Have just finished reading The Devil's Picnic by Taras Grescoe.

I found this book on a forgotten shelf in a Waterstones sale ... and it is absolutely stunningThe basic premise is that the author has spent a year going around the world trying and investigating 'forbidden' things - including moonshine in Norway, cheese made from unpasturised milk, ( Read more... )

I really love hot weather!

Am currently sitting out in the garden. It's 9pm, and the sky is still pale blue. I have my laptop, a shisha, a lovely boyfriend, and some interesting electro coming out from the patio doors.

Life is good.

I PASSED MY DRIVING TEST!

So utterly relieved - it's taken me bloody ages, and a good deal of stress and anxiety. Now I can start living my life again!

And, I have the weekend off work, and gothack is visiting - and I can actually relax and enjoy myself now - it's going to be awesome.

*bounce*
*bounce*

As some of you will know, my sister, faery_jen is currently in Korea, teaching kids for a year. For my birthday (yes, I know it was a few months ago, but due to a variety of delays, I've only just got it) she sent me a bag full of bits and pieces she's picked up. It's a brilliant collection, and I had great fun opening it, so I thought I'd share it all ( Read more... )

One of the blogs I follow, Resource Based Living, posted this article: So you want a real democracy do youIt's not really about democracy, and more about the role of technology in society. The author argues that there are many decisions that are too important to trust a fallible human being to make, and are best made by a rational, logical machine ( Read more... )

I'm listening to Helium Vola and wondering why the heck I haven't done this before. I've heard bits at parties, and every time said I must listen to some - and promptly forgotten by the end of the party ( Read more... )

Just watched the documentary "Home". It's comprised completely of amazing hi-definition aerial film, and looks at the past, present and future of our planet.

It's stunning, and is released under a creative commons license, which basically means you can see it for free. Download here, or watch via YouTube here

What I've been readingOver the last few years I've been reading and watching an increasing amount about politics and global economics. In the last few weeks we've been watching a lot of documentaries, too. A bit of a turning point for me has been watching Zeitgeist Addendum, because it showed the first post-capitalist model I've seen that ( Read more... )

What I've been doingStewart and I had a week off work recently, and we've generally tried to be fairly busy. The first weekend we spent in to ourselves, which was fairly useful for re-bonding and setting some priorities for our time off. We got the bikes serviced (so now mine actually drops into gears properly, hurrah!), spent some time cleaning ( Read more... )

Tomorrow (Saturday) I will be in Parliament Square in London for the Take Back Parliament protest for electoral reform.

If you believe that our system of election is unfair, disproportionate and otherwise wrong, you should be there too.