Off to Los Gigantes - Monday

So, Monday we ate breakfast in the hotel resturant again, being lazy, but actually, the use of an infinite orange juice machine is well worth 5 Euros (alone) in my opinion...and the rest of the spread wasn't too bad (a bit of poking around would net you eggs and bacon that weren't *too* chewy)...so after a leasurely feed we drifted back to the pool, I took a few shots around the resorts cactus garden, which was pretty amazing (but I really think it could have done with being a little further back from the path, and a fence - toppling into that little lot late at night and worse for wear would have been all too easy...*shudder*)

Spent the bulk of the day by the pool...(feeding the doves and sparrows)...

...and played PSP in apartment (as usual) for an hour or two in the afternoon (while Flyingpops napped on the balcony). I got a tip for a good resturant to go to for quality grub in Los Gigantes from the girl behind reception, where I enjoyed a thoroughly superb leg of lamb with mint and gravy (yum) and some Sangrea (which might not have been the best idea, as I had been on the beers during the afternoon) -

- after dinner we found yet *another* (different) "Highland Paddy" pub where they were offering some entertainment - they had an old guy that sang old Beatles numbers (and played along with his guitar) come on just as we arrived which obviously wasn't quite my cup of tea, as I am told that after a few songs I drifted off into a doze (must be getting old) much to the amusement of the stand up comedian that came on after him, apparently he quipped "Well, that's a first, normally I have to tell some jokes before I start to send you lot to sleep!"...the laughing roused me from my petit slumber and I decided I needed to go to the bathroom and wake myself up a bit, so I stood up to cross the bar...to this he said "Oh bloody hell, I take that back, if it all kicks off in here tonight, I'm on his side, alright?"...hehe... ;)

(If you don't know me, I'm quite tall btw)... ;)

An evening in Peurto de Santiago - Sunday

Sunday was a sleepy day, breakfast in the hotel resturant ("desayuno dos por los días uno, por favor"), snoozing by the pool watching the red faced energetic contortions of those inclined to participate in the "aerobic activities" being run by "Don't be Laaaayzee Engleesh!" rep Federika, through half closed eyes...

A cheap lunch of a self-catering variety was sourced (didn't fancy eating the below pictured bread found in the resort supermarket though (I normally adhere to my self imposed guideline to steer clear of "Familiar Bimbo sandwiches" ;) after we had moved to a less breezy location by pool 1 (the sunshades by pool 3 kept on threatening to blow away)...

...spent a few hours playing GTA-LCS sat in the shade by the balcony during the afternoon and then found a great little resturant in Puerto de Santiago (about half way between Playa de la Arena and Los Gigantes) that served Pimentos al Padron, which is a very naughty little dish indeed, basically take about 30 small (hot) green chilli peppers, throw them into hot fat for a couple of minutes, then drain and serve with a small mountain of rock salt...(absolutely wonderful)...

...followed by "Grill Mixto" which when it arrived consisted of lamb chop, beef steak, veal sliver, chicken breast and a spicy pork sausage (10 Euros), a bit bland for me, but much improved with a good dose of "Salsa Mojo" (a chilli/garlic/tomato concoction unique to the islands)...

I could mention here that Tom had a bit of a tummy upset and decided (perhaps inadvisedly) that the only thing he wanted to have to eat was a prawn salad (which wasn't on the menu) and was a little dissapointed with the effort that the kitchen went to in order to accomodate him...so not a brilliantly successful meal (apart from my starter of course)... ;)
From there we went on to the "Highland Paddy" back in Playa de la Arena where a totally mad (German?) guy kept on trying to get us all up to dance to a fairly average karaoke performance, but we were too full (and not quite drunk enough) to join in... ;)

Playa de la Arena - Barcelo Veradero - Holiday update

So, Saturday morning we wake up, turn off the aircon (brr!), throw open the curtains to reveal a blinding sunrise (for some odd reason I was expecting clouds and rain) slid back the balcony doors (in order to let a little heat in), showered, dressed and slapped on the suncream (hate sunburn)...

