Bike tyres - Pirelli P Zero 4S real world review

I bought a new bike last year and got the stock wheels which came with it but saved up for a set of pretty HUNT Carbon wheels. I love them. The new wheels meant I needed to buy new tyres and after a search I opted for the Pirelli P Zero 4S roadbike tyre. The price is decent and cheaper than the Continental 4000 s I had on my other bike. My new bike came with Hutchison tyres which I liked a lot but couldn't find them available in in Switzerland so the Pirellis were a good alternative. They are made in the Hutchison factory in France (I`m told). Reviews are decent but like a lot of product reviews I don't agree with the good reviews and I have different experience.

They are really light and easy to fit to the wheels. Getting them going and stopping is good too, wet weather braking has not been an issue either. I have no problem or complaint at all about their ability as a road tyre. My issue is their lack of robustness if I go a teeny weeny bit off road. By Off Road I mean light gravel which many Swiss cycling routes seem to include. Another road surface they don't like are cobbles. This is obviously an issue  when you want to go ov er the Gottard pass. The north side ramp has a few kms of cobbles right at the top and the south side to Airolo is entirely cobbles :), or that is what is feels like.

So far I have had to replace the back tyre because one of my excursions cut a slit in the sidewall and I have quite a few small gravel created slits and gaps in the front one. I am really disappointed that the slightest off road activity effectively means Im off to the shop for a new tyre.

The Schwalbe Pro Ones are now on order. Lets see how long they last.... My lovely Gazelle has only ever used Schwalbe Marathon Plus so I hope the hype is true about the Pro Ones.

Ride, Crash, Recover

After 10 years of using cycling as my main for of commuting I expanded it to be my main form of exercise about 2 years ago. My first new bike, which wasn't a Gazelle, for 15 years was a Bergemont Hardtail Mountain Bike.  I love it. It has allowed me to expand from my 20km round trip each day to exploring the local hills at the weekend. It really helped improve my overall fitness and I was out in all weathers.

Then I decided I wanted to go further still and bought a road bike. Getting on my road bike was like another world had opened up for me. I could go further and for longer and just look at all the lovely new kit I get to buy!!!

So I decided that I wanted to get a bit more serious about this training lark and bought the Cyclo90 program from CycloCore. I did the 3 month program, signed my self up for an event and enjoyed every sweaty minute of it. In May I cycled up Sustenpass in the Highway to Sky event and realised that I enjoyed this more that I had expected. So with that under my belt I planned my next big challenge... the Alpen Brevet.

Highway to Sky was in May, Alpen Brevet in late August giving me 3 months to prepare. I did this by using more of the CycloCore/SouloTV sessions and the occasional organised event all designed to get me to Meiringen in August ready and raring to go.

I took part in the Bike Festival Basel Mountain Bike Challenge on Aug 19th, my last training ride before the Alpen Brevet and disaster struck. I have no idea what happened.  All I know is that I crashed and woke up in an Ambulance on my way to hospital.  I had broken my left arm and right index finger as well as the severe lacerations to my left elbow, concussion, amnesia, dramatic bruising on my left hip and lovely bruises on my face. What a disaster, all of my prep gone.

So I went from being on my bike every day to nothing. I am surprised at just how little information there is about recovery form injury. There is loads of information about recovery between training sessions but hardly anything about being injured. So I decided I should write this down.

Crash Day

Operation to implant a metal plate in my arm and join the Humeral head to the remainder of the bone. I woke up wearing a harness to immobilise my arm, a tube and bottle sucking any spare liquid out of the affected area and a bandaged left elbow. 

Day 2

Visit from the surgeon, she cheerily explained that if in future the head dies due to lack of good blood flow, its OK because we can put in a replacement one. 

Day 3

The first of many Physio visits, I can hardly do anything and im still a in shock at the state I have gotten myself into.

Day lots

I found this in my DRAFTS - as you do - and its now 2 years to the day later.

I got the metal plate out a year ago because it was causing Bursitus and. after what seemed like an endless amount of physio sessions, I have most of the movement back but not the strength, Its still a bit sore but I am back on the bike and have never enjoyed a hobby so much. I will now actually post this because I`ve got opinions about the bike I feel the need to share - :)

Womens cycling shorts - my personal opinion

Having been a normal NL resident cyclist for years I never had anything specific to wear when out on the bike. This is because my bikes were used for going to work, the supermarket local tours in fairly flat perfect cycle paths with little effort, but since I have been out on my mountain and road bikes, it is clear I need a tad more padding than my teeny saddle provides. 

