Feeling somewhat uninspired at the moment (you mean you hadn't noticed?)

It's a little wierd, because lots has been happening, but I just haven't been arsed to write it down (evidence of today's activities notwithstanding).

Gozo was top. Smudge's pictures here, they're the best ones as they have an underwater camera.

Guests came and went. We had a good, if busy, couple or 3 weeks with trips down to the Ardennes, Champagne, Dunkirk and Ypres. It was bloody hot and I found that my Tropcal conditioning had left me completely. In a move sure to send shivers down Dave's spine, we camped out the whole time (except when we were at home of course, when there were 6 of us in the appartment...)

We got a new kitten, Jack. Jack is a little fucking bully and is chasing Mojo all over the place (although he's about a quater the size / weight).

I got a call from a headhunter dude who's placing guys at Bouygues (Big French contractor). Latest on that is that I have a tentative interview sometime 2nd half of August. They're all on holiday in France from now till ... well .. Christmas so I'm not sure what's going to happen there. More positively I had an interview with some guys in Antwerp yesterday who seem keen and have said I'll be asked in for a 2nd interview when I get back from France. Major advantage there; they're Dutch and don't seem bothered that I can't speak it. Both would be a commute and a half (at least an hour's drive each way for either) but work would be nice, I have several major gadget itches that need scratching.

Bokks; I read the first 2 of the Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials Triology. Recommended by just about everyone I know who's read them these are most entertaining and fanatically anti-church. They're written for "youth readers" but really this doesn't affect the sophistication of the plotting or the concepts, it only means no swearing and positively no ghey bum sex (or any sex, for that matter) This is like Harry Potter for people who can read. Dead good. Smudge; If you enjoyed these (and I recall that you did), consider them a primer fro China Meiville and get your teeth into Perdido Street station. Beware his third (The Iron Council) though ... may contain significant amounts gay bum sex. Currently reading Undertones of War by Edmund Blundell. It's an autobiography of a young WW1 officer who was posted in Ypres. I suppose I bought it feeling a little guilty during our visit there (It's a little difficult not to feel something; 500,000 people died there in WW1) and was fully expecting this book to take some spot on my book shelf, with me only ever having been able to plaough though the first 5 pages. Not really the case so far though. Blundell was a war poet, which I had wrongly assumed would make things worse on the readability front. In fact, his style (even more so considering it was written in 1928) is engaging and accessible and his whole rythm of writing takes you from page to page. Of course the content is heavy duty, but the writing style allows you to enjoy the reading while taking in the imagry. There is a lot of talk of skeletons in trenches mind and a fair amount about heads being blown off, I'm not saying that he pulls his punches on the descriptive front, he just presents it in a sophisticated way, he doesn't dwell on describing the viscera instead concentrating on the characters around him and the overall athmosphere of the times. Plus it's real. I certainly hope not to have to go through what he has been through to achieve it, but if I could write even one page as well as he seems to reel off chapters, I'd be a happy writer.

Took your advice about the hub, Dunc; a local shop had some '03 LX rear hubs fro 15 Euros (about 1M ozzie bucks) so I picked one up. One of the guys I'm off to Morzine with tomorrow has promised to teach me wheel building in return for the help I gave him moving house last week.

So that about brings us up to date. I'm off to Morzine mountinbiking tomorrow. We've got a chalet in the alps for 80 Euro each and the lift passes are 60 euro. So, some money aside for meat and beer and we're on our way!

Bomber out