How does the old song go? “What a difference a day makes….”
Hell, I don’t even need a whole day – a few hours is enough for me. Not even conventional hours either.

I’m very tired. I ache. I’m also very happy. Life can be unexpected at times.

It is extremely windy and gusty here today. So much so that it blew over a full 47kg propane gas cylinder.
I also have nothing much to talk about on here at the moment. Sorry. Check back later.

Beer tonight with Kearn, Arron, Aris, Caroline, Julie, Malcolm, Peter, Paul F, Gary and Laura, with much mirth.
Sooooo tired.

Something else I was trying to keep quiet.

Sometimes life seems incredibly cruel and unjust. This is an example.

Thoughts this afternoon are with my friend Sally. She’s been having a rough time lately, but there are a lot of people thinking about her and looking forward to seeing her again soon.

I am weak. Especially when I have my credit card in my hand. Today’s purchases:

• A new kitchen knife (Sabatier, of course)
• A wine rack
• A new oven glove (not very exciting, admittedly)
• A ladle (you’re on the edge of your seat now, aren’t you?)
• 10,000 Hz Legend/The Virgin Suicides by Air

Maybe I should hide it, or cut it up into little pieces.

I’ve constructed my new wine rack. It is now full. I need to buy another wine rack.
Meanwhile, I have a narrow shelf in my kitchen that is now empty. What should I do with it?

Beer tonight with Arron, Paul F, Paul C, Simon, Kearn, DA, Bren, Greg, Matt, Kev, Andrea, Caroline, Julie, Justin, Gary, Malcolm, Claudette (so long! good luck!), Ian, Sacha, Tanya and Jeremy with sightings of other regulars.
I’m very smiley.

There was a stag party in the pub last night, and inevitably perhaps, there was a stripper. She was easy to spot as soon as she came in – looking cold, looking for the party, and wrapped in a full length black leather coat. She was escorted to the party, and then left to carry out her performance, which involved wearing nothing other than a thong, and making a fool of the poor guy getting married, whilst his mates and numerous assorted sundry spectators looked on. All this to the bemusement of people (including myself) sitting at neighbouring tables.
I’ve always wondered – what the hell drives someone to be a stripper? I sincerely hope the money is good (she can’t have been in the pub for more than 15 minutes) – perhaps she can earn more for a fifteen minute performance than she could for a whole day of office temping.
Perhaps the most disturbing part was the guy who was escorting her. For all the world, he could have been her father. Whether he was or not, he had a very seedy air to him. But then I guess stripping is a seedy occupation.
And I have warned my mates that if ever I get married, if anyone arranges a stripper for my stag night, I’ll not be best pleased. Which was probably the wrong thing to tell them.

I’ve been listening to Air’s music from the film Virgin Suicides. I think it is the first time that a soundtrack has made me want to see a film (rather than a film making me want to buy the soundtrack). The music is hauntingly beautiful, and certainly as tragic as the film reviews suggest might be appropriate. As anyone seen the film? What did you think?
And on the subject of Air, go take a look at the 10,000Hz Legend site. I want a house like that.

Most bizarre Google search of the day: chicken testcards. The recent referrers gizmo at the bottom of the page seems to be broken – I hope it is fixed soon (doesn’t seem to be a problem at my end, as I notice it is broken on Meg’s site too) as it was quite cool.

Happiness is a splendid meal, a glass of red or two, candlelight and jazz playing in the background. I’m in a very good mood.

I’m so tired. In spite of the fact that I went to bed shortly after 10pm last night, and slept fairly well (it took me a while to drift off, in spite of the meal and wine), I feel very tired this morning, The fact that it is a bit grey and miserable outside doesn’t help.
Still, I’ve got a good week to look forward to, so, in spite of the tiredness, I’m in a good mood.
More banality later – now I have work to do.

I worry about these two.

The BBC carries an article about blogging, which is nice. I’m sure the Beeb could use the extra hits that will be generated by me posting a link here.

