Dated

Ages ago (I mean, like, years dude), I linked to this NSFW music video and thought it was really, um, kicking. It still is, but hasn’t it dated badly? I mean, who moves files around on 3.5in disks any more?
(Incidentally, in case you were wondering why I was thinking about this today, it’s because H and I had a conversation about the word "copacetic" the other day, and this choon features that word).

Live long and prosper?

Pill could extend life by thirty years. If this did come to pass, it would obviously only be affordable by the wealthy, so would increase social division. Not only that, but it would only work if people were in gainful employment for those extra years – no use expecting your pension fund to keep you going for all that extra time.

Heads up

Two new header graphics – hit refresh endlessly until you see Hels’s shades close-up and "…grayblog…" daubed on the roof of St Paul’s, Fathers4Justice-stylee.

Gathering storm

St Paul’s Cathedral, with a heavy dark shower cloud looming behind.
St Paul's Cathedral, 25 March 2005
I took this picture, then we quickly dashed for cover before the heavens opened.

Just like old times

Beer with Lord Percy, Lady Bren, Aris, Julie, Paul F and Mrs Graybo. Shame they didn’t bother to use dust sheets when they painted W2.
Chichester looks much like it was when I left – the new owner of my old flat hasn’t done anything to the exterior (like changing the windows) and doesn’t seem to have changed the curtains either. It was good to go back, though if time and finances permitted, it wouldn’t be quite so infrequent.

Quiet here…

…due to being away from the laptop, either due to work and non-work committments or due to DIY and gardening tasks, some of which resulted in downtime on my internet connection whilst cables were taken out of the way to facilitate painting. Anyway, since we last spoke, H and I have:

  • demolished the wood store in the garden
  • extended the outside dining area around the barbeque
  • created a new small flower bed by the outside dining area
  • planted various plants including Brachyglottis, Cytisus, arum lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica Crowborough), Oenothera, Osteospermum, a cardoon (Cynara cardunculus), burnt-sugar bush (Cercidophyllum japonicum), magnolia (Magnolia stellata), two clematis (the varieties Henryi and Piilu) and assorted herbs
  • sown seeds of coneflower (Rudbeckia) and sunflower
  • painted the woodwork on the stairs, in the porch and in the master bedroom
  • painted one interior wall of the conservatory – aqua, for turquoise fans
  • painted the troughs along the side of the house and part of the summerhouse
  • visited Borough Market and the Saatchi Gallery
  • spent a day with the in-laws/family.

The garden is certainly beginning to take shape now, particularly as the seeds that were sown last week are beginning to sprout. I’m fairly sure that there are going to be too many of some plants if all the seeds germinate – our small garden is unlikely to be able to accommodate 70 sunflowers – so some judicious thinning-out might be called for in a few weeks time (I expect I might be able to donate some seedlings, if they come out of the ground in good shape, to Sil – depends how they all grow). We also feel like we have made some progress on the house, although we have at least two more full days of painting in the conservatory and porch, just to complete what we have started. The bathroom and kitchen have both been put on the back burner for the time being – maybe we will tackle them as autumn projects before the dark nights set in.
There will be photos, certainly of our trip to the South Bank, and possibly, if I get round to taking some, of the garden.
Also, since we last spoke, my parents’ MP has caused a furore in the Tory party by speaking his mind and then standing his ground – more on this when I have a moment.