Ominvores Hundred

This is a list from the Very Good Taste blog of food that Andrew thinks should be tried at least once in your life. He has asked the following:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

I'm trying to be a good web 2.0 and filling this out as well... thanks amyo. (what else do you do with 10 mins before boarding)

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Leg 1 over, onto leg 2...

I've made it to Sydney, checked in (again) and swept through customs in record time so it's back to the story from before.

So after a failed web check in, it was a similar story with the kiosk at the terminal (that has a useless interface) which promptly spat out a "go see the service desk". The service desk told me that I couldn't check in there/web/kiosk because I was on an international connecting flight and sent me on my way. I sat in the international queue for about 20 mins, to only be called back to the service desk to check me in because international was too busy...

Fortunately United were much friendlier only adding further fuel to my "Qantas are terrible" stigma.

The added bonus of "you don't have a seat, want to upgrade to business class?" is that I'm now also enjoying the Air New Zealand lounge.

San Francisco, here I come

I'm off to the US today. It hasn't really felt like a trip until today. It's pretty exciting (although I am a little nervous, leaving my Pregnant wife at home). I've checked in for my leg to the US, and in an unusual turn of fate the plane was over booked. There were no places left for me in Economy, so I was given the option of upgrade or get another flight.... so... I took the upgrade, I had to pay but it's better than waiting for another flight.

My first leg is off to Sydney and unfortunately I had to endure a Qantas leg. If you've read any posts on this blog before you'll know that I travel quite often. I always find Qantas service elitist, unhelpful and at times rude. Virgin aren't always super happy chirpy individuals but even on their worst day they are a good leap ahead of Qantas. Take today for example; I tired web check in which failed because my name has an unusual character... The rest of this story will have to wait... as I boarding.

And the winner is...... SONY

After a fair bit of deliberation I finally chose a new amplifier to replace the Yamaha. The Sony STR-DA3300ES finally won out, basically on a features versus price it was hard to beat... Especially when I managed to shave a few more dollars off the already reduced $981 price tag.

It was bad timing from a setup point of view as it's now just sitting in the lounge room until I get back from the US.

Closer to an amp decision

I posted a couple of weeks ago about starting to look for new amps and I've been doing some research around the traps on which one I should get.

Originally I was looking at the Yamaha RX-V863, Onkyo TX-SR606 and Harmon Kardon AVR 255. However, I've discovered an amp from the previous generation (now currently in the same price range) that looks like it might be the perfect choice. The Sony STR-DA3300ES is now on sale at JB Hifi for $981 (the cheapest of all of the choices) and seems to fit the bill very well.

In the few reviews that are out there it seems to be an outstanding amplifier. The only real feature that is missing from the new generation amps is the TrueHD decoding which my blu player will do.

The big draw cards are the 100-Watts x 7 with the option to bi-amp 2 channels or run multi zones (because I really need to listen to different music in the lounge and kitchen), Neural-THX, (finally some THX decoding to go with the THX speakers) and the best upscaling chip (the main reason for and amp upgrade in the first place) of all the other amps in the list. It does only have 3 HDMI ports but does offset with enough component ports.
I'm still to have a serious listen but finding similar speakers to listen with is a challenge. Being a while stocks last sale item I might have to make a decision sooner rather than later.

The B&O finally comes to life....

It may have taken several years but finally the Beogram 4002 is making some sweet music when the new stylus turned up today....

The Beosound Lives

And I must say... some sweet sounds indeed...

What to do in San Francisco....

Ok blog readers... I have a question for you all. I'm going to San Francisco in the next couple of weeks and I've only got 1 (and a half) days in SF and I'm looking for what are the number 1 things I've got to take in and best places to check out!

HELP!!!!

Gadget Overload (is there such a thing)

I know I haven't blogged for a few weeks and now I've got two in a row but I'm trying to avoid doing work on the weekend so stick with me. Amyo raised the notion that I'm close to gadget saturation. I must admit that I reluctantly have to agree a little.

After much delay my new flat panel TV turned up and I'm really at technology saturation level.

Not to let that stop me I've been working on a bit of a technology cull to allow for some replacements.

The Loewe has found a new home and the Pioneer DVD-A/SACD player is soon to have a new life on Ebay, along with a few of the double up consoles. The big change is going to be the retirement of the Yamaha amp. With the new TV and the plan to hide the cable runs to the projector I'm looking for some upscaling to reduce the cable runs to just HDMI. As well serving as the Yamaha has been over the last 6 years it's lack of video processing and support for the HD audio formats means that it's time to look for an update.