...we nipped in to listen to the (Italian) rep and a (fat British) timeshare guy try and tempt everyone to book onto one of their massively overpriced excursions (which we resisted with little difficulty, sipping our complimentary orange juice with nonchalent indifference) and then headed out down the cliff road to find some breakfast...we settled in "The Pilgrim" a sort of English pub with only one wall (the rest was covered balcony, meaning that smoking was still allowed, the Spanish government seems to have largely banned it in public places since our last visit). It basked in this stunning view over the beach and commercial centre (not forgetting the awesome Los Gigantes in the background), however, the food didn't quite match the quality of the vista (being a bit cold and not exactly on the generous side), but it was *really* only a pub I suppose, it wasn't pretending to be a posh resturant... ;) -

On the way back up to the apartamentos we decided to stop off at the big supermarcardo to get some supplies, we had been tipped off (usefully) by the rep during the induction meeting that the two closest to the hotel were rather costly, comparitively, but the one all the locals used was only about 5 minutes further on down the road (we had actually spotted it on the way to dinner on Friday evening)...walking through the automatic doors into the cool (and slightly malodorous) interior was a real eye opener (and nose pincher)...When Flyingpops went to pick up one of the baskets we noticed the handles were different colours and totally different lengths, she looked up at me and with a bit of a frown said "Am I missing something here?", I seem to recall muttering something about it being jolly peculiar (a picture in my head of holding the basket normally and it being tipped at 45 degrees) then taking hold of it to try and understand when I saw someone zip passed us pulling the basket along on the floor with the longer handle...spinning it over revealed several tiny metal casters set into the bottom, so they were mini trolley/baskets! Astonishingly simple, I really have no idea why we don't we have them in England!

Walking around the store revealed a number of quite unfamiliar sights and smells, the meat section for example (I toyed with the idea of sneaking one back in my hand luggage, but I think the trotter sticking out the top of my rucksack might have given it away to customs) -

- and the fish(!), that monk fish was so large it would have comfortably covered my torso, and could have swallowed my arm (if it had been a) not dead, b) hungry and c) fancying a wild dietary change) -

- and heaps of octopus and squid(!) which members of staff were spraying incautiously with a hose to keep moist (they hit me also - to much blushing and gushing of apologetic sounding Spanish) -

Beer was super cheap too, between 60-80 cents per can, so we stocked up with a mixture of local and imported varieties and a few bottles of wine, plus some Sangrea (which came home with us in the suitcase, undrunk)...plus some sliced spicy chorizo, cheese, bread, cakes and sweets...and then the rest of the day was spent by/in the pool (which was to set the pattern for much of the rest of our time away) -

- the afternoon was only punctuated by an extremely vigorous game of water polo which Flyingpops, her dad and a stranger (young lass) lost to three large Finnish males, which wasn't really an even match (but was more than compensated for when Tom falsely extorted a winners certificate and bottle of champagne from a different member of staff 2 days later! Hehehe... ;)

In the evening we decided to get a cab to the yacht marina (down in Los Gigantes) which cost about 4 Euros, we got totally lost trying to follow the ludicrously detail-light resort map the rep had given us, but thankfully the dead end down which we found ourselves was also home to the police station, and some helpful officers not only pointed us in the right direction but actually recommended their favorite resturant, so a rather fortunate navigational stumble... ;) I had grilled lamb chops (which were exquisite) not sure about the single onion ring though, bit stingy... ;)

When we got back to the apartments we had a quick drink in the bar (watching the tail end of the evening's entertainment) and then retired to Flyingpop's folks room for a nightcap (some absolutely apalling (purportedly 10 year old) Whiskey Flyingpops' dad had grabbed excitedly in the supermarket when he saw the 6 Euro price tag)...and then to bed...

Just Media...

