Friday

The day started with a visit from Adam the gardner to discuss the finer points of his quote, after which I headed off to the office (to be "crammed"), Nicky had a lesson to teach, and Jake went to the auction rooms and on to the coast for a nice fish and chip lunch with Nanny and Granddad.

Managed to get away from work a little bit early for some family time this evening, spent chilling out at home. Looking forward to seeing some more family over the weekend.

Costa d'Este

We've decided we wouldn't mind staying here next time we're in Vero.

Who knows, maybe Gloria could pop in and sing us a song whilst we're there?!

Card party

Sounds like tonight's card party went well - I sought refuge in the lodge.

Ferris

Two Kent meetings today, one Ashford, one Folkestone, both with companies I've not been to before. Both went ok - one certainly will be working with (as I am taking over from a colleague) and one will hopefully be working with (as we are proposing for some work with them).

One of the fringe benefits of a Kent-based day was being home from work at a decent time, and so this evening has included a quick game of basketball, and assisting with the letter to the council to get the stupid planning condition removed.

Off to bed now to continue with the latest (Booker shortlisted) Joshua Ferris. Just like the other book of his that I've read in style - takes you on quite an inner journey with the main character.

Change of heart

Beverley Craven has a new album out. Only listened to one track so far, which sounded fairly similar to the stuff on Close to Home, but it's on Spotify, so I'll have a listen to the rest of it and see what I think ...

Mind you, just looking on her website, and I see that her online shop does now include a song listing for her piano songbook, and (importantly for me) it does include my very favourite from her previous album "Everlasting Love". Very tempted!

New toy

Look who's got a new toy:

Zoopla

Here's something interesting - Zoopla still have some of the pictures from the listings when we bought our house. Makes for an entertaining review - some things have stayed the same, and some things have changed a fair bit already!

Also, and who knows how they make these guesstimates, Zoopla reckon that our house has increased in value by 24.61% since we bought it (or a compound annual increase of 12.575% as at today's date).

And, no-one's told Zoopla that someone's built a lodge in the garden!

Gardner

Lovely article on the BBC website today about Martin Gardner, recognising the fact that it is the 100th anniversary of his birth this week. It is a bit of a disgrace that when I look at my own shelves, I think that I only have one book of his - must do something about that soon.

Of particular interest in the BBC article is the cover of Scientific American from January 1977. Reminds me that I have a very long overdue post to do on exactly that topic!

Lynda

Now that iplayer has extended its run to let us listen for 30 days, this interview is well worth a listen.

Lovely lady.

So sad.

Reservations update

Quick reservations update:

• Us - 87 of 448 (note - will cancel before getting to the top as have actually bought this one, but interesting to see how long the list gets and how long it takes to get to the top!)
• Gray Mountain - 71 of 171
• Going off Alarming - 13 of 47
• The narrow road to the deep north - 75 of 206 (got in there before too much of the post Booker rush!)
• Happiness by Design - 17 of 18
• The Happiness Project - 2 of 3
• Fathomless Riches - 20 of 20 (read the review in today's paper and sounds good - Richard Coles is a pretty unique vicar after all!)

Magic Eye

Notes to self:

Setting up the Sky magic eye is actually reasonably straightforward.

• it is available directly from Sky here, although I actually managed to get it for the same price from PC World.
• slightly annoyingly the newest Sky+ HD boxes don't actually have an RF Out port, and so it is necessary to get an IO link adapter to plug in to the IO socket on the new boxes which convert to an RF output. Best place to get these does appear to be directly from Sky - 10 pounds, and available here.
• ignore all of the nonsense in the instructions about having to strip coaxial cables and use the supplied cable caps - that's only if running cables a long way in between rooms - definitely got some more coaxial cables knocking about in boxes of assorted cables.
• if struggling, 'tvtradedave' has some helpful videos, such as this one, on Youtube.
• key thing is to make sure that 'RF Outlet Power Supply' is turned on in the settings on the Sky box. To get to this, need to go into the installer menus on the box - press services, then select system setup, then press 0, 1, select to get there, then go to RF Outlets.
• check the channel number for the RF output (because once the coaxial is plugged via the magic eye connector to the aerial input on the TV, that will be the channel number to tune the TV to).
• however, important point to note - it seems like the Magic Eye can just be used as a way of getting the remote signal in to the Sky box, irrespective of whether the picture is coming in to the TV from the AV input (scart in the current setup) or coaxial aerial via Magic Eye. Very useful to know should the TV get changed to an HD one - can keep the Magic Eye setup (and the possibility of hiding the Sky box and all of the wires out of sight) without losing HD quality.

Hyde Park and Greenwich

Photos from our trip to Hyde Park today to support our runners in the Royal Parks half marathon (no pictures of the donkey included here to spare his blushes), as well as some of our stop off on the way back for a stroll around Greenwich.

Suit and shed

Two pieces of news from today:

- the shed base has been dug out and cemented (see pictures below - although only took in progress photos, will have to capture a completed picture tomorrow).

- been to the outlet in Ashford and Jake is now the proud owner of a new suit, along with smart shirts and ties, ready for his work experience week coming up soon.

Election

Here's a thought with which to end the week, and I've not seen or heard any news programmes today other than catching the headlines, which is probably a good thing, as I imagine they have all been pretty depressing.

But, what kind of state of affairs do we find ourselves in when we end up electing a UKIP member of parliament? And, does this say more about terrible choices being made by the voters, or should we pointing the finger at the main political parties?

