Last night I went Ten Pin Bowling for the first time in around 10 years and it was really good fun. Like every sport I end up having a go in I end up getting really competitive!

We played two games and there was 6 off us playing. Firstly the worst part of playing Ten Pin bowling is the ridiculous shoes that they make you wear. Now I can appreciate that you can’t wear normal shoes on the lanes but why do they have to make them such as stupid colour. What is wrong with simple black, brown or even white so that they look like trainers.

In game one it took me a while to get my eye in however I finished second with a score of 108 which I thought wasn’t that bad. Game two I improved in that I won the game but got worse in that I scored only 104. The rest of the people I was playing wanted the rails on the side of the lane so that the bowls couldn’t be lost down the channels and I am pleased to say that I never hit them once. So maybe I deserved to win both games! Good fun though and will go again shortly.

I love gadgets and always have. I am a self confessed geek and proud of it! Today got me thinking as I was working away on the computer ‘what are my top 6 favourite gadgets?’ You know the things that I really couldn’t do without. So here goes.

Mac Mini

I have written Mac Mini here but really I mean any Mac. I had an iMac until recently and that was great to. Macs are great. They are just so easy to use and unlike PCs at times, they do exactly what you tell (sometimes you get the beach ball of doom but not often!). The Mac Mini is so compact it fits anywhere. I actually use 2 of them. Once is downstairs next to the TV that looks after all my music and streams it wirelessly around the house and the other is my desktop computer that I use all the time. Without this piece of kit my life would be very different so it has to be number one on the list.

Mobile Phone

I am not a great geek in terms on mobile phones. In fact often when I tell people what type of phone I have they are often shocked and they assume (being a techy) that I will have an all singing all dancing sort of phone. My Sony Ericsson K750i is great. Its 2 megapixel camera takes good photos in good light, but I only use this in an emergency. It is really easy to use and up to now it is reliable. I think people are getting to carried away with phones. At the end of the day they need to be able to text and phone people and anything else is a bonus. Anyway it keeps me in touch with those that I need to so it is a great little gadget.

iPod

The invention of the iPod has got to be one of the best inventions of modern times in terms of consumer electronics. What it has done for the way we all listen, store and manage music is phenomenal. I have an iPod Video 60GB which I have had for a while actually. Like most Apple products that I have experienced it performs really well as is a doddle to use. It allows me to keep my music, photos and also contacts with me wherever I am which is great.

Panasonic Lumix Camera

This has to be the best camera that I have had. It is almost like an SLR camera (I think they call them bridge cameras) when looking down the view finder you are seeing the digital image exact. It also has a massive 12x optical zoom which is very handy. It takes some great photos.

Card Reader

My small portable card reader is another essential piece of kit and for 99p it has probably been the best value gadget I have. It makes transferring photos from the camera to the computer much easier as you don’t have to mess around trying to find the wire that came with the camera. Just pull the SD card out of the camera plug in to the card reader and then it just acts as a flash drive.

Flash/Pen Drive

I have had one of these for a while now and the first one I bought I still have. It is a crucial 256mb drive and it cost me a whopping £40 about 5 years ago. Now I use a Bubsi 2GB drive which was actually bought from Argos as it was on a saving and I had one of those £5 off vouchers they do at Christmas. They are really handy little things for transferring files here there and everywhere. Great when you use a number of different computers like me.

So there you have it. They are my top 6 gadgets, what are yours?

With the garden getting more and more complete as the days move o, today it was time to tackle the concreting. The aims was to make a large concreted area to site the aviary on also to provide a run area for the rabbits. At the end of the day it was half done.

To start off with we need to build some shuttering which are basically pieces of wood that hold the concrete in place once mixed. At the same time we needed to slop it all gently from back to front so that the rainwater falling onto the concrete would then flow into the drain at the front of the run. Once this was in place we filled up the area with hardcore scalpings and anything else we could get our hands on such as old flags and bricks as we were running a little short.

Once the hardcore was in a tamped down it was down the the cement mixer to mix the concrete. It took around 10 mixes of the following proportions to get enough. 9 shovels of chippings, 6 shovels of concrete sand, 3 of cement and water until you have a ‘good mix’.

