Podcast review...

...tried a few more out this morning on my way in...

• Nature podcast (they last about 25 minutes and nutshell what is in each weeks issue with interviews with some of the authours, really interesting stuff with a question and answer interview style, but then I am a bit biased... ;)
• New Scientist podcast (about 18 minutes long, the two I listened to were definitely being ridden quite hard as marketing vehicles, the interviews seemed to be only with New Scientist staff, and they only covered a fraction of what was going on in the magazine, still alright though, if you can put up with all the "Looking for a great gift idea for this season? How about a New Scientist subscription?")
• Space.com podcast (again about 18 minutes long, according to their demographics I am typical of their readership and thus their output should appeal to me, however, I found their podcasts to be detail light, full of irrelevent pop-style songs/music (including one extremely sad effort that I am guessing was composed just for the purposes of this broadcast all about how comets are made of frozen dust) and far too long considering the lack of actual information, sorry, but I'm looking for something aimed a little higher, in an intellectual sense...)
• Radio 7 - Big Toe podcast (whoops, turned out to really be a kids show, but they did interview an astronaught, so I listened to that bit then turned it off)...

If you fancy getting into podcasting, check here for a good "getting started guide" (all you need is an MP3 player, oh and btw - contrary to popular opionion it's nothing to do with either Apple or iPods, it evolved quite separately) and then go here for an index of feeds available...if I find any other good ones I'll let you know... :)

If you fancy a feed manager (I think I'm going to need one!), this is the best one I have played with - Juice - it's free, looks good and is easy to use...

Dunno why I haven't mucked around with this before! It's cool! :)

Red Sky in the Morning...

...Shepherds warning?

Was still blooming cold though, despite the cover...

Had a quite long power cut last night at home...power cuts used to be so rare, but this must be the eleventh one in the last week! Most of them are just tiny blips, enough to re-boot my PC and kill all the clocks on the exectrical appliances around the place, but this one had us scrambling for torches, in fact the first source of light we found (Flyingpops genius) actually led to some tiny electronic tea-lights (containing blue LEDs) that we keep in the bathroom! After the last little lot (3 on Saturday night) she also had the foresight to have the number of the electricity board in her phone, another general problem, normally we get off quite lightly thanks to the proximity of the local hospital, but this one was obviously something pretty serious...it's funny quite how quiet it is in the house with no fish pump, PC fans, TV etc. etc. running...was actually quite strange...

Podcast C500 style...

Decided to try out some of the BBC's Beta podcast trial broadcasts from their various radio stations this morning...

They don't offer all their shows, just a few, but it was great to be able to pick and choose what to listen to, and where, and when...

My choices?

Radio 1 - The Best of Chris Moyles (He's in New York at the moment)
Radio 2 - Chris Evans - The Best Bits (Patrick Stewart was in the studio)
Radio 4 - In our Time (what is being done to prove the existence of the elusive "graviton" by modern physicists)

Chris Moyles was the funniest (and seems to be deliberately put together for podcast listeners), Patrick Stewart is always a pleasure to listen to (not going to comment on Chris Evans) and "In our Time" was very interesting indeed (three excellent speakers - Roger Cashmore (Former Research Director at CERN and Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford) Jim Al-Khalili (Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey) and Sheila Rowan (Reader in Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow) who all managed to speak in easy to comprehend terms and yet be brilliantly enlightening for the physics novice)...

I guess I kind of made my ideal morning Radio line up...I'll be giving positive feedback to the Beeb on this service (since they are asking) and hopefully they will roll it live across the board... ;)

Eden Project in the snow

Wow...thank you BBC -

Hemp no more...?

Well, Tony's Hemp Corner (yes, finally found his home page! Although the homepage appears to be all that is left of it!), has undergone another rebranding exercise, this time into the extremely low key "Organic Health Foods - Organic Cafe", but if you look *very* carefully at this picture you can pick out at least one tell-tale sign that all is not quite as it seems... ;) (rainbow hemp leaf stained glass affair in one of the upstairs windows)...

