Happy New Year!
I’m certainly happy. If 2003 keeps going as well as this, then it’ll be the best yet.

Planning a rail journey across southern Britain is not easy at the moment. With a combination of engineering work and flooding, it looks like at least part of our rail journey will be by bus. Still, it should be worth it, and it would seem to be safer by train than travelling by boat.

Phil Gyford has started an online rendition of Samuel Pepys’ diaries, and writes about it on the BBC.
Discussion has taken place as to what other diaries could be converted to a weblog format - Anne Frank would be an obvious candidate, Nikolai Gogol’s Diary of a Madman a little less obvious, but a weblog version of the Bible could be excellent, particularly if written in the style of a well-known (or not-so well-known) blogger. For example:
April 5th: was riding back from work around the North Circular, when there was a plague of locusts. How odd!

Man drowns whilst unblocking drain. By climbing into it. During a flood. Emergency services were called "when he failed to emerge after a couple of hours".
Darwin Award nominations, anyone?

Why are the little felt bits so hard to fit onto the earphones of Nokia hands-free sets? Why can’t they be supplied ready-fitted?
More importantly, why can’t I get the GPRS service to work? And why is the GSM service now dialling a different number to my old handset - am I suddenly being charged for something that I previously got for free? And how long do you think it’ll take for o2 to answer my email to their helpdesk? For some reason, I don’t take the automated reply as a reason for hope:

New York Times: expiration of European copyrights to lead to mass influx of classic recordings. Interesting.

I see that the Environment Agency has issued a flood watch for the Lavant. When I walked past the river earlier, it was certainly higher than it was yesterday by perhaps 20cm.

Oh god, not The Bloggies again already?! I’ve never been nominated for any category in this, although it is hard to see what I’d be eligible for, other than Best European and African Weblog (why do Americans insist on this "EMEA" thing? That’s Europe, Middle East and Africa to you. They lump all three areas together - like Norway and Namibia are such similar nations, with similar peoples, culture and climate. guh. Idiots.) or Weblog of the Year (hahhahaha!) - perhaps if they had a category of Grayblog of the Year, I’d stand a chance, but even then it would be by no means a certainty. I did get nominated for the Antibloggies in their first year, but didn’t even manage to win that - they even spelt the name of the site incorrectly.
I can’t be arsed to vote or nominate. I’m going to bed.
By the way, expect it to be quiet here for the next three days - I’ve got important and enjoyable nothing to do in elegant surroundings and with the most wonderful company, and that will require my full concentration. Wapblogger-powered updates possible only if I can be bothered and have something incredibly important to say.

I’m back. News in bullet points:

• TFF: 36 points and 54 points for the last two weeks, taking my score to 573. Could do better?
• Was up half the night last night with food poisoning (I think) - I’ll spare you a description of the symptoms. Consequently, today I am a bit tired and under the weather. And chances of an early night are diminishing as I have some important tasks to carry out for The Project.
• Spent the weekend with Joanna enjoying crisp winter sunshine in Bath, staying in five star luxury at the Bath Spa Hotel and taking in the abbey, roman baths, shops, seafood and mexican eateries, riverside walking, Sydney Gardens, Museum of Costume, strange tourist buses, the impressive crescents (albeit from a distance) and more. Links later.
• The 2003 winners of the B3ta awards have been revealed - much time-wasting fun.

Busy busy - will write more later.

I need cheering up. Maybe a banana will do the trick.

There is a lot going on, on- and off-line, that at another time I would write about here, but now remains unwritten due to a combination of lethargy, illness, workload, distraction, love, teabags, vegetable soup and excessive thinking. Something is wrong. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know how to fix it. But I can’t ignore it. I’m not even sure that it is really that important, or just a temporary blip, but it is certainly not pleasant and I wish it would go away so things would be like they were before.

I’m never sure that online petitions are worth the paper that they are not written on, but this one is worth looking at, even if only to raise your awareness of the issues involved concerning live music performance.

I suggested recently that o2 might not respond to my email to their helpdesk with any alacrity. I take it back - they have been reasonably prompt and very helpful. I’ve now changed tariff so that I should have GPRS service functioning from midnight tonight, and the GSM service remains free of charge. yay!

oh carp! Having rushed around to take down the Christmas decorations at home last night, leaving the flat looking somewhat dismal and bare, I’ve just noticed that the Christmas header is still at the top of this page! argh! Bad luck for me! or something.