It was dumped into the hole and then leveled off to produce a lovely level surface which will be a nice run area for the rabbits when dry. Now we need to do the other half in a couple of weeks when that has had a chance to dry.

Many will know and have seen that I have had a website dedicated to my photographs for a while now. This site has taken on many shapes and forms, however I am still having problems keeping this site up to date with the latest photographs that take here and there. Therefore I have an idea.

Readers of this blog will know that I post lots of photographs on her on the things that are going on in my life and things that I think are worth sharing. Therefore it sort of seems a little silly to be having two places were I put all my photographs. On the other hand I think that a dedicated photograph site is still a good idea and therefore this is my plan.

I will be continuing to post everyday photographs as I have been here on my blog, as this seems to get the most readers out of my sites. I am going to turn my photograph site into more of a ‘favourite photos’ site creating galleries or collections of photographs that are my favourites in different categories. What I now need to work out is what different categories to have. I was thinking something along the lines of People, Environment, Animals and a category called General for those that don’t really go in the other categories.

So what out on my photograph site for my new ‘favourite galleries’ and of course keep checking this blog for the latest photographs.

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Mark Wilkinson Photographs

Well it is the Easter holidays, albeit that it is not actually easter and it has been time to work on the garden again. With us not finishing this the last time that we did it we needed to finish this off. I am sat in the dinning room writing this post on the MacBook. My plan was to sit out in the garden as the weather is beautiful, but the technology has let me down as my wireless network needs a booster!

So today was all about finishing the patio at the back of the garden. It was half done from when we had a go in February as we had run out of stuff. The latest method of laying a patio has been the best yet and once the boards went in last time it is really easy. Just sand and cement mix thrown down and then sweep a long board across to level the whole thing off. Works a treat and 12 flags were laid in about half an hour.

Then we had just bits and bobs to do really but it was one of those days were everything comes together. The lawn was mowed and this in itself transformed the garden. We have spent weeks at work in the garden with what seemed like very little results but today it all came together and we could see what a great product we were going to end up with.

The day finished with yet more and more discussion on what do do over in ‘rabbit corner’. The problem being that the rabbits really do destroy the ground that they live through general pooh and the odd bit of digging that they like to endulge in. Therefore we have now decided that the rabbit ‘run area’ will be a little smaller and we are going to concrete the lot so that it can easily be cleaned and maintained each week.

So we have more stuff coming on Thursday, some coping stones to cap the wall for the raised bed and some trellising to build something for the plants to grow up at the back of the now finished patio. This will hopefully make the garden a little more private.

For Christmas my wife decided to get me something a little different. I have been a fan of motor racing, in particularly formula one for some time and I have always wanted to have a go in a single seater racing car. Well my wife bought me a single seater racing experience gift for Christmas and having booked the event back in February, today was finally when I got out on the track.

Setting off to the Three Sisters Racing Circuit near Ashton, Wigan I was a little apprehensive as the weather was just a little inclement. In fact it was snowing, not the kind of weather that you want to test out your first single seater car in really! As we arrived at the circuit however the rain and snow had stopped and the sun was out, albeit it was still rather cold. After registering at reception we had a short wait before my ‘briefing’ with one of the instructors and so I took the time to assess the track conditions and take a look at some of the other cars out their on the track. I could tell straight away that this was going to be really good fun.

So about 15 minutes later I went in for my briefing session where the instructor tells you about what to do and what not to do, overtaking, different coloured flags etc. That lasted about 20 minutes and what actually very informative and worth while. Then it was down to the car garage to start your session.

The first thing was to take a few laps around with an instructor in a saloon car. The car of choice for this racing school was a rather nice looking Mini Cooper in gun metal grey. It was a 1600cc engine and it was fun. Before I had even got going I had a cut on my thumb (I love picking scabs!) that we had to get sorted. So it was radioed down to the ambulance that came zooming up the the circuit to get me a plaster. With everyone watching it made me a little nervous and my wife a little embarrassed. The paramedic opened his boot with all of the equipment in and there they were a set of paddles for shocking the patient. Not the reassurance you need before getting out on the track at around 110mph.

