Miscellaneous

11th February 2005

Note: The old Music section that used to appear here has now moved into its own page, leaving this ``miscellaneous'' page as a rather neat set of three ``F''s.)

Fiction (and other writing)

I've written several short stories: the two that I like best are Midnight Feast and Dead Average. I welcome constructive criticism of these - comments about plot weaknesses, out-of-character dialogue, poor grammar, mis-spelings (har har!), typos, general clunkiness or anything else that you don't like about them can be emailed to me at the address below.

I don't really know where else this fits in, but here are my thoughts on the future of publishing as conventional roles change in the light of print-on-demand and the internet.

And here's a piece on my experiences trying to find a cheap, safe way to sell CDs on-line.

Football

I wrote a non-fiction piece about football, called A Losers' Game? Again, feedback is welcome.

This is a piece about the horror of watching a video of a match that you couldn't watch as it was happening.

I've just (16th October 2001) sent a letter to Birmingham City F.C applying to take over as manager since Trevor Francis left the job ``by mutual consent''. We'll see what kind of reply I get. [Update, 31st January 2002 - to no-one's real surprise, I guess, the kind of reply I got was: none at all.]

The Daily Mirror's front page on 19th December 2001 was just too good a summary of the Bowyer/Woodgate affair to allow to pass into history unmarked. So here it is for posterity.

Food

Yup, I'm branching out into food criticism now! Pizza Restaurant DeathMatch is two sets of comparative reviews of rival pizza restaurants in Belsize Park, North London. Since they're both parts of chains, the reviews probably have wider applicability.

This is my recipe for chicken dhansak.
And this is spaghetti putanesca.
And this is chicken rogan.
And this is TLC soup.
Here is the recipe for the best beef casserole of all time, and I am not exaggerating.
It may seem an unlikely coincidence that the same web-site that has the world's best beef casserole should also have the world's best chocolate cakes as well, but it turns out to be true.

Also, my friend Jane MacDonald <janemac98@lycos.com> has a recipe for a simple buffet (cassoulet & salad) which I am hosting for her.

Lego

(Which, OK, doesn't begin with "F")

I summarise the various Lego X-Wing models that are now, and have been, available.

I've built a Lego MINI Super Star Destroyer out of the pieces of the official Lego MINI Star Destroyer.

And I've built a much bigger Super Star Destroyer out of Mega Bloks (i.e. a cheap Lego knock-off).

Everything Else, or, `misc.misc`

Here is a rant about Breathing Space, one of far too many companies whose web-sites make promises their fulfillment people can't keep.