today is World AIDS Awareness Day. I’m not going to harp on about AIDS awareness, but I wanted readers to think about these things: there are one-and-a-half times as many people infected with HIV today as have died from AIDS so far. In parts of Africa, teachers and doctors are dying from AIDS faster than new ones are being trained, and entire generations have been wiped out or are orphaned.
Everyone can do something to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS - wander here for some useful “tips”.

If you, like me, think that the finest art ever created was that produced by the animation studios at Warner Bros during the 40s and 50s, then rush over now to the Looney Tunes Soundsource and have hours of fun downloading quotes from Daffy and Bugs.

if you haven’t rushed out and purchased the new Boards of Canada EP, then do so now. It arrived this morning and was so good it nearly made me late.

clever little me has added a search function to this site. now you can more easily find my discussion of the worldwide earthquake locator, for example. or not.

Minister uncovers ‘patron saint of election chaos’ - and he used to scrawl graffiti and stand around with his nose hanging over walls.

Meg talks about her brother dismantling things in his youth. I have memories of my brother dismantling things too, although it was never computers (we only had Etch-a-Sketch back then). In fact, it’s a habit he hasn’t grown out of, and now you will invariably find him building things or dismantling them - Land Rovers used to be a favourite, until he got all domesticated, and now it is kitchen units. Unlike Meg, however, I don’t possess many fixing skills, so inevitably rely on big brother or dad to fix stuff.
Anyway, the point of this is that it was my big bro’s birthday yesterday - the big lummox was 39. Happy Birthday Timbo.

today I had the first of my marketing exams - the second is on Friday. I can’t say it was a joyous experience, particularly as the first question was only worth 10% of the marks but took getting on for 25% of the time. However, I’m fairly confident that I have done enough to pass at least, although I won’t be holding my breath for an A grade - I needed another 45 minutes writing time to get anywhere close to that. And today’s paper is perceived (by me at least) as the easier of the two. So now I have to spend the rest of this week preparing for Friday - not only the exam itself, but also the post-exam piss-up.
This week is also punctuated with birthdays - I’ve mentioned Tim’s. There is also Kev’s 30th (Wednesday) and Andrea’s (__th) on Friday. So much drunkenness shall prevail to distract me from the matter at hand. I just hope the case study is on the drinks industry.

Weekend report:
Friday. Aaaaah yeeesss. Friday. Hmmm. I’m not sure that Andrea would appreciate me telling the world what she got up to on Friday night - I think she is hoping that everyone else was so drunk that they won’t remember. Therefore I won’t tell you, but suffice to say that most people who saw what happened are unlikely to forget.
The occasion for this debauchery was the beginning of Kev’s week-long birthday beer extravaganza - starting with a west-to-east pubcrawl across Chichester city centre. I picked up the crawl at pub three (Andrea had been there from the start), and I was fairly well wasted by the end of things (w2 - pub seven). Kev was snogging various people, and SJP managed to pull a fella who she was still with many hours later (and very nice he seems too). DA peaked too soon and had to be ported home by the eternally patient DAGS. Many other people were also drunk and there were a goodly number of people that I didn’t know. The crawl inevitably ended up back at Kev’s (there was a film crew in W2 - no don’t ask me why) - I cried off somewhat short temperedly around 1.40, followed by Andrea at god-knows-what-hour (escorted by Sacha and Ian - thanks guys).
A whole week of this AND exams? By Sunday I’m going to be a wreck.
Saturday and Sunday were a revision-fest, punctuated by a takeaway and a trip round to Tim’s for birthday champers and chocs.

just learnt that a friend has been diagnosed as having cancer of the bladder - these things always seem horribly unfair.

Man honours president by making plane-shaped car. Now, would anyone do something like this if Tony Blair recovered from some illness? Nope, I don’t think so.

Online paper shows sex clip as investigative journalism - I’d hate to have my important parts distorted.

Bonking plywood reindeers offend residents

TPL - 41 points taking me to 419 total - a pretty good performance, with four goals for my team. Could be challenging for the title soon at this rate (yeh, right).

Have You Ever . . . ? …has to be done really

today is Kev’s 30th birthday. happy birthday mate!
last night we went out to celebrate. before the evening, we had all agreed that it was a school night, so we should take it easy and be home by a reasonable hour….so why did the clock say “…to four” when we got home??
the evening was compounded by the excitement of hearing that SJP had spent a few hours in A+E having X-rays and ECGs, having collapsed at work (which may or may not be linked to her falling down Kev’s stairs after Friday night’s debauchery). All a bit dramatic - about to pop round to her house with a bag of grapes and some Lucozade.

