Typical Ian. I buy a bunch of presents and the one he's most interested in is a beat-up copy of Hemingway's A Moveable Feast which I picked up for £2 in a charity shop and wrapped with another book as an afterthought.

2 Part Set

I was hanging my boyfriend's pants on the washing line (what do you call them? They aren't briefs and they aren't boxers . . .) and noticed most of them say "2 Part Set" on the label. Ignoring sensible suggestions, imagine what the other part of the set would be - on a man!

All-you-can-eat

Usually I wake up with a flat stomach, and today I still had a pot belly from using a new strategy at the Chinese buffet last night. Sleeping was very difficult, and as such I've come to the conclusion that prehistorical humans rarely gorged.

Spirograph

I went to an art exhibition at BlocSpace yesterday which featured three gigantic works constructed using spirograph sets. The artist, Lesley Halliwell, gave a talk about how she started using spirograph and described her processes: it was all really interesting. It turned out that the multi-coloured pieces on show were the culmination of five years of producing giant works with spirograph sets, and previous pieces were monchrome and arranged entirely differently. Because of the limitations of using Spirograph though (as in, you can only really produce a circular motif and repeat it), you could see how her ideas and processes progressed as though in a timeline. The artist was very approachable and interested too, which I always makes me feel positive.

Quirky toys

I really want this book on making sock-toys: Stupid sock creatures

I was inspired after finding this woman's website and blog: www.jesshutch.com She makes knitted robot toys amongst other things. She also gives a tutorial on her blog about screenprinting, which I'd like to mess about with: the screenprinting I did at A-level was based on painting on wax which resisted the dye. It was quite tedious, but produces an effect like a photocopy. Jess Hutch's method produces simpler, more graphic results.

So anyway, I've resumed making my little bears:

Claims to Fame 2 (by proxy)

Would you believe it? The next day, Ian and I were watching University Challenge (currently on a record of getting six correct answers!), and a member of the UCL team was from Northwich, Cheshire where Ian went to college. It turned out that it was a guy called Doeser (pronounced "dozer") who Ian knew, who did look very dozey indeed, but who saved the day for UCL by answering a question on wine that took them five points ahead right on the buzzer. I could hardly contain my excitement.

Claims to Fame

Newcastle, Sunday afternoon: my dad and I were watching the European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg. The 800 metres was almost finished: one Brit has been spiked and was completely out of the race, the other was boxed in and desperate to get free. In the last ten metres he managed to shove his way through the other athletes, and almost fell over the line into a bronze medal position.

Two minutes later, both British men were being interviewed, and I yelled excitedly, "Dad! Dad! I know that guy! He was really horrible to me!" It was none other than Sam Ellis, a Sheffielder, and good mates with my former housemates Olly and Tom. And while the other contender was disappointed beyond belief, Sam was swaying around in undisguised and slightly bewildered ecstasy.

TV truly authenticates experience.