The Great living room shuffle.

[From the archive of things-I-didn't-get-round-to-posting-at-the-time]

Since i moved in nearly 4 years ago I've been moving the lounge around bit by bit trying to find the best use of space and as yet I've not really found anything which is satisfying. Its get better each time, but never really been "perfect"

The latest arrangement I did about 5 months ago and it almost exactly the opposite of what it was when i move in (at least for the TV/Sofa anyway) and works pretty well. But still isn't what I envisage or exactly right, but i guess its the best i'll get.

The TV unit got moved from the right-hand wall to the back wall of the house, but the window faces directly into the sun, so wasn't ideal.

The sofa sectioned off the bar/bookcases from the main lounge and really didn't help when there were more than a few people round. (shown mid move, it was normally further away from the back bookcases)

The dining table was against the wall, which was fine until it was used. You ended up eating facing a wall, with the only light source in the room behind you, eating in the shadows. Plus the chairs and table got in the way of the cupboard door.

One day, move ALL the things! The TV unit came apart as it was too big to fit where the table was without obstructing the door a lot so it was reduced in size (too much as it turns out, but i'll post about that another time)

The TV ended up where the Table was, the table went by the bar and bookcases and made a kind of dining area, and the sofa went on the opposite wall to the TV. The downside of this is that the TV is a long way from the sofa, and despite being 40" looks, dare I say, small. Pulling the sofa into the middle of the room means there's a lot of dead space behind it.

UPDATE:
Alas, since writing this and before it was fully sorted, (although much tidier and better laid out than this) It's come up that I'll likely have to move this year, so all of this is for nothing. Back to square one for somewhere new!

Cooking with Music

With the purchase of the new MiniTop for the car, and the subsequent lack of GPS making it a bit useless for that, the reserve function got setup.

In the kitchen before this was a laptop on top of the fridge and some speakers under the upper cupboards with a sub on top. 

Replacing all of this:

...with this:

The volume knob also shifted with the reduction in cabling to under the cupboards against the fridge. Substantially tidier than before and sit next to the tablet itself.

The tablet will go into a wooden surround to hold it in place more securely, once it's made, which it isnt yet. So in the mean time it'll sit on top of the chopping board.

So far it's a success! although it's not hooked up to the music store as yet. But it will be.

BBQ Smoker - v0.2

For version 2 (ok, 0.2) i swapped out the broken dish for a glazed one to hopefully give it more heat resistance and bought a pizza try which had holes throughout to lift the fire off the lower plate entirely. This also allowed air to come up through the base of the fire and burn far better.

Ideally i would have added holes to the saucer but wasn't sure if the lack of total protection form the eat would make it crack. Best try the first one without the holes and see what happens. At least its not wasted work if it does break now.

Took a while to get a decent fire going (as you can see by all the matches, which were dire and either broke striking or went out as soon as the head burnt) but once it went it kept a good temperature. For this one I used some scrap wood, but amde sure it was actual wood, rather than mdf/chipboard.

Because this time it was getting food! It generated a good amount of smoke, but having a very limited supply of wood at this point, it was never going to cook the whole chop.

The lid went on and then i decided to move it off the BBQ, party because i didnt want to melt the cover and party because if it toppled, maybe something would survive and lower fall.

The fire burned for about 40minutes, an the chop good cooked through on the George Forman along with another chop which hadn't been in the smoker as a comparison.

The difference in flavour was noticable even after only a very short time cooking in the smoker itself, so some success at least.

BBQ Smoker - v0.1

[From-the-archive-of-things-didnt-post-at-the-time: This post should have gone out last year, but didn't and as i've not improved it, and used it with success. It's about time]

For a while I've been wanting to try some different styles of BBQing. One specifically sounds and looks more delicious - slow and low.

Its fairly simple: Make fire, direct smoke over meat, leave for some time, tend fire as needed.

Firstly, the fire. Most large scale smokers in the US have a brick fire box and large metal box with shelves or racks four the meat. But, that's a tiny bit impractical. B&Q provided the answer, somewhat unexpectedly. A large thick walled plant pot upturned on a saucer makes a good firebox and another pot on top with wire racks for holding the meat.

The pot needs a hole cut for fuel and air to get in. Fortunately, the clay pot is soft enough a dremel eats it away nicely.

Sadly the enamel pattern is somewhat harder and took as long to cut through as the rest of the pot.

Once the hole is cut the inside of the pot and saucer got a liberal coating of fire sealant and the saucer had some holes drilled at the edge to draw air in.

Unfortunately about 15 minutes into the fire test, the saucer shattered down the middle. The pot at least stayed intact which as it took the most work is probably for the best.

The new saucer has enamel which should resist the heat a little better and i've got a pizza tray for the next test to lift the fire up to get air under it as well as maybe keep the saucer from breaking.

The top of the smoker is a straight sided pot, with a bell pot upturned to trap the smoke inside. To hold the meat up, i've made a rack from a couple of dish racks for a microwave. Soon i'll get some proper fuel for it and test it for a full cooking time on something.

Change for the better

To start, a little background. I've had a mobile phone for around 14 years now, starting with the original phone of champions:

The Nokia 5110

Followed by...

Nokia 3210 - Sony CMD Z5 - Nokia 7650

Sony P800, P900, P910

Sony P990i - HTC TyTN II, - HTC Touch Pro 2

Google Nexus One - HTC Sensation - HTS One S

... All of them, without exception with Vodafone. 14 years with one network is more than just about anyone i know (or can think of), and in this time i've been an fair advocate of them to other people. Both my parents are on Vodafone which is pretty much how I ended up with them at the start (Dad's work phone was Voda, and cross network was expensive)

In spite of the lack of signal in my house (outside is alright) i've remained with them, I briefly flirted with T-Mobile when the first Android came out but they also had no signal so wasnt really an improvement. The Sure Signal was good, but not 100% reliable (or even 90%). Together with some pretty poor service in the shops - to the point where I ended up submitting a complaint (which was ignored), warranty issues (source my own parts, really?), and misinformation on the phone and in a couple stores. In fairness to them, the best service I got was always at the Newbury store in their HQ, but its not the easiest one to get to and really, it should be standard to expect decent service at any store.

So i decided to leave, and as a happy coincidence this was being released:

Galaxy S4

Never really considered Samsung phones before, not been impressed previously, although the recent Galaxy ones have changed my mind (evidently). So far so good. Had it for a day and it IS nice. The camera is nice, and the screen is crisp. One thing I dont understand yet is how it tracks your fingers so close to the screen without actually touching it. Its like a magic wizard lives inside and watches where my finger hovers. 

Anyway, setup was as painless less as you'd expect for an android, all the apps updated automatically, moved all my sms over and thinned some pictures from the folder (which went back to my Nexus One). 

Maybe not the most amazing review you've ever read, but then i'm not a reviewer, more a rambler. Fortunately since Orange and T-Mobile merged i finally get signal in my house, and a contract with unlimited data. Success, at least till I see how T-Mobile perform in the long term.