Dvorak - The Mornington Crescent Deck …..muh? I’ll have to look at this again when I’m less hungover.

revising today for exam tomorrow - but can’t really focus (as usual). so much of this course is common sense, and the skill is in translating that into an answer on paper in the limited time permitted in the exam hall. can’t say that I am thoroughly looking forward to the exam, and the more I look at my books and notes, the more I am convinced that I didn’t do too well on monday. but as we don’t get the results until the end of february, i’m not going to stress about it as i don’t have the energy to be stressed for that long.
anyway, after tomorrow’s exam, it’ll be off to the pub for the rest of the day, so don’t expect and blogging - certainly nothing coherent!

tomorrow is also Andrea’s birthday. I’m not going to nauseate you all by eulogising about my girlfriend - regular readers will know that I think she is the greatest human being ever born. Happy birthday Andrea!

Ryder truck that transported Palm beach ballots for sale - only in America

Woman, 63, accused of trying to seduce son, 26 - more (scarily) mad Romanians.

Man chops off wife’s fingers for nagging - be warned: nagging can be harmful to your health

Man hammers nail into lover’s head - these Romanians are getting (more) scary.

oh, by the way, thanks to everyone who has voted nicely at bloghop and boosted my rating - you’re lovely, and if anyone says you’re not, you can show them this blog and prove them wrong.
if you haven’t yet voted at bloghop, click on the little coloured squares in the navbar on the right of this page (preferably on the green ones - thanks)

update….well, plenty has occured since my last blog entry:
exam: went ok - much better than the one on Monday, which was hell on toast in retrospective…one of those occasions where the more you think about it, the more you realise that you really did a bad job. But Friday’s exam was ok - I was much less stressed, and able to focus more, and wrote nicely structured answers (no “stream of consciousness” responses). Have to wait until the end of February for my results, but will post them here.
Andrea’s birthday: still hungover. Friday morning, being a little stressed about my exam, I was awake bright and early, so was able to give her the presents before she left for work - and they fitted, which was nice (I’ll leave you to guess what they were!). And the flowers arrived at her work fine too, which was good.
In the evening, we went for dinner (I met up with the posse after my post-exam drinks session with a couple of the girls from college (Hev and Leigh), so was fairly warmed up by then!). The meal was superb, and we got thoroughly debauched. There are photos, so I’ll try and get one or two from Andrea and scan them to add in here someplace.
Saturday morning, after a little lie in, we went shopping, met my mum for coffee, and then went on to Ian’s in the evening for a games night. Everyone was a little subdued after the previous night’s proceedings, but it was a pretty good laugh. We got in around 2am this morning, but the rest were carrying on when we left.
Today, we went for dinner with Andrea’s parents at the Baillifscourt Hotel at Clymping (I’ll find a link somewhen), which was very good. Food was lovely, although I’m just beginning to get that serious you-have-overdone-it feeling in my liver and kidneys!
Tonight we are scooting up to London to see the SAS Band at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Report tomorrow.
Other news:
SJP is looking better after collapsing at work on Tuesday. She’s got to go for tests tomorrow, but hopefully she’ll be fine. Fingers crossed.
My friend who was diagnosed with cancer has been told by the doctors that he doesn’t need surgery or radiotherapy or anything - so having gone from doom-and-gloom, things now seem fine. You wonder sometimes if doctors do this sort of thing just to wind up the patients?!
Ex-girlfriend: I’ve received an email from an ex-girlfriend, completely out of the blue. I always feel a bit awkward about these things - I was really cut up when we broke up (about three and a half years ago), but life has moved on, there is much water that has flowed under the bridge and times have changed. I know from other sources that life hasn’t been entirely a bed of roses for her in the meantime, whereas I’m really very content at the moment (ok, I’d like more money and more free time, but who wouldn’t?). It’s basically just a cut’n'paste forwarded thing with a “how are you? are things ok?” note on the bottom. So, how should I respond? Ignore it? Send back an innocuous chit-chatty thing? Or send back something else? You decide.

blogger seemed to be dysfuctional yesterday, so apologies for lack of postings.
concert review: Kev splendidly purchased tickets and transported us to Shepherd’s Bush to see the SAS Band. I probably would have enjoyed this more if I didn’t feel like death warmed up - however, it was pretty good, highlight of the night being the fantastic Leo Sayer (yes, THAT Leo Sayer), who was simply awesome. Some of the others were pretty good too - wish I could remember the name of the woman from New York who had an amazing voice.
It has to be said that the music on offer was not the sort that I’d rush out and buy (except the song “Just Good Friends” that Fish did, but I only bought that because he did it originally with Sam Brown), but it was pretty enjoyable nonetheless.

