Ok so Prison Break one and two were fantastic TV and esential watching. i was a huge fan and anyone that i know who has watched it as been as equally impressed.
Now Prison Break 3 starts in 2 weeks time and everyone who is a fan of the show is waiting to see if a whole new season can be as good as the previous two. However, for all those of you that cant wait here is a sneak preview!!
It wasn't until my tube failed to stop at Piccadilly Circus this morning that I realised something was wrong. Finally getting to Leicester Square via Charing Cross I then heard about the attempted car bomb, that had failed to go off just a stone's throw from my office. Haymarket is an area I regularly walk through and even drink in occasionally and to think this morning i could have been coming into an area that had just been devastated by a car bomb, certainly gives you pause for thought!.
It's very easy to forget the threat of terrorism we face here in London and this morning's events bring it all home as to how real that threat really is. With most of the surrounding area cordoned off by police tape and police men and women on every corner, you realise how big a tragedy this would have been had the bomb actually gone off.
With the helicopters hovering over head and the traffic building up outside of the area affected you realise the trouble that it has caused even when it was foiled by the ever vigilant emergency services. The story is that an ambulance crew attending someone from the Tiger Tiger bar actually saw the car and called the Police - so top job to them! The police then came and manually made it safe. Only to then find petrol, gas canisters and nails packed into the car itself.
Even as I type this blog entry the Police have just closed off another part of London as another suspicious car is being looked at. Also a huge visible Police presence has been deployed in the last hour or so in the key areas of London - including outside my office.
As you would expect there has been a massive global media interest and the press are gathered on several corners of Piccadilly looking in, filming the Haymarket area. You can see from the pictures here just how many crews there were just on one street in this area. I guess the trouble is that there will be terrorist elements that will see the coverage and the disturbance and count this as some sort of small victory. Still with no injuries let alone any deaths we can also count this as a victory for us, and will only strengthen our resolve to fight terrorism like this even more. Give it a few days and London will be back to normal.....terrorism will never succeed in this capital city.
(All these photo's are my copyright and are not for public use unless a link to this post is included)
So if you think you know your stuff, or just fancy having a stab in the dark - www.fantasycabinet.com is the political game for you. WIth a chance of winning an ipod for the person closest to the right Cabinet when its announced, its worth a quick go.
Let me know what you think!
We were asked to undertake the Thomas Profile Psychometric test at work today. I had no problem with doing that, although I've always been slightly sceptical of these types of tests in terms of their accuracy and ability to offer any real insight. However, having got my profile back after undertaking the report i have to say i was amazed at the results and indeed some of the statements in terms of how accurate they were and how much i agreed with what the report was saying about the way i work. So when the results do go your way or are mainly positive it's very easy to say they are a good thing - but i wonder what you think of the tests when they come out with any negative traits or obvious flaws? You could argue there are points in my report that i see as positives that other people might see as negatives. But again, that i guess relates back to the type of person you are in the first place. In the interests of openness and for a chance for those of you that have met me to judge for themselves i have included the report findings here. I think they are confidential, but I'm not sure why you would want to keep it that way if you get a good 'school report. See what you think...it could just be everyone gets a good report to put everyone on a bit of a high for the day, or is that a bit sceptical - anyone get bad results from something like this? What intrigues me is what is done with the results from a managerial or HR perspective? Here's a link to the company that administers the tests... www.thomasinternational.net and here's my test report: DESCRIPTIVE WORDS Positive, verbal, persuasive, influential, friendly, communicative, competitive, assertive, inquisitive, dependable, deliberate, persistent, good listener, kind, accommodating, independent, stubborn and strong-willed. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS Achieves results in an organised and deliberate manner. A good verbal communicator. Persistently ties up the loose ends and sees a job through to conclusion. Uses influence and persuasion to win his way. Exhibits poise and has a stabilising effect on people. Demonstrates loyalty, develops relationships and gains people's trust. Self-motivated in a specialist area of expertise. Motivators Phil XXXX is best motivated by situations which allow him popularity, social recognition and the feeling that he has a fair amount of freedom to act. Whilst opportunity for advancement is an important aspect in motivating this person, it is also necessary to make him feel secure within the working environment. Should Phil XXXX have a boss, then ideally that person will be a participative but direct leader who takes time out to explain objectives clearly, checks for understanding and then allows him to get on and complete the task at hand. Values Phil XXXX brings to the Organisation The ability to communicate his vision to others in an enthusiastic manner is the primary value that Phil XXXX brings to the organisation. He likes challenges and will set goals for others to follow. His optimism and charm are contagious and he may well become a natural leader in an organisation. However, his drive for tangible results is toned down by a deliberate and patient approach. He is unlikely to make any unpremeditated decisions, preferring to listen carefully to all options before reaching a conclusion. He displays persistence and a certain stubbornness in the completion of tasks.
