Saturday 28th February 2009 15:00
Went watching a live football match today (as in not on the television). It was the first match I'd seen since going to the Reebok many moons ago and it was the first live football match Tanya had ever seen!
The match was a Blue Square South clash between Havant and Waterlooville v AFC Wimbledon. The Blue Square South is in fact the Conference South, for the moment though, due to sponsorship reasons, it's known as Blue Square South. The league is one of the two 'second' divisions of the Football Conference in England, the other being Blue Square North. Along with the North league, both are at the second level of the National League System and sit at the sixth tier overall of the English football league system.
For more information about Blue Square South, click on the logo above.
Havant and Waterlooville's ground, Westleigh Park, is about a 20 minute walk away, if that. Whenever they've played before, we've always known when they've scored!
Tanya's boss, Dave, kindly handed two season tickets to us some time ago and we'd planned to make full use of them today, for the first time since he gave them to us.
It was quite a wintry afternoon so, rather than walk, we opted to drive up to the ground. We hadn't realised that AFC Wimbledon were top of the table and had brought a truckload of away supporters so we ended up parking quite a way away and it would've been quicker walking!!
The match was very entertaining, with a handful of chances at both ends of the pitch, with the most clear-cut ones falling to the Hawks. It ended 0-0 and Tanya and I left the ground feeling very cold but happy that we hadn't seen the home side lose.
Click on either of the club crests to visit their websites.
Friday 27th February 2009 16:07
From the fear of dentists to the fear of flying... extreme BASE jump flying... in a wingsuit! You don't believe me? Click on the YouTube logo below to watch a video, and if that still doesn't satisfy you, type 'wingsuit' into the YouTube search bar and watch some more - they're awesome!
Since watching the video, I delved more into the research of these and found a company in Croatia who manufacture them. Phoenix-Fly design, develop and produce state-of-the-art high performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE-jumping. Robert Pecnik, the founder of Phoenix-Fly, started his skydiving career in Zagreb, Croatia in 1982 and designed the first commercial wingsuit in 1997, inspired by the late Patrick de Gayardon. The new wingsuit design was revolutionary with a quick wing release system providing the wingsuit flyer with the option to quickly and safely detach the wings in case of an emergency.
For more information about Phoenix-Fly, please on the logo below.
Thursday 26th February 2009 17:57
Back in November of last year, whilst chomping on a biscuit, one of my molars split. Luckily, I managed to see an emergency dentist who managed to sort out a temporary filling for me. Unfortunately, within a month or so, part of the filling broke away and ever since then, I've struggled with a sort of crater in the side of it and have been constantly aware of it since.
Fortunately, a new NHS dental practice has opened locally and I managed to register the three of us with them. Oasis is the UK's leading dental body corporate with over 140 practices nationwide and practices work together in regional clusters to provide patients with more choice. It's such a relief knowing that I'm a patient now, particularly as I have always been used to regular six-monthly visits up until five years ago.
For more information, please click on the logo above.
All of this has the backing of The British Dental Health Foundation, an independent charity dedicated to improving the oral health of the public by providing free and impartial dental advice. The organisation runs educational campaigns like National Smile Month, informing and influencing the public, profession and government on issues such as mouth cancer awareness and fluoridation.
Click on the logo above if you'd like to know more.
As with any trip to the dentist, it usually ends up with a meal out. All three of us had a delicious meal in 'Aroma', an Oriental Restaurant in Havant. Tanya chose Chicken Chow Mein, Abbi the Roast Duck Chinese Style and I plumped for Roast Duck in Plum Sauce. Incredibly good value for money and the service was second to none.
Although they don't have their own website, you can access their details via the logo above. Oh, and they also do takeaways as well.
Wednesday 25th February 2009 17:19
Back in the early days of me owning my first ever Mac, I remember a mate of mine, Lee, telling me about a great Mac application program called GraphicConverter. At the time (and we're talking late 90s here) it was an excellent program, particularly when certain files that you'd have taken as being dead and buried, were miraculously brought back to life.