Just been to visit a very important person at the bank, and had some encouraging words - which is ..um.. encouraging, and has improved my mood no end.

How ScaryDuck set fire to his chemistry teacher.
My A level physics practical exam featured an accident too, though far less exciting than this one. As is often the case, we had to take turns using the equipment, working in rotation around the room. As might be typical of my luck, as I walked across the room to the last experiment, Neil, who was ahead of me on the circuit, neatly rolled the thermometer off the edge of the workbench and on to the floor.
Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever dropped a mercury thermometer. If you haven’t, I don’t suggest that you try, as liquid mercury has some amusing properties, the main one being that it is impossible to pick up. I know, you think it is difficult to pick up a five pence coin from the post office counter (how do they make counters so hard for picking coins up from?) but that is nothing to mercury on a tiled floor. You see, mercury forms these neat little globules that have a very low coefficient of friction - meaning that if you just touch one of them, it runs off across the floor at an amazing rate, and simply refuses to be collected into any sort of container. This provided Neil with huge amounts of mirth as I tried to conduct my experiment under something approaching exam conditions whilst the teacher and school lab technician scrambled around on the floor by my feet, trying to gather as much mercury as they could.
I blame Neil for my D grade.

That looks suspiciously like Santa snogging Joanna! Outrageous!

BBC news round-up:

• New x-ray images of black hole at the centre of our universe
• New planet discovered 5000 light years from Earth
• Row erupts over sunken treasure - including 437 kilograms of gold bullion in 17 chests, more than 15,000 gold coins, 153 golden snuff boxes, six chests of gems, more than 1,000,000 silver pieces, 14 kg of sliver ore, six pairs of diamond earrings and a diamond ring. Not much then.
• Glitter deported from Cambodia - his presence is "bad for the nation’s reputation".

Blip well and truly passed, by the way. Feeling groovy once more.

For the grumpy comment author who recently said that the only reason they read grayblog was because it is the only blog where they live, try Pink Shirt, Yellow Tie. Of course, grayblog remains the original and best Cicestrian blog.

TFF: 38 points taking me to 611 in total.
Transfers:
OUT: Malbranque, Maccarone, Geremi, Zola.
IN: Delap, Giggs, Beattie, Anelka.
Hopefully this will serve me well in forthcoming cup matches. Need to do something similar with my AFF team, particularly as it has progressed to the next round of the cup.

Cold out. Cold in as well. But no snow here, either in or out, unlike much of the rest of south east England.
On the subject of cold things, there was an interesting discussion on the increasingly-irritating Today programme of the Mpemba effect. Essentially, as a result of the Mpemba effect, hot water will freeze over more quickly than cool water, even though that would seem to counter logic. Practical applications of this are that you should put cold water onto your pond or birdbath if you would like the creatures to benefit from that, and also use cold water to de-ice your car windscreen. (It should also be noted that hot water can shock your goldfish and delaminate your windscreen, and is therefore to be avoided).

Hmmm. I just got an e-mail from the Ministry of Defence advising me about my rights as an employer of members of the Reserve Forces, and advising me of a helpline I can call for advice on the subject. Let me check…. nope, don’t see Seamus in fatigues any time soon!

Think you’re cold? That’s nothing!

Been a long while since there was an update, but I’ve just added four new tracks to radio grayblog. I’ll try and do some more over the next few days - it’s time to have a change around, remove a few of the older tracks and replace them with something fresh.

Cold again this morning, and still no snow to speak of here. Really didn’t want to get out from under the duvet this morning.

Loooong day.

Not a good morning this morning. Joanna and I have decided that we really don’t have the right stuff to make our relationship work, which is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It’s difficult, because we both love one another and have shedloads in common, but we’re just not strong enough, either of us, to provide what the other needs.
I think it is the first time in my life that a decision to stop a relationship has been truly mutual. In a way it is easier, as the hurt is more evenly shared than in a dumper/dumpee scenario. And because we both feel it, hopefully it will be for the best in the long run.
Still, I feel pretty pants right now.

Blode 6.

Tonight, I shall be spending the evening with friends.
No other news. I think we’ve had plenty enough for one day.

Beer tonight with Paul F, Arron, Kearn, Guy and Nicky, with sightings of Hamish, Terry, Sasha, DJ and several other familiar folk. Home again, home again, jiggity-jig.