I wonder if he got done by the police finally?

Anyway, the weekend was good, managed to complete about 70% of the Christmas present shopping (the rest we have either already done or can easily do on the interweb) on Saturday, it's good to go and do it at this time of the year as the shops still have all the gifts in to look through (apart from Woolworths which was in absolute chaos) go much later and it's all empty shelves and damaged packaging...Nipped into Asda and Tesco in Crawley too as they are running some sweet beer deals at the moment (2 cases for £16 in Asda) to stock up on Christmas booze (wine and port also cheap)...put the house back together after the double glazing installation and then had Flyingpops dad over on Sunday morning to fix up some electrics around the place - fitting a fused switch for the outside lights in the living room (which involved drilling a hole through the wall with a rather large drill and much shenanigans with a wire coat hanger), fixing the outside light at the front of the house and installing a timer (so it comes on at sunset) and swapping over the pull chord mechanism in the bathroom...feels like everyone is having holidays at the moment too, my folks have just flown back from Germany (Christmas markets and meals in micro-breweries), Flyingpops folks are zooming off to Lanzarote today for a week in the sun (cooked them dinner last night to make life a little easier for them, and in thanks for the work around the house) and the US having Thanksgiving late last week...(how envious?) so I'm really looking forward to my break, last working day of the year is the 16th of December...bring it on... ;)

Bum Rush

...Oh, thank you Simpsons, I now completely don't understand the Americanism "Bum Rush"...meaning, as I thought, based on Will Smith's "Wild Wild West" (wiki-wiki-wild!...ahem...) - to mean (and I quote myself) "to have the shit kicked out of one in an uneven contest of strength" the SkyOne episode aired this evening seems to hint that to "Bum Rush" is to throw a tramp/drunk person with force out of a drinking establishment...it does make me wonder what US dictionaries look like... ;)

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

All in all I think I dedicated about a decade of my life (between various groups of players) to the position of Call of Cthulhu GM (the paper and dice RPG), it's been about 5 years now since I last ran a session, my own interest subsiding somewhat, but after such a long break, and with global interest on the wane (or so I thought), here I find myself, all of a sudden, facing a *perfect* XBOX conversion of the RPG - completely summing up the feeling, the atmosphere, the **terror** and the hopelessness made so real in Lovecraft's work...Quite honestly, I'm thrilled that someone actually had the bollocks to make it and do so as perfectly as I would have done (had it been my job to do so)...it's nothing less than the survival horror event of the decade (in my humble opinion... ;) and a beautiful and realistic first person shooter to boot...

It's based (almost 100%) on the story "The Shadow over Innsmouth" but has some wonderful departures (like a really, really scary "thing in the attic", some very convincing "Yithians", a terrifying escape from the "locals" after an unquiet night in the town's hotel, and taking out "Dagon" with a deck cannon from a US Navy warship, classic!)...I'm at about 92% complete now, and I really don't want it to finish...(Luckily it looks like they are making a 2nd game based on "At the Mountains of Madness" which is one of my favorite stories, it reads a bit like the screenplay for "The Thing" at the start, so it should be a good!)...

Anyway, Dark Corners of the Earth has been sitting in the top 10 on GameFAQs for a while now, but got a lacklustre and poorly researched review in the (usually trustworthy) Edge (I'm getting a bit sick of game reviews being based on 20% complete games or 20% effort), and I've laughed and laughed at those on the forums begging for help - "What, if anything, is a 'zthulu'", "Who, or what is a Lovecraft?", "This game is stupidly difficult!", "Why can't I focus when I am injured?", "Why does everything go strange when I am looking off the top of a building?", "Why can't I aim my gun when I am insane???","Why do I have to apply bandages and splints when I am injured?"...and most amazingly, from Edge (oh dear!), that reloading the gun was too difficult (it's one button press instead of it being automatic btw)...I know it's not real life, but think how hard would it would be to reload a real shotgun standing up to your knees in seawater in the middle of the night while a DEEP ONE IS SHREDDING YOUR FACE...Yes, I think the reviewer rather missed the point there...one button push isn't much of an inconvenience really (and it was good enough for Half Life...*shrug*!)...If you can't put up with a re-load button then stay wrapped in your Doom 3 duvet in bed, Mr Edge reviewer...it's not safe out in the cold...you might slip over... ;)

