Today is Mother’s Day in the UK, so we went down to see Andrew’s parents and went out to a gorgeous restaurant in Sevenoaks called Loch Fyne. Had a fantastic meal (best mussels I’ve ever had!) and a good day, if a bit rainy!
Latest adventures…
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Abusing pets is funny*
Dooce has possibly the funniest photos I’ve ever seen (and cutest ones when it comes to Leta). Click on the picture for more of Chuck’s posing.
[* I don’t REALLY mean “abusing”, but you can’t tell me those photos aren’t funny!]
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Happy birthday OS X!
Ok, I’ll be honest, I can’t be bothered to blog. It’s Friday night, I need a drink and most of all I need time away from computers for one night. 🙂
So just an interesting thought: OS X is celebrating its 5 years.
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Oooh! Is this Spring?
I think today, the shadow of the possibility of something resembling Spring may have happened! We had sunlight for more than a couple of hours and while the weather wasn’t exactly warm, it felt much milder and comfortable outside.
There were talks of pub terrasses, bbqs, reading good books in the garden, and staying up late just because the sun’s up later too.
So we’ll be changing the clocks this weekend, losing an hour of sunlight in the morning but gaining one in the evening, which should be nice! (Just a shame it means one less hour to sleep…)
Something else that’s making me feel like Spring is Corinne. (Yes, like you’d pronounce Corinne in French but with the “r” of an English speaker. Simple? Not for Mr. Chris Moyles) Another really rather “easy listening”, Corinne Bailey Rae, from Leeds, is that kind of easy blues-soul that reminds you of floaty summer dresses and evening cocktails in the garden. Not pretentious for two pence, I highly recommend adding the album to your Spring/Summer collection.Can’t wait till the Bellini and Sangria season starts, and till we get those BBQs back out from the garage (yeah B-B-Q-with-an-S, we’ve got 3 charcoal BBQs in the garage… don’t ask!) What’s your favourite summer activity? drink? What are you looking forward to most this summer?
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iCal tip – calendar colours
Using iCal, I have 7 different calendars (Work, Internal meetings, Very important work, Tickler File, Personal, Birthdays and holidays) but the most recently-added, the Tickler File, was causing me confusion (I’m easily confused so bear with me here)
iCal has 6 default colours for its calendars, after which point it starts cycling through the colours again. This meant that two calendars were listed under the same colours. Doing a quick search for ways to change that, I found a multitude of bodge-job “hacks” to change them, all of which were followed by a “this broke my iCal” comment from another unfortunate user.
Then, someone pointed out the obvious. You can change the colour of the calendar by clicking on the calendar and then its colour in the info tray. This pops up a colour wheel, which lets you select any colour.
I can’t believe how obvious this is now, but I somehow went months without noticing, so thought I’d share it in case anyone else is pleased by the obviousness of it.
Time to pretty up those calendar colours, I’m not fond of the default lurid green.
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Microsoft designed the iPod packaging parody
Turns out Microsoft does have a sense of humour.
They still have crap packaging, but at least they seem to be able to laugh at themselves, commissioning the “If Microsoft designed the iPod packaging” video I mentioned two weeks ago.
iPod Observer reports “Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla on Tuesday confirmed with iPod Observer that his company initiated the creation of the iPod packaging parody video that was first reported last month. “It was an internal-only video clip commissioned by our packaging [team] to humorously highlight the challenges we have faced RE: packaging and to educate marketers here about the pitfalls of packaging/branding,”
Well, I’ll be damned. So they’re aware of the error of their ways. Think their packaging style is going to change? If they do, I’ll eat my hat!*
[* It’s a pink corduroy hat, not sure how tasty that would be…]
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Emoticon pillows
Oooooh I know it’s completely saddo of me to want these but at £25 for the lot including shipping, I’m mighty tempted to get them! Just a shame that I haven’t got my own computer room anymore otherwise there’s no doubt they’d be sitting on that sofa!
[Found via Shiny Shiny]
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Not quite Spring yet…
This morning, we went for a walk to the old water reservoir at this end of Haverhill. We came across a few Canadian geese (ok maybe not Canadian ones, but they looked like the good ol’ bernache du Canada so good enough for me).
Those with a sharp eye might notice how much better quality this batch of photos is compared to previous ones. Andrew has worked so hard recently, I’ve allowed him to treat himself to a new Canon 350D. 😉
So this may be the beginning of a new era of photos on my blog, with both a reasonably good camera on my N70 phone and Andrew’s fantastic camera! Assuming we don’t just get too lazy to blog them, but then iPhoto makes it all so much easier to resize and create thumbnails, we have no excuse!
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They've understood good customer service
In the spectrum of customer service quality, I’ve already repeatedly pointed out Red Letter Days fell off the bottom end of the scale. They treated staff like hell, who then treated customers the same way, and while it backfired on the original owner, Rachel Elnaugh, the company is unbelievably still trading without honouring the older vouchers many customers are still holding.
But who’s at the other end of that scale? Who provides customer service so good that you’re taken by surprise by the swiftness of response and the willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty to help you? After many years feeling jaded by so many “Your call is important to us” recordings, what are the companies that surprise you by being particularly helpful?
I can think of two: John Lewis and Audi, and I’ll tell you why…
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that canadian girl 