Terry Pratchett

According to today's Daily Telegraph, Terry Pratchett has a rare form of Alzheimer's.

Believe it or not, I've never read a single one of his books, although I have been intending to do so for quite a while. He started writing when he was 13, and he's 59 now. He has averaged 2 books a year since 1983, which means he has published at least 46. In fact, there are 40 Discworld books and I counted another 13 listed on Wikipedia, plus a whole list of books to which he's contributed.

I think I'd better start reading them at the beginning and work my way through them chronologically. It's a huge undertaking, but I'm hoping I'll manage it. It should be a real treat.

Christmas Cheer

With only 13 days left till Christmas, I've been working on a couple of articles about alcohol and how to stay safe.

The first article gives tips on how to stay safe while still enjoying the Holiday celebrations.

I used to think that if I went out and just had one glass of wine, I'd be consuming one unit of alcohol. Since doing the research on my articles, I've realised that this isn't necessarily the case. Wine can come in strengths that range from 7% to 14%. The bottle of red wine that I currently have open is 13.5%. The guidelines are based on a 125 ml glass of wine containing 8% alcohol. An equivalent amount of my wine would contain just under 1.7 units of alcohol! I've included the calculations in my second article.

Just click on the links to see the two articles.

Be safe this Christmas!

Chris Evans

I was just listening to Chris Evans on Radio 2, and he's running a segment called "How Deep Is Your Snow", words that were sung by several voices harmonizing haphazardly to the tune of "How Deep Is Your Love". He spoke to a woman who has an Ice Hotel in Lapland. After talking to her for a bit he asked her how deep her snow was, and she went outside to measure it and said it was half a metre deep.

The web address she gave took me to a website selling gingerbread houses, but I googled Ice Hotel Lapland and I found it here. I'm not sure if it's the same Ice Hotel as that run by the lady Chris Evans was talking to, but how many Ice Hotels are there? It looks quite amazing, and not all the furniture is ice, especially in the bedrooms and dining room, but the bar is completely made of ice. Exploring the site, it seems that there is an Ice Bar in London, which is something worth following up I think.

Back to the Chris Evans show, it seems he and/or someone else had their passport photos returned by the passport office because the flash from the camera glinted off the glass in their specs. Someone wrote in suggesting that just for the picture they should have their passport photos taken wearing spectacle frames without any lenses. Problem solved! Now that's what I call thinking outside of the box.

I must say that I do enjoy listening to Chris Evans, he always makes me smile.

Christmas in Milton Keynes - Part 2

I went to Milton Keynes Midsummer Place Shopping Centre this afternoon. The light show was pretty fantastic.













But that wasn't all: I came across the famous Concrete Cows, grazing at the foot of an old oak tree around which the shopping area was built.














Around a corner is a mechanical clock, with a frog that blows bubbles on the hour. Children wait expectantly for the hour to strike. Here he is just before 6 pm.










When the minute hand touches 12, the frog moves, music tinkles, the frog opens his mouth and blows bubbles, and the fan unfurls until it forms a complete circle in the background. Then it all goes into reverse.




Click on a picture to enlarge.

Christmas Cards

Every day brings a few more Christmas cards from friends and family far and near. I'm so enjoying reading their news and views. Some of the news is sad, but mostly it's happy.

But I do have a confession to make, I haven't yet written one single Christmas Card!

Last year I was so methodical. I spent a specific block of time each day until they were all written. This year I've decided to go for the Marathon approach. I'll dedicate a day within the next week, gather everything I need, and I'll start and keep going until they're all done. I won't mail a single one until every last one has been written, and then I'll mail them all together.

I'm not very good at finishing things, so if nobody gets a card from me this year, it'll mean I haven't finished them yet. There is some method behind my madness, though. The reason I'm not going to mail a single card until I've written them all is that it gives me time to decide whether I want to write a 'dear all' letter this year, and if so, who I'd like to send it to. If the cards are all done and in their unsealed envelopes, I can write, print off and add to any or all of them as the mood takes me.

Christmas in Milton Keynes

The Christmas decorations are up in Middleton Hall, inside Milton Keynes Shopping Centre.

This year's theme is Wind In The Willows, and the Hall is filled with scenes from the book played out by moving figures and words from the book displayed and recorded.

Here's one of the displays: "On the Open Road"

Milton Keynes

I took my camera to Milton Keynes the other day, and got a bit snap happy.

This statue, of a couple in conversation, in the Theatre Area, captured my imagination. I think it's cloak and dagger stuff, and they're plotting something secret. Notice the lit floor inside the circle of seats under the shelter.

This is Milton Keynes Theatre. The wooden construction in front of the theatre is a piece of art with a door at the bottom so that you can enter and climb to the top. The pink building to the left of the tower is an art gallery.