# Techboy ## Posts - [My Local Jamie’s Italian Restaurant is Closing – and I’m a bit Sad about it](https://techboy.co.uk/my-local-jamies-italian-restaurant-is-closing-and-im-a-bit-sad-about-it/): Jamie Oliver is great at selling books – in 2017 he sold more books than any other author in any other category, in the UK and 4 other countries; but he hasn’t been as fortunate with his restaurants. In January 2016, six Jamie’s Italian restaurants were closed In March 2017, the last of his four ‘Union Jacks’ pizza restaurants closed In January 2018, it was announced that twelve additional Jamie’s Italian restaurants will close, as well as two Barbecoa steakhouse restaurants 25 of the... Read More Read More - [Techboy's Review of Cornerstone Razors](https://techboy.co.uk/techboys-review-of-cornerstone-razors/): Like most men past a certain age, I shave most days. As shaving is a necessary daily task (not something I actively choose to do), I want it to be a quick, easy, reliable and pain-free process. I used to use electric shavers – I’ve never owned a foil type, only a couple of the top end Philips shavers with round heads which contour to your face. One was to be used exclusively dry and the other could be dry or... Read More Read More - [Foot is on the mend - less hobbling](https://techboy.co.uk/foot-is-on-the-mend-less-hobbling/): Okay, it’s definitely not broken. It’s feeling a lot better today. I hurt it when attempting to ride my longboard. I’m still hobbling around now, but less like the Hunchback of Notre Dame and more like the Dave Myers! By the way, this is just a joke, I think Dave is an awesome guy – really funny and very knowledgeable. I actually stood next to the Hairy Bakers a few years ago, in the Waterstones bookshop in Milton Keynes! - [You never forget how to ride a bike (not the same with skateboards!)](https://techboy.co.uk/you-never-forget-how-to-ride-a-bike-not-the-same-with-skateboards/): After watching too many videos of people with skateboards on YourTube, I decided to get a longboard. I got a brand new one from Germany for £17 off of eBay – very cheap, but I don’t care if I trash it. It seems pretty good though – sturdy enough and very long. I hadn’t been on a skateboard since I was around 14. I got pretty good at snowboarding about 5 years ago (rails, jumps, regular, goofy, etc.) riding a... Read More Read More - [I took my second, first ever Uber taxi ride last Tuesday - and I liked it](https://techboy.co.uk/i-took-my-second-first-ever-uber-taxi-ride-last-tuesday-and-i-liked-it/): This is the story of my second, first Uber taxi ride. My first, first Uber taxi ride didn’t happen – that should have been two weeks ago when I wanted a lift from my house, to the Jaipur restaurant in Milton Keynes. At this time, I could see one Uber taxi in Milton Keynes, six minutes from my house. I tried calling it several times from the Uber app, but it just kept timing out, so in the end, I took my... Read More Read More - [I'm rubbish at blogging (spreading myself to thinly)](https://techboy.co.uk/im-rubbish-at-blogging-spreading-myself-to-thinly/): I like to be creative – I find writing, photography, website design, website development and many other things all fun to do. The I have is one that I’ve always had, which is too many hobbies, too many ideas and not enough time. For a long time, my dream has been to ditch the corporate world and to build up a small, focused business with my brother, which should equal or better the (high) salaries that we both get now. This would enable... Read More Read More - [Android Apps - What I Have Installed](https://techboy.co.uk/android-apps-what-i-have-installed/): This is a list of apps that I have installed on my Android phone. I’ll update the list, add descriptions, categorise, etc. when I have time. Nova Trigger UberSocial Google Drive MoveToSD Authenticator Device Manager EDF Energy Nest Dropbox FastConnect Email Calendar Chrome Clock Twitter Facebook Google+ Evernote OneNote Play Books Flipboard Feedly Amazon Kindle Analytics Asana gAnalytics WordPress GetMeCooking mention Trello Camera Contacts Gallery Photos TuneIn Radio Audible Spotify SoundCloud Play Music SoundHound YouTube 4oD BBC iPlayer Chromecast Cineworld... Read More Read More - [I've Bought a New Mobile Phone - Samsung Galaxy S5](https://techboy.co.uk/ive-bought-a-new-mobile-phone-samsung-galaxy-s5/): In the good old days, you could get a 12 month mobile phone contract, so you could update your phone every year (great for a geek like me). My friends and colleagues always knew me as the guy with the latest phone. In recent years, they phased out the 12 month contracts, replacing them with 18 and 24 month contracts. Now they only have 24 month contracts – that means that you get stuck with a mobile for a whopping... Read More Read More - [Let's Talk about Small (Local) Technology Talks](https://techboy.co.uk/lets-talk-about-small-technology-talks/): I’m writing this blog post in a sort of reverse order – inspired by the blog post ‘Scott Hanselmans Complete List Of Productivity Tips‘ by Danny Schreiber. Specifically by the paragraph: Keep your emails to 3-4 sentences, Hanselman says. Anything longer should be on a blog or wiki or on your product’s documentation, FAQ or knowledge base. “Anywhere in the world except email because email is where you keystrokes go to die,” he says. I had already written some long... Read More Read More - [Transitioning to WordPress](https://techboy.co.uk/transitioning-to-wordpress/): I built this website in 1996, after getting my first modem for Christmas of 1995. The site started out as PerformIT (my business site), but then Steve Bush at Barclays Bank (my first full-time job) kept calling me ‘Techboy’, so I decided to get the domain name and put my personal stuff on here! I wrote it from scratch – initially using plain HTML, then PHP so I could do some clever things. Now I’ve decided to move it to... Read More Read More ## Pages - [Collectormania](https://techboy.co.uk/stuff/collectormania/): Your chance to stare at, take photos of and (for a price of about £15 – or less/free for the pants ones) meet and get get a signature from various stars from both the big and small screens. All this on my doorstep (Milton Keynes)!!! It’s free, in the main shopping centre and is good fun. Plus there are loads of shopping stools selling sci-fi merchandise. You can get right up close the actors. Not that I’m stalking or anything… - [French Apartment](https://techboy.co.uk/stuff/french-apartment/): Late in 2005 I had a bit of spare cash and nothing big I wanted to buy (I already had a house and sports car), so I decided to invest it. The obvious choices were: Shares Property Pay off some of my mortgage Move to a bigger house Let to buy mortgage (rent out my current house and buy another one) Buy to rent mortgage (get another house to rent) I decided that getting another house to rent out would... Read More Read More - [Shooting](https://techboy.co.uk/sports/shooting/) - [Snowboarding](https://techboy.co.uk/sports/snowboarding/) - [Rock Climbing](https://techboy.co.uk/sports/rock-climbing/) - [Paintball](https://techboy.co.uk/sports/paintball/) - [Mountain Biking](https://techboy.co.uk/sports/mountain-biking/): There are not many mountains in Buckinghamshire or Northamptonshire, but trust me – there are plenty of hills! Since the age of 3 when I first took my stabilisers off, I have always liked cycling. When I worked at Barclays Bank PLC, a small group of us used to go biking around the forests of Northamptonshire every Wednesday evening, which was great fun. Then I competed in adventure races (which mainly comprise of 5 hours of running and biking and 50 minutes of... Read More Read More - [Running](https://techboy.co.uk/sports/running/) - [Media](https://techboy.co.uk/media/): Books I’ve written How to create a successful food blog Books I read Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog Food I cook View my recipes on GetMeCooking. Games I play Here is a list of games that I own on Steam. [my_steam_games=76561197967512620] Music I listen to I’ll add this as soon as there is a good Last.fm plugin on WordPress. In the mean time, you can view my Last.fm profile. Websites I review Coming soon… - [Projects](https://techboy.co.uk/projects/): My brother Kevin and I are working on some websites, centering around food: GetMeCooking – a user-centric recipe site, populated with recipes from food bloggers, using