slothblog

Oh The Humanity!

2008-10-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

When will this endless slaughter end?
Huge props to Orac, where I first saw this.

Still Alive

2008-10-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

In blog terms it has been a positive age since I last posted. It turns out that it took me much longer than I expected to recover from the virus I had. What with the week of holiday I had at the top of the month I have effectively been out of the office for the whole of September, the few days I graced the place have been lost to my still feeling very tired and feeble. It has only been in the last 24 hours or so that I have properly surfaced and taken in my surroundings, Probably just in time too as I am going to be a bridesmaid on Saturday it will be my first time as one and I do not want to disgrace myself by falling asleep during the speeches.

Rhodium

2008-09-19T04:04:00.000-07:00

I meant to blog about this a couple of weeks ago.

The rest of the elements can be found at the University Of Nottingham's Website

Only When I Laugh

2008-09-19T02:30:00.000-07:00

My virus continues.

I've spent most of my time delicately draped accross on one of the sofas like the sickly heroine of one of the more bathetic Victorian novels.

I felt decidedly better on Monday morning so it was off to work I went with, if not with a "HiHo" and a merry tune on my lips, but feeling ready for another day at work.

I walked from the car park into the office with a colleague - in that distance my voice started to sound like a teenage boy's just before it start to break and I began to feel my chest tightening up. By the time I got into the office I was beginning to squeak like a bat whisperer.

So they sent me home.

Tuesday - off work

Wednesday - off work

Thursday - off work - began to feel better

Friday - today I wake up feeling that if I don't talk too much I'll be fine. I get into work, feel awful, squeak like a bat to my boss, promptly burst into tears for no better reason than I don't feel well, get sent home again.

I seem to be ok if I do diddly squat, if I do anything for too long - talking, driving to work (remember it's an hour drive for me), trying to concentrate - it takes it out of me.

Things I'm Hearting At The Moment

2008-09-11T12:04:00.000-07:00

I'll start with the thing I'm not hearting - I've got a virus which hasn't turned into a cold but has given me a sore throat, painful blocked ears and feeling as weak as kitchen. It's not done much for my cognitive skills either I could barely string a sensible sentence together yesterday at work. In fact for once I found it easier to write down my thoughts than say them. So I've been off work today and depending on how my ears and balance are tomorrow possibly tomorow.

But back to the things I'm currently loving.

The new iTunes 8.oh.summit - the Genius feature is genius it can recommend new tracks from the iTunes store based on the track that you have highlighted and it can pull together playlists of music from you own collection that should all work together. It's not perfect, it won't work with the Beatles at all, it won't recommend you buy any of their stuff, include any of their songs in the playlist nor will it pull together a playlist from one of their songs. I know I tried it this morning.

Dark'n'Stormy cocktails - being easily swayed by the adverts I bought some Ginger Ale so that we could have moscow mules, Simon in the spirit of experimentation decided to use rum instead of vodka and we thought we had a new taste sensation on our hands. Not surprisingly we found out that we had been beaten to the cocktail shaker but it is still rather nice.

Romantic Internet Caused Marriages - Simon and I meet through blogs, Graham and Aimee met through Flickr and they are getting married tomorrow in the States (assuming immigration hasn't been an arse) Good luck you guys, you rock.

The End Of The World Is Not Scheduled For Tomorrow

2008-09-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

But then again people love to be scared, or to be iconlastic against the vast majority. Most don't give a monkeys about the LHC, there's not been a mention of it in the office, but then we do go in for very mundane water cooler moments where I work, football and Holby City seems to be the subjects that grip the most people.

So I'm pretty confident that I will be seeing Simon tomorrow when he gets back from St Albans where he's being educated in the ways of interfaces.

I had an offer on my flat but it was stupidly low, so I've rejected it. I doubt he'll come back with anything reasonable so the next step will be to let the place out, then this place then rent something we can live in with more than one bedroom and enough room for us to swing the proverbial cat. It will be wonderful to have a garden and a spare bedroom or two.

So what have you eaten?

2008-09-05T08:49:00.000-07:00

One of those lists that spread meme like through the "desperate for something to blog about" blogging community. It's a bit American in emphasis and I've had to look up some of the things 'cos I'd not heard of them before.

We've been busy, but nothing particuallry note worthy, I've got a new camera, the weather has been shocking, finally had a viewing on my flat and possibly there will be an offer but probably not an acceptable one, still we can always let it out for the duration, people still need to live in places.

Anyways back to the meme - in bold is what I've eaten, in italics what I would never consider passing across my lips

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush Aubergine dip
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. Peanut Butter and Jelly (jam) sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses - very smelly french cheese probably wouldn't consider eating but you never know
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns - Dim Sum
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda - not yet but it sounds delish
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat - not yet but something else I want to try but goat is quite hard to get round these parts
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martin - haven't tried it but only because I never knew you could do such a thing
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse - not sure I think I may have done so in France one time
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa - need to try this
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

- I have also eaten jellyfish tenticles, kangaroo, mutton and green bagels for St Patricks Day

And the big shout going out is for Cosmic Varience where I saw this first

New Toys

2008-08-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

Flickr have upgraded the slideshow tool on their website so I'm trying it out.

right now I'm not sure that it even works satisfactorily.

Arn't We Doing Well

2008-08-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a picture (or screenshot) is worth a thousand words

On Board

2008-08-13T11:44:00.000-07:00

Stanstead

2008-08-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Again to the seaside with work this time Newquay by plane our flight is delayed so we have hit the bar while Ryan air find our aircraft/wind up the rubber band/sacrifice small woodland creatures to the aviation gods.

Thrilling

2008-08-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

Individual Eventing on the radio is so thrilling especially when everyone on the commenting team is rooting for the final few competitors to knock over a bar or two. I started listening on my way home and found myself sat in the car still so that I wouldn't miss the climax. We weren't expecting to get a medal by all accounts ended up with a cheeky little bronze - congratulations to Tina Cook.

Possibly the worst remake ever

2008-08-08T17:19:00.000-07:00

We've just sat through the Bruce Willis version of The Jackal. What a pile of steaming crock it was shite from beginning to end. Completely untense and unthrilling just a big weapons fantasy. The original with Edward Fox was tense, exciting, thrilling - almost everything that the modern one isn't. I hear that the remake of Pyscho is bad too but I've not seen that.

So at the risk of getting no comments whatsoever what's the worst remake you've seen.

T'Olympics

2008-08-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

Which weird sport will you suddenly find yourself completely fascinated? I found myself completely involved in the weightlifting this time four years ago but this year I think the most popular spectator spectacle will be watching western politicians trying to say harsh things about the Chinese authorities trampling of human rights and reckless arms dealing without saying them so harshly that the Chinese Authorities notice and stop playing nice with our trade deficits. Bush was at it today his routine was to say the nasty things but not in China as obviously they won't notice cos it wasn't said there. It's a bit like going to a party at a neighbours house, but before you do, standing in your garden shouting loudly to all who will hear, about what a bunch of chiseling bastards they are.

China's human rights record is abysmal and I don't have the answers perhaps the Olympics should not have been awarded to them but when things cost a lot of money niceties such as free speech, justice and the right to live a life without fear of the state tend not to have as much impact.

I am so boring at the moment

2008-07-31T13:19:00.000-07:00

I can't think of anything interesting to write, when something interesting happens to me I can't blogging in an interesting way. I'm too hot, the heat and humidity just saps my brain. Work can't provide any bloggage as I won't blog about it although I may be going to Cornwall and Belgium next month - this month depending on when you read this, or the month after that or not at all. It all depends.

Right now I just want autumn to start again, for when it rains the temperature to drop properly not the humidity to rise. I really can't bear it.

People Doing Good Things For Others

2008-07-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

It's sponsorship time, I'm more than a bit late for one and going to be early for the other.

First off I have to admit I haven't got round to doing any donating yet but I will, come the end of the week when I get paid.

Firstly and currently going on is the Dales Walk in aid of the Joseph Salmon Trust. Which means Dan and chums are doing this

This July ten friends will be walking the the 78 mile long Dales Way footpath. Yes, 78 miles. In six days. And what’s more it was our own idea. Many are predicting it will be the end of us.

In aid of this

The Joseph Salmon Trust is a small charity whose aim is to offer financial assistance to people living in the Huddersfield area, whose child has died.

It's small but local and aims to help with some of the day to day stuff that really can hurt after a berevement.

The other one is my friend Dave, he's a bit of a runner, been known to do the 50 yard sprit in 3 seconds flat when last orders is sounded. Anyway someone's attached a pint to a stick and he's running rather further now and trying to raise funds for SSAFA if you wanna donate he's got a Justgiving page http://www.justgiving.com/davidheaton

Non non photography day

2008-07-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

I hope that you are all out there recording the everyday for Nnpd. I won't much to add i've not been able to take a photo most of the day and that will continue. I'm on my way back from Tenby still in wales and we've been driving for the last three hours i think the roads have been lengthened over night.

Tenby

2008-07-16T11:41:00.000-07:00

Most of the time work is pretty rubbish but just once in a while it sends me to beautiful places like this. There is a gentle breeze the warmth of the day is still lingering and i can hear the gentle sound of the waves lapping on the rocks below me. Sometimes i'm very lucky.

