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Whenever a Kiwi band makes the effort to come over this side of the world it would be a bit rude if we didn’t make the effort to go and see them. This year Crowded House were playing on the Saturday of the Hyde Park Calling gig, so we popped along.

Good set from the guys, as you’d expect, but it was just a pity about the weather! Massive downpour towards the end of their set that kind of put a bit of a dampener on the whole thing, but we coped. Just. At least we’d had a little bit of sun before then to warm us up for it.

Peter Gabriel played after that, but to be honest, after a couple of songs we realised just how wet we were and decided to toddle off home to warm up again. Still, it was possibly better than being stuck at Glastonbury this year though!

The only time we normally looking at all our photos lately is when we’re sitting at the PCs. So it seemed a bit strange to be looking at a huge pile of printed photos for a change. 264 to be exact.

We decided to get the good photos of the Egypt trips printed so we could put them in an album for a change so we could have something to entertain guests with now and then if conversation ever gets boring. (If we got all the photos printed, people would get very, very bored! There are still over 1,200 in the full set.) It has been a long term plan to do this. We even bought some camel-skin albums when we were there to put them in. But now, faced with the job of trying to work out if the order is right and actually get them in the little pockets, I’m a little loathe to finish the job. Maybe on Friday night in front of boring TV or something

And the biggest unsolved problem is that we’ll have no idea what they are any more as the names aren’t on them! Bugger! But then I guess we can just make it up and see if anyone can tell.

Update: Someone got pretty keen, and they were all finished tonight!  Guess that means we’ve the weekend free after all!

The Ring of Fire’s have been sneakily turning colour over the last 2 days too. So I was really completely wrong about how long I’d have to wait for them.  I obviously completely missed taking a picture or note last year when they turned, or maybe it was when I was back in NZ that it happened. Whatever.  They’re red anyway.  Not the best photo today though.  Sorry.

So that just leaves the Zimbabwe Bird Peppers to go.  There are a heap of them on the plants, so they should look great when they start to turn.

But I have to say that I’ve been a bit slack with my flower flicking lately, and a lot of flowers have just been falling off unpollinated. And when that happens I get in trouble for them all falling over the place.  So must try harder to keep up with them all!

In the last couple of days there’s been a sneaky Prairie Fire chilli that’s been colouring up right in the middle of the plant. Tricky little thing thinks I won’t notice! But I did, and it’s going to be the first to get chomped to see what they taste like. Putting that off until I have a fully ripe chilli on the Riots as well so I can compare the taste. Won’t be long now!

Sunday just been saw another 10k run, and this time it was the Norwich Union City vs. City run that cost 10 quid to enter. Not sure why I pay to put myself through the pain when I could just go out and run 10k anyway. But it goes to a good cause, apparently this one is for 200 initiatives nationwide. And I guess it gives me a goal to work towards and gets me off my lazy butt to do a bit of training – but never enough, as I always seem to leave training till the last minute.

The run itself was hard work. It was hot and I can now see why they said it was an undulating course. The hills were very hard work for someone who trains around home, and I have to say it’s as ‘flat as Holland’! But I’m glad I did it and I have another medal to add to my running medals – no I didn’t get a place, the good thing is you get a medal just for finishing.

But the best part of the day was looking forward and having a great pub lunch and a cheeky pint afterwards – now I know why people join harriers clubs!

This entry is just a note of appreciation to the nameless woman that saw that I only had one item while waiting in the supermarket queue, while she had a big full basket, and let me go first.

Thank you! It made me think that niceness isn’t quite dead here yet. Just!

To be honest, I’ve thought about doing the same every now and then but I always suspect that I’ll let the guy with just his loaf of bread and milk jump in front of us and end up waiting while he counts out the exact change in 1 and 2p coins (losing track twice and having to restart)… Maybe next time I’ll let him. What goes around should come around. Maybe it will help kick-start a small niceness wave in the city.

Although I suspect it might only last until the next time there’s tube trouble on a hot day!

He’s me wailing and whining that I’d still have a big wait until the chillis started to change colour, and then they go and show some blushes pretty much the next day! The Riots are starting to have some chillis turn bright orange, and some a bit purple. No idea how they choose which one will do what… But I’m happy. Maybe I should try even more whinging and whining every now and then…

It’s been a while since we had a new addition to the household, and as it was a rainy long weekend last weekend I sat Bec down in front of the sewing machine on the Monday, and lo and behold, a fox emerges!

Well, almost emerged. It possibly wasn’t the best of days to be doing some sewing. We were both a bit tired and cranky after the F1 day out, and so it didn’t quite get finished then. The last part was sewn up yesterday, hence this late report…

Only 2 more left still to do of the current stock!

The other day we scratch-built an Indian style curry for tea, but we weren’t sure how hot the curry powder was as we’d never used it before, so we didn’t put quite enough in. Chilli plants to the rescue! A big, fat green Ring of Fire in the pot, and another one for me to sprinkle on the top of mine, and it was all good! Yum, yum!

It’s good to finally be eating them! Not sure that I’d use any of the others in their green/yellow states, but these ones seem to be really nice green or red.