I've had the past week of from work which to be honest has been a god send. Last weekend we traveled along the coast to Bournemouth for a two night stay. I'd bought tickets to see Hot Chip at the O2 Academy Bournemouth (more on that later). The weather wasn't great so we had to find an indoor attraction to wile away the hours before Monday night's gig. We opted for an afternoon at the Beaulieu National Car Museum. I'd never been and although I'm not that much of a petrol head, I do enjoy looking at some of the more classic cars. So here are a few photos taken with my iPhone at Beaulieu, which featured James Bond and Top Gear exhibits alongside the main museum pieces.

Friday 10th April saw the start of Star Wars - A Musical Journey's premiere at the O2 Arena in London. After the enjoyment Paul and I had attending a similar concert featuring music from a number of Gerry Anderson's works, I happily booked tickets and made the necessary arrangements for a trip to London. The basic premise of the concert was the music composed by John Williams for all six Star Wars films was grouped into themes. Performed live by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a giant video screen played key scenes to match the score behind them.

 Experience has taught us that if we want to go to the O2 Arena for a relaxing evening, including time for something to eat, we have to get there very early. So we turned up 4 hours early and went to Goucho's for a good old fashioned meat-fest and cocktails. With food in our bellies and armed with the customary programme, we set off to have a gander at the Star Wars exhibition that accompanied the concert. I have to say I was a little disappointed. To put things in perspective, we had already seen the larger Star Wars exhibition when it was on at County Hall in 2007. The O2 Arena's exhibition paled by comparison, but at least they had the favourites, Darth Vader, C-3PO and Bobba Fett. Also in attendance were a number of Jedi Knight, Storm Troopers (one, a little too short to be a Storm Trooper), some Crimson Guards and a certain Dark Lord of the Sith.

 After having a wander around the O2 Arena I took advantage of being an O2 customer and got us it into the O2 Lounge. After a couple of more cocktails and also bumping into a couple of Twitter acquaintances we made our way to our seats for the concert (thank you O2 priority check in).

 The venue wasn't nearly as full as I expected it to be and I wonder if this was because of the Easter weekend or due to the current worldwide economic crisis - it also annoyingly explained why they resorted to a 2 for 1 offer on the tickets a few days before the first night.

 Unfortunately, as beautiful as the programme is, it neglects to breakdown the running order of the themes in the concert. I'm having to resort checking the the running order of the bonus DVD that was included with the musical score of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. While there are some differences here are for me, the most memorable.

   20th Century Fox Fanfare / Star Wars Main Title (from all six films)
  Duel of the Fates (The Phantom Menace)
  The Imperial March (The Empire Strikes Back)
  The Asteroid Field (The Empire Strikes Back)
  Luke and Leia (Return of the Jedi)
  Throne Room / Finale (A New Hope)

 The themes themselves were titled as "A Long Time Ago", "Droids", "Dark Forces Conspire", "An Empire is Forged", "A Narrow Escape" etc. Each section was narrated by the man in that golden suit, Anthony Daniels who did an excellent job and kept us, the audience, entertained. I have to admit that as soon as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra started playing, I sat there with a stupid grin on my face, which grew when the large choir launched into the Duel of the Fates. Once the Imperial March was performed, I wondered how the first half could be topped after the intermission. Well once the orchestra started to perform "The Asteroid Field", I knew they had. With scenes of the Millennium Falcon negotiating the asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back, my evening was complete.

 As I found with the Barry Gray/Gerry Anderson concert, there is something very accessible about going to see live orchestral music being played, especially when based on a movie's musical score. For those not interested in classical music, unwittingly, this will be the closest experience they will come. While this is a great experience I wonder if I miss out because of this preconception that classical music is boring or sombre. Perhaps the visuals taken from all six Star Wars films helped keep an interest in the music? Without a shadow of a doubt, the evening was a success and perhaps classical music concerts could learn a thing or two from Star Wars - A Musical Journey.

Seems like a lot of people have objected to Google's Street View in the UK. Personally I don't have a problem but then again I haven't been snapped rolling a cigarette outside the house like my old man.
 
It's a good job mum is out of the country.

Having watched Heston Blumenthal try to turn around the fortunes of roadside eatery Little Chef, Paul and I decided that we'd pop into the Popham restaurant on our way home from London on the first day of February. Some may know that I have a fondness for the more unhealthier types of food but even so, places like Burger King and MacDonald's tend to fill a basic need and are not something I tend to go out of my way for. Give be a grease spoon cafe or Wimpy's and even a Little Chef any day.

There aren't too many of these on the motorway from London to Torbay and we generally stay off the A303. This time however we thought we'd try out the new and improved Little Chef at Popham just to see if Heston Blumenthal was successful in his endeavour to save the restaurant chain. Well apart from the packed car park, the interior of the restaurant was smart and clean and even the ceiling tiles with the "Blue Sky" looked good (The MD kept on going on about Blue Sky thinking). However due to the programme Big Chef Little Chef, the restaurant was extremely busy and we were told that it would probably take an hour for the food to arrive. Well we were there, so in for a penny and all that. The service was slow to be honest and even when eventually seated it took a good 15 minutes such to give our food order. It wasn't the fault of the staff at the Little Chef, they were and probably still are, overwhelmed by its celebrity status.

The food was okay, though after having discussed it with a few other diners, it was felt that Ian Peddler (Little Chef MD) probably did think about profit margin over quality. The sausages looking anaemic, the beans not being Heinz Beanz (though stated on the menu as so). Unfortunately the celebrity status of this one Little Chef has made it an impossible task to live up too. While the food was okay (much better than our previous visits to a Little Chef) and the diner was clean and inviting there were simply too many people wanting to try Heston's menu. The staff just couldn't cope with the volume and from start to finish, we were there for an hour and 30 minutes. Heston was right to push for a number of Little Chef's to be converted into this new menu, new look restaurant. It would have taken the pressure off the Popham restaurant and given customers more time to enjoy the experience for what it is, a good roadside diner.

On a slight side note, we had to make a pit stop at another Little Chef and the difference was huge. The second restaurant looked tired, dull and dilapidated and don't I won't mention the state of the "facilities".

Ian Peddler, Little Chef MD, sort it out before another well loved British brand is lost to the credit crunch.

My little lad Indiana is 5 years old today. Here are a few photos I recently took of him cuddling up next to me, when we were alone in the house with no heating.

I have an iPhone and I really love the OSX and UI though it is lacking in a couple of features, namely the camera. I've also held of from buying applications as there is no "try first, pay later" option but I have been missing the ability to take panoramic photos, a function my previous phones had (a SE K750i and K800i). However I took the plunge with AIRSHED's Panorama iPhone app.

I've written a review of the app on it's iTunes review page which I'm glad made the cut, basically giving it 4 out of 5 stars. It would have been 4 1/2, but they don't give half ratings for reviewers to use, only in the average score.

One thing I forgot to mention in the review is the ability to go back a step when processing the final output and changing the image size. So here is the same panoramic photograph of the view from Great Hill, Torquay overlooking Shaldon and Teignmouth.