Back in Leicester again as it's my birthday today. Yay me. After having a brief lie in, I opened my presents, before heading out into town to sort out a few bits and have a look around the shops. I fancied having a look at Yamaha's new offering in the HD amp market (the Yamaha RX-V2700 as my current setup sees the amp controlling the entire room - when we upgrade the TV to a HD panel (1080i, natch) it'll cause some issues. This, coming in at 1300ukp, will be more than suitable. It sounds absolutely fantastic. I also bought myself a new pair of Alpinestar SMX 4 boots, since my old ones were a bit worn out. I'd received a 10% discount voucher from the local Hein Gericke, which saw them come down to a fairer price.
Kev and Steve then joined us for lunch at The Observatory, before we headed off back into town so that I could coo over some Nikon VR lenses, including the rather sexy Nikon VR 70-200 F2.8 AF-S lens. Fortunately the manager at the shop still remembers me from when I worked for le.ac.uk, so mentioned various discounts and the like from the advertised price. It's a gorgeous piece of kit - it focuses so quickly, and with the SWM it really is brilliantly quiet.

The rest of the day will see a visit by family shortly, before I head on out for a night in Leicester with friends.

A rather good day all in, thus far.