You know how I said I wanted to go see Silicon Valley before it's all over? It's an astonishing phenomenon, absolutely fascinating, and I don't think it can last the way it is for ever, whether because of the Big One (devastating earthquake) or some other more human-precipitated upheaval. And you know how I said I wouldn't be able to do it for at ( Read more... )

I'm off for another flying lesson tomorrow morning! (Weather permitting - and it looks Ok.) I really loved my first one about this time last year. Hooray ( Read more... )

Way back in the late 80s, me and my two best mates agreed that after we'd gone to university, we'd do the trans-Siberian railway, "before the Soviet Union collapses ( Read more... )

Hello again! I'm sure you all missed me terribly. I know I did.

Have had a pretty good fortnight's holiday in Brittany. I made several happy discoveries while away:

• **FIXME likes travelling on ferries. At least, on extremely calm days. This was a Very Good Thing.
  
• Brittany has very sensibly acquired an excellent microbrewery industry over recent ( Read more... )

Well Bicon was fantastic. Can't think what I was thinking of when I missed it last year. I missed most of the serious workshops I was going to go to - including the bi research one - for various reasons, but mostly because I was sitting around chatting or sleeping. I did go to the Future Of The Bisexual Community workshop, but my only ( Read more... )

Oh dear. **FIXME's mum and I went off on Friday for a nice, romantic long weekend. It was always a bit optimistic since we were bringing **FIXME with us ( Read more... )

Well that was a good weekend. We went up to Scotland - visiting friends near Glasgow on Friday, Edinburgh for a wedding on Saturday, back home on Sunday.
( Trains, meetups, zoo, dancing, and eclipse ... )

Happy New Year! And as ever, I'm obsessing about my baby.
( Random walks in the cot and general baby news )

While putting up the Christmas tree today, I started wondering why I associate them so firmly with left-wing politics. Odd really, when you think about it. The custom's pretty widespread these days, I suppose, but in C19th Europe it was pretty solidly bourgeois.

Then I realised: I start humming O Tannenbaum and the words to The Red Flag start ( Read more... )

I had a good day on the bank holiday yesterday. At 4.30a.m. I got a text from my brother telling me that my new niece had just been born. (Just over 8 lb in old money, and mother and baby both well.) We're hoping that they and **FIXME Daffodil might be close cousins since they'll be so close in age. (Less than two months to go till the big day ( Read more... )