Nandos sun dried tomato and basil peri-peri marinade

I have always been a bit disappointed with those sauces that you can buy in the supermarket that kind of imitate the sauces you get in the restaurant. However Nandos sun dried tomato and basil peri-peri marinade is yum! And I believe available from all good retailers (or at least Waitrose in Maidenhead).

Spurt

In case you haven’t seen this advert running in a number of papers recently.

“Spurt calls upon Britain’s nimby whingers to stop complaining about flight paths, noise and air pollution and the demolition of listed buildings. Be grateful you live so close to an airport.”

And the official site and an explanation of what is actually going on.

Motorola Razr Spazr

Up until recently I had been happy with my present mobile phone. It looks jazzy, its nice and small, had a reasonable amount of functions and a just about adequate camera that can be employed for impromptu photo opportunities.

However, I am now officially really fucking fucked off with this fucking phone and as soon as I come to the 12 month contract expiry point which is in the next week or so, I will be demanding an upgrade.

For starters the phone’s battery has never been that great and formerly would only last 2 days before dying. However recently it has started lying to me. For example one morning earlier this week I unplugged it from its charger in the morning despite it insisting it wasn’t charging despite being plugged in. Later that morning it showed low battery despite being charged overnight but reassured me that that was ok because it was charging, notwithstanding that it wasn't hooked up to a plug. In the afternoon it told me it had a full battery and that the charge was completed despite still not being anywhere near a charger. It subsequently died in the late afternoon.

Later I was heading out to Reading in the evening and travelling on the M25. I got caught in major traffic chaos and would like to have rung ahead to let folks know I was going to be late. But I couldn’t because the phone died. I then had a stroke of genius and tried to hook it to my car charger which I remembered I had. But no, at this event the phone advised me that it was unable to charge. So it had power to display an error message, but not sufficient power to charge. I mean wtf? So maybe the battery couldn't charge at the point. God knows why because it later found the ability to charge. But why draw what I presume was direct power from the car socket to display an error message. Why not draw direct power to normal phone functions?

Additionally the bluetooth link is fucked so I can’t export my present selection of particularly amusing photos I took on it recently. And it refuses to recognise any .wav file types so I can’t play any sounds or video on it any more or change the ring tone (not that I actually give too much of a toss about the ring tone but it would be nice to have the option).

So Motorola, take your fucking Motorola Spazr or whatever wanky name you choose to title it and stick it up your ass because I am getting some nice blocky, reliable, functional Nokia like I should have done ages ago.

Muffin anyone?

(Possibly only amusing to those who know him). You can now buy your very own deep filled version of Dave for the bargain price of £1.69. With blueberry no less.

Sadly out of stock when snapped in Waitrose Maidenhead.

Phone dump VI

If you don't know how my phone dump posts work by now then well, erm... you'll just have to look through the blog archives and work it for yourself. So here is phone dump VI, also known as the 'show us who this Claire person is' post.

My new sofa in situ. Possibly the most comfy sofa of all time but I would say that.

I bumped into Kenny from South Park in River Island the other day. Also known as Claire wearing an amusingly oversized boy coat.

Internal courtyard thingy to the Lloyds insurance building on architecture weekend (or whatever it was called) a few weeks ago.

Also wanted to go up the Gherkin (aka as 30 St Mary Axe) (aaka the Swiss Re tower) however it was pre-book only and was kinda booked solid.

Suprisingly blond moth, who spent an evening in my flat getting hit upon by generically brown moth. I didn't know you could get blond moths.

The most amazing shower of all time as seen at the Ideal Home Show at Earls Court. Being modeled here by Claire. Seriously look at this thing. Rotate the pod Hal.

Nick and Claire inside the most amazing shower of all time. The picture fails to capture the the life support display but you can see the surround sound speakers inset in the mirror some of the ancilary shower jets.

Here's a random link by way of an apology for not updating the blog very much at the moment and details about what I am having for lunch

What can I say, I have been busy (not naming any names). Anyway here's a random link to some funny flash thingy. Not really sure what its all about but it looks quite funky and you can click stuff, sometimes.

Right I am now going to have a toasted bagel and maybe some juice or tea.

Update: The bagle was very tasty. And I had a mug of green tea too. That was also good.

Global footprint

According to this survey I need 3.3 planets to fuel my tasty, mobile and comfortable existence.

I would have thought I was below average in comparison to the rest of the Country in terms of global footprint but apparently not.

Would be interested to see what other people score.

How it should have ended

Amusing short cartoon on how the first (fourth?) (whatever) Star Wars film should have ended.

Simpson-tastic

Delightfully probably not quite legal. Every episode of the Simpsons ever (via).

This life +10

Look, they are making a This Life ten years on TV special. And re-running the original series too.

Ghetto latte

The story of the amusingly titled ghetto latte. And a slightly simplified version for those of you who (like me) haven't got the slighest clue when it comes to Starbucks-speak.

Thing is the cafe at work does the whole free milk thing so I am way tempted to ask them for a ghetto latte and see what they say.

