Transport for London are giving away 100000 free Oyster cards that let you travel around London for half the usual cost. The cards normally cost £3 plus whatever pay-as-you-travel money you top them up with. However for the moment TfL are giving them away, all you need to do is top them up with some cash for travel.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/tickets/oysteronline/freeoyster/

I have just enabled Gravatar on my wordpress blog after having seen the little icons on Petite Anglaise’s site. If you leave a comment on this post (using my site, not Livejournal or Facebook or the other sites I syndicate this blog with) you will see a little icon appear next to your name like this: . This is your Gravatar and you can customise it by going to the Gravatar website and registering your email address. It then follows you whenever you comment on any Gravatar enabled website.

I have also turned on a few more wordpress plugins such as the ability to share a post with others through various social bookmarking websites or even by email. There is also a new subscribe to post feature which will, after you have left a comment, email you to tell you that someone else has left a comment – this is optional.

I am also thinking of including my twitter feed somewhere but I am not sure how long I will keep using twitter.

Almost eight months ago a Canadian national, on holiday in the UK, crashed into the back of my old car – writing it off. Today, after many phone calls and emails, I have been told that the claim is closed and I have won. I get my policy excess back (£150) and also get to keep my three years no claims bonus. Yay! Why this took so long to sort out I will never know. I think the third party insurance company was just stringing us along hoping that we would give up. I also get the impression that my uninsured loss recovery company only ever did anything when I rang them up and pushed them into action. Hopefully I will get my cheque in the next week or so.

The whole process has left me feeling quite exhausted and it doesn’t really feel like I have acheived anything other than a bucket load of finance on the new car.  I think insurance companies should be given a maximum amount of time in which they are allowed to do certain tasks, especially when in this case it appeared to be such a clear cut claim.

Hope for Tomorrow, a Gloucestershire based cancer charity, is holding a sponsored walk around Westonbirt Arboretum on Friday 15^th June from 6.30pm. Their aim is to continue to raise funds toward the Mobile Chemotherapy Unit launched in February. Entry is only £3 for the short course (2.5km) or £5 for the long course (5km) including entry to the arboretum. There is no minimum sponsorship amount.

I hope to attend myself if I can find a few people to go with. Let me know if you are interested, it is a very worthy cause.

Well well well, that was one of the most exciting Queen Conventions that I have been to in many years.  Thank you to everyone who made it so much fun. I have already put my photos online here:

http://gallery.durrans.com/v/queen/conventions/2007/

We were a little unimpressed when we first drove up but that feeling was very quickly quashed once we had got into the swing of things. Friday night is a complete blur – I blame it on the vodka. Pam had these “know your limits” badges. Gavin and I found that our limit was about half a bottle of vodka each. I thought that the Friday night disco had a really good selection of music compared to what is usually played. My belt wasn’t very effective so my jeans kept needing to be hitched up – especially during the breakthru train.

On Saturday we went out for a meal in a pub opposite Pontins. The place looked a bit naff from the outside but when we got in it turned out to be a really nice place. I had a gorgeous fillet steak that melted in the mouth and finished up with a lemon brulee that was to die for.

The Saturday night was pretty good, we all dressed up with bunny ears to fit in with the Easter theme. I really felt that I knew and could talk to lots of different people this year. Everywhere you looked there was a friendly face. I also got to meet some new people so that was cool as well.

By the time Sunday came around I was pretty tired but still really enjoying it all. I adjudicated the scavenger hunt that I had organised and that went really well. We are going to try and do that again next year. I also think, based on an idea from Becky, that a Blue-Peter style ‘make’ competition would be great as some of the cardboard scale models of Wembley Stadium circa 1986 that were created by the scavengers were truly inspired.

Gabriele made us a lovely spagetti carbonara for dinner and then we all dressed up as fairys to celebrate Fairy’s birthday. I had run out of vodka by this point so moved on to the on-tap scrumpy. I got pretty damn drunk on Sunday evening but it was all good and I had fun

Great convention, great venue, same again next year!

