A Darkling Plain by Philip Reeve

I'm currently enjoying this fourth novel in a quartet (quadrilogy?).

A Darkling Plain by Philip Reeve

Despite what the cover notes say, i.e. "defies classification", the genre is most definitely steampunk.

e.g. Traction cities - mobile conurbations powered by huge steam engines that roam around the globe hunting down smaller, weaker settlements for their resources. Municipal Darwinism - it's a town-eat-town world.
Airships, flying machines, "old-tech", zombie cyborg stalkers, steam powered limpet submarines.

It's supposed to be a children's book. This means that there's violence and gore, but no sex.

Burns Night

Well we had a Haggis, some "tatties" and a glass of Scotch Whisky for tea, so I guess that we've had a Burns Supper of sorts.

Next year I'll try and do the toasts. Though I might skip the bagpipes and the Scottish Country Dancing. :)

Label or Tag Cloud

My list of Blog Post Labels is getting long and cumbersome - due to a large number of labelled posts, many with a label that's only been used once.

To make this a little easier on the eye I've added a Label Cloud (aka Tag Cloud) to this blog.

A Tag Cloud is a visual depiction of tags/labels used on a website or blog. The Tags are listed alphabetically, and the frequency is shown using font size and/or colour.

I used the easy to follow instructions found here to set this up.
Setup and configuration for New Blogger Tag Cloud.

I've decided to only show labels in the cloud that have been added to 2 or more posts.

Blow Painting

Quality time spent with the children today making Christmas "Thank You" cards.

Blow painting and fold over paint blots have worked well.

Thanks to Mister Maker for the idea.

Torchwood Series 2, Episode 1.

I'd kind of given up on Torchwood towards the end of the last series, however the first episode of the new series was a hurricane of fresh air.

Great performance by James Marsters.

"That's a Poodle". "Nice!"

Good News and Bad News

Bad News:
Today should have been the day that we had a wall knocked through from the kids playroom to the garden and a set of French Windows fitted, plus a new front door.

I took a day off work for this. The people doing the job were due to arrive in the morning and take a day to do the job (plus a bit of warranty resealing on the windows that we had fitted a few years ago).

No show by 10:30, so I rang the installation supervisor - no reply. Customer care line 1 - no reply. Customer care line 2 - an answerphone message - left a message. The salesman who did the deal - no reply, left a voicemail message. Finally the showroom number. I'm smelling a rat now. A calmly spoken chap took my details and said that he would get somebody to call me back.

Eventually the salesman called back. The company has gone into liquidation yesterday!

Oh Joy!

There may be a solution - the salesman says that he can to get another company to do the job, at no extra cost for us. We're going to find out more when we see him on Saturday. Hopefully we can do this although, it could be another month before the job gets done.

Good News:
New BIG TELLY arrived today - 32 inch LCD.

Too early and too expensive to get a High Definition DVD Player at this stage, due to the format wars going on between Blue Ray and HD DVD. So I've found the next best thing - a standard DVD Player that can upscale the output up to 1080P (and it only cost 50 quid).

Still getting used to it - compared to the old telly, the image is sharp enough to shave with.

Birthday Cake

Novelist Supermum's birthday today.

Frodo and Samwise gave her a selection of DVD's, and I gave her a fistful of book tokens.

Samwise is still too young to be able to keep a secret for more than an hour - so he gave her a bunch of flowers yesterday (too difficult to hide and keep alive). Then he let slip that we'd bought her a cake.

He didn't let slip what type of cake it was until this morning, which didn't matter as we'd decided to show her it before obliterating it with candles.

Samwise chose the cake, and decided that what Mummy would really like was a Dinosaur cake featuring a Velociraptor. It's "officially licensed" by the Natural History Museum, and featured a Velociraptor sculpted in icing, with a Jurassic background. It also came with a bunch of Dinosaur stickers, and a competition to win 200 quids worth of Dinosaur stuff (we're entering it now).

We took the cake round to Grandma's house, who treated us all to a Birthday meal.

So just 1 birthday cake, a cheese selection, some biscuits, a few crisps, half a bottle of Coca Cola & Lemonade and 8 bottles of Mexican Beer to finish off before we begin the New Year's healthy diet and exercise resolution.

Panto Season

Took Frodo to see his first ever pantomime today. A matinee performance of Aladdin at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool.

He tends to shy away and hide from clowns and other children's entertainers, so we weren't too sure how much he'd enjoy the full 2 hours of a panto. This year we thought that he might be ready for it.

He was a little overawed as we entered the theatre, and took our seats, looking around at the sets and the stage lighting, and getting a little worried as the place filled up.

At the Everyman you're close to the stage, no matter where you sit. We were 2 rows back on the "benches" on the left hand side, so we were fairly well amongst it when the action started (Never sit on the front row for the panto, unless your prepared to become part of the act). Straight into the first song (it's a Rock 'n Roll panto) which started out with 3 drummers bashing out a rhythm. This got Frodo's attention straight away, although he was still a little wary of what was going on.

He really perked up a couple of songs in, when the pantomime Dame appeared to do some "gardening". 2 plants came up from trapdoors in the floor, and then squirted the audience with water. The dame then ran round spraying everybody with an array of ever increasing in size water emitting devices (plant spray, small hose and supersoakers). Frodo thoroughly enjoyed getting wet. A lady who may have thought she was relatively safe about 4 or 5 rows back was right in the path of one of the plants and got drenched as the song ran it's course.

After that Frodo clapped along with the songs and joined in the fun, booing and hissing at Evil Uncle Abanazer, and laughing at all of the "fart" jokes.

Some poor guy in the front row called Tony got "picked on" by the cast, and was the butt of a number of jokes, culminating with getting him up for the "audience participation bit", since he hadn't done it well enough the first time.

During one of the songs I got to sing a word into the Dames microphone, as I was sat on the end next to the aisle - everybody should be famous for 3 seconds, so I guess that was my moment.

As always, as well as the theatrics the cast provided the musical backing, as well as the theatrics. They all swap instruments, or take turns whilst another is singing - which really makes for a great show.

Frodo got to see several trapdoor disappearances and reappearances, smoke effects, coloured lighting, glitter ball lighting and flash bombs.

Two small motor-scooters were used on stage at one point - Aladdin let his fall over (not part of the act) and almost crashed it into Princess Willow's scooter when riding it around afterwards. The lights went down and the scooters appeared again as small flourescent models flying above the stage under Ultra Violet lights.

Another scene had the cast disappear into a set of Tardis doors, and reappear on the other side of the stage in 1975. Frodo particularly enjoyed the genie of the lamp, who sported a pink afro wig and riffed on an electric guitar when he appeared.

Previous panto experience proved useful as Aladdin was left trapped in the cave of wonders and the lights came up for the interval. Novelist Supermum was despatched to purchase 3 ice-creams, whilst I legged it with Frodo to the toilet. We beat the queue for both and were quickly back in our seats munching the ice-creams waiting for the second act.

Everybody was on their feet for the finale, although Frodo was flagging a little by this point. He looked a little tearful at the end, but only because it was all over. He seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed it, so we'll take him again next year.

Samwise is just a little too young for a panto at the moment, so he stayed at home with Grandma - although we reckon that he'll be ready for it next year.

We've been for the last few years without children, so no beers in the Everyman Bistro afterwards this time.

Really glad that Frodo enjoyed it - he was telling me about the genie of the lamp when he went to bed.

Useful Origami

Came across this useful Origami today - a way to fold an A4 sized paper sheet in order to store safely up to 2 CD/DVDs.

Took Frodo swimming today. He discovered how to use his goggles to see underwater and transformed into "Fish Boy" for a while.

Got back to find further progress had been made on the back garden, and a retaining wall for the soil has now been built, using breeze blocks recycled from the demolished garage.

Samwise came out to have a look, and play at "Secret Agents" with Frodo. They communicated using pretend walkie-talkies, and saying "over" after every sentence. Frodo was "Agent 1" and Samwise was "Agent 5". When we asked Samwise what had happened to Agents 2, 3 and 4 he quickly gave the answer "They're out an a mission".

This Old House

According to the deeds that we were given by the Land Registry, our house was built in 1908. So this year our house is 100 years old.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2008 everybody!

Capital of Culture - here we go!

Watched Jools Holland's Hootenanny on the box. Went out to watch the fireworks as Big Ben bonged the midnight hour. Got asked in to a spontaneous party that was going on at one of the neighbours houses. Nipped back for Novelist Supermum and we both went round for an hour or so.

Got back in time to see the last couple of songs on the Hootenanny. Good to see that Seasick Steve was on again - who I remember enjoying this time last year

A Happy and Prosperous New Year to all!

New Year's Eve

Playing my "Get Out of Work Early" card today. Whoopee!
Have a Happy New Year Everybody!

Limbo

It's that limbo time between festivities. The bit between Christmas and New Year when we carry on with the gluttony, try to fix all the broken toys, assemble the ones that we really didn't have time to do on the day, possibly get round to reading the manuals after working out how to use the gadgets by trial and error, think about sending off the warranty registration cards (maybe not).

We were going to host Boxing Day for the family this year, but since Novelist Supermum wasn't up to it, due to illness we went to my Brothers place instead. This had the least environmental impact, since three groups of the family were already there from Christmas Day. So rather than having them all move down the motorway to us, we went to them.

