• 180 CDs
• 4 SACDs
• 2 DVD-As
• 43 gigs
• 617 DVDs
• 26 Blu-rays
• 6 cameras
• 12 lenses
• 18 bicycles

• 41 CDs (15 of those were promos)
• 17 gigs
• 72 DVDs
• 10 Blu-rays
• 4 trips to the cinema
• 33 additional films from the top 250 watched
• 1 camera
• 3 lenses
• 2 bicycles

Tonight was the first proper Christmas meal of the season. It was the combined technician/support team meal, known as “Carl’s Birthday” so as not to upset the over-sensitive developers.

We went to Loch Fyne in town which specialises in fish, so as befits a fish restaurant I had a nice piece of rare rump steak. We had a very pleasant meal for the 25 of us, which for me was washed down with a rather nice bottle of Merlot Grenache house red.

Ten bonus “aged indie kid” points if you understand the title of this post.

I’m not entirely sure how it happened, although a wrecked back has a lot to do with it, but over the last few years I’ve fallen out of love with riding bikes for fun.

I still ride to and from work every day, but that’s riding for a purpose and is only 14 miles per week or so. The problem is that riding after work for fun seems to be a thing of the past at the moment, and I don’t really know why. When I do ride I enjoy it, but there seems to be a massive amount of inertia stopping me actually getting out there and riding.

New bikes help for a while. In the last couple of years I have “discovered” 69ers and seen the light, but two new 69ers were not enough to turn me back into a proper cyclist.

The biggest problem is my back. While still officially undiagnosed, the symptoms seem to point to lumbar spinal stenosis. Drugs don’t help much, Osteopathy might have helped, but then again it might just have been the natural progression of time between appointments that waved it’s magic wand and reduced the pain to a manageable level. However it’s a catch-22 situation, my back problems stop me riding as often as I’d like which means my fitness reduces, my weight increases, and my back problems get worse.

Still, there’s always next year…

You get a good feeling when you walk past the local bookshop and see something you’ve worked on for the last year or so displayed in the window. Rumour has it that it’s currently in third place in their best-seller chart. Fortunately for the readers, I only wrote one page of introduction so it’s not completely ruined by my lack of writing ability.

Details of how to obtain one of these fine books can be found over on the Old Sulians’ Website: Basement to Beechen Cliff – Now in stock

After queuing for an hour or so, I’ve now been vaccinated against swine flu and the normal seasonal flu. The downside is that both shoulders now ache slightly where they gave me the injections. It does however mean that I should be flu-free this winter.

I’m back from a few days in a rather moist Padstow with ill people. Pasties were eaten, ale was quaffed, and much relaxing took place. I also spent far too much money in The Whistlefish Gallery, so will need to rearrange my pictures at some point.

More photos: Padstow, November 2009

After suffering from bad toothache for three weeks, a third trip to the dentist today left me lighter to the tune of one tooth. It put up a bit of a fight, but eventually came out in one piece. The downside is that the pain is now worse than that caused by the infection in the tooth, but all being well will clear up in a few days.

Actually it started at 15:30 yesterday when I finished work, but today was my first day off, and was spent in a suitable holiday style. After a leisurely brunch in Velo Lounge we headed up to Lansdown en-mass to go kite flying, however the wind conspired against us, and I think Dan got the only decent 5-minute flying time. Following some more concerted relaxing at home, I popped into town and came home with a shiney new iPhone 3GS to replace my aging Nokia, the rest of the day has been spent drinking beer and playing around with the iPhone to get it set up properly.

Tomorrow will be a day of relaxing doing very little, and on Sunday a group of us are off to see the Sealed Knotters down on Weston Super Mare beach for the afternoon.

Hopefully this should last me a little while.

Some of the alcohol purchased in France, the 7 bottles of various spirits are elsewhere.