£809,995 car crash

I Shepperton only a few miles down the road from Sunbury there was a car crash on Sunday. I am sure there is almost every Sunday but this particular one was interesting.

An GBP 800,000 Bugatti Veyron was hit by a pregnant lady in a Vauxhall van. No serious harm to the involved drivers but the insurance companies are VERY interested in witnesses... More so because of the 800,000 bill than the Vauxhall repairs...

Bugatti has only made 300 of the Veryons and there are only 12 (sorry 11) in the UK. This particular one is going to be a write off.

Eartquake in Kingston?

On Sunday the 25/2, Nicole and I sat in the car, pulling of to go and see
Elvira.

All of the sudden we heard this rumbling and the one of the 4 rubbish sheds
belonging to our property collapsed right in front of us......

We think that the lady in the blue Beetle may by accident have gone forward
as opposed to reversing. Still the shed should be able to withstand a lot
more pressure than that. Particularly as there was nothing but brick dust
on her front bumper.

The lady was a bit shaken and was quick to light up a cigarette.

When we got home in the evening someone had removed the rubbish from under
the rubble and fenced off the area.

We will let you know, when the shed has been rebuild.

Logitech Harmony 1000

We all know of the clutter on the coffee table and we have also all heard about the universal remote.

I am tempted to say that B&o pioneered the universal remote some 30 years ago however only supporting their own products in the same range.

More successful were those remotes that you could teach the signal of your old remotes.

For a long period of time, I have been using one of the latter from Cambridge with anice touch screen and everything. It has however always been a problem that the icons were fixed and not everything was available for all devices.

I believe Logitech's new device, the 1000, will cater for this.

The remote comes with a 3.5" touch sensitive color screen as on the picture. You can modify it with a USB connection to the PC but the best part is that most modern devices have already been coded.

Should you want to control devices in the cupboard or in another room, this can also be done by the optional radio transmitter, you then place in the neigbouring room.

This beauty obviously comes at a price. Around GBP 220,00 is the current price for it.....

Motor registration in Denmark

Many times, I have with friends and family discussed the outrageous car taxing policy in Denmark.

Lately we attended a football match between Denmark and Australia in Shepherds, here in London. On the one wall, there were advertisings for Danish viewers to buy a Huyndai Getz for DKR 117,000, which for the same amount of money could buy you a Minor ONE, Small VW Golf or Citroen C4 Picasso in the UK.

Disregard the fact, that I would rather spent DKR 117,000 on busfares than being the owner of a Hyundai Getz, I thought it could be funny to compile a chart of what are the manufacturing prices versus the street price in Denmark.

As an example DKR 300,000 will buy you a very nice car in Denmark but of that price DKR 294,000 will got to the tax man...

When mentioning a very nice car, I refer to a Volkswagen Passat or a well specified VW Golf. Both costing around GBP 15,000 in a reasonable spec....

Christmas in Hawkshead with Brian & Bernadette

During the period from 22/12 to 29/12 we visited Hawkshead in the Lake District with Brian and Bernadette, whim visited from Cape Town.

Click on the picture above to see our 35 favorite photos from the festiver period.

Nicole the cocolatier

On Friday Nicole went to Manchester to attend a chocolatier course, which was a birthday present. She left with the 07.00 flight from London to Manchester, being slightly nervous about what to expect.

I didn't hear a thing from her the entire day and only when I met up her in Manchester in the evening did I get to see what she had been up to...

The course was scheduled from 9.30 in the morning to 15.30 in the afternoon. Initially they went through the history and the theory behind chocolate. Apperantly the chocolate beans grow on trees and when they are ripe they are plucked and barried underground until they ferment.

Apparently the Venezuelan 47% chocolate is the best type (according to Nicole's taste that is).

Thereafter they started on making pralines with all sorts of filings. Some where with a nougat type, some with coconut.

After having done those they went on to make truffles which I think Nicole had a hard time with because the cream and the chocolate started curdling when she added the hot coffee for flavour. The second batch went a little better. She teamed up with another guy, who instead of coffee used brandy for flavouring. The coffee flavoured where the best...

Later in the afternoon they went on to make a coating for a cake and chocolate lollipops.

All in all she came home with more chocolate than we could possibly eat during our continued stay over the weekend in Windermere in the Lake District.

Copenhagen Ultra Light

So far the Blog has contained advice about what to do in Copenhagen during
a weekend break in the summer or in the winter. Only now is there also
advice for a 60 to 90 break, should you arrive via Copenhagen airport...

Although Copenhagen town center is only 11 minutes away it is far better
just to exit the terminal building and walk right, past car park 12 and
over to Statoil. Buy yourself 2 Hapsdogs for DKR 45 and enjoy..

This should not take longer than 30 minutes and thus you still have time
to explore all the tax free bargains...

Apparatus for tail wind whilst cycling...

Jacob Haugaard was around 10 years ago elected into the Danish parliament by proposing:

1. Tail wind on all bicycle lanes
2. Nutella in the army food rations

I think he wished that he had patented his ideas:

Check out www.patentlysilly.com to see for yourself.

A word of warning, Do NOT start browsing the other PATENTED inventions on this website unless you have HOURS to kill.

Personally I can recommend:

1. Article of Clothing with a Novel Attachment Means
2. Bottle Cap Necktie
3. Solar Powered Candle AS WELL AS Lightbulb changing device
4. Illuminated Wreth for the front of a car

And so it goes on as long as you want it to...

France & Barcelona pictures available

France & Barcelona

Sep 5, 2006 - 121 Photos

Click on the thumbnail above to view some of our best holiday photos...

New sofas