My first attempt was actual shorts with a liner and a waist. I felt cut in half. They are baggy mountain bike shorts with a separate pair of padded pants for underneath. If I ignore the being cut off at the waist part and just think about the shorts themselves, they are great. They have big side pockets which can fit a map. They are baggy enough to protect me from bushes and other things which would scratch me. The problem was that I really didn`t like the tight waist of the padded liner/underpants. So I looked further.

 I then bought my first pair of actual bib shorts. I chose some on special offer from a webshop but I made sure I picked a make I recognised and respected (GORE). They are womens specific with zips to allow you, theoretically, to be able to use the toilet without totally disrobing.  Many people will advise trying them on first - this not a bad idea :) - I didn't. There are a few things to say about these. But first here is a picture of the GORE Power 2 Lady shorts.

They have zips at the join between the top mesh bib and the bottoms and a small hook to join the vertical straps together. The features are then - the chamois, the bib top, zips, thigh grips.

Lets start with the chamois - I really don't like this one, I felt sore from the start. I have read that as we are all individual the same level of padding can have a great or lesser effect and  it is safe to say these are not for me. Next we have the bib top – that’s fine I suppose apart from the hook thing. I don’t like the way it make everything tight when connected and you get a little open space underneath – and when not connected the straps are very wide. Then we have the zips…oh dear. I am sure there is a technique but I dont get it. Finally the thigh grips, they are broad and hold the cuffs well – so plus points for the grips, lots of minus for the rest. I accept that I may be wearing the wrong size but at 73kg and 178cm tall, the XL should fit – no? It fits my legs, and body but the zips???  

 Anyway, then we come to the Odlos. Again I bought XL and these are BRILLIANT. The padding is fantastic, the zip at the back works!!!! and the thigh grips are great. A perfect bib short – if you ask me. The picture below shows the rear zip. Fantastic invention. They are Odlo Galibier Bib shorts and I now have 2 pairs because they are just so comfy.

Rear vertical zip

 I have seen Specialized have a rear magnet connection which a friend thinks are great, different to Zips and the horror of the rear hooks! (my lack of rear facing vision makes that an impossibility) or worse still the single over the head down the middle strap. Perhaps for small women but not for me.

My next post will be my opinion of two Castelli brand bib shorts which was my next adventure into getting things to fit me.

Cyclocore 90

I am writing this after just finishing week 8 of the 12 week - 90 day - Cycling training program called CycloCore 90.  I cant say enough good things about this program , it has helped me improve to a point I barely thought was possible.

I am a 51 yr old cyclist having come back to cycling after years of a) no exercise b) decent running c)kettlebells!!!! and finally back to the bike. My level of fitness has been fairly decent for about 5 years but will need to improve if  I want to cycle in the Swiss Alps - which is the plan for this summer. Last year I did loads of cycling locally on a mountain bike but I have always wanted a road bike and gifted myself on late last year.

So back to Cyclocore - I was looking for something to help be improve to get me able to cycle in the Alps and found this program. The reviews I could find sounded promising so I paid my money and made my choice....

I got the 90 day plan which is basically 2 sets of 5 week active plans, 1 week recovery week. The active weeks are a combination of indoor HIT bike trainer workouts, core workouts and outside in the real world cycle plans. The plan says the exercise is expected to be harder than I can do - got that right! - and I am improving every week.

The creator is Graeme Street, now of Soulo.tv and it looks like this Cyclocore plan is the base plan for everything else that he does. The plan itself is fairly easy to follow - I do it early morning then cycle to work... puff puff .

I went for a cycle today - 60kms and it has 2 big climbs, each about 8km and about 6% gradient all the way.  I am so surprised at how doable it felt, dont get me wrong, im shattered :) but in a good way.

I highly recommend this initial 90 day program if you are looking for something to kick start your cycling fitness - I am loving every sweaty minute of it.

Go to soulo.tv for more information - you wont regret it.



April 2017
Update -Finished the program and after a week of rest and recovery I tackled what would have been a huge multi climb ride - huge for me that is. It was clearly challenging but all went well apart from the fizzy left foot which started about 40km into the ride. Another thing to investigate. Now on to the climbing specific program or ill never get up Sustenpass in a decent time. I am going to take part in HighwaytoSky on May 20th. This is the website  https://www.highwaytosky.com it will be my first real Alpine pass, cant wait!

