Dave

Dave is coming round this morning to talk windows. I suppose I’d better tidy the place up a bit.

Wonder

Last night, when I got home from the pub, I logged on to the BBC website and watched the launch of the Ariane 5 rocket carrying the SMART 1 moon probe. I was watching events unfurl in real time, completely live, on a small portable device that sits on my lap. Sometimes it pays to stop and think about things like that.
What’s more, in a few weeks time, we will (hopefully) be watching live pictures from Mars. How cool is that?

Words

Handy advice from dictionary.com this morning, which I shall pass on to you – take care not to confuse the words "titivate" and "titillate". Hmm. Yes.

Beer

Beer tonight with Hamish, Ruth, Paul C, Natalie C, Kearn, Matt, Stein, Jeremy, Simon, Tanya, Terry, Kristian and other picture postcards.

Spend

So far this morning, I’ve spent getting on for half a month’s wages. Oops. To show for it, I have:

  • a pale charcoal grey pure wool suit, which is to be altered and will be ready on Wednesday morning. Bargain at £209 from Stephen Lawrence – reduced from £309.
  • a shirt, also from Stephen Lawrence. £59.
  • a new pair of smart black shoes, almost boots really, from Russell and Bromley. £125.
  • a pair of brown nubuck boots, totally lovely and adorable, also from Russell and Bromley. £140, including the insoles needed to make them fit more comfortably.
  • a gift for the wedding. Value not disclosed!
  • a new suitcase by Linea at Army and Navy. £80. My old soft case was getting a bit battered and the zips were beginning to fail. It doesn’t really fit the modern smart business image. So I’ve got myself a smart black job, the sort that has a handle and wheels, that is slightly rigid and should prevent the contents being crushed. I’ll need to do something to distinguish it in readiness for baggage reclaim, as the world and it’s wife has black bags that look just like it. I was tempted by the silver, but I could see from the display examples that it marked very easily.

Down to earth now, with a trip to Waitrose. I need to give them some money too.
And I can see why RBS Advanta have made the card with a corner cut off and transparent plastic – everywhere I went, as soon as I pulled it out of my wallet, everyone went "oooh! look at that! that’s funky! I want one!"

Card

My new RBS Advanta credit card has arrived, with a scarily large credit limit on it. It really does have the corner missing. Not only that, but it is transparent. Novelty value, or what?! But the main thing is my application was successful, and I can now exploit the 0% balance transfers to reduce my monthly outgoings.