well i can take some time on doing a posting, live, as opposed to writing a text file and pasting it in after the fact; i’m logged in downloading the MacOS 10.2.2 update for my newly reinstalled imac (much nicer than 10.1 was) and this will take some time given that i still have a 56k modem and am pulling about 70Mb.

motorcycling is absolutely amazing at blowing away the cobwebs of the mind.

i was planning today to go on quite a long trip, however the lure of the lie-in was too great even if i got to bed at 2300 last night – there’s been too many late-late nights (++0200h) recently, so i think it was necessary – so i finally kitted-up and got out of the house around noon, had a blast for a bit, and then nipped over to bracknell to meet up with friends, iain and charlotte rillie.

chas was in with one of their two progeny, the other off at legoland, and iain was playing a double stint for their church’s band. over tea and chitchat, chas and i swapped some interior decorating notes. when iain arrived an hour or so later we wound up planning for him to come over and help me remove my bedroom radiators, the better to start painting the main bedroom next week.

colours and stuff are already all sorted out, so god willing by the end of the month i’ll have managed the first half of the bedroom makeover. the second half will have to wait for springtime, involving a reflooring exercise, new skirting, and something nice from http://www.ironbed.com/

planned and chatted about a whole pile of things with chas & iain – building a flight case for a telescope, proper construction of garden fencing – and then i belted homewards for high tea.

having pine-forest-scented coll fresh air rammed into your face at 60mph is a great invigorator, and i wonder if perhaps I should have been riding some more over the past month.

anyway – got home feeling creative, and lacking a musical bent with which to explore my muse (seem to be very popular amongst my friends at the moment) i instead whipped up a foccacia dough and flavoured it with rosemary, tomato and stilton and hav to go fetch it out of the oven, excuse me for a moment.

(…returning…)

the home decorating experiment will be quite timely – work has settled-down until the end of the year, i am adequately busy for the moment, and would benefit from something non-computerish in the evenings. experimental cooking has served me well for the past week in terms of keeping me busy, (eg: fried tiger prawns over rocquette salad and a bed of rice, with thai dressing; steamed steak & kidney pudding; roasted fennel and tomatoes med-style, with ham, crouton and poached egg) but there’s only so far one can go with foodieism each week without exhasuting the fun aspect of it.

i could never be a professional chef in the same way that it would be very hard for me to be a professional programming grunt; this from a person who will merrily generate code by the megabyte yet hates being forced to do it.

it has to be my code, my idea, to be fun.

i enjoy learning, knowing and practicing the techniques of cooking, however, and i do try to ensure that when I do, the results are of a high – aspirationally high – standard. when i achieve it, that is what especially pleases me.

being a dilettante who can occasionally outpace the pros.

more later.