Category: Uncategorized

You’ll understand what I’m about to write if (and only if?) you’ve experienced Harvey Nichols‘ genuinely divine pesto, particularly the version before they took the walnuts out: I’ve found something possibly even better. Bocca della verita‘s Coriander and Chilli pesto is, quite simply, glorious. Lots of ginger and lemon going on, just enough chilli to bite, fresh as spring. Wonderful.

There are two problems: first, the jars are rather small. Second, I don’t recall where I bought it. Could have been Tebay services on the M6, or one of the specialist shelves in Asda, Safeway, Somerfield or Sainsbury’s.

Drat. Only one serving left.

Edit: It’s in Sainsbury’s.

Next week I’m moving home; this week, I’m going to type quick notes of things that strike me as I pack.

1. I’m now a very rusty and, thus, completely rubbish club juggler.
2. The largest thing I’ve thrown away so far is an old duvet that’s been in the way for months. The second-largest thing is the Granada Production Health & Safety Policy. It’s a close contest, and technically the jury’s still out.
3. Come to think of it, my entire back-catalogue of New Scientist was probably larger.
4. I have a terrific solution to the problem of packing wineglasses: break them first. I’ve only got one left now. Excellent.
5. Packing a foot-thick futon mattress back in its giant plastic sack is absolutely as difficult as it sounds.
6. Most obscure thing turned up so far that’s actually worth keeping: a reprint of Determination of the mechanism of activation of the Ni-zeolite-Y catalyst by computational techniques, from Journal of Computer-Aided Materials Design 1 (1993) 169-176. Authors: AR George, JS Sanderson (sic) & CRA Catlow, The Royal Institution, London. Also, some print-out from the old UCL Cray – the one I crashed.
7. Whatever I used, five years ago, to stick my speakers to their stands: it’s now the most disgusting substance I think I’ve encountered. Ugh.

I’m now very nearly done, except for the kitchen which will have to wait until next weekend. Unfortunately, it’s half past ten and a four hour drive to Glasgow. So… guess it’s an early start tomorrow, then? Bah.

For the record: ratio of bin bags to boxes is very nearly 2:1. I’m so proud. I now know what entire decades of my life amount to: Landfill.

Some time ago, I was listening to the incomparable Secret Agent stream from SomaFM, when a terrific track came along. After a while I pinned it down to one Tommy Guerrero, pro-skateboarder turned muso, and I’ve been a fan ever since. Partly because I like his albums, but also because practically every track sounds like terrific backing to some scene or other.

Tonight, for the first time, I heard one of his album tracks in a TV show. In Sex and the City, alongside a bunch of Zero7 songs.

Bear in mind that the last time I felt this way about music, the song in question was A Little Less Conversation. Which, contrary to popular opinion, kicked off long before the Gilliam-directed Nike advert. So keep an eye on Guerrero. Maybe, just maybe…

…on Islay? I can’t believe I missed this story until now.

As the dedicated reader may remember, I’ve retained my childhood fascination with flight simulators, my current favourite being X-Plane. A curious product, it’s written by essentially one chap, by the name of Austin Meyer.

Austin’s just bought himself a real aeroplane, a Cirrus Design SR22 Centennial Edition. Niiiice.

Jealous? Me? Er… yeah, OK. A little. 🙂

My God, it’s full of stars.

Is this the most beautiful blog out there?

I just paged through my junk-filtered mail folder looking for false positives, then purged the remainder. I found two mails that shouldn’t have been labelled ‘junk’ – and binned 3124 messages. This since September 1st.

Bleurgh.

[update, ten minutes later: Argghh! 83 more!]

A little while ago, I posted a scathing little knee-jerk entry about the ‘transposed letters’ meme that was flying around on the net. If you’ve not followed the discussion that ensued in the comments, it’s worth a look. First, ex-colleague of mine Sophia Collins (great to hear from you, chuck – sorry I haven’t replied – being as crap as usual) did what nobody else online seemed to, and tracked down the original paper. Then somebody else weighed in.

And now the original author himself has showed up. Read on. Oh, and er… I think it’s me that’s had the bouffant hair, though unusually not at present.

Shock! Derren Brown’s Russian Roulette stunt might have been a trick? No! Really?

Seriously – if you were the producer, how could you possibly sign off on the risk assessment?

dit dit de dee dit dee de dit de…

Here are the headlines from the last five days of Jonathan’s life:

BONG! Mortgage offer received, paperwork in final throes!

BONG! Amusing Get Shorty-inspired car hire moment, as Fiesta turns into gigantic and hideously ugly people carrier!

BONG! Steve and Amanda finally married. Nation says: about bloody time too!

BONG! Lovely event, by the way; ballroom dancing not quite as rusty as feared; oft-missed friends still officially Top People!

BONG! Old chum Ben seen for first time in five years!

BONG! Decisions made at work, progress believed imminent!

BONG! Drop by Alan & Jules’ place, give them a hug!

BONG! Mija joins deletetheweb community!

And finally… I’ve found a small metallic disc that goes ‘ping!’ and jumps two feet in the air. Which is nice.