The earthy smell and steaming stacks of the sugar factory 3km from the back of our house (and part of our view), which has started up again with the start of the local sugar beet harvest. It'll run until April.

I daren't mention Wales beating England at rugby, as I know it's not an everyday thing, even though it is rather satisfyingly frequent.

Long phone call last night which means that friend I've had since I was 11 and her family are coming to the Netherlands spend New Year with us.

Muscovado sugar. Very naughty stuff. Too bad.

Watching puppies sleep/lie down peacefully.

[Phil] Is that first one? Discovering I can write on my new tablet using my fat finger, even the HTML.

[pen] Yes, and what a smashing one he is too.

[Phil] Noo, I mean the first smile!

[pen] Ah, no it's not. They're much more regular now though :)

YouTube Fail Videos, especially the ones in which a dog gets the short end of whatever. Cats pushing dogs downstairs, dogs running full-tilt into glass storm doors, dogs being sucked into black holes. That sort of thing.

Every time I hear the phrase "There's more than one way to skin a cat. It reminds me of the good times.

[Stevie] Dogs in boots!

(Stevie) Try chimps, gorillas etc and mirrors.

A seafood platter on a Spanish beach front. (Why does eating seafood in Spain feel better than anywhere else?)

Watching Maggie Smith on Downton Abbey. Wait, what? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

It's Easter!!!

Space 1889 and Delta Green. Reality. Who needs it?

Sitting in a ball chair. I found one in a flea market, of all places. I've wanted one ever since seeing No.2's chair in "The Prisoner" and discovering it was a real thing, and I was very tempted, but it wouldn't really fit in my house anywhere.

[Raak] Change your house! (I mean rearrange/reorganise the furniture) It can always be changed back if you change your mind. Things can always be bought and sold.

[pen] I also discovered that you cannot read in a ball chair, unless I installed some sort of interior light. Can't really listen to music either without a set of speakers in there as well. But for shutting out the world and relaxing, there's nothing like it.

Sitting in my very own ball chair. As far as I can tell from pictures on the web, this is the exact Eero Aarnio design. I might velcro a battery-powered reading light to the roof.

"I am Number 2."
    "Who is Number 1?"
"You are Number 6."
    "I am not a number, I am a free man!"
**mocking laughter**

I do not have sufficient security clearnce to view that image.

[SM] Only Number 1 may see that image.

Ah, some setting on my web server that doesn't like people linking to my pictures. It might work if you open it in a separate window.

Putting in a bunch of minimum bids on fancy stuff on eBay thinking 'that'll never work' and winning all of them. I needed another four pairs of shoes.

Village shops that not only have the cake-shaped Tupperware box that you need this afternoon in stock, but also gift-wrap the tea towels you bought for your sisters.

[Raak] Now all you need is a dial-under-the-base telephone, an Astro-lamp aka Lavalamp, a golfing umbrella, a weather balloon and some fishing line to tie it to your ankle and you are done (I assume you already have a suitable blazer). If I were any more envious of you I'd turn into a seethe. Will you be constructing a pit c/w hydraulic lift so you can rise from the mysterious Stygian depths seated in your magnificent chaise-ballon when greeting "guests"?