Windows 10 WIFI problem limited Surface Pro 3

I have had Windows 10 for a few weeks and it was going OK until I suddenly experienced WiFi Issues.

It was all going OK until a week ago when the Wifi reception began to be bad and then became Limited and I just couldnt find out how to fix it.

I googled WiFi Windows 10 to discover that it wasnt just me, there are loads of us out there. I have a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 which I had upgraded to Windows 10. Many people seemed to have problems but most of the proposed solutions didnt work. I tried removing the network profiles and edited the registry to really finish the job but it still didnt work.

I finally worked out something which seems to work so I thought id post here in case others have the same problem.

The problem seems to be the Network driver. I tried uninstall, reboot and it reinstalls. The problem being it installed the driver which caused the problem. So here is how I installed a previous version of the driver.

I have screenshots on this pretty powerpoint slide deck.

Enjoy

Heff

GPS watches and me: the Nike GPS watch - stay away

I am a self confessed gadget freak. I love them but they need to actually work. I have many and most of them I really like. My BB 9900 and Playbook for example are really good, my Macbook is fantastic.

I have been running for a few years now and wanted to get more techy data sometimes I feel a bit like Sheldon but there you go.... I tried to use my 9900 to do this but its to heavy and I didnt like carrying my phone. Partly because its heavy

I had a look at loads and finally plumped for the Nike GPS watch because I use the website and already have loads of data there. Another reason was indeed because its was much cheaper than the Garmin ones.

So my first impressions were good, it has a screen large enough for me to see with my middle aged rubbish vision - I run with my old glasses on which are not exactly strong enough but as long as I miss the cars I'm fine..... but then I got to use it and was less impressed.

The GPS is from TomTom which should mean that it works, on the whole it doesnt. I am amazed at how long it can take to get a fix on my position - it that works at all. I run in the same area all the time and it can take more than 5 minutes to fix my position. This is just rubbish. Even if I stand still it often doesn't manage to find me. Once everything is connected- then its OK but the GPS location is very very bad. It utterly fails to impress. Then I managed to drop it but as the watch is for outdoors I had expected a stronger screen. My screen now has a pretty crack in it. If you make anything meant to be used outdoors in a sporty environment is it not supposed to be strong enough to handle this?

I also have a Polar heart rate monitor watch which, you will not be surprised, has been on the floor a few times and is just perfect.

I think I got what I paid for  - my Nike was half the price of the Polar and Garmin GPS watches but not worth the money. I should have bought either of them.

TomTom seem to have created their own sports watch - I would be very reluctant to chance it. I hope someone does a demo concentrating on the build quality, GPS location and ease of use (for lefthanders)

Waterrower machine fails on monitors

Further down in my (few) posts you will see that I bought a Waterrower indoor rowing machine a year ago. As a rowing machine its great, as a monitor its rubbish.

We have had issues with the monitor from the start. It stops monitoring your progress, the screen goes blank, it stops, its goes to 0.0 etc etc . We have had the measuring disc replaces by the shop where we bought the thing and finally in December it went back to Waterrower themselves where they replaced the monitor. I had hoped they would have checked everything out but when it came back ( a month later) the problem is still there.

I find this just ridiculous. The machine itself costs over 2000EUR and the monitor is just rubbish. If I had bought a cheaper machine - and there are many- I would be less concerned but this is the supposed top of the range indoor home rower! and its just not fit for purpose.

The competition is the Concept 2  a machine we decided not to buy because the Waterrower was better looking and took up less space.

I advise Waterrower to get their act together regarding the monitor - if you offer a system with this feature, it must work. They say you can go online and row against others- that is also a nightmare. The Concept 2 online community is huge, waterrowers hardly exists. I don't really want to go online, but I would like to record what I do on my laptop. This is possible, only for Windows! (I have a Mac). I did use it on an old PC but even the Windows software is described as Beta and is horribly clunky, complicated and little use. It looks like it was made for Win95.

All in all I dont know if I would recommend a Waterrower anymore. I love the rowing experience, I hate the electronics which just dont live up to the promise at all. It seems like this lack of IT savvy is over the entire company - their websites are also rubbish. Try looking at the online shops in different European countries for a laugh.

OK rant over

Water Rower - get on the case PLEASE you have a great machine which fails on one feature. Fix this and it will be fantastic.

