We're all going on a summer holiday...but not quite yet

Fire and ice

For the last gazillion years, I've taken a couple of weeks holiday in the summer...I don't think I'm too peculiar in that. Usually, it's the last two weeks of August, with one week taken in Brighton, and one week else where...last year we headed to Bavaria for a bit of beer and leather trouser action. This year is more complex as we're now four. I may have mentioned that a couple of weeks ago, The Cat and The Cat's Mum headed to New York, whilst the boy was variously adventurous training and exchanging in Germany. I was home alone. And none to pleased about it. Next week The Cat and The Cat's Mum have organised to go to Italy, whilst The Boy and I remain in little England. Our holiday...the four of us will be the following week in Iceland, which we're very much looking forward to. But the net result is that I won't be getting my two weeks holiday (as we're rapidly running out of school holiday to fit it into) and I'm pretty grumpy about it - oh my word that's the second grumpy reference in the space of a week.

I've no idea whether I'm being reasonable in my thinking, but just can't quite get my head around not having the full fortnight which I feel I need...and thought we'd get. So it's been tense....

Anyway, assuming the only eruption we get in Iceland is from Eyjafjallajokull, it should be a very splendid trip indeed. The Boy and I have been there before, but restricted ourselves to the environs of Rekjavik...still managing to see whales, glaciers, Blue Lagoons, geysers and waterfalls and have wanted to return ever since. This time we've hired a car and will be driving round the entire island. I haven't yet been able to find out if there's still smoke coming from the volcano, but I hope so...and the Northern Lights have been very active...fingers crossed. We may skip the whale watching as it really only resulted in feeling hideously sea sick, but we have plenty more to see and taste...smoked shark will be on the menu. Hopefully I won't have to worry about a young boy who decides whatever I do that it's a good idea to run around on a glacier which is peppered with large deep holes which take you down into the icy depths...actually at this age he's more likely to want to climb down them....

In the meantime, I'm going to take a couple of days in Brighton the middle of next week, before coming back to finish off the work I probably should have done this week!

Action man

I wonder if The Boy will grow up with any political heroes? Even at a young age, I realsied that our political leaders were not of the same calibre as Churchill, or Disraeli or Gladstone, and these days they're nothing more than middle-rank managers. For a while it looked like Blair would be a great, but he turned into a lying murderous war-monger who achieved nothing of any value on the domestic stage either. I suspect that history will eventually look kindly on Thatcher...she was a charismatic leader who made great changes. What a shame I can't think of a thing she did that I agree with..

Away from the UK, it's equally hard to find political leaders of any real stature. Obama stands out as much because of his atrocious predecessor as his rhetoric; ultimately he may well turn out to be another Blair. On the European stage, Merkel has seems a good leader, but hasn't got the presence, Sarkozy is a populist and Berlusconi is a joke everywhere except Italy. No wonder The Boy and his generation struggle to find inspiration from our political leaders.

South America has some interesting characters - Chavez, Morales and now Santos all lead in a continent that has a history of political idols.

But my favourite is Vladimir Putin. And not just because I bear a pasing resemblence to him as I showed here.

He's everything that a Russian leader should be (to an outsider anyway) and has done much to restore Russia's pride and confidence in itself. At uni, I studied Soviet government and it remained a mystery from the start of my course until the end. And the same is true now with Russia. Nominally a democracy, voting is probably not quite as free and fair as it should be...but equally the people end up with the leaders they want. How Putin moved from being President to Prime Minister is an interesting study in the complexities of political manouvering in a deeply complex system. His successor, Medvedev was refered to as a dwarf by several of the Russians we spoke with when we visited. I'm sure Mr Putin is as flawed as anyone, but his action hero antics are fantastic especially when seen in the light of the grey-suited behaviour of other global leaders.

As seen in this video

Or this one:



Or here



At least you know where you stand with him...say the wrong thing and you're likely to end up with a dose of radiation in your coffee....

It's all in the timing

There are many things in life that I find frustrating. I could list them all, but if I did you'd probably pigeonhole me as a 'Very Grumpy Old Man'. I may be that, but I'm not prepared to admit it in public yet.

Two of my pet hates are:

1. Parking bays on roads which have double red lines painted. As I understand it, red lines are meant to keep the traffic moving freely. Naturally, as soon as you put a parking bay there, the road is constricted and hold ups are inevitable...in fact they might just as well put parking bays down the entire road as one bay has the same effect as fifty. It's plain common sense to me - you either want a free-running road or you don't.

2. The waiting time frame for deliveries, etc. British Gas seem unable to predict when their engineers will be arriving within a four hour time period, and even then there's a possibility they will cancel at the last minute...British Telecom is similar. I gave up on supermarket home delivery because my 'time slot' was longer than if I went to the shop myself. So it was quite a surprise when I bought some new trainers for The Boy on the interweb and received a text to say they would be delivered between 10.32 and 11.32. They arrived at 11.17, which is good because I'd have sued for many millions if they'd arrived at 11.33...imagine just how inconvenient that would have been.

Tomorrow I shall be writing about Vladimir Putin...nothing to do with timing

Commercial break

Yes, I said I might, and yes I’m going to…




The National Rail Museum sent me a stick of rock to encourage me to write about them. All British boys want to drive a train, so I guess if you’ve got a boy, then why not go? I gather that in Italy all boys want to be a Ferrari racing driver, so if you have Italian blood in the family, I suggest a trip to Modena. Girls? Erm….

Robinsons are currently encouraging kids to break dance. I’d stick to tennis myself….

Land’s End is now following me on Twitter…I expect they do very nice clothes

The Science Museum wants to know ‘What’s your earliest memory?’…evidently if you answer I’ll get lots of new followers. Personally I think it’s Nonsense that I’d be motivated by having more followers (I’d rather have free tickets to the Imax), but I quite like the idea. My early memories are a jumble, so I just don’t know whether it’s standing on a bridge over a gorge in Bavaria is earlier than an autumn gale that was so strong that the window of my bedroom was broken, or perhaps it was chucking a stone at a passing car, or maybe a trip up the Post Office Tower when it was open to the public. You choose, I’ve forgotten.

Natural Balance Foods have launched Nākd – a fruit and nut bar which single-handedly will stop 25% of the nation’s children being obese. It may or may not be nice (I haven’t asked for a sample yet), but I’m pretty sure fat (the government says we are allowed to say that now) children will take the chocolate bar every time. Pass me a marshmallow.

Evidently arm bands aren’t good enough, and kids up to the age of 14 should be wearing Splash Abouts Water Buddies. Personally, I think parents would be better off investing the £30 on swimming lessons during the summer holiday, but you can make your own choice.

Visit South Devon tell me it’s a great place to go for a holiday. Indeed it is…I have friends who live there and plan to pay them a visit. Gay George (who’s not gay at all) has just come back from there and concurs…but he says the locally caught fish is hideously expensive, so eat before you go.

Bottlegreen Elderflower sorbet claims to be the ideal ingredient for a Halloween treat. Please, its August (July when I got the e-mail) and I’d like to get through the summer before I think of things like that. But feel free to send me a sample.

Arena-quantum are an agency that would like to partner with me…so if they really do read this blog, send me some details and I’ll let you know…I have a passionate interest in “travel, healthcare, pets, media, gardening and other areas that may or may not be relevant to your blog”

Wood’s 100 Old Navy Rum think I should be writing about my grandparents…if they send me a bottle I will at least RUMinate about it…

Breffni O'Connor of Polity Marketing wants me to mention a book about whether the Internet is changing children, and will send me a free review copy*

*Free inspection copies are available only to full time lecturers teaching classes of over 12 students for whom the book may be appropriate as a course text.

So I don’t know about children, but the Internet’s ability to allow me to be targeted by hogwash makes me VERY ANGRY

Evidently, six gamers have broken the Guinness world record for non-stop gaming. Evidently they used a Twist Dock to keep their Playstation 3 controllers charged up. I wonder if it comes with a free pair of glasses.

Lauren from Tightsplease says, she “really enjoyed your writing, your sense of humour makes incredibly addictive reading”. Which is nice of her. She’s let me know they have a 50% discount on at the moment, which is good - should The Boy decide to become a cross-dresser.

