Round up of the year 2006: The End

In November

Betty reviewed Fanny Craddock

Pop told us about show and tell at Catholic Kindergarden

DraGnet is Two

Lee covered computer history

December

Presents for the little tykes - Conservatives For American Values style

Becky explained the true meaning of Santa

If you don't read Bad Science already then really you should start now. This blog closely reflects Ben Goldacre's Bad Science column in the Guardian but he often blogs more often than his column appears and it isn't edited for space so he can go into greater detail. I recommend it highly. Like Marcus Brigstock, Ben has his axe sharpened against that awful poo lady Gillian McKeith - snake oil sales woman and emotion vampire, passing herself off as a nutrition expert on C4. The blog entry I've linked to, however, isn't about the old harridan rather it he explains why we should always be careful of statistics.

As Chairman Tao put it July 2007 would seem a good time to plan a holiday as far away from the UK as possible. Beware, Wembley Stadium (if operational) is going to host a "Concert For Diana" It's gonna be ghastly, worse than the awful "Brenda: fiftieth on the throne" concerts for the young people especially as the chances of a bewildered appearance from Ozzy Osbourne are not high. Expect over the hill, middle of the road toadies and that's just the audience, the bands will be worse. Far worse.

Finally the year's Highlight.

We got engaged. :D

Round up of the year 2006: September and October

September:

Pop about being a day late

I also found a new blog The Razorblade of Life, Z produced this beautiful writing on motherhood.

Sim, did Monsters

You know you have friends when they do something like this for you

October:

Most Wrong Thing Evah

Kim gets the dibs for linking to this

MLIGCS loved her roomie

Russia: it's not always that bad as Val's friend Mila found out

Chixulub would like to warn you not to do this at home. I laughed so hard I hurt myself.

Papa's Got A Brand New Bag.

It was sad to hear of the death of James Brown on Christmas Day and a bit of a shock even considering some of the problems he had had in the past with drugs and dangerous living.

I first became conscious of James Brown when I lived in the states, MTV had "Living In America" on heavy rotation for a lot of the time, but they never bothered to play his good stuff. This was in the days before MTV had discovered black music or rather that advertisers would still pay good money when they played R&B, rap and hip hop.

I didn't hear any more of James Brown until I got to University in 1989, "The Funky Drummer" had started to feature in almost every tune with a sample in it, even the indie ones. For lunch we used to go to Bar One in the Union, a lot, as it was comfy and cheap. The bar juke box would automatically play sixties soul, Motown and R&B if no one had fed it, we got to hear a lot of James Brown, Smokey Robinson and The Four Tops, as it was music that offended no one, it was rare of a lunchtime that anyone would pay money to listen to anything else. We all knew the words come the spring term, to all the songs. A sight I will always cherish will be of a willowy thin Punk lad who was about 6 foot 6 in his stockinged feet before he spiked up his mohichan, absently mindedly asking all in sundry if he could "take it to the bridge?" in time with James as he queued up for his pasty and chips.

Round up of the year 2006: July and August

In July

I became a tranny pop after several hours of pleading pay off.

Iggy celebrated Independence Day in the states in his own imitable way!

Urban Chick highlighted the latest Edinburgh taste sensation.

Gordon ate all the pasties. Gordon is one of those bloggers who consistently writes at high standards. Worth the visit just for this line: "This is usually said in a tone that suggests that if you don’t place your order in the next three seconds, somewhere a kitten will meet a brief yet painful death. Probably in a blender."

Becky did cartoons

August

Lee pondered the street stoppers. I found Lee through pure luck, I was flicking through flickr when I saw this picture. I had a look at his profile, saw he had a blog which I enjoyed immensely as I bimbled through his archives. Then I saw that not only does he know Kim from Mildly Diverting he had shared a flat with her. Which all goes to prove that really there are only about 5 people in the world.

Not a blog but art instead, Bex has blogged about her and I really admire her work too, check this out - Choose Love by Bridget Love

Dear John letters are so hard to write.

Oooh Errrr

We are going to see the registrar in a few minutes from now to find out what we need to do legally so that we can get married sometime next autumn.

I'm feeling a bit nervous, which I haven't done before when talking about it with other people but this is official, outside friends and family.

Right all I've got to do is drag Si away from Back To The Future II. (one day I will get to see it all the way through from the beginning)

Round up of the year 2006: May and June

In May:

Wyndham The Triffid reviewed Vidal Gore's Pamplist saving the rest of us the bother of reading the book.

Becky and I watched the "50 Greatest One Hit Wonders" on the box, some of the music was very ropey to say the least but Becky was inspired.

In June:

I could have stuffed this round up with loads of Pluto's cartoons.

Round up of the year 2006: March and April

March: St David's day and St Patrick's day happened. St Patrick's happened to be more entertaining.

Becky went for the ultimate mash up of overblown popular entertainment ie Queen and Lord of the Rings and gave us this. Lord of the Rhapsody

In April:

Frieya was the first blogger on my particular street to get in with a review of the new Dr Who

Pop at Pop's Bucket enjoyed the Easter Vacation

Johnny Virgil explained stuff

Round Up Of The Year 2006: The Beginning

I've been keeping careful track over the year of the blog posts that I've enjoyed, been informed by, or just struck by. It's my choice, it's subjective and I make no apologies for it but I hope you enjoy what I have chosen.

In January

Selina placed that bit from Deutronomy in its proper context.

In February

Becky and I went to Amsterdam for her birthday. It was bloody cold and grey but we had a wonderful time, Bex summed it up here Gellizig.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas Everyone,

I hope that you have had a peaceful and enjoyable day. For those of you who celebrate Christmas with presents I hope that you liked what you got and what you gave has given pleasure.

I have a rule about presents for Christmas and birthdays, it's simple, easy to understand, of long standing and I like to think grounded in sense. - Don't give me anything for the kitchen - no fancy microwaves, baking dishes, kettles, toasters or bins. I know lots of people love receiving stuff like that, but not me, it feels more like a present for the kitchen than for me, and as far I as know the kitchen has never celebrated Christmas and it doesn't have a birthday.

This rule shouldn't be broken but there are a couple of exception clauses; mugs, cookery books and small silly things don't really count, nor do things that I've pointed to and lusted after.

Like posh espresso coffee makers.

Which is a good thing as that is what Simon got me for my present. I'd been quietly lusting after one for months, it's great I can pretend that I work at Costa (alotta) Coffee, froth milk to my heart's content and make enough espresso coffee to keep the Italian fleet sailing. Si has spent most of the last two hours experimenting with different coffee types, which he has also drunk. As he doesn't normally drink coffee in the evening he is now sat on the sofa lightly vibrating with caffeine, he would have been shimmying a great deal more but for the dampening effects of the Irish coffees he made us not so long ago.

That's all I wanted to say really so night night y'all.

Not Obsessed

I am not obsessed by weddings!

OK they are something I have thought about in an idle moment over the last 34 years or so but not really even a day dream. There have been long periods in my life when I thought that I would never arrive at the circumstances where marriage was a possibility so even when I did think about it, it wasn't with napkin colour and designs in mind. So now that I am going to get married we've got a lot to decide and think about.

I want to be married to Simon and soonish, I know what is important to me - stating in front of our families and friends that I love Simon so much that I want to spend the rest of my life with him and because it is something that we believe in I want to enter into the marriage contract with him. That is all that really matters the rest is "just fluff"™ However deciding which bits of fluff we want to discard and which bits we want to keep or invent new for ourselves, needs thinking about so I bought a couple of "Wedding" magazines for "inspiration".

