Recently I’ve had a lot of people ask me what am I actually doing these days, so I figured today would be as good as day as any to fill you all in.

Since I finished my last big project and Ting-Ying started at her fulltime job, the daytimes became pretty boring so I’ve been looking for ways to try and fill the void as it were.

Luckily, quite a nice solution appeared - which not only gives me something to go out the house for, but also gives my brain a bit of a workout too - always useful!

Near my house is a restaurant slash cafe called The Diner, which is an american style spin-off of, well, a diner (obviously). It’s not like the ones you see in the movies (brash furniture, a long counter to sit at) - but more of a cosy cafe style place - with your usual tables and sofa chairs - but also some armchairs against little tables up by the window.

Indeed it’s the armchairs I am most interested in, as I can stroll in at about 2pm (after the lunch rush) - get a nice armchair by the window, order my “all day pancake breakfast” and then happily read a book for a few hours, whilst drinking endless cups of coffee - bliss.

“Pancake breakfast?” you say - yes indeedy, popular with the Yanks, though never really caught on in the UK (except for in McDonalds and on special occasions with Mum’s “Special Breakfast”). I could write a nice long passage on how delicious it is, however instead I think it’s much easier just to show you a photo ….. mmmmmmm

Just to fill in the details - what you see are: 2 pancakes, 2 sausages, hash brown, scrambled eggs, some banana, whipped butter and lashings of maple syrup. Washed down with an orange juice and infinite coffee, all for a rather reasonable 220NT$ (that’s what, £3.50 or so).

As for my choice of literature, it varies - but generally I’m reading through my old stock of Ben Elton books I have. There is a local library however just down the road, which Ting-Ying is going to join so I can get some new material out on her card. They have a large section of Tom Clancy for some reason, but I’ve heard so much about him that I feel I should give one a go.

So anyway, that’s lunchtime covered - how does the rest of my day you might wonder. Basically, I’ll head back home at around 5/6ish and either catch up on email, or any issues that have popped up with the servers or the forum until about 8 o’clock when my dearly beloved gets home and we can either go eat, go movies or just a walk in the park.

The night’s entertainment will run until maybe 1am or so when she’ll then fall asleep - leaving me up until 4 or 5 working on the forum or generally just arsing about online. It is my aim to try and fix my sleeping pattern to lock in with hers, except then I will just have longer in the daytime on my own with nothing to do ….

Saying that though, once I get back from Japan - there is a massive forum upgrade which needs to happen so will take up quite a lot of time. Even more so than a normal upgrade would, as once I’ve finished - I have no excuse no to add in all the other extras the forum needs (at the moment doing it isn’t feasible you see as I’d have to repeat them all again apres-upgrade!)

So there you have it - basically my life in a few paragraphs - certainly not the most exciting of lives, however for everyone who knows me, will probably agree it’s just how I’d like to be