OMIGOD - Sam Brown has a new album - may be forced to rush out and buy it NOW!

other news:
ill: spent much of Sunday night and yesterday being ill, probably due to food poisoning. will spare you the details, but suffice to say that it’s probably a great aid to weight loss.
gas man: engineer came yesterday and serviced my boiler (no problems) and fixed the dysfunctional radiator in the bedroom (by tapping it with a hammer!). all this took about 25 minutes for which I paid £65. hmm.
windows: nice man from TRP Glazing came to measure up the windows yesterday and will be sending a quote through soon. I expect around £1500 - £2000 for new Georgian style PVCU double glazing, plus the cost of planning permission.
ex-girlfriend e-mail: having consulted widely on this matter (especially with Andrea), I’ve decided to send a friendly-but-not-too-friendly reply. more bulletins as events warrant.
weather: Dave has posted a link to some images showing what will happen if the Antarctic ice sheets melt. Actually, with the amount of rain now falling on Sussex, we could reach that scenario fairly soon. Work has started on the new emergency flood relief channel for Chichester, which will save W2 and Kev’s house from flooding, but will probably lead to Pagham being flooded instead.
shopping: tonight is a special evening for account holders at Waitrose - I predict much fine food purchasing.

Robert dies happy opening 100th birthday message from Queen - whisky, gambling and making the headlines when you die - now that is a good life!

Regulars chip in for barmaid’s boob job - I don’t think the delightful Claudie at W2 needs any help in that department!

will it ever stop raining? water seeping up through the shed floor at work. great lakes (used to be puddles) everywhere. not good at all.

I subscribe to a daily horoscope service (yes, I know, saaaaad). Here is the prediction for today:
“Clear the road and keep an eye out for the steamroller. Street cleaning is about to occur with little to no warning. In fact, there may be a whole construction crew out to repave the roadway. It is likely that the detour takes you off of your usual path. Only stop or go when the sign spins in your favor. Events beyond your control are about to flatten everything in their path. Prepare yourself by partaking in the purchase of a hard hat. Hold onto your money at least until after the dust has settled.”
Muh? Interpretations welcome.

TPL: a not-very-inspiring 22 points this week, taking my score to 441.

think I may have figured why that irritating pop-up easyspace banner is still there. you know, sometimes it would be useful if I actually read the instructions given. duh.

oo - the banner has gone. clever little me managed to read a set of instructions and follow them. and it’s only Wednesday! just marvel at what could be achieved by the weekend!

Chatham women are the ‘new Essex girls’ - hmmm.

Solicitor sells mud on internet - actually, I know from work that there probably is a serious market for good quality screened sterile topsoil online. Anyone want to set up a business on those lines?

Man jumps off crane to prove he’s an angel, fails - wins today’s award for driest news headline.

Laser offer for bearded shepherdess - “has no need of men”…hmm, draw your own conclusions.

you can now link to individual posts in this blog - the URL is under the nice little > in the byline at the foot of each post.

Gore quits and Bush is set to be 43rd president. So, it’s all over. At last. I have to say that I think history will show that Al Gore probably should have been the president. But I wonder if he’ll be in a position to be a candidate in the next campaign.
Either way, we have four years of firmly right-wing policies ahead in America, with Republicans in control in both the lower and upper chambers and in the White House. Whether this is good for the UK and Europe remains to be seen. I personally do not think it will be good - Mr Bush represents a more isolationist idealogy.
Of course, some will say that this is the beginning of a new move to the right in global politics (the mirror of a move to the left that started around the time of Clinton’s election). I think that is already happening, but will not be very extreme - more a move to just-right-of-centre. But I think it will be overshadowed by a more worrying trend - a general disillusionment with politics and politicians in general, with UK and US politics dominated by spin more than substance, and the debacle and disarray of the Nice EU summit as prime motivators of that opinion.
As “they” say, time will tell.

just checked travel news - every road between here and anywhere north or west is closed by flooding, with the exception of the A259 - Andrea just called me. She is on the A259 and has moved about 400 yards in half an hour. Not a good night. The Lavant has finally managed to escape its confines and is flooding the area around the Sainsburys supermarket on the western side of Chichester - many roads are flooded. Inevitably some homes will be too. Fingers crossed for W2. Trains are still running according to Connex, so I should be able to get home (in theory).
More tomorrow.