They are bloody awful.

Materialistic, obsessed on the trivial ephemera that surrounds weddings, they seem to have an agenda to tell brides that their weddings will be pitiful thin things that no one will have enjoyed or remembered unless a lot of money has been spent on pointless shite . Some are awfully icky - referring to the future groom as "h2b" yuck :-s.

I suppose I was being naive to expect these magazines not to champion the old wedding clichés but I was very disappointed at how light they were on useful information. Personally I don't think just saying you must wear waterproof mascara is good enough, tell us which one is best and prove it. All in all I haven't been inspired just depressed at all the crap that seems to surround getting married.

Pretty and Not So Pretty Pictures

Temptation

I've been having a very leisurely day, the shopping has been done, the last Christmas party is going to happen this evening, the presents have been wrapped, the bats have been fed, there is nothing left to do really. So I'm sat here, at Simon's watching back to back Quantum Leap, (bliss) I've been surfing the 'net on his laptop and desperately trying to ignore the huge box in front of me. It's wrapped up with pretty paper and with a small tag with my name on it, this is cruel, I'm an incorrigible present prodder and shaker, massive temptation is being put my way and I'm supposed to ignore it?

As I am not the only one in my family who hasn't a scruple when it comes to the shaking, fondling and sniffing of presents I have over the years developed the habit of not putting names on presents if I'm going to be there to hand them out as there is no point in shaking a present if you don't know if it is going to be yours.

Sprouts

Well that's it, I've done all the Christmas shopping now, presents and food, it is all over bar the shouting and maybe some hummus if I feel the call of Waitrose on Saturday afternoon. An unlikely event I know but it could happen.

Simon and I braved the local Tescos this evening to do the "big shop" it was surprising less grim that I had first expected although the car park was full the shop wasn't rammed we could manoeuvre around the glassy eyed shoppers who clutched bags of sprouts to their bosoms as the trolley they had been pushing started to buckle under the hundred weight of dry roasted peanuts and cheeses piled within it.

We were able to resist the worst of the temptations and have got our Christmas tree, real, in soil and about a foot high, food and drink for when we are here, a litre of Baileys for medicinal purposes but no sprouts.

Fog

It's been cold today, the fog never lifted and where the weak sun didn't even get a chance to penetrate, the frost stayed on the ground and wrapped around the twigs and fronds of greenery. Just the right weather for an office party.

Or a funeral.

As the bus slowly whisked me to work this morning, we passed an empty funeral hearse, of the horse drawn type going in the opposite direction. Two undertakers in Victoriana garb sitting on top, black horses with black plumes, the long white plush pad where the coffin would rest. All a stark picture in black and white against the black skeleton of trees and the enveloping mist. Normally I think they are naff but today it made perfect sense.

It's cold outside

First off, thank you all for your congratulations and best wishes, it's quite overwhelming. I don't think that it has properly settled in yet, I keep looking at my finger and thinking wow "I'm getting married" There will be a lot to sort out, most importantly we have to identify what we really need to do and what is just fluff, Si and I are going to workshop this shortly in the new year. Si's done PRINCE II and I've been at enough bloody "kick off" meetings to be very familiar with most of the brain storming techniques, I've put in an order for a gross of post it notes and a tree's worth of flip chart, I'm going to go to Staples to get the marker pens then I'm gonna sniff them, cos they smell nice.

I promise that I will try to avoid being a wedding bore, but I am reserving to blog anything funny, outrageous, bizarre or "come-the-revolutiony."

Return To Normal Service

I've been feeling a bit of an unwell bunny recently, very sore and tender throat on the left side, jaw ache and ear ache, probably a virus but... it's been going on for a wee while now and it's effecting my sleep and it hurts to lie down.

So I go to the doctor's and get told either it's a virus andthere'salotofitabout or I've managed to scratch my throat eating fish or something. Now I'm quite prepared to accept that I don't need an antibiotic as they won't do any good when the doc says that s/he thinks it's a virus and I agree with the idea that sometimes warmth and plenty of fluids are the best thing but I was told in such a peremptory way. I left the surgery feeling that I had completely missed out on the magical "Seeing The Doctor Will Make It Start Getting Better" effect that I normally get when I've been to see them before in situations like this.

What didn't help was that the sodding bus didn't turn up, I was there, at the bus stop, with about 5 minutes to spare, 45 minutes later I was still at the bus stop, slowly freezing and getting crosser and crosser.

Grrrr.

The bus company is so bloody useless

The Morning After The Night Before

Yesterday evening was one of the best nights I've ever had, we went to the Christmas Ball, which was superb, good food, good wine, good company.

And we were able to celebrate in style.

Because we have something to celebrate as earlier that night Simon asked me to become his wife. I said yes.

Christmas Timewasters

Some excellent timewasters on the Advent Calendar and all with a Christmas Theme. Once you get bored with those there is always drunk Santa to steer about.

Linkage 11 Dec 06

Feeling Listless takes apart some of what is wrong with Torchwood he explains why I don't like most of the characters.

Flouncing Tenor - oh how many stereotypes does storming off stage of La Scala in a huff fulfil?

John Denver and the Muppets - Go one you know you want to.

And if you are not already subscribing to this here's the best on-line Advent Calender you'll find this year.

Has Anyone Else Seen This?

Radio Five Live's blog about blogs is looking for nominations for unsung blogs you know, the ones you enjoy but don't get the limelight like say Random Acts Of Reality does (and deserves too.)

Anyway here's the link mind you I'm not giving it because I want to be nominated, I really don't I'm not good enough for that sort of exposure, mind you neither is Dooce but that's another blog post I will write one day.

Pinochet Dead

And all I can say is good, it's the end of an evil man. A dictator whose regime disappeared people and tortured and murdered with impunity.

Bananas

I like bananas but bananas don't like me. I've known that I have an allergy to them for a while now and I've had to reluctantly avoid them.

Yesterday lunchtime I had my lunch in the canteen of one of the contractors I deal with. By mistake I took a pudding that had bananas in it, instead of leaving the pud when I discovered this I thought, "ack, it will probably be OK as they've been cooked or something" It wasn't I had the usual symptom a burning feeling in my mouth and my lips and tongue feeling funny which I've had before and it's dealable with. What was not dealable with was the stomach cramps and diarrhoea that hit that evening and I had cramps for the rest of the night and woke up with them today. So although it now seems to have passed, I was up to work today and I've been feeling more than a bit sorry for myself.

Tis the season to be jolly?

Now that December has started the party season has too, and for the first time ever, I'm dreading it more than looking forward to it. Normally my inner four year old is running round screaming "It's Chrismiss" but this year someone seems to have chloroformed her.

I cancelled going out on the big group Christmas lunch, mainly because it is one expense too many, but also if I'm gonna spend my hard earned cash on going out I would rather do it where I know I'm going to get a decent meal instead of the dried out slops that pass for Christmas Party Lunches in the hotels in Fenlandshire. I would also rather spend the money drinking with people who are not going to talk about work, who hates who and the imminent disappearance of all our jobs.

I haven't withdrawn from my office party because well, it would get all a bit too political if I did and young Ady wouldn't like it. The organisers were discussing the seating plans the other day, they have hit on the "bright idea" of making everyone swap round seats for each course. A recipe for chaos and my idea of hell. I did suggest that the idea wasn't that brilliant, it was said that you don't get a chance to talk to everyone at the meal. That we all work in the same small office, will be mingling before and after the meal so it's only going to be 2 hours at the most and that by the time the coffees come round people start moving about anyways doesn't seem to have hit them. I have no faith in wiser heads prevailing on this one.

