Reading the BBC on my late evening rounds, I caught the very sad news that Neil Aspinall passed away earlier today at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Neil, commonly called the fifth Beatle, was until last sumer, Chief Executive of Apple Corps, the Beatle’s music label. Aspinall was the driving force behind the Beatle’s sales after the band split, and also was pivotal in ensuring that the 1987 release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on CD (the band’s first CD release, and a massive rework of the original Mono recording) was surrounded by a media and publicity frenzy.

In the time I spent working with Apple Corps, the few times I dealt with Neil were all wonderful. Likewise, working with his wife Suzy was always a pleasure, and I would look forward to the calls. Neil will be missed, but his influence on one of the greatest musical acts of our time will not be forgotten.

Between this, and the passing of Geoffrey Quinn (alias Paul Raymond, another former employer) it’s been a sad month. Here’s to hoping that the next is somewhat more cheery.

My birthday, having passed on Monday, I decided to treat myself to a new toy. After years out in the cold with film SLR cameras, I’ve finally moved on and bought myself a new SLR, a Digital SLR. Specifically, a Nikon D80 - the object of my desire for the last eighteen months. So, while I get to grips with the camera, I’ll also be managing my pictures for once and moving from iPhoto (where I have been for a scant few weeks, after a move from Finder windows and large icons) to Aperture 2 in order to better take advantage of RAW images and cataloguing. Thankfully, Aperture now also works far far better with iLife than the previous incarnation, syncing to AppleTV and my iPhone for displaying my new fancy pictures on both big and small screens without hassle.

Look out in the future for a few pictures to start making their way back into posts here, and trips to to actually have pictures with them.

Busy doesn’t quite cover my last week. I’ve been doing nothing but waking up, going to work, and then passing out when I get home. Hopefully the next week ahead should give me some time to recover to some small degree. I’ve been a busy bee. Today (coincidentally my birthday) is the first day I’ve had to rest up properly in about two weeks.

Wednesday saw us being evacuated from work for three hours, after some poor unfortunate soul get himself electrocuted after drilling through a power line and a gas main.

And then on Saturday, Camden Market went and caught fire. Most of the market has made it out without too much damage, but around forty odd stalls and a fair few homes have been reduced to shells. I’ve not been to Camden in the best part of a year or more now, but I expect it’s going to feel rather different next time I step off the Northern Line.

<p ALIGN=CENTER><img SRC=”http://matcatastrophe.com/media/images/US8.jpg” BORDER=0 ALT=”On the road to the Crystal Frontier”/></p>

He tore the wrapper, and wound down the window. The paper fluttered from his hand, and was sucked out into the cold air as the truck thundered along Interstate 8. One hand on the wheel, he wiped the other on his jeans. <p>

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Nutella is a spread created in post war Italy, which used a combination of hazelnut paste after excessive taxes on cocoa beans hindered the early development and production of conventional chocolate. While the economics of the situation produced a cheaper product, it is in no way inferior, and is in-fact regarded as one of the premier chocolate spreads.

Being Italian, Nutella has always featured in my home and my life. It’s a childhood comfort food; the same way some might consider Kraft Macaroni and Cheese a comfort food, it’s something that ties you to happier times when the only worries you had were what you were going to do when you ran out of 4*8 grey LEGO plates on your latest creation.

It is for this reason, I sit here at the screen with a spoon and a jar of Nutella. I’m wishing for a time where LEGO is my main concern, and when I thought staying up to 10pm was a major deal.

Anyway, please, do excuse me. I have a jar of Nutella to finish.