Harry

So Prince Harry has been fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Well good for him. So has every other soldier that has been trained and deployed.

So what makes Harry any different? Nothing. As tax payers we should be glad that a soldier who has gone through the expensive Sandhurst training is now fighting for his country.

From what I have seen in the media reports, the third in line to the throne is in hog heaven doing what he has always wanted to do. I am of the opinion that he should be allowed to stay until his tour is over. I just hope some of the software and new technology he's using over there is doing what its supposed to :-)

Shame on the grudge website for blowing his cover.

Earth Quake!

I was woke up at 12:55am this morning, and I thought, blimey, the wind is a bit strong, but then it seemed to go on too long for wind, and the room seemed to be shaking.

I looked outside and saw that all was calm. I went back to sleep, thinking it must have been an earth quake.

Turns out it was! 5.3 on the richter scale - way to cheat death, dude!

Seeds of Doubt

This week sees the formal opening of a vault designed to protect and preserve samples of valuable seeds. The "Doomsday" vault in Svalbard can store more than four million batches of seeds, including the world's major crop varieties.

This vault is dug 200 metres into the Permafrost of Norway, and will remain at a constant -20 degrees centigrade.

Well thats just great.

Our politicians are always banging on at us about global warming, and using these lies to tax us more and more. We are bombarded on an almost weekly basis about how the ice caps are melting, and we all face doom.

So they decide to keep the worlds seed bank in a load of ice!

Can you see where im going with this?! If we believe the world leaders, the ice will soon melt away, so whats the point of having this vault in the permafrost?!

A Card on Valentines Day

A card on valentines day...not an unusual thing for a good looking fella like myself, I hear you say (!)

Well that would be true, but I was in Crawley that day, and I phoned home. Carol informed me that I had a card from Australia, and she assured me it wasn't from her :-)

When I got home that night I opened the card and was pleased to find out it was a belated christmas card from my friends Karyn and Jason and their son Xander in Sydney.

In 1997, I worked in Sydney at IBM in Lane Cove. Jaon was my shift leader, and Karyn was my counter-part on the opposite shift. To cut a long story short, they got together, and then came over to the UK and stayed at my place in London for a couple of months and spent christmas in Hull at my mum and dads.

I havent seen them in ages, and I have meant to write, but havent quite got around to it :-)

Anyway, I e mailed them tonight, and I expect they will probably be browsing these pages sometime soon...so Hi Karyn, Jason & Xander. Sorry be so lame at keeping touch!

My Cold and a Steam Room

I went to the gym on Friday, and sat in the steam room for about 10 minutes, now I have a cold. I thought steam rooms were supposed to be good if you were a bit blocked up, but now Im beginning to wonder.

If you think about it, if one person has a cold, and goes into a wet steamy room, then anyone else in there has a good chance of getting a sniffle.

On the other hand, if you're running on a tread mill, you're sucking up more air, ergo, more germs, so it could be the run I did.

Anyway, the only consolation is that if I got the cold from running, all those other people in the steam room with me are probably feeling just as bad as I am now!

Where's my manky tissue?

Sky+

I have recently bitten the bullet and decided to get a Sky+ subscription. I suppose you're thinking, that why he hasn't blogged for a while!

You would only be half right.

Its great, I have to say. I especially like the way you can pause live TV, so you miss the adverts (the televisual equivilent of a cold caller), and also the ability to record 40 hours of TV onto the hard drive (for 40 hours of TV read 40 Mythbusters episode, or 80 Simpsons episodes!)

Well, I would love to blog some more, but this TV isn't going to watch itself, now is it?

You Know What Really Bugs Me?

Cold Callers, thats what. Especially at 8:15pm

Last Christmas

This year I spent christmas in Malvern again, at the Forge Cottage in Gilberts end, which is such a lovely place to stay.We visited Upton-upon-Severn, and was quite surprised to see that all of the pubs on the front were still closed from the flooding in the summer. Its good to see that this year, they seem to have got the flood barriers in place, so if it happens again, they may just be spared the water again. Im surprised that they can even still get insurance in Upton now.



I took this picture of the 'Pepper Pot', which was refurbished a few years ago

We had our usual walk up the Malvern Hills on Boxing day, and my dad now realises he needs to shift a couple of stone he's gained since quitting smoking. The extra weight certainly made him struggle a bit!

The Naga Report

Well I have finally got some time and a connection to post some pictures of the Dorset Naga testing.

As you can see from the picture, the fruit is quite small, but they really do pack a punch! A recent New Scientist report stated that only Police grade pepper spray and commercial pepper spray (5m Schovilles and 3m Schovilles respectively) are hotter than these beasts (around 1.5m Schoville units)

I wasn't quite sure how hot they would be, but the recomendation was to handle them with gloves on, which I did.

I cut a small sliver off, and dabbed it on the tip of my tongue. Immediatly, I could feel the heat, and it quickly spread all over my mouth, which started to salivate to put the fire out!

I don't recomend anyone eat these!

A friend decided to try it too, as she loves chillis, and reconked she would easily be able to handle it. She was wrong! Her tongue came up in strange bumps, and later in the evening, her skin became blotchy :-) That'll teach her!

Anyway, I have harvested the seeds, and will be planting some more next year. However, I will be planting them quite soon, as they seemed to take quite a while to grow, as you can see from the picture below taken in September last year, they seem to take a while to ripen