Baby Update

Everyday India has a new trick to show us. Yesterday was her first day of being able to sit up by herself [big breakthrough]. The day before was the "screaching like a monkey" game. Saturday's was "playing peek-a-boo with my sick-covered bip". She is so special.


Barbie Ditches Ken

Apparently Barbie has ditched Ken after 43 years of companionship. She's run off with some Aussie guy and his cronies. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see Action Man and GI Joe cited in the divorce papers.


Great News For Fellow Geeks

LucasFilm have confirmed that the original Star Wars trilogy will at last be released on DVD later this year. They'll be digitally remastered and the extras will include deleted scenes, such as the infamous banquet hall scene where Skywalker sits down to eat with the Emperor and Vadar: Luke doesn't know the correct Jedi etiquette for eating his dessert of chocolate-covered Bantha cake. Should he use his lightsabre or not? As the tension builds and the Emperor starts hissing at him, Luke is saved by the ghost of Obi Wan coming to his rescue.

"Use the forks, Luke, use the forks!"

[The old one's -- from the 1970's -- are still the best. The Two Ronnies are even making a comeback. 'Ray!]


Tenner Reefy

Seems an age ago that we were in Tennerife, but it's actually only a month.

The first winter sun holiday that I've ever had, and it was a blessing. It's really broken the winter up. It wasn't terribly hot or sunny -- temperatures varied from 20 to 29 degrees and there was plenty of cloud -- but it beat a week of miserable rain and sleet.

India coped with the 4 hour flights well: a tactical bottle on take-off and landing, along with a good hour or so of sleep, helped soothe the potentially problematic travel arrangements for her and us. Babies travel on their parent's laps in the air until they are two years old. Although we coped we a pliant, good-natured and sleepy baby for 4 hours, the thought of trying to fly over to the States when she's a little bigger -- and has a lower attention-span -- fills me with dread. Dealing with Vic and her fear of flying is bad enough, but adding a screaming and squirming toddler into the mix sounds like a straw too much for this camel.

Tennerife was nasty. We stayed on the North side of the island: cooler and quieter than the Brits abroad South. Even so, it was incredibly commercialised, with English bar, German bar, English bar, German bar lining the streets. We even had a English Fish and Chips shop opposite our apartments.

How sophisticated.

Frankly, we ate far more Spanish food when we self-catered than when we ate out: There was a decent selection of local fresh fish on offer at the supermarket, and armed with Rick Stein's Seafood Odyssey, we made good use of it. Squid with chorizo and chilli, hake with potatoes, pan-fried mystery fish with salsa verde.

And the island is not baby buggy or disabled friendly. Everywhere is stepped -- a consequence of the island being nothing more than a banana-covered volcanoe thrusting it's snow-capped peak out of the ocean -- and getting back to the apartment required mountaineering skills. What amazed me is the fact that despite the island being less than suitable for the elderly, almost the whole tourist throng -- apart from a noticable and sizable gay guy presence -- was grey-haired.

So did we have a nice time?

Oh yes -- it was a great week away, and the trip up to the top of the mountain -- with its incredible Mars-like caldera and volcanic rocks -- was well worth the visit.

But I don't think I'd go back. It was just too commercialised and too "touristy". Even though it was low season and the town was quiet, we were still getting touted by restaurant owner and car rental agents at every turn. Heaven knows what the island is like in high season -- a complete hell hole by my reckoning. Hot, overcrowded, with nowhere to go and no escape.


The Hobbit

I read the Hobbit while we were away. I hadn't read it since I was 11 years old in 1982 -- when it was a magical book. Approaching it 21 years later, I was concerned that I would now be disappointed by it. Thankfully it turned out to be a wonderful read for adults too.

After the utter crap that was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire -- I refuse to read any more of JK Rowling's over-hyped, unoriginal, badly-written rubbish -- I can safely say that Bilbo Baggins pisses all over it.