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? B