So More Estate Agent News and other stuff

2008-07-05T09:36:00.000-07:00

I got a letter from the new estate agents - the ones that the busted company passed the house details onto. They have taken some nice photos, got the details mostly right and arn't looking to charge any more than the last lot so I'm guessing I'll go with them.

Jesse Helms is dead, good riddence to racist, homophobic, mean spirited nasty rubbish. I'm an atheist so I don't believe in hell but I can see why so many people think it would be the right place for the loathesome bastard. Tblogg has a choice selection of Helms' quotes.

Downturn

2008-07-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

The estate agents I put my flat on the market with has gone out of business. I can't say I'm surprised as I've not heard a peep from them in ages, they've failed to get a single viewing on the flat (and it isn't that bogging) in roughly 8 weeks. Simon got a call from the company that has picked up the remaining properties on the books this afternoon, I didn't hear a thing because they failed to use the email address or the mobile number I gave them a month ago.

Actually I feel relieved, hopefully the lack of action on the flat was due to the failing company and not entirely due to the stagnating market. Anyways that's what I'm hoping, we've only had one viewer for this place in a month so it's not good out there at the moment. We will sell the properties eventually but I would like it to be sooner rather than later.

Dead laptop

2008-06-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

The laptop died on Sunday, fatal errors to the hard drive :-o. It has been hell. I can't look up actors or plot details on imdb whenever I want to. We can't play wow together which removes half the fun for me. I have got so used to having the internet as my constant, uncomplaining companion that when it's not instantly there, because I have to share the iMac with Simon, it's really annoying. So this evening I have painted my toenails pm that I have something to do with my hands and watched far more telly than I usually do. I haven't worked out how to blog from my phone without a picture so enjoy.

edited 24/6/08 for sense and grammar

700th

2008-06-19T12:40:00.000-07:00

This is my 700th published post, I've been blogging for just over three years now. My rate of blogging had decreased significantly. I guess partly because I don't want to make you all feel sick with envy by blogging about wedded bliss day in and day out. Come to think of it I don't want to make myself sick either :)

In order to save money I've been strickly sticking to the speed limits, no drifting a little bit over any more for me. And it has made a difference, my mileage has increased by about 5%. I've also noticed that the roads are a bit quieter than they were last year and there seems to be an increase in the number of people pottling along at 50 miles a hour, I don't know if this is really so or just a bit of obsevation basis by me. 5% improvement in the miles I get isn't really going to cut it though I just paid for my first £50 full tank of petrol today, (our car takes about 42 litres) this time last year I was paying about £37 each time I filled up. The car is pretty good for mpg it can do about 425 on a full tank, unfortnately I drive 460 miles a week to get to work and back. It's not good, not good at all.

Slowly Slowly

2008-06-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

I'm waiting for firefox 3.0 to down load before going to bed, I had my first annual check of my eyesight since discovering that I had glaucoma, the good news and it is very good news is that the medicine is working and there is no detiration in my vision either eye and the pressure in my eyes is good. A classic case of early detection and preventative medicine I guess.

I am "too young" to have glaucoma as it is normally seen in the over 40s I am very grateful to the staff at Boots the Optician for doing the checks when I went in for an eye test. The waiting area in the hospital backs that up as well, apart from the staff I must have been the youngest person in the waiting area by a good 25 years at least. I also have to be grateful that I don't have perfect vision because if I did I doubt that I would ever go to the opticians and it would not have been discovered until I noticed the damage, especially as there is no history of glaucoma in my family. Overall I'm lucky really.

Cheese

2008-06-15T04:28:00.000-07:00

Testing the moblog facility that comes with my new mobile. I <3 my new phone

Week

2008-06-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

I find composing blog entries directly in the Blogger create post form, saps the inspiration from me. I've had a few blog ideas this week but once I've not been able to get much further than opening up the web page before the ideas desert me. To avoid this happening again I am trying to write this blog while watching the telly not the laptop. Fortunately I can touch type, unfortunately I'm not the best typist out there so I've had to go back to correct the errors.

So this week, On Wednesday I took advantage of the new flexi scheme at work and left at 2:30 pm to go into town to see the solicitors about the information they needed from me for the HIP and other stuff, then my bank to tell them that I've changed my name and that I had moved (no need to rush these things) and then finally on to the estate agents to correct all the information that they had put in the particulars - phantom doors and missing radiators were the most glaring.

Friday saw another colleague of mine leaving for pastures new, she won't be replaced here because all our posts are relocated to the South West at some point in the future and no one wants a job with that level of insecurity. The office I work in used to have 16 people in it now there will only be 7 and most times it's emptier than that. We went to the pub to see her off there were plenty there but this is where my ears hinder me, they started to hurt and I couldn't hear people clearly enough to carry on a conversation so I ducked out early as there is no fun in not hearing peoples drunken conversations when you are sober.

Today we went into town, Simon got a new wallet and we looked at the small continental market. These markets are getting to be much of a muchness and they bear no resemblance to markets on the continent that I've seen.

We had my version of Jambalaya, no sausages or prawns, mushrooms and saffron instead and and emergency substitution of basmati rice for american long grain but it was very nice with white wine and watching Giles Coren and Sue Perkins dice with heart disease as they eat their way through the seventies some of it was very wrong but other seventies favourites are probably still favourites today, like prawn cocktail, steak diane and black forest gateaux.

Mmmmm black forest gateaux.

Blue

2008-06-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

Haven't done one of these in ages

2008-06-08T08:08:00.000-07:00

But when the result says that I'm cool how can I resist proving that really I'm not by blogging about it.

Finally

2008-06-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

Hillary Clinton has conceded defeat in the Democratic Primaries and put her support behind Barack Obama. In this race she's gone from presumptive Democratic candidate back in 2006 and early 2007 to the one who came second today. During which she's gone through about 11 million dollars of her own money and she and Bill seemed to have managed to piss away all her dignity, reputation for being fair and even handed and a hell of a lot of good will that was felt towards the couple since their days in the White House. When the Republicans went after Obama for being elitist Clinton suddenly reinvented herself as being blue collar - Pah her father may have been at the start but he was a successful business man by the time of her of her birth, she herself has had a career that is very far away from blue collar unless I missed something and lawyers are now considered as horny handed toilers.

I first heard of Obama when I was on holiday in Milan in 04, as my Italian is almost as bad as their telly I spent a bit of time watching CNN on the TV in the hotel room, it was the democratic convention, he stood out as someone who was going to go places quickly, he had charisma, looks, dignity and could give a great speech. I don't know whether he will win the presidency but he's the best candidate to run in a long long while.

Birdstrike

2008-06-03T12:39:00.000-07:00

A poor unfortunate pigeon almost certainly bought it when he collided with the passenger side window/rear view mirror of my car as I drove home this evening. I saw it out of the side of my eye and was already half tensed up when it hit the car, fortunately it seems to have done no permanent damage to the car but when I looked in the rear view mirror all I could see was a sad swirling cloud of feathers.

It was my 3rd Bloggiversary yesterday which I totally forgot about in the fun and excitement of bimbling about at home. I always need a couple of days to recover from a holiday, I've only really just got round to starting to upload photos to my flickr stream. This one is my favourite so far.

Barcelona was great, I wish I had brought my walking boots with me though because it demands to be walked through as the buildings are spectacular. I will blog about it more as I upload more photos.

Je suis dans le hotel room avec le gratis Wifi

2008-05-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

We are now wending our way back to blighty, so another stop in Paris this time in the 12th arrondissement, rather than almost slap bang next to Gard du Nord. The hotel has free WiFi so I'm taking advantage by trying to upload a couple of photos from Barcelona. So far on this holiday we have travelled by train, boat, metro, bus, funicular railway, cable car and plane. Tomorrow we will probably add taxi to that to get home from the station.

So far not much luck with the photos this is not the fastest wifi in the world.

¡Hola from Barcelona!

2008-05-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

Very quickly as I´m on the internets in the hotel lobby. It may well
be free but I don´t want to abuse the privilege. First full day in
Barcelona,

The metro system is lovely, clean, fast and the purple line has
stations painted the most fantastic soft greyish blue-purple I want a
wall or 4 in that colour eventually.

The Sagrada Familia is quite breathtaking in a bobbins gloriously and
happily over the top way.

We have bagged our first funicular railway of the trip need to get at
least one other and a cable car.

We´ve both caught the sun when it isn´t raining.

I Apologise

2008-05-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

For the recent lack of posts, this has mostly been because I have not been well over the last few days so I haven't felt like posting anything. Simon is taking very good care of me, trying to cater for my every need, especially thoses needs that include ice cream so I am being well looked after.