AFF: a very respectable 26 points this week, taking my total to 164, which means, according to Andi, that there is grave danger that I might lift myself to page three of the four page results table. Wow!

College tonight was particularly silly. I think everyone was in a good mood. The strange thing is, I think we were actually quite productive – we work well as a team, and it’s a shame we can not sit the exam as a group. Marketing is often a team based function anyway, so in some ways it would be more representative of the real world.

I am ridiculously tired this morning. I went to bed shortly after 10pm last night, then sat reading until around 11pm. Lights out. Cue restless fidgeting until 12.30am. I gave up, turned on the light, and started reading again. Eventually, around 1am, I felt ready for sleep. And then I woke up around 2.15, 3.30. 4.30 and 5.45. Why? I even had a hearty glass of red before retiring, which usually helps me sleep.

Why is it that some days drag more than others? Is our system of measuring time totally useless? Is it more a matter of perception?
And how would a good massage change my perception of time?

I have a head like a sieve at the moment. Must start writing things down.

Just got home from a quiet beer with Aris, Arron, Julie, Sacha and Malcolm, to find John Peel playing a track from “Yodelling The Classics, Volume II”. hmm. Time for bed, methinks.

Another night of only fitful sleep. At the moment, I’d love nothing more than just to sit back in this chair and doze off. But, unfortunately, I have much too much to do.

TFF: a highly respectable 49 points, taking my total to 706.

Be warned. I am in an exceptionally good mood this morning, in spite of having a mountain of work to do today. And I have a trip to the pub planned for tonight to look forward to.

Sorry I’m not writing much here today – it is the result of being tired, easily distracted and busy, all at once.
Meanwhile, here are some Norwegian statistics.

Time for another UKBloggers Newsround…..(in other words, more pathetic linkwhoring):

• Rodney goes to Ireland to find an overdue library book.
• Elaine flicks through the photographic Karma Sutra (that’ll boost her hits. I said HITS! guh!).
• Vaughan eavesdrops on a conversation about pussies.
• Simon considers folk remedies.
• Nico pees in the snow.
• Angie illustrates the Offspring. Next week: Slipknot.
• Robbie is busy being a week old.

This might become a regular feature here, just to encourage some of you to go and look at a few blogs asides from this one.

Beer tonight with Patrick, Arron, Julie and Phil, with sightings of Paul F, Gary and Laura. So tired.

Yay! The recent referrers gizmo at the foot of this page is working again. Such joy so early on a Friday – it’s more than I can bear.

Such hardship – imagine having to tend to the needs of a couple of Norwegian nurses. I’d never cope!

Long day today. Soon be time to go home though, which is, undoubtedly, a good thing. Not sure what my plans are for the weekend, but I suspect I’ll head for the pub tonight.

Beer tonight with Sally (such a relief to see her in the pub again), Viv, Amanda, Jenny, Kearn, DA, Arron, Paul C, Julie and Caroline (loved up), with sightings of Cath, Malcolm, Sas, Helen, Phil, Clare, other Sally, Steve C and numerous others.
My thoughts are elsewhere though.

Today will mostly be spent tidying my flat, which is an utterly disgraceful mess.

Hmm. Cleaning going only slowly. So far have done a little tidying, then went to the shops. Now going for lunch with Sarah.

Today’s Norway link: Great Norwegians.

In spite of having a major incentive to get my arse into gear and tidy up, progress is still slow. Doesn’t help when Incentive says “I don’t mind mess”.

Not my first plan for this evening, but beer in the Nags with the gorgeous, lovely and ample Bren, the amazing and stupendous Greg (a.k.a. Lord Percy), the affable DA, taciturn Kearn, sleepy Paul F, excitable Matt and effervescent James, with sightings of one or two other people. Unsurprisingly, I’m tired now, so will head to bed.

