Snow, snow, glorious snow...

...nothing quite like it for making me glow.

The snow came as a wonderful surprise the other morning. I hadn't believed any of the forecasts and hadn't seen any of the snow falling. Most importantly, it took the edge off the January darkness as I got up. More please!

Sichuan Cuisine

I thought that our consumption of Chinese food to date had been fairly adventurous but last night took us by surprise.

After a few games of pool at the Huntley Street Student Union, we went up-market with a visit to Bar Shu in Soho. A couple of glasses of strong Chinese wine gave us the Dutch courage necessary to tackle the menu.

Skene selected pickled duck's eggs for his starter (described as China's blue cheese, subsequently discovered to be century-old eggs and strangely translucent and yet dark green when they came) whilst I settled for a type of salad consisting of pickled cucumbers, tofu, wood ear fungus and so on.

Skene then went a bit quiet when his main course arrived. A hot pot said to be "hot and numbing", it was a soup of chilli filled with tripe, offal, kidney, blood pudding and something reputed to be a lot like luncheon meat. It looked very, very hot indeed. Fortunately, a method of rinsing off the meaty bits was developed and Skene made good in-roads to the dish, impressing the waitress who had been rather unsure about his order in the first place.

Meanwhile, I enjoyed a dish of baby cuttlefish - my first taste of this shellfish, I was relieved to find that it was very different from the stuff that we used to feed to our budgerigars. In fact, they were a lot like squid. I opted not to consume any of the pickled bell peppers that came with them though.

High winds and high jinks

Skene said that, according to the fable of the oak and the willow, our fence would be just fine as long as it kept yielding. If only he could be right all the time.

A Year En Vacances

My first full year of annual leave and flexi-time is shaping up to be a year of adventure and exploration.

First on the agenda is a fortnight in Argentina - taking in Buenos Aires, the Sierra de Cordoba and the Iguazu Falls with a side trip to Montevideo, capital of Uruguay.

Shortly thereafter, we will be taking a road trip to Belgium, to stay in Bruges and explore the canals and coast and partake of the cheese, mussels and jenevers.

We're planning on a week on the boat - up to Hertford if the boat comes south or down through the Anderton Lift if not - and a week in the sun; maybe a Greek island, the Croatian coast or a quiet corner of Spain would fit the bill.

I also fancy a long weekend in Venice and a few days in Bath. Then I want to climb Snowdon, cycle Hadrian's Wall and walk the Ridgeway Trail.

Something tells me that I'll have to start planning for next year too...

What a Spectacle!

I have a new look for the New Year. Having been informed by the optician that, although my short-sightedness has almost disappeared, my eyes are increasingly rugby-ball shaped by reason of an astigmatism, I have invested in two new pairs of glasses.

Skene chose them so they were always going to be a bit radical. I don't think I would have selected a red, orange and yellow pair on my own. I might not even have dared go for a black pair with a white stripe without a bit of prodding. But that's what I ended up with. See what you think.

First, the more serious, black pair:



And then the more quirky pair:



The more observant reader may also notice that my hair has been drawn back into a rather classy chignon for the first time in ten years. Exciting times.

The rabbit's new tricks

Bonsai has two new tricks but, unfortunately, playing Scrabble isn't one of them.

Purring, though, is a pretty welcome development! In rabbits, purring takes the form of teeth chattering. We were a bit confused at first but understood eventually and are now devoting all our efforts to making it happen again.

The other discovery is a matter of increased obedience and, as such, came as quite a surprise. It seems that somebody, somewhere, once trained Bonsai to come to heel! I found this out quite by accident when I called out "heel Bonsai!" for my own amusement. I could hardly believe it when she came over!

Bonsai will hardly approach on demand even for a carrot so I stroked her and then moved to the other side of the room. I called her again. Lo and behold, she came loping over! I tried several more times and it really seems to work. It's remarkable that she's remembered how to do it for all this time!

Watch this video for our next challenge.

Creative Forces

Now that I no longer spend all my time thinking up elaborate defences for hardened criminals, I have more opportunity to put my imagination to better use.

The latest project chez nous is origami, thanks to an origami calendar. So far, we have folded a nightingale, a dog's head, a penguin, a sledge and a house. Coming up next is a bench. I'm particularly looking forward to water lilies and goldfish.

Here you can see the fruits of our labours.

It's also high time that the fridge poetry saw the light of day. There have been contributions from visitors and residents though some have been cannabalised over time. Check it out here.

A Quick Catch-Up

I don't intend this to become a seasonal round robin so I'll keep it short...

Here's a quick pictorial summary of what we've been up to over the last few months:

• A belated birthday trip to Amsterdam. Highlights included herring, nettle cheese, jenever, cycling down the River Amstel and the Van Gogh museum.
  
• A cultural weekend on the banks of the Thames for Open House Weekend.
  
• A long overdue trip to the seaside. A walk down the coast, a pint or two at a pub on the beach and then some very good seafood at the Royal Native Oyster Stores.
• A peek inside Battersea Power Station thanks to an exhibition of contemporary Chinese art.

And for a short account of our riotous Christmas dinner in London, click here.

New Year's Revolution

Skene and I decided to keep our New Year's resolutions fairly vague this year so that some level of compliance could be achieved at least.

Skene therefore intends to "be better". This is likely to involve:

1. Flossing his teeth more often.
2. Falling asleep on the night bus less regularly.
3. Climbing some more 6a routes.

I am going to "do some cool stuff". This will hopefully include:

1. Making nettle soup.
2. Going to the London Fields lido.
3. Climbing some more 5a routes.

I suppose that I should also attempt to re-acquaint myself with my own blog.

Watch this space for performance analysis in due course.