I Can Haz A Reading List

2008-05-09T04:20:00.000-07:00

From Notes From Evil Bender (which has to be a one of the best blog names I've seen in a while), Welcome to the “106 Books of Pretension,” meme which is really “the top 106 books most often marked as ‘unread’ by LibraryThing’s users.” I wouldn't rate a lot of these books as being pretentious some of them are very good and not at all up themselves a few are probable shite - Altas Shrugged comes to mind for one. Anyway copying Evil Bender's style, books I’ve read are in italics and books I began but didn't finished are crossed out:

* Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
* Anna Karenina
* Crime and Punishment
* Catch-22
* One Hundred Years of Solitude
* Wuthering Heights
* The Silmarillion
* Life of Pi : a novel
* The Name of the Rose
* ~~Don Quixote~~ I got it out of the school libary it was probably a bit too dense for me as a 13 yo
* Moby Dick
* Ulysses
* ~~Madame Bovary~~ found it dull
* The Odyssey
* Pride and Prejudice
* Jane Eyre
* The Tale of Two Cities
* The Brothers Karamazov
* Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
* War and Peace
* Vanity Fair
* The Time Traveler’s Wife
* The Iliad
* Emma
* ~~The Blind Assassin~~ I had to pack it away when I moved here.
* The Kite Runner
* Mrs. Dalloway
* Great Expectations
* American Gods
* A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
* Atlas Shrugged
* Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
* Memoirs of a Geisha
* Middlesex
* Quicksilver
* Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
* The Canterbury tales
* The Historian : a novel
* A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
* Love in the Time of Cholera
* Brave New world
* The Fountainhead
* Foucault’s Pendulum
* Middlemarch
* Frankenstein
* The Count of Monte Cristo
* Dracula
* A Clockwork Orange
*~~Anansi Boys~~ not sure why I haven't finished this, I've rather enjoyed what I've read so far
* The Once and Future King
* The Grapes of Wrath
* The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
* 1984
* Angels & Demons
* The Inferno
* The Satanic Verses
* Sense and Sensibility
* The Picture of Dorian Gray
* Mansfield Park
* One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
* To the Lighthouse
* Tess of the D’Urbervilles
* Oliver Twist
* Gulliver’s Travels
* Les Misérables
* The Corrections
* The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
* The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
* Dune
* The Prince
* The Sound and the Fury
* Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
* The God of Small Things
* A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
* Cryptonomicon
* Neverwhere
* A Confederacy of Dunces
* A Short History of Nearly Everything
* Dubliners
* The Unbearable Lightness of Being
* Beloved
* Slaughterhouse-five
* The Scarlet Letter
* Eats, Shoots & Leaves
* The Mists of Avalon
* Oryx and Crake : a novel
* Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
* Cloud Atlas
* The Confusion
* Lolita
* Persuasion
* Northanger Abbey
*~~The Catcher in the Rye~~ to my shame
* On the Road
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame
* Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
*~~Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values~~ thought it was rubbish
* The Aeneid
* Watership Down
* Gravity’s Rainbow
* The Hobbit
* In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
* White Teeth
* Treasure Island
* David Copperfield
* The Three Musketeers

Dr D-

2008-05-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

The second Sontaren episode has to be possible the worst ever episode of Dr Who since they restarted the series, poorly plotted, totally unrelated to reality, unfeeling, scientifically garbage and full of dull elements. I know that is a science fiction series and you have to suspend disbelief but they seem to be asking us to suspend all thinking as well. The writer, Helen Raynor created a script that read more like the offering of poor amatuer fan fiction writer than a professional, with Martha as the Mary Sue. BBC Wales should be ashamed of itself for allowing this guff to go into production without serious reworking.

Dull - Why are we seeing Donna's family? As much as it is nice to see Bernard Cribbins on the small screen, the family time does not seem to move the plot along at all, I don't care about them they are not interesting.

Unfeeling - Millions of people must have died in their cars when the ATMOS system started pumping out poisonous gas yet no one seemed to give a damn about all those deaths, with a global disaster like that there would be far reaching consequences yet no one seemed to care

Bad Science - Burning the poisonous gas, igniting the atmosphere like that could have severely depleted the oxygen in the atmosphere it would not have left people marvelling at the blue skies about they would have been suffocating because of the lack of oxygen as almost all the oxygen in the atmosphere would have been consumed in the fireball which also seemed to be moving as hypersonic speeds across the planet. It is beyond stupid to have this as the getting out of jail free manoeuvre and shameful hasn't anyone at the BBC been on fire training recently.

Reality - Martha is in UNIT, it's not clear whether she's taken the Queen's shilling and now in the military or a civilian member of the organisation. She's a doctor, a very junior one at that, who seems to have had no specialist military training so why is she allowed to push aside trained people from their computer screens? The British Armed forces do not swan around in their best uniforms when at work unless something special is going to happen like collecting a medal or a court marshal. The Army prefer to wear their greens whenever possible and that includes the officers, they don't salute if they are not wearing a hat/beret, they don't tend to wear hat/berets indoors unless they are going to get a bollocking off their commanding officer.

Finally this is meant for children, children deserve better than this sloppy, lazy writing, the cast seem to be valiently trying but sorry it was awful.

Remembering Tristram

2008-05-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

Tristram Cary 1925 - 2008

Tristram Cary the composer and pioneer of electronic music was married to my Aunt Jane. I first met him in the late 80s when they came over from Australia to visit. He introduced us to Australian wine (which was just up and coming in Harrogate at the time) and what to appreciate in it. I got to know him a bit better when we stayed with him and my Aunt in Adelaide over Christmas of 92. I was still a student at the time and I had work to do on an astronomy essay, Tristram volunteered to vouch for me at the University Library as I needed some more information. After I had done my digging for references amongst the bookshelves he showed me around the University Campus and the nearby radio studios where he occasionally broadcast. I remember that we also visited the staff bar for a reviving drink before lunch there we talked about beer and sculpture. Tristram was a kind and convivial host, he took as a personal affront if our glasses were not charged with a drink of our liking.

His favourite pub in London was the French House on Dean Street, they have a rather nice restaurant upstairs. Whenever he and Jane were over they tried to have at least one meal with family there, these occasions were always a bit boozy, entertaining and gossipy.

In 2004 Tristram's work was the subject of a retrospective called Integrated Circuits on the Brighton Festival Fringe. There was an evening performance, both taped and live, of his electronic works from his early work including some done at the Radiophonic Workshop to more recent compositions, finishing with a live performance of Trios which was fascinating to watch. The next day we saw a double bill of films that he composed for; The Ladykillers and Quatermass and the Pit, The Ladykillers is still a wonderful film and Tristram's music is a huge part of that, he rescored the Boccherini quartet as a quintet for the five criminal masterminds. Quatermass and the Pit is a classic Hammer Horror you think you are going to laugh at the cheapo special effects but end up being engrossed and scared, if you are me. Tristram happily answered questions after the showing and then we went to the pub.

If you are British and had a telly during the 70s you almost have certainly heard his music many times as he composed the score to a cartoon version of a Christmas Carol. It seemed to be on every year when I was a child, I loved it, it was only 28 minutes long but managed to keep all the essential parts of the story, I would love to get a copy but it doesn't seem to have been released on CD. It is strange to find out that you know let alone related to worked on something that you adored as a child, strange but very thrilling.

My mobile ring tone is Tristram's version of the Dr Who theme tune. I asked him once how come he had ended up scoring the Daleks but not the theme tune to Dr Who? He told me that it was because that was how he and Ron Grainer had been commissioned for the series, Grainer got the first series, "An Unearthly Child", so got to adapt Delia Derbyshire's theme and he had got the "Daleks", it could have easily have been the other way round and he would have worked on the opening and closing music. I've got a CD of Tristram's music, signed natch, it would be great to hear it with the pictures; the music is sparse and scary far better than what we've got at the moment on Dr Who - lush, cloying, far too forward in the mix and as obvious as a mallet.

The last time I saw him was at his surprise 80th birthday party thrown for him by one of his cousins, it was a lovely day, the sun shone, Tristram was in fine fettle, family and friends came. There was cake . It was a great day.

Some more information on Tristram.

Simonsound.co.uk, The Times

Humphrey Lyttleton Is Not Well

2008-04-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

I'm on the Sorry I Haven't A Clue mailing list through it heard that Humph has had an aortic aneurysm.

...Humphrey Lyttelton has been detained in hospital for an operation to repair an aortic aneurysm.

We are unclear precisely how long Humph's recovery period will be, but it seems very likely that the Spring Series of "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" will have to be postponed.

Hopefully he will get well soon, for his own sake and for ours we can't have put up with Quote Unquote for too long.

Published Photographer

2008-04-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

One of my many roles as a Tranny Wallah is to wield the camera when Becky is ready for her "close ups, but not too close darlink." I don't really mind as I enjoy photography and bossing Becky about. So when the Norwich Evening News asked Becky to supply some photos to illustrate the feature about her it was inevitable that at least one of my photos would get sent along. That didn't stop it being really quite freaky to look at the NEN online this lunchtime and see my picture above the fold on the front page.

Nothing I've done has ever been published before and I'm finding it odd to think that the picture what I took will be looked at by thousands of people and become landfill or wrappings for fish and chips and that's a rather weird feeling.

That and having my name changed to Lucy to "protect the innocent" has been all rather exciting. All I need now is a plain clothes policeman in a homburg to ask me for "just that facts Ma'am" and my day will be totally made!

Christmas Lights FTW

2008-04-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

Christmas lights, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

I got a comment on this photo today it says

Hi, this is lovely why not enter our competition www.big-c.co.uk

Photography Competition
Big C' s Local Christmas Card Competition is now open for entries and it's free to take part!

