alexist

Yes, it's wonderful that you're getting rid of the artificial colours, especially since E133 Brilliant Blue is banned in 11 countries. (Sorry to fans of blue Smarties.) But the most problematic colour is still there--carmine (which makes red Smarties red) is all natural. Unfortunately, it's made from crushed beetles, so it's not kosher, halal, or vegetarian!

(Americans: Smarties are sugar-coated chocolate drops, bit like M&Ms but crunchier. No relation to the sugar pastilles called Smarties in the US.)

After calling 4 different numbers (the number on the website told me to call the branch, the branch said I had to call someone else, who gave me a job reference number and ANOTHER number to call) I have arranged a repair for Saturday. It's an all-day call. Oh joy. Still, at least it's only a couple of days and I can survive till then.

The clothes that were in the rinse cycle when it died are now illegally (as in, against block rules) hanging on the balcony. I'll risk the wrath of the caretaker rather than having them mildew. Luckily, it was skirts and T-shirts, nothing embarrassing. Neil threw out our drying rack, DOH! They'll take ages to dry too because they were absolutely soaking wet. I wrung them out, but it's still no patch on 1600 spin.

the flat is a tip. This is primarily because of the sheer amount of crap Neil's new PC came packaged in. (I barely got the box through the door--and he only ordered a new tower unit, no monitor, keyboard, etc!)

Anyway, I've just put up a big pot of sauce for spaghetti and meatballs and it smells great :)

Neil got a new PC yesterday. He also ordered more RAM (I assume it was cheaper to order it from Crucial than from the manufacturer). It arrived this morning.

So Neil came home from work a bit early today and immediately installed his new RAM. He said to me, all excited, "I now have 3GB of RAM in my PC!"

I said, "And what do you need 3GB of RAM for?"

Him: "I don't know, but I've got it!"

(And he says to ME "What do you need that for?" when I start coveting high-end Macs...)

(Oh, I did try to convince him to get a Mac, but he wasn't keen on the iMac and sadly the Mac Pro wasn't announced in time... might have been able to convince him on that. Apparently, it's about £300 cheaper than an equally specced Dell.)