The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello

Trusted Places

One internet site which caught recently my attention: Trusted Places. I was surprised how many places they know about in Southampton. Just as an example: They know my two favourite take away places Super Chef and Portobello. And they have an entry for the neighbouring pub I started to visit more often: Duchess of Wellington. All not in any way belonging to the so called “big” places.

The information provided seems to be upto date and reliable. I should use the site to find some more interesting places… :)

PS: Then on the contrary, the number of places they know in Helsinki is rediculous! Just 5 at the time of writing… ;-)

Yet Another new Toy to Play

After I got machanical problems with my AF Nikkor 18-35mm f/1:3.5-4.5D (in addition that the picture quality was not good at all) I decided on my return from my holiday in Ukraine to buy a new lense. Not “new” as in never used before, but “new” as in new to me. After a short look on e-Bay I got hold on a AF Nikkor 18-70mm f/1:3.5-4.5G DX (review). A nice compact lense with very good picture quality and not to expensive, either. And the picture quality is much better comparet to my previous lense! And it is a 4x zoom instead only a 2x zoom! :-)

New Espresso Machine

As my espresso machine by Krups got old (very old actually) I recently obtained a GAGGIA Classic on e-Bay. I got it for a cheap price but still in perfect working condition.

Only the plastic attachment of the steam wand was missing (it was meant to help to get a better milk foam). Since this made the steam wand too short for operation I looked on the Internet for a replacement part for it. I got lucky at HappyDonkey.co.uk. More precisely, they have a separate page for GAGGIA Classic spare parts. There then a Rancilio Sylvia steam wand caught my attention. It is simpler than the original GAGGIA solution but just looks like doing a better job. I ordered it, and a two days later I had the new steam wand. The photo below shows the new and the old steam wand in comparison. Click on the photo to find some notes on installing the new steam wand:

What else: after one day of experimenting with the machine I finally got a very delicious result, espresso wise but also with the cappuccino. To use good and new (!) beans helps a lot here (I noticed that the beans I had still left from a long time since were expired about 2.5 years ago! … oops ;-) ). And the result is this:

Afghanistan’s only Pig Quarantined in Flu Fear

Afghanistan’s only known pig has been locked in a room, away from visitors to Kabul zoo where it normally grazes beside deer and goats, because people are worried it could infect them with the virus popularly known as swine flu.

The full story can be found here at Reuters (funny enough it is filed under the category “lifestyle“). Felix says on his blog that this somehow reminds him of the following joke:

They closed the Kansas public library after someone stole the book.

Nuff said… :)

How Long does it Take…?

Today’s question: how long does it take to connect an electric toothbrush to the mains? Huh, is that even worth a question? You plug its cable into the nearest socket in the bathroom and this should take not more than a second or two. So what is the fuss about it?

Let me restate the question: how long does it take to connect an electric toothbrush to the mains in the UK? You plug its cable into the nearest socket … which socket?! Oh … Yes, Huston, we got a problem here. I live in a fairly modern hous (it was build about three years ago) … and in the bathroom there is just one single socket to connect an electronic device, and this socket is part of the lights above the mirror, and the socket does not even support a hair dryer! At most you can charge a hair cutter, an electric shaver or a electric toothbrush. But my appartment does not come with any suitable near enough to this socket to place my electric devices on. And as soon as I want to connect more than one device I am out of luck anyways.

So what I had to do extend the amount of proper sockets to a useful number. In the photo you can see where I attached an extension socket, namely to the georgeous energy wasting heating device of the bathroom (I basically never use it; who came even up with such a rediculous 2000 watt energy waster in a modern building?). Alltogether it took me about an hour to attache the additional cable in a proper and save way to the existing cablel. But now I have four sockets which will increase the usability of the bathroom a lot (amongst other I can now plug in my electric toothbrush nicely).

So, how long does it take to connect an electric toothbrush to the mains in the UK? About an hour if haven’t solved the electric socket problem beforehand. But why this is so I can only imagine: probably some ridiculous safety regulations prohibit the installation of usfull sockets in the bathrooms of UK houses. Why ridiculous? Becaus I have seen enough countries where they manage to savely install sockets in bathrooms without a noticable impact on the death rate in the population. If done properly sockets are not dangerous in bathrooms!

Advanced Maths Fail at Verizon

Snow!

Snow southern UK and (therefore) Chaos around here! Lovely! :)

Vinyl Update

Some highlights bought during the last time:

• Carlos Santana: Santana (1969), Abraxas (1970), Caravanserai (1972), Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live! (1972; with Buddy Miles), Amigos (1976), Festival (1977), Moonflower (1977; Live), Oneness: Silver Dreams, Golden Reality (1979)
• Neil Young: After the Gold Rush (1970), Four Way Street (1971), American Stars ‘n BarsLive Rust (1979), Re-ac-tor (1981),
• Roy Ayers
• Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (1975), The River (1980), Born in the USA (1984)
• Sting: …Nothing Like the Sun (1987)
• Pink Floyd
• Lisa Stansfield: So Natural (1993)

and more…

Upgrade! Oh Yeah!

Got a great deal on a used Pro-Ject Experience turntable in very good condition which I just could not refuse! On the other hand a good friend of mine got a good deal on my previous Debut SE II turntable and we both are very happy! :-) I always dreamed of a turntable with transparent acrylic plinth! I can’t wait to get it delivered on Wednesday!

Update: The turntable is just ammazing! And … tested with an recording by Miles Davis (Kind of Blue) which I have both on vinyl and CD  it beats my CD player in sound quality! Just amazing! :-)