We are looking for photographs that can be used on our local Christmas card for 2008 to help raise funds for complete cancer care in Norfolk & Waveney. We need 'wintery' scenes of recognisable landmarks in Norwich such as The Cathedral or Pulls Ferry, photographs do not have to have been taken this year.

The winning photograph will then be used on our Local Christmas Card which will be for sale in our Big C Shops, from Cards for Good Causes in the Forum or by mail order.

The winner will be acknowledged on the rear of the card as well as on our website and will receive a complimentary pack of 10 cards and envelopes to mail out to friends and family!

The Big C is a great charity and their shops are lovely too I got my tiara in their bridal shop but really, would you want a picture of a Norwich City Wheelie Bin adorning your mantelpiece Christmas 2008?

Cos if you don't enter some decent photos to their competition I might just take them up on the offer!

I have a hangover

2008-04-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

Went out last night on a works type do, drank a little too much had a lovely time and stayed in my old flat. I wisely took today off so I recovered this morning sitting on the sofa drinking tea watching house programmes which if you flick carefully you could just about do all day. Which has sort inspired me, we are hoping to finally get my flat on the market by the end of the month and then this place so that we can trade up and buy a house. We've not really done any house hunting yet so we've not yet got an agreed list of must haves. I know we do not want a "project" redecorating fine, knocking down walls and building extensions out of recycled Finnish mobile phones not so fine.

Oh and we need broadband, and decent broadband too boot, time to start working out where the telephone exchanges are.

"Cold Dead Hands" or "Put His Vest On"?

2008-04-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

So when you heard that Charlton Heston had finally shuffled off this mortal coil did you first think of his NRA work or did you think of this marvelous song by Stump?

Me - the song of course.

So What Did You Think?

2008-04-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

To the new series of Dr Who?

I really enjoyed it the story wasn't that special it got Donna and the Dr together nicely, they seemed to have upped the comedy element compared even to other funny episodes but it wasn't that scary. I just hope that they haven't decided to sacrifice the scary, they can't have, I can't think of many jokes to be made about the Sontarans after the no neck ones. By the by I spent a whole year doing courses with a woman who looked just like a Sontaran, she had the same personality type as well, she was poisonous. Catherine Tate proved that there is space in the Tardis for 30 something women which will keep my hopes alive that one day I'll get to see its insides.

image nicked from the bbc (they tend to take them down after a while)

Sloth

2008-03-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

see more crazy cat pics

Sorry of the lack of blogging action over the last week, I've not done much I can write about recently and as work has been a little intense recently I've not felt like going out to look for stuff to witter on about either, I'm not sure when things will be back to their usual low standards round here but they will be.

But lookee a Sloth.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T01:02:00.000-07:00

The first proper snow all winter and it happens at Easter. We are off to my mother's this morning, I'm fairly sure that the snow won't stop us. I hope you all have a lovely day.

It's Cold Outside

2008-03-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

Seeing as it is, still, only March it would be unreasonable to expect warm, barmy days just yet. Which is good because it's bloody cold out there (comparatively) We were out on the road today, the road into and past Lynn were chocka with big cars pulling caravans, to spend Easter in Norfolk, however coming back home this afternoon the roads were quiet. Last Easter the traffic was far heavier, but it was warmer as Easter was later in the year.
But even I can tell that no matter how cold it is right now spring is definitely getting here, the hedgerows are greening up, the fields are vibrant with the young shoots of whatever is being grown in them. I drive through the countryside Monday to Friday it is a bit closer to nature than I actually would care to be, I am a townie at heart and like my nature to be well cared for botanical gardens or people friendly parks surrounded by the comfort of civilisation or failing that bricks and mortar. So although I am getting this exposure to the great outdoors on a much more frequent basis I am still almost completely blissfully ignorant of what happens in the countryside around me. Frankly if it doesn't happen in the Archers then do not expect me to know. I only found out that there was type of tree called a silver birch last month and I knowingly saw my first one today when Simon point one out to me. And to be honest I'm still not 100% sure that he's not pulling my leg.

Hubris and Make Believe

2008-03-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

Hubris and Make Believe

It couldn't have happened to more deserving people/organisations.

Time Capsule

2008-03-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

I've signed up for a web service called Photojojo's Photo Time Capsule, it sends you an email every so often showing your most interesting photos from this time last year so for me it showed.

this

this

(my favourite I think)

this

this

one of the last pictures I took with my old camera - it died that day

and finally this

I think getting these reminders is rather cool.

Kilobyte by xkcd

2008-03-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

Made me laugh anyways. I still remember where I was when I was told that half a byte was called a 'nibble'

Brockly

2008-03-05T14:20:00.000-08:00

Brockly, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

When I first saw this I was stood there asking my friends "have you heard of brockly? Is it like a methi?" Turns out this is the phonetic spelling of broccoli. We were at the Spiceland restaurant off the A1(M) near Sawtry, it's an easy drive from work and at £5.95 per head for all you can eat, it's hard to go wrong. Throw in a wide variety of different curries, bhajis, rices and something and chips for those who can't stomach Indian food, it gets better. Then take into account that it almost all tastes delicious then it's a major bargain. They don't have a licence so they operate on a BYOB for booze. They do an aubergine bhaji that is crisp, light and melts in the mouth. None of the flavours in the food were bludgeoned by heat from chilli you can taste the bay leaves, the cardamom, coriander and cumin. They even do all you can eat puddings though at lunch time this means fresh fruit salads, which is no bad thing. It's worth coming off the A1 for, after all what's the choice, good food here or dubious rubbish at the "Xtra" near Peterborough.

Hard Sell

2008-03-04T14:19:00.000-08:00

I am now seeing through a pristine windscreen (shield for our ex colonial friends to the west) the old one developed a crack over the weekend which required replacing rather than fixing, and seeing as the recommended company from the insurers is no where near work and it would take at least an hour to cure, it meant that I couldn't get it done during the lunch hour yesterday. So I took the day off, (I've saved leave days for the car* like others save them in case the children are ill, we are either going to need a new car or very healthy children.) it was nice to be cozily wrapped up in bed this morning watching the snow trying to make what was left of the winter count. By the time the chap came round to do the windscreen the clouds had temporarily scudded away and the sun was doing its best to shine.

We got more snow, hail and wind in the afternoon but it was far too warm for it to stick, I think that could be the last gasp of a rather pathetic winter.

Just watching a programme on BBC4 called Hard Sell - they are discussing the advertising of alcohol, quite a few of the commenters are saying that the days of advertising alcohol are numbered much like it became clear that tabbaco advertising had a slow and lingering death. But no one has really commented on whether the increasingly strict advertising rules have worked in reducing the amount of drink related deaths/accidents/arrests. The anecdotal evidence seems to suggest not, but I don't trust anecdotal evidence as it isn't evidence it's just what someone thinks. I wonder what the real evidence is.

*to be fair, the car isn't a lemon by any means. We were a bit unlucky with it been broken in to as well as the gear box linkage chain thingy seizing up. It's just any problem that needs a garage immediately or a man to come out gets amplified by a 90 mile round trip to work and a strict "no tradesmen on site" rule once there unless it's a case of towing or getting the car started.

Just random stuff

2008-03-03T14:17:00.000-08:00

Who are you gonna vote for?

Implicit Association

The mere thought of Huckabee being associated with "good" was giving me serious finger trouble.

I've been getting into Jezebel an American on line magazine for all the cool chicks and dudes

Lolvogue

I have to thank Thau for mentioning the 'zine on her blog, it's what I wanted Cosmo to be instead of the sad sack of tired cliche it is.

And that's it, I couldn't find a third thing for today

Reasons to feel Mopey

2008-03-02T11:52:00.000-08:00

Simon is off on a course this week in Reading, right now as I type he is crawling his way around the M25. I don't know what to do with myself, I can watch whatever I want on telly but by a cruel twist of fate that is often suffered on a Sunday there is bugger all on. This will be the longest we have been apart since I moved in and almost since we met each other back in August 05. There were a couple of weekends when one of us didn't go to see the other because of ill health and a couple of Wednesday we may have missed out on because of work and stuff but that is it.

I know, I know it's only a few days but I'm no longer used to being on my own and it feels definitely odd, too quiet, no one to make me tea and no one to drink all the milk without warning me.

There is an upside I can prawns, sprouts and cauliflower as much as I want but it's not much of a benefit.

It's going to be a long week.

Reasons To Be Cheerful

2008-03-01T14:00:00.000-08:00

I love to moan as much as the next under appreciated, under paid, mis understood, worker bee but I will allow little rays of sunshine into my life every now and then.

Yesterday afternoon was just the time for a faint glimmer of a smile in the face of artic winds and the whipped, stinging cold rain. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but for some time now I have been having trouble with my ears, especially the left one, almost constant tinnitus, frequent ear aches, not being able to hear people properly and then having other sounds, that were no louder then the people I couldn't hear go through me like warm pneumatic drill through butter. And then there were the dizzy spells, not often, but over the course of the last year there have been times when I've not been able to keep my head up because everything felt like it was moving.

Anyway as part of the investigation into these problems I had two hearing tests last year both of which showed some hearing loss in the left ear. For the consultant's appointment on Friday I had yet another test on Tuesday. The cow of an audiologist would not let me know what the results were, so I had to wait until yesterday afternoon to get some surprising but good news.