Thanks to meez for this and northerngeek for showing meez in the 1st place....so do you think they got the likeness down...not sure about the dance moves...
Lucy and I had a cracking day at the races on Saturday. We went to Epsom for Derby day and thanks to Vershal we were up in one of the hospitality tents at the Tattenham corner part of the course. And cool to see Sarah again - last time was our wedding! A Champagne reception, 3 course lunch and a free bar meant that we were well looked after.Our table alone got through about 20 bottles of wine, and that was before the shots came out.
Apart from a useless tip in the first race (soldier of fortune have you actually finished yet?) we had a a cracking day betting wise. In the second i backed Declaration of war and that romped home (its a legal requirement to use the word romped when talking about horses...). The third race i had a reverse forecast for Blythe knight and Blue Ksar and they came home 1st and 2nd. In the 3.30 we had Caribbean Coral (on account of getting engaged there! - very scientific methods of picking a winner) as an each way bet and that came in to win us a few more pounds. Obviously we had Authorised in the derby itself - quite why anyone would bet against it to win was beyond me - and we also had aqualeen as an each way that came in too. Had a betting blip in the next race but finished on a high as we got another each way bet win with Bahamanian Pirate (again..Bahamas is where we got engaged so we went for this method again!)
John Blaine and his date Louise joined us after the last race to drink the evening in and have the crack. Big shout out to the rest of the table as they were all lovely people and made me and Mrs Phil feel part of the group. We eventually got a taxi home about 9.00 for a few more beers at the new Ryan house. A great day for the company we shared, the event and of course actually winning a few quid for once!
Lucy and I went to the first England senior game at the new Wembley on Friday night. The game was against Brazil and given i'd never seen an England game live before, i was alsolooking forward to checking out the new stadium and see some of the Brazilian players, as well as singing En-ger-land with 90,000 other people....
The atmosphere, other than a rendition of God Save the Queen and football's comin home, was pretty flat. The braziliand fans did their bit though with the samba drums and dancing there way through most of the game. I was suprised to hear frank lampard being booed when the team was run out. Ok he's having a nightmare at the moment when he pulls on an England top but to boo him before the game seemed to be a bit off - cant imagine that was going to make him play any better than he had in the past.
Number one son for the night was reserved for one person only, Beckham. The crowd cheered him thoughout the night and it was bound to happen that he either scored or as it was set up a goal. Always a bad sign in a football game when the crowd start to do the mexican wave (you'd never see that down at HPA!!) and it wasnt long into this one when it made an appearence. Me and Lucy joined in the first few times but at around the 20th attempt i had admit i was a bit bored by it. We left early if im honest and although id never leave an arsenal game early, given this was afriendly and the rush/crush for the tube was going to be preety bad, we left with around 8 mins left - only to hear the Brazilians grab an equaliser into the last couple of minutes. All in all though i was pretty impressed with the place and i cant wait to go back suporting arsenal - when there will be more singing and a greater togetherness amongst the fans.
This is an absolute classic video - if you don't find this funny (especially the first half) then you really need to lighten up a bit. I showed this to my parents and they cracked up and lets be honest there's not too many videos on the net that you and your parents would both find funny!
Check this out http://www.microsoft.com/surface/ I'm loving this concept and the way that objects can be placed on 'Surface' and the intelligence behind it can recognize and interact with it. Eg. place a camera on surface and it can sync with it and display the photos directly on the surface to slide over to another device.
I could see a lot of use for this outside of the home PC environment, but would also be great to have alongside a normal operating system at home for more visually orientated tasks, such as going through media files. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft push it and if it has any commercial viability outside of its great novelty appeal. I expect something like an estate agents would find it great or even for retails units - replacing the front glass on a store allowing you to experience what is being shown/sold even if the shop or office is closed.
