Ulaan Bulance

It never used to be this hard to raise a bit of money for charity and have an adventure into the bargain.

Turns out we can't take a car on the rally either. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? The vision I've had in my mind over the years is a dusty veteran car careering over the desert. But apparently, dem's the rules for the particular rally we're signed up to - all to do with import duty at the ...

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the most spontaneously arranged plans....

no sooner had we decided on a general theme for our fund-raising than those cheeky scamps in the Mongolian government have apparently scuppered our library-driving exploits. It would appear that the only cars that are import tax-exempt are those which are no older than 9 years old, with no more than a meagre 65,000 miles on the clock.

This bumps the price we'd have to pay up by a few grand, and ...

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Buzzin & searchin

There's something about that first hit of red wine in the evening... Instant warm fuzzy loveliness in a glass..

Currently scouring the net for a rally vehicle in my Banrock Station bubble, dinner having been deferred so as not to "ruin the effect of the booze". You can't buy class like that, you have to mature into it.

Our initial gung-ho enthusiasm for pimping a mobile library to take to ...

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Ulaan Book Tour

How good is that name? Ulaan Book Tour? Ulaan Baatar? Geddit?

After our first meeting with the rally guys on Saturday, we were encouraged to start getting our message out to people asap. All well and good, except that we hadn't even got a team name at that point.

Lucy teaches English as a foreign language (or whatever it's referred to these days) and a large number of her students of late have ...

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The worst kept secret...

way back in August, I vaguely alluded to some exciting news that may or may not be happening at some point in the future. Predictably, such a tease got the internet whirring into speculative overdrive. That, and the fact I've already told my only three regular readers (Lee, I'm assuming Helen told you), means that the big announcement is not going to come as a total surprise.

But, announce it I ...

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want an iPhone

I like my current Sony Ericsson K800i, and it does everything I need it to - y'know, making phone calls, sending texts and the like - but recently people have started to mock it. I'm hurt. I only bought the bloody thing 18 months ago, although admittedly the model's about 3 years old now which makes it positively geriatric in mobile phone terms.

I worry though. All those apps, all that mobile ...

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word

Kind of feel I've been neglecting the old blogging recently - as witty as my tweets are they are surely no substitute for the real thing.

So...err....you well? Umm, what you been up to? Me? Oh, you know, this and that. Working mainly.


must start running again, actually. Was gonna start tonight - the Reading half marathon is only 4 months away - but got back to the hood and wouldn't you just know it, it was bloody raining. What are the odds in mid-November? Definitely will recommence my jogging routine tomorrow, as long as it's not too cold.

Bonfire night rocked

out in the country with only a bonfire, some rural types and gallons of hot homemade cider for company. Oh, and the Mangled Wurzels. Yup, a Wurzels tribute band, who rocked the cow shed like it had never been rocked before.

Flat-iversary draws to a close

Raised a small glass of beer to the special day and spent the evening on the internet while 'er also-indoors yakked away in Polish to her friends over a bottle of plonk. Just the way we would have wanted it.

Off tomorrow to Pizza Express! Gawd bless ya, Voucher Codes

What is the 3rd anniversary anyway? Apparently for those folk who are married it's Leather. Maybe I'll buy her some chaps or ...

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Remember remember

the first week of November... This time last year, etc...

As you will notice from perusal of some of my other posts I'm prone to more than a little nostalgia at the best of times, so I'm veritably hyper-ventilating this week as not one but two significant milestones pass....

This time last year, I was bedding down for my last night of being munched by bugs in my old house share, prior to mov...

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