48,500 Handles

How much?


Before you ask, it wasn't me :)

Symphony Numero Onion

For some reason, I couldn't help but think of Antonia and her fighorn:

the vegetable orchestra

Bring on the leek violin, cucumberphone and pepper trumpet (and stop sniggering at the back...)

Housework

So today was the start of Christmas.

We bought a tree, got the lights and everything down from the loft, realised that all the decorations were broken or cracked, went to get more at Homebase (which had a broad and tasteful selection, much to my surprise), spent rather too long with a spirit level and a bucket of sand getting the damn thing upright, stuck the lights on, watched as Freyja was singularly unimpressed with our efforts, went to a chilly carol concert at the Horniman Museum (thanks for the brandy coffee, Graham...), came back and had tea with mince pies and Christmas music while we put the decorations on and Freyja carefully took them all off and put them back in the boxes again.

It was great :)

And what made it all the more exciting was that we have our house back. When we bought it, the downstairs looked like this:


Then, after a rather sudden decision to knock the ground floor rooms through, ten days ago it looked like this:


And now, I am enjoying a rather good glass of port, in this:



Two weeks and counting (and we're going to need more port...)

Table Not Found

I wonder how long they waited for their food to turn up?

Look a little closer...Oh come on, it's not that geeky...

What's That, Artoo?

Very silly.

R2D2 Translator

For example, this is "I Fought The Law", R2-stylee:

Very Burial

I have been boring everyone silly with how good the Burial albums are; I think I still prefer the eponymously-titled first one, despite the reviewers raving over 'Untrue', (which is still awesome).

Anyway, there is a fantastically-moody and yet still dancefloor-friendly remix by Boy 8-bit which I hope will whet the appetite for more of the same:


via Nialler9 and Mad Decent and do contact me via the comments if I should take this down or something...

Pardon?

I am officially old.

Yesterday I went for a 'business lunch' with a colleague and, once seated at our table, felt the need to ask the staff to turn the music down. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Time was when a mere high-street hostelry could not have dreamed of matching my decibel capacity but here I am, the wrong side of 35 and heading towards the Ovaltine and comfy slippers. It's a sad, sad day indeed.

Those of you who saw Probemeister rocking the (sadly-missed) Arts Centre in York with an aural onslaught of thundering beats and analogue synths will remember remarking, "There goes a chap who'll never be defeated by a slightly intrusive blast of KT Tunstall of a lunchtime and no mistake" but I fear I have let you all down. I can only beg for forgiveness (quietly).

Waitress: "Can I get you gentlemen something to drink?"
Me: "Look, I can't hear a single word you're saying; can you possibly turn this dreadful racket down a bit?"
Waitress: "A Malibu & dry ginger, a pint of snakebite and a pair of Campari shooters?"
Me: "Yes, but can we have one with mash?"
Waitress: "No, it's the last door on the left, can't miss it."

Flickr! Editr!

Look, you can now edit images directly on Flickr (apparently using Picnik on top of the Flickr API):

Edit your photos! On Flickr!

This may be the kickr* that means I finally move my Gallery off Doug's poor overloaded server...

* ahem :)

Doug. A Life In Pictures.

xkcd #353

Overheard #31

Via our Yorkshire branch, to whom a great many thanks are due for this beauty:

"Becky, how many days in May?"
"May next year?"