...Ooo, check it out, some of my shots of London have been used professionally...(in the vertical bars on the left of the various pages (apart from the "home" page)...guess I have the beginnings of a portfolio there then... ;)

Btw, I did get some rather nice bottles of wine in exchange for the cold early morning spent running around Bankside snapping them (before work), so it was definitely worth my bus fare... ;)

Playa de la Arena - Barcelo Veradero - Holiday report - Day 1

So...set the wayback machine to last Friday - we were zipped by my folks to Gatwick's North Terminal (thanks!) for a bit of shopping (got an external battery for the PSP for a tenner, bonus!), a full English breakfast and then the long walk to the gate (the furthest one away, of course)...The flight was really bumpy and slow because of some seriously strong wind going in quite the wrong direction, and for quite a lot of the journey the pilot was pinging the seatbelt sign on and off (much to the annoyance of a mother and child in front of us who didn't seem to want to sit in their seat at all)...

We landed to 21 degrees, bright blue skies and (unfortunately) 35mph wind! Grabbed our luggage (which came out nice and quickly) and swept out into the car park, luckily our coach was the first one in the rank... ;) Unluckily there was a closed road in the direction we needed to travel, so the (should have been) 50 minute transfer actually took over 2 hours...bah... :(

When we eventually got to the resort there was a bit of confusion to deal with, somewhere along the line they had mucked up our booking and only had one room ready for the four of us, but with the appropriate paperwork dug from bottom of bag that was quickly sorted (or so we thought)...We dragged the luggage upstairs, collapsed in exhaustion for a while (doing some gentle unpacking type things and popping down to the resorts mini-supermarket) when Flyingpops' folks came ringing at our door saying that all was *not* well! When they had opened the door to their room they discovered another families stuff all over the place! Thinking themselves rather lucky that the occupants weren't present, they had hurried back down to reception and a red faced clerk had issued *another* room key (this one unnoccupied) only to discover that in this apartment the door wouldn't shut properly and the safe didn't work!

Anyway, once all that nonsense was sorted out we dived out for dinner, I had serloin steak with Roquefort (jolly nice too)...in the Neptune Resturant right on the Playa de la Arena...

Then, as it was St Particks day we had a few suitably coloured drinks in the local Irish bar (listening to a one woman Irish karaoke) down by the beach...returning quite early to bed as exhausted by the days long journey, but full and warm and happy...then for some odd reason I left the aircon on all night and we woke up at about 4am absolutely freezing...whoops!

Back to work...

(if I close my eyes though I can still see the view)...

Got some of the holiday photos up on Flickr on Saturday morning, but it's a hell of a job...proper summary will come when I find some time, but in the meantime check them out over there if you like...

Weekend was pretty good, apart from completely forgetting that the clocks went back - I was still dozing in bed when my dad was downstairs hammering on the door to pick me up, I had agreed to cook my tagine dish for the whole family as a special treat (it had to be, grating onions is torture) for lunch on Mothering Sunday! Anyway, despite that little hiccup it all went pretty well, I did an experimental veggie version (sweet potato, turnip and carrot) as well as the more traditional lamb variety and they both came out pretty well! ;)

Oh and the weather in England sucks...but then you didn't need me to tell you that... ;)

175 emails in my inbox (and counting)...not too bad considering! ;)

Okay, I admit...

...I'm too tired to blog now, more tomorrow if I find some time...already sorted through the pics, 144 ones I'm really happy with out of the 600-odd that I took, the creme-de-la-creme I will Flickr for our mutual amusement... ;)

Been a long day though...so nite nite...

Home!

More later... ;)

Sol, mar, arena y sangrea... ;)

...well, aren´t we being a lazy bunch, not even blogging... ;) These Spanish keyboards take a bit of getting used to...