Dorking Window Company update #2

...well, could I be more impressed? Probably not...and that really says something...quite honestly, if I had been tasked with doing the job myself I couldn't have done any better, the attention to detail, the clean lines, the perfect "make good", it's just the very best service I have been yet privy to...even considering the cold, cold weather-the utterly professional staff worked a swift and perfect miracle...Awesome... :)

Hailstorm!

Hailstorm!
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

Argh! The skies have gone black and hail has thundered down on our position, leaves are blowing through the house, and still the is no glass on the back wall...(on the ground floor at least!)...

Finishing off...

Wow, look at that! Perfect finish... :)

Cleaned up and treated...

Cleaned up and treated
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

...all ready for the builders filler to go down...(much better!)... ;)

Ant sign...

Ant sign
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

...discovered under the doorway! The plastic will keep them out, but as a precaution I'm going to pepper the ways with Ant powder...

Back window gone...

...so now we just have a huge gaping hole as the back wall of the house...oh, and it was nice to find that with the removal of the sturdy posts from beneath the slightly bent lintel that the house didn't subside even a millimeter.... :)

Demolishing the back door

Demolishing the back door
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

...It's getting a bit cold in the living room now...brr...!

Dorking Window Company update...

Kitchen Window in...
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

...Kitchen Window is in, it's all going extremely well...and really nice lads too... ;) I've even let them plunder my cold drinks fridge...(must be working hard to get hot in these freezing temperatures!)...phew! ;)

The Boys

The boys
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

(Ooh...blurry shot)...but you get the idea... :)

Kitchen and Marc

Kitchen and Marc
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

...and there goes the kitchen! At least it's stopped raining now... ;)

Old Windows

Old Windows
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

(the van is loading up with all the old timber frames)...some scary bits of broken glass too...

Bathroom and Bedroom in!

Bathroom and Bedroom in
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

(well, the frames at least!)...they are just starting on the downstairs now...

Dorking Windows...

Dorking Windows
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

...are here today, it's all go! One of the upstairs windows is already out and by the (loud) sounds of things the others are following quickly, at this rate they'll be out of here by lunchtime...I have to say, it's a seriously smooth operation, firstly they were impressed that the space by the windows was clear (I think they were expecting to be playing removal men for the first hour). Secondly, while Marc was using an electric jigsaw to get rid of the timber in the bedroom one of the other lads was putting dust sheets *everywhere* and the third lad was unloading the van, all three of them haven't stopped since they pulled up! Fingers crossed it's all going to plan so far... ;)

Xbox 360 crashing?

There is a buzz in the scene saying that multiple, repeatable crashes are occuring on some newly shipped Xbox 360 units, various different games, various different errors (mostly faulty hard disks or rapid overheating causing the unit to shut down), see screen shots and rants here...not good news for Microsoft! Their tech support have been quoted in the forums as saying that the problems are fairly common and, as such, punters (in the US at least) with faulty units are facing a wait of between 6-8 *weeks* for a replacement! There are going to be some very dissapointed boys and girls on Christmas day... :(

Think I'll wait until they have the problems ironed out before dipping into my sky rocket....price might come down a bit too.... ;)

Super Foggy...

