Monthly Archives: September 2009

Flamas Peterborough – Review

Flamas restaurant

Flamas restaurant

Well that came around sooner than expected.  Only a few days after my original blog on the Flamás restaurant in Hampton I found myself sitting around a table in the restaurant with friends and a Caipirinha (or three).

In case you didn’t know, Flamás is tucked away deep within the Hampton Vale estate on Four Chimneys Crescent (it’s not as much of a building site as the out of date map suggests) and is easy to get to from either the Fletton Perkins parkway or London Road (A15).  If you can find your way to Tesco, you can get to Flamás.

So what’s good about Flamas?

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Tackling the Green Wheel

Most will agree that Summer was a bit hit and miss this year but as we seem to be having a second wave of sunshine I’m thinking it would be a shame not to put it to good use.

Peterborough’s 44-mile Green Wheel cycle route has always sounded like a good challenge so hopefully weather permitting I’ll be tackling it over the next few weeks.  It’s interesting to see recorded temperatures over the past few months and the Degree Days website has been just the ticket, simply click here and search for a weather station near you.

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Paston Parkway Footbridge

This story begins on the A1139 where the Paston Parkway meets the Frank Perkins Parkway. The roundabout serves virtually all of the traffic from the A47 that is heading to the South of Peterborough or beyond to the Southbound A1 or A605 / A14.  Being fairly wide and as visibility is usually quite good, traffic can be at a rapid pace if you’re caught unawares and are a bit slow on the old gear change. Generally speaking, it worked and I don’t think there were any more accidents there than were to be expected.

This was fine for years until some bright spark decided it would be a great idea to slap a petrol station on this notoriously busy roundabout, adding an extra entrance/exit between two of the busiest approaches.  Not only that, the petrol station became some kind of bastardised Somerfield with a KFC restaurant nestled in behind.  It’s probably worth mentioning that the backdrop for this setting is a glorious landfill site which has a fine whiff to it if the air is in the right direction.  Mmm fried chicken.

Before you read on, this story is covered much more accurately at the Paston Parkway J8 (Eye roundabout) website so you may find it beneficial to visit that site once you’ve finished digesting my spiel…

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Inadequacies of Android Market

It’s that time again – my mobile phone handset is due to be replaced by something sleeker, flashier and most likely touch-screenier.  It doesn’t take a genius to guess that I’ll be mentioning that phone from Apple…

The Apple phone has been on my shortlist since here and here but I opted instead to stick with Orange and go for the Nokia N95.  It wasn’t a bad decision and I even grew to rate the handset but things have moved on, Android has become much more of an established platform and I’m (once again) torn between the Apple phone and something else.

The something else in this case is likely to be the HTC Hero or maybe the Samsung Galaxy (although for me the Sense UI on the Hero is more in tune with how I want to use the phone) and apart from a few minor Pro’s that the Hero has over the Apple device (better camera and is available on my existing network) both are pretty much level in suitability.  That is apart from the applications…

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ThinkVisibility2 Leeds, Lolcats and Chocolate

It’s been a whole week since I dragged myself up to Leeds for the second Think Visibility conference so it’s about time I dug this review out of drafts and into posts proper.  In case you were hoping it was worth the wait, I think you’ll be sadly disappointed…

!!essay warning!!

Think Visiwotsit?

To recap for those that have never heard of the event: Think Visibility or ThinkVis (or ThinkViz) is (to quote the website) “the things that usually get left behind in the web design process”. Crudely translated, I take this to mean SEO or Search Engine Optimisation but in reality the 1-day event crams in much more, covering topics like Affiliate Marketing, Search Engine Management, Social Media and lolcats.

I probably covered all of this the last time I attended ThinkVis, blindly punching the keyboard until these words appeared, so I’ll focus instead on what the latest event had to offer. Read More…

Flamas Restaurant in Peterborough

Update - Since writing the below post, I’ve now been to Flamas and you can read my personal opinion here

How did this one slip through the net?  Reading an old copy of ESP Mag the other day whilst getting my hair cut, I spotted a feature on Flamas – a new South American “Flame and Grill” restaurant in Peterborough.

The Flamas restaurant website looks good, with plenty of variety on the menu for both food and drinks but something concerns me… it’s in Hampton!  Whilst having a restaurant like this must be great for the Hampton locals, it doesn’t really serve the rest of Peterborough very well especially if diners want to enjoy a Caipirinha or six and then carry on into town.

I’m planning on visiting Flamas in the near future which I’ll follow up with a review but if anyone else has already been, please let me know what you thought in the comments section below.

Find Flamas at:
114 Four Chimneys Cresent,
Hampton Vale,
Peterborough PE7 8FH

Egg online banking FAIL

Pretty much ever since I can remember, web browsers have had print functionality.  I can’t be sure, but I’m guessing even IE 3 back in the day had a button that looked like a printer and shortly after pressing, a piece of paper would come shooting out of a machine somewhere in the room with a picture that looked pretty much like the page on my screen.

Fast forward to modern times and we’ve got web sites that use fancydan stylesheets that let the user print the content and file it away in the attic or in their garden shed.

Do a bit of a rewind to somewhere in between before and now and you’ve got specific pages that are designed to be printed.  I’m not sure about you, but I’d expect to see something like this when viewing online bank statements so you know, I could print them out for safe keeping.  That sort of thing.

(and here comes the point of this post…) Read More…

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