1.  6  MASSA        Ferrari           B   1'26"907  221.119 Km/h  
 2.  5  M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari           B   1'27"284  220.164 Km/h  
 3.  1  ALONSO       Renault           M   1'27"321  220.071 Km/h  
 4.  2  FISICHELLA   Renault           M   1'27"564  219.460 Km/h  
 5.  7  R.SCHUMACHER Toyota            B   1'27"569  219.448 Km/h  
 6. 16  HEIDFELD     BMW Sauber        M   1'27"785  218.908 Km/h  
 7. 12  BUTTON       Honda             M   1'27"790  218.895 Km/h  
 8.  3  RAIKKONEN    McLaren Mercedes  M   1'27"866  218.706 Km/h 

The race had a chaotic start with Fisi spinning or being tapped with both he and Heidfeld coming in for a new nose. Alonso nearly made a move on Schumi stick. The Williams cars started well Webber to P4 Rosberg to P6. Kimi was caught up in the chaos getting a puncture and eventually retiring. 55 to go Button has got past Webber for P4. De La Rosa, Trulli are also making their way through the pack. 51 to go Kubica is hussling Webber. 45 to go Luizzi has spun and his car is in a dangerous position so the safety car is deployed. The front runners pit for fuel and Alonso gets past Schumi in the pits as he had to wait for Massa to be serviced first. 41 to go the safety car is in and Kubica makes a great move on Webber and Fisi follows him through. Soon after Fisi has a duel with the Pole and comes out ahead of him. De La Rosa is up to P6. Rosberg is told over the radio to return to the pits - loss of water pressure. 30 to go Schumi goes wide on turn 8 and treads carefully until he can rejoin the track without damaging his car.

25 to go De La Rosa is fueled to the end and Button must make sure has has enough time to make his last stop and still be ahead of him. The top four drivers are all posting fastest laps it looks like their last stops will be soon. Albers is in P9 in the Midland an amazing performance from him today. 20 to go and Rubens is told to use the overtake button and gets past Webber for P6. Massa, Alonso, Button all pis and Schumi stays out hoping to make up seven seconds to Alonso. He later pits but although closer to his rival is still behind him. Alonso himself seems to be struggling under breaking and there is only .4 seconds between the two drivers. Albers retires, great shame for him and his team. 7 to go Alonso makes a mistake Schumi tries but does not get past him. He knows Alonso won't mind if they both get taken out by a racing incident. Schumi then has a big moment in turn 8 and falls back - Alonso is given another breathing space. Behind them there are great battles between the drivers in P5 and P6 and P7 and P8, Button is well clear in P4. On the last lap Schumi and Alonso are really close and both cross the finish line almost at the same time Alonso keeps P2 by a half car distance. A great race at this track. Massa wins his first GP. The gaps between the two rivals has now grown by two points with four races to go.

 1.  6  MASSA        Ferrari           B   1h28'51"082  208.903 Km/h  
 2.  1  ALONSO       Renault           M   +  0'05"575  208.685 Km/h  
 3.  5  M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari           B   +  0'05"656  208.682 Km/h  
 4. 12  BUTTON       Honda             M   +  0'12"334  208.421 Km/h  
 5.  4  DE LA ROSA   McLaren Mercedes  M   +  0'45"908  207.120 Km/h  
 6.  2  FISICHELLA   Renault           M   +  0'46"594  207.093 Km/h  
 7.  7  R.SCHUMACHER Toyota            B   +  0'59"337  206.604 Km/h  
 8. 11  BARRICHELLO  Honda             M   +  1'00"034  206.577 Km/h  

Monza is in two weeks.

Friday August 25, 2006

Death in the clouds

Another Poirot book this time with him shuttling back and forth between London and Paris. In the filmed version there are a few alterations to the book but it is pretty close to it. A plane the Prometheus heads from Paris to London. On the plane is Poirot himself. A Madame Giselle is on the plane and meets her death by a poison dart. Initially it is assumed that the dart was sent to its victim by a blowpipe found later on by Poirot's seat. He finds himself accussed much to Japp's amusement ( he is the Scotland Yard Chief Inspector). Most of the people on the plane had reason to kill this woman who appeares to be a blackmailer and money lender. Jane Gale who in the TV show was a female steward on the plane is in the book visiting Paris after winning a competition. She becomes very friendly with a man called Norman Gale also on the plane. The Countess of Horbury seems to have had more reason than most to kill off Madame Giselle owing lots of money to the woman to feed her gambling habit. The link between the two is difficult to make first due to Madame Giselle's maid burning her books and evidence. An American then features in the story - we do not meet him but he is clearly implicated in ensuring Madame Giselle is on the same plane as theCountess of Horbury. In the end it turns out that the breakthrough on the case is all about what people had in their possesions in the plane and an empty matchbox, a white coat and another item were items used in the murder. The problem is initially these are quite reasonble things for the owner - a dentist to have with him. The murder of Madame Giselle's daughter finally clinches it and Poirot gets everyone together to reveal who was the guilty party. Another excellent Agatha Christie book.

