just finished reading pTerry's latest, Unseen Academicals.

Which, despite my misgivings concerning the subject matter, ie. football, is really rather good.

Now. What to read next? Had a couple of book parcels through today - one from the lovely folks at Rocky Nook, Photography Unplugged by Harald Mante, which I shall gush forth about later (it's very *very* beautiful)

and one from Borders. Finally. Ordered them a week and a half ago and the entire order has been marked 'ready to ship' since friday 6th.

Anyhoo, that parcel contained David Benioff's City of Thieves, Matt Seaton's Two Wheels, and a graphic novel, The New Brighton Archeological Society

I suggested to EB that he might enjoy the latter, and he's spent bits of today with his nose firmly stuck in the book. I shall point him at my Tintin collection next. :-)

I've finally joined the Cult of Apple. I now have a lovely shiny black ipod nano.

which needs a name.

Oooh! and it does video! What should I do a video thingy about? I know some of you do Talk To Me Tuesday. Quick, hiveMind, suggestions!

today's wonderful things:

some stuff is *really* small

a flock of birds, flocking

cycle chain clock
yikes. That clock is pretty expensive. Seriously, how hard would it be to knock one up? Bike chain, some means of turning a cog (old clock?), some metal numbers, etc.

Hmmm. *strokes chin, thoughtfully*

some days I love the interwebs.

I've been looking at mp3 players again. I do quite like the iPod nano, but the Sony E-series has also caught my eye (slightly cheaper, better audio quality apparently) as well as my beloved iRiver doing a couple of tempting models.

choices, choices.

In other news, our programme manager at work is now Change Director, seems to like me, and was talking today about projects next year. Looking promising to get my contract extended then. Hence the shopping for shiny gadgetry.

Did actual shopping tonight at Meadowhell for new shoes and trousers. Saw some nice boots in Next, but the staff there were completely useless and absent, so I gave up, bought a pair of trousers and left. Made my way to M&S where I got some more trousers and a pair of ultracomfy shoes, so took the Next trous back.

these are the shoes, for those into shoes

Wandered into the Apple Store on the way past. OOoh, teh shiny.

ok. Hands up. Who amongst you owns an iPod? Is the audio quality any good? I mean, really? Reviews are mixed to say the least.

I need to buy a new suit for work. I've only got one and it's getting to be a pain getting it cleaned.

I hate suit shopping. Last suit I bought was for my wedding.

Which gets me to thinking - I've really enjoyed the past three years of *not* wearing a suit for work. At least ties seem to have gone out of fashion.

Hmm. Part of me quite likes what I'm doing (bar the suit) and part of me thinks that I should be off doing something more interesting and exciting.

Hmm. Must be sunday. Never could get the hang of sundays.

of course, the question is, is it filed under 'anonymous_greg', 'Aranda, Greg', 'Greg Aranda' or 'Various Artists'?

Small cute Beanlettes want to know.

I love clouds.

that's the trouble with Scotland. Bloody bagpipers everywhere

:-)


he was actually really good, if a little surprising. Didn't really expect to find a fully kilted-up bloke playing the pipes in a random layby...

the Beans never let a little thing like persistent rain put them off enjoying a good beach.

After all, as Billy Connolly once remarked, there's no such thing as bad weather. Only the wrong clothes.


Did I mention that Billy used to stay in the lodge that we stayed in, many years ago?

oh, and anonymous_greg, you may be interested to hear that young Miss LB specifically requested your 'Everywhere it's Christmas' mix CD to listen to on our holiday.

She *adores* 'I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas'.

EB's favourite is 'Nuttin' for Christmas'

We listened to those two tracks a *lot* last week.

;-)

off to Basildon *again* tomorrow. This time they've hired a car for me, as mine is currently sat on our driveway, dripping an oily substance.

Which is not good.

So, I now have the use of a brand new 2 litre Mondeo Zetec TDCi for the rest of the week. It's very shiny and goes jolly quickly. :-)

In other news, I finally got a parcel which turned up last week when we were away - it's a fabulous mug from freyjakj featuring YT in a stern authorial pose as people at work kept nicking *my* mug. It makes me giggle, and is therefore A Good Thing.


Album du jour is Scarlett Johansson's 'Anywhere I Lay My Head', a self-funded disc of Tom Waits covers. It really is rather beautiful and melancholy, and you can get it on amazon's mp3 download thingy for £2.99.

I had a cunning plan today to use the rest of my Borders gift card towards a shiny ipod nano for me as you can use the cards online, but it turns out you can only use them at borders.co.uk, *not* borders entertainment. Boo and indeed hiss, cos I can't use it for DVDs either, only books.

Still, that's a whole heapin' helpin' of books to splash out on. First of which will be City of Thieves by David Benioff, cos nextian said it was dead good, like.

:-)

erm, that's it for now. Lots of photos from Scotland up on Flickr. I hope you're all well and have been playing nicely without me. I do miss you all when I can't get to LJ during the day, you know.

yours truly, inna new hat.

One should have a new hat for one's adventures, one finds.

:-)

autumnal leaves just starting to turn brown

we found this fantastic place on the way to Glen Shiel - hundreds and hundreds of little rock cairns. I'd got out of the car to take a photo of the view before I noticed that I was surrounded by them!

over the rainbow, in deepest, darkest Scotland.

I rather like my new wide-angle lens. :-)

home again, with about 800+ photos to sort through on my camera. For the first time, I went through more than one SD card. :-)

Don't worry, I won't post them all up here. Maybe one or three, once I've gone through them.

Scotland report: wet, with occasional rain.
Food report: belt size +1
drink report: hic

more later. Should I NaNo this year?

ooh, Alan Cumming on BBC4 (stop sniggering at the back there) doing a prog on Cabaret.

Alan is ace.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00nf012/The_Real_Cabaret/

oooh, pretty. Want

A Dinosaurian Desk Lamp Made From Lasers and Wood