My Blog Posts

Warning - boring entry ahead. In the space race that is my gadget collection another giant leap has been made. I felt terribly insecure that I wasn’t wandering around with the latest and greatest in mobile phone technology. Not to mention the need to keep up with the Hennessys and own a camera phone. My current mobile, nice and nifty though it is, doesn’t exactly slip into a pocket and thus usually gets left at home or on my desk. This means that I miss about seventy percent of the calls I receive. Mind you, thats not a big issue because I only get about ten a week anyway, and my caller usually rings my desk phone when I don’t answer the mobile. Still, there is the fashion aspect to consider, which is why I went and got a new phone. The big cost is that I’ve changed networks and not been able to keep my number.

Read Scary Duck, recipient of the best British blog award 2002 from the Guardian Online. In itself not a glowing recommendation, but his stories of glories past, particularly this one about Blue Peter are worth the entrance fee alone. Please feel free to ignore the Arsenal stories, some people just can’t help themselves I’m afraid.

Spotted, on Snackspot, a reference to “Bob the Builder’s Cheesy Toolbag”. I really must raise the intellectual level of this blog above that of the average ten year old boy. Who fancies a little discussion of metaphysics and existentialism?

In my previous entry I promised some action this day. I also mentioned my record collection. As you may have gathered from previous not so subtle hints I’ve been reading Nick Hornby books recently. As you would know if you’ve read High Fidelity (one of my top ten books), making lists is a bit of an obsession with us blokes. The subject also came up on my recent rediscovering your masculinity weekend. So, without further ado, here are my current top five best albums of all time, ever.

I’m at home sick. So rather than come up with anything witty I will re-direct you to Bunny Boilers.com. Arse spankingly funny, in a “there but for the grace of God go I” kind of way. [Courtesy of Ben Hammersley]. Normal service should be resumed tomorrow.

Please feel free to ignore this entry if all you want to hear about is the contents of my music collection. The heroes : Waratahs 34 - Crusaders 31. Take that Templeton. The zeroes : Manly 12 - Wests Tigers 38. Dear, oh dear oh dear.

Another week passes and whilst I am constantly in motion I don’t seem to have done anything “blog worthy”. Well, almost. If you look in the other place you will notice that the nerd factor has ratcheted up to about 11, but you don’t care about that, do you? So, I’ve decided to give this page a little shake down. If you cast your eyes to the left you will see that I have updated the list of links. Gone is the “recommended” section, if you can’t find Google, the BBC or the ABC by yourself then you are stuck in the last century. Probably the 1970’s.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t let events in the middle east sully this blog, as they are all over the rest of this here interweb. But I couldn’t resist linking to this. It sums up the extraordinary ambiguity displayed by the “coalition of the invading” and neatly summarises my own current thinking, which is “Remind me again, why are we doing this?”. [courtesy of Textism] Normal service will be resumed shortly.

I’ve been following the Six Nations coverage on the BBC for the last few weeks and loving every minute of it. However, the theme music they picked has been bugging me since the first commercial appeared a couple of months ago. I knew it was by Ben Folds Five but I couldn’t for the life of me remember which tune it was. Which was a crying shame for someone who, like me, claims to be a fan.

The wedding photos are here.

Words of warning for the international man of tax. This is what happens if you play dodgy music whilst driving your children about the country. Luckily for me there are no swear words in Marillion tunes, just some very inappropriate guitar solos.

Well, I may be twelve thousand miles away, but its nice to see that the Manly Sea Eagles are maintaining their record of mighty performances in the NRL. Losing to North Queensland is bad enough, next thing we know they will be struggling against schoolboy teams. The only reassurance I take from this latest episode is that old habits die hard. In particular the excuse for the loss, according to the match report I linked to at the beginning of this paragraph was, and I quote - “poor ball handling and discipline”.

Some of you may remember my requests for a list of rock songs last year. If you do, congratulations for paying attention. At the time I wondered why Mr Buck was asking me for a list of thirty one tunes. Well, now all is revealed, as I spotted Nick Hornby’s latest book in the shop this afternoon. Thats right, its called thirty one and is essentially a list of thirty one essays, each about a different song.

Right, I’m off to Minehead for the Marillion Weekend. Back Monday. Amuse yourselves whilst I’m gone.

I am, as they say around these parts, a little on the “porky side” at the moment. I am trying my best not to get any more rotund, so these words of wisdom from Richard Herring, a popular Balham based comedian, rang especially true with me. Cutting to the chase, he says; No longer should I consider going on the Atkins diet or the Rosemary Conley low fat diet. Instead I will strive to follow the genitalia obsessed funnyman’s advice. Now, where did I put that packet of dry roasted peanuts?

After a nine month break, I have posted some more photos. The wedding snaps are coming soon, honest.

The reason I have been slightly quiter than normal should now be obvious. I’ve been re-designing my whole web site. From the front page; Hope you like it Dad.

To prove what a schedule fixated, delivery oriented chap I am I would just like to say that the end date I set myself for this re-design was … The 31st of October, 2002. I may have to review my estimating techniques somewhat. Until then if I promise to do something, it will be done, just don’t assume it will be soon.

This weeks winner is “Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys”, a glowing tribute to the French. Whilst not necessarily agreeing with the sentiment I do think its a fantastic colection of words, hence the award. I don’t think he coined it, but I first spotted the phrase on Dean Allen’s most excellent blog, Textism.

I’ve just finished reading a book. Steady on now folks, its not that much of a surprise as I have read a few in my time. Anyway, I would just like to use this little web site to urge you all to read it. The author is a chap called John Birmingham, author of such serious tomes as “He Died with a Felafel In His Hand” and “The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco”. Both very fine books in their own right, but they pale into the background compared to his 1999 work, Leviathan. If you have ever been to Sydney, lived in Sydney, or even heard of Australia this book is something you should read. Just go out and get hold of a copy now. Trust me, you will thank me.