The debonair Basil Marigold's

Christmas is a day of blessing and a day to acknowledge the unepected. Today I experienced both. Through my love of Jelly Babies, delivered unto me the gift of 3kg's worth. I decided that I should open one of my blessings and Lo, the first one out was this, 'wee' thing. I call it Monster Jelly Baby! Also, as it's also Christmas Day please also note the cross like shape of the Jelly Monster! Coincidence?

I am sat at the computer right now. Having been previously warned by a weather App that the area I live in is due some more heavy snow. As of yet it hasn't arrived, but according to my friend who lives in Nottingham, no more than 9 miles away is reporting heavy snow. I am laughing now but I suspect we haven't been completely missed!

I have seen another gift that I would prefer for christmas this year, from anybody who is willing to show just how much they appreciate me. It is a Globe in a stand; It's great to be aware of your geography isn't? Good to have knowledge of the planet you live on, so why not buy me a globe so I can keep up to date with the world. It is diamond cut mother of pearl gemstone panels, creating a 40" Globe. The Oceans and Seas are mother of Pearl and it is set in a 24kt Gold stand, because? Well, why not. All this for the princely sum of £200,000 it tells me on the website. I have no idea why I came across this website, all I can say is it may have involved me looking at £20,000 fountain pens by Conway Stewart. One of these pens would also be acceptable as a Christmas present, if you are feeling to tight to get me the globe. Thanks in anticipation. Did I mention how much I love my wife?

'A few days ago I found myself in PC World. Not often this happens and it was fairly enjoyable as I haven't window shopped for PC stuff and gadgets in a while, so it was good fun. One of the things I saw and had a chance to have a quick play with is this little beasty; The Apple Ipad. The piece of kit that somehow, and despite not having a market, it appears to have created its own. I cannot say that I was initially a fan. I failed to see how it was an exceptional piece of kit that provided any added value to what you can do with a laptop. It has no USB, It has no Multi tasking functions and it was not cheap. It shouldn't work, when compared with the functionality of for instance a Notebook, which has more functionality and is half the price. Though, now having just physically held one I now know it is exceptionally beautiful. It truly is a wondrous design and feels remarkably substantial and not quite as awkward to hold and use as I previously thought as I checked out

For those of you that know me and know my default literature setting. I am an avid Science Fiction man I shall continue to be so, regardless of the down the nose snobbery that Sci fi authors and fans experience from the literary types. I will always prefer to have the opportunity to walk with Paul Atreides through the deserts of Arrakis, in 'Dune', or discuss psychohistory with Hari Seldon on the planet of Terminus, from the 'Foundation' series of books, created from the minds of Frank Herbert and Isaac Asimov. I for one would rather not have to visit Fanny Price in Mansfield Park, or participate in some turgid lesson on manners in the company of Elizabeth Bennet. I would, saying that, like to see how Elizabeth Bennet's manners helps her when Darth Vader arrives overhead in Meryton in his TIE Fighter but that another book. I think the main reason why I do have a passion about the Science Fiction genre is that there are no limits to what you can write or project f

Being a kindly soul I offered to take my mum and her partner to the garage to collect their car which had not been starting of late. We went via a big shop, so as if the car was fixed they could be dropped off to the garage and drive themselves back. Which seemed a great plan and it went well. When we arrived at the garage the mechanic said that he turned it over a few times during the day and it started first time so couldn't find a fault, he did say that if it doesn't start then ring him and he'll come up and look at the car on the drive. Now there's a good service. We transferred across their shopping bags to the boot and then they went off. I reversed and then left the garage but had to wait to turn into the road. So after a few minutes I turned into the road to drive home, happily confident they would be far away from me. As I turned the corner and headed to the lights I then saw their little red car pulled over by the pavement in a little parking area. My immedi

