Cooking still in progres,. For my stuff, the Dal is good, the guacamole is better and the hummus is...a bit watery and iffy. Chris still making marzipan raisin chocolate salty balls and gingerbread men...

The presents are wrapped and bagged. Just need to get ready, pack and load up the car. Hectic!

I enjoy cooking to Kerrang rock riff charts - bit of Pistols, Muse, Guns & Roses :)

Operation Anti-mouse continues. We've had a mouse problem for a while and initially tried to use an ultrasound repeller, but clearly they are getting used to that and coming in again. When we moved the wardrobe in the bedroom there was a gap which a mouse could have squeezed through, so I nailed some wooden skirting to block it. We've just been moving stuff in the kitchen and looking for mouse poo as a sign of their access point(s). If its behind the units then there's lots of tricky blocking up to do. We did find lots of poo under the stairs which could be related to a small hole there or could just be due to the unlagged and very hot pipework (Note: lag those...). I'll be nailing more wood in the way there I think...

I popped into Borders last night, to pick over the corpse of a once powerful store. Sad really, but huge bargains to be had. Everything I bought was 60-70% off RRP. Lots of people are getting books for Christmas this year! A lot of stuff had gone, but there were still bargains to be had in the specialist sections (inc. history, sci-fi, travel..).

I believe they are trading until Tuesday, so get down there if you get the chance.

Today I got an invitation to submit a paper to a pretty good journal special edition. This is good in the brownie points stakes and I'm quite happy about it. Sadly it comes exactly 24hrs too late to count for this year's performance review, in the 'measures of esteem' section...

as there appears to be a number of different plans and parties this new years eve........what are peoples plans, which party are they attending?

Hey. Is anyone is the Manchester area planning to go and see Reel Big Fish at the Academy on the 22nd January?

freddiefraggles is thinking about going, and wonders if anyone else is going.

A friend of mine - auriol - is conducting some market research - if you've got 30 seconds to spare would you consider submitting a few anonymous answers here?

Thanks.

Hello. I am back, from Berlin.

It was cold, I didn't crash the truck and I'm glad I don't have to sleep in it again.

Berlin itself was nice - and I'm now thinking about going back there on holiday as I liked the city. I have seen some wall, Checkpoint Charlie (and the amusingly named nearby food outlet "Snackpoint Charlie") and may bits of interesting that I wish to further investigate.

I have decided that truck driving is not the career for me, and I'm not at ease driving a vehicle as big as that, mainly because it's just so damm unwieldy. I'm glad I tried it though, and glad had the chance to try it.

Tomorrow I have to take it back to the ASETS workshop and empty it (half the load was dropped off at a supplier in Herefordshire on the way home), then I take it back to the rental yard and wave goodbye to it.

But first, I sleep.

On Friday night, we were visited by Russ & Joy, for an evening of food, booze and board games. Yesterday was the fantastic Swedish Jul celebration at Linette and Dan's with excellent food, rum & raisin marzipan chocolate, Glogg and other goodness.

Today we had my brother's family to visit, so cooked a huge roast gammon dinner. Mmm good, but again I am stuffed.