Spreading Some Podcast Love

On a bad day I can be stuck in a car for 3 hours a day and the East Anglian landscape isn't that interesting, especially when it is shrouded in darkness. This is where the iPod and fm broadcaster have proved themselves invaluable. With 22 Gigs of music in my iTunes I'm not going to be stuck for something to listen to but really what I've been stuffing the pod with have been podcasts.

I've been listening to Astronomy Cast since its inception, probably the best one in its field, half hour programmes that explain the cosmos about us in an entertainingly rigorous manner but with non of the brain hurting maths.

I owe a vote of thanks to Stephanie as it was she that put me on to the Skeptic's Circle and through that I discovered "The Skeptic's Guide To The Universe" by the New England Skeptical Society. Possibly the best of the sceptical podcasts available, I'm slowly working my way through their back catalogue. It is often very funny although very USA focused as you would expect, but leaving aside the debates over ID which fortunately hasn't made too much of an impact on science here, most of what they talk about has an universal application.

And lastly, but not leastly of my big three podcasts; it has to be the Mark Kermode Film Review on Radio 5 Live. Wittertainment at it's best. I don't go to see that many films at the cinema but I've found that is no impediment to enjoying Mark's and Simon Mayo's bickering as or guessing when Mark will manage to make some reference to The Exorcist.

Podcasts on iTunes

Astronomy Cast
Skeptic's Guide To The Universe
Radio 5 Live: Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews

One Month In

We've been married for a month! yay and general rejoicing at Envérité acres but it is amazing how life does settle back down to something tending to normal. The gift list presents arrive on Saturday and we have the fun of trying to fit 1 and 1/2 pints of stuff into a 1 pint storage area. We've taken down the cards and posted our thank yous apart from to the very kind person/people who got us the fondue set but neglected to put their name to the present so if you know who it is please let me know.

We haven't printed out the best of the photos yet as we are waiting on a CD that my brother is putting together of his photos. The cake has been eaten (top layer will be kept until we crack, probably about March 08) It all feels a bit normal now, which is good I suppose....

if we were still at a high level of excitement we wouldn't be able to enjoy Christmas, and we got the most fabby Christmas decoration the other day, when I get a chance to see the house in daylight I shall take a picture to show you all.

The One Where We Go Christmas Shopping

We did our bit for Norwich's economy again today, we broke the back of the Christmas shopping and hopefully got a few ideas for the rest of it We then went to see Beowulf which Becky liked but I really didn't enjoy it. The computer animation was competent but still not quite good enough if you are going for the naturalistic look, too many of the characters looked dead eyed but I don't like blood and gore being a bit of a squeamish type which set me against the film and made it too difficult for me to forgive the bits which were just inexcusably bad or unintentionally funny. Grendel's mother materialising with integral 4in heels probably says more about the fantasies of the animators than anything else and Ray Winstone's accent just made me think of dodgy east end gangster films even though I've never seen any. But Becky enjoyed herself and we had a satisfying dinner at Nando's which was nice.

We Is Watching The Football

Lampard has just scored off a penalty and yes it was a penalty Simunic did tug on Defoe's shirt. I'll give that Defoe fell down artistically, a bit like a maiden aunt at her first Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition but it was still a penalty.

My team, Scotland, failed to qualify over the weekend, Norn Iron and Wales are out too. We, Scotland can take heart in that we are a team from a small country who performed well above expectations in a tough group, but *sob* we still dinnae qualify.

If England go out then..... The last thing the Russians did well was poison the sushi and that's not a recognised move in any sport.

21:22 Peter Couch has just become our second favourite lanky Englishman.

Ohhhh it's all exciting.

Update - but ultimately England were crap.

Just Act Normally

I've got draft post about the day before and the wedding itself but time seems to be running away with me so I think I'll save them until later like next year. Simon is editing down the yards of digi video we recorded on holiday and occasionally cackling to himself so he must be up to something. We had a lovely time on holiday there are photos to admire here and this is my favourite picture of Simon.

