update

I thought a page where I could post update's occasionally might be an idea, just to say what I have heard or done.

Boring, well yeah it could be but I just wanted to share what happens with you now that I live in Southern California, as I imagine a lot of people who are not in America, like myself they have all these thoughts and dreams of what it is like.

I hope I can convey some things I have found out and not shatter to many illusions

9th April 2006

Okay I'm bad, I haven't updated this for ages, been busy with family, living and basically looking for a job.

Went up to Hollywood just last weekend to take my brother and my younger niece to see the sign and the chinese theater, stupid thing is it was a last minute thing so forgot my camera...DUH! Well I dropped them off and went looking for a parking space and eventually went round the block and got a space by a meter on Hollywood Blvd at the end of a row, right along by guess who's star of all things....YEP, Robert's, its still there and looking good.

Weather was beautiful and we drove along Sunset Blvd where my family decided to take pictures of everything (oh yeah my parents are out here as well so they were in the vehicle also), had to stop at the Beverley Hills Hotel. I annoyed some locals stopping there but hey they can't drive anyway.

4th September 2005

Okay so summer has gone by like it wasn't there...wow it was quick! I have returned to my native England for a good friend's wedding and to see many other's that we missed so much. Forgot how manic the road's were back there, everyone drives so close and so fast and you think southern california has it bad....no way. But it was good to share some meal's and beer's with my old colleagues from the Police.

Enjoy being back and being able to afford little luxuries that are waaaay to expensive in England like a quick walk out for a meal and even filling the gas tank (yes petrol) as it's still load's cheaper than England.

I was also pleased because before I left for England my box set of "Spenser For Hire" movies arrived plus I have "Killing At Hell's Gate" and "Final Descent" in my collection as well, ask me privately how. All I will say is how wonderful a DVD recorder can be especially if it's region free and macrovision free.

13th May 2005

Well I have been enjoying the weather Southern California has to offer and boy has it been warm but not complaining, its great, certainly beats the weather in England. So okay watched that movie Sideways not long ago, it was great, not action packed but witty, funny and real. Also my wife and I enjoyed seeing places we have been to like Santa Barbara, Solvang and A.J.Spurs for a steak, granted I was ill at the time but nothing to do with the restaurant, had the bug when we travelled. Good movie watch it if you can well directed and acted, don't expect it to rush you off your feet straight away but stick with it, its worth it and the hazards that occur on the way. Also happy that I now have the Ice Pirates and Turk 182 on DVD and coming soon is the Spenser movies collection, Captain's Courageous and my favourite Clover Bend or Death at Clover Bend as it was listed in England, this is a good tear jerker and beautifully acted & directed. If you can afford but one film then this is my star rated film, Clover Bend out June 14th 2005, I recommend this one.

2nd February 2005

Okay just had a thought if anyone want's to get a multi regional DVD player I can give a little advice, there are many makes on the market and there are hack's for them which requires you putting in a code via the remote control that allow's you to change the region setting. DVD player's are set at the factory to the region of the country they are to be sold in. Each country has a region, there are six region's in total and countries like UK is region 2 and USA is region 1, etc... A DVD player will not play a disc from a different region unless the region code has been reset to allow it on the player. The other problem is different countries use a different amount of lines on the television screen so film's from USA will not play on a TV in UK, the settings are called (USA) NTSC, (UK) PAL and in certain European countries (sorry to say it under that classification but not sure which countries have it) use SECAM.

So to sort this all out you need a DVD player that automatically can convert one to the other, as for SECAM its very limited in usage so generally this is something you don't get a DVD player to do but as for the two main ones, NTSC and PAL this is possible. My example will be a model made by Cyberhome, originally a German company but now sell's to USA and Europe (I include UK in that group). In England (UK) I had a cyberhome and reset it easily, here in USA cyberhome do a range of 300 series models, very small, it converts NTSC & PAL formats and can be reset to be multi regional, that means you set it to region 0 so all regions (DVD's) can be played. This model sell's for under $40 at Wal-Mart and Target. There are other model's as well but be sure to check into the hack codes first before buying a DVD player and then looking for the codes. Most DVD player's are made to be used worldwide and then just set at the factory to what ever country they are going to. If you need more help then e-mail me at webmaster@roberturich.co.uk or roberturichtributesite@cox.net and I will give you any advice I can. I have to say this does enable me to watch my movies from England and America here, plus get more movies from UK. Also anyone in UK this is a good way to then get movies that come out earlier and at a cheaper rate than England. I can recommend several web site companies that supply DVD's at a better price than the usual shop's.

31st January 2005

If anyone out there has a multi regional DVD player you may be interested in the fact that Robert's film "Perfect Stranger" is available on DVD for under $10, trouble is you have to either find a site that will send it to you in what ever country you are in or get someone in England that can order it for you and send it on. For people in European countries this may be a good thing for them but no guarantee that there are any subtitles or other languages available.

13th January 2005

Okay seem to have sorted out the e-mail problem I have had for over a year with the server company, I reset the e-mail address back to webmaster@roberturich.co.uk and all e-mail's are forwarded to my mail server here so if you request a reply it will come from a different server but with the a related web site/e-mail address I hope that clears any problems anyone had. I also would like to apologies to certain people who e-mailed me a long time ago and never got a reply but it was due to this problem I only just got access to those mail's. I had over 600 backlogged and a lot were spam, that's the price you pay for running a web site on your own with no big expensive anti spam stuff to help. Thanks to everyone for there support and help including Waqar from Gigo who also helped sort out the problem's.

11th January 2005

Okay well got to go to Las Vegas thanks to Karen & John Harley just after Christmas (we call the day after Christmas Day Boxing Day in England). A dream to actually go to a place that I remember as a young lad seeing episodes of Vega$ being shown, which people here cannot believe has only ever been shown once in England.

So it was a bit of a surprise to see the strip not as you imagine, yes loads of hotel's but more like Disneyland than Vegas, found the old downtown bit which is actually uptown geographically where the 4 Queen's and Golden Nugget still survive. They have done a cool thing and put a cover over the whole length of the street which is used as a screen and they project a short movie on it, the one I saw was of aliens landing, its visually brilliant, the only snag is if it does rain (and it did whilst I was there) it doesn't stop the water, plus I also found out that no dogs allowed on the pedestrian's area's although there are no signs to tell you.

So alas the old casino's from our memories and what is shown on t.v. elsewhere than America is no more but its still awe inspiring and can imagine Robert driving down the roads in the red T-Bird. One word of warning though if it does rain be prepared for loads of stuff to stop as they do not seem to know how to get rid of the water.

The drive to Vegas from California is another wonder, you can imagine from the scene's a western emerging before you in the form of a John Wayne movie or Lonesome Dove perhaps. If you ever get the chance to travel there drive if you can, its tiring but the scenery is breath taking.