57:12 ... cheeky cockney hobbit-chefs ... where's Toby?

Get me with my Need To Know-style elliptical titling.

57:12 So two sundays ago was the Edinburgh 10k run. Me and a friend took part and and we both did really well. I was worried about not making it without having to walk, so I was really pleased to manage any time less than an hour. It was good fun and we spent the rest of the day walking around looking very pleased with ourselves. And why not?

Hobbits
Had friends to stay this weekend. It's the first bit of real hostery I've done, and I think the visitors survived. It was great fun and (with lots of help, and modulo salad-related errors of scale) I managed a recipe from scooter-riding midget Jamie Oliver's book Jamie's Kitchen. It turned out well and I'll be trying more of the recipes in future.

Where's the Baileylord?
Went to Stockbridge with the visitors and totally failed to see Toby in any of the fine food shops we perused. I was disappointed since I imagine him to spend his entire weekend standing around in the best foodmerchants talking high-class shop with the proprietors. Turns out he was in Burgundy, as if we couldn't have guessed.

Street Art

This is some pavement art from Princes Street in Edinburgh. It's by Julian Beever and the idea is that if you look at it from the correct angle then the picture pops out of the pavement at you.

A friend mentioned about there being a famous pavement artist about town on tuesday. The next day I walked right past this thing (which looks stretched out and weird) wondering what the hell it was but not paying any attention. Then later on I was reminded and realised what I'd missed. It's a little faint because people have been walking over it for a couple of days, but still very cool.

Sideways: You're a derelict!

If you haven't seen this film then probably you should. It's really funny, also a bit depressing, but very sweet in the end. I just watched the DVD and, being a detail-obsessed geek, watched it again with the commentary by the two leads. This was surprisingly good, they're very funny and the chatter amounted to them both mocking their own characters for the duration of the movie. This, with apologies for the swearing, is my favourite quote (Miles is a wine snob and this is his opinion of a popular wine):

Miles: It tastes like the back of a fucking L.A. school bus. Now they probably didn't de-stem, hoping for some semblance of concentration, crushed it up with leaves and mice, and then wound up with this rancid tar and turpentine bullshit. Fuckin' Raid.
Jack: Tastes pretty good to me.

For wine-related reasons of Toby mockery I actually set this as the hidden message on the computing projects earlier this year, but I had to take out the swearing.

Meanwhile, I jinx myself now by mentioning that I'm going to take part in the Edinburgh 10k run on sunday. Currently I'm sore after today's practice, but I think I'm about up to the right sort of ability. So fingers crossed. Now, according to the advice they sent, I have to start eating lots of carbohydrates to avoid hitting the wall too soon. Hum.

Finally, Newsnight Review update: The Double Life Of Veronique is on at the Filmhouse soon. Adjectives at the ready!