Anyway, needless to say, I received a TIFF file via email and I thought it odd that my Mac Mail could see an icon, yet no image. I then tried to open it via Preview, nothing. Photoshop, nothing. Acrobat, nothing. Safari, nothing. My spirits were low until suddenly, in the depths of my distorted and diffused memory banks, I remembered the immortal words, 'GraphicConverter'. (Don't you think you're milking this one a bit? - Ed)
The program, developed by Thorsten Lemke in 1992, can open and save almost any picture file format. He switched from Atari to Macintosh so that he could work from a suitable platform to enable him to convert his image collection into one of the standard Mac formats. Until then, there hadn't been any suitable software to achieve this, so he chose to create a program that would.
His success story started there for he offers the program (along with three other ones) on a shareware basis and the GraphicConverter X I Classic now has more that 1.5 million users and is much-admired throughout the Mac user community, to the point where Apple themselves currently supply the program on their latest Macintosh computers. Within the program you are also able to edit and organise your images, start a slideshow and automate your processing.
Please click on the logo above, kindly sent to me by Thorsten himself, to find out more.
Tuesday 24th February 2009 11:30
There are many great fonts out there (there are many crap ones too). However, some foundries, namely the one that I'll provide a link to today, seem to have nothing but excellent ones. As with any form of art, there's always one to fit a particular backdrop, even Comic Sans (are you off your rocker?!?! - Ed)
Originally starting out as a graphic designer and illustrator in 1976, Mark Simonson developed his interest in typeface design to the point where he started his own business in 2000, with more than 100 fonts on the market and many more to come.
I've included a couple of fonts that are particularly stylish, more headline fonts than body copy, as I'm sure you will agree. Please click on his logo to find out more.
Monday 23rd February 2009 09:09
Someone had asked me whether I'd be able to convert the properties of a CMYK colour into a Pantone reference and it's not an easy task. There are several sites out there that enable you to key in RGB colour properties and they're then converted online, but even then, they can be rather inaccurate at times.
I decided to 'Google' the question and see what sort of answers materialised. I found the best solution on a website called 'Print Planet' where someone had suggested keying in the properties of each 'channel' (i.e. C=4 M=58 Y=96 K=15) and then altering the colour profile to Pantone, thus converting the colour to the nearest Pantone equivalent. As to how accurate this is, I have absolutely no idea.
The website boasts to be the world's largest community for print-related topics and covers subjects such as Colour Management, Computer to Plate, Prepress Applications, Adobe, Quark and many many others. The website is part of the WhatTheyThink.com service and their mission is to provide individuals with high quality hands-on information, without having to trawl through multiple websites, sales brochures and other forms of literature.
For more information, please click on the stylish logo above.
Sunday 22nd February 2009 16:59
They're like buses. There isn't one for ages and then suddenly two blogs about food appear out of nowhere. This one is about three vegetables that I love and yet one, if not all, would usually appear on a high percentage of people's 'Vegetable Hate Lists'.
Broccoli, Cauliflower and Sprouts... I love them all, particularly sprouts.
Broccoli is a plant of the cabbage family and is high in vitamin C and soluble fibre, containing multiple nutrients with potent anti-cancer properties, particularly diindolymethane and selenium. A high intake has also been found to reduce the risk of aggressive prostate cancer.
Cauliflower is also a member of the cabbage family and is low in fat, high in dietary fibre, vitamin C and possesses a very high nutritional density. More often than not, only the head (the white curd) is eaten, whilst the stalk and thick leaves are often discarded. This vegetable has also been found to reduce the risk of aggressive prostate cancer.
Sprouts or Brussels Sprouts as they're known are yet another member of the cabbage family, resembling a miniature cabbage. Records show that sprouts were cultivated in Belgium at early as the 1200s (hence their name being taken after its capital). They contain healthy amounts of vitamin A and C, folic acid and dietary fibre and are believed to protect against colon cancer, due to them containing sinigrin.
