Well, in the event it was a much better year for me personally than last year, although of course a year marred by ongoing terrorist and insurgent activity, and four massive natural disasters.

It’s hard to know how to sum up 2005. A year of jolly hard work, to be sure, and plenty of work trips, to the exciting climes of Oxford, Edinburgh, and Nottingham. I’m completely settled in my job now, which is good, even though my contract is up in only 18 months. Ben just keeps getting more and more fun to be with – we spent today doing a giant Thomas the Tank Engine floor puzzle! Well some it, anyway. He’s worryingly addicted to Baby TV (which is actually a TV channel I have no reservations about him watching – it’s stimulating and educational without any negative messages or vibes). We don’t really like him watching loads of telly, and when he comes down first thing in the morning and stands in front of box asking for “bebe tv bebe tv” it’s not the best. But it is particularly easy to distract him at this time of year; lots of new pressies.

In terms of my toys, my old K700i bit the dust (which was a shame, ‘cos I loved that phone). I do like the Z520i, and can’t see me changing it anytime soon. In fact I’d go further than that; I really like my Z520i, but it doesn’t quite do everything I want. Bosh var. The GPS went off on eBay too, and I haven’t yet replaced it. When I do it’s almost certainly going to be a Garmin Etrex Legend with EU basemap. The right features of the right cost.

I haven’t look back at all from my big switch to digital – in fact I even upgraded my Palm to more capable model when my only Palm III died. The Tungsten E2 is fab – the only two things I don’t like about it are that it’s very hard to work in the dark, and that it doesn’t have built in WiFi. Otherwise I love it – screen is great, apps are great, bluetooth is great, battery life is fine. I can highly recommend it. The 300D is great too – something like 2,500 shots now, and I love being able to take really risky shots knowing that I’m not wasting film. The quality of photos it takes still makes me go “wow” when they come up the computer screen for the first time.

It was a little sad to part with our Punto, although I really like the new car. My favourite aspect of the new one is it has little storage cubbyholes everywhere. It’s really good to be able to stash away stuff you hardly ever use, but want to always be in the car. Like a footpump, or binoculars, or a spare waterproof outfit. And the boot is just gorgeous. I’m really looking forward to our trip to Bristol early next year when we won’t be bursting at the seams!!

Anyway, if I keep rambling it’ll be midnight… Happy new Year to one and all. Here’s hoping 2006 brings peace and blessings to us all. Resolutions to follow.

Eeek – just bought a new car. Well, that is it’s a new car for us.. ’tis actually 3 years old, but with only 10k on the clock. We didn’t particularly want to have to buy one yet, but our poor Punto is ailing, and the good lady needs a reliable car for work.

This is actually the first time I’ve bought a car – although I paid for at least half the Punto, A. did the actual buying. This time it’s me (and in an interesting reversal, she’s paying for it). It’s going to be very sad driving the Punto to the garage tomorrow afternoon, as that’ll be the last time we drive it. It really has done us proud over the last 6 1/2 years. Many trips to London, Cornwall, and Norfolk. One or two to Wales and Scotland. Made it to 60,000 miles in all (most of which were down to us – it was a 12 month old courtesy car before and had only done a couple of thou, I think).

The new ‘un is a Renault Megan Scenic Authentic (to give it it’s full name) – one of those cars that’s a cross between a run-around and a people carrier. It’s not particularly wider or longer than a Punto, but it is taller, and better use is made of space to let it sit 4 comfortably and 5 at a bit of a squash, with plenty of boot space. The Punto on the other hand only really seats 2 comfortably, and 5 is a very friendly experience. It’s also a bit lacking on the old boot space (It is so annoying to have the take the wheels off the pushchair to fit in the boot).

The whole car buying experience leaves a bad taste in the mouth though. You feel like you could probably get a couple of hundred off if you bargained and were a hard customer – my attitude has been that if the deal seems fair I’m happy to run with it. And you basically have to trust the garage aren’t pulling a fast one in terms of the condition of the car. Still, it’s just lovely to drive, and everything works as far as I could tell.

The saddest thing of all? It cost slightly less than the Punto when we bought that 7 years ago!

Yum – went for sushi today, at Little Tokyo in town. I opted for the sashimi bento, which was a new experience on both counts. I must admit that raw fish (and jellyfish) has never been near the top of my “food I want to eat” list, but you’ve got to try these things. I was actually quite impressed – really very tasty, and the whole bento box thing in general is a top plan.

The restaurant itself was fine – we ate downstairs, but there was a huge fishtank against one wall, which looked a bit like a window as long as you didn’t actually look at it. The service was a little variable; the starters and mains arrived quickly, but the deserts – while very tasty – arrived one at a time over 15 or 20 minutes, and weren’t exactly what was ordered at first. We decided the waiter didn’t speak any English.

The menu was reasonably priced, and as I said the food was well received by all. If I went again I probably wouldn’t bother with desert or coffee there as it was so slow.

Funny how it goes – have a period of going weeks between entries, and then suddenly end up doing almost one a day for a bit.

As I said yesterday, it’s been an exciting time – we were at Biscaya Bay in town last night, which was fab. I had a lovely duck main, and then what is probably their speciciality for pudding – namely a trio of creme brulee. But these are no ordinary creme brulee, oh no – how about lemon, raspberry, and thyme(!) creme brulee? Truly wonderful creations, and the thyme one is a lot nicer than you might expect – I’d go so far as to say it was my favourite.