Was I was patched up it was out in the mini with the instructor who showed you the racing lines. He concentrated on telling you where to brake, where to turn in and accelerate again through the corners. This again was invaluable tuition and made a great difference when out on track. However at the end of the first lap in the mini we were ordered to come back to the pits as the snow was pelting down again and there had been two spinners on the track. One a turn three and someone off along the back straight into the tyre wall, but nothing serious. The instructor was happy that I had had enough in the mini and then it was into the single seater formula ford car itself.

The single seater’s are quite small with 1600cc engine, which doesn’t sound an awful lot, but when you think about their weight you get an awful lot of power underneath your right foot. They are around 400 kilo’s lighter than the mini even though that had the same engine in. Getting into the car is harder than you think. You have to sort of slide down and the actual sitting position in the car is almost as though you are led down. It was quite uncomfortable but better than I had imagined. When you are sat in the car you cannot see your feet and therefore you have to feel for the peddles which took quite sometime. The brake was the hardest to find as it didn’t really press an awful lot at all, but once I had found them they strapped me in. And strap you in they do, to the point where you can’t actually move once you are belted up.

With the snow coming down hard the track was going to be greasy and slippery but I was confident that I could handle the pace! Coming out of the garage into the put straight it dawned on me how much power I had as just touching the throttle to get the thing moving I nearly slammed into the car in front. Then we were away in front of the pace car. The first few laps the pace car takes it steady and then he started pick up the pace and I was doing really well, keeping up as the lap time started to get faster. In fact I was really starting to get the hang on this and the guy in front of me received the board telling him that car 8 (my number) was to overtake him, which I duly did into the first corner. I then followed the pace car around for what must have been about 7 laps at a pretty good speed it the front of the queue. The guy at the front had left the track on the back straight!.

On my third to last lap I entered the tricky first and second corner, which is a right left with the left be a sharp hairpin type of bend. I had a little to much acceleration going through turn two and the back stepped out. I managed to bring it back with a handful of opposite lock and continued on my way. I didn’t learn from this though as the next time round the same thing happened again only this time the back swapped ends with the front and I had spun round. The engine stalled however I manged to restart and after going across the grass in order to get back on the circuit all was well. I was gutted though as I was going so well.

One lap later that was it, the chequered flag came out and it was back to the pit garage and off the debrief where they gave us all a certificate and feedback questionnaire. It was a thoroughly brilliant experience and I would love to go again. I can imagine that it could get quite addictive!

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Three Sisters Racing Circuit
Racing School
Photo Gallery

Today my new mac mini computer arrived that is replacing the old iMac that I sold a few weeks ago. It is a truly amazing piece of kit that not only looks the part on the desk but also functions (at the moment, beautifully).

Having just bought my Dell PC to with the excellent 22 inch monitor I wanted to use the monitor for the next Mac that I bought and therefore that was why I decided to opt for the Mac Mini rather than replacing my older iMac like for like. I know they are not as powerful as the iMac computer but I think that this will do just fine for my needs.

So what spec is it I here you geeks whispering to yourself? It is an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz machine with a 120Gb hard drive and 2Gb memory. This means that it will be approx. 30% faster than the older iMac that I had plus the fact that this is double the memory and therefore that will help to.

I actually bought the Mac second hand off eBay from a seller that had excellent feedback. He was selling it brand new (it was purchased from an Apple Reseller on the 21st March and I have the receipt from the shop!) as it had only been opened and booted to check it was fine before deciding that he didn’t want it. Why? My thoughts too. Anyway as it had been booted I thought that I would just wack in the DVDs that came with the system, reinstall Leopard (the operating system) and then I would have a fresh copy just like turning it on for the first time. That was fine and it installed no problem. However I now no longer seem to have all of the iLife ‘08 programs that are pre-installed on every new Mac. I have GarageBand, iPhoto and iDVD but do not have iMovie and iWeb. This is strange and if the re-install that I did had wiped them why are some there and some not.

Doing some research on the web I know that people buying a Leopard disc to upgrade from Tiger would not have iLife ‘08 installed because Leopard doesn’t come with iLife ‘08. However with this being a brand new machine I assume that it should have come with iLife ‘08 pre-installed and therefore this should be on the ‘recovery’ disc. Indeed it has installed some of the programs. Anyone have any idea what has happened here and why some of the programs have gone?

Other than this it is a pleasure to use and knocks socks off my Vista PC. Just hope I can get to the bottom of where the missing iLife programs have gone.