I was out celebrating last night. My friend Dave, who we can consider to be my brother as we have been close now for about 20 years, has just become a father. As we live in different countries, I had to 'wet the babies head' remotely. So today I am spending recovering and making a curry.

A friend has asked for me to do the photography at her wedding so I think I'll be digging out a film SLR to go along with the EOS 20D. It's a little worrying. The professional wants about 700 euros and she has seen my work and likes it, so fingers crossed. She said she'd buy me a flash as payment, which is good as I miss the one that was stolen in Cuba.

I am very y annoyed with Corel who have bought out JASC the makers of Paint Shop Pro, which I have been a legally paid up and registered user of since the last century. I decided to upgrade to version 9 and went to try and download it, which is 55 US Dollars, if you are in the US, if you are in Gibraltar, you can't buy it at all as the country isn't listed. My Spanish debit card is not accepted by the Spanish site and the best that they could come up with in the UK is giving me a 10% discount off of the non-download version making it 44 pound sterling, which is almost double the price. It is amazing in this world of rampant software sharing (theft), that if you try to do something right, you get penalised. I had a friend in the US buy it for me, paypal'd the dosh to him and got him to send it.

I am really enjoying the curry, which is one of the things I miss most about the UK, the other really important one being real ale out of the tap. Dave brought me over a kit last time he was here but what with everything else going on in my life I haven't got round to making it.

I am really enjoying listening to podcasts, there is a great UK one called The Naked Scientist and the Superb Science Friday from America.

Just so as you know, for desert I am eating natural yoghurt, with nuts and honey, delicious and almost healthy.