Off the grid

Ever wanted to disappear, to fall off the grid entirely, and set up a new life someplace else? The Times has an interview this morning with the perfect man to help you.

It's nothing to do with the credit crunch, global warming, politics, or the war in Iraq. It's well worth reading...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

So it wasn't a bundle of laughs at 11.40pm last night, stranded in Leyton with no tubes or taxis to be seen. But making a snowman at 2 in the morning as the snow kept coming down was pretty special. I've never seen so many people out on the streets on a Sunday night.

Feel sorry for Girl today though. Normally, she has the best commute in London, a 15 minute walk chair to chair. Today, she's the only person in the country wh0 has to go to work.

Turning the page

So nearly four months into married life, the Woffle blog seems to have died. A grand total of 12 posts...

As I've explained before, it's simply burnout. When I started this blog, I was working as a journalist in America, but pretty soon I'd come home to the mundane world of press officering, and what really kept it going was my desire to keep writing.

Today, as a journalist once again and with two other blogs, a website and a newspaper to write for, I'm drained.

But still, the one thing I really miss about this blog is the chance to write whatever I want about whatever I want. The other blogs are all very well, but I miss writing a pseudo-diary, and there isn't much poetry in trade journalism.

So I won't make any promises about how often I'll write, but I will try to keep this one going too. Not to try and draw in readers (though if you're reading this, y'all are welcome to come back). But just as antidote to everything else.

So to start, here's something apropos of nothing. I've always rated Metallica's Turn The Page as a great song... but it was only this week that I discovered it was in fact a cover, and that the original, by Bob Seger, is very different but just as good. Enjoy.

2009: Brace yourself

Happy New Year!

No, I'm not blogging on the stroke of midnight - here's one I made earlier. But Girl and I will be taking it easy tonight. Last year I dragged her kicking and screaming to the centre of London, to witness the damp squib fireworks. Tonight - having abandoned a quixotic New Year's trip to France at the last minute - we will be Having A Quiet One.

But it's been a busy year. 2008 was, of course, most notable for being the year Woffle and Girl tied the knot. But I've been busy with my job too, and Girl got a new one, we moved house, and we've also been busy with a million other things, seeing people, places to go, living our lives.

Normally, the idea is to sum up the year by making a clever comment or offering a pithy quote, but not this time. This year was good, but next year, I have a feeling, is going to be a tough one...

Catching a cold, redux

I've always wondered if it's possible to recatch a cold. You know what I mean - you have a cold, you pass it on to someone else, then you get better, come into contact with the person you've infected, and you catch it all over again.

I can now confirm that not only is it possible to recatch a cold, it is possible to recatch a cold from yourself. For that's exactly what I've managed to do. On Sunday, I'd just about recovered from last week's cold. Monday morning, I felt the symptoms of a brand new cold return..

In blog purgatory

It's been far too long since I posted on here in anything more than a desultory fashion, and I am determined that this blog shall not, in the words of Girl earlier this week, 'go to blog heaven'. But with another professional blog to get off the ground, a third blog for work, proper stories to write, an early morning jog I'm trying to keep up and Christmas to prepare for - oh, and married life - there just hasn't been time.

For now then, all I can do is apologise - and offer a link to the best new TV drama of 2008, Generation Kill, reviewed here, here and here (and surely the ideal Christmas present for any male in the family).

I'll be back gents. Stay frosty.

Girl and Babycakes

We've had recipes before on this blog - remember Sylvabella? - but this one is by request of Girl, who is hunting for Things To Make and wants it bookmarked in one place so she knows where to find it easily. So if you want to know how to make Molton (surely Molten?) Chocolate Babycakes a la Nigella Lawson, here you go.

And looking at that, who am I to argue?