There are many reasons to enjoy Christmas, some may say that one of those is the plethora of festive food that rear its head at this time of year; I am particularly fond of Christmas pudding and cake. Stollen cake for example and there is little better than a nice Yule log and as always the odd one or two, perhaps three mince pies! So, I hope I have proved that there are typical chrismassy food stuffs, sold on or around the Christmas period. Ho, Ho, Ho so to speak. Sadly these, seen in the local shop, are probably not definable as Christmassy at all; In fact the polar opposite. Here we have a confectionary item, called the 'Cadbury's Creme Egg'. These are egg shaped, hence the obvious name and are routinely eaten at Easter. Now I understand that businesses are suffering in this economic climate but, and this is a fairly major but, much like vanessa feltz's, it is not even Christmas day yet and they are selling easter food. You see my problem with, although I adore t

I decided to venture out today. I had to travel 2 miles to dig out my Nannar's driveway as we have to be able to fit a car on it this coming saturday, so I took the bull by the horns and stepped outside. It took, roughly half a mile to realise I should have caught the bus rather than walk as I took a couple of photos to stress how brave I was!  Hard to believe that I actually set out at 9:30am, the freezing mist made the place seem a little like a Narnian wonderland, except without Turkish Delight, for which I'd probably sell out my family too, but that's another issue. The main one was the exceptional cold as I wound my way out of town and headed to nannar's village.  This photo for those who know the area is called 'shoulder of Mutton Hill'. I am on kingsway road and what I am photographing here is another stretch of road, called Nuncargate road, which is the one below and runs at a right angle to this hedge, between this hedge and that road lies a field wh

 It got cold, up North, in fact it got so cold white stuff fell from the sky and when I say fell I mean hurtled. While it was blanketing the Northern part of the United Kingdom I ventured out and took some photographs to show what Narnia would look like if it had ever had a development of Red brick terraced housing. It got pretty deep in a few days, as you can see from the garden, the washing line just about kept its lines dry, but the bench at the back didnt and became a little submerged, it still is, this must be the second week now. It is starting to thaw slowly, mainly because our temperatures are merely flirting with 0 degrees, they haven't consummated the above freezing relationship yet. It would help if they got their act together and did so. I might then be able to dig the cars out on the street.  As you can see from the third picture, captured during a snow shower, the car is snug in its snow lined blanket. While the outbuilding door is protected by a deadly ice portculli

If you do find yourself with a spare hour and a half and also possess the desire to watch a great film? then you can do alot worse than watch 'soldier of God'. It may not be a fast paced thriller but it is an exceptional well made film based, more or less in a tent in a desert during the time of Saladin and the holy crusades, about an assassin (the original meaning) and a knight Templar. I don't think you'll be too disappointed. If you like a film to ponder, obviously if your idea of a good film involves in anyway; Hugh grant or Cameron Diaz then you have my sympathy.

I have been addicted to some of the brilliant classic serials that BBC radio have sent out into the world over the last year. I was transfixed by the genius adaptation of John Le Carre's Smiley series. From 'Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy', 'Honourable Schoolboy', 'Smiley's People'. What is labelled the Karla trilogy too has been a revelation with George Smiley played by Simon Russel Beale and played so well over the radio, such a voice, and well worth checking out if you happen to be snowbound, or borrow the recordings from the library and listen to them in the car, etc. Now didnt think that this could be improved on so imagine my delight when the BBC decided to adapt what I think was their best TV series, ever released, yep that's right you all know. Right now and over the next six weeks we have Radio Adapting Robert Grave's 'I, Claudius'. Having heard the first episode, it is marvellous as it always has been, classics are timeless. Yet f

Having emigrated from the deep south, almost a decade ago now. I have become acclimatised to the harsh northern winters. I define harsh as under 10 degrees. In Devon, winter was tough if it got below 15 really. As most people then slipped on a jumper over the short sleeve tee shirt and muttered, 'Damn cold winter again'. Over the last week I have experienced the Northern snow, oft mentioned in hushed tones prefixed by the sentence 'Remember when we used to get snow?' or 'Not had snow like we used to have we..' Well, it seems we have now as I pass people who seem gripped in conversions beginning, 'Not seen snow like this for 20 years.' Admittedly being a bit of a snow novice they may well mean that Snow design has changed in twenty years and we are now back to the familiar design having gone through the ubiquitous desire of God to alter and modify the design of snowflakes, proving that maybe God is guilty of breaking the 'If it ain't broke dont fi