So far we´ve spent the most time just sat by the pool, sleeping, eating chorizo/paella and drinking cerveza grande/sangrea... ;)

The volcanic sand down at the playa de la arena is just awesome, looks like a thousand particles of glittering gold in every square foot of black sand, and the rocks on the shoreline look like they belong on the moon...quite surreal...the resort is a bit of a pain, but only because it´s so perfect there really isn´t much need to wander too far from base camp...local supermarcardo is wonderful too, took some great shots of fresh monkfish looking scary, and about a hundred legs of dry cured pork...not like Tesco... ;) The pull along shopping baskets are cool too...!

Oh, ended up taking GTA:LCS, and I´m pleased I did, much progression has taken place with a focused mind...(and printed FAQ)... ;)

Anyway, wish you all were here...it´s super hot, super good weather and mañana we are off to Loro Parque to see the Killer Whales performo...biggest water park outside of Florida apparently!!! ;)

A shot of the resort...

...found an internet terminal in the hotel but posting this from the phone as we are eating cooked breakfast in a bar overlooking the volcanic sandy beach, it's very warm but with a wonderful cooling breeze...more later perhaps... ;)

Just boarding...

...watching them load the luggage and fuel the plane while we wait for our seat numbers to be called...this might be your lot till I get back, if so, wish you were here! ;)

At the gate...

...now, great views over the airport...long time to wait though, takeoff isn't until 1045...

At Gatwick...

...had breakfast, done shopping and the flight has just been given a gate number, be in the air soon! ;)

One year old!

Right, seeing as I'm going to be away on holiday on this blog's one year anniversary (21st of March) and this post was written destined to be published on that day, I'm going to post it today as I sense a very real danger that I might not be arsed to blog next week faced by all that sunshine and beer... ;)

So a few days early, in recognition, lets take a look back at the first lines of the posts from the 21st of the month through the last blog-year (as seems to be traditional within the blogosphere)... ;)

21st March 2005 - "Having enjoyed a challenging day at work (bar the excellent lunch of Wild Boar and apple sausages, courtesy of NY Boss, overlooking our local canal), this evening offered some tasty respite by the way of a re-heat of last night's (self prepared and scratch cooked) roast lamb dinner"

21st April 2005 - "Why does the moon look so *small* in photographs?"

21st May 2005 - "Just having a cheeky beer watching the qualifying for the Monaco GP (one of my faves, despite it's normal "follow the leader" processional nature), also getting ready for my 2nd viewing of Episode 3 in 2 days.."

21st June 2005 - "The Canteen was a dead loss today, so "Torquay Slag" suggested a little walk up to Angel to find something wholesome and cheap to eat, we had a stroll round the market first, which was a *lot* more exciting than my last visit (midwinter)..."

21st July 2005 - "Bloody Terrorists...same pattern, NSEW at the same moment, but a dismal failure, as I have already said... ;)"

21st August 2005 - "Breakfast in New York - Well, last night I only managed to make it until about 2200 before my eyes were closing, had a quick bath (which was far too small to be enjoyable), then watched a bit of the "Discovery Channel"'s Shark Week (Myth Busters doing the movie "Jaws" and busting most of it, why am I not shocked...?)"

21st September 2005 - "Okay, so there was a bit of a nip in the air when I left the house this morning...but (just for the record) summer is not over *officially* until I let it... ;) Last night I had a really weird dream..."

21st October 2005 - "What a morning...the flash I saw outside the window as I drank my orange juice, was not, after all, the paparatzi trying to get a sneaky shot of me in my smalls, but the beginning of an extremely heavy downpour, which still hasn't quite abaited...It's hard to motivate yourself out into these conditions for the journey into London... ;P"

22nd November 2005 - "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... :("

21st December 2005 - "Winter Solstice today, so officially the shortest day of the year (daylight-wise) and also officially "midwinter" (which was an excellent game back in the day btw)...but no sign of any snow IRL (yet)..."

21st January 2006 - "Flyingpops Party preperations are well underway...peeling, chopping and cooking up the promised Pizza (it was sold as "An Evening of Pizza and Beer" ;)..."