Another good day, plenty of food and exchange of gifts. Samwise got a Playmobil yellow submarine, and Frodo got a cabin cruiser - complete with drug dealer, bimbo and two midgets (OK so it's meant to be a family). They spent last night playing with them in the Kitchen Sink whilst I prepared tea. We have a rock crystal table lamp.

Boys were knackered when we got home. Frodo threw up yesterday morning - seemed to be exhaustion and not enough to drink, rather than illness.

I've been at work for two days, and will be in again on New Years Eve (hopefully that will turn out to be a half day). Relatively quiet at work. My strategy is to provide the cover when there's not many people in, then take the rest of the week off after New Years day, when the kids are still off school.

Christmas Eve

'Twas the night before Christmas,
And all through the house,
Nobody stirred,
Except for the two parents struggling to assemble a 3 foot square model playset of the Tardis Interior...

Only took an hour and a half to assemble. Decided to do it now rather than have impatient boys waiting for it tomorrow. (OK, so we wanted to play with it first!)

I've just enjoyed some chestnuts roasted on an open fire. Delicious, coupled with the Jack Daniels that is enhancing my enjoyment of Pirates of the Caribbean, which is currently showing on the box.

Unfortunately I'm not sure how clean or clear our chimney is. I swept it myself yesterday, but the other rooms that adjoin the same chimney breast all smell a bit smokey.

Posted the last of the Christmas cards to the neighbours this morning. Noted that once more I missed the last post abroad - only 1 card ever goes that way, if I ever remember in time. Nipped out to the shops, picked up a couple of bags of smokeless fuel. Then spent the rest of the day cleaning, hoovering and tidying, whilst the hobbits dragged out all of their current toys to make a pre-Christmas mess.

Boys were bathed, and had new pyjamas hand delivered to them by Father Christmas on the start of his rounds. Samwise wasn't fooled by my outfit, but I threw doubt on his convictions when I denied it later, claiming to have just seen a sleigh going up the street. Their both fast asleep now, waiting for the real chap to show up.

Goose is defrosting in the kitchen. A few more pressies to wrap later, or rather clad in a loose formation of Christmas paper and sticky tape.

2 months of preparation finished - all ready for tomorrow. It'll be over before we know it.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Neighbours Party

One of the neighbours regularly throws a party just before Xmas, and invites most of the street. I went round with the boys at about 17:30, and didn't leave until 22:30.

Two very tired little boys last night. They had a great time with the other kids that were there. 3 boys were defending a bunk bed whilst 5 or 6 others assaulted it from below. Weapons employed were plastic swords, battle axes, a light sabre and several long cardboard tubes.

I spent my time gassing with the neighbours about the recent parking restriction notice. I also found myself informing them that the sounds of demolition they'd been hearing recently was the concrete being broken up in our back yard.
"Was that YOUR skip?" - must have been an irate car parker - it was only there for a day!

Two young ladies treated everyone to a violin recital - Samwise sat right in front of them to listen. Frodo didn't bother as he had discovered a video game upstairs.

Food was great - several vats of different types of curry had been prepared. I managed to catch one from toppling off the stove before it went over a tiny child's head!

Got into trouble when I got back for keeping the boys up too late. Lie in this morning made a pleasant change.

Night Flight

I'm a bit knackered this morning.

Yesterday morning I spotted one of the neighbours looking at a sign that had been tied to a signpost at the entrance to the street. He was taking a few notes.

I took a look at it myself last night. It's a planning notice to implement some parking restrictions at the entrance to our street. A good idea in terms of road safety at the corners of the road junctions, but they seem to want to extend the restriction a little too far up the street (in my opinion).

So I was up late last night emailing the council with my views.

I've had a few late nights recently. I ended up posting my Xmas cards at about 00:30 on Monday night/Tuesday morning. As I was walking back home I spotted a blue light on the pavement, and a peculiar buzzing sound.

On the pavement in front of me was what appeared to be a piece of Alien Technology. On closer examination it turned out to be a miniateure helicopter, that was having trouble taking off.

I picked it up, then it dawned on me that it was probably being operated by remote control. I looked all around but couldn't see anyone. I then looked up to the flats above. Nobody at first, then one of the chaps from the Indian Restaurant poked his head out of the window of the flat above.

It turned out that on attempting to fly the helicopter out of the window, he had discovered the limited range of the controller, and it had immediately plummeted to the ground. I tried to launch it upwards for him, and back into range, but no joy.

"Piece of shit!, Thanks mate!". I left it outside the door to his flat for him to collect.

Working Weekend

What a weekend! I'm on call this week. I've been called out on both Saturday and Sunday morning, one a minor problem, the other a false alarm.

In addition I had to carry out a code release on Saturday night, which would have normally been an early shoot, but one of the servers went a bit wobbly, so we had to bounce it. 4 or 5 hours work became 7 hours.