Now, every now and again it is nice to head into a pub and have a quiet pint in honour of all the good things in the world, Real Ale is one of those. I tend not to be a lager drinker, unless its Czech. So imagine my surprise when, while walking past a local pub I spot a new type of drink! I presume of course that it's a new style of drink. It may be that pubs are now going the route of Fast food takeaway's by offering you the ability to 'max it', here perhaps you can make your drink larger, for £2.40. I have a feeling though that this may not be the case. It seemd the case in the other window too. The famous saying about pub lanlords, 'You don't have to be a pedant speller to work here, but it helps' seems apt right now.

The irony is of course that this event occurred today, over a few thousand miles away in what was then one of the most advanced collection of states. How many people know that we actually run marathons in honour of a battle, fought over 2500 years ago, which it can be argued help define our western civilisation as we know it. but to remove myth from fact , it was the Athenian army that travelled the 26 miles from Marathon back to Athens. Pheidippedes, the runner, actually travelled 140miles to Sparta to deliver the request for help against the Persians from the fledgling Athenian demokratia. So, we run in honour of the Athenians (mainly) defeating the Persian Empire and altering the course of history by proving they, the invincible Persian hordes, were in fact beatable, as they finally proved 10 years later when they were destroyed by the Spartan/Athenian army at Plataea (after the Spartans had immortalised their hoplite prowess at the 'hot gates' of Thermopylae, if you have n

Okay, it hurt. It hurt pretty bad but at the end of all the pain and suffering I got my free T-shirt for running the half marathon at Worksop....No wait, I didn't get my free T-shirt at all...I got through the finish and went to get my T-shirt and was in fact told that the box of Extra large T shirts, unlike me hadn't turned up for the event. So all I got was a plastic bag and a bottle of water! This is not the point of running of course, the goody bag at the end, each event differs, but none have ever surpassed Mansfield Half marathon who after completion gave me a bag of biscuits, crisps and water and then handed me a box of 6 free range eggs??? Which if I wasn't completely shattered from racing a hilly course in 27degree heat I may have asked, why? So, I could whip up a post race omelette? The only real comparison to inappropriate post race gifts was the kilomathon this year when I was handed after a race a token to redeem my free half pint sample of real ale from the be

Nope...I really didn't, that's the honest answer and I was pretty surprised almost shocked by it. I am running in the Worksop half marathon tomorrow, which offers nothing but 13miles of pain. It's part of my planned running comeback, having raced the Kilomathon in March this year and struggling through that I felt I owed myself to re-discover my fitness, motivation, weight loss plan and that competitive streak that used to make me pretty unstoppable when the mind was focused. So, after a few months of training and a calorie counting diet later I am 1 stone lighter when I started training and feel comfortable I can finish a half marathon. So, I check my race history, when you are a geek you have one of this, in a spreadsheet or other form to see when I last ran a half marathon...it was September, 2006!!  My head nearly fell off, has it really been 4 years? yes, yes it has, it was Nottingham Half, timed finish at 1hr 33mins. I shall be fortunate to make it under 2hours this

A challenge today as a friend of ours is coming for dinner to celebrate her completion of the Scottish Kilomathon last weekend and collecting an ebay purchase for us too. So as a treat I am experimenting on her with a nice piece of sirloin steak, with a homemade peppercorn and wholegrain mustard sauce with a red wine Jus. Homemade and roasted thick cut chips with a side of honey Carrots and mangetouts. While I am attempting this I also want to go out and view the model railway exhibiton in the town. So am preparing as much as I can now.

We recently went for a 20 week scan for our new addition at the local hospital. We've been a few times before and I have only just paid to the notice that has been placed in the reception window and actually thought, really thought what it said or indeed, what it can, potentially offer. Now if the shoe was on the other foot and it was me that was pregnant then looking at this notice, I would like to be accompanied by one adult and that would be Neil Young, that would be cool. The hospital seem to promise that it's my choice.

