We had our neighbours around for drinks last night. When my wife invites people for drinks she really means drinks and snacks and my wifes snacks tend to be in the order of a seven course meal. My role is usually to prepare the sweet. We're on a Crème Brûlée thing at the moment. Some months back we had tried a bought creme with a more Spanish flavour, which was delicious. I decided I like to know how to make it, if I could find a recipe. A bit of searching on Google produce more recipe sites than you could shake a stick at. In amongst them was a site that concentrates on Crème Brûlée : http://cremebrulee.com/. "Debbie Puente is the undisputed Queen of Crème Brûlée." The tagline for the site is "Shop here for all your Crème Brûlée Essentials." I must admit that when I was younger I hadn't realised that Crème Brûlée was essential but I'm beginning to realise that she had a point. However, she didn't have the recipe I wanted. By now I'd discovered I was looking for Crema Catalana. I soon found a recipe, good ol' Google, on http://www.recipesource.com/desserts/08/rec0859.html. Unfortunately not enough time to change tack. So it was a very good, if I say so myself, Crème Brûlée. But next time it will be Crema Catalana.

Anyway, after the barbecued chicken, the lamb kebabs, stuffed courgettes, houmus and arabic bread, carrots and cucumber with dips and about six bottles of wine we were all getting quite relaxed. Or perhaps it was that we just couldn't move with all that food. I was despatched to the kitchen to grill the Crème Brûlées. And the 'snacks' were topped off nicely. Next time I'll be able to use the cook's torch my wife bought because next time she'll remember to buy some gas for it.

It was after midnight when we finally drew things to a close. But it was a very pleasant evening. I have always preferred having a few friends around for a meal than going out to a restaurant or cinema. It's always interesting with a small group, particularly if you've invited people who don't know each other well. Once the wine starts flowing and the conversation gets going the barriers slowly descend and a new friendship may be formed. 

The best part of some jobs is the day after when you've forgotten how awful the task you had to complete was. Well today is the day after and the smell has only just ceased to linger. We've had a drain outside the bathroom apparently leaking or overflowing for some time. It's never seemed particularly bad and I always thought it was a few dead leaves. The leaves were cleared and next time it occurred they were removed again. My neighbour had sort of moaned about it. But the way he explained it didn't seem to be much of an issue. I thought he was more concerned with water puddling outside his backdoor when it rained. So it was somewhat of a surprise, this week, when I notuced that we had water coming up out of the manhole/inspection cover. This was most noticeable whne my daughter had a shower. I thought it was partly down to the amount of water she was using. However, it was obviously more serious than I had realised. I phoned our local trustworthy plumber who said he didn't clear drains but that he usually poured some acid down to clear blockages. Well my wife had already tried that to no avail. I therefore determined that this week I would call out one of the DynaRod type companies. I gritted my teeth to the prospect of a £200 bill. They charge £50 to talk to you. However, yesterday lunch time my neighbour knocked the door and asked what I was going to do about the drain. Had he come to me earlier and explained more clearly what was happening I'd have solved the problem ages ago. However, it was obviously time for action. I called on my neighbour, the builder, to ask if he had a set of cleaning rods for the drain. He hadn't but offerred to assist me lift the covers so I could try clearing the blockage with my pressure washer. Whilst waiting for him I tried to lift the covers myself and found it surprisingly easy. Needless to say the problem cover revealed a very unpleasant sight. Not only was the water lapping at the top of the chamber but there were things floating in there that wanted to get out. I tried using the pressure washer on the downstream chamber but it had little effect. So my builder neighbour drove me to the local DIY warehouse where we bought some drain rods and, fortunately, an extension set. This gave me a total of 12 3foot rods. Back to the house and another unsuccesful attempt at attacking the downstream end. So there was nothing for it but to plunge my sparkling new drain cleaning rod with the spiky attachment below the scummy surface. All 12 rods disappeared and it was only the last old bamboo rod, that my neighbour had brought to poke around, that allowed us to reach the blockage. A few hefty pushes and some tremendous gurgles followed by a particularly loud fart from the bathroom drain and the water was rushing away like it was trying to escape us. he pressure washer proved useful in cleaning out the remaining detritus. I hope that is a job I don't need to do again in a hurry. The smell lingered in my nostrils long after the job was done.

Today was spent in cleaner surroundings playing around with some new web tools. But more on that another day.

I hope you like the new picture in my profile.

My daughter has decided to rent a shop. She has been selling shoes, mainly ladies and kids, for the last couple of months. However, a local sho has becme available and she wants totry her luck. She asked me and I said she should give it a go. The only thing she can lose is some money and she will gain experience. I also don't want her to have an opportunity and regret later that she never took it. Iam lending her some money towards the rent for the first few months. She has to lease it for at least a year so I will be able to help her if she gets stuck. Her boyfriends mother has a shop and is also very encouraging. It's going to be quite an experience. However, I also have to make money so I need to see if I can at last get my web business off the ground or it's back to looking for another contract.

I have now finished working for Siemens. Although there is still a possibilty that they will want me back in January. So I now have three weeks to play with web sites and perhaps even find a few clients. So I am going to be busy. I have been asked to create a number of small websites, all very cheap. However, if people like them and I can add them to my portfolio it's worth it.