Although there is very little in the way of vegetable websites, I did track down a great website full of some delicious vegetable recipes. Click on the logo above for more information.
Saturday 21st February 2009 14:43
Another BBB on its way, still in the process of collating logos and information.
I shall be covering six real ales in all, of which the images are shown below. A further six shall be reviewed very soon.
Tasting notes to follow....
Wadworth '6X' and Young's 'Special London Ale'
Badger 'First Gold' and Badger 'Golden Glory'
Broughton Ales 'Exciseman's 80/-'
Timothy Taylor 'Landlord'
Friday 20th February 2009 10:07
Today's blog is all about Designshoot. The site is a design blog, where they publish all about design, graphic design, architectural design, product design, freebies, technology design and many more. Their blog will be useful for anyone who looking for design inspiration and resource and if you have any interesting design please submit to them, they’ll publish your design if they like it.
The categories included on their website covers bathrooms to lighting, advertising to fashion and other design orientated subjects such as gadgets, textures and after effects.
Please click on the logo above to access their site.
Thursday 19th February 2009 20:09
It's a while since I've talked about food... well, it feels that way. Every week, as a treat, Abbi (Tanya's daughter) and I share a tin of Del Monte Fruit Cocktail and a tin of Ambrosia Devon Custard and even though we have it each week, it's still something to look forward to!
The syrupy Del Monte Fruit Cocktail consists of a mixture of peaches, pears, pineapples, grapes and cherries. The packing of Fruit Cocktail takes place when harvest times of pears, peaches and grapes overlap. The South African packing season starts in February and continues throughout March while Greek production starts in September and extends throughout October.
For more information about Del Monte products, please click on the logo above.
Fresh milk is delivered to the Devon creamery in Lifton on a daily basis where the thick and creamy Ambrosia Devon Custard is produced. The company was originally founded in 1917, solely as an infant nutrition company and can now be found in 48% of British households. A trivial but interesting fact is that Ambrosia provided all the chocolate custard for the 2005 remake of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie.
To find out more about Ambrosia and all the delicious products they produce, click on the logo above. Although I contacted them for a high resolution version of their logo, I ended up having to redraw it as a vector-based PDF.
Wednesday 18th February 2009 21:37
Originally known as the BPI awards, the BRIT Awards first started in 1977. It first started out as the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards but in 1989 they were renamed the Britannia Music Awards to echo their sponsorship and this subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust. In the first year, The Beatles won three awards and in total contrast, Duffy won three awards this year.
Personally, I don't think The BRITs are a true reflection of music for I'd imagine the majority of the voting is teenage-based, judging by some of the acts that have been significant over the years.
Before I list this year's winners, I thought I'd share a few facts about the Awards, for instance, Procul Harum was the first band to ever perform at the Awards in 1977 with a ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’. Robbie Williams has won 11 BRIT awards – more than any other artist or group in the history of the BRITs. Tom Jones had to wait until he was 59 to win a BRIT Award – Best British Male in 2000. Jones was also honoured with the Outstanding Contribution Award in 2003.
And now to this year's winners...
British Album - Duffy (Rockferry) - Not heard the album but surprised Elbow didn't win it.
British Group - Elbow - Yes, I'll go along with that, 'Seldom Seen Kid' is a classic.
British Single - Girls Aloud (The Promise) - Hmmm... catchy, but Best Single?!?!
British Male Solo Artist - Paul Weller - Yeah, good choice
British Female Solo Artist - Duffy - Not much competition I suppose.
British Breakthrough Act - Duffy - Fair enough.
British Live Act - Iron Maiden - How? Why? Who voted?
International Album - Kings Of Leon (Only By The Night) - Yep, very cool band.
International Group - Kings Of Leon - As above.
International Male - Kanye West - Never even fucking heard of him!!
International Female - Katy Perry - Hot and Cold? Catchy enough.
Critics' Choice - Florence & The Machine - 'Kiss with a Fist' is a great tune.
