The vision…

We have recently had BT Vision installed at home, which is a combined Freeview, Recorder and On Demand service from BT. We are an existing BT Broadband customer and as our contract term was coming to an end I think BT are rolling out their new services free to customers who sign up for another 18 months.

The Vision box itself is a hand device with two tuners (for recording two programmes or watching one while recording another) and a hard disc with 80 hours of capacity which also allows you to pause and rewind ‘live’ TV.

A dedicated BT Vision engineer had to come to our home to install the Wireless BT Hub (needed for the On Demand download service – and now giving us wireless broadband through the house) and the Vision box.

We have had it for about a week now and it is pretty good, freeing us up from any desire to be in front of the TV at a particular time to watch our favourite programmes. We are recording more stuff where we would just resign ourselves to missing before, so we might end up watching more or at least more of what we want too. Also I now have to modify my hand crafted TV unit as the new box is bigger than the old free view one it replaces.

More of wot I have read…

The Triumph of the Sun by Wilbur Smith

Another book picked up at a fair from an author I have read a few books of before. As it turns out this is a book which ties up two of his book series; the Ballantyne and Courtney series – although this did not seem too obvious or to detract from the narrative.

The book has a particular feel about it and the reactions of the major female and male characters can be uncomfortable to an enlightened man. I am not sure if this is the way the author actually feels or if it is his attempt to replicate the sensibilities of the time or if he is writing for a particular audience – I prefer to think it is the later, as the whole book has that ‘boys own’ feel about it.

The story has an unusual pace to it, which might be due to its position in the series and having to tie up loose threads, still it is an entertaining read for the adventurous chap.

‘From one of the world’s most celebrated and bestselling novelists comes an epic adventure in the spirit and tradition of Monsoon and Blue Horizon.

It is 1884, and in the Sudan, decades of brutal misgovernment by the ruling Egyptian Khedive in Cairo precipitates a bloody rebellion and Holy War. The charismatic new religious leader, the Mahdi or 'Expected One', has gathered his forces of Arab warlords in preparation for a siege on the city of Khartoum. The British are forced to intervene to protect their national interests and to attempt to rescue the hundreds of British subjects stranded in the city.

British trader and businessman Ryder Courtney is trapped in the capital city of Khartoum under the orders of the infamously iron-willed General Charles George Gordon. It is here that he meets skilled soldier and swordsman Captain Penrod Ballantyne of the 10th Hussars and the British Consul, David Benbrook, as well as Benbrook’s three beautiful daughters. Against the vivid and bloody backdrop of the Arabs’ fierce and merciless siege these three powerful men must fight to survive.’