There are several new galleries up. You can find them under the Gallery menu item above, then just roll down to ‘Family’ and you’ll see them at the top. I’ve ditched the per girl idea. It takes so long it’s prohibitive.

So what’s new? Wouldn’t you like to know.

I’ve repaired the galleries. After a recent update the album links stopped working so you could see the various galleries but couldn’t actually view them. That’s now consigned to the past.

I’ve also been hard at work updating the images I have to upload. If anyone you know ever makes light of photo editing then they are trying to deceive you. In the age of digital cameras where we may have taken twenty photos with film we’ll easily snap a couple of hundred. You don’t intend to keep them all, you might take five when you only want one, that way you can choose the best and discard the rest. Well, that takes time. Once you’ve got the images you want to keep then there’s the inevitable cropping, and basic touching up to get the ready for publication.

Once that’s done you’ve got to compress them to a size that’s large enough for family members who want to print them yet small enough for your server to remain sane and functional!

Rinse and repeat 8,000 times.

I’ve also neglected any updates. Perhaps because I have been so busy living. The last few months have seen significant steps forward in all aspects of our family life. I have been promoted, church is going well, we have another daughter on the way and we are all hale and healthy. Did I mention that Ninette and Persephone are gorgeous, smart and happy?

Yes, I really should write about my family a bit more… Until then folks.

This unusual Christmas treat called for a small excursion. We wrapped up warm and went for a walk.

Well, Persephone got carried the whole way, but she enjoyed herself too. Take a look at the pictures the BHG got while the NW’s were out and about…

Just click here.

While I was at it I have refreshed the theme too. I liked the old theme at first but it was getting a little old on me. Let me know what you think of the new one.

I think I need a big hungry giant picture to go with it. Any artists out there?

I’m pleased that the blog is still going as I started last September, it’s been a bit patchy at times but I think I am finally getting into my stride and I certainly enjoy working on the site just as much as I did on day one!

Enough of my bumbling. Go and look at the pretty pictures!

The actual pursuit is a challening one. Happiness, and particularly enduring happiness, is dificult to find and viciously tough to hang on to. All of which makes the last few day all the more, well, happy. My wife and I have been to a wedding.

We’re not new to it. We’ve been to a few and I don’t want to give the impression for a moment that we didn’t enjoy them all. Some can be less inviting, perhaps because you don’t know anyone or they’re simply so vast that opportunities to congratulate and celebrate with the couple are a little too scarce. Ultimately, however, they’re most enjoyable occassions.

Even against that background. This one’s a corker. It’s as though the happiness which permeates the event has become a tangible thing. A mood that can be almost seen. Perceived, rather than simply felt. We’ve had a fantastic time and suspect that everyone else has too. Especially the newlywed, Victoria and Daniel, who positively radiated joy all day.

Enough of words. Pictures.

[View with PicLens]

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You can now find a number of galleries of your favourite little persons under the gallery menu button. Just hover over the button and you will be able to see the different albums available. The resoloution is reasonable but if there’s an image you partiularly like and you would like a HD copy of it so that you can print and frame it just let me know and I can email you the full size image. Just in case you don’t want to use the menu button I thought I could be extra helpful and give you some links here. The first is to the album of Ninette’s first six months, the second will take you to the album covering Persephone’s first two weeks.

Enjoy!

My own travel was almost as easy as being flown. At least it was after I discovered that my mobile phone, a Sony Ericsson C903, includes an efficient route finding programme called, easily enough, Navigator. It was that discovery that brings me to my topic for today. Satellite Navigation systems or Sat Nav’s.

We’ve all heard the horror stories about roads which lead across farmers’ fields, through buildings, off cliffs and across impassable gorges but the more common problems are always the most unsavoury, not least because the common problems are the ones you are probably going to have to experience yourself. After all, no one worries too much about the person who drives off a cliff following a merry yet authoritative voice’s instructions. We can console ourselves with the sheer remoteness of the possibility that this might ever happen to us. It is horrible of course, yet most people have untold capacity for ignoring those horrid things which happen to others as long as their personal occurence remains most improbable.

When the probability of something untoward occuring personally increases, man’s ability to defer his concern reduces in directly inverse proportion. Terror becoming certain when the terrible thing itself become certain. So it is with satellite navigation. The notions that your battery might give out on you, that you may lose that precious signal or that you may pay too much attention to the screen and not enough the world in which you are driving are not only unpleasant but pretty likely too.

What surprises me really is that we render so little attention to the fact that a pocket portable device which can retain a charge for over a hundred and twenty hours can tell me where I am and show me where to go so that I might arrive at where I am going. Most of us are less concerned with the how than we are with what it sounds like when it rings or the colour of the case it comes in. For example, did you know that sat nav systems have to account for relativistic differences in time, produced by the distance and relative speed of the satellites, when calculating your location from the signals they receive? Thank you Einstein. Thank you Sony Ericsson.

Now, if only my C903 had come in glossy red.

Word of the Day: Insatiate
- Adjective

1 – Insatiable: insatiate greed
2 – not satiable;  incapable of being satisfied or appeased

Not too shabby eh? There’s more but I don’t want to bore you. What’s that? You’re not bored? Righty o!

Ooh, you can see the Big Hungry Giant in the background of this one. How cute! The baby, I meant the baby!

After a visit to our preferred Indian restaurant last night I thought it only right that I make a recommendation. After all, why should I keep this valuable information to myself?

A mistake often made by restaurants, especially given the emphasis the web receives today, is the failure to maintain an informative and interesting website. The Spice Island in Plumstead is no exception. It emerges very quickly that there is an appropriately named website listed. Unfotunately this is registered to a venue in another part of the country so I wouldn’t use their menu too much if you are going to be visiting their, completely unrelated, counterpart in south east London. On second thoughts I’m not sure I should mention it as using those place names will only cause confusion for googlers. (Edit).

So about the restaurant. You can find them here:

196-212 Plumstead Common Road
Woolwich
LONDON
SE18 2RS

There’s a small car park behind the building so if there’s no space available on the street to the front of the premsises you can try and park there.

The real appeal of the place is in the take away menu. If you place an order of more than ten pounds then you can choose a vegetable dish as a free extra. What this means practically is that you can have a delicious Indian for two hungry giants or three more normal appetites for a little over a tenner. Our usual arrangement is to place an order and put some rice on at the same time. Food is normally ready for collection after 20-25 minutes and the range and quality of the dishes is excellent. Like most small restaurants, if what you want isn’t listed then they will do all they can to accommodate your tastes.

I would go on to recommend some specific dishes at this point but before I do I want to point out that I am yet to be disappointed by anything I have order from this place. We often eat this food with friends and the inevitable mixing and matching that goes on with Indian food means that I have now tried a very large number of their dishes. They are all, even if I happen not to like ‘em, very good. The chicken tikka masala, a mainstay of British Indian orders, is excellent and very creamy and mild. Their Madras dishes are excellent and the Dansak dishes. A type of sauce which is hot and slightly sour and based on lentils is wonderful. Try it with the lamb!

I do enjoy my food photography and next time we order I’ll take some photos for you all to salivate over. In the mean time, why not give them a call yourself. Spice Island is open from 6pm. You can call them on 0208 316 5207. Do it now. Well, if you’re hungry and it’s after six!