Outstanding Contribution To Music - Pet Shop Boys - Fuck off. Seriously, fuck off.
More info about The SHITs, errr... I mean 'BRITs', click on the logo above.
Tuesday 17th February 2009 12:08
Every now and again, I stumble upon a logo design where I would deem it as being extraordinary brilliant - today is no exception, and there's not just one, but two. However, they both encompass zoos and aquariums. The first is the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the second being the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
BIAZA is the professional body representing the best zoos and aquariums in Britain and Ireland. The Member Collections pride themselves on their excellent animal welfare, education and conservation work. BIAZA supports them in their work and helps promote the work of good zoos and aquariums. I must warn you that if you visit the site, there are images on there that may be disturbing.
For more information, please click on the logo above.
WAZA is the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums and is the "umbrella" organisation for the world zoo and aquarium community. Its members include leading zoos and aquariums, and regional and national Associations of Zoos and Aquariums, as well as some affiliate organisations, such as zoo veterinarians or zoo educators, from all around the world and together they are 'United for Conservation'.
Please click on the superb logo design above for more information.
Monday 16th February 2009 17:43
As long as I can remember, my Dad has always had some involvement with the media, whether it be his current role of broadcasting on Bolton FM or his involvement with advertising agencies in and around Manchester, either way, I'm certain that his knowledge and know-how contributed to the career path I chose.
So what made me decide to give you an insight into my Dad's life? Well, some five years ago, Tanya and I created a website for him, called 'Distinctive Voices' and I added another voice sample of a chap who's widely known throughout the UK as 'The Bolton Bullfrog', his name is Bernard Wrigley. My Dad's website offers voice-over work at far less than the usual rates and has a strong selection of both male and female voices for you to choose from.
Have a listen to them by clicking on the Distinctive Voices logo above.
Sunday 15th February 2009 20:13
Okay, as promised, here's the BBB for February.
I shall be covering several real ales this month, along with tasting notes for each. Here are the first six to consider...
1. Greene King's 'IPA'. This 3.6% ABV refreshing beer is brewed in the historic market town of Bury St Edmunds, in the heart of Suffolk. This pale to medium bronze ale has a distinct hoppy taste and a clean, bitter finish. Brewed with First Gold and Challenger English hops was awarded a Gold in the 2004 CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain of Britain and is the current sponsor of both England and Harlequins RFU teams.
2. Highgate Brewery's 'Davenports'. First brewed in 1829, this 4.0% ABV original bitter is brewed in Walsall and is based on the original Davenports recipe with a blend of pale and crystal malts, supplemented with torrefied wheat and No.3 block sugar. Suitable for vegetarians, this copper-coloured ale is full-bodied, with a palate rich in fruit and malt, followed with a bitter finish which is provided by First Gold, Cascade and Styrian Golding hops.
3. Innis & Gunn's 'Oak Aged Beer'. Back in 2002, renowned Brewer, Dougal Sharp, was commissioned to create a special beer to impart a smooth, real ale using the brewery's bourbon barrels. Months later the staff at the Distillery had discovered that it had been completely transformed by its time in the oak barrels, creating a unique, malty, Scottish Beer. The 6.9% ABV real ale has vanilla, toffee and orange aromas, with a malty, lightly oaked palate and is soothing and warm in the finish and really is a superb drink.
4. S. A. Brain's 'The Rev. James'. Based in Cardiff, this real ale is brewed from a traditional recipe. At 4.5% ABV, the flavour is rich on the palate, particularly spicy and aromatic, full-bodied with a warm satisfying finish. The Rev. James is named after the founder of Buckleys Brewery who took on the serious development of the brewery after he married Maria, the daughter of Henry Child who owned the brewery in 1767 where it was originally based in Llanelli.
5. Jennings 'Cumberland'. A full-flavoured distinctively dark bitter brewed with malt made from Maris Otter barley as well as a delicate amount of amber malt, gives this real ale a nutty flavour that complements a subtle blend of English aromatic hops. This 4.2% ABV has been traditionally brewed for over a hundred years, using pure Lakeland water drawn from the brewery’s own well.
