Would you spend 16,000 on a set of headphones, well I did and no I am not mad! First things first, when I say 16,000 I am talking Indian Rupees which is about £200, and the headphones in question are the Bose QuietComfort(R) 2 Acoustic Noise Canceling(R) headphones.

Now I was introduced to these by a friend of mine who loves traveling but finds it hard to sleep on a plane. I'll be honest and say I have never paid more than £30 for a set of headphones in my life, but I tell no lies when I say if I lost these tomorrow I would be back at the store with another £200.

If you travel regularly and travel internationally crossing time zones, you will understand what I mean when I say "You grab sleep where you can!". Well these things are just fantastic. The sound quality is excellent and they come with all the cables and connectors you need including an extension cable, and the dual pin adapter loved by some airlines. What is even better is the cable disconnects at the headphones themselves so once you have watched an inflight movie and numbed yourselves with a few bottles of red wine, you can unplug yourself and fall asleep without the noise of the aircrafts engines, small children, and the constant ding that emanates from those people summoning the attendant for more red wine because they can't sleep, knowing that you aren't going to strangle yourself.

Now I did look at the newer QuietComfort(R) 3 Acoustic Noise Canceling(R) headphones, and while they were lighter I didn't like the fact that they sat on my ears rather than around them.

Next time you pass a Bose shop, stop and take a look.

Tags: Technology, Music

Okay so after tidying up my website I thought it was about time I tided up my MacBook Pro. I have downloaded a bunch of applications and tested them only to throw them away later and everything was starting to feel a little sluggish. I was also starting to have problems getting certain applications working, and suffering from the odd hang here and there. I therefore resolved to test my backups and go through the process of trying to rebuild my MackBook Pro only using the equipment I travel with. I was surprised how simple it was and how well prepared I actually was.


So here is my setup

1) 1x MacBook Pro 17" plus power supply
2) 1x Lacie 1TB Firewire 800 connected Hard Disk Drive (3 Partitions, one containing a bootable copy of Leopard, one TimeMachine, and the last a scratch disk)
3) 1x 250MB USB connected Hard Disk Drive
4) 8GB iPhone
5) 80GB iPod Video G5
6) Neoprene wash bag filled with cables & connectors

So I first of all rebooted the MBP and made sure that no programs had started up. I ran a Time Machine backup and then a SuperDuper backup, and synchronized mybookmarks, email rules, notes, etc with .MAC. I then opened Tunes and de-authorized my audible account and my computer. I then restarted the computer and choose to boot off the Leopard disk on the Lacie drive. I then went through the installation selecting the erase and install option. I did a custom install and removed all the stuff I didn't need like printer drivers, foreign languages, and fonts.

Once the installation was complete I connected to my Wireless network and downloaded all the updates from software update. After rebooting I opened up time machine and pointed it to the partition on my Lacie drive that I was using for Time Machine backups. I choose not to enable backups at this point, as I just wanted the Mac to know that this was the Time Machine drive. I then fired up Time Machine and restored the contents of my home folder. I selected to restore;

1) The "Documents" Folder - My personal documents.
2) The "Downloads" Folder - Audible Books / Applications
3) The "Library/Mail" Folder - My Email
4) The "Music" Folder - My iTunes Library
5) The "Pictures" Folder - My iPhoto Library
6) ...and a couple of other folders that I store graphics, and my development projects.

Once that was done, I configured my system preferences and synchronized with my .MAC account. I then opened Mail.app and it imported my mailboxes, everything was where it should be. I opened up Safari and once again everything was as I left it. I then went through reinstalling my applications. I store everything I download in the downloads folder and have all the license keys in my email.

4 hours after I started the process, and that doesn't allow for the time I wandered off to do other things I am back up and running. I plugged my iPhone and iPod back in and after re-entering my account details and syncing I can't see anything untoward. All my documents, photo's, Music, and audio books are there. The machine is snappy, and quick again.

I think I am prepared. What have I missed?

Tags: Technology

Well for those that didn't know I converted to the Mac (MacBook Pro) about a year ago. On the Mac I use RapidWeaver from RealMacSoftware to keep my personal website and blog up to date. Now I love RapidWeaver as it's easy to use and extremely versatile, but one thing that does annoy me is that it doesn't seem to like publishing a lot of files over a slow link.

