Dull, drizzly and cold. I don't follow the weather forecasts so I have no idea if we are due some snow soon. I have a long journey on Friday so I hope it holds off until then. After that, let it snow let it snow let it snow - Raptor permitting, of course.

Sounds like a lucky escape, if you ask me.

I Know There Was Something - The Mighty Wah!

Really. I had the chance in my 30s, for a mate's stag weekend, but my ex wife wouldn't let me go because she thought I'd be tempted by 'certain other goods', lol. And to be fair, at that stage in our relationship, I probably would. My current wife seems to be on a bit of a Thai discovery mission at the moment so we had Chicken Tom Yum last night (edit, with coconut rice) which was quite nice. I'm beginning to see the attraction of Thai food. What else should we try, CP?

Thankfully he appears to have STFU now, after we put him in his place.

I wouldn't know man, I've never been, hard as it is to believe.

Haha no, I took it with me for the journey, which was a good thing because it helped me through a really bad selection of CDs I'd chosen for the drive.

Thank you for your kind words, David. The lack of similar responses proves my point, I think. Well at least my wife was relieved. After she had finished laughing about my Secret Santa gift, I told her about the episode and she looked very shocked and then started crying. At first I thought she too was disappointed I hadn't been splatted, but then she hugged me really tight and said 'please be careful, Old Shep. You are everything to me'. She has never said this before, or anything even vaguely resembling it. I was quite touched.

I got a lousy gift in last night's Secret Santa. I don't know how other people usually play this, but this was the 'evil' version where you can steal other people's gifts if you prefer them, although the gift can be re-stolen from you, and the second stealer gets to keep it. The first thing I unwrapped was kind of a breakfast box, with shortbread, 2 pots of jam, 2 types of tea and a tartan mug. Now I could have lived without the tartan for reasons which should be obvious, but on the whole the package appealed to me, so when it was soon stolen I was mortified, especially as there was nothing out already that was worth stealing (one gift was a boxed toilet roll, with an accompanying scatalogical booklet called '50 Shades Of Brown', lol). So the replacement gift I unwrapped turned out to be a Giant Beer Glass, capable of holding 2.5 pints. Whooppee, I don't drink beer. I will probably give it to the wife to use as a vase, although I very rarely buy her flowers, and maybe it can double up as an impossible-to-overfill bed-side piss-pot, for those cold winter nights when you just can't face the icy walk to the bathroom. But it is top-heavy, so it could easily be toppled. I could also use it in the summer for Pimms, but not if I've been pissing in it all winter lulz. Oh the gift I provided was a 35cl bottle of Jagermeister, which was the 1st gift to be successfully re-stolen. By a chick. I had wanted to get a small bottle of mezcal con gusano but they didn't have any.

Yesterday's xmas party meal was very nice. Beef bourguignon with dauphinois potatoes. Sadly a total lack of veg, I don't understand why (all the options were served with no discernible veg content, unless you count onions and sprinklings of fresh herbs). But although I didn't say so, it wasn't as impressive as my version. My main quibbles were the tiny pea-sized shallots, if that's what they were, but mainly the fact that the mushrooms & onions didn't taste like they had been pre-fried in brandy & butter before insertion into the pot. Unforgivable. The starter was a tapas-like affair, featuring salami & prosciutto salad, chorizo, meatballs in a nice sauce and, top of the bill, Dutch 'croquetta', which were similar to normal croquette potatoes, but had chopped chicken, cheese and very sloppy mash inside. Simply divine!

I am happy because the driver of the articulated lorry that spent at least 20 seconds on the wrong side of the road heading straight towards me an hour ago realised his error just in time to return to his side of the road. He wasn't even overtaking anything. Totally empty 1am road. I was so dumbfounded that it didn't even occur to me to flash my lights at him. Fucking foreign drivers. Now I'm sure there are a few here who wish he hadn't pulled away in time. To you, I say this: TOUGH SHIT.

aaah.... So why didn't he call himself Joe (Everton) then? Sorry joe

I am going to a client's party later, the only one I get to go to but it was awesome last year and we're going to the same bistro. This year I have ordered beef bourguignon, with dauphinois potatoes I think. It will be interesting to see if it's as good as the BB I made a few months ago, but if it isn't I wouldn't be rude enough to say so. I might just scowl enigmatically.

oops why?

Joe you should get one of those scooters, my daughter has a Hello Kitty one but I'm sure they do more masculine versions. You could even buy one and customise it with LZ and LFC stickers.

hey man give it a chance, it's still early

cool

Are they good? What are the pics?

Or the last

GE was also in Hall & Oates for a while, I remember him wailing away epically on Adult Education on that live album they did with the Temptations.

I'd hit it

Despite eating fairly neutral food yesterday, today I am doing lots of stupefyingly noxious farts