Places to go and things to see

Yes, it has been a while, hasn't it? Anyway, as I sit here on a Sunday night watching "50 celebrity meltdowns", what can I bore the world about tonight? Obviously the Doctor Who finale is fast approaching, which means I will be inundated with endless emails complaining about plot holes and Russell T Davies' use of deus ex machina fixes whilst simultaneously asking me to explain the backstory that people haven't been playing attention to. Not however going into that tonight though.

Tonight I thought I would post this picture I took in Regent's Park last week. I never really knew where Regents Park was until I stumbled upon it at the end of...Regent Street. Mmm. I must start paying attention to the City I've been working in for 14 years, but let's face it, no-one sells the Park as part of the West End experience.

They should. Too many people bail out of London I think because it's a soul-destroying, life-sucking financial centre which spits out people when it's done with them. While there's no doubt London is not a cuddly teddy bear of a city, I think this shows it's not without its charms either. So why don't they plug the parks more? If people were encouraged to get into the parks more often and spend some serious time in there, either by their employers or Boris, things might just be a little less stressful. So go there.

My New Hobby

Recently, I decided that I need a new hobby. There's only so many TV shows that I can swot up on to Jedi Master level you know. Anyway, after all of about 10 minutes of careful consideration I settled upon (drum roll)....designing MeWife's online retail site. OK, so it's not forming a rock band, but it's not riding round on a Harley either. And hair transplants are very expensive.

Last time I tried this sort of thing, it was Impossibly Hard. That was about 10 years ago, when I sorted out the prototype website for the am-dram group we used to go to. These days, it's a bit easier. Well, there's less swearing involved anyway. There's a package you can buy which provides the bare bones of a retail website framework which you can then modify without killing the site or yourself stone dead. Anyway, it's something to tinker with whilst Gok Wan witters away in the corner of my lounge and tries to convince another lumpy lady with self-esteem issues that she can be sure she looks reasonable because (amazingly) when she takes her kit off in public people don't start throwing things at her (sorry, I digress).

Once you start down this path though, there are dangers. Firstly, you become obsessed with button sets available from topstockphoto.com and Adobe Photoshop Elements is in fact the modern day equivalent of the Cretan Labyrinth at Knossos (yes I did just have to look that up on Wikipedia). Never EVER open that program hoping to alight on the relevant menu shortcut for the task you have in mind.

Anyway, it is quite a fun hobby and since it involves input from MeWife as to what she wants this thing to look like, it makes for a more sociable hobby than, er, something else. Plus she might make a few quid off it. Rest assured you'll know when it's up and running..

Right, I'm off. It's the finale of Lost tonight and for the first time EVER I have no idea what is going to happen. And it's two hours long. Sorted!