Picture every romantic film you’ve seen where some woman meets the perfect man and they fall in love. Add on every romantic image in your head; like a knight sweeping some fair maiden off her feet. For the men reading, take examples of subservient 1950s women from films, or some tall, well-endowed attractive woman who gets all your jokes and thinks you’re amazing (I’m self-admittedly not very good at thinking of straight male images of romance). When you see these things there can’t be many among us that don't, at some point, think why can’t that happen to me? or why can’t I find someone like that? The thing that’s dangerous about these examples of love is that they can easily lead someone to believe that love and romance is a thing that finds you; it’s something that comes in a suit of armour on a white horse, or with a rose between its teeth.

Now picture a woman who has spent 25 years of her life being generally negative, someone who worries every day about things both large and small. If this woman were approached by knight on horseback, do you think she’d suddenly feel awash with warm fuzzy feelings and the worries would fade away, or would she take the romantic image and convert it to fit in with her negative view of things? My point is, I think the disillusioning effect of traditional images of love and romance give the impression that they come with everything required for a blissful, loving, romantic relationship. I think there are people in the world who do believe in some way that there is a man or woman for them who can and will be the love of their life; someone who will come along and be perfect for them, moulding them into the receiving role of their notion of romance, be that fair maiden or doting husband. I think in a lot of cases, there’s a lot of personal searching and changing to be done first. It’s very easy and tempting to believe that Mr/s Right will be the perfect and final piece in the how-my-life-should-be jigsaw puzzle, especially if that puzzle is in severe need of attention and bit of correcting.

I think it’s far more practical to give the images of romance a bit of perspective and look at them slightly differently. I mean, take the knight on horseback idea. This works perfectly if you’re a woman who needs to be swept away, and if you’ve spent your life waiting for someone to serve – independent women with busy lives need not apply to this one. Or take the image of a Romeo scaling the wall up to the balcony looking for his Juliet.  Great for those people who’ve got not much going on in their lives so that they can devote their time and attention to someone who clearly needs nothing less than 100% of each – career types look elsewhere please! In each of these cases, if you’re the one waiting for your Romeo (or looking for your Juliet), or your knight on horseback, just think first about who you are, and whether that idea of love really does fit for you. Worriers should think about learning to calm down so that they can enjoy the love without worrying about it. Career types should think about how difficult a 100%-attention requiring partner would fit into an already busy schedule and either thin it out or think again about the partner they look for.

So, next time you see an image of romance on TV or in a film, just question whether it’s actually right for you, and also whether you’re right for it. Be honest with yourself too – if you do have some kind of personal issue going on, spend some time looking into that and seeing how you can sort it out or work on it if possible. Love is no good if you’re not ready or right for it.

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I went for a walk along the canal a few days ago to take advantage of a sunny day. Armed with my trusty camera and ready for action I headed out on a 3-hour, 6-mile walk across Hanley and back along the Cauldon canal. It was a lovely day and I took some great photos, but my shins and feet ached to buggery when I got home and the following few days so I’m officially in recovery! Enjoy the shots!

There I was happily slogging away on a treadmill today when a news piece came on Midlands Today about Swine Flu. 150 dead it said, everyone gasped and looked a little nervous, and the piece cut to a cemetery in Mexico where the first woman who died of it was buried, and some Mexican bloke said how he was nervous and waiting for the government to give them instructions. I rolled my eyes and changed to a cross trainer. Whilst on that there was another news item on BBC News saying the same “150 Dead!”.

What I want to know is, where did these two news desks get their information from? I did a quick (and very easy) search on Google for Swine Flu WHO, and found the latest update from the World Health Organisation where they give daily information as part of their epidemic and pandemic alert and response program. This copied from the site:

As of 19:15 GMT, 28 April 2009, seven countries have officially reported cases of swine influenza A/H1N1 infection. The United States Government has reported 64 laboratory confirmed human cases, with no deaths. Mexico has reported 26 confirmed human cases of infection including seven deaths.

The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths - Canada (6), New Zealand (3), the United Kingdom (2), Israel (2) and Spain (2).

So, 98 cases with 7 deaths. That’s 7, BBC and Midlands Today, just so you go that.

Oh, and whilst I was in the shower, I heard one bloke saying how he’d heard over a hundred were dead, and how the last time swine flu hit was in 1976, and 30,000 died, and how nature has a way of culling the population. That comment actually made me snigger to myself under the shower (after which point I obviously dropped everything and ran for the hills in a crisis-related panic-induced terror).

Jeez, anyone remember the economy is on its arse?or the sleaze e-mail thing of the politicians? or the fact that politicians get an allowance for a house in London (as opposed to commuting in like every other poor sap)??

So far, Chives are lagging in a disappointing display whilst Purple Basil and Oregano are storming ahead. Keep you posted folks. It’s getting exciting!

