yelling, she in frustration and I in glee! ;) Button (who I am supporting) did really, really well, he could have been a real contender if he hadn't mucked up the start, but the best drive, without question, was Räikkönen coming from the *back* to take third place...! Shame we're probably going to miss Malaysia next week...might find somewhere in the resort showing it though, you never know! Sunday we went over to take Brenda her birthday pressie, as we'll be on holiday on the actual day, braved the new Sainsbury's in Redhill (which was chaotic, even with the map that the security guard gave us) and after roast (lamb this week) we settled down to enjoy a glass or two of a really good Chablis (part of my "pay" from Flyingpops' employers, as they are using some of my photos on their website and presntation templates, I guess I'm a professional photographer now then ;) and watched the latest remake of "Pride and Prejudice", which was actually rather well done (apart from Matthew Macfadyen's "Mr. Darcy" who just looked a bit grumpy)...

I also made a start on "Moondust" but I really want to save that for beside the pool...not long to wait - as Flyingpops would say - "Only four more sleeps to go!"... ;)

Spanish Grand Prix...

...this weekend at the "Circuit de Catalunya", just sat here watching the qualifying now...oddly, Herr Schumaker is nowhere to be seen in the running...perhaps my fears were unfounded? (keeping everything crossed!!!)

Update - He is provisionally in 7th...we can't "write off the reds" though as the last race showed us...

Oh dear...

...today showed a heart-stopping return to (almost unstoppable) power by team Schumacher-Ferrari in the San Marino GP...never have I seen a race so closely contested, right until the finish line...

Respect to Herr Schumacher, but sorry, if this (and I think Mr Brundle said it best) "ominous" performance is anything to go by, I'll be ditching F1 again before too long, Schu-whitewash race-after-race, year-after-year, I just can't swallow it...sorry...

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have missed it for the world, and it was probably one of the best races I have ever seen in my life! I can just do without the monotony, *if* (as I suspect) with their fixed up car, all we ever see is a little red blur between the start and chequered flag...we need competition (just like we saw today), but if he hadn't made that petit faux par in qualifying, all we would have seen is the boring Schumacher domination that turned me off the sport last time...*please*, *please* *NO*!!!