The current contenders are the Yamaha RX-V863, Onkyo TX-SR606 and the new comer (from today) Harmon Kardon AVR 255.
I considered buying at the same level Yamaha as I have now (the Yamaha RX-V3800) but with all the improvements in technology the lower end amps now do more (power wise) than my old amp could. The HK is a great looking amp and has the best video scaling of the 3 but there is little in the way of reviews. Fortunately I've found someone with all 3 in stock so I can do a bit of a test run.

Stay tuned... there could be a new amp unboxing just around the corner....

The bedroom v2.0 (inspired by ikeahacker)

Yesterday we spent much of the day finishing off bits and pieces for the new bedroom. We've gone for a whole suite from Ikea. The big draw card was the.. um... drawers. The bed has some great storage built in which means that we can hide away all sorts of bits and pieces (even Networking gear and media storage).

We did have to employ a few techniques worthy of Ikea Hacker to get the headboards and mirror on the wall. The biggest challenge was the mirror which took a bit of engineering after the standard method almost ended in disaster (and a lot of bad luck). A big thanks has to go to Tomas for giving me the design behind the mounts.

I think the mounts worked really well and the mirror looks great now it's on the wall. We're just waiting for some lights to be fitted now and it will be all done.

The other big help for the day was (the other) Tom who lugged all the old furniture out of house and the new stuff in.

The whole thing is here (with before and afters)

What the?

iTunes now has movie downloads????

When did this happen... Why did no one tell me!?

Makes it worth getting an iTV now...

(and you thought I'd run out of gadgets to buy amy)

A strange week.

This week has been a crazy week, but for once it wasn't work related. I didn't anticipate ending in hospital. The rest of my week has been pretty quiet except for a drive of an Audi R8. An amazing car to drive but I could never own one. I would loose my licence in the first day. Still just jaw dropping acceleration out of 2nd gear. On the car front the MX-5 is on the way out. I put it in for a road worthy this week and should be on the market by the end of today. It will be sad to see it go but it's been driven so little that the battery went flat last week.

Back from hospital!

I'm back home again... I was discharged from hospital late yesterday and told to take it easy for a few days. The best news I could have hoped for! The Cardiac wing isn't exactly the place you want to spend your week.

I've been diagnosed with Pericarditis which should clear up after some anti-inflammatory drugs and rest. So it's onto the couch and catch up on some TV for me this week. I've also been ordered away from planes until a checkup in a couple of weeks.

Hoping I'm homeward bound.

It's been a nice morning. I've had a visit from Ness for some company and a visit from the Cardio who was happy with my improvements and is likely to send me home if my scans show the same.
The start to the day wasn't quite as nice, having 6 vials of blood taken isn't the nicest way to be woken up. But as it's getting me closer to home I don't mind, even with the amount I hate needles.
Ness brought me a tech drop this morning so I've got my ds and ipod (complete with noise cancelling headphones) which is just in time as i have a new room buddy and don't have a room to myself.
One good thing about being here though is it does make me feel very young, I'm probably the youngest person here by 30 years.
Well time to go, it's almost time for me to do my lap of the ward!

Not really what I had planned for the day

This blog is brought to you by the St Andrew's Hospital. So it turns out that I wasn't feeling well for a reason. After heading to my gp this morning for what i thought would be a quick trip with a bit of a dose up on some medication. I was a little off the mark. I ended up with an ECG at the surgery before being shipped off to emergency to be strapped vm a few monitors and even more tests. I ended the day with and echo stress test, rather ironic as i'd been wheelchaired everywhere, the running uphill on a treadmill was a little out of place.
All the big nasty things were ruled out but i've been kept in overnight just to make sure. Ness got off work and kept me company for the day which was wonderful.
Wasn't really what I was planning for the day.

The Ikea Debacle

The plan for yesterday looked so easy. Go early to ikea, pick up the few things we needed then home put the stuff together and be well on the way to a new bedroom. The reality, however, was much different. Even though I'd borrowed dad's 4x4 the things that we picked up took up the entire internal cabin space and blocked my whole view out the back and left side of the car making the trip home a little hairy. We'd bought more than we could do in one trip so we did a double run. The worst bit though was on the second run however. After getting our load of boxes I left dad at the loading dock and went to get the car that decided that now was the perfect time to completely disable the car. Long story short : loaded in the car park and waited for hours to get the car going again. So after a 'quick' trip I finally unloaded the last box at 5pm.