Home office refit underway. Trying to decide whether to use the ceiling hexagon tiles for wargames or Traveller subsector maps.

Worst Duke of Wellington statue ever.

I think KMart has formed an opinion on the prospects of Manchester City's appeal succeeding.

We now possess the Dishwasher of Omega (sadly, Rassilon model not available). Soon, we will be Master of Time and Space (Saving)!

Done my planning for this year's Porirua Choctoberfest. Got 3 weekends for the desserts. Mapping the outlets and grouping by ones that don't do takeaways vs those that do, looks like I can cover them all in 4 trips across the 6 days, comprising 1 (one with 2) eat-in and 3-4 takeaways for later […]

#JukeboxFridayNight #AWiderWorld Discovered this on the Rough Guide to the Music of China CD and had been something of an anthem of rebellion around the Tiananmen Square protests. 崔健 - 一無所有 / Cui Jian - Nothing to My Name https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7uk0-vlpP0

#JukeboxFridayNight #AWiderWorld There's a bar/restaurant in Helsinki called Zetor, named after the Czech tractors. One of my favourite places when working there, they played a lot of Finnish music which, of course, I understood none of (bar the Finnish Country & Western covers) but I still […]

And thus do we mark the passing of the seasons.

From a few days ago - when we got home, @smitty spotted a thrush enthusiastically whacking a snail against the pavement.

Anyone have any recommendations (positive or negative) for 45cm wide (i.e., slimline) dishwashers?

From Twitter: Dublin Airport - "Good news for Man City fans in Ireland: we offer direct flights to Luton, Birmingham, Bristol, Bradford and Cardiff"

Because I just don't have enough pain and despair in my life...

#JukeboxFridayNight #Dirty Bruce Springsteen - This Hard Land Hey there, mister Can you tell me what happened to the seeds I've sown? Can you gimme a reason, sir As to why they've never grown? They've just blown around from town to town 'Til they're back out on to these fields Yeah, where they […]

#JukeboxFridayNight #Dirty Bruce Springsteen - Devils and Dust I got my finger on the trigger But I don't know who to trust When I look into your eyes There's just devils and dust We're a long, long way from home, Bobbie Home's a long, long way from us I feel a dirty wind blowing Devils and […]

#JukeboxFridayNight #Dirty Gaz Brookfield - Sand and Sea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI8ITOKELTk

#JukeboxFridayNight #Dirty Belinda Carlisle - Circle In The Sand Circle in the sand, round and round Never ending love is what we've found And you complete the heart of me Our love is all we need Circle in the sand (circle in the sand) Circle in the sand (circle in the sand) […]

#JukeboxFridayNight #Dirty Belinda Carlisle - Heaven Is A Place On Earth Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth? Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth They say in Heaven, love comes first We'll make Heaven a place on Earth Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2F4INQFjEI

#JukeboxFridayNight #Dirty Bonnie Tyler - Loving You's a Dirty Job (But Somebody's Gotta Do It) I can't explain it away, it doesn't make any sense To know what it's like, I guess you gotta go through it I guess you gotta go through it, I guess you gotta go through it It doesn't matter, baby […]

#JukeboxFridayNight #Dirty Saw these guys just the once, supporting Bryan Adams at Wembley Stadium, I think... Thunder – Dirty Love I don't need your dirty love I don't want you touching me I don't want your dirty love It's enough, trying to live with the memory […]

Got to the stage of Half-Life: Alyx where you now have access to grenades and they are surprisingly plentiful, unlike other ammo but you have very limited inventory space (2 slots+2 hands, to be shared with healing kits and weapons). Have now discovered I can carry the grenades and other stuff […]

OK, looking for suitably geeky name suggestions for a dedicated VR headset wireless network - something more imaginative than Matrix or Holodeck or Oasis.

Been a bit of a low key Birthday this year, failed to organize anything major due to work business but, found the obligatory Birthday geocache and finally set up that PrismVR Puppis S1 VR router so Half-Life: Alyx is looking very good indeed. Now at Kai Tahi for dinner from the new branch of […]

#JukeboxFridayNight #PersonalPlaylist Wouldn't exactly say it's a favourite but I suspect I spent enough time listening to this while in the phone queue it warrants an entry! Warning - still not great despite (because of?) being autotuned to within an inch of its life! Immigration New Zealand […]

#JukeboxFridayNight #PersonalPlaylist Frank Turner - Get Better So try and get better and don't ever accept less. Take a plain black marker and write this on your chest: Draw a line underneath all of this unhappiness, Come on now let's fix this mess. We can get better, because we're not dead […]

#JukeboxFridayNight #PersonalPlaylist For a guy who's 14 years younger than me, Frank Turner doesn't half write a lot of songs that seem to speak to my stage in life! Frank Turner - Polaroid Picture But in the stillness of the moment it takes for a polaroid picture To capture our faces […]

#JukeboxFridayNight #PersonalPlaylist I have often described Babylon 5 as my One True Love, fandom-wise and this particular early music video is one I always closely associate with those heady days of early online 90s fandom. Have to admit, I'd be hard pushed to name another song by this band! […]

#JukeboxFridayNight #PersonalPlaylist Back to that question of 'What song would you like when you walk onto a stage?' - this would have to be another candidate, just for the opening guitar rifss! Iron Maiden -- Phantom of the Opera https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5jaRipA5_M

#JukeboxFridayNight #PersonalPlaylist China Beach was the first TV series to really bring home to me the passage of time and the inevitability of change, especially its fourth and final season where episodes cut back and forth between the characters' time in Vietnam and back in the US in the […]

#JukeboxFridayNight #PersonalPlaylist This is one that gets me through stressful, high workload times. Rush - Marathon From first to last The peak is never passed Something always fires the light That gets in your eyes One moment's high And glory rolls on by Like a streak of lightning That […]

#JukeboxFridayNight #PersonalPlaylist The London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony was probably the last I felt really optimistic about the future of the UK as it depicted a country proud of its past and achievements but also realistic about them and its place in the world and that was also the […]