Monday, March 19, 2007

Posting by e-mail

It’s now even easier to post on The Virtual White Swan. As long as you register your email address as your google mail account used for blogging, then just send an email to thewhiteswan.post@blogger.com and it’ll appear as a post, just like this one! Of course I’d appreciate it if you remove any standard headers and footers your email software may use

More new toys....

It has to be said that I'm always surprised at what stuff costs these days. Have I already become the Victor Meldew character whenever I see a price tag? ... "I don't believe it!". A new gas fire is called for this year, and here's me thinking that £500 ought to cover it, and the actual cost (including fitting etc) is going to hit somewhere between one and two grand. Ouch! The bar in the conservatory I was sure would only be about £2k and ending up being £3k after haggling. I think one of my main problems is that I've become a materialistic snob. So I could have had a bar put in for £2k (or even far less) but it wouldn't have been quite as nice. And we can have a new fire put in for a few hundred quid, but it wouldn't have that nice black marble and chrome finish and have ultra realistic coals. Consequently I should have known when it came time to go and buy the kit for archery that my initial cost estimates when I had my first browse on the web (£175 all in) were going to be a bit short of the mark. You see you can get everything you need to take up archery for less than £100. That's the bow, string, 6 arrows, a quiver, sights, finger tab, arm bracer, stringer, case, etc (yes there's a bit more you need other than just the bow and arrow) but that would be for the same kind of bow we've been using to train with - and a quick look at everyone elses kit in the club shows that no-one does anythnig other than train with that! So the next notch up in the entry level intermeadiate kit where all the bits you get are individually upgradable as you get better (and effectively outgrow them) which is where I settled on the £175 figure.
The real downfall was not going straight ahead and buying off the web, but instead visiting those nice people in Custom Built Archery in Guisborough to see all the kit before we buy. I knew it would be a bit more expensive to have it all setup especially for you, and had already assumed that the budget was going to be up at £300, but once you can see all the kit close up, and try it out then that entry level just doesn't feel as good as the next one up. And then if you are going to pay the extra for the next model you might as well go the whole hog....And to cut a long story not quite so long, £500 later I am now the proud owner of a Hoyt Nexus recurve bow.....which will mean absolutely nothing to any of you except Shelley, but look at the picture - doesn't it look nice?! Mine is a mottled red'n'gold colour rather than the blue

Friday, March 16, 2007

Red Nose Day

If you haven't already - give some money for Red Nose Day. But that's not what this post is all about. I'm sitting here watching the evening's entertainment on the BBC (very good as it is - who'd of thought Tony Blair would make such a good partner in a comic sketch to Catherine Tate..."Am I bovered?") and have just watch a sketch by Ricky Gervais based arround him faking a visit to Africa to help awarness for the charity. Various other famous people joined in (Jamie Oliver, Bono, Bob Geldof) and were convinced it's a better idea than actually going to Africa as it raises their profile.
Now although this is a fairly funny sketch with it's ironic twist on those famous celebs motives, my only problem is (again) with Ricky Gervais' part in this. As usual he's relying on the joke that he's doing the charity thing for the wrong reasons, which is OK, but I've yet to see him do anything for the right reasons first. To make that sort of sketch you need to earn the right first by being seen to do something first like going out to Africa and experiencing it first hand. The rest of them have put in the hours doing something for others, have made the effort to make a difference. Mr Gervais has "appeared" at charity events without being paid..gee whiz!...If I earned what he did, one night without pay in return for the airtime on TV wouldn't be to much of a burden.
Don't get me wrong, I have no idea if Ricky Gervais gives any money to charity or not. And I don't know if he does anything off camera either, but being in the public eye as he is I just think that he needs to make some form of serious comment on his commitment before continuing to, apparantly, join in for "the laughs".