One small step for a man...

And so ends a rather frazzled day, where I've managed to lose something rather valueable and had to spend several hours of a normally busy day chasing across London to find out of a company I'd ordered from actually existed and would be able to fulfil the order. They did, but I cancelled my order anyway and offered some good advice to them to help improve their business and prevent a recurrance of another dissapointed customer.
As for what was lost, well that's another matter and it seems my insurance will cover me and the money I get from that will give me something I've wanted for a while but been unable to afford, plus a reasonable replacement for what was lost. I like insurance!

I've also bought my first coffee table book: a real work of art. It is Leonardo's Notebooks, a complete copy of his entire writings and drawings, translated and displayed in full instead of the usual interpretation and 3D-rendered versions that you normally see. Only £25, too, so a good purchase from Waterstones.

I've also been in contact with Sony, who have confirmed my hopes about their new Blu-Ray player, the BDP-S560. This is Sony's new top-of-the-range device and is incredibly sexy. They were finally able to confirm that its DLNA support will play video, meaning that my Ultimate Home Entertainment set-up will work. I only hope that they have fixed the start-up and disc loading time issues that I've seen with my 'stop-gap' BDp-S300. The S560 is a beast: packed full of some of the best engineering consumer electronics can purvey and, with an estimated price of £249, an incredibly good value for money machine. I just wish they'd sort out their distribution problems so I could buy one!

Watching stuff on Blu-Ray is a hell of a thing. I'm joining LoveFilm when I can so that I can marvel at the astonishing video and sound quality, like the drumming in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, where it feels like the drums are literally right in front of you. I've somehow managed to get a really cool set-up without spending thousands of pounds. It, like everything else, seems to be a bit of a pain in the arse to set up but when it's done, it's done.