Something Interesting

Regulars readers will be aware of the enthusiasm the something interesting authors share for cars and driving.

The long dark winter days have encouraged us to look ahead to spring /summer and consider driving holidays in the UK and Europe.

With the soaring cost of air travel more and more people are finding wonderful journeys to follow throughout Europe and the competition  amongst European car hire firms means that there are some great car rental deals available - especially if you book well in advance.

We read this post on a Europe Car Hire blog about an wonderful road trip in France that followed the Mimosa Trail.

The Mimosa Trail

It begins on the coast in the town of Bormes-Les-Mimos and continues for 80 miles in the South of France. The trail runs through beautiful French countryside where mimosa trees are abundant.

The region is also well known for its perfume and the trail concludes in Grasse, the world famous perfume region where the mimosa blossoms are made into luxury fragrances.

Grasse is known as the “perfume capital of the world” and this article will describe Grasse’s rich history, it’s many tourist attractions and will explain why the area is ideal for perfume production.

Car hire in Europe is an affordable way to travel.  You can choose to rent small economy cars, larger luxury family saloons or for the more extreme driving adventures there a re specialist car hire businesses that off off road vehicles - Land Rover, Jeeps and other SUVs.

Smart traveller recommends off road adventure holidays with safety and comfort - singling out the Freelander as the optimum 4×4 all terrain full comfort car.

Following on from the last post about Land Rover Wii Game in which we stated the Gas Guzzling Freelander - we feel it only proper that we  mention that the latest Freelander to come off the production line will actually be amongst the most economic and green SUV’s in its class.

Thanks to Vantastic (aka wii save money expert) for pointing this out and sharing these two videos - the first is a short ad for Freelander but far  better of the two is this cracker about how silly people look playing wii fit.

Nintendo have upped the ante with the release of several brilliant wii games including this years must have wii fit which is billed as a funtastic way for the whole family to keep fit.

• Lean from side to side
• Stick out your leg
• Stick out your other leg
• Barely move, do mundane things
• Why go outside to exercise when you can stay in front or the TV?

Jibes aside it is possible that health benfit fit fit fits are to be made - for example lowering blood pressure by playing wii fit games and building up strength.

The clever folk over at Nintendo work hard to satisfy the insatiable appetite for wii driving games - Formula 1 Motor Racing, Rally Driving and even Mario (git) has a comedy cart to wizz around in.

Now the Wii offers an Off Road game - “Land Rover Ford Off Road” is its full name - that claims to fulfil your 4×4 desires whilst staying in the comfort of your home.  The game appears to be in close association with Land Rover - the king of Off Roaders and marketing ploy that actually works.

Choose from any of the Land Rover models - Defender, Range Rover, Disco and our favourite the all new Freelander.

You can take a gas guzzling poncey Freelander out and put it through its paces - hill climbs, bomb drop drops, deep water, sheep - nothing phases it.

The game has a cheat “trick” - at the end of each stage you are given the chance to hose  the Freelander down ready for the next stage - just as they do at the Land Rover Experience Centres

We didn’t like the huge blue Ford logo that appears throughout - surely the classic discrete Green Land Rover badge would be more appropriate?

You can find the Land Rover Ford off Road along with a massive selection of wii games online.

This is just a quick review of the game - for a thorough insight into what the game offers check out this review on Den of Geek

Treat yourself to an off road experience and enjoy!

Broadband has had a massive impact on the way we work and play. As more of us begin to spend more time online the days before the Internet seem distant and old fashioned. Being connected is something we take for granted, like having access to hot water, something you don’t notice until it’s gone.

As new technologies age they tend to become faster smaller and cheaper. Computers are definitely cheaper and smaller than they used to be (I’m typing this on a nice quick laptop) and they are also cheaper. This process has also taken place for the internet (although smaller doesn’t really fit) but we seem to have reached a limit to the increases in speed.

The main factor in limiting broadband speed is the hardware involved. In practice this means the phone lines most of use for our connection. Obvously some people use Wifi and Mobile Broadband and these are also due to increase in speed. The next step towards quicker Broadband is a faster phone line. Although the copper wires use are good enough for landlines they were not built to carry so much information. Fibre Optic cables would allow us to watch movies in high definition via the Internet and would also be of great benefit to business users.

Well, after being a bit quiet on here, thought i’d share some of my favourite online flash games with you lot, just in-case you fancy wasting some time at work (i don’t condone wasting time at work haha) or you are fed up of your next gen consoles like the Nintendo Wii or your PS3.

So, here goes:

Bells - This is a fluffy little game where you jump from bell to bell and try and get as high as possible. sounds simple, and it is, that’s what makes it so addictive. Little tip, make sure you get all the little birds, as they double your score.

Zombie boxes -  Boxes is a heads down zombie kills blood fest, that will keep you coming back for more. There are new versions of this game on crazymonkey games website, but i prefer this one.

Tactical Assassin 2 - TA2 is a game that lets you play in the seat of a professional sharp shooter on a number of different assignments, and you have to work out who to kill and how. Loads of fun the first time round, and still pretty good the second and third etc etc.

GluFO -  Last but not least is GluFO. This is a twist on the good old asteroids game. Very fun and quite addictive.

That’s it for now, these should keep you busy for a while, and if your lucky i might remember to update the blog with more soon haha.

