“Dot.Robot” Book Review

May 28th, 2011 3 Comments »

As I made a promise to the author himself on his request that I review this book on my blog, I feel it is only fair that I keep that promise especially as he (kind of) endorsed this blog. Jason Bradbury off of Channel 5’s The Gadget Show is that author in question, and Dot.Robot is the title of his first book. Published in 2009, it is the first in a trilogy aimed at 12-year-old boys, or if you like, me. I’ll start with the conclusion: If I had read this book when I was a 12-year-old boy I’d have absolutely loved it and even now as a 30-year-old boy I found it a fun little read. The plot follows as 12-year-old geek named Jackson Farley who ends up being recruited by a mysterious organisation called MeX. MeX supply him with an array of gadgets which allow him to control a remote robotic craft. As part of an equally young global team he pilots his craft on reconnaissance and rescue missions utilising non-lethal weapons and multiplayer computer gaming tactics. Obviously there is a twist and I shan’t be releasing any spoilers, but I’m hooked enough to want to read the next two instalments and shall be placing my book order shortly.

If you like children’s literature, or the fantastical implementation of technology then this book is for you. You also need to keep in mind that every gadget and technology featured in the book is either a reality or a theoretical possibility. Everything from the heads-up display contact lenses to the awesome hacked Nintendo Wii controller idea is feasible.

You can get your copy of Dot.Robot from Amazon.co.uk along with the two sequels, see the Amazon links below:

 


The Curry Secret

March 12th, 2011 1 Comment »

DSCF0154About 8 years ago I purchased a book, on a recommendation, titled “The Curry Secret”. The tagline of this book is what captured my attention: How to cook real Indian restaurant meals at home. It claims to give you the methods and recipes actually used by restaurants and take-aways in the UK which is in contrast to most Indian cookery books which tend to provide recipes for more authentic dishes. Last week, after a few years of the book sitting on the shelf, I decided to resurrect it. The process of cooking a restaurant style curry starts with the chopping of onions, garlic and ginger, boiling them up and blending them smooth. You then mix in a load of spices and cook some more – the basic curry sauce recipe makes enough for 4 meals… each meal enough for 3-4 people. Last week I made Chicken Do-Piaza, the remaining sauce and chicken I froze. Today I took out one portion of chicken and one tub of sauce and made Chicken Bhuna-Masala (which is in the photo above), the whole process today taking just 20 minutes.

To start with, the upside: the currys taste just like a takeaway or restaurant curry and are well worth the effort in my opinion. I didn’t make the bhajis because they were on special in co-op and besides I don’t have a fryer. The downsides: Last week’s curry took 3.5 hours from start to finish, but subsequent currys using the ready-made sauce and chicken take a fraction of the time.The after effects are genuine too – I’d suggest using slightly less chilli than the recipes advise and as most of you know I like my chilli.

At the time of writing, the book The Curry Secret by Kris Dhillon is only £3.89 including free delivery on Amazon so go get your copy right now.

New Discworld Book!

August 24th, 2010 No Comments »

Available to pre-order now and due for release next week (2nd September) is Terry Pratchett’s latest Discworld book “I Shall Wear Midnight”. Technically it isn’t part of the normal Discworld flow of novels as it is part of a side-line ‘young adult’ series, however I’m still counting it and the central character, young witch Tiffany Aching, is as established as any other Discworld character. I’ve ordered my copy.. go get yours and we’ll compare notes. Amazon seems to be the best price around and have free delivery – see the link to the left. If you want a signed copy then you’ll need to visit the official web site and pay full price + delivery.




Where have I been? (and Rainbow Cake)

March 21st, 2010 3 Comments »

Well I’ve been busy, okay? My two final Open University courses started at the beginning of Feb as I mentioned before, and I’ve spending most of my spare time completing coursework. I still have a final project to complete for one of the courses which I’ll get out of the way in the next week or so, then that just leaves two more pieces of coursework to be completed in May / June / July… and that’s all.

In other news… Joseph / Joe / Joey / Joey-joe-joe has had his passport photo taken ready for our trip to France later this year. He looks a bit gormless but it is an accurate likeness. The ferry and stopover hotels are all booked and I hope to have Disney all sorted by the end of the week. We have our new Euro GB style number plates ready for the Oli/Tor-bus and I really must remember to order the European travel kit things with the torch, triangle, first aid kit and stuff in…

My copy of ‘All Aliens Like Burgers’ arrived on Friday too but I haven’t had chance to read it yet. I’m saving that for April when there’s a natural gap in coursework… I’m struggling to get chance to read my monthly subscription of PC Pro magazine too so a full book will be more of a challenge.

And finally… I promised Poppy that I’d make her a rainbow cake for her birthday (no, not gay pride), which isn’t until June. But considering I’d not got a plan together on how I was going to make this, I thought it best to perform a test run. Vicky is in the process of decorating the bathroom this weekend so I thought what better way to keep the children occupied than a bit of baking. So here’s how it goes: I made a mega batch of cake mixture… 300g of marg/sugar/flour and 6 eggs. I split the mixture in to six portions and added food colouring as needed to each one.. Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red (I had to mix some of them myself). Then I spooned each colour in to a cake tin, one colour on top of the other, and did the same for a second cake tin. Bake for 45 minutes and turn them out….

Finally we sandwiched the two together with blue butter icing, then covered it in more butter icing to finish.. Mmmmm count those E numbers. Poppy then decorated the cake with an entire tub of pink sprinkles. I shall learn from my mistakes in making this, firstly I will put the red in first and make the rainbow up from that direction, because it bends the wrong way in my cake. Secondly, I might just make one massive cake instead of two so the rainbow effect is more pronounced. I will also put more effort in to the next one to make it look more like a birthday cake. Will have to get a new icing piper for that methinks seeing as the last one fell apart.

I’ll leave you with these last two photos of the finished product, even if Poppy does look a little unsure what she’s let herself in for.

All Aliens Like Burgers

February 15th, 2010 1 Comment »


An old school friend of mine has written a novel, due to be published in March. From the synopsis it appears to be random enough to hold my attention so I’ve pre-ordered a copy. By pre-ordering you are helping to support the publication, and as an interesting by-product of the pre-order process you force Ruth to sign the book before it’s delivered - imaginative comedy dedications only please :) . If you’d like to pre-order your copy too, visit: http://hirstbooks.com/ruth.htm and in the meantime, here’s a quick summary:

“Young, polite and intelligent Tom Bowler has barely ever ventured out of the small English town where he grew up. So when he applies for a job in a fast food restaurant at a “local” service station during his gap year he is rather surprised to discover that the vacancy is in fact based on Truxxe, a planetoid stationed between local galaxies Triangulum and Andromeda. He’s surprised further to find himself becoming friends with a purple alien and that he has strange feelings for his android supervisor, Miss Lola. Tom soon discovers that Truxxe has many hidden secrets – just what makes it so special and why is its terrain so rich and varied that it can be used for fuelling such a diverse variety of intergalactic spacecraft? What are the Glorbian space pirate brothers Schlomm and Hannond plotting? The one thing that Tom is certain of, however, is that all aliens like burgers.”