That bloke

Thanks to Wikipedia, I now have doubled the number of "chocolate teapot" web pages I've read.

1. An Appraisal of the Utility of a Chocolate Teapot
   (TL/DR: "a chocolate teapot is of no use at all")
2. How useless is a Chocolate Teapot?
   (TL/DR: "a chocolate teapot is really not very useful, but slightly more so than you would expect")

Also from the Wikipedia teapot article:

Early teapots are small by western standards because they are generally designed for a single drinker, and the Chinese historically drank the tea directly from the spout.

Wow! I've never tried that.

I like quiz shows, but the quiz to end them all is obvs. House of Games. Am I right? Of course I am.

I did AirBnB for the first time. We stayed in a flat in central Manchester for quite a lot less than a hotel.

We went to Ziferblat. Imagine a cafe that's more like a big version of someone's living room. You pay for the time you spend there, and you can work, play or just lounge. Everything inside is free. We had tea and cake and sat in some comfy chairs to read the newspapers.

Then we went to a concert in an abandoned TV studio, and heard pieces by six new composers. Someone not entirely unrelated to me was playing a saxophone concerto.

Sometimes at work when people want to discuss something with someone else, they say they're going to "reach out". Immediately, this song plays in my head.

Sharp suits!

As an urban person all my life, don't all people in the countryside live off-grid? This couple are deliberately taking that to an extreme, not even taking their produce to market - you have to go and see them if you want to buy their produce.

Good for you, Jean-Bernard and Laurence
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-43113400

I read that double yellow lines were suggested by George Musgrave in a road safety competition. Googling, I found that he ran a museum, the Musgrave Collection, which looks as mad as can be, but in a good way, but that since his death it's closed and looking for a new home.

Sad really.

Still listening to the Bamboos.

• Happy - mmm, had to play this one through three times in a row
• King of the Rodeo - strange video where the band plays the audience, and women play the part of the band. Singer is the right person, though.

The singer on that song also has a pretty severe stutter, but only when she talks. She gave a Ted talk about stuttering which is surprisingly entertaining.

Title explanation

I bought a t-shirt in Brighton, and it came with a free CD by The Bamboos. Lots of good funk choons, but Can't Help Myself jumped out.

And I can't help myself
Don't want to funk with no one else

Simple, but done well.

I've just spent a while playing A Grain of Truth. It's a simple game but well done. Nicely drawn pictures, music that I could have turned off but I didn't want to, a setting that didn't seem contrived even though it was weird. And finally the game play seemed more like storytelling, which worked for me.

So, recommended.

I got frustrated a couple of times but was saved by googling a walkthrough. The first time I'd just missed something (pale circle on a pale background, plus not thinking enough about how to use the things I'd found). The second time it turned out I wasn't stuck at all, if only I'd realised it. Oh, and finding the ending wasn't nearly as hard as I was making it.

Oh dear - there's another one: Teller of Stories. There goes more time...

Edit: ...and a third: Bell's Heart. Finished them all now - can rest!

This is a nice idea, but I'm not sure if it will succeed. Everywhere in the world can be located by three words. Similar addresses are purposely far apart:

• happy fluffy kittens are in Alabama, USA
• fluffy happy kittens are in Western Australia

There are probably several 3m squares that cover where you live, so you get some choice about your three words.

Edit:

• tomato cheese pasta is on a mountain side in the middle of nowhere in Alaska, USA
• cheese tomato pasta is in Madagascar

Not sure why I find this so amusing...

Edit 2:

• There's a cheese and pickle sandwich in a field right in the middle of France
• There's a happy house party in the desert in the middle of Australia
• "We couldn't find any results for funky disco beat"
• Super hero movie is a parking space in Denver, USA

Edit 3:

• There's a failed software project in the sea in the Marquesas Islands.
• There's a successful software project also in the sea in the Gambier Islands.
• Successful software release is in the Indian Ocean.
• Failed software release is in the Atlantic, off Rio de Janiero.
• Enough sea! motor racing circuit is in a field in Colorado, USA

Edit 4:

• There's a chicken noodle soup in someone's garden in China.
• Playing video game? Must be at someone's house in Mexico, but telling someone to "play video game" puts them in the middle of a road in the outskirts of Chicago.

Edit 5:

• Winners never quit in Cuba
• Success breeds success in a forest in Quebec, Canada
• Save every penny at a golf course in Massachusetts, USA
• Never look back outside Philadelphia, USA

Edit 6: I found a pumpkin carving party in the Caucasus Mountains nowhere near anywhere, and a scout slumber party in Kazakhstan.

Edit 7: Spend every penny in some road-side bushes in the Chicago suburbs.

Edit 8: Another empty square is found in a field in China.