My Blog Posts

Chastised by my lovely wife for putting a photo on the last post that makes our son look like “a monkey boy”, I dug the memory card out of my camera, extracted the pictures on it and knocked up a quick page of selected highlights. You can view it here.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, mainly a small boy with a temperature, we have spent New Years Eve at home. Suffice it to say that I have kept the side up and imbibed a couple of nelsons. There were also sherbets imbibied before the midnight hour. Its just a shame that she made me watch this. Oh dear. But happy new year to anyone who is reading.

Christmas joy should indeed be running through my veins. Sadly I’ve just finished a twelve hour baking stint. So the only thing running through my veins is an absence of Stella Artois which I will be remedying as soon, and as quickly, as possible. Accompaniment to this evenings cooking recovery will be Anoraknophobia by those nice Marillion boys.

Stop what you are doing. Right now. I don’t care, its not that important. No really. You will thank me. Good. Now go and read late_bland’s story, possibly the funniest piece of writing I’ve seen about the Rugby World Cup. Right, thats me done with rugby references. At least until the Six Nations starts in February anyway.

Thanks to this year’s Guardian Unlimited - best of British blogging awards (and Scary Duck) we bring you two crackers; Call Centre Confidential The Bottle Shop: On the arcade Both of which will be appearing on the left hand side of this page just as soon as I can be bothered to updated it. Rest assured, gentle reader, that I have vigourously quality checked both site and have declared them A1 double plus on the funny and well written scales. Of course, with such spiffing weblogs knocking about this here intarweb I’m not so much inspired to raise my game as tempted to chuck it in altogether. But then who else is going to post random pictures of my son and completely meaningless mentions of what music I’m listening to? Looks like Whats Doing will be around for a bit then.

I for one shall not be watching the International Idol contest whenever it appears on the television in these parts. Words can do no justice to the disdain and I feel for this brand of entertainment. You know, it would all be so much better if they could at least sing.

Once more I must ratchet up the geek factor. Now you can go to a web page and find out what music I’ve been listening to. If that isn’t a pretty pointless use of technology I don’t know what is. Oh hang on, there’s more. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed containing the last ten songs I’ve played. How geeky is that? [Courtesy of Ben Hammersley]

So, its been sitting on my mental “to do” list for a couple of years and tonight, when SWMBO popped out for a couple of sherbets with the ladies from Nappy Valley, I thought I’d solve a little mathematical problem. Each year (apart from this year) we have a Christmas celebration dinner at the Watermark in Sydney. There are four couples, my good self and SWMBO, Emma and Jon, the Executive Brain Stormer and Robyn, Richard and Belinda.

Look, I’m cool because I was doing it first. Jamie Oliver has a blog. He’s copied my title, software of choice, cheeky persona and everything. Mind you, I’m about a good a cook as he is a software developer so I reckon we are about even.

An interesting weekend for the Todds. On Saturday morning I visited the cheeky, chirpy, Chelsea loving Cockney barber. He’s still not a patch on the unofficial Mayor of Manly (Rocky) but he has managed to make me look vaguely presentable. Then on to deepest, darkest Sussex for a ride on the Bluebell railway’s Santa special. Its difficult to tell who enjoyed it more, Phoebe and Maddie or SWMBO. Photos may be forthcoming, but then again maybe not.

Its been a while, and frankly I hadn’t been checking, but Bobo’s favourite restaurant in the whole wide world now has its own web site. Say hello to Ribs and Rumps. If the menu isn’t enough to tempt you through their doors, how about the celebrity endorsements? I don’t know about you, but anywhere that gets a rating of “The best ribs and rumps in the world, all the best” from such a screaming xenophobe as King Stan will have me running straight to the front door.

I missed the parade today because I was on a train on the West Coast main line. Having watched every game of the world cup I’m a little dis-chuffed that I couldn’t join in the celebration and applaud the best team in the world. Even worse, on a personal front, is that I’ll be back on the West Coast main line tomorrow, with a quick day trip from London to Accrington. Total travel time? Oooo, about nine hours.

Whilst I’m having a quick surf around the BBC sport web site at 11pm on a Monday night, here is something for Jonny Palmer to put on his desktop - some quality wallpaper.

Bloggage will be light for the next week or so. In reverse order, next Sunday I’ll be in Birmingham attending a Stuffies gig, the night before I shall be at Chez Lewis baby sitting, on Friday I’ll be at the company Christmas lunch (so watch out for alcohol induced blogging on Friday night) and for the next few days I’ll be in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I probably won’t get a chance to get near the intarweb during all of this time so enjoy yourselves whilst I’m gone and let me know what you’re up to in the comments.

This entry is mainly for the 70’s throwback, everyone else can just surf on by. The new Francis Dunnery DVD will be in the stores in time for Christmas. I mentioned this to SWMBO and her response was, in summary, “I will buy it for you when hell freezes over”. So it looks like I will have to source a copy myself.

My descent into middle age continues apace. There is a one day sale today at all of the House of Fraser stores in the UK. Faced with discounts across their entire range what did I buy? Why, a saucepan of course. Not for me the delights of designer clothes, scents or consumer goods. Or even leaving the store and wasting my money on partying, going to all night raves and hanging out with the hip crowd. No sirree, these days I save my pennies and buy Anolon pans at twenty percent off. I may as well ask for a pipe and a nice pair of slippers for Christmas.

Steve Meacham you are a gentleman and a scholar. Here’s hoping the chaps in white stand up tomorrow morning and show the world what a damn fine bunch they are. Swing low, sweet chariot. Update: Winners!

A little amusement while waiting for a World Cup final - 15 reasons why the Wallabies still suck. A spot on bit of satire, especially the references to Chris “Buddha” Handy and having as much charisma as a park bench. Don’t worry folks, a story involving me, the boy, one of her majesty’s warships and an inordinate amount of poo is coming soon. Honest.

Its not that I object to the man or his policies, although I do. Its just that I object to the police shutting down various portions of my city just because he has come to visit. George, little brother is watching you. All of which probably makes me ’listerine'. [Courtesy of Ben Hammersley]

Mr Blunkett is introducing ID cards. As I’ve mentioned previously, this is a bunch of arse. For a more considered, but still comedic, slant on the story I suggest you pop over to the London News Review journal. Here’s hoping the project goes as well as some other government IT initiatives. Thats it, I’m voting monster raving loony party next time.