The Airborne

Today, like early September for the last 66 years, the people in and around my village will remember the Battle of Arnhem. About 30,000 people will come to the village and walk past sites which were significant in Sept 44.

http://www.airbornewandeltocht.nl/en/

The Dutch love organised walks, this one is the biggest single day event in the world. The gardeners have been tidying the area for a few weeks and it's all set for a very busy day. The longest walk of 40km starts at 7:30, I will start at about 10:30.
Photos to follow.

Bank of Scotland admin - useless

I decided to post my comments on the recent example of garbage admin by my bank in the hope that even if they don't see it, others may and laugh at them.

In my time living outside the UK I have had to cope for years with no access to online banking as I didn't live in the UK. The  fact that I lived in a place with no access to any branch made Internet banking perfect but the Bank of Scotland took years to finally accept this and make it possible for me to do so.
I came here 11 years ago and at the time it was not possible to get access to my UK account funds from an ATM (the Royal Bank has had this feature available for years before) - the reason?  ''No demand''

Havers  - they did tell me that there was one in Torremolinos - that appeared to be the only concession to a Brit abroad. My parents had been to Canada on holiday years before and they could take money out the whole in the wall (Royal Bank of Scotland) - but BoS, in Europe? Nope!

Back to my recent experience....

I transferred a few hundred euros to the BoS account and they sent me a confirmation letter - all printed on paper to confirm my electronic transaction - that is bad enough. They then sent another 15 letters all saying the same thing. In total, 8 to me and 8 to my husband. I can only assume that, as its a joint account, they feel the need to tell both of us (I don't understand that either) but 8 times?
Did this not trigger a question that their system created 16 letters, printed and posted 16 letters to tell me something I already knew? I can access my account via Internet banking, I can see that the funds left my Dutch account and got to the UK account and how many pounds they had become - its a complete waste of time and effort on the banks part to send this confirmation by paper mail - then they do it another 15 times....

They need to rethink their policy of paper confirmations of electronic transactions and while they are at it, they can have a look at the need to send it to both account holders names (we live at the same address) - and lets not forget the extra 15 letters..

The great China trip

Daughter left yesterday to go on a school trip to Beijing. It should be a great experience for her. The last I heard from her was yesterday evening when she phoned home - clearly excited - before she boarded the flight. They have a blog set up which will hopefully let all of us left at home know what on earth they are getting up to. This is the blog - today its empty, what will tomorrow hold?

http://beijingstudiereis2012.blogspot.com/

There was the usual drama before it the trip was all arranged: visa, no visa etc but everything was finally arranged.

Lets see how they get on.

Rowing on the water

In December in a fit of - 'I need to do something to avoid having to run in the cccccold' I bought a Water Rower - rowing machine.  It took 3 weeks to delivered so I have only started using in from Jan 12th but think I can safely say I love it. It looks great, sounds better and is even a lot of fun to use. I had decided that I should get a Concept 2 but was talked out of it in a sports shop, they recommended a water resistance rower. After trying many different kinds of these water resistant rowers I plumped for the wooden Waterrower itself. I don't regret it. I bought the Heart rate monitor extra (which should really come as standard) and its fantastic.

The only thing I don't like is the data screen and the convoluted way it connects to my laptop to monitor what I do. I love all things gadgety and am normally happy to spend hours working things out, but this took me a DAY. I finally got them to talk to each other but on the second monitored row - it crashed...... The entire data collection system seems fragile and given the cost of the machine, I expected better.

I think if they spend some time getting the monitor to be more intuitive and back light the things so I can see it!! it will be a great improvement. I think they should also hire some IT  people to write their own software - Why do I need to be connected to the internet to monitor my rows? I want to record my rows locally  - stroke rate, heartrate, speed  - all in the one locally saved file - possibly also in a form I can export to excel to play with the data.

I blame my education which gave me a love of experimenting and recording my results - I used to do it with a paper chart recorder but would now expect to create a file and watch it all on a tiny screen - so come on Waterrower -get yourselves into the 1990s and record your data locally and simply - don't make us all use the internet.

I have tried the Concept 2 and didn't like the noise it makes or the feeling of the rowing stroke, my waterpower is smooth and fairly quiet apart from the swooshing of the water as it goes round in the tank.

Here is a look at the thing itself - I recommend it.

My Pretty Playbook

Well, I finally did it. After months of pondering I bought a Playbook. Really because the price had come down to something which was more realistic with what I wanted to pay.

