Sadly we don’t have any archive footage from summer holidays growing up. But we nearly do.

Change the grassy field to a beach and you’re got it; a delightful depiction of our summer holidays playing cricket on the beach with dad clad in floppy hat, socks and sandals.

He still always wins.

Tom Slinger singing about a melancholy man. The perfect song for a rainy day.

Fat.

Now I want a leopard.

There are tigers under my bed, originally uploaded by benaston.

, originally uploaded by benaston.

Our trip to Bombay was short and sweet (ish). We’d never planned to stay long, and after a day, we’d had our fill of it. Although everything is written as Mumbai, everyone here seems to be calling it Bombay. So I am too, it’s more colonial, if nothing else.

Getting here was pretty good. After a nice BA flight which was empty enough to allow us the luxury of sleeping in our own row of seats, we landed in Bombay in the middle of the night. We stayed in a suburb close to the airport, Juhu Beach where Oprah who was also in town, has a pad. The hotel, Juhu Residence Boutique Hotel was good, but I’m not sure what Oprah sees in the place. Juhu doesn’t really seem to have much going for it apart from two cultural highlights – Cinnabon (that was where Bombay was sweet) and Dominoes, which we indulged in dutifully.

I don’t feel that we got to see that much of Bombay – we took a taxi to the Gateway of India and walked the streets around Colaba and bought some clothes, but got bored of being hassled pretty quickly. We took a pit stop at Leopolds which apparently features heavily in the Bombay-based book Shantaram – the autobiography of an escaped Australian convict who makes a colourful life for himself in Bombay. As luck would have it, the author, Gregory David Roberts was there signing books so we bought his enormous encyclopaedic book for Rebecca to amuse herself with for our trip.

And then all we had time for was the taxi back to the hotel via Chapatti Beach which took a couple of hours. That was painful. And noisy. Then some dodgey street food at Juhu beach and it was time for bed.

Apparently, if you don’t like Bombay, you don’t ‘get’ it. That’s according to Lonely Planet so it must be true. So I have to concede, I don’t ‘get’ it. At least if ‘getting it’ is anything much other than lots of traffic, honking, and odd smells.

What I do ‘get’ though is the bottom shower; this has been the real highlight for me – far more efficient than a bidet, and very useful when your diet requires regular use of the toilet.

Next stop Udaipur.

The time of living at 10 Ericcson Close is sadly at an end. For those of you that I forgot to tell, today I’m off to Vancouver, (via India, HK and Australia) to begin a new life as a bear hunter.

I rather suspect next time I’ll be living at number 10, it’ll be when I’m Prime Minister.

Can’t wait.

Nokia Lumia 800 review, originally uploaded by benaston.

Although in the pre-smart phone era, I’d always loved my Nokia phones, I’d become a bit disenchanted with them and was pretty firmly attached to my Android HTC Desire on Android. But seeing as Nokia gave me one of their shiny new Windows 7 phones, the Nokia Lumia 800, I thought I’d give them another try.

Nokia Lumia 800 – what’s good?

So after a month long road test, what’s good about the Nokia Lumia 800? From the outside, it’s pretty. In your hand it feels as solid as an old school 6310 – it’s got a cool curved with a unibody design – carved out of a single polycarbonate shell (so even when it’s scratched it’ll retain its colour). It feels robust, like you could drop it and it’d still work. What’s more, it’s got Gorilla Glass  which means is lightweight, and highly damage-resistant meaning you don’t have to stick any of those stupid screen protectors on your phone to keep it looking shiny and new.

And it’s pretty on the inside too. If you’re at all familiar with the Microsoft Windows 8 or Zune interfaces, you’ll immediately feel at home. The interactive experience is based around sliding screens which allows for lots of white space in design – it all looks very sleek compared to the Android platform and a lot more interesting than iOS. The boundaries between content and apps and contacts are blurred too, with the ability to ‘pin’ anything you want quick access to on your homescreen. Whether it’s a favourite picture, e-ticket or contact, you just pin it on the screen so it’s quick and easy to access.

From a user’s perspective, integration is great across your social and messaging platforms: messages and communication are centred around your contacts and groups of people, rather than through a specific programme. The Windows Mobile platform aggregates your messages, feeds and updates for you, so that you don’t have to delve into all your different apps to stay updated.

What’s more, Nokia have thrown in some good software too – their Nokia Drive app allows you to download maps of the entire planet to your phone, so that you don’t have to use data on the go, giving you sat nav wherever you are. And the Windows Skydrive gives you 25gb of cloud based free storage, so you can access all your important stuff on the move. You’ll find all the big apps that you’ll want have got Windows Mobile versions too  – Spotify, Twitter, Facebook, Evernote, Trip Advisor and yes, Angry Birds – it’s all there and it looks a lot prettier than it does on Android or iOS.

So what’s not so good? From an aesthetic design perspective, it’s all good – no complaints on that at all. But I’m not sure about the lack of certain features. In terms of storage, 16gb is good, as is a 25gb SkyDrive, but I’m not sure that it makes up for the lack of micro SD slot – it’s a major omission that reduces its ability to be your primary music playing device. And one thing I’ll miss on the Nokia Lumia 800 is the ability to swap batteries in and out when you’re running low on juice.

Nokia Lumia 800 – what’s bad?

On the inside, I’m not convinced about the Windows 8 homescreen tile design; it’s too restrictive, it seems they’ve elevated form too far above function. I can see how it would be great on a desktop or  tablet, but on a phone, the tiles (and the persistent clock) take up too much real estate; you find yourself having to do a lot of scrolling. The same goes for viewing all your apps, you have to do a lot of scrolling to get to the bottom of your alphabetically ordered apps; there’s no way to reorder them. Annoying.