My hearing is back to normal, there is no sign of damage to the ears and they look all ok. The consultant thought that I had probably had something called labyrinthintitus which like most viruses has over the months finally got better of its own accord. Except for I am still having earache and tinnitus which he said was probably because it can take a lot of time for the ears to get back to normal so I'm gonna have a scan to see if the wonders of modern technology can show if there is anything untoward.

It's not a complete sign off but it is such a relief that my hearing has returned to normal, even if it doesn't feel like it at the moment, as I don't think I could stand loosing the ability to enjoy music and the world about me aurally.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEE

2008-02-29T15:04:00.000-08:00

It's the 29th of February!

Really we should make more of this date, it should be a world wide public holiday

No Princess Me

2008-02-27T15:37:00.000-08:00

(Ok I know that was about peas and mattresses but I think the general principle applies)

We slept right through the earthquake early this morning, the first thing I knew about it was the blethering on the radio as I drove into work. At work though I thought I was going to be the only one who missed as everyone I spoke to was convinced that it was impossible to miss and I must be strange to have slept through.

With Tongues

2008-02-23T10:40:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post as I'm up in sunny (well overcast, squally, windy and frankly dark as it's now 20 to 7) Northumberland visiting my very bestest friend Anne. I am up here sans Simon as we have been wedding dress shopping today and we needed to be focused and zen. We looking for a wedding dress for her and bridesmaid dress for me, fortunately we were very successful and had sorted out the dresses and half of Anne's accessories before the hour was out and made Anne's future mother in law cry too but in a good way.

So we had the rest of the day to fill so we went up to Alnwick to visit the hotel for the reception a bit further north again to go to the church. In the afternoon we watched John play rugby, it was so cold and windy we huddled in the small stand but couldn't get warm so we eventually took refuge in the rugby club. It is years since I've been in a club house, my little brother used to play mini rugby on a Sunday and the whole family would traipse around Yorkshire watching him play, It all came flooding back the bored little kids running around the tables, wives helping out in the kitchen and girlfriends behind the bar. It was lovely.

When we finally got to the house yesterday Milo, Anne and John's little jack russell decided to welcome me properly to the house by jumping up onto my lap and sticking his tongue in my mouth. Which is a bit forward, considering that I am married and we had only just met, it must those long dark northern nights it does something to the population.

Not Fun

2008-02-18T14:43:00.000-08:00

It was not fun driving into work this morning.

Even after an hour and twenty odd minutes of the engine running the frost hadn't completely melted from the bonnet.

New Who Bootleg Stylee

2008-02-13T13:57:00.000-08:00

Big Shout Out has to go to Phil Plait the Bad Astronomer who even though he is a perfidious American just lurves his Doctor Who

Oh Noes!

2008-02-12T13:58:00.000-08:00

I'm not a Peggle widow I'm a Portal one!

Once More With Understanding

2008-02-10T13:48:00.000-08:00

I'm idling watching the BAFTAs at the moment and apart from the awful amount of padding that seems to be going on in between the awards and a couple of remarkably odd frocks the biggest that has hit me is that the "talent" that has come on to read out the winners of the various categories seem to be having great difficulty with the autocue and apart from Cuba Gooding Jr they've all sounded very. wooden. and. disjointed. Of course this is how Sly Stallone normally acts.

I think I may have become a Peggle widow it's worse than WoW! ;-)

Doing Lunch Fenland Style

2008-02-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

I met up with my mum for lunch yesterday and to look at tiles for my old flat so that we can get on and sell it. I've choosen my tiles but Kevin the Tile didn't ring like his boss said he would do today so I'm going to have to ring them on Monday. But anyhoo tile choosing didn't take too long as all the tiles had to do was fit in the centre of my mental Venn diagram in being cheap, not being too bogging and not emphasising any flaws in the kitchen walls.

We ended up going to Dunelm for lunch as it was close and time was short, they've got a little coffee shop and pannine place to the side, it was wasn't chocka but it was busy with women of a certain age taking their doddery mothers for a day out round the home furnishings and younger women round my age "doing lunch" It's not exactly Harvey Nicks but then again where is? The coffee was nice and the food not awful so it must be good enough to draw in the ladies of the near by business estate for lunch.

We then admired the artificial flower collection in the shop. Some of them were very good facsimiles of their flowers and some seemed to revel in their artificiality to great effect such as the over sized soft sage green poppies. Thing is I'm still 75% sure that artificial flowers are terribly naff, but there were some fab black rose buds with velvet petals my inner goth was going want now.

Vote Vote Vote

2008-02-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

Instead of sitting slack jawed trying to work out how the hell the American Primary voting system works why don't you get yourself over to the Indy Awards website and vote for those Noir Music Mavens "Deathline" It's better to win that just be nominated - help Jennie and Kaoru fulfill that dream.

Thanks

Sweeney Todd

2008-02-03T15:02:00.000-08:00

We went down for to London for the weekend, have a mooch and then see a show or have a good meal. We weren't lucky with seeing a show, mostly because the only show I was wanted to go to see was sold out and I didn't fancy any of the others so we decided to go to the cinema instead.

It wasn't cheap, mind you it never is on Leicester Square and in someways it is truly a tourist trap. But the Odeon was a very comfortable tourist trap and the view of the screen was fantastic. We went to see Sweeney Todd, the new Tim Burton film and it was very good, the acting was almost universally excellent, the set design was fabulous, and the singing was good to enough to get by with but the one thing that really let it down and would stop me from saying that it was a five star film was the music. Try as I might I can not remember one single tune from the whole of the film, I couldn't remember the tunes five minutes after leaving the cinema they were that unmemrable - I have heard it said of Steven Sondheim before that he writes clever sophisticated music for clever sophisticated musicals but not actually anything that you could hum or sing to someone to entertain them because the tunes slip out of the mind faster then last nights weather forecast.

Even while watching the film I was struck with the thought that it was a shame that Lionel Bart never got his hands on the story because we'd have had a few ditties even if they would not have been terribley clever and sophisticated.

Contentment

2008-01-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

I suppose much like in Dramas, soap operas and TV movies of the week, blogs also suffer from when the main protagonist in this case me, is gently bimbling along in a fairly contented manner. Home life is good, we are getting used to being married, we are going down to London this weekend for a night out or a show depending what we can get and both agree on, but either way it should be fun. I wanna visit a gallery or two and Si will probably want to sigh over the Macs. Speaking of which I think I will need an Ipod touch at some point this year as my nano is getting a touch flaky battery wise, we shall see what happens anyways it's not my birthday til August. But really not that much excitement is happening at the moment, I have work things to sort out and we both have to sell property and buy a house but it's not something that is blog worthy at the moment.

~~Simon's~~ our laptop is a bit poorly at the moment, the fan runs hot, rough and rowdily if you throw too many apps at it and the M is a bit sticky at the mo which is of a problem so hopefully are going to get the laptop to a fixer upper this weekend before anything else more costly can go wrong, so I will have Si's undivided attention this weekend!

Isn't This Possibly The Most Ghastly Thing You'll See All Year

2008-01-25T08:41:00.000-08:00

Not all my friends have been trained in the ways of 'not forwarding every piece of shit that lands in their email box' And it's just about liveable most people don't have my email address! However sometimes some real horrors land in the in box

Like this to the left. It also came with a pile of steaming prose

"GUARDIAN ANGEL

Forward this message the same day you received it.
It may sound ridiculous, but it is right on time[.] We believe that something is about to happen. Angels exist, only sometimes they haven't got wings and we call them friends; you are one of them[.] Something wonderful is about to happen to you and your friends.
Tomorrow at 11:14 AM somebody will address you and tell you something you have been waiting to hear
Please do not break this chain. Send it to at least 7 of your friends."

Yeah right, you won't be surprised that I haven't chosen to forward it on, instead I've chosen to mock it's awfulness. It's a pile of cack designed to appeal to the woolly thinkers and the careless forwarders and that is the most crap/sinister picture of angels I've seen in a while it looks like its a screen grab from an early 1980's electropop video done by a neofascist band. It's just wrong.

Squeeeee

2008-01-24T14:04:00.000-08:00

My bridesmaid, Anne, got engaged over Christmas to John which is a very cool and groovy thing as he's a great bloke and they make a good couple. Anyway now that they've firmed up the date they want for the wedding she's asked me to be a bridesmaid. I'm dead excited I've never been a bridesmaid before and I'm really looking forward to it! Anyway hopefully she won't put me through the torture of having to make any speeches. We were chatting on the phone about colours and styles of dresses this evening, Simon was sat on the couch, laughing at me mouthing the word "Brides(maid)-zilla."

Humph, I'm allowed to be excited sometimes. ;-p

Recovery Times

2008-01-20T13:29:00.000-08:00

We went to a Burns Night Supper on Friday, I elected to drive as I didn't really want to risk having a huge hangover the next day and also, to be fair, it was my turn as Si has taken the driving duties the last few times we've been out.

We had an excellent evening and stuck to my plan of staying under the limit while Simon partook fully, he didn't get wasted but was still happily merry as I poured him into the car after the ceilegh. But oh the next day when we woke up he was a delicate and suffering Simon as the Highland Park took its revenge.