I’m feeling slightly maudlin this morning, as I was last night. Interestingly, maudlin is Word of the Day at dictionary.com today.
I’ve also noticed that the number of people visiting this site falls dramatically whenever the recently updated GBlogs list isn’t functioning. It seems that people are either too lazy or don’t have the time to manually check to see if their regular reads have been updated.
It’s a bit grey outside. Not sure what I’m going to do today. Finish Harry Potter. Go buy a new book. Maybe meet someone for lunch. Perhaps even do a bit of study.

Chichester doesn’t need any more coffee shops. The city is already reputed to have more places where you can buy food and drink per capita than any other place outside of London.
However, the gods have smiled upon us, and replaced a particularly tacky anythingyoulikeforapound shop with a branch of Caffé Nero (wot no web presence??). Happiness is a decent Americano with a toasted ham and goats cheese panini over a copy of the Independent on Sunday. Look out Starbucks and Costa!

Am I the only one who thinks that Will Young, winner of Pop Idol, bears more than a passing resemblance to Tom Coates, winner of Best European Weblog? Have they ever been seen in the same room?

Today: Norwegian fjords.

All hail the mighty spoon!

This evening, I shall mostly be defrosting my freezer, thereby flooding the whole kitchen floor. ick.

Today’s Norway link: Aftenposten newspaper online (in English).

AFF: 10 points. Holding my own, if nothing else.

It’s National Chip Week, and to coincide with that, ActionAid has launched a chip-patenting publicity stunt. As usual, it isn’t as simple as this article suggests – if you had spent years and millions developing something, wouldn’t you want it protected in law, in just the same way as if you had written a novel, you’d be upset if another writer passed it off as their own work? But equally, how can we safeguard the interests of farmers and growers around the world?

Bloody hell! Is it really still Monday? This week is going to drag on for ever at this rate.

Damp horrid day. Hope the week improves.

Happiness is saying hello to a friend on ICQ and them saying “We’re in Egypt! Having a brilliant time!”
Or is that envy?

Today: Norway: The CIA Files.

Fossilised dinosaur vomit found – ick!

Fat, juicy, white seedless grapes. A gift from the gods, or what?

As I arrived home this evening, I passed the aftermath of an accident on the Northgate Gyratory, just a couple of hundred metres from my home. Judging by what I could see, it looked like a pedestrian had been knocked down.
This is symptomatic of two problems with this particular piece of road. Firstly, people drive much too fast around it. Secondly, in spite of one of the biggest office buildings in Chichester being at the centre of the Gyratory (Metro House) as well as the regional WI HQ and fire station, there is no provision at all for pedestrians to get to and from the centre of the Gyratory without wading through the traffic – there is no subway, no traffic lights, no bridge.
I have a horrible feeling that nothing will be done until someone is killed here.

I’ve just watched this which Marcia recently linked to. I think I need to go and lie down now. (not office safe)

Norwegian link for today: a Norwegian blog.

Day off today, and went to see Monsters Inc., which was rather good fun and has plenty to commend it to adults and children alike (judging by the reaction of the 7 year old sitting next to me).
Beer tonight I think.

I’ve just noticed that, in some moment of (probably drunken) generosity, I lent my collection of Dilbert books to someone. The question is: who? Was it you?

Beer tonight with stupendous Greg, splendid Tanya and sultry Claudine.
New Boards of Canada stuff now being played by Ross Allen for Gilles Peterson on Radio 1. I have the new album on order.
I am in an incredibly good mood. I’m going to bed now, smiling like the Wirral moggie.

Life is very very very good.
And happy Valentine’s Day to all – I hope you will spend at least a little of it in the arms of the person you care for. If not, then be sure in the knowledge that things will get better – they are out there, and you’ll find them in the manner you least expected – I promise.

hmm. The only Valentine card I got this morning was from Bitesize Shredded Wheat.

TFF: 32 points this week. Total now 738.

It took me a while to find this, but here is Valentine’s Day from a Norwegian perspective.

I’m not going to bore readers by telling them about my brilliant evening yesterday. I’m just going to sit here smiling instead, and offer you a link to a site about the Norway Lemming.