Super Foggy
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

...today, and seriously cold (perhaps the short sleeved shirt wasn't the best idea after all), the weathermen are forecasting arctic conditions for Friday (freezing temperatures, snow, ice, gale force winds etc.), just gotta hope the double glazing goes in okay tomorrow...if so I'll be joining the Americans with their observation of "Thanksgiving" I think...! ;)

Double Glazing...

...well, one of the boys at Dorking Windows is off sick today, so, rather than have a plastic bag to cover a large hole in my wall (if all hadn't gone well) we have agreed to change the installation day to Thursday this week...fingers crossed that the forecast snow doesn't pay a serious visit... :(

Chicago the musical

Yesterday was a loooong (but really fun day), Flyingpops was treating her mum to the aforementioned musical by way of a belated birthday gift, we headed up from Redhill to London Bridge via Network rail (on an extremely old train, must have been one of the first generation electric door ones, and it was looking more decrepit than even the most aged of the slam door variety) -

- we wandered around Borough Market (which was *far* too busy to actually shop in at that time of day (best to get there early I think!) the queues for some of the "fast" food type stalls were 40 people deep -

- so after taking in the sights and sounds and aromas, we began our walk along the south bank of the River Thames past "Shakespeare's Globe" -

- towards the "Millennium Bridge" -

- and then across it looking towards St Paul's Cathedral, it couldn't have been a better day to take in the river, just wonderful, so clear and bright, perfect "London Eye" weather actually... -

- We stopped for lunch at a little place called "The Centre Page", which was almost in the shadow of the dome of the catherdral (it was situated in "Knightrider Street" if you can believe that!)...I had a Steak and Ale pie, which was excellent, even though the first time they brought the dishes out it seemed to have been left abandoned in their dumb waiter and sent back down to the kitchen, to much confusion among the staff. Oh and Flyingpops's mum asked the foreign waitress if she might have some "Salad" cream to have with her Fish, chips and salad and was brought out a pot of "Sour" cream...but none of this ruined the experience...

- so, full from lunch we walked around St Pauls -

- and hopped onto the tube (which was nice and quiet for a change!) to Charing Cross to catch the show (which was in the Adelphi on the Strand) -

- Flyingpops had managed to get some bargain priced seats (right in the middle and right near the front of the Dress Circle) which afforded an absolutely stunning view of the stage, however, by the interval the restricted leg room was making enjoying the show almost impossible for me, so I said that I was going to have to find somewhere else to sit. As I was looking around (the back three rows looked totally empty and rather tempting) Flyingpops and her mum were having a discussion about the possible identity of a person that had slipped quietly into the audience from the exit during the performance and whether or not that person looked like "Darius" a fairly well known pop-type singer who emerged into the mainstream after failing to win one of these "Pop Idol" type shows a year or two ago. Interestingly he was supposed to be taking one of the lead roles in this show fairly soon, but neither of them were sure...so anyway, the interval dragged on and I hobbled up to the top of the dress circle to hover and wait to pounce on the best free seat I could when the lights went down...the one I settled on (right at the front on the left hand side) even had a free seat next to it, bonus! I politely enquired of the two young ladies sat deeper along the row if the seat was free, and one of them replied "Well, Darius were sitting there during t' first 'alf but e 'int 'ere now". I said "Right, well I don't suppose he paid for his ticket anyway", smiled and sat down..."Oh, there goes me chance of an autygraf then" she chuckled...but he didn't come back to reclaim his seat...after the show (which was actually rather enjoyable), we hopped on the tube to Leicester Square and walked up Regents Street to check out the Christmas lights (mostly super blurry blue LEDs, but it looked quite effective as they merged into one in the distance) -

- we peered up Oxford Street too, which was, if anything even more impressive, but by then the fatigue was starting to set in and the crowds were starting to get annoying, so we caught the tube from Oxford Circus over to London Victoria and happily collapsed onto a train within about 5 minutes of getting there...exhausted...

