I’ve really liked listening to Elbow’s music since I heard them on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge show a few years back (when they did a funny live cover version of Independent Woman).

Their latest album is fantastic and after ten years in the business they finally seem to be getting the commercial success to match the critical acclaim they’ve been accumulating over the years.

If you don’t know Elbow at all, watch them perform The Bones Of you live at Abbey Road and you’ll see what they’re all about. 

That track has been constantly rolling round my head for about a week now and I’m still not sick of it.

I’ve had my own domain and website for some time now and my hosting agreement was recently up for its yearly renewal. I have used the same hosting company since 2003, I have been very happy with them the entire time and have no plans to leave.  So just what is it that makes a good web hosting company?

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During the New Zealand summer, hot weather brings the cicadas out in force. They make a noise not unlike a cricket’s chirp, but it’s more or less constant - and loud. You hear a lot of them wherever there is greenery - the sound is very distinctive, but the cicadas themselves can be quite a mystery as they’re often not obviously visible.

Coming from the UK, I had no idea what a cicada actually was - I had heard them in NZ many times but had never managed to see one, until the other day. I was cutting the grass and was getting dive-bombed by what I thought was a black moth. It flew up and landed on the gazebo, so I walked over to take a closer look. It was resting and had some friends with him.

I grabbed the camera and took a pic.

I counted six cicadas on our gazebo - they stayed still and chirped loudly together for a while. Once I knew what I was looking for, I managed to see a whole lot more of them, on tree trunks, branches and even clinging to the outside walls of our house.

If you want to hear what they sound like, I took a short video too. Watch a cicada chirping on Youtube.

I was brought up in the UK, where Christmas is rarely white (in the Bing Crosby sense), but it’s usually cold and gloomy. I recently moved to New Zealand where the seasons are reversed (so December is summer) and I have to say I am having a bit of trouble adjusting to summer weather at Xmas time.

A lot of ‘traditional’ Christmas imagery is oriented towards Northern Hemisphere weather conditions - snowy fir trees, holly, even Santa with his welly boots and warm get-up are all a bit alien when it’s 25 degrees and sunny outside.

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So here we are, starting with a blank page.

I’ve literally wiped the virtual slate clean and started again from scratch - here are links to the rest of my online life. more…