Downtown Indy

We stayed in downtown Indianapolis which was very nice, especially the Monument Circle area.

Stayed at the Hampton Inn Downtown, however this hotel was not up to Hampton's normal standard.

The parking guys in the area are a little over zealous, so watch out!

Indianapolis

We were in the States recently and had a vew road trips out of Chicago.
One of the places we visited was Indianapolis and the Motor Speedway

Graham Hill and Jim Clark are mentioned in quite a lot of the exhibits as you would expect.

The museum is pretty good, however I would not make a special trip to see it!

Looking a lot better...

Well, it's looking a lot better for Reading (at least at home:-)

Lots of goals and the football's not too bad, however we are not great away from home still.

The games at Notts Forest, Ipswich, and freak goal Watford were painful to watch!

Off we go then !!

Off we went to see Reading v Notts Forest in the Championship yesterday.

As expected we were terrible!

Forest were by far the better team, thankfully they had no clue where the goal was:-)

As you would assume we have leaked several of the quality players that we had from last season and it appears that several of those left behind don't want to stay based on this performance.

Considering the complete absence of a midfield during the game, the fact that we almost snatched a result speaks volumes for the division we find ourselves in

If we don't deal with the physical nature of the championship and quickly forget the premiership we will be here a long time, added to the fact we need players and now Messers Coppell and Hammond!

Please unload players such as Cisse and Matějovský as they appear to be little use at this level, stop wasting Hunt and get a left back! You knew Shorey was going as you did with Sidwell, please don't repeat the same misplaced loyalty that cost us last season.

BTW are we ever going to see any payback from our much vaunted youth system?

You hear tell of Henry's, Karacans etc etc and and never see them in the first team, next you read that they are either out on loan or gone....

In fact if you don't want to change before it's too late why don't you both consider your positions and let someone else have a go who is not scared to fail?

A little strong maybe, but you had to be there and see how bad it was, it looked like they picked the team in the car park and had never met before!

Onto the Plymouth game and hopefully a turning point:-)

Interesting Radio Stations and Personalities

I listen to a few US radio stations that are available on the net, very entertaining:

The Steve Dahl Show on Jack FM Chicago

Steve is the guy back in the 70's that was responsible for "Disco Demolition"

The David Stein Show, Syndicated but can be found on WSCR The Score Chicago, David is an interesting guy

WBBM780 News Radio Chicago

I picked these shows up during my visits to Chicago, enjoy :-)

Terminal 5 update

After writing a very strong letter to BA I received a pop up letter of apology, and this was all I was expecting.

To my surprise I also got a call from a very nice lady from Willie Walsh's office (apparently), the result was that I got an apology and a voucher.

I was offered Air Miles, however as everyone knows BA miles are about as much use as a chocolate fireguard!

Has a chance to vent about BA, which was probably more value than the voucher:-)

At least they did something I guess, still don't like them however...

Herald Update

Finished sorting out the tiny bit of surface rust under the front footwell carpets.

Only reason it was actually there was that the floor grommets has been pushed through into the car. These were refitted and sealed with silicon sealer, the floor treated with Kurust and a little matt black paint appled to seal it all up.

Made some temporary repairs to the seats and had a go at putting the carpet in a little more tidily.

The kick panels however are not right for the car, fitted them in temporarily until we can either make or buy some replacements.

As you can see the seats are still leaking foam, once again another job for after the MOT.

My Dad popped up and supervised proceedings:-)

We took her on a run of about 25 miles, performance was very good.

Small oil leak from the rocker cover gasket, needs sorting after the pre-MOT.

Fingers crossed!

Triumph Herald

We have a 1966 Triumph Herald which we are currently working on as the MOT is due soon.

Things to do:

Sort out ignition switch

Attend to very slight surface rust on floors

Replace seatbelts

Fit electric washer pump

Sort out perished foam on fron seats

Will keep you posted on the progess

Some information on the Herald

Freesat and HD

Got one of the new Freesat HD boxes the BFSAT01HD from Bush a handy tip, most people who have Sky+ and multiroom will have a quad LNB fitted to their satellite dish.

Sky+ and multiroom only take up three of the LNB outputs, this leaves one to be used for freesat

The Bush box states in the specification that it has an LNB passthrough meaning that you can use both the Bush and Sky boxes from the same LNB output, beware opf this as it didn't work me and others.

If you don't want to go to the trouble of running an extra cable from your dish, you can use one of the switchable satellite switches from somewhere like Maplin.

