Recently I collected Norma-Jean from one of her hobbies. As we departed, I stopped to bid farewell to a couple of boys who were preparing to cycle home: ‘See you next time, lads.’ ‘Dad - why did you have to say goodbye to those boys ?’ ‘Well I see them here twice a week so I was just being friendly…’ ‘God - that was so embarrassing. I actually thought you were going to say ‘Cheerio’ as usual’. ...

This week, I have been working in Bergen, near Norway. Normally, I view my trips to major European cities simply as a means to end and after a while they all tend to blur into one unified major European city. Same hotel room, same office, different people, same problems, same computers, same restaurants with the same cashless transaction mechanism. Bergen, however, is different. The city is just beautiful. I love it. Mountains, water, snow, history. Just stunning. If I didn’t have ties, I think I would seriously considering moving here full-time. ...

Just quickly reviewed the number of posts in each full year since I started this blog. 2008 - 94 2007 - 219 2006 - 395 What does it all mean ? Not sure. Does it matter ? Probably not.

Amazon (UK) recently announced an online music store and a £3 discount on all music downloads on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. To download an album, you need the Amazon Download utility and the music is MP3 format encoded at 256kbps. Best of all, the music is DRM free so you can transfer, copy and play on any device. Normally, I like to buy an actual CD so I can rip into whatever format I need and also as a backup so ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ by ‘Elbow’ was my first ever purchase of online music. ...

Just been down to Asda. Not because I am a Nineties man but mainly because the element on the kettle just blew. I went fully equipped with what I believe is known as a ‘shopping list’. I managed to decipher all of the entries (some were written by Norma) and successfully secured everything. I was debating whether to pay at a till or risk self-service where you swipe your own goods. ...