These are a few of my favourite things

Not written for a while. Been very busy with house hunting and work and generally being stressed. Am on pills from doctor for minor stomach problems. Yay. Anyway. Here's a list of things I'm loving at the moment:

• Being married. Alison is away at the moment and it always makes me think of how much I like having her around and having the company. I go nuts on my own, and stop doing much anything useful.


• My friend, Laura. Things are mental at the moment, so it's nice to have a friend I've known for ages. Provides a much needed bit of stability.


• My parents. I'm figuring if I ever turn out to be any good at being a parent it'll be because I had good examples. I'm also very grateful to have my dad to help with stuff, especially with looking for a house at the moment. He seems to know an awful lot about an awful lot, which is handy.


• 24. I borrowed the DVD set of series 2 and have watched it all this week. I'd never seen it before. I remember Colin watching it fanatically at uni, but I never got into it. It's amazing! Really well made and well shot. They pack in so much for something that happens over the course of one day. It's like reading a novel, but in film form, except it actually takes as long to watch as it would to read because of the sheer amount of detail. It's great stuff.


• Radio 1. I have a lot of time for the BBC, and I have absolutely no complaints about the licence fee. Radio 1 is probably worth it on it's own, never mind all the other radio stations, the TV stations, the news, the web presence... Anyway. They've got as good a mix of music as you can hope for when trying to cater to everyone, no adverts, and some very good DJs (with the exception of Sara Cox, and some of Moyles' more egocentric moments). Jo Whiley is a legend. Tangent - is the new Muse single any good? I don't know. I heard it once and thought it was awful, then heard it again and quite liked it. Maybe it's a grower. Oh, and the Pink single is great.


• Cheap computer parts. In between buying and selling on ebay and picking stuff up second hand from people, it's nice to get the high spec parts of yesteryear at minimal cost. I'm looking forward to setting up my TV recording box with some of the kit.


• Talking of which... free software. Never mind your warezed copy of XP Pro, I'm talking properly free stuff. No cost, and I can do anything I like with it. I'm looking forward to getting gentoo and Mythtv set up so I can record TV and do all that Tivo business. Quite a fun project for someone like me who's into all that stuff.


• X Men 3. Amazing film - highly recommended. The plot rolls along nicely and it looks stunning. Dark Phoenix makes a great enemy - genuinely terrifyingly dangerous, much like Doc Ock in Spiderman 2 - which really helps in adding to the urgency of the conflict. The special effects are awesome and the face offs between the mutants and their various powers are very cool. They did well with the trailer to barely reveal any of the final conflict, so it was all fresh and new when you saw it.


• Talking of trailers, we saw new ones for James Bond, Superman and Pirates Of The Caribbean 2, all of which look good. It'll be fun and games getting babysitters so we can go see them, but we'll manage!


• In other film news, I must admit I've been slightly pleased to hear that the Da Vinci Code is getting awful reviews. I thought the book was pretty bland, and the ending diabolical, so I was glad to hear that the deus ex machina was laughed at in Cannes. There we go.

Right. Bit of life news... House hunting is going OK. It's very hard work trying to balance price against what the house is like against where it is against what the schools are like etc etc. It's tough stuff. The web makes it a lot easier to dig up info about what the areas and schools and so on are like, so that's good, but it's still tough stuff. We've got 6 viewings arranged for this saturday, so it'll be a busy day. Let's hope Ali copes OK with all that, as she'll only be two weeks of her expected due date by then! That's also quite scary. I'm going to be a father in, at most, a month. It doesn't feel real yet. I'll bet it'll feel all too real when it happens!

Anyway. That's about it for now. I'll try to write again soon, though it may wind up being about computer games, so I apologise to the uninterested among you! Alternatively I might write about books. Who knows. See you soon.