I'm just back from three weeks in China. Hazel's dad's been based in Shanghai for two years asking when we were going to be visiting, and I'd been looking at spending a week in Shanghai and Hong Kong with work, telling them about www.elexica.com and why Simmons & Simmons has it, so it was an opportunity too good to miss.

Holiday-wise, Hazel's dad, Zhang and the team at Rail Partners put together a fantastic itinerary involving lots of long train journeys and internal flights to the sights, and staying in 3-4 star hotels rather than in backpackerland (mainly because IWW got us great rates through the excellent elong online travel service). Yes, a sign that we're getting old(er) I guess.

Gap filling and photos to follow....

Planning
Weather: Shanghai
FCO travel advice: China
Wikipedia: ChinaChina
Lonely Planet: China

Itinerary and what we got up to

• Saturday 13 / Sunday 14 October (photos): Fly London Heathrow to Shanghai, Virgin Atlantic. Arrive Shanghai early morning, airport bus No 6 to Shemun Yi Lu (18 RMB). Power nap then afternoon walk around Shanghai to get our bearings - walking through People's Square and along Fuzhou to the Bund where we took a lot of photos of Pudong's ultramodern skyline and the Huangpu river, complete with boats carrying electronic advertising hoardings. Return walk took us along Nanjing Dong Lu, with all its shops and shoppers. Dinner at the Malaysian Chinese (Nonya) restaurant on Dagu Lu.


• Monday 15 October (photos): Coffee out at a Western cafe on Dagu Lu then rendezvous with Ivor to pick up updated itinerary and train tickets. Lunch then bus to Shanghai train station (2 RMB). Shopped for overnight supplies before relaxing in the soft sleeper lounge before boarding the Shanghai to Xi'an overnight train T138 (depart: 15:57, soft sleeper: 516 RMB)


• Tuesday 16 October (photos): Arrive Xi'an 07:58 (but late in). Put day packs into left luggage (we travel light) and catch public bus to Terracotta warriors (left luggage 3RMB per item; bus: 7 RMB; entry: 90 RMB, audio guides 40 RMB), return to train station and catch taxi to check in at Tianyu Gloria Plaza hotel (room: 498 RMB). Walk past endless electronics shops to Big Goose Pagoda (entry: [ ] RMB; pagoda climb: [ ] RMB), walk to Little Goose Pagoda (closed) to eat at Maogong Xiangcaiguan restaurant. Walk back to hotel (too much walking today ...don't underestimate the size of the Xi'an city blocks!). Overnight in Xi'an.


• Wednesday 17 October (photos): Taxi to Xi'an old town, explore the Muslim quarter, the Great Mosque (my favourite part of Xi'an), the Drum Tower, the Bell Tower, walk along the restored town walls from the South Gate to Heping Lu / Yanta Lu gate. Walk back to hotel. Taxi to airport (along empty 4 lane motorways). Xi'an to Guilin by air (China Eastern Airline MU2307 dep: 13:40 first class flight: 1826 RMB). Airport coach to central Guilin, taxi to Guilin Bravo Hotel (room per night: 658 RMB). Walk around the Rong Hu and Shan Hu lakes, featuring pagodas and pretty nighttime lighting of the lakes, trees, paths and bridges. Eat in at the Guilin Bravo hotel, overdosing on pak choi, greens and water chestnuts... I wouldn't agree with the Lonely Planet guidebook's assessment that there is "...good food available in the hotel's Chinese Japanese and Western restaurants". Overnight in Guilin.


• Thursday 18 October (photos): Li river cruise (The river scenery is lovely, but you lose something when you're following 50 or so other cruise boats in convoy and after a long wait at the departure quays which are themselves an hour or so minibus journey from Guilin.) and potter around Yangshuo where we indulged in coffee, lemon meringue pie and recent editions of the China Daily English language newspaper at the [ ] cafe. Highly recommended: close enough to the main drag to keep an eye on the action, but far enough away for there to be peace and quiet and mercifully few street hawkers. Return to Guilin by minibus, and a tortuous rush hour fellow passenger drop off. Eat out at the ?Charlotte? lakeside restaurant (much better than the Bravo Hotel's Chinese restaurant). Overnight in Guilin.


• Friday 19 October (photos): Potter around Guilin, walking around the lakes in search of a good coffee (success in the shape of a specialist coffee shop on Shanhu Bei Lu, where an Americano came with fried eggs and toast and a view of the morning dance exercise sessions on the pavement across the road) heading for Seven Star Park (Qixing Gongyuan) for a stoll up the limestone karst hills for views over Guilin, and around the Disney-esque kitsch tourist attractions at river level, plus the zoo where we watched several sessions of fish feeding frenzy. Taxi to Guilin airport (100RMB fixed fare) for flight to Shanghai Hongqiao airport courtesy of Shanghai Airlines (FM9332, dep: 20:25 arr: 22:35 first class ticket: 2146 RMB). IWW on hand to lead us through the airport onward connection conundrum - taxis avoid the airport from 10-11pm so that they benefit from the late night fare surcharge that comes into effect at 11pm. IWW elbowed us onto the Airport Express bus into the centre of Shanghai (4 RMB) and thence a short hop home in a taxi.


• Saturday 20 October (photos): Day trip with IWW, car and driver to the water towns over towards Tai Lake. First stop Tongli, second stop Zhouzhuang. Both were busy with Chinese visitors (although apparently we were there on a relatively quiet day) and it was rather like wandering around a Disney recreation than a living town. Delicious dinner at the Four Seasons hotel's Japanese restaurant taking advantage of the all you can eat sushi menu and all you can drink draft beer deal, and the cigar-friendly, jasmin tea (with complementary biscuits) serving lounge.


• Sunday 21 October (photos): Tour of Shanghai with IWW by bus, foot and taxi, featuring the Old City (mostly under demolition), Yuyuan Bazaar (another modern replica housing shops geared for tourists - of which there were loads) and Yu Gardens (similarly heaving), [the Chinese revolutionaries HQ], sandwich lunch at patisserie Paul in Xintiandi followed by a stroll through the lovely french-style Fuxing park (featuring open air performances of traditional dance from the north/west of China) and the French Concession. After a rest chez IWW we headed out again for the Bund and evening ferry ride to/from Pudong for night time photos of both sides of the river. Dinner at the mediterranean place on Dagu Lu. Hazel's downfall was to go for the lamb pitta....


• Monday 22 October (photos): Taxi to Shanghai Hongqiao airport for early morning flight to Kunming (dep: [ ] arr: [ ] economy fare: [ ] RMB ). Met at airport by one of Zhang Min's contacts with train tickets and a ride to the train station. Bags into left luggage then a leisurely potter around Kunming city, taking in various cafes, the Carrefour (they're in lots of the cities - a bit of a strange experience shopping in a familiar French hypermarche, in China), various small parks, the relocated City gates, Jinmabiji Square and surrounding alleys and the East and West pagodas. I don't think the LP does it justice. Overnight train to DaLi (N810 dep: 22:13 soft sleeper: [ ] RMB)


• Tuesday 23 October (photos): Arrive Dali train station 07:28, No. 8 public bus from the train station to the old city (30 mins or so). Stroll around Dali old town, and indulge in a traditional Tibetan breakfast on Huguo Lu before joining the ever descending crowds to admire the water channels, the old town streets, the "still real" market, the town walls and gates. The public bus service having disappeared (or at least proving impossible to track down) we caught the 13:45 minibus from Dali to Lijiang (45 RMB). Taxi to Lijiang South Gate (7 RMB) and navigate our way to the Lijiang Wangfu hotel (520 RMB per night). Explore on foot to get our bearings. Again, lots of domestic tourists thronging the streets. Dinner in a restaurant Qiyi Jie overlooking the Yu river (I think... or else it was a large water channel!).


• Wednesday 24 October (photos): Explore Lijiang - the traditional shop houses (albeit not as trad as they once were), the waterways, town square, Black Dragon Pool Park (the guide book gets is right, it does offer outrageously photogenic views of Yulong Xueshan - Jade Dragon Snow Mountain - and the park itself has a beautiful lake with bridges and pavilions and temples). Back in the old town, climbed up to Looking at the Past Pavillion, tried a glass of Yulong tea in a cafe with views out over the old town roofs. Dinner was sizzling vegetable and tofu hot pot at the Blue Papaya.


• Thursday 25 October (photos): Up for 06:30 breakfast and hotfoot through town to catch the No 7 bus to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain National Park (10 RMB; departs from the square opposite the statue of Chairman Mao. Park entry costs 80 RMB plus an additional 80 RMB payment for something I forget, but it seemed reasonable at the time, and there was a laminated sheet with an explanation in English of the various charges), stopping off en route to rent a full length down jacket for Hazel. At [ ] we joined the well organised system for the cable car ascent to the snow fields of Yulong Xueshan ([ ] RMB). we spent a good few hours climbing the stairways up to [ ] m and taking lots of photos, although the peaks and glaciers themselves remained determinedly shrouded in cloud. Return bus to Lijiang - with the same driver and lady conductor - via Baishui (with beautiful turquoise lakes and "moon" waterfall) and Baisha, which now calls itself Jade Peak Village - clearly with the tour group in mind. Second visit to Black Dragon Pool Park (for frustratingly cloud-free views of Yulong Xueshan, and "grannie" tracking). Indulged in coffee and cake at Don Papa's - a french patisserie despite the Italian sounding name (it also does pizza!) - before exploring the backstreets on the west side of Dong Dajie where life is a little bit less tourist-driven. Chilled out in Sifang Jie (Market Square) watching the tourist groups and the "get your photo taken with a Naxi horseman in traditional fur-plus-rifle outfit" operation). Dined out on momos at Lamu's House of Tibet - very chilled. Overnight in Lijiang.


• Friday 26 October (photos): Another very early morning breakfast to allow for (relatively) tourist free photos in the old town, including watching the grannies gathering in Sifang Jie and taking more photos of snow capped Yulong Xueshan peeking out over the rooftops. Indulged in mid-morning coffee at Don Papa's, thawing out on the suntrap roof terrace before more mooching around the backstreets and ultimately ending up at the modern market by the South Gate, which I loved. Taxi through the countryside to Lijiang airport (80 RMB; 30 mins) for Shanghai Airlines flight to Shanghai Hongqiao (FM9452; dep: 14:30 arr: 18:50; economy flight: 3158 RMB).


• Saturday 27 October (photos): Shanghai Museum with IWW then a DIY No 36 bus trip to Jade Bhudda Temple. Dinner out at The Naked Cow - 3 bottles of fine red wine, tasty beef for H and IWW, scrummy pizza for me - and a final jasmine tea and cigar session at the Four Seasons.


• Sunday 28 October (photos): Shanghai metro Longyang Road station, where Hazel headed off on the Maglev to Shanghai Pudong International Airport, leaving me to backtrack a little to explore the Pudong side of the river and to read Black Swan Green in a quiet riverside park before strolling back to base. Four Seasons for all you can east sushi dinner.... and the end of the holiday part of the trip.

Main impressions

• In London terms, Shanghai is Canary Wharf to Hong Kong The City. It's got glittering newly built office blocks on every street, and very little "old" building left - and, with the exception of the listed buildings of the French Quarter, most of what remains is being rapidly demolished to make way for modern housing and office blocks. The pace of change is phenomenal - the Time Out Guide to Shanghai quotes Sir Norman Foster as saying, "The process of urbanisation, which in Europe took 200 years will take just 20 years in China". In Shanghai, the change from low rise shophouses to skyscraper apartments, commercial centres and office blocks has taken place in less than 10 years.


• Most of the places we visited outside of Shanghai were mainstream tourist destinations. What I wasn't ready for, however, was the sheer scale of domestic Chinese tourism, and it is as clear an indicator as any of the country's prosperity. One consequence is that very few of the mainstream destinations manage to retain any sense of reality and historical sites are surrounded by (or in some cases, converted into) businesses targeting the tourist yuan. If you're looking for "ancient" China, you'll need to look beyond the places we went to. I'm still hankering after the remote deserts, mountains and towns of Xinjiang, and the snow festival of Haerbin.

Jo Angell (my sister in law) is studying an MA in Design for Textile Futures at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design.

Very excitingly, her collection of wallpaper designs based around the bittern won first prize in a competition set by wallpaper company Graham & Brown 'To design a collection of innovative wallpapers with a focus on sustainability'. The bittern is a bird whose reedbed habitat is seriously under threat from rising sea levels.

Even more excitingly, her wallpaper featured in the Space section of Guardian Weekend magazine today! Sadly, not featured in Guardian Unlimited Weekend, the online version.... but you can see samples on Mac's Flickr stream, and on the Graham & Brown website.

No, not mine!

Phil and I have enjoyed a lovely long weekend celebrating Jess and Mike's wedding in Monza and Milan.

We took the relaxing and green route as far as getting there and back was concerned, travelling by train with the excellent assistance of Seat61.com for itinerary information and RailEurope for booking tickets.

Our journey out on Thursday comprised:
London Waterloo - Paris Gare du Nord (Eurostar, and by far the most expensive leg of the journey)
Paris Gare du Nord - Paris Gare de Lyon (RER)
Paris Gare de Lyon - Milano Centrale (TGV)

Very easily done in a day, with a leisurely sun worshipping lunch in Paris in between trains and minimal border/security controls. We were at our hotel in Milan - Hotel Sanpi, 10 minutes walk from the station, recommended but bring your own iron - by 9.30pm, and eating pizza 20 minutes after that.

On Friday we walked through the Giardini Pubblici into the centre of Milan, passing by La Scala and the Duomo, window shopping in Galeria Vittorio Emmanule II and mooching along the pedestrianised zone down towards San Bablia. After an al fresco late lunch on car free Via Dante we wandered up to Castello Sforzesco and spent the rest of the afternoon snoozing and reading in the gardens.

That evening, Mike hosted a dinner at L'Infinito, an excellent idea which allowed the wedding guests a chance to meet and get to know one another before the Big Day. A lovely evening, with superb food and wine and in great company.

Saturday brought more blue skies and the day of the wedding. As instructed, we assembled at 11.15 by the suitably wedding cake-esque fountains in front of the Castello from whence coaches took us to Monza, and Villa Mirabello in the Parco di Monza. After a simple civil ceremony, with the Mayor of Monza, resplendent in tricolore sash, presiding over the vows and paperwork we adjourned to the courtyard for champagne and canapes.

Back in Milan the celebrations continued in the Palazzo Visconti, just across the road from San Bablia, where we enjoyed more drinks and canapes before sitting down to an amazing meal in splendid surroundings. After non-traditional (for Italy) speeches, and the cutting of the gigantic wedding cake, guests chatted and mingled as Mike took up the clarinet and joined the three piece band for some early 20th century jazz (?) classics.

A lovely, lovely day.

Sunday saw our return to London by train - the exact reverse of our outbound route, and just as easy. Leaving the hotel at 8.30am, we were back in our flat for 8.30pm.

I reckon we'll be taking the train for long weekends in Europe again.

Our first full week at the Naze Marine Holiday Park, which allowed for:

* a lot of reading
* a couple of lovely days sitting on the sea front, making full use of the beach hut
* watching the whole of Freaks and Geeks (complete with a pre ER/blonde Linda Cardellini and a pre Dawson's Creek and ER Busy Philipps)
* an afternoon in Frinton, buying second hand books and eating delicious ice cream
* a tour of Curiosity Garden, peering into the windows of 2007 issue caravans
* lunch and dinner out with Phil's mum and dad

The replacement bus service made the journey there and back a bit more tortuous than the usual easy train ride, but once there we had a really relaxing week.

The caravan park wasn't as busy as I'd expected - perhaps people had decided not to risk a second cold and wet bank holiday (week). Any which way, it meant that it was nice and quiet - so no complaints from me, and we did have some lovely sunny days.

Tim and Helen's wedding on the SS Great Britain, today. A simple ceremony on the upper deck followed by a cruise around the docks in a smaller vessel before returning to board the SS Great Brit for fine dining, speeches and a spot of dancing.

A lovely, relaxed celebration, with lots and lots of smiles.

And the sun shone!

I've finally finished sorting through my photos from Iran, shrinking and uploading them to Flickr.

Mehran, Stan and Reza really were a winning team, and I would recommend a visit to Iran to anyone - it doesn't really matter where or when, and different people will be interested in different things. Once you've been and seen what an an amazing and beautiful country it is, and that the people you meet in the bazaars and at the sights are so welcoming and hospitable, rightly proud of their history and culture, I am sure you will want to return - I know that I do.

I've so many favourite memories - wandering the backstreets of Yazd, marvelling at everything in Esfahan, exploring the bazaars and mosques of Shiraz, hearing Persian poetry by moonlight at the mausoleum of Hafez, being presented by a beautiful flower by a young woman as we walked back to the hotel one evening, getting dressed up in traditional nomad wedding dress, carrying out conversations by way of the Lonely Planet Persian phrase book, being interviewed for local telly near Bazm and for an advertorial in the Abbasi Hotel, tucking into melon (various varieties), cheese and fresh bread with a breathtaking view of Mount Dena and minutes later chancing upon Qashqai nomads and their flocks on the annual migration to summer pastures - the young and the weak getting a ride tucked up snugly in carpets pockets on the back of a donkey, unexpected hail and film crews in ancient Hamadan, the Zoroastrian Towers of Silence (even when disrupted by the 21st century noise of young blokes on motorbikes), the kitsch souvenir shops, signage and stalagmites and stalactites at Ali Sadr Caves, staying in amazing converted/restored caravanserai in Yazd and Esfahan, relaxing in the Eram gardens, taking tea with the nomads near Bahvanat and trying my hand at churning butter in a goatskin, the smell of freshly baked bread and the production line four man bakeries in Kashan, Shiraz and Hamadan, the amazing switchback road climbing up and through the Alborz Mountains, through the green of the orchards and wheatfields, the grandeur of Persepolis and the peace and tranquility of the gardens of Fin, the stunning colours decorating the mosques and traditional houses, palaces and citadels - and flowers everywhere.

How: Wild Frontiers' Land of the Peacock Throne tour
When: April/May 2007
Weather: Tehran
Advice / Info: FCO, CIA Iran Country Profile, BBC Country profile: Iran Wikipedia: Iran, Lonely Planet: Iran, Pars Times: Iran

This afternoon I spent a lovely few hours planting out the two clematis that Jean sent via TJBR (together with a potted sage and fuschia) and the african (?) poppies Jo added to Jean's contribution to the BJH roof terrace. And now, four hours later, it is chucking it down, with thunder and lightning thrown in for free.

I hope my poor tender plants survive.... the current collection comprises:

- jasmines x 2
- sweet peas (Walton, on a similarly wet bank holiday weekend)
- tomato plant (from Jean and dad's April visit)
- two sweet pepper plants (from Jean and dad's April visit)
- bright red geranium - freshly liberated today into the great outdoors after a spring/summer of TLC
- clematis x 3 (1 from Hereford last year, 2 sent by Jean)
- sage (from Jean)
- african poppies (from Jo)
- fuschia (from Jean)

Tomato plant with rainstorm raindrops

At least the downpour will keep the snails and slugs at bay. I spent a satisfying quarter of an hour or so last night scooping up at least 10 the new leaf eaters (grrr) and corralling them in an empty flower pot. I was planning another recce/removal session this evening... let's see if it dries up.

Back from a relaxing few days in Seville with Catherine and Fiona. The plan had included rather more sunbathing by the pool of the lovely Hotel Al Andalus Palace, but the cloud and occasional rain put paid to that. We did manage a couple of afternoon and evenings on the sun loungers - on the first and last days of our five night stay.

Palm trees and clear blue sky, from the poolside, Seville

Instead we swopped sunbathing for shopping - or more accurately mooching around the shops in Seville city centre, and taking time out for food, drink and people watching.

As planned, we indulged our cultural sides too - exploring the Cathedral and Alcázar in Seville and making a day trip to Córdoba on the excellent AVE train system (aka TGV, Spanish style).

Córdoba old town was lovely - but must be so much better under blue skies and blazing sunshine. We didn't really have the chance to appreciate the benefits of the cool calm interior of the Mezquita mosque/cathedral or the roman bridge across the Guadalquivir, or the shady narrow alleyways. That didn't stop us from enjoying an ice cream or two though.

Definitely places to go back to - very moorish (ho ho). Even Ryanair there and back worked out OK.

To see Cat, and her new house in Saltaire. What with the planned day trip to Córdoba when Catherine, Fi and I are in sunny Seville, June looks like it will be UNESCO World Heritage Site-tastic.

After a late night train journey from "St Pancras International" and an unplanned 60 second dash to catch the last train out from Leeds to Saltaire we had a very relaxing weekend.

Saturday saw us walking in the Yorkshore Dales around Malham Cove where we got to see nesting peregrine falcons courtesy of the special RSPB monitoring station there. Late pub lunch was a winner too, and back at Cat's we had a girlie evening watching Dr Who and the final of Any Dream Will Do. Lee definitely got our vote!

On Sunday we walked down to Salts Mill for some shopping and lunch; then back on the train to London. See you soon Cat.

Why couldn't it have come last weekend??

Still, a sunny Saturday at the start of June has been lovely - lounging out on the balcony soaking up the sun, reading the Saturday papers and planting the Walton sweet peas (and rehousing snails - grrrr) in the morning ; in the afternoon buying books (and raffle tickets) at the St Giles Cripplegate summer fete, mooching around the first of this summer's monthly food festivals (aka markets) in Whitecross Street and returning with goodies galore.

After an early evening of getting up to date with my Reading entries and watching Dr Who, the day's about to be topped off with a dose of lightweight cinema in the form of Mean Girls, and some more Whitecross market treats. Yum.

... and a May Bank Holiday one to boot. Still, Saturday was dry so we got to stroll into town and returned with the revamped Walton and Frinton Gazette, the Guardian, essential groceries, a selection of traditional cakes from the baker's on the High Street and some Sweet Peas for BJH. Esconced in the caravan with all those goodies, we were able to snuggle under duvets and read and eat our way through the Sunday and Monday as the rain bucketed down, creating ornamental lakes all around the caravan park, including the Gyford caravan.

Back from a fantastic fortnight in Iran (more about that once I've downloaded and sorted through my 500+ photos).... Phil is spending the day in Bristol, but he left me a Welcome Home quest, consisting of fuschia kiss shaped post it notes hidden around the flat. So far I've found kisses:

- on the bathroom light switch
- in the washing basket
- on the washing machine door
- on the bedroom window frame
- on one of my bits of post that arrived while I was away
- under my pillow
- under the duvet on my side of the bed
....
- inside the bathroom cabinet
- in one of my slipper socks
- in my dressing gown pocket (he knows me so well...)
- on one of the bits of Barbican-related blurb that arrived whilst I was away
- inside my Wild Frontiers travel folder
- inside the tea caddy
- inside the biscuit tub
- on the top of the bookshelves in the lounge
- on the lounge rug (with the info that the most recent episode of "The Apprentice" is in the VCR)
....
- under the freeview remote control
- on the floor lamp light switch
....
- in my left hand washing up glove
- on the wood panel ceiling in the kitchen
- in the le creuset pan
- in the cutlery drawer
- in the breadmaker
....
- on the hot water cylinder
- at the back of the wardrobe
....
- on the green lentil jar
- in the dishwasher
....
- in my diary
....
- in our mailbox
- in my coat pocket
- in the back of the under sink cupboard door
....
- in the colander in the saucepan drawer
- tucked away in my knicker drawer
- in my beautiful blurb.com photobook Phil made for my birthday
....
- on the side of the red geranium plant pot
....
- on the lounge laptop keyboard
- in the drinks cabinet
....
- in the veggie cookbook
....
- in my photo printer

05 August 2007
- in the pocket of my short beige skirt (summer's finally shown up!!)

12 August 2007
- under my painted papier mache tea tray from Kerala

Life's been hectic recently as dad and Jean came to stay Saturday to Wednesday. Jean's daughter, Kate, had her West End stage debut in Whipping It Up on Monday, which we went to, and we went out for an early birthday dinner for me on Tuesday. On Saturday evening we had Phil's mum and dad over for a parentals dinner and on Sunday Tom, Jo, Barney and Rosa came round for afternoon tea, birthday cake and banana muffins and a mooch in the Barbican's busy, sunny private gardens. Exhausting!

So I spent yesterday - my birthday - having a lazy day (as much as work allowed) to recover. And enjoying my fantastic present from Phil.

I got my visa back yesterday. Applied for it through Travcour:

Saturday 24 March: The final pieces of paperwork for my Iranian visa application arrived (including details of who else is booked on the Wild Frontiers Land of the Peacock Throne trip)
Monday 26 March: Checked with Wild Frontiers that it was still worth applying for an Iranian visa. Their answer was "Yes, asap."
Tuesday 27 March: Posted forms, passport etc to Travcour. 1st class post, recorded delivery
Wednesday 28 March: Travcour emailed confirming receipt
Monday 02 April: Travcour emailed confirming they had got a visa and were posting everything back to me. 1st class post, recorded delivery
Tuesday 03 April: Passport and visa arrived.

I was rather surprised given the current state of affairs, but it suggests a quick turn around time by Travcour/the embassy. Then again, as Simon remarked, "They're probably not getting many applications for tourist visas at the moment."

I've been keeping an eye on the FCO travel advice, and as their Iran page says, "The overall level of the advice has not changed." Long may it continue.

Just spotted this on the BBC News website:
"Fifteen British Navy personnel have been captured at gunpoint by Iranian forces, the Ministry of Defence says."

That does not bode well for my trip to Iran in just over a month's time....

.... courtesy of Haddock. I can claim no credit. Joke 4 used to be my favourite, but 3 and 5 are new challengers for the title.....

Q1 What do you call a three legged, one eyed donkey playing old fashioned jazz piano?
Q2 What's a specimen?
Q3 What do you call 2 mexican fire fights?
Q4 What do you call a French man in Sandals?
Q5 What do mexican carpet fitters say??
Q6 Why does Edward Woodwood have so many D's in his name?

=============== Continue reading for the answers ...======================

I've enjoyed greatly Tim Mackintosh-Smith's TV versions of his two books, Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah and (the as yet unread) Hall of a Thousand Columns: Hindustan to Malabar with Ibn Battutah that have been shown on BBC Four over the past three weeks. It was a bit strange knowing that in the TV programmes Tim Mackintosh-Smith is recreating his original travels after a space of a fair few years, but his enthusiasm and expertise translate beautifully to the small screen, and the maps and footage really added to my appreciation of how far Ibn Battuta[h] (and Tim M-S) travelled.

Sadly I can't say the same for the BBC Four website/listings - despite searching and navigating and knowing when the three programmes were screened, I had to resort to Google to find the details on Travels with a Tangerine, and could only track down episode 3: Trade Winds.

An excellent dim sum lunch at the New Loon Fung followed by interesting conversation at the Nanobyte bar. Now very full of salt and chilli beancurd and crispy noodles. Beautiful Chinese New Year lanterns festooning Gerrard Street.

Came home and updated my Flickr buddy photo.

Phil tagged me to find out five things most people don't know about me. It feels a bit like one of those round robin emails I always delete, but this online verson seems to be receiving positive responses from a surprising range of people. Look - in terms of Five things tags, I'm 2 degrees of separation from Tim O'Reilly!

So, here are my five things:

1. I'm a physical freak
I have an area on my forehead where my skin is fused to my skull. You can see it if I raise my eyebrows. My memory is that it was caused at my nan's when either my nan or my mum opened the dining room door as I was crawling towards it. But seeing as it happened when I was a baby, I'm reliant on my dad to post a comment to set the historical record straight if required. And yes, I am a bit more vain than most people who know me would expect ....

2. Computers bored me stupid as a teen
My mum got the family a BBC B when I was about 11 o 12, and taught herself enough Basic to build programs for the French classes she taught at Arden School. Tom soon learned how to program the PCs in WHSmiths to fill the screen with "Tom is ace" and variants before disappearing off into the world of Elite. I on the other hand couldn't see the point in learning how to use a keyboard (Typing wasn't a class O-level students were encouraged to do), let alone how to code. More fool me. I still haven't got into gaming mind you.

3. I've (probably) broken the law
I had my first driving lesson on Ewyas Harold Common in my mum's MGB GT age 15. Still love driving, still love Herefordshire, still love MGs.....

4. I've been a league-level canoe polo player
I was a member of the St Andrews University canoe polo team and played in the Scottish league. I wasn't very good, but I made up the numbers. I could just about manage an eskimo roll if required. Actually, more often than not it was a case of releasing my spraydeck and doing an emergency exit.

5. I'm scared of flying
Yes, quite an admission from someone who loves to travel far and wide. During the world tour with Hazel I got most used to it, but nowadays the excitement of every big trip carries with it the flying fear factor. I find that browsing the duty free shops plus the routine queuing for overpriced coffee and cake helps keep the adrenalin under control in the departure lounge, and then a a good book carries me through to the start of the in flight entertainment and through those odd occasions when the in flight movies let you down and the PC games require a level of comprehension and coordination beyond me. The return flight fright is generally offset by having new trip friends to talk to, but I always keep a good book in reserve just in case. In fact, making sure I have enough to read on any trip is A Must. I've learned the hard way to make it frivolous fiction or spritely autobiography rather than a weighty tome of an "I *ought* to read this" nature.

Feel free to add in a comment with any other gems you feel fellow readers should know about me.

Today has ended up being a day spent on the Mac.

First off, I uploaded photos of our somewhat solitary but very relaxed and enjoyable Christmas Day (dinner and presents) to Flickr and activated my Pro Account renewal gift token from Phil. Next I set about geotagging my Flickr photos as far as possible. London, Walton and Herefordshire proved relatively straightforward, but lack of decent map data for Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and Northern Areas proved an insurmountable barrier to geotagging my Hindu Kush Adventure photos, and I suspect that all of my non-Yalta Crimea pics are far from accurately located..... Indeed I do have to gripe about the map functionality generally: why does the map move so far/fast when you click the left/right/up/down arrows? How do you stop the map moving when you spot the location you need? Why let you search for a location and then not pinpoint its coordinates when you click through to the map - eg Foros, Crimea, Ukraine?

After a break for lunch, I thought I might as well join the merry Twitter throng. Having spent the Christmas holiday in the constant company of Phil's buzzing treo - aka altering Phil and his nearest and dearest to the arrival of a new Twitter from one of his friends - it was an obvious move. Quite how I'll fit it into my work day, I can't imagine. In fact, I suspect that it will turn out somewhat similar to my Haddock-ing, catching up at the end of the day.

Last but not least, I tweaked the SparklyTrainers templates, to include four random Flickr pics on the homepage, to update the link to Sparkly Trainers >> Photos so that I now goes to Flickr rather than Fotopic and to change the colour scheme for Sparkly Trainers >> Reading (and added entries for my Christmas reading so far).

Yes, it's the week before Christmas which means the annual festive night out with Rachel and the now traditional karaoke-fest at Zyrus on Clerkenwell Road. Emo kids eat your hearts out, this is where 80's power ballads and rock anthems rule. Brilliant. Glad I only had to manage a half day today mind you....

I finally made the change from black&purple to white&red, courtesy Phil and his ace CSS skillz.

Still wondering if perhaps I shouldn't have gone for a sunshine shade of orange instead of the red, to match with the background colour in Phil's photo of me......

A lovely weekend - after a very successful DIY pizza lunch with TJBR we all headed over to the Barbican to watch the matinee performance of Dick Whittington, which was good although I wasn't too sure how much the Dame enjoyed herself. Back to base for tea and cake.

On Sunday, Phil's mum and dad came round for a traditional Sunday roast - a nice excuse for a roast chicken with all the trimmings. Paul joined us as he was going to see In the Face of History - European Photographers in the 20th Century. Between the five of us (four meat-eaters) we managed to get through a couple of platefuls each and still had some remains for leftovers. A lovely day.

We booked with Lastminute, we travelled on Eurostar, navigated via Mappy and stayed at the Hotel du plat d' etain - I must remember that if you book a "cheap" citybreak you are guaranteed to be given the smallest, shabbiest room available.... our room was OK, but definitely on the compact side (as in I think that the bed was a 3/4 size...) which the angular 80s decor did little to disguise.

Still, we spent a happy Saturday mooching around the foodie street markets around Les Halles, along the Seine and back along the Rue du Bac. On Sunday we walked up to the Sacre Coeur and down to the Tuillerie Gardens, but I'm ashamed to say that stressing out about finding veggie food resulted in grumpiness on Saturday night and Sunday lunchtime/afternoon .... sorry Phil!

My photos and Phil's on flickr.

Yes, I've booked onto Wild Frontiers' recce tour to Iran in April/May next year.

I decided that:
(1) it isn't going to get any safer to go there any time soon, and the chances are it might get even more difficult to visit - so better to go sooner rather than later/never;
(2) I needed something to look forward to over the winter, and to help out on the "work-to-live" ethos; and
(3) If I didn't book asap the trip might get booked up, or I'd become too stingey to shell out.... either way I'd be missing out on (what I anticipate will be) an excellent trip to a destination that has long been on my travel wishlist.

My Amazon Wishlist has been updated accordingly.... for those of you wondering what to buy me for Christmas (hint).

