Radio Silence

Wow. That's two whole days without a blog. Not sure who's worse off, you or me.

I led the last blog entry with a piece about a picture of mine that had gone (in my terms) viral on teh internets. The latest figures show that it has now been viewed a little over 9000 times, and has been favourited 258 times, so things have moved on a touch.

Each Monday the photographic retailer Wex run a small comp on twitter, where people submit their best image from the previous 7 days. I've entered quite a few times now and not had a sniff. I submitted the picture of Tommy Smith yesterday, and today found out I have won this weeks comp! So traffic might pick up again for a while.

I also got an eMail back from Tommy saying he'd be happy to sign a print for me.

And to think I almost didn't take my camera with me.....

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So, where have I been? The start of the month saw me celebrate a birthday and one of my presents was an overnight stay at a hotel called Abode in Chester. This is a hotel with a restaurant run by Michael Caine - no, not that one, the chef - and the deal included evening meal, bed and breakfast.

I would have taken pictures of the meal, but the lighting was so low I couldn't. I can report that it was very tasty, as one might hope, and our room was very comfortable. I would have given the stay 10/10 had their not been a couple of admin snafus over what was, and wasn't, included in our 'package'.

The kittens were watched over by Pheebs and Caitlin, while I was watched over by Debby Harry.

I can live with that. The second concert I ever went to see was Blondie at the Manchester Free Trade hall on their 1978 Parallel Lines World Tour. The first concert was at the same venue and was Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers.

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The weather was dreadful on Sunday and Monday, so any "outdoorsy" activities were out of bounds, so Gel and I broke the back of our Christmas shopping. That always feels virtuous having done that.

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The Costco advent calendar has been recovered from the attic and our hone made Christmas Tree is nearly done (pictures of both to follow).

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Last night we went out to celebrate my dad's birthday.

As you can see, he was a bit surprised at the candle on his cake. We ate at the Eastern Revive, and Indian restaurant in Wilmslow. The food was really nice, the portions generous, and the service excellent. Recommended.