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Secret Boxes
These are two "Himitsu-Bako", otherwise known as Japanese puzzle boxes (or to be more literal, "Personal Secret Boxes." My parents got me the larger one a few years ago, which contains assorted mementoes - tickets, receipts, and many other things collected over the years. The smaller was a present from Tash this year, and now contains many smaller more delicate things, such as tiny shells, little stones and fragments of coral collected from many different beaches on many different holidays, along with a liberal number of confetti flakes and petals from our wedding.
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28/12/07
none
When it rains...As anyone in the UK is aware, we've had quite a bit of rain recently, and much of our country has been rather badly flooded (to put it mildly).Thankfully we didn't have it that badly in our part of Northumberland, but it was bad enough for our kitchen ceiling to spring a leak. "Never fear!" we thought, "That's why we have house insurance!" So I rang the insurance, who promptly lost my details and didn't call back. On the second call I got through to somebody sensible who managed to correctly log our claim with their database, and promised us a call from the agency that deals with the claims.
So I took yesterday off, to deal with the surveyor (since Tash is still feeling a bit under the weather, and didn't feel up to doing it on her own.)
Call me stupid, but I was under the impression that accidental damage was used to describe things like cricket balls through windows, or crazy Frank Spencer antics falling off funky telescopic ladders - something that involves an accidental human being involved somehow. I know I'm clumsy and accident prone, but I'm damned if I'm expected to accept the blame for accidentially raining all over the country for weeks on end.
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benjymous
Birthday came early    
I got an early birthday present on Friday, as my parents sent up a package containing a brand new Panasonic Lumix TZ1 camera to replace my trusty old Canon Digital Ixus V which has served me well for the six years I've had it, surviving many drops, bumps, and getting nasty stuff spilt all over it. My new camera carries over all the features that made my Ixus so indispensable, notably being small, light, and constructed out of tough aluminium, important features when it'll get taken everywhere I go. However, it goes much further, providing a magnificent ten times optical zoom, and a much larger, more sensitive lens, which is something my old camera was really lacking. Here's to many more happy years of service! Thanks again! Above you can see a random selection of photos I've taken over the last couple of days.
It's funny when I think back, that in '98 I spent my £200 birthday money on a Mustek VDC200 - a low end plasticky 0.3mp camera, which never really managed to take pictures of any quality. Three years later I spent £400 on the Ixus, which was pretty much state of the art back then for a compact camera. Six years later, you can pick up an incredibly powerful camera like my TZ1 for much less than the original crappy Mustek cost me - how times change!
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Long sunny weekendsWhat to do on a long sunny weekend...weeding in the garden, eating wonderful food, exhausting the dog or just eat too much chocolate? |
photolog: Merry Christmas, one and all
From everyone here up in Northumberland, we wish you a Merry Christmas, and a happy new year :)
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Our evening with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Friends
Tash isn't quite sure whether we ended up in Bridport because of Hugh, or if it was just a coincidence. You see, all of the River Cottage Series were filmed in and around Bridport and its surrounding area, and with our attempts to grow our own stuff, Hugh's programmes have been good inspiration.However, it's often been said that you should never meet your heroes. The people you idolise frequently turn out to be, well, normal people, as grumpy and irritable as the rest of us. With that in mind, we decided that if we did see Hugh at one of the many markets, we were probably better off just walking by. It wasn't until the middle of the second week, that we spotted flyers for the Bridport Food Festival, which was opening on the final day of our honeymoon. This opening event consisted of the start of the beer festival, and what was billed as "An Evening with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Friends." We weren't sure if we wanted to go - he wouldn't be interested in talking to us, and it'd be packed anyway, but in the end we turned up anyway.
The format was questions and answers. I wanted to ask what was the proper way to eat a Dorset Knob, but was forbidden on grounds of embarassment. Most other people asked fairly boring questions, such as problems with rust on garlic, but eventually Tash prompted me to ask about something closer to our own hearts - if they had any tips or advice for young people such as ourselves who were producing their own food, and would like to get into running a smallholding.
We were really amazed as to what warm answers we got, Hugh particularly seemed to really be talking from the heart when he talked about the trials and tribulations we were likely to face (and was utterly honest when he said that obviously, he is in no way self sufficient, and relies on the Media more than anything.) The overall response was to go for it, but not to give up the day job, and, as Michael put it, remember that you'll be fifty one day, and can only bend down a finite number of times, so always plan for the future.
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