well, the flooding in Chichester turned out only to be minor. the Lavant has dropped back from its peak, although it still makes a formidable sight for what is only a seasonal stream after all. but the traffic chaos continues - Andrea has decamped to my place for the rest of the week so that she doesn’t have to sit in the queues - average journey times between Chichester and Bognor are now 90 minutes or more - it normally takes less than 15 minutes.
the “City Fathers” (the dusty, crumbly, stick-in-the-muds that make decisions in Chichester) have decided to honour the fire service with the freedom of the city in recognition of their efforts in averting the flooding. this honour will allow the service to march freely through the city with bayonets fixed. hmm. I’m sure they would rather the city gave each one a £20 bonus in their Christmas pay packet.

Robyn is unwell. be wonderful and send her a get well note.

there is now a live webcam of East Street, Chichester. The pointy thing in the middle is the cathedral spire - if you walk up to the cathedral from the point where the webcam is, and turn right, go another 300 yards, you will come to my front door. W2 is just out of the frame of this picture, about 100 yards to the right. Kev’s house is about 200 yards behind the webcam. Nick’s office (home of Nick’s Pad) is about 200 yards up East Street on the left, as is SJP’s.
we’re all waving at you!

Man catches 10-pound salmon in high street

Glass coffin for coma vision man - hmm.

Elderly Italian stallion hit with divorce over too much sex

webcam update: if you look at the Chichester webcam after dark (when the lights are on in the office), you can see reflections in the window of the office - take a close look at that poster on the wall above the desk. I wonder if the council know that that is on their website? Looks like a bit of a condensation problem on that window too.

Tests for pop singers in Iran - I think more governments should adopt this policy.

my office faces south. in summer it gets blindingly hot. in winter, it is cold and the sun shines right in my window and into my eyes. being typically British, even though we haven’t seen the sun for about three months, I’m still able to whinge about it.

traffic report: if you are thinking of travelling through this part of the Sussex coast anytime in the next few days…FORGET IT. it’s hell out there. the B2166, A27 and A29 are all completely shut, so all the traffic has been shoved onto the A259, with the result that Bognor is gridlocked, no-one going anywhere. it took my brother ten minutes to get from the Hotham Park roundabout to the Butlins roundabout. that’s a distance of roughly 200 yards.
of course, this is having a disastrous effect on local trade. I went late night shopping in Chichester last night. given that there is only one more late shopping night before Christmas, it was amazingly quiet - I don’t think I have ever seen it so quiet on a late shopping night - terrible.

how many readers of this blog work in a workplace that has a resident cat? or dog? or any other sort of animals for that matter? ooooo - I feel the first Grayblog poll coming on! but because I was stingy and didn’t purchase the CGI option from my host, you’ll just have to mail in your votes using these links:
>my office has a cat
>my office has a dog
>my office has fish
>my office has another type of animal (specify what it is in the body of your mail)
>my office has no animals other than the employees/boss
get your replies in by 0900GMT Monday, and I’ll collate the results and post them here. comments in the body of your mails are welcome. incidentally, my office has a cat, Seamus (when you get there, click on “our cats” from the menu bar to see a pic of Seamus).

my friend Bora is famous for his pearls of wisdom - usually they leave his audience either in stunned silence or fits of laughter. these are from an AIM conversation we had earlier today:
on growing older: “when you know you’re gonna hit the big 30 it makes you think a bit more about life and less about the birds and the bees”
on Kev’s love life: “i hear kev didn’t get laid AGAIN, couldn’t you find someone for the old boy?”
on giving up his restaurant business: “finished! new bora looking for new work and new woman to have new fun !”
now, be honest Bora - aren’t the last two statements incompatible with the first one?

BT outlines unmetered internet access plan - and for how long have AOL offered this?? C’mon BT, it’s not new!

Virgin ’superjumbos’ to have mile-high club beds - that’ll be the Airbus A3-XXX then. guffaw.

here are the results of the poll on office animals:
cat: 50% of votes cast
dog: 0%
fish: 0%
other animal: 0%
no animal: 50%
Looks like we need a recount.
Thanks to both people who bothered to vote. Maybe I need to make future polls more sexy, along the lines of:
>I have shagged a cat
>I have shagged a dog
>I have shagged a fish
>I have shagged another type of animal (specify)
>I have shagged no animals other than the employees/boss
Results will be posted here on Thursday. Votes by 0900GMT on that day please. Your anonimity will be preserved (snarf!).

not sure if I should post this….oh whattheheck…AW had a dream last night and woke me up to tell me about it (at 4am or something - thanks). Apparently she was rushing to get to hospital on a bus (obviously *the* most effective way to rush anywhere) and when she got there she (painlessly and quickly) gave birth to what she described as a “perfect baby girl”. I’ll spare you the other details. Apparently I wasn’t there, although her mate Sue (mother of AW’s goddaughter) was.
Now, coming from someone who has, ever since I have known her, professed an utter terror of ever becoming a mother, I find this strange. interpretations welcome.