Thursday August 24, 2006

More on Blood donor Online

As I mentioned before the The National Blood Service have a new online service and I have just completed my registration. It allows you to book appointments online and also see what has happened to your previous donations. For my three donations I have given at our local village my blood has been used for Red Cells and Platelet replacement therapy.

Red Cells are used in the treatment of all kinds of anaemia which can't be medically corrected, such as when rheumatoid arthritis or cancer is involved, when red cells break down in the new-born, and for sickle cell disease. They're also essential to replace lost red cells after such things as accidents, surgery and after childbirth, not to mention pre-op 'top-ups' for existing anaemic patients and for burn victims

Platelets are commonly used to treat bone marrow failure, post transplant and chemotherapy treatments, and leukaemia. These are all instances when platelets can be of huge benefit to the recipient.

You can also see what blood stocks are for each blood type. ( I am O+). There is also a virtual blood donor session which takes you through a typical session what happens and so on. The Service get 2.1 million donations from 1.6m donors that is 5% eligible population giving 2/3 times a year.

Wednesday August 23, 2006

300 mph JCB digger

The JCB digger speed team broke the speed record for a diesel powered vehicle yesterday. It averaged 328.8 miles per hour and will be doing more runs today. It was driven by the same guy who has the land speed record in the Thrust SSC that is Andy Green. The vehicle is powered by two JCB engines and looks like a straightend banana. Well done guys!

Would you like to see this plane fly again?

These guys are trying to get a Vulcan bomber back into the skies where it belongs. Escalating costs means that unless they can find extra cash the project will be cancelled. Pity the UK Lottery cannot be brought into play.

Blizzard - the race to the Pole

The last part of this series is on BBC2 tonight. It features a Norwegian and British team racing to an artificial pole to reenact the race between Scott and Amundsen in the early 20th century. The two teams had the same equipment, food and tranportation as the original players of this story. It does not take long to see the Norwegian team were very much at home in this environment. The modern day teams of course have the luxury of being followed by TV crews who can summon help if things went pear shaped. It also does not take long to see why Amundsen won the race; dogs pulling sleds was always going to be easier than Man hauling where men provide the brute force to pull the sledge. The food looks terrible and Scott's team were burning more calories than they were consuming making them more vunerable to the cold and sapping their strength even further. Amundsen was also clever in making sure his team had fresh meat which was supplemented by dog meat when he reached a certain point in his journey where he slaughtered a lot of his dogs. This was part of his plan. The race could not be held in the original place as dogs are now banned from there. But a similar environment was picked to ensure it was a proper test. There was a bit of humor in the early part of the race where the Brits meaning to be kind to their dogs did not use metal retraining collars. The dogs took advantage of this and chewed through the humane replacement and ran off. The Norwegian team ended up getting to the pole and returning before the Brits even got there. Last part tonight at 9.00PM. More details on the series can be found here.

Tuesday August 22, 2006

Twenty or sixteen?

Since we moved to a new Sun office I have been sticking with the same route to travel to work which goes through Bracknell passing by way of Camberley and then onto the M3 for the final bit of the journey. On the way home as the Camberley bit is a car park I stay a bit longer on the M3 then returning home via Bracknell. I knew the journey was not optimal but thought that the better roads meant a quicker journey etc. So when the M3 had a horrible jam on it the other week I took a country road home coming through Eversley, Aborfield, Winnersh and finally Hurst. The journey time was as good as my old route and the only problem was a bit of a queue just outside the office that I know how to avoid once they re-open a road up (which is closed for roadworks). I then measured the journey distance. Twenty miles for both of the previous routes, sixteen for my new route. The two other things I have observed; my MPG has risen by five miles per gallon and I feel more relaxed after the new journey it is not a fast road but there is none of the agro that you get on dual carriagways.

On the way to visit my father-in-law last weekend we were warned of major delays on the M6 ahead of us. So we left the M6 joining the M54 first going West and then North heading to Whitchurch and then getting to the Wirral. The journey time was as good as using the M6/M56 combination and there is a benefit from not doing all the journey on the motorway. Meanwhile I checked a few autoroute maps for the home/work journey and one did specify using my new route. I would not want to make life horrible for the places I drive through and recommend everyone uses country roads instead of large A roads etc but it is clear to me now that the most obvious routes are not always the best...

Monday August 21, 2006

Melons in the UK??