How true this is and so it was proved by the following husband and wife conversation we had this afternoon regarding the Alarm clock. First, a little background, Internet (wireless) being a little temperamental so I resorted to the classic IT solution of turning it off and plugging it back in. Though it is on a multi plug, so when the wireless goes down, so does the bedside alarm clock. When turned on it flashes the time and needs resetting. So here we go! W(wife) = Why is the alarm flashing M (me) = because I had to reset the internet W = is that the right time? M = yes, pretty much, though 5 minutes fast, as you like it. W = well press a button on the top and it'll stop flashing I then press a button and the radio comes on, good to hear R4 again, another story. W = That was the wrong button M = but you said 'a' button, I was to press any button. W = i didn't think you'd press that one! M = But you said, 'any' button, How was I to know you didn

Here are the aforementioned, world's most expensive camping chairs, in all their resplendent glory. To be fair, they are very comfortable. But for the price I would have expected, perhaps 6 years of waiter service too.

On our trip to discover just how much of a ridiculous amount of money we could spend on camping chairs we came across the following bargains, which to my mind should start alarm bells ringing should you decide to upgrade to the more expensive pair. One can only imagine that when the going gets tough and ever so slightly more scary then the action trousers just arent enough and requires the added lining to get you through that more bum tingling experience. All I know is that if my wife said, we are going to do this and by the way here are some Lined Action Trousers, they would be a Tony shape in the wall as I ran away very fast.

I have a new terrible secret and am not sure whether I should share it, it could embarrass my wife and she is laughing at me because of it, all for £14.99!

Surely, but surely if you were going to sell anything edible, you'd taste it first just to make sure that it was in fact a) edible and b) tasty? Just me again? Where was the quality control here? I mean, I taste the family dinner before I serve it up, admittedly in the case of my daughter who would eat almost anything this isn't really an issue. Actually, she did eat some of that cake and didn't flinch.

Is it morally wrong to return to a Church fete and demand a refund from the person responsible for selling the worlds worst sponge cakes? while handing them a recipe written in big felt tip, which is easily followed?

They were that bad, honestly, everyone agreed, 60p for 8. It was almost a legalised mugging.

My wife found herself at a Church Fete today, at a Methodist Church next to a local shop she had gone too. Buying 6 Strawberry Jam sponge cakes. They can only be described as the worst cakes I have ever tasted! apparently they were made with Brown Flour. It's an experience I hope never to have again.

And I certainly know the brands they advertise. This ain't George Foreman. It is a George Forman grill. This is a George Foreman, Lean, Mean, Grilling Machine. It is even advertised as such on the Price Tag. It is actually quite a good bargain. One can only assume that when at the wholesalers the buyer decided to hijack the Indian shipment, and I imagine that Sanjeev Kapoor is not a world heavyweight boxer at all. Interesting how the same product is advertised differently according to the country of sale. It now appears as a lean, mean, tandoory machine. It did get me wondering as to how, if we'd never heard of George Foreman, we'd see this advertised in the UK and by who.

The Winner of the RIBA award for most outstanding international work by a member of RIBA has been awarded. RIBA are the Royal Institute of British Architects. And within this group there are some stand out Architects. It is a field of art and design I have loved since I took my work experience at school working for a small architecture studio in Devon for two weeks. It seemed a wheeze to actually get paid for drawing but as it got closer to deciding what to do at University I kind of dipped out of Architecture as I wasn't convinced I had the necessary drawing talent to combine with what I can picture in my head. This has always frustrated me that I can see things in my head that I can't translate to paper. I am not without talent, but have never been satisfied with the level it's at. It's on my retirement list to remedy. I still am fascinated by architecture and design, it gives me a cheap thrill every time I see the genius of a human mind exploring in construction and

