When the price of oil goes up, the price of petrol goes up.

When the price of oil comes down, the price of petrol goes up.

When tax [...]]]> I never studied economics at school, so I sometimes feel a little bemused by the workings and terminology used. I have noticed a few things though:

When the price of oil goes up, the price of petrol goes up.

When the price of oil comes down, the price of petrol goes up.

When tax goes up, the price of petrol goes up.

When tax comes down, the price of petrol goes up. (Except in Sainsbury’s – the only garage I’ve spotted so far that isn’t taking the P, so to speak.)

The economy is booming, the price of petrol goes up.

The economy is in recession, the price of petrol goes up.

There is tension in the Middle East, the price of petrol goes up.

There is violence in the Middle East, the price of petrol goes up.

Peace breaks out in the Middle East, the price of petrol goes up.

The Chancellor is feeling jolly cheerful, the price of petrol goes up.

The Chancellor is feeling very blooming naffed off, the price of petrol goes up.

There is an ‘R’ in the month, the price of petrol goes up.

Did I miss anything?

The server that hosts this site is setting off on a short voyage to a new data centre later today, so I may be offline for a while – hopefully not for very long.

Cancel the review then, I’ll simply tell you that Sheffield Theatre’s David Hare season is highly recommended. Having managed to miss [...]]]> Things I am not good at: reviewing plays. I offer as evidence the fact that this is my fourth (or is it fifth?) attempt to write a simple post. Could. Do. Better.

Cancel the review then, I’ll simply tell you that Sheffield Theatre’s David Hare season is highly recommended. Having managed to miss previous opportunities to see David Hare’s work (what was I thinking?) I announced that I was booking tickets for all three plays in the current season. Good decision.

So far we’ve seen Plenty and The Breath of Life. Both have been everything I want from a night at the theatre: highly entertaining, brilliantly performed and providing me with plenty (no pun intended) to think about afterwards. Needless to say, we’re looking forward to Racing Demon. 

An unexpected bonus too, in the form of David Hare himself, reading Via Dolorosa. Despite his opening lines, in which he told us that the last time he acted was in a school play – and that these days he prefers to get Judi Dench to do this type of thing – he is a talented storyteller.

Via Dolorosa is a monologue, in which David describes a trip he made to Israel and Gaza. He paints vivid pictures of the people he met and the experiences he shared with them. David himself is very much a central character in this tale; so he did not simply describe what happened, he also offered us an insight into the thoughts and feelings he experienced on his journey through this divided land. The result was a mixture of play and journalism that took us from laughter to sombre reflection and back to laughter again. Most importantly, he made us think.

He left us with a question: stones or ideas?

Stones or ideas? Is that the right question? I don’t know the answer. But who does?

Photo: Tickets, by Three-Legged Cat/Lois Lindemann, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

This broke the blog. Grrr.

Oddly, the simple act of publishing this post seemed to fix the broken RSS feed problem. I’ll never understand feeds. Oh well, I don’t understand many things, just one more for the list!

Anyhoo, I [...]]]> I decided to allow the list of upgrades that had appeared for this blog.

This broke the blog. Grrr.

Oddly, the simple act of publishing this post seemed to fix the broken RSS feed problem. I’ll never understand feeds. Oh well, I don’t understand many things, just one more for the list!

Anyhoo, I think I’ve finally fixed everything, but if things aren’t working, please leave a comment and I’ll try to sort it.

With all the riches on offer during the recent Sheffield Doc/Fest, I could happily have moved into the Showroom Cinema for the duration, but alas, time and deadlines were against me, so I had to choose.

My choice proved to be a popular one. The promised appearance [...]]]> Can you tell what it is yet?

With all the riches on offer during the recent Sheffield Doc/Fest, I could happily have moved into the Showroom Cinema for the duration, but alas, time and deadlines were against me, so I had to choose.

My choice proved to be a popular one. The promised appearance of the man himself added to the excitement – and probably explained the extraordinarily long queue waiting for the doors to open.

We were treated to a preview screening of a film that director Vikram Jayanti has made about Rolf Harris for Arena. The film tells two stories: the tale of Rolf’s colourful life and career is intermingled with the story of his latest project – a series of paintings inspired by a Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The paintings are rather splendid, but that’s not what makes the film so enjoyable. Vikram has given his characters (and at times himself) the space to talk fairly freely, resulting in very human portrayal of everyone involved.

I loved it. We were warned that it was unfinished, but I hope that they haven’t changed much – certainly the reduction in running time that we were told to expect hasn’t happened.

Tonight, I get to see the finished product. And so can you, if you are able to watch the Beeb (BBC2 at 9PM) or view the iPlayer. I’d recommend it, it’s well worth watching. And it’s great fun. Just like the man himself.

It is now officially the Vegetarian Society’s Best Store Cupboard Ingredient Winner. Quite right too.

“Everyone should have this gem in the cupboard, a Worcestershire style sauce without the anchovies, perfect to add to almost any savoury dish.”

It may have been better if I hadn’t mentioned to Mr TLC that [...]]]> …Henderson’s Relish!

It is now officially the Vegetarian Society’s Best Store Cupboard Ingredient Winner. Quite right too.

“Everyone should have this gem in the cupboard, a Worcestershire style sauce without the anchovies, perfect to add to almost any savoury dish.”

It may have been better if I hadn’t mentioned to Mr TLC that my first encounter with this much loved local brew was as a “Worcestershire sauce substitute”. He’s still shaking his head at me now. Ah well.

Anyway, well done Henderson’s, you deserve it.

I’d show you a photo, but I was too busy nomming to remember to take one.

The naan recipe made enough to feed me, Mr TLC and approx 5000 others, so we’re trying [...]]]> Could I just mention how flipping fantastic Miss Masala’s chicken jhalfrezi and Madhur Jaffrey’s naan bread are? I can? Excellent.

I’d show you a photo, but I was too busy nomming to remember to take one.

The naan recipe made enough to feed me, Mr TLC and approx 5000 others, so we’re trying an experiment involving a spot of partial cooking (it was that or find a couple of fish and a hungry crowd of 5000). We have plenty of test naan to experiment with – which means more curry tomorrow. Yay!

Me too.

And you?

Lots of lovely people visit this blog and many of them take the time to leave comments. You’re all most welcome, thanks for taking the time to do that.

I don’t moderate comments (apart from automated SPAM catching), but I do reserve the right to remove links or to [...]]]> … but evidently it does.

Lots of lovely people visit this blog and many of them take the time to leave comments. You’re all most welcome, thanks for taking the time to do that.

I don’t moderate comments (apart from automated SPAM catching), but I do reserve the right to remove links or to delete entire comments. I’ll only do this if I feel that your comment is offensive (which is rare – comments that I happen to disagree with aren’t a problem) or if it’s a thinly disguised attempt to advertise something. As it says in the sidebar, this is an ad free blog.

After a spate of adverty comments, I’ve set the SPAM filter to catch a variety of extra things, including links that use a URL shortner. I like URL shortners, but there’s a time and a place for them.

I’m hoping that this won’t cause problems with any genuine comments. If you’re one of the aforementioned nice people and you think your comment may have landed in the SPAM queue, drop me an email and I’ll pull your comment out of there.

This may be because I am mad.

Or it may be because I just stumbled across the latest gem of a video from OK Go!

Or it may be because OK Go! are mad.

Maybe all of the above are true. Whatever, enjoy [...]]]> It is Monday and I am laughing.

This may be because I am mad.

Or it may be because I just stumbled across the latest gem of a video from OK Go!

Or it may be because OK Go! are mad.

Maybe all of the above are true. Whatever, enjoy it before the embedding gets switched off: