dwarf bread

v600 - courtesy of clubsonyericsson.com

So I was having a sub-optimal day yesterday, faffing around with algorithms to try to estimate surface features on arbitrary objects (hooray!). Things are busy as usual, so when I received an unsolicited call on my mobile from vodafone marketing, I was two seconds away from saying 'no thanks, too busy'.

But, for a fraction of a second, I thought, what the heck, this guy on the other end of the line is just doing his job, and probably makes a commission from every sale he makes.. why not give him a go? 'You've got five minutes', I said. I'm glad that I did, because ten seconds later he's thanking me for being a long-term customer of vodafone and giving me a free mobile for it.

It wasn't a crappy one either; Sorny Ericsson v600, which stacks up quite nicely in terms of features, and, for free, I can't complain. Presumably the marketing push is to get customers to use their new 3G service. I can't blame them for trying hard. 3G service uptake has been quite poor up to this point, and aside from the niftiness factor of being able to make a video call, its ambiguous as to whether it is good value for money (yes, I know it's an old link) and, anecdotal evidence seems to point to 3G reception being quite patchy, especially around the hilly parts of Sydney (where I live).

I'm getting the phone couriered out to me in a couple of days, so we'll see how it goes :)

My attempt at making damper

We ran out of bread last night, so in a fit of culinary insanity I made some Australian damper from a simple recipe that I found on the inter-web. Damper is a type of bread that you can make in a hurry, without yeast and little equipment. It's a traditional dish, made by campers and rugged folk.

It certainly looks edible enough (see picture above). I kept the oven heat too high right through the cooking, so it didn't quite bake properly in the middle. Briony, on a scale of 1 to 10, gave it a rating of Guide camp, so I think I have some way to go. Nevertheless, I think that if all else fails, I can use the resulting foodstuff as a weapon.