I do not mock, I have been there myself where it isn't so much the amount that you drink but rather the what, whisky and port can give very bad hangovers for not much drunk. Also as I slipped past my early thirties I have found that my powers of recovery have faded away, where once all it took was a cherry coke (full fat) and a cheese sandwich to put me almost right with the world, it now takes a whole weekend of care, attention and nothing too heavy on the stomach to put me back to sorts.

Fortunately Simon was coaxed back into the land of the not so suffering with mashed potatoes and baked beans for lunch and an afternoon nap. But its becoming increasingly clear that the days roistering and seeing the dawn come in with a glass of splishy splashy in our hands may be slowly slipping away from us.

Something Terribly Wrong

2008-01-17T13:48:00.000-08:00

Simon is trying to do something terribly wrong and ugly with our new shiny, pristine, innocent and virginal computer.

He tried to upload XP to the Mac, it didn't work this time but he's twirling his dramatic mustaches like a Victorian villain saying "next time my pretty..... muwehahahaha"

Eight Random Things in 2007

2008-01-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

I was tagged by Stephanie to do the eight things about myself meme, Now I can't think of eight things about me that I haven't already covered in my "about me page" so I've decided to do "eight random things that happened in 07 that I want to write about"

Favourite album of the year - has to be the foo fighters one Echos Silence, Patience and Grace. Which rather surprises me as I never thought that I would be a fan, but on the other hand I like Dinosaur Jnr and Nivarna and a lot of noisy post punk so why shouldn't I be. This album though is just pop tastic with memorable, hummable tunes and you can't say that about a lot of albums.

Disappointing tv series of the year - the latest Mighty Boosh intermittently funny but ultimately lazy, lacking in imagination, plots or decent songs. if they do a fourth series they fewer people in it, no inviting the whole of Hoxton, a plot to hang the joke on and ditch old characters, no cockney hitchers or bloody tony harrison, funny once, possibly funny twice really annoying after that.

Event of the year - Getting married natch, it was lovely and we are so lucky in our family and friends.

Film of the year - we don't go to that many films, Si and I have differing tastes and at teh end of a long day/week there is fairly little that really tempts me so it's not a huge field to choose from so I'm going for Hot Fuzz - v funny, if a little bit daft.

Christmas decoration of the year - courtesy of Homebase - what were they thinking?

Beach of the year - fuerteventura - golden sand, warm sea, turquoise seas the stuff of dreams and holiday programmes and apart from the promenading naturists the views were fantastic wherever you looked.

My new favourite website - Can I has cheezeburger

moar funny pictures

cats, bad grammer, and captions - genius!

And finally new taste sensation of the year, it's a has to be home made curries from first principles I have lost my fear of mixing spices together and we have been really enjoying the recipes on Route 79

I'm not going to spread on this meme but if you want to have a go please feel free to .

Does Benny Hill Cure Sadness?

2008-01-11T01:18:00.000-08:00

I don't think Benny Hill was funny but there is a theory about that his theme tune when applied appropriately can stop you from feeling sad. So Dan from All That Goes With It thought he would test out this idea using the film that many have said is the most tear jerking of all.

Now I'm easily manipulated, I'll weep like a baby at a dog food commercial if they put in the right amount of pathos. So I reckon I'm a pretty good test subject and I can safely say I sat there without even the start of a bottom lip tremble, in fact I may have sniggered once or twice.

Creeping Daylight

2008-01-07T15:03:00.000-08:00

As I drove into work this morning at "far too early for this urban sloth"™ O'clock for the first time in months there was slight signs even as I started out that daylight would be coming in the near future. The lengthening of the day is now noticeable, this evening I left work in the twilight where last week it would have been dark.

I've been playing, a little, with Apple's spreadsheet software - it's called numbers and I think once I get my head round how it works it will rock all sorts of usefulness, right now I'm using it for that most housewifely of things, a planned menu cum shopping list cum recipe collection. I think I must have been reading too many prairie muffin blogs over the holidays - they are my guilty pleasure. Their version of Christianity normally has me gesturing at the monitor in disgust with the excuses they make for misogyny and bigotory and don't get me started on the young earth creationism. But they do tend to blog recipes a lot and explain how they plan their menus and that bit isn't completely bobbins. I do have to scale down the recipes though and I don't have to cater on the scale that a lot of these families do. I also buy a shit load more vodka too!

Joining The Fanboys?

2008-01-06T11:50:00.000-08:00

We were in John Lewis's discussing the futile search for a DS Nintendo Lite and whether we liked any of the computer chairs they had for sale when the conversation drifted round to replacing my computer. It's only 2 and a half years old but it's running very short on memory because of all my photos and itunes and it will come to an end at some point. We talked over the various merits of a laptop over another desktop drifted towards the iMacs display, admired their clean lines and the specs, then found ourselves checking many gift vouchers we had on us from the wedding and whether we could afford the difference.

It turns out we could.

Still need a new computer chair though!

Happy New Year

2007-12-31T18:21:00.000-08:00

Been up too long,

Run around too many suitcases

Eaten too many grapes

Don't even mention the alcohol

But we did win at Trivial Pursuit.

Muwahahaha

:)

Plumpciousness

2007-12-28T11:23:00.000-08:00

I meant to blog something longish and meaningful about this and that but I am now too full of plumpciousness to do so. I made cheats beef bourguignon aka beef casserole with added zing. It was lovely and worth the (not really that much) effort. My chief taster and bottle up washer, he who is blessed with an acute taste bud and healthy appetite agrees.

The recipe

all amounts, techniques, timings and temperatures are approximate

braising steak ~ 600 gms trimmed of obvious fat and cubed
3 smallish onions roughly chopped
5 garlic cloves peeled
350 gms button mushrooms
4 or 5 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons of mustard powder (dijon mustard would do just as well but we don't have any)

~ 1/3 of a bottle of red wine
~ a good slosh of brandy
1 squirt of tomato puree
2 teaspoons of corn flour dissolved in a glass of water
some olive oil
enough flour to toss the beef in
a plastic bag

pre heat the oven to gas mark 3 150 Centigrade. Put the flour into the plastic bag season with salt and pepper, toss the cubed beef in the flour ensuring it is covered.

In a frying pan heat some olive oil and when it is hot brown the beef in batches, put the browned beef into the casserole pot when done. Once all the meat is browned put the onion in the pan to soften off and soak up any of the juices. Then put the softened onion in with the beef along with the wine, mushrooms, brandy, salt and pepper to taste, the mustard and the garlic, give this lot a good stir then put the lid on the pot and bung it in the oven for 3 to 4 hours at gas mark 3.

At about an hour before the end of cooking stir in the squirt of tomato paste and the cornflour mixture, these will thicken up the liquor a bit. About 10 minutes before serving remove from the oven it will remain warm enough in the pot but won't be so hot that it takes the roof of your mouth off.

Serve with whatever you want we had it with brown rice the more traditional way is to have it with mashed potatoes.

This dish is relatively easy as there isn't a lot of slaving over a hot stove and it's very tolerant of innexact timings and amounts. It will also keep and possibly tastes even better for being made the day before

Sales

2007-12-27T13:29:00.000-08:00

I don't like crowds, I don't like queuing and I don't like the argy bargy of the Sales at full pelt. I've politely declined a joint trip to Peterborough with my Mum to pick over the shops tomorrow on this basis, plus I don't get paid until Monday.

I did brave the out of town Next to get bits for Simon's Granddad's 80th birthday present, which was today, it was chaos in there, I was lucky because I was looking in the home furnishings department there was a lot less busyness to fight through. I had to park five minutes up the road and walk to the shops across the way at Halfords the car parks were not full but the road out was completely chocker not moving, not good for encoraging business.

I came home listening to Radio 4 giving its first reports on the assassination of Benazir
Bhutto. The news is shocking and worrying for Pakistan's immediate future, as her death leaves a gap at the head of her party and what ever happens in the Pakistan's near (before it get's posponed) general election, someone or other will be able to claim that it was an unfair election because of her death and it will the headcases the excuse they needed to go on the rampage. To be honest I don't have the foggiest what will happen next but I doubt it will be good.

Finally it's two months into being an old married, just so that we don't end on a completely depressing note.

Boxing Day

2007-12-26T14:08:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a lovely day yesterday and it wasn't too stressful, grim or tiring. We went to my in laws yesterday for a huge lump of beef and we went again today for lunch. Chicken with all the trimmings except crackers.

I don't know about you, but except for Dr Who and Shrek the Halls I've not been overly impressed with the Christmas offerings on telly this year. Yep there are some good films on but nowerdays what with DVDs and the Sky Premerie Channel (which we don't subscribe to btw) the big Xmas film isn't anything special. I know that there is more to christmas than the telly but there is only so long that you can read the "lav" books that you got as presents.

Too Busy to post...

2007-12-24T12:38:00.000-08:00

...much. I've got so many blogs to read, posts to prepare, Christmas and life to enjoy never mind, it is Christmas it doesn't have to be perfect just relax and let it all flow over you.

I'm going to go back to having fun, just let me leave you with the faintly unsettling sight of NORAD being whimsical. Santa Tracking.

