I’m on my last days of time off work and it has been totally worth it. It felt so good waking up in the mornings without having to rush to get out of bed and get myself ready for work. It was also likewise refreshing to be not working yet not being someplace else at the same time. See, I never went away. Well, I was supposed to but I left it at the last minute to book for flights and stuff so I decided to simply stay at home.
I’ve managed to catch up watching films that I missed at the cinemas — Golden Compass, Rush Hour 3, Evan Almighty and Alvin and the Chipmunks! Yeah, those chipmunks rule!
I’ve also managed to catch up with friends over dinner. Even got one friend to taste Filipino food for the first time and she liked it!
So, what have I got lined up for these last few days? Looking at my calendar now and it looks busier than this week that passed. See I’m meeting my girlies tomorrow for The Vitality Show at the Kensington Olympia. Looking for girly bargains and freebies!!! Then on Sunday evening, I’m off to see Otros Aires at the Clapham Grand. And if I could squeeze in a short visit to the newly opened Banana Republic store at Regent Street, then my holidays at home would be complete.
I’ve just updated some of the sites I help administer to 2.3.3 and this blog is still running on 2.3.1. Now the peeps over at WordPress are giving a sneak peek of version 2.5!
I can’t keep up with these people!!! In a good way though…
From the screenshots, it does look exciting. But wait a sec, what happened to 2.4?
Last September (2007), I posted about the fact that one of my favourite shops — Banana Republic — is going to open in London. Today, so i went shopping blog mentions that THE date is the 20th of March 2008.
Only one more week to go!!! I’m so counting the days.
Pityriasis rosea is a common and harmless rash that goes away by itself after about 8 weeks. Its name means that the rash is scaly (pityriasis) and pink (rosea).
It is thought that this unsightly condition is caused by a virus and usually occurs in the wintertime. It is not contagious and commonly occurs for people between 10-35 years old.
I remember having a skin disorder back when I was studying in university but not sure if it is the same as this one. It was a few weeks before my graduation and the dermatologist advised that I expose the affected areas to early sunlight (before noon). Back then, I remember it being so itchy and had to use a special soap. It did go away after daily sunbathing.
Pityriasis Rosea is also commonly mistaken as ringworm because of its similar charateristics. This explains why I was given treatment when I first presented the problem to a walk in centre in Hammersmith months ago.
The sad thing is that there is no treatment for Pityriasis Rosea. The GP told me that there is no reason for any alarm and that the worst that could happen is that it does get itchy. In such instances, I could take anti-histamine, put calamine or cooling lotions or possibly a mild steriod.
I pay £135.50 a year to watch programmes on the telly. There were only 5 terrestrial channels in the UK — BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Five. You can watch more channels if you subscribed to cable (NTL or Telewest, which are now both Virgin Media) or satellite (Sky). Now with the advent of digital broadcasting, the freeview services was launched thus giving the non-subscribers to a provider with more channels — BBC3, ITV2, E4, Film4 and most recent favourite, Dave. For me, freeview was enough for me not to continue paying around £25 a month for extra channels like MTV or the National Geographic. It had given me quite the savings as I previously paid £50/month for TV, broadband and phone services. Now, I only pay £25 for broadband and phone. Although I have been checking out other offers lately and saw that I might be paying almost the same amount for broadband and get digital TV as well from Sky for £16 per month. Phone will still have to remain at £11 a month with bloddy BT (hmp!). Anyway, I digress.
The BBC, Channel 4 and Five companies have launched their on demand services whereby viewers could watch their favourite programmes over the internet within 7 days from original broadcast on television. Five is charging to view and so is Channel 4 although they do offer free content, too. But for me personally, nothing beats BBC’s iPlayer!
With the iPlayer, you can stream it online on your web browser (use Firefox!) anytime or you can download it and watch it offline for up to 30 days. It is using peer-to-peer technology to enable the distribution of large video files to scale effectively(source: Wikipedia). It is not, however, possible for the downloaded programmes to be copied onto another media like CD or memory stick, which I think is fair. The reliability and quality of the service plus the length of time the good programmes are available actually stops people from obtaining an illegal copy.
The programmes on iPlayer are still free to watch and download whilst both 4OD (Channel 4) and Five Download Manager have paid content. Some people are saying that having a paid service is unfair because we already pay the TV licence. True but then again, if by purchasing these media, you are legally entitled to keep them for a longer period of time, then it is no different from buying a DVD of these TV programmes. But frankly, if BBC starts to charge as well, then it might not be as popular as it stands today.
Through iPlayer, I was able to follow the latest series of Sir David Attenborough entitled Life in Cold Blood. It was shown on Monday nights at 9pm and I usually have tango classes on that same night. If it weren’t for iPlayer, I would have missed a brillliant documentary. The last episode was aired tonight but as I also wanted to catch Numb3rs on FiveUS, I have relied on the fact that I am able to download it and watch it later — which I am, after I finish this post!
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