21st February 2006 - "Harrah! Holiday Booked! Sitting and monitoring the prices seems to have paid off (well done Flyingpops!)...£195 per head, all in, a week in sunny Tenerife at the Playa de la Arena resort, which you may be interested to learn, literally translated means "Beach of the Sand"...how imaginiatve... ;)"

Off to the airport in about half an hour...See ya!

"The Falling Man" C4 9/11

Just been watching the documentary "The Falling Man" on Channel 4...it's filled me back up with many of the feelings from 9/11 (September 11th) or whatever you want to call it...You can't possibly judge an event (speaking, albeit, as a keen photographer) without seeing all the facts...this is the first time I've seen all those terrible close up shots (the people hanging out of the windows, the graphic footage of people free-falling from the 100th+ floor)...the TV didn't show these things, they just showed the tear filled faces and statements of witnesses traumatised by what was obviously happening right in front of their eyes...and the distant terrible long shots we all watched in real time...this compounded by the Fire Service documentary, which featured the sickening sound of bodies hitting glass and metal every time like a big fat sack of meat crashing from heaven...

I'm angry...I was only there, watching on TV with the rest of the world but I obviously still need a little closure...this kind of censorship, this airbrushing away the *facts* just messes with my head...

*sigh*...calm down Fink...

Perfect *swearword* thing to be watching just before we fly out on holiday... >:(

Whatever though, God Bless you and yours NYC...it's just a shock to see all this new footage I guess...

One thing, no doubt at all, you are as hard as nails as London vs. Terrorists...don't forget a single detail...it's important...

Static shocks!

It's really starting to annoy me now...over the last few weeks(?) I've started to notice that I'm getting a lot of static electric shocks...it only happens to me in the office but it has wound me up sufficiently to yesterday keep a tally - I counted 8 - one from the drinks machine, one (very bad one - there was an audible *crack*) from the water fountain, one from my own desk as I sat down and the rest from metal door handles around the place...

So, what has changed? The carpet? Nope. My clothing? Nope (well, obviously it changes from day to day, but I haven't bought many new garments to speak of). My washing tablets? Nope. My shoes? Yes, but I even get them wearing my Vans and my Nikes (which I never did before) so by a process of elemination, shoes are also nope...drinks machine, water fountain and door handles? Nope, nope and nope...

So why is this happening?? I'm not alone either, I've overheard at least one other person in the building moaning about it...can the building itself be charged up? I mean, there's a lot of construction work going on next door...could that be anything to do with it? Can't help but feel I'm starting to clutch at ridiculous straws though...

Most mysteriously of all, and this is quite freaky, is that Tommo and his Mrs independently reported that *they* have spontaneously started aquiring a charge, so much so that their tiny dog "Lottie" has become afraid to approach them because when they reach out to give it a stroke more often that not it receives (instead of a pat) a sharp shock on the nose! Poor little thing cowers and shivers when you reach out to greet it now...!

So what on *earth* is going on? There must be a simple explaination...! There is an article about it on Wikipedia but it wasn't much help, learned one thing though, pollen sticks to a bees legs through static charge...interesting, but it doesn't help much when I'm trying to fill up my water bottle... >:(

Still, off on holiday tomorrow, so one weeks grace... ;)

Are you local?

...you need to have watched "The League of Gentlemen" to giggle... ;)

Blog traffic...

...is up at the moment, just noticed that I've had about *double* the normal amount of traffic on the site so far this month, two posts in particular are being hammered - this one and this one...(no real suprises there then!)... ;)

Interestingly there are three posts that *always* seem to get a load of traffic (and they intrigue me a bit with the regularity with which they appear as exit pages) this one, this one (maybe less suprising) and (most suprising of all) - this one...*shrug*...quite how so many people per month end up looking at that page is quite beyond me...tell you what, if I ever loose a cat I'll know what to do about it though... :)

Two more sleeps to go...

