Just for Blogs sake...

Silent is an anagram of listen.

We have become a little obsessed with certain subjects at the moment. Being on a diet and feeling hungry much of the day has tended to make us food nazis. We can estimate the points in a packet of crisps at 15ft (it is always too much). We watch the Good Food channel on Sky, read recipe books and drool, and discuss the various merits of low fat ingredients with anyone who will listen. Actually we a not quite that bad, but it feels like it some times. The benefit, apart from the obvious weight loss, is that we are both in the kitchen at mealtimes (I'm not sure if Sue thinks of that as a benefit). Jamie is not very happy with some of the meals, and to be fair even Sue says some of the recipes require more work to bring them up to her usual standard (why is the really tasty stuff just so bad for you?). The big success has been the Cajun jumbalia - which was top-notch tucker.

The allotment is also a big part of our lives at the moment. Spring has sprung and we are busy preparing the ground and planting. We are still enamoured with the novelty of growing our own food. I don't otherwise do much exercise, I never have, but I do get a feeling of satisfaction from a day of manual labour out in the fresh air. We have now planted the last of the many hundred onion sets and the remaining garlic bulbs (I may have overestimated our needs just a tiny bit).

Our back garden has been neglected so far this year. Apart from a little trim nothing much has been done. We picked a few of the daffodils that are in bloom and brought them indoors (I love these flowers both for their colour and form).

Saturday we had our close friends Chris and Carole come around with their three girls. It can be a shock to the system when young children are around, we forget, with Jamie being older. Don't get me wrong their energy and enthusiasm is delightful. Chris gave me a few pointers on HTML (a recommended site is http://www.htmlgoodies.com/). I have started to read 'HTML4 for dummies’. ‘For dummies' have their own site at http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/.

We spent the afternoon on Sunday reminiscing with Marc, which at times was quite moving. H was not feeling 100% and needed to concentrate on her studies so she didn't come along. That evening I decided I would try out this blog thing and set up this page. I also set up some free web site hosting so that in future I can do my own thing there too.

We went to IKEA on Monday after work, to pick up some storage solutions (we have accumulated way too much stuff for our little house). For those of you who don't know Ikea is a chain of large furniture & home furnishing supermarkets from Sweden. They specialise in lower cost build-your-own flat-pack furniture. The store near us is huge and very popular (especially during the weekend) and is built on the site of an old power station (it still retains the two tall chimneys as local landmarks). We haven't been for a while as it is often heaving with folks so we were a little surprised at the changes they have made (not least of which is the café has been increased to become a 600 seat restaurant! - you gotta like those Swedish meatballs though).

I had the guys over for our regular Tuesday night StarWars RPG saga. They are progressing well and I am just about able to keep up with them (the adventure is not so much planned as improvised on the fly).

On the subject of role playing games - who remembers Paranoia? Well I've had the following transmission from the Computer: PARANOIA XP ANNOUNCED Cult Role-playing Game to Be Revitalised for the Digital Millennium.

The Computer says that failure to feature this announcement prominently is treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution. Thank you for your co-operation.

Mongoose Publishing of Swindon, Wilts, UK (www.mongoosepublishing.com) announced agreement with the creators of the fondly remembered tabletop role-playing game Paranoia, to develop and publish a new edition of the game, Paranoia XP. The new version will be written and produced by legendary game designers Allen Varney and Aaron Allston, with participation by Paranoia's original co-designer Greg Costikyan.

The developers will conduct their discussions about the game on a blog hosted at www.costik.com/paranoia and those interested in the game are invited to comment and participate in the process. Upgrade to Paranoia XP

It's mandatory!

Remember...

The Computer does not lie.
The Computer is Your Friend.

I am going to stop here for the moment, more hopefully to follow…