Congratulations to the new Mr & Mrs Kilmister

[Listening to: Sealed With A Kiss - Agnetha Faltskog - My Colouring Book (02:35)]

Amanda and I attended the wedding of Steve and Rebecca yesterday, apart from the weather (Sunny the day before and after, raining on Saturday!), the day went off without a hitch.
The service was excellent, the vicar is a real character and made it one of the most personal services I have even seen. The wedding breakfast, which was held at the Birmingham Metropole (Hilton) at the NEC, was trully magnificent, and the evening reception was a party that will be long remembered. We stayed in the hotel last night, and rounded the proceedings off with a very nice "Full English" breakfast.

Best of all, I only have the very slightest of hangovers this morning.

At Last! - A Date

Ok, it's not the greatest news, but at least we now have some idea of when the exhaust components will be delivered to the dealership - 5th to 10th July. I have cancelled the service booked for the 5th, and the shop have agreed to service and fit at the same time.

Still no news on the disc, I have e-mailed MotoGuzzi Customer Services again and requested that they provide this information ASAP, and asked for a loan bike in the meantime..

As ever, I will keep you posted

Battery life on my Archos Jukebox

The latest versions of Rockbox include a battery test routine. You basically charge your cells up, start this plugin, and wait...!

It simulates reading a 128kbs MP3 file, and keeps a log of battery life remaining, along with a timestamp, untill the remaining battery is 4%

I ran it several times and got a value of about 9.5 hours each time - the delay is an amazingly straight line, but the time is way too short compaired to other peoples units. So tonight I dismantled the box, and checked the battery contacts etc... I have now started another run of the test, if this gives similar figures, I may have a failing battery :(

Oh what the heck... I have just ordered a 2800 mAh replacement battery from www.newmp3technology.com, with the current good exchange rate it works out at less that £22 delivered!

Rang Italy - AGAIN!

I have given up on Speedaway Motorcyles to do anything about trying to hurry MotoGuzzi up, so I called customer services again today. The lady requested the bikes FRAME NUMBER, and stated that she would chase warranty and spares departments to find out what has happened, and would contact me with dates as soon as she gets an answer...

Oh well, lets see if she keeps her promises

The Bed Has Landed

I booked 1/2 a days leave yesterday as Alex's new bed was scheduled for delivery...

Having cleared all the plates and pictures from the wall, and moved the pot plants out of the way, I dismantled his old bed and took it downstairs. The delivery wagon arrived at 13:30 and they were gone by 13:40 with the bed and mattress safelt installed in his bedroom.

Slight snag - the headboard has not been delivered! Called the shop, it's out of stock - inspite of the fact that we requested the bed not be delivered untill the headboard was available - They have promised to get one in within the next couple of days.... It's not been my weeks really... :-(

*STILL* no spares from Moto Guzzi...

Good grief, just how long does it take to get an exhaust system and a Front disc from Italy to the UK....?

Over 5 weeks it would appear!

I was looking to change the Breva 750 for a Breva 1100 next year, not too sure now, it may end up being a 1200 bandit!

Two more Mark Spains will soon be mine...

I ordered the two Monochrome etchings today, and as a regular and values customer, I got the pair of them for £500. Should be about 10 days to get them framed and "Float Mounted" in the frame of my choice... :-)

Why you should dump Internet Explorer

See the article at LockerGnome - "Why you should dump Internet Explorer"...

Makes quite a good case...

New Mark Spain Pictures

Mark Spain has another couple of new works out - two monochrome etchings "Silent Composition" and "Pause For Thought",


and a painting "Thinking of You".


The painting is just stunning, and if I had somewhere to hang it I would be really tempted - Fortunately I don't, so I'm not...

The etchings on the other hand... One either side of the "Black Dress" in the lounge..? Photo's of the kids can be moved...


I'm going to the Halcyon Gallery in Birmingham tommorow to have a good look at them - They ordered them on approval for me - At £275 each (approx), it's not an insubstancial investment, but I love them - so I don't care! Better still, Amanda really likes them too!

Finally got back to the Gym Today

After two weeks of cold/hay fever a general malaise took over, which was not helped by the fact that Livingwell Birmingham chose just that ime to start a refit! It's been almost 4 weeks since I last went, but today I finally made the effort... No doubt I shall regret it tommorow!

Don't you love it when....

... nastly little blighters get their come-upance : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/24/ebay_scammer_scammed/

Blimey! That was a quick two weeks!

had a phone call this evening, it seems Alex's bed as ready for delivery! They offered Saturday or Tuesday, but neither day is suitable... Looks like he may have to wait just a little longer yet.

