We are in search of a new home and had been viewing several properties last Saturday. Most had been charming and it was always nice to have a chat with the owners and trying to find out the peculiars of their homes.
Last property was an “open house” viewing. An estate agent (no names) had invited many, many interested couples and families to view this property.
The house was in great shape, the fire place was lit and the previous owner was the producer of one of our favourite British TV series (his BAFTA award was standing on the coffee table)…. but the previous owner was nowhere to be seen.
Instead we were met with a very camp articulate agent who signed us into a book at the entrance and briefed us about the house in 1 minute. Then he was off to receive the next couple waiting at the door.
While walking around the house there was nowhere to sit down or relax and discuss what we liked/disliked. Everywhere you looked there were other couples talking away.
The open house viewing concept might be understandable in quite periods where any possible buzz needs to be generated to sell a property.
However currently the property market is extremly busy. Most decent properties recieve an offer that matches their asking price after a single day; often it recieves multiple such offers.
In such a climate it is terrible seeing all the other potential buyers. There were easily 15 other couples during the 20 minutes we stayed.
The estate agent was informing some other people that the property already had 4 offers at the asking price. This can only mean a fierce bidding war if you want the house badly.
Just as we were leaving the house after a very dissapointing viewing a lady stopped us, introduced herself as a newspaper journalist (was it from the standard?) and asked if she could ask my wife a few questions about the open house viewing concept.
A big grin appeared on my wife’s face and she started telling the journalist just how wrong the idea was.
How important it is to have a chat with the previous owners, how it is important to feel the potential privacy and comfort of a new home, how it instead feels like being at a fish market and finally how it’s all about greed and nothing about providing a service.
Photo credit Anyhoo
L’artisan du chocolat: The best chocolat in the world ever
It is a bold statement to make but were there any finer chocolate in the world, tasting it would a be life threatening experience.
Some time ago at the Gordon Ramsey restaurant we were served truffles with the coffee. The dinner had been an amazing gourmet experience but it was the taste and texture of the truffles that left the most lingering impression.
Recently I was presented with a box of assorted truffles from L’artisan du chocolat and I immediately recognised those truffles.
Looking through their detailed “product catalog” I realised why the truffles hadn’t been matched by any other brand for over 3 years.
The liquid caramel truffles contain a hint of sea salt. They do not taste salty yet the salt cuts the rich sweetness of the caramel.
Not being aware of this ingredient, the truffles create an unexplainable chocolate experience.
It turns out that L’artisan du chocolat have a large assortment of chocolate products.
From classics that any reputable chocolatier should produce (pralines, ganaches, marzipan, truffles) to modern and creative works like chocolate pearls and lollichocs.
Their ganaches come from many different plantations around the world and contain various levels of cocoa. You can choose between 33% from Madagascar all the way to 70% from Madong (Papua New Guinea).
All products have a beautiful finish and many are colourful and look like miniature art.
Here is a challenge for you:
If you believe you know of finer chocolate (truffles specifically) than L’artisan du chocolat ship a sample to me and I will ship a sample of L’artisan du chocolat signature truffles* back.
Alternatively let me know where in London I can get hold of your favorite chocolate.
We’ll have a tasting session and if we both agree that the chocolate you provided is a more divine experience (not likely) I will capitulate and update this article appropriately.
*125g token box, approx value £8.50 excluding shipping
Naturally Seven human beatbox on a Parisian Metro
Naturally Seven, a human beatbox group, does an amazing impromptu performance of “Feel it (in the air tonight)” on the Parisian metro.
Very, very well performed and seems like the fellow passengers enjoyed it.
BRAVO!
[via Boing Boing]
TDAI: One large sofa pillow
One large sofa pillow bit the dust the other day.
Once again a subject was chosen due to the spectacular mess it leaves when destroyed.
Dogs unaware of the destruction around them. Well, Jack did seem a bit proud for the rest of that evening.
PS This photo was taken after the cleaning up of the mess
Flickr to fuel your photography passion
I joined Flickr a while back but never got into using the site.
To me the site offered just storage of my photographs but I wanted to have full control of my precious possessions and so preferred hosting them on my own (gallery).
What I had completely missed out on was the social networking features of Flickr. The rating, comments, inspiration, groups, continuous learning and new friends who too are passionate about photography.
Last week while visiting Flickr to browse a few friends updated photos, a Flickr group caught my eye.
It was called “DeleteMe” which seemed to be the opposite of what anyone would want to do with their photos.
Turns out that the Deleteme group is focused on brutally honest opinions.
Members submit their absolute best photographs and fellow group members rate them; saveme or deleteme.