Sold off my old phone too, on good ‘ol eBay. Despite being faulty (and very clearly sold as faulty), it raised over 30 quid. That’s going on for half of what my brand new shiny phone cost! So it’s shaping up nicely for a new GPS in a few months time, when I’ve managed to save some more.

The final excitement was icing the Christmas cake this afternoon, all ready to be eaten next week. I don’t know that I’ve really come to terms with Christmas day being next Sunday, but it is! The cake is not fully decorated, as I’m going to do something approximately artistic on the top (and it will be a very rough approximation to art). Probably a little marzipan snowman and snowballs. Or something.

Anyway, this evening is Bleak House evening – the final two episodes no less.

Well, it’s that time of year. Actually not all my whirls have been social – I spent a good part of this week in Edinburgh with work, although that did involve two rather nice evenings out. I had hoped to catch GoF, but the timings at the cinema didn’t really fall that way.

So last night was dinner with friends. Tonight is the better half’s work meal. Monday is house group Christmas social. Tuesday is my work Christmas lunch!! I don’t know if I’ll want to ever see another glass of mulled wine and/or mice pie again. Actually, that’s not true, because I like both those things a lot.

Anyway, cake icing day tomorrow. The mazipan went on last week, so it’s had a week to dry out properly (otherwise the colour can come through the icing), and now it’s time to ice. Not going to do anything fancy this year – not least of which because I forgot to buy any food colouring. D’Oh! Still, I might put a snowman on top, or something.

I’m feeling very virtuous, because I am almost entirely ready for Christmas. Going to post the last batch of cards this afternoon (plus a couple of birthday presents), then buy the last couple of pressies on my way home. A. is out this evening, which means I should be able to get them all wrapped too.

I’ve got this afternoon off work, to do some bits and pieces, and I’m hoping I’ll be finished in enough time to go shopping in town. Then all that I’ve got to do is to ice the Christmas cake (already done the marzipan). The tree went up yesterday – using the articifical one this year because it’s a lot easier with a youngster around. He managed to smash a bauble even though there weren’t any going on the tree!!! Going for the minimalist look too, so it’s only got a set of white lights on it. My natural inclination is towards gaudy flashy shiny sparkley overload, but A. is a tempering influence!

I suppose the preparation I haven’t finished is the spiritual, but then that’s supposed to take the whole of advent anyway. We’re doing much better with our advent candle this year, but the advent calendars have been complete chaos. I think next year we’ll only have one. I suppose I do feel a sense of anticipation already. To be honest my focus is really on early next year, for reasons that those who know me well will understand!

I wonder if the goose getting fat is talking about the fact that roast potatoes are supposed to be cooked in Goose fat? I don’t believe I’ve ever actually eaten any goose. Wikipedia tells me goose was the traditional Christmas/Thanksgiving fare, now displaced by turkey. Must be true.

Should probably explain Friday’s entry. 🙂

A. was out at a party with a whole bunch of church friends, and the Mick in question asked her what I was up to – would I be sitting in front of the computer? She said I would be, but that I would doing some work (which was true), and Mick didn’t believe her…

He then went on to generally assert that I spend a lot of time on the computer, which isn’t true either; although if I ever get an evening to myself, it’s another matter. He asked what I could possibly be doing, and A replied that one of things I do is my webpage.

Mick expressed surprise and disbelief that I have a web-page (let alone a blog), so A. gave him the address…

I don’t actually know if he has looked here – he didn’t mention anything when I saw him last night. I suppose I could check the weblogs, but life just seems a bit short, somehow. I guess this is the advantage of a blog that handles comments! Not about to do that though.

I gather my fanbase has increased by one.

Welcome aboard, Mick. 🙂

So I’m hopefully having a day trip to Bristol early next year, and assuming I want to be there from 11 until 4, my options are:

The timings column is the timing of the major transport leg, and the clock times are the times I physically exit/enter our house. The costs are guesses, including any extra bus fares, taxes, parking, ….

I know that the environmental damage that flying causes – but honestly it has almost every other criteria in it’s favour. I think even driving would work out more expensive if you factor in road-tax and wear and tear, and that’s before considering that I would be depriving the family of a car for the day.

.. I also love flying. 🙂

There seem to be plenty of sites around and about on “How to blog”; talking about what a blog should and shouldn’t be, how to attract readers, and so on… Some go so far as to compare a blog to a newspaper – “You must post every day”!

For me, this ‘blog’ has always been about me keeping a record of my own thoughts and events, primarily for my benefit, although those who know me may be interested, I guess. I don’t think this is selfish – I don’t have the time or energy to maintain a “public service” or “journalistic” blog, and let’s face it, most of them out there don’t fall into this category anyway. It’s just an online journal, where I can throw thoughts, snippets, and links that I think are worth storing – or that I think one day might be interesting historically. Perhaps it’s a bit like therapy? The other key component is keeping my skills current; although this probably encapsulates the website as a whole. Stuff like working out how to generate an XML feed, how to put on GeoURL data, making it all XHTML compliant…

I think the whole thing of regular publishing is greatly undermined by the RSS magic. I can pull up my live bookmark and see at a glance if any of my friends’ blogs have got new entries.. I don’t actually need to go to their sites at all (except to read them!). I would like a most sophisticated aggregator, but am still waiting….

Perhaps people do start blogs with an aim to being The Most Popular Blog ever, but not I.