Around the world in 367 days

Jak sie masz!!

No marathon for me this year but Mavis took up the mantle this year, running on behalf of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, and didn't she do well!! On her debut marathon she completed the course in a time of 4:56:39. High-five!

It was very different to see the race from the other side of the fence. Racing around London on the tubes to keep up with Mavis' pace is pretty hard going (I must at this point thank my supporters for the previous two years - good going guys!). It's totally worth it though. 40,000 people run and each one is a winner. Whatever your age or sex or the time you finish it in - it's a wonderful achievement and all should be extremely proud.

Congratulations Madame Wong!

Posted by Alexander at 19:03 | Permalink | Comments

Time for the alexnderhinton.com gadget of the year. Bit late in coming, hence, gadget of the financial year. The shortlist of contenders.

Sharp LC26P50E - LCD TV - I did a lot of research and eventually went for this one based on some great reviews. The key feature is it's designed for PAL signals. None of this hi-def shpeel we hear about. Personally, I'm not intending to buy an HD or Blue Ray DVD player and PAL will be broadcast digitally via freeview for at least 5-10 more years - much longer than the lifespan of this TV. Therefore no scaling of the picture is required and the picture is therefore excellent. It's still HD 'ready' though with an HDMI port and I have tested with an 1080i picture which is still very good. Rating - 8/10.

Topfield TF5800 - Freeview PVR - 160gb (larger model available at 250gb), twin tuner freeview box. Again, lots of research but was an easy decision in the end. Forums out there easily rate this as best in class and I completely agree. Picture quality is very good and the interface and usability is also good. Alternative, free, software (aka TAP's) can be loaded onto the box and a decent community are providing regular updates. I use a TAP called MyStuff which is an excellent Electronic Programming Guide. You can add searches to record complete series, or to search for specific names in titles. Rating - 10/10.

Braun Electronic Toothbrush - the fact a toothbrush makes it into the short list doesn't mean it's a bad year gadgetwise, it's just a top product. 40,000 pulsations and 9000 oscilation means there's over 900 billion (ed. your not so good at maths then) movements per second per tooth. Over a two minute period, cleaning every tooth that's enough movements to reach to the third nearest star and back as far as Oslo. Ok, so I'm filling now - basically, it's really good at cleaning teeth! Rating - 8/10.

Sony Ericsson W800i - mobile phone - as a gadgeteer you'd think I'd have an iPod, a snazzy new camera and a handheld radio. I don't need any of them, the phone does them all. All the photos on this website are taken with the camera, even the panaroma's. I also the 4gb memory stick as my iPod replacement and the built in FM radio is also great quality. I can attach to the internet, send email and can set multiple alarms and reminders. Best of all it's 'free'. In quotes, as I'm sure they make decent profit back off my line rental. I'm sure it does something else but I forget at present... oh yeah - it also takes AND receives calls - sweet!! It's not as good as any of the items it replaces but it's a hell of lot smaller, lighter and it's always on me. Rating 9/10.

So the winner would be, you'd assume, the Topfield PVR. Ha - wrong!! It gets the highest rating but the award goes to... the Sony w800i.

Posted by Alexander at 20:45 | Permalink | Comments

The sun came out so the shorts went on and the glistening white legs went on display. The weekend proved to be picnic time so we spent a few hours on Clapham Common on Saturday afternoon soaking up some rays. Clapham Common is quite open so there's lots of football games and of course you can usually find some Aussie rules going on in the middle. Then in the evening we headed off to El Rincon with friends Tim and Midori. It's a good Tapa's restaurant (not the best but still good) and full of atmosphere. alexanderhinton.com rating 7/10

Sunday again was devoted to picnic time as we met friends (old and new) in Battersea Park. It's very different to Clapham Common with lots of different areas with their own identity. Each park has their good points but if you are only visiting one then check out Battersea. After some nosh and a few glasses of champers it was time to throw the frisbie. And everything was fine until some poor girls face got in the way of a slightly stray throw by yours truly. Again, mystery woman, my heart felt apologies!! A few more glasses and a stop off at The Manor House in Battersea and all of a sudden it's 9:30 and time to head off home to face getting ready for the dreaded return to work after a sun filled weekend!! Should we be getting 3 days weekends all the time? The balance seems all wrong to me - roll on May and the bank holidays (and my next trip, this time to Devon for the Hinton hols)!!

Labels: restaurants

Posted by Alexander at 21:37 | Permalink | Comments

We had a week off over Easter and both took a trip down memory lane and spent a few night camping in the Lake District. For me it's been a good 25 years and as it's hard for me to remember what I had for breakfast it was like a brand new experience for me. It had been a few years less for Deborah but she was a great tour guide and took me to lots of her old haunts. We stayed on Lake Ullswater and it was just stunning. Blue skies pretty much constantly and I even managed to burn on a day out trekking up into the fells. The views as you can see were great and entertainment was even laid on with regular fly by's care of the RAF.

After the Lake District we went on up to Newcastle for a few extra days to stay with Sheila and Joe. It was really nice to be up again and even managed to fit in a trip to Cragside. If you are ever up in the area be sure to check it out. It's a really nice NT house with excellent grounds and over 40 miles of walks. I'd recommend visiting in May - there's about a billion rhodedendrons (ed. spelling?) which will be simply stunning when they're in bloom!

Posted by Alexander at 21:09 | Permalink | Comments