6. Jennings 'Cocker Hoop'. Originally launched as 'September Ale' in 1995, this 4.6% ABV award-winning golden bitter is made from an all malt brew, with Styrian Golding hops added at various stages, to give a classic hop flavour and aroma. The name is derived from ‘Cock-a Hoop’, an old custom of removing the cock (or spigot) from a barrel and resting it on the hoop of the cask before commencing a drinking bout, but was changed to reflect the brewery’s location on the banks of the River Cocker.
By the way, BBB is my abbreviation for Big Beer Blog!
Saturday 14th February 2009 10:37
With Valentine's Day falling on a Saturday this year, I'd sent Tanya some flowers to her work yesterday for I couldn't have guaranteed whether we'd have been in this morning, whereas I knew she was at work yesterday. When sending flowers, I think it's important that you vary what you send. It's no good sending roses all the time because it's boring and predictable, with very little thought, however beautiful the bouquet may be.
Flower rant over.
We had decided to go out for some of the day and what better place to visit on a fair day than West Wittering, not only that, we hadn't been there for some time, over a year ago to be fairly precise (it's great when you have a daily blog to refer back to!)
East Head is our favourite part of West Wittering, with a sand dune spit approximately 1000 metres long and 400 metres wide, at its widest point, and is situated at the eastern side of the entrance to Chichester Harbour. Managed by The National Trust since 1966, it is a stunning example of a natural and dynamic coastal feature and is of great interest to environmentalists and ecologists, especially due to its fragile nature.
It has also featured in film locations and adverts, in particular, 'Tommy' and in the 'Vogue' magazine. One of my favourite television programmes, 'Top Gear' has also been filmed here.
For more information, please click on the logo above.
Friday 13th February 2009 21:18
I had earmarked today's blog with reviews on numerous real ales that I've been drinking during the course of the month but something VERY interesting has taken its place. For you real ale lovers, I promise to devote a whole day's blog to around ten new ones that I have tasted, so don't despair!
Okay, what could be THAT interesting to knock real ale off the top spot? Gömböc, that's what, for it was featured on tonight's 'QI', as well as having one of its creators, Gábor Domokos, in the studio.
None-the-wiser? Well Gömböc (pronounced pronounced 'gœmbœts') is the first known convex three-dimensional homogenous object with one stable and one unstable equilibrium point, thus two equilibria altogether on a horizontal surface. It can be proven that no object with less than two equilibria exists. When placed on a horizontal surface in an arbitrary position the Gömböc returns to the stable equilibrium point, similar to some shelled animals such as turtles and beetles or even the 'Weeble' toys. While the weebles rely on a weight in the bottom, the Gömböc consists of homogenous material, whereby the shape itself accounts for self-righting. The shape was conjectured by Russian mathematician Vladimir Arnold as a mono-monostatic body.
The single unstable equilibrium point of the Gömböc is on the opposite side. It is possible to balance the body in this position, although the slightest disturbance makes it fall, as a pencil would, if balanced on its tip.
The shape was developed by Gábor Domokos (head of Mechanics, Materials and Structures at Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary) and a former student of his, Péter Várkonyi (at Princeton University).
When Gábor was asked whether it was a totally new creation, he replied with the fact that a particular species of turtle managed to correct themselves using the same principal and have been on the Earth for several million years. Rich Hall, one of the QI panelists then asked him, "Do you feel like you've wasted your life?"
For more information, please click on the logo above.
Thursday 12th February 2009 12:01
A very busy day involving photography, design and font recognition - most of my days involve this, it's just that today seemed busier than most.
Once I'd determined what font it was, it was a case of seeing if I could locate a free version on any one of the free font sites that seem to be increasing in numbers. Whilst on my hunt, I stumbled upon yet another font site, this one being very comprehensive indeed.
Please click on the logo below to see what I mean...