I feel their pain

2007-12-21T10:03:00.000-08:00

xkcd - you know it makes sense

The Endless Slog For Christmas Cheer

2007-12-18T14:35:00.000-08:00

We are scarcely organised, we've done the Christmas present shopping, we spent a fair chunk of Sunday wrapping presents, the cards have all been posted. Tree decorated and twinkling, a lot of you will have seen the wreath already. Tonight we tackled the lump of the food shopping with nothing but a sketchy idea of what we wanted and some sturdy bags. An hour later we drove out of Tesco's car park with a car that was sitting very low on its wheels, so I guess we can say that we broke the back of that too.

But what is it about the preparations for the holiday that makes them so joyless? Well I know what it is about that Tescos, harsh lighting, tired customers who look ill under the fluorescent lights - it's enough to make the Easter Bunny want to become a suicide bunny. It's knackering and has given me a dreadful headache. We did pick up the holiday booze though, I've never had Jack Daniels before, it's rather nice, smooth, tasty and although it hasn't relieved my headache it hasn't made it worse.

Read

2007-12-16T07:22:00.000-08:00

The static blogroll. I know it's long, probably too long but I do read them, or at least have a look when Google Reader tells me that something new has appeared. The only exception to that is Becky's web because it's normally a little voice telling me "I've blogged". There is a reduced and dynamic list to the right with some highlights.

Family

Becky's Web - Becky EnVérité

The Rest - in a rough approximation of alphabetical order, so no complaining at the bottom.

A Gentleman's C - The Angry Professor

A Hazy Day Today - Rockmother

The All New Adventures 0f Wyndham The Triffid - Wyndham

All That Comes With It - Dan

Bad Astronomy - Phil Plait the Bad Astronomer.

Bad Science - Ben Goldacre sticking one on the pseudoscientists

Bay of Fundie - Ron Britton

Between the Hammer and the Anvil - Flying Rodent

Betty's Utility Room - Betty

Blonde Moments - Hannah

Blurred Lines - Lara Tyg

Boolblog - Boolbar

Cafe De Jenkster - Kris

Clarissa Explains Some Of It - Clarissa

Cosmic Variance - Daniel Holtz et al

The DraGnet - Miss K

Daily Mail Watch - Merk

Eggs Akimbo - Em

Flat Out Norwich - Flat Out

The Gates of Ivory - Isobel

Gatochy's Blog - Mariana

Glitter For Brains - Lee

Herstory - Emma

I Can Has Cheezburger

Idle Thoughts, Furious Musings - Penny M

Informationally Overloaded - Gordon

Jesus General - Austin Cline, Seattle Tammy and Gen. JC Christian, Patriot

Joanna's Diary - Joanna

The Jogger Blogger - Jogger Blogger

Just Jessica - Jessica

The Kaptain Kobold Blog - Kaptain Kobold

Lolcats Can Has Science

Lipstick Vogue - Kat

Luis Droppings - Luis

Midwest Rock Lobster - Chixulub

Mildly Diverting - Kim

My Life Is God's Comic Strip - MLIGCS

NeuroLogica Blog - Steve Novella

¡Oye Billy! - Billy

The Other Side Of The World - Freiya

Palace Fan That's A New Dad - James

The Panda's Thumb

Pandora's Hideaway - Pandora

Pig Sty Avenue - Garry

Plutos the Blubberman - Sim

The Quackometer Blog - Le Canard Noir

Qwglm.co.uk - Chris

Rantings Of The Lazy Iguana - Lazy Iguana

Razorblade of Life - Z

Respectful Insolence - Orac

The Rogues Gallery - Evan Bernstein et al

Ross @ Dover - Ross

Sad, Sweet Songs and Crazy Rhythms - Magpie

Selina's Universe - Selina Morse

Sensei Katana - Sensei

Skeptico - Skeptico

Smaller Than Life - Salvadore Vincent

Solid Gone - Stegbeetle

Stephanie's Pillowbook - Stephanie

Steph's Ramblings - Steph

Stephen Fry's Blog - Stephen Fry

Sugar Mountain Farm - Walter

Technovia - Ian Betteridge

Thaumata's Blog of ill repute - Thaumata

Thinking Is Dangerous - Dr* T

Tiny Frog - Tinyfrog

Tom's Astronomy Blog - Tom

Trannifesto - Siobhan

Trendy Discotheque - Valerie

Whatever - Transfattyacid *

Wilder By Far - John Wilder

World-O-Crap - Scott and SZ

xkcd

You're a DJ, I'm the song - Tiffy

We Put Up The Tree Today

2007-12-15T13:58:00.000-08:00

Hear

2007-12-15T13:46:00.000-08:00

Following on from the list of podcast highlights I thought I would do the egotistical thing give the full gory breakdown of my podcast listening habits.

Astronomy Cast

The Bugle - As recommended by Dan. Very funny and as it comes from the Times it's England-centric.

Friday Night Comedy from Radio Four - it depends on which series is occupying the slot, but so far it's been The News Quiz and the Now Show.

In Our Time - Another Radio Four product, I learn something new with every podcast, even when I don't understand the half of it.

Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews - Going straight to the heart of the periphery every time.

The President's Weekly Radio Address - Short, sharp, satire and at the moment yet another parody of "It's a wonderful life" also very funny.

Science Talk: The Podcast Of Scientific American

SETI: Science and Skepticism - Because I'm bit of a geek.

The Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures - Because I'm a bit of a geek who loves astronomy.

Skepticality - Good skeptical podcasting.

The Skeptics Guide To The Galaxy - the champs at skeptical podcasting.

Christmas Meals

2007-12-14T15:11:00.000-08:00

Top tips

1. don't hold them in bars that fancy themselves as a cross between a Harvester restaurant and Studio 54

2. Or anywhere that serves their drinks in plastic cups, all the time.

3. Where the other customers would require beer goggles of incredible thickness if you were inclined to go on the pull afterwards.

4. Where they can't recover from getting half the table's food order wrong.

Otherwise we had quite an enjoyable evening in a perverse sort of way.

Not Good

2007-12-12T13:51:00.000-08:00

This is such bad news

"Folks,

I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's, which lay behind this year's phantom "stroke"."

Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's. Awful for anyone it seems particularly cruel for someone who lives by words and their intellect.

Via Selina's Universe.

Cooking With Teh Internets

2007-12-09T13:57:00.000-08:00

We had a curry tonight, Rogan Josh with Sag Aloo, healthy style which meant I cut down on the oil. Although I have many cook books they are mostly written by people who have many assistants and forgotten what it is like to cook a full meal without someone to do the chopping and washing up for you. This is where teh internets comes in. Google on any type of food and a plethora of recipes will come up, catering for all whims and requirements: vegan meat loaf - bloody pages of recipes I tell you!

I hit gold for my Rogan Josh with Route 79's recipe, it was delicious and very simple to do if you are not allergic to a bit of chopping of herbs and vegetables, I will be going back to try more of his recipes as they look lovely. Sag Aloo is thanks to a recipe website I found, I just looked of a version that I liked the look of and more importantly I had the ingredients too!

lol science

2007-12-08T06:18:00.000-08:00

Muwahaha

seen in bad astronomy and found here

Going Backwards.

2007-12-06T10:27:00.000-08:00

Pope Benny seems to be going backwards again. Abusing indulgences got the Catholic Church a bad name back in the 1500's and quite rightly too. Implying that pilgrimages to Lourdes will cut off time in Purgatory in order to up the visitor number can't be very good theology. As an ex Catholic I don't believe in Purgatory, the "miracle" at Lourdes etc now, actually I don't think I ever believed in them especially not Lourdes, even as a young un I was left pretty cold by the Marian apparitions and how they were spun to us at school. But, but the thing is - if you've "sinned" or felt you've done wrong either on an internal scale or to someone else the best way to make that good isn't to traipse off to France it's to make good to the person you've hurt.

All Clued Up

2007-12-05T11:39:00.000-08:00

We saw ISIHAC being recorded last night at the Peterborough Broadway Theatre.

We saw two shows recorded, each one took about an hour, an hour 10. A lot of material to edit down to 28 minutes. Humphrey Littleton seemed to be still suffering from a sore throat as he had in this Monday's recording (3/12/07) although he strode on stage with a vigour that belies his years. Andy Hamilton liberally made teddy bear jokes through out the recordings, I wonder how many of those will survive to the final broadcast? We got a round of all the main games over the two recordings, Mornington Crescent, One Tune to the Name of Another, Swanee Kazoo and Pick Up Sticks. Hamish and Dougal made an appearance but Tim Brook Taylor was on his way to the Galapagos Islands for a holiday so Jack Dee (or was it Andy Hamilton) stood in for him. The Laser Display Board was as amazing as I had imagined and the money spent on it was obvious.

Several persons have expressed jealousy that we were able to get tickets, I'll let you into a little secret it's because we are on the I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue mailing list and if you want to join it sent an email stating that you would like to join the list to imsorryihaventaclue "at" bbc "dot" co "dot" uk

Laser Display Board

2007-12-03T11:09:00.000-08:00

We are going to see I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue recorded tomorrow in Peterborough, I've been looking forward to this moment ever since I realised you could get tickets to see BBC comedies recorded. A very long time.

We are both enthusiastic fans of the 'Clue perhaps not to Magpie's lengths: we haven't knowingly stalked any members of the team yet.