A bright sunny morning with clear blue skies - perfect for producing the positive and forward-looking mood that I need. On today’s agenda:

• purchasing some new smart PJs
• a visit to the bank to make a deposit and obtain some dollars ready for next week’s trip to Santa Barbara (where, apparently, my hosts are picking oranges from the tree in their back garden or "yard")
• lunch from the cornish pastie shoppe (this is turning into a dangerous addicition)
• a stroll around the city, perhaps including some time on my favourite bench in Priory Park if I am warm enough
• some tidying of the flat
• drinks with Lord Percy and Lady Bren tonight.

Sounds like a reasonably good day to me.

Done items one to four on the list below. Struggling with item 5, although I’ve done some laundry - might push the hoover around in a minute, then have dinner before tackling item 6.

Coventry 0 - Brighton 0 - and Brighton seemed to be all over the Coventry goal according to the text commentary on the Beeb. But since other teams at the sharp end of Division 1 either won or drew, the point earned hasn’t really helped us. So, it looks like Division 2 for Brighton next season, miracles notwithstanding.

Added Discogs to the list of music links in the sidebar. Very useful.

On Robert Fortune, the great Scottish plant hunter:

You just don’t get people like that these days, do you? Biography here.

radio grayblog: fifteen tracks added, ten removed. The playlist is now wildly inaccurate, so I’ll update that at some point in the next 24 hours, but we are now at full capacity: 99 MB of music equating to 121 tracks. And, especially for Brian, I’ve added The Tornados’ classic hit Telstar and the Equals’ Baby Come Back from (?)1968. I’ve also made a belated tribute to Joe Strummer, by adding The Clash’s London Calling. The majority of the remaining 12 tracks are downtempo in style, although there is a little drum n bass in there for bouncing around your office to.
UPDATE: Playlist now up-to-date.

Beer with Lady Bren, Lord Percy, Kearn, Paul C and Tim W, as well as sightings of Nicky, Kristian and loud Amanda. A good night.

It’s a tragedy. Maurice Gibb, RIP.

Today I shall be guest chef at Lord Percy and Lady Bren’s abode.
A sunny day again. Don’t really have a sunny disposition at the moment. Hopefully that will come later.

Strange old week really. Not one I particularly want to repeat at any time in the future.
But the future is where the focus needs to lie, and I have a busy week ahead. Nikki’s birthday bash on Tuesday will be a highlight, but more importantly is the need to get my head and a good supply of clean boxer shorts in order ready for my trip to the US on Saturday. I need to prepare a bunch of papers, the usual travelling kit and also sort out what my objectives are for my week in Santa Barbara, as this is a work trip after all (although the fact that my hosts tell me that they are picking oranges from the tree in their garden does nothing to make me look forward to the trip at all. Oh no, not a bit).
Future focus. That’s the key.
Hopefully, by the time I get back, I should be able to reveal a bit more about what I’ve been hinting at here for the last few months. I’ve told a few people about it, but, subject to successful talks with Mr Bank this week, it should all become some sort of reality very soon indeed. Fingers crossed, eh?

Ages and ages and ages ago, Rodney sent me his passport photo for the passport photo gallery. The other day, whilst looking for something entirely different, I stumbled across it on my computer hard drive, and I’ve now added it to the gallery. I’m sure he’ll be pleased about that.

Blogger is being a bit slow tonight. Really must finish installing MT, but I’m sooooo lazy sometimes.

I want some!

Much fuss in certain quarters online (i.e. blogs) about the proposed introduction of ID cards in the UK. Stand makes a stand about it here, the BBC profiles the issue here and the government has its say and has a public consultation here.
I’ve rambled on in a couple of places about my opinion on the subject. For those that have missed it, here it is again:

More opinions on subjects that I’m not really qualified to talk about later, as you have come to expect.

It sure is quiet around here.

More evidence of why we need to be deeply involved with Europe and not sitting on the sidelines. If a Franco-German alliance is strong on our doorstep, our global influence diminishes as a nation, even if our relationship with Washington DC is strong, as one of the reasons the US administration maintains a close tie with Downing Street is that it provides a foot in the door at the European Union. There has long been talk of a two-speed Europe - I can see the UK being relegated to the hard shoulder at this rate, particularly if the current warming of relations between Paris and Washington continues.