Outline itinery is:
Day 1: London to Tehran
Day 2: Tehran
Day 3: Tehran to Hamadan/Hamedan
Day 4: Hamadan/Hamedan
Day 5: Hamadan/Hamedan to Kashan
Day 6: Kashan to Yazd
Day 7: Yazd to Bam
Day 8: Bam to Persepolis
Day 9: Persepolis to Shiraz
Day 10: Shiraz to Yasuj
Day 11: Yasuj to Isfahan / Esfahan
Day 12: Isfahan / Esfahan
Day 13: Isfahan / Esfahan to Tehran
Day 14: Tehran to Bandar-e-Anzali
Day 15: Bandar-e-Anzali to Tehran
Day 16: Tehran to London

Maps of Iran:
Iranian Cultural & Information Center - "Sensitive" map
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection - Iran Maps

Taken by Rob and now available on his Rob's Journeys Flickr pages. So we get to enjoy his Skardu adventures (vicariously at least).

I quite often meet friends for a drink near London Bridge, and we always have a conversation along the lines of "where shall we meet?", "mmm, don't really know anywhere round there", "OK, how about [insert randomly selected venue from BeerInTheEvening here]".

So I sought recommendations from friends for pubs near London Bridge/Monument, "ones that serve good beer and aren't always rammed to the gills". Here are the results:
=====
The Rose
The Royal Oak
Market Porter
The Southwark Tavern
The Wheatsheaf
The Boot and Flogger
The George Inn
The St Christopher Inn

... and available in my imaginatively named "Hindu Kush Adventure" set on Flickr.

Day 1 (28 September 2006): Depart London on overnight BA flight to Islamabad
Day 2 (29 September 2006): Arrive Islamabad, drive to Peshawar
Day 3 (30 September 2006): Peshawar
Day 4 (01 October 2006): Khyber Steam Train up the Khyber Pass
Day 5 (02 October 2006): Drive over the Malakand Pass to Dir
Day 6 (03 October 2006): Drive over the Lowari Pass to Ayun
Day 7 (04 October 2006): Ayun town tour and into to the Rumbur Valley, staying with the Kalash at Balanguru
Day 8 (05 October 2006): Balanguru and hike to the Nuristani village of Shakanande
Day 9 (06 October 2006): Balanguru and hike to Pelaga, the Wild Frontiers hideaway
Day 10 (07 October 2006): Balanguru to Chitral town - sightseeing and shopping!
Day 11 (08 October 2006): Chitral town to Hindu Kush Heights hotel
Day 12 (09 October 2006): To Mastuj, via Buni Zom, for dinner with Colonel Khushwalalt Ul Mulk
Day 13 (10 October 2006): Over the Shandur Pass to Phander
Day 14 (11 October 2006): Phander to Gilgit, then on to Karimabad along the Karakoram Highway
Day 15 (12 October 2006): Karimabad (shopping!) and the Eagle's Nest Hotel
Day 16 (13 October 2006): Karimabad to Chilas, back along the Karakoram Highway
Day 17 (14 October 2006): Chilas to Islamabad
Day 18 (15 October 2006): Early morning flight to UK

Note: those links will take you to the photos for each day - but they display in reverse order. If you go to my "Hindu Kush Adventure set, you'll see my photos in the correct order.

At last. Lots of compliments from work, and a bunch of new users have registered on the revamped www.elexica.com.

Home from my 18 days on the Hindu Kush Adventure - shared plenty of both in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and Northern Areas with a bunch of crazy ladies (Ali, Amanda, Ann, Annie, Joan, Thelma, Trisha) , and honourary 'girl' Rob, with Benedict, Stan and Zafar guiding the way.

It's a really beautiful part of the world, with a fascinating history and cultures - from Alexander the Great to the Great Game right up to the Taliban and the present day. The region's emerging tourist industry was virtually wiped out by 9/11 - so the sight of 11 westerners was guaranteed to generate excitement, together with lots of smiles and hellos. Plenty of hiking high up into the mountains and shopping in the bazaars kept everyone happy, as did Kalash home brew, Mastuj apple brandy, Karimabad's Chinese beer and red wine and pizza in Islamabad. And who said Pakistan was a dry country?!!

I only succumbed to vertigo once - looking out from Palaga, aka Jonny Bealby's hut perched on a mountain top high up above the Rumbur Valley where we were spending the night - even lying down on my charpoy the world continued to spin, but not for long. With my lack of head for heights I wasn't too keen on some of the roads either - particularly the KKH, which is chipped into mountainsides with sheer drops down to the Gilgit and Indus rivers a long way below. But it was worth it - I have returned with a rucksack of very dusty clothes, a collection of Chitrali hats, and lots of photos - edited highlights accumulating on Flickr.

Anno and Anna's wedding was today, and it was a lovely occasion. Afternoon tea in the grounds of Lewes Castle was a delight, and the speeches both funny and heartfelt.

We're at the stage where were eating tomatoes for every meal..... Highlights have been the tomato tarte (puff pasty + pesto + halved cherry toms + Parmesan slivers) and spicey chickpeas and tomatoes. They're lovely au natural too.

A lovely party to celebrate Jean's 60th birthday at Forty Acres with lots of family and friends old and new, even if it turned out a little wet and windy after the past x weeks of hot, dry weather. The marquee came into its own and Food From Here laid on a mouth watering menu, all sourced from the Golden Valley - right down to the Three Choirs wine. Delicious, and a few glasses helped oil the joints of those who could still co-ordinate their limbs for the ceilidh. and Jean's birthday cakes were fabulous, especially the photo transfers!

A decidely autumnal (aka dark, wet and windy) drive home, courtesy of Tom and Jo, who'd left Barney and Rosa in the tender care of Grandad and Aunty Jean for the rest of the week. We took the opportunity to discuss sports cars.... Mazda MX 5 vs Smart Roadster.

Persuaded by Rachel, I spent the weekend on a nostalgia-fest in Solihull, with the first ever Tudor Grange School reunion - to mark the school's first 50 years - on Satuday evening.

Carl drove us up to Rachel's mum's on Friday and on Saturday we called in at Rachel's dad's and then headed over to Jane and Dan's to see (meet in my case!) Merlin, and for an impromptu lunch.

Went to the fair at the school in the afternoon, but it was more for current students and parents so we didn't stay long and headed off into Solihull for some shopping instead.

Returned to TG in the evening all dressed up for the party, and met Fiona and Jenny in the queue, but there wasn't really anyone else we recognised, or in our age range for that matter. Still, a few glasses of fizz later we were being taken on a tour of the school by one of the current students - a lovely girl about to go into the 5th year - who coped marvellously with our nostagia fest, and we did bump into some more people from our era: Kirsty Ogden and Claire Whitely (as were), and Neil Karet and (I think) Spencer Griffin. I'd expected more staff to be there.

The highlight was the Memorabilia Room where we found a collection of school registers, report and magazines from various years, reviving such memories as Tom's woodwork prize, my magazine illustrations, Jane's articles on pets...

Rachel's mum collected us (and our helium balloons) c 11.30pm - by that stage it did feel just like being back at school, having parents doing the taxi service....

Jean and Robert's Golden Wedding party on the Thames yesterday + lunchtime BBQ at Tom and Jo's plus fun fair today = lovely family weekend.

After a delicious BBQ lunch at Tom and Jo's, most of us headed round to Priory Park and spent a happy hour or so at the Steam Fair. I especially enjoyed the dodgems with Barney at the wheel - not forgetting the risque illistrations on the slot machines and Jo and Rosa whirling past on the flying chairs.

Mind you, not sure how much dad appreciated having Geoff the Bear named after him, on the basis that Geoff the Bear looked a little grumpy.....

A lovely afternoon cruising along the Thames from Hampton Court pier to Teddington Lock and a little beyond, watching people messing about on the river in gorgeous sunshine. There was just enough of a breeze to keep us cool as the Western Belle motored along, complete with jazz band, Pimms and afternoon tea.

Organised by Nick, Jo and James, the guest list of people celebrating Robert and Jean's Golden Wedding Anniversary ranged from Jean's bridesmaids to assorted grandchildren and inlaws (resulting in the revelationary realisation that technically I'm Jo's sister-in-law!!). Barney, Rosa and I spent most of the afternoon on desk, posing with our complimentary fans, and pondering The Language of Fans.

Plus it means that Dad and Jean have come to stay for the weekend. Lovely.

Several clusters on the roof terrace ones, and some fairly well developed ones on the less flourishing fire escape balcony plants. Woo hoo!

On the rocket front, we sampled out first pickings on Saturday, and very pleasantly peppery they were too.

Garlic needs a little longer - my test bulb-lift was about the size of a large spring onion, with cloves not wholly developed. Not that it will be allowed to go to waste.....

We had an amazing sunset last night - reds, pinks, mauves, purples vibrant enough to prompt us to pause the video (My So-Called Life for 1994 US teenage angst nostalgia) to take some photos from the roof terrace!

Still no tomatoes on the tomato plants up there.... and they are looking much much healthier than the plants on the lounge balcony, which have one each. Bizarre.

... on Saturday night. Lots of people, lots of fun - even if I was a lame early leaver. It doesn't seem that long ago that we celebrated Haddock's 5th birthday, and I was a real newbie. "Matured Phishes"? Maybe not - although "More babies, Less hair" would be true. "Smoked / pickled/ steamed"? Almost universally.

And [Monday now] Tom Coates's photo of Phil, me and him is the top search result if you search for "haddock" on Flickr... for now at least. No one else seems to have manages to take/upload any pictures.... me included.

After a lovely Saturday - including a sunny afternoon chez TBJR - and not too late a night (for me at least), Phil and I managed to rise and shine in time to meet up with the key movers and shakers in the crowd formerly known as the Sunday Brunch Bunch (RIP) for bagels at the Columbia Café on Columbia Road. Having been, I feel rather ashamed that in 10+ years of living in London, three of them spent travelling on buses along the Hackney Road and passing right by the end of Columbia Road, I had totally failed to visit the famous Columbia Road flower market before today.....

It's amazing - stall upon stall of beautiful blooms, potted plants and assorted greenery; not to mention the hundreds of happy shoppers clutching bouquets of cut flowers for decorating homes, carefully wielding specially-adapted laundry bags of trays of flowers and herbs for planting out in gardens and toting towering plants whose tops sway in time with their porter's step destined to adorn patios and roof terraces. And everyone soaking up the sun, the sights and the scents: lavender bushes, olive trees, geraniums and clematis - beautiful.

We rendez-voused with Paul, Kamjit and Jaraj, Chris, Sam, Toby and Ethan, and tucked into bagels and juice in the Columbia Café's sunny back yard. Highly recommended all round.

Duly fortified, we made our way through the merry crowds finding ourselves heading in the direction of Hackney City Farm, yet another place I've passed many a time and never visited. It's lovely - a handful of sheds housing sheep and goats, gargantuan pigs, normal-sized rabbits, guineapigs and chincillas (sp?) and outside in the field cows and a donkey, with geese and the most flamboyantly feathered chickens and roosters I've ever seen wandering freely throughout. As well as the farmyard there is a lovely cafe (sadly, it was too soon after brunch to indulge) split between the cool of the main building and a tree- and shrub-shaded terrace. And its all free, run by volunteers for the community, funded by grants and donations.

We said our farewells to those with toddlers who elected to chill out in the farm cafe for a bit, and started back towards the Barbican purchasing a trough to house climbing plants for the roof terrace trellis en route. The walk back through the old streets of Shoreditch and the eastern fringes of the City was lovely and quiet - in sharp contrast to the crowds of Columbia Road, and oh- so- trendy- Hoxton- cum- Shoreditch last night (shudder). Crossing City Road we took the shady path through Bunhill Fields and admired the sunlight on the leaves and the tombstones. Beautiful. Phil had got his long-awaited shots of the wrapped building at the City Road/Tabernacle Street junction on the walk out.

A tour of Waitrose (woo hoo!!!) for supplies, paid for at a check out with no queue - bliss - then a lazy, snoozy, afternoon reading on the roof terrace, fortified by tea and scones in the late afternoon.

A lovely, lovely day, rounding off a perfect weekend.

Argh - the frustration.

I've been merrily working my way through Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, Alphabet series, and having finished R is for Ricochet a couple of weeks ago, I wandered over to the Barbican Library this morning to pick up the next installment..... only to find that it's not yet published.

Actually, I tell a lie (actually acutally, the Barbican library catalogue tells a lie, as that's where is says "not yet published"), according to Amazon, it was published on 05 May 2006. OK, so that brings the good news that - all being well in library-land - I should be able to read S is for Silence in the next couple of months. But what about T? and U? and V,W,X,Y,Z? At the current rate of one novel a year, that's going to mean I'll be waiting/reading until 2013!!!

Anyway, at least I came away with A is for Alibi, as I *think* I may have managed to miss out on that one when I started the series ....

I've been looking for a Big Trip for later this year for ages, and having re-read World Expeditions' Central Asia and Iran offerings I wasn't so convinced that they were right for me. So back to the drawing board (aka going online), I took a look through my "Planning" links, and returned to the Wild Frontiers website that has elicited so much excitement a few weeks back.

Looking more closely at the scheduled departure dates and destinations, and realising that I'd only got 12 days holiday left until 31 December 2006, (too many weekday parties over the summer!!) I decided that a trip to Northern Pakistan was the answer, and the Wild Frontiers itineries, all-inclusive-pricing and not one, but two, conversations with Jonny Bealby himself clinched it.

Having just missed the last space on Hindu Kush Explorer II in September, I'm booked on Hindu Kush Adventure, which means I'll be there over Ramadan, and - hopefully - in photogenic conditions (blue skies, colourful autumn leaves, turquoise melt water rivers). I would have liked to have done the Shandur Pass camp, which is the main difference between the two trips, but then again I am (inevitably) drawn to the journey up the Khyber Pass on the Khyber Steam Train.....

Day 1: Depart UK
Day 2: Arrive Islamabad
Day 3: Transfer to Peshawar, old town
Day 4: Khyber Steam Train up the Khyber Pass
Day 5: Drive over the Lowari Pass to Ayun
Day 6: Into to the Kalash Valley
Day 7: Kalash
Day 8: Kalash and Wild Frontiers hideaway
Day 9: Chitral Town
Day 10: Mastuj
Day 11: Mastuj and walk up the Yakund Valley
Day 12: Over the Shandur Pass to Kalti PTDC
Day 13: Gilgit
Day 14: Hunza
Day 15: Hunza
Day 16: Karimabad and Gilgit
Day 17: Fly to Islamabad
Day 18: Early morning flight to UK

To be honest, looking at the itineries on the WF website, I reckon that I could happily spend *months* on trips with them in Central Asia they're offering Gateways to Tartary, Silk Road Odyssey, Trans Caspian Adventure, Silk Road Mountains and Towns. They have trips in Tibet/China, and even Afghanistan......

Update: The trip more than lived up to expectations - details and photos now available.

For our May Day Bank Holiday "trip" this year we booked tickets for the Modernism at the V&A. I wish I'd realised that there is a second room, which proved to be must larger and less cramped than the first one I focused my attention and energy on, taking in details of the utopian ideals, the place of mass manufacture in the domestic setting, the machinery to deliver a modern life, and the impact of modernism on performance art and national ideals. All very interesting, but a bit too academic for me at times. I much preferred the second room, which looked at the living environment, ranging from modernist architecture, up to town planning and down to furniture and kitchen design. The ticketing prevented is getting too packed, but I'm sure a lot of people didn't continue on past the first part of the exhibition.

It surprised me how many "modern" designs actually date from the period between the two World Wars - verging on 100 years ago, particularly in relation to architecture and lighting design.

After a light lunch in the cafe in the cellars, we managed a couple of quick tours around the photography and book illustation award exhibitions. Then back to the City on the District line. Nice and easy - we'll do it again.

Hmmm, a bit of a disappointment to be honest. Yes I learned the AppleMac OS 'model' and came away with a good understanding of how to set up my tool bars and the dock, and with an appreciation of the differences between OSX and Windows2000, but I could have got that in a couple of hours at most rather than taking a whole Saturday from 10am to 5pm. The tutor was good - but the class has an enormous mix of abilities and interests. For instance, a lady near me had never used a mouse and another chap started by explaining how he'd recently discovered the "return" key.

My feedback will be - make it clear that it's a course for complete computer novices or run two versions, one for complete beginners who happen to have (been given) a Mac, another for people who are reasonably IT literate and are shifting from PC to Mac.

Having a Bank Holiday Monday to lengthen the weekend was a saving grace, although it wasn't intended. The second session is next Saturday and I'm planning to go..... we're looking at the various standard Mac applications such as iCal and Mail, which it won't do me any harm to understand more fully.

A lovely evening in Ben Jonson House, with Mary Ruth visit to London for Sunday's marathon precipiting the arrival of both her and TJBR for dinner, complete with lemon cheesecake birthday cake and candles for Rosa's birthday. She's 7 on Sunday.... I hope she likes her presents; Barney is sworn to secrecy (but he's told me that he thinks the glittery purse will go down well, and that even though they've already got some of the Roald Dahl books having them in a proper box set is better). It seems hard to believe that 7 years ago Hazel and I were in Laos.....

Exactly 3 months after we got back to Blighty, I've finally finished sorting through my photos and uploading them to Flickr. All 359 of them now available for viewing in my Falklands Islands Trip set.

(and I also uploaded my four photos from dad's Birthday Weekend.)

It was a great holiday - here's a day-by-day synopsis, with links to photos of the day:

Sometimes, reading the travel section of The Guardian is a dangerous thing. Sometimes, you come across articles like today's one on Pakistan unveiled by Ed Douglas, which ran with the teasertext:

To get to the remote Kalash spring festival, you first have to negotiate spectacular walls of ice and epic mountain passes

Maybe I'll just take a little look at the Wild Frontiers "guided 10-day Kalash Spring Festival Tour, departing May 10, from £1,450pp including flights, transport, full board and entrance fees" Ed mentions .................................

Oh.Oh.Oh.They.Do.Trips.To.Central.Asia.Too. ARGH. This timing is just *terrible*. (Are you sensing the frustration? You should be.)

Phil and I bought some garlic bulbs when we went to dad and Jean's to pick up the sideboard at the start of the year, and planted them out in pots on the roof terrace and left them to it. Peeping out through the 10cm square of glass in the door out onto the terrace last weekend, I spotted some shoots - very exciting!

It makes me feel like spring is on the way....

Today is another lovely bright sunny day, but very cold under those clear blue skies. There was frost on the grass in Fortune Park at 8am this morning. The geraniums in mum's "Le creuset red" Normandy bowl continue to thrive, as do the ones in the plastic pots hanging off the roff terrace trellis, albeit to a lesser extent. Once the weather turns warmer I'm planning to relocate them into a large terracotta pot. I think that that will suit them better, and that will leave the sunny trellis available for a passionflower climber I'm hoping to pick up from dad and Jean.

I'm gradually uploading photos from our Falkland Islands trip onto Flickr. Phil bought me a Pro subscription as part of my Christmas present, so I'm effectively free of the monthly limit (unless I manage to hit the 2GB monthly limit for Pro users....). It's reminding me just how fantastic the weather was, and how beautiful Port Stanley and Cape Pembroke are:

• Photos from Sunday 26 December 2005 - Our trip out to Cape Pembroke lighthouse (the day everyone got sunburn)
• Photos from Monday 27 December 2005 - Being touristy in Stanley, and walking back to Stanley via the Moody Valley, and Fran's party in the evening

I've finally got around to looking at the www.spatial-literacy.org website mentioned in last weekend's Observer article on Placing Surnames.

No surprises on the Loosemore front, (well, not for those of with the benefit Uncle Vic's and Major Ronald's combined research) - the 1881 map shows that we're just starting to move away from North Devon, with families clustered around Cardiff and Bournemouth. By 1998, which is the other year for which this UCL project has mapped data, we're more widespread, with the 1998 map showing us in the north and east.

I couldn't find 1998 Gyfords or Vezeys though, which I found a bit odd especially as both had data from 1881 - 1881 Gyford Map, 1881 Vezey map.

Search for youself on the Surname Profiler.

A fortnight in the Falkland Islands is just not long enough - even if you discount all the yuletide socialising, the islands are beautiful and varied and it takes time exploring them, not to mention the watching time demanded by five different species of penguin, plus seals and killer whales, albatross and scary giant petrels, amongst other wildlife.

Photos and more details to follow - but first, time for a welcome home Indian takeaway!

I've been keeping an eye on BBC Weather to see what sort of weather to expect in the Falklands, in order to decide what clothes to take.

Today's forecast looks like this:

So, whilst we may be spending Christmas and New Year in the southern hemisphere, I don't think we'll be seeing many barbies on the beaches.....

I had a lovely time at your party; here's the photo Mrs Roberts took to prove it:

...... hmmm, should that be a contender for the caption competition in the next issue of S2?

Rachel and I had a long-standing engagement for Friday night, to have a girls' night out on the town, gladrags, lipgloss and all. However Christmas Party fever, and in particular the Office Private Party strain, seemed destined to thwart our plans. Both Digress and The Cuban told us that our presence was not required, because we weren't on the guest list. Bah. So Rachel pulled an excellent Plan B out of her hat - the Karaoke Bar in Farringdon. Now, I know I might not be the top of anyone's list as a Karaoke-ite, but a pint of Spitfire combined with the Christmas spirit and a soupcon of devil- may- care- I- won't- know- anyone- other- than- Rachel- and- she's- known- me- since- we- were- five- so- she's- seen- worse- (much- worse) made all the difference. We had a fab time. Our evening started with just the two of us, the songbook and a bottle of Corona each and ended with a bar-full of people singing along to the pick of the 80s power ballads culiminating in Alone, and Love is a Battlefield, via Whitesnake, Abba, Oasis, The Cure, Toni Basil, Christina Aguilera and many many more.

Surprisingly Saturday didn't see any sore heads (all that singing left little time for drinking), and after an emergency trip to Somerfield for breakfast goodies, and a chinwag, Rachel headed home leaving me to start work on writing Christmas cards, with brief interludes of newspaper reading and City shopping.

TJBR arrived just after 5pm, bearing scrummy sushi after which we headed over to the Barbican for the evening's main feature: Tintin in Tibet, as portrayed by The Young Vic. Back home, tom and Jo took their leave and soon after Barney and Rosa were tucked up in bed, and Mary-and-Phil's lack of suitable bedtime story reading material materialised. Luckily it was late enough for that not to prevent B&R falling asleep.

Sunday had a surprisingly late start (9.45), which allowed for professional levels of tickle-monstering before a breakfast of toast and crumpets, slathered in all varieties of jam, plus honey and marmite (not together I hasten to add). Phil and I then took Barney and Rosa on a residents-only tour of the Barbican Estate, featuring the Circus, the Lakes, Waterfall Island, the duck slides, the Secret Garden (v1 - underwater), the whirlpool, and the Secret Garden (v2 - with the playground, all weather court and cricket nets - all new to me!). We rendezvoused with a hungover Tom who subbed in for Phil who headed off to Somerset House for December's Sunday Brunch Bunch. After a semi-restorative drink and straw-construction session at the Waterside Cafe, we re-did the sight-seeing circuit, albeit at a rather faster pace and opting for the St Giles Church and Barbican Highwalk alternative ending.

After meeting Jo on the Podium, we retired indoors for a midday feast of yet more crumpets and toast. Jo and Rosa headed off for Damien's party, leaving Tom to continue on his 'recovery' on the sofa, watching BBC News 24 coverage of the Hemel Hempsted petrol storage depot explosion, and Barney and me to upload our whirlpool photos and video footage.

Phil arrived home and kept Tom company in the lounge until Tom and Barney left, headed home (planning to go via the Museum of London) c 3.30pm, by which time I was succumbing to Rachel's cold and feeling too tired to move (or to do any more Christmas card writing). I did manage to upload the best of the day's photos, and made a small dent in the Yalta backlog: Chersonesus [tick], Nikitsky Botanical Gardens [tick]. They're accumulating on Flickr, joining the ones of Hazel and my first day exploring Yalta (rust bucket chairlift, War Memorial, Aleksander Nevsky Cathedral, coast road/path east (in fools' quest to walk to Nikitsky), and the first half of the Ancient Wonders of the Crimea day trip, featuring Bakhchysaray in the morning which was followed by Cheronesus in the afternoon.

After much procrastination, I got around to looking at hotels to stay in when Phil and I have our overnights en route to/from the Falklands, using a combination of my Rough Guide to Chile and Hazel's Footpint Chile Handbook from our 2003 trip(s), Google and the indispensible XE currency converter.

In Punta Arenas, we shortlisted:

- Hotel Nogueira
The most expensive hotel in P.Arenas, but v central and a converted loggia (old house) and highly recommended by the guide books: "the place to stay in PA".
Double: USD 179 (c£100)

- Hotel Isla Rey Jorge
A bit business-y, but plugging itself as eco-friendly and with Wi-Fi. However I couldn't find details of the room rates on the website.

- Hotel Tierra del Fuego
Modern, business hotel, again another one recommended in the guidebooks.
Double: USD 118 (£70)

- Hotel Plaza
Looks a bit more spruce than the Mercurio, and right on the Plaza. In fact, I recognise the location from when H and I were there - I think we used the internet cafe a few doors down.
Double: USD 87 (£50)

- Hotel Mercurio
Double: USD 88 (£50)

We opted for the Hotel Plaza, on the basis that it looked better than the Mercurio, and all the others looked a bit posh for the likes of us. I just hope things have improved since this TripAdvisor review .....

Exhausted by that decision we took the easy option when it came to Santiago and are going for the Park Plaza in Providencia simply because Sue has stayed there and recommended it, and I found nothing to contradict that in the guidebooks, on TripAdvisor or on the hotel's own website. The only thing left now is to decide what to do about getting there from Santiago's airport, given that we land at 22:30.

Tom, Jo, Barney and Rosa came round for the day, spending a couple of hours this morning at a silhouette animation workshop at the Barbican, tied into the London Children's Film Festival (and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), before a lunch of soup/bean on toast and then out again. Leaving Jo to explore the delights of Spitalfields Sunday market, I took TBR on a winding walk through the City's backstreets to get to The Monument and Pudding Lane, where the Great Fire of London started in 1666 and which Rosa is studying at school at the moment.

£6 and 311 spiral staircase steps later we were at the top of the Monument, with a magic view out over the City, down towards the Tower, Carnary Wharf and Tower Bridge, south over Bankside and Borough, and west along the river.... all in the gorgeous light of a winter's dusk, all blues, pinks and crimsons merging into one another. To be truthful, neither Barney or I saw much of the views, as we both preferred to get back to terra firma asap, Barney counting the steps en route . Rosa and Tom, on the other hand, relished the bird's eye views. We all got certificates though. Revitalised by packets of crisps, we walked back the the Barbican via Leadenhall, the Lloyds Building, the Gherkin and the Nat West Tower for further refuelling with tea, juice and malt loaf before TJBR headed home.

I know, sounds like it's a rare event, which in many ways it is. Phil and I are great at walking into central London to get to classes at the City Lit, and to the cinema, and for the occasional mutually successful stroll along TCR for gadgets and flat furniture/stuff, but we rarely head into town for anything else, apart from the occasional group drinks, which are becoming increasingly rare as folk settle down and start sprogging.....

However, having been talking with Cait for a while about a night out at the theatre after our joint trip to see Stuart Lee at the Soho Theatre, we ended up arranging to meet her and Mackay in Leicester Square to watch Richard Herring do stand up in Ruby Blue, after which we headed round the corner into China Town for a leisurely meal - there was even a veggie set meal option! We all had a lovely time, and a late night!

.... in Emily Bell's piece on the new search they've implemented on The Guardian's websites, Forget the baroque syntax - searching is now easier than ever:

We have ditched what Stephen Dunn, our chief technical officer, described as the "baroque syntax" of our old search, which delivered poor results, and replaced it with something that enables you, we hope, to find what you are looking for, but also offers added information about our journalism.

One for Silhilians only I suspect, but it still makes me go "How cool is that?!".

I've just had a go at doing the homework our tutor, Alex, set us at the end of last Saturday's session - the first of three classes on Learn to write JavaScript at The City Lit. Doing a Saturday class is a bit of a killer, especially one that runs from 10am to 5pm.

This week's homework came in two parts:
1. Write half a page of A4 on why you're studying JavaScript;
2. Write some JavaScript to do a calculation similar to the make_triple one Alex talked us through at the end of session 1, demonstrating variable scope.

Here it is: Download file

And here is another example Phil talked me through: Download file

It feels as though I've been on the go every day for the past few weeks * (well, since H and I returned from Yalta at any rate, which was at the start of October) but today Phil and I had set aside for a mammoth vid & veg session. The extra hour from the clocks changing was an unexpected bonus, and meant that we could have a lie in and still watch all of the accumulated episodes of The Sopranos series 1 (from More Four), and a couple of The West Wing series 5 (playing catch up on a whole series there....), and the repeat of this week's episode of Lost on E4.

Bliss.

Phil and I headed over to Witham this evening for Janet's book launch. Whilst we've got a complimentary copy of A History of Witham sitting on the to-be-read shelf at home, it was the official launch this evening, and we saw lots of people carrying copies - a very good sign!

The party was in a lovely old barn behind the Spread Eagle pub on Witham High Street, and Phil, the tee-totaller, was in charge of the first free drink vouchers and welcoming people into the barn. I arrived about half way through the gathering, but in the remaining hour I was introduced to many of Family Gyford's friends and neighbours, aquaintances and contributors. No one was willing to divulge any embarrassing stories about Phil though. Apart from the one about losing at Scrabble.....

... starting off with drinks in The Bishop's Finger with Matt on Friday evening after one of his visits to St George's hospital in Tooting. He assured us (Cat, Hazel and I) that he wasn't looking at avian flu.... phew.

Next stop was Pho on St John Street for a tasty bowl of noodle soup, with summer and spring rolls for starters, and Beer Lao to wash everything down.

Saturday morning was a lazy affair with newspapers, coffee and croissants before we got our act together for a stroll through Smithfield and St Pauls, over the wobbly bridge to the Tate Modern for a quick look at Rachel Whiteread's Embankment, aka Dougal's sugar cubes, then along the south side of the Thames through Borough Market and on past London Bridge to More London where we paused for a bagel and a coffee before heading back to the Barbican via a typically deserted weekend City.

We took the bus down to Clapham Junction where Cat got to see Hazel's revamped flat and to meet Luke, and after a cup of tea we moved on to a couple of glasses of wine with crisps and The X Factor, which was subsequently (inevitably?) followed by pizza home delivery and another couple of bottles of wine and the Top 100 Horror Films.

Surprisingly, Sunday didn't see us suffering, especially after a tasty fry up rustled up by Luke as we girls vegged out in front of the box - trying to catch up on a year's worth of Hollyoaks plot. After clothes shopping on Northcote Road drew a blank, Cat and I headed north to Kings Cross, where Cat boarded the 14:53 to Leeds, and I the number 214 bus to Chiswell Street.

For the rest of the afternoon Phil and I indulged in a marathon session catching up on the episodes we've missed of The West Wing (the whole of series 5....2 down, 19 to go), accompanied by tea and cake.

Phew! Our one-year overdue flatwarming feels like it has been a great success today. We had lots of guests - family and friends from all parts of Phil and my various worlds - who came bearing lots of bottles and edibles, and the odd small person. No injuries or lost infants and 8 hours of host[ess]ing!

Just don't mention the pizza to Phil..... well, Saturday's pizza practice at any rate ;)

We've got Phil's Bristol mates Tim and Helen staying this weekend, and after a leisurely morning Tim and Helen arrived in time for a late lunch, after which we headed out for our local guided tour, taking in Smithfield/Farringdon, St Barts, St Pauls, the Wobbly Bridge, Tate Modern (where we revisited Rachel Whiteread's Embankment (white plastic moulds of cardboard box interiors, which bear a striking resemblance to giant sugar cubes), Bankside to the Royal Festival Hall - where Phil succumbed to the lure of scaffold-and-sheet-wrapped buildings, lit up by the late afternoon sun (it must be catching) - and then across Hungerford Bridge, then into Trafalgar Square, popping into the National Gallery and then catching the bus from Shaftesbury Avenue up to Islington.

This latter section (i.e. from Bankside onwards) was an extension to the usual round trip, but allowed for an evening in Islington, featuring time for shopping in the Angel centre (or whatever it's called), an early viewing of Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-rabbit (all the better for spotting Jay's name second in the list of animator credits, and Jay and Fi's baby Felix name checked in the 'babies born en route' credits a little later on) rounded off with a scrummy meal at the habitual Giraffe. Then a stroll home to atone for the feast.

Flatwarming tomorrow....

Gary's leaving drinks/do at Digress: good, bad and ugly.

I had my last HTML for Beginners class at the City Lit this evening, and after 12 hours (OK - I only made it to 3/4 of the sessions, so that's 9 hours...) I feel like I'm getting my head around the basics. I've not the self-motivation learn code from a book, and I'm too much of a novice with the concepts to feel comfortable learning from a website, and I have to say that our tutor, Puneet, provided just the kind of mix of explanation and exercises that suit me down to the ground. I now understand why some commands need a closing tag, and others don't, and why you can string together certain things and not others! Just the ticket for a control-freak, would-be coder.