And finally, Nestle want you to come up with recipes using their nutritious and healthy breakfast cereals. Oops, the competition closed on 31st July…I’d have been more energised to publicise a multi-national with a poor record of social responsibility if they’d sent me some brekkie instead of expecting me to do it for nothing

2” is enormous

It's not often I laugh uncontrollably...I'm far too serious for that, and don't get drunk often enough. I remember as a little boy, I was watching a Des O'Connor Saturday night show (parents have a lot to answer for don't they?)and seeing a sketch where he was in the bath, and the loofah, the soap dish, etc started being Thunderbirds with accompanying sound effects...he sat there with that surprised look he does so well. I can't remember it that well, or I would understand why it set me off, but it did.

More recently, I was told a true story of a gas meter reader who was locked under the stairs because the owner mistook him for Dobby from from Harry Potter (as you will gather I'm witholding a vital piece of information in this story)...and that set me off. Twice - once when I was told it, and secondly when I tried to retell it over a very serious lunch.

Last week, I was off again when someone was talking about husband beating. Obviously that is a very serious subject, and sorry, but I'm going to fail to tell you why this would get me laughing hysterically. You'll just have to trust me there was a good valid reason.

Yesterday we were in Brighton and stumbled across a new place that has opened...a shop come cafe/restaurant. It sells just three things - lovely wines, gorgeous cured meats and fantastic artisan cheeses. It's in Western Road Hove and is called La cave a fromage. You should pay it a visit. The manager is an absolute character. He comes from the East End and until the start of 2010 was a tree surgeon, and clearly his lack of contact with the human species produces a few quirks.

We were sitting there enjoying a plate of cheese, a plate of meat and a glass each of wine, when someone (an American) came in to complain that the cheese he had bought a day or so before had straw in the middle of it. He had eaten some straw and was not happy. The manager looked at it, turned to his illustrated cheese bible and showed the customer that his cheese should have straw in the middle of it. "But I ate it" protested the customer. "Don't worry" replied the manager, "I expect it will come out the other end".

Exit stage left indignant customer, closely pursued by manager offering a free baguette. In the meantime, I'm rolling on the floor in uncontrollable laughter.

And now back to those 2"

Three weeks ago, I managed to knock over a bottle of iced tea (it was delicious Liptons, mango flavour, if you’re interested, and if they want to send me a crate) during my lunch hour. The mess made BP’s recent antics look as nothing. It devastated my piles of paper…all work in progress of course, and not just unfiled crap, and I spent most of my lunch break clearing up. The top of my desk has a glass panel to protect the wood underneath, and the liquid spread itself between wood and glass. I had to remove everything…piles of paper, telephone, keyboard, mouse, rubber band ball (it’s a big one) and enormous computer screen…to clear up the mess. I then put it all back and carried on working.

Two and a half weeks ago I started getting the most awful back pain. As the day wore on it got worse and worse, to the extent that I wondered whether I would be able to ride the bike home. The lovely Carly who gives an excellent massage had chosen this precise moment to go on holiday with her husband and young offspring. My pleadings did not persuade her to return from Spain. The summer has also brought on hay fever, and a sudden sharp and nasty pain in my big toe suggested that on top of this, gout had returned to haunt me. Life was not good.

Over the following couple of weeks, I tried everything…changing chairs, moving position, travelling on the tube, etc, but nothing would make it better. I was reduced to tears. My mood was grim. Even Carly’s return brought no relief. I racked my brains trying to work out what could be different, or what I could have done to put me in this wretched state.

Sitting at work, staring at my computer I suddenly had a revelation. Without realising it, I had put the screen a couple of inches to the right of where it had been before the spillage incident. Tentatively I moved it back to where it used to be. Almost instantaneously I felt an easing of the pain…and a day later all is well again. I’m not sure about the pain in the toe…but that’s eased as well.

Who would have guessed that a couple of inches would make all the difference?

First Friday Fotos

I remembered that at the beginning of July I said I would try and start a regular posting of some photos from the previous month on the first Friday of the next one, so here goes. I hadn't realised quite how busy it's been....

