Woe is me...

I have to report a loss in our household.

My PC is dead.

Last week it refused to turn on, so after replacing the power supply with no success, I gave in and sent it to the repair shop, and they've told me that the motherboard is fried.

So, until I get a new motherboard/CPU/memory combo (which isn't something I budgeted for right at this moment), I'm on the laptop.

But there is something different on the horizon - this weekend, I have the house to myself while my partner and my son are away.  Don't get me wrong, I love them both very much and I'm sure by Sunday afternoon I'll be waiting for them to come back, but the novelty of this weekend is still something that I'm looking forward to right now.

I've been working up a list of everything that's happening in Hull this weekend so I can go out and make the most of the time.  As things stand possible activities include:

• Remembrance Weekend at the Streetlife Museum
• Going to the gym
• Buying and wrapping Christmas presents
• Clearing out the garage
• Going to a lecture at Hull Uni about "northerness"
• A poetry reading at Central Library
• A matinee showing at Hull Truck Theatre
• The Freedom Festivals "Freedom to Tell Tales" storytelling project
• Sunday jazz at Pave Bar
• Blogging / making videos
• Going out Saturday evening (actually that one isn't optional, it's the reason I'm at home)

Or of course I might end up spending all weekend playing on my partners PC, with a bag of snacks and beer within reach.

What are you up to this weekend - and which of the above do you think I should do?  Let me know in the comments.

Thank you

Firstly, thanks to everyone that took part in #HOTDRINKDAY on Sunday, regardless of whether you supported tea or coffee, it's much appreciated, it was great fun to do and I hope to take part in more debates of equal seriousness in the future.

And most importantly tea won.  http://poll.pollcode.com/16115227_result?v

I'm continuing to struggle on without a computer as mine is under repair - I'm very much hoping to hear something in the next day or two about what the problem is, in the meantime I'm using my partners PC while she's at a school meeting, typing as quickly as I can to attempt to finish this post before our temporary cat stands on the keybardso;dfjpwaejiof.,vdv;

Ahem.

Fingers crossed I'll be back in a day or two - with a working computer!

#HOTDRINKDAY - Why Tea is better than Coffee

Today's the day that we've all been waiting for.

#HOTDRINKDAY

For the last week broadsides have been fired across the Atlantic Ocean as we try to settle, once and for all, which is the better drink - tea, or coffee.

Here, we are defending tea - after you've read this post, if you're still unsure in your mind, then go visit Life, Explained for the home of coffee supporters.

Let us begin.

Why tea is better than coffee

So, Tim Clark challenged me to defend tea against the accusation that coffee is the better drink, which I strongly deny.

I could talk about the history of tea, how it has been consumed for thousands of years (possibly as far back as around 2900BC?), and certainly for a much longer time than the relative newcomer, coffee.

But instead I'm going to bring it to a much more personal level.

I'm going to talk about how tea makes me feel.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like a posh coffee from Starbucks or Costa, and it is nice to enjoy a coffee now and again, with cream and a couple of lumps of sugar, perhaps a biscotti too.

But the fact is that you basically add all these things to hide the taste of coffee, not to enhance it. Can you really taste that shot of espresso mixed in your pint of frothy flavoured milk, topped with cream and a dusting of chocolate?

Of course not.

Tea, in comparison, is a lot simpler. A bag of best tea in some hot water, perhaps with a dash of milk to bring the flavour out, is all that's needed.

Or you can make a drink of tea much more civilised. Afternoon tea with buttered hot scones, jam and would not be complete without a pot of tea, some fine China cups and a jug of milk.

Not to mention a teapot and a tea strainer.

You can't make coffee more civilised - you can make it trendy, but not civilised.

Coffee is a quick fix.  Something to kick your system into action and to wake you up.  But let me ask you this - do you start your car with your accelerator pressed to the floor, getting up to speed as fast as you can?

Of course not.  You start it, and ease it into movement, gently and carefully.

If you take this level of care with a lump of metal, surely you should do the same for your body?

Tea is the best hot drink, and I've been pleased to see many people around the world supporting this view.

Thanks for reading.  Now, if you haven't voted already, vote now.  We'll see tomorrow who is the ultimate winner (though tea is looking good as I type this)

I'd love to hear about any other blogs and their views about the best hot drink too.  Now go and check out Tim's blog, and see if he can convince you of coffee's superiority.

The calm before the storm - 1 day to go!

I've been quiet on the blog for a few days, mainly due to the fact that my computer is currently out of action - Tuesday night it refused to power up, and even after fitting a new power supply it refuses to show any sign of life, so it's been taken to a repair shop - fingers crossed it'll be back up and running sometime next week.  In the meantime I'm on the laptop.

The other reason that I haven't been doing my social media thing on an evening is that we now (temporarily) have a cat in the house.

Action shot of James in motion.

We're looking after James at the moment, and to try to ease him into his stay with us I've been staying downstairs watching TV to give him some company.  It's a hard life.

Nevertheless, it is about 25 hours away from the great TEA VS COFFEE debate going live - if you've not been following what's been happening, all this week we've been leading up to two epic blog posts, one of which will be going up right here on the Blog of Thog (in support of tea) and one supporting coffee, on Life, Explained.  The posts will be live 3pm UK time, or 10am Ohio time (or different times in you aren't in either of those time zones), so make sure you visit us tomorrow and say hi, show your support for your favoured hot drink.

And that isn't all you can do.  Do you have a view on which hot drink you prefer?  Do you prefer a different hot drink to tea or coffee?  Do you not like any?  Well, make sure you do a blogpost or a video about it tomorrow, do let us know (and use the hashtag #HOTDRINKDAY ), we'd love to hear from you.

If you don't fancy blogging or doing anything that active, do at the very least vote here for your favourite drink, at the moment tea is absolutely thrashing coffee but there's plenty of time for that to be turned around (or even for coffee to be overtaken by hot chocolate, now that would be very amusing indeed!)

The kettle is going on - but what is everyone drinking?

We head unstoppably towards the battle royale, tea versus coffee, all lined up for Sunday the 2nd of November.  More broadsides have been issued from both sides as companies across the globe declare their loyalty to one side or another.

DAVIDsTEA of Montreal appears to be undecided, stating that they obviously love tea, but that they are partial to coffee - I must admit that their Jumpy Monkey blend did turn my head for a moment, but I shall be strong.

Kicking Horse Coffee of Invermere, BC unsurprisingly voted for COFFEE! #FueledbytheHorse

Ritual Coffee of San Francisco has risen above the arguments with a quote from Mark Twain - Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference. I say that they have risen above the argument, they may actually just be calling me thick, which is probably quite true.

And Coffee Planet NL of the Netherlands has unfortunately plumped for the dark side.

Today Mr Clark of Life, Explained warns of a tea drinking army preparing to mobilise. Well, let our army rise up - and make a cuppa.  I am typing this blog using my partners laptop as the power supply in my PC has died suspiciously just as we gear up for this epic battle.  I'm not saying that Tim did it, but...

Voting-wise tea has taken a comfortable lead over coffee, with hot chocolate rearing its head too.  Make sure that you vote for your favourite hot drink at http://vote.pollcode.com/16115227 and do promote the contest anyway you can, using the hashtag #HOTDRINKDAY

Tea vs Coffee - tensions are heating up...

By Petr Kratochvil (cup-of-tea-isolated) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

If you're not aware, Sunday 2nd November 2014 is #HOTDRINKDAY with a global showdown between The Blog of Thog and Life, Explained as to which drink is better, tea or coffee.  And I've been getting some contact from a variety of firms willing to weigh in on the debate.

For example, PGTips volunteered the following to my call for help:

@ravenswingthog There's no debate, Mike. Love, Monkey x
— PG tips (@PGtips) October 27, 2014

And Devonshire Tea, Steepster, Tea Totaller, and The Cup of Life all showing their support too.

