iamrupert

There was a rather large scale fire at Frensham ponds about 10 days ago. I took the dog for a walk there on Saturday 17th and here are some shots that I took on my phone of the devastation.

 Apparently it can be a good thing to  have a fire to clean out an area, and already signs of life are appearing, but it was a rather shocking and saddening sight.

Strangely, about 8 days after the event and the ground was still quite warm and the heatcoming up from it was noticeable.

I had the very greatest pleasure of going to Silverstone to see the 2010 Grand Prix today. Because we were guests of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes we were able to go along the pit lane prior to the race and get very close to the cars and pit crews who were all very welcoming.

I took this shot of the number 2 car and was amazed to see the details, even of the front nose sections, where air is clearly dispersed around the body of the car to achieve better aerodynamics.

It was a real privilege and pleasure and I share this shot here.

We also had the great fortune of hearing from Jenson before the race. Here he is being very relaxed...

 And finally, I was very honoured to see Niki Lauda who was being interviewed for TV.

I did a 23 mile charity cycle race around Farnham and the surrounding countryside. I did the course in 2 Hours 7 mins which I was quite happy about.

I tracked the whole experience on the excellent Sportstracker service on my Nokia device and have shared it with the world.

If you are so inclined, or you would like to see the route I took, take a look here .

I came across a new service called GroupNation http://www.groupnation.co.uk

Seems like a good concept. Basically you can create ad-hoc groups and then share photos, videos, have discussions etc. You can even log in with your Facebook credentials which makes it easier to handle.

Looks like I am the first customer on the site so I have set up a couple of groups and it will be interesting to see if it takes off. I suppose you could use Facebook Groups but not all my friends / family use facebook so this could have a bit more flexibility.

If you need any web hosting I can completely and utterly recommend csnewmedia to you. I have used Carl and his team for years now, in both a reseller and a personal capacity and have always had fabulous service from them.

I won't lie and say therehave never been any problems, but when there have been the communications have been spot on, and never has anything been "lost".

They do both Windows and Linux hosting and do anything from personal web hosting through to proper dedicated hosting needs.

CSNEWMEDIA

I am delighted to report that Keith Belgium's "Happy Accidents" is already available ion iTunes, just weeks after it was uploaded to RecordUnion through this site.

Congratulations to Keith and very best wishes for your sales!

If you want to get your music promoted onto iTunes, Spotify, Nokia Music and alike the please read this blog on how to sign up and get 2 FREE UPC codes to get your music published globally.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to welcome Keith Belgium who recently became my first music publisher using the Record Union scheme I talked about previously in my Blog. Keith attained 2 UPC codes and has already published his first album ( Happy Accidents) that has already appeared on deezer.com and Nokia Music Store (see below).

Welcome to Keith and good luck with your future sales!

Usually when you see headlines like this there's a catch. Especially with moile operators where when you sift throug the T's & C's you find out that you need to top up by hundreds of pounds (slight exageration) to get the free calls or chat.

However, one of the UK mobile operators has broken the mould and there really is no catch. Get 2 free SIMs (one for a friend) and you can help yourself to free Skype calls and free chat on Windows Live Messenger, on your mobile, for FREE, without every having to top-up.

Now that's impressive! Click on the banner below, and go to the FreeCalls forever with free SIM, request your SIMs and wait for them to arrive.

I suppose the only catch to this whole offer is that you need to have 3G coverage to use the service, but then again, it hasn't cost you anything to find out.

I had persuaded myself that Sky would be an incredible luxury and that what the world of terrestrial and Freeview had to offer was by far and away enough to keep me occupied.

Well I don't mind admitting I was wrong. Very wrong. In fact I couldn't have been more wrong if I tried. Sky is a WONDERFUL thing. It is especially wonderful when you subscribe to Sky+. It is even better when you get the remote record working. The icing on the cake - and some icing it is - is Sky HD. WOW. Seriously, if you haven't you should and if you have you should do more!

I find the Natural history / Nat Geo channels in HD truely amazing and so inspiring that it makes me want to grab my camera and go and discover this amazing world. The only let down is that as soon as I get out into the "real world" it doesn't look as visually appealing as they make it in HD. So back to the sofa I go and check out that film that I have seen 23 times before.....but now I tell myself "I will really enjoy it....."

Click here for Sky's latest offers. You won't be disappointed!

I have just come back from spending 4 days in Swanage on a "Featherdown Farm".

The concept is simple. There is a farm. It has land that it would otherwise not be utilising. There are tents (excellent tents mind you) erected on the land and you pay to go an stay for 3-4 days.

It's also known as posh camping because the tents have flushing loos and running water in addition to their wood burning stoves. "Pathetic" I'm sure to some of you, but the reality is clear. No TV's, DVD's or other distractions, even the shyest of children will immediately immerse themselves into the surrounding environment and meet other children to play in the natural surroundings.

Best of all you are in places of natural beauty, completely unspoiled by man, where farmers are earning an honest (and hard) living which you are helping to support by staying on the farm. Everyone is a winner.

The Featherdown Farm at Knaveswell Farm was in a great location in Swanage. Having studied in Bournemouth I was embarrassed by my lack of knowledge (or awareness) of the local area including swanage, Corfe Castle and Brownsea Island et. It's a fantastic area for taking photographs, some of which have made it onto the site.

For more information on a fantastic holiday / break opportunity you should visit Featherdown Farms.