I am still looking forward to the Christmas Ball though because for one thing the drink is free. Also I don't have to mingle with people I've spent all year with. This is why I'm also looking forward to Si's Office Christmas meal because I don't meet his colleagues that often but when I have, I've had a good time. Perhaps it's just a case of familiarity breeding ennui or I've lost the Christmas Enjoyment Fairy.

So Here It Is Merry erm... Winterval, Holidays erm Yule

Of course it's the holiday season, there is Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year, Bohdi Day, Kwanzaa which is a cultural festival rather than religious, Winter Solstice and Eid Al Adha for starters all in December. So while the UK may be majority "Oh I suppose I'm a" Christian it isn't exclusively and really it isn't polite to wish someone a happy Christmas when you know full well that they actually celebrate Bohdi Day, so if you are not sure what if anything someone celebrates saying "Happy Holidays" although an awkward construction is a safe way of acknowledging there is a holiday in the offing.

But on the flip side we are a multicultural society but to assume that non Christians would take complete offence at being wished Happy Christmas is daft. Most people don't I'm an atheist to my knowledge I've never thrown a strop at being wished happy Christmas. I've never met someone who complains about a free day off. When I lived in the states Yom Kippur was a day off from school, I wasn't offended.

Often, rather than actually talk to someone who is different from ourselves we make assumptions about what will or will not offend them, because it's easier than actually engaging with people who might actually be a bit different from ourselves. That is the truly daft thing.

Posh End Of The Street

I was once told that I live at the "Posh End" of the street. Seeing as a few weeks before I was first told this I had stopped a fight between a drug addict and the pusher who lived a few doors away from me, a fight that had started across the road from me at about 8:30 in the morning, I guffawed mightily, then wondered what it was like down the other end.

Actually it's not that bad down this end, not now the local pub has really convinced the local alkies that "They. Are. No. Longer. Welcome." The people who live round here seem to be mostly quiet, nice, ordinary people. The drug pusher, he was an aberration, and more than a little thick. He had chosen possibly the most public place to push his drugs from and the half the buildings that did over look it were public ones including the best hotel here in Fenlandshire.

It must have been a dream for the police to stake it out.

A few months after I had stopped that fight, I came home one evening to find a police man standing on the road near my house moving on loiterers and stopping people passing. I explained that I lived "just there" so he let me through. I rushed upstairs, got myself a cup of tea and watched as the police went to and thro from the pusher's house to their cars carrying bags of evidence and with huge grins on their faces.

The pusher didn't come back, his house was used as digs for ambulance crews for a while before it was finally sold. It's been sold and sold again since.

Yep I live at the posh end of road at least I don't live next to a brothel like a boss of mine did. What got her was she never realised that it was a house of ill repute until it was raided by the police. Oh how we laughed.

Does Anyone Know Any Poems About Conservation Officers?

Cos I got a hit from someone who needs to know.

"poem describing what a conservation officers does"

Although I did recently invest in some English Poetry I don't know of any such poems. But being the helpful sort I thought I could write some so channelling the spirit of McGonagall I did this

I am a conservation officer,
I like to save the bees,
They are very important,
as they fertilise the trees

Then I realised that the searcher was probably thinking of the buildings sort of conservation officer but I can't think of anything that rhymes with cornice at the mo.

Techno Linkage - Don't Believe The Hype

Well the first and only one so far has a technological slant to it, the others may be of "oooh look, kittens" variety.

Don't buy a Zune - That's the advice from the Chicago Sun-Times (via Bad Astronomy), of course it isn't available in Britain yet but that hasn't stopped it being news here too. Mostly on how much it sucks and when it comes to suckage apparently the Zune has that in spades. I have an iPod Nano which I'm very happy with, it's intuitive to use, I like the look of iTunes, especially now that 7 is out and the iTunes store is bearable.

Maybe not kittens but the CS Monitor had an interesting take on Borat's origins.

Chilling

This film shows the distribution of Cesium 137 bearing clouds over Europe in the days after of the Chernobyl disaster. I was living in the states at the time, in the senior year at high school. I had class mates who had relatives in Ukraine. This being the bad old days before the perestroika, fall of the soviet communist regime and the breakup of the soviet union so their families were desperately trying to contact their relatives only to find when they finally got through that their families that they didn't know anything about the explosion.

One of the subjects I was doing at high school was physics, the teacher immediately changed tack so that we could study the causes of the explosion and rigged up the school's Geiger counter so that it was measuring the radiation of the air. Of course being so far away there was no perceptible change over the time that he monitored it. It was quite a scary time mostly because of the lack of information coming out of the Soviet Union, not knowing what was true and what wasn't or whether there were more reactors ready to go off like this.

Nuclear power is back in news as it is being touted as the only way to provide all our power requirements if we are to reduce carbon emissions. But it is so expensive, has a huge footprint in terms of time and when it goes wrong it contaminates land for centuries. Maybe the electric windmills and other renewable sources can't replace oil, gas and coal yet so we do need to have a nuclear power station building programme but we will need to be so so cautious in order to avoid future 3 Mile Islands, Windscales and Chernobyls.

Sons Of Fun

Sons Of Fun, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

Is it only my family (well my mum) who refers the army as 'the sons of fun'?

Ady

Ady, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

Who helped organise the day and wanted his picture blogged

Soggi

Soggi, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

It rained all afternoon i am soaked, cold, tired and ready to go home.

Karts

Karts, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

These are great

Gothicly

Gothicly, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

I am team building in the cold

I Bought Some Books Today

Tis true, I succumbed, I am supposed to be thinning out the number of books I have, as I have "too many."

"Too many" is a concept that I don't really understand, how can anyone have too many books? Surely it is not possible, even the most trashy sci fi, romance, police actioner or spy novel will bring delight to someone. Books contain knowledge and imagination, easily portable by the smallest toddler, they do not need electricity to work, notes can be made in the margin and a well made book can be a thing of beauty in itself. Nope, the concept of too many books does not make sense. I will admit that the concepts of "Not Enough Space" and "And You've Said Yourself, That Book's Rubbish" do have some validity so I have been slowly weeding out some of books I've no intention of reading again. In the registry we have a permanent book sale and Di the lady who runs it, always welcomes contributions.

Today she did a swap of books that hadn't shifted with another section who have a permanent book sale, because my office are her best customers she gave us first dibs. I've got poetry, 1970's cook book, what could be rubbish chick lit or something better and two murder stories, they may be fun.

I don't normally do poetry but for 50p how could I resist "The Penguin Book Of English Verse", it's got examples of the work of almost every major English language poet of the last 450 years. No McGonagall though, so it isn't perfect.

I found this by Sir Philip Sidney (1554 - 1586) So beautiful.

"Just Exchange"

My true love hath my heart and I have his,
By just exchange one for another geven:
I holde his deare, and mine he cannot misse,
There never was a better bargaine driven.
My true love hath my heart and I have his.
My heart in me keepes him and me in one,
My heart in him his thoughts and sences guides:
He loves my heart, for once it was his owne,
I cherish his because in me it bides.
My true love hath my heart, and I have his.

