My Blog Posts

Thanks in no small part to Mr Templeton I have been tipped over the edge. Bad writing, inappropriate use of words, the English language is a mess. But thats how it develops and grows, and is a large part of the reason that it is the lingua franca of the modern world. Well, that and the battle of Waterloo ;-) But still, there are lines. I’ve drawn mine with the use of “gotten”. People, its a non-word, it has ceased to be, please, please, please stop using it. The only reference I could find in the dictionary claims that the word is obsolescent.

Received yesterday; """ Dear Mr Todd, Thank you for your order for Demon Internet services. I am happy to inform you that your new ADSL service is due to be enabled on 25/02/2003. Once again, thank you for choosing Demon Internet. Kind regards, Demon Internet """ Marvellous. I’m now on the intarweb 24 hours a day. Needless to say Bobo is desolate.

I’ve been following the progress of Kingfisher 2 via the wonders of the intarweb for the last three weeks. Everything was looking good and then this happened. Luckily all of the crew are fit and healthy and on the plus side they will at least get a wash and a hot meal slightly earlier than anticipated.

There has been an update at Bobo’s Babblings. In it she describes why my life is so great. They key word here is “glowing”, every time I use it in the vicinity of my beloved I get a slap. Can’t think why On the good news front I’ve got a updated demo version of this web-site running on my machine at home. Expect changes soon.

The lure of online magnetic poetry. Here is my measly effort ; I worked this up from the contents of this page, I simply typed the url http://diveintomark.org/magnetic/www.andrew-todd.com/diary into my browser, shifted a few tiles about and then took a screen shot of the results. This could completely ruin my whole afternoon’s work. [Courtesy of Mark Pilgrim]

I love the internet. If it didn’t exist I wouldn’t know what to do, I would probably have to invent a way of connecting disparate computer networks together. Anyway. Not satisfied with the tit-bits from Schotts? Take a look at Brewers. A particular favourite of mine is the list of Former Blue Peter presenters. By eck, them old days were good. [Courtesy of Andrew Losowsky]

I haven’t really got a lot to say today, but I do have a long list of things to communicate. Firstly, there will be no baby news on this blog. Thats why I set one up for the wife (403 days since an update, and counting). I may well casually mention major milestones here, like the birth, but for the nitty gritty news and views you will have to rely on SWMBO.

Is “England Football Team” an anagram for Overpaid talentless muppets? As for the excuses that the management, players and press have started trotting out, well really. Still, I’ve got tickets for the rugby at Twickenham this Saturday (England v France for the uninitiated) and will be fervently praying that our sole world class sporting side don’t pull off another sparkling defeat.

I know its political, but this wins my inaguaral award for “best use of flash”. Which is quite an achievement because I normally run away from these animations screaming and waving my hands. Generally due to the quality but also because of the immense amount of time they take to download over a phone line. My favourite line, and the one that sealed its award winning status, is “We are up Shi’ite creek”. Ha ha ha. [Courtesy of London’s free newspaper, the Metro]

… making love to a beautiful woman. Or it is if you are Swiss Toni, star of a new sitcom on BBC Three. A prospect that has me, and most likely the 70’s throwback, salivating in anticipation. Scorchio!

Not that I want to harp on or anything, but read this article from the Sydney Morning Herald. Well written, argued and presented. As well as being substantial food for thought. [Courtesy of Jonathon Delacour]

If you remember, I said last year that we decided to stay in the UK for a number of reasons. The most important one was that my beloved wished to spend more time with her family and friends. Far be it for me to tell tales out of school but it is now seven months since she last spoke to one of her (ahem) “best friends”. Would anyone care to explain why I’m putting up with the less than optimal temperatures and hours and hours of football on television?

World cup fever is building to a climax here in freezing London. Have you got your team picked and registered for the Fantasy Cricket World Cup 2003 yet? My team are known as “Dexter’s minions”, if you fancy pitting your wits against me then send me your team PIN number and I’ll set up a league-within-a-league.

It is official. The rumours of my wife’s condition are true. Bobo and I will be welcoming the pitter patter of tiny Todd feet later this year. We have just been for the three month scan and all is well. All of the required bits and pieces are in place and we now have our fingers crossed. Although I may get a little bit of cramp if I leave them like that for the remainder of the pregnancy.

Jonathon Delacour nails the mood of the people in this post on his blog. I think he speaks for a surprising majority of us, and in a much more eloquent style than I could manage. If you haven’t stopped by Mr Delacour’s corner of the web I heartily suggest you do so, it is rarely dissapointing. We will now return to our regular schedule of popular culture bashing, grumpiness and mentions of obscure British pop bands.

Today, I shall be mainly making plans for Nigel. Bloody marvellous.

This week is officially “Celebrity Blog Week” as I have stumbled across Dave Barry’s Blog and Richard Herring’s warming up. [Courtesy of MetaFilter and Danny O’Brien] It is also nice to see that Dave shares my opinion of Lord of the Toss. The best line in his review has to be “Also, they have the hand-to-hand combat skills of alfalfa”.

I’m not sure what this tells us, other than universal contraception maybe isn’t such a bad idea. For everyone else, of course.

Found today, the Canonical list of Fast Show catchphrases. I do not seriously know how I survived without the knowledge that this list exists. Oh, and because we were watching Happiness last night. [Courtesy of Matthew Thomas] Whilst I am dealing in trivia, have another spoonful. The king of all radio (Danny Baker) this morning came up with one of the most original catch phrases I think I have ever heard. It was;

Things are very, very quiet around here at the moment. This is probably due to it being January and here in London most people hibernate until the weather improves. With a bit of luck and a following wind this will be some time around May. But I’m not holding my breath. Mind you, it looks like we do have the odd engagement over the next month or so. Just to give you an idea of the social whirl that is life with the Todds, we have dinner with the visiting Hennessys tomorrow night. In February, on successive weeekends, we have a birthday party for Phoebe Lewis (who is turning 5), a celebration of the in-law’s Ruby wedding anniversary and a visit from the 70’s throwback and his lovely wife.