Having a rest today... ;)

Jack Frost

Frozen car
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

...has offically started his winter duties as of Tuesday this week, which was the first frost of the year (in Surrey at least)...black bin liners on the windscreen and plenty of WD40 squired into the locks in the evening (before he starts playing his little game) means for a much easier life in the morning...for some reason the locks on the Golf just freeze up every time, which is really annoying...need to get some de-icer on the weekend, I can do without all that scraping every morning... ;)

Really pleased we did the preparation in the garden before this cold weather hit now, despite the expert advice being to await the first frost before stripping the beds, it's not funny at all to be gardening in this weather (and I know that all too well)...brrr!

Been rather poorly...

...the last few days, so sorry for the lack of updates but I really haven't felt much up to getting out of bed, had my first solid food since Monday night on Wednesday evening and that was one third of a tin of baked beans that Flyingpops had left over from her dinner...my diet in the interim has been Imodium, Pepto-Bismol and boiled water with Dioralyte...bleugh... :(

Today has been much better although it is staggering how much my stomach has shrunk over these couple of days on a fluid diet (as advised by the medical professionals)...how little I can now actually consume is a joke...like half a tin of soup and I'm full...!

Anyway, sounds like the bug might well have crept over on the weekend with my folks visit to say hello...apparently it's been doing the rounds at my mum's school, lots of people falling ill, so even my "disease proofing" commute - throwing every germ present in the city at me - couldn't defend me from a bug from the country...

Some things aren't good about commuting so far...new diseases at each end....bah...

Still, the aches and sweats are on the way out...back into London to spread the alien bugs tomorrow... ;)

Can't help but feel super stressed about what I am about to face though...normally when I am out of the office for a day or two it takes me a week to recover from the backlog...

Wish me luck...

Hare Krishna News

Well, looks like my mysteriously active, but poorly executed photo has been posted on Hare Krishna News now...! Glad I wasn't rude about them in my posting (hehe)... ;)

Just kidding - anyone who starts a "business" offering the magical combination of free internet access and free curry is alright in my book... :)

It does make me wonder what the cash model is here though...I mean, (although this is a blatant generalisation) they obviously can't be short of a bob or two - I saw one chap last week in Wharfdale road, in his robes, happily loading his bongo drums into the back of a rather new looking Audi hatchback...and curry and broadband don't grow on trees...and when was the last time you saw a Krishna divotee asking for a donation?

I will have to investigate... ;)

Who's Connected

This app is just absolutely superb, really useful for diagnosing "missing" bandwidth on your broadband connection and free! The developer is working on additional modules to show how much bandwidth each app is taking up too, this will be extremely handy for tracking down nasty little apps mucking about on your machine... ;)

Tony's Organics

Omg! That hemp salad shop down the road really does sell dope! Check this out! Funny thing though, because today all those signs around the shop advertising the "medicinal cannabis consultancy" service have vanished...(and the shop was open and full of people at about 9am, which is most unusual)...wonder if something has happened...?

Krispy Kreme

There is a sign, in the middle of the pavement, in Kings Cross, just outside the local "Tesco Metro" on the Caledonian Road -

- it's, oh, I suppose normally about 6 or 7 meters from the entrance to the shop and once inside the store, the actual doughnut display is tucked right round the back. Past the tills, past the tobacco counter, past the newspapers, past the sandwiches, deli goods and snacks, past the chilled section...and yet, stood there, by the sign, the smell of "Krispy Kreme" frosty toppings assualts your nostrils with a power to rival the smell of dope when walking past the hemp shop just down the road...

There must be a "Krispy Kreme" smell emitter somewhere around there, either that or they sellotape a few doughnuts inside the sign each morning... ;)

DIY Dalek

Wow! Check this out...it's the build-diary (with pics) for a fan-made replica of one of the new Daleks (full size) from the last season of Dr Who...! Apparently the guy that built it managed to put it together from spy photographs (leaked from the set during filming), so the build was complete before the season had even fully aired on TV!