Eggshell Soup

I love seafood, there is not a fish, cephalopod, mollusc or marine crustacean that I haven't liked when presented on a plate with some buttered brown bread and a wedge of lemon. From cod, splendidly battered with chips, mushy peas, wedge of lemon, cup of tea and buttered brown bread to make chip butties with to oysters on ice with little dishes of chopped shallots, Tabasco sauce, wedge of lemon, glass of champagne and buttered brown bread. I've never had a complaint. I even have a special knife in my knife draw for shucking oysters on the off chance that Waitrose ever have them reduced.

But now, I have no one to eat oysters with. My nearest and dearest don't like them. Simon doesn't really do seafood and went pale when I once asked him if he like oysters. My mother doesn't like shellfish nor do my brother or sister in law. My niece might do but she will only be six tomorrow and would probably want them with chips.

I suppose it goes to show that people's taste in food are not hereditary I don't know where I got my liking for seafood from because I seem to be the only one in the family.

Where I am not the only one is celery. Now with celery both my brother and I like the stuff, but my father didn't like it and my mother loathes the stuff so much she was gobsmacked when she saw me happily chewing on a stick or six at my father's staff and families Christmas party when I was little. She tells me that she had thought that her dislike of celery was so strong that somehow I would have inherited it. She said that it taught her that children were not just chips off the old block and we did have our own quirks and tastes. That or I was a changeling, so she made me eggshell soup* until I pointed out that it wouldn't work as I had already learnt to talk.

*Eggshell Soup

I road tested this story on Simon and he had never heard of eggshell soup, so I googled on it and there seems to be no reference to the folklore on the net either. Now I'm sure I haven't made it up I even have images in my mind of illustrated pages of the story, so I'll recount the story to you, I was told it is Scottish folklore.

If you suspect that the fairies have swapped your baby for one of theirs, to prove your suspicion you must make eggshell soup making sure the baby is in the room watching you. The fairy bairn will be so curious about this that it will forget human babies can't talk and ask "Why are you making eggshell soup mother?" What you have then got to do is to stick the red hot poker, that you had prepared earlier just in case, down its throat. Miraculously the changeling will disappear and the human baby will reappear in the cot unharmed.

Capt Simon

Capt Simon, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

Torchwood - Fenlandshire Branch.

Sodding Fire Alarm

The building's fire alarm went off at "far too early" o'clock this morning, waking me up. So, after checking that the front door wasn't warm to the touch, I padded out into the hallway in warm cardie and jimjams (I know how to dress up in an emergency) The fire alarm control panel was flashing away but only the fault warning lights were flickering, the fire zone lights were resolutely dark. So I reset the alarm, the flashing stopped. The noise didn't. I reset it again and again. I tried the mute sound button, nada. I held it down and counted to ten hippopotamus I was still being deafened by the shrieking.

So I gave up to retreat to the living room and snooze. But couldn't and it has totally thrown my system out too add to that a largish lunch and a couple of glasses of wine all in celebration of a job well done, I was about ready for my beddy byes by the time Si got here from his big adventure in Milton Keynes.

I don't know what we are going to do this weekend, well I do know some of it, it's my niece's 6th birthday on Monday, I need to get her a light postable present, the card has gone ahead so that will definitely arrive on time but this week I've just not had a chance to get to the shops to look for a suitable present.

I was thinking about getting her a cheap and user friendly digital camera for her Christmas present, but I was wondering is 6 a bit too young to be able to manage a digital camera? Does anyone with experience of youngsters have views about this. She's an intelligent child but will she have the manual dexterity and patience?

Gothically

Gothically, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

Now That's What I Call Real Classy

Suffolk man tries to sue his former partner - BBC News

Seems very mean spirited and arseholey to me, I'm amazed any solicitor would take this on.

The Royal Mail have a useful address and post code finder, you are limited in the number of searches you can do per day but for most peeps that isn't going to matter.

The Saint

The Saint, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

Someone at work went round drawing little pictures of The Saint, all in different poses, on white boards a wee while ago. We don't know who did it, one of the cleaners? Or someone bored on the duty shift? Nothing was proven but then it wasn't deeply investigated after all was whimsical not destructive. Most of the stick figures have gone now but this one remains.

You Can't Say That About Valerie Singleton!

Joy of Joys
I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue is back for its all too brief 6 week run up to Christmas. After what feels like several decades of "Quote Unquote", the funny stuff has returned to Radio4 on Monday nights at 6:30pm.

'Clue as its devotees have been known to call it, is probably very familiar to most of the Brits reading this but for the colonial types the basic premise is:- four comedians being given silly things to do by Humphrey Lyttleton, an octogenarian jazz trumpeter, comedian and Magpie's stalkee. Starring the best and cheapest (this is a programme for the BBC after all) that British Comedy can cough up, it's silly, stupidly funny, very often a bit norty and has Jeremy Hardy not singing.

Whereas "Quote Unquote" is unfunny in such an exquisitely awful way, smug, lame, scripted, and just shite. Nigel Rees must have some very interesting negatives to have been able to keep the programme away from the scheduler's axe all this time.

Quick Poll?
I'm going to go for fish and chips for dinner tonight I think, I really fancy some chip butties. Chip Butties are the nectar of the gods in my humble opinion. Simon is not so convinced and my Dad thought that they were a dreadful northern invention. I think I'm right, but what does everyone else think?

American Election Roundup.

George W Bush is finally a Lame Duck

Round up of some American bloggers views on Tuesday's elections.

The Lazy Iguana said good bye and good riddance to Kathrene Harris

Candace was smug

Pop's was poorly

The Bad Astronomer was pleased for science as was the New Scientist Blog

Herman got upset*

*This is satire.

Now We Are 60

Now We Are 60, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

Levelled tonight!

Just Stuff

Let me delight you with

A joke that I saw and put on the other blog Rabbits

Saturnian Noises from the University of Iowa via Bad Astronomy Blog

The place where I work has always had a flaky power supply, the mains electricity seems to go with remarkable frequency considering that it shouldn't happen at all, and the emergency generators aren't beefy enough to take the strain. They've been upgraded, supplemented and the site's works services manager is rumoured to have sacrificed voles to the great gods of diesel power generators so that they will work when called upon.

I think he may be graduating up to rabbits.

Something blew on Tuesday evening, the building that houses most of the sites servers has been on/off/on/off/on emergency power ever since. We had to do a "power down" for this evening so that more work could be done over the weekend. The power was going off at 4pm the servers were going to be taken off line from 3.20pm, so our IT people were switching off our computers from 2pm and forbidding them being turned back on.

Stupid.

I took the afternoon off, I did my deep cleanse of my in tray and desk draws last time the network went down 6 months ago.

So I got to see the Christmas lights in daylight for the first time. When I say for the first time I mean this year, the same strings of lights have been hung up ever since I moved here.



It's not impressive.

Metablogging again.

The thing about blogging is sometimes I only have a pertinent sentence or two about one subject then some waffle then another short paragraph of interest on another subject and so on. Probably not enough for a worthwhile post alone but together all the interesting sentences together I would get a bitty, but hopefully worthwhile post. But the feeling that blog posts must have a coherent theme is a difficult one to overthrow. I would love to be able to jump from subject to subject like Siobhan does, without feeling self conscious.

Writing prose of any form doesn't come easily to me, I tend to trip up over the words. The seamless bit of prose I had conjured up in my head turns into poo as my fingers type it out. I have this problem at work as well, I agonise over writing letters to customers and contractors how words are used is very important in what I do, so care has to be taken by everyone. But again I can't turn the carefully crafted phrase I thought about in my head into the writing on the the page because the words seem to run away from me when I start committing them to hard disc.