Slow day today. Getting plenty done, but not a lot happening. Time for a cup of tea.

Is this the end of Jamie Oliver?

This is not a good example of what we marketers call IMC.

Beer tonight with Julie, Caroline, Patrick, Clive, Kearn and Arron, with sightings of a few others. Very tired now.

Don’t expect too much blogging today – I’ve got loads of college work to do, and I’m determined to get it done – after I’ve been shopping.

Norway link du jour (I must ask Marianne what the Norsk for “link of the day” is): Norway’s Winter Olympics medal table. As might be expected, Yahoo haven’t bothered constructing a table for the British team.

You’ve probably all seen it before, but calculator.com is useful.

Beer tonight with Arron, Bren, Greg, Amelia, Tom, Ian, Sacha, Kearn, Matt, Paul F, Malcolm, Tam, Cat, Mouse, Andy, Jo, Julie and Andrew. A really good relaxing evening in the company of lovely people.

…must…find…motivation…to…do…college…work…
Actually, I had been thinking of going for a walk today – yesterday was such a beautiful day – but today is decidedly grey and murky, though not awful by any means.
This is my last truly free weekend for a while. The nursery re-opens for the new season next Saturday. However, I think you can safely assume that I’ll be taking more time off this year, and certainly a few weekend days, as there is definitely somewhere I’d rather be than in the office.

Norway today: well, actually, Oslo now.

Whoa! (via LMG)

<comment that only ukbloggers would understand>
Coming soon to a weblog near you…. The World’s Smallest Problem 2
</comment that only ukbloggers would understand>

There are some things I’d rather not know.

Rounded off a very lazy Sunday by walking round the city walls. This is one of the great pleasures of living in Chichester, and I’m lucky enough to live right next to the walls. I can climb the steps that are just twenty paces from my front door and take a gentle stroll around them. Today I walked all the way round in a clockwise direction – it takes about 30 minutes at a steady pace.
The walls walk is a great way to look over the city. Some parts back on to gardens that you can look down into (there seems to be a sense of pride in some, in others a sense of defeat). Some people stop on the walls and look brazenly in the windows of the properties below, most of which have the benefit of blinds or net curtains to keep out prying eyes.
Part of the walk passes through Priory Park which, as I have said before, is one of my favourite places. The view from the walls towards the Priory and Cathedral is one of the best in the city.
The great shame is that chunks of the walls are missing. Previous generations of Cicestrians haven’t cared well for the walls – most of the south-eastern section is missing now, and the old city gates are all gone. Certainly when you look at places where the walls are complete (like St Malo, for example) they are very imposing and lend a special character to the place.

Urf. I can barely move.
Happiness is cooking a fantastic roast dinner and enjoying the fruits of your labours with a glass of Portuguese red. (Waitrose have just started stocking a particularly splendid red from the Douro. The Portuguese are sensible enough to keep most of their best wines to themselves and export only the crap [remember Mateus? yuk] – but just occasionally something escapes. Altano is a good example of such an escapee.)

Norway link for today: Oslo rooftops, live.

A lovely sunny morning – and the good news is that I get to work outside, for a while at least.

busy busy busy…

Tonight’s plan:

• update my itsagoal.com team
• do my marketing homework that is due tomorrow (ugh)
• finish last night’s bottle of red (yay!)
• cook and eat
• listen to the new Zero7 AnotherLateNight CD

<ironic blog entry>
Today I ate a ham sandwich
</ironic blog entry>

Norway weather.

busy busy busy, once again.

yum!

Norwegian ham sandwiches

TFF: 7 points this week, taking my total to 745. Only three players in action due to FA Cup and international disruption.

Norwegian Wood

Today has been a very long day, and now I’m utterly exhausted. Somehow I have to find the energy to tackle some college work tonight, and, stupidly, I’ve left some of my notes at work. Still, if I can keep my eyes open, there is plenty of reading to be done.