Ben and Jerry’s have launched a new  ice cream with a Queen flavour – Bohemian Raspberry. Currently on sale in Sainsburys I can tell you it is delicious! Vanilla ice cream with large chunks of fudge brownie and raspberry sauce. YUM.

The company that I work for, Fleet Support Group, have released a Carbon Footprint Calculator allowing you to work out how much carbon dioxide your vehicle, or fleet of vehicles, chucks out over a given mileage. It is also meant to show how much of a saving in CO2 you would make if you or your fleet of drivers were members of an occupational road risk management programme. I won’t comment on the calculations as the method for working it all out was devised by the Energy Saving Trust, however it was quite a fun little web project and my first in-depth dabble in JavaScript.

This has been a long and strange weekend. I had a party on Saturday and while it was good I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind and I am not sure if I enjoyed myself. I was tired and just feeling rather low I think. I think I am having a bit of a low weekend in general. It was nice to see everyone, especially Rose who I haven’t seen since last year and Tracy who ventured to her first meetup with the #exeter lot. Also I must thank Tracy and also James and Roz for their housewarming presents (a bin for the bedroom and one for the living room). Oh and Rosie and Norman (who I keep typing as Normal) for their bottle of wine with a foot on it. Thank you all for coming along.

I have loads of food left over but I think it is going to spoil before I have a chance to eat it all which is a bit of a shame. I have spent most of this evening chomping my way through a bowl of party saussage rolls.

The insurance claim from the crash back in August isn’t sorting itself out. It is getting messier. Basically my insurance company and the TP insurance company are in dispute over the amount of the claim. The TP insurance company are saying that while they accept liability they dispute that the accident would have written off my old car. My insurance company made the decision to write off my car. What do I stand to gain? My excess back. What do I stand to loose? My excess plus two years no claims bonus. Also the Third Party has alleged now that I am attempting insurance fraud. How is that possible? It wasn’t my decision to write my car off. I took it to the approved repair centre that my insurance company told me to take it to. Rant over.

Oh and my house insurance company has automatically renewed my policy. This is annoying for several reasons and can only get messy. More on that later. I just hope I can sort it all out tomorrow morning without causing any more problems.

Queen Convention is coming up again soon. Fingers crossed that will go ok but I have a feeling it probably won’t.

Roll on pay day. I have had quite a few double bills this month because of moving out of the old place and into the new place which is leaving me a bit short of cash.

My parents came over at the weekend to visit and see my new flat. We had Sunday lunch at Robin Hood’s Retreat, a lovely little pub on the Gloucester Road. Normally you have to book in advance, which I did, as it is very small and very popular. However for some reason this weekend it was pretty empty when we turned up. The food was good but slightly overpriced for what it was and the service, while polite and considerate, was a bit on the slow side. I started by having the goat’s cheese with beetroot followed by roast beef and a chocolate tart for desert.

Last night I went out with Jacki, Ross and James for a meal at Max’s Italian Bistro in Clifton. The restaurant was fairly quiet but then it was a Wednesday night. As we perused the extensive menu our waiter, who had the deepest Italian voice I have ever heard – like an Italian Barry White, introduced himself and took our drinks order. We didn’t have starters but for my main course I had spaghetti carbonara. The pasta was cooked to perfection, I always slightly over or under cook mine. You really can’t beat a carbonara sauce made in a real Italian restaurant. Desert was two pancakes in a zesty orange sauce with chocolate chip ice-cream. Absolutely gorgeous food. The prices were on the high side but with a discount for eating on a Tuesday or Wednesday night plus an extra discount that Jacki and James had made the evening very reasonable. Overall Max’s is very welcoming, personable, and delicious restaurant. I would highly recommend it for that special, intimate occasion.

I saw this while out at the weekend.