I tried two more Georgian recipes last night, one of which, for the first time since I've been using the book, was not totally successful (a lamb and bean stew - somehow there didn't seem to be enough ingredients and the tast of the herbs didn't come through) though the other was good (fry slices of aubergine, smear with crushed garlic, scrape the garlic off again, serve bedecked with coriander leaves).

Another beautiful day here. I still have those two writing tasks from earlier in the week (and thanks, sameen and agirlnamedluna for your input - and I see also Carl Bildt is thinking about it). But will try and fit it all in before going to England (for conference in rural Sussex) tomorrow.

7) The Television Companion: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who, by David J Howe and Stephen James Walker

This has been bedtime reading for a week or so (since I came back from London, I guess), getting through a season or so every evening. Of course, it is all on-line on the BBC website, but it's nice to hold the dead tree version in one's hands as well.

Good and comprehensive basic stuff, though I think I am now ready to move on to some more in-depth examination of the history of the series. I also think that I will buy the DVD of The Aztecs and the audio of The Daleks Master Plan, watch/listen, and decide that I have seen enough Hartnell (having also got through the first episode, The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Crusade, The Chase, and The Massacre in the last year) - I hear that The Web Planet is not in fact very good, though also available on DVD.

Then, on to Troughton, and this book makes a strong argument in favour of Season Five as a Great Season Of Doctor Who - including the likes of The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Abominable Snowmen, The Ice Warriors, The Web of Fear and Fury from the Deep. Must see how many of those are available in different formats. There doesn't seem to be a convenient point of reference for that information.

8) The Triumph of the West, by J.R. Roberts

This book has been sitting guiltily on my shelves since Rathmore Grammar School awarded it to me in 1985 as congratulations on my A-level results. Roberts, a well-known academic historian, was given the task of doing an update of Clarke's "Civilisation" for the BBC, and this is the book-of-the-series. The New York times found the TV version uninspiring, and I regret to say I found the same of the book. Perhaps if I'd actually read it when I was 18, and knew a lot less about history than I do now... no, I don't think so. It's surprisingly meandering, mixes complacency with hand-wringing, and not very clear on who the target audience is. I read the first quarter, and decided I had done my duty by the school awards day of twenty years ago.

Jacques Brel sings "Madeleine". Even for those who don't speak French, I think this video (from Scopitones) of Brel singing his own song about a bloke who is perpetually stood up by his girlfriend, but thinks she still loves him, is really gripping.

On another much more important theme, I had missed the discussion of the proposed new User Info pages. I must make a heretical statement: I actually think the new version is an improvement over the current version. It would be nice to have some freedom of which bits get placed where, though. And I'm well aware that I have no taste at all in matters of graphic design.