I live in the North. It is a land where coldness rules and is a place that the Vikings invaded often because the weather is quite Scandinavian and they like pie. A small known fact about the Vikings was their fondness for pies. But I digress. Here is a photo taken today of my alarm clock. As you can make out it also indicates the temperature. I like gadgety things, even at the level of alarm clocks, sad but true. My point is that this is kept in the shade in the bedroom, not in the garden nor on any windowsill and still it reads 25 degrees. Now I am not one to grumble through the winter begging for the sunshine to return. It always amuses me that the months of winter makes my mind blank out the whole notion that I also suffer from Hayfever during the summer. It is the saddest season as I tend to cry through it so it's probably the best time for me to watch sad films as I can disguise the tears and excuse them with the hayfever experience. But where I do struggle is with the follow

Every now and again my grandmother says something that if I was drinking tea, would make me spit it out in a bemused, comedy shock.The world cup, for those who haven't yet noticed, is in South Africa this year. While watching a game my Nannar turned to me and said, 'That player must have played yesterday, as he's being subbed again.' I replied, what? Not really paying attention at all to what she was saying, not in detail anyway. 'Who is?' I reply to which Nannar said, that man Hublot, been subbed again. Now I do know a fair bit about football and this name seemed one I wasnt aware of. Could have been Swiss or French player I thought. So I decided to pay a little more attention. At this point Nannar then said, 'oh, he's being subbed again.' Now I knew something was a little wrong here, so watched what she was looking at and it was this; Then, the slow dawning realisation that may Nannar has confused the electronic board, used for extr

You have the fortune to come across a couple of tracks off a music album that lifts it from good to great. For those of you who are aware of the great work of the Divine Comedy then you'll understand their quirky, but wittily written songs, which can be a form of divine comedy. The new album, called 'There goes the Knighthood',  and while listening to this online two tracks stood out for me as musically inspired and arguably the best songs you'll here this year as long as you don't like JLS or Cheryl Cole, because that's where the real talent lies.But if you'd like a bit of weirdo non-manufactured pop, here is complete banker!

I can imagine the phonecall. One of the chief funders from the European Union rings the head cheese of the Large Hadron Collider, who probably goes by the name chief Proton, or something scientists find immensely funny, whereas the rest of the non-science geek world does not, for evidence of this scientist humour see here and prepare to laugh, oh yes, not just hilarious but proves why scientists really should be quite a long way under ground, away from normal people. But as we continue the story that today the Large Hadron Collider suffered a powercut . Now if I had invested $10bn in, what is essentially the worlds biggest and most complex donut I'd be expecting a pretty good explanation from those that had built it. It turns out that that part of France/Switzerland had been having some pretty bad storms. So when I am on the phone I expect that storms are a pretty good reason to tell my chief funder and I'd personally accept that. But...reading further down the story it appe

Every once in a while you come across a story where the spirit of adventure is strong, in this case other spirits may well have been involved, probably Vodka, would be  my thought. But when as a child have you not had the thought that the day when you have a balloon and let go. While you watch ascend into the atmosphere the idea of I wish I could go up with it and look down on the world as I float away. Now, today I have Google Earth to do this for me, which makes the whole thing warmer and I can sit in my star trek chair while I fly across great vista's. Yet it takes only one ridiculously mad American to rekindle that long dead dream in the child's heart that lives within! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/10186819.stm

In 5 days or so, by the end of the week, wonder how my farm is?

Bjork, there is, quite frankly only one bjork. I think two would rip a hole in the Universe from the point of view of there being a little too much quirky weirdness to cope with at once. Yet she could write and sing beautifully. Been listening to WE7.com and found this is her only song on there! Still, it's one of her best. I had forgotten the Lyrics. I seem to remember at the time, there in lied the attraction of the song. This continue to proves my wifes theory that my music is inherently morbid and introspective to the point of depressive, this may be true, but the one tangible benefit is that it makes you think deeper. So here's the song and below are the lyrics. darling stop confusing me with your wishful thinking hopeful enbraces don't you understand? i have to go through this i belong to here where no-one cares and no-one loves no light no air to live in a place called hate the city of fear i play dead it stops the hurting i play dead and hurting st