our recipe plugin for WordPress PlateJobs – a recruitment website for people in the food service industry We also have Baconaholic (~noun: A person who is excessively fond of bacon), but we haven’t developed this yet. Plus, we are developing some commission based sites, focusing on tight niches. The first is Quirky Cushion, which as the name suggests, focuses... Read More Read More - [Stuff](https://techboy.co.uk/stuff/): Miscellaneous stuff goes here… Collectormania – how geeky are you? My apartment in Nice, France – il est mon appartement… - [Technology](https://techboy.co.uk/technology/): I am a true geek – always have been and I always will be. I have always loved technology – and the wealth of creativity, information, problem solving and social networking that has come with it. My first computers were: An Atari gaming machine which had cartridges and pull-out joysticks Spectrum ZX-81 (actually it was an office computer which my dad used to bring home) Commodore 64 Commodore Amiga 500 (which I later upgraded from 0.5MB to 1MB RAM at... Read More Read More - [Gym](https://techboy.co.uk/sports/gym/): I find it hard to get motivated to go to the gym. I first joined one with my friend Martin, when we were at University – and I think we went about 5 times in the year, which worked out to almost £100 per session… When I worked at Barclays Bank PLC in Northampton, there was a gym right next to the office. This was great because at one point, 2-3 of us used to go to the gym most... Read More Read More - [Adventure Racing](https://techboy.co.uk/sports/adventure-racing/): My friend Steve introduced me to my first Adventure race on 02/09/2007 where we did the Dark and White Adventure race in the Peak District. Event Summary Series Dark and White/Planet Fear – Adventure Race Series 2007 Event Round 3 – Stones, Circles & The Temple of Doom! Location Peak District Distance Distance: 44.5Km/27.65mi Time Taken Time Taken: 3h 49m 56s We weren’t too sure of the format. All we knew is that it involved running (mostly off-road), mountain biking,... Read More Read More - [Sports](https://techboy.co.uk/sports/): The only way I can continue to eat as much chocolate as I do is if I exercise a bit… Plus you may notice that most of these sports involve gadgets! Adventure Racing Gym Mountain Biking Paintball Road Cycling (coming soon) Rock Climbing Running Shooting Snowboarding Swimming (coming soon) Triathlons (coming soon) - [Cars](https://techboy.co.uk/cars/): All about the cars I’ve owned and the cars I have now and the cars I want! Also car shows, events and experiences that I’ve attended. Currently Owned MINI Cooper S Date Owned: Make: MINI Model: Cooper S Engine Size: 1.6 litre, supercharged Registered: 2004 Country of Manufacturer: England Number of Doors: 3 Rebecca wanted a fast, fun car. We tried to get a Mazda 3 Sport – in fact we REALLY tried (and met a lot of nasty, lying,... Read More Read More - [Career](https://techboy.co.uk/career/): View my professional page PerformIT and my LinkedIn profile for an overview of my career history and skill-set. Education 9 GCSE’s (biology, chemistry, English language, English literature, French, history, Latin, mathematics, physics) at Bury Lawn School in Milton Keynes. BTEC National Diploma in Computer Studies at Bedford College in Bedford. BSc (Hons) in Computer and Information Systems at De Montfort University in Milton Keynes. Work An SAP BASIS Administrator since 1999. Roles have included being a team leader, core BASIS team member and a consultant. From To Company May 1999... Read More Read More - [About Paul](https://techboy.co.uk/about-paul/): Paul Richardson Welcome to Paul’s home site. It’s a typical digital-scrapbook of assorted bits and pieces about him, as well as links to his interests. Feel free to look around. Marital Status Engaged to Rebecca Kemp Children 1 son, named James (14/07/2014). Symmetrical date (14/7/14) 🙂 Lives: Milton Keynes, England Holiday Home Nice, France (rent it or buy it) Ethos Elite techie Job SAP BASIS Administrator (Senior Applications Consultant) for Capgemini UK Projects Co-founder of GetMeCooking and PlateJobs Hobbies Cars, computer games, food,... 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