Here is a shot I took of the "official" prop at the Dr Who exhibition on the pier at Brighton (scary! ;) -

- I prefer the home-made one now I come to compare them, actually! ;) Rumour has it that there is a massive war between the Daleks and the Cybermen in the new series to look forward to also...Can't believe the BBC script writers actually considered leaving them out to begin with...duh...I think "Delek" was the best episode of the last season... :)

Mischief managed...

Very interesting - full article here...

"With these maps, you can see down to the room on campus how many people are logged on," said Carlo Ratti, director of the school's SENSEable City Laboratory, which created the maps. "You can even watch someone go from room to room if they have a handheld device that's connected."

Marauders map anyone?

Avian Flu

I must pass on this picture, not sure if Daniel is the photoshopper of origin, but the subject is "Avian Bird Flu finally arrives in the US" click, look and chortle...

(not sure how his trackback works, but I'll have a go like this...don't click that link, it goes somewhere boring...but I'm not sure what else to do with it...)

Life in the fast lane...

...it's funny, you know, but this blogging lark really has put the breaks on in my life, and in a really good way...

I can't tell you how many years of my life seem to have shot right by, just "getting on" with things, well, it's either that or this year has just been more interesting than most, but I honestly think that taking a step back each day, taking the time to reflect on what I would like to write about, and perhaps capturing a moment or two of each day on camera, has made me much more conscious of the passage of time and has imprinted *many* more of my experiences firmly into my mind...it's almost like, rather than just *doing* life - hurrying along with my head down, heading towards the inevitable destination - I've stopped, looked up and realised what I was doing, and deliberately started walking along at about a third of the pace, stopping to smell the roses....it's like Yoda's remonstrative - "Never your mind on where you are, hmmm? What you are doing!" - while he gave Luke an accusatory poke or two with his gnarled little stick...those were some wise words, in retrospect...and that really was the space I was in, rushing along...would be a bit of a shame to get to the end of the journey and realise that you have largely missed it because you forgot to look out the window...

Anyway, I digress - this year is now marked out as having a real sense of scale for me, i've only been blogging since March and now that seems like the distant, distant past. Why would I remember one lunch out of all those meals I have eaten subsequently so clearly? Because at the time I judged it as noteworthy...It doesn't even feel like this *year* that I planted all those seedlings, let alone a couple of months ago... !

So I guess I am saying, I owe a lot to that spur of the moment decision...despite sometimes, and I guess inevitably, feeling like blogging is a pain, it's *easier* not to bother, not to write anything, not to Flickr the photos and link everything up, but persisting with the exercise has done something extremely profound to my experience of "life", which is something I should grasp with both hands and hang onto as hard as I can...

So, reminder note for next life -

1) Keep a diary, even if the internet hasn't been invented yet

Hare Krishna - Matchless gifts

Hare Krishna - Matchless gifts
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

This is really odd - if 7/7 hadn't ever happened (the pictures I took of events that day and the few days after had zillions of hits) then *this* picture would be my "Most viewed" ever on Flickr - coming in at almost 1000 visitors...! *confused shrug*

Must be a load of people interested in Krishna poking around on the internet, just ironic that it's one of the worst shots I've posted! How annoying!

Brockham Bonfire (update)

...some pics!

The "Guy" being paraded to the bonfire, before being hoisted into position. He is packed with hundreds of extremely noisy bangers -

- then, the much anticipated "suprise" as this was the 400th anniversary of Guy Fawkes night and the 120th (documented) year of a bonfire night in the village litereally hundreds of thousands of flourescent streamers were shot out over the crowd, it was amazing! Then the torchlit procession placed their brands into the base of the bonfire sending a load of smoke and burning ash into the crowd (happens every year!) -

- then the fireworks, which without any shadow of a doubt were the most impressive display I have ever seen, probably only went on for about ten minutes, but there wasn't a single second the sky wasn't completely filled, just awesome...