I was also hoping for a bit more from the camera, with a Carl Zeiss lens, I was expecting some really sweet pictures – they’re ok, but just a bit average, especially when using the video camera. Hopefully though, with the almost weekly firmware updates this will soon get started. My final niggle is with the lack of Google integration – MSN, Facbook, Twitter etc are all integrated beautifully, but you can’t help but feel that they could have tried a bit harder by allowing Google Maps (and Latitude) and Flickr integration into the platform; those things work, it’s just all a bit awkward.

Verdict – Nokia Lumia 800

This is a good phone though, I like it. It feels like a significantly different from Android or iOS. From a software perspective, it’s got a bit of a way to go but with Nokia’s incessant software updates, I think this is going to get better and better. This is definitely more than just an also-ran platform, the Nokia Lumia 800 is in the major league.

7.5/10

The Little Printer is definitely on my Christmas list – a new, tiny, cloud based physical printer that prints ‘publications’ – your customised snippets of information on demand. You configure Little Printer from your phone, and already they’ve teamed up to get content from Arup, foursquare, Google, the Guardian, and Nike to supply content.

I love things which reconnect the digital and physical world; connecting products to the Web lets them become smarter and friendlier. Paper doesn’t run out of battery – you can stick to the fridge or tuck it in your wallet. You can scribble on it or tear it and give it to a friend.

Paperlicious.

The pitch for this film must have gone something like, “We want to make a comedy about the most un-funny thing ever; cancer!” And that’s exactly what they’ve done.

So oddly enough, this is a comedy about cancer. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film quite like it before – it’s a 50:50 balance;  raw emotion and hard hitting deep stuff about cancer and relationships, but with a generous sprinkling of comic relief on top.

If you’re a fan, Seth Rogen is at his best in this film apparently inspired (never quite sure what that means) by a true story, about a young and healthy 27-year-old guy, Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who learns he’s got a rare form of spinal cancer. He’s given a 50:50 chance of survival and the film explores how his relationships with his friends, family and girlfriend change as he struggles to beat the disease.

Well worth a watch, it’s like a sweet & sour haribo.

Tangfastic.

It’s always nice to showcase a bit of local Wandle Creek talent.

Tom Jenkins from The Theory, based down the road in Wandsworth, has come up trumps with his latest stop motion animation film. Featuring music by the excellent Cinematic Orchestra, the film is about a lonely desk toy who longs for escape from the dark confines of the office so takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View.

Peachy.

This starts off a bit weird, grows on you, and then becomes totally amazing. If I did all the things I thought I thought I was capable of doing, then this would probably be the result. And I’d probably be dead too.

Chuck Norris would be so proud.

Nuts.

When someone sent me this link I mistakenly thought it was a link to the R Kelly classic. Mercifully, it’s not. Instead, it’s a film by the kind of man I imagine myself to be. Maybe not now, but probably next year after I’ve gone to the gym a bit.

Sebastien Montaz-Rosset’s new film is a 40-minute documentary following skyliners – practitioners of an extreme sport that involves elements of mountain climbing, slacklining and base jumping. Filmed beautifully, it combines a delicious treat for the eyes with an epic quest of folle-francais.

Sweeeeeeeet.

Lytro camera is unveiled, originally uploaded by benaston.

After talking about themselves a lot for the last 6 months, today Lytro finally unveiled their radical new camera; the errm, Lytro. And I’ve got one.*

The camera’s been billed as a big deal because it gives you the ability to focus a picture after it’s taken, on the camera, on your computer or online using a special viewer by using a technology called light-field photography. Basically, it makes it impossible to take pictures that are out of focus. And lets you play around with the focus after you’ve taken the picture.

The design is a bit industrial and distinctly Apple iSight flavoured. The pocket-sized camera with its anodized aluminum body has just two buttons; power and shutter. There’s a touch sensitive zoom slider and rear display that lets you view and refocus your pictures directly on the camera. It comes in three colours and two models. The blue and graphite models have 8GB of storage and will cost $399, the red model is 16 GB and costs $499.

But I’m not really convinced. I’d want it if I could it have it as a lens for my DSLR. But in its current format, isn’t it just an expensive point and shoot for people who find it hard to take pictures in focus? And for the point and shoot type of pictures you flick through on facebook, I’m not entirely sure the pictures are really worth ‘exploring’ are they?

So if anyone wants my camera, let me know.

*Kind of. It’s reserved.

Sometimes the transition from Summer to Autumn can be a bit difficult, so usually the best thing to do is to go to Spain and take a trip to Seville. It’s warm there, there’s ice cream and all the creature comforts, like Boris bikes.

Pica.

Cow Club Oct ’11, originally uploaded by benaston.

I joined London’s first Cow Club because I like mmmeat.

The concept is pretty simple; get a crowd of mmmeat eaters together, buy a cow, get someone to chop it up, and get it delivered to your door for a bargain £10/kg.

OK, so on the face of it, it might not be a bargain, but this was no ordinary cow.

The Cow Club mmmeat was locally sourced; a Sussex Bullock, native to the South East. These beauties are exclusively grass fed which means they taste better and are healthier too – with lower overall fat content & higher Omega 3 fat ratio. Not only that, but when you compare it to the competition, it stacks up pretty well financially too. After 20 months of chomping on delicious grass, the happy cow trotted just three miles up the road to a small family run abbattoir, hung around for 28 days, and was then transformed into a selection of  delicious mmmeat pieces.

Game.