A cool thing that Andrew built

He's so clever! Completely pointless and lots of fun, PlotShot combines the original plot generator with photos from Flickr to make stories with pictures. The results are sometimes offbeat and curious, and definately make you think more carefully about how you tag your photos! Check it out.

What's wrong with Auckland?

Car dependency - the main disincentive for a return to the city of sails (aka city of motorways and traffic jams). Here in Edinburgh everything's in walking distance - work, a morning newspaper & croissants, the cinema, friends, the city centre, parks. Hop on the bus if you're feeling lazy, or your bike if in a rush. Back in Auckland, it seems like we would need a car (or two) just to exist.

Watch this series on YouTube and hear about the whole sorry saga of Auckland's great motorways and crappy public transport. A. thinks it's a stroke of genius to showAustralians telling Aucklanders their train service is embarrassing. Hope it has some effect!

O Christmas tree

We got our Christmas tree yesterday. Rather pretty it is, too, with its pink and white lights, glass and silver baubles, silver fern nymph, paua Christmas tree, African tin angel, santa, jack-in-the-box and even a furry elephant. Minimalism has no place in this Christmas household!

Lots of presents underneath it too...

new things

I've recently discovered Last.fm, and finding it to be both useful and compelling. You can now see what I've been listening to lately, right here (in the sidebar).

Other new(ish) things:

• Chinese white tea
  
• Sweet Melinda's - A lovely wee neighbourhood eatery. A. took me there for our anniversary last month, and we've been back already (this time for their pay-what-you-think-it's worth Tuesday dinner - brave of them and entertaining for us come bill-time!)
• Burnt Sugar fudge
  

Meanwhile, I'm getting bored of winter, rain, gales, cold, darkness and associated seasonalities - although they do make for interesting pics like this one. Can you guess what it is?

Still, there are Edinburgh's gorgeous Christmas lights and the prospect of getting a tree, some long lunches and plenty of good food to cheer things up.

Santas on Harleys

A cheery Christmas scene yesterday. I was leaving work, the evening pitch black and extremely windy. Then from nowhere, before my eyes, the road was lit up by a troupe of Santas on Harley Davidsons, complete with jingle bells on their sound system and a some very impressive lighting kits.