Brockham Bonfire

...tonight (assuming the rain holds off), it being the first time in goodness knows how many years that November the 5th has actually fallen on a Saturday night! For tonight's entertainment we can thank Guy Fawkes and his miserable attempt to blow up the Houses of Parlement in London...

Brockham is the biggest bonfire party I have ever witnessed, it's been practiced for well over 120 years (documented) but may well have been running for many years longer than that...in 1920 the bonfire was apparently made 125 feet tall and was recorded in the Guiness book of records, and in 1990 (I was there that year) the bonfire partially collapsed into the crowd! So now the bonfire is of more modest dimensions, although still extremely impressive...I took the snap last Sunday while they were putting it together...

Should be a good night! :)

Interesting shops of Kings Cross #7

Here we have the imaginatively named "Blue Eros", not wanting to get all "Eats Shoots and Leaves" (people in glass houses and all that) but the use of the apostrophe does grate a little...surely sign makers should have a duty to correct these things... ;)

Just down the road you can just about see the "friendly" facade of "The Scotsman", which kind of seems to be pretending to be a pub, but I hear disturbing rumours (and have on one occasion witnessed a large group of HVJ wearing men rush in through the door while issuing a number of wolf whistles) about the activities that occur behind those blacked out windows...(but more on that another day ;)

So, the guy comes back...

...to check out the boiler, this time, I decide to sit and watch him work...no joke, he tries for almost an hour to get any smoke at all (btw - he is making the smoke by lighting pieces of kitchen paper with a cigarette lighter, which struck me as rather dangerous) to do *anything* other that get sucked straight up the chimney vent. I kept on saying "Oh that's great, so it's all fine after all then?", and he is like "Nah, just need to do some more checks"...so, getting rather bored of his performance I decide to enquire as to exactly why he is using kitchen paper, and not a smoke bomb like the guy that did the test for us last year...he pauses for a minute and then says "Oh, well, yes, I could do, yeah"...after watching all the smoke zoom straight up out of the roof, he *still* won't concede that all is well..."It's borderline" apparently....so he carries on with the kitchen roll trick...Flyingpops then arrives back home, I come downstairs to tell her the good news, and suddenly and mysteriously it's (in the last 3 minutes) stopped working! Anyway, so I have to nip out to the shop quickly and by the time I have got back he has left, saying it's okay after all, charged us £40 and not issued a safety certificate...cowboy...!

My subconscious...

...(sorry, no time to actually post anything from the last few days- but-if you are interested - ) while the "Master Control Program" is idling, the background engine in my mind seems to pick random snippets from my experience to echo, I've been half heartedly keeping a list (for about a month now), so if you would like to peer therein (during downtime), see the list below -

• Various tunes from the Zelda series, especially "Ocarina of Time" (N64)
• The opening tune from Final Fantasy VII (PSOne) called "Prelude" (midi version you can listen to in that previous link)
• The line "lotsa times, when a body comes out of the water, there's like, leaves and thangs in the mouth" from the autopsy scene in "Silence of the Lambs" (yeah, odd, I know...)
• The theme tune to the 80's TV show "The Smurfs"
• Occasionally a pop song or other from the radio that wakes me up in the morning (but rarely)...most notably "Play that funky music" by Wild Cherry...
• Two lines from "Day of the Dead" - "It's the R Cortex, Sarah, that central piece of primordial matter that controls our baser instincts. It's the motor that drives them..." (in a posh English accent) and "My job is to fly the whirlybird...and I'm doing that job just fine" (in a strong Jamcian accent)...
• The words "Hoy!!! **CANADA**!!!" (being yelled in a strong Japanese accent) from the anime of the manga classic "Akira"....
• Arnie saying "Sarah Connor?"

But, the undisputed winner, popping in at least twice every day -

• "So long, and thanks for all the fish", the *incredibly* catchy theme music to the recent movie version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (which must, by now, be very annoying to the people that work around me!)