Why cash machines for dwarfs are the dumbest thing ever in the history of all time

This thing that has actually irritated me for a while (but increasingly does so at the moment because the amount I have to use them as they are numerous wherever I seem to be recently) is those low level cash machines. You know the ones that are set down in the wall so you have to stoop over and squint at the screen to be able to see the poorly angled display which is aimed at someone about three feet tall, and stretch your arms down to the keypad which is somewhere around knee height and then grab your cash and card which is helpfully dispensed at the oh-so-convenient just below crotch level.

Now I know these were installed to make it easier for people in wheelchairs to access cash machines but did no-one consider that perhaps everybody fucking else also has to use these cash machines too? And perhaps that everybody fucking else might not be an extra from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and thus not have the proportions of a three foot stunted ape child? I mean honestly when was the last time you have ever seen a person in a wheelchair using a low level cash machine and sagely musing to themselves about how thoughtful the designers were to install a low level cash machine specially for them? I know how many I have seen. None, ever.

However how many times have you seen people carrying young kids having to strain down with kid in arms to reach the three foot high cash machine, or how many people with bad backs who don’t want to stoop down, or people with lots of heavy shopping, or partially sighted people, or really tall people who have to crouch on their knees to get at the cash machine. Or perhaps a regular person who is just rather fucked off at being made to grovel bent over at three feet in height just to use a fucking cash machine designed to be accommodating to a tiny proportion of the population.

Now don’t get me wrong I am all in favour of inclusive society blah, blah, blah, access for all or whatever (although I appreciate this sentence perhaps doesn’t convey that so well) but why should one very small group get excessively accommodated at the ridiculous expense of everyone else?

I mean, where are the left handed cash machines for example? Or the ones with extra large displays? Or audio cash machines? Why are these groups not catered for in the cash machine market but people in wheelchairs are?

More stuff about the girl

Look, the girl was on TV.

Black box

So on Google Maps and Google Earth a small chunk of land near the M4 just south of the distinctly unexciting suburb on Hanwell is this blacked out area.

You can click here to see for yourself and have a look in more detail.

Now I have stumbled across all sorts of rumours about this black box on my internet travels including allegations that it is a secret miltary base or the Sultan of Brunei's London residence. Clearly the people making these allegations are idiots as this is a crappy bit of land on the outskirts of Hanwell (with Hanwell's sole redeeming feature being that it is not Hayes and generally otherwise being about as interesting as a carpet tile).

Nevertheless, I have been curious as to why this chunk of land was blacked out (or perhaps just not surveryed) so using my secret connections (also known as the aerial photography at work) I can reveal that the blacked out area is in fact... (drum roll)... an empty field.

Hows that for a massive anti-climax?

Two movies I am trying to track down

Now on my internet travels I have come across two movies I want to see that apparently are either in cinemas at the moment or likely to be in the near future. However, neither of which I can track down any information on showings.

Shortbus was recomended by The Girl and looks interesting to say the least.

Idiocracy I found about on Digg and being by Mike Judge (of Family Guy, Office Space) just so looks worth seeing.

Blogiversary

Nick101 is one year old today. It feels very strange to realise I have been doing this blog thing for a whole year now.

This is by a wide margin the worst movie that I have ever seen

So the other night, for reasons I won't go into, I ended up watching Little Man at the cinema.

Now in case you didn't guess by the title of this post, this is the worst movie I have ever seen, ever. And I have seen some bad films in my time. The characters were weak and two dimensional, the plot was none existent, the acting was abysmal, the production values were lower than some home made stuff you can find on YouTube and the supposedly amusing premise of the film was about as funny as having your teeth cleaned by an angle grinder wielded by a blind, sweaty, street cleaner after the night shift on vomit inspection duty.

So it was with some pleasure that I find that IMDB actaully ranks it as the 23rd worst movie ever, the lowest one I have seen on their list.

Anyway, don't ask me how the movie ends because we left before it finished.

Phone dump V

You should have got the idea about my phone dump posts about now. Here's more.

Matt's new road. Hehe, too funny (sorry Matt, the flat was very nice).

GBK, yum. Six inches of burger.

Now, whilst out in Ealing one evening these guys sat down at our table. I have no idea who they are but it was quietly insisted upon that I take a sneaky photo of them because apparently they were on celebrity hot-pants idol or something like that. I have no idea if this is true or not.

Dormerific baby.

Nick and Claire, erm, in a buggy.

This blew apart lunch time plans.

We went to Starbucks instead.

Carnival

Now the timing of this post is directly (I alledge) as a consequence of the subject matter it is about. Namely Notting Hill Carnival.

At the moment I am presently recovering from several 'bouts' in the toilet over the course of this evening that have left me feeling ill and distinctly awake, waiting for the next random event, if you know what I mean, to present itself. However, being in the position where I can't really move to much for fear of inducing further trouble I am left with two options. 1. Go to bed but now not at all spleepy and 2. play on the internet. I blame this on the chicken jerk I had from a stall whilst there.

Anyway, my present unhappy circumstances aside, here are some photos from the Carnival with commentry as appropriate.

Elenor and Claire before it got too busy.

Look how many people were there, and this was only one of many streets.

Funky white costumes.

Funky pink ones.

The random guy who lay down next to us when we were relaxing in a slightly quieter spot who subsequently began snoring very loudly.

All good fun, just a little unpset about the jerk chicken.

Interactive architecture

If you liked the LED throwies then you probably (like me) also think that interactive architecture is pretty cool too.