Simon can't wait to see "the lovely Samatha," and I'm really looking forward to the high tech wonder that is the Laser Display Board, I've heard so many good things about it.

The Presents Have Landed

2007-12-01T14:11:00.000-08:00

This morning the gift lift stuff arrived, well most of it did there is still some on order; being made as you read this by underpaid Vietnamese boat people in the heart of darkest Derbyshire no doubt*. We actually didn't have too much difficulty fitting the new stuff into our wee house, there is a home for just about everything but the bread maker which will get opened when we are both a little thinner. The paella dish posed a bit of problem, I'm certain it wasn't that big in the shop, I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to cook rice in it or sail down the Ouse in it so that I can catch the ingredients. Our new plates and bowls are lovely it's the first time either of us have owned proper expensive crockery and there is a real difference in feel, heft and quality of finish.

We've tried out the coffee machine and the coffee bean grinder: several times in the case of some people. Simon was gently shaking his way down the length of one of the sofas earlier on but the elephant tranquilliser dart* has helped put a stop to that.

Must go now I think the effects of the dart are wearing off.

*Possibly, I may have exaggerated a little bit.

Spreading Some Podcast Love

2007-11-30T12:48:00.000-08:00

On a bad day I can be stuck in a car for 3 hours a day and the East Anglian landscape isn't that interesting, especially when it is shrouded in darkness. This is where the iPod and fm broadcaster have proved themselves invaluable. With 22 Gigs of music in my iTunes I'm not going to be stuck for something to listen to but really what I've been stuffing the pod with have been podcasts.

I've been listening to Astronomy Cast since its inception, probably the best one in its field, half hour programmes that explain the cosmos about us in an entertainingly rigorous manner but with non of the brain hurting maths.

I owe a vote of thanks to Stephanie as it was she that put me on to the Skeptic's Circle and through that I discovered "The Skeptic's Guide To The Universe" by the New England Skeptical Society. Possibly the best of the sceptical podcasts available, I'm slowly working my way through their back catalogue. It is often very funny although very USA focused as you would expect, but leaving aside the debates over ID which fortunately hasn't made too much of an impact on science here, most of what they talk about has an universal application.

And lastly, but not leastly of my big three podcasts; it has to be the Mark Kermode Film Review on Radio 5 Live. Wittertainment at it's best. I don't go to see that many films at the cinema but I've found that is no impediment to enjoying Mark's and Simon Mayo's bickering as or guessing when Mark will manage to make some reference to The Exorcist.

Podcasts on iTunes

Astronomy Cast
Skeptic's Guide To The Universe
Radio 5 Live: Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews

One Month In

2007-11-27T13:35:00.000-08:00

We've been married for a month! yay and general rejoicing at Envérité acres but it is amazing how life does settle back down to something tending to normal. The gift list presents arrive on Saturday and we have the fun of trying to fit 1 and 1/2 pints of stuff into a 1 pint storage area. We've taken down the cards and posted our thank yous apart from to the very kind person/people who got us the fondue set but neglected to put their name to the present so if you know who it is please let me know.

We haven't printed out the best of the photos yet as we are waiting on a CD that my brother is putting together of his photos. The cake has been eaten (top layer will be kept until we crack, probably about March 08) It all feels a bit normal now, which is good I suppose....

if we were still at a high level of excitement we wouldn't be able to enjoy Christmas, and we got the most fabby Christmas decoration the other day, when I get a chance to see the house in daylight I shall take a picture to show you all.

The One Where We Go Christmas Shopping

2007-11-24T15:03:00.000-08:00

We did our bit for Norwich's economy again today, we broke the back of the Christmas shopping and hopefully got a few ideas for the rest of it We then went to see Beowulf which Becky liked but I really didn't enjoy it. The computer animation was competent but still not quite good enough if you are going for the naturalistic look, too many of the characters looked dead eyed but I don't like blood and gore being a bit of a squeamish type which set me against the film and made it too difficult for me to forgive the bits which were just inexcusably bad or unintentionally funny. Grendal's mother materialising with integral 4in heels probably says more about the fantasies of the aminators than anything else and Ray Winstone's accent just made me think of dodgy east end gangster films even though I've never seen any. But Becky enjoyed herself and we had a satisfying dinner at Nando's which was nice.

We Is Watching The Football

2007-11-21T13:15:00.000-08:00

Lampard has just scored off a penalty and yes it was a penalty Simunic did tug on Defoe's shirt. I'll give that Defoe fell down artistically, a bit like a maiden aunt at her first Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition but it was still a penalty.

My team, Scotland, failed to qualify over the weekend, Norn Iron and Wales are out too. We, Scotland can take heart in that we are a team from a small country who performed well above expectations in a tough group, but *sob* we still dinnae qualify.

If England go out then..... The last thing the Russians did well was poison the sushi and that's not a recognised move in any sport.

21:22 Peter Couch has just become our second favourite lanky Englishman.

Ohhhh it's all exciting.

Update - but ultimately England were crap.

Just Act Normally

2007-11-20T15:15:00.000-08:00

I've got draft post about the day before and the wedding itself but time seems to be running away with me so I think I'll save them until later like next year. Simon is editing down the yards of digi video we recorded on holiday and occasionally cackling to himself so he must be up to something. We had a lovely time on holiday there are photos to admire here and this is my favourite picture of Simon.

I iz not a dedly sin

2007-11-19T12:05:00.000-08:00

moar funny pictures

W-Day minus 2

2007-11-16T15:45:00.000-08:00

And now...

The marathon wedding blog(s)

This mostly for me, I'm doing it mostly because I want to have words written somewhere to spark my memories.

I'm going to start at Thursday...

I had originally planned to take Thursday off so that I had a couple of days to sort things out for the big day but due to the car breaking down the week before I was beginning to run out of leave so I went in to work that morning, 25 October 2007.

It was a mistake, for the last few weeks neither Simon or I had been sleeping properly nerves, worries about the wedding organisation and just general excitedness had left the both of us very tired. I wasn't very much use when I got in, I felt exhausted. The office had decorated my desk and done their worst with clip art to let everyone in the building know I was getting married. But I didn't feel happy, I couldn't properly appreciate the effort that they had gone to as I just wanted to curl up into a ball under the desk and sleep.

They did a presentation for me, the boss told everyone that we had met through the internets blogs, as an aside he said that he had been trying to find Si's blog but hadn't succeeded! That gave me a moment of sheer blind panic but Ady said that it didn't show.

A little while later when trooped back in the office, Simon rang me to see how I was doing on my last day at work as a single woman... I cried down the phone at him. It wasn't that I was upset about getting married, it was exhaustion and temporary misery due to lack of sleep. By the time Si had cheered me up and my colleagues had decided that it was safe to come back to my end of the office I had come to my senses and took the rest of the day off.

I don't really remember the rest of day I'm pretty sure I spent a lot of the afternoon napping and the evening tidying and planning what we would be doing on the Friday.

Yey, The Mighty Boosh Are Back

2007-11-15T12:52:00.000-08:00

BBC3 tonight at 10pm I think, for those of you without freeview or living in the colonies then get you over to their mini site on the BBC.

Simon is out at a black tie do with work and I am here at home in my pjs and the metaphorical curlers and bloody Autumn watch on the telly. It's a bit odd because it's normally me who is out with work :) But I do have the boosh to look forward too.

Just A Quicky

2007-11-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

We are back, Simon is snoring besides me but I can't get to sleep. It feels very weird to be home, last time I was here with Simon we weren't married and now we are - It's huge a fundemental difference and it's so weird, I suppose it will sink in properly now we are back. We've got tons to do tomorrow, washing clothes sorting out the post, up loading pictures to flickr, ringing around to let people know that we made it and I've got emails to two old school friends in America to write and hundreds of blog posts to read

Rules For Being A Naturist

2007-11-05T11:43:00.000-08:00

1. Be middle aged

2. Be saggy all over if you happen to be stilled toned now that you are staring 50 in the face have a brazilian or the male equivilant the guys/chicks will love it.

3. Don´t sit still, stand when eating your lunch, applying your suntan lotion. Walk about. A lot, strut your sagging stuff along the water´s edge at every oppotunity you get.

4. Don´t be British, the years of cold wet summers mean that we are now physically incapable of airing all to the sun and too many repeats of the carry on films make us deeply embarassed at the thought of slipped bra strap let alone it all hanging free. No be German or Swedish instead, decades of easy access to saunas and a fresh air movement make it so much easier.

5. Go on holiday to the Canaries.

¡Hola!

2007-11-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

One of the beauties of using a Spanish keyboard is that you don´t have to search for hours for the shortcuts to ñ ç or ¿. We are slowly going a very british pink, the water is bracingly cold first thing in the morning becoming bearably cold by mid afternoon. We have been busy doing almost nothing at all just eating, the occasional swim and drink. There are loads of bars and in the dining room they have fruit juices, water, coffee, beer and wine red rose and white on tap and self service. Water is probably the hardest drink to get your hands on which is slightly dangerous as the temptation just to have San Miguel all day is rather tempting.

Oh and they have the internets only 4 machines which are usually in use but it´s the height of the day here so most people are either eating, having a nap or soaking up those extra strong rays. Which is probably where we will be heading a few minutes.