Truth be told, I don’t have much time for traditional paper based Christmas cards.  I appreciate the sentiment, but lets be honest with ourselves, cards are expensive, as is the postage and come the New Year all the cards go into the recycling bin at best.

As someone that offers web development services, it only seemed fitting that I send a digital e-card to my clients.  Not one of those dancing elf monstrosities, or a cobbled-together-in-5-minutes-because-we-forgot-to-get-cards-in-the-post type affair, but a bona-fide bespoke Christmas card.  Then for good measure and a warm feeling inside, a hand-picked charity donation to a cause I’ve supported for a few years – Cats Protection

Last year I got in touch with local designer Liz Elcoate from Capriccio Design who produced a great art-deco “chat noir” style design.

This year I gave Liz the brief of something 50′s inspired, Christmassey and with the obligatory cat (in case you wondered, my company is called Gattonero – Italian for “black cat”).  Here’s the finished design which I’m really pleased with:

It’s safe to say I like my chilli sauces.  I always have a few half-eaten bottles of chilli sauce in the fridge, some hotter than others and each with a flavour that makes them suitable for different types of food.  I’ve got Mexican sauces that are great with Fajitas and Jamaican sauces that are crying out for a pizza crust to be dunked in them – I’m yet to find the one sauce to rule them all.  So when I heard of a new Punjabi-inspired sauce from Mr Singh’s I got myself a bottle and put it through it’s paces. 

When in the supermarket I make a habit of checking out the latest contenders to the hot sauce market but they’re rarely what I’d class as “hot”, so adjust my heat rating according to your own chilli tolerance!  To give you an idea I’d rate regular Tabasco at around a 5/10, so Mr Singh’s Sauce would be a pretty respectable 7/10.  Mr Singh’s Sauce is comparable in it’s versatility and heat to the popular Reggae Reggae sauce, but the flavour of the two brands is so different don’t be afraid to get a bottle of each and use them side by side.

So whilst Mr Singh’s Sauce isn’t going to knock your socks off, the chilli kick is much more subtle.  What you do get is a sweet, acidic sauce that seems to work well on just about any food stuff you care to throw at it.  So far it’s been in my sandwiches (great on bacon!), in beans, on burgers, in pasta sauce and used just about anywhere you’d normally use ketchup or brown sauce.  I’ve yet to use it as a marinade but it should be pretty tasty.  Mr Singh’s Sauce makes a great every day sauce and one I’ll be buying more of in the future!

I’ve also heard that the guys at Mr Singh’s are cooking up a batch of an even spicier, hotter sauce which should satisfy chilli-heads like myself so keep an eye out for that one too.  For now, keep an eye out in your local Asda or head over to the Mr Singh’s online shop to buy some.

This year’s Gattonero Christmas e-card sent out to clients:

I wish I could take credit for the design, but I opted to use someone far better skilled at the artsy stuff that myself – Liz Elcoate from Sketchy Design Capriccio Design

Instead of sending paper based greetings cards, I sent this card by email and made a donation to Cats Protection – www.cats.org.uk

I’ve long had an affection for stickers.  As a child I would rush to the local newsagent armed with my pocket money to choose whichever pack of stickers was flavour of that particular month (failing to complete the Panini 86 World Cup album was probably the reason why I care little for Football these days).   But sadly my life has been void of stickers now for many years… until last Saturday when a trip up to Leeds for the Think Visibility conference introduced me to Gadget Glamour, a company that specialises in customising (or glamorising) your gadgets (mainly Apple gadgets) with a range of stickers, skins and cases.

Due to their popularity, Apple products are where you need to be if you want the best accessories so I’m going to struggle to find anything suitable for my HTC Hero… but I have a Macbook too so bring on the stickers!

I know any slight blemish, scratch or defacement on an Apple product is enough to bring some Apple fans to tears but I’m not a fanboy and couldn’t care less.  I also like stickers, so with that in mind I’ve been scouring the Gadget Glamour website to see what takes my fancy.

