It occurs to me that I haven't been to the opera for Quite Some Time. As I'm now a little less snowed under (and a little more likely to be in London), this should be fixed.

Any London folk potentially interested in joining me?

An admission:

I really like the DLR, especially when compared to the London underground.

And I take a special childish joy in (sometimes) being able to sit at the very front of the train, enjoying the view.

It's a bit like being on the world's mildest rollercoaster. :)

Looks as if it's going to be a busy week.

Tonight I'm off to Oxford for Intrusion, which is mostly davefish's fault. Although 'fault' might not be quite the right word.

Clubbing on a week night is allegedly a bad, bad habit - but Tuesday nights have always been goth nights hereabouts. Whether it's been Heresy, Intrusion or The Calling, it's generally been a ( Read more... )

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A very leisurely Sunday, mostly due to a full Sunday roast.

My current approach to roast chicken is a very simple one - grab something interesting from the herb patch, stuff it inside the chicken and see how it turns out.

For today's attempt, that meant a bit of 'green ginger' rosemary, lots of oregano and a bit of sorrel. Plus a couple of cloves of ( Read more... )

Spoilers! And a couple of random thoughts about continuity...

( Read more... )

This year's gardening has officially started, despite the snow.

Aubergines (Szechuan), tomatoes (Black Krim) and Queensland Arrowroot now in the heated propagator. With luck, some of them will actually grow, too (the tomatoes and aubergines were the last in the packet and getting to the 'plant now or never' point)...

Many other things to follow, but ( Read more... )

I'm flying out to France early tomorrow morning for this year's snowboarding trip. Just three of us this time and we've gone for the 'cheap and cheerful' option.

I've packed pretty much everything. One glove's somehow gone astray and the toothbrush etc won't go into the suitcase until later... but, essentially, I'm done.

This seems wrong somehow. ( Read more... )

This is the time of year when I get a bit worried about my plants, especially the new ones.

Pots get moved into the house and I start wondering about watering and light levels. Plants in the garden shed their leaves or simply wither away.

There will be some casualties. There always are - the welsh onions have rotted away in a waterlogged bed. Some of ( Read more... )

...but despite the vile weather, I have an urge to make sorbet. This is probably because I've had a horrible throat bug since Whitby and I've almost exhausted my current supply.

To be fair, that's not as significant as it sounds: the only thing left in the freezer was a bit of mint sorbet that needed eating soon anyway. Not my finest attempt - too ( Read more... )