Right, before I finish today's blog, there's the small matter of the logo competition I set last week... how many did you recognise? Some were incredibly easy, others much more difficult, although I have been incredibly impressed with the attempts from friends and colleagues - just shows how observant people are and what's subconsciously imprinted in their memory.
Anyway, here are the answers, in order, from left to right:
Pizza Hut, Microsoft, Swatch, McDonalds, Audi, Nikon, Sky
Carlsberg, Agfa, Nintendo, Barclays, Google, Puma
Holiday Inn, DHL, Dell, Renault, BT, IBM, Ford, Yell.com
Wednesday 11th February 2009 17:29
Many of the social networking sites are criticised, particularly when it comes to data mining of the individuals who are regular visitors to such sites. Personally, I can understand the angst that many have with regards to this, particularly Facebook.
On the other hand, the likes of Twitter are purely for fun, with very little personal information being obligatory, so much so, you can 'follow' celebrities and some actually follow you (once they realise you're not some sort of axe murderer!)
Anyway, someone called Ryan Swift started to follow me, under the pseudonym of InIsolation, so I decided to view his profile, only to find that he was from Nottingham and the URL he'd provided took me to a MySpace page. It didn't take me long to realise (with his help as well) that he was the front man of an Indie band called In Isolation.
At the moment, there are only a couple of songs to listen to, namely 'The Wrong Girl' which, after listening several times to, is an absolute gem of a song, superb guitar riffs and great lyrics.
Please click on the logo above to listen to 'The Wrong Girl', which he kindly gave me permission to upload here, or visit www.inisolation.co.uk for their MySpace website.
Tuesday 10th February 2009 20:46
I logged into Skype today, as I do most days, just in case someone needs to contact me with regards to any urgent work or just general queries. I think Skype is great because it's a great way to contact someone without particularly interrupting their workflow.
Acquired by eBay in September 2005 for $2.6 billion, Skype is a cross-platform application program that allows its users to make telephone calls over the internet with additional features such as instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing. It was created by entrepreneurs Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis, and a team of software developers based in Tallinn, Estonia.
To download the latest free version, please click on the logo above.
Anyway, there was a good reason for talking about Skype because whilst I was on, my Mum sent me a message reminding me that my Dad was broadcasting live on Bolton FM.
The community radio station is relatively new with its premises being located in the heart of Bolton. At the moment, it broadcasts live from 11am-2pm weekdays and from 9am-5:30pm on Saturday and the playlist is relatively varied, although I would say it's aimed at the more mature listener! The live web cast can be accessed via the Bolton FM website (my Dad broadcasts from 11am-1pm every Tuesday).
This afternoon, I decided that the station was in need of some corporate branding, for the website is well laid out and professional, yet they haven't developed any form of identity... let's just hope that they like what I've created so it becomes another string to my bow. Why the elephant? It's an integral part of the Town's coat of arms; more about that some other time.
Please click on my logo design to find out more or listen to the web cast.
Monday 9th February 2009 21:57
A busy day, with regards to the Premiership. I was disappointed to hear that Tony Adams had been sacked from his post of Portsmouth FC's manager, and it appeared as if the feeling was widespread amongst the followers of Pompey. I really do feel that, given a little more time, he'd have turned it around, particularly given the determination of the squad against Liverpool on Saturday evening.
Another manager to face the boot was Chelsea's manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari. The main reason for his departure was a series of indifferent results, backed up with the fact that whilst under Scolari, Chelsea lost their English record unbeaten home League record of 85 games and it's the first time they have won fewer than 50 points from 25 games in the Roman Abramovich era.
Moving on from all the doom and gloom of the Barclays Premiership, I wanted to talk about the revival of Cadbury's Wispa, first produced in 1981, similar to an Aero bar but with smoother, more velvety chocolate. It appears as if Cadbury were persuaded by many web-based social network sites such as Facebook, Bebo, YouTube and MySpace to 'Bring Back Wispa' although there are many skeptics who believe the revival was all down to Cadbury. Whatever the story, I'm glad to see it back.