Busy day today. I’m also tired, in spite of sleeping well. And mildly stressed.
Hmm. Not very exciting here at the moment, is it? I really must find something exciting to write about. Even the World’s Smallest Problem 2 doesn’t seem to have actually become a problem, small or otherwise.

Nothing dispels stress more quickly than a hug, a kiss, a cup of coffee and two chocolate biscuits. Consider me stress-free.

hmm. My CD-ROM drive here at home has ceased to function. I suspect that it merely needs cleaning. Unfortunately, that means removing my PC case and removing the drive, and frankly, I can’t be done with that at the moment.
When will CD-ROM manufacturers build a device where you can get to the object lens easily to clean it?

Links to Norwegian breweries.

A free map of Mars.

Guh. This is pretty good, but would be even better if it was widened to include other sound effects. My all-time favourites must include “fankle!” (the sound of a football tackle), “tootle! parp!” (the sound of a road laying machine) and “loud snores!” (the sound of a policeman sleeping being played back over an ice cream van’s speaker system).
hmm. I think I’d best stop now. Link via Kaput Kenneth.

Late beer tonight with Paul F, Aris (happy birthday for tomorrow!) and Patrick. Very tired now, so to bed.

John Thaw, RIP.

Clickable map of Norway.

Busy busy busy again today. Much to do, so expect a paucity of blogging.

Sweden is the new Norway?? I beg to differ!
Cool sounds though. And it is cheaper to order the CD direct from Compost Records.

Wise advice from David.

Beer or sleep? Beer or sleep? Beer or sleep? hmm. I wonder, will anyone complain if I go to the pub and sleep on the bar?

Battle against the European Central Bank in Virtual Gotcha! 2…

Spotted by Sue over at Eurotrash.

muh??

Beer tonight with Paul F, Paul C, Kearn, Stein, Arron, Simon, Jeremy, DA, Cat and Julie, with sightings of Louise, Cath, Malcolm, Helen N, Amanda, Gary, Laura and a host of other celebrities.

A Norwegian aircraft.

Chuck Jones, RIP. Official site here.
One of the greatest animators of all time, possibly eclipsed only by the genius of Tex Avery.

My exam results are due today. I waited for the postman for ages this morning, but he still had not arrived by the time I left for work (had to come in today as it is the first day of the new season at the nursery). So I’ll have that joy waiting for me when I get home. Predicited grades: C and D.

Tonight: Bren’s birthday extravaganza. I’ve got my fancy dress sorted (Roy Orbison – no, there won’t be any pictures). A small pressie and card are prepared. Need to book the taxi. There’ll be just one thing missing though – Marianne can’t make it, which is a great shame.
Still, I’m looking forward to it – should be the social event of the year.

Norwegian Forest Cats.

Well – the party. What can I say? It was fantastic! Everyone had made such an effort with their Las Vegas costumes and outfits – it really was excellent, and Bren had a fantastic time. I even managed to convince a couple of people that I looked like Roy Orbison (although they had to use a lot of imagination!).
Present were: Bren (in a stunning showgirl outfit she made herself), Greg, Paul F (both in amazing Elvis outfits, also made by Bren) and the band (all dressed up too), DA, DAGS (only two weeks to go!), Ian (another Elvis!), Sacha, Tanya, Tam (dark hair really suits you!), Arron (cool white tux), Kearn (where did you get that jacket?!), Kev (Don Corleone), Andrea, Donna, Matt (dodgy cop), Heidi (how little were you wearing??!), Julie, Caroline (loved up) and Amanda (amazing entrance).
Top marks to Bren for organising it so brilliantly – the venue was perfect and the spread was just right (and desperately needed by Kearn and I, as we’d both been working all day and hadn’t had time to eat anything to soak up the booze!). And Paul successfully mumbled his way through the Elvis numbers too in a most convincing fashion!

Excerpt from Requiem for the East, by Andreï Makine.

Approved.
I really must update my marketing pages – I simply haven’t had time to do anything with them lately.

Forgot to say: my exam results didn’t arrive yesterday, so I should get them tomorrow.

