Over in Spon End, they have what's possibly the most pointless cycle lane anywhere. That's all there is to it - a small bit at the corner of the road. There's a cycle lane on the other side of the road, heading towards the underpass to Spon Street. Perhaps they had some green paint left over and didn't want to take it back to the depot.

Last night, we were in bed and heard a thud come from the front room. I went to investigate and found Theo sitting on the floor looking a bit confused. The lid from his bedroom hadn't been attached properly and he managed to get out. The noise must have been him landing on the floor after climbing out. Thankfully he was ok.

I was on my way home from work on the Birmingham to London train, which stops at Birmingham International and Coventry. I'd got to the train quite early and managed to get a seat at table. When the train stopped at International, a grey haired who looked vaguely familiar sat down opposite me. After a few seconds I realised it was one of my old lecturers from Aberystwyth.

We went to a Cheese and Wine night at Warwick University, jointly hosted by the Cheese and Chocolate and the Wine and Whisky societies.
There were 6 wines paired with 6 cheeses for us to sample, and 2 experts from shops in Leamington to talk about them. It was in interesting evening, the wines and cheeses varied in quality and flavour and some of the pairings were less successful than others but most of what was available was good. There was a particularly good blue cheese there, whose name escapes me but it was very soft and creamy. There was also a Warre's 10 Year Old Tawny Port which was possibly the star of the show as far as the wines were concerned.

This is a recipe my Dad emailed me a few years ago which I found again recently while I was sorting out some old emails. It takes a bit of work to make but it's worth it:

The recipe makes 300 g of the marmalade
1 kg peeled red onions
100ml olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1/2tsp black pepper
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs rosemary
150g caster or soft brown sugar - we used the latter
100ml dry white wine
75ml red wine vinegar

Cut onions in half and slice finely and cook in the oil for approx 5 mins or until soft.
Add salt,pepper,bay and rosemary ,cover and cook over gentle heat for approx 20 mins until wilted and soft stirring occasionally Add sugar,wine and vinegar and bring to the boil,stirring.Reduce the heat and cook uncovered for 20/30 minsuntil soft and sticky and most of liquid absorbed.need to stir fairly constantly at the end to avoid sticking.Pick out the bay and the rosemary and discard.Spoon into 2 150ml jars and leave to cool,then seal tightly.Jars should be sterilised.your mum put them in microwave 3/4 full of water and allow to boil for a while. Empty and leave to dry. Your mum dries them in a low oven on gentle heat.
Ideally the marmalade should be left for a week before use for best results but not essential. Once open can store in fridge for 3 weeks.

My Dad's email continued to say that it works really well with cheese on toast.

I had a cold before christmas which lasted about a fortnight. I wasn't too bad while we were away over the holidays but the cold germs must have been waiting in the house for me, for when we got back to Coventry. Not long after we got back my cold started to get worse.
Slowly slowly slowly I started to get better, then yesterday Emma was suffering from a sore throat which seems to be part of a cold which is travelling around Uni - one of her friends from her course has the same thing.
This morning I woke up with the same symptoms I had back in december when my cold first started - painful sinus pressure and a nose which is either blocked or constantly running.

I had a strange dream last night. I was wandering around a town centre but it was more like Aberystwyth than Coventry, although it had a large indoor shopping center, unlike Aber. When I was outside I heard a tannoy announcement from the railway station, but it was broadcast to the entire town. It apologised for the late arrival of the tuesday train. I glanced at my watch and noticed that it was wednesday lunchtime. I then suddenly realised that I should be in work - I'd gone into town because I thought it was a saturday!

I finished reading the book on the train home tonight. It's an interesting, entertaining and moving (auto)biography, started by John Peel and finished by his wife after he died. Full of anecdotes and interesting titbits about Radio One's longest serving DJ and presenter of Home Truths, which was one of my favourite Radio 4 programmes for a while.

The 2nd of Emma's birthday parties. This time held in the Wing Wah Chinese Restaurant in Coventry. They do an all-you-can-eat buffet for around £12-14 evenings and weekends, only £6 mid-day but there is less choice. As well as all the usual stir fried food (which is very tasty) they also have a Teppanyaki bar where you select the food you want cooking and it's cooked in front of you. It's fascinating to watch this in action, with the spatulas almost dancing across the grill as the food is mixed and cooked. The highlight of this is when the brandy gets added, and the grill briefly becomes a wall of flame.

