Just because ben refuses to read twitter

A photo of the bike

A new bike and a new riding partner

Yesterday I cashed in the profits from the sale of the Jamos and bought myself another bike. There isn't really anything wrong with my current bike but I've been looking for a way to ride around with Zachary. My road bike doesn't have any mounts that suit a child seat and the clip in shoes don't make it very practical for trips to the park.

I started looking for a cruiser style bike and settled on the Electra range for the bike. After a fair bit of shopping around and a few recommendations from the bike store I picked up an Townie 3 Speed model. The trip is pretty flat into the park or the botanic gardens in the city or even Southbank (apart from the bridge)

We took it for it's first ride yesterday and while I had loved the ride Zachary is not so sure yet. He doesn't hate it but he's not sure he loves it either. A few people we passed could coax smiles out of him so it's probably not all bad. The bike was really strange to ride especially when compared to the seating position on the road bike but once I settled into the easy riding style it was a fantastic way to get around. The low speed didn't even worry me, at one point there was a jogger keeping pace with us, it was just a relaxing way to travel along the river taking in the last of the afternoon light.

I think the biggest problem for Zachary is the helmet, knowing how much he loves hats the helmet is probably one step too far.

We'll probably a few more short rides to the park before we attempt a city or southbank run. But I'm looking forward to it either way

This I would have tweeted IF I'd had internet:

6:20 Apparently I can't bring my coffee on board with me. I'm so glad that I hadn't drunk any of it.
6:31 Didn't realise I had a premium economy upgrade have to be happy about that!
6:55 The VB staff seem to be as grumpy as bus drivers with giving change
7:07 I forgot it was 3 hours to SA I should have uploaded more video content to my #iPhone I think I'll be downloading some in the lounge
7:55 Turns out the blue screen earler corrupted my system for the workshop today. I'm hoping the 42% battery I have left is enough to rebuild
8:06 The #XPS strikes again.... yet another BSD... *sigh* in case you're wondering @tcns,  wish I'd put my emo today
8:34 #GMEE vs the #XPS 17% and 25mins battery left and the final import is on table 13/197 I don't think the import is going to make it
8:40 looks like the battery is dead, time for some wolfenstien on the #iPhone

Back on the plane....

It's been over a year since I've flown for work which has been a nice change. Today, however, is the beginning of the flights (with a few more ahead I'm sure). I'm off to SA for the day which is a big round trip. My Flight out is at 6:30 and my flight home returns at 11:30. I think I'll be trying to catch a few winks on the plane for sure!

One big surprise is that my lounge membership hasn't expired yet... I really must have done a lot of flights last year.

My own little vinyl revival

It's not much of a secret that I buy music on vinyl. However, Over the last year I've probably bought more new albums than the rest of my collection combined. The biggest driver by far is the addition of the digital media bundled with the 12" discs. For me it's a no brainer to pay a few extra coins to get the same album I can get from iTunes along with the tangible items.

This week though has been a bit of a glut. I had a disappointing shop for vinyl on Fathers day but after a killer of a week I stopped by Rocking Horse for a bit of retail therapy and picked up

The pinicale though was my pre order of the new Muse album Resistance that turned up today.... makes for one happy vinyl listener...

The Mission FS2-AV one week in (part 2)

After blabbing on about how nice it was to install, now... the important bit how it sounds.

In a word amazing... not that they are the most amazing speakers you'll ever here but considering their size (and what they replaced) and price they are an amazing buy.

The integration with the sub is seamless (once you've tweeked the sub level and "closeness to the wall" setting) and is weighty enough to remind you why you need a sub. One of my original concerns was that the single sub would be too light after the 15" Jamo (i even had another matching sub in my watch list just in case). While it will never be able to move the walls (or floor) to the same extent as the Jamo the Mission sub has enough presence to handle even the largest explosion scenes of "Iron Man" and even rattle a window or two.

The biggest difference I noticed was the level of clarity that the speakers have even at low volumes. While never having trouble producing the dynamic range the voices always seem to break through crisply.

The Missions have turned out to be the ideal set of apartment speakers with a perfect blend of sonic weight, clarity and discrete installation. I've probably watched as many movies on the projector since I've picked up the new speakers than I have for the rest of the year.

Of course I could still be in the new purchase honeymoon period so the real test will be when a few more sets of ears come around to critique.

The Mission FS2-AV one week in (part 1)

A couple of weeks ago I made the call that the Jamos were just too big and too powerful for the space I can use them. So I started the hunt for a smaller lifestyle set of speakers and picked up a bargain set of the missions (a system I'd auditioned years ago and only rejected on price).

Firstly the install, to start with the speakers are small not bose cube small more an elongated DVD case (and just as thin) so mounting them was a breeze. I had mounts from the jamos for the left and right fronts which I just reused but for the rest 3M tape did the trick. The Added bonus with that is I could reposition them any number of times without fear of wall destruction. The sub is specifically designed to sit in the corner of a room which made placement super easy and the curved facade means it easily fades into obscurity. Last but not least was the wiring which comes supplied and is flat allowing you to run the cables flat against the wall. Admittedly the first attempt at this I didn't do such a good job of running the cables flat....

Fortunately without too much effort the cables were easily attached to the wall and fairly neat.

Of course the most important thing is the sound... but that will have to wait for another post....

Sent from my iPhone

And the weekend's over and apparently it's summer

The weather over the weekend was just fantastic. The sun was out and
it was nice and warm. Zachary and I tried to take full advantage with
plenty of trips to the park.

However with Monday coming around the weather seems to be getting a
bit crazy, the forecast is for temps of 29. It might just be me but it
seems way to high for august.

The weekend overall was just fantastic managed to fit in heaps of
gaming most of the day out in the sunlight a movie and Ness baked
delicious levels of pastries including the yummiest caramel tart.

On the gadget front I picked up some replacement speakers for the home
theatre setup. Ironically there is nothing wrong with the current
setup other than the fact they are too good. The current matched THX
setup is just too loud and the 15" sub is just too strong for where we
can use it. That combined with placement issues with the littleone
I've taken the plunge and swapped out for a smaller mission system
that will allow me to use all of the 7.1 (rather than the 2.0 as it's
currently configured). The setup should turn up this week so I fear
there will be an unboxing post in the near future.

Sent from my iPhone