I iz not a dedly sin

moar funny pictures

W-Day minus 2

And now...

The marathon wedding blog(s)

This mostly for me, I'm doing it mostly because I want to have words written somewhere to spark my memories.

I'm going to start at Thursday...

I had originally planned to take Thursday off so that I had a couple of days to sort things out for the big day but due to the car breaking down the week before I was beginning to run out of leave so I went in to work that morning, 25 October 2007.

It was a mistake, for the last few weeks neither Simon or I had been sleeping properly nerves, worries about the wedding organisation and just general excitedness had left the both of us very tired. I wasn't very much use when I got in, I felt exhausted. The office had decorated my desk and done their worst with clip art to let everyone in the building know I was getting married. But I didn't feel happy, I couldn't properly appreciate the effort that they had gone to as I just wanted to curl up into a ball under the desk and sleep.

They did a presentation for me, the boss told everyone that we had met through the internets blogs, as an aside he said that he had been trying to find Si's blog but hadn't succeeded! That gave me a moment of sheer blind panic but Ady said that it didn't show.

A little while later when trooped back in the office, Simon rang me to see how I was doing on my last day at work as a single woman... I cried down the phone at him. It wasn't that I was upset about getting married, it was exhaustion and temporary misery due to lack of sleep. By the time Si had cheered me up and my colleagues had decided that it was safe to come back to my end of the office I had come to my senses and took the rest of the day off.

I don't really remember the rest of day I'm pretty sure I spent a lot of the afternoon napping and the evening tidying and planning what we would be doing on the Friday.

Yey, The Mighty Boosh Are Back

BBC3 tonight at 10pm I think, for those of you without freeview or living in the colonies then get you over to their mini site on the BBC.

Simon is out at a black tie do with work and I am here at home in my pjs and the metaphorical curlers and bloody Autumn watch on the telly. It's a bit odd because it's normally me who is out with work :) But I do have the boosh to look forward too.

Just A Quicky

We are back, Simon is snoring besides me but I can't get to sleep. It feels very weird to be home, last time I was here with Simon we weren't married and now we are - It's huge a fundamental difference and it's so weird, I suppose it will sink in properly now we are back. We've got tons to do tomorrow, washing clothes sorting out the post, up loading pictures to flickr, ringing around to let people know that we made it and I've got emails to two old school friends in America to write and hundreds of blog posts to read

Rules For Being A Naturist

1. Be middle aged

2. Be saggy all over if you happen to be stilled toned now that you are staring 50 in the face have a Brazilian or the male equivalent the guys/chicks will love it.

3. Don´t sit still, stand when eating your lunch, applying your suntan lotion. Walk about. A lot, strut your sagging stuff along the water´s edge at every opportunity you get.

4. Don´t be British, the years of cold wet summers mean that we are now physically incapable of airing all to the sun and too many repeats of the carry on films make us deeply embarrassed at the thought of slipped bra strap let alone it all hanging free. No be German or Swedish instead, decades of easy access to saunas and a fresh air movement make it so much easier.

5. Go on holiday to the Canaries.

¡Hola!

One of the beauties of using a Spanish keyboard is that you don´t have to search for hours for the shortcuts to ñ ç or ¿. We are slowly going a very British pink, the water is bracingly cold first thing in the morning becoming bearably cold by mid afternoon. We have been busy doing almost nothing at all just eating, the occasional swim and drink. There are loads of bars and in the dining room they have fruit juices, water, coffee, beer and wine red rose and white on tap and self service. Water is probably the hardest drink to get your hands on which is slightly dangerous as the temptation just to have San Miguel all day is rather tempting.

Oh and they have the internets, only 4 machines which are usually in use but it´s the height of the day here so most people are either eating, having a nap or soaking up those extra strong rays. Which is probably where we will be heading a few minutes.