Well my little sidebar poll has been up for almost five days, and the result is not quite what I expected. Zenobia is streets ahead of the pack, with Queen Elizabeth I a distant second.

Or perhaps Zenobia just has a champion with an itchy finger? Just wondering…

Moving around a bit lately, I’ve been struggling with the fact that if you can’t eat gluten, railway stations are a complete food desert – burgers, bagels, batters, baguettes, everything is wheat-based. (Oddly I’ve noticed the same pattern in France.)

To get something rice-based, you have to go outside the station to the Chinese/Thai/Indian takeway you’ll usually find in the surrounding area.

What’s wrong with say handy rice balls wrapped in egg or tofu, or a simple fried rice, within the station? NOt just for those who can’t eat wheat, but also for those who just fancy a change.

Seen at the British Library shop (which is now threatening to take over the foyer…)

“Great works dinner plates”, featuring the handwritten famous lines of Bronte, Browning, Coleridge and Hardy. £45 for a set of four.

How will it feel when you are scraping your pasta sauce off “Reader, I married him”?

Since I’ve spent the past week cat-sitting for a friend, I’ve been reflecting on the entrenched nature of habits. I’ve always been a dog person – not that I have any objection to cats, just I find dogs much more interesting and interactive.

But I have found that absent-mindedly whistling for a cat isn’t very effective…

And Rorty was not amused when I came home with a bag of hot chips and offered him one… (Dog would have loved it.)

No I don’t think I’m cracking up, quite, but I have been watching cheese mature. Makes a nice variation on an old cliche…

… work, house (one sold, one to be bought – soon), Green Party, other work … all a little out of control just now, so there won’t be much substantive blogging here at least for a few days, but I have taken a minute to browse an exploration of the “ugly Australian” traveller. Do you find your accent makes you welcome, or sees you shunned? (I found Crete was the place where it had the most currency, but I am talking of almost two decades ago.)

Otherwise, I’ve been musing on the appropriate collective noun for a group of pizza delivery motorbike riders (a “swarm”, a buzz”?), after seeing a collection outside a shop this afternoon – must have been at least a dozen.