Jamesq

Making the most of the good weather we got out on the Mountain Bikes for the morning. Much tougher going than we thought with plenty of snow hanging round up on the tops tracks. Back brake disk went about 1/3 way out so had to cope with front brake only on the downhills. Gave me an excuse for being the slowest anyway.

Some really good climbs early on managed to finish me off, definitely a good bit of training needed before the End 2 End.. Ended up around 3 hours but it was slow going up over the top tracks. Ace to get out in the sunshine and a really good morning out. Made a nice change from cycling in the dark on nights after work.

For UK advertisers, Facebook offers a very targeted opportunity to reach a desired audience. But before jumping in and sticking your ad up on the network make sure you do your research. Who are you trying to target?, Where are they online? and is Facebook the best way to reach this audience?

‘Facebook: A UK Focus’ looks at the age, relationship status, education and gender of UK Facebook users, together with looking at the trends across these demographics. Some of the stats are fairly expected such as the number of single Facebook users in the UK decreases as age increases; whereas some of the stats are a little less expected. For example just over 3% of under 18 year olds are University Graduates! Ok, so maybe it shows that not everybody on Facebook tells the truth (Shock!!!) but on the whole the stats and trends provide a representative view of UK Facebook users and can help advertisers plan and execute a UK Facebook advertising campaign.

Originally I was looking to pull together stats for Facebook users in the Isle of Man but I could not currently get hold of this level of detail. I’ve put in a request to Mr Zuckerberg to have a look into this but wouldn’t imagine this will be top of his ‘to do’ agenda.

I’ll look to update this next quarter to provide a comparison and to identify any trends over time so sign up to the Chewing the Cud RSS feed for updates.

Got a wicked surprise on getting home from work tonight. I’d forgotten I’d followed a link somewhere online to get some free tea a little while ago (I think it might have been twitter) and today it arrived! Two tea bags from Twinings. I’m a bit of a stickler when it comes to tea and pretty much just go for English Breakfast or PG but as it was free I thought I’d try something new so have gone for Ceylon and Lady Grey.

With the tea bags came a little fold out booklet with the different teas and how to have them. Apparently some teas you have lemon with and no milk. Fancy hey!

They also sent a letter telling me to post them a blog at www.twinings.co.uk…. Not sure whether they want me to go and comment on their blog or link to them from my blog, strange wording… Anyway, I’ve done both. But, very cool that they are blogging. Each post seems to get a good number of comments and they are running competitions for the best comment which is ace. Real engagement. I’ve been on and left my comment, I’ve got two new teas to try and I’m a pretty happy bunny. I’ll be even happier if I win the prize but all this from a tweet about getting a free tea bag! I guess the real test will be if it converts me from PG to Twinings which I don’t think it will. However, for the odd different brew I’ll definitely be drawn to Twinings in the future. Every now and then I feel a little experimental and end up buying a green tea or something fruity, brand is never all that important to me on alternative teas as I have no loyalty… until now

I just went on to the BBC iPlayer for BBC West Midlands (Go to 54 minutes in) to listen to The Benwahs and I noticed that when you go to increase the volume the scale goes up to 11! That’s Rockin’. After all that’s one louder than 10. Fair play to the Beeb for their subtle humour. Might have to dig the old VHS out of the box for a watch

This was the Benwahs first play on UK Radio so absolutely wicked that they’re starting to get the coverage they deserve. The Benwahs play their unique Panda Punk around the gig scene in Birmingham. You can check out their latest info and music on their Myspace page.

We took a trip out today to Castletown and Derbyhaven to make the most of there being some sunshine. We had a bit of a photo competition as we went round. Not really sure who won but here’s the photos anyway. Got to say I made more of an effort by actually getting out of the car. All of Don’s are taken from out the car window as she wasn’t prepared to move from the hot air blowers!

I realised today that I hadn’t made a New Year’s resolution. Instead I’d made loads of little promises to myself in my head, maybe because I didn’t have one single resolution to focus on.

So this year’s non-New Year’s resolutions are:

1. Get out on my my Mountain Bike more
2. Socialise more
3. Cook Sunday Dinners
4. Work Harder
5. Get another Qualification
6. Eat less
7. Eat Better
8. Spend less time in front of the telly
9. See my mates more
10. See my family more
11. Get out for walks
12. Get quality time with Don
13. Go on weekend breaks
14. Take more photographs
15. Go to an Everton game
16. Go to a Wolves game
17. Go surfing
18. Go Snowboarding
19. Blog more
20. Spend less
21. Save more
22. Eat more Fruit and Veg
23. Paint the Outside of the House
24. Paint the kitchen
25. And probably the most important after all these non-New Year wishes is get better at time management.

Here’s to a busy 2010

Tried to make the most of the decent weather today and took a wander out around Glen Maye. We were going to head up over the slabs on to Dalby through to Eary Cushlin but it was like a river coming down the footpath. Instead we took a detour up through to Glen Rushen before cutting up through the fields to Arrasey Plantation. From here we got on the old road that drops back down in to Glen Maye behind the old Post Office. Ground is still pretty wet round abouts but great to be out in the sunshine. Roll on Spring!

Decided it was about time we got into making a Sunday Roast so went out yesterday and picked up a Half Shoulder of Manx Lamb. Also pushed the boat out and got fresh veg, made our own roast spuds and homemade gravy. Only bit we cheated on really was Aunt Bessie’s Yorkshire Puddings. But having just made the best Roast Potatoes I’ve ever eaten I reckon next Sunday could see us attempt some homemade Yorkies too.

Don found a Lamb recipe online for Rosemary and Honey Lamb which was fantastic. I’m made up. I love Sunday dinner but been too lazy to make it properly before. It was so easy though so hopefully this will be a weekly feature. Just need to get into making scones and it will be just Sundays as a kid again.

Oh yeah, found a pretty groovy red wine too. I’m not really a red wine drinker but have always liked the idea of it. It looks wicked (think I think of Ribena when I see a glass) and now I’ve found a red wine that delivers. Alcoholic Ribena!!! Well not far off anyway. Brown Brother Cienna wine which I’ve just found out has a Facebook Fanpage too!

Getting carried away with trying to sort out my Flickr account and have created a random photographs Slideshow

I’ve just pulled together some of my Isle of Man Photographs from Flickr and created the little slideshow below.