Early in the summer we discussed ways of making money on the Internet in a post incorrectly titled Saving Money on the Internet (save buckets).

Prompted by the anticipated boom in sales that begins at the start of a new school year, building to a shopping frenzy as Christmas approaches, a recent news report from savebuckets.com highlighted how much we can all save when shopping online.

In this post we can look at ways to save money when preparing to go to college. September sees not only the return to school and the need for new uniforms and stationery but also students leaving home for college who will be looking to spend much of their grant on

• Books
• Beer
• Laptops
• Clothes

Medical students will have the added expense of choosing a stethoscope, many extra text book and a considerable higher beer budget.

Price comparison sites such as www.savebuckets.com can help you save money - for example the medical student searching for a Littmann Stethoscope finds a wide range of prices - the same Littmann Classic II stethoscope was available between £58.69 and £44.18 - it soon becomes apparent that a little online research before making purchases would quickly save a whole load of money.

And students should remember “all work and no play makes a dull boy/girl” so click away from sites like savebuckets and explore opportunities to persue leisure interests (other than beer) and again with just a little research great online deals can be had for experience days or getting the latest games consoles to enjoy with family and friends.

Ultimately most students are hoping to be better qualified when they submit their cv to online uk job sites and begin to repay the overspending that going to college required for success and happiness.

As the new term approaches we wish all new students the very best of luck AND the very VERY best of online shopping to save money indeed “savebuckets”.

Q: What do you get if you put two Dave’s together?

 A: Double Dave

Announcing the new double act to hit the virtual cabaret scene - Double Dave.

One of the worst jobs uk cabaret acts have to do is think of their stage name. Hot on the tail of other double acts such as Cock & Bull, Tit and Tat and the now retired Bacon & Eggs these two Daves decided to join up and pay tribute to legendary Chirpy Cockney Knees Up Geezers Chas and Dave.

Dave on the left with unkempt hair lists his hobbies as listening to the shipping forecast especially if there is a slow rising in Dogger.

Dave to the right fails to conceal his passion for handbags he can be seen here sporting the latest “man bag” from Paul Smith.

“It started as a joke really” explaind Dave “We missed going to see Chas and Dave when they played Exeter Barnfield Theatre in April - there was supposed to be a company “outing” but this turned out to be an empty promise.  By the time we found out no group booking had been made it was too late - the show had sold out.”

“Egged on by colleagues we trawled youtube for our favourites and figured we could rattle off a quick one ourselves - first we perfected Gertcha! and soon graduated to repeating the word rabbit over and over > rabbit > rabbit > rabbit > rabbit > rabbit > rabbit > rabbit > rabbit

“To be honest I’m more of a luxury food hamper man than pie ‘n’ mash, jellied eels and whelks but as they say in show business ‘ you have to suffer for your fart’”

Yes, that’s right, a sequel to the iconic Tron is being made, and a little teaser trailer has popped up on the web.

Tbh i wasn’t expecting much from a re-make of Tron. The film was only gathered such notoriety in the 80’s because it used state of the art computer graphics (which look very dated now). But watching the new trailer for the second film i couldn’t help but feel a little excited. Obviously the first film made more of an impression on me then i first thought, and with the inclusion of the light bikes (god knows what they are really called) from the first one the trailer brought all the fun memories flooding back.

I am now looking forward to the new Tron film. The question is, will the younger audience who have grown up on playstations and xbox’s enjoy it too?? Only time will tell i guess.

This extrodinary video of Posh Totty Zara Phillips enjoying the spectacle of her horse sneezing a gallon of nasal discharge over a young chap trying it on with her reminded us of previous Royal exploits that have brought the Royal family in to the limelight.

First up - Harry the Hun - the Prince of Wales’s youngest son photographed enjoying a drink and a cigarette while dressed as a member of Rommel’s Afrika Korps, complete with a prominent swastika armband. Further comments and articles about Prince Harry becoming an embarassment

At a recent Buckingham Palace Garden Party held to celebrate 6o years of Land Rover and elder member of the Royal Family was overheard saying “they stay over there, stealing our jobs” when asked for his comment about the prospect that the Freelander production may transfer to Asia.

The high point of the celebrations was the handing over of keys for the 60 Land Rovers donated to the British Red Cross to deploy in both the UK and abroad. Interestingly Zara failed to attend this event - although her relationship with the all terrain manufacturer is wekll documented - indeed it is claimed that she was the very first Royal to recieve direct payment for advertising the Freelander when the model was re-launched in 2006.

And who can forget the hilarious “Its A Royal Knockout”? A one off charity event that followed the format of great british telly It’s a Knockout. The contestants including celebrities of the time and many members of the Royal Family competed in ridiculous and somewhat humiliating games; for example in one round they dress up as giant vegetables and throw fake hams at each other.

Carrying on from the last post here on money saving i thought i would help those out there looking for cheaper fuel.

We all know that recently fuel prices have been increasing almost weekly, and finding the cheapest place to fill up locally is changing too. I have found a useful little site that has a continually updating database of huge selection of garages, supermarkets etc around the country, and using your postcode it will search for the cheapest fuel in your area.

The site is called  Petrolprices.com and requires you to sign up. but in turn gives you an email every week with the cheapest fuel prices near you.