Lots of news

I'm sneaking another blog entry in quickly, before the complaints start again...

About the biggest news at Bombadil Towers at the moment is my new fridge, which is fab. I surmise that it has formerly seen service in a restaurant as a wine fridge - it's full height, with a glass door and lights at the top. It's branded Vichy Nouveau and it puts just about every other fridge in the shade. It's one cool fridge. Marianne and I moved it from one of the barns the other evening with the aid of a pallet truck, lots of bad jokes and a discussion about the metaphysical moustache!

Having spent hours cleaning, polishing and generally admiring my new fridge, I have identified only one problem so far - I keep walking past it and assuming that I have left the door open - as the light is on and I can see the contents. I'm sure I'll get used to it. I hope Sara shares my enthusiasm for Aphrodite. (Yes, I have named it.)

The snow has temporarily melted, which is causing rather a problem as the Orica guys are digging like there is no tomorrow; perhaps they were rabbits in a former life. On second thoughts, probably not, as there are still only two of them. Anyway, all the melt water has turned the tarmac very muddy and the lawn is a total quagmire to the point where they got their four wheel drive digger (fitted with studded snow tyres) stuck yesterday. So much for my plans to play croquet out there in the summer then.

More exciting news - our two Norwegian friends, Morton and Aksel of the web video company Cnit Vision were here on Monday and Tuesday. They will form an important part of out Media Centre, a self-sufficient project that we are setting up in some of our surplus office space. Morton and Aksel are great fun - Morton is the first person to play the grand piano with competence, so hopefully he won't mind being roped in as session musician occasionally. Of course, we haven't told him about his new role yet...

We also went to visit Niklas's mine - it was the first time that I had seen it. It comprises a large collection of red timber buildings, dominated equally by both the mine-head and the main processing building, which is built onto a hill so as to utilise gravity in the ore sorting process. Niklas is heavily involved in a long running project to demonstrate the feasibility of establishing a lunar colony, with the target of having the colony in place on the moon any time between 2018 and 2024. My first question was "what does an old iron ore mine have to do with a lunar colony?" Well, the idea would be to build the lunar colony underground, so as to offer protection against meteor strikes etc and to make it easier to establish some sort of artificial contained atmosphere – and where better to test the concept than at the bottom of a disused mine. Read all about it here - in the words of the people in the know, not my paraphrasing.

Finally, yet more exciting news – we had our first meeting today with me in my role as a Bombadilian rather than as a painter. Certain jobs have been apportioned – I am taking responsibility for the daily video clip, the Bombadil blog (yes, before you ask, I will update it more often than this one!) and the emerging international markets including, intriguingly, Mexico. Watch this space!

Adios, amigos.