Now its England's turn - plus includes London feature

How to review England, well bits of it that we've seen over the last few weeks anyway. Its like a whole other country from Scotland and also has a large banking crisis, kebab shops, pubs and claims to have invented haggis.

National gallery London

Its the big building behind Nelson's column. Often overlooked because too many people are out the front dancing in the fountains and harassing the staff at Lilywhites. Still an impressive collection of impressionism, really old art and paintings of giant horses awaited us inside. The cafe was pretty sweet though and a damned site tastier than the disappointing kebab on Edgware road the night before. Not as good as some, but still worth a gander. ***1/2 (3.5/5)

U2 Wembley 15 August 09

The giant claw was mighty impressive and the video screen inside moved and could unfold to become 8000 feet high. Plus the selection of songs was awesome, but the big let down for me was the crowd. Come on people, get with the program, you're at a concert not sitting about watching the sculling on the thames. So we were about 20 metres from the stage, standing at the front, but even then there was no craziness, just people standing around and clapping politely. Great music, but more action required. **** (4/5)

London Eye

Its really the millennium wheel, and they should've taken it down then. Nah, not really but its just a big ferris wheel. Plus its 17.50 quid a go, per person, per second. So its really, really expensive, first you queue a bit and then around you go. Great views, best done at dusk, and you really can see all of London. Houses of Parliament are especially amazing from the top. Considering walking up Eiffel Tower is 4 euro, it just ain't worth it. *** (3/5)

V&A museum

Its a huge museum filled mainly with artefacts including this amazing giant silver beer cooler which we took home for a fiver. Best bits included the jewellery collection, worst bits included nothing really. The whole place is amazing and filled with just heaps of stuff. Other museums take note, this is how it should be done. Plus the coffee was better than almost everywhere else. ***** (5/5)

Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Restaurant

I don't have a picture because I was too busy stuffing my face with the sublime food! Its like a dream menu made up of the greatest collection of interesting food stuffs all freshly prepared and at lunch time, not too much more expensive than many other places around. The collection of antipasti was unbelievable and the whole experience was intensely satisfying. I didn't like the decor, mish mash of modern and 70s chandeliers but overall pretty kick ass. ****1/2 (4.5/5)

The proms night 43, Ravel, Andriessen, Falla

The theatre is a sparkling mix of traditional decor and modern alien globes which are soon to hatch. The Ravel was stunning, the Andriessen a little weird and probably suitable for a b-grade horror movie and the Falla was like synchronised diving except in a theatre. All in all, a good night out, good value although I can't believe that people get the standing tickets for 2.5 hours on your feet at classical music. **** (4/5)

The lakes district and Keswick

Ha ha, fooled you, you thought it would all be London and fancy museums and restaurants, but no, a couple of weeks ago we were in England for the fun of the lakes district. Guess what its filled with lakes, quaint little villages, bad roads and terrible traffic. Cathedrals, coffee shops and cows also abound. Keswick is cool, with more stunning vistas, lots of waterfalls abound and it feels like a little holiday away from the real world. Carlisle isn't much of a town except for the cathedral and the seaside was pretty miserable when its pissing down. Worth a weekend away, but the scenery i better in Scotland. ***1/2 (3.5/5)

St Pauls

That's it, hiding away in amongst the blue neon and skyscrapers of the financial district. Its kick ass in a churchy kind of way. The 500 odd steps to the top are great, the inside is like a grand cathedral, which was exactly the way it should be. Its coming up on 400 years old and doesn't look at day over 200 and must've dominated the London skyline for so long that it become part of london. Well worth it, and probably better views than the eye! ***** (5/5)

Scotland reviews of anything and anywhere

Ok first cab off the rank and these are in no particular order:

Edinburgh Castle

The #1 tourist attraction in Scotland in terms of visitors had a lot to live up to. Generally it felt kind of castly, with plenty of battlements, walls, cannons and stuff. Plus scottish crown jewels. Actually Stirling Castle is better and less busy so I dunno about this. Needs more swords and fake blood. ***1/2 (3.5/5)

Falkirk Wheel

Looks like a giant piece of machinery, which is exactly what it is. Boat rides are ridiculously expensive and not worth it, coffee was ok. Really not worth more than a five minute look, sure its a great engineering feat but not really exciting. Ok its smart, but not really a tourist attraction. ** (2/5)

Barrowland markets

The poor son of Camden markets, no let me correct that, the poor son of every single market in the whole world. Sure maybe it was the fact that half the shops were empty, that we were glassed three times within 5 minutes, or the fact that the tax free cigarettes didn't appeal to us but these markets were pretty damned crap. Don't go, unless you want to get stabbed. No stars (0/5)