The World Cup hadn't even finished, and the book-buying public had already given their opinion:



I went cycling in the Forest with similar success to our football team:



Meanwhile The Shard continues ever-upwards:



And The Cat's Mum and I investigated the back streets of Whitechapel in search of graffiti and found plenty else to see:





We managed a very magical weekend in a very magical part of Spain to go to a very magical wedding:












And not forgetting The Boy who found this interesting sign in Germany...

And now for something completely different...

Привет всем моим русским друзьям

На прошлой неделе я говорил, что я был подвергается цензуре со стороны наших услуг широкополосного доступа в который заблокирован России сегодня ... новостной сайт мне очень нравится и ценность. Я был страстный интерес в России и странах бывшего Советского Союза в течение многих лет ... моей половины степени было принято с Кремлем просмотра (это было за несколько дней до перестройки и гласности), так что мой визит в Москву и Санкт-Петербурге в начале нынешнего года о "поездке времени жизни типа" ... хотя я надеюсь вернуться на более позднем этапе, чтобы исследовать пределы городских границ.

Интересно, что мой блог вызвал число русских посетителей (я с удовлетворением отмечаю), один даже reposting въезда на ее собственном блоге.

Так что я изучал, чтобы увидеть, что говорится в другом месте ... если у вас есть момент здесь некоторые ссылки .

http://m-simonyan.livejournal.com/7842.html
http://cartesius.livejournal.com/friends?skip=30

http://freedomcry.livejournal.com/friends/

http://guliar.livejournal.com/friends?skip=10

http://1yy1.livejournal.com/friends?skip=40

http://santerellina.livejournal.com/friends/

http://prostak52.livejournal.com/friends?skip=20

http://orazaro.livejournal.com/friends?skip=40

http://uhan.livejournal.com/friends

http://valenok-ok.livejournal.com/friends

http://thewhoandzoe.livejournal.com/friends/

http://inetmakers.livejournal.com/friends

http://roland-expert.livejournal.com/friends

http://m-yu-sokolov.livejournal.com/friends

http://soundsimple.livejournal.com/friends

http://sapros.livejournal.com/friends/


Censored

Уже не первый раз коллеги из Британии жалуются, что на работе им перекрывают доступ к нашему сайту. Как обычно, свобода слова свободе слова - рознь.

Вот текст, а вот перевод недавней жалобы

Проверено цензурой

Я подсел на новости. У меня зависимость от новостей… Готов смотреть новости без остановки. Поэтому у меня в закладках Би-би-си (самая точная информация), Evening Standard (новости Лондона), Evening Argus (новости Брайтона), Sky News (если это и не самая точная информация, то, по крайней мере, самая быстрая), Euronews (новости с материка, отделенного от нас Ла-Маншем), France 24 (у них всегда показывают события под особым углом), The First Post (новости и комментарии для комфортного просмотра на диване), Al Jazeera (тоже особая точка зрения), China Daily News (серьезно отличается от всех остальных каналов, а почему бы и нет… очень скоро они станут доминирующей сверхдержавой) и, наконец, Russia Today (к этим ребятам должно быть особое отношение).

Не думайте, что весь день я только и делаю, что читаю… Я просто проглядываю страницы, чтобы ухватить суть, понять, как разные источники освещают события… И, что самое интересное, именно китайские новости смотрят на мир совершенно иначе… но совсем недавно куда-то пропал сайт Russia Today – на моем компьютере, как я ни старался, он не открывался… Сначала я подумал, что с сайтом какие-то неполадки, но он же у меня дома нормально работал… странно…

На прошлой неделе на работе я вызывал компьютерщика, у меня что-то там не работало. И он объяснил мне, что наш Интернет-провайдер заблокировал этот сайт. После каких-то манипуляций с DNS-серверами (не имею понятия, что это такое) я снова смог загрузить новостные страницы с последней фотографией Путина в позе настоящего мачо… Итак, порядок в моем мире новостей восстановлен.

