All change...

I could often be accused of taking things too literally.

By pure chance I happened to catch James Martin's closing comments on Saturday Kitchen yesterday and his reminder that the clocks were moving forward at 1 o'clock this morning. Nothing else on the news or on any websites I'd stumbled across yesterday. So this morning, once I'd done the rounds correcting everything in the house with a clock, I remembered to change the clock on the blog.

While I was at it, I thought that maybe it was time for a real change and decided to go for a new clock entirely. In fact while I was at it, I realised that the blog design hadn't changed since November 2006 so perhaps it was time for a spring clean and complete overhaul.

There's nothing too drastic gone on; just removal of a few obsolete/seldom used links and a new colour scheme. I've also added a new section for local My Spaces and although mine is on there,it's only for my continued amusement that apparently I have no friends!

Whilst on the subject of friends, I've added the MySpace for the band Second Nature, the lead singer of which just happens to be an old college mate of mine. In fact as of today he's an even older mate of mine as it's his birthday so if you're looking in Rich, 'ave a good 'un...

A slice or two...

This evening I've just enjoyed an excellent pizza for tea. So what made this particular pizza so special?

Was it slowly and lovingly crafted by a traditional Italian chef? Not as far as I'm aware; I think they are Turkish and it turned up only 25 minutes after my phone call.

Were the finest ingredients sourced from the far corners of the planet? Again I'm very doubtful as the takeaway itself is only in the next village.

No, today is the first time I've eaten pizza since I gave them up for lent a few weeks ago. Oddly enough, after 40 days without one of my favourite culinary indulgences, I just didn't fancy one last weekend, but tonight it hit just the spot.

After an abundance of fine ale last night and seafood pizza with garlic bread tonight, I think Sunday lunch had better be a light one tomorrow. To date I've managed to shed 24 pounds and it would be a shame to put it all back on again in one weekend...

Happy Monday...

I would hardly say that I was ecstatic when my alarm went off at 06:20 this morning but it turned out to be a good day today.

The threat of continued snow proved little more than a light dusting on the windscreen; the roads were practically clear (of ice and traffic) on the way to the office; nothing else launched itself at my car en route; there were only a handful of people who had gone in today so the office was quiet; the phone didn't ring once and I doubt if I received more than 6 new emails all day.

I left the office right on time having achieved much more than I can most "normal" days where I work several hours longer into the evening; was home in front of the TV having eaten a cooked tea by 6 o'clock and to round it all off kicked some animated ass at Wii tennis this evening.

I accept that it would be boring if every day was exactly the same but I'm sure I could get used to a few more of these...

A Happy Easter...

I thought a more cheery post was a bit overdue and this weekend has obliged just nicely.

Admitted, Friday night was a bit (!) excessive but it was great to catch up with Andy, Sharon and Kirsty who were all in town and I have vague recollections of enjoying some live music along the way. As a result, Saturday was considerably quieter but I still managed to get just about everything prepped in advance for Mum and Dad coming around for dinner today, albeit at the expense of a second night out.

The trip out in several inches of snow to collect them this morning was a bit unconventional perhaps but after a brief detour to get rid of their old TV at the tip (to be honest I was surprised to find them open) we settled down for a nice relaxing day.

We had a Skype video call with Little Sis & family and looked on in envy at the huge array of chocolate, after which Mum and Dad were both honing their Wii skills at baseball, tennis or bowling while I was getting the dinner started (isn't something the wrong way round here?). After having eaten far too much (no surprise there then) we all slumped in front of the TV to watch Ratatouille.

The dishwasher has justified it's existence yet again this evening but now I just need to find a similar appliance to take care of the ironing as it's back to work for some of us in the morning...

Right end of the day...

I've half a mind to get an early night and just write the rest of the day off!

My plans to cram in the last minute Easter shopping tonight went a bit belly-up when I found out that the supermarket was full. Full of people that is; I couldn't get my hands on hardly anything I'd gone in for.

The journey home was too late and too cold, for reasons that will become apparent in a moment or two.