My old boss would stare at the screen with a pensive gaze for about 5 minutes as she thought about the letter at hand, then her fingers would be a blur as she tapped out her thoughts on the page, apart from perhaps the tweaking of a comma or the double check of the specific meaning of a word it would all be there as she wanted it, making sense, in not much more than half an hour. Me, I know what to say, I understand the problem but I can't get it onto paper without a struggle.

And I blog.

For fun.

I must be an idiot.

I'm At Risk Of Developing A YouTube Habit

At the risk of sounding like the idiot teenager from the fast show



Isn't YouTube Brilliant, it hosts loads and loads of content from original stuff like the smiley bit above to the wee films I took on holiday recently to copyright infringement stuff like the fast show bit to the bits the beeb is actually pushing like the BBC2 idents in the last post.

Of course as most of its users seem to be semi literate 14 year boys the comments on most of the films are shite. I've decided that I'm all for free speech but only if the person taking advantage of this right, can prove to the satisfaction of an independent authority they can write in their native language without resorting to text speak.

Apart from them idiots, YouTube rocks

I love it.

BBC2 Idents We Have Loved

Not likely to be pulled this one seeing at the bbc2 website is plugging it.


Set to moving music allegedly may make you weep, unless you are a hard hearted sod like what I am.

Other cool things I have seen today:- Waitrose have started selling eggs in boxes of 4s which is rather cool, I don't eat eggs enough to justify a six box


Er that's it.

Alcoholic Marinade

We are having fajitas tonight, I've just made a marinade for the chicken strips. Rum, honey, lime juice, chilli flakes, coriander cumin and of course garlic, the whole lot is now in the fridge I'll give it an hour or so before cooking it. I would have made a salsa tonight to go it the fajitas but I forgot to get the tomatoes and Si wasn't feeling brilliant so we finished the shopping fastish in order to get home.

He is looking a lot perkier now, working out how to use Aperture 1.5 on his laptop, So hopefully he'll be strong enough to pour us both a drink come yardarm time, I've still got some of the rum left or there is some Pimms from summer and there is coke and lemonade cooling in the fridge. Si has a very sensible attitude to drink; he is most abstemious compared to past boyfriends and I like that. I've reached the point where the night before doesn't justify the hangover the next day. Thankfully I think I've found my groove where I can have a sociable drink or five but not get lairy or maudlin Si not being a huge drinker is nice because he encourages me in this sensibleness.

Having said all that though - Charm and Poise has the perfect book in her vintage collection.

Testing the phone

So far I've tried out the radio on the phone that was fun listening to the presenter panic as the Morse code went on and on and on. After wailing and gnashing of teeth from me Si finally got the phone's email to work. I've tested sending to flickr, to the blog via flickr and now to the blog directly using the email address, then that will be the last of the tests hopefully.

Gothicly

Gothicly
Originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

I am testing mobile photo blogging

New Toy

w00t

Missed It

At some point yesterday evening, the 30,000th visitor arrived on my blog, had a look around then buggered off. Well that's what I think they did, I don't know as I missed it completely and my stat counters only cover the details of the last 100 visitors and by the time I looked the counter was at 30,103. I will never know. But still a big thanks to you all for the support you have given me over the last 17 months, in the words of the immortal Goons: "I will wear it always!"

Tranny Feet the sequel

One of the photos on this blog gets me traffic at a steady rate; a very steady rate in fact, I would say at least one hit a day often more. It happened by accident I didn't know that there was an audience for this but there is, so purely in the interests of science I present more tranny feet.

Been To A Halloween Party

We had a great time, eat, drank and danced moderately. There isn't much more to say than that (mostly because I'm crap at describing parties) but there are lots of lovely photos here.

Robotic Dalek Halloween Pumpkin

Want. One.

How to make - Robotic Dalek Pumpkin

Picture by Oskay

It Is Almost The Weekend - I Am Losing My Voice

Bex and I are going up to Derby this weekend too, for a fancy dress party at Sophie's. I am going as a lady pirate I have asked Becky to see if she can find me talking parrot for me, preferably one that can say "Another drink, for me? Why thank you very much" I'm not sure how much luck Bex will have finding one in King's Lynn.

This evening Miss K's new band Deathline will be playing their first gig at the Hope and Anchor pub, Islington. Their myspace area is here for downloads and stuff. Unfortunately I can't go as poverty (end of the month) and having to slave as a Tranny Wallah™ for Bex. I have to make a tutu more sticky out I made the basic one last night but it now needs the embellishments but I managed to break two sewing machine needles in the process so will have to finish it tonight.

I'm not sure how old my sewing machine is, my grandmother gave it to me about 10 years ago and I think she got it second hand, it's a singer machine the body of it is metal I'm thinking early 60's late 50s. It's very basic it doesn't have the switches and knobs for all the fancy stitching but that suits me as I'm a basic and infrequent seamstress, straight lines joining things together no need for me to do much more.

Update - just had a phone call from Becky all pirate stuff has been sold out in King's Lynn so I am no longer going to be doing my Johnny Depp Impression I'm gonna be a witch! which is nice.

It's "Wear It Pink" day today I'm not wearing pink (I don't have anything pink that's suitable) I still got churned for money this morning. I don't mind the fund raising it's a very laudable cause though so is prostate cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in the UK and I don't see any "Wear It Blue" days going on which is a shame as men's health issues tend not to get the exposure that they should do.

No I don't mind giving to various charities at all what I mind is the sense of enforced jollity and "you must join" in about it. I don't want to, I don't like the ostentatiously wacky fund raising for charity and I loathe with a passion all these sponsored treks for charity. That's someones holiday dressed up as being altruistic. It is bollocks. It's a puritan streak in me I know, but I just feel that people making a big song and dance about the "charidy" they are doing are more interested in getting the kudos than the cause, I also think there is something wrong in people expecting to get something in return for giving to charity above and beyond the inner glow of knowing that you've done something right. No doubt I'm not being realistic but it's how I feel

Autumn, bloody autumn

I was gonna blog at about the clocks changing this weekend and how I liked going home in the dark with the glow of lights of houses, shops and street lamps to guide me home. How I like the cosy feeling it gives me and how it reminds me of being a small child, learning why my red coat looked odd in the sodium light thrown out on the streets of Edinburgh at night.

Basically I was going to do about 150 words on how lovely autumn was, but it was pissing it down this evening as I went home, I got thoroughly soaked and cold and I felt miserable.

Then I remembered Torchwood was on BBC2 tonight - double bill.

Yay it's not the complete dog I was worried about.

First episode introduced the Torchwood team through the eyes of an innocent outsider who will become one of the team by the end of the episode. A stock introduction to many a new series so sit back and enjoy how they do it rather than whys of the plot. Episode two of the series was another stock episode outline "Newbie's first, disasterish day at work" So again sit back and enjoy and I did, muchly.

Torchwood may be more adult in theme and tone: swearing, orgasmic energy, some violence and on screen suicide at it's heart it is pure joyous entertainment rather than challenging, stroky beardie Drama. But that's entertainment with a capital E, very high production values, a witty script and a good cast. And they managed to make Cardiff look sexy which is a bit of a feat so props to the editors.

It's going to be an OK autumn after all.

Haddock Or... Kipper

We saw Mitchell and Webb tonight in Peterborough. Si got us good seats not too far back on the aisle, great for the sprint to the bar during the interval and I can recommend the Broadway for having very comfy seats with plenty of leg room. But enough of the incidentals, on with the show.

