Happy New Year, everyone. So far so good - friends over for dinner on NYE, followed by fireworks just outside the house - as did everyone else in the street. Together, they all made a fantastic display. And last night, an authentic Chinese meal, made by one of our lovely houseguests, who brought a box of cooking kit with her on the ferry over from England so she could cook for us. Five dishes... and all of it scrumptious. I cooked the rice - and made some strawberry ripple icecream with the last of last summer's strawberries from the freezer. Roll on spring...

Anyone home? Me again... first day back in the office for me this morning (it means leaving home before the sun is up, but I caught sunrise along the motorway - most spectacularly red for half a minute or so before the partial eclipse which made it all dark again) and apart from my PC forgetting to show me the server where all my work is stored, I think everything is exactly as I left it, almost three weeks ago. So... how was it for you?

yep, everything in my office is exactly as I left it last night :-)

Not all of us can find a full-time job! (and I had to forego a week's leave in October because of a magazine deadline and add the days off onto my Xmas leave - which did rankle a bit as I was denied an autumn trip to England!)

It's still a Bank Holiday here!

No Uni until next week. Bloody lazy are us students. I decided to take a trip to London. Will be visiting a certain crescent, although will avoid the transport museum, as it is overpriced.

Do strawberries have nipples? BTW I didn't know banks could go on holiday.

If there's something catching, I think I need to stay away from these forums and Gier's posts. They are quite crazy!

Isn't it lovely and warm today! 12.3 degrees already, and it's not even 11am :-)

I went out on an errand without a coat this morning. 10C here in Zuid Holland - balmy!

I have been knocked sideways by the 'flu. Lying in bed MCing on my mobile.p

[Software] Is a 'mobile p' the same as a gazunder?

Software, did you eat any Spam while sick?

[Giertrud] Never touch the nasty stuff. I saw Spamalot on Broadway in one of the pre-opening shows. Got real cheap tickets and had a great time!

Burns night tonight - hope you're all practising your 'Address to a Haggis'.

I forgot. I was shopping for shoes on Ebay. I haven't yet seen a haggis on sale in the Netherlands.

[Pen] It's OK, there's still time to go out and kill a sheep.

I tried vegetarian haggis last night, which was nicer than I feared. Might try the real thing next year.

[INJ] They only keep'em as pets here. I can't actually buy lamb in our local supermarket. Fools...

[Pen] Easier to catch one then.

Weekending. Belated Christmas gift giving at sister-in-laws this evening.

Has no-one really had anything to say in the past week? Hmmph! Not much to report here and no real plans for the weekend - but a MAHOOSSIVE basket of ironing to do.

That's what rugby matches on the TV are for.

And make it more of a chore than it needs to be? I'd prefer a spaghetti western or WW2 film...

Nah, sport's more efficient to iron to. You can hear from the commentary whether it's a bit you really want to be watching and if you miss anything significant they'll almost certainly repeat it.

Ironing? What's that? In the states, it's the Super Bowl this weekend. Lots of handegg.

Mmm . . . sounds like it could hold a lot of pretzels.

(pen) I'm building a telescope. It has a 5" lens that someone gave me but of course you have to mount it, as Andy Gray would say.

The weather is lovely here, now that it has stopped raining. For the moment.

Im just going to say something so KagomeShuko's portrait of Father Christmas finally disappears off the top of the page.
This may involve gratuitous line breaks

or even spurious paragraph breaks
but who cares?
In other news, it's fair in Rotterdam this morning - sunny, blue skies, 8C, and the hellebore in the garden is about to bloom - for the first time in 2 years.

It worked!

Now you can go fishing by crushing the hellebore and throwing into a pool. I am unreliably informed this will 'stun' the fish.

A quick bit of market research. If you went into a cafe/bar at lunchtime for a panini, what filling would you want?

If I went in just once then probably something in the Ham & Cheese line - if I went in regularly I'd want a selection. Last Saturday Mrs INJ and I shared a Mushroom and Gorgonzola and a Tuna Melt.