The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

		London–Nov 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

While visiting friends and old stomping grounds were our highlights in London, we found something new: The wine card at The Sampler. We have bought wine and champagne from them before at their Islington store, but with a new store and sitting area in South Kensington, we tried out the card. It’s brilliant! Here’s how it works:

1. You put money on the card, just like a pre-paid credit card

2. Insert the card into a machine that has 8 different wines

3. Put your glass under the wine you want to try

4. Press a button to select your wine sample and size (from small to about a half-glass of wine)

5. Let the wine come out, which deducts the appropriate amount from your card

6. Taste, enjoy, repeat

We probably would have tired more wines, but Lorie tries to avoid wine due to migraines and I ended up working in the London office for 5 days while here. More to try next time I guess!

But Milo does think that "it’s so important how such unimportant things are so important."

I just experienced something technically cool, which was new to me. I subscribe to Zune and use a Windows Phone, so it’s sometimes the device I use to listen to music.

Today, I was listening to music on my phone when I got a text, which means my phone vibrated a bit. But then, the music paused and I heard a computerized voice tell me that I had received a text from someone (it even speaks out your friend’s name). It then asked me if I wanted it read to me. I told it I did and it proceeded to read the message to me. It then asked if I wanted to speak a reply back! So I did, it recognized it perfectly. It then went back to playing music.

So, I was able listen to and respond to a text message, hands-free while listening to music. I think that’s pretty cool.

Unless you are a small fuzzy animal.