To finish off I'm in again on Sunday night for another release, followed by some catchup patching.

Managed to squeeze in a little Xmas shopping in between the work, and was up to 3am on Friday night applying Xmas Wrap, Bubble Wrap and Brown Paper to presents, to create parcels ready for posting on Saturday morning.

I was going to finish off the Xmas cards this morning, but after being called in it's going to be the usual late night frantic scribbling on Monday night to get them in the post early enough. As usual I've probably managed to miss the last posting date for anything going abroad - New Year Greetings it is again then!

Every year I contemplate why I do this. I heard a program on Radio 4 proposing that we should all just cross those people off the list who have become "Christmas card list friends". I'm not going to do that, it's still a way of keeping in touch, however small the gesture.

I also like the idea that even if you haven't paid them the slightest bit of attention for another year, then for that minute or so whilst you write the card you are actually thinking of them.

Here's to all my friends, no matter how little I see them!

Dad Dancing

It was the office Christmas party on Friday.

This year it was held in the Crowne Plaza hotel. Meal was good, lots of free booze, disco and a Blues Brothers act - who inevitably went through every song in the film.

There were some other corporate do's, other than our own being held there, so there were more women than men in the place, for a change.

Got down onto the dance floor for some serious "Dad Dancing", for most of the night. Attracted the attention of a bottle-tanned young lady for a while - she just looked like a pair of white eyes in the darkness to start with. She gave up eventually, to look for someone who was more available.

Phoned home a couple of times to point out that the full version of "Here Come the Girls" was being played, and that I was very, very drunk.

The bosses were having a "flash the cash" competition, so we finished off with a couple of glasses of champagne in the bar.

Walked a couple of miles before I could find a taxi with a light on that would stop. Perhaps trying to flag one down by waving a brolly wasn't such a good idea!

Got back about 3am. Did the traditional decoration of the Christmas tree on Saturday with a raging hangover (i.e. doing this with a hangover appears to be the tradition).

Liverpool Santa Dash 2007 - Photos

Well I did it - managed to complete the Liverpool Santa Dash a week ago today.

Got up early to beat any traffic, and got into the office, where we had agreed to meet up and change into our Santa outfits.

It was absolutely chucking it down with rain. I thought that it was going to be a complete washout. As I watched out of the office window I saw cars arriving one at a time in the various car-parks around the area. From out of each car clambered at least three Santas. Those that weren't dressed for the occasion opened up the boot, pulled out a sack and changed into their costume on the spot.

Soon a red-clad crowd was forming in front of the Liver Buildings. (One or two die-hard Everton Santas were refusing to wear red, and had all blue suits).

The other lads turned up, so we got changed and went to join the growing crowd.

The rain had eased off by then. Took a few photo's, then at 09:30 precisely we found ourselves shuffling towards the start line at Mann Island. A big cheer, a chorus of "Merry Christmas!" and we were off.

It's a Fun Run, rather than a race. Since I'd done absolutely no training whatsoever I'd decided from the outset that I wasn't going to push myself too hard. One of the lads in the office regularly runs marathons, so I thought that there was no point in trying to keep up with him.

Having said that, we pushed ahead a bit early on, until we got to a spot where the crowd had thinned out a bit, then settled down into a gentle jogging pace. There were some stages where you couldn't do anything but walk, due to the number of Santas in front, but we managed to complete most of the 3.1 miles running, rather than walking.

I took a lot of photos en-route. At one point I ran ahead a bit, then turned to take some snaps of our "team". Couldn't tell one Santa from another when I turned round.

It felt rather surreal running down the middle of the road on familiar streets. Even more surreal being one of 6,000 Father Christmas's (that's how many finished the run).

The rain held off for the duration of the run, the sun even came through the clouds for a bit. Not that this helped much - a Santa Suit gets pretty warm. Better than being wet through though - I suspect that my skin would have been dyed red if we'd got a soaking. I've probably caught some sort of Industrial disease from breathing through the artificial fibres of the beard.

Worst bit was as we neared the end, we knew that we would finish on Castle Street, but we kept having to take a 'Dogs Leg' every time the street came into view.

Our team of 4 had split into two groups of two by the time we got to the last few streets. Our marathon runner crossed the finish line first, but was beaten by myself and his brother to the free T-shirts and goody-bags.

Back to the office to get changed - although our marathon runner insisted on staying in costume for the rest of the day. We finished off by replacing lost fluids in the Pig & Whistle.

Observations made in the pub.
1. Today would have been a good day to pull off a bank robbery.
2. At the end, we all looked like Dan Akroyd in "Trading Places".

Do it again next year? I reckon that I will.

Nothing Acts Faster Than Darkdwarf

So go out and get some nothing now!

The title of this post came from yet another way to waste time on the internet - The Advertising Generator.

Results seem to work best when you put in your own name.