• I Am Not A Tourist Fair – Amsterdam October 21 2007
  Exhibition for the expat community in the Netherlands with banks, employers, educators, service providers, groups, clubs, etc.
  (tags: Netherlands expat exhibition advice business migration)

• Railteam
  International single ticketing for high-speed train journeys in western Europe – intended to rival the airlines. Would be better still if they could get through-ticketing for domestic services too – it’d be great to buy a single ticket from my local station to anywhere in Europe.
  (tags: Europe travel transport rail)

Lady Bird Johnson, RIP.

An early proponent of environmental awareness, Lady Bird Johnson co-founded the National Wildflower Research Center in Austin, TX, which was later renamed in her honour. The Center has done much to increase understanding of North American flora and to promote its preservation. It has an extensive wildflower garden and wildflower reserve attached, and has been a place I’ve wanted to visit for many years.

• wheel
• car
• cat (often whispered)
• Treacle (trecul – very short syllables)
• knock knock
• tea (he gets confused on this and Monty is sometimes labelled Tea)
• plane
• train
• flower
• dog
• Daddy (usually Da’)
• Mama (usually Mamamamama)
• ball (although often as gall)
• balloon
• wow (this one a lot)
• no
• tractor
• tree (or treeee)
• duck
• horse
• down
• gone
• hooray (accompanied by a Mexican wave)
• aahhhh (when hugging)
• door
• antidisestablishmentarianism*

*may be a fib

British forces release man-eating badgers in Basra.

A thoughtful and thought-provoking piece.

Humph notices that we’ve come to the end of the show.

• 2.15pm – Monty walks into the house, limping
• 2.16pm – I get scratched as I try to see what the problem is
• 2.20pm – arrange 2.50pm appointment with the vet
• 2.23pm – phone Hels
• 2.25pm – dig cat carrier out of the shed
• 2.30pm – phone childminder to arrange collecting Tom early
• 2.32pm – leave home
• 2.40pm – collect Tom
• 2.50pm – arrive at vet
• 3.00pm – go into examination room, juggling cat, son and Miffy toy
• 3.02pm – vet extracts thorn from Monty’s paw, advising that if it had been left there would have been an abcess and general nastiness, and administers antibiotic
• 3.05pm – nurse agrees that Miffy is suffering from Dirty Ear Disease and needs a bath
• 3.06pm – nurse relieves yours truly of £32.41
• 3.15pm – arrive home. Release disgruntled cat. Monty licks his wounds on his paw. I lick the wound on my wallet.

• KNMI
  Het Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut – the Dutch equivalent of the Met Office. Live weather forecasts. Also covers seismology and climatology. In Dutch.
  (tags: Netherlands weather climate seismology)

When we moved into our home, we noticed a small ditch at the end of the garden (which is actually above the level of our house). Our neighbours have partly infilled it to extend their garden, putting in a good-sized culvert as they did so.

A couple of weeks ago, for the first time since we have lived here, I noticed a trickle of water running through it. Even in mid-winter, I hadn’t seen water in it before.

Last night and this morning we had continuous and very heavy rain. We don’t have a gauge, so I’ve no idea how much has fallen, but I’d guess an inch-and-a-half at least, maybe two inches. In a lull in the rain, I went outside to assess the damage (smashed plants, mud down the drive) and could plainly hear rushing water. A glimpse into the hedge revealed a raging torrent (albeit on a small scale) rushing down the ditch, enough to draw our neighbours out to investigate. In true BBC-stylee “here’s-a-picture-of-my-dog’s-bottom-in-a-puddle-to-illustrate-the-dramatic-weather” citizen journalism, here is a dramatic grainy cameraphone photo of said torrent:

Impressed? Today, Ruralville and grayblog, tomorrow fame and fortune and a photo on the Beeb.

• Dell Vostro notebooks
  I suspect that my next computer will look like this.
  (tags: computer Dell notebook Vostro)

• The Bookshop Guide
  Guide to the UK’s secondhand and antiquarian booksellers with user-submitted reviews, arranged by county. Invaluable for those who love browsing bookshops.
  (tags: shops antiquarian secondhand guide UK)
• EUROPA – Gateway to the European Union
  Single portal for access to all areas of the European Union, both Parliament and Commission.
  (tags: Europe EU politics)
• Zamzar – Free online file conversion
  Online file conversion tool covering most major text, image, audio and video formats.
  (tags: software work online file convert free tools)

• Wicked Pissah Games » Gravity Pods
  Infuriating flash physics puzzle.
  (tags: flash free game physics puzzle)

Brighton stadium gets go-ahead. Although the idiots at Lewes DC could still put a spanner in the works.

Even so, I’m off to do a little happy-jig.

I’ve become a bit fed up with television in recent years. It seemed to be on a steep downward path with crap drama, crap "reality" programmes and indifferent current affairs coverage. Increasingly, unless something can be "dramatized", be it crime, history or buying a house, it seems to be of little interest to programme makers. Consequently, these days I watch very little telly and, when I do, I’m frequently disappointed.

Just occasionally, though, something comes along to restore my faith. This week that has happened twice. The first instance was the documentary Absolute Zero on the subject of cold and based on the book by Tom Shachtman, who is clearly barking mad, particularly when trying to recreate very dangerous historical scientific experiments. The second instance was tonight’s programme Atom, which took the potentially mind-numbing subject of quantum physics and turned it into a gripping story filled with amazing personalities, which is exactly what it is. Both of these programmes show that you don’t need to dramatize something in order to make gripping and exciting television. (Remember that horrendous Supervolcano programme? Why did that need fictional characters and drama, including an aircraft saved by a hero geologist? Surely the Yellowstone park erupting and causing global winter is dramatic enough!)

Thank goodness for BBC Four.

• Bloxorz
  feindishly difficult puzzle game
  (tags: puzzle game flash free)

Mike Reid, RIP.

Of course, those of us of a certain age remember Mike Reid much more for this than for EastEnders. Did anyone ever actually understand the rules of Runaround?

• The Four Color Problem
  Addictive puzzle game
  (tags: flash game logic puzzle free)