Next stop, Advanced web design and hosting.

Laura and Ian on Ian's appointment as a District Judge, and Helen and Mark on the safe arrival of baby Lewis.

Hazel and I had a great week in Yalta courtesy of the Voyages Jules Verne package.

As well as discovering the delights that Yalta has to offer, we visited the historic sites of Bakhchysaray and Chersonesus, Balaklava and Sevastopol, drank lots of beer, the occasional (obligatory) vodka and ate lots of deep fried foods. Excellent all round.

Photos on Flickr: Yalta and the Crimea

25 September 2005: Flight from London Gatwick to Simferopol and 2 hour coach journey to Yalta (much more interesting than it sounds!)
26 September 2005: Exploring Yalta
27 September 2005: Daytrip 1: Bakhchysaray/Bakhchisaray Palace, Chersonesus, Simferopol, beer!
28 September 2005: Nikitsky Botanical Gardens, Yalta, Black Sea Fleet choir and dancers
29 September 2005: Daytrip 2: Balaklava, Charge of the Light Brigade, Sevastopol, Pizza, beer and vodka
30 September 2005: A DIY cruise on the Yalta-Alupka ferry along the Black Sea's Crimean coast, passing by the Swallow's Nest, the Livadia Palace, the Alupkinsky Palace and St Peter's Mount
01 October 2005: Last day, strolling around Yalta, paddling in the Black Sea and a final beer at our Hotel Bristol before coaching/flying home

The Barbican Talk discussion forum is a never ending source of local news. Today's discovery was details of the development that's going on next to CityPoint, on the site of what used to be Merrill Lynch offices.

According to SkyscraperPage.com, the Ropemaker Place redevelopment is going to get us a new skycraper:
Height: 93m
Floors: 23
Architect: Gensler Associates
Developer: Helical Bar
Artist's rendidtion

and a quick google gets me the Mayor of London planning decision, from 2003!
- Ropemaker Place initial representation (PDF)
- Ropemaker Place report (PDF)

::phew::

I'd almost convinced myself I'd messed up that 40 minute wander through project management technique.

Now I can stop thinking how to break it to Nigel and Anita that they wasted

Other than lounging around in deckchairs on the patio, reading, and snuggling under the duvet watching Firefly, Phil and I didn't do very much in our week at the cottage. Which is just what we wanted.

That said, we did venture out to Hay-on-Wye returning with another wonderful haul of second-hand books, (and still wondering just how The Granary manages to take 15 minutes to serve a couple of rounds of coffee and cakes ... ). We also made it into Hereford for an afternoon before heading over to dad and Jean's and off to Malvern to watch Daisy Miller at the Malvern Theatres. Excellent venue, not-so-good play. Foodwise, dad and Jean introduced us to the delights of Cafe Zam Zam indian in Malvern, and the fantastic Peterchurch Bistro (?) where we celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary with lots of delicious food and New Zealand chardonnay.

I made chutney too, *loads*. The limited edition Forty Acres range joins the hot off the hob Blanfred Little Plum range, and comes in three varieties:
- apple (it's a bit like Branston pickle, with fewer crunchy bits)
- spicey apple
- apple and red pepper

* Breakfast: 1 large tea, 2 slices of malt loaf
* Lunch: Deep Fried Brie with Cranberry Dressing, with mediterranean vegetable cous cous accompaniment
* Afternoon tea: 1 large tea, mini Bakewell coconut tart from M&S Teatime selection (birthday cakes from Jenny)
* Dinner: TBD, but hopefully followed by some moments privilegés

It may sound like some dental hygiene 'event', but in fact it's the long-planned - and I'd thought lost-on-leaving - ISEB exam to become a BCS-certified project manager.

Theresa surprised my with a "We've booked four slots. We are now but three. Do you want to make up the numbers?" email within hours of my re-joining Simmons & Simmons, and my reaction was, "Why not?". So after re-reading my OU course books and notes, joining Theresa, Steve and Maurice for a couple of revision sessions, and trying to map those and my experience to the ISEB syllabus, I headed off to Covent Garden this morning.

Two nice gents were the examiners, and the 45 minute oral was a series of high-level questions on mainly practical points. That said, it wasn't as interview-like as I'd thought it might be, and they seemed very focussed on scoring the buzz-words. That said, they didn't seem to concerned that I offered up a mixture of "we do this" and "we don't do this, but I know the theory/what we should be trying to do". Goodness only knows if that was the right thing to say, but it felt like it at the time. I hit a few blank spots, even with their prompting and pointers.

Have I passed? I don't know - maybe; maybe not. I'll let you know in a fortnight or so when we get the results. Fingers crossed times four.

Matt pointed me to the Londonist (set to be come my main source of info on London and London events) which is publicising the fact that this year's London Open House weekend prebooking has started.

Hot off the blocks, I booked Phil and I onto two tours:

- Behind the scenes at the Barbican
- St Paul's Cathedral Triforium, Library & Trophy Room

I have to say that the search facility for what buildings are open and booking details is pretty well hidden up in the horizontal menu (Buildings information > Online search), especially given that there are big flash buttons all over the main body of the website pages.

That's all I'm going to say.

Blimey - who'd have thought I'd become so obsessed with my roof terrace veggies! The runner beans are coming on a-pace, and on Helen's advice I had an exploratory grope in the potato pots.... and - YES! - there's pots in them thar pots!!

I've finally managed to book Hazel and I onto a week's holiday in Yalta, with Voyage Jules Verne. We've not been away with them before, but their package seems an OK deal, and they have a charter flight to Simferopol, wheras scheduled flights only get you to Kiev/Kyiv. The Crimea isn't everyone's top destination, but the area looks really interesting, and Yalta seems very geared up for tourists. We opted to treat ourselves to a stay at the Hotel Bristol, rather than the vast soviet-era Hotel Yalta.

We'll need tourist visas, and VJV charge £65 all in to get one for you. The Ukrainian embassy website gives visa costs as being £40 (£20 single entry tourist visa fee plus - get this - £20 visa processing fee). The Embassy is in Notting Hill, open Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 12noon and application requires invitations and other stuff.... so H and I agreed that it was worth paying VJV the additional £25 to do it for us.

I found this handy website with LOTS of info about Yalta and the Crimea, and includes Hotel Bristol.

We fly in 8 weeks!

In /Reading, I faithfully include links to Amazon for each book, and in doing the entries for the past week off between jobs, I've become increasingly irritated by two of the new (to me) features: the adverts - aka 'sponsored links' - inserted between the initial information and the reviews; and being unceremoniously dumped into the new 'Search Inside" tab in the search results.

What makes these all the more annoying is that they seem to happen on a sporadic basis, so I'm not able to train myself to ignore them or to identify how best to work around them.

Just try searching for "The Star of the Sea", and see what you get with the Search Inside results.... time to tweak your algorithm, Amazon?

After weeks of waiting, I spotted my first runner beans today!! And from the size of them I wonder if I've been watering with my eyes closed this week... the same goes for the double-figure quantity crop of french beans.

And it's not just beans - two tiny tomatoes have apeared on Phil's tomato plant.

Green-finger-Good-Life-tastic!

Phil returned with copies of The City Lit's Courses for Adults 2005 - 06 guide the other night, and today I signed up for a couple of courses that start in September:

- HTML for beginners + Advanced web design and hosting + Learn to write Javascript - yes, I know it might look like I know how to do this already, but that's all due to the technological smoke and mirrors provided by Movable Type, plus Phil's skillz

- Ways into anthropology: part 1 - because I've always fancied delving more into the theory of why, in time and through time, people and places are so 'same same but different'

The last time I signed up for adult education classes, other than language ones, was in 1993, when Nadia and I did a term of calligraphy in Chester....

This afternoon and evening was spent in the Tardis-like Whitbread Brewery celebrating Bob and Yoz's wedding, with a warm up snack-fest at ours for the geeky gentile contingent. Thanks to Yoz's excellent "Beginner's Guide To Jewish Weddings" we were all appropriately attired and able to appreciate the significance of most of the ceremonies ... and didn't shout Mazel Tov too soon.

Lots of dancing, fantastic food and Yoz and Bob carried aloft on chairs - what more could you ask for? And the speeches led to a few tears on our table I don't mind telling you.

• Creating a Favicon, courtesy of Alice's StorTroopers and Phil's Photoshop Skillz
• Demoting "Mary Loosemore's Selected Services" from the banner to a template area heading, and promoting "The travels of Mary Loosemore" - a more accurate description with fewer 'fnar' overtones - in its place
• Playing around with heading font sizes and paddings generally
• Changing the layout to move the Rilly Special Links over to the left hand side and to include excerpts for the most recent entries to /blog and /reading

I wish I'd had a lego submarine kit and a Star Wars DVD box set when I was 8!

Jo's birthday tea with Grannie and Grandpa was lovely - a gorgeous summer evening with very happy kids. It always makes a sad day into a much much happier one.

Farewell Norton Rose ... hello (again) Simmons & Simmons.

It's a long story, best told over a few beers, but I'm heading back to Simmons & Simmons to take up a role in the training and development team in Personnel.

Cue quips about:
* bad pennies
* returning leaving presents
* overly long commute

Catherine, Danny, Grainne, Rich, Neil, Fiona, Gary, Anthony, Sonal, Sabeena, Nisha, James, Kasia, Rob, Ted, Rhoda, Amber - I'll miss you guys!

It's 11:36, and I'm in an office on Camomile Street, which runs between Bishopsgate and Houndsditch.

When I was walking to work from my flat in the Barbican, I went past Moorgate where they had just evacuated the station. Everyone seemed very calm, commuters and staff. I helped a guy with directions, and he headed off towards Liverpool Street station to get the Central line. I can remember thinking that if this had happened just after 9/11 I would have felt extremely un-nerved, but that x years later evacuating a station didn't have the same impact and I assumed that it was "just a bomb scare".

Continuing my walk along London Wall I noticed lots of police vans, ambulances and sirens but didn't really think that much of it.

In the office, the sirens continued to wail as lots of police and emergency services headed towards Houndsditch, and as people trickled in we got more stories of stations being closed and a loud bang at Liverpool Street. Then we spotted that the police had cordoned off Houndsditch and the roads towards Aldgate. People started checking BBC News and pictures and Sky News online and getting calls from colleagues, family and friends about the bombs. Initially we heard that there had been an explosion on the Metropolitain line between Aldgate and Liverpool Street, which then became a power surge before reverting back to an explosion. The emergency services activity suggested that it was something serious.

I had a meeting in our main offices at 10, and coming out of that c10.45 Reception confirmed that the tube network had been shut down and that we had BBC News 24 playing in one of the main conference rooms. We went to watch, and saw reports of the bomb on the bus in Tavistock Square, and an incident map showing Edgare Road, Liverpool Street station/Bank and Aldgate.

About 20 minutes ago, the police evacuated the offices between ours and Aldgate and we heard reports of a bomb there on the news, but we've not heard anything and the police update to our IT Director was that they were only evacuating offices to give them more civilian-free space around Aldgate. We were told to lower the blinds and to stay away from the windows.

Now I'm feeling like I did with 9/11.

11:36 - I got Phil to sub my work email to Haddock so that I could get their updates from other parts of London and further afield. Anno and Ian mentioned that Brighton and Swindon stations were closed.

The office analysis is that it's linked to the Olympics decision yesterday, although the G8 summit could be a factor.

11:37 - email from Hazel, responding to Helen Vicars, saying "I'm fine - just got to Bank station just as they were closing the network down".

11:58 - email from Rachel Whorton (Vezey) saying that she's alright and asking if I was.

12:00 - BBC news reporting

Two people died and large numbers of casualties were reported after at least six blasts on the Underground network and a double-decker bus in London.

A police spokeswoman confirmed there had been two deaths at Aldgate and UK home secretary Charles Clarke said the explosions caused "terrible injuries".

12:07 - We've just had an email update:

This to let you know there there is no substantial change to my last message.

About half an hour ago there was a rumour of a bomb in Hounsditch, but the Police have told us this is not correct.

We (along with all London organisations) have received the following message:

"The number to contact for the Casualty Bureau is 0208 358 0101".

I will continue to keep you informed of any developments.

12:15 - We decided to venture over to the canteen for lunch. Whilst the roads are eerily quiet, there are some cars and vans trying to find a way through the road blocks. There is a cycle-policeman and horse-policeman at the Houndsditch junction and policemen further down Camomile Street towards Aldgate. Today of all days I left my digital camera at home and my mobile is almost out of battery power. Gallows humour over bubble and squeak and chips, with the older hands reminiscing over the two bomb blasts that Norton Rose has been through in its lifetime.

12:45 - Recharging mobile, courtesy of Danny.

12:55 - Flickr photos

13:19 - BBC picture of the bus, BBC news report on transport disruption, and Stef's realtime tube disruption map

13:29 - Reading blogs on Haddock and The Guardian. Phil's safe at home uploading links being posted to Haddock.

13:40 - Gary's brother is in London today for a meeting in Holborn, and he's reported that the police are evacuating everyone westwards towards Paddington.

14:17 - Ian's sent in a link to pictures of Brighton station.

14:24 - A siren, the first for a while - sounds like it's going down Bishopsgate, or Houndsditch.

14:31 - TfL and National Rail Enquiries have got their homepages set to running updates on transport options. Earlier this morning, TfL just had it's normal page, without any indication of the disruption.

14:43 - Reading BBC's consolidated "In depth" coverage

15:41 - email telling us that the police update is that things seem to be calming down and that cordons are being reduced.

16:26 - Heading home now.

17:21 - Home and reading emails from family and friends. I'm strangely chuffed to have sent the first email about the bombs to Haddock. But then again, my emotions today have been all over the place. It was very weird walking back through the City... as quiet as a weekend, but with lots of lines of people snaking their way towards the suburbs. All under blue skies and sunshine.

The BBC is now saying that there are more than 30 dead. Matthew Somerville's BBC backstage enabled rolling log of changes to the BBC News site must come into its own on days like today. Ditto Flickr as a photographic record of the day, the news coverage and people's reactions.

19:32 - Just to end on a lighter note, I took some photos on my phone camera on my way home, and having discovered I couldn't get them off using InfraRed or anything like that (not having PC to load the PC suite onto...), I thought I'd mms them to Phil... until i got distracted by the 'send to e-mail' option which has worked like a dream. I'd assumed i've have to input some too-complicated-to-bother-with settings, but no - simply type in the email address and send! So the resolution is rubbish, but they capture my views of the calm evacuation of Houndsditch, and the eerily quiet homeward-bound lines of commuters on foot.

.... who've just won the New Stateman New Media Awards 2005 for TheyWorkForYou.

No doubt they are all celebrating in style at Fabric as I type.

Phil and I went to see In My Father's Den at the Barbican this evening, and really really enjoyed it. Set in modern day New Zealand, it's a gently paced film that turns from an awkward family reunion to a still slow-paced whodunnit/whydunnit.

A quite breathtaking and beautiful film.

But the *best* bit for the laydeez is the main male lead.... the gorgeous Matthew MacFadyen playing the deep and meaningful Paul Prior. He will be the perfect Mr Darcy.

As ever, the first test of any new Google feature is a 'Loosemore' ego-search.

Hmm, never heard of Martin Loosemore before - usually it's Sandra that tops the lists.

Maybe Jean wasn't so wrong when she told me I had green fingers!

It's a french bean, on the runt of the seedlings.

Look!

Phil and I went to see Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre last night, and it was superb. The singing and the choreography of the cast was amazing, especially the four main leads, and the sets were simple yet atmospheric. Ewan McGregor and Jane 'the psycho secretary from Ally McBeal' Krakowski did not disappoint.

Well worth the price of the tickets, and the suntrapped heat of the theatre, all rounded off with tasty Japanese at Zipangu between Chinatown and Leicester Square.

I've read their reasons why*, and I'm currently considering whether I commit to paying the annual cost of fotopic's premium service - currently

We're just back from a fab party to celebrate Yoz and Bob's civil wedding. The ceremony was at Camden Town Hall, followed by refreshing drinks at Smithy's Wine Bar and it was a chance to catch up with lots of friends that I'd not seen for ages. It was so hot - still - that Phil and I just had to nip home to change out of our posh outfits and into more chilled summertime togs.

Here are my photos; whilst there are two sets accumulating on flickr.

And come hometime, we could walk - which brought an opportunity to take lots of gleaming shots along Goswell Road and the Barbican.

A lovely end to a lovely day, that started with our first breakfast on the roof terrace (check out those runner beans!!), and winding up with take out curry. No response from Spice Corner (uh-oh), so we tried Chawol, which turned out to be very, very tasty...

Phil and I went to the Barbican's Balcony bistro for dinner last night - it's above the Waterside café and has a lovely terrace dining area looking out over the lake. It's not cheap (and the food was OK, but not great) - about £10 for a main, £5 for a starter, £5 for a pud, and the wine by the glass was pricey. But a fab summer-time location, and off the beaten track.

Last night's summer party was very much fun! Boiling hot on the first day of summer's first heatwave, well organised, a really good live band and a disco that was prepared to play S Club 7. Dodgems too!

The only fly in the ointment were the over-aggressive and unnecessarily rude security staff.

... was a lovely day of nuptials in beautiful Surrey settings, and although I didn't cry in the church, I did shed a tear at Neil's speech. Here are my photos.

We're just back from spending the Bank holiday weekend with Tim and cardtastic Helen, two of Phil's college crowd. We had a lovely time - enjoying a range of activities, from an excellent production of Chekhov's Three Sisters at the Tobacco Factory, to sampling the delights of the Slow Food Market, to laying a brick patio at the allotment.

I got garden centre vouchers from Jo and Tom for my birthday - at my request - showing my maturity by getting green fingers.... or at least trying to! I spent the vouchers this evening buying bedding plants at Homebase in Wandsworth Town, having been to Hazel's to water their plants.

I did succumb to a burst of anticipatory amateur green fingeredness a few weekends back, inspired by the onset of the warm weahter to get rid of all the old plants and 'garden furniture' that the previous owners/tenants had left behind, and weeding the planters. But that left everything looking a bit bare with just a straggly ivy and two evergreen climbing bush things (yes, see how natural a gardener I am!!). Hopefully the new plants will survive and brighten things up a bit, plus provide some runner and/or green beans!

Phil and I were in Avignon for my birthday, spending a long week there courtesy of Eurostar and the TGV, and staying in a nice family run hotel just inside the old town walls. Hotel d'Angleterre's free wifi proved a hit as Phil had his laptop so we could check mail (and deal with comment spam - grrr) while on holiday.

We had a very lazy time, lots (lots!) of reading and soaking up the spring sun, with the occasional dollop of culture and sight seeing, mooching around the old streets, and heading out on a day trip into the Provencal countryside with Cars Lieutaud and taking the train up to Orange - to see the Roman theatre, sandwiched between lunch in a lovely brasserie terrace and wicked coffee/chocolate and cake in a salon du thé! - and down to Montpellier - lots of sitting in cafes and watching the world go by.... and trying to recall places and geography from when Tom was there.

The holiday all seems a long time ago now, and we only got back yesterday. Mind you, it was a relief to get back to eateries that serve at least one veggie food option as standard. We had take away from the recently opened Spice Corner to celebrate, and very tasty it was too.

On the home front, our lounge chairs arrived today, so the sofa has some companions, and the lounge area looks more like a lounge and less like a sofa + bookselves + TV/Video/DVD/Amp!

On holiday, and suffering the worst comment spam attacks in the history of sparklytrainers.... 500+ yesterday, the same again overnight.

I just love spending an hour of every sunny Provencal day communing with MT-Blacklist. Not. On the other hand, if it wasn't for the wonders of Wi-Fi at the Hotel d'Angleterre, and Phil's powerbook, I'd have it all to do when we get home by which time it would be much, much worse I suspect.

I know that the volume of comment spam I'm getting probably pales into insignficance compared to other people's experience, but for me it begs the question: Should I turn off comments altogether? I occasionally get some genuine comments, particularly in relation to A little mouse with clogs on, and on my reading, and I do value these. But how much?

It's not only the comments, but it's the notification emails clogging up the pop mail I pick up via Yahoo Mail - over 1000 comment spam notifications, on top of the 200+ spam emails, completely overwhelming the 10 genuine emails in there. Thank heavens for filters....

I've had a satisfying evening downloading my February and March photos from my Canon Ixus V, sorting them out into folders and uploading selected collections to fotopic:

Tower42, blue skies and backlit clouds
Valentine's Day Pasties, by Phil
Sunny views - Farringdon, Smithfield, Barbican
Barbican in the snow
Snowing in Camomile Street
Good bye Copper Grill, Sayonara Salon Yamamoto
Spitalfields, old and new - including the noted house for paper bags, and Dino's cafe
Dad's birthday weekend at Forty Acres - The new tree house, and walking to the Neville
White wrapped office block, demolition in progress, Ropemaker Street / Chiswell Street / Moor Lane / Finsbury Street
Easter weekend at Walton on the Naze (brrrr)

There's been a thread on Haddock today about not missing the chance to talk to your grandparents about their lives while they are still alive, and taping these conversations to capture that family history for posterity.

It reminded me of the tape that my dad sent out to me in the US when Hazel and I were on our round the world travels of a recording my mum had made at a family do back in the 80s when we tried to get her mum, Nana Helen, to reminisce (sp) about her life. It wasn't particularly successful on the family-history-as-told-by-nan front because she felt too self-conscious about talking near the tape recorder with everyone around, but it brilliantly captures a Print-Trumper-Tapp family afternoon of chaos at Uncle Norman's. That alone got me welling up when I first heard the tape again, and thinking about it now, out of the family that were there then and whose voices the tape holds all the grandparents and half the parents have since died.

It also got the thinking, that the next time the family gathers at dad and Jean's we should direct Barney and Rosa's regular demands to "Tell me about naughtly things you/daddy did when you were young" onto the older generation.....

... and I'd like to think that when we are 'the older generation', the youngsters will be able to mooch around here to see what was happeing in my life, and what I was like/doing/feeling from my mid-30s on.

We're off to Walton, la la la la laaaaaaaaa

We're off to Walton, la la la la laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

We're off to Walton, la la la la laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

We're off to Walton, la la la la laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Hurrah for the Easter holidays.

Neil and I went to Foyles to listen to Tom Stafford and Matt Webb talk about their Mind Hacks, as documented in their O'Reilly book. A fun and relaxed talk, with several DIY tests to show you that you can carry out experiments that teach you more about cognitive science.... cool!

'I'll show you mine...', Phil's article on Flickr, appeared on the BBC website today.....

.... as did this 'E-mail is under-used in politics' technology article, which has WriteToThem as a related link.

I'm a very proud girlfriend and sister.

Phil and I went to see 5x2 this evening... I like modern french films, and the Barbican's 3 cinemas (count 'em!) are soooooooo handy. So handy in fact that Phil wore his sandals there!!

What did I think? The concept worked well - 5 scenes from a couple's life, workng back from their divorce to the start of their relationship. I didn't particularly enjoy the early scenes - they felt too much like things were on the edge of violence, which made them good, strong scenes, and made the later scenes, dealing with the couple's history, all the more effective.

and I hardly thought about work at all!

*and* we have Monday's ER to watch on the vid while we have tea too!!

Something to look forward to - a week in Provence over my birthday.

We booked return tickets (Waterloo - Lille Europe - Avignon) on the Eurostar and TGV yesterday, for a grand total of £109 each (I'd expected more, but then again it's more expensive than a cheap budget airline flight, and than a comparably long train journey in the UK, eg London - Aberdeen).

And today Phil's confirmed a booking for a double room at the Hotel d'Angleterre, a family run, Logis de France hotel in central Avignon with WiFi in every room!!! Phil's in seventh heaven at the prospect (of WiFi), as I am (at the prospect of a holiday, in France)

Rach came to stay last night, and we had a great evening gassing away about life, the universe, Frankfurt, jobs and..... Moscow!!

Yes, more than a decade after spending 6 months there as part of her degree (and when Ruth and I went to visit after our 3rd year finals) Rachel Graham's heading back east! She's got a job on The Moscow Times, and starts in the summer. Cor!

I've already put in my request for a trip on the Trans-Siberian-or-Mongolian once she's settled in :) Oooh look - you can take in the Ice Festival at Harbin....

So that's next year's holiday sorted!

Hmmmm, *maybe* I could combine it with a trip back westwards along the Silk Route....

After much deliberating and a couple of trips around Brick Lane / Spitalfields and over to the furniture emporiae of Tottenham Court Road we've finally settled on two armchairs to add to the sofa in the lounge of Ben Jonson House.

We've decided against getting a matching pair, or trying to make the chairs and sofa look like a suite, and have gone for a chair each from the SIT range at Little Book of Furniture (don't bother if you can't bear to wait for the irritating flash movie to load....) shop in Spitalfields:

Phil: Cube chair in a brown suede finish (no link because of the marvels of flash)
Mary: IT chair in polished brown leather (no link because of the marvels of flash)

I've just set up and done my first photo printing with the Canon Pixma IP4000 I got as my leaving gift from Simmons & Simmons, and it's fantastic!!

Set up was painless (once Phil had raided his box of "cables and stuff" to dig out a USB cable to connect the printer to my Mac) and I've just printed off 5 copies of this photo to send to the porters in the picture.

The quality's great and I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon playing around with the various settings. Well, I would if the printer came with more than a photo printer paper sample of more than 5 sheets.....

A long overdue purchase for my eMac, which came with a bog standard, albeit aesthetically pleasing mouse: a scrolling, right-clicking mouse, courtesy of Saitek, by way of MicroAnvika.

And soooo easy to install - just plug in and play. Bliss.

Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.

What were they thinking?

Season Two, Episode 4: The New Era, as screened this afternoon on C4 - Marissa's cockernee stylee baker boy cap, with green velvet derriere bow, waistcoat over white puffy-sleeved shirt, and Rupert-the-Bear/golfing-closet-of-shame checked trousers.

Sadly the looks-lovely-but... The OC official website from Fox won't let me link to anything, so you'll just have to go and find the gruesome evidence for yourself.

Phew - you're saved the trouble, but not the trauma.

Thank heavens for the internet.

Phil and I went to see Richard Herring's one man show The Twelve Tasks of Hercules Terrace last night, and the £4.60 (ouch) return tube fare to Hammersmith was worth every penny.

It was a last minute decision, and I'm v glad that we decided to stir our stumps and head west to the Riverside Studios. Not only did we get to enjoy a very funny show, but we had plenty of time for a tasty meal beforehand, courtesy of the very fine Riverside Cafe/Bar. We almost ran out of time for dessert though, which would have been the second time that particular ill-deserved, non-dessert disaster would have befallen us at the Cafe/Bar..... Top tip: order pud well in advance of when you think you'll want it!

But back to the main attraction - Richard Herring, and his twelve tasks....

Phil introduced me to Warming Up a while back, so some of the material in the show was familiar. But seeing the writer in action and delivering their own work changes everything. For starters, I'd thought RH was rather taller than he is (Sorry!), and as he recounted the background to his taking on Hercules Terrace, and the Twelve Tasks, the self-depreciating humour of Warming Up became tinged with the sadness of reality: the tasks were a means of working through a period of depression, not some juvenile jolly jape.

Go see it, and discover the joys of CNPS - there's another whole sub-culture out there, just *waiting* to be discovered.....

LONDON RUN OF THE TWELVE TASKS OF HERCULES TERRACE:
February 8th - 20th February 2005 (not 14th) at 9pm
(except 13th and 20th Feb at 5.45pm, 11th and 19th Feb at 7.30pm)
Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, Hammersmith.
Box Office telephone: +44 (0)20 8237 1111

Nationwide / Gig listing

One of my least favourite ways to spend a Saturday afternoon.... writing another letter to Jewel in the Crown about why Hazel and I are seeking a refund for the holiday we bought from them, staying at the half built, not quite 'Le Meridien' yet, Kovalam Beach hotel. Judge for yourself: brochure vs our reality.

Typically Jewel in the Crown's response to my letter of complaint arrived the week after I left on my between jobs trip to northern India and Nepal, and when I got back I also found Donna's letter with copies of her equally unsatisfactory correspondence with Jewel in the Crown.

So I've spent my first Saturday back in the UK, at the end of my first week in a new job, writing to Jewel in the Crown. Again. If anyone ever hears me considering a swanky package holiday ever again, please remind me of this unhappy experience.

I've emailed Pauline to see if Jewel in the Crown are being equally unrepentant to all three of us, and I'll have another look at Which?'s website, to see what they say about package holiday horror stories, and Citizens Advice Bureau's AdviceGuide to see what we need to do to take our complaint to the small claims court.

I'm not quite at that stage yet, but it will depend on Jewel in the Crown's next response.

.... wasn't nearly as scary as I'd built it up to be in my overactive imagination, despite the distractions of India and Nepal. That said, it does feel really weird to be the newbie and to be somewhere that has some elements that are really familiar and others that are totally alien.

This morning was given over to a general induction, including an overview of the firm, security briefing (another glorious photo on my pass/the intranet) and some basic IT training. I spent the afternoon exploring the intranet and setting up Outlook (hurrah!). I have DMS training tomorrow, and (probably) laptop training on Thursday (flat screen monitor and laptop come as standard!), and *then* I'll probably have to do some real work!

After the tortuous return flight from Kathmandu (the killer stage being the 6 hour stop over in Abu Dhabi - home of the world's most uncomfortable airport seating - from 9.40pm to 3.30am), it's been a nice but weird day back in London. Phil met me at LHR, which was really really lovely, and once back in the Barbican and after unpacking and starting the washing marathon we headed over to Warwick Avenue for a very tasty lunch at the Prince Albert Pub and Formosa Dining Room, organised by Tom Coates.

Time for a bit of a veg session now catching up on all the telly Phil's videoed in my absence (USA-tastic: The OC! The West Wing! Desperate Housewives!). Then I'll think about getting my stuff together for day 1 at Norton Rose...... Sorting holiday pics will have to wait a while.

I'm sitting in Varanasi in the internet cafe in the hotel we're in - the first time I've managed to get online so far. At 50 rupees for 90mins works out at less than 1p/minute and as today is a free day, I'm making the most of it. Oh yes - before I forget, Elke also showed me the Clinic Beaucare website.

But back to Varanasi....

We were up at 5.45 to go on a boat ride on the Ganges to see the sun rise over the ghats (the steps where people come to wash/pray/cremate) .... but all we saw was lots and lots of rain and about 5 people instead of the hundreds shown in the postcards, the magnificent palaces built by kings and princes, which rise majestically above the ghats, looked rather rundown and forlorn in the daylight.

We've been really unlucky at times with the weather - overcast and cold in Delhi and Jaipur where the morning fog made it cold too, and not so good for taking photos :( That said, Jaipur and the Amer/Amber Palace still managed to impress, as did the camel carts and colourful local life as well as the buildings and scenic settings of Rajasthan.

We've just had 2 hot and sunny days, in Agra (so good pics of the Taj Mahal, which is every bit as amazing as you'd expect, and the Red Fort, which was equally stunning), and then travelling on an overnight train to Allahabad (11pm departure, 5am arrival, confluence of 3 sacred rivers, and lots of pilgrims). After three hours of recuperation in an Allahabad hotel (not sure why we needed 3 hours...) we continued on by coach through sunlit rural villages, and in one we had an impromptu stop at the village school (which proved to be less voyeuristic than I initially feared), in addition to the programme's scheduled stops at a temple (where I felt we weren't really very welcome...) and the old fort at Chunnar. The rest of the day was spent relaxing on a tranquil 4 hour boat cruise down the Ganges to Varanasi, where we arrived under cover of darkness and so were able to see the evening prayers in full effect.

I've just booked the Exodus Delhi to Kathmandu trip I spotted earlier this week - paying extra for business class/premium economy flights but what the hell, travelling is why I work!

So next step is to sort out visas for Nepal, and possibly India (Grrrrr - I can't believe that I may have to get another visa because the Kerala one expires on 03 Feb!!! Why was I so organised about getting my India visa for Kerala sorted out???), and to check out books and background info. Oh, and to transfer some

Well, having provisionally arranged to start at Norton Rose on 07 February, I met Sue Hobson today and fixed my leaving date for Friday 21 January..... so this evening I have been checking out holiday options, and in the wee small hours (well past 1am on 06 Jan), I found this Delhi to Kathmandu trip with Exodus:

Delhi, the booming capital of modern India, has had many rulers and contains a wealth of buildings and culture that bring to life its rich and turbulent history. Safe in its natural mountain fortress, the fabled city of Kathmandu was virtually cut off from the rest of the world until the last half century. Smaller, but no less fascinating, this city has been described as having more temples than houses and more gods than people. To travel between these two very different cities is one of the most beautiful and fascinating journeys in Asia. For culture vultures the Taj Mahal, the 'Pink City' of Jaipur, the holy city of Varanasi or the Buddhist Stupas of Kathmandu may be the highlight; for those more interested in nature's treasures, spotting rhino on an early morning elephant ride through Chitwan National Park may feature as high on the list as their first view of the mighty Himalaya, towering 8000m. (26,000 ft.) above the plains on the India/Nepal border. On any journey however it is often the friendliness of the people you meet on your way that lasts longest in the memory.

