Blog in Isolation

There is a radiant darkness upon us

Uk

my alter ego

During the week I am a boring IT consultant.

However, at weekends, I transform into a massive, dance, trance, garage, hop-hip, mixmaster DJ, spinning vinyl, entertaining the masses at Glastonbury.

No wonder I’m so tired every Monday morning.

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weekend roundup

Phew - what a relief. I often spend a night in the pub or a whole weekend at a beer festival and am completely flummoxed by such trick questions on my return such as ‘Well - what did you actually talk about ?’ or worse, ‘How are Janet, Jonathan, Jennifer and Jocasta ?’

A peculiar challenge for modern day parents: How do you ask your teenage son to tidy his room ? Seems straightforward but not so easy when he gave you the silent treatment for 10 whole years just because you gave consent for his tonsils to be removed. Let’s just hope his schoolmates don’t take the mickey out of his surname.

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review of the Virgin Media V+ box

I upgraded to a Virgin Media V+ service three months ago. Although I have had some initial teething problems, I am pretty satisfied with the V+ service.

The V+ box is a personal video recorder (PVR) similar to the Sky Plus service. The V+ box contains a 160GB hard drive which can store 80 hours of recorded TV programs.

Recording a TV program is very easy. You simply navigate through the 7 day TV guide, select the desired TV program and hit ‘Record’. You get the option to either record the individual broadcast or the series (if appropriate).

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pictures of a Virgin Media V+ box

Lots of people stumble onto this blog hoping to find technical information, reviews and images of a black Virgin Media V+ set top box.

I presume this is either husbands trying to convince the wife that the box will comply with the aesthetics in the lounge or geeks trying to look at all those connectors on the back.

Whoever you are, whatever you are, these pictures are for all you people out there.

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Surbiton Trophy

I was going to spend Saturday compiling very important guidelines for the formatting, style and content of comments but decided to go and watch the Ladies final and Men’s semi-finals at the Surbiton Trophy instead.

I packed a lovely picnic (much to the envy of my neighbours), took a proper camera and enjoyed three matches in the sun:

  • Brenda Schultz McCarthy (36 years old, 6 foot tall) beat Ayumi Morita (17 years old, 5 foot tall) in three entertaining sets.
  • The eventual winner, Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, edged out the Australian 4th seed in a tight match featuring many impressive aces.
  • Dodged for cover as 6'10" Croatian, Ivo Karlovic, smashed his way past a bewildered American, Robbie Kendrick (whose lovely girlfriend was sitting next to me).
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the tragic case of Madeleine McCann

On 3 May 2007, a four year old toddler (not girl), Madeleine McCann, was abducted from her hotel room in Praia Da Luz, Portugal while her parents enjoyed a well-deserved pizza and a glass of wine in a nearby restaurant.

Since then the parents have launched a concerted and impressive campaign to keep Madeleine’s name in the media spotlight. The distraught mother is carrying Madeleine’s grubby, pink cuddly cat everywhere she goes.

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Darwin Awards nominee

Amusing story in Friday’s Torygraph about how a Sat Nav system left a poor, helpless 20- year old female student marooned on a level crossing in the face of a high speed train.

Thankfully, this woman escaped with her life and will probably sue TomTom, her boyfriend and Carlos Tevez. However, Paula Ceely is so unbelievably stupid, hopefully she will manage to secure an early nomination for the Darwin Awards imminently.

The online version of this story omits a crucial section - the picture of the warning sign that was clearly displayed on the level crossing that was included in the newspaper edition.

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