At 19:30 on 30-07-2005 : 14st 1lb, 26.7% BF
At 16:30 on 14-08-2005 : 13st 5lb, 26.3% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 12-09-2005 : 13st 0lb, 25.7% BF
At 17:30 on 26-09-2005 : 12st 12lb, 25.0% BF
Still heading in the right direction...
Monday, September 26, 2005
Monday, September 19, 2005
New Toy - Just Browsing
I have been a little dissapointed with the Dimage A200 Camera that I purchased last year. It has all the feature that I wanted, but the lens quality is just not good enough. So, I have been considering changing the camera again.
The shortlist was:
Canon EOS350D & the Nikon D70s - Both in the £600 to £700 region, both with excellent reviews
I am in no hurry however to change, but as I was passing Jessops today (With time to kill) I decided to go in and have a look at them. The guy behind the counter was excellent, getting all the camera's, lenses, memory cards etc ot, showing me A4 prints taken from both models...
My personal conclusion was that the 350 felt cheap and the build quality did not seem up to the standard of a £600 camera, but the NIkon, although fantastic, was just a little too large and heavy.
The compromise seems to be the Nikon D50, several £100 cheaper, smaller, lighter, few controls to hand (I considered that to be a good point!), but with a significantly 'shorter' zoon lens as standard (18 - 55 on the D50, 18 to 70 on the D70) However the difference in price would allow me to get an additional 55 to 200 lens, a large memory card, and still be within budget.
The combined range of 18 to 200 is 35mm Equiv to 28 - 300.
The 'trade in' price offered by the shop for my A200 was a rather pathetic £125 - they are selling 2nd hand on Ebay for approx £300!!
Hmmmm, maybe soon....
The shortlist was:
Canon EOS350D & the Nikon D70s - Both in the £600 to £700 region, both with excellent reviews
I am in no hurry however to change, but as I was passing Jessops today (With time to kill) I decided to go in and have a look at them. The guy behind the counter was excellent, getting all the camera's, lenses, memory cards etc ot, showing me A4 prints taken from both models...
My personal conclusion was that the 350 felt cheap and the build quality did not seem up to the standard of a £600 camera, but the NIkon, although fantastic, was just a little too large and heavy.
The compromise seems to be the Nikon D50, several £100 cheaper, smaller, lighter, few controls to hand (I considered that to be a good point!), but with a significantly 'shorter' zoon lens as standard (18 - 55 on the D50, 18 to 70 on the D70) However the difference in price would allow me to get an additional 55 to 200 lens, a large memory card, and still be within budget.
The combined range of 18 to 200 is 35mm Equiv to 28 - 300.
The 'trade in' price offered by the shop for my A200 was a rather pathetic £125 - they are selling 2nd hand on Ebay for approx £300!!
Hmmmm, maybe soon....
New Toy - Purchased
Well, it has been a while since I last treated myself to a "Boy's Toy"...
Today I was off work, and wandering around the Merry Hill Centre, when I was draw towards "Game"... Initially I was going to walk past, but then I saw MotoGP 3 for the XBox running behind the counter - It looked really good, especially after watching the real MotoGP on TV yesterday afternoon... Whilst I was looking at the XBOX games, I moved towards the PSP games... They have a couple of really good racing games...
Long Story - Short
I am now the proud owner of a nice shiny new Play Station Portable, complete with 1 GB memory card, latest firmware, screen protector, soft carry case, USB lead, UDM & Memory card case, carry bag and three games:
Burnout Legends
Midnight Club 3: DUB edition &
TOCA Race Driver 2
Today I was off work, and wandering around the Merry Hill Centre, when I was draw towards "Game"... Initially I was going to walk past, but then I saw MotoGP 3 for the XBox running behind the counter - It looked really good, especially after watching the real MotoGP on TV yesterday afternoon... Whilst I was looking at the XBOX games, I moved towards the PSP games... They have a couple of really good racing games...
Long Story - Short
I am now the proud owner of a nice shiny new Play Station Portable, complete with 1 GB memory card, latest firmware, screen protector, soft carry case, USB lead, UDM & Memory card case, carry bag and three games:
Burnout Legends
Midnight Club 3: DUB edition &
TOCA Race Driver 2
Friday, September 16, 2005
Been golfing today...
Indoors at LivingGolf...
After 10 minutes on the virtual "Driving Range", I played 18 holes at 'The Belfry'. To be honest, I was rubbish... but I did enjoy myself.
What was my score I hear you cry... well it was not impressive... 138!! Even accounting for my 28 handicap that's still in the region of 30 over!
Ah well, I will be better next time.
After 10 minutes on the virtual "Driving Range", I played 18 holes at 'The Belfry'. To be honest, I was rubbish... but I did enjoy myself.
What was my score I hear you cry... well it was not impressive... 138!! Even accounting for my 28 handicap that's still in the region of 30 over!
Ah well, I will be better next time.
Finally..
discovered how to remove the Hard Drive from the Acer Laptop... It was getting worse: 3 hours to format a 10 GB partition with FAT32!!
I have now scrapped the Travelstar 'IC25N040ATMR04' and ordered a TOSHIBA 'MK4026GAX'. This new drive has a 8 MB buffer and a 5400 spin speed, so should be quite a bit quicker than the old one...