Travel: Private bus, train, boat and elephant.
Group & staff: Min. 8, max. 16, plus leader, driver, local guides for sightseeing.
Accommodation: 11 nights hotels, 2 nights jungle lodge, 1 overnight train.
Food: All breakfasts and 1 lunch included; full board at Chitwan.
Travel dates: Fri 21 Jan 05 Sun 06 Feb 05
Cost: TBC

.... that I'm leaving. Part of me feels awful, but a bigger part feels relieved.

.... but Abby's asked me not to tell anyone until the new year. It's a relief to have handed over my very short letter, and to have started the path towards leaving. i can see that I'm going to have to get my Reasons for Leaving off pat.

..... Hello Norton Rose.

Despite the last minute curve ball, I've decided that I'm going to accept the offer from Norton Rose to join them as a project manager in their IT department, and I've just called Computer People Kate to let her know. She's getting NR to send out my contract today.

Next task is to write my letter of resignation and hand it in to Abby without her thinking it's a wind up.... wihch I think might be her first reaction after all the gallows humour of the past few weeks.

Another of the things my dad fails to tell me!!

I knew that Huw and Allison David were travelling around the world on their bikes, but I didn't know they had a website - nay "blog" - which they update with diary entries and photos.... Mary Ruth told me about it today, so I've got a couple of months of catching up (and envying) to do.

Whilst I envy their 2 year trip, but not so sure about doing it all on bikes (give or take a RTW air ticket) ....

Occasionally I do something really, really stupid which upsets someone else, albeit unintentionally.

And today was one of those days.

So, sorry Maurice.

:(

That's what I'm now offically allowed to call Hazel. Not that she's *my* girlfriend of course. That's Luke's priveledge and, no doubt, his pleasure too.

And apparently Raji and I get to meet the man next week - v.g.

See what sharing a bottle and 2 glasses of Australian red gets you? Bridget Jones would be proud.

Yesh, informashion and a spinning head. uh-oh - french tomorrow. double uh-oh....

... with the 'witch' in this case being the OU PM exam.

No more revision!
No more feeling that I should be / haven't done enough revising!
No more activity-on-arrow / activity-on-node analysis!
No more PRINCE2 Components, Processes or Techniques!

Woo hooo!

Let's just hope I've passed, otherwise I'll be regretting this euphoria (currently mixed with exhaustion) in 2 1/2 months time... yes, exam results are not due out until 'late December'!

We've completed!!!

Zone 1, here we come

:)

Such a relief.... It's been a nerve-racking few days of phone calls and frantic faxing.

Next step, completion on 01 October.

... required a mad dash back from the OU Revision weekend in Reading, but worth it as:

1. Everyone was wonderful and happy, Matt and Fiona most of all
2. There were lots of Mary-and-Phil friends there
3. I saw inside the RSA - a fascinating building, where Barney and Rosa outdid themselves in the Olympic Stair Jumping stakes (Tom Coates did quite well too)
4. It gave my sides a rest from Maurice/Tony/Steve induced laughter

Photos by Tom Coates
Photos by Chris and Helen Locke
Photos by me and/or Rosa and/or Barney and/or Phil

My favourites:

I feel unworthy for saying this, but Phil and I went to see Dodgeball on Friday night, and I've not laughed so much and so loudly for ages, to the extent that I had tears streaming down my face (unlike Wednesday's tears which were booze-fuelled. uh oh).

Just what the doctor ordered.

First day back at work after a lovely long week at Forty Acres where Phil and I enjoyed days of endless sunshine, a pile of good books, and fine food and wine in deepest darkest (sunniest) Herefordshire.

After spending Sunday at Dinedor with dad and Jean, TJBR and Jean's parents, we ventured out on Bank Holiday Monday to sample the (as it turned out, limited) delights of Peterchurch Show & Sports before driving on to Hay-on-Wye for afternoon tea at the Granary (their service is sooooooo slow) and a mooch in the bookshops.

We didn't go out again until Thursday when we entertained dad and Jean and Jean's aunt Jean to morning coffee after which we all headed down to Abbey Dore, and lunched at Abbey Dore Court, and then in the evening dad drove us all over to Crickhowell for dinner at The Bear to mark their wedding anniversary.

Drove out to Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye on Friday, returning with more books and a bag full of tasty goodies from Truffles (veggie scotch eggs - heaven! - from the Handmade Scotch Egg Company), and on Saturday we headed into Hereford to sample the delights of the farmers' market and shops generally.

Saturday afternoon saw dad and Jean arrive for reading and relaxation (Jean) and mowing (dad) followed by a fantastic BBQ courtesy of dad and the Hereford Butter Market butchers.

The rest of the time Phil and I simply pottered - reading out on the sunsoaked patio, moving out onto the lawn as the shadows lengthened, cooking and baking cakes, practising guitar and Japanese (both Phil's!) and watching old episodes of James Burke's Connections.

A: 3 trees

How: Using the Woodland Trust's Dedicate a Tree scheme

Hazel and I are giving Findlay 3 trees here.

I just hope we've spelt (spelled?) his name correctly.... Findlay vs Findley, oh the dilemma.

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,
Knees and Toes
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,
Knees and Toes

And Eyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

As sung by the Teletubbies, here, and as in Bits Of Me That I Foolishly Managed To Sunburn This Weekend.

That'll be another slathering of moisturiser for me tonight. And tomorrow. And the day after.....

But we did have the most lovely and relaxing weekend at Walton on the Naze. Again.

Phil and I took a day trip out to Witham today to go to the dowsing day at Cressing Temple Barns - the oldest barns in the world.

We started off exploring Silver End, a complete 1930s village built by philathropist businessman Frank Crittall, for the workers (and their families) at his Crittall windows works, and then walked the mile or so to Cressing Temple Barns, built by the Templars in the 12th Century to store the harvest and grain seeds produced by the Cressing Estate given to them by Queen Mathilda.

Cressing Temple is a great site, with a lovely 16 century walled garden and lots of old farm buildings in a quiet green setting. The dowsing was led by one of the county archeologist, who favoured a scientific explanation as to why our coat hanger dowsing rods swivelled when we walked over buried things. We started off crossing mains water pipes that he knew existed, and where he could show us the route they ran underground, to dowsing an unexcavated part of the site, where they think the Elizabethan farm house once stood. Our dowsed outline matched the outlines generated by expert dowsers, and the geo-physical survey....

A lovely active summer day.

After a quick flit around the Silk Road exhibition at the British Library, and the amazing photos taken by selected 20 century european explorers, I headed back to EC2 to rendezvous with Phil to go to see Before Sunset at the Barbican.

I've not seen Before Sunrise - even though I tried to persuade Hazel to get it out on many a vid 'n' veg night - but even without the background I loved the film. The head straight into cliche-ville, it tugged at the heartstrings, and by the end I had tears running down my cheeks, not wanting the story to end.

The *only* annoyance were the fake walks around Paris (you know, where they turn left at the Eiffel Tower and find themselves looking at Notre Dame) but I don't suppose many viewers would even notice that.

The dilemma delivered by Before Sunset is... do I watch Before Sunset ....?

After many frustrations with the OU's required project management software package (PS8), and irritations with the lack of constructive support from the OU in general, I've finally managed to do my second assignment (with heart-felt thanks to Theresa and Tony who helped me get past the point of wanting to quit purely because PS8 and OU's customisation of it is such a waste of everyone's time), and after a dispiriting 2 hours in work on a Saturday (on top of 2 Sundays here mainly spent grappling fruitlessly with PS8), I'm only 200 words over the limit, and have reached the point where it's not worth agonising any further, so I've sumbitted it.

And emailed Miles asking him to check that he can open the document and type his tutor's comments in it.

British Library, here I come!

Hazel and I are off to a fortnight of luxury at the Le Meridien Kovalem Beach in November!!! I booked today, and I can't wait. It's just the carrot I need to get me through the shitty BMS Portal project at work, and the Open University Project Management exam - both of which are due to crystalise mid-October.

We're going with Jewel in the Crown holidays (they *really* need to sort out the website optimisation, it took me a lot of perseverence to find their website again so that I could book!), so it's a convenient package of flights, transfers and B&B accommodation, in a deluxe hotel, the very same place where Janette and I enjoyed a couple of amazing yoga classes when we went to Kerala with Kuoni in 1996, not forgetting the massage and beauty treatment session we induldged in on our last morning. I won't be getting my hair conditioned this time....

All that remains is to get a tourist visa from the Indian High Commission at Aldwych.

Hazel and I went to see Jerry Springer - The Opera last night. It was an excellent evening, warming up for our American theme with burgers at Ed's Diner in Soho.

The show itself was excellent, albeit a tad "blue" on the words front. I don't think 5 minutes went by without a slew of **** ***** ***** *****. All beautifully set to music though :)

David Soul played Jerry, and he was far better than I'd expected - not a whiff of Starksy (or was he Hutch?). In fact the whole cast was superb, really getting into the spirit of the show, drawing the audience along with it. I've spent today singing "Talk to the hand....." at various colleagues, and warming up with a spot of "Jer-ry Jerry", complete with hand movements on both counts.

Hazel and I headed up to Brum yesterday for Louie's birthday party at Priory School, and to catch up with Fiona, Greg and Family. We took advantage of the mid-afternoon start to squeeze in a spot of shopping, once I'd recovered from the shock of the Bull Ring transformation - no more underpasses! a completely new route for the Queensway! No more market! Instead, the lovely new shiny shopping mall, containing some very swanky shops. There was an amazing number of shoppers about too - although H and I weren't amongst them.

At Priory School it was 6 hours of blasts from the past, with loads of Links Drive neighbours, more of whom have moved on the pastures new: The Balmers, The Blays, David Gill, Jayne Hanson, the Harmans, the Whites, the Albutts. The whole Kennedy clan was out in force, complete with 7 grandchildren, and the musical performances by Andrew's 2 eldest daughters (5 and 3) won the day - their violin renditions were better than anything heard at No 78 I reckon!

I got to drive back to London, and H and I made the mad dash onto the last tube from Ealing common, leaving dad and Jean to overnight wih Kate, and to spend the day at her graduation today.

A manic, but fun, morning at Alexandra Palace Ice Rink was had by all, even the adults whose ice skating days were long past. Barney sped around like the regular rinker that he is, although some of his other friends struggled to gain their balance, looking more like ducklings on ice than budding Robin Cousins.

The Ally Pally package came complete with a Birthday Lunch in the far end of the cafe - the first time I've had chocolate spread sarnies for years. It was all a bit chaotic, but I guess that's the sign of a very good time when you're 6/7!

Jo's photos
My photos

Back home, Barney unwrapped a pile of lovely pressies, and tried out Operation and the microscope. And we all had a spot more lunch.....

The Guardian's published a piece on Phil in it's Online supplement, which makes me very, very proud. The paper edition comes complete with a lovely quarter page close up too.

It's a pity about the spurious space in TheyWorkFor You.com, and the absence of any mention of gyford.com!

Post script: 14 July 2004
When Phil went in for a meeting at Poke today, they'd produced this Man of the Moment wall display :)

Phil and I have just returned from a delightful weekend in Derbyshire, joining his mum's cousin and family in celebrating Roger's retirement.

We travelled up from the revamp-in-progress St Pancras, a mere 2 hours on Midland Mainline, and were met at Derby station by Roger and Ben. They ferried the collected family and friend to Rose Cottage, Kirk Ireton where we enjoyed a lovely supper sat around the kitchen table, soup and souls warmed by the aga.

Saturday saw us decorating the Quakers' Meeting House in Bakewell in honour of Roger's Retirement, and laying out the feast prepared and provided by Liz for assorted family and friends. After a lovely walk along the disused railway route, everyone ate themselves silly before heading off in all directions. We returned to KI for a snooze, some tennis and then more food and lots and lots of chat.

Sunday was a very relaxed day, with a late rise and shine, a leisurely breakfast over the weekend papers and then a stroll around the lanes before late lunch and the train back to London.

Lucky Janet's staying until Tuesday.

I'm dead proud (and yes, a little envious) of my brother's involvement in this, the BBC's "vision of the future and manifesto for action".

Matt's most esteemed appearance in a publication to date - The Sun

Cor, wot a stunna etc etc etc......

He tells me he's amended his CV accordingly.

Hazel and I have just returned weary and wan from an excellent weekend in Leeds/Saltaire, celebrating Cat's 30th birthday.

We spent a very pleasant Saturday avoiding the rain, mooching around Saltaire, built by philanthropist Titus Salt, and the eponymous Salt's Mill complex, now converted into a fine collection of eateries and shops.

The main event on Saturday was Cat's Big Night Out, and after a celebratory glass of champagne, we took the train into Leeds to meet up with the rest of the birthday party people at the Cactus Lounge, and from there moved next door for drinks at the Wardrobe, and thence (oh how the mighty are fallen) to the Walkabout where we were outshone by the Pink Ladies hen party on the dance floor, and almost everyone else on the drinking front.

Sunday was a decidedly more relaxed affair, with tea and toast and telly taking us gently through the morning, before we went round to Cat's parents for a fantastic Birthday BBQ - despite the rain!

Back to London on the train, in a speedy 2 1/2 hours.

I've been buried in OU Project Management M865 studies and working on the first assignment for what feels like an age. But, TMA 1 is done (all be the inevitable editing to get closer to the word limit - sigh) and I've decided that I need to have something Good on the horizon to keep me motivated. The Barbican flat buying looks like it's going to take an absolute age, if indeed it comes to fruition (I'm keeping my head in the sand on that one a bit I fear), so that leaves the good old standby of holidays.....

So, I've dug out my bumf from plannings past, primed Hazel and we're going to be looking at trips to China and the 'Stans in 2005. The contenders are:

Something from Silk Road Tours (but - ouch - they're expensive and maybe a bit too posh for our tastes and pockets)
Good old Intrepid Travel .... except that they aren't running the *ideal* trip (Ancient Road of the Traders) in 2005 :( which leaves either China or Uzbekistan
Far Frontiers - again, expensive
Adventure Bound - aka The Imaginative Traveller ... hmm and it looks like they only do Uzbekistan or Mongolia out of Central Asia. Although Jewel of the Silk Road looks interesting... World Expeditions, another aussie outfit, so that could be a good sign
CTS Horizons
China Holidays - but their Silk Road tour is only 9 days

oooooooh. I think i've found it:
Silk Road to Samarkand via Kashgar
... but still e.x.p.e.n.s.i.v.e and looking at the brief itinery, there's travel almost everyday, so maybe not so much time actullay *in* places .... hmmm

Better late than never, I've spent this evening editing and uploading my photos from the 5 days Phil and I spent in Serbia for Teodora's christening (and my birthday), and writing up the highlights for Ben Haines' guide.

Photos, by day, are:

Friday 16 April - Belgrade and dinner chez Petrovic
Saturday 17 April - Belgrade (and sushi)
Sunday 18 April - Teodora's Christening, and my Belgrade Birthday
Monday 19 April - Bye bye Belgrade, Hello Novi Sad!
Tuesday 20 April - Splendid Novi Sad

And seeing as I've just discovered that Phil's at home in bed with a cold, time for me to return to do my Florence Nightingale duty!

The former bowling green in Priory Park was taken over by a horde (sic) of 4, 5 and 6 years olds, mainly dressed in pink, celebrating Rosa's 5th birthday on 23 April. I enjoyed myself first as warden of the giant bubble wand (more of a sword actually) from the Early Learning Centre and then later on as one half of the legendry Loosemore Footballing duo. Legendary I tell you* !

Photos by Jo.

I've just realised that as I no longer live in Clapham Junction, I no longer need my daily Travel Alert emails from TfL...

Route: ClaphamCmn-Moorgate - deleted
Route: Waterloo-Bank - deleted

:sniff:

Everything's packed up and has headed off into storage in SE14, courtesy of the lovely folks at Field Transport (thanks for the recommendation, Lotti!).

It's been Go! Go! Go! going to Chandresh's office to sign the contract and transfer and to exchange on the sale of 12A, sorting out removals for 29 April, sorting out change of addresses for a million and one bodies (admin), getting paperwork together for completion and mortgage application (joint!) .... and that was all before I got home to pack more boxes, send out change of address (family and friends) email, wash hair and get things ready for heading over to Belgrade tomorrow. Taxi pick up at 5am. URGH! Took it easy with an Akash Indian takeaway - yummyandstuffed.

Baby Russell arrived on 08 April, just in time for Easter!

I got an email from Ruth and Pete this morning, with pictures taken yesterday. Lovely.

... just about, delayed by spending Friday sleeping and snoozing in Hackney thanks to the on-going snotty cold.

Recuperated in the fresh seaside air, eating fresh chips and snoozing on the seafront; getting a bit pink cheeked in the process. Makes a change from the pale and sickly look I'd sported all last week.

Phil spotted a large 2-bed flat in Bunyan Court on the Hamilton Brooks website on Monday night, and I set up a viewing for 4.20pm yesterday afternoon. After a bit of a dither and a bit of a chat with one of the estate agents in the office, we made an offer. Eeek!

And at just gone midday, Nicola "Hamilton Brooks" called to say that the seller had accepted. Eeek #2!!!

This is it.

For years people have told me of the gourmet delights on offer at Borough Market, but it's taken me 9 years [1] to get there. Not really a case of "well worth the wait" as it's an amazing place, albeit a bit crowded at 2pm on a spring Saturday. The whole place is very photogenic and we've been enjoying our tasty purchases over the rest of the weekend. It's not cheap mind you.....

Whilst I don't consider myself to meet the anoraky trainspottery stereotype, my dad's passion for mechanical engineering has obviously had an influence on me (unless it's in my shorts). I've spent two very happy Saturdays discovering more about London transport and the modern history of the mighty metropolis at London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, and at their Depot in Acton Town.

Having enjoyed an afternoon at the main Covent Garden museum with Phil who took most of these photos, I rendezvoused with Tom and Barney yesterday lunchtime for a day Down at Depot rounded off with Barney and I taking the tube and the train and the bus back to Crouch End (via the Model Shop in Holborn.....). Some of these photos are Barney's.

I finally remembered that I'd heard a trailer for this on Radio 4 late last night... and had drifted off to sleep drumming the need to remember it into my weary brain....

"This" it" is a programme about Ted Dick and Myles Rudge who are the comedy* song-writing team responsible for A Windmill in Old Amsterdam, aka A Little Mouse with Clogs On. Woo Hoo!!!!

So, where and when is it on?
BBC Radio 4
Tuesday 02 March 2004
11.30am-12noon

* I'm sure Phil would disagree!

Snezana and Voja are currently planning Teodora's christening and last week Snezana emailed me to say that they have decided to have a small do, just immediate families and closest friends. And that includes me, and Phil, which makes me very happy!

Today I got an update from Snezana telling me that they've now booked the ceremony for Sunday 18th April, which is My Birthday!!! So I've been looking at flights to Beograd....

• JAT Airways (Yugoslav Airlines)
  
• JAT Airways (London)
  
• Visa requirements as specifed by the Consular Affairs section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro
  

... not without significant hyperventialation on my part.... I'd not spotted that Alan's email on Friday had actually included the fact that someone had made an offer at the asking price, which made the emails he sent yesterday read rather oddly, and it wasn't until he emailed saying the offerer had been chasing him for my response that I knew that I had an offer. gulp.

Sent an email formally accepting the offer, and headed off to Phil's on an adrenaline high. It takes things (i.e. selling, buying, moving in together) one stage further, which makes things all the much more real.... especially as getting my flat on the market and having all the viewings has mainly taken place whilst Phil's been away in the States. But we had a lovely evening last night, which reminds me that all the stress (and it's been remarkably stress free so far!) is worthwhile.

James from Curzon Wilson made me laugh when he asked if I actually lived in my flat, as it was always so spectacularly neat and tidy!

On the Simmons & Simmons website home page, and with the public-friendly url http://www.simmons-simmons.com/takeovers/.

We had 2 requests from Numiscorp/Numis Securities Limited for copies of the Code Index within minutes of the links from the home page going live.... don't ask me how they were so quick off the mark, but it's quite satisfying to get real people responding at this early stage!

I've just looked back over my analysis and project records, and see that it's kept me occupied for the past 217 days... the initial request came in on 10 July 2003 and the TCR launched (one day early!) on 11 February 2004. And Mark's already asking about scope for future development.... this one's just going to run and run.

Seeing your home on sale online makes it seem all the more real....

Had plenty of viewing and interest (and low offer), but CW are advising holding out for the asking price. The agent from JH (who I've realised really reminds me of Anthony Bott) phoned to query the asking price... reckoning that their higher valuation was definitely achievable. I'm not enjoying this.

... as in I've finally got them all up on http://photos.sparklytrainers.com (aka the fantastic fotopic).

The main reason for the delay (unusual for me I know!) is that I had to resize some of the larger ones I took in Chile. Over-enthusiastic use of all the Ixus' maxumum settings for dimensions and resolution/smoothing meant that I had pictures that were 1+MB in size.... waaaaaaaaay too big to do anything useful with. So I used a batch process in Phil's Photoshop to scale down all the ones taken after 21 November, and then had to file them in amongst the full scale photos, and then select the ones to upload to fotopic. Except that I wimped out on that last step and just uploaded everything! As you will see if you look at the El Chalten / Fitz Roy collection ..............

Cor, it's Go! Go! Go!

After meeting with all three contending estate agents, I decided to use Curzon Wilson to sell my flat (sniff) last night and telephoned all concerned to let them know this morning. Main reasons for picking CW were that (1) I'd bought through them and get on well with Alan Wilson; (2) the valuation was consistent with another of the agencies (although not the highest); (3) their fee was the lowest, by a couple of points of a percent.

... and the first viewing is arranged for 10:45 tomorrow!

I also instructed solicitors on the sale of the flat: Chandresh Bhatt of Bishop & Sewell, as recommended by Phil and Master Cronin.

Chandresh ran through some of the preliminary steps involved in selling a share of freehold flat with a mortgage:

1. Seller's solicitor requests deeds from the mortgage lender. eta c 1 week.
2. S's sol. sends out Seller's Property Information Request to Seller. eta up to me!
3. S's sol. sends out Freehold Management Questionnaire to Freehold Mgmt Company. eta up to Mr Turner (!)
4. S's sol. prepares contract based on details in deeds, SPIR and FMQ
5. S's sol. sends contract, copy of lease and freehold flat management particulars to Buyer's solicitor.
6. B's sol review contract and negotiate as required

I'm not 100% sure of that being the correct order, but I think they are the key steps for the start of the process. Progress reports and update will follow in due course.

Next stop: moneyextra to sort out a mortgage....

Phil and I are going flat hunting. Together.

:)

Actually, we've been planning to for a couple of months, but Chile and then Christmas got in the way of getting the selling/buying thing in motion, but we have spent the past couple of weekends replacing the mondrian-esque colour scheme of my flat with Crown's "Ivory Cream", on the basis that such muted, neutral tones provide as a blank canvas for potential buyers' redecorating imaginations.

I'm about to ring round a selection of Clapham Junction's finest estate agents to ask about agency fees and to arrange viewings to get estimates, the plan being to get dear old 12A onto the market next week, after a final Saturday of tarting up and a trip to the tip.

On the "fun" side (aka buying), we started off considering quite a wide area, WC1 and the ECs, on the basis that we wanted to be true metropolitan types, and live in zone 1, and (for me) within walking distance of work. After some online mooching over Christmas and New Year, we both confessed to a strong liking for the Barbican. The only fly in the ointment was the

Rachel and I had a funny, leery night out last night. We went for drinks, chat and dancing at Digress, which, at 10pm on a Thursday night, is full of besuited men who think they are God's gift. They may well be - but they weren't ours!

All very strange, but enjoyable, and I even managed to say "chips" (as opposed to "chpsh") at the Istanbul Kebab Shop on Battersea Rise.

Both were very relaxing - spent Christmas in Clapham with Phil, had to work the m/t/w up to New Year's Eve but then motored over to Herefordshire to welcome in 2004 with Hazel and Catriona, followed by more relaxing - aka reading and vegging - with Phil.

Photos here.

... after a lovely lazy Christmas with Phil. The most active day was yesterday, when we took the bus to Holborn and walked eastwards and northwards through WC1 and EC1, getting a better feel for the areas we're going to be flat-hunting in.

We travelled from SW11 to E9 on Saturday by way of the West End, where met up with Manar to see the third and final part of Lord of the Rings - a suitably grande finale for the epic, although the absence of Saurman (sp?) was noted.

And now, I'm facing up to spending the next 3 days sitting in CityPoint, with the rain plunking gloomily down outside. Not inspiring....

During our Chilean travels, Hazel and I spent a couple of great days and nights in Ancud, staying at the Hostal Mundo Nuevo built and run by Silvia and Martin.

I promised to provide comments on www.newworld.cl - and here they are:

Download file

Phil's PepysDiary has won the best specialist weblog category in The Guardian's second British blog awards. I'm so proud.

Between them, Phil-and-Tom have installed MT-Blacklist for me. It is "A Movable Type plugin to eradicate comment and trackback spam". So that's the end of pathetic Penis-Enlargement URL type comments here, I hope.

Thank you Jay Allen.

Following on from my praise for Simon Reeve's programme on The 'Stans, I spotted this BBCi article on Kazakhstan's plan to try to restore the northern part of the Aral Sea. It includes an amazing ESA satellite photo showing just how much the Aral Sea - once the world's fourth largest - has shrunk.

I've finally had 5 mins to reply to the comment asking about P60s, and I thought I'd capture my answer here....

A P60 is the document your employer should give you every year (usually April time) setting out your pay for the previous tax year (06 April to 05 April in the next year) and the amount of tax and National Insurance contributions that have been deducted. It will also show any contributions you've made to a company pension scheme. I got this from the BBC's website, which has a good page on what a P60 is.

The blank sample P60 form on the IR's website seems to suggest that you can't get a duplicate - although your employer might have kept a copy. Ah, but just found this bit on BBC News, "The Inland Revenue has relaxed its policy on duplicate P60s, which is good news for anyone who is prone to losing vital documents" (full item)

Helen (and Charlie!) had a baby boy - James Hugh - on Tuesday at 7.07pm. James's weight is 9lbs 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... which makes Charlie a superman (even if he reckons in disguise), and Helen - definitely - a superwoman.

I got the long-awaited email from Snezana today!

"just to let you know that Teodora was born on 3rd of October at 20.20. We were finally released from hospital 2 days ago, as I had to have a Ceasarean section, which resulted in an infection and to cut a long story short we spent 2 awful weeks in hospital, but when I look at her now I have to say it was worth it!

Needless to say, she's the cutest thing ever (being a mum means having your sense of objectivity removed).

I'm still recovering at home and have to go to hospital 4 times a week for the next 2 weeks to finish the treatment. It will take about 3-4 months to sit and move properly.

It's time for Teodora's bath, so I'll sign off now, but will send you some photos tomorrow."

I can't wait for those photos!

but a lovely one.

Friday night Phil and I went out for a thai meal with Phil's friends Paul and Kamjit, Sam and Toby. A very pleasant evening all round- if a little chilly coming home from Cockfosters.

On Saturday we caught the train to Herne Bay, where Helen Locke and Lisa Butcher were holding a private view of their Passport, Camera, Sketchbook exhibition at the Bay Art Gallery. The travel theme got me all excited about going to Chile, especially as Lisa has just come back from South America. Chips on the seafront were tasty too.

Back to dine London town, where we just managed to get a table at The Italian Kitchen on New Oxford Street and feasted on hearty italian fayre polished off with ultra rich chocolate torte, before making our way to Stef and Kay and Matt and Tom's party at Parkers on Parker Street. A fine fine evening all round. Lots of lovely people, lots of chat, two hoarse voices for Sunday.

After all that travelling around and being social, Sunday was a more static social day, spent watching LOTR:The Two Towers at Simon and Susa's, preceded by scrummy roast red pepper soup and pear crumble. Just the ticket for chilly (well, ish) Sunday in October.....

It's been keeping me busy; too busy to write much here.

"What work?"
Scanning project, PDF training, new database driven resource to go on the S&S website for one of the corporate groups, Trust and Wills database, CD Narrative for Italy and Abu Dhabi (Paris now done - phew), email Best Practices (albeit just Shared Folders for 8C), IT assessment of how to go about the disclosure stage in a litigation matter, the new grading system(s), Office/Livelink/OS roadmap, Milan extranet, non chargable matter numbers, CD bibles directory.....

Watching BBC Four News... (still!) and there's a report on clashes in Bolivia - which have left 50 dead over recent days.

and guess where Hazel is.....

It coincided with her postcard from Potosi - nice timing!

23 days and counting...

Just a musing - watching BBC Four News and they've got a strategic analyst (or something) being interviewed about the international security (read "military") implications of the fact that today China sent a man into space - joining the US and the former soviet union as the only countries to have done so.

I found myself puzzling over the guy's name for a few minutes until I realised why - his name is Bates Gill. Not a million miles away from Bill Gates....

I was. A gripping film following 8 pre/early-teen finalists in the 1999 National Spelling Bee. Yes, I was sceptical too, but once you're watching it you can't help but pick the one you want to win. The film is made up of two parts - the first half introduces each of the finalists in turn, the second half is the competition itself.

Plus a great A4 2 info on the film courtesy of Islington's Screen on the Green.

Watched a fascinating travel documentary on BBC Four (late) last night, about "The 'Stans". It was the first of two 1 hour programmes about the former Soviet Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, X and Y - X and Y being the ones covered in the second programme, which only started at 11:30 or thereabouts.... too late for me (yes, I surprise myself by saying that). I was banking on the second programme being repeated ..... not looking too likely.

Highlights of Kazakhstan included:

- the female guide, talking about her home town, created by sending opponents / victims / the educated there during the 1950s, including her parents. People from all over the USSR.
- ships in the desert: rusting hulks of fishing trawlers and ferries left high and dry (and dessicated) when the USSR re-routed two of the major arterial rivers which feed the Aral Sea. Once the third (?) largest inland sea in the world its now 50% of its former size, and the harbour village visited by the team is now 50miles from water ....
- ships of the desert: really hairy camels, with two humps! on the freezing steppes.....
- the amazing 2am impromptu performance by the Kazakhstan Beatles - a word perfect performance in an out of the way town which the filmakers only visited because their car got its umpteenth and final puncture (no more spare types). The group even dressed and looked like their heros.... and their dream was to visit, even perform, in Liverpool.... and guess what, just before the final title rolled, we got to see their dream coming true. Genuinely moving.

Highlights of Kyrgyzstan
- the open uranium mines: no security, no restricted access, no reason why a terrorist couldn't go and dig up some highly (1000x background levels) radioactive rocks.... and nothing to stop local people being exposed to that radiation on a permanent basis.
- (Illegal) Islamic fundamentailist flyers: In Russian. and the paranoia about getting caught with them.
- the US air base: support troops for the combined forces in Afghanistan. Where you can buy Harry Potter "Russian Dolls" (you know, the ones made out of wood, with smaller ones inside the next size up), and Lenin embossed hip flasks.
- the guide: chinese-looking, 22 year old, reminsicing about visiting Moscow, the centre of his nation (his universe) aged 10.

Busy busy day - Battersea Legal Advice Centre from 7-8 (lots of keen new trainees. nice ones though, which was a pleasant surprise), even though it did take an hour to get there. Ugh. fortunately we only had 9 clients! And then back - past the newly rebranded Allders (formerly Arding & Hobbs) - to host the flat management Co AGM and Board Meeting, both of which went remarkable smoothly. All done by 10pm!

Lovely relaxing weekend at Forty Acres, dining at Dinedor before heading on in dad's BMW to the cottage. Lots of sleeping and a positively mid-summer day on Saturday. We spent our daylight hours sitting out on the patio reading. Having packed for the chills of mid-October, I didn't have anything to light - and ended up stripping down to my underwear bikini.

Cuckoo busy. Sheeps baa-ing. Pheasants being dim (as usual). Admired dad's new paths, and the proposed line of the Forty Acres Railway.

Met Pete for lunch, and he told me their tidings of great joy! ETA 27 March 2004.

aka Alex Wright's party. Had a lovely time, borrow the recently recovered TJBR-mobile to Suffolk, picnicked at Waldringfield and arrived at the old farm late afternoon. Camped overnight in the garden before returning to London via Phil's folks and chinese pub grub.

"I'm lucky because I'm really good at building and inventing and things like that because I've got the same shorts as Grandad......"

courtesy of Jo.....

arrived in Santiago safe and sound, H met me at airport and we took a TurBus into Santiago and another straight out ot Valpariso where we chilled out for a couple of days as I slept through jetlag. In our more active moments we wandered around the old town, taking funiculars up the steep hills and enjoying beers with splendid views of the bay and slightly mouldy gateaux in faded glory tea rooms.

Left Valpariso by TurBus on Monday, at 6.15am and arriving here in Pucon on the shores of Lago Villarica at 20:30, seeing, but not stopping in the fablously fertile Central Valley. Great views of the snow capped Andes en route too.

