I don’t like cold weather. At all. Sure, it’s nice to look at: the clear skies, the frost on the glass, the children sliding to school … but that’s about it: it’s nice to look at!

My iMac is back to normal now – Tugger popped over and fitted my new internal hard drive. We had a bit of an “ARGH!” moment when we realised that the new one is about half an inch deeper than the old one was and, with the insides of the iMac being so tightly packed, were worried that it wouldn’t fit. As it turned out we needn’t have worried as it went in quite nicely. Now I have a 250GB internal containing the operating system and all my precious data – this is being mirrored by a 250B external. I also have a 500GB external for “disposable” data, i.e. CDs and DVDs that can be re-encoded incase of a crash. Everything’s reinstalled and I’m trying out a few new bits of software – more on that later.

I’m full of apathy at the moment – for the past couple of weeks (okay: maybe the past four) I haven’t been bothered to do anything I should be doing, including keeping this place updated. I’m part-way through several jobs for this site including tagging all the old entries properly and implementing some seasonal colour schemes.

A new car!

In amongst what is increasingly turning out to be an unbelievably shit year already, something good has happened: my new car was delivered. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned that I was getting one — I decided to try and keep my mouth shut to prevent Sod’s Law from casting its effects …

It’s a Renault Kangoo Expression and was converted for wheelchair access by Gowrings Mobility. I got a good deal with money off an extra rear seat (it comes with one as standard) and metallic paint and alloy wheels thrown in. The colour is “intense blue”:

I also have some particular unexciting shots of the interior.

I’m just a passenger but I’ve managed to insure it for any driver over the age of 25 years for a quite reasonable £350. So, expect to read about some of my excursions and a revitalised photostream on my Flickr account.