I took these while I was on walkabout in town.
And this one is just too kyooooote!
pictures!
Month: February 2006
I want me some of that!
Distillery to Revive 184-Proof Whisky
LONDON (AP) — A Scottish distillery said Monday it was reviving a centuries-old recipe for whisky so strong that one 17th-century writer feared more than two spoonfuls could be lethal. Risk-taking whisky connoisseurs will have to wait, however – the spirit will not be ready for at least 10 years.
The Bruichladdich distillery on the Isle of Islay, off Scotland's west coast, is producing the quadruple-distilled 184-proof – or 92 percent alcohol – spirit “purely for fun,” managing director Mark Reynier said. Whisky usually is distilled twice and has an alcohol content of between 40 and 63.5 per cent.
Bruichladdich is using a recipe for a spirit known in the Gaelic language as usquebaugh-baul, “perilous water of life.” In 1695, travel writer Martin Martin described it as powerful enough to affect “all members of the body.”
“Two spoonfuls of this last liquor is a sufficient dose; if any man should exceed this, it would presently stop his breath, and endanger his life,” Martin wrote. Reynier put Martin's test to the claim and consumed three spoonfuls. “I can tell you, I had some and it indeed did take my breath away,” Reynier said.
Bruichladdich, a small privately owned distillery founded in 1881, plans to make about 5,000 bottles of the whisky, which Reynier estimated would sell for about 400 pounds (US$695, euro590) per case of 12 bottles. Although whisky lovers can place their orders now, the actual spirit will not be delivered for about 10 years. “You get a better drink if you wait because of the basic oxygenation through the oak barrels,” Reynier said.
In the meantime, customers will be able to watch the whisky's progress on the distillery's webcams.
YASP
Sunday saw us going to Comet/Curries/Argos to get a washing machine and a vacuum. After much faffing around, we selected a Hotpoint washer-dryer unit that will be delivered to the new house this friday and a Hoover vacuum with more certifications and acronyms than you can shake a fist at. We chose it because it's red and can handle pet hair. Hopefully, it won't choke with Katy hair, but we'll have to test that.
We were welcome home with noise from upstairs. Joy. I can't wait to be rid of those people. The agency notified us of another visit tomorrow. I hope they're not frightened off by the massive amount of boxes that are slowly taking over the flat.
I'm confirming the people from work who are going to be helping us this weekend, and I think I might have sold the TV. More details to come during the week.
Oh, as a side note, I'm still hurting from that workout last thursday. I'm going to give it another go today to see if I can't shake the last of the stiffness muscles with a fresh dose of pain.
†Yet Another Shopping Spree
Ikea shopping spree
My Ikea jones is satisfied for the next little while. We got all what we wanted, plus some unexpected stuff (as this is a trip to Ikea after all), for what'd we'd allocated money-wise. Also, shockingly, all the items we wanted were in stock in the self-serve aisles. That's never happened to me before.
For the kitchen, we got:
LEKSVIK Gateleg table and some cheap folding chairs until we have a bit more money to get some nicer ones. We did get some cool cushions to put on them though. I also bought a magnet board where I'll be able to put most of my collection on. As per the tradition, I also bought some cooking utensils – a pierced ladle that I can use to deep-fry things.
For the living room, we got:
EKTORP Three-seat sofa (in white) as well as a nice multi-toned beige rug and a really nice tryptich of a landscape printed on canvases. It's really pretty.
For the master bedroom, we got:
LEKSVIK Chest of drawers with 4 drawers for my clothes.
LEKSVIK Wardrobe with 3 doors for Katy's clothes, with extra storage for towels and bedding.
ASPELUND Bedside table as cheap and nasty bedside tables.
Choosing the bedroom furniture was the worst of all, because the chest of drawers I originally wanted wouldn't have fit in the place we wanted to put it, and then neither of the original two choices for the wardrobe ended up being suitable. In the end, we found an acceptable compromise with the LEKSVIK furniture.
We also bought a nice duvet cover that'll match the paint scheme and feels really, really nice, as well as some plain white muslin drapes. I'll need to measure up a proper curtain rod but that's no biggie.