We laughed until we almost had minor accidents. Although some of the sketch endings were a bit abrupt, perhaps a sign that they haven't quite gained their stage show legs yet, it was ver' funny. Many of the sketches from the TV series were there in an expanded form, "Are We The Baddies?" Numberwang and "Oooh,That's a Bad Miss" they also staged sketches from the radio: a complete joy was their film about cricket.

Yes, Sir Digby Ceaser Chicken did appear as did "Big Talk", twice. The second time round it was after the interval and it was "audience participation time" remember the

Si got us good seats not too far back on the aisle

Well it turns out that they were not far enough back, as I found out with a microphone thrust under my nose and orders to ask the boffins "A BIG QUESTION"

I Don't Have BBC3 - Take Two

So could everybody refrain from blogging, commenting or showing screen shots of Torchwood until after it has been shown on BBC2 on Wednesday?

I thank you.

OK Scratch That Below.

I Don't Have BBC3

So could everybody please tell me what happens on Torchwood tonight?

(Jane: What are you doing writing on my blog???)

(Simon: Nothing!) :-)

Meta Moo

My Moo Cards arrived today.



Translucent matt finish, heavy paper they are things of beauty, I want to give them away and keep them, in equal measure.

Get Yer Free Darwin Here

If you are British you will no doubt have heard of this on the news already, but those rather fine chaps at Cambridge University have been really busy with the scanner machines recently so that we the general public can have free access to the work of Charles Darwin, certainly one of the most important scientific men of the last 250 year.

Linky Links

Astronomy Cast - Newly (relatively) started series of podcasts about Astronomy, I'm enjoying them on the bus it's science without the hard maths but none the worst for that.

I really really dislike Yahoo ugly and avaricious is my feeling about the site still, I shouldn't get a feeling of grim satisfaction when they post iffy results.

One of those clever chaps from B3ta's been directing videos, sweet, geeky and very in the spirit of C86. The Gay Train

Reident DJ

Today is the History Matters Great Big Blog day. Write a diary entry send it to them and they'll bung it in an archive for evermore, except the more interesting or bathetic ones which they'll put into a coffee table book in time for Christmas no doubt. Very worthy it's sort of a bit like the mass observation project that ran from 1937 until about the mid 50s then was restarted in 1981, but I can't see how much real use one day from many people will be. Also I read their terms and conditions and thought nah not for me.

So my drivel will have to stay outside of academic archives for a little longer.

Anyway my day, well the bits of my day that I can repeat to yous out there, was dull. Go to work talk to people, shuffle bits of paper, answer questions and give advice, draft emails and letters. In the inbetweenie bits, that is lunch, I had a look at flickr check out this marvelous dress. The young lad in the office is thinking of a tattoo so has been drawing designs on paper and his hand to see how they look. He says that he's not going to have it on his hand it was just so that he could show the lady who is going to do the design for him his ideas.

a. The lady who does tattoo design is "quite hawt" apparently

b. We would have let him take a sheet of paper out of the office but he said that this helped him to remember.

On the way home I saw the poster for the nightclub stuck up in the bus shelter near work. I've pixilated some details as I don't want to give the oxygen of publicity to them more than I can help it. I've no idea who they are trying to attract with this. :-/

And there you go quite a blah day really I think better out of any serious depository than in.

Bugger, Bastard Power Cuts

I did have a really good blog post almost completed saying how fab the last 9 days had been, TX meeting up with Clarissa, Jo and Valerie for dinner (Tracey and Connie should have been there as well but Tracey was under the weather so Connie did the fond and romantic thing of staying home with her) and then meeting Cyanne and Katya and Tidy and Anna for the first time and seeing Shannon, Mini and Pia and Jo and then I had gone on to say how great our holiday in the Algarve was and how we had really enjoyed it.

Bloody bastard power cut has just happened about 3 spellings before hitting "Publish"

So instead I'll just have to point you at this

And point out that I looked rather good for 5 seconds on Saturday Night

Photo as what was taken by that rather talented Becky

We're Baaaack!

Got loads of things to sort out, like find some decent pictures to put up on Flickr, blogs to read, washing to do etc. But in the meanwhile here is a short film, not the best sound quality because of the wind I'm afraid but enjoy nethertheless.

Brrrr

So it's finally turned a bit parky, the Indian Summer has turned into grey lowering clouds, driving persistent rain and gusty winds, deep joy. It isn't actually that cold in my living room 20C but my hands feel cold and there is an unpleasant draught playing on my spine. Good excuse to ensure the central heating is still working, bleed radiators, that sort of thing. Well it does and there is no air in the system.

It's this sort of weather, wet, dreary and damp that makes one realise that summer holidays abroad happen at the wrong time of year, you don't need to go to Cyprus in summer it's warm enough here. So OK the sea is a sort of dirty green here, cold and smells slightly of pee and it's warmer in the Mediterranean but that's just being picky. NO the right time to go abroad for a summer holiday is now, which is exactly what Bex and I are doing we are vacating Goth Towers and EnVérité Acres for the duration to go to Portugal, the Algarve to be exact. I will be the first member of my family to visit Portugal since my Grandfather walked there from Dunkirk in 1940.

I think it may have changed.

Nevermind...

The Lancaster bomber over Cambridgeshire have you seen the supersized bug over Germany?

Sunday Afternoon

Only about an hour before I had said to Simon as we were walking through town in the warm sunshine, enjoying the gentle breeze, "You wouldn't think that it was the 1st of October would you"

So What Did You Buy?

iTunes and Diet Coke have been having a promotion in the UK where you can get 5 free tracks off iTunes if you buy bottles of Diet Coke.

I bought

• Nena - 99 Luftballons
  
• The Human League - Don't You Want Me
• EMF - Unbelievable
• Mel Brooks - Springtime For Hitler
• M.A.R.R.S - Pump Up The Volume.

So, what did you buy?

Grantham

I went to David's funeral today, up in Grantham. Work put on a coach so many wanted to go. It was as they say "a good send off" fond tributes from his family and friends, a warm eulogy from the vicar and absolutely foul weather, funerals feel wrong in blazing sunshine and warm breezes. Fog, rain and gales should be the order of the day.

The church was beautiful, it smelt old and comforting a mix of bees wax candles, old books, dusty kneelers and incense. Having been made to go to church throughout my youth, the call and response of the service was semi familiar (it was an Anglican service not Catholic) I knew where I was and what would happen next. I can see why we have these routines in times of great emotional stress it gets us through the moment we don't have to think what to do next just follow the tracks worn by people who have gone through this before over the years.

Smells, bells, hymns, talking about the deceased and even the shrieks ands shouts of the children playing during their morning break in the school playground next door. In this northwestern European country they all make it easier to handle the dreadful.

Just Got Back From Germany

Today, well yesterday now. It was fun tiring and informative, it was also work so I didn't have to pay for it. But let me tell you about some of the random things I have learnt, relearnt or been reminded of over the last two days.

• St Barbara is the patron saint of armourers
• Bavarian food is rather better than I had assumed it would be.
• Dachau is almost a suburb of Munich
• I learnt how to programme the sat nav system in a VW people carrier from a standing start that was in German without the aid of instructions or the back seat navigators sat in the back of the van.
• I may have forgotten most of my schoolgirl German but I had more of the language than any of my British based colleagues with me.
• Abfall is the German for rubbish or litter.
• I remembered that the Germans do have a sense of humour and a funny one at that.
• German TV leaves a lot to be desired.
• South Park in German is wrong.
• Bavaria is beautiful and has lots of churches.

