This will hurt me...

I'm trialling Henry for some work down in the salt mine. I'll let you know how he gets on.

John Campbell's pictures for sad children never fails to tickle my fancy (ooh er missus!). This one particularly resonates.

Yes it is Theme Thusday again, and today we are talking GLASS . I've three possible hooks to hang my [glass] hat on with this theme. First, the photo! Yes, it is the river again from an odd angle in an interesting light. You can just make out the bottom, which should tell you that I'm right on the shore. In some ways, the distortion of the stones below the surface reminds me of ye olde glass windows, what they call "cylinder blown sheet glass". You can still find some of this around Hobart these days. Thw second link comes from a trip I took to Venice a few years back. You're probably aware that Venice was (is?) a glass-making centre of excellence. If you have ever been there and taken the tour of the glass factories, you might be familiar with the sheer amount of coloured glass that sits at the bottom of the water there. These fragments of glass have been worn down and had their edges dulled by their time in the water, which makes them ample keepsakes for the ...

Here is a boat. I wish that it was a better shot, but the camera can do only so much. If Santa has worked his calculations out correctly, and is on top of correspondence, I may well be in possession of a slightly better piece of equipment the other side of this retched holiday season. On other matters, the other day I was perusing the annual NME top whateveritis albums of the year and was reminded yet again of the cruel march of time. There was a time that I attempted to remain abreast of the comings and goings of the music world. I'd keep an eye (ear?) on the hot young acts, and was generally hip - if somewhat dismissive - to the critically acclaimed artists . Browsing this year's top whateveritis , it quickly became apparent that I hadn't actually heard of , let alone heard the majority of the acts. Despondant, I click back to 2007, and find much the same thing. '06, '05, '03, on and on it goes. Yes, it appears that 1997 was the last year that I could with ...