H and I are just drying off after a great day's hike in Parque Huerquehue (and i'm not even going to try to pronounce that!) just outside Pucon, with our Politur guide, Juan. It was a great hike, fantastic scenery en route to and surrounding the the three lakes - Lago Chico, Lago Toro and Lago Verde - which looked splendidly mysterious in the clouds, and the waterfalls were in fine form. The route climbed through the forested covered hills - loads of different trees, including 1000 year old monkey puzzle trees.

That said, we did return drenched and muddy - boots are drying out at the foot of our hostel's fabulbous wood-fired stove. The hostel, eco-friendly 'ecole!, wins additional brownie points for it's veggie restuarnat where we've eaten every meal since we arrived. Delicous, and plentiful portions too.

It's been raining ever since we arrived here in Pucon.... and that means we've not even seen the celebrated volcan villarica - i'm going to have to fib to barney..... there are tourist agencies here which run climbs to the top.... but seeing as the whole thing's been in cloud for the past 3 days, so we're not hanging around for our chance of a clear day.

Talking of which, our travel plans have firmed up a bit:

Tomorrow (Weds): bus to Valdivia
Thurs: bus to Puerto Varas
Fri: lake ferries in the shadow of Volcan Orsorno
Fri/Sat: travel to P. Montt.
Sat (hopefully): ferry from P. Montt to San Rafael glaciar and back up again (4 nigths , 5 days, although i fear we're looking at the more expensive Navimag accommodation..... with a price tag of several hundred dollars. eek!)

then Chiloe, and then a flight from P. Montt down to P. Arenas and Patagonia!

Having a lovely time!

I've probably raved about fotopic before.....Yoz and James have been nagging me to change my fotopic settings... and this evening, after Buffalo Soldiers at the Warner West End, the first of the BBC's modernised Canterbury Tales and delicious mushroom pie (courtesy of Phil) I finally got the chance to log into Fotopic admin.... and, yes, I've changed my settings so that you can buy prints, and changed the "what happens when you click on the image" so that it takes you to a full size photo.

Anyway, as ever, I went to check out the week's top photos and collections.... no surprises to find Burning Man 2002 up there on both counts, what with BM 2003 having taken place last weekend (complete with Radio 4 "From our own correspondant" coverage last Sunday) and Yoz's having been prompted to nag about one of last year's photos. But what did cause a hearty laugh was discovering that this *delightful* photo of Barney has had 121 hits :)

It's in the genes you know.

And more browsing of my referrers shows that fotopic is pretty good at getting high hits in MSN Search, what with my photo of the Topkapi Palace coming in at number 6 for the ""Topkapi Palace" search, and Barney's birthday drawing coming in at number 2 for "drawing palm trees"!

Sacré bleu, typing on a french keyboard really brings it home to me how much of a touch typist I've become! It doesn't help that about half they keys are in the same place... except for vowels and all the punctuation!!! and the numbers are all shift+key.... aieeeee!!!!

Anyway, the presentation/meeting/whatever went well, although I'll be interested to get Bill's take on it all - he's the main risk management partner. The RMC are all still meeting, but I slipped out after my spot and had a lovely pizza lunch with Lucy and 3 others from the office. Am tired now though - had to get up at 5:45... yawn. The sooner London City Airport gets linked to the DLR, the better. The bus link from Docklands is hopeless.

mmmm, Monday lethargy after a lovely, lazy weekend, mainly spent reading and vegging. Just what the doctor ordered after a busy, and relatively stressful week at work

Yesterday was more relaxing than Saturday. We went to the Ritzy in Brixton to watch "Roger Dodger", which I thoroughly enjoyed. Earlier, after browsing papers on the balcony over breakfast, I'd gone to Battersea library and got a stack of books out in readiness for the bank holiday weekend. Ended up devouring the trashy chick-lit novel in a day (One-hit Wonder, by Lisa Jewell).

Saturday wasn't quite to relaxing, featuring a futile hunt for curtain/roman blind fabric for Phil on Saturday afternoon. I ended up feeling shattered, which didn't really wear off until we got to Sue's birthday drinks up in Belsize Park. Really really didn't want to go, but felt I should make the effort, and I'm glad that I did, although I was a complete zombie on the way up there. Great pub - The Garden Gate - with beer garden, about 10 mins walk from Belsize Park tube.

Phil's sister, Sue, is off to the Falkland Islands for a year to work as a reporter/presenter on Falklands Radio - although I've googled for it and can't find the correct name..... the closest I get is the Falklands News portal.

How cool is that?

I got a subtle rebuke from the director of personnel about the length (or lack of!) of my skirt yesterday... which was rather bad timing as I was at Phil's overnight so had to wear it again on today.

And of course, she saw me, clattering down the stairs into the canteen at lunchtime. Sod's law!!! No fall out so far, aside form the stern glare I got during my none-too-subtle descent.

You would have thought that now I'm using Sparkly on an almost daily basis, for whittering on at the world and boring it with photos of my friends, family and social life, that'd I'd be ultra-diligent about making sure I kept my domain registration up-to-date.

Well, I was, and then again, I wasn't, and James came to the rescue, as he so often does, for so many people. For a moment on Tuesday, I thought that I'd lost Sparkly. It felt awful. I won't let happen again.

So, from now on, 12 August is not only "The Glorious 12th", it's also mine and Sparkly's wedding anniversary, to be celebrated every year with a renewal of vows and domain registrations, and a bottle of gin to JPC.

Matt emailed me yesterday for a bit of a nostalgia exchange, and mentioned that there had been an article on The Witch of Agnesi in New Scientist a few weeks back... My NS days being far behind me, I was all set to search the NS online for it, and failing that (or if it required a paid subscription), the magazine in Barbican or Battersea library.

Today, Matt sent me the link to the article, and I've made use of the free trial subscription to take a look at it.... why? just to see if it bore any passing similarities to my prize-winning degree project (no hiding my light under bushel here!). It does, but not more so than the University of St Andrews' / MacTutor History of Mathematics archive entries for the Witch of Agnesi and Maria Gaetana Agnesi. I've never found out whether that made use of my project or not. It certainly doesn't pre-date it.

For those still reading, the article details are as follows:
Magazine section: Grapevine
Title: The word the witch of agnesi
New Scientist vol 178 issue 2399 - 14 June 2003, page 51

And another thing Matt-the-microbiologist mentioned was that he is about to go on a Perl programming course.... this explains why.

Exactly as it sounds. Tom, Barney, Rosa, Phil and I have an fantastic weekend of fun and sun and swimming and splashing with the family Madgwick in their idyllic New Forest abode.

The photos don't really do it justice.

I picked up a broadcast email update from her today.

It reminded me that I need to scan in the Chile map notes I made at Stef and Kay's Chile planning dinner last week. Nico and Lara were a fount of useful information. I can't wait to go:

89 days and counting.....

There's a "Sold" sign outside No 71. I can't tell if it's Fiona's or Claire's, but it's a Haart sign, and I can't find it on the Haart website. Fiona had hers on the market though Woodland Payne... and according to their website it's Under Offer. So maybe it is hers.....

August is filling up, met Lindsey for a drink/dinner last night, and shared a lovely chilled bottle of Rosé provided by Glyn back at mine, saw Jess the night before, have a night off tonight (after TopShop skirt shopping), and tomorrow Phil and I are going to dinner with Stef 'n' Kay and Stef's chilean mate, Nico, for a Chile/South America planning and plotting evening.

Friday pitches me straight into a weekend with Tom, Barney and Rosa - Jo's escaping to Brussels for the weekend with Ali - and we're off to the Magic Madgwicks in the New Forest. Phil's coming too, which is *lovely*. Only fly in the ointment is Tom and Jo's car was stolen last night, as they slept....

I'm now the proud owner of a Nokia 6610. After much deliberation and prevarication and declaimings of the horror of learning the red/green phone interface (grrrr), CarphoneWarehouse persuaded me to trade in my trusty 3330 and to pay and extra £9.99 to get the 6610, which I've had since last Thursday. Call it my End of July Present).

But I'm smitten! Not by the polyphonic ring tones, nor by the colour screen. Not even by the FM radio... but by the fact it synchs with Outlook!! No more dual maintenance of phone numbers! Email addresses on my phone! The Revo's heading for eBay, and I've just rationalised my ancient collection of Contacts. The only tricky part if moving from the old familiar Phil G Mob to Phil Gyford's mobile number icon, which doesn't (yet) feel quite right.

And is dad "Dad", or "Geoff Loosemore"??

I've been without personal email for a week or so - just couldn't download any new mail from the end of last week onwards - it just stuck resolutely at downloading the first mail, but nothing ever came through. It dawned on me that that's a sign of a massive email, but emails to the usual helper-outers came to naught - everyone's on holiday!

Phil suggested I see if there was any way to limit the size of incoming mail, so that I only pick up emails less than 100 KB, and thankfully I did unearth that part of Outlook, and it worked! Still can't pick up via popmail/yahoo, which leaves me email-less at work (well, other than my Simmons' address) - agony!! Hopefully M/T will sort it out tonight. Not sure whether to scold the offending sender or not.

It's a pain that lots of my mail recently ahs been spam. Far, far more than I've ever received hitherto. Bummer - looks like I'm on the lists, from which there is No Real Escape. That's a real bummer.

Saw Myles on Friday - drank lots of beer and talked about his jacking in his job at 3 and heading to NZ to suss out work/life opportunities in September. Spent Sat a.m. gently working through a smallish hangover, courtesy of Friday night's Phuket/Fuckit beer and Deuchars IPA (how do you pronounce that??), until Rachel and Carl arrived at 6ish, at which point we started on the white wine and beers, soaking up the sun on the roof terrace. They stayed over, and after a lazy morning they headed home lunchtime-ish. I spent the afternoon recovering/sleeping on the roof terrace again, until Phil came round and we leapt into (in)action - more roof terrace reading, shorts hemming and TV watching (Big Brother Winner, One Week On followed by Six Feet Under).

I am heading over to TJBR's tonight and going out for an ethiopian meal with Jo's best friend Ali, who's off to Ethiopia to do 2 years vso. It should be interesting to hear what she thinks of it, and how she go on/into VSO. She's a graphic designer like Jo - I thought VSO only wanted doctors, teachers and techies. Ali's going to be teaching English to civil engineering students, and is genning up on recommended report writing styles. Tom's pointed her in the direction of the Institute of Civil Engineers.

Had a lovely weekend with Laura, who has a definite bump (due 18 Jan 2004),
and is loving every minute of impending motherhood, pottering around Bath on Saturday afternoon with Lizzie, albeit in torrential rain - incredible! - and Sunday exploring Sudeley Castle with Ian, where a Sealed Knot weekend was in full swing. Lots of booming cannon and musket fires, providing noise and smells to conjure up the Civil War days of yore.

And today (Monday) it's glorious sunshine...

He/she is due on 18 January 2004 and Laura's had her initial scans and all seems to be well with Baby Murdoch.

... which leaves me and Hazel in an every shrinking pool of non-parental-types. At least we can lay claim to aunty status, which is plenty-thank-you-very-much in my book.

But we didn't let it get us down! Actually, Saturday was dry all day, but quite cloudy and decidedly cool in the evening.... and it did rain quite hard on Sunday, and it was decidedly overcast all afternoon.

Phil and I trained it out on Friday, picnicing on The Usual en route, and were met at the station by Jay and Fi. First encounter, but I feel like we got on really well and the weekend flew by, whilst managing to be relaxing too.

Saturday morning we feasted on croissants, chatted and vegged with the papers before strolling out for lunch en route to the Ashton Court festival. Somehow everyone managed to meet up within about half an hour of crossing Clifton Suspension Bridge, and staked a claim to a spot not too far from the food stalls and loos at the top of the natural amphitheatre sloping down to the main stage. It was a blustery afternoon, with more cloud than sunshine, and once darkness fell and the Plump DJs started their set, shivers had set in. Not even Cherry Bakewells could see them off! Robert Plant provided no incentive to linger, and we made our way homewards, catching a taxi on White Ladies Road.

We took Sunday at a more leisurely pace, brunching on fry-up al fresco and then settling in to read the papers prior to a late afternoon showing of Hulk. Pasta for tea and then a micra rally road race to get us to Temple Meads for the 9.30pm train to London.

Lovely weekend.

The top photo on the hits list for Week 28, 2003 is..... ::drum roll::

Barney's Thank You Letter

with 120 hits!

Cap'n Gyford, Seaman Stef and Cabin boy Jim, all able seamen reporting for duty is still getting lots of attention, coming in at No 2 on this week's list, with 26 hits - but it has been viewed a massive (for me!) 893 times since I put it up there last September.

I bought a copy of the Rough Guide to Chile today to start my planning - 16 weeks and counting!

I've been feeling a bit mopey this week, but it's lifted now and "Grrrrrrrrrr" has come in its place. Scary Mary? Right now I hope so!

I think it was a mixture of my being in one of my periodic phases where I feel that my job is going nowhere, and pressure is piling up due to lack of support from on high, the A-team being their usual smug/self-centred selves, and Tuesday was mum's anniversary too. That hasn't got me upset for ages, but I am feeling a bit weepy this year. Silly really!

Catriona arrived late Friday afternoon, and we headed out to CJ and drank large G&Ts (thereby redressing the reduced intake/opportunities due to H being in South America) on the balcony whilst nibbling on olives and dips, before adjourning indoors to watch Big Brother. We're both addicts, so that made it a no brainer on the "what shall we do" front.

10 am Saturday morning we met up with Phil at the Royal Festival Hall and looked at their little exhibition on building the bridges across to Embankment / Charing Cross, and drank cold drinks at the Film Cafe overlooking the river.

Cat and I then wandered up to Tate Modern, over to St Paul's (decided not to pay £6.50 to go in) and then back to the river - past a large film unit on the main road to Blackfriars - with famous actors, but we couldn't remember their names. One was Bridget Jones' dad. They were all dressed up in Pride & Prejudice type gear. All very London!!!

Took the tube to Kew Gardens via Victoria where Cat bought some flip flops to counter her rubbing sandals, and spent the afternoon soaking up yet more sun (aka getting burned) wandering around the gardens, exploring the hot houses (more humid than outside, so coming out into the hot Oz heat was really rather pleasant!), including the aquatic plants (and fish - safely behind glass barriers...!) displays, and chilling out in the shade by the japanese gardens.

Got back to CJ around 6ish, drank beers and ate crisps on the roof terrace and opted for easy tea at Banana Leaf - apparently when we'd tried to go there before it'd been full. We had better luck this time, but were both too knackered to go out drinking on Northcote Road (honestly!!) preferring to retire to Barnard Raod, and veg in front of the telly, leafing through photo albums and trying not to plan more RTW trips...

Sunday featured a lazy morning with fresh baked sultana bread and freshly squeezed OJ, followed by the National Picture Gallery and more walking (i.e. all the way back along the river and via Battersea Park). More sun, but we had H's surplus factor 25 sunscreen on, so that was ok.

At 11.30pm I got an sms from Cat saying that she has got back to Leeds to find her annoying housemate had used the last teabag and milk. So that's decided her to look for a house. Looks like we'll get invited to the house warming!!

Barney's not six until 15 July, but Tom and Jo had a birthday party for him a few weekends early as Tom's in the US this week. Jo sent me the photos today.

Looks like everyone - especially Tom and James - had a lovely time, and those photos of the boxes really really remind me of birthday parties dad organised for Tom and I when we were 5/6/7/8.

phew! Phil and I had a very lazy weekend at the cottage, only really "doing" anything on Sat afternoon, when we went into Hereford and bought food goodies from the "european" market they were holding the the city centre - it was a mix of a farmer's market and one of those french travelling ones. Good food all round!

Then motored up to Leominster, where we mooched the antique shoppes and Phil bought a few pieces of blue/white stripe cornishware crockery.

Resolutely cloudy all the time, and we didn't get a sloping front train on the journey back!!

It comes to something when all I want to do is get to the end of my working day and zip off to Habitat to see if the stripey duvet set is in their 50% off sale (starts today!).

I don't think this misalignment of my focus has been helped by the fact that in french this morning we discussed the regulation applying to the Soldes in France, which seems to be far more rigourous than in the UK. For instance, in France to advertise an X% sale:
1. you have to be able to prove that for the month previous to the sale the prices were such that the sale price is X% less;
2. for any item in the sale, you have to offer all sizes, all colours, all styles;
3. have the sale within the permitted periods

Oh, and the other reason why Habitat duvet sets persist at the forefront of my mind is that my current work focus is CD Narrative International, and Reviewing the Legal & Costs Grade Structure.

:yawn: SeeWhatIMean? :yawn:

and finally, that Habitat website makes me feel really, really queasy.

Right, time to talk CD Nar. Int. with TFW....

This is my nephew's first written thank you letter to me - good to see that he's inherited the famous Loosemore scrawl :)

Please feel free to provide suggested decipers/tranlsations in the Comment facility!

Browsing Channel 4's BB web site over an Ampersands lunch of cream of onion soup, the article Lisa Lets Slip prompted me to google in search of an Orkney newspaper to see if Cameron's comment that "The only thing I've thought about was that our local paper and I've thought there's a chance I'll be in it..." had turned out to be true.

Google led me to The Orcadian online, which has lots and lots of coverage of "Orkney's Cameron Stout".

And I discover that he's "has a passion for Africa and has visited three times in the past ... Burundi, Cape Town and Johannesburg" and "has not had a relationship for 11 years".

I always have had a soft spot for Scotsmen....

Dad's arrived and we reviewed my list of DIY jobs last night before training it down to Wandworth Town to buy supplies at Homebase. I splashed out on a new shower curtain - more in keeping with "urban" theme of bathroom (please ignore flowery motif tiles...) - which was half price (woo!), and a purple table cloth (end of line at £5). Bargains galore!

At lunchtime i'm going to be dashing off over to BHS to see if they have light fittings for kitchen as dad is going to replace the strip light with a pendant/bulb fitting.

After all that assessing and buying we headed out to The Gaylord for indian - the only diners there! Drank 2 pints of kingfisher each - my dad leading me astray!!! well, it was hot/humid, and we'd achieved a lot in the evening.

Popped into Arding & Hobbs on Thursday, and ended up chatting to the store manager, who tells me that they've sold the part of the building closest to the cheapy shoe shop to.....

.... Sainsbury's! Yay, a decent, relatively big store to fill the gap between Somerfield and M&S.

More high street changes on St John's Road between Blacks and CarphoneWarehouse; the WorldChoice travel agents has closed, and the posters tell me that a Tony & Guy will be opening up there. That's quite a smart chain for once, rather than another mobile phone shop, or a cheap clothes outlet.

Been in the throes of digital dication pilot kick off meetings, demos and workshops all day so far. Well, it's a million times better than reworking my CD Narrative International paper - yawn - although that is next on my pile of things to do....

I was quite glad of an easy start to the day seing as I was feeling a leeetle peaky after last night's tapas and vino extravaganza with the ladies network thing. Good old Mar i Terra!!

AND - Hazel emailed!! So I'm going to look into and book my flights. Woo hooooo! She sounded really pleased that I was definitely coming out to visit/travel, which is nice.

I had a lovely but exhausting weekend in Suffolk with TJBR, and will be uploading photos this morning. Here are Jo's.

I have a bit of a rosy vissog, due to sun and sailing at Waldringfield on Saturday and bracing sea air + ozone at Southwold on Sunday, and Waldringfield School Fete on Saturday was a gem; Harry Potter themed, of course, but with great games - Coconut Shy! Spin the Wheel! Lucky Dip Cauldron! Name the Potion! Ninepins! Facepainting! Wizard Tales! Toy stall, cake stall (yum!), plant stall, tombola, raffles.... all very, very fab.

And to balance things out, the trains were well and truely buggered this a.m. so i caught the 344 in, thereby missing my walk :( and so have resorted to coffeeeeeeee. It's cool, it's overcast and it's been raining.

As I was walking in this morning, I ws greeted by a strange sight as I neared Tate Modern, and the Wobbly Bridge; Waterloo Pier - a thethered, floating wooden jetty/quai/riverboat stop. So I stopped and took some photos.

I've no idea what it was doing there, and from whence it came. There were no notices up about it or on it, and the only other craft on the river were a Police launch (equally mystified by the looks of it as the zoomed off) and the silent yet looming, Damien Hirst decorated, Tate-to-Tate river shuttle.

I've got four weeks holiday...
I've got four weeks holiday...
I've got four weeks holiday...
I've got four weeks holiday...
I've got four weeks holiday...

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Chile here I come.

Roll on November.

Last night I got home in time to wave a slightly nervous Hazel off to her dad's. She'll be on a plane somewhere now.

It was weird being in my flat without her and her stuff around. 5 weeks of lodging, and having H in situ had become normal.

I asked Peter on Monday if I could have 4 weeks off to go out to South America to travel with her - he said he'd have to speak to Chris and Personnel about it.... Still no news....

I was just about to board the 242, when Phil comes rushing out after me bearing a foil-wrapped slice of Auntie Phyl's fruit cake. Now boyfriends don't get much better than *that* in my book!

Hazel and I drove up to Syresham in the heat of the day, on the hottest day of the year to-date. And yes, the MGB did overheat again, this time due to stop start traffic on the M25 just before the M40 turn off. We sat it out on the hard shoulder for 20 mins or so, and were lucky that the traffic started flowing again so that we didn't have to coax the car through more stop-start jams. And I did swear that I'd never get into H's MG ever again. But I reserve the right to change my mind....

We had a lovely afternoon with Charlie, Helen and Lizzie, who'd come up from Bath earlier in the day. It's always lovely to see Lizzie, she's just so chilled. After a sit in the sun, and dashing off to catch the ice cream van man, we started preparing food for the BBQ, while Charlie watered the garden and set up the table and chairs for tomorrow. We dined on pizza al fresco before retiring indoors to watch Notting Hill on video. All very convivial and relaxing.

After breakfasting outside on coffee and croissants, we spent Sunday morning preparing salads, kebabs and dips, as Charlie got the BBQ up and running. People started arriving around 1pm ish, and we ignored the passing drops of rain enjoying BBQ grub in the flower-filled gardens of The White Cottage.

And I got to meet Hamish Aitken and William Ritchie for the first time! And the drive back to CJ was a breeze. I do miss having a car. But I don't miss having to hunt out parking spaces....

Photos here.

Was this evening, starting off at Mar e Terra , with our lovely flamencoing host, Raphael, and moving on (although not for me) for cheesy dancing at the Clapham Grand.

Photos here!

... is what the Dr tells me has laid me low since Bank Holiday Monday, and kept me in bed on Wednesday and Thursday - the warmest, sunniest days of the year to date.

Still, it was a Godsend to learn that my headaches were being exacerbated by blocked sinuses and other ear/nose/throat passageways, and readily rectified by some decongestant. Within an hour of getting back from the surgery, I was on the mend, and today I've been back at work and am off to Em Coombes' hen night - kicking off at Mar-i-Terra. Got to keep it small scale seeing as Hazel and I are driving up to Helen and Charlie's tomorrow (MG meet Open Road - vrooom!!!) to be around to help preparations for Sunday BBQ (I just hope that this weather holds), and I've got to get up/back to/from TJBR's to return the car keys and car stereo...

Hair cut first though.... not a major event for many people I know, but a relative rarity for me. Mainly because I don't like paying London styling prices just for a trim,and also because I've still not found a hair dresser I really like. THis evening, I am sampling Hair Yamamoto on Eldon Street.

I've had it this week, and it's horrible.

First signs were spending most of Bank Holiday Monday asleep on Phil's sofa, and my brain refusing to work all day on Tuesday. As the day went on, the familiar signals gathered in strength - aching joints, sore throat, fuzzy head. This is what stopped me from going to Nicola and Randal's wedding, and which struck again when I was at VerticalNet.

Woke up on Wednesday after lots of sleep, water and lemsips, but with horribly swollen throat with white patches over them, like blisters. However, I decided I felt well enough to head into work, particularly as I'd not had the night sweats I'd expected. More fool me - I almost fainted on the train. I've not experienced an almost-faint before - the world went fuzzy around me and my sphere of control and awareness seemed to shrink ever smaller. I only just realised in time that we'd stopped at Vauxhall, where I staggered off the train and onto the platform and - luckily - straight onto a train going back to CJ.

Spent the rest of the day and Thursday sleeping and, towards the end, lying on the sofa, resenting the sunshine outside and snoozing through programmes on UK History.

I managed to get a Doctor's appointment for late on Thursday afternoon, and he immediately diagnosed my as having Viral flu. I think he thought I might have SARS. Nope. But I did think it might be malaria, given that I've only been afflicted with it since returning from travelling.

Top tip was that the headahces which were proving resitant to paracetemol were due to sectrions in my ear/nose/throat passageways, and that a decongestant might help. He was right!

I'm supposed to be taking it easy for the next few days as it takes a week to 10 days to fully recover. But it's Em Coombes's hen night tonight, and Helen and Charlie's St Andrews BBQ over the weekend....

Michele called on Sunday to announce the safe delivery of baby Lexi Dykes last Saturday. Hurrah! I'm going to try and meet her in person next Saturday, TJBR permitting.

And Snezana emailed to let me know that she and Voja are expecting a girl in September, to be named Teodora.

It's all very lovely :)

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I still can't get my head around what's happening when they move between the underground city, the not-really-space-ships-but-that's-what-they-look-like-so-that-confuses-me-even-more ships and the world of the Matrix, but that doesn't spoil my enjoyment of a no-holds-barred action thriller. OK, so there were a few more squirmy bits than before as they develop the lurve story between Neo and Trinity, and the accompanying club scene in Zion was dire, but the fight scenes are fun, the baddies better than ever and - the clincher - everyone came out restaining themselves from karate chopping their way through Leicester Square.

I went to the Julia Margaret Cameron exhibition in the NPG today. It was one of the rare occasions when I'd actually shelled out for an entrance fee. In this case I came out of the NPG rather resentful of the fact that I'd parted with my £6.

It wasn't that the show wasn't well constructed and presented - the NPG is great at all of that kind of thing, and Julia Margaret Cameron, 19th Century Photographer of Genius was no exception - but that I was disappointed by the photographs and the photographer. The easy line would be to say that I felt that I'd been misled by the posters, but that's no justification - how hard is it to go to the NPG website and to find out a bit more about JMC, her life and work? But I'd not done that, and that's what made me feel miffed, with myself.

So what was it about the exhibition that I didn't like? I'd hoped for photos showing a spectrum of 19th century people and places, letting me have a glimpse into the real world as existed 150 years ago. Instead, what I got were twee staged compositions featuring family and friends posing in fancy dress tableaux (heh - the website blurb even says that now I look!) from classical tales and mythology, and the rather patronising photographs and comments taken in the later years of her life at the family tea plantations in Sri Lanka.

I know that I shouldn't condemn Cameron for her attitudes, which are bound to be shaped and reflect attitudes of her era and her class, but they did serve to accentuate my disappointment that the exhibition wasn't about what I'd thought it was going to be.

That'll learn me (as my nan used to say).

For I had a selection of scoops from the salad bar, north african themed as today is another S&S restaurant themed days. ver ver garlicky, but for some reason, my mouth feels all dusty right now, and it was a working lunch, as I've spent all day with Gila and Matt bashing through calculations to identify savings if we change our printing strategy so that we make more use of the photocopiers, or, as they are more properly billed by the manufacturers, "multifunctional devices".

urgh. brain's in melt-down.

I'm wondering what the significance might be of listening to Westlife on the headphones at work... cheesy cheery up pop ballads? Maybe it's a feel-good hit to top up last night's generated by going to see X-Men 2 at Clapham Picture House with Hazel. Really enjoyed it, and tonight it's The Matrix on channel 5, after drinks with Lindsey, and maybe Fran, at the Oxo Tower. Ah, the London life....

When I had my first flat furniture review, I wanted to get rid of a chest of drawers, some parker knoll chairs and a bedstead, all inherited from 78 Links Drive days. After much ringing around of charity shops I chanced upon the Oasis shop in Battersea, who will collect furniture from you and sell it to raise money for the charity. They couldn't take the chairs because they were up holstered and pre-dated the era of flame reisitant certification, and they didn't take beds, so they both ended up being collected by the council (although I think someone picked up the bedframe beforehand.... ), but the chest of drawers were warmly welcomed and collected as arranged.

Anyway, with a new desk and shelves due for delivery on 27 May, I'm going to need to recycle my current desk, and a few other items too. And Oasis look like they're going to come up trumps again - I'll be ringing them on 020 7924 7514 to arrange collection by their driver when he's back from holidays on 9th June.

Hazel having received her new phone in the post yesterday, I called in to Moorgate Carphone Warehouse today to look at free upgrades for my nokia seeing as I've had it for over a year .... looks like I'm going to have to get to grips with the old red/green phone conundrum. urgh. Didn't get one, didn't like the feeling that I was being hustled by the salesman. But it looks like my preferred interface model is being phased out. :(

Yup, Cait joins the list of mothers-to-be.

Looks like 2003's going to bring a bumper crop of babies.

I'm saving CDs to my C drive, using RealPlayer's RealOne Player (the free, basic, version). One of the CDs is the Manic Street Preachers Gold Against The Soul, and in looking for the release date, I spotted this poem on the back inlay sleeve....

Song Of Those Who Died In Vain
Poem by Primo Levi (1919 - 1987)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sit down and bargain
All you like grizzled old foxes
We'll wall you up in a splendid palace
With food, wine, good beds and a good fire
Provided that you discuss, negotiate
For our and your children's lives
May all the wisdom of the universe
Converge to bless your minds
And guide you in the maze
But outside in the cold we will be waiting for you
The army of those who died in vain
We of the Marne, of Montecassino
Treblinka, Dresden and Hiroshima
And with us will be
The leprous and the people with trachoma
The disappeared ones of Buenos Aires
Dead Cambodians and dying Ethiopians
The Prague negotiatiors
The bled dry of Calcutta
The innocents slaughtered in Bologna
Heaven help you if you come out disagreeing
You'll be clutched tight in our embrace
We are invincible because we are the conquered
Invulnerable because already dead
We laugh at your missiles
Sit down and bargain
Until your tongues are dry
If the havoc and the shame continue
We'll drown you in our putrefaction

Primo Levi
14th January 1985

Poem published by Faber & Faber Ltd.

I'm in Paris, logging on at the cyber cafe here at the OpenText LiveLink Up Paris 2003. It's an interesting conference, but plagued by the fact that the french public sector workers - inc metro drivers - went on strike on Tuesday, and decided, late on Tuesday night, to extend the action through to Wednesday.

Things are still buggered today. Luckily Lucy's flat is a walkable distance from La Defense, and RATP are providing hour hourly updates on their website, which they've limited to a single super-quick loading home page with that info. V Sensible, v commuter-user-focused. Unfortunately, as 12h30, things look like this....

So whilst Tom and Jo were relaxing in Brighton, I was chaperoning Barney (top marks for behaviour, but needs to work on his nose-blowing technique) to/from dad and jean's, and was reminded again of how little I know about trains and how fast they go.

So, I'm devoting a few mins this morning to research, and have found these *gems*

- Microsoft Train Simulator (and as it's available on amazon, I'm getting that for his birthday unless bro or jo forbid me)
- Lots more train simulators
- Train Travel News & Passenger Rail Travel Guides for Business Travel by Train & Leisure Rail Travel & Tours
- Even (gulp) trainspotting

but nowhere can I find a simple list of top train speeds for the various locomotives which operate on the UK network, and more widely....

Arrived in Hereford safe and sound on Friday evening, and the train trip was a breeze (phew). Jo'd bought Barney a treat for the train which turned out to be a 10 colour biro - one of those where you click between colours/nibs. v impressed (both of us).

I do have a cold though - which explains the sleepiness, and the "hair in my throat" feeling. Barney and I have blowing noses in unison.

We spent the morning in Hereford - much of it in the model shop, and dad and Barney put the guards van and truck into service, along with the two stations dad's been busy building.

And I found one of those magic red wine warmer jacket things that Ruth and Pete had, which I bought for Dad and Jean (v impressed, both).

Dad barbequed in between showers and we watched the small birds munch their way through a whole feeders-worth of sunflower seeds, leaving the shells piling up by the fence.

After Barney'd drifted off to sleep to the sound of story telling, I showed dad how to use Fotopic for photos.loosemore.com, including today's. He's very impressed, but claims it's beyond his ken.... we'll see.

When deciding whether or not to buy my eMac yesterday, I asked whether or not any new Macs were in the offing.... to which the MicroAnvika salesgirl replied that they get next-to-no forewarning of any new releases but that she hadn't heard anything about the eMac being affected by any model/package upgrades.

And then today, Phil sends me this MacCentral article.

Boy, am I pissed off with that.

:(

I bought one today!

Now Phil and Tom have no excuses for not coming to my aid!!

Actually, Phil was super-lovely and helped me set it all up and explained the MAc Model. I think I'll take some time to get as Mac literate as I am with the PC. That said, I really really like i-Tunes!!! Can't wait to start organising and categorising all my music :) I knew I should have stuck to the librarian urge....