Packing for holiday

Well, I've started to get my act together, although it's impossible to compete with Flyingpops who is *always* packed and ready to go at least a week early...(not joking ;)

It's actually starting to feel tangible now - it's acts like getting pairs of shorts out from the back of the cupboard and picking up sun tan lotion from the supermarket that do it...I think that's why I've got a bit "behind"...(that is comparitively speaking, of course, we aren't actually off until Friday morning after all)...

Among the remaining holiday preperations I'm left with one terrible dilema however - which PSP game do I take on holiday? Because of the low firmware level I'm running I have to copy the code of the UMD onto my memory card and (without going into details) use some "special tricks" to get them to run...but the two games I really want to play at the moment are "Tales of Eternia" and "Grand Theft Auto-Liberty City Stories" but they are so large I can only fit either one, or the other onto my Pro-Duo...*wince*...I think it's going to be TOE that wins, but it's going to be hard to part with GTA for a whole week... :(

I need a bigger card...next month maybe... ;)

Weekend Report - F1 returns

Spotted in Balfe street this morning on a green bin (that hadn't been set on fire)...

Weekend report time (yep, sorry, but not lazy, broadband was down most of the weekend, I'm already not paying for this month thanks to the earlier outage though so I can't really complain)- Friday night we had dinner with my folks (venison, which was jolly nice), Saturday I went and did a bit of shopping in Redhill as I had a few pressies to buy, a 9 volt cell for the bathroom scales (in order to weigh the suitcases) and some superglue to stick the crappy hooks from Homebase up properly so we can have net curtains again (seems to be working, they are still up this morning!), also got the holiday cash converted into European dollars (just got to pack my clothes now)...Saturday night was DJmathu's birthday party over in Dorking, which involved much drinking, karaoke and (pretend) gambling (in that order)...Sunday's highlight was the start of this years F1 season, and what a start! Bahrain is an awesome circuit and the battle between Schumacher and Alonso couldn't have been much closer or more exciting (Flyingpops is supporting Schuey for some reason, so when Alonso took the lead we were both leaping around the living room yelling, she in frustration and I in glee! ;) Button (who I am supporting) did really, really well, he could have been a real contender if he hadn't mucked up the start, but the best drive, without question, was Räikkönen coming from the *back* to take third place...! Shame we're probably going to miss Malaysia next week...might find somewhere in the resort showing it though, you never know! Sunday we went over to take Brenda her birthday pressie, as we'll be on holiday on the actual day, braved the new Sainsbury's in Redhill (which was chaotic, even with the map that the security guard gave us) and after roast (lamb this week) we settled down to enjoy a glass or two of a really good Chablis (part of my "pay" from Flyingpops' employers, as they are using some of my photos on their website and presntation templates, I guess I'm a professional photographer now then ;) and watched the latest remake of "Pride and Prejudice", which was actually rather well done (apart from Matthew Macfadyen's "Mr. Darcy" who just looked a bit grumpy)...

I also made a start on "Moondust" but I really want to save that for beside the pool...not long to wait - as Flyingpops would say - "Only four more sleeps to go!"... ;)

The *real* Simpsons...

Check out this posting by nate...Sky have produced a live action version of the intro to "The Simpsons", it's really clever! ;)

Two views of Whitebushes...

Just had an email from the BBC thanking me for this picture of a muddy path, they've put it up on their action network page (I noticed that our local area's representation was a bit poor, to say the least), what do you think, shall I submit this one too? ;)

(Last week I spotted a load of fire engines in the less posh end of the estate, this was obviously the reason for their attendance...suprised nobody has made an attempt to clear it up...(or am I?))...

Nosegay?

I think someone is having a laugh over at Dictionary.com...what an extraordinary word!

"Fussing about in black smalls, silks, buckles, cocked hat, and always with a prodigious nosegay, Lowther could not conceivably have been a less romantic character.-- Kenneth R. Johnston, The Hidden Wordsworth"

Well, quite...

