I thought I would write a few posts describing my setup, both in terms of hardware and software. I also want to write about my future plans for the room. In this first part, I'm going to go over the room layout and the hardware involved.

The room itself is trapezoid in shape, being wider at the back (where the 2-seater grey sofa is), tapering to about 2.7m at the front of the room where the window is. The room is about 3.5m. It's carpeted in a dark grey carpet with an antique cream-coloured ceiling lit by dimmable, recessed, spotlights. At the back of the room, in the centre, there is a conduit that runs underground to my server room that is in an old larder cupboard in the dining room. The conduit currently has an 8m HDMI cable as well as 5 speaker and 1 subwoofer cable. The speaker cables run underneath the carpet to the speakers. The HDMI cable will eventually link to a projector but currently connects, via a HDMI coupler, to the TV. There are 9 power sockets (4 doubles plus 1 single on the ceiling at the back of the room for the projector). The entrance to the room is from the hallway, just to the right of the window. There is a black blackout roller blind above the window.

Furniture-wise, there is the sofa mentioned above with a matching footstool. There is a KEF 1005.2 surround sound system (wall mounted apart from the centre speaker) The current TV is a Panasonic 1080p 32" LCD that is sat on a dark TV stand.

The server room is about 1x1x2.4m in size. The equipment is as follows:

• Onkyo TX-SR607 AV receiver
• Sony Playstation 3
• Sony Blu-Ray player
• Mac Mini connected to a Drobo for storage and an Elgato EyeTV for digital TV
• Time Capsule
• Apple TV
• Nintendo Wii
• Wireless ADSL modem
• XBOX 360 wireless controller adaptor

All components output to the AV receiver which then pumps video out via HDMI and sound via the KEF speakers. The wiring in the cupboard is a nightmare to decipher!

Having all my components out of the cinema has pros and cons:

Pros

1. Quiet operation. No distracting fans, etc during playback
2. No unsightly cables/components in the cinema - it should be all about the TV
3. Maximal use of limited space in the cinema

Cons:

1. Problematic Bluetooth control of games consoles. Although I can control my consoles from the cinema, button presses frequently 'drop out' during play (more problematic with the Wii). 
2. No direct line of sight to the components. Although I control the Mac and Apple TV wirelessly with my iPhone, I cannot control the AV receiver or the Blu-Ray player unless I physically leave the cinema. This is especially irritating when it comes to controlling volume. 
3. Heating issues. I need to figure out a way to adequately cool the server room.

Problem solving
Two of the three downsides listed above are fixable. I plan on buying a universal remote with RF capabilities to allow me to control everything from the cinema. Easy to fix but does require an outlay of about £250. The heating issue can be solved by fitting some vents to the door of the server room as well as a cooling fan if necessary.

What troubles me the most is the Bluetooth issue. It's basically impossible for me to put the Wii in the cinema and connect it through the conduit to the amp. Whilst I'm using a TV, I can simply connect the Wii to it but once I get a projector and lose the TV, I won't have any way of connecting the Wii to speakers! It may mean that I need to keep a TV in the room. The PS3 controller seems to fair better than the Wii and I may be able to keep it in the server room - I just need to test it a bit more thoroughly. If it has to go into the cinema room, I may be able to pass another HDMI cable through the conduit (if space permits).

As you can see - there is a lot of hardware involved in setting up a home entertainment system. The next part of this post will go over the software running on the Mac to link things together.

Here's a picture of what he's had to do to repair it:

All that's left for me to do is polyfill/plaster over it and then paint it. Hopefully I won't get another shock when the wet plaster hits it...

True to my word - here's a couple of belated pictures of the media cupboard. As you can see, it's a bit of a mess:

Fi and I are going for dinner tonight at Harry & Lucy's which should be nice. Until then, however, I think we are going to try to drive through the snow to B&Q to get some paint so we can (finally) finish the hallway.

We had budgeted to try to floor a part of the loft so that we could finally empty the spare room of all the suitcases, etc that are there. I knew that the loft had been recently (2008) re-insulated as there were signs up there but I hadn't really inspected it. I climbed up there yesterday to see how thick the joists were (so I could work out what type of flooring I needed) only to find that the entire loft already has thick chipboard flooring down. Sweet! Not only is it floored but there is also power and lighting up there! The signs warn that the floor isn't safe to walk on but it seems sturdy enough to take the weight of some suitcases. I guess if the ceiling collapses, we'll know I'm wrong...

For the first time in quite some time, we are now able to move around the study. This worries me - I know have little to no excuse to not start revising for MRCS Part B.

Given that Tuesday was shaping up to be a fairly productive day, I was pretty bummed by what happened next. I noticed that the washing machine was leaking. At first, I thought that it may have worked the cold-inflow pipe loose when spinning (as it seemed loose). I tightened it but water is definitely still leaking from underneath the machine. I've turned off the pipe and laid a towel around the edge to mop up any slow leaks that may still happen. Hotpoint were pretty good about it on the phone - they're sending someone round to take a look at it on Friday. I'm hoping it's nothing serious...

After hanging the final curtain pole downstairs I thought I would just mount a toilet roll holder in the downstairs loo before dinner (a minor job that I just hadn't gotten round to). I marked out where the bracket was to go, whipped out the drill and started drilling. Bang! I only bloody drilled through a live wire! I got a little bit of a shock and all the power switched off. Thank goodness for having the house re-wired and fitted with RCD circuitry. If it hadn't been for the RCD I would have probably received a pretty nasty shock. I've worked out that I managed to drill through the lighting circuit for the lounge and dining room. Fortunately, everything else is now back on. My electrician was supposed to be round to have a look an hour ago but I guess the snow is holding him up. What really annoys me is that I have a wire-detector unit to stop just these sort of things happening but I just didn't think where I was drilling would have any electrics in it (let alone the lighting circuit). Oh well, a lesson learnt I guess. I just hope it doesn't cost too much to rectify (or cause too much damage to the wall!).

The third thing that's been bugging me today is that I don't think I can keep the Wii or the PS3 in the media cupboard. Why? Well, because the controllers operate via Bluetooth that's why. Although they are useable, some button presses get "dropped" which is not great for playing games. The problem is that I'm not sure how to connect the consoles to the surround speakers if I move them into the Red Room (the cinema room) as the amp is in the media cupboard. All boring AV geek stuff but an important dilemma that I need to fix...

Fi and I are off to Katie and Pauli's tonight for dinner (if we can get there through the snow) and Fi is busy making what smells like a fabulous apple crumble. I'd better go and see if she needs a hand...

Fi and I arrived in Hungary's capital city at about 17:30 in Friday and caught a taxi to our hotel just off Andrássy út (Budapest's answer to the Champs Élysées). A taxi was supposed to be waiting for us but it never showed (slightly disappointing) but the cab we hailed instead cost us half as much. That's karma I guess.

The hotel was really nice and the staff were fantastic. We had a one bedroom suite with an open plan kitchen (although Nesquik cereal for breakfast was about as much cooking as we mustered).

After unpacking, we got changed and headed out for dinner. We tend to stick to eateries recommended by the travel guide (in this case, Timeout) and so our first meal was at Klassz. It was a little smokey (Hungary has not yet banned smoking in public places) but the atmosphere was good. We had our first (and certainly not last!) bottle of Hungarian red wine which was very good. I spent the meal suffering from food envy of Fi's choices. I had fish soup for starters (a little too fishy for my taste) whilst Fi had cream of red lentil soup that she lovingly shared. For the main course, Fi had a delicious Hungarian pork risotto and I had veal schnitzel. We shared a very tasty chocolate pudding for dessert.

Saturday was sunny (but freezing) in the morning but rained all afternoon and evening - not that we let that deter us from sight-seeing. We spent the morning having a tour of the spectacular Hungarian Parliament building (free to EU citizens) followed by a walk along the river Danube. The tour was really interesting. I didn't realise that the Hungarian government in WWII gave their crown jewels (which we saw and are over 1000 years old) to the Americans to guard at Fort Knox. I also enjoyed the ceremonial salute given to the jewels every hour by the guards.

After lunch at Menza (a funky retro cafe/bar), we visited the museum of terror which was really really interesting. I'm pretty ignorant about Eastern European history and I didn't realise that Hungary was a communist country from after WWII until the early 1990s (forced upon them by the Soviets). The museum told the story of the Hungarian secret police (the AVH) and the atrocities they committed. Spooky stuff.

We had planned to eat at the Bock Bistro on Saturday night and, having battled the rain to get there, found it was full until 22:00 (we hadn't made a reservation). Somewhat downtrodden, we ended up at the restaurant in the Four Seasons hotel, right next to the Chain Bridge. The food, the service and the location were faultless. The bill was pricey (33,000 Hungarian Forints - around £100) but it was worth every penny. I had Goulash to start with, followed by duck breast and fois gras (guess whose not counting the calories!). We had yet another fabulous Hungarian Cabernet Sauvignon. The whole evening was delightful.

The weather on Sunday was better and we headed to Buda for the day. For those of you who don't know, Budapest used to be two cities - Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube. The main attraction in Buda is the magnificent Royal Palace (rebuilt, having been largely destroyed during WWII). We took the funicular up to the palace and walked around the grounds which were nice. We then spent an hour or two in the Hungarian history museum before having lunch in a cafe (more Goulash for us!).

After lunch, we wandered around Buda and visited the Fisherman's Bastion which was very impressive, before heading back down the hill and across the river to Pest. I had been lugging my camera around with me all day and Fi had been carrying my tripod (she really is good to me) so that I could take some nightscapes of the city. We grabbed a coffee and did some window shopping to pass the time until dusk.

I managed to take a few good pictures. I hope you like them. You can check out more of my pictures on my Flickr page.

After our photo session, we walked back to the hotel, got ready and then went out for our last meal in Budapest. We decided to go back to Menza (where we had had lunch earlier on the trip). I enjoyed pork with pasta (really nice) whilst Fi went for venison. We spent ages there and the service was excellent. This time we had a nice bottle of Pinot Noir (again Hungarian). We also decided to be decadent and have not only a cocktail (note to self - I'm not a fan of Mai Tai) but also some dessert wine.

Today was a pleasant surprise. It was still cold but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We had planned on going ice-skating but we stumbled upon a mixed-sex thermal bath and boy am I glad we went there! It was outside in the courtyard of a beautiful old building. The water was 38 degrees Celsius and very relaxing. We spent nearly two hours there for just over a tenner apiece. My favourite thing about it was watching some old men play chess on the side of the bath with a plastic chess set!

Hopefully our car won't be snowed in when we touch down in Bristol as I hear the weather has been foul whilst we've been on holiday. The best thing is though, that I still have annual leave until being on-call this Saturday...

Despite a plethora of great presents from my family, what I really wanted was a surround sound system but there was no way I could justify the £500 price tag for a gift (even from my wife!).

Whilst in Guernsey, I spent my free time re-investigating my options for speakers to see what a £250 budget would offer. I had to be realistic: £500 is a lot of money to justfy. My research led me to a highly respected set of speakers from Jamo which were available for under £250, although they seemed to be out of stock everywhere. I noticed that the Richer Sounds January sale was on and that they were advertising the Jamos so I thought I'd pop in there on Saturday when we got back to the UK.

Saturday came and, unsurprisingly, they didn't have the Jamos so I asked them if they had the Harman Kardons in stock (I had researched these too and, although pricier, still had good reviews). No joy. I was just about to leave empty-handed when the salesman asked me to wait a minute and went and spoke to the manager. He came back and offered the KEF 1005.2 system for £399 (£100 off it's usual retail price). Given that my ultimate system would have been the 1005's bigger brother (the 2005 series) I jumped at the chance!

I couldn't go straight home and play with my new toy as we had loads of shopping to do. We drove down to Branches by Temple Meads (the same place we bought our dining table from) and ended up finding the perfect coffee table in solid oak. We managed to shoehorn that into Fi's car along with the speakers!

We drove home, had some soup and then headed back out to the shops - this time to Cribbs to pick up some bits and bobs followed by a trip to Waitrose for the weekly shop.

We finally got back home just after 16:00 and I started unpacking the speakers with haste. We were heading out for dinner at Sophie & Alexander's place at 19:30 so i couldn't play all night. I resigned myself that night to just wire the AV receiver in the media cupboard to the speakers and then configure things on Sunday. This I managed.

Dinner was great fun. Drank way too much wine and didn't get home until 02:30! I have fond memories of playing Rapidough for a while!

Woke up Sunday at 09:00 with excitement and a hangover. Fi was out for the count so I couldn't play with the speakers (I didn't want to wake her) so I went for a walk down to Whiteladies, across the Downs, to get a Sunday paper. There was a lot of black ice around so it took me longer than unanticipated and I didn't get back until 10:00. Inwoke Fi up cooked her breakfast and then got to work setting stuff up at around 11:00.

The whole process took a lot longer than I had anticipated. The first time you set up a receiver, you have to use a setup mike to calibrate the speakers. Trouble is, the lead on the mike wouldn't reach the receiver (which is in a separate room). This meant that I had to unwire everything in my cupboard, cut new speaker wire (as the other ones are under the carpet) and move the receiver. Once I had done this, I then wall mounted the speakers (and hung a couple of additional shelves whilst I had the drill out) before hooking them up to the receiver.

After the calibration was done, I had to put the receiver back in the cupboard and rewire it again. As soon as I get a chance, I'll post a picture of the mess!

I finally finished at about 19:00 (don't worry, Fi and I had gone outside for a walk in the middle of the afternoon). Fi and I sat down, after dinner, to watch our first movie at home with true surround sound - The Bourne Identity. It was a awesome experience and I'm thrilled with the result.

Much work still needs to be done. I desperately need a universal remote to control the AV receiver (largely for volume control). I need a remote that doesn't require a direct line of site to the component you wish to contol. Fortunately, I've found one that should do the job but it's £200! I also need to test the PS3 and Wii in their current locations. As their controllers operate via Bluetooth, they can connect to the console in the cupboard but I'm worried about dropping button-presses which may make gaming impossible. I'll test things out (hopefully) later in the week although I'm on-call until Thursday and am off to Budapest on Friday for a long weekend. If they don't work, things get tricky as once the projector is purchased (way down the line!), I'll be unable to hook the consoles up to any form of speaker!

Fi and I spent the night at Katie and Blake's "new" house along with Tammy, Dickon, Kath and three other people I hadn't met before - they were all pleasant enough. We arrived for drinks and nibbles at 19:30 and the chat was good. We sat down to a green Thai chicken curry which was nice before playing some boardgames and counting down to the New Year. Woke up this morning not feeling too bad although poor Blake either had too much to drink or has picked up some nasty gastroenteritis (I'm hoping it's the former!).

Fi and I walked back along the coast from Perelle, where the party was, back to Fi's in Vazon and it was extremely refreshing (read: bloody cold and windy). We must have looked pretty weird since I was pulling a hand luggage case behind me and Fi was carrying a pillow...

We visited Dat & Papa with Bill and Gerardine and had a lovely beef stew for lunch. We caught the 18:10 flight back to Gatwick and made good time getting back to Bristol, arriving here at around 22:30 last night. My poor car isn't quite right though. I started it to move it out of the driveway and sprayed the windshield with de-icer, only it didn't work. Weird, I thought - so I got in the car only to find that the ice was on the inside of the glass! I really don't know how to stop all the condensation inside the car - perhaps it's time to take it to a Mazda garage and ask them to take a look at it...

1. Start having flying lessons
2. Keep this blog more up-to-date
3. Pass MRCS
4. Complete the home cinema
5. Get a pet
6. See (or at least speak to!) my family more often
7. Finish decorating the house
8. Floor my loft
9. Moan about my career less often
10. Finish the Gameboy emulator I'm working on

Let's see if I can do better than last year...

I finished nights on Monday morning and so had plenty of time off before Christmas to get my things in order but poor Fi had to work until 21:30 on Christmas Eve up in Gloucester - rubbish! We've also had some of the most horrendous weather over the last couple of weeks that I can remember, particularly in the South East where my parents live. Over a foot of snow fell there and temperatures have hit -6! My sister spent 7 1/2 hours getting back from work one evening when normally it would take less than 30 mins! Anyway, Fi was late finishing work so we didn't leave Gloucester until after 22:00. The weather was terrible - there was thick freezing fog and ice on the roads. We ended up getting back to my parents before Santa arrived, had a chat and then retired to bed.

Christmas at the Pettet's has changed quite a lot since I was a kid - largely because nobody lives at home anymore. Fi and I woke up and opened our stockings before having breakfast. My sister and her fiancée arrived at about 11:00 and helped with the cooking. We sat down to a turkey lunch at about 14:00 which was very nice. My brother, his fiancée Sherrail and son Callum pitched up soon after and finally we were allowed to open our presents!

Fi is used to a very different present-opening experience than the free-for-all Pettet approach. At her home, everybody takes it in turn to open their gifts so that everybody can appreciate the present. I like this approach. At my house, everyone seems to rip open their presents as rapidly as possible! It doesn't help when Santa (Dad) rocks up with a mountain of toys for Callum!

I got some nice presents for Christmas. Fi bought me lots of small things as we had decided that we wouldn't overindulge as we have recently spent a lot of money of renovating our house. I got Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles Rock Band for the Wii (awesome!) as well as the digitally remastered first season of Star Trek on Blu-Ray which I can't wait to watch. I also got lots of nice books and other presents, too many to mention here. I think Fi liked the presents I bought her including a pretty new dress and a dressing gown. My Mum actually cried when she opened my present of a new Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for her Mac!

Boxing Day was another day of overindulgence. My Mum laid on a buffet dinner for my family, uncle Ash, Babs and my Nan. It turned into a massive Wii session in the end (little Callum is completely obsessed with Mario Kart.).

I got a chance to see my sister and Stuart's new gaff as well as my brother's new flat. I even popped up to my Dad's Mum's house for an hour with Fiona. I always enjoy seeing Nan as she is one of those people who always looks on the bright side of life. She is (pretty much) housebound following bilateral neck of femur fractures but she hasn't let this get her down. She's also great for family gossip!

Fi and I had to leave on Monday morning at 06:00 to get to Gatwick to catch our flight to Guernsey (which is where I am now). We got here uneventfully and had a belated Christmas Day here in the evening. Fi's Mum cooked a fab ham for mains with chocolate roulade to follow. We also had some amazing Chateau Neuf Du Pape that was 10 years old. I got some more great books as presents and Fi's Mum bought us some beautiful Robert Welch candlestick holders for our new home.

Fi and I went out for dinner last night at a Michelin guide-recommended pub here in Guernsey called The Swan with Tammy and Dickon. The pub is lovely and does fantastic gastropub food (I can wholeheartedly recommend the steak pie and chips.). We were meant to be going round to Fi T's parent's house to celebrate Max's birthday but the poor sod has contracted some nasty gastroenteritis (it sounds like oyster-induced). I had plenty of fun in the pub though...

Today is another action-packed day. We're off to town for a spot of shopping in a moment and then we're going for lunch with Dat and Papa. I think we're meeting Cath and Katie for mulled wine afterwards but I may just let Fi go as I'm rather embarrassed about a massive spot on my forehead! Later this evening, we're staying indoors at Fi's Mum's place as she has invited the neighbourhood round for drinks and nibbles. Should be interesting...

There are a lot of reasons for this. Probably the biggest one was spending 18 months in Australia. Although excellent for my personal life and personal development and really good for the experience of working in A&E, it was not so good for my career. Going to Australia instantly put me two years behind my peers. When in Australia, after we had decided we were coming back to the UK, Fi and I had to make some decisions about where we wanted to live in the UK and the speciality we wanted to apply to. I settled on applying for surgery, with GP as a backup in case I wasn't successful in getting into the highly competitive surgical training scheme. As it turned out - I did get into the program and have really lucked out in that I'm working right in the heart of the city that I have come to call my home.

In order to get to consultant level in surgery in the UK (and probably in most countries) you have to be extremely dedicated. It requires a lot of personal sacrifices to be made that, frankly, I'm not prepared to make. What is most important to me is being with my wife and enjoying my many interests. Not only this but I want to be able to use my computer and technology skills in my day-to-day job, afterall, these are things that I'm very good at.

After a lot of deliberation, I have applied for entry into the 2010 clinical radiology training program. There is no guarantee that I will be successful (it's probably the most competitive of all specialities). I still need to be shortlisted and then be successful at an interview - both of which won't happen until February. Radiology ticks every box for me. It offers a lifestyle more compatible with a family. You spend all day playing with expensive, high-tech equipment. You need a deep understanding of anatomy and physics and the potential for private work when a consultant is very good. The only downside is that I would have to take a pay cut for the first two years as it's an un-banded job (this means dropping £15K per annum!). Not the best thing in the world but I can always locum and, after all, it is a means to an end. If I manage to get on the program - I could be a consultant by 2015. Now that is a very, very nice thought...

Anyway, later today I shall write a few posts detailing what I've been up to this month.