Playing with bubbles

Recently bought a bubble machine. The mechanism is quite simple, you fill up the tank with the bubble mix and a fan at the back blows air through of bubble wands turning round. It produces hundreds of bubbles per minute and kids love it.









Definitely beats blowing bubbles yourself.

Where a million dollars does not mean anything

I was reading about the really sad affairs in Zimbabwe in an article on the BBC site and I recall an old National Geographic magazine that I once read. That issue was full of optimism about the country that had just gained independence and had taken on the new name of Zimbabwe (1980) and it's great leader, Robert Mugabe.



Now the country seems to have gone down the drain like so many other African countries. It's amazing that a cup of tea and two glasses of water can cost 204 million Zimbabwe dollars.

One guy can do this to a country.

Read the article: Mugabe's stranglehold on Zimbabwe

3 Dongle dangled

Take a look at what came via the post yesterday.

I am a satisfied 3 Skypephone user and had been thinking about signing up for their mobile broadband service after reading about it. Just imagine my delight when I was offered the opportunity to try it out for FREE for 3 months with absolutely no data restrictions.

The free gifts that came with the "dongle" was completely unexpected. I don't mind - I love free stuff.

Anyway, the dongle is actually a Huawei E169G USB Modem and looks like a bit like a normal USB flash drive.





Before using it, you have to take out the USIM card holder and insert the USIM card. Stick the dongle into one of your laptop's USB ports.



The modem software installs automatically. Once installed, all I have to do is click "Connect" on the pop-up screen and I am done - mobile broadband Internet access.

Over the next three months, I will be testing out the modem from various locations in the UK. Look out for more reviews and technical details on my tech blog Adamok dot net.

Thanks to Sam and the other guys at 3mobilebuzz for giving me the opportunity to try out the modem and of course, the other freebies.

April snow in Coventry

Woke up this morning to find our backyard completely white. It had snowed during the night. It's crazy. It's supposed to be end of Spring by now but that's the UK - you can't predict the weather.

TalkTalk broadband not so bad after all

Just a few posts back I ranted about TalkTalk being the worst broadband provider in the UK. Well, I might be wrong after all.

Last Sunday, at our friend's house in Birmingham, the topic of broadband speeds suddenly came up. My friend is on Virgin broadband. On checking the speed, we found out that their speeds were slightly lower than ours. However, I should point out that their promised maximum speed was only "up to 4 Mb" unlike our "Up to 8 Meg download speeds".

Have any of you guys been able to get up to at least 50% or more of the download speeds promised by your broadband provider?

Flying penguins

A BBC team has found a unique species of penguins.

unlike any penguin...

These penguins can fly and they migrate to warmer climes in winter.

Check out the Penguins video on the BBC site.

BTW, today is April 1st.

Coventry city centre and other updates

It has been a week since I last posted something on this blog. Makes it among the longest. So here's an update. We went to Coventry city centre thrice last week. The weather wasn't that good but we decided the kids needed some exposure and they were getting pretty restless at home during the Easter break.

The first time we went was on a Monday. We took the bus and I guess it was quite an experience for the kids as it was their first time going to the city centre using public transport. We took a family ticket (£6) but later discovered that the kids could go for free and we only had to pay our own (£2.60 each for a day saver).

It was a bank holiday and most of the shops were closed by the time we got to the city centre. It was kind of weird walking through the city with hardly anyone around - that's Coventry for you.





Got to see some parts in the city centre that I have never been to before even though we have been here for more than a year.

We went again by bus again the next day to eat lunch at this Chinese restaurant we had heard about called My China at Priory Place. We were quite surprised to find that we were the only customers - probably due to the fact it was around 2 pm. So we had the restaurant all to ourselves. We later learned that the owner is from Malaysia. The food was great. We would definitely be going there again.

The day after that we went to the city centre - again. This time we drove there and parked at the West Orchard Shopping Centre. After a bit of shopping we went to grab a bite at Nando's. You may not believe it but I have never visited a Nondo's anywhere - not even in Malaysia. It was not quite what I expected. I had imagined it to be just link any another fast food outlet - something like KFC and was not really enthusiastic

Glad to say that I was proven wrong. They have great music - Reggae, Portuguese and a few other languages I couldn't identify. They are child friendly and unlike other fast food outlets, they have a good choice of VEGETARIAN food. The chicken served at Nando's here are Halal. My kids loved their bottomless yogurt icecream and they probably ate a little more than they should have.

Had some friends over yesterday for freshly brewed coffee and pudding. Then later went for a birthday party in the evening to our friend Lisa and Zur's house.

Today had lunch at our friend Nana and Mozard's house. Great food again.

Writing all this has made me hungry and I think I will go and grab myself some supper.