(wonder if I can find an excuse to use it in conversation?) ;)

ABC's Lost "Maternity Leave"...

-=Stop reading now if you haven't watched it yet!=-

Been meaning to publish this for a while now, lots of good questions raised both on "Generally Speaking" and at "The Fuselage" after the last episode (lots of information to process!)...so here I summarise the new issues and my thoughts...(it's going to be funny to come back and see how wrong/right these are later in the shows lifespan ;)

So, to business -

Q.What is Mr Eko doing with all that "good" wood he is chopping down, and why/how is he catagorising it?

A.Well, the jury is still out on this one, there are two prominent camps dominating the discussion that are arguing voiciferously either a) He is building a church or b) He definitely isn't building a church (but not offering an alternative), apart from that a quiet contingent offers two other attractive options c) he is building a dwelling for himself (no place to rest his head has been shown so far on screen) and d) he is building fortifications or a fort...it's d) that is my favorite option, and as for the "good" and "bad" trees, he is simply marking the ones out that are suitable for the task at hand, nothing more mysterious than that...there are two other possibilities that have occured to me though, e) another raft (but we've done that already so probably not) or f) a bridge (but I have no idea to where or why, can't help the way my brain works ;)

Q.Why on earth have the "others" in the medical hatch got "hillbilly" costumes, fake beards and theatrical glue?

A.There's one of the "grand theories" that fits here, and that is that the whole thing is a psychological experiement being run by DHARMA (yes, it's an acronym - official), this is supported by two specific bits of evidence - Deep and rapid insight and clever use of conversation to drive a large wedge between Lock and Jack by "Henry Gale" (just as a good clinical psychologist would), and the last official podcast clearly stating that "everyone is on the island for a reason, because of something they have done"...smacks of intellegent selection to me...

Q.What was Desmond injecting/was injected into Claire/the baby?

A.Everyone is referring to it as "vaccine", was it the same stuff? It looks a slightly different colour to me..More green...but was it vaccine? I believe that Danielle's lot were deliberately infected in an experiment and there isn't just "a disease" (Danielle is the entire source of this suspicion, and she ain't an MD imho), this is bourne out by Aaron's rapid recovery, and Jack's outburst on the subject...

Q.Is Sun pregnant (after the "A mother shouldn't leave her baby!" outburst)

A.Yes, well, at the very least she thinks she is, as it's in the synopsis for the next episode... ;)

Q.Why aren't Lock and Jack trying to get the guns back?

A.I would love them to at least discuss it (on air), this bit of the show really doesn't work for me...I think there would have been uproar...

Q.Is "Henry Gale" an "Other"/Is his name/story anything to do with "The Wizard of Oz"

A.Yes, it is definitely a nod to "The Wizard of Oz", this was confirmed in the official podcast...is he an "Other"? HELL YES (as discussed above) and *also* I remind you of the look he gave to Sayed after their little jolly in the gun cabinet...ouch!

Best episode of season 2 so far... ;)

Oh, one last thing to consider, and this is as to the validity of the Claire medical hatch flashback, Libby is saying to her (when she is coming out of her trance) to take the images with a pinch of salt, they may be "transferrence" from previous experiences...now, check out this shot from season 1 (Claire's dream *before* she was kidnapped) and this shot of the nursery in the medical facility...a tingle of doubt? Might be that she was mixing up details, or it might be back to the experiment idea, the "Others" put the crib out there in the jungle assuming she would think it an hallucination...? ;)

I love Lost... :)

STD ATM and weekend update...