Another long day, but not so much wandering as yesterday. We headed out bright and early in the direction of Porte de Clignancourt, which involved a first go on the driverless Meteor line. Ace - very Maglev-like. We were in search of the marche aux puces at PdeC, but what we found didn't really meet expectatiosn - it was a mixture of modern market (clothes/accessories/electrical goods) and antiquey covered markets selling large pieces of furniture and reclaimed ironwork.... neither of which really fall into the flea category in my book.

So seeing as it was very sunny and very hot, we decided to abandon all attempts at touristing, opting for Plan B, lazing in Parc de Sceaux. It was a bit of a palava to get there, mainly due to lackof open ticket booths in Chatelet, and my not being 100% sure which RER B station we needed... but we got there in the end, complete with pique nique goods, and spent the entire afternoon soaking up the sun, reading and snoozing.

Walked back to the hotel by way of l'Arganier, a cous-cous restaurant in the Marais, and slept well until early rise and shine required to commute back to Gare du Nord inorder to catch the 08.45 back to Londres.

Out and about a pied. We started off ascending to the Promenade Plantee, beautifully green and above the hustle and bustle of the busy weekend streets of the 12eme. The path followed the old raised railway line, before descending and petering out in the streets around the disused Gare de Reuilly.

We navigated ourselves towards Bercy and the Seine, with the centreville to our right, cement towers and factories to our right, and a restored fireship on the water down below. We crossed to the Tres Grand Bibliotheque with its amazing sunken pine forest and four sky scraping towers, and an outdoors sculpture exhibition. Onwards, past the Gare d'Austerlitz, around the Jardin des Plantes (in search of a loo, in vain) ending up at one of my favourite Paris sites/sights - l'Institut du Monde Arabe, with its fantastic diaphragmes and roof top terrace views.

Further along the rive-gauche, we tracked down the Shakespeare and Co, one of the english bookshops, and after a mooch around there (Phil) and a sit in the sun (me), we headed onwards through the latin quarter to the other english language bookshop, (the San Fransisco bookshop I thnk it was called) around rue Danton which offered peace and tranquility after the hustle and bustle of Blvd Saint-Michel.

Sunshine and hunger pangs dictated that we resume our stroll with the intention of locating a pique nique prior to arriving at the Jardin de Luxembourg.... which we managed, albeit after detouring around in search of sustenance and to use the 40cent self-cleaning-loos.

Camembert and tomato sandwiches, plus half a flan each pepped us up (as did the jolie fleur from Phil - i was in tearful mood that day, goodness only know why) and provided the energy and incentive to fend off the pigeons and to induldge in some people-(and dust-bathing sparrow-) watching before upping sticks and setting off again.

Plan A, to catch a bus back to base, was foiled by the one way system, and plan B, to find a film in V.O. somewhere in town, was foiled by lack of anything on which we felt the urge to see which hadn't already started. And that was having bought and perused PariScope (I'd forgotten it existed) sitting on a wall in the square outside the Hotel de Ville.

So we ended up sauntering back via Place des Vosges and Bastille, winding up at Hotle Trianon footsore and thirsty, and a touch pink due to the sunny day.

Forty winks later we ventured out in search of a meal, opting for restaurant Byzance, another boulevard diderot restaurant, offering Gastronomie de Grece et de Turquie. We had to return to the hotel via the scenic route to ease our overstuffed stomachs having induldged in the 19euro prix fixe menu. oof!

Last minute booking with - wait for it - LastMinute.com saw Phil and I heading for the Eurostar bright and early, rolling into Paris at lunchtime. The hotel, near to Gare de Lyon, could have only just scraped its 3*s, and the double bed proved to be 2 singles rolled next to one another. but fatal flaws, aside from our both being knackered.

Headed out to explore, taking the metro up to Charles de Gaulle-Etoile, and strolling around the 16eme, down to Palais de Tokyo where we went into the exhibition space. All a bit to heavy on the gritty realism, but the videos of Kyupi Kyupi and the morphing packaging containers were highlights. As were the M/F identifiers on the loo doors....

caught in a downpour at Trocadero overlooking the Eiffel Tower and the Champ de Mars, we headed for the sun, back towards avenue kleber, and strolled wearily along the right bank of the seine to S&S Paris, where I'd arranged to meet up Lucy Stewart for a drink. Very impressive offices, as is only to be expected in the 8eme, but most folks had headed home by the time we pitched up at 6.30.

I don't think we were very vibrant company, and when we got back to the hotel c.8pm we both crashed out sleeping right through to 11pm. Thank heavens for France's relaxed approach to late night dining - we dined in a local brasserie, still going strong when we left at midnight. Not too busy, or smoky (unusual for France), just right.

Borwsing BBCi technology pages over lunch, I found this interesting article on "Where spam comes from".

Heading over to the CDT website, I found the report itself.

The report is the result of a six month project entitled "Why Am I Getting All This Spam?" and the CDT findings offer Internet users insights about what online behaviour results in the most unsolicited commercial email. The report also offers to "debunk some of the myths about spam".

For those of us who would like to allow others to email us, but don't want to be spammed, the report also highlighted existance of the Email Address Encoder, which "will allow you to encode your e-mail address through the use of Character Entities, transforming your ascii email address into its equivalent decimal entity." - like this:

nospamthanks@youdidntthinkidusemyrealemailaddressdidyou.com

COR IT WORKS!!!! Just View>Source to check out that ascii encoding!

Listen to it here, courtesy of BBC Radio 3's Making Tracks.

Credits:
A Windmill in Old Amsterdam by Dicks & Rudge
Performed by Ronnie Hilton
CD details: EMI CDS 7 93253 2

The little ditty I tend to recite occasionally (I'm trying to work out what prompts it) turns out to be the chorus of "A Windmill In Old Amsterdam", discovered by googling "A little mouse with clogs on", which brings up 4 pages of results....

Poppyfields.net was the first one I got to with all the words though:

A Windmill In Old Amsterdam
A mouse lived in a windmill in old Amsterdam
A windmill with a mouse in and he wasn't grousin'
He sang every morning, "How lucky I am,
Living in a windmill in old Amsterdam!"

Chorus:
I saw a mouse!
Where?
There on the stair!
Where on the stair?
Right there!
A little mouse with clogs on
Well I declare!
Going clip-clippety-clop on the stair
Oh yeah

This mouse he got lonesome, he took him a wife
A windmill with mice in, it's hardly surprisin'
She sang every morning, "How lucky I am,
Living in a windmill in old Amsterdam!"

Chorus

First they had triplets and then they had quins
A windmill with quins in, and triplets and twins in
They sang every morning, "How lucky we are
Living in a windmill in Amsterdam, ya!"

Chorus

The daughters got married and so did the sons
The windmill had christ'nin's when no one was list'nin'
They all sang in chorus, "How lucky we am
Living in a windmill in old Amsterdam!"

Chorus

A mouse lived in a windmill, so snug and so nice
There's nobody there now but a whole lot of mice.

and the Poppyfields' credit seems to point to Dicks & Rudge.

After much indecision on my part, I finally booked with LastMinute last night a 3 night stay at the Hotel Trianon Bastille, plus Eurostar return for £159 each for this coming Bank Holiday weekend. Not at all bad! Am now feeling v pleased, and have been seeking out useful info, like:

- Public transport with RATP Metro map, the travel planner, and ticket prices (and smiled at the link to "How to print our maps ? with a Macintoch".
- The Hotel Trianon Bastille.
- And info on the 12e arrondissement, which is an unfamiliar part of Paris for me:
"Residential neighborhood bordered on the east by the Bois de Vincennes. What was formerly a humdrum neighborhood (Bastille area) rapidly gained chic art galleries, shops, theaters, funky jazz clubs, restaurants and bars, and is now one of the trendiest sections of Paris." (1st Paris Hotels)

Just had a morning of Presentation Training III with the excellent Tim Richardson of Black Isle and adrenalin is buzzing because it was so awful. Correction, I was so awful. Anyway, done now, so time for lunch and caffeine thinner.

Oh, and Bruce sent out the first photo of Hamish Aitken, which I've forwarded to H.

I have spent today, Easter Monday, "nesting" in the peace and quietitude of Barnard Road.

Viz:

- Shopping trip to Woolies/Superdrug (washing up gloves, birthday presents for Rosa, Guardian - for TV guide - and idea of using white spirited toothbrush for removing white paint smudged on glass panels in false kitchen door)
- Cutting down bedroom blinds pull cord (to prevent catching on shoe rack)
- Taking measurements for dad DIY
- Tiding up edges of bath panel paintwork
- Giving the hallway a finishing coat of Crown Ivory Cream matt emulsion (before 1 & 2 - after 1 & 2)
- Painting over water stains on bathroom ceiling
- Dusting bedroom
- Replacing sheets, pillows and duvet cover
- Hoovering partout
- Not one, not two, but three loads of washing, and drying outside on the roof terrace
- Trying in vain to take down bird box (in fear and loathing of finding dead bird remains therein)
- Ironing existing washing pile
- Window cleaning roof terrace door, and all picture frames
- Getting details of alto sax to send to Broadway Music (in search of a second hand sale)
- Writing Haddock reviews for Cloudstreet, The Mulberry Empire and The Road to Jerusalem/The Knight Templar (and discovering that according to amazon.co.uk, I

Have spent today painting the roof terrace railings - and have black gloss spotted hands to prove it. 8pm on Easter Sunday and zero zippo tv for the rest of the night - bah humbug. all i want to do now is veg out and nothing's on and nowhere's open.

Plus just picked up an email from Hazel, and Riobamba sounds much more fun - complete with bulls and hair-raising travel to and from. Hope she has pics!

Dad and Jean sent me a cooking timer for my birthday - so once i get the hang of this timing business, I should be able to offer carbon-crispy-free-cuisine. yeah right. That's about as likely as me getting my cambodia photos done (which was one of the plans for this second half of the Easter bank holiday)

Phil's mum and dad got me a Thornton's easter egg so I'm going to eat that now....

The plan for tomorrow is to give the hall it's ivory top coat, I think... dad's coming on 12-14 May to do DIY, which I've just realised might clash with when hazel's lodging, but i'm sure we'll work it out.... hmmmm, in fact I bet he'd appreciate a second pair of hands!!! Can't see H being quite so keen!

OK, just before I log off, time to channel hop in seach of someting better than dodgy 50s Darling Buds Of May clone.

yawn

...that or snooker...

.........or heartbeat.........

...................gawd - american idol.....

dire all dire....

Right - that choc egg calls

Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday dear Mary
Happy birthday to me

Lots of cards and presents, including 4 post cards of Walton/Frinton. And a whole day with Phil, shared between the snug environs of the caravan, and the more bracing fresh air of the beach hut.

Photos.

Stef's not going to Etcon, and has offered Phil the opportunity to fill (Phil?) his shoes.... which is fantastic for Phil, but means that he jets off to San Fran on Sunday, to join with what feels like the rest of Haddock camping in Danny's back garden and/or chilling out with the lovely Leslie.... leaving me to while away the second half of the Easter holiday on my own.

BUT that is vastly outweighed by the plus points that:
1. I get to spend my whole birthday day tomorrow with TLP;
2. Phil gets to go to Etcon.

and it gives me the perfect opportunity to complete my Cambodia photo albumming mission.....

I've no idea where this originates from, but Jess emailed the "Lawyer's Diary a la Bridget Jones" to me today, and it is a very accurate representation of how I spent March 1995 to July 1997, as the world's most miserable trainee.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!! He made it!!!

No news yesterday (designated "P-day" by Jess and I), and nothing today.... so emailed him to check that he was still on for drinks tonight. his reply was:

"Yep - definitely still on for drinks tonight. In fact, I have something to celebrate!"

- and Jess has just emailed to confirm that he's got made up!!

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss! That is definitely a champagne celebration occasion!!!!

[photographic evidence...from Coq d'Argent]

Stayed over at Tom and Jo's last night, after pizza and nibbles tea, which was lovely, booked train to take B to dad's on 9/10/11, and slept on the sofa bed straight through to 7.30am when everyone rose and shone and barney and rosa drew pictuers of me in the desk/pocket diaries i got given by the conputacenter guy who's just left us.

And today's bright and sunny and i'm just back from al fresco lunch in west smithfield park with kate and janette.

I know I put photos of my bathroom onto fotopic, and I know that I posted the before and after links to haddock... but it still seems a bit weird that those are now ranking number 8 and number 10 in my top photographs....

... involved Phil's introduction to the assembled Print clan.... Not only did he survive, but passed that test with flying colours.

The photos can't really convey the assembled brummie characters and noise levels!

I got an email from Rob and Emma yesterday, with the great news that Julian Tetang Cummins arrived on Friday 4th April 2003.

I've just had lunch with TC, who tells me Jackie had baby number 2 at the end of March (and I didn't even know she was expecting!) and mother and daughter(s) are enjoying sun and speedos in Cape Town.

Michele goes off on maternity leave a week today, so the tally of new and expectant mothers (and fathers) for the year stands at:

Penny (and Twitch) - baby William
Roopa (and Bruce) - baby Hamish
Emma (and Rob) - baby Julian
Helen (and Mark) - baby [need to look it up, but it's a boy!]

Michele (and Jamie) - eta
Snezana (and Voja) - eta
J (and R) - eta
H (and C) - eta

Look out Hazel, we're surrounded!

Dorian's mate Simon came up trumps tiling my bathroom floor.

Compare before and after.

I've just got to paint the side of the bath (that's tonight's job) and hey presto - transformed!

He's a definite recommendation for decorating and tiling (and he says he also does a bit of woodworking):

Simon Haddock - 020 7254 1346

ACE!

Tiling is happening as I type! The tiler and decorator extrodinaire is Simon Haddock (nothing at all to do with Haddock.org) is a friend of Dorian-who-works-with-Phil's. Lovely bloke, v articulate and arty with a designer's eye. Very easy to get on with - most definitely not a cowboy. He's working on a decent day rate, and he reckons he'll be done by the end of the week. I'll take some photos and put them up on sparkly for all to admire once the transformation is complete.

Oh, and went out for lunch with J, who is pregnant (hooray!)..... with TWINS!!

And this came on top of Bruce Aitken's email announcing the safe arrival of Hamish. So Hazel and I will have to squeeze in a vist to see Bruce, Roopa and Hamish all when she's back.

Hmmm, I'm feeling increasingly surrounded by friends with babies, which effectively rules out birthday drinks this year.

phew, that's better; my inner hellsmouth beast has broken through my groomed and black-suited exterior and is ready to wreak havoc amongst the administrator-clone lawyers here in CityPoint Towers Info Services Centre (aka The Library).

Yes, I'm at work At Work.

Simon-the-tiler-dorian's-friend turned up at 10, we sorted out the details, I got keys cut, he went out to buy supplies.... and the guys doing the roof finally turned up. So I decided that the chances of my getting any work done with racket above and inside my flat were close to zero, so I snuck into work. And I'm hiding out up here, getting lots done. Currently redesigning some of our Practice Database screens. I really enjoy that. Hmmm, I guess it's because it
requires me to be relatively 'creative'. Anyhow, it's better than amending the "So you want to set up an email newsletter....." guidelines which Central
Marketing have savaged (but only to recite the "talk to ussss, you mussst talk to ussss" mantra wherever possible)

So!

Went out with Ann and Emma (Vert girls) on Monday, and emailed all and sundry when I got in, v pissed, at about 11pm. We had a great evening out at Mar i Terra, a great tapas place near to Southwark tube (map) - ended up learning flamenco dancing with the old guy who owned/ran the place and his waiters. And have photos and video to prove how unco-ordinated I am!!!

Ann reckons it's just the spot for Em's hen night.... I think she could be right....

A few weeks ago I introduced Lucy to the delights of fotopic, and synchronicity struck and dad mentioned how impressed he and the Albutts had been with my online photo album.

And a fortnight later, Lucy's got the Lamberts collection building up nicely, but dad has yet to make great use of photos.loosemore.com (which James and Manar set up between them).

Received in a "broadcast email" to the favoured few (including some who she'd failed to tell about her plans....) and saved here for posterity..... check "Where's Hazel" for regular updates....

... or "recorridos felices" which is the closest I can get to the spanish with Systran's assistance!

After champagne and curry supper on Friday, and a fitful four hours' sleep as a consequence, we were up with the birds at 4.30am and en route to LHR in the MGB.

Forty minutes later, we parked in Terminal 2 shortstay car park and made our way down into the low-ceilinged depths to check in.... only to find that H wasn't flying to Madrid with Iberia, but with BA. Luckily, it was BA T1, not BA T4.....

After stiff upper lipped farewells, H headed through the departure gate, and I made my way back through the rat-run tunnels to the carpark, and out into the lightening day.

I'd made it back to Croydon by 7am, whizzing along the M25 and the A23, passing the deserted sheds of the Purley Way. Pity that, as I do need to do an Ikea trip!

You get a strange sort of train passenger at 7:10am, and (I'd say) a higher than average proportion of them smoking.

Back in CJ, and after a refreshing cup of tea - I'd been up for over 3 hours without sustenance! - I got stuck into giving the Sistene Blue hall its first coat of white matt emulsion paint, pausing only to purchase H's June-December flight ticket from Bridge the World.

Met Phil at Waterloo at 11am, and spent the rest of the weekend with Ruth and Pete in Basingstoke. Lovely. Even with the loss of an hour for the sake of BST.

On 19 March 2003, quietly (well, as quietly as a 3y.o. and a 5y.o. allow) at Finsbury Registry Office with Grandpa, Grandma and Uncle James in attendance on the Bride's side, and Granddad, Jean and Aunty Mary on the Groom's.

Once the certificate was signed and safely stowed in Tom's top pocket, we adjourned to TJBR's to celebrate with champagne (once the gents succeeded in removing the anti-theft devices....) and a delicious Maison Blanc gateau.

A lovely, lovely day.

Had a lovely weekend - went to the Wallace Collection on Saturday and then to see Solaris at the cinema, and, after fresh fruit loaf on Sunday a.m. and the last episode in the current series of Dawson's Creek, we went strolling through Battersea Park, Sloane Square, South Kensington and Knightsbridge.

All very sunny. All very lovely. Battersea Park is aquiring a quite continental feel now that restoration is underway.

Rounded off the day with what with hindsight will probably be the final Thumman Thai takeaway with Hazel, and tears during the final episode of Cold Feet. Sniff.

Another lazy morning, getting to our third and final buffet breakfast bonanza just before 10am deadline. Stuffed with tasty morsels, we packed up and checked out, leaving our bags at the hotel, and walked down to the Dolmabache Palace.

The Palace is little off the beaten track for most tourists, but is definitely worth a visit, for the amazing European style opulence, the stunning crystal chandeliers and the grand waterfront gardens. A beautiful building in a beautiful setting.

We strolled back to base, collected our bags and took a final taxi to Taksim Square where we picked up the Havas bus. Reaching the airport at 14.45, we were first in the queue for our return flight check-in, and whiled away the next 2 hours the lounge, duty free and burger king restaurant.

A good flight back, although I'm not sure the raising of the Kursk hit quite the right tone on the in-flight documentary front! And descending towards Heathrow over central London on a clear-as-a-bell night was amazing.

Our original plan to do the Bosphorus tour was ditched in view of the generally cold climate - 8c daytime average during our stay - and instead we followed our usual ferry route to Eminonu, enjoying the bluer skies and weak sunshine.

First off, we explored the "New Mosque" (commissioned in the 16 century, and actually The New Queen Mother's Mosque), which boasted another stunning interior, before exploring the delights of the Spice Market. You can tell there aren't many tourist in town given the various wiles employed by the stall-owners to get us to look at their rugs/ spices/ Turkish Delight/ apple tea/ tiles/ plates/ belly dancer outfits/ Turkish viagra....

Out in the alleyways we found our way to the Rushtem Pasha mosque, initially coinciding with lunchtime prayers, so we did another circuit to kill some time before going into the mosque and being stuck again by the interior, which contrasts so with the chromatic simplicity of the stone exterior.

Wandered back round to the cafes, where we took apple tea at the breathtaking price of 3m TL a cup, and fended off perfume sellers a plenty.

Walked through the streets of shops to the Grand Bazaar and spent the afternoon exploring there, taking sandwich sustenance at the hip Fez Cafe in one of the caves near the Central Market.

Around 4pm we emerged through one of the main gates and took the tram back to Eminonu and thence back to Conrad via the ferries (and, of course, Tansas for more water!).

I had a throbbing headache by the time we got in, and went straight to bed to sleep it off, despite the BBC reports of non Russian vetos and American warmongering.

Slept on and off until 8pm when Janette returned from killing time scouting out the health club and the pool, and the dining options. Headache abated by water and ibuprofen, I got up and allowed myself to be persuaded of the merits of dining at the hotel's Prego Italian restaurant, and I'm glad I did (overcoming my innate meanness). We had a delightfully civilised meal - delicious food, charming service, complete with amuse-bouche mini pizza squares and threexthree mini meringues (which looked a bit like mini-burgers, but tasted beautifully light and sweet, with a hint of lemon/coffee/chocolate-noisette).

We rounded off the evening with a drink (mineral water for 2, which confused the bar waitress no end) in the Skyline Bar on the 14th floor, agreeing that the nighttime view wasn't quite as impressive as the daytime skyline. But it wasn't bad!

Feasted on our first breakfast buffet which duly set us up for a day's sight seeing. We ferried over to Uskadar ands thence to Eminonu, and took the tram up the Sultanahmet.

First stop was Aya Sophia, disappointingly half filled with scaffolding, such that the nave was inaccessible and the tremendous ceiling obscured. Lots of tourist parties, and cold inside.

Next stop were the Baths of Lady Hurrem, now a state run rug shop, but the inside of the baths have been restored to provide an inventive to peruse the rugs in a splendid setting. and it was warm!

En route to the Blue Mosque we went to the beautifully tiled tomb of the Blue Mosque's patron, Sultan Ahment I, filled with green baize covered tombs of the Ottoman sultans I learned about in A-level European history. Well worth the 1m TL donation, and the chilled feet - gorgeous tiles and painted ceiling.

The Blue Mosque, aka Sultan Ahmnet Camii, proved the highlight of the day, even with the touts trying to persuade us into the carpet/souvenir shops. Each one of them seemed to have a friend or relation living in London! Stunning tiles, painted ceiling and carved exterior, and fantastical huge and curving light holders. They're not really chandeliers, but impressive and elaborate light providers at least.

After a warming, albeit small, hot chocolate in the famous Pudding Shop (which is definitely no longer the hippie hangout it used to be according to the newspaper cuttings adorning the walls), we moved on to the Topkapi palace where yet again we encountered the Turkish state's 15m TL pricing double whammy. We elected to give the Treasury a miss, and see how we felt about shelling out for the Harem once we'd had a look inside the main palace. The Agia Sophia had not been a good introduction the Turkish monument VFM.

The Topkapi Palace was fascinating, particularly the sultans wardrobes, with 16th century robes bearing patterns looked like they as inspired by the 1970s. The talismanic paper shirts were equally impressive - hard to believe that the oldest have survived over 500 years. The views from the lower courtyards were lovely, and the Badhdad Kiosk (built by Sultan Murat IV to celebrate his victory over the city of Baghdad in 1638 - hmm, wonder what Geo. Bush Jr will do....) beautifully decorated with more Iznik tiles. It must be a lovely spot in summer, but by 4pm the warmth had gone from the generally overcast day, and we ended up taking a taxi back to the Conrad, in suitable style.

After a hour or so's snooze, we went to check out the eating options, not feeling
able to shell out on $ price room service, we sought a local recommendation from the info desk. Their suggestion proved decidedly un-veggie friendly, and we ended up stuffing ourselves in more relaxed environment of the local equivalent of IHOP, excpet these were very filling turkish savoury filled pancakes. Although eyes turned out to be too big for tummies, I really enjoyed it!

Before attempting our first uphill walk to the Conrad, we nipped into the Tansas to stock up on a 5l bottle of water and Nestlé fruit and nut chocolate, the yummy dark chocolate variety. TV films not a patch on last night's Carlos the Jackal epic, starring contact lens wearing Aidan Quinn (to provide different colour eyes, so that you cuold tell when he was Carlos, and when he was the guy impersonating him....)

At last the long-awaited long weekend arrived, and with our BA flight from London Heathrow necessitating a <8am check in, I took up Janette's offer of spending Friday night in Surbiton with her and Richard. That meant leaving H's farewell JPM drinks at 7pm, but I'm sure Raji made sure she made the most of her evening!

Fast flight out, thanks to an easterly tailwind, and we landed at Istanbul Ataturk airport 6 minutes early. A v smart shiny and new airport, in stark contrast to the shabby congestion of Heathrow Terminal 1.

The £10 tourist visa really was as simple as the blurb suggested - hand over your £10 note, and you get a 3 month tourist visa sticker in your passport in return.

After stocking up on 10,000,000 Turkish Lira notes, we hopped on the Havas bus, handed over 20,000,000 TL and got 8 million back- the first indicator of the impact of the 60% pa inflation which the guide books tell us afflicts Turkey's economy.

The Conrad Hotel proved every inch the international 5*hotel, coming complete with red uniformed doormen and sweeping spiral staircase in the lobby. We had a great room and swanky bathroom goodies and luxury towelling bathrobes and matching slippers.

After settling in and sussing out the transport options, we headed out to the Besiktas ferry, much to the surprie of the reception staff.....managed to buy jetons and the work out the need to take the ferry over the Bosphorus to Uskadar on the Asian side, and to pick up the Eminonu ferry from there. Nipped into the Tansas supermarket en route buying water and nuts for sustenance en route.

From Eminonu quay we took the tram (more jetons!) to Sultanahmnet, a stone's
throw from the Blue Mosque and the Agia Sophia. In the heart of the old town, we opted for the friendly Mosaic cafe next the our intended eatereie (the Rumeli restaurant) but still we dined in a cosy timbered merchants house, and feasted on grilled vegetables, domades and tortelini. All for the pincely sum of 28m TL.

After dinner, we walked over and explored the floodlit Blue Mosque and the Agia Sophia by the light of a crescent moon, and then taxied back home from Eminonu quay.

After brunch in The Fine Line with Hazel, Helen and Charlie, I ended up vegging at Hazel's for the entire afternoon, and very relaxing it was too - Channel 4 was holding another Rapid Repeat ^H^H^H^H "Friends" Day (with the infernally irritating June Sarapong(?)), which we sat through, followed by Stargate, followed by Time Team (during which I was mostly snoozing), followed by a nip out to watch Barnard Road electricity meters spinning round (Katy was on a mission and I wanted to be sure she understood the reason that my readings are so low is because my usuage - as a single dweller who only uses her flat to sleep in, and even that's on an irregular basis - is so low. As opposed to the meters being incorrectly identified, such that my usage if that shown on the common parts meter. I don't think so), then Holiday Swap, Pauline Quirk pastoral idyll vehicle, before winding up with Cold Feet. Then home to bed.

Oh, and I got as far as day 5 of the Intrepid Tour in terms of sticking holiday photos into an album.

Had a fab day out and about with Phil ...

We got the DLR out to Prince Regent intending to visit the architect-designed park out by the Thames Barrier.

Getting from the station to the park wasn't quite as simple as one might expect, more of an obstacle course of building sites (swanky apartment complexes in the making) and major roadways, roundabouts and bridges, interspersed with the occasional building left over from Old Docklands Time. Not for much longer though.

That siad, once we found the pedestrianised waterside by ExCel, things were very pleasant and mistily atmospheric, but on the City Airport side of the waterways things were less pedestrian friendly, especially at the roundabouts, which didn't really make sense given the amount of space given over to the pleasantly landscaped pavements/cycle paths.

Once we managed to work out how to get into the park we found ourselves in a pedestrian haven. OK, the topiary looked a bit tatty and the fountain water display isn't functioning at this time of year, but the place was virtually deserted and is in a stunning setting.

Along one side there are almost-finished south of France style modern white apartments, on the other, more apartments under construction. And beyond those, a Thames-side factory with gleaming steel chimneys billowing out white smoke/steam. Panning round you see the Thames Barrier (a bizarre sight at low tide, with mud flats and small streams instead of perilously high river level) and then the factories which still occupy the far bank.

Whilst it was lovely to look at, there is absolutely nothing in terms of social amenities - nowhere obvious for you to buy a paper or pint of milk, let alone more substantial supplies. No cafes or restaurants, no libraries or bookshops.

Leaving the City Slicker Isolation Pods beind us we caught the bus and Jubilee Line to Greenwich, mooching through the park and the museums in the sunshine, looking at Canary Wharf, hovering like a mirage over the old Naval College. Then onwards to mooch around the open air antiques market (with the gyrating geisha) and the chi-chi tourist-oriented stalls in Greenwich Market (and buying olives) before making our way back on the DLR to Bank via the film set scale scenery of Canary Wharf.

A very lovely day indeed.

The Tube website's refund form for the disruption caused by the closure of the Central and Waterloo & City Lines has changed so that it requires you to login. When I tried it on Wednesday, you just went straight to the form, but got an OLE error when you tried to submit it. CONSPIRACY everyone wailed....

but I've just registered and filled out the form, and it seems to have submitted just fine.

I'll not hold my breath for the cheque though..... I've a suspicion I'm going to fall foul of the "you didn't buy your travelcard from the right place to qualify" rule which was trotted out, wrongly, after the last disruption to my lovely commuter route.

I didn't.

Thanks to Jude for spotting this page on the London Transport website:

"Any Travelcard or LT Card is valid for travel across the entire London bus network.

For example, with a 7 Day Travelcard for Zone 3 you may travel within Zone 3 by Tube, Tramlink, DLR and National Rail, but you may travel across the entire London bus network."

... meaning that my zone 1-2 travelcard will work for all the London bus routes!

And I've been paying everytime I go outside Zone 2 for *years*. grrr.

I went out with Hazel to the Banana Leaf after BLAC - too many people seeking advice, not enough lawyers - partly due to fatigue and disinclination to cook, and partly because it'll be one of the few remaining occasions I'll have the opportunity to do so before Hazel departs for South America.

Over Banana Leaf Main courses, H bemoaned the fact that she had missed Buffy on Friday / Saturday (not surprising seeing as she was out partying with Raji and innumerable unknown Italians!), and had been going to reclaim her VCR, which generated the brainwave that she, Phil and I could Buffy ensemble tomorrow.... and make a start on eating up the contents of my Sainsbury's-to-You'd freezer. The perfect solution to the Tuesday To Do Dilemma.

Phil and I had agreed a few days ago that we'd probably want to go on the Stop The War march in London today, and in line Haddock's usual vague attempts to organise a Plan For All Fish, we, together with Phil's sister Sue, made our way to Bush House for noon, meeting up with Anno and Anna en route.

I didn't go without some soul searching and internalised wrangling mind you, enhanced by the Haddock factor, especially after re-reading some of the opinions put forward on the BBC pages devoted to the issue. I'm torn between the need to deliver some form of humanitarian solution for the Iraqi people - and their middle eastern neighbours - and gut revulsion at the hypocrisy? duplicity? cynical manipulation? on the part of the UK government, and the way it has handled its relationship with the US, the UN and the EU. I couldn't stay at home and have that interpreted by the spin doctors as being indicative of support of the UK's actions.

Escaped from the red roses and helium balloon bearing brigade and headed out to Dalston with Phil to rendezvous with Lou, Liam, Dorian and Jude at a jazz bar just along from the Rio cinema.

After a beer and making first acquaintance with Dorian, we headed on for our evening of genuine Turkish Delights in Dalston/Stoke Newington, as proposed by Lou and booked by Dorian.

Ate ourselves silly at the 19 Numara Bos Cirrik (featured here but you'll need to scroll down), 34 Stoke Newington Road, London N16 7XJ (I have the empty carrier-cum-doggy bag here next to me!!). With really great service and delicious food both in abundance, I'd definitely go there again. And it's close enough to the Dalston Rio to combine a trip to a cinema with ambiance with a great meal.

Be My Valentine?

Infuriating though it was for eXouk drinks to collapse under the weight of people suddenly recalling previous commitments, at least it left me free to meet up with Karen Grimshaw nee Frankland for the evening.

We headed out to the Diwana Bhel-Poori House, one of the Drummond Street Indian restaurants recommended in the Rough Guide to London Restaurants 2001 - and a very lovely evening we had too. Great grub (cheap!!) and lots of time to make up for the months of mutual silence, which we did with great gusto. Karen told me all about their trip to Australia for Neil and Vicky's wedding, and their DIY tour to Tasmania, I told her all about Phil, and mine and Hazel's trip to Cambodia. It was a lovely, lovely evening - even if I have still to find a link which works to prove to Karen that Erika is wed!!

.... gets the thumbs up from me!

Placed my order last week, in anticipation of the bread making demand for heavy items (flour!), and my doorbell chimed at 7.30pm (30mins early); a mature yet spritely delivery man on the steps, carrying two of my N bags of shopping.

Drawing up my list had been really easy, with the site mirroring the shopping experience, by grouping together things into aisles, and then by type and then by cost within each 'aisle', with icons highlighting special offers in effect on your date of delivery. Fantastic!

And with another free delivery voucher to hand for March, I'll be making at least one more order.... to include a couple of wine boxes seeing as my Hazel-to-home channel shopping service will cease from 29 March.

And that left me plenty of time to start dismantling the mantelpiece shelf dad and I put up when I first moved in to the flat. Mooching around the Leominster antique shops had convinced me of the merits of moving my bureau into one of the alcoves, and adding more bookshelf-type shelving - not that I needed much persuasion, just something to spur me on to dismantle what's there at the moment. And dad's approval, albeit tacit, to the dismantling of our joint DIY'

... just called. She was the unrecognised number calling my mobile as I sat on the train home last night. which I didn't pick up....

She and Colin are down in London and are intent upon meeting up with Les Loosemores. Lovely! All I need od now is find out where's a good place to get some lunch by Tate Modern. "Ask Haddock" methinks.

Mary-the-medic was the fount of all knowledge during our early adolescence: Quote of the 80s from the 40acres diary:

"Mary Ruth..... what's a les?"

as overheard by mum and dad one evening when tom, mary and I were camping in the garden.

H has quit JPMorgan and is off to Equador at the end of March for a month at spanish school, then back for a short spell to perform bridesmaid duties for her sister, and then off to S America - from Rio to Easter Island, estimated return "early 2004"!!!

I am a bit jealous, but in my rational mind I know that going travelling isn't something I'm likely to do again - not in a bad way, it's more a case of I feel that the my life in London - Phil, friends and job - is something I don't want to interrupt, and leaving would be a bit mistake.

That said, I'm already nagging H for her outline itinery so that I can work out when/ where's best to head out to meet her for a few weeks, time off and wars permitting. So that puts the central asia/western China trip on hold for another year, which will give me time to build up some more funds, and holiday allowance! This year looks set to be the year of many small trips - Istanbul next month, maybe Paris in the summer, and time at the cottage hopefully with a chunky visit to South America sometimes towards the end of the year.

Back from a lovely relaxing weekend at dad's which saw us venture up to Leominster (great 'antique' shops!) and to Forty Acres to view the snowdrops on Saturday, winding up at The Neville Arms for dinner.

On Sunday, I slobbed under the duvet in the lounge in front of Hollyoaks whilst dad and jean were at church, until being shamed from my stupor and out for a gentle stroll to Holme Lacy church, where dad showed me the heroic gravestone statue of the last of the local gentry, and we all admired the snowdrops.

Returned bearing Christmas gifts - principally a swanky breadmaker from dad and Jean, but also a large scale OS map of the world (with wipe-off surface, so I'm planning to plot H's route whilst she's in South America) and a nifty tripod-for-all-surfaces.

Phew - I so early missed the 17:00 train to dad's. Things started off fine - left work at 4.15, straight onto a Metropolitan line train to Baker Street, which is where things began to go awry. 12 minutes to wait until the next train via Paddington - and that's with both the Hammersmith and City and the Circle line travelling along the same track. The Bakerloo alternative isn't running during the day Mondays to Friday, so I just had to sit (or rather "pace") it out until 16.49. 6 mins journey time to Paddington, and I had no idea where the pink line tube station is within the grand scheme of things at the mainline station.

Once out of the tube and on the platform it appeared that there is only one staircase out, and people were going up and down it, excruciatingly slowly. I inched my way forward as fast as possible without barging my way completely into people's bad books, and ran as soon as the walkway opened up ahead of me.

Through the barriers Lady Luck returned as I came out onto the overhead walkways which cross the main platforms half way down their length, and I managed to spot the West Wales train and scrambled on board with one minute to spare.

And once I've caught my breath and relaxed a little, I shall read the Marie Claire article on Danny, Quinn and Gil's polyamorous relationship.

I'm off to Hereford this weekend, for some pampering chez pops, and on a mission to be my cambodia pics into an album. The online ones are here:

http://mary.fotopic.net/

When I'm doing my next big digital photo albumming, I'll follow up James's tip to build fotopic into sparklytrainers....

Saw Fran last night, and we had a lovely evening, gassing away for hours. It's lovely to have her back, and it's just such an easy friendship to revive. I've yet to see Fabian, so the reality as Fran-as-a-mother hasn't struck yet.

We've had snow in London for the third time this year today!! It was only a flurry, and wouldn't be worthy of a mention anywhere north of the M25, but it was a major event here!

Last Thursday when we had enough snow to bring tube and trains grinding to a halt - aided and abetted by the "tube accident at Chancery lane" which has put the Central line (in it's entirety!!!) and the Waterloo & City line out of action since last Sunday. For some bizarre reason it seemed to make sense to me to go along with Tom's suggestion that Phil and I should go up to visit them in Crouch End, with the promise of being ferried back to CJ so that I would be able to dress appropriately for the IT Xmas party on Friday night. I should have known better!

Having made it to Finsbury Park to find the queue for the W3 stretching far into the distance (Phil counted 95 would-be bus passengers) and rendezvousing with Tom and Tony, we wound up walking/skating along the icy pavements and roads of Crouch End for half an hour, after our lift home almost slid into the parked cards lining the residential back route we were taking to avoid the standing traffic (including the W3), and we figured that lightening the Ageh's load by 3 would make their journey home a lot safer!

It really reminded me of winters in Solihull, when Tom and I would get very excited every time the Midlands was hit by a Big Freeze, crunching over refrozen slush and scrunching through centimetres of snow. Tom's uploaded photos of B&R enjoying themselves in a very similar fashion on Friday.

And dining on curry in front of a real fire made it all worth while! Plus the early morning light on the snow covered scenes from Ally Pally was beautiful. Very peaceful indeed - everything bathed in this beautiful early morning sun glow, and with that silence that snow brings.

Both barrells.

but I wish I'd asked them what prompted the "courtesy calls" in the first place -having ranted to dad and to Robert, I'm sure that that in itself indicates that they know that the problem is their end.

Anyway... read on dear reader....

Mrs Deening finally alighted upon "Citygate House, Finsbury Square" on her list of London Tax Offices. I wouldn't let her off the hook until she'd found one
which was local - she didn't even mention the IR HQ at Bush House/The Strand.

I ended up feeling rather sorry for her - she didn't even know that Enfield wasn't in/close to the City/Liverpool St/Bank.

How *do* you describe a London location to someone who's never left Scotland?

The power of the postcode was never more needed.

I'm faxing my MP now.

*****STRONG LANGUAGE*****

I don't fucking believe it!

I'm on the phone to the fucking inland revenue on a courtesy call from them telling me that they've not received my tax return.

And on my screen is the pdf from when I did it on 12 August

Fuckers

They've no record of my tax office address and no means of telling me where my nearest one is for me to hand deliver it given that the filing deadline is tomorrow.

IT'S NOT MY PROBLEM!

The lovely Herve set us a Test de Rentree Janvier 2003.... and it's the rentree demain and i've yet to do mes devoirs.

Aidez-moi etc mettez vos bons mots dans la boite "Comments" ci-dessus!

Merci

:)

ps I love the typo at number 43....

... right on cue, Tom Coates comes to the rescue, recommending Syndirella as an RSS news/blog/information aggregator.

Now all I need to do is see if we have the the .NET Framework version 1.0, and if not, whether I can download it.....

courtesy of Don't Link to Us!

.... check out the small print :)

Phil's looking for a map of London in the mid-17 Century for Pepys' Diary.

If you know of one, which he'd be able to put up on Pepys' Diary, then either contact him or post a comment here.

Bearing in my myown historian's credentials and my close shave with the archivist profession, I thought I'd see how far I got combining my academic research skills with this newfangled interweb thing - it didn't exist as a resource when I was at university - and that was only in 1988-1992!

Ambivalent? Supportive? Unsure? Unclear? Uneasy?

Read this.

It's John le Carr

The siege is over, and it wasn't not a happy ending for Eli Hall, nor for local residents.

and there's been precious high profile coverage of what happened, how the siege was handled, why it stared in the first place. It seems to have been fallen between the cracks caused by the "To play or not to play" question (Cricket in Zimbawe) and the US/UK's build up for War on Iraq.

Just about to power down and head off in the direction of Clapham Picture House with H for LOTR at 8.15, with prelim food choice to be decided.

Went out for lunch with 2 of the people I started here with as a trainee. It was a bit weird as for the first time I felt like I wasn't on a par with them. And it wasn't what they were saying, it was more how the conversation didn't flow in my direction at all; kind of verbal non verbal communication. Unconscious on their part I hope.

oh well.

Hope tomorrow's lunch is less weird than today's and yesterday's have been - otherwise I'll start getting paranoid....

... as covered in the BBC Technology pages.

So it's working then.

STAND picks up issues where they think that people who are reasonably techie might have a useful opinion that might otherwise be ignored.

Their current campaign aims to address the apparent imbalance between the public consultation exercise conducted by the Home Office and the one-sided views presented by those consulted so far. ID cards will affect everyone in the UK - don't you feel that you should have heard something about the proposals if we're edging closer to adopting them?

I do.

If you're reading this, then you're online, and you've probably got a certain amount of experience of and awareness about how often your personal data is collected and used.... and how often it ends up in the places where you'd never expect. Now just imagine what happens when you have a single unique identifier that anyone can use to correlate data on you.....

A lot of the problems of the ID card aren't about how it's been used in the past, but how it will be used in the future, and how the government plans to get there.

If you have an opinion, STAND have set up an easy-to-use means of joining in the consultation process. And at the end, you have the additional option of sending a copy to your MP, via the awarded-winning Fax Your MP.

The consultation ends on 31 Janaury 2003.

"Morning and evening are better for personal matters but avoid decisions this afternoon. You're more determined than ever to fulfil your potential, even if it means making long-term sacrifices. Going back to school, taking a job in an unfamiliar place, or improving your work habits are just some of the things you can do to produce results. An authority figure may try to talk you out of these plans, but don't listen. This person may want to keep you in a subordinate position, if only to feel superior."

and I've my third meeting with Chris and Peter this afternoon about "Me and My Future".

Day 14..... and it's still going.

Personal interest piqued on two counts:

1. It's taking place in Graham Road, 5 mins from Phil's flat, so I pass by quite often on re-routed buses (most recently 10 mins after the hostage* made his escape);
2. Lou lives and works inside the cordon and has been providing bird's-eye accounts of major events.

I returned from holiday blithely ignorant of what looks like becoming the London's longest running seige, which made the first few posts I read on re-subbing to Haddock somewhat mystifying. One week on, it's become part of the background of London news, with only the dramatic making it onto/into The News. All of which makes Lou's independent front line reportage all the more valuable, and this Obersever article amusing.

It *never* snows in London! Well, it feels like it hasn't snowed since 1775 (or whenever the Great Frost Fairs were - This Sceptred Isle has failed me...)

"From the arts to music, beautiful places to cultured civilisations do your best to visit one or other. Your appreciation for things foreign and exotic will be heightened over the next month. This is a fine time to plan an overseas trip, court a foreigner, or learn a different language. Expanding your horizons has a liberating feeling that is quite intoxicating. It's refreshing to know that there are many ways you can choose to live. Opening yourself to new experiences will enable you to forge the life you desire."

Time to get leafing through the brochures again.....

Danny's been plugging the merits of the Jhai Foundation's Remote IT project in Laos. Naturally, he's taken with the techie angle, and has given it a plug in today's issue of NTK as well as being the first entry for 2003 in his blog - which I'm sure has bazillions of readers, who are all rich, sensitive, and good-looking just like him ;)

Now, the name Lee Felsenstein means nothing to me (unlike the certain sections of the tech community who go gaga over it), but Laos does. It was, and is, my favourite country in South East Asia, based on one amazing month spent backpacking around with Hazel in 1999.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be in a tiny minority in even Danny's vast social network by having acutally been to the Plain of Jars. And having been there, I have a clearer appreciation of the task taken on by Lee Felsenstein and his friend, Lee Thorn, who was involved in the US bombing of Laos during the "Vietnam" war.

It was Lee Thorn who formed the Jhai Foundation with a Laotian refugee, seeking to effect some degree of reparation. Last year, Lee approached Felstein with a challenge: could he spread the power of his revolution to the agricultural communities of Laos?

This is what the Remote IT project aims to do - and I hope Danny doesn't mind if I just cut and paste his words:

"It's a bicycle-powered, ruggedised luggable [computer], with a localised version of Linux and constructed from cheapo commodity parts. It's got an aerial, too: it uses WiFi to connect to a central Internet hub in the market town.

Using it, villages that currently have no electricity, telephone or decent roads can monitor the prices of crops, negotiate group purchases with other villages, and make business deals without spending days away from the farm. And with email and built-in VoIP, the families will be able to make direct contact for the first time with the Laotian Diaspora - the relatives who left the war-torn zone to earn money in the capital and beyond."

So why does the Foundataion need donatations for the Remote IT project? For these elements of the project:

$10 20 lbs. shipping costs

$25 Keyboard

$50 Headset

$75 Antenna

$100 Battery

$250 Bicycle Powered Generator

$450 CPU or Mountain Top Solar Panel

$850 Base Station

$1,000 One RT US-Laos Trip for One Technical Consultant

$1,500 One Complete Jhai Computer

$2,500 One Complete Village Set-up

$3,000 Relay Station

$25,000 The Full 5 Village System

Making a donation by PayPal is as easy as pie - I've never done it before, expecting it to require registration and logging in to some mysterious financial site for micropayments (don't ask me why - now i've been there i can see it's a million miles away from that!). In reality, it's the same as using a card to pay for anything online - just in this case, the recipient doesn't have to have built transaction payment processing pages into their own website; paypal plays that part for you.

So, just click on the link, and mark your payment "For: Remote IT".

[Although it is a bit of a BIG bugger that you have to get your paypal membership number from your card statement before you can send your first payment - mine only come once a month..... So I'll have to remember to check online to see if it appears there. Task Number 1 for Monday morning!]

Just before lunch, I learned that the BBC is axing Tomorrow's World because of falling ratings.

I'm sure (I think) that the BBC has debated this decision long and hard, and I'd be interested in knowing the reasons behind it. To my mind, falling ratings is a euphamism for media euthansia, with all the ethical concerns proved correct.

Tomorrow's World was a staple of my childhood telly viewing - and one of the few programmes I used to watch with my dad. But I'm not arguing for TW on the basis of nostalgia alone, in today's world science is having a greater impact than ever before, and that's only going to increase - from Dolly to hygrogen cars, mobile messaging to superstring theory, Tomorrow's World has a place to educate young and old alike about what the future might hold.

Startrek is no substitute, and one off specials are easy enough to space ... out .... so ..... much ...... that ....... they ........ disappear ......... from .......... the ........... scheduling ............altogether. A regular slot in the week allows for regular viewing, and for small items to have their space. After all, who's to say that some small snippet today won't be tomorrow's sms?

...a little later....

One of the other comments on TW is that it:

"used to be = new scientist
became = daily mail "isn't this cool?" column with no science bits"

....which strongly suggests that I am guilty of supporting what was, rather than what is. But if that's so, then that lays the blame squarely at the doors of the BBC. It's within their power to produce a programme which is of New Scientist quality, and I'd go so far as to say it's expected of them under the Charter.

Choosing to axe TW suggests that they don't want to try to maintain such high information and education standards for science on television on a regular basis, preferring to hitch their horses to the Popular Science bandwagon with the one off specials focussing on whatever gadget is flavour of the month, or has the best PR machine.

It's the steady drip, drip, drip of information that educates - enabling the viewer to piece together a broader understanding, making the links and enjoying their own Eureka moments. Spoon feeding via the occasional science special risks leaving subjects segregated into separate pockets, some if which may seem impossibly deep to some viewers, and each with its own ring fence creating a barrier against making the connections which brings science to life, into the home and out of the lab.

The BBC has brought history into the mainstream by focussing on the social side, why can't they do the same for science? It doesn't need to be biographies of great inventors and scientists, that reinforces the idea that science is the preserve of priviledged, whether educationally or financially. The impact of science on society, the way in which our lives might change as a result of research or discoveries, how science moves from the theory we learn at school and which is worked on by 'boffins in labs' and into our daily lives, becoming the things we can consume, the things which create and shape the world we live in - this is what makes science accessible and thereby interesting to your man and woman on the Clapham Omnibus.

It's what Tomorrow's World did for me, with the result that I enjoy science features in the press, in magazines, on the radio and on the TV long after my schoolday studies have ended. Maybe, the optimist in me pipes up, this is what the "one off specials" will seek to achieve. I hope so.

I've posted my opinions on the BBC's Current Science message board, but now I'm wondering if the Points of View messageboard isn't going to be more effective, although I do wish I could make the case as cogently as Cait!

It's:

- The album statistics feature in the album editor, which lets me see who's been looking at my photos;
- The Album Stats summary on the site itself; and (this is the best)
- The Top Photographs.

Ok, so that last one is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy (no time to figure out the correct phrase to use there - feel free to educate me via a comment), seeing as people click on the top ten photos to see which ones they are, and thereby add another point to their tally, but it's still really interesting to see the stats change over time, and to marry that up with the referrer logs to work out who's been looking at my photos <\Goldilocks and the three bears>!

Booked my super advance train ticket to dad and jean's last night, only to realise that 31st Jan is the IT Department Christmas Party (cheapskates + management disinterest => January festivities) so the plan to spend the first weekend in Feb at Dinedor was a no go. Oscillated between saying sod it to the party, and rescheduling weekend with pops, finally settling on the latter. Checked that the following weekend was OK with dad and Jean - no earlier options being available due to their jetset lifestyle (off to see Kate and Warwick in the Cayman Islands) and bought another £30 ticket on thetrainline.

And then I went to look up what the procedure is these days for refunds, only to discover that they charge £7.50 cancellation administration fee, whereas if I'd changed my ticket details the charge is only £5 (which is what I was expecting). That pisses me off. OK, I'll concede that half the annoyance is that I didn't check first, but evenso..... I'd say it's a disguised penalty for cancelling rather than an admin cost, seeing as when the issue a revised ticket you have to send the previous one in to be cancelled before they send you your new one.

Whilst I was away, Phil was busying himself realising his idea for doing Samuel Pepys' Diary as a weblog, combining one man's personal account of daily life during the 1660s with 21st century technology to produce a truely accessible, bite size social history resource.

He revealed it (www.pepysdiary.com) to Haddock just after Christmas, and it was picked up by high profile blogs far and wide... resulting in a request from BBC News Online that he write a piece for their Technology section on 'Why I turned Pepys' diary into a weblog' (written last night as Hazel and I pored over Cambodia photos, with half an eye on the first episode in the new season of Sex and the City).

Coo - I've got a famous boyfriend (well, in the webworld anyway!). And I'm really really pleased and proud for him because it is a great site - a decade of a daily dose of Pepys, with links to biographies of people who feature in diary entries, and similar additional information on places mentioned, together with really handy links to maps from Streetmap.

....said with heavy irony.

24 hours after taxiing from the Puncak to Phnom Penh airport, Hazel and I landed in rainy LHR after an unimpressive series of flights with Lufthansa. Won't be flying with them again.

Feeling miserable and have no desire at all to be sitting at my desk at 12:15, with it still raining outside and my inbox reduced to a long and tedious To Do list. I'm downloading my photos from my ixus, but tbh, seeing photos from the three weeks in Bangkok and Cambodia just making matters worse.

Sigh

Am too pissed on angkor beer to be coherent - celebratin h's 32th with a beeeeeeeg meal and many bottles of beer and a great cake! surprise from the tour leader. had a v cool day hanging off the back of a bike, and driving through rural vuillages - doing the queen thing, waving and saying hello to the locals. sounds tacky? but was ace. and then we rode home on the railway, but not on a train, more of flat bed bamboo screens with a diy lawn mower engine power alternative.

lots of fun!

So, as you can tell, having a whale of a time.

It's well and truely time for bed...... after an enjoyable mammoth session of backfilling SparklyTrainers. I'm sure it's not The Done Thing, but hey.

Which reminds me, I got my first Christmas card today - from Fiona, Greg and Ewen. Those anglo-aussies, they always get in ahead of the last posting dates!

I hate mornings like today's. After an early morning period pain alarm call sometime around 3.30am, I slept through 45 minutes of my radio 4 alarm and then had a really shitty journey in, thanks to a security alert at Waterloo causing the closure of all access to the tubes. But of course there was no announcement on the train, and nothing at all at Waterloo. Just hundreds of commuters milling around in ever increasing states of frustration and ire.

I ended up catching the RV1 to London Bridge and thence the Northern Line. The train at the platform was packed, but with 7 mins until the next one I squeezed my way on, only for the station supervisor to announce that they were holding the train there for a few minutes to regulate the service. Sometime announcements aren't that welcome I guess.

I only got in at 9am, 1/2 hour late for French :( and then straight into a w2k meeting featuring our famously unhelpful Helpdesk. *Any* thing you ask is taken as an attack and the answer revolves around "it's not our fault, we've done nothing" rather than thinking about things from the user's perspective - they don't care *why*, they just want to know what they should/shouldn't do about it.

So I let off stream to Haddock, which has been remarkably quiet today after a few days of crazy communication - yesterday morning's inbox has 157 new emails!! Tom came back onto the list last week, which was a bit weird. Not unwelcome, but it felt a bit odd not having any forewarning, and suddenly having to readjust to having my more famous sibling around. I always find Haddock a bit of a strange beast - I'm still not completely at ease with the people there, and at times the occasions when we do meet up leave me feeling even more insecure. But not enough to abandon it.

Still feeling crabby, so bailed on the planned Barnard Road Freeholders' drinks, and agreed with cold-ridden Hazel that we'd head to hers for takeaway and a vegging vid. an excellent decision - delicious thai from our favourite home delivery, Tunnam Thai accompanied by the brilliant Bend It Like Beckham on the box. The perfect film, albeit preceded by uninspiring trailers. And I did keep having to remember that the white football mad girl wasn't the same character as the white football mad girl in Hollyoaks. Experienced a but of a guilt-blip early on in the film, but that's something for musings elsewhere.

Had an excellent night's sleep for the first time in days (nights?) last night after a really nice evening with Phil and his sister Sue. That said, things started off badly, due to my tardiness and tiredness, but by the time Sue arrived everything was heading back towards normality and my guilty/emotional/over-tired tears were dry. And I was the proud owner of a Richer Sounds brochure.... DVD player or VCR? What should I go for.....?

Japanese crispy shelled peanuts (I must find out the technical term for them) and olives from Phil's corner store set us off on the right track, and our chef got to work on a scrummy rissotto courtesy of Nigel Slater as Sue told us all about her holiday to the Falkland Islands - penguins penguins and more penguins. Plus a few sheep and people for good measure.

Indulged in a TV dinner, watching Celebrity Big Brother for the first time, and celebrating the votes for Anne Diamond. Finished off the evening with a videoed episode of Buffy - one of the weird info-filling ones where the episode's plot is sacrificed to the greater series storyline.

I'm sitting in the library writing up my idiot's guide to setting up and running an email newsletter. Usually it's as quiet as the grave up here, but there's a trainee receiving a refresher course on doing company research.... which is a bit distracting :( so I'm taking time out to check my email, catch up on some Sparkly Trainering - and to sit up straighter. I've been getting twinges in my back over the past few weeks, and sometimes I'm conscious that I'm walking strangely to avoid putting any pressure on the pain points. Not A Good Thing. So I'm trying to get into good posture habits.

Another late night due to insomnia until 2am. pah. Although I don't feel as bad today as I did yesterday. Maybe that's due to the impact of a second day's heavy morning caffeine intake.

I spent last night with Hazel doing her appraisal and my values etc grid. And then reading, trying to sleep, reading some more, getting up to finish off the pineapple, reading some more and then finally snoozing off sometime after 2am. On the plus side, at least it gave me an excuse to finish off Paul Aster's [Tales of American Life], which I thoroughly enjoyed - even the spooky stories.

It's annoying that I can't figure out what's causing it - I'm not cousciously worrying about anything :( The only things I can think of is that it might be early anticipation of the trip to Cambodia, or perhaps the work situation is niggling away beneath the surface still.

Whatever the cause is, I wish it would GO AWAY!

I had a really good weekend with Laura visiting, but am feeling a leeetle tired today as a result. Two late nights and both partyish nights at that. Friday with Phil at Stef's 30th+3, with snail's pace bus journeys as the traffic crawled through the Old Street/Shoreditch road works and lots of waiting in the stairrod rain, and then drinking and dining and then drinking some more on Saturday evening through to Sunday morning with Laura and Hazel. Discovered a great Italian restaurant about 5 minutes from Clapham Common tube, which we shared with a raucous table of italian ladies on a hen night (definitely a good sign!!), and that SoshoMatch on Tabernacle Street is open to 3am, and only charges £3 for the priveledge, plus no queue. Definitely a bonus compared with other places we check out on our walking tour of Trendy Shoreditch bars.

And we really did induldge ourselves on the gastronomic front, being ladies who lunch at Fortnum & Mason's on Saturday lunchtime (We walked it off around Bond Street and the other expensive shopping areas before heading home to CJ though), and a restorative Banana Leaf Canteen at 3pm on Sunday (after slowing coming to with the help of Hollyoaks and a double helping of Dawson's Creek.

I've not really done much navel gazing on the career front, but I plan to tonight. and to do boring minutes for our freehold co meeting before R.I.T. gets on my case.

And if I get chance I'm going to buy a signal booster from argos for my telly. I'm planning on this one by LabGear. Selected on the basis that it sounds like it does what I need, it looks nice, and it's cheaper than the other one.

Met Kate and Janette for a veggie lunch at The Place Below, which is the place whose recipe book I raised for last night's luxury comfort cuisine created for me and Phil. I'll freely admit that I'm a poor cook - a legacy of not being in a position to practice my Tudor Grange Home Economics skills at university, and not really being interested in cooking for one thereafter. Still, Ragout of Wild and Field Mushrooms proved simple and relatively speedy to create - handy given that Phil made it to my front door before I did....

This afternoon, Stef asked, "does anyone know what the status of legislation, pending, passed or proposed is relating to spam in the uk? did we ever legislate? are there plans? do we not care?"

Seeing as I'm (still) in the midst of preparing a paper on how S&S does email newsletters, I felt well positioned to answer:

"EU directive on privacy and electronic communications (Directive 2002/58/EC [PDF] [html]) was published in OJEC on 31 July 2002 i.e. it's live. Member states must implement the directive by 31 oct 2003. The directive establishes an opt-in regime for direct marketing by email.

As with all Directives, implementation should be achieved by the Member State's government (ie messers Blair et al here in the UK) turning the directive into national law by passing appropriate legislation, but if they fail to do so, the directive comes into direct effect, ie it's law, but we don't have a UK Act to refer to, no UK procedures, authorities etc etc specified. So lots of room for confusion, prevarication and legal fees. Given the deadline, it should have been in the Queen's Speech I think....

As ever, a key weakness with EU directives is that they only apply to the EU, so anyone anywhere else is free to spam us. including our friends in the US.

Register on elexica and search for "Spam" if you want more legal background."

Given the 2003 deadline, I'd expect there to be some UK legislation on it this year. So I sought out the text of the Queen's Speech and looked for any mention of "privacy", "spam", "email" "unsolicited". No joy.

So I faxed my MP to ask why:

"To: Dr Martin Linton
MP for Battersea
House Of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

Wednesday 20 November 2002

Dear Dr Martin Linton,

SPAM

As a member of the modern age, I use communications technology on a daily basis both at work and in my day to day life. I am sure that I am not the first person to contact you to ask what the Government is doing about unsolicited marketing communications (aka spam) received by email, and increasingly by SMS to my mobile phone.

I am fully aware of the assistance which is already provided by the Office of the Information Commissioner, and the various Preference Services run under the auspices of the Direct Marketing Association.

However, I am concerned as to the Government's plans as far implementating the EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications are. Having read though the text of the Queen's Speech (http://www.labour.org.uk/queensspeechtext/) I can find no mention of the Directive's requirements.

Given that the Directive must be implemented in the UK and other Member States by 31 October 2003, would you tell me how the Government proposes to do so?

Yours Sincerely

Mary"

Monday ended up on a lighter note, as Janette and I went to a corporate sponsors' private viewing of the Gainsborough exhibition which included access to the Turner Prize 2002 exhibition at Tate Britain.

The exhibitions were ok, but I wouldn't bother paying to see them with the crowds. The gainsborough in particular doesn't live up to it's marketing hype. Well, unless you're an art historian, I suppose.

I got spam at [personal email address deleted to prevent further use by spammers] from "Peter Beadles ([personal email address deleted to prevent further use by spammers])" and in my agitation went through the yahoo spam notification routine (I pick up my [domain deleted to prevent further use by spammers] mail at work using Yahoo's popmail service), which I fear now means I and possibly Tom and dad's will be blacklisted by Yahoo :( and possible more widely :[

I've mailed them via a feedback form, but it looks like they only really care about impersonations which use a yahoo address. and I recall Cait being less than impressed by their customer service. bummer.

This morning's other visual encounter was outside Tate Modern when the is-it-isn't-it cyclist sped past AND LOOKED AT ME!

I'm 99% sure of it, but chickened out from making eye contact. DOH!!!! Well, if it was him, then eeek [1]! and if it wasn't then eeek [2].

[1] just because I've no idea what I'd say to him.
[2] it'd be sooo embarrassing knowing that a stranger is wondering why this pedestrian gazes earnestly in his direction every time they cross paths

....is a very scary film.

Myles, gent that he is, sat through my hands-at-the-ready-for-hiding-behind performance during the 2 hour film by Alex Garland (storyline - The Beach) and Danny Boyle (director - Trainspotting). Excellently shot, with some nice cinematography (strobing the "Rage" attacks) and amazing scenes. In particular the early ones of a deserted London were amazing, not just in showing Westminster Bridge, the House of Parliament, Picadilly, Trafalgar Square and the City all devoid of any sign of life, but also because of the lengths the crew must have gone to shoot these scenes. There can't be many hours of daylight when central London isn't awash with humain activity!

It gave me nightmares on Saturday night too. Although possibly aided and abetted by the most MSGy chinese meal I've had in years. The nightmares have since been superceded in the 4am graveyard slot by futile fretting about work/career.

I'm just not cut out for horror movies.

A long long time ago, during the heady days of the World Cup, before England suffered their knock out defeat at the hands of ?Denmark? (don't bother telling me if I've got it wrong, I'm no footie fan!), I arranged an appointment for a B&Q Double Glazing Windows survey. The appointment was specifcially made for a Saturday, so that I wouldn't have to take any time off work. This meant 4 weeks elapsed between making the appointment and the appointment itself - but that wasn't a problem, I understood that Saturday slots would be in short supply.

However, I'd not reckoned on Eng-er-Land getting though to the Xth round, and on the crucial match being at lunchtime on that Saturday. The surveyor phoned me at 11.30 to tell me that his other appointment for the day (what, only one....) had cancelled and could he reschedule me for an evening in the week. At My Convenience. Recognising (but not understanding) the importance of The Match, and the fact that rescheduling to Monday or Tuesday night would not be a problem for me, I agreed.

More fool me - that was the last I heard from him.

Aggrieved, I phoned B&Q to complain and to chivvy. But to no avail. They did not return my calls and ignored my letter, leaving me fuming at their lackadaisicla attitude to customer service (a common theme in my rants you'll find) and the duplicity and unprofessionalism of the surveyor.

Instead I turned to Yellow Pages and the Sunday colour supplements looking for a Double Glazing Company that would be prepared to do just a single window. And on 15 Oct I was treated to a somewhat petulant visitation by Antoinette X (I forget the surname), the pushy saleswoman from BAC Windows. Disliking her quote (£850), her approach and the woman herself, and having drawn a blank elsewhere, I decided to give B&Q another go.

On my return visit to the B&Q website I was more impressed than I had been before, as the Double Glazing business seemed to be aiming at single installations, and provides online tools for estimating the cost of the work you want done, showing you the different types of windows (and doors) you can select, and lets you log a call to arrange a visit by the surveyor (haven't we been here before?)

So I merrily mooched around, trying out different fittings for the junk room window, and was very impressed. So I put in a request for someone to call me to arrange a survey, and sat back and waited. Despite the fact that the site says "We will contact you within 72 hours to discuss a suitable time for your no obligation survey." (that's 3 days) it was more like 7, but the lady who phoned me was pleasant enough and we were able to set up an appointment for 10am on the following Wednesday (13/11) when I was working from home so as to be able to visit the Doctors to sort out my holiday jabs and prescriptions.

At 10:25 Geoff turned up. Scarred by my previous experience, I'd phoned the B&Q line at 10:15 asking if they could find out why he was late and if he'd be turning up at all. As it turns out (according to Geoff, who I'm inclined to believe), the appointment is for the hour, ie the surveyor will turn up at some point between 10 and 11, but the call centre team don't always mention that.....

A very pleasant and professional chap from Swindon, Geoff measured up, advised on and priced my study window, cast an expert eye over my problematic kitchen windows and suggested I sweet talk the installers into rebalancing the tilt and swivel one, and that I'd only go �100 over the minimum order fee if I got the other kitchen window replaced along with the study one. Sounded like a Good Plan to me (always keeping an eye on the pennies, but not one to miss a bargain!). He left me with my copy of the Survey-cum-Order and advised that I could place my order, if I decided to go ahead with the work, in person at a B&Q store, or by calling the Windows number.

