Weekend morning

What if they both learn to read?!

This is commonly the way weekends begin these days.

It's wonderful but this is Tom before coffee - not a pretty site.

A year ago today!

My word how time flies when you're having fun!

Waving to the guests

We've done a lot in the intervening time - including this. Yes, you can keep up with Violet's progress on her blog and through her tweets.

Sunday afternoon walk

Tiny

Bling

And it gives me special powers too!

My new jewelry

A busfull of fun

Temple snows

Another photo from Japan

Zenkō-ji in the snow

Snow monkeys

It's tough being a monkey

Link to the live camera where I took this: http://www.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp/livecam/monkey/index.htm

Painting

This is actually a photo of a painting. If you look at the lower right
you can see where I've not held the camera quite straight and you can
see the edge.

Edit: I've now got a closeup to show the brushwork on this

Close-up

Potato economy

Working on puns check back later.

Update:
Mushy peas to be minted
Gherkins so pleased they went out and got pickled, potatoes also got mashed [help me my brain's melting]
You'll never go hungry but you'll always be poor.

Moleskine

Why did I wait so long to get one of these?

In fairness to myself it's because they have really wanky marketing which is borderline misleading. I've always resented the way that they are so obviously appealing and disliked the fact that they cost an absolute fortune for what they are, that people that do use them tend to bore me about how good and how useful they are. They are also fetishised by productivity geeks who write in them in different colours for different things and separate them into sections with tabs.

What changed my mind? I realised how many notebooks were getting shredded by just being carried around and that was wasting ideas and important notes. I haven't carried or used a paper diary/organiser for more than a year, though this seems to be a cyclical thing. I have had to admit that a Moleskine plus a cover for it has resulted in a big rise in retaining thoughts and ideas - I'm even considering trying the multi-coloured ink thing to see just how annoying it actually is or whether it's a good idea, though I suspect the personal and work aspects of my life would argue about who got the black ink and who got stuck with blue (my neuroses might be too deeply seated to cope with that). The pocket at the back is so damn useful once you get used to carrying the notebook around with you.

So here I am moleskined up so the inevitable list of productivity hacks that must come last:

• Business cards in the file pocket - run out of business cards in your other stylish accessories? Oh look a spare!
• File cards/spare paper in the file pocket - you wouldn't want to tear a page out would you?
• Symbols - I haven't got much past my normal @ for action or task but I'm rapidly also getting towards $ for items to go on my wishlist and an information symbol for things to look up or research. I might need one for ideas too...

Byron Bay

Gottaluvit. Full of hippies, self included.

Photos from Borneo

Well January was a dead-loss as far as this website goes but to get me going in February here's a quick slideshow of the best of Emily's photos from Borneo.

View Album

Get your own

Ticket

I really like the minimal 2 colour design of my weekly travel pass

Defeated by desert

Defeated by desert

I do hope my colleague forgives me for putting this up but the photo is really good, and you can't actually see who it is...

Umbrella bin

So many broken umbrellas they won't fit in the one bin.

Software and booze

The contents of one of my desk drawers. This says so much about my life.

Buried boat

Someone seems to have buried an entire boat at Frenchmans bay, much to the amusement of the children at the beach today.

Kiribili sunset

Tasteless bathroom

Wow! That's bad.