BBC Archives

The BBC are running a trial where they are opening some of their archives to the general public, it is coming to an end on Friday 29 September as they have to review it before submitting to the BBC Governors for permission to carry on full time. Details here the archive material right now is probably more of curiosity interest to a casual blogger like me but I can see it becoming a very useful resource for many, teaching, historians, and casual bloggers like me who want to illustrate a point.

The point demonstrated here is that they didn't half talk posh back in the thirties.

Oh C'mon you're fooling no one

I know many of you read Becky's Blog, but have you noticed the video ad that has been there for that last couple of days? Click on it and you get a short "rock" video with puppets after it ends you're invited to click through to a new page which links to either a MTV page or to what alleged to be their homepage but in reality is an advert for the Corsa, a vehicle so dull and nondescript no one can be bothered to take the piss out of it.

The attention to detail and effort that has gone into this is quite stunning, inventing a band "The Cmons" setting up a myspace account and getting some tracks recorded and putting stuff up on YouTube and linking up with MTV to punt them as an up and coming band it's just a shame the music is shite and they gave a back history to the band that can't be backed up which isn't surprising considering that they are a marketing tool thought up this summer. The press release is here it's the the most humourous bit of the lot.

Bring back flat Eric that's what I say.

Edited for sense 23:30 24/9/06

You can see the full sized picture here

There Is Wrongness Going Down Round Here

Watching the music channels round at Becky I'm getting a quick and bewildering exposure to popular culture that one doesn't normally get from Radio 4. Many of the videos feature scantily clad dancers jiggling their boobies at a pug ugly rappers. Rock bands emote in the half dark and the girl groups jiggle their boobies at the camera in the name of "independence." For all the "provocativeness" and "keeping real, man" they are tame and dull in the most part.

Apart from the Hoff.

He has a new single out "Jump In My Car" - I've heard worse, I've heard a hell of a lot better, it's a chuggalug song that is probably best not thought about too much. But the video is something else: The Hoff is fascinating, the only part of his face that moves is his lower jaw, the rest has been botoxed into submission. It makes his "advances" on the young women in the video rather creepy. Some say that David Hasselhoff is the Antichrist decide for yourself.

Bad Science Everywhere

"While the ex-gays say they are too busy to keep reliable statistics or publish peer-reviewed studies, no one has ever accused them of sloth when it comes to penning books or recording DVDs."

Because You Are Worth It

And now the science part.



Stunningly simple and effective this old film shows the difference between large and small.

As seen on Ben Goldacre's Bad Science Blog

One Book and A Person Meme

I got pinged for a meme by Gordon so being a good girl I dun it.

1. One book that changed your life.
I don't think that any book I've read has changed me. The strong influences in my life have been friends and family. I can't even say "The Highway Code" because although I have a driving license I don't own a car and I don't drive. I suppose "The Female Eunuch" was an eye opener when I read it aged 16

2. One book that you’ve read more than once.
Ahh, this is the question that is supposed to illicit a deep and meaningful answer. Unfortunately that won't work with me because unless the book is absolute shite the chances are I'll read it a few times. However to play along one book that I've read over and over and enjoyed greatly is "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It's not great literature, yes it is a children's book but it's well written, humourous and not without humanity.

3. One book that you’d want on a desert island.
The "How To Get Off A Desert Island" book

4. One book that made you laugh.
Ooh there are many, for instance, I mentioned "Cold Comfort Farm" just the other day, I've enjoyed Terry Pratchett's Discworld series over the years but today Matthew I'm gonna choose Asterix The Gaul. It's the bad puns you know.

5. One book that made you cry.

Seeing as my emotions can be trifled with by Lassie movie this isn't a great measure of what is truly moving. I can't remember the last thing I cried at but I do remember that I cried when Gabriel Oak put down the sheep dog that had, in juvenile enthusiasm, driven all his sheep over a cliff. I effing hate Far From The Madding Crowd I had to do it as my "book" for my English Literature O level.

6. One book that you wish you had written.
For the money any of the Harry Potter ones would do, for quality Persuasion.

7. One book you wish had never been written.
Oooh there are so many but Bridget Jones' Diary comes to mind for two reasons, firstly I loathed it, I didn't manage to finish the book it was that bad and two for becoming a lazy and inaccurate shorthand for all single women above the age of 21 it seems. And because I'm feeling generous Lord Of The Rings - for being shite.

8. One book that you are reading at the moment.
I've got several on the go at the mo including the Private Eye Annual for 2003 and an Autobiography of Peter Ustinov which I picked up for 50p in the registry's ongoing second hand book sale.

9. One book that you’ve been meaning to read.
I've got several in my bookcases that I've been meaning to read and haven't got round to doing so yet. I take "the classics" with me when going on holiday because I normally get a chance to actually get properly stuck into the book. Currently I've got "The Mill On The Floss" and "The Leopard" that need to be read.

10. Five others that you'd like to do this.
Not five others because they probably won't complete it, just one and she'll probably ignore it too - Becky.

Google Maps Flight Simulator

You have to make the Brrrrrr noises yourself but this is brill. Goggles

Memento Mori

I heard today that a chap from work that I liked and respected, died on Friday night of a heart attack while on holiday in Spain. David wasn't that old about 50 max he was respected and almost universally liked by his colleagues as far as I can tell. It is such a shame and I feel for his poor partner who was on holiday with him, it must have been awful for her.

I was trying to describe David to young Ady in the office and all I could do was fall back on platitude and cliche it shouldn't be so hard to describe someone you like. David without being creepy or strange could compliment the "ladies" whilst treating us as rational, intelligent interesting people, he had a sense of fun and an interest in life that hadn't been diminished by the travails of life and work. I'm drifting back into cliche again I find it hard not too.

I would like to go to the funeral if possible but there is a chance I will miss it because I'm supposed to be going to Germany (it's work not fun, honest) tail end of next week.

Sometimes it does not seem fair.

The Dwarf Planet Formally Known As Xena

Has been renamed Eris. The Bad Astronomer has the gen

I would have said more but I'm still stunned at the wonderment that is Extras the second series and The Michell and Webb Look on BBC2. Highly recommended both of them

iTunes

First off iTunes and Coca Cola are doing a promotion in the UK buy a 500ml bottle of diet coke and get one free itune. Can get up to 5 free tunes considering the cost of a bottle of coke is about 79p this isn't a bad freebie.

I bought Don't You Want Me by the Human League as my first free tune.

Second off iTunes 7 has come out, Si and I have spent most of the evening enjoying one of the new features, it now streams the album artwork in a manner that reeks of Apple Mac. It looks lovely, iTunes can now find most artwork if you don't mind Apple knowing your dodgy taste in music. Now if they could only add tagging to iTunes then I think they would have a really tops product.

Blogger Beta

I've done the move there are some nice looking tools that have been added. Makes it far easier for the complete amateur to fiddle about with their blog. I've now got to add all my old bits again.

Diary Of A Nobody

This fine fine comic novel has been published on t'internet. I strongly suggest that it is required reading by all bloggers and now it is in super trendy electronic form there is no excuse for not doing so.

Found via Gordon.

While I'm at it, another book that I would strongly recommend to anybody is Cold Comfort Farm it's a masterly comic piece from the 1930s which as the plot develops, (girl meets disorganised and melodramatic farm and farmers. Girl organises farm and farmers into rational beings with nothing more to aid her than good sense and a slender ankle), sends up royally the heaving bosoms, gloom and misery and "fear of forrin" that occurred with monotonous regularity in the works of the likes of Thomas Hardy and DH Lawrence.

