autumn oak leaf, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

I’ve decided I quite like Autumn now that I recognise it as not just the bit between summer and winter. Just went out for a lovely walk – it was t-shirt weather – beautiful still day round Earby. Stunning colours on things like this oak leaf.

24/10/2009, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

He’s 11. That came round quick. The fantastic cake pictured here was a wholeheartedly chocolaty number, featuring the word FELIX. It didn’t take long for it to say F_LI >, followed by F_l , followed by . .

He had a sleep over with his best friends. 1am was the last time I tried to tell them to stop talking and get some sleep. Much fun. He got a watch and with saved / clubbed together birthday money he got a PSP 3000, and Grand Tourismo (a heavy chunk of my influence on that title it’s got to be said). I’m just about to make Brown Windsor Soup (one of his faves) and we’re off out for Chinese tonight.

I’ll look back on this chunk of my life and sum it up in a single word – ‘busy’. It has been. Since the 8th (!) of October (my last blog) we’ve done all sorts. A gig, party, work, walk, several nice meals, couple of films and a couple of books.

Film of note – ‘Together’. This subtitled world cinema film depicts a bunch of neo hippies living in a middle class commune in Stockholm Circa 1975.

Several portraits of social misfits intertwined into a humorous ‘bitter sweet’ story of love, political ideology (or the proffering of its theory at least), and, well, living together with other people in platonic, maternal, intimate, annoyed relationships as well as lots of other formats besides. A thinking mans chick flick.

Book of note – ‘The Shipping News’ by Annie Proloux. The first reason I was drawn to this book was its title. For reasons unknown, I’m a fan of Radio 4 LW’s (unrelated) shipping forecast, even when it interrupts the cricket. The second thing I noticed that it’s a Pulitzer Prize winner. The wood effect jacket tipped it over the edge (I usually do judge a book by its cover), making me buy the first book I’ve obtained from a book shop in ages (having used the ‘free Amazon’ (public library order service) for the past year or two).

What a cracking bit of literature it was. Set in Newfoundland a family unit heads up to start a new life. As I’ve become a bit of a nautical geek recently, I was fascinated with some of the ship descriptions therein, as a National Geographic subscriber, I was fascinated with the landscapes, the changing seasons, the places, As a family man, my heart was warmed by the community spirit and the depth of character portrayed. The backwater lifestyles, the history and traditions were utterly compelling.

This was truly one of those books that pretty much as soon as I started reading it, I felt the sad pang of knowing that I would soon be finished. A worth read, and a great gift.

Right – back to being busy. Felix’s birthday tomorrow!

Since my birthday I’ve been a busy badger (hence the lack of no bloggage for some time). Work has been ‘full on’. A main site relaunch and a new brand launch. Aside from that, every bit of downtime I’ve had has been away from computers.

I’ve ploughed through one of my birthday books.

“The Various Flavours of Coffee” by Antony Capella.

Aside from the fact my coffee yearning went up by an exponential rate whilst reading this novel, thus fueling late night reading and an associate dependency to reading with coffee until I worked out what was what, I enjoyed this book under its own merits.

The historical reference to the ‘birth’ of the coffee industry echoed a lot of other emerging business models of the time. The invention of stock piling and other trade floor techniques stood out as the heartily researched bit whilst the passage through Africa into the jungles of Ethiopia tugged at some enlightening anthropological references. The love (and lust) story explored was quite faux at times but it did help the story meander an move in some captivating directions.

The suffragette movement was also a fore runner in the many themes jostling for space as the lead story which I have to say was quite fascinating.

Ended up going away last weekend. Felix and Jay were at cub camp and our friends offered to take Sophie for the weekend so Eirene and I could have a weekend on our own. This was lovely. We spent a night in Sheffield (after dropping the boys off at nearby). On Saturday we went to Nottingham and checked into the Cowne Plaza. Nice, but very small on the room front. Good pool etc. Had a lovely meal at Bistro Pierre – highly recommended lunch menu. Supped a bottle of wine and had a lovely time. After a bit of a swim, sauna and snooze combo we went our for drinks and eats. Nice ‘vibrant’ place.

Also found my 200th geocache! Still busy busy busy – hence the rushed, off the cuff with no editing tone of this multi faceted blog!