Disappointing, though hardly unexpected-or unsurprising- the news that Morgan Tsangirai has pulled out of the Zimbabwe "elections". As I drove to church this morning, I heard on the news fears about the police moving in at a sports stadium

How sad. Esbjörn Svensson, a third of the fabulous Esbjörn Svensson Trio , has died in a scuba accident . So I guess I won't be watching them again live at the Sage next spring. Was worth the queue to meet him the first time though. Lis

Apropos of I can't quite remember what, I had a conversation a while ago with Jane and Elliott about how a nose job can utterly confuddle people's sense of their identity in a way that they didn't expect, even given the nose they wanted.

For all those of you who believe that SecondLife is a 'game' or that everyone has a perfect Barbie-esque look and shape, here's a fantastic video from Rob Wright. He expresses it below more eloquently than I, but I am fascinated by this,

Whilst learning about machines in order to build and script them in the virtual factory, I've been submitted to - amongst others - this. Some of it is fascinating, but my, some of it doesn't half encourage you to cook fresh....

Yesterday morning, as I drifted in and out of sleep/consciousness curled up on the sofa under a cocktail of drugs intended to give me a voice to sing with last night, I had Saturday Morning Kitchen on in the background, and I dreamt they showed you h

...for that special present... check out Toplots.co.uk for something different. I can recommend a personal tour of Durham Cathedral and Deanery , open for bidding from the 3rd of June, but there are lots of other options if you prefer lawnmowers or

Oh dear. I appear to have turned into a geek. Second Life was all very well when I was relaxing in a hot tub on the beach, or modelling an evening gown collection almost as extensive as my real life one, but recently I've become a geek. Officiall

It's not generally allowed to take pictures inside the Cathedral, and so usually you get to see the standard shots. But sometimes, even when you're so familiar with the place that you almost could imagine one day taking it for granted, your b

Woo. Simple things Today I have put out not only my last lot of unsorted rubbish (well, sort of) and my new bags of recycling. I've actually had recyclable stuff piling up all over the kitchen in anticipation of the start of the new collections,

Hmm. I'm such a supporter of the Co-operative, and its fair trade products and initiative. I can heartily recommend their fairtrade Bonada Shiraz, and the Malbec from a fun evening having bought all their range of fairtrade wines for fairtrade fo

Well i never. I ought to be offended, I think, and it's a shame he missed the whole setting of the scene, but in fact, I love this. When you are as familiar with the work as I am, you see, hear, smell all of this just by being in the room with it

Whilst researching for the essay I've just had to write on my theology course, I've been touring churches in secondlife (yes really). I was directed after I'd finished to the Basilica of St Francis at Assisi. Frankly, it's worth creat

I seem to have been away a lot recently, without having been away at all.  I've been writing an essay (felt more like a novel) for my theology course, for which I've spent lots of time on the web and in second life, and lots of time writ

oh dear. where does the time go? this time last year I was arguing with blog-city about not being able to keep my blog, and learning more than i ever wanted to know about building my own blog in my webspace. then dad went into hospital and everything

Today was the installation of our new college chaplain, and this brought people out of the woodwork to the service - I hope Anthony's not expecting a full chapel every week! I found out that some lovely people from our senior common room who I

Well, whaddya know. I took - especially for me - lots of nice photos of Boston in the sunshine, but for some reason, the one I took in the cloud of the library has been included in a Schmap web guide. Not of the library, but of the Old South Church b

Ian posted these in Facebook, but I think they deserve wider attention. A chap in the US who has kept ALL of his rubbish for a year.It makes interesting reading, and I'd like to see the exhibit. I'm sure there must be someone out there wantin

I'm here:

One day I'm going on holiday to Argentina to learn argentinian tango in situ. I'm about to post on our theology blog about a post which included this picture, and it's such a beautiful picture I thought I'd put it here too. For no oth

There's a group appeared on facebook this week called 'No Fuel Day - 19th November'. I've been considering joining it, only I'd not be very good without fuel. Entertainingly I found it because Paul D joined it - and someone less l

Being a shop assistant/market trader type person is such a fine balance, isn't it? Sometimes you have chosen something - shoes perhaps - and the assistant is too bothered by their own carefully-studied pose of nonchalance to either not notice you

Had an exceptionally nice evening out last night, and have just been naming the new Flatbread Cafe as definitely a contender amongst my favourite restaurants in Newcastle. Right next door to my number 2 favourite, Pani's , it's a new persian

"And we now take a moment of relative quiet to offer our own prayers for the bride and groom" adlibbed the vicar, as the child who had screamed and kicked the panelling all through the service continued to do so, but even still, it was a lo

There's nothing like being a sucker for punishment, is there? Today I went early for the bus, which was late (obviously, under the general laws of something these two most often happen the other way round). So though attempting to cut short a fr