surryskingdom.co.uk

Is it really that hard to wake up in the morning and put together a nice looking outfit for the day ahead?  I’m seeing an increase in people getting the look kind of right but ruining it with their choice of accessories.

Take this morning for instance.  A guy walked past our house which made me grin.  I reconstructed his check list for the morning:

• Wake up and climb out of bed.
• Have a poo followed by a shower.
• Have coffee, toast and maybe a glass of orange juice.
• Brush teeth, gargle with mouth wash, spit it out.
• Put clean pants on.
• Put clean socks on,
• Put clean, Mummy ironed white shirt on.
• Put clean, Mummy pressed trousers on.
• Put tie from the 60′s on, can’t do it, get Mummy to tie it for me.
• Grab Mummy prepared lunch in a carrier bag.
• Hit the road.

Thumbing through the latest Betterware catalogue I was amazed at the shit some people actually buy.  Two items caught my eye and made me realise my life was missing something.

How often have you been measuring something and thought “scissors would be really handy right now”?  Well looky hear, Betterware have answered your prayers, say hello to the amazing measuring scissors.

Next problem I have mainly effects me in the mornings.  Preparing breakfast is a real hassle because pouring the milk is so difficult.  Removing the stubborn lid from the carton then having to pour it.  I often pour milk all over my semi naked body, the worktop and the floor.  But hold on just one minute.  Betterware can supply you with a Topster Milk Carton Pourer to save you from embarrassment.  What a fantastic invention.

Thank you Betterware for sorting two very serious problems in my life.

Since the iPhone was launched I’ve stuck with O2 because at launch they were the only provider.  Things have changed now, most of the big UK providers now support the iPhone.  I’ve been toying with changing tariffs for some time, mainly because I think the 500mb per month data cap, all though ok at the moment, will not be so good in the coming months.

Apple announced the iCloud service recently and one thing that stood out for me was the ability to stream my music from the cloud to any of my iTunes enabled devices, iPhone, MacBook and iPad in my case.  I fear my O2 data cap will be pushed to breaking point when this new service is made available to me.

If I move my mobile account over to Three I can get 300 minutes, 3000 text messages and “all you can eat” data.  That’s right people, all I can eat data.  All this for £15 per month on pay and go.  What a bargain.  I’ve got the SIM already and I’m checking coverage on my travels using my HTC Wildfire.  Early indications point to a provider change on the horizon.

How cool does Seb look? Needed to protect his precious eyes from the harmful rays today, was certainly a hot one. We need to break him into his first pair of sunglasses slowly as he’s not 100% sure about them at the moment. Have to get used to them as I think most of the summer is behind us now.

Over three years she lasted.  Had some good times but losing control of her ability to hold water meant she had to go.  No, not the wife, she has perfect bladder control I think, the coffee machine.  For an impulse buy it certainly earned its place in the kitchen.  On average I used to run about three coffee pods a day through it.  Some would call me a coffee addict, I prefer to call myself a coffee lover.

Anyway, had a result with the new machine, the perfectly formed Dolce Gusto Piccolo.  It’s smaller than the model I replaced but still packs a lovely punch in the caffeine department.  Recommended retail price is £99 but I noticed Comet were selling it at half price, £49.  This was the final kick up the arse I needed to take the plunge and shell out for my next coffee maker.

Of course, Comet were out of stock.  However, Best Buy had them in vast quantities but with one downside, the price tag, £89.  I know from past experiences that they will price match if another store has them in stock.  Lucky for me a Comet store within ten miles had them in stock.  Imagine the size of my smile when not only did Best Buy price match they also refunded 10% of the Comet price.  Hooray, new coffee machine for £45.

Now I’ve started to blog again I thought if an app was available it would make my blogging life so much easier. Well what do you know, an app is available. I use wordpress to take care of business on surryskingdom and early feelings towards the mobile app are good. This very post for instance was created whilst waiting for Natwest to allow access to their bank, need to survey it you see, it’s my job.
Look out for more mobile posts, it’s the future of blogging.

