…post-christmas update, i think.

ummmm – I didn’t do very much.

the weekend before christmas was spent with my sister, her hubby, my aunt and my father, having a very nice roast goose en famille – but after returning home from that I didn’t do much other than to sort out gifts for all the people who were getting them, and buying lots and lots of new clothes.

lots of clothes, indeed. something of a wardrobe overhaul. including the gifts, my VISA bill in the new year will be in the multiple four figures, but i am having a private sweepstake with myself as to whether i’ll reach £5000.

this sartorial largesse was inspired not by any particular new year’s resolution, but instead the observation that doing myself up in a jacket/shirt/shoes ensemble for the office christmas lunch was sufficient to raise my status from the usual geek social reject into something of a conversation piece.

“hey”, thinks i, “this is worth further experimentation”.

hence purchase of multiple new shirts, a new jacket in a merlot/aubergine/eggplant chenile, evening tie, waistcoat, new dress shoes, socks, and significant amounts of throwing-out of old clothes. further updates as news warrants.

as far as christmas toys go, my sister probably wins the best-present prize of a garlic-chopper which renders cloves into tiny diced cubes about 1mm on the side. there are times that this could prove especially useful – i am imagining infusions, sauces and dressings for salads and meats – but i suspect that the sharp tang of raw garlic will require careful moderation.

toys i’ve bought for myself?

apple keynote, apple panther, a couple of logitech USB webcams (one for laptop, and one to slice/dice for astrophotography), books, dvds, and — something that i’ve wanted for some time — noise-cancelling headphones.

bose ones seemed terribly expensive, but the sennheiser pxc250s seemed to get the next-best writeups on the web. they sound good, come with a convenient travel case, and reduce the harsh aircon/fan/harddisk roar of the office lab, to a mild sussuration.

80 quid or so, after haggling.

i bought a autogyro kite before christmas – [www.impress-group.co.uk] – assembled it, but am going to have to take it somewhere with laminar windflow to get it going – a trip to the local schoolfields had the blades turning with a satisfyingly chopperlike whirrrrr, however the crosswinds around the buildings made it too unstable to fly.

i was hoping to get to white horse hill to give it a go, but alas christmas and subsequent boxing day were wet and blah; in consequence my kite flying didn’t go far, but my kitchen cupboards have never been so organised…