Let me explain a little, while the man from Jaguar goes off to find me a new car battery. In India I have a 2 Mbps DSL line. Now when I say 2 Mbps line what I really mean is I have a line that at some point in the future might actually start to offer 2 Mbps transfer rates and I might at some point be able to get an upstream rate that is marginally quicker than a fax machine. Not that that is really RapidWeavers fault, but I recently decided to tidy up the site a little, area's like the Photo Gallery where becoming a little cluttered and I wanted to simplify the structure a little. So I set about creating an archive area and moving some pages around, all of which was very easy using RapidWeaver, but when I came to publish the site there were over 3000 pages that needed to be re-published. So I clicked the publish button and RapidWeaver started to weave its magic. The only problem was that it never got beyond the first few hundred pages before it through up an FTP error.

So frustrated I kept hitting the publish button and RapidWeaver went through the motions, but I was never quite convinced that it was doing what it said it was doing. So last night I decided to take the plunge and after checking everything was where I wanted it to be and saving the site project file ten times I cleared the publishing cache and marked all the paged as changed, I FTP'ed to my website and deleted the entire contents. I then went back to RapidWeaver and clicked the publish buttons. RapidWeaver went through the export phase, and then advised me that 5134 pages need to be uploaded, and off I went to bed (with a doubt or two in my mind).

I woke up this morning to find that every single page had uploaded and not one error was encountered. I thanked my 22 Mbps Internet line and the Internet gods. I checked the site and everything seems to be there, even my newly implemented Google Analytics code and FavIcon.

What's does that mean to users of the site? Well not much really, but what it should mean is that there are no broken links (Google Web Tools showed four) and that everything is a little less cluttered. If you have bookmarked anything other than the home page you might find those links don't work as I have tidied up the file structure a little too, but everything does feel a lot more ordered; to me at least.

If you do have any problems let me know via the Contact Form. Otherwise enjoy!

Tags: Technology, RapidWeaver

Okay so the week dragged, mainly as all I could think about was my trip home, but Thursday came before I knew it. I left the office and headed back to the apartment for a little lay down before grabbing a shower and a change of clothes. Karan picked me and my luggage up and we headed off to Dine Estey, where I met up with Laurence and Vikram for a few beers. I headed over to the Crown Plaza as I needed to see a friend of mine there, and there were a bunch of COLT people staying there who were on the same flight as me. I bumped into them just as I was leaving for the Airport and met them again in the check in queue.

After checking in and blagging a pass to the Business Lounge we had a few more beers before clearing security and boarding the plane. We took off on time and I had just enough energy to consume a few bottles of red wine and watch a film before passing out. I woke up about an hour from Heathrow and had enough time to have a coffee and a quick wash before we landed.

We landed on time and it all went pretty smoothly as I cleared immigration and collected my case. I exited the terminal and had about 10 minutes until the Rail Air coach arrived which was just enough time to get my nicotine levels back up to normal. The coach trip to Woking, and then the train trip to Basingstoke was straight forward with no waiting about and I was back at home about 10:00.

I grabbed a quick shower and changed, unpacked my bag, and then headed round to Mum and Dad's to say hello. Katrina and the kids dropped round about an hour later and I got to say hello to everybody. By the time lunch time arrived I didn't really know what planet I was on and decided to take a walk into town to get some fresh air. It was certainly fresh, so much so that my teeth chattered as i walked, but after I got going I warmed up a little and soon started to feel comfortable.

I walked around town not really looking at anything in particular, although I did stop off at Jessops to take a look at camera's before walking home via McDonalds and a large Big Mac Meal. I got home and laid on the couch watching TV, but could feel myself drifting off so decided to settle in the study and sort some of my post out. I got about 80% of it done, and realized that I needed a clear head to focus on the rest so started to take a look around the house and asses the work that needed doing.

The kitchen waste water system has fallen to pieces, and the garden fences came down in the storm a few weeks ago. The freezer had defrosted but thankfully Mum and Dad had thrown away the contents and installed 5000 air fresheners to get rid of the smell. The driveway and patio need weeding and cleaning, but otherwise things were in pretty good shape. The kitchen has needed redoing since I purchased the place, but has been usable, but I know that I will need to gut it and redo it completely when I return in August. Time to start saving!

So this morning (I think it's Saturday today) I woke up at 06:00 and thought I would take the car out for a run as it's been stood for a while. My suspicions where confirmed when I got in and tried to start it and the battery was flat. So I rang Jaguar and am now waiting for the man that can to turn up and sort it out. Once that's done I think I will take a drive to the supermarket and stock up on provisions. The only real plan after that is to meet up with Dad for a few beers.