The Second Hand Club

I was single for about two years in my late twenties, by the beginning of the second year my friends started to worry that I would never meet a suitable man and would become a shrivelled up old prune with 50 cats and a pipe. So they started to "take me in hand" this comprised of making me drink rum and cokes instead of pints and us all going to the Second Hand Night at one of the hotels in a near by town.

Second Hand Night was wasn't called that by its promoters, no they called it something like "Connections" or "Cupid's" You had to be single and over twenty five.

It was awful.

The smell of desperation and unsubtle aftershave would hit you as you entered. For many people there it must have felt like the last chance to meet someone, in the Lavs there would be gaggles of thirty something forty something divorcees slapping on the slap and tweaking their outfits, discussing unsatisfactory exes and the lack of talent without.

The dance floor was circled by men supping their pints as they scanned the gloom for fresh meat to pounce on. Once on the dance floor it was really hard to get off because the watching men would surround the area, to get to the bar or the loos you had to push past them never knowing if they would try to cop a feel.

To make it worse my friends would insist that I had to try to chat up at least one man. There was no one there who I would have touched with a barge pole. So they would give me a choice of one out of three targets and make me talk to him. It was hell, I'm not good at small talk, they didn't want to talk to a brunette in black, drinking pints, when there was a small bubbly blonde behind me gurning like an idiot and looking like fun (Wee Jock who was engaged, happily so, to the man how is now her husband.)

I didn't really want to talk to Gary from accounts from the big company on the trading estate who fancied himself as a bit of a mobile DJ and thought that the birdie song and a Beatles megamix was the acme of sophisticated entertainment at a wedding. For fucks sake he hadn't even heard of the Pixies! It was disastrous I didn't learn how to do "small talk" and "pretend flirting" I just learnt that I hated provincial second hand men nights with a passion.

My friends said that I was too picky I said no I wasn't. It was just that I had my own set of criteria that had to be met and these blokes weren't doing it. They also said that my drinking pints (I could cope with about 3 rum and cokes before saying sod this and reverting back to the bitter) and wearing black all the time would put people off. I said that I couldn't fake "girly" for very long and I wasn't prepared to pretend in order to trap a bloke.

In the end they gave up, but only after I had blown out a "nice young man" from the Rugby Club because of the small detail that he had a girlfriend. I think they decided that I could do it if I wanted to but I was just too fussy.

So what if I am, I've found it pays to be because you get the best results in the end ;)

kitty

I've just spoken to my mum She had just spoken to the vet. We had agreed earlier that if there was something that could be done for her that would work quickly and with the minimum of invasive intervention then we would go with that, however if there wasn't then the kindest thing for Kitty would be to put her to sleep. The vet thought she had congestive heart failure and that she hadn't long anyways, so as we agreed mum has asked the vet to put Kitty to sleep. It is honestly the kindest thing, the poor cat hated vet treatment so much that she has had to be given oxygen before when going to the vet for routine things. It would have been cruel to put her thru more when the outcome was so doubtful.

Edited for sense 23:09 10/9/06

Poorly Ill Cat

Si and I have just been over to my Mum's returning the cat to her, I'd been looking after her since Wednesday as Mum went up to Preston for a cousin's wedding.

The cat - Kitty has been rather a trial Wednesday night she was fine, demanding food and hiding under my bed as is her wont on the first night being dropped off. Kitty has an overactive thyroid and she tends to throw up the food that has her medicine in it so it's pretty hard to treat her condition. Because of this Mum tends to feed her on demand and she is still very skinny.

Thursday morning I put food out for her and head off to work, knowing that when I get back she will be starving and a tad cross with me because I would be late, a semi formal semi work do. However what I found when I got back was a flat that stunk of cat shit, no sign of kitty but I could hear her. She was making a dreadful wailing sound and chocking noises as if she was trying to sick up something caught in her throat. I found her in my living room hiding behind the sofa in a pitiful state, she had been sick on the carpet once and suffered from diarrhoea a few times I could follow her path round the living room by the increasing runnyness of the mess. She it didn't look like she was chocking on anything but her breathing was awful, and when I picked her up she was shaking.

I don't have a car so there was almost no way I could have got her to the emergency vet fortunately Mum hadn't set off and she was able to come over to take Kitty to the vets. She was not in a good way the vet, a rugged good looking Australian chap, put her in an oxygen tent because of her breathing difficulties and said that he would like to keep her in over night, he blamed the state she was in on her hyperthyroidism and said there could well be underlying heart problems which would have been made worse. What caused it? Could be anything a cold or an upset tummy. They would then transfer her to her regular vets the next day to continue the treatment.

We left Kitty at the vets along with a multitude of phone numbers for them to contact us with, the vets decided to use my mobile number. My mobile was on silent all during the day and I didn't think to look at it.

The emergency vet had handed Kitty over to her normal vets saying that they thought that she was still a poorly little animal and shouldn't go home that night, her normal vets said that they had taken blood and were running some tests. So I called them, they said I could take her home. So when Simon got here we did, I wish we hadn't to be honest she still was not at all well, She barely ate a thing and spent almost all her time under the bed listlessly almost in a stupor although she did totter out for some water and food last night..

So this morning we took her back to Mum's, she showed more interest in her surroundings on the way to the car than she had on Friday but she is most definitely still not herself. I find it sad it very hard to see her looking so poorly, although she is not suffering so badly that the kindest thing would be to put her down by a long chalk, I am not good with serious illness I've decided, I can not do the strong supportive rock act. Not for human nor pet and it's more than a bit embarrassing, I've always been easily effected by emotion unfortunately I'm not growing out of it. I'm not wishing to be cold and emotionless I just wish I didn't cry so easily.

Here is a picture of Kitty last year healthy and not complete skin and bones.


*Update* 6:45pm My mum has just rung she is taking Kitty back to the emergency vets as she really isn't happy with how the cat is doing. She still hasn't eaten and she couldn't make it up the stairs with out help. We'll see how she does.

Personally I Would Have Said The Equal Pay Act 1970

Jane says:
R4 is trying to convince us that Greenham Common was feminism's finest moment.

Becky says:
Yeah, that's ridiculous. Madam Cholet was the only female one in it!

Rumours Of My Disappearance Hadn't Even Started...

I've just not had anything to blog recently :-|

Little things have struck me as being blog worthy but when I've sat down to write them the urge goes, or someone else has written about it in a more entertaining/knowledgeable/intelligent way.

I've not taken any interesting photos to bung up on flickr, at this rate my membership of the interweb generation will be revoked.

Gah or is it Meh?

Prescription

Thanks to the tablets above I no longer have to put up with oedema in the feet. Well I've still got it but the symptoms have been dramatically reduced after 2 days after starting the medicine. Oedema can be caused by too much protein in the blood - liver or kidney failure or by heart failure I don't have any of the above three I had blood tests to make sure. It can also be caused by having high blood pressure or being pregnant again neither apply to me. Or it can be just one of these things that happen which I have a feeling is gonna be me.

I went to the doctors about it first of all because it was also making my feet hurt, I kept saying that I wouldn't have minded so much if it was just the cosmetic look. However now that I've finally got treatment that works and my ankles and feet no longer look so bad I've realised that I was lying to myself. It was beginning to get me down no end, it looked ugly and I couldn't hardly find shoes that were nice and fitted me.

It has cheered me up no end that this medicine is working. Loosing weight will also help, but the diet doesn't start til September. I gave up smoking on 6th September 2005, I've decided the diet to loose that weight and more shall start on the 6th.