The day in the office was full of the usual "challenges", which meant I was hardly in the mood for this letter that arrived in the post, addressed for my attention. I've removed the name and address to protect the innocent (i.e. me), but left the contact details for the bunch of morons that decided this was some kind of effective marketing device in case everyone who reads this happens to be curious.

The event that really set my day off? On the way in this morning, I took a brief opportunity to overtake the car dawdling along in front of me and just as I pulled back to the left hand side of the road, some twittering little critter shot out of the hedgerow into my nearside wing mirror. It hit with such a bang, that I had to look back and make sure I hadn't hit something considerably bigger but aside from bits of wing mirror descending through the rain into the grass verge, there were clearly no significant casualties.

I braved the elements to try and disconnect the remaining entrails of the mirror but it was the choice of either doing a lot more damage, leaving it to bounce freely off the wing of my car, or thread as much as I could through the part open door window. Plan C it was then.

But for all of my moaning right now, I can't help but feel grateful that whatever it was that broke the mirror, didn't land a little further over taking the windscreen and probably me with it...

A fitting send off...

The rule about not drinking on a school night is there for a very good reason, but every now and then you have to test the boundaries.

I've always said that no matter how many funerals you go to, they never seem to get any easier and yesterday was no exception as we said our goodbyes to Woja. It was another non-religious yet tasteful ceremony, a couple of songs (including one of his) and the opportunity for us all to reflect on how he had touched our lives.

Predictably, it was back to the Tap for us all to raise a glass to our departed friend which was made all the more easy by the fact that there were a good range of ales on, all beers were two pound a pint and shorts were a pound. Needless to say that with a stomach full of buffet, we chose to raise rather too many glasses and once we'd got fed up of beer, progressed on to all sorts of silly concoctions.

All in all, it was a great day with the chance to catch up with lots of faces from the past, exchange some of our favourite memories and if you'll forgive the cliche, I'm sure it's exactly what our Woja would have wanted...

A few words for a friend...

There was no way on earth I could have imagined that when writing my last post that within a week it would seem so inappropriate and flippant.

I received a call yesterday telling me that our good friend Woja had passed away that morning. It was only a couple of weeks ago we'd learnt of the tumour behind his eye, but by all accounts, everyone was of the impression that he was responding well to his treatment and well on the way to recovery. It seems such a shame to me that the world has lost another nice guy.

He will probably be most remembered for his contributions to the Acoustic Culture nights in the Tap; in fact he was the guy responsible for the one and only time I've "taken to the stage" in there.

To those of us who knew him a little better, he was also an incredibly intelligent guy with a great sense of humour. For a flavour of what made him tick, follow the Provincial Letters link on the left and take a read through some of his blog. It's been a while since his last post on there but it came as no surprise to me when he diverted his attentions to his MySpace where he could more easily showcase his music.

There's only one song that will always remind us of our friend so I'll just say "Thanks Woja" and sign off with this...

Ring of Bright Water...

It is my sad duty to report the untimely demise of my Breville Lightning kettle yesterday. Aside from being a pretty tasty looking appliance, I'm mostly saddened to see it's passing as it was a 40th birthday present from little Sis & family, but it has served me well during it's short life of little over two years. I'm not ashamed to admit I'll miss the bright blue glow from across the kitchen early in the morning but I can't keep living in the past; it's time to move on.

I wandered into Tesco this evening in search of a replacement and being armed with a tenner's worth of clubcard vouchers, needless to say it resulted in me buying something a bit different. Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you about the Tefal Quick Cup

As you probably gathered from the picture, not so much a kettle it's a filtered water dispenser but it can also turn out a mug of steaming hot water in three seconds!!! Better still, because it only heats the water it's actually dispensing it's up to 65% more energy efficient than a traditional kettle.

So what's the post title all about? Well I don't recall ever seeing the film, but we read the book at school and if my memory serves me well, it was about a water 'otter...

Musical Interlude...

I guess these guys aren't "famous" in the traditional sense but here's three good reasons why I feel like selling my guitars...