Merry Christmas!

Well, we've reached that time of the year again; have a great Christmas Day!

It's probably a little late now, but if you're still dissatisfied with your decorations then here's something that might help: my guide to making Impossibly Easy-Peasy Cardboard Baubles (Guaranteed 78% Not Tacky). All you need is a bit of spare time, plenty of cardboard and lots of split pins...

1. Cut the cardboard into long, thin, strips, all of which should have the same dimensions. Punch three small holes in each strip: one near each end and one right in the middle.
2. Once you have plenty of strips, take a few of them (four is best) and lay them on top of one another. If the cardboard you're using is only decorated on one side, make sure that side is facing upwards. Then push a split pin downwards through the central holes in the strips.
3. Turn the whole construction over and arrange the strips in an eight-pointed star formation by fanning them out. Open the split pin to hold them all together.
4. Take one of the points of the 'star' and bend it upwards and inwards, forming a semicircle. Holding it in place, push another split pin downwards through the hole at its end.
5. Still holding your initial point, take another point and attach it to the split pin in a similar manner to the first. Continue to attach points until there are none left, and you should be left with a roughly spherical bauble. Finally, open up the split pin to hold the points in place.

Once you've made a few baubles, you can use them however you so please. The obvious answer is to hang them up as recession-busting Christmas decorations, but there are plenty of other uses for them. Place them in unusual, yet aesthetically pleasing, locations around the house. Hurl them across the room without fear of breaking something. Give them to the cat to play with, perhaps. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination (and some minor physical constraints, of course, but we'll ignore those for the time being).

Well, that's all for now. See you in the New Year! (Or possibly sooner.)

JakeC

Let it snow!

Would you believe it? More snow! Where's it all coming from? Just in case you need proof, I've provided some photos. There's also some pics of my recent visit to Chedworth Roman villa. A small but exquisite section of the mosaic found at the villa. Some of the remaining walls, still in surprisingly good condition. Footprints in the snow (sorry this is not rotated!) My rather inappropriate choice of footwear.

April Fool!

This being the day of jokes, tricks and other such tomfoolery, I think I may as well write a little about this year's festivities as far as I am aware of them. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the fun!

• Flying Penguins: This BBC documentary preview dispels the common myth that penguins are incapable of aviation. Who would have thought it?
• Gmail custom time: Make your emails arrive whenever you like. Never be too late again!
• Wikipedia's Manic Main Page: The famous open reference site goes a bit batty today. Take a look at the 'On this day...' section in particular.
• A whole lot more...

N.B: I'm also a mite suspicious about Google's new 'Google Weblogs' feature, as mentioned on Blogger Buzz. Can anyone shed any light on this?

Duck race photos

Yet more photos from me. These are some I took at the annual duck race. For the uninitiated, a duck race works as follows:

1. Take a load of rubber ducks.
2. Bet on which duck will win.
3. Chuck the ducks in a river.
4. Note which ones reach the finish first.
5. Fish them all out again.
6. Award prizes.
7. Go home.

But I digress. On with the pictures! A big pile of ducks. Top of the heap. The stragglers.

Flippin' Eck!

Opened my blind a few minutes ago and the countryside is covered in snow! What is this place coming to? Snowfalls in March? On Easter Sunday? Even I can't help thinking that someone is having a laugh. Quite what bearing this might have on our Easter Egg Hunt I don't know. Old dullard that I am, I will only be joint organising this year's festivities, but whether we really want our sole contestant scrabbling around in the snow trying to find a clue is rather doubtful. So indoors it may have to be.

I read by means of the BBC News RSS feed that the situation is so bad as to merit a weather warning, which is more than slightly unnerving. I also read that a seaside hotel has caught on fire, bishops are getting a little hot under the dog-collar about embryo research and that Staffordshire police are spoilt for choice with five different murder suspects from whom to take their pick. The mind boggles.

It's goodnight from me...

As the year draws to a close, I'm afraid I have some sad news... What, are you going to continue in the new year? Shut up, I didn't ask you. Keep your hair on! As I was saying. I have some sad news. Tomorrow we are going on holiday, and I will not be able to sustain my usual torrent of online wit... Who're you kidding? Do you mind? I'm busy. Anyway, on my return I would be able to start posting again, but I start school again on the same day. So until a good deal later, it's goodbye. See you in the new year!

Oh...

...the things that have been happening! Let's start from the beginning (of the holidays that is): Firstly, my school choir went on a trip to France. Being a chorister myself, I went too. After several days of singing (of course), interesting activities, traumatic experiences on the minibus and similarly frenzied experiences in the 'supermarché', I came home to find a letter detailing another French trip. Non, non, et thrice non! The rest of the holiday has so far progressed in the usual way: taking the occasional walk, catching up on reading or just enjoying the weather... Ah. Not very good weather at the moment. But then you can't expect it to be sunny all the time, can you? Well you can if you live in the Sahara, but living in Berkshire, England doesn't give that much of an impression of the Sahara. Until later, but not much later (I'm Spartacus!) 3, Choules 3