Sideways

I reviewed this movie whilst drinking a bottle of Zonte's Footstep that I drank whilst watching this on my other site.

A funny movie about a couple fo friends touring the US wine counties as part of a stag-week. Not quite the 5 stars I thought, but it had a lot of substance. One funny bit was when he was freaking out about Merlot drinkers.

This DVD can be had at a bargain price from Amazon.

Dim Sum

This book is also available from Amazon.

You could submit something about the restaurants you have been to recently that are worth a mention, some holiday spot you have visited along with recommendations and so on.

So come on all you registered contributors, get busy!

If you are in the Bournemouth and Dorset area then there is a great little place call Oriental Gardens on Poole Hill in Bournemouth that does real dim sum.

Well, I have another baby on the way – I did my bit sometime back – just waiting for the Stork to turn up.  We are in the ‘name’ phase of pregnancy and the growth of the internet in recent years has made ‘what name shall we choose’ far more complicated than flicking through the baby naming books that are handed down through generations.

I’m also reading a book on English history so my mind is thinking all the time – wow, what a great name, not heard Tiberius or Fanny in the local school playground for a while.  Got me thinking – need to do a bit of research into names.  I already have one daughter that will soon hate having to repeatably explain she is named after the daughter of Altas who had a bit of a fling with Zeus (who didn’t) and produced Hermes.  Anyway – back to looking for new names – well old names actually. 

Whilst trawling the web I came across one of those sites that is a great time waster.  It is a cool little online application called Namevoyager .  It interactively maps the popularity of the names from 1880’s to the current date.  It dynamically plots the names as you type. 

Not sure it has helped with choosing a name for the new baby, but you can have real fun seeing how the media and events in the world impact us in choosing a name.   To give you a clue where I’m going with this, try Crystal, Fallon, Kylie, Gay, Ally, Adolph. 

Have fun and do post the names that you look up.

The Post Office has some deals on travel insurance and commission free currency exchange.

One strange thing that I found when I visited the Post Office to get some Euros was that I could only exchange physical cash. They would not let me use a debit card for payment. I then had to use the debit card to get some money out, from the same counter person, they handed it over to me, I then handed it back. Oh what fun, and delay to everybody else queuing up behind me. 

217 Jesmond Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne. Tel: 0191 281 7179.

This restaurant is preceded by a good reputation. A friend of mine, Duncan Fisher who owns the Apartment and Mr Lynch bars in Newcastle took me there last time I was up North. (Incidentally he has now added "As you like it " to the list, which is a new fangled gastropub bringing the country to the city. Ha!)

This is so, so funny, just cracks me up!

Borat/Bruno on Daytona Beach  

It is not Borat but rather his Bruno alter-ego that is in front of the camera.