Beer can stave off heart attacks and blindness - hurrah! More beer!

Hong Kong woman in bid to mend ozone layer - daft enough to be Romanian.

Man takes pictures of flooded roads for a hobby - plenty of material around here at the moment.

Three Millennium cities created - the “City of Brighton and Hove”? The Hove folk won’t stand for that. (For those that do not know, Hove is a small town adjacent to Brighton, and has always lived in the shadow of its much larger neighbour - but Hove people are a proud bunch, and if you say they live in Brighton, they will always reply “Hove, actually”).

weekend report: Friday featured beer session in W2, including AW losing her temper. but all sorted now, no harm done. I, of course, was a model of quiet restraint.
Saturday we went shopping in Brighton, including dinner here, which was very lovely. Brighton was heaving, but AW and I managed to get most of our Christmas shopping done. In the evening, we entertained my parents to dinner at AW’s - swordfish steak with rustic tomato sauce. Not bad, even if I say so myself.
Yesterday, AW did school work whilst I did my Christmas cards. Then we went back to mine, and AW cooked a lovely tea. Then we were dull and went to bed early.

owners of UK-based weblogs may care to take a butcher’s hook at meetlinks - it’s self explanatory.

Camelot gets lottery licence - Richard Branson = pregnant chad. Look out for fun times ahead in the courts, kids.

Saddam grabbing PlayStation 2s for weapons - blimey, if Saddam can do this, imagine what a 13-year-old geek in a garage could do!

Man strikes oil in his back garden - hmm. Something strange here - how come the builders didn’t notice the oil when they built this guy’s house?

Woman dies after drinking battery acid for warmth - mmm, nothing like that deep down burning sensation to warm you on a chilly winter night.

i’m feeling more than a bit miserable today - just depressed in a really hard to define fashion. don’t ask me to pinpoint the reasons because i don’t think i can.

2000 wettest year since 1872. yup.

TPL - 17 points, my lowest weekly score of the season so far. Total now 458.

Starsky and Hutch heart-throb heads for Holby City - brilliant! will he sing? or jump across the bonnet of a red car??

Seventies Christmas songs can give you Glam Rock Shoulder - “Glam Rock Shoulder”???

Jupiter probe detects ’space music’ - that’ll be Bob the Builder then.

Sleeping motorist puts his foot in it as car burns - he must have been very tired.

feeling much more cheerful now, you’ll undoubtedly be pleased to hear.

it seems there is whole blog thing going on of describing a typical Christmas day - well, we haven’t really had a typical Christmas for some time, due to varying degrees of living-at-home-ness and flitting-around-after-primadonnaesque-girlfriends, but I predict this year’s will go like this:
- wake up with hangover
- open stocking presents provided by mum (a walnut, choc coins, a satsuma, something silly)
- have breakfast
- call Andrea at her parents. coo pathetically down the phone
- when feeling sufficiently sober, drive to my parents - meet brother and his girlfriend there
- flop about whilst mum cooks dinner (help refused in spite of repeated offers)
- make a fuss of the cat
- warm feet by fire
- open presents - wrapping paper explosion (Dad will fold his neatly, and then get stalled on the first present (a book) and hold up the whole present opening process (we only open one at a time))
- eat VAST meal
- load dishwasher
- flop dozily in sofas by fire, reading new books received
- welcome Andrea when she arrives from her parents
- help Andrea open her presents
- eat more food (leftovers, sweet chocolatey things)
- further flopping, reading and drinking
- crawl to bed around twelve, utterly relaxed.

doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

all my favourite blogs seem to have a warm christmassy glow about them at the moment - click on the links in the navbar and see for yourself.
have to say that reading them has contributed hugely to lifting blue mood that prevailed earlier. that and going out to buy AW’s chrimbo pressie.
tomorrow’s mission: more pressie buying and the hunt for good quality silver tinsel.

cool art exhibition of the week: open ends at MoMA, New York. how I would love to see this, but I guess I’ll just have to make do with the (most excellent) website. (link poached shamelessly from blue ruin - and, yes, it is definitely art).