Late last year my tripod gave up the ghost (just as I needed to take a photo with it, of course), so the GPS receiver has been shunted back another few months to fund its replacement. I’ve had a number of tripods over the years, all of which have been (a) cheap, and (b) less […]

The other thing I was thinking about on the train were my ambitions in life. My three ‘wish-list’ ambitions are to write a book, make a movie, and create a computer game. Now it could be argued that I’ve already done all three. My PhD thesis is basically a book – in Germany you have […]

Sometimes I daydream on the train what I would do if I won the lottery. Actually I don’t play the lottery, so I probably have to give it back – but if ERNIE came up say. Obviously some would go off to needy causes and family, and equally obviously mortgage would be paid off – […]

In the funny way the web works, I recently ended up looking at a site all about how to make the best coffee. In fact here it is: the coffee FAQ. The upshot seems to be that you need to grind your own beans, but what’s more those beans need to have been acquired within […]

I’m a great fan of Frank Peretti (This Present Darkness, etc), and tend to snap up his new novels pretty quickly – like Monster for example. Anyway, he’s got this new series going called The Veritas Project (nothing to do with Killroy-Silk!!). The basic is that there is a family of undercover agents who are […]

One of our New Year’s resolutions was to make sure the missus and I both get some “time out” in the week, when we can just do our own thing. Her’s is to go swimming, mine is to watch movies!! So I’ve signed up to easyCinema DVD rental, and the first disk arrived yesterday, happily […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]