Approved. I know exactly how this guy feels. It has that sort of "been there, done that" feel.

Norse Gods (not family viewing).

AFF: 10 points this week, taking my total to 184 and moving me 5 places up the league.

My neighbours must have wondered what exactly was happening this morning. The walls of Chez Graybo resounded to much cheering, shouting and whooping as my exam results arrived, and, amazingly, revealed the following:

Grade B for IMC???? I was convinced I’d failed that!
So I’m grinning from ear to ear, and am majorly relieved. Celebrations with sticky buns this morning, and champagne later in the week.

Somehow, I get the impression that the BBCi picture caption writer doesn’t take the issue of bridge phobia seriously.

Shocking news for the day is that my beloved prefers me in my clean-shaven state (I shaved for the first time in about two years for the fancy dress party – Roy Orbison wasn’t noted for stubble). This results in a personal crisis – should I remain clean shaven (apparently it is less painful when kissing) or shall I revert to my (preferred) stubbly state and accept that I could be kissed more frequently if I shaved? Maybe I’ll just shave on days when I’m going to see Marianne.

Today is one of those days that would really be lovely – if it weren’t for the fact that it is blowing a gale. It always amuses me to see the way that people dress themselves for the day – some people that I passed on my way to work this morning were struggling under huge coats and waterproofs. One bloke was walking along with only a sweater and scarf to protect him from the elements. And there was a girl on Barnham station this morning who, shall we say, must have had a very cold chest – she would have been under-dressed in July, let alone February.

No Norwegian link today, you may have noticed. I’ve had complaints from various people that they were bored with them. Oh well.

Oh, alright – you talked me into it. Skippy’s Mustasjevoks. Blame Robyn.

TFF: a very respectable 47 points, taking my total to 788.
Transfer: Sinclair out, Robert in.

Norwegian film season at the NFT. I’ve seen Junk Mail and it is excellent – if you are near the NFT on 24 March or Easter Monday, go see it.

Spike Milligan, RIP.

As is often the case, I have a pile of college work to do this week. But it is very hard to get it done. We are in class at college until 9pm on Monday and Tuesday. Tonight I got home from work at around 6.30, having stopped off at Waitrose on the way, and was so tired that I dozed off on the sofa for 45 minutes. Then I cooked my dinner (which I’m eating now) and by the time I’ve sorted out the laundry which I must do, it’ll be far too late to concentrate on college.
Tomorrow I’m going to spend the evening with Marianne. I really wish we could spend more time together, but with both of us working long hours, my college course and Kristi, her daughter, there is little time left over.
Friday night can be written off straight away – who can do college work on a Friday?? It looks like I’ll be working during the day on Saturday, and in the evening helping Sarah celebrate her birthday.
That leaves Sunday for college work. Where’s the “me time”? And it’s going to get worse as work gets busier and I go over to working seven days each week – you may have noticed a recent reduction in posts here between 9 and 5 – I just don’t have the time.

I’m not really moaning. I chose to do this course after all, and knew what would be involved. And I know I’m not alone – everyone in our class is in the same position (some are in more difficult positions), and the same is almost certainly true of anyone undertaking a course whilst holding down a full-time job. I guess I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed by it all at the moment, so, after dinner, more laundry, cleaning the bathroom and sundry other chores, I might head to the pub for a late beer.

Relaxing beer with Paul S, Pete, Dave, Gary, Terry and Helen N.

hmmm. Nice try Kenny, but my links *work*, and don’t leave you in porn pop-up hell.

No more Norway links.
No trip out tonight.
Looks like I’ll have more time for my homework after all. Don’t feel like that champagne for my exam results now.

Just when things were looking good. Why do things always turn bad?

I always knew this might happen. It wasn’t an easy situation, but I went into it with my eyes open. I just hoped that it wouldn’t happen.

Sorry. I’m not feeling very talkative at the moment.
I might leave this alone for a day or two.
Or maybe I’ll just carry on writing crap as usual.