It’s funny that after around a year of owning a car satellite navigation system it seems to lose the ability to navigate efficiently.  I blame the government for adding new roads and changing the flow of one way systems.  Only yesterday I found myself driving through a field, not literally, on the satellite navigation screen.  Why?  Because some one decided to re-route a section of the A2 in Kent.  Plus side it makes the journey quicker and the new road surface is silky smooth like my silk codpiece.  Down side is I now have to download a £50 map update so I don’t panic when ever I use this section of the A2.  Freaking out when driving at 70mph thinking you’re in a field, when you’re not,  is not a nice feeling and could cause a nasty accident in your pants.

You know how it is!  You’re out surveying a building and all you have are rather small A4 plans.  Not enough space to mark up, add features or write notes.  Because of this pain I’ve finally opted to buy an A3 printer, the HP Officejet 7500A to be exact.

First thing you notice is the box, it’s huge.  On opening the box I begin to have doubts as to where I can house this behemoth of a printer.  Even now, a few weeks after taking delivery it still sits on the box it came in, just in front of my office book case.  Not the most convenient of places but it works until I can find a more permanent home.

Two things I’ve sacrificed compared to my old Kodak ESP7 are duplex printing (double sided printing) and crazy cheap ink.  Saying that the ink in the HP wasn’t that bad, I paid around £50 for all four high yield cartridges, black, cyan, magenta and yellow.  I guess one advantage to having four cartridges is if one colour expires you replace only the one cartridge.  With the Kodak I have to replace the single colour cartridge.

I’ve used the printer for a few weeks now and have to say I’m mighty impressed.  It’s quiet, prints fast and cunningly scans A3 documents using the built in A4 flat bed scanner.  Built in software allows you to scan the two halves before the scanner stitches the two images together, clever.  Scanning A3 documents requires you to save the scanned images to a memory card which is inserted into one of the two slots in the front.  Bizarrely enough there isn’t the ability to insert a USB flash drive.

This device also houses a fax machine, a throwback from the 80′s and 90′s.  Not sure why we still use fax machines as in my mind email is far superior and has colour.  Still, I’ve wired into my phone line just incase I feel the urge to send a fax.

Another really neat feature is the ability to scan or copy multiple documents using the page feeder up top, something my Kodak can’t do.  I’ve lost count of the times that a client requests multiple documents that I have only as hard copies.  Not a problem now, pop them in the top feeder, push a button and leave it to work.  Obviously this only works for A4 size as A3 needs human intervention as mentioned earlier.

I can now also print directly from my iPhone or iPad using AirPrint.  Seems at the moment HP is the only manufacturer supporting this technology.  HP also offer ePrint technology which means I can email prints directly to the printer from anywhere in the universe (assuming I have an internet connection).

So how is this printer to live with?  First impressions are good, being quiet is a real bonus compared to the Kodak.  Good quality prints in both A4 and A3 make my working life easier as does the ability to scan/copy multiple documents with minimum fuss.  I don’t think I can justify getting rid of the Kodak printer as the HP’s inability to duplex print is a problem for me.

A price tag of £170 here in the UK means it’s a real steal.  So if you’re looking for a capable, affordable A3 printer look no further than the HP Officejet 7500A.

I’ve been toying with the idea of signing up for a Twitter account for a few months now.  Seems to be the social must have thing at the moment.  So last night, I downloaded the iPhone Twitter app, the Mac twitter app and then signed myself up for an account.  Also took the liberty of linking it with my Facebook account so I can post comments and thoughts in two places rather than just one.  Like anybody cares!

It’s early days so I’m not sure if I’m going to like it.  First impressions are good but as all new things, takes some getting used to.  Time will tell if I become a Twitter whore!

My username on Twitter is @marksurry.  Follow me if you have no friends, might make you feel more popular than you actually are.

I think we’ve all done it at some point in our lives, even if it was when we were baby humans.  A snart.  I’d never come across the term until this morning.  Sebastian was in my arms (Sebastian is my baby, not a gay lover) when he produced not only two cracking sneezes but also two cracking farts.  I thought to myself there must be a word that describes this phenomenon.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered there is a word which can be found in the Urban Dictionary, snart.

Definition:  Combination of a sneeze and a fart.  When the pressure of a sneeze causes one to fart.

Example:  Oh my gosh, did Mark just snart!