The shiny new software

With the shiny new toy, I also got some shiny new software. Some photo software even a big dummy like me can use! And I've been using it to make some of my OK photos look quite pretty.

Like this one:


Or this one:


Or even this one:

I have to stop now because Top Gear is on. :)

Tuesday's book is Mystic River

By Dennis Lehane. I haven't seen the film, have no idea if it's any cop. But the book is you can take my word for it. Good reading.

Nice cup of tea

Can you get tea on national health? You should. It is well known for its cure-all properties.

Is cold here this evening. I had to wear my gloves to drive home tonight. Dog is cold too.

Hubby at supermarket. I have asked him to get soup ingredients. It is definitely soup weather...

France effing Telecom!!

We got a letter today from the world's most mishap-prone telecom company - France Telecom, informing us that they had effectively taken note of our cancellation of that special offer for unlimited calls practically anywhere for not-much-per-month. Except we never asked to cancel it... Turns out that the fool who entered the subscription activation on 6 October didn't do his job properly and so the damn thing never got activated. Now given that I thought we had unlimited calls, I have been calling unlimitedly. So who agrees that the rather massive phone bill we are about to receive (and will not be paying) should be docked from this chap's wages? His name is Jean-Jacques Jacquet. I will be finding out where he lives so I can organise a campaign to make his life a misery (as if working at France Telecom wasn't punishment enough).

The book that inspired the name of this blog

Attention All Shipping by Charlie Connelly is an entertaining record of the author's journey around all those far-off and remote sounding places you hear in the shipping forecast. It's informative and quite funny at times. Mr Connelly's style is easy to read and the whole thing is well worth a look. You will certainly learn something and you might even remember it!

Such a lot has been happening

Haven't blogged for quite a while, there's been a lot going on.

Start of November we were joined by Mum and Dad, Matt and Marianne, and Macleod and headed off to Blois for mother-in-law's "wedding party". It was quite a lot more fun than we expected! Was a pretty tiring weekend though!

Then Hubby forgot my birthday.

Since then:

We had dinner round at Sophie and Olivier's. As usual, was lovely to see them and they entertained us with their holiday photos which are pretty amazing. Anthony and Stéphanie were there too and that was nice.

I did management training at work. Nice to have two days off :) And the course content was quite interesting too. Hopefully I'll maintain my current level of good will to put some of the stuff we covered into action.

My shiny new toy has arrived. Am using it right now. Like very much :)

Yesterday we did the wine fair. No Mum and Dad this year which is a big shame. But they sent us a shopping list and we went with Stéphan, Hélène, and Jean-Charles. And despite me having said that we were not going to buy any posh wine that you have to keep for ages before drinking, Hubby went and bought posh wine you have to keep for ages before drinking. !!

Also:

Hubby decided he was proper fed up at work and was going to look for another job. And then decided that maybe he'll stick around a bit longer because maybe things might improve. That rather deflated my balloon of hope that maybe we could find him a job in Scotland and escape...

Mum and Dad brought our John Lewis wedding gifts with them. That was fun. All our presents are lovely. Thank you everyone!

Doggy is full of beans. Her coat is starting to grow back over her leg but still seems very thin on her tummy. Fortunately the weather has been ridiculously mild so far. Well, fortunately for her but not really for all the beasties and birdies, and flowers, who will all get a big shock when it eventually turns cold.

And that's all I can remember for now.

Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday to me.

Am quite drunk. Hubby has been plying me with alcohol so I'll gloss over him semi-forgetting my birthday...