I am often stunned by the level of disregard Mini Cab drivers have for the highway code. This has led me to believe that they operate to different rules to everybody else. This has been proved now with my discovery of the Mini Cab driving test paper, which I have transcribed here; Q1: You are about to reach the address of a 'pick up' on a busy street, do you?         a) check your mirrors, indicate and then slowly break while moving to the side of the road and gently slowing to a stop.         b) heave on your steering wheel and pull in at an angle, only ever used by American Bunker busting missiles, ensuring enough of your back end is in the road to block one lane of traffic. Q2: Are mirrors attached to cars for        a) essential and important safety reasons, allowing for observations and identification of hazards        b) watching ladies bottoms after passing them in the street Q3: Indicators are designed for what reason?        a) indicating to other road users

But sadly, this story is, frankly, heartbreaking and slightly scary on so many levels. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8551122.stm

I have always been a fan of the memory stick. They have always been very functional and stick like. Yet, this has begun to change with designers realising that there can be more impact to a flash drive than a plastic stick gives it and here's a few of the high impact ones; I do love the idea of Lego Flashdrives. I particularly like the idea that at some point you could perhaps build a desktop PC out of lego flashdrives Okay, this is difficult on two levels, the first being that should you use a laptop, what is essentially a spherical object wider than your laptop means it's going to be difficult to plug in and keep your laptop flat on the desk. The other problem would be walking through Airport customs with your business documents loaded on a flash drive shaped into a hand grenade. This situation involves nothing but an unpleasant ending. For those tree hugger's amongst you. This can only be described as Eco-genius, a

Which is about bums. As a runner you do tend to find that the whole of your race is spent chasing bottoms. I would like to say that as a runner, you do also, realise fairly early on that there are so many different shapes, contours, sizes, oscillations in lycra when it comes to runners bottom (when encased in lycra pants and being subjected to the running motion, bottoms, particularly female bottoms, not being sexist here, few men wear Lyrca bottoms, tend to oscillate, like ripples across an ocean). I tend to think that my autobiography could be called 'oscillations in Lycra'. So I would like to celebrate the bottom, in all its various manifestations, I will never cease to be fascinated by runners bottom as they are like snowflakes, no two are alike. I shall not be describing my bottom, don't ask. It would make Rodin, jealous.

I have now, after a hot bath, recovered quite well from my exertions this morning, in the Kilomathon, a 16 mile road race from Nottingham to Derby, along with 5,700 other people. The weather, as I am British, and should as a matter of culture, discuss first, was very good, although changeable from, sun out, quite warm to cloud cover, got very, very cold. So the two t-shirt solution proved the prudent choice! The race organisation was okay, but we still get to the point where they do not provide enough toilets for the amount of racers in the race so you stand in the queue while the race is getting its runners to the start, which as an anal, ritualistic runner, I abhor breaking my routine. Yet the bonus was that I started the race as the very last runner in the field, which a) was novel, but b) helped slow me down and not go too fast. And as they stuffed up the start I being the last runner in the field didn't start last, as our pen was released before the faster pen. So, while t

I am running tomorrow in a competitive race. I have just looked at my running history and note with horror, two points. The first is that my last competitive race was a 10 miler from Martigues to Caro, located in the south of France, in July 2008. I remember from memory it starting at 5 ish and being somewhere near 60 degrees in temperature (or so it felt while running), it may not, technically speaking, been this high. And secondly being in France and living in England, it was a long way to go to run a race! (though we have reasons to be there) I cannot say that I decided to travel 1000miles to run in a small provincial race in the south of France. So it is almost two years since I donned the rather attractive Green/red/white striped running jersey as seen here when I was striding home in the Nottingham Full Marathon. If I could offer any advice, titled; 'Marathons you really don't want to run because they are overpriced and the course is pure garbage' the answer to this

