New year, new things: Neuendingedämmrung

OK, first things first: quite so that Tom suggested the Herr Flick dig, and I staunchly refuse to accept the bare-faced truth that the resemblance is more than passing. More of that in updates to the post below. Now back to our scheduled programme:

So, what's small, hairy and has eight legs?

Nope, not a bird-eating spider

(picture removed to spare the faint of heart
*looks in vague direction of Ealing*)

But these guyswho were proving quite difficult to photograph yesterday morning, and had to be coaxed into an area of light using a laser pointer. On the left, you can see Scrumpy, who is a miniature Schnauzer mix, and on the right Porter, who is a German Shepherd/Dachshund mix.

These are our dogs.

We've had them just over a week now, and they are providing us with headaches and smiles in equal proportions. They're both two-and-a-half years old, and we have taught them to sit. We have emphatically not been able to teach them to walk, dutifully, by their master and mistress, and some bugger clearly taught them how to dislocate the wrists of anyone foolish to hold their leads before we got to them.

Nevertheless, they are a welcome addition to the Omission family, and no doubt will feature in many of the forthcoming updates to this blog.

New Year, new stuff: third time's the charm

New Hat:(also new gloves). Bought from the Red Cross around the corner for about a pound. Is soft felt on top, so at a moments notice can become a plausible bowler, in case I need to persaude the Swiss I am a London banker.

In a change to the advertised schedules, tomorrow will be the last in this series. Appearing will be the answer (well, an answer) to the following riddle: what is small, hairy, and has eight legs?

Meanwhile, I have a new hero:



Update: By way of preemption Before this goes any further , I look nothing like this in my new getup:
-- Herr Flick has, incidentally, really let himself go since the war.

Further update and actual preemption: Before someone launches germanswhowearhatslikerichards.blogspot.com, I am also trying to imitate neither scary plastinating Gunter von Hagens nor bonkers artist Joseph Beuys:



Besides, all these Germans are wearing Fedoras, whereas my hat is a homburg.

New year, new stuff: Secondary phase

True to my word, here is another new thing I have:


This is my new camel leather manbag, which carries my important musings on the polytime completeness of soft linear set theory wheresoever I go. It does not, as feared by some, smell bad. It smells of nice leathery things.

In other news, last Friday was the Decemberists concert in Fribourg. My enjoyment was magnified by the presence of Sam Smiths Nut Brown Ale behind the bar: a more Decemberists drink this side of an absinthe and arsenic martini I can't imagine. The gig was great fun, and ended with a re-enactment of the foundation of Switzerland (sort of-- I don't remember chickens or the Ottoman empire having much to do with it). The band were obviously a bit worse for wear, and the gig had, in the words of Colin Meloy, "an odd flavor -- sort of like eating a lychee. It's difficult to peel, it tatstes odd, but you like it."

New Year, new stuff: Part the first.

Well, I'm back from my extended jaunt hunting pheasant, and am now ready to rejoin the world of the digital passer-of-time. I thought I'd begin by making a record this week of the new things that have passed into my life since last we spoke. One a day. For the whole week.

One post per day. For a whole week.

Breathe...

So without further ado, I present Omission's Monday edition of Things I Now Possess That Make Me Happy: My new Global Vegetable Chopper:

If your only experience of knives had been this guy, your vocabulary would not include the phrase "like a hot knife through butter. It would instead contain "like a knife through onions" or "like a knife through the skin of a pumpkin" or "like a knife through my finger bones". Do yourself a favour. Get a really sharp knife.

Other nice knives I saw on my travels included Chloë' and Ed's new cheese knife, on which note and imperceptible segue, thanks to them for a lovely stay in London.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's exciting installment!