Tags: Beer, Family, Food, Relaxing, Shopping, Travel

Okay well it's all confirmed and my flights are booked back to the UK for this Friday. I leave new Delhi on BA 0142 at 03:25 Friday 21st March and arrive at London Heathrow at 07:25 also on Friday (You got to love Time Zones some times), and I return to New Delhi on the 17:20 flight on the 6th April which gives me pretty much 17 days at home.

I am really looking forward to seeing everybody again and catching up on all the news and gossip, together with the odd home cooked meal.

Tags: Family, Travel

Okay you can now see the edited highlights of the Mumbia & Goa visit in the Movie Gallery.

For those involved the unedited DVD will be on sale for £1999.99 Excluding VAT (Victims Additional Tax).

Tags: Beer, Friends, Photography, Sightseeing, Travel

Okay so going back to work was hard today! The work was the same but I was still chilled out and relaxed and everything just seemed to annoy me for some reason. By mid-afternoon however I was back in the flow and realized how many things I had to do, and started ploughing my way through them. Tonight however I have no energy at all and intend to do nothing more than order a pizza and have a few cold beers while i plan my next holiday.

Well not strictly my next holiday as that is already planned, Easter weekend I fly back to the UK for two weeks, no I am talking about the one after that! One thing that I have realized is that I don't really have much time left in India and still have so much to see. The downside is I still have a job to to, but flights and accommodation are so cheap there is nothing to stop me getting away for a weekend or even a long weekend if I plan it. So that is exactly what I am going to do!

Tags: Relaxing, Beer

Okay so starting at the begining Karan picked Laurence and I up at 07:30 Saturday morning and we drove to the domestic airport terminal. Laurence, Sandra, and Chris all flew with SpiceJet but I was on a Go Air flight that was supposed to leave 5 minutes earlier, not that is the reason I booked it, I booked it because I wasn't paying attention. The flights were about an hour late taking off but we all arrived at Mumbia airport within minutes of each other and all met up outside. Leon, a friend of Chris and Sandra's, flew into Mumbia International from the UK and the hotel cab picked him up then came around to the domestic airport to collect us before we all headed to the Farias hotel where we checked in, dumped our bags, and meet by the pool for a few drinks and a late lunch. After lunch we headed off into Mumbia, checking out the Gateway to India on the way.

We wandered around the streets taking in the sights, sounds, and smells, before making our way towards the beech for a long walk along the promenade. We stopped off for 10 minutes to take a walk down to the sea. Laurence and I then headed to Leopolds bar for a few beers leaving Sandra, Chris, and Leon on the beech. We got to Leopolds and it was obvious we were not going to be able to eat as the queue for the restaurant was out the door and half way up the street. So we headed upstairs to the bar and ordered a couple of Budwiesers. The place was dark, crowded (mainly with ex-pats) and very very smokey. We were half way through our second beer when Sandra, Chris, and Leon walked in. We quickly decided we were all hungry and tired so we finished our beers and decided to walk back to the hotel for dinner. We walked, talked, and headed in the general direction of the hotel. We were just starting to doubt ourselves and a street kid came up to us offering to show us the way. We turned left and walked about 200 yards and we had arrived. Laurence gave him about 8 rupees (10p), and we all laughed at his demands for 20 as we headed for the hotel restaurant. We grabbed dinner and a few more beers before all heading to our respective rooms for an early night.

Sunday morning we met for breakfast by the pool and discussed the plans for the day. We decided to head off on a boat trip to an Island called Elephanta (http://www.sacred-destinations.com/india/elephanta-caves.htm). The island is basically a set of 5 temples all carved into the rock. They are pretty worn now, and any restoration that has been done hasn't done anything to preserve the beauty of the carvings etc, but we walked around all 5 caves and then up to a place called Cannon Hill. Named basically as it featured a large cannon on top of a hill. After a little rest and a bunch of photo's we headed back down the hill only stopping off for a quick soft drink. We were just in time for the 13:30 boat back and most people snoozed all the way. We arrived back at the hotel and met up with another friend of Chris and Sandra's called Scott who has setup camp in the bar. We dragged him out and up to the poolside bar where we had lunch and got to know each other over, yes you have guessed it, a few cold beers.

It was early evening by the time we set off out taking Scott to see the Gateway to India and the streets of Mumbia. We found one of the other hotels we had considered and decided to stop for cocktails and later dinner. We had to be at Mumbia train station for 23:00 so we all ordered stuff that we knew wouldn't take long to prepare, cook, and eat. We left the hotel and grabbed taxi's back to the Fariyas to collect our luggage and then drive us to the train station.