I’d been meaning to soil-up and seed the gift Becky got me for Christmas since last weekend and this evening (‘No-Gym Wednesday’) I came straight home and did just that. I think it’s great when you can break your routine a bit and shake off that midweek feels. It seems that rummaging in grow bags for soil did just that, and got the seeds potted and ready to grow. I’ll say one thing though, and I know I’ll sound like a total blond (but since when has that ever stopped me? lol), but every time I play with soil it always surprises me a bit just how dirty it is, and how it cakes your hands. Weird, eh?

Oh and, to be totally honest, the reason why I wanted to post a photo was in part to show Becky what had happened with her gift, but also to set Soraya off thinking about growing stuff and getting into a garden. Ain’t I a shtinker? ;)

Last week Steve picked up a chilli-lover’s cookbook so this weekend he decided to have a bash at a recipe from there.  We thought a madras would be a good place to start. So whilst Steve got on with the madras, I mixed up some vanilla lassi and prepared for the burn. I feel like I should get more used to hot foods so I can start exploring the different meals out there which, at the moment, are above my pain threshold. Anyway, as it turns out, the madras wasn’t that hot, and was tasty and left a tingle instead, which, whilst obviously made for a nice meal, lacked a little in terms of hot-food training. Maybe next week we’ll try something a little more menacing?

All week I’ve had an image in my head. The image of a soft, moist chocolate cake covered in fudge; the kind you could faint in and wake up happy. So, losing weight permitted (1lb a week minimum so far – that’s what gym five times a week does, heart rate charts available as proof on request), I decided to make a chocolate fudge cake. Not that I’m one to cause temptation, but I thought you’d all appreciate some photographs of the cake. And yes, before you say it Soraya, if you get here in time, you can have some.

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We were in Manchester this Friday evening and Saturday and whilst walking around Manchester we were passed a kind religious threat by a bloke who was determined to give one to every person who passed (literally, even big groups). What made me chuckle was how the You was capitalised; I thought only God (respectfully capitalised on behalf of religious friends) was deigned with that grammar trick. And before it will be too late? I’m pretty sure I can't think of a way of writing that which might make it correct English. Call me picky but if you’re going to threaten me with eternal damnation AT LEAST get the English right, I’m mean, jeez.

Lately, for some reason I’ve had quite a few people from China add me as a friend on Messenger and to send a friend request on my Windows Live profile. Now, I like meeting random people on the Internet as much as the next bloke (possibly even a lot more!) but I’m yet to have one of these people who can actually speak English. And, again, I’m more than willing to use an online translator to keep a conversation going but, maybe due to current translation technology, it never really works for long.

So, as a message to anyone from China who doesn’t speak English yet and thinks adding an English person would be a fun way to learn English, without wanting to sound rude, but I think a lot of book studying first would be a quicker route. Then, when you can hold a conversation, by all means, come and say hi. I’ll be more than happy to correct your English help.

As promised, this weekend I had a bash at making doughnuts and the results were unexpectedly good; victim of my own success in this case. By that I mean, I made 32 doughnuts and realised that I can actually only manage to eat about 5 or so. For those who want to attempt the same, the recipe is a shared favourite on my profile. Note that the oil temperature appears to be quite important; too hot and they cook very quickly (about 20 seconds) and the inside dough isn’t cooked, too low and they cook very slowly (4 minutes plus) and they take on more oil. The recipe said they should take about 2 minutes to cook but I found about 1 minute was fine too. But yeah, please bear in mind the number of doughnuts you’ll end up with. It’s quite a lot!

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Saturday evening I went to a basketball game with Jérémie and Claudine for Fribourg vs Monthey. Jérémie works as a sports journalist for Le Nouvelliste and was doing an article on the game so I thought it’d be fun to go along to watch the match. Whilst I was there I took a load of photos with the hope of practicing my fast moving photography skills (or lack of), and I think I certainly learnt from the experience, about photography and basketball. I selected a few of the hundreds I took for you lucky people to see below (but be kind, I didn’t really get the shots I was after, and I think some of these photos could do with more editing). After the game I got to go into the press conference with Jérémie (link included, I was behind the camera and you can hear Jérémie asking questions, in French mind). All in all it was a great experience and good day out. I’ll post more photos that I took that day from around Montreux and Fribourg, but for now, anyone interested in reading Jérémie’s article can get it here (Google translated).

This evening I went out for a walk just after sunset and as the fog rolled in. After donning a pair of snow rackets, and getting a set of walking sticks I hit the mountains and wandered off into the fog. It started getting dark quite quickly and fog fell which made the whole thing a whole less inviting, but nonetheless, brave adventurer that I am, I marched on and took a few photos. Whilst out I’m sure I heard a wolf or two, but I was assured when I got back that there were no wolves. Even so, it certainly helped the walk back pass more quickly.

I’ve come out to Switzerland for a long weekend. I asked if there was snow and I was told, no, not really. Little did I know that it was meant not much snow on the roads!

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Well, let’s hope she’s at least happy.

Last night, Steve and I went for a walk around the estate and caught eye of these two fine specimens of snowman-ry. We’re guessing the first is a cat, or a gent with a fine twig-moustache, and the second had a more moulded face. Both had cat/bunny/teddy-bear ears. Guesses in the comments box (lol, as if anyone ever does!).