What I'm Watching
A couple of new skiffy-ish series' out on UK TV. "Life on Mars" has a modern detective mysteriously sent back to the 1970s. Like the concept, and the sets and costumes are spookily accurate if a bit over-the-top: most people didn't dress to the extremes of fashion. The rest didn't quite click with me though: way too much tormented "I don't believe it" from the protagonist, other cop seemed a bit like a sketch-show pisstake of "The Sweeney", and the reactions of the other characters to the seemingly insane hero didn't seem extreme enough.

Have always found pilot episodes to be a bit shit though, so will probably watch another to see if it settles down.

Also saw the first episode of new SF comedy Hyperdrive. Mildly amusing. Didn't seem too Red Dwarfish: seems more like The Office In Space as opposed to The Young Ones in Space. Its satirical targets are already pretty battered though. Not sure if it'll work for viewers: the slapstick might appeal to the teens, but I assume they're oblivious to jibes about the ambience of meeting rooms.

Consumerism
Coffee
Went for the cafetière not the fancy coffee machine after much agonizing. Hurts like a punch to the gut to turn down a cool gadget, but seems a bit defeatist as regards cutting down caffeine. I suppose cafetières aren't too bad for one cup: they're just fiddlier to clean since you can't just lift out the paper. You also more or less have to use boiling water rather than 90 degree water (or whatever it is), but doubt I could tell the difference anyway, and I haven't bothered with home grinding for a while.

Dumb-bells
Have reached the point of using all the weights on my dumb-bell set again (20kg altogether) for some exercises, so I bought another four 5kg plates at Argos. This lot wasn't so hard to get home: they stayed in a compact box, rather than falling through their own packaging. Took a cab rather than the Tube though: I think carrying them in the box would have done my back in. Had an elaborate plan to wrap them in towels to spread the load and use a rucksack, but decided that was too much of a pain. Also got some weightlifting gloves which was probably a bad buy: they seem a little loose on me, and God knows how you clean leather/neoprene.

Mildly annoyed by the way Argos have taken the indexes off their in-store catalogues (at least as far as I can see). You now have to find the right section and leaf through, presumably to encourage you to impulse buy, which is a pain if you know what you want from the Internet. (USian note: Argos are a catalog shop with a small front area and a big warehouse behind: you pick out what you want from the catalog, pay a person or human, then pick it up from the counter about 10 minutes later. Or buy direct from the catalog and get stuff delivered.)

Light bulbs
Am trying out the energy-saving light bulbs. Have been somewhat suspicious of them, since they're supposedly a brilliant idea (11W bulb generates as much light as a 60W filament bulb, bulbs cost £1.50 in Morrisons) but nobody ever uses them.

Tried one out in the bathroom and it seemed OK. Spectrum seems a bit whiter than a normal bulb: it's basically just a smaller fluorescent tube. That might bug some people. Didn't flicker. Takes a few seconds to reach maximum brightness, which to me is a feature not a bug: not keen on being dazzled in the morning.

Switched the rest of the flat over today, and I'm finding the closest one to me is flickering distractingly on occasion Stays stable for an hour, then flickers for ten minutes or so. Swapped it with the bathroom one, and that bulb flickers in the same way when I put it in the same socket. Kitchen one seems fine though.

Recommendation: if you're thinking of switching over, buy one bulb and try it out in several rooms, or you might find you've wasted your money because it flickers in some or all sockets.

Food Diary
Friday
Late Breakfast: Pastrami and gherkin bagel. 2 cups tea.
Lunch: Stilton and vegetable soup.
Supper: 2 big slices toast, Tesco Chunky Chilli meal soup, (230 kcal, 20g protein), piece of Camembert, 1 slice ham, apple.
Booze: 2 pints lager
Snacks: 2 Multigrain Rye Ryvita with Worcestershire sauce (37 kcal per slice).
Cocodirect drinking chocolate with skimmed milk.
Exercise: 3.5 miles walking, 5BX Chart 2 level B+

Saturday so far
Brunch: 2 boiled eggs, toast.
Dinner: Marks and Spencer's "Count on Us" Thai Red Chicken and Noodles ready meal (340 kcal), 2 huge slices of fresh bread. Onken Chocolate and Hazelnut mousse (171 kcal).

Web
IO Brush: Art revolution or cool but brief gimmick?

Stolen from Metafilter: the Draw Batgirl bandwagon.