Hmmm. Well, I am going out this evening to Nikki’s party. But I’m not sure about the level of supervision. To be honest, it all sounds rather exciting, but those that know me will know that I have a strange definition of "exciting".

Just what we need on a Tuesday morning - a bit of utter silliness, courtesy of the wonder that is Lukelog. Yes, it’s a complete illustrated online catalogue of all the Entrances To Hell (note: capitalized).

Mr Blair seems very proud of his Middle East peace conference to discuss reforms of the Palestinian Authority, even if it has led to a rift between London and Jerusalem. Whilst any talks must be seen as useful, and the Israeli government is heavy-handed at best, it seems odd that the Israelis were not invited at all, not even to send an observer. Perhaps that is why Mr Sharon doesn’t view the conference as important enough to allow Palestinian delegates to travel and attend.

BBC looks at postal snobbery. This is nothing new, but please spare a thought for poor delivery drivers, trying to find an address from misleading or incomplete information. We are forever getting parcels that we send out returned or delivered late because customers have some strange snobbishness about part of their address.

I find this site to be extraordinary. Particularly, I point readers to this post. The author was named Peter, and was conceived just a few months after this man hit the headlines. Is there a link, I wonder?

urf. too much beer always leads to those need-a-hug feelings.
Anyway, beer tonight at Nicky’s birthday party (happy birthday!) with Kearn, Paul F, Ted, Dave, Gary, Alex, Helen, Helen and shedloads of other people. Awful karaoke - why is it that alcohol makes people think they can sing?
too tired to talk more. zzz.

Brighton out of the Cup. Will that let the team concentrate on the league?

At the moment, I want one of these, but I get the feeling that it will quickly be superceded by something much smaller and even more portable.

A rather simplistic view, in my opinion, which takes no notice of changes in culture and society over the last century. Nor does it advance the case for better resourcing of the enforcement of current gun laws. The vast majority of people do not need a gun, and, as was sadly proven last night, you don’t need a gun to kill someone.

New Weebl …kinda.

I’m the last one at the party, as usual, but it looks like everyone is doing this and it seems quite fun.

Listening to the news tonight, the world seems very scary.
Food with Sarah and Paul, then beer and jacket-sharing with Dave W, DJ, Kristian, Al, Arron and numerous others. zzz.

Let’s study the facts for a moment:
Last night, Sarah and Paul came round. I cooked lemon chicken with basil and tagliatelle - which turned out rather well, I reckon.
We drank four bottles of very good white wine.
We went to Brookes, and then to W2, where more drinks were consumed.

I have a hangover. I wonder how that came about?

New Harry Potter book to be released in June. I imagine that Penn is already queuing.

Having been playing around with Friendster for 24 hours, I must say that I’m really not sure about it.
What is it exactly? A six degrees of separation type thing? Will I be able to eventually prove that via the wonder of my network at Friendster, I know the Pope? Or is it really just a dating thingy that’s trying to be cool? Even though it makes out that it is about meeting people and networking for mutual benefit, it does seem to mention the words “date” and “dating” at every turn, and a quick glance through the titles in the Amazon link page shows a distinct bias towards “The Dummies Guide To Internet Dating” and other books of that nature.
It certainly is more cool than most online dating sites that I’ve seen (admission time: I’ve seen a few), and it seems credible that it could be about friendship as well, which so few of the other dating sites ever succeed in doing (although it is distinctly possible to make friends that way, in a round-about fashion - I have a few friends that fall into that category). It certainly seems to be popular with the British blogging contingent, with almost all the usual suspects represented there and claiming to be friends of Tom.
The testimonials are a little odd too, ranging from arse licking to silly. I’m not sure they actually say much about the subject, more about the wittiness of the contributors. You could easily read someone’s testimonials and be able to say “he/she has witty friends”, which probably doesn’t say an awful lot about the person themselves other than to indicate their taste in friends and humour.
And the whole business of sending a message to someone, asking to be their friend - well, it seems a little redolent of infant school playground culture to me. Perhaps we all want to get back to that simpler way of doing things.
If it is about dating - well, couldn’t it be a little embarrassing? If you make a move on someone over Friendster, it’s as if your friends are watching you, particularly if you look at their profile and see your friend’s picture sitting in the corner of the screen. It is also an implied criticism of your mutual friend too - if you knew we were both single, why didn’t you introduce us before, eh?? I guess you’d find the answer to that question once you got to know one another.
And how exactly is it paying its way in the world? If your email details are not going to be used for marketing purposes, I find it hard to imagine how ends can be made to meet through Cafepress and Amazon commissions alone.
On the plus side, it does have that hard-to-define “fun” quality, which is why I think I’ll stick with playing with it for a while, at least until the novelty wears off (which, I suspect, will not take long for the majority of users).