And whilst we are on the subject, another quick question: don't you just know that both Labour and the Conservatives will be rushing to explain to the electorate how they will be reassessing their stance on immigration and other key policies in light of the important message that the people of Clacton have delivered on behalf of the people of Britain (or other similar political mumbo jumbo that idiot politicians like to come up with at times like this). Well my question is this - whilst it may be fine for policies to gradually evolve over time, surely a political party should stand for a set of values (which therefore determine their key policies). If so, then losing a vote doesn't mean that the first thing that every party does is to decide how to amend / re-style their policies to make them more like the people who won, otherwise doesn't this rather undermine the whole system? Or am I missing the point?

Knightsbridge

Quick meeting in Knightsbridge at the end of the afternoon, so popped in to Harrods. Picked up some drinking chocolate and a bar of white chocolate for Jake - helps to keep spirits up when not feeling the ticket.

Top ten

Kate asked an interesting question on Facebook this evening - name ten books that have really influenced you. Admittedly it turned a little bit into listing ten favourite books or series of books, but here is what I contributed:

1. All Adrian Mole books. Spent most of my life being excited by the release of a new one in the Mole series, and am desperately sad to think that there won't be any more. 

2. All Inspector Morse books. Have gradually been re-reading them in order recently, although the truth is that whilst I have a 1st edition of "The Remorseful Day" I've never been able to bring myself to read it and will have to face up to it soon! 

3. Danny The Champion of the World - you can keep your chocolate factories, this is my favourite Roald Dahl by a mile. 

4. Casino Royale - always loved Fleming, and was reflecting the other day when I caught a snippet of an old Bond movie, that whilst some of the films have aged terribly, the books are just timeless. 

5. An Innocent Man by John Grisham - Grisham writes great legal thrillers, but the point with this one is that it is a true story, written in the typical Grisham style, about a truly awful miscarriage of justice. 

6. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. What can I say - Douglas Adams was a strange creative genius! 

7. The Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams - wouldn't be a fair reflection of my reading if there wasn't some mention of epic fantasy in the list - and I remember getting well and truly lost in this one. 

8. Quiet by Susan Cain - recent-ish book that was fantastic comfort to the introverts amongst us. 

9. The Railway Man by Eric Lomax - remarkable tale of forgiveness despite the brutality of WWII. 

10. And finally, One Day by David Nicholls. May be a cliche, but I thought it was fantastic. Really looking forward to reading his new book "Us". Read One Day when I was staying away from home, and remember having to phone home to talk to someone in the middle of the night when I'd just finished the book and was feeling a little emotional !!

Play

Home from work this evening, catching up on some work in the study, and Jake popped his head around the door to ask if he could play me something on the piano - a question to which there is only ever one answer, and so we wandered downstairs together. He opened one of my songbooks at 'Separate Lives' and proceeded to play it beautifully to me, having only looked at it for the first time today.

Proud Dad.

Productive

After yesterday's rain, a productive day outside today. We now have a grey garage door, garden clearance is coming along well, and all finished off with a big old bonfire.

Choc tour

Chocolate tour completed, and by all accounts, a good time was had. A selection has been brought home for us to try from each establishment visited, and we are under instruction to savour them. Apparently, they were rather expensive!

(PS - Mum, good to see I manage to be occasionally thought-provoking. As you say, we should definitely discuss!)

Book update

For fear of this becoming a book-based blog, a few updates:

• Just finished 'A Year in Provence', which I thoroughly enjoyed, and only about a quarter of a century after everyone else read it! (Thanks to it being one of the Times+ special offer books on the list of Sunday Times bestsellers over the years). Next time we visit the Cote d'Azur, maybe we should make some time to venture inland a little way.
• Exited to hear that there will be another new Bond book next year, and that this time it will be by Anthony Horowitz - more info in the Guardian article here. I enjoyed his efforts at bringing us a new Sherlock story, so fingers crossed for another good effort.
• Just started the new Ian McEwan (read Chesil Beach a couple of weeks ago) which I picked up from the library this week. A quote to share from one of the first few pages of the book. Talking about 'welfare' in the context of a judgement she is writing, the central character who is a judge in a family court, is referring to what makes for a good life: "Economic and moral freedom, virtue, compassion and altruism, satisfying work through engagement with demanding tasks, a flourishing network of personal relationships, earning the esteem of others, pursuing larger meanings to one's existence, and having at the centre of one's life one or a small number of significant relations defined above all by love." Isn't that just a fantastic summation of what it's all about. (Also reminds me of some of the themes in Tim Jackson's book which I found particularly interesting, and which I will eventually get around to writing about.)

Cats

Cats

To vets

Routine

All fine

But a bit chubby

Especially Jessie

Diet time

Publication

One of the good things about this time of year (to compensate us for colder weather and darker evenings) is that the publishers start getting busy with book releases as we move into the pre Christmas book season, and provided you steer clear of the usual 'celebrity' drivel (mostly people from shows with Essex, Geordie or Chelsea in the title) there are some great books appearing on the shelves, with lots more still to come.

Key questions of the moment are: (i) can I be patient and wait for my turn for the books that I have on order from the library, especially now that I have read the review of "Us" in the Sunday Times from the weekend which makes it sound fantastic, and I am 150+ on the waiting list?, and (ii) with this in mind, can I resist cashing in the five pounds off when you spend fifteen or more on books voucher at WHS when they are doing two hardbacks for 22?