Having got rid of the Nectarine in the greenhouse I felt I needed to grow something in its old terracotta pot. While in a Garden Centre I saw a Melon plant and decided to go for it. It took a long time to get going but soon it was growing well over the string and wire I strung up inside the greenhouse. Eventually flowers appeared and as I kept the door closed except when it is exceptionally hot no insects were going to get in and pollinate the female flowers. As with all fruit and vegetables that have two flowers, male and female you can see a small fruit just behind the female flower. The hand pollination method is simple as long as you have female and male flowers open at the same time. You take the male flower off the stem and strip it of its petals and other stuff so the flower head is fully exposed. It is then a simple matter of poking it into a female flower hoping the pollen will end up where you want it to be. I usually repeated the excercise using several male flowers. So at the moment I have two growing fruit both a bit larger than a tennis ball. As you can see I have had to support them - I got a tip from a chap at the local allotment shop who suggested using the bags that large fruit are sold in. I am not sure when these will be ready but so far so good...

Friday August 18, 2006

Odd things inside and on cars

It should be of no surprise to me the odd decorations people put on or inside their cars ( but I am..). Here are some I have seen.

The extra bodywork people bolt on their cars to enlarge the wheel arches, and round the front and rear bumpers. Fantastically wide wheels, as if the standard ones were clearly not wide enough for safety reasons..

Odd stencil details like flames around the wheel arches etc

Registration plates, which mimic people names/ their trades or related to the car itself eg BMW1 etc. A whole weblog could be written on these alone...

The no badge option you get on BMW and Audi cars - where the badge with the model/size of the engine is not fixed on the bodywork. Amazingly neither manufacturer charges for not putting the badge on.

Odd badges on the front/rear of cars proclaiming membership of an organisation - one dubious one would be the Caravan club.

Silly signs on the rear window like "my other car is a Ferrari".

Large fluffy dice hanging from the rear view mirror on the windscreen.

England flags when the team is playing in a tournament which fall off very quickly and are left littering up the road. Even odder is having those flags still on your car months after the event has finished.

The bad taste plastic fingers that give the impression of them being trapped inside a car boot etc.

The nodding dogs on the back parcel shelf now revived with the insurance company Churchill.

Pictures or words on the rear tyre case on the back of 4X4s. Like "another piggin 4X4"..., or pictures of dogs, cats or Indians etc..

Thursday August 17, 2006

Hollyoaks [sic] plant of the week

These plants are grown as hardy perennials. They seem tolerant to drought and poor soil. I am trying to increase the numbers in my garden. Every year they put up a series of tall spikes on which flowers appear. Bees love them. They have all sorts of colours yellows, pinks etc. The seeds are really easy to get off the plant and they germinate well too. The best thing is to grow them in a pot for their first year and then plant in their flowering position in the autumn or spring. At the end of the year the spike should be trimmed back to the base of the plant.

Wednesday August 16, 2006

Vote for.... unsung landmarks..

Great idea this although I am not so sure about the merits of some of the candidates. I think my preference would be for a bridge of some sort. So often they take you across something and you never get to see the bridge itself.

Coq au Vin with cider?

This version using cider instead of red wine is lighter and not so rich as the original. We use chicken breasts, fry them in a little oil to give them some colour, put into a flameproof pot. One breast per person. De-rind 1/2 pound of bacon and cut into small cubes brown in the pan and add to the chicken. Peel sixteen button onions, brown them and add to the pot. Crush two cloves of garlic a sprig of thyme and add to the pot also. Season with salt and pepper and add two bayleaves. No add your cider use one and a quarter pints and simmer for an hour or until the chicken is tender. During the last fifteen minutes add half a pound of dark gilled mushrooms. After the hour is up remove everything leaving the sauce in the pot. Keep these warm somewhere. Throw away the bayleaves and sprig of thyme also. Bring the sauce to the boil and reduce by a third. Make a butter and flour paste ( one tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of plain flour) Add this to the sauce and whisk well until the sauce has thickened. Then add the removed ingredients back to the sauce and serve with a baked potato or pasta. A nice twist to a classic French meal.

Tuesday August 15, 2006

Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile

A really clever one this possibly her best story in its intricate detail. The main action takes place on a boat as it takes tourist up the river Nile. The story starts before that and a triangle of people are the core characters in the book. These are Simon Doyle, his wife Linnet and Doyle's ex Jacqueline de Bellefort. On the boat too are a series of other people who become involved in the bad feeling that develops between husband and wife and Jacqueline who seems on a mission to harass and annoy the otherwise happy couple. Poirot is onboard and after the murder of Linnet takes charge with his friend Race and it is not long before two other murders take place. The clever thing is that the obvious suspect for the murder Jacqueline has a cast iron alibi. Doyle himself was incapacitated before the murder by Jacqueline after she has had too many Gins. The little Egg shaped head man Poirot unravels the complicated details of the case and in his usual style gets all the suspects together and tells them who did the murders. The TV show of the book is not bad a few of the charecters are not as I imagine them and feature David Soul who is Linnet's legal representitive ( who has his own covering up to do..). The end is quite dramatic and unexpected but adds a further twist to a great book.