When the photograph has collected 10 deletemes, it is removed from the pool. Should the photo on a rare occasion gather 10 savemes, it is regarded as a masterpiece and is then moved to the safe where it will shine in all eternity.
The general common comments on Flickr are “wow” and “great shot”. People want to build friendships and not offend and so often hold back on what they truly think of a photo.
Your mum and special other will always tell you that a photograph of yours is fantastci but wouldn’t you rather be challanged and really find out how good it is?
The Deleteme group is a refreshing in that it’s members are honest. Sometimes they can be outright nasty but nobody holds it against them.
If you want to get some honest, high quality constructive comments you should give the group a go. A warning though; if you can’t stand the heat, better stay out of the Flickr Deleteme group!
Photo credit: davebluedevil, laurence_grayson, Shek Graham, laurence_grayson
I went to Beachy Head, UK
…and all I got was this photograph of a wigged rock.
N 50°44’32.701″, E 0°12’2.923″
Last Saturday was a very sunny – albeit windy – day and ideal for taking nature photographs.
I used Google Earth to find a few picturesque locations in the South East of England. Panoramio.com then provided a layer with geo-tagged photographs submitted by online users which gave me an idea of interesting subjects in the ara.
Sunday came one day later and brought with in non-stop rain. Ideal for organising photographs and (digiatally) developing a few of them.
Total lunar eclipse 2007
It was the best lunar eclipse in the last decade and certainly the first one that I took the time to observe.
Due to light scattered in the Earth’s atmosphere, the moon was visible even while totally in the Earth’s shadow.
Blue light scatters the most in the Earth’s atmosphere, making mainly the red light to hit the moon.
In ancient times such a moon as this was called “blood moon” and usually associated with catastrophes or big changes to come. I am glad we have moved on from that.
2 new drugs offer options in HIV fight
The International Herald Tribune reports about 2 new drugs offering options in HIV fight.
One drug, maraviroc, has been developed by Pfizer; the other drug, raltegravir, has been developed by Merck.
If humanity could find a cure for HIV/AIDS it would be a major breakthrough and a clear sign of progress.
Unfortunately I have become a little numb from the last 10 years’ of several “almost HIV/AIDS cure” announcements to be joyous anymore.
I doubt that there is enough profit for a company to develop a one time cure for HIV.
All the profit is surely in producing expensive drug cocktails that have to be taken regularly and for the rest of a patients life.
Unfortunately HIV/AIDS has a tendency to become resistant to drugs after prolonged usage so new drug cocktails have to be developed periodically.
Let’s not be naive but instead realise that corporations have a responsibility to their share holders to maximise the return of their investments.
It would be very irresponsible to develop a cure and thus killing the steady revenue stream from millions of regularly paying patients.
The very nasty drawback is that millions of patients in developing countries do not have the funds for expensive drug cocktails and are in dire need of a cure.
Had penicillin been discovered during the last 20 years would it have been released? Maybe not and instead there would be daily medicine to be taken to keep an infection at bay; never quite curing it.
[Link] [Photo credit: sparktography]
Rainy Brighton
One of the things I have been missing lately is to be out for a whole day looking for photo opportunities.
At the moment I have a bit more spare time on my hands now that my wife is in Brazil for work (she took our little one with her). So last Sunday I finally got a chance for photography while on a day trip to Brighton, England.
That day I was met with typical South East England weather: heavy rain, sunshine and strong winds changing every 40 minutes.
1/320s F/5.6, 20mm F/2.8
During one of these heavy rains I took shelter under the Madeira Drive arcade. The sun was shining from far West and because it was getting late the sun was characteristically yellow.
Prime Minister Tony Blair responds to my signature
Earlier this week I received a semi personal e-mail response from the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Here is an open response it.
Last week I signed an online petition to “Scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy” in the UK.
The UK government has proposed a plan to replace road tax and petrol duty with road charging. In the scheme you would pay up to £1.30 per mile you drive.
The cost per mile would be variable so that heavily congested roads could be taxed more. “Black boxes” would be installed in vehicles to track their position and determine correct road cost.
The intention to monitor and track every movement of every vehicle in the UK is a very sinister thing to do.
Some argue that the intention is good but what matters is the reality. In reality there will be mistakes and blunders and there will be missuses from various government organizations.
Mr Blair keeps tellings to us what he thinks is the best way to do things. I believe that instead he should be representing us by acting on what the people he represents want.
Almost 2 million citizens have voiced their opinion and they don’t want this scheme in place. If you disregard children and the elderly, 2 million is a noticeable proportion of the voting population.
So please Mr Blair, listen to the people that voted you in and scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy!
Photo credit: Ynr