Have used the phone a bit as an MP3 player, but it's hard to get used to only having a gig or two, and the interface isn't as friendly. Could be handy to only carry one gadget around though.

Bought a pair of khaki trousers that transform into shorts by unzipping the legs; mainly because they seemed handy to travel with. Two problems. Firstly, the zips mean the trouser legs hang slightly oddly, as a more perfectly rounded cylinder, like space suit legs. These have pretty chunky zips though: that problem might go away with slimmer zips.

Secondly, while I've been carefully washing the legs along with the shorts each time, I have spent a fair amount of time in the sun just wearing the shorts lately. The sun-bleaching effect means that the shorts are now slightly lighter in colour than the legs, which is not ideal.

George Foreman
Tried the other duck breast. Forgot to turn the heat down: meant to do 13 minutes on medium but did 13 minutes on high. That seemed to work a lot better: crisper and crunchier.

Steam
Didn't like the courgettes <USian>zucchini</USian> I tried originally, but someone gave me some courgettes he grows on his allotment, and they were a lot nicer: very flavourful.

What I'm Watching
Saw 12 Angry Men on DVD. Superb film, not nearly as dated as I expected. Very simple set-up, near real-time, practically all in a single room; but the tension is ratcheted up so well it never gets boring. Not too preachy either.

Does get a bit too stagey in some ways, such as when they all turn away from the racist, and the somewhat implausible excuses found for sub-groups to have private conversations, but they're minor flaws.

Great classic, recommended.

(Red=entertainment,green=originality,blue=intelligence.)

Museums
Went to see Rebels and Martyrs: The Image of the Artist in the Nineteenth Century at the National Gallery. Does what it says: lots of portraits and self-portraits of artists. Little bit then on the talent, though there's a great sardonic Picasso there. The spoofs and caricatures of the posers are often more interesting than the actual artists though.

Was surprisingly quiet when I was there (first thing on Sunday admittedly); since it seems intended to be very populist. Was quite a blissful experience: not too hot, child count zero, could wander right up to the paintings and stare without inconveniencing people. (very handy since I forgot my glasses).

Overall it's a bit expensive for the talent on offer though: I wouldn't bother unless you're a completist.

Bleu Cheese
Encountered this expression on the Fluffyblog: I think I'd seen it before but assumed it was a typo or an oddity. It seems to be pretty common though, which is very strange. I can see either "blue cheese" or "fromage blue", but don't see the point of "bleu cheese" at all. It's not as if blue cheese is uniquely French: Dolcelatte and Gorgozola are Italian, Blue Stilton is English, and Danish Blue is from Kazakhstan.

What's odder is that from context it seems to be treated as a generic product. They never seem to say things like "I went out to get some bleu cheese and came back with a nice Gorgonzola": bleu cheese seems to be the thing-in-itself: you go out to get some bleu cheese, come back with bleu cheese, it tastes like bleu cheese and that's it. Very strange.