So, 29 hours after the survey, I called 0870 220 0718, only to be told that the survey wasn't showing up in the sysem yet; "try this time tomorrow". That was yesterday.

Today, Friday, I phoned 0870 220 0718 again. It's a BT NationalCall number, and everytime I've ended up talking to someone in a call centre with a lancastrian accent. Today's lovely lady assured me that she could now see my survey in the system, but that their call forwarding system was broken which prevented her from putting me through to the department which deals with order placing and payment. BUT, I could phone them directly and make my payment. But not, it transpired, arrange a date for the installation. This step required the appropriate B&Q call centre person to call me in 5 days to make these installation arrangements. Bearing in mind "3 days" on their website equates to 7 in reality, I asked her to confirm that I would be hearing from them 5 days after I'd paid..... echoes of SJ's kitchen experience here.... Yes, 5 days it would be.

This second number was for another call centre, further north: 0191 41 88 265.
And after going through the boringly familiar recitation of postcode, name, title correction ("Miss, not Mrs") - clearly no systems integration chez B&Q/H&W Installations/Call Centres galore - the charming lady (a mature "Bubble" would be my description) expressed her consternation over the fact that 2 orders were showing up against my name! We identified which related to Wednesday's survey, and Bubble confirmed that she could see it in system..... but unfortunately it wasn't not ready for processing yet; "Try again on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. It should have come through by then."!

All of which leaves me thinking that so far, this has been an incredibly disjointed experience, and this suggests that everyone involved is following an equally disjointed process with multiple service centres and businesses handling constituent parts. It's been very unimpressive, and indeed, I feel that I ought to be feeling more concerned..... except that because I only have a titchy two window order I haven't found anyone else willing to do the replacement work. If I could have gone elsewhere for a reasonable price (cf Antoinette's bunch) I would have done. Will I ever get to place my order? Will the double glazing installation be this painful??? Or Worse......

Katy downstairs is whittering on about a water stain on her kitchen ceiling which *must* have been caused by a "flood" in my flat. OH FUCK OFF. Anyway, I'm going to have to check my kitchen and bathroom for dampness / leakage just to shut her (and her father) up. Oh and so that she doesn't have the stain on her ceiling "repaired" in vain. Get some paint and a brush and do it yourself you irritating home counties brat!

The only thing I think it might be is the perennial favourite - the bathroom tiles/bath seal - but why it should start up again now I really don't know.

It grieves me that this irritation and obstreperousness (sic) is inevitably my reaction to any communication from the girl who lives in the flat below mine, or her equally irritating and interfering father. Tact and interpersonal skills were clearly in short supply when the Turner family were going through the creation mill. It requires all of mine to remain civil.

Honestly, she and the increasingly non-existant customer service attitudes at CJ's Asda and Sainsbury's are enough to make me want to move (again).

For the past few weeks, as I've been walking in along the South Bank my commuter route has crossed with a guy on a bike, usually near to Blackfriars Bridge. He's the spitting image of Ross Williamson, who I went out with on and off for 2 years at St Andrews. And those of you that know him will appreciate that he's got quite a few tell tale features (aka glasses and nose) which make him easy to spot. This guy shares those, and he cycles in the same King of the Road manner.

Still recovering from a weekend looking after Barney and Rosa, with the latter applying full throttle to the Terrible Threes.

After Blue Peter-esque craft on Saturday morning, we ventured out to Moorgate to see the Lord Mayor's Show parade, which I've not seen before. There was hardly anyone about, which might be the norm, but must be pretty soul destroying for the people in the parade, and seems rather at odds with the figures bandied about in and the impression given by the british media.

The best were a brass band from Holland, in full national dress (billowing stripey skirts and lace caps), riding on matching black sit-up-and-beg bikes playing their tunes. Crazy people, and a real pity I can't find anything about them online.

I returned the cottage conveyance clio to easyCar Barbican this morning (necessitating 6.45am rise and shine. URGH) and Luis R had the temerity to say it was dirty!!!!!!!! I told him that the only reason it appeared dirty was because I'd washed and hoovered it, and that highlighted the bits I'd missed. I refused to sign the form, and suggested that if he gave me a cloth I'd happily polish up the clio for easyCar, but we ended up agreeing to differ and I didn't sign anything..... and wishing I'd looked more closely at the option he'd circled.

So who knows.... only £10 if easyCar say it wasn't clean, but it's The Principle; the car was dirty inside and out when I picked it up, and I did clean it over the weekend.

I did go over the mileage allowance a bit, not much though. So if we'd not taken the north circular, or gone on the tile treasure hunt around Hereford we'd probably have been ok. Next time I'll hire for 6 days.

Total cost, including diesel:

Basic Rental Cost (5 days) - 30.85
Transaction Fee - 2.00
Extras - 0.00
Insurance - 0.00
Loss/Damage Waiver - 18.75
Diesel - 32.50 (returned with tank half full - or empty, depending on your perspective)

Total Cost so far - 84.10

Plus Unknown Extras:
Additional mileage @ 0.20 mile
Cleaning - 10

TOTAL: c - 100.

Not quite the bargain you think you're getting! and not a patch on Edinburgh Europcar .

Rachel VW sent me this today - and I'm a sucker for these psychological profiling quizzes....I've deleted all the repetitive crap about forwarding "to everyone you know"; "this is a real test given by the Human Relations Dept. at many of the major corporations today" etcetcetc

1. When do you feel your best?
a) in the morning
b) during the afternoon & and early evening
c) late at night

2. You usually walk
a) fairly fast, with long steps
b) fairly fast, with little steps
c) less fast head up, looking the world in the face
d) less fast, head down
e) very slowly

3. When talking to people you
a) stand with your arms folded
b) have your hands clasped
c) have one or both your hands on your hips
d) touch or push the person to whom you are talking
e) play with your ear, touch your chin, or smooth your hair

4. When relaxing, you sit with
a) your knees bent with your legs neatly side by side
b) your legs crossed
c) your legs stretched out or straight
d) one leg curled under you

5. When something really amuses you, you react with
a) a big, appreciative laugh
b) a laugh, but not a loud one
c) a quiet chuckle
d) a sheepish smile

6. When you go to a party or social gathering
a) make a loud entrance so everyone notices you
b) make a ! quiet entrance, looking around for someone you know
c) make the quietest entrance, trying to stay unnoticed

7. You're working very hard, concentrating hard, and you're interrupted; do you ...
a) welcome the break
b) feel extremely irritated
c) vary between these two extremes

8. Which of the following colours do you like most?
a) Red or orange
b) black
c) yellow or light blue
d) green
e) dark blue or purple
f) white
g) brown or grey

9. When you are in bed at night, in those last few moments before going to sleep, you lie
a) stretched out on your back
b) stretched out face down on your stomach
c) on your side, slightly curled
d) with your head on one arm
e) with your head under the covers

10. You often dream that you are
a) falling
b) fighting or struggling
c) searching for something or somebody
d) flying or floating
e) you usually have dreamless sleep
f) your dreams are always pleasant

POINTS:
1. (a) 2 (b) 4 (c) 6
2. (a) 6 (b) 4 (c) 7 (d) 2 (e) 1
3. (a) 4 (b) 2 (c) 5 (d) 7 (e) 6
4. (a) 4 (b) 6 (c) 2 (d) 1
5. (a) 6 (b) 4 (c) 3 (d) 5 (e) 2
6. (a) 6 (b) 4 (c) 2
7. (a) 6 (b) 2 (c) 4
8. (a) 6 (b) 7 (c ) 5 (d) 4 (e) 3 (f) 2 (g) 1
9. (a) 7 (b) 6 (c) 4 (d) 2 (e) 1
10. (a) 4 (b) 2 (c) 3 (d) 5 (e) 6 (f) 1

Now add up the total number of points.

OVER 60 POINTS: Others see you as someone they should "handle with care". You're seen as vain, self-centered, and who is extremely dominant. Others may admire you, wishing they could be more like you, but don't always trust you, hesitating to become too deeply involved with you.

51 TO 60 POINTS: Others see you as an exciting, highly volatile, rather impulsive personality; a natural leader, who's quick to make decisions, though not always the right ones. They see you as bold and adventuresome, someone who will try anything once; someone who takes chances and enjoys an adventure. They enjoy being in your company because of the
excitement you radiate.

41 TO 50 POINTS: Others see you as fresh, lively, charming, amusing, practical, and always interesting; someone who's constantly in the centre of attention, but sufficiently well-balanced, not one to let it go to their head. They also see you as kind, considerate, and understanding; someone who'll always cheer them up and help them out.

31 TO 40 POINTS: Others see you as sensible, cautious, careful & practical. They see you as clever, gifted, or talented, but modest. Not a person who makes friends too quickly or easily, but someone who's extremely loyal to friends you do make and who expect the same loyalty in return. Those who really get to know you realize it takes a lot to shake your trust in your friends, but equally that it takes you a long time to get over it if that trust is ever broken.

21 TO 30 POINTS: Your friends see you as painstaking and fussy. They see you as very cautious, extremely careful, a slow and steady plodder. It would really surprise them if you ever did something impulsively or on the spur of the moment, expecting you to examine everything carefully from every angle and then, usually decide against it. They think this reaction is caused partly by your careful nature.

UNDER 21 POINTS: People think you are shy, nervous, and indecisive, someone who needs looking after, who always wants someone else to make the decisions & who doesn't want to get involved with anyone or anything. They see you as a worrier who always sees problems that don't exist. Some people think you're boring. Only those who know you well know that you aren't.

Before heading over to Forty Acres for the weekend, Phil and I went up to TJBR's for dinner. After I'd judged the Tooth Brushing Competition (my prize - FTP 6's set of Vamprie Teeth - were not deemed an acceptable alternative to the items identified in the Argos catalogue with a turned down corner), Barney wanted to know which of his cars was the fastest, and what was the fastest car in the world...... I displayed my complete lack of Guiness Book of Records (and popular scientific) credentials by claiming it was the Bluebird (in which Donald Campbell set the world water speed record in December 1964 - 276.3 mph on Lake Dumbleyung in Australia)

So my mission this lunchtime was to do some research on the web...

An incredibly blustery day, and Helen Weber's Birthday! Or, as I should be accustoming myself to call her, Helen Denton. Hosted by Hazel, with assistance from yours truely, we celebrated with a comfort food lunch with Helen and Charlie, Bruce & Roopa (and Bump), Penny, James & Henry.

Plenty to eat and drink, with Henry showing an early grasp of that essential toddler ploy "offer to walk around with the crisps, and you can help youself en route". But no photos - and I even took the Ixus round to H's with me, together with 2 chairs, 1 large saucepan, icecream, bicarb, fizzy water, cutlery, baking dish, margerine etc etc etc

==Menu ==
Bangers (Asda Gourmet. Yes, I got Hazel to cross the A.S.D.A. threshold) and Mash, with Delia's Red Wine Sauce for Sausages, and Baked Mushrooms and Garlic
Ruth's Mum's Sticky Toffee Pudding, with B&J DIY Vanilla Icecream
Selection of chocolate mints - not that anyone had much space left after seconds (and still some left to spare!)

(see what you missed Phil!)

A phone call from Laura resulted in her arrival as a surprise guest later on in the afternoon. Scuppered by the storms, which "justified" the closure of most of the Virgin lines (and as I discovered when I tried to nip to B&Q/Homebase in Wandsworth Town, all routes in and out of Waterloo), Laura opted to sit out Ian's attendance at the Boss's only show in the UK chez nous. So we all vegged and chatted and finished off the luncheon leftovers and assorted beverages, half watching Sunday night comfort telly. All very pleasant and snooze inducing.

Been trying to check my mail on yahoo.com in vain today - which is a right pain - no haddock to give my working day the kick start it currently requires (the rest of it being Windows 2000 interviews with W95 users) for starters.

bah. i can't check loosemore mail either. and the rest of the web seems to be working Just Fine. Maybe Yahoo are doing work in the US downtime - thanks a bunch if so.

Another vietnamese feast at the Viet Hoa on Kingsland Road. I love the way
you can leave behind my bit of the City so swiftly, simply by moving south, or
east, or north from EC2. On to the Rio at Dalston to wach All or Nothing. A
fantastic local cinema, new to me. It has a 30s feel, comes with an upper circle (not seen since St Andrews Picture House days!) and - I've just this very moment noticed - leopardskin print carpet at our feet. The Rio is an unexpectd gem in a rainy rundown Dalston.

Spent a great weekend in Scotland - Edinburgh, St Andrews and Fife.

Got off to a dodgy start, with what turned out to be a 4 hour delay to our easyJet flight. Not a disaster, but only reaching the home of scots family Robertson atgone midnight put paid to our plans for a civilised catch up over dinner.

EasyJet's sop of a refund looks like being a damp squib, albeit one which magicked away a plane load of passengers' anger at the delay and complete absence of information during that delay. It's less airport taxes, and having looked at how their fares are structured, is bound to be for the one way flight. So much for H and my plans to use the refund to fund a flight to take advantage of H's dad's new flat in Antibes

The past few days have been really nippy - clear skies today and c.o.l.d.

Have packed thermals for a weekend in St Andrews. Brrrrrr.

Fran and Adam - Fabian, born in early September I think - Antony gave me the glad tidings

Bruce & Roopa - expecting, due in March 2003

Penny & James - went for dinner chez Ritchie on 27 September whilst Diana and Allan were down. Pen is v pregnant, due imminently!

Helen & Mark - revealed expecting baby No2 to join Emily in March 2003 (another!) when H & I invited ourselves to stay tomorrow night

Lots of things on Haddock which look interesting:

- artangel in Kings Cross
- M25 London Orbital at the Barbican

I knew I'd forgotten some major flat event - The Blinds!!!

- Purchased painlessly and pleasantly parsimoniously from The Discount Blind Centre shop just off Northcote Road, from the young and helpful Gerhard.

- Collected (breathless after a 7 minute dash from Clapham Junction so as to arrive before the 6pm closing time - it rained, so 'SWT services were subject to delays') on Tuesday evening, in advance of annoyed/ing Antoinette's visitation.

- Installed the same evening (after le depart d'Antoinette) with assistance (and drill) from the lovely Phil.

Dad will remind me that venetian blinds are plagued by dust, but I think mine look Just Right

Went to The Lark in the Park, Islington ("borders") to celebrate Juls' 30th.

Ummed and ahhed between their 30th and Azeem's, opting for Juls' on the basis that Tom & Jo, Chris and Sara, Andy Stephens as well as Steve and Juls would be there, whereas the revellers at Adam Street were rather less well known.

Great Mooney-Rooney party, complete with vodka-serving ice maiden torso. The pictures reveal all!!

aka, that's my Christmas present(s) for Rosa (and Barney on a brother-borrowing-basis) sorted!!

The film Cait's brother directed is out on DVD - so the bairns are getting the Barbie As Rapunzel DVD for Chrimbo....

uh-oh.... but they don't *have* a DVD player (yet).

Time for a word in bro's shell-like methinks.....

Figured out what was wrong with my Revo when I eventually managed to jiggle one of the rattling bits out - the spring which holds it shut. Not worth spending £70 for Psion to diagnose that prior to repairing (at cost), so I jiggled out the other spring and now use and elastic band to keep it shut. Parfait!

Lovely lazy a.m. with Phil, chez Phil, before going our sep ways around 1pm.... me on the 38 to Angel; Phil to the oher side of Hackney Road, heading for timber merchants in Stoke Newington.

I purchased cable ties for Burning Man in a shop off Chapel Market, then walked along Upper Street to Highbury & Islington tube, heading north on the Victoria line 1 stop to Finsbury Park and straight onto a W3 to fire station stop which splits Park Avenue North and South.

T was at home alone when I knockled on the door and feeling sorry for himself - "got a cold". JBR returned from a manic birthday party soon after and it was straight into aunty mode until persuading them to bed - with a volcano story for Barney.

Had relaxed dinner regaling tom and jo with tales of Burning Man. Quite strange given that Tom went last year - we had very different experiences!! But then again (smug), I'm better handling the heat than he is. Heard about thier garden revamp plans and looked at the drawings. It'll be fabulous.

Off to Suffolk tomorrow for Sunday lunch with Jo's aunt and uncle (?maybe of the Albutt variety) Penny and Alex. I really enjoy spending time with TJBR, but it is exhausting.

Joined Hazel, IWW and Monique in celebrating IWW's birthday with a visit to the Anselm Adams Centenary exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, followed by (reduced size) pizza at the Gourmet Pizza Place in Gabriel's Wharf - co-inciding with the South African Tourist Authority sponsored Braii (sp), with crowds of SAffies and other ex-Pats from Southern Africa. Or are they emigres?

I must remember that the reason I don't wear strappy sandals very often is that a) they give me blisters, and b) I can't walk in them, I can only totter (and that isn't really me).

Finally made it into work just before 9, and that was having taken not only the W&C line, but the Travellator at Bank too. Discovered that there is a London Underground job invovling collecting commuters copies of Metro when they reach the top of the ride.

Tom had taken upon himself to rejig the Sparkly structure for me last night, based on the flimiest repetitititious instructions from me, as I discovered when I checked me mail this morning.... 2 from him, the first titled "oops" , the second, more worryingly "BOLLOCKS", which contained the simple comment

"i've broken it badly

shit

-t"

oh.

Heart in mouth, with visions of all my lovely prose set adrift on the seas of the superhighway (i *know* that doesn't work but I'm at work and I've got meeting notes to write up - yawn), I checked www.sparklytrainers.com..... to discover my lovely new home page, complete with links to blog and burning man as requested!!! plus a few tomski extras like links to B&R's sites. Yaaay! Am not really exicted and longing to have a play with the black and purple (which I fear may not last bro....) Must.....Resist......

Fun, wine fuelled evening with les filles des mois Verts, aka Ann and Emma, in Richmond. Two nights of pizza on the trot wouldn't be my idea of dream cuisine, but given the quality of Strada last night and La Trattoria this evening, things could be worse.

Highlight was Ann's pledge to give John his marching orders if they weren't engaged-to-be-married by the time she turns 30 - photographic proof of that pledge was obtained. You probably won't be able to read it though - we were all a tad tipsy.

Drunkenly called H on the way home to suggest we might need some cooling containers for our Calais run on Saturday, particularly if our purchases include cheese and butter and yoghurt staples. That proved to be a temptation too far for fate (and H's MGBGT)

Tom emailed to tell me that he'd been playing around with MT Sparkly:

'Sorry' been playin' with sparklytrainers if you don't like the new look, pick another from here and read the instructions at the top... easy to do...'

- hence the new colour scheme, courtesy of Tom. I really really must decided on 'my' visual identity'. natch.

On my way home I decided to talk to him about rejigging Sparkly so that the front page points visitors to 'selected services', including Burning Man as having put the effort into consolidated all the info from the BMCCC mailing list (the main topic of conversation today was coming up with ideas for costumes to complement this year's theme - 'tides') I really ought to share it. The snag is that I don't really want them to discover this, given that BMCCC is drawn from Haddock and I'm not that confident about this - both the content and the structure, for it to be scrutinised by the 'shadowy new media elite' that it haddock (please note tongue in cheek).

Now I come to think about it, I really think Tom ought to install MT for himself seeing as he has so much fun fiddling with mine!! Perhaps he regards it as his surrogate Blog.

Met Hazel after work and we headed to Strada in search of al fresco supper. Clearly the rest of CJ's young profs had had the same idea, so we opted for an inside Italian, accompanied by a chilled Ros'. Back to H's for Class Mates - a reunion of the class of 1988 from some swanky home counties boarding school. Not the school world I knew, but I'd love to go to a get together of my Tudor Grange contemporaries. Admittedly on a mission to show I'm not the quiet super studious square I was in my early teen years.

Spent an hour or so doing MT Sparkly entries (to publish tomorrow!), and at 00:29 I'm listening to the weather forecast' we're in a heatwave!! Hey, everything's relative!! Ok weather on Tuesday, and a lovely warm to hot day today. More tomorrow!!

Aieee, my shoulders ache - I can feel them soooo tense and tight across my neck and my back. I need a Yossage.

Got into work early by dint of taking W&C line, and with a cold-preventing hot black coffee I sat in Ampersands and read to the end of Shogun'. Next stop Tai Pan! Actually, the question is whether to find the video to rent, or is it better to retain the imagery and impression I've generated. Richard Chamberlain doesn't really match my idea of John Blackthorne.

Haddock beers in Soho Square, the Toucan's not-quite-legit beer garden, with Alex, Heather, Kev, Zelda and Phil. Kev and Zelda compared wedding plans, or more accurately wedding non-plans. We agreed that there was a clear need to Haddock married to pass on their expertise to the affianced! Two pints after a long day and a summer with scarce few balmy evenings for beer drinking and I was happily tipsy by the time we caught the bus back to Phil's. Lounged on the sofa, watching Teenage Kicks dining on dinner a la Phil. Nice and lazy.

Torrential rain all afternoon. Left Liverpool Street station in chaos. Infuriating absence of public announcements resulted in hapless would-be tube travellers being directed from entrance to entrance, concourse shortcuts blocked by lakes of rainwater and cash machine queues. Took me 10 mins to elicit that tube was inaccessible. My irate departure took me straight into the lake outside McDs' where upon annoyance really set in. Stomped to Bank muttering under my breath about city wankers with golf umbrellas restricting walking flows to one person per pavement width. Phoned Phil to alert him to my inevitable delay - the reason for my brisk pace and ire being that I was due to met him outside the Prince Charles at 6.15, and that was looking wholly unlikely. And I'd tried to make sure I'd not be late. Foiled again

Arrived sodden at Bank and opted for the Waterloo and City line to waterloo thence Northern line to Leicester Square, figuring that the Central was more at risk of flooding, and heavy demand from fleeing commuters.

Got to Prince Charles just ahead of Phil even so (just) and we munched pop corn and revels through "No Man's Land".

Went up to see TJBR on Saturday afternoon, and they were all, bar Jo, awful! B&R hyper and overtired after a birthday party featuring a ball-pond and too much sugar & fizzy drinks, bro because he'd got the beginning of a nasty cold. which i think I've now got too....

My trainers arrived!! Yaaaay! Not au fait with the cause of my excitement? I'm planning to put picture here.

Main find of the day was the new transport for london site.

When did it change? At last, an integrated journey planner!

I just did a search for getting from Finsbury Park (train etc interchange closest to bro) to Peckham Rye station tomorrow, and it's come back with a great route in a really clear display (which doesn't cut +paste) and description:

18:30 Finsbury Park
Take Bus W5 towards Macdonald Road to Archway
Station Stop: C
Buses every: 12 min.
Max journey time: 29 min.

Archway Station
Walk to Archway.
Transfer time: 6 min.

19:05 Archway
Take towards Morden to London Bridge
Transfer on foot.
Av journey time: 21 min.
Transfer time: 7 min.

19:29 London Bridge
Take South Central Trains towards Beckenham Junction
to Peckham Rye
Av journey time: 8 min.

19:37 Peckham Rye

you can enter from/to details as a station/stop, an address, a postcode, a place of interest.

I'm sold!

Zelda's getting married!

My trainers have arrived! (well, at the Buffalo store in Brighton at least) (and I'm *so* not a just-so item purchaser normally!)

I can upload photos to Fotopic again! Hurrah! So I've been busy putting photos from the summer into (?onto) my photobook site...

6th Aug 2002 Baby Olney!
5th Aug 2002 Josephine Knutsen
23rd Jun 2002 Jorge Ben Jor in concert in the Courtyard of Somerset House
23rd Jun 2002 The christening of Master AJ Bott
22nd Jun 2002 TC's BBQ
15th Jun 2002 Caroline's Mid-Summer Party

and there'll be many many more!!

Oh, and spent "a while" splitting out the Burning Man plan entries into their own part of Sparkly so that BMCCC doesn't have to dig them out from amidst these diary entries.

A few back entries to make today, seeing as I've been devoting every waking hour to Shogun, and many an hour when I ought to have been asleep!

Forsook my walk to work in favour of having an extras 30mins of diy@work time before the start off the working day. All in vain, and most frustratingly so, as I couldn't download my latest pics from my Canon Ixus and last night's Zoombrowser installation on my PowerPC seems to have been less than perfect.

Note to self -must check if it's the ex-eSouk monitor or the graphics card in the Power Tower. I feel like it's been more trouble than it was worth.

AndThenIStillCouldn'tPrintToTheColourPrinter - nnnnggggggghhhhh!
AndThenTheW2KguysAppearedToSeeIfTheyCouldSortOutVisioWhichHadMysteriouslyUninstalledItself - arghhhhh!!
SO I took refuge in the canteen wtih tea & toast. But No Marmite. GrumbleMutterGrumble.

Burning Man approaches and Stef posted this link to a list of things to take . I keep meaning to collate all details on flights and arrival/departure times and plans here. and to email Jenny to see if she's around.

Other exciting news: Andrew and Jane Olney have had a baby!

Jemima Jane Olney
Born 16th July 2002 at 9.14pm (2-3 weeks earlier than expected)
Weighing a massive 2685gms (5lb 15oz)

All the more exciting given that neither H nor I actually knew that Jane was pregnant, and I booked flights to Edinburgh for the St Andrews Alma Mater weekend, as organised by Michele. Phil baulked at the prospect (understandably enough), so I'm going with.... Hazel!

had a fantastic weekend in Walton with Phil. I'll write it up later on today if I get the time...

The weekend's Haddock posts have spawned some interesting ideas workwise. I'm wondering if RSS (thanks Ian) could be put to use in providing fee earners or Info Services with the latest updates from legal reousrces sites on certain subject.

On the other hand, it might prove too much work for our in-house development team in their current exhausted state... today's the day the new corporate website is presented to the powers-that-be. Not sure when it goes live, but I'll post it here as soon as it does.

After amazing sheet lightening and rain storms, complete with thunder during the night and early morning, we emerged to breakfast al fresco outside on the deckchairs - just like the blue ones we used to have at the cottage - it must have been the standard Argos offering c 1980! The sun got stronger and the ground dryer as the day progressed, so we took sandwich materials, teabags and dry matches to the beach hut feeling very Famous Five, and spent the afternoon sitting on the beach, looking out to sea, at bronzing families and beach boulers, yachts and speedboats, reading Shogun (quelle surprise) and Cities of Civilization (Phil). Hot enough for lashings of sun tan lotion and bottles of water. Late lunch, no icecreams, even with a shop within 40 paces!

Almost the weekend. *Almost* time to head out to Walton on the Naze for a weekend with Phil. Can't wait.

but in the meantime.....

Pinch! Punch! First o' the month!

(that always pisses Hazel off. Or at the very least elicits a heavy sigh)

Kissing Jessica Stein with Janette accompanied by Nestle copies of magnum and a cornetto icecreams, and an impromptu encounter with Phil and David in the foyer; they were off to see Ivan etc complete with strobe lights.

Good girlie film, strong characters but then I'm no critic. I enjoyed it without having to work out why.

We walked to Waterloo via the new Hungerford footbridge - how long before I drop the "new"? - and admired the Eye from the safety of (almost) sea level. Janette hadn't seen the bridge before. We wondered how both Hungerford footbridges and the 'new' Millennium Bridge will change the pedestrian circulations around London, and in particular the flows between the north and south banks for the Thames.

Just done a DNS look up on the IP address from Mark's comment on Saturday. Sorry to use you as a guinea pig Mark, but this is the first true life example I've had of an instance when I can use geeky (?) things I heard about, but never tried.... and then I tried the S&S IP address too. Fascinating (for me!)

EEK! I received my first comment on MT Sparkly today, and it was from another m loosemore!!

I'm dying to take the vanity line of questioning... i.e. how did you find it! I mean it's not as if anyone ever found www.sparklytrainers.com before (a good think seeing as for most of it's existence all it had was a holding page put up by Tom when he registered the domain. I've just googled on loosemore, and Sparkly hasn't come up in the first 17 pages....

Smear test at 8.45 meant that it was 10 before I got into work. Straight into BSAPM weekly with Peter.

Quite a satisfying day workwise, and I lunched with Kathryn Reynolds. A friendship from our Paris days. She stuck it out as a solicitor at Herbert Smith specialising in banking (I think) we've an ongoing (and in all honesty futile) attempt to fix up a weekend when I should go up to St Albans for lunch with her and Ken, her long term partner who apparently only knows me as 'the Mary he's never met'.

Hot 'n' sticky day, slow to rise and only settled down at my desk at 9.15. Had early call to visit Chris to go through his comments on the scanning paper, which were roughly as I'd expected, i.e. long (a plus and a minus), and some additional details/suggestions, to make it even longer. Once I've taken in and digested it all and spewed it back out again as carefully constructed prose, it'll go before the ITC in Oct.

Another lazy morning, with the juicer coming into its own for breakfast on the terrace. Off out again in to gorgeous weather, aussie style skirt and t-shirt weather in fact, and north to Regent's Park to see what Indian Summer had to offer.

Lazy morning Saturday, uninspired to stir too swiftly out into the overcast day. However, upon emerging to make our way to Spitalfields to mooch the markets, we discovered too late that it was actually a warm day, with the promise of warmer hours to come. Disappointment awaited in Spitalfields where the range of market stalls was even less than the weekday offering, and we'd not got enough time to squeeze in the Geffrye Museum before we were due to meet Catriona's friend Helen.

Catriona came to stay this weekend. The original plan had been for Hazel and I to co-host, with maybe a night out at schooldisco to relive old Wayward times, but JPM

Had a Nightmare of a morning, with my document collapsing on me just just *just* after i'd finished taking in all the amendments. aieeeeeeeeeee!

After an entirely merited kick up the arse from Cait, I got my head down and into some dirty email correspondence with Yoz.....

It's funny how some days I find myself on a roller coaster ride of emotions. Beware, on occasions such as these, I tend to render volumes of cliche-ridden, self obsessed angst.

ach, the TC and SJ drinks didn't happen.

SJ got caught at work, and TC opted to head home "to get drunk".

Good idea.

A bitty day so far (17:40).

- additional phone point installation by "Horizon Aerials" engineer, Russell (2 hours)
- hence quick n easy route into work (aka out of rush hour train+tube combo)
- 1 hour of work (batting off emails from the SST notaries and IT director)
- LUNCH WITH PHIL at the First Out Cafe, TCR. V.G. (yes, Phil's back from Philly. So watch these entries peter out. Rapidly)
- Back for a 90 minute show and tell from Info Services on how to dig out Company Info
- Tea and SiroopenWafelen, with Haddockmails for company
- Back into Scanning Review Hell, finishing off those visio and mindmap diagrams, with David Gray on the headphones

.... and 45 mins until I'm due to meet TC and SJ at Futures for a mini eSouk revisited drink. Back to work!

Result! Alex (Big Brother 3) rinses his jars with hot water from the kettle to get the last dregs out too! Vindication is mine!!

Ooooh - just watching Newsnight as I upload, and Sanger Centre biotech researchers feature. No Matt though :(

- yes, i'm home and i've succumbed to MT Sparkly.

A funny thing happened on the way to the tube...well, more of a funny photo missed due to absence of camera; a massive digger-cum-crane arm delving into a cavernous side door at the Bank of England. It looked like they were extracting rubble though, rather than bullion.

Time for another note to self: carry your camera as you carry your cash and cards.

ARGHHH!!!!!

I've just lost the entry I was composing. That'll teach me to try and be clever. but I'll try to recreate the genius.

Note to self: Use that save button!

Hmm, how to describe the working day to you, dear Reader? Should I? Or is it better to skip the work stuff in favour of a short recount of today's contribution to the hectic social life (TM)? Who am I writing this for anyway? I've still not worked that one out.

I love my walk to work. Well, OK, so I don't walk all the way from Clapham Junction into the City, but for the past year or so I've walked from Waterloo station to Moorgate on a fairly regular basis. And I love it; the opportunity to change down gear from the frenetic commuter charged melee to strolling speed along the south bank. Switching streams allows me to disengage from the cut and thrust of the Waterloo and City line and to enjoy the more varied scenes along the river.

Another day of r'n'r with R&P. Hollyoaks with tea and toast gave way to a train ride into Waterloo and a walk along the South Bank to Tate Modern. They've changed the permanent exhibition, which is A Good Thing seeing as I'd felt I'd explored the previous collection as much as I could. I'm no art connoisseur, but I enjoy wandering around museums and galleries, and Tate Modern in particular is a great space for modern art.

Ruth and Pete came to stay for the weekend. Lovely and relaxing, easy and fun - in fact all those things that come together when old friends have good times.

Siroopwafelen on mugs of tea on the roof terrace -> British Museum -> No. 168 to Waterloo -> back on the terrace for a BBQ (eventually!) -> Big Brother -> bed @ 10.30pm!!

My brother Tom has installed Moveable Type onto his server, and set it up for me to use here.

Hmm, so what should I do with it? Be creative? Get personal? Publish my ever expanding photo collection? Blog resources I find helpful during my day job? Create a portable set of favourites?

Vote Now, add a comment!

-- it's cheaper than Big Brother!