For the office, we got:
MIKAEL Corner work station (in birch) which will really help with the organization of the loose paperwork and bills :)
All in all, it came to just over £1000, which is what we'd budgeted. When we have a bit more cash to spend, we're going to get a shelving unit for the kitchen (GORM) and see if we can get a storage chest for the bedroom, as well as another bookshelf (either the second bedroom or the office – probably NORREBO).
Well that's annoying as hell
It seems that the demons of stupidity have been plaguing my web provider. People have been telling me that my links are broken for the past 2 days and at first, I didn't believe them but I've now been forced to notice that something is wrotten in the kindom of Denmark.
Logging on to my webserver, I was shocked to discover that all my directories are now dated feb 16/feb17, even though some of those should be years old. Files I uploaded on the 22nd are nowhere to be found. Even more worrysome, I did some file maintenance this morning and deleted some old stuff. Lo and behold, it's now back. What's even more brain damaged is that I was trying to install java/tomcat and had downloaded all the files to do that. They're gone. Poof! Kaput!
I've opened a trouble ticket with the ISP and I have everything in cache/backup, but still. That's just fucked up.
Edit: I know what the problem is. In fact, the exact same thing happend to me once before. My web provider keeps getting bought by a bigger fish and they keep migrating their servers to new server farms. As such, they take a snapshot and replicate it to a new server, then point the DNS entries to the new server. Should be a quick and painless transition. Except that I connect to flubu.com on a daily basis and therefore have its IP cached locally. So when the master records change, I don't see it and merrily keep working on a server that will soon die. Joy. I'm moving the last files over now so no harm done. I would just have appreciated a bit or warning…
Houston, we are go for paint!
As you are aware, the property is part of the Wellcome Trust's Hinxton Estate. It is usually the case that all properties under my client's ownership (not just those in Hinxton) are painted internally in Gardenia, with white on the doorframes/windows etc. However, following your submission of paint samples, I am satisfied that the proposed works are in keeping with the character of the property.
We how have the blessing of the estate agent to start the painting as soon as we have the keys. Happy dance!
If you're curious, you can take a look at our colour palette.
Housing situation update
Click on the picture to see a bigger one.
You'll see just how close the new flat is to work.
Things are finally settling down for the house. I've contacted the agent and we'll be allowed to install a Sky dish provided we take it down and plug up the connection holes if the landlord doesn't want it there after we leave. Normally, we'd be asked to give a bigger deposit but since we've already done so because we want a cat, that's ok.
To date, I've already :
- contacted BT to get a new phone line
- scheduled the Sky installation
- updated my insurance policy
- informed Cambridge City Council (for tax)
- informed Cambridge water
I still need to :
- inform Natwest
- inform National Geographic
- setup a mail forward from Royal Mail
- update my mail forward from Canada Post
- inform IG, Caisse Populaire, McGill, Solutions Bancaires
We get the keys to the property on the 1st of march, and as soon as that happens, we're going to start prepping and painting. If all goes well, we're moving on the 4th of March. Next weekend will see us going to Leicester and Ikea, where we are scheduled to buy about £1000's worth of furniture. Yay, Ikea!
Here's hoping everything goes well between now and then.
Oh that's no good!
I just found out today that our broadband/cable TV distributor won't be able to provide service to our new flat.
Though they serve the street, they “can't get a connection into the house” – whatever the hell that means. From what I could extract from the customer service monkey, there's an engineering problem that they can't/won't fix. I'm going to call the department on monday (as it's closed for the weekend), but I am not a happy bunny.
I'm a TV junkie and I want home internet.
Crappity crap crap.
Things will get better
The move will get done.
We won't run out of money.
The job will start soon.
We will get through this.
Things will be better.
I believe this with all of my heart.
And I love you.
Going to be one of them days
We spent a large part of the evening last night doing a mad cleaning rampage in the apartment so that the prospective tenants that are visiting it today wouldn't be frightened off by the amount of clutter. As such, I woke up stiff as a board this morning. I thought I was having a good morning, everything on time and the such, right up to the moment that I see the work shuttle turn the corner and drive off without me. It actually didn't even register with me to jump up and down and make a fuss as it was turning the roundabout. I just stood there with a dumb look on my face. Go me. Walked back home and called a cab. Everything was going ok again, right up to the moment where the cabbie's satnav got him lost. Nothing major, and I didn't get in too late, but still not a good way to start a day.