Upgrade to Apollo 0.2.  I'm trying out the Fife Ventures colours to see what they are like.  Maybe I'll go back to purple.

We are planning a tour of Germany this summer and will be trying to plan the trip using the Zingzam tools. Below is the initial plan of our route around germany. There will be a lot more stops to add.

Over at yes human testing, they are trying to get people to test consumer products.  Head over there to recommend a product to be tested.

Crazy Gal has created a new zingzam site.  

I'm migrating my site over to ZingZam.  A free service offered by Fife Communities.  Lets see if it has more features than orablog!

Below is the menu of a recent dinner party that we had on 2nd January.  I thought it would be nice to record the event as I'll never remember the wines or the order that we had them.

Mousse de canard with sauternes jelly served on crostini

Duc de Sauternes – 2003

Wild mushroom and truffle ravioli with wild mushroom jus and shaved parmesan

Chateauneuf du Pape, Clos des Brusquieres – 2003

Honey and soy glazed chicken on a bed of rice with a cucumber salad and sweet chilli sauce

Alsace Trimbach Gewurztraminer – 1998

Lemon and ginger pudding

Green Point Vintage Brut 2004

Selection of cheeses

Apostoles Palo Cortado Muy Viejo, Jerez – 30 years old 

British Airways is in its final steps of becoming a budget airline at national carrier prices.  

British Airways sets seat charges

I am in the process of moving my blog/site over to Fife Communities Apollo platform. I expect it to look worse than normal during the transition.

With time I hope to add more features and feeds. This may help me update and add articles and other ramblings more often.

This could spell the end of orablog.

I have recently written a blog post over at Fife Community on cricket meets Twitter. Cross posting here for completeness.

After reading and seeing all the hype by Mr King 'The King Of Shaves', I bought in to the idea that there is a cheaper, better alternative to the big two names in shaving. How wrong was I?

It appears I was very, very wrong.

The Azor (from now on I'll drop the uppercase 'A' due to my disappointment) is the razor developed by The king Of Shaves dubbed as 'The Future Of Shaving'.

After purchasing an azor at the weekend and using it once I have the following to say.

My initial view on the design of the azor is that it looks quite nice and that the twin arm cradle that holds the blade unit looks quite good. However I feel that there are problems with the design. The two main faults I have found with the design are:

1. The self/easy cleaning blades don't work
2. The head of the razor is fixed and does not move, adjust or swivel.

If you read through the propaganda from the King of Shaves you will be be sold the idea that the reason why making the azor took five years to develop and market was down to, on some parts, to patents belonging to Gillette and Wilkinson Sword. One such patent is with regards to the self cleaning blades which has now expired, paving the way for the azor. Well, the patent may be expired, but the technology to make the blades clean easily was obviously not used correctly as I experienced this morning with the blades all bunged up after about two seconds of use. My initial thought as the razor glided across my face was 'mmm qute smooth' followed by the disappointment of trying to clean the blades. No amount of tapping cleared the debris effectively. This is not a problem that I can remember coming across in the past.

Next, onto the fixed head of the azor. I'm straining my brain trying to think back to the last time I used a razor in which the head was entirely fixed. Maybe the last time I used a Bic disposable razor, the ones that cost less than a pound for ten. I can remember the Gillette Sensor, the two blade razor from the 1990's had a head that moved. (From a quick look on Wikipedia, it was back in 1977 that the first razor with a pivot point was introduced) Onto other problems.

The shaving experience was so bad that I ended up with three cuts and a shaving rash. Even my badger brush and sandlewood shaving cream could not fix the poor performance of this razor.

The cost of the azor is only slightly cheaper that the competitors brands. It comes with no stand/tray.

I am loosing my will to type and will end with a straight forward conclusion.

Do not even think about trying the azor. Stick to the razor you have and ignore all this hype. I guess I now understand why there are only two big players in the razor market. Research and development is important. Copying does not guarantee success (just remember trying to use a cheap ink jet cartridge).

Yes, this is the worst razor, in my opinion since the 1970s.