Rare-breed pork chops bought from the butcher at home in Lincolnshire last week for dinner tonight in the Netherlands The pork here is shocking, and mostly reared indoors. These tasted soooo good.

[pen] Is it me, or is "rare-breed" pork so ubiquitous that one wonders just how "rare" these breeds are? It might just be a Berkshire thing, to be honest.

[Geo] Are you singing the second line of The Proclaimers' "I'm on my way"?

Puns. Endless puns. and reading back up the page I'd put a word in for Iain (M) Banks as a SF author worth reading... Also, should it be "an SF author"?

Listening to TMS at work

Hidden text

That's "Test Match Special". The BBC's incomparably excellent radio commentary on England's international cricket matches

[Geo] Not fair! It must give us two guesses! You are doing either:
a) Your Elvis Presley warm-ups prior to opening your Las Vegas drive-thru Chapel of Burnin' Love for the day

or

2) Your Tommy Cooper wind-up to the eggs/tray/water-filled glasses trick.

Discovering that my "Ten Years Without Gnawing A Leg Off" certificate bears the notorious doctored version of the city seal, in which the minuteman depicted on one side seems very pleased indeed to see the indian on the other.

Hidden text

Even when honoring me they give me the shaft.

Also, knowing the word for petrichor. :-)

[SM] Excellent, on both counts.

Certain TV show theme tunes. Today's nominee, even though I only ever watched about two shows, is the Dexter Theme Tune. A fun little track, that one.

[Simons Mith] Good one. I'll volley that back with the "Morse" theme. I'm particularly fond of the bit where the French Horns swell up. Into tubas, presumably. But then they'd be French Potatoes I suppose. Musical theory was never my strong suit.

Riding on new bicycle tyres. Mm, pumped up really hard.

I'm not sure how I feel about walking through an antiques fleamarket and thinking, not once but several times, "that's not old, I had one of those!" A box of metal puzzles that I'm sure was exactly the same make and design as one my brother had, a set of mathematical instruments, manual sewing machines just like my aunt's, a metal right-angle just like the one my father made in the army (and which I still have), and of course any number of slide rules.

Doing sums in my head faster than someone else does them with a calculator e.g. deducting VAT.

The Alps in summer. The really green bits. With the cowbells. And the wildflowers. Don't care if it is like the Sound of Music.

What!?!?!? No! That cannot go unanswered!

Ripping the living bejaysus out of any recalcitrant home fixture with my mighty Tiger Saw prior to replacing it with one that works.

Curses! I never thought of using my angle grinder on that bag...

Life has become a lot simpler since I realized that 90% of the time, preserving the parts that you are replacing is a waste of time. New faucet required? No more struggling with claw wrenches in hard-to-reach places to remove water supply risers. Now I loosen the retaining nuts enough to lift the faucet up from the sink and Mister Tiger Saw has me doing the installation part in minutes. Light fixtures I fitted ten years ago won't take the new lightbulb de jour anyway so I just bin 'em and start over.

Thought of you the other day, gil, when Mrs Stevie arranged for me to go Karting.

In a Lamborghini Gallardo.

I am jealous. I hope a detailed account will appear in the Occasional Stevie.

It's a couple of years since I karted, due to various injuries and to other members of the Fugitives team moving to different pastures, but I haven't yet given up. I believe that the karting experience, at its best, is the ideal training ground for f1 drivers, as well as being a lorra fun for novices and experienced drivers alike.

Well, they marked out a track that prevented anyone from getting into third gear but it was still more fun than a poke in the eye. I was completely overwhelmed by the experience and forgot to be cool for the camera. Here's a link to the video library of the event and I was number L75 - right at the top of the page.

I finally watched your video, and admired the progress from uncertainty to confidence to pushing the limits. Occasional squeaks of wheelspin, and the casual enquiry "Anyone ever spin out?", followed by serious attempts to do so.

It was a lorra-lorra fun. I recommend it to all.

A 60 Mb fibre connection. Click — web page appears! Click — video plays! 100MB uploads to Dropbox in seconds!

[Raak] Grrrrrrr! Still, I get fresh air and no traffic instead.

[Phil] I have those as well. :)

[Raak] Hmmm, I have no chance of anything over 3Mb for the next decade as far as I can tell. Unless I move house.

The sound of a Mellotron's "orchestral strings" voice. Sounds nothing like strings but is entirely wonderful when done right.