Don’t feel good. And I don’t mean unwell.
Sleep will help. I hope.

Considering that I’m flying out to Santa Barbara tomorrow, I’m at a particularly low ebb, feeling more miserable than I have in ages. This is not good. It may just be that I am very very tired, having not slept well for the last couple of nights and having an awful lot on my mind. Or it may just be that I’m thinking too much. Either way, I don’t like it.
So, tell us a joke?

Updates will be sparse or non-existent here for the next week whilst I’m away. I’ll also not be able to respond to email to grayblog.co.uk. If you have my hotmail or AOL addresses, you can use them, although there is no guarantee that I’ll either be able to read or reply to them.

Disturbingly, I’ve not been able to confirm my flight booking because the American Airlines office is closed - I should have called earlier in the day. Oh well, I have my e-ticket. And if I’m stuck, where there is a will and a credit card, there’s a way. (And before you start worrying, I double checked with ebookers that my booking had been confirmed, and my eticket does bear the legend “CONFIRMED” too).

I really ought to start packing, I guess.

Right - bag packed, paperwork for plants I’m carrying prepared in triplicate and washing up all done. I’m ready for bed.
See you soon. x

Hi honey, I’m hoooome!

Really quite tired, though on a bit of a buzz at the moment due to being eight hours out, having finally settled in to Santa Barbara time on the day I had to leave. Lots to tell you, but not at the moment, as I have to do mundane things like laundry and so forth. More tomorrow.

Oh boy.

I’m tired. There is too much going on.
Hershey’s chocolate: good, but not as good as Cadbury’s.

We thought so.

urf. Just woken up.
Lots of dreams and thoughts whirling through my head, covering lots of subjects although one subject, or, more accurately, one person, dominated.
Need a shower, then must drag my sleepy self to Waitrose for some provisions.

I don’t really believe in horoscopes, but sometimes it is easy to read them and think that they really do apply and seem pertinent. Today’s:

This all seems very true today.

I dunno. I go away for a week, and you lot go all quiet on me. Hellooooo! Anybody there??
Sigh.
Anyway, I’ve just bumped into Don Eduardo in town, and he has said that he is looking forward to reading my report of the week in California. I hate to disappoint, so here goes.

As some of you already know, the primary purpose of my trip was not pleasure, but business, and related to The Project, about which I still can not really say much (a situation that, hopefully, will change in the next week or two). As a result, the week was actually pretty hard work, and I’m pretty tired by it all (hence sleeping for 14½ hours). It was, however, incredibly productive and useful, and I’ve returned with reams of notes, plus lots of other literature to read, digest and file in a retrievable fashion.
But you lot want to know what happened. I guess it’s best to tackle it in a chronological order.
I flew out on Saturday 18th, leaving home at some godforsaken hour to get the earliest train to London Heathrow. My train was on time, and I managed to lug myself and my luggage from the rail platform to the tube platform at Victoria, on to Green Park and onto the Piccadilly line towards Heathrow. Inevitably, there wasn’t a seat, so I was wedged against a door, but this turned out to be fortuitous when the train terminated at Hatton Cross, one stop short of Heathrow, due to an “incident” on the line ahead (two trains had had a low speed collision, so I heard). Because I was by the door, I was first off the train, and therefore near the front of the queue for the 253 bus from Hatton Cross to Heathrow Central Bus Station (conveniently right outside Terminal 3). I’ve never seen so many people and luggage crammed onto one single deck bus, with at least six times as many people stood outside looking brassed off about not getting the bus. Top marks to the driver, who was good natured, helpful and jovial, and took a lot of heat out of a situation with a lot of bad-tempered travellers.
The queue at the American Airlines desk was extremely long, but because I’d allowed plenty of time for check-in, these delays didn’t worry me too much. Eventually, relieved of my case, but still clutching my jacket, day sack and the all-important box of plants, I was able to gr