The most satisfactory way is however to run an extra cable and is well worth the trouble.

Cable lengths can be purchased on eBay, I bought mine via a particularly good vendor there called uksatellitecompanyltd very fast delivery and good communication and advice.

The box itself is more or less the same as the Grundig model (same manufacturer) a little basic but functional, EPG good and esy to use. I would recommend this box, my only criticism is that it runs a little hot.

Not a great deal of HD as yet, but if this is a sign of things to come and with the economy heading the way it is, this could be an alternative to the high cost of Sky.

Tevion Internet Radio and Media Streamer

Bought one of these a few months ago from Aldi and have been very happy with until about a week ago when the Internet part of the radio failed.

I must say I was very impressed with the level of support, it was agreed to replace the radio straight away, I'm now waiting for the replacement to arrive. I must say I miss the little gadget and will be pleased when it comes back:-)

The Internet portion of the radio works via the Reciva portal, the portal is very efficient and easy to use, as is the radio.

The streaming media portion of the radio is very flexible, the radio will also use WPA with a firmware upgrade.

Day on a boat

We had an excellent day on our friends boat on Sunday.

Travelled up the Thames from Staines to Kingston.

Lovely weather, great food, good company.

Terminal 5 Revisited

Well !

I had to give to give T5 another spin on a trip to Budapest.

A bit better but:

Miles to get to the departure gate

Still 20 mins waiting for the jetty to get off

Miles to get back from the arrival gate

Lifts still not working

Still not great :-(

I have now written to Mr Walsh about the whole thing, being as BA have no interest in their customers, I don't expect to hear back!

Tivo and Comcast in the States

Wouldn't it be nice if Tivo and NTL could get together?

I think we all know why they can't, or do we?

Comcast are happy to do a deal in the States

A poll can be found here to show that an appetite for a Tivo return to the UK

For those of you that are still messing about with UK series 1 Thomson Tivo boxes!

As you probably know if you remove the drive from one of these units and attach it your PC via USB it will normally lock you out.

This means you are unable to copy the drive with e.g. winmfs.

I know you can attach the drive to an IDE channel on your PC, however I can't be bothered to take my PC apart each time to use qunlock.

The following worked for me:

Remove the top from your Tivo, reconnect the machine to the power connection with the lid off and power the machine up. Once it is fully powered up, diconnect the IDE connection and substitute your IDE to USB adaptor without powering down the Tivo.

By using this method, the Tivo unlocked the drive for me and as it was not powered down it connected to my PC in an unlocked state. I could then use winmfs to copy the drive.

The drive I was copying was a Quantum Fireball 40GB, however this should work with may drive?


A note of caution:

Working on the Tivo with the lid off is very dangerous and not recommended, this post is not suggesting that you do this. Any use of these suggestions are at you own risk and responsibility, In other words, DON'T DO IT !!

Very Funny ! (beware swear word)

Tommy Burns RIP

Very sad to see the passing of Celtic and Scotland legend Tommy Burns.

Tommy had a spell as Reading FC Manager, always struck me as a good honest guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mMORSrr-sg

Finally, on a sad note

Off we went to Derby last week full of optimism that we might make an undeserved escape from the Premier League trap door. In the end a header from that towering powerhouse Danny Murphy kept "Woy's" Fulham up by outjumping the supposed giant Pompey defence(cheers Harry!) and down we went :-(

A real shame really because I'm pretty sure we would have stayed up next season due to the quaulity of what is coming up!

Where do you start:

• Lack of investment in players

• The ones we did buy were awful and a real waste of money

• Tactical errors and conservatism when a gamble was required
  

• Players signing lucrative contracts and then not performing once the money was in the bank

• Players once gaining a little recognition than thinking they are too big for the club!

• Others also refusing to play for the reserves when requested by a manager who basically created one of said player from scratch!!

• A forward being loaned out when we needed goals!

However when it comes down to it, the players just didn't perform.

Lets see how many of the "loyal" players jump ship

The manager should stay and correct the situation

But what do I know :-)

Trump That

We spent a few days in Chicago, some of the time was spent down a the lakefront in Grant Park which offers great views of the city.

Since our last visit the new Trump building is now very visible on the skyline








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Things of Beauty

The next day we were walking in Naperville and spotted these beauties!

Starved Rock

Whist I'm catching up on a few things, here are a few pictures from our visit to Starved Rock National Park in Utica IL.

Had a really nice walk and lunch, Starved Rock really is a lovely place to visit and relax