How long does it take to fill up 1 Gig of storage with spam?

How well do Gmail's junk filters work? Let's find out! Spam my shiny new G-mail account at prattboy@gmail.com Give my address to spammers, newsletters, annoying people, whatever, and let's see how long it takes!

Get the full story her : http://gmail.prattboy.net/

Alex finally gets a new bed (on order)

For almost 6 months we have been talking about getting Alex a new bed... He is currently still in his CotBed he has had since births, and he is now 6 years old!

It's not really as bad as it sound, the cot sides came off many years ago, and he is quite small for his age, so still did fit, but over the last few months it started to look a little tight!

Yesterday, we went shopping and ordered him a new full size single bed from "Bed World" near Merry Hill. Its a "Silentnight Georgia Divan and Mattress" with sliding doors on the base... £230 with a metal "Jenna" Headboard. Should be deliverered in about two weeks.

It only took 4 Weeks and 3 Days

.... But Moto Guzzi have finally agreed to swap out the front disk under warrantee.... Yipeeee!

I called them again this morning, and got a promise that they would call be back TODAY, this afternoon they did just that.

All that I am waiting for now, is for the parts to arrive at the dealers... As they still don't have the exhaust and downpipe some 3 weeks after they were ordered I am not holding my breath!

Generate your own Favicons...

[Listening to: The Waiting Room - Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (05:21)]

From http://www.htmlkit.com/services/favicon/

Would you like to display your own icon on the browser address bar when visitors view or bookmark your web page? The favicon feature makes it possible to brand address bars, bookmarks / favorites, and/or tabs with custom icons.

The FavIcon from Pics makes it easier to create icons for your web pages. Simply select a picture, logo or other graphic (of any size/resolution) that you already have for the "Source Image" and click "Generate FavIcon.ico"

It really works, looks good, and best of all - it's free!

Still chasing Guzzi Support!

[Listening to: The Chamber of 32 Doors - Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (05:39)]

I am getting very fed up with this now!

Laptop Rebuilding - Does it never end...

I have come to the conclusion that rebuilding your PC, any PC - but especially laptops is a never ending task... In spite of all the time I put in last week to ensure that I had everything I could think of installed before making an image... Today I have just spent another hour adding stuff.

What had I forgotten? How about Winzip, Adobe Acrobat - don't forget the Acrobat Speedup without which Acrobat is a pig to load... various updated hardware drivers...

But I now think I am close to a complete build :-)

I'm now fully In-Car GPS'd

Just been for a quick run in the car with the aid of the TOMTOM 3 navigation... What can I say, it would even be hard for me to go wrong with directions as good as that...

The user interface is a little ideosyncratic, but once you can persuade it to go where you need it to it gets you there with the minimum of fuss.

The map's are not 100% - it wanted me to turn right across a dual carriageway with no break in the central reservation! - but as soon as you leave the chosen route, it automatically compensates and points you back in the right direction...

The Axim Rocks!

INstalled the CF WiFi card, it detected three local WiFi networks, 1 of which was mine!! Selected it, it asked for the 10 digit passkey and connected!

Used MSN messenger, Internet Explorer - worked great.

Unable to test out the TomTom software last night, as I had no access to the car, and the GPS kit needs to be connected to additional power to function... That's the mission for tonight.

What I also want is a simple method of checking the battery status, I may try BatteryBar, it's free! Or, I may get BatteryPack Pro from OmegaOne, it's $20 and it comes highly recommended.

Moto Guzzi Customer Services - Again

Called them again today, the very nice lady told me she was waiting for a reply back from the warantee department.. so basically Still No News. She has promised to call me back on the mobile as soon as she has some information....

The Axim Has Landed

It arrived at 7:30 this morning!

Unboxed it and took all the bits in to work. I have had chance to play with it after it's 4 hour initial charge, and so far I am impressed. I have used Active Sync with the works laptop as a Guest, and installed a driver for the CF WiFi card, and copied a few files over.

The media player makes a good job of both MP3 and Windows video files, but you really do need headphones connected!

Graphics are excellent, screen display is great.

I have just installed ActiveSync at home, so lets see what Pocket Outlook 2002 can do. I will then set about connecting to the wireless network. Back later!

No news from MotoGuzzi customer services

I have still not heard from Customer Services about changing my front disk under warantee... I have been back to the dealers, and called guzzi direct again - but it seems that today is a bank holiday in Italy.... Doh!

My PDA is due to be delivered tomorrow

Had a phone call today, my new PDA is to be delivered on Thursday - Hopefully whilst Amanda is in the house... And tomorrow is my early day, so I may get some time to play with it!