Aberfeldy

Tiny town in the highlands with a small mill, number of pubs, golf course and stunning mountain scenery. A lot nicer than some of the other towns around as it wasn't filled with drunken teenagers looking for a fight. A relaxing way to spend a lazy afternoon. **** (4/5)

Dewar's world of whisky

Now a world of whisky better be filled with tonnes of whisky, and it better all be free. Well maybe not, but the world of whisky was filled with a cinema, a display of whisky and a whisky tour. The slightly surly staff who told us to rush through the display so we could go on the tour, but then made us wait 30 mins for the tour probably didn't help. Mmm whisky ***1/2 (3.5/5)

Castle Menzies

Some might say that not actually going into the castle means that I can't review it. Well dammit, I'm going to, looks like a castle, but is also a house. Plus this picture came out real weird. The five quid entry put us off, but as a castle house, it looks kind of castly. Nice from the outside, plus free blackberries in the grounds. **** (4/5)

Loch Tay

Yes, its just a lake, but nearby is a 5000 year old tree, and some incredible scenery. Its just like New Zealand but further, and also has sheep, pubs, cool windy roads for some nice driving action and stupendous views. Plus it was filled with celebrities, so its just like the French riveria except in Scotland and with no actual celebrities. Wow, scenery and shit. ***** (5/5)

Falls of Dochart

Surprisingly, there are falls all over this damned country. This one is just plain cool because its huge, not in terms of height but more in width, so like Anish but actually interesting. Plus loads of pubs to sit right on the falls, and no fancy safety barriers mean you can easily slip and fall on the rocks. Slippery but fun! **** (4/5)

Glen Alva

Hmmm, looking for a casual stroll up the Ochils, well look no further than Glen Alva. Its got a great walking track, filled with wildlife, rabid dogs and butterflies and some cool views over the local area. Plus another waterfall, in a cave, that you can climb into, neat. Could be tricky on anything but a sunny day though. ****1/2 (4.5/5)

Double rainbow

Yeah, take that again Scottish weather, it rains so much that you can get two rainbows. Well you know those guitars that are like double guitars, well it was just like that but in Rainbow format. You don't see that every day, plus I could see the end of the rainbow and went and claimed my pot of gold from the leprachaun. The top one needed more colour **** (4/5)

Largs

Largs is where they take all the midges from the rest of scotland, kill them and then reincarnate them as 10000000 more midges. And old people, and bad chip shops and some ocean. Plus its like an 80s throwback with a bad kiddies theme park, mini golf and nothing else. Seriously people if I retire anywhere in the world it'll never be Largs, its the place where souls go to die. No stars (0/5)

Reviews!!!

Yo, peeps, after a couple of weeks without updates I'm back with some exciting reviews of things that we've been up to in the last few weeks.

First of all stuff from Edinburgh Fringe/Comedy/Jazz/Sport/Music/Theatre Festival.

Soweto Gospel Choir

Simply amazing voices and a really incredible show without any serious props. Deeply moving and filled with antics, songs, drumming and just outstanding music. All done with voices and banging stuff on tables. Incredible - ***** (5/5)

Adam Hills

A bit naughtier than his on tv comedy, he spent most of the time chatting to and paying out the audience. Amusing stuff, but in reality he probably only had about 15 minutes of material in the show. Still kept me laughing all night - **** (4/5)

Axis of Awesome

Oh yeah, the comedy music group was back for some exciting and hilarious musical comedy, 4 chord song was a huge highlight, production values were super low, but it just didn't matter. Simple comedy, simple fun and simply amazing ****1/2 (4.5/5)

Sword Swallower on Street

Yep, he swalled the sword but took about 15 minutes to do it. Big crowd had formed, but dunno if he really kept them that entertained. Still there's only a few people in the world who can do it. Sweet. *** (3/5)

Random magic guy on street

Yep, he made oranges appear out of nowhere, could produce golf balls from nowhere and his casual abrasive style was pretty good. Plus he made lots of jokes at the audience's expense so was pretty funny too. **** (4/5)

Guy with bed of nails (pictured)

Ok, so he got a fat guy to stand on a bed of nails that was on his chest. I think knowing the physics about beds of nails made it less impressive, but to be able to stand a super fat guy on you was mildly impressive. ***1/2 (3.5/5)

Double Guitar Simpsons

You know those guitars that are like double guitars. Well this is actually one guy playing two guitars and in fact I swear I've blogged something about this guy before. Well this time he's playing the simpsons on two guitars and it sounds pretty good.

