Another Great Ad

It's no secret that this is very much an Apple household. Apples featured early in my computing career, and subsequent experience of Windows and it's endless updates and inevitable slowdowns confirmed to me that Apple was better. It's a matter of opinion, and many people hold the reverse opinion just as vehemently. (I'm right and they're wrong of course, but as long as they're happy who am I to judge?)
But there is one thing I've never understood about all things Apple, and that's the habit of its diehard fans of queueing for hours, sometimes days, outside their shops to be the first to purchase their latest gadgets. I don't get that. Not least because I hate shopping, but also because I would rather wait until a gadget has been out for a while and all the bugs have been ironed out. I'd rather let the gadget junkies deal with issues of exploding batteries, dodgy aerials, and software glitches. Some people want to own the first one, I want to own the one that works.
Enough already, the point is, all that silliness obviously confounds other people too. So much so, that when Somersby Cider decided to make an advertisement, they came up with a spoof of an Apple launch. Of particular note are the docking system and interface.

On a Happier Note ...

Someone in San Francisco is sneaking around under cover of darkness, installing miniature doors. I've no idea why they're doing this, but I like it. Anything that makes people smile, even if just for a moment, is fine with me. I particularly like the one with the 'Closed' sign in its window. It makes me wonder where the miniature shopkeeper might have gone on his day off.

April Fool?

I thought I'd stumbled across an early April Fool's joke this morning, but the story is appearing across the internet, so I'm forced to concede it may be genuine. It's the story of the female police officer who is suing the owner of a garage for failing to ensure her safety. The man had called the police to report a break-in, the WPC was sent out in response, but she tripped over a kerb on her way into the garage.
Anyway, I'm now trying to think of all the people I can sue, because I trip over all the time. I thought it was my own fault for not watching where I'm going, but I now see the error of my thinking. I could make a fortune! (As a cautionary note: should you hear people breaking into your property at any time, please make sure you put all the lights on, remove all trip hazards and affix suitable warning notices around your premises before you call the police. Apparently crime victims are there to protect the police.)
I'm still fervently hoping this will turn out to be a collective April Fool's joke - it can't be real, can it?

Free(ish) Holiday!

A woman holidaying in Hawaii lost her camera whilst diving. Annoying, upsetting, expensive, - maybe, but it's led to her being offered a round trip to Taiwan. Apparently the ocean's currents carried the camera to a beach at Taitung, on the east coast of Taiwan, where it was found by an employee of China Airlines. He found the still intact memory card and was able to use it to find the camera's owner. His bosses then offered her a free round-trip ticket to go and collect it.
Now, I've checked the tides and currents and have worked out that if I lob my camera into the sea off the south coast of the Isle of Wight at 1:32am on the 14th July this year, it should reappear on the shores of Florida (or possibly the Philippines -the calculations involved in this experiment are pretty complex and maths has never been my strong point) some time in 2018. Then all I need is for it to be found by a tech-savvy airline employee whose bosses are looking for some good PR and that'll be 2018's summer holiday sorted!

Happy Easter

With Easter looming it's hard to escape chocolate at the moment. The shops have been crammed with Easter eggs for months, so even if you've only gone in for a pint of milk you find your mind wandering to that first delicious crack of chocolate, fresh from the fridge. Mmm ... sorry, lost my train of thought there. Bizarrely enough, I don't even really like chocolate these days, but I still find myself hankering after Easter eggs. It's that crack that does it.

Anyway, the Telegraph has a video for die-hard chocolate fans: Britain's Best Chocolatier, William Curley, has put together a video showing us all how to make our very own chocolate egg. Okay, it's unlikely any of us are actually going to make our own, but it's fun to watch.

Mmmm, Caaaake!

I can't think of many things better than a house filled with cake, though granted it might not be the best idea for my waistline. One day I'm going to enrol in a course to learn proper sugarcraft, and it'll be a story like this that inspires me to do it.
I'd be happy just to be able to recreate that treasure chest!

In another 'food' storyline, it emerges that Israel is currently in the grip of a locust invasion. The Israelis have adopted a novel approach to dealing with this modern plague - they're eating them!
I think I'll take a slice of the treasure chest cake, thanks.

James Herbert

I was very sad to hear of the death of the great James Herbert. I had a collection of his books when I was younger, purchased from the local Woolworths whenever I had some spare cash. They made a deep impression upon me, though it's true to say he's to blame for my abiding terror of rats. Both he and Stephen King were heroes of mine, their knack for turning the everyday into something terrifyingly different was an inspiration to a young aspiring writer.
Rest in peace, James Herbert. You'll be greatly missed.