As a web developer I use a variety of Content Management Systems (CMS), either a bespoke solution I develop myself or more commonly an off the shelf (normally) Open Source platform.

I’ve been using the excellent CMS Made Simple for a couple of years now with great results (don’t let the “simple” in the name fool you, this is a feature-rich application) so when I was asked if I would like to review a copy of CMS Made Simple 1.6: Beginner’s Guide by Sofia Hauschildt I jumped at the chance.

Embarrassingly, I’ve had this copy of the book sitting by my desk for a couple of months but have been so busy with work I’ve not had the chance to flick past the first few pages.  However, now I’ve got some new CMSMS projects in the pipeline I’m looking forward to getting into the book and seeing what it can offer.

As anyone that has read a “teach yourself” software book will know, it’s hard for the authors to target the reader as everyone has different experience levels and coding for the web has many pre-requisites that can be taken for granted.  CMS Made Simple 1.6 is titled a “Beginner’s Guide”, so I’m expecting to skip at least a few pages but it will be interesting to see what new features I can learn along the way.

If you’re interested in getting a copy of this book yourself, download and read a pdf extract.  I’ll also write a review when I get the chance (hopefully in a couple of weeks).

Publisher’s notes:
CMS Made Simple 1.6: Beginners Guide is a new book from Packt through which, webmasters will learn to implement their own design into CMS Made Simple to create a professional and fully functional website. They will learn how to integrate an e-commerce shop with PayPal checkout, enrich the website with features like a photo gallery as well as implement You Tube videos into templates or pages thus helping users create engaging, effective, and easy-to-use CMS websites for businesses, clubs, or organizations.

The book is out now and is available from Packt. For more information, please visit : https://www.packtpub.com/cms-made-simple-1-6-beginners-guide/book

So I went down the Android route, choosing the HTC Hero and overall I’m glad I did as for me, it does a few things better than the iPhone.

The Android Market was one of my big concerns but I’m happy to report that I’ve been able to find just about ever application I could want and more! Some are very good indeed and are used on a regular basis.

Not everything is rosy in HTC Hero land however – there are few things I would like to see improved upon:

1. Better camera
   For me, having a decent camera on a mobile phone is important.  I don’t expect quality comparable to a dedicated digital camera but something more than a half-arsed attempt would be nice.  I don’t take a lot of photos so having a camera as part of a device I will already have to hand, and have battery charge, is something that appeals.

   My previous handset, a Nokia N95 did this well.  5MP sensor which performed well in most light conditions, a flash and a dedicated camera button.  In contrast, the HTC Hero’s 5MP sensor struggles with low/indoor lighting, has no flash and the operating buttons are hidden away in the application.

2. Faster processor / more memory
   The Hero isn’t really a slouch with it’s CPU and memory but if we can have more then why not!  Newer handsets are being advertised with the 1GHz Snapdragon CPU and double the RAM I’m currently experiencing which I’m led to believe helps Android multitask no end.
3. Simple software updates
   For all their criticisms, Apple do manage to get most things right from day #1 and upgrading the phone OS is a great example of this.  I know some people get Android updates downloaded to their phone wirelessly, but I have no problem docking.  What I do take a dislike to is when the update completely wipes the phone, restoring it back to factory settings.  Sorry but that’s just not acceptable Android / HTC and to me a big reason to consider other OS/handset providers.

So looking at the new wave of Android handsets, a few stand out but it’s hard to get an concrete real world feedback other than a few amateur videos on Youtube.  The best source of HTC info I’ve found have been from Tracy and Matt

HTC Legend

As far as I can see, it’s just a smarter, updated HTC Hero.  With a metal body and large AMOLED screen, but I don’t know if anything else has changed (apart from the latest OS of course).