First impressions - really well made as with all my previous Blackberry phones - I am a loyal fan of these things. I have a 9900 and love it to bits. I upgraded from my Bold 9000 when the 9900 came out and have not regretted the swap. But I digress, the Playbook is a great machine which feels well built and the OS is intuitive. I am not best please that, as I live in NL, I don't get the Podcast app, but I am sure I will find another one I can use instead. So, for build quality and usability its just what I expected and think its very good.

What I miss? -Apart from the obvious email, calendar and contacts its really the scarcity of apps which I would want to install. I have scoured the Blackberry World system and found very little that appeal. I have no interest in Tetris or Need for Speed - I would be very interested in a Zinio and Kindle app. What about Pocket Informant? Nope not there. The book shop is Kobo - but I like my Kindle books and want to read them on the Playbook too.

Much is promised with the OS upgrade, whenever it gets here, and I  am pleased I didn't buy one when they first came out or I would have had to wait more than a year for the OS upgrade. This should make it the device it should have been when it first launched.

What I get now and really like? - the cameras are great. The forward facing 5MP is wonderful and the video looks great on the excellent screen. The 'facing the user/instant aging' camera is about 3MP and is fine too.  The Kobo bookshop is OK but doesn't have any magazines which is why I am really looking forward to the Zinio app which will hopefully come out with or (cross fingers) even before the OS 2 upgrade.

All in all I really believe this thing has loads of potential,  especially when it finally gets the apps it should have. I am amazed it doesn't have a Webex app - my 9900 does which works really well. This is a designed for business device - where are the business applications? I mentioned the lack of calendar and email - I can see all of this when Bridged to the 9900 - but why should I have to? All is fixed with the OS upgrade so i will just have to wait.

I would like to see note taking, mind mapping, lists, tasks etc but there are not there yet either. There is no photo editing software either - or at least that I can find.

It synced all of my iTunes library so now I don't need to take my Macbook wherever I go - which was the point of the Playbook in the first place - another BIG PLUS.

So in short IMHO - the Playbook is a lovely thing which should have a bright future - as long as it doesn't take too long to get the new OS software roll out.

My new BB 9900

I bought my long awaited new phone this week, the Blackberry 9900, and have been playing with it for a few days now. My initial opinion is that it is a great update over my current Bold 9000.
The OS is intuitive and seems to be very well thought through.

I have been a BB fan since my work gave me a Curve 8320 years ago - it is still going strong and the build quality is clearly fantastic. It has been dropped and (accidentally!) kick along the floor - no harm done. My Bold 9000 fell and acquired a few bashes but again its so well made that it never missed a beat. I have had other phones which died completely after much less abuse.....

The thing I didn't like about the 9000 was the battery life. It didn't take much for it to die. I don't think I am the only one though.

Back to my lovely new phone. I have installed most of the applications I was used to - no Weather app yet but I am sure it will be upgraded for OS 7. I am a heavy user of REX's ToDOMatrix and IdeaMatrix, both of which are now running fine on my 9900.The transfer process was fairly easy although their FAQ section was years out of date. I did finally find the correct help and all went smoothly.

I haven't yet worked out how to edit the RSS feds but that will be this weekends adventures - I try to work it out, and rarely resort to help files. I get a great sense of achievement when it all finally works...

I thought long and hard about moving to an iPhone - I have 2 macs at home and love them - but just couldn't bring myself to move away from the physical keyboard. It is even better now than on either the 8320 or 9000 and RIM have done a great job of fitting loads onto a tidy little package. I saw a 4 inchLG in the shop and can't imagine having to lug that around. I can read everything I need to ( now I have my new Varulux glasses!!) and zooming works fine - no need for so much screen IMHO of course.

I can't recommend it highly enough. Here it is after the unboxing ;-)

Mamma Mia in Glasgow

I have to say I was disappointed this afternoon. I have seen the show 4 times now and this one was much less well presented than before. The sound was very strange. Someone would start to sing and you couldn't hear them until 2 lines in - like someone forgot to turn up their mike. Many of the songs missed their normal magic. The female leads were OK, if a bit shouty in places, but the men were a disappointment. Maybe it was the afternoon show blues but this just missed the point. There was no spark.

Its a shame as this is normally great fun - I did have fun but that was due to the music not the singing.

I hope it's normally better than it was today.

The first version I saw was in Dutch and when I saw the English version (Edinburgh a few years ago) it was just as good. This time wasnt.
Not wanting to be too critical  - but Sky was cardboard and Bill wasn't singing at all - he sounded like he just shouted the words.

Maybe its just me. I wonder what others thought.