For more information, please click on the chocolate bar's logo above which, incidentally, I had to redraw, a vector of which can be viewed by clicking here.
Sunday 8th February 2009 22:14
Every now and again I'll stumble upon a great site that I've never seen before - tonight was no exception. I found it via "12 must-have Dashboard widgets for the average Mac user" and then spent a good while looking around their extensive archives about all kinds of things related to Apple.
The editors of the website, Ant and Frankie P, aim to build a large collection of articles and videos that serve as a resource of information to the Mac users for years to come. It's not just the Mac users either, there's plenty of hints and tips for both iPod and iPhone users too. As an Apple product user, you also have the opportunity to contact the editors and submit your own hint, tip or fix for them to publish. What a great way for the Mac community to help each other out!
Please click on their logo below for more information.
I also want to take this opportunity in thanking Ant for replying to my email so quickly by sending me a vector-based version of their fantastic logo (wouldn't have expected anything less from a fellow user!) I have since found out that the font used for their logo is SF New Republic Pro, available via the Cheap Pro Fonts website, by clicking on the logo below.
By the way, the owner of the site, Roger S. Nelsson, liked the very chunky and rounded style of Galapogos BRK Pro font so much, he used it for the CheapProFonts logo! This can also be purchased via the site.
Saturday 7th February 2009 21:36
A quiet day really. Did some work early on and then we decided to do our weekly shop before sitting down and watching an enthralling football match between Portsmouth and Liverpool, televised on Setanta Sports. Fratton Park must have been buzzing, especially as the teams went into half-time at 0-0 yet that was all to change in the second half...
Slightly against the run of play, Pompey opened up the scoring in the 61st minute with yet another goal for David Nugent, his third in four matches - could they keep hold of the lead for the next half an hour... sadly, no.
An appallingly bad back-pass in the 68th minute from Peter Crouch left David James with no option but to palm the ball away from Dirk Kuyt. A resulting indirect free-kick was given and Aurelio rockets it into the bottom right-hand corner of the net... 1-1.
In the 78th minute, Portsmouth were awarded a free-kick, some distance away on the right touchline. Belhadj whipped a curling ball in and Hreidarsson managed to get his head on it, directing it downwards, with it bouncing up and over Reina, the Liverpool goalkeeper. Game on, 2-1 to Pompey, surely they could hang on for 12 minutes... sadly, no.
Terrible defending, particularly by Distin helped Torres assist a goal for Kuyt. Pompey should have cleared their lines but failed to do so with Kuyt scoring a fantastic goal from a very tight angle in the 84th minute. The home side should have had this game wrapped up by now but at least a point was in the bag... or was it?
There were three agonising minutes of stoppage time and, in the Liverpool fashion of late, they managed to score once more with another amazing goal, this time it was a header at the near post for Torres, neatly directing a Benayoun cross in the back of the net.
This time it was all over, a 2-3 defeat for poor old Pompey. I really felt for Tony Adams, I think there's a good manager in him, just needs more experience... trouble is, how much more experience can Portsmouth allow him?
Friday 6th February 2009 18:23
Treated ourselves to a Pizza Hut meal tonight - for the life of me, I cannot remember the last time I had anything from there, certainly before I moved down here which is almost three years ago.
Anyway, we'd ordered a large stuffed crust pizza, split into Hawaiian and Pepperoni Feast... both of which were very tasty indeed however, the three separate boxes containing our side orders were disappointing. Considering this was classed as a 'Family Meal', there was barely enough to be split between the three of us; not only that, the potato wedges, breaded chicken strips and garlic bread with cheese were both cold and in indivisible portions... four garlic breads, five chicken strips... at least be consistent!
To find out more, or order online, please click on the Pizza Hut logo above.
Having had my grumble for the week, I have to say that both 'Question of Sport' and 'QI' were exceptionally funny tonight... QI being one of the classics.
