Inspired by Huw's recommendation of a book for kids of all ages, I thought I'd tell you about a series of books that I've had my nose in during the past week...

I was in an every-book-is-only-£1 bookshop in Birmingham, when I spotted a series of Japanese Manga comic books entitled 'Case Closed'. They intrigued me, and so i bought a few.

And I'm glad I did! Once you get over the fact that the books are layed out in traditional Japanese style (i.e. you read from right to left - starting at the 'back' of the book) they're very addictive indeedy. Theft, kidnapping, murder are all in a day's work for 6 year old detective Conan Edogawa (who is in fact a teenager who was affected by an unknown poison and is trying to track down the men in black who poisoned him without letting them know that he's still alive in case they try to kill him again, which also means he has to cover-up the fact that he's brighter and solves more crimes than your average 6 year old - phew!).

OK, yeah, I know it all sounds rather weird... but aren't they always the best books?!

Something has recently been brought to my attention: What do the following have in common?

Jack Bauer - Jason Bourne - James Bond - Jonathan Bennett

I wonder if all true action heroes have JB as their initials... hmmm... So next time you're in trouble - you know who to call...

OK - I know - it's been a while. I guess you're thinking it must be something important for me to blog again. And it is!

Today my dad was on TV. Click on the image below (select 'Pay-as-you-drive sat nav plan' & fast-forward to 1min 25sec) to find out why...

I never thought I'd fall into the trap, but I think facebook has been sucking my (limited) time away from blogging recently. The advantage of facebook is that nobody ever expects you to say anything interesting, which suits me just fine. I also like the interconnectivity of it; realising that people you know know other people you know which you didn't know - if you know what I mean. I'm not done with blogging though - hence this entry.

Where do you think would be the weirdest place to have a dentist surgery? In a sweet factory? At the zoo? In your garden shed? Well actually, from my experience it's the first of those...

Yes, I registered with a dentists in Birmingham this week (wisdom tooth troubles & all that jazz); it's the Cadbury Dental Practice in Bournville. My dentists is located in the Cadbury chocolate factory! Not nearby - not next door to - but actually in the Cadbury buildings. How ironic is that? The surgery even claims to be the oldest surviving one in the country - I'm sure they've had a steady stream of patients anyway...

Other news from the week: I went to the German Christmas Market in Brum, joined facebook.com, had my hair cut for the first time in three and a half months, met with Alex from Cardiff, had the organisation I work for on the front page of The Times, and bought a new dressing gown. Mega.

Last night was our church homegroup social, which was muchos fun. In addition, the great thing about having your homegroup at the house of people with a young child means that you get to play with the toys... and books:

But why on earth does a small child's book allow for this eventuality?

If you haven't seen it yet, check out the new Spider-man 3 trailer by clicking on the picture below:

Four jobs you've had in your life

1. Product Designer (here)
   
2. UCCF Staff Worker
   
3. Ministry Apprentice (here)
   
4. Soft drinks canning factory worker
   

Four jobs you wish you had

1. playing guitar (well) in a band
2. toy tester
3. kids TV presenter (well, that's what everyone tells me I look like)
   
4. superhero 

Four movies you can watch over and over again

1. Spider-man
2. Spider-man 2
3. Robin Hood: Men in Tights
4. The Incredibles 

Four cities you have lived in

1. Derby
2. Cardiff
3. Birmingham
4. Eccentricity 

Four TV shows you love to watch

1. Smallville
2. Red Dwarf
3. Harry Hill
4. The Smell of Reeves & Mortimer
   

Four places you've been on vacation/travelled to

1. Ukraine
2. Cyprus
3. Holland
4. Slovenia 

Four websites you visit daily

1. www.dafont.com (fonts)
   
2. www.another.com (email hosting)
   
3. www.apple.com/trailers (new film trailers)
   
4. www.google.com (info!) 

Four of your favourite foods

1. beef
   
2. curry
   
3. liquorice
4. nice bread 

Four things you won't eat

1. eggs
2. vegatables
3. offal
4. eyeballs 

Four things you wish you could eat right now

1. chicken tikka naan bread from the Rajpoot
2. bacon sarnie
3. doritos lightly salted crisps
4. riesen chocolate chews 

Four things in your bedroom

1. stardust
2. the wrong bed
3. ikea furniture
4. my new tshirt  

Four things you wish you had in your bedroom

1. curtains
2. the right bed
3. massive LCD TV
4. a foolproof method for waking up in the morning 

Four things I'm wearing right now

1. a tshirt (featuring a dinosaur & a man saying 'to the disco!')
2. a cardigan that would suit a 1970s kid
3. John Rocha slippers
4. a puzzled expression 

Four people you'd really love to have dinner with

1. C. S. Lewis
2. Jonathan Edwards (the theologian, not the triple-jumper)
3. Augustine
   
4. Peter Furler (Newsboys) 

Four things I'm thinking right now

1. I wish I could do these survey things quicker
2. I'm feeling hungry
3. I hope this doesn't take much longer
4. What can I write for the fourth one? 

Four of your favourite things/people

How can you choose 'things/people'?! Sounds like a weird category. I can't lump 'people' & 'things' together. So I'm just gonna do 'things'...

1. my parker p36 guitar
2. my laptop
3. my coffee mug
   
4. my wedding ring 

Four people I tag

1. Cate (cos she likes lists)
2. Rosemary (cos she likes blogging)
3. Screech (cos he likes the brakes on my car)
4. TJ (cos he likes chips)

Life has been a tad hectic recently - hence the lack of posts. Worked quite a few 12 hour (or more) days in the past fortnight. Ah, such is life. Anyhow...

I just had a rather random chat on Skype, and I think it was with this woman:

Anyone know her? Her name is Evangeline Lilly and she was looking for a someone called Jonathan Bennett. It turns out that she's on the TV programme 'Lost' (which I've never actually seen - I don't think she was impressed when I told her that). I think she may have been looking for this Jonathan Bennett...

...but she ended up with me. I hope she wasn't too disappointed.

PS. It turns out that both of them have been in an episode of Smallville. I guess they can't be that bad then. 

I bowed to the pressures of time & energy this week by buying myself & Screech a McDonalds on our way home late Monday night. It was whilst in there that I saw the following...

Hmmm... it's a good question...

...and one that's way too tempting to answer. So here is possibility #1:

After all, they are called HAMburgers! Anyone else any ideas?