Google Nexus One / HTC Desire

Of these two I would probably opt for HTC’s version.  I enjoy the Sense UI I’m accustomed to with the HTC Hero and the handset should be a bit cheaper.  Apparently some of the widgets on the Nexus One are godawful too.  I am yet to find out if the camera on these handsets is the same as the Hero’s or has been upgraded though – if it’s the same I will probably stick with the Hero.

Motorola Droid / Milestone

A little bit chunkier in form due to a sliding out keyboard, the Milestone’s camera is reported to be quite handy indeed.  The CPU and RAM are around what the Hero has so no improvement there, but being a Motorola device you don’t get Sense UI so another one I will probably ignore.

It’s worth noting that I think whilst HTC has a good track record in it’s hardware, it lets itself down when it comes to the details (like using decent camera hardware) which is where better-known manufacturers like Sony Ericsson, Motorola, LG and Samsung are victorious.

HTC Incredible and  HTC Supersonic

I’m not sure what HTC were smoking when they brainstormed and came up with these model names but as long as the hardware lives up to it then I’m not complaining.  Both seem to be closer in design to the iPhone, using larger AMOLED screens, etc.  The Incredible is reported to offer 720p video capture and DivX playback too which would be fantastic – that suggests to me the camera has been overhauled too.

Details on the Supersonic are sketchy at the time of writing so it’s anyone’s guess as to what will make it soar above the other devices, but I’m hoping it will be all of the above and more!

Does it really take someone trained in the art of customer service to spot an opened pizza dip before placing it in the box and sending it off to the customer? Well if you’re Papa Johns in Peterborough then I’m guessing the answer is “yes”!

Someone once said that food is just a vessel for the sauce and I’m a big believer in that: sauce definitely maketh the meal.  A great sauce adds so much to dry dishes, especially when they’re chilli sauces!

Sadly the Papa Johns pizza chain doesn’t play by these rules and instead only offers a weak selection of dips (I’m guessing the dips are designed for the “beige buffet” of wedges and chicken strips rather than pizza crusts), the best I’ve found being their Buffalo dip.

So when I took delivery of my order from the Peterborough branch of Papa Johns you can imagine (and if you can’t then try harder) my annoyance at finding this holy tub of sauce had been opened and the contents dried and crusty, suggesting it had been opened a while.

Papa John’s really need to pay more attention as their pizza range is by far the best I’ve come across for home delivery.  They use interesting ingredients and make a good job of it.

It’s taken me a while to find a good pizza delivery service in Peterborough…

Domino‘s is the obvious choice but their prices are a bit optimistic for a pretty average pizza.

Pizza Hut let me down on a couple of occasions with missing ingredients when making their Volcano pizza. I even gave them another chance but they screwed that up so they’re off the Christmas card list too.

I really can’t bring myself to order from Papa Luigi, which is a shame as they’re the only independent chain I’m mentioning here.  It’s their “mozzatop” cheese and oil blend that puts me off along with their permanent BOGOF offer. Can’t they appreciate that some customers just want a single pizza and at an average £12-14, their offering fails to excite.  BOGOF indeed.

Snappy Tomato Pizza is a brand I’d not had for a few years, so when a franchise opened up in Peterborough I gave them a try.  On the whole, it’s not a bad pizza and the square ones are great just for the novelty factor but I’ve always preferred Papa Johns; maybe I’ll revist them.

So now I’m adding Papa John’s to the list and will continue my search for a half decent delivered pizza.  I’m open to recommendations so if you’ve got a favourite pizza restaurant in Peterborough (that delivers), please comment below.

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.

Clockwise, the Green Wheel passes through Etton, Glinton, Peakirk and Newborough to the North of Peterborough then onto Stanground  and Farcet via Eye to the South.  The Eastern stretch includes Haddon and Elton Furze before coming back towards Peterborough through Alwalton and on towards the Milton and Marholm.  With a few pubs dotted around the route I’m sure it’ll be quite enjoyable