Better watch what you stick in there...hehe... ;)

Anyway, weekend report time again (must try and get out of this habit...being lazy)! First up, I'm poorly again, just a cold, but it sucks because it feels like I only just got over the tonsilitis, so it's sudafed and olbas oil *again*...Oh, Internet access at home died sometime during the day on Thursday, so apart from a bit of shopping on Saturday AM (new, bright purple suitcase (easy to spot at luggage collection) for impending holiday purchased from market stall in Redhill) I had to spend the rest of the day waiting in for the engineer...it wasn't the cable box responsible (for once), it turned out to be a setting somewhere on their system, so by way of apology (as it had been down a while unnecessarily) they said they would waive the fee for this month, which definitely sweetened my sour mood...in the evening I fell asleep on the sofa waiting for the boxing to start...Sunday we went to homebase for some non-destructive means of attaching the net curtains to the UPVC window frames (stickers, 75p each, which fell off after 90 seconds) and also somehow came away with a flat-packed wardrobe, which was assembled and filled, but not where we wanted it as it was too big (no dimensions on the package, but it was cheap as it was "end of line", so hey... ;)
Played a bit of xbox, put GTA-LCS on my PSP (very nice!), bit annoying to play on the commute though as convenient moments to save are far too distant from one another...no way you could have a "save now" feature though or it would be too tempting to exploit during missions and thus remove much of the challenge...this morning (nearly felt bad enough to stay in bed) had a nice suprise when I got to my desk, Whittleman had saved me a little Formula One 2006 pamphlet that came bundled with "The Guardian" over the weekend...the new season starts on the 12th March at Bahrain (which I missed watching last year)...hurrah! :)

Update - I was actually over the tonsilitis by 2nd Feb, checked back...so it was quite a while ago...

Bear Gardens

I found myself passing this wonderful chalk drawing (you'll have to zoom in to see it) on the corner of "Bear Gardens" in Southwark, however, checking it out on the interweb it looks like it isn't just a cute name for a road...a "Bear Garden", according to the "Shakespeare Quarterly" is defined as "a place originally set aside for the baiting of bears, and used for the exhibition of other rough sports"...

Pepys' Diary entry from 14 August 1666 contributes - "After dinner with my wife and Mercer to the Beare Garden...and saw some good sport of the bull's tossing of the dogs - one into the very boxes. But it is a very rude and nasty pleasure. We had a great many hectors in the box with us (and one, very fine, went into the pit and played his dog for a wager, which was a strange sport for a gentleman)"...

The OED notes that many historic theatres actually started off as "Bear Gardens"...which is interesting, as barely (sorry) 10 paces from "Bear Gardens" is a housing development that is built on top of the site of the real foundations of the original "Globe Theatre"...interesting neh? So we've learned something today... ;)

Ricky Gervais podcast - Season 2

Okay, so Episode 1 arrived, I converted the .aa file to a regular .mp3 (using the process I described here) after having a nightmare actually getting the .aa codec to work (had to uninstall the whole audible.com suite of applications in the end and re-install them from scratch, which was a bit of a pain!)...popped the mp3 onto my PSP and listened on the move...the verdict? Much the same as before actually, some notable changes though are -

• The editing has gone from professional quality to frankly appalling (if he had anything to do with it I'm frankly stunned Pilkington ever managed to get a job!)
• New bits of music in-between takes (which are a load of toilet compared to the "Guardian Unlimited" one)
• The annoying adverts for Channel 4 comedy are gone

Now, and this might just be me, but something else has changed too, and it's subtle, but the whole show now seems to have a much more "scripted" feel, it's not quite so raw and energetic as it was...and I can't quite make up my mind if I'm bothered about it...I actually kind of like the feeling that by paying for it to be made, the three of them are actually putting a bit more effort in to make a funny show...

All in all though...I'm happy... ;)

If it were your van...

...that had "Driven by a TWAT" written in grime on the back, wouldn't you wash it off?

Spotted in Balfe Street this morning...(along with a dumped TV, dumped baby car seat, and a load of dumped plasterboard (which is slowly disintegrating over the pavement))...

Other bit of news de jour (and not everyone will understand this) but GTA-LCS has been bodged by MPH to work on the 1.50 PSP Firmware...Sweet!! Time to go and buy it! ;)