You are allowed to enjoy this…

Finished another track for “Fragments” – it’s called “The Loud Track” and it sounds like this:

And here are some “before & after” pictures of Alex the Wonderdog.
Before

After

And the “Loaf of the Day” is a standard white loaf baked in the bread maker by yours truly:

It was another beautiful day yesterday and so we decided to spend the afternoon sitting outside our local pub. We were having something to eat with our pint, when a young fellow stood just a couple of feet away and began to have the loudest mobile phone conversation with his pal. This conversation lasted about half an hour and during it we found out that he’d taken the last week off ill from work, spent this time buying a new bike for £1000 to replace the last one that got stolen. He was surprised that his insurance paid out so handsomely and he was very proud of his £1000 bike, so much so that he kept staring at the bike and mentioning to his friend just how nice and expensive it was.

Now I find mobile phones an irritant at the best of times, but when you are trying to enjoy an afternoon in the sun, eating and drinking and generally chilling, you don’t seem some oik to come along and share his coversation with you. And this guy was REALLY loud. He just wanted to show off and inform everyone of his own self-importance.

Anyway, the Missus came back with the next round and then turn to the fellow and asked him if he could take his phone conversation elsewhere. He promptly told her to “fuck off!” (nice fellow) and a little spat insued. I intervened and told him that I had no interest in hearing about his life and that he should conduct his conversation a little quieter. Much eye contact happened and I stared the guy down. He continued his phone conversation but at a much more reasonable level and we moved tables to get away from him. He spent over an hour on his phone talking about nothing in particular. I guess this is symptomatic of our “always-available” culture.

Man, I hate mobile phones! 🙂

The weather was absolutely amazing today. Blue skies, sunshine and warmth. The plants are budding, the insects are buzzing and I had to shed my winter coat when I took Alex the Wonderdog for a walk. Luckily, he went to the dog groomers last Friday and now looks like a shawn sheep. 🙂

One of the treats I was allowed as a youngster was to stay up late and watch the comedian Dave Allen whenever I stayed with my grandparents. They didn’t mind his bad language and I love the way he pointed out life’s hypocrises and made fun of EVERYONE. I think some of that attitude must have rubbed off. So I was sad to hear that Mr Allen had passed away.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4340115.stm
I hope the BBC and ITV do him justice and put on a tribute show of some kind. Wherever you are Dave, may your god go with you. 😉

You see, I’ve got this new mobile phone and it has a little camera in it. This means that I can document every moment of my life in a series of blurry, low-resolution images. Take last night, for example. I cooked Cottage Pie:

It was very tasty and this was the result:

Gee – ain’t this a lotta fun?

Today, I present a new strand to the website. Yes, folks – I present “Loaf of the Day”. Thanks to the breadmaker we received as a Xmas present, I will be occasionally posting pictures of loaves that I have baked.

Today’s “Loaf of the Day” is a granary loaf:

In the post: My replacement laptop battery all the way from Deutschland. Viva la eBay!

In the post: Alien Vs Predator DVD – OK, not the best movie in the world, but I am a sucker for an Alien/Predator film and a sci-fi action film to boot. I saw this originally last year in LA at the cinema in the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel. The Missus was busy off schmoozing, doing her press thing and I had an hour or so to kill. It was too hot to go for a walk (remember, pale Englishmen and 90+ degree mid-day heat is a bad combination) so I took to shelter in the cinema and watch this film. There was me and three other people. Schweet. Anyway, The Missus didn’t catch the movie so I bought it so we could watch it together.

Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (Criterion Edition) – I enjoyed this film the first time I saw it and after the recent suicide of Hunter S Thompson, I thought I should get reacquainted with it. I’m a big Terry Gilliam fan and so I am looking forward to watching this again.

Meanwhile, yesterday I blew nearly £100 to buy a replacement battery for my laptop. Not happy…not happy at all about that. 🙁