I've also had a number of emails about the debate.  Nestle got in touch saying:

As you will appreciate we have to remain impartial and obviously couldn't possibly take sides in your debate due to the fact we don't produce tea. #NESCAFÉ

The Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Co said that they'll be promoting the event, but didn't commit as to which side they'll be supporting (cough - tea guys, support tea!)
Also Has Bean Coffee wishes all the best for the debate - but not for me! :)

Seriously though, thanks to all the companies that have got in touch, regardless of what side you support.  I'm keen to hear from other hot drink makers too - are we short sighted in saying that it's tea vs coffee?  Where's the hot chocolate and marmite (think I need a comma in there somewhere) supporters?  Whatever your preference, get voting and make sure to show your support, either on my blog (for the righteous tea lovers of the world) or Tim's blog (for the evil drink also known as coffee), on Sunday for your favourite drink - and tweet the debate up using #HOTDRINKDAY

Before you escape, www.find.com have published my latest of a series of slimming blogs on their website, this time talking about how to get back into slimming when you hit a problem and put weight on one week.  Do go check it out!

The Nursing Home

I'll start this post off by saying that I apologise if it is not up to my usual mediocre standards, however British Summer Time ended last night, which meant that a huge amount of people got an extra hour in bed today, whilst another grouping of people (which happens to include me) has a small child that has no concept of British Summer Time and woke up at ten past four expecting CBeebies, jam-covered toast and a glass of smoothie.

Long-term readers may remember these posts about taking my gran shopping and having lunch with her in Waitrose, however things have moved on.  Several months back she had a couple of falls and eventually it was agreed that the best thing for her was to go into a nursing home.

Ever a creature of habit, my gran has wasted no time in settling in a new routine, as follows:

1. In the morning she wakes up and gets a bowl of sweetened porridge for breakfast.  She doesn't like sweetened porridge but because she doesn't like to complain about it (and I suspect that she's the only person in the home that wants it unsweetened) she has it sweetened.
2. After that she'll be got out of bed, dressed, and sat in her chair.  Here she stays for the morning, talking to her room mate, until lunchtime.
3. Lunch typically consists of three courses - soup, of which she has one spoon full and then leaves it on the side, a main course which she devours, and a pudding, which she waits for her roommate to eat hers and then gets the roommate to swap the plates.
4. After lunch she'll be put into her nightgown and returned to bed, as her back is playing up.
5. And at teatime, again she will eat the main course and then swap the pudding plates with her roommate to allow her to again get two portions.

That's not to say that there isn't excitement.  There was the time when my gran slipped out of her chair, and ended up sitting on the floor.  When the staff came to see what had happened, and asked her "What are you doing?", she responded, not unreasonably with "Nothing - I'm just sitting on the floor!"

I generally visit her once a week, bringing a number of the following items:

• Walnut whips - she doesn't actually eat these, but when I visit we share them - that is, I eat the chocolate with the whip inside, and she has the walnut.  I recall the time that she asked me what nut was on top of a walnut whip.  I told her to think about what she'd asked me.
• Marshmallows - these are for her roommate.  When the coast is clear and no staff are around, my gran wraps up half a dozen marshmallows in a piece of tissue and beckons her roommate over to take them.
• Toffees and assorted bags of sweets - similarly to the marshmallows, these are actually for the roommate, and will be mixed with wild abandon to give the roommate a selection of treats.
• Cartons of apple juice - these aren't needed very often, as it's rare that my gran actually drinks one, but she does like to keep a supply of twenty or so handy in her wardrobe.

Today she was telling me that there is no difference between men and women, except that men have a thingy.  And, apparently, it's a good job that they have a thingy, because otherwise they wouldn't be able to wee.