The dessert selection used to be fairly typical until they got a chocolate fountain. I think you're supposed to use the sticks and fruit provided (usually lychees and melons) but we tend to pick other things off the dessert table and dip those as well - grapes, lumps of cake, that kind of thing. It's also good to collect some of the chocolate in a spoon and pour it over the ice cream where it sets into a hard shell.

The Wing Wah also have a special birthday dessert - usually a melon or pineapple filled with ice cream and with a giant sparkler sticking out. This is brought to the table with great ceremony to a recording of a chinese lady singing 'happy barthday'. We tried to make sure that Emma didn't fill up on all the other foods because two of her friends had ordered one of these. In the end, we still had to help her out eating it.

(photo of Emma and the ice cream taken by AndyMac. Andy - hope you don't mind me stealing your photos and using them on my site!)

Thankfully, the bread and chicken last night managed to stay down. But for some strange reason I just don't feel hungry today despite having had hardly anything to eat. At least my stomach isn't constantly churning and uncomfortable. I think I'll be ok to go back to work tomorrow.

I wish the bathroom wasn't at the back of the house, downstairs. It's much too far to get to quickly in an emergency, such as what happened this morning.

I was lying in bed thinking my stomach felt a bit upset and I thought I might go to the toilet - thankfully I got there before the vomit decided to leave me. I don't know what I might have eaten to cause it - obviously I felt perfectly fine last night.

It took a while for my stomach to settle - after the second vomit I had a glass of water and a fruit-flavoured indigestion tablet (to try to reduce the stomach acid a bit). All that did was make my next hurl taste lemony. Thankfully by mid afternoon, 4 vomits, several glasses of water and a slice of bread, I seem to be able to keep things down now. My guts are still very gurgly but hopefully I'll be better if I manage to eat something tonight.

Update:
I've managed to eat some poached chicken for tea but my stomach is still feeling upset.

Tonight was Emma's first birthday party. Her birthday isn't til next week but she decided she needed one party for friends and neighbours back home and another for Uni friends. This was the party back home, so we drove up north with a car overloaded with sleeping bags, pillows, stereo gear, a helium tank for balloons and several sets of coloured or flashing lights. Oh, and Minnie, one of Emma's Uni friends and a housemate from last year. We met up with Ben (aka Zoomy) later on - he was taking the bus there, and as he doesn't live anywhere near Coventry we couldn't have given him a lift anyway.

When we got to the venue I set up the stereo and the lights then helped everyone inflate the balloons. Of course, where helium is involved you also get people talking with squeaky voices...
Emma had spent the last few days sorting out the music, taking a selection from her CDs and downloading some cheesy music to fill the gaps. Towards the end of the evening, most people were dancing and generally enjoying themselves.

Although quite a few people turned up, there were slightly less than expected and there was a lot of buffet food left over. We ended up with lots of cheese, pork pies, sandwich meat and chicken portions. I'm sure the chicken will make a nice soup. One of Emma's friends bought her a hand held liquidizer as a present, which will be a nice replacement to the one I accidentally melted last year by liquidizing soup which was too hot! We'll have to be careful with this one because it is a good quality model.

Last week I was eating a Strawberries & Cream Kit Kat during my lunch break. I had already eaten one finger before I noticed that the other finger had Temporary written on it.

I thought it was a little strange but when I mentioned it to Emma she didn't believe me - her KitKat only had the normal Have a Break... message on it. I checked a couple of other bars and they only had normal messages like break starts here. Today I found another of the temporary bars - the actual message is temporary shutdown.

The title should really read I shouldn't have any cake. After the foodfest which is Christmas, Emma and I decided that we should probably start to eat a bit more healthily (at least once the cakes and chocolates have been finished off). At the moment we are in some kind of compromise situation where we have healthy meals but are still eating the cakes etc. which were left over from Christmas.
This would all be ok if it wasn't for the free cakes which turn up occasionally in work. So far this week this has happened 3 times (2 birthdays and 1 leaving). 3 free cakes in a 4 day week isn't bad going, but hopefully this won't continue for long.

This is one of those games where people choose a list of celebrities, and score points depending on which ones die. Each competitor enters a team of 15 celebrities and then waits for the Grim Reaper to start knocking on doors. Last years game has finished and the scores will be finalised as soon as all the obituaries are in for 2005.

Entries are still being accepted for this years competition, which began on January 1st. To enter, visit the Website.

We were walking along the Allseley Old Road at around 1:40am-ish, on our way home after a few new year drinks at a friends house when we heard the sound of helicopters overhead. We looked up but couldn't see anything, then we made out the outline of a dark helicopter with no lights whatsoever, flying in a roughly northerly direction.
Hmmm... most mysterious.

Happy New Year!