All I want for Christmas is Yule

I got hair straighteners. And terracotta pots with herb seeds and flower bulbs to grow. And a day at a Thai restaurant learning how to be a Thai chef! It’s nice to get gifts isn’t it? If you were gift-lacking today then I promise you can borrow my straighteners, sample some of my herbs or [...]

Partridge in a big pear tree

Someone showed me this last night – Not everyone likes barbershop-style singing but this is note perfect, is funny and has a Christmas theme. Enjoy! p.s. If anyone can tell me the original title/artist of the song they finish up with, I’d be most grateful.

Caption Competition #2

My good cousin Josie reminded me that I’d not anounced a winner to my first Caption Competition. Frankly, the take-up was low and the entries were a little shoddy. One entry was in Hanji, which, although I’m (genuinely) reading a book to learn how to read/write them, make little sense to anybody else. Another entry [...]

Return of the geek

I’ve been trying to reflect on the fact that iSpy blog hits, though growing nicely each month, seem a little haphazard during the week. In fact, the wonderful Blog Stats that WordPress do for free, when expressed in terms of the last 30 days, resembles the London city skyline more than it does a smooth, [...]

Trivia about me

…if you’re interested, go to this page on my blog. I’ll be adding these gradually as I think of good ones.

Paperback writer

Yesterday I got a letter from myself. About a month ago I’d been on a writing course in the Lake District and we were asked to write down our goals for our writing and seal them in a self-addressed envelope. This envelope would then be posted a month later. This is what I wrote to [...]

Vicks and their Tricks

Oh I despise advertisers. They’re such liars! (Or at least perverters of the truth.) They make people buy stuff they don’t need with money they don’t have. **DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS PRODUCT** Consider Vicks First Defence, a product featured in a Tube ad I saw the other day, which incited my hatred by claiming [...]

What a wonderful world

Three of my favourite songs have pretty much the same theme: Coldplay’s first UK release Don’t Panic, for which I saw the video and instantly fell in love with their music. James Morrison’s Wonderful World. Really catchy. Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World. I guess they all just reflect a good theology of creation.Anyway, when [...]

He’s alive!

It’s true – Lloyd lives. Here is the evidence. It’s also evidence of my first video call in history. He may have been laughing at this point at a photo I’d sent him from 8+ years ago… Weren’t we handsome?

…And what kind of box would you like that church in?

Just saw this and it made me want to cry. First, because the huge amount of humour and power that Sister Act gave to nuns singing a Vegas (or Reno) showgirls song has been totally lost when whatever genius decided to convert it into a brass band piece. Second, because they murder it anyway. But [...]