We arrived in good time but checking the boards we found the train was running 45 minutes late so we headed to a waiting room and waited it out. The train eventually arrived and we found our bunks. We made ourselves at home and then sat back and took in everything that was going on around us, you know the call for Coffee, Tea, and Chicken Lollipops, before eventually succumbing to tiredness and falling asleep.

We woke up Monday morning traveling through some beautiful countryside and it all looked so much more civilized. I decided to go for a smoke and stood by one of the open carriage doors watching the landscape rush by. We arrived about two hours later and booked a couple of pre-paid cabs for the journey to the hotel. It was so nice seeing different (non-city) scenery and now I felt like I was on holiday. We arrived at the Oceanique Hotel about 45 minutes later and by this time we all needed a little down time. We had slept on the train, but maybe not as well as any of us would have in our own beds. We checked in and the first thing I needed was a shower and a shave. I came back down to find Leon, Scott, and Laurence by the pool and it took no effort to join them lying there in 33 degrees as they organized the drinks.

After a swim and a few beers we headed out in search off food by way of the beech. Sandra, Chris, and Scott has gone ahead of us and had found "Bob's Bar", or something like that. Laurence, Leon, and myslef had waited for Ndidi, who had flown in from Delhi that morning, and then walked down to join them. We took our seats and enjoyed some great food and yes a few more cold beers. We sat, we talked, and we watched the ocean before heading back to the hotel for some more R&R agreeing to meet up later in the bar. Well after a shower (yes another one, well it was hot) I wandered down to the bar and ordered a beer. My intention was to have one, maybe two, and then go exploring as I wasn't tired. It didn't quite work out that way. I was about halfway through my first beer when Ndidi walked in. She wasn't tired either, having only flown the couple of hours from Delhi. She was closely followed by Laurence, Leon, Scott, Sandra, and Chris. Now after this things are a little bit of a blur. I remember sometime later we decided it was time to head out for dinner and I remember walking into town with the gang. I also remember saying to Chris that I wasn't hungry and was going off exploring. The basic upshot was that I had figured out I was rat assed and needed to go to bed. So I wandered back to the hotel, stopping off for a beer or two on the way, and once back at the hotel I promptly passed out. I am told that the rest of them bar Chris and Sandra didn't fair much better as they were drinking until about 02:00 Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning I found Chris, Sandra, Scott, and Ndidi in the restaurant having breakfast. Sandra had arranged for cab's into old Goa. Chris, Sandra, Scott, and Myself headed off in the first cab about 10:30 and the others left about 11:00 in the second cab.

Goa was invaded and occupied by the Portuguese and is predominately Roman Catholic. We looked around ruins of old Churches and some of the older churches and cathedrals that are still very much in use, before heading down to the Quay and the admiralty arch that most of those that came here entered through. We then headed back towards the hotel as Sandra, Chris, Scott, and Leon were all due to leave. Scott and Leon for Jaipur and Chris and Sandra for Delhi.

We decided however there was enough time for lunch if we went straight there and that's exactly what we did. Well Sandra, Chris, Scott, and myself. Leon walked down from the hotel as they had got back before us and went for a final dip in the ocean, and Ndidi and Laurence walked down to say goodbye. I got the cab back to the hotel with Chris, Sandra, Scott, and Leon, and opted for a few hours by the pool.

A couple of hours later, a subtle shade of red, hot, and sweaty I decided on a shower followed by a couple of cold beers. Laurence met me in the bar and we headed down to the beech to find a bar and food. Ndidi was going to catchup with us as she had a massage booked. We sat, drank, ate and then bar hopped our way back to the hotel.

Wednesday morning I woke and the guys had arranged to go and see a spice market. I had already toured the Delhi spice market and decided a day by the pool and on the beech was in order, and we agreed to meet up at the airport.

I spent a couple of hours laying by the pool before heading off to the beech. I spent my last 5 hours sitting on the beech, swimming in the sea, and sitting at a beech bar with a cold beer watching the world go by, before getting a cab to the airport to meet up with Laurence and Ndidi.

We had a good flight back, and I slept all the way. Laurence's driver picked us up at Delhi Airport and dropped us all back home.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday I chilled out at home, did a little shopping, got my hair cut, and drank some more beer. I think tomorrow I might venture to the gym!

Checkout the Photo's, and over the next few days I intend to cut the footage together I shot with the Handycam and upload that to the Movie Gallery.

Otherwise check out some of the photo's the others took;

• Chris's Photo's.

Tags: Beer, Food, Friends, Fun, Relaxing, Sightseeing, Travel