I can't finish the post without reminding all about the run up to #HOTDRINKDAY on Sunday the 2nd of November.  If you're a tea fan, you're in the right place, because The Blog of Thog is the home of all tea drinkers - read my announcement here.  If, on the other hand, you're a coffee aficionado, well Mr Clark at Life, Explained is there for you, and you can read his announcement here.  We need all you social media folk to be prepared next Sunday to put forward your views - what drink do you prefer?

And don't forget to vote!

Tea versus Coffee - get involved!

In just over a week the latest in our series of transatlantic debates will be taking place as The Blog of Thog takes on Life, Explained in the war to end all wars.

Which is better: Tea or Coffee?

By Paul Downey from Berkhamsted, UK (Morning Tea  Uploaded by McGeddon) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Now, obviously the answer is tea, but a certain young whippersnapper from the US of A doesn't seem to agree.  So, we're going to be gearing up for a good old blog debate on Sunday the 2nd of November 2014, and I'm encouraging other Internet folk to get involved.

Do you blog?  Make videos?  Podcasts? Or other internetty content stuff?  Well, upload something on your own blog/YouTube channel/Podcast site/other place defending either tea or coffee (or even go a separate way, state a different preference - hot chocolate perhaps!) and make it live on Sunday 2nd November - make sure to let us know here and at Life, Explained so we can link to it!  If you promote it anywhere use the hashtag #HOTDRINKDAY and I'll be checking the tag during the day to see what's kicking off.  Our posts should be going live about 3pm UK time (10am Ohio time) so don't worry, you don't need to get up early to catch our posts (although obviously you're very welcome to!)

If you're not one of the above, don't worry, you can still get involved in lots of ways, including:

• Commenting on our blogs to tell us which one you prefer
• Sharing our posts on Twitter/Facebook/Reddit/Google+ etc to promote the debate!
• Voting in the poll below!

Yes, right below is a poll for what is the best hot drink!  Take part now!

Thanks for reading and get ready for the 2nd of November - HOT DRINK DAY!!!

What is the best hot drink?

Tea Coffee Hot Chocolate Warm Milk Malt drink e.g. Ovaltine / Horlicks Bovril Alcoholic e.g. Hot Toddy / Mulled Wine / Liqeur Coffee I hate all hot drinks!  

pollcode.com free polls

Does Gmail secretly like Spam?!? (the junk email, not the meat)

I use Gmail as my main personal email facility - it works fine, I can use it anywhere, all that kind of stuff, but there's one thing that I've noticed.

If you get an email that you want to delete, what you do is you tick the box next to the email to select, and then a "Delete" button pops up.  And you click Delete and boom, the email is gone.

However, sometimes Gmail moves emails into a Spam folder, and occasionally I go in to clear it out.  The Spam folder is always full of spam comments on this blog, offers of Viagra, and coupons for Pizza Express - I'm not sure what Pizza Express has done to deserve the designation "spam", but to be fair I don't go there very often so perhaps Google has picked up on this and decided that I don't want their offers.

To delete the emails in the Spam folder however, you tick them, and then you hit the box marked...

DELETE FOREVER

Which just gives it a little bit more emphasis, as though Google is saying "I think that these are spam emails so you probably don't want them, but I could be wrong so do have a good look through first - wait!  Wait!  You've not looked thoroughly at the emails!  There could be something really important that I've marked as spam by mistake!  Dear me, no don't - agh!  You've deleted them FOREVER!!! Don't you realise how much space I have on my servers?  I could have easily looked after half a dozen emails offering you 40% off a main meal at Pizza Express, you didn't need to just go and get rid of them!"

Perhaps I'm reading a little too much into it.

If you got all the way to the end of this post, well done!  If you like stuff about the internet, maybe this vaguely philosophical piece about spending time chilling out on the Internet might be to your liking.  On the other hand if you're looking for something funny, perhaps I HATE NAPPIES is more to your liking.

Or if you've had enough of this blog, go see Tim over at Life, Explained.  His are very good.  Some people said better than mine.  But I found them and they don't say that any more.

This end bit has gone a bit dark now.