I also thought I'd include a review of the simpsons movie for everyone out there. The plot is somewhat lame and could've done with a bit more thought. Still, the individual scenes in the movie are a lot like one giant episode. There are some really funny moments and Homer keeps us amused throughout. I found Bart's character completely different to the show and it was a bit annoying that he didn't really match his previous 18 years of character development. Lisa was amusing and all the side characters put in good performances. Its certainly not the greatest comedy movie ever, but it has its moments and kept me pretty amused for an hour and a half. 7/10

Sleeping your life away in airports

So you want to be a worldwide traveller, filled with knowledge about the greatest places in the world to score a kebab. Well maybe the sleeping in airports site can answer some questions for you on where to sleep when your flight from Djibouti to Zanzibar is delayed because of a flesh eating virus on the plane. Yeah, its not all fun and games in airports and in fact I reckon they are one of the most boring life sucking places in the whole world.

Thanks Mykl!

Cables ain't cables

You know those fancy monster cables that cost $1 billion dollars for a small amount of cable barely enough to hook up your dv-camera to your hd tv well the big questions is do they really achieve anything. The big answer, sort of. Even bodgy cables can have an impact particularly on hd signals but they may not have. What this not really in depth study says is that maybe you should try the cheap cables first and if everything works fine don't change. However, if your HD setup isn't quite performing to perfection than the solution may be in the cables.

Vista as prose

Although I was tempted to call the following review of Vista a poem I guess its not. Its more like some kind of prose of what vista is like. If you don't quite get what I'm talking about that's perfectly normal because I normally have no idea what the hell I'm talking about either. So maybe you should read the damned review yourselves and stop hassling me. Pssst, the answer is that vista is visual gold but will take your testicles for its trouble.

iRiver S10 Review

Well, rather than posting random cr@p off the net I thought I'd do something more constructive and review the iriver S10 player that appeared magically yesterday.

First impressions: This thing is tiny! Literally about the size of a stamp with a full colour screen that enables you to click a direction to select songs etc. (No bodgy ipod shuffle lack of interface where you can't do anything). The screen is easy to read and the unit is very responsive. Sound quality it excellent. The only gripes I had are the extremely short headphone cord length and the included software.

In a bit more detail
Connectivity:
I think one of the biggest pluses in any mp3 player is not to be forced to use some proprietary software. In iriver's case they have a tradition of allowing their players to be used as usb drives. This is one huge plus and enables you to just drag and drop any files, music, pictures and stuff you like directly onto the player. Put music directly into the music directory and the player will find it and be able to play it. This aspect of the S10 works extremely well. The mini usb connector/adapter is cool but probably would be a nightmare to replace if you lost it. Its also tiny so be careful.

User interface:
The player itself feels well made and the user interface is reasonably intuitive. I had a brief glimpse through the manual and was soon able to work out all the controls. There is a clock (with alarm), picture viewer and fm radio all of which are easily found. Settings for the s10 are easily understood and even a novice mp3 user should be able to get the thing fired up.

Sound quality:
Like other iriver players I have used the sound quality is excellent and reasonably customisable. There is a bunch of settings for controlling the SRSwow (random sound processing stuff) and additional bass etc can be quickly added in. This thing sounds good out of the box and a bit of customisation is enough to make anyone happy.

Software:
The included iriverPlus3 software is pretty poor. It took forever to scan the music that was on my external drive and crashed once before working. I tried playing an mp3 directly through the software and it got stuck halfway through so I think there are quite a few issues. I also tried updating the firmware of the player and it kept telling me the network was unavailable. I guess this is one of the reasons that I thought the direct windows explorer functionality was so important because proprietary software usually sucks. The software did manage to update itself and if you had a small amount of music it probably would work reasonably well.

Battery life:
It's always disappointing to have a proprietary battery in a player because when the battery dies there is no way to replace it. If you want to travel with the unit you'll either need to take a laptop to charge it or buy a universal usb charger. The claimed battery life of the S10 is around 8 hours and I haven't tested it fully yet. Charging takes 1.5 hours for a full charge and about an hour will get 80% charging. Seems pretty reasonable for the size of the unit.

Recording:
There is a microphone for recording and you can directly record fm radio. These are both semi-useful but not essential features. It appeared that when recording you can only record to WMA files but more fiddling will have to confirm this. There is no line in so you can't record directly from another source but in a player this size you wouldn't expect it.

Overall: 8/10
Ignore the inbuilt software and use explorer its really an excellent little player. Tiny size, good sound, colour screen and nifty user interface. A shiteload more features than a shuffle which appears to be the only real competition in the tiny, tiny mp3 market and up to 2gb storage make this a pretty useful music machine. Cool style, excellent screen and big sound are a huge bonus in this little postage stamp.

Minor gripe: Oh yeah, they expect you to use the headphones in a lanyard style with the unit hanging round your neck. All well and good if you want to do that but useless if you want to have the unit in your pocket or somewhere else the headphone cord is just too short. So you might have to use other headphones.