All entries for September 2005

An alternative to top bananna

For all you coventry people as an alternative to Top bananna you could always try the Colosseum wher tonight Matt Lakey is playing along with the The circle ,who I saw for the first time on saturday supporting Resound at their 100th Gig and are quite good, along with another local band Doctor Robert, who I haven't seen yet. You have to pay to get in but then drinks are only 50p on mondays.
And if you donn't appreciate decent live music they still have the cheesy disco in the main room.

Lee Davis : 26 Sep 2005 15:21 |  Tags: Music |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Ready for Rotterdam

Well after lots of Hassle I am finally ready for my trip to Rotterdam for The IEEE ultrasonics symposium. It took me 2 attempts to get the submission for te proceedings to be accepted, I had to guess why it failed to process the document the first time I uploaded it. Had loads of 'fun' trying to format the document after my supervisor had editied it. He has a knack of completely messing up document formatting. The poster was even worse, followed by loads of stress trying to get the printing sorted. Next time I will go for an aural paper, as although I hate public speaking, the preparation is far easier (I did consider it this time but underestimated how much hassle the poster would be).
Now all I need to worry about is trying to find some clothes in my wardrobe slightly smarter than my usual jeans and polo shirt that actually fit me, and getting to birmingham airport on sunday morning. I probably ought to try and get some euro's from the post office as well, simply because it is cheaper than using the ATM when I get there.
I still have this nasty feeling that there is something important I have forgotten, but I'm not sure what, I've found my passport, flights are confirmed and I've booked a hotel. Kelvin will be fine as I have acquired a new lodger who will feed him and probably make even more of a fuss of him than I do.

Lee Davis : 16 Sep 2005 23:19 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The Ultimate Kettle?

Writing about web page http://www.plungerkettle.co.uk

Well I always thought a Kettle was just a kettle, but apparently not.
Designed by a former Warwick PhD is this the ulimate Kettle? Claiming convenience with a reservoir to avoid repeated trips to the tap, improved water quality with a large filter and enviromentally friendly as you only boil the amount of water required.

A few retailers are already stocking it and it will be available to buy online as soon as I get round to finishing off the scripts to link his website into Barclays online card authorisation system (oops sorry Andre I know I should have sorted it out ages ago).

Lee Davis : 06 Sep 2005 19:30 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Easy Credit

Just recieved my new mbna mastercard and notice that they have increased my credit limit by another £3000. This is Daft for a couple of reasons.
1) I haven't actually used this particular card for over 2 years, and only then because they were giving me interest free credit on purchases for 6 months.
2) combined with the Visa card I also have from them (which hasn't been used for probably 4 years, but my records don't go back that far) I know have a £28,900 credit limit with them.
Since officially I am a full-time PhD student have minimal paid employment this strikes me as quite ridiculous. Actually even if I were employed the minimum montly payment on that amount would be a terrifying £860. They obviously do no checking at all before randomly increasing limits. No wonder people get into unmanageable debt.
Fortunately I am quite sensible and only ever use my credit cards as a means of getting 6 weeks interst free credit on all my purchases and to avoid carrying large amounts of cash. The card I do use only has a £3000 limit which is more than adequate for my usage.

Lee Davis : 05 Sep 2005 18:05 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem