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Since it was my birthday this week and I already had my present (a holiday from mum and dad) I thought that I’d treat myself to something as a present from me to me so I decided to buy myself a new bike and try to get a bit fitter.

I decided on my budget and after reading loads of reviews and opinions online I headed down to my LBS (local bike shop) Walker’s Cycling to see what they had. I had a good idea of what I was looking for and the guys down at my LBS sorted me right out. They were extremely helpful and I managed to get myself a 2008 Giant XTC 4.5 which was the bike I was looking for. I was also shown a Cube Attention but I wasn’t very keen on the forks as they are not as good as the ones on the Giant.

I’ve only had it for a few days and I haven’t really taken it off road apart from down a few trails at the local country park but I’m really enjoying it so far and I hope to get more into off road riding the fitter I get. Here’s a couple of pictures of it just now, loads more on flickr.

Hopefully a review soon as I couldn’t find many in depth Giant XTC 4.5 reviews out there.

I’m currently listening to the new self titled album from 3DD. It seems that self titled albums are not just for the first album anymore. Its been a while since we’ve had anything from 3DD but it was definetely worth the wait.

I was worried they may have decided to change it up a bit from their usual style but it seems to me they have kept pretty true to their roots and given us some serious soulful and powerful songs.

The album is 12 tracks long and have the usual 3DD mix of powerful ballads, calming riffs and memorable lyrics. My favourite song on the album has to be Runaway. Some other good tracks on the album are: Citizen/Soldier, It’s not my time, Pages and Your Arms Feel Like Home.

If your a 3DD fan then you must check this album out. It wont dissapoint. I’m not sure if it will thrill those people who only like a select few I of their songs but if your a fan of their style you’ll love it.

Oh yeah and sorry about the typing I’m writing this on my ipod touch in bed.

On Tuesday we built Liam’s awesome new PC. Main features are nVidia edition Cooler Master Stacker 810, ASUS Striker II Motherboard, Core 2 Quad Q6600, 4Gb Corsair TwinX DDR2 and an ASUS GeForce 8800GT. Build went pretty good. Here are some pictures (Click for larger images)

Installing the CPU, CPU Fan, RAM and GFX Card

Finished. Cables still to be tidied

All 5 green LED fans running!

Coming Soon: My HTPC Pictures