Thursday 5th February 2009 21:51
Earlier on in the week, Tanya's boss emailed me with a link to 'Frontier Silicon', a Wi-Fi Radio Portal that allows you to choose from over 15,000 internet radio stations and podcasts. You can browse the site for your desired stations and then create a list of your favourites which will be immediately displayed and permanently accessible through your Wi-Fi radio. The website also enables you to add specific stations, even ones that are not currently being promoted.
It was founded in June 2001 and the technology can now be found in nearly all leading radio brands such as Bang & Olufsen, Goodmans, JVC, Philips, Sony and many more. Frontier has over 150 staff in its London-based headquarters along with sales and support in China, Hong Kong and Korea.
For more information, please click on the logo above.
Wednesday 4th February 2009 21:39
I love logos, particularly simple eye-catching ones and this is the reason for today's blog.
For the life of me, I cannot remember how I stumbled upon a particular blog of a graphic designer, but he'd set a fun competition using only one letter from various logos known worldwide (although there were a couple I didn't identify - maybe he thought the USA was as worldwide as it gets...)
Anyway, I thought, "what a bloody great idea!" and decided on the question I was going to ask and then it became a major task of ascertaining what "well-known" was.
I'd say that the 21 companies I've chosen specific logo letters from are all famous brands, some of which will be instantly recognisable to virtually anyone.
See how you fair... answers in a week's time.
Click on the graphic above to download a PDF with the letters at a much larger size.
Tuesday 3rd February 2009 07:30
I woke up at a stupid hour... 4 o'clock to be precise. The last thing Tanya said to me before I went to sleep was, "If you get up early and it's snowing, wake me up". Subconsciously, my brain must've been saying, "wake up early", because I did. There had been a light fall of snow but nothing significant enough to wake Tanya up... that was until around 05:30 and it suddenly started snowing heavily and by 7 o'clock, it was quite deep.
It was time for me to email my boss in the hope that I too, could take the day off (Tanya had arranged it the night before with her boss, in the event of it snowing). I had a quick response with a resounding "yes", so our day was set. Last time it snowed this much, we were stumped with where to go to and therefore made a list of places to visit if it ever occurred again.
We visited Stansted and Forestside (as we did last year) and then carried on through to Buriton, eventually finishing off on Butser Hill. There are several images that I've already added to various galleries so I thought I'd share a couple here, the first being particularly funny because all these ducks thought I had food for them (more arrived after I took this shot!) and once they'd realised I had nothing for them, the waddled off in a disgruntled manner! The second is another one of the many I took on Butser Hill... it was truly magical.
Monday 2nd February 2009 20:24
Having experienced a 'once in a lifetime' event on the 6th April last year, it snowed again today and a good 2" (50.8mm to those of you who struggle with imperial) of the stuff. Needless to say, Britain came to a standstill but everyone at my work managed to find their way in.
Later on in the day, I received a very funny email from one of my work colleagues. It's a kosher advert for a New Zealand-based men's clothing company called Hallensteins, their strapline being 'It's good to be a guy'. The company was founded by German, Bendix Hallenstein who met his wife in Australia whilst running a general store with his two older brothers. Bendix later set up his own factory in Dunedin and the very first New Zealand clothing factory was born.
To view the advert, please click on the logo above.
Sunday 1st February 2009 21:39
I finally managed to catch up with all my site updates - to say it's been an arduous task is an understatement however, it's also a fulfilling one at that. For those of you who may have missed the last two month's gallery additions, please click on any one of the thumbnails below to view the larger images.
Later on in the day, we sat down and watched the last of the first five episodes of the BBC's 'A History of Scotland', presented by Neil Oliver. The series has followed the mystery of how the Scottish Kingdom, 'Alba' was born, the role the church played in promoting the cause of Robert Bruce, the story behind the infamous Highland/Lowland divide and the final one that we watched which covered the tale of two ancient enemies who set aside their differences to form Great Britain.
It has been a fantastic series and the final five episodes are set to be broadcast towards the end of the year - to view the latest episode, please click on the logo below.
