Category: Journal

Fliss has decided to abandon the site that’s served her well over the last couple of years, and set up a blogspot one. She had been impressed with the one that Graeme and Lisa have, and felt that the ease of updating it would lead to her adding content more frequently.

I helped sort her gallery out by updating the code that I use here to fit her folder structure. It actually works quite well, using natcasesort() to display the images in the order that Fliss names them. I’ll probably take the same code and re-apply it to my gallery, as it’s a nice feature for not much effort.

I thought about ditching this place and going for a similar set-up, myself. However, none of the off the shelf solutions offer anywhere near the level of customisation you get when you roll your own site. Shame, though – I wouldn’t mind some of the networking features you get with what Fliss and Graeme have gone with. As things stand, you cant import any content from other sources, so I’d stand to lose much more than I’d gain.

At the weekend there I took the cappuccino maker that Fliss got me for xmas back for a refund. The dial on it had broken after only about five or six uses, which I took to be a sign of poor quality for something that cost quite a bit and I would expect to last a good couple of years.

I didn’t trust the build quality of the Breville enough to try another one of those – especially since the Breville kettle we bought last year already has a crack near the element, so I just asked for a credit note. I actually wouldn’t have minded trying one of the Tassimo ones instead, but Fliss thinks that the sachets are too expensive.

After reading through The Laminated Book of Dreams it turns out that there’s absolutely nothing in the same price range that I either want or need. Which is odd in itself, as just a few years ago I didn’t think that I could ever reach saturation point in the category of shiny gadgets for under £100.

Which leaves me feeling a little disappointed – Fliss got me a really thoughtful gift, which ticked all the right boxes in that it did something I liked, and was the kind of thing I couldn’t have justified buying myself, but was an ideal present. Ah well, maybe something will turn up in the next edition of the Laminated Book of Dreams… aside from the Scooby Doo costume that I almost came home with!

I’ve used electric shavers pretty much since I first had to shave, and have upgraded only a couple of times along the way – most recently when I got a shaver I could use in the shower, back in October 2004. Whether it’s due to using electric shavers or not, I don’t know, but I suffer from the occasional trapped hair and it causes no end of grief when it happens. So, back in early December I thought I’d try wet shaving with a razor for the first time in a good ten years.

Last time I tried I royally, and I mean royally, messed it up. Despite getting myself the awesome King of Shaves lotion, I made schoolboy errors, like going against the grain, and I just about skinned myself alive. Afterwards I had rinsed away the blood from multiple cuts, slapped on copious amounts of Givenchy Gentleman aftershave, which I then got in my mouth as I tried to stifle the screams, and woke the next day with a face like the elephant man suffering an allergic reaction to peanuts. Ouch.

Needless to say, as soon as my skin had recovered I was back using the electric shaver again.

The truth is, I had no idea how to have a wet shave. My original father was gone long before he could show me how, and my stepfather has a beard, so he wasn’t much help. It’s not the kind of thing you ask your mates about when you’re a teenager, either. I mean, everybody knows how to shave, right?

And so it was that me learning how to wet shave just kind of fell through the cracks of life. Using an electric shaver, which somewhat limits the harm I can inflict upon myself, seemed the safe and sensible option.

With hindsight, that ill fated attempt back in the 90’s was due, in part, to me copying those ridiculous adverts by razor blade companies. You know – the ones that would have you believe the very ownership of one of those things increases your manliness exponentially, such is the sheer machismo that they attach to testosterone injected products with names like Mach 15 Extreme Turbo Dragonslayer 4.