I have now scrapped the Travelstar 'IC25N040ATMR04' and ordered a TOSHIBA 'MK4026GAX'. This new drive has a 8 MB buffer and a 5400 spin speed, so should be quite a bit quicker than the old one...
Monday, September 12, 2005
Weight Check
At 16:30 on 14-08-2005 : 13st 5lb, 26.3% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 12-09-2005 : 13st 0lb, 25.7% BF
Still heading in the right direction...
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 12-09-2005 : 13st 0lb, 25.7% BF
Still heading in the right direction...
Been a strange week...
Not much going on:
Back at work, but waiting for it to be home time as soon as I got there!
Evening watching TV, because I couldn't be bothered to do anything else.
On the Plus Side:
Amy has started her new school, and is really enjoying it.
England won the Ashes back from the Aussies
Had a second golf lesson, and it seems to be starting to come together a little bit
On the Negative Side:
I think my laptop is sick: Looks to be a failed hard Drive, but it is not easy to locate the HD to change it... Took just about every screw out of the case, and still it won't come apart.
Back at work, but waiting for it to be home time as soon as I got there!
Evening watching TV, because I couldn't be bothered to do anything else.
On the Plus Side:
Amy has started her new school, and is really enjoying it.
England won the Ashes back from the Aussies
Had a second golf lesson, and it seems to be starting to come together a little bit
On the Negative Side:
I think my laptop is sick: Looks to be a failed hard Drive, but it is not easy to locate the HD to change it... Took just about every screw out of the case, and still it won't come apart.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Post Holiday Blues?
I know we were only away for a couple of days, but I am feeling really miffed at being back, I just can't work up any enthusiasm for anything.
As expected, I didn't get up in time to go to the bike training, so that was a waste of £90, I intended to go to the gym this morning... got up in plenty of time, but just could not be bothered, and I *so* don't want to go back to work on Monday.
We have already started to discuss next years holiday, and an appartment in Turkey is amongst the current favourites, as All I want from a summer holiday at present is Rest, Relaxation, Sun and a pool to keep the kids from under my feet whilst I read a book or two, and chill with my MP3 player...
I have, however, finished the book I started on Wednesday - Night Watch - and jolly good it was too. I have also taken delivery of my external Hard Drive, and have backed up my Music, Pictures and Document partitions. It comes with some software to enable 'One Touch Backup' from the button on the front of the drive, but I have chosen not to install that. Instead I have created three partitions to mirror those I am backing up, and have used the "SyncToy" power toy from Microsoft to keep both sets in Sync..
As expected, I didn't get up in time to go to the bike training, so that was a waste of £90, I intended to go to the gym this morning... got up in plenty of time, but just could not be bothered, and I *so* don't want to go back to work on Monday.
We have already started to discuss next years holiday, and an appartment in Turkey is amongst the current favourites, as All I want from a summer holiday at present is Rest, Relaxation, Sun and a pool to keep the kids from under my feet whilst I read a book or two, and chill with my MP3 player...
I have, however, finished the book I started on Wednesday - Night Watch - and jolly good it was too. I have also taken delivery of my external Hard Drive, and have backed up my Music, Pictures and Document partitions. It comes with some software to enable 'One Touch Backup' from the button on the front of the drive, but I have chosen not to install that. Instead I have created three partitions to mirror those I am backing up, and have used the "SyncToy" power toy from Microsoft to keep both sets in Sync..
Friday, September 02, 2005
Back Home...
had a really great few days away,
The journey down to Torquay was fine, hardly any traffic on the motorway.
The Hotel was really nice, the outdoor (heated) pool kept the kids occupied for hours on end.
The food was generally great, and I am not expecting to loose much weight this time!
Weather was generally good
Started "Night Watch" by Terry Pratchett, and have got over half way thro' it already
We visited Cockington Village today, before stopping off at Weston-Super-Mare on the way back where we had a very nice Chinese take-away with Barry & Carol.
The journey back was fine, although starting out on a 2 hour journey at 9:00 PM on a full stomach meant that a can of red-bull and a strong cup of cofee were required to maintain my alertness.
The downside of that, is that it is now well past midnight, and I am still not ready to go to bed... I am supposed to be up at 07:00 tommorow (well actually today now) to ride to leicester for a track based riding course at 08:30. I think I am going to feel *way* too tired to be able to ride safely at speed for the best part of a day, and may just not bother to go...
The journey down to Torquay was fine, hardly any traffic on the motorway.
The Hotel was really nice, the outdoor (heated) pool kept the kids occupied for hours on end.
The food was generally great, and I am not expecting to loose much weight this time!
Weather was generally good
Started "Night Watch" by Terry Pratchett, and have got over half way thro' it already
We visited Cockington Village today, before stopping off at Weston-Super-Mare on the way back where we had a very nice Chinese take-away with Barry & Carol.
The journey back was fine, although starting out on a 2 hour journey at 9:00 PM on a full stomach meant that a can of red-bull and a strong cup of cofee were required to maintain my alertness.
The downside of that, is that it is now well past midnight, and I am still not ready to go to bed... I am supposed to be up at 07:00 tommorow (well actually today now) to ride to leicester for a track based riding course at 08:30. I think I am going to feel *way* too tired to be able to ride safely at speed for the best part of a day, and may just not bother to go...
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