Why I hate Novamind 5

A year or so ago I decided that I wanted to get into MindMapping but didnt like what software was offered by work. It was not intuative and too complicated. I tested as many as I could find - Mindjet, Buzan, Brain, etc etc and found them all too much like hard work, until I finally found NovaMind 4!!!

It was fantastic - easy to use, made great coloutful pictures and good images. I downloaded the Mac version for use at home but that was horrible. I loved the Windows version but the mac one seemed odd.

So, as ever, I bought it to use at work and sold my soul to the IT dept to be allowed to install this non standard software on my work PC. I was only about 12 days into my 30 day trial of NovaMind 4 when I bought it. By the time my 30 days trial would have been up they had introduced the free upgrade to NovaMind 5. I questioned if I didnt also get a free upgrade as had I waited till the end of my trial I would have qualified but... - no luck.

So I used my NovaMind 4 version  all year - loving every minute of it. I used it for everything -home work- everywhere.

I was kept up to date with the development of NovaMind 5 described as the biggest advancement ever in mindmapping. So when it was finally launched I upgraded immediately.
WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY.

What I got presented with was SLOOOOOOWW, and no where near as intuative as the v4. The tools which made it colourful were hidden in the million of menus. It is a disaster for me. I have tried to get used to it - I have installed all the updates hoping that one of them will make the things quicker - but, no - its still as slow as treacle and horrible.

I regret upgrading and am going to uninstall it  - what a waste of time.

My advice  - get Mindjets Mindmanager

jings is that the time??

well here I am again after a looong long time.
my last post was mid way through my attempt to get to run 5km. I am now half way through the 10k training but have had a 2 month winter break in between... hated the snow in the end, it was like it was never going to end. But never fear, it finally melted and I could get back out to run on pavements and be able to see the dog poo - so I didn't run in it. Many dog owners appear to be unable to pick the stuff when its cold outside.... leaving it in the middle of the pavement for unfortunate passers by to dodge.

Having chickened out twice this week ( was not feeling brilliant) I think its time to get back to the grind tomorrow. Ill be there fighting for the bike path with the cyclists and other nutters out at 8am on a Sunday. Watch this space for pretty pictures if i manage to take any...

C25K Week 5

I have been doing this beginners running program for 5 weeks now and its going remarkably well. I have never been a sporty person but I am determined to got rid of the last few kilos of ugly fat.

As I mentioned before, having children can have a terrible effect on your body and mine made me become the size of an elephant. I added a total af 35kilo from what I always was to my heaviest and it was really difficult to get rid of it.

I come from a line of larger women, some may say I am genetically predisposed to retain weight. Others in my family had children and lost the weight soon after, with me it took years.....My paternal grandmother was a large woman and other great aunts were too. I have always had the traditional tree trunk legs.....
But now I might actually getting somewhere.. dont hold your breath but you never know.

I am using Ullreys podcasts ( recommendation from a friend) and its all going OK. Today was my longest run ever at 20 mins so I am super pleased with myself.

Lets see if I get through week 6

Mobile Application Viira Helps People Get Things Done with Their BlackBerry Devices

Mobile Application Viira Helps People Get Things Done with Their BlackBerry Devices

Posted using ShareThis

I have just downloaded the Free Trial and from what I see so far its looking good and very like the book.

ll report back later if I find it really useful.

Blogging and other things

I have been playing with this blog for a few months new and at about the same time I discovered Facebook ( really quick off the mark me....). I like Facebook and I have managed to refind people from school. I have the Blog linked to my facebook account too.

There was a piece in the paper this morning saying that Facebook, Hyves, Twitter etc had  ( or will ) remove the need to Blog. It also claims that of the 133 million blogs only 1.1% are updated weekly. I certainly never have any more..

I have Facebook on my phone so its always there to be updated when I feel like it. The blog isnt, I have to prepare them.. this takes time and I just am wondering if I can me bothered.

I gave Twitter a go, it was tediously boring, what is the point of following famous peoples lives or the non famous........ I am clearly missing the point. I dont want to find it this time though.
I am looking far something to allow me to relax from my work. Facebook is currently doing a good job.

But while i am here.. Look what I found!! an intelligent coffee mug which keeps my coffee at the right temperature to drink ... no more cold coffee

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,643702,00.html

Dear Follower

Hi, you mailed me, my spam filter ate it. Ideleted it before I read it as I 'deleted forever' when cleaning out my spam...

ho humm too quick, butter fingers!!

if you mail again I will read it ...