Okay, so have you thought of the end game of what happens to the vessel when death strikes? I have, and I was quite convinced that there were 2 ways in which I would prefer to dealt with when my time comes. I have been for a fair few years now. 1 - Have my ashes blasted into space. This option has always been a favourite, if only from the point of view that at some point, in a geological time scale my ashes, based on the laws of probabilities, will converge and form an asteroid or even a planet, both options are pretty darn cool. So I can truly reside on Planet Theaker, instead of being accused of this, I will become one. 2 - The full on Viking cremation at sea. While my mortal remains sail out to sea my friends on the river bank will launch a flaming arrow into the wooden funeral pyre upon which I would lie, dressed as a Victorian dandy. There are two issues here which would need sorting, one would be to begin befriending the UK Olympic archery team and the other is finding an exp

So says Merlin, the magician, in the film Excalibur.Well, we too have experienced the nightmare of this situation, in electronic form. My mobile phone, the redoubtable Samsung Omnia, has hopefully been killed temporarily. My 18month phone contract is soon due to end, and having suffered at the hands of vodafone's 1 star customer service I am leaving their network. I have decided in these tumultuous times to avoid a long 18/24 month contract and have resorted to a pay monthly SIM only deal. This will decrease my phone bill by more than half, which is great, obviously. The only drawback is that I have to continue using my Samsung, which I actually do like very much, with two small exceptions; a bizarre locking system when you are phoning from it (I see why, the designers thought, 'We need a locking system so that our customers ears cannot hang up phone calls by hitting the off button with their ear', what thought didn't go through their mind is that, if you are ringing a

So, after what has seemed an age, I have pretty much finished one more of my 12 labours, slightly more appetizing than the one's Hercules had to undertake. All in all, it looks a lot better than what was there previously. I am fairly chuffed in that we also bought it in under budget and I am now contemplating what I can spend that whole £2 on? Ideas, anyone? Of course now it'll just get stuffed full with all sorts of tat.

The project, which is called, 'the Loft' is almost complete. At least phase 1. Phase 2 requires more money and even further expansion of the loft empire, but this is another job for another day/year. Phase 1 as I have said is almost finished. I think it will be by this weekend. The budget has stretched further than anticpated, due to a wonderful local timber merchant and a couple of discount weekends at DIY stores. I shall be posting photos at some point to show the progress which has been made. It has to be said, slow progress, as working on joists is for gymnasts, who tend to be 14 years old, Eastern European and weighing about 5stone. I can only say that I have once been 14 yrs old, and indeed 5 stones, though this was many years ago. I have never been eastern european. Work got markedly easier when there was some flooring laid, as it made moving and stretching far easier than before when one slip meant I would like some comedy show, be waggling my legs through my daughter

Though there are so many nice views. I have seen some of them. The majority of nice views or buildings I would like to see,the visual stuff lives in my head and I've never had the ability to birth them, as they should or I want them to be. I believe we are a long way from being able to express our thoughts onto a physical object, like a canvass. The idea of being able to do this fascinates me. I find the idea of being able to decorate every room in your house by projecting what you see in your minds eye onto the walls of a house instantaneously and changeable would be much fun, unless you lived with a chronic depressive, in which case you would just have to get used to whirling fog grey on every wall. When a happier soul enters the room and brings with them a sunbursting brightness, the two conflicting mental images would make for an interesting front room, but not, probably book reading. Anyway, not quite sure where that paragraph started from or will go to. I have been playing

I am a thirsty person by nature, be it knowledge or hot beverage. I was particularly fond of a nice cup of tea, and my mum used to say that I could actually smell a kettle boil. Lately I have drunk more Coffee than I ever used too, not quite sure why, maybe I find it quicker to make than tea or maybe my tastes are changing. Regardless, I need a lot of beverage. Imagine my smile when I found and bought myself a new cup for tea or coffee, it seemed the answer to my prayers. I have for scale placed my new cup against a standard tea cup and also next to our 1.7 litre Kettle. As you can judge for yourself, size would appear to be everything. Maybe I am becoming an American?