Right, should now work in everything, to a greater or lesser degree. I, for one, am really looking forward to the smoking ban that’s coming in at the start of July. While I don’t hold anything against smokers personally, I am fed up of getting home with hair and clothes that stink of smoke. Actually, […]

Friends on Facebook will already know my broadband suffered an outage on Saturday. Well, actually it’s still out. The set-top box stopped responding at 06.50 on Saturday morning, and the usual prodding didn’t bring it back to life, so I did what any computing professional would do in this scenario – unplugged it from the […]

It’s coming back. I never used to be able to see a guitar anywhere without starting to get itchy fingers – wanna play it, wanna play it!! I don’t know at what point it went away, but some point over the last 5 years my desire to play the guitar has waned. To be sure […]

I’ve just discovered Facebook. I’d heard about it quite a lot – conversations on the train, articles in the press, stuff on various websites – but couldn’t really be bothered with Yet Another Social Network Website. I’d given MySpace a good stab, but after 6 months or so I still only had one friend, and […]

Just got a curious e-mail: have you read the book on casino royal you silly little man, you have no idea what you are talking about. I can only assume this is a reference to this blog entry from Nov 2006, which was all about how much I disliked Casino Royale the film. This is […]

I’ve been having a go at my bicycle, which has been merrily rusting away in the garage for the last 3 years. The chain had about seized up, and both tyres were flat – and both brake cables had a lovely orange tint. So several days of soaking in oil and working it in didn’t […]

Might have peaked too soon – just finished Half Blood Prince, which means I read all 2757 pages in 23 days, or over 120 pages a day. Guess I didn’t leave it too late! I did nearly miss my stop once or twice though, so absorbed was I. Will have to read HBP again at […]

I’ve been struck by a few quotes over the last few weeks, for different reasons – here are some. How the other half live: It’s hard to believe that goat’s cheese salad used to be considered an exotic dish […] better than those old winter standbys Gruyere and Fontaine. Waitrose Magazine On vocation: Do not […]

About to start my Harry Potter re-read, in preparation for book 7. There’s 122 days until it lands on my doorstep, and I have 2757 pages to read before then. That’s between 22 and 23 pages a day. Actually I’m wondering if I might have left it a bit late!

All the “10 ways to write a blog” articles tell you that if you want your blog to be read, you have to update it regularly, ideally everyday. I’ve never been that fussed about whether or not anyone reads this – it started off as an online notepad of stuff I wanted to record, and […]