Но теперь я задаюсь вопросом, почему компании блокируют этот сайт… как собственно и любые другие сайты. Значит, это очень просто сделать… а мы, обычные люди, даже ничего не подозреваем. Иногда мне кажется, что наступил тот самый «1984»-й – Саудовская Аравия не разрешает своим гражданам пользоваться Blackberry, потому что власти не могут отслеживать информацию, Apple прославился тем, что начал блокировать контент, который считает неуместным… такое ощущение, что высокие технологии налагают еще больше ограничений, хотя, по идее, должны давать большую свободу… Очень надеюсь, что Мальчик и Кот не вырастут в мире правительственной и корпоративной цензуры. Это было бы ужасно…

You may wish to try Google translate, and bear in mind I have no Russian, so this was English turned into mangled Russian by our friends at Google....

Playtime for Tara's gallery

It's Wednesday, it's Tara's Gallery time again.

Like all boys, The Boy likes to play rough...he loves cycling in the forest (as do I, but my legs fade a bit more quickly than his). He loves the mud:



And when he's not bombing round the forest, he likes to relax with the guitar. Neither his mum nor I are in any way musical...in fact when I sing in church I get told to hush. I do love listening to music, and introduced him to it from a very early age, but that doesn't explain what his teacher describes as a 'natural' talent'



Of course, playtime comes before tidying his room up...everytime!

Hubble bubble, (toil and) trouble

I'm really quite chuffed that '80's icon Lloyd Cole is now following me on Twitter (my personal one, not the Nota Bene Twitter feed)...he has somewhat declined in popularity, so when I signed up to his feed, he reciprocated. Stephen Fry, eat your heart out.

We are in cinema frenzy this week...

...last Friday the boy and I went to see Inception. Once upon a time, I wouldn't have given Leonardo the time of day, but I so enjoyed Catch Me If You Can, Blood Diamond, The Departed and Body of Lies that I'll make an effort for his movies these days. We saw it at the local flea pit (as it used to be known although now it's a multi-screen Odeon). If you like special effects and a very complicated and convoluted story line it's well worth a viewing...The Boy was transfixed. My only real concern was that the basic reason for the dream weaving was just some corporate bollocks...it would have been better if there had been a better starting point....

...Sunday we headed for Toy Story 3. I've nothing to add to all the superlatives already heaped on it. And yes, a few tears were shed. Thank heavens for a couple of nieces giving us a reason to go - I loved it when The Boy was a small wee one which gave me the excuse to go and see all the kids' movies...I'm having to beg, borrow or steal small children now so I can get to see these things these days....

And last night we went to see Bond, James Bond. Not a Daniel Craig extravaganza, but 'Goldfinger', which was being shown as part of the Somerset House outdoor summer season. I'd never seen it on the big screen, and better still it was introduced by the Director, Guy Hamilton...and Shirley Eaton...yes the very girl that was painted head to toe in gold - she had sashayed into the restaurant where we had been eating before...in a gold sparkly top! Yes she's obviously still playing the part. Of course the film creaks like a leaky old ship, but it was brilliant fun in amazing surroundings. Only one disappointment...nobody else joined me in shouting out, "No Mr Bond, I expect you to die"...but after a few glasses of whisky that didn't seem to matter at the time....



On Friday, we're back there to see Mulholland Drive...I seem to remember it's practically unintelligible, but should be equally fun. I have two spare tickets if anyone would like them...I'd be delighted to share the experience with you...just remember to bring a cushion and blanket!

Away from the films, The Boy is out of control...not too much, but he's clearly relishing his holidays. Yesterday he and The Cat took themselves up to Camden, managed to acquire some stuff (not quite sure what stuff, but it was stuff that should only be sold to an 18 year old). They then returned and set up the hubble bubble pipe and did whatever you do with one. I'm horrified. The Cat's Mum is horrified. But we don't think it's the slippery slope to Players No6 round the back of the bike shed...he knows that is a good way to die in a very horrible way. Clearly though there's some reigning in to be done.....

Censored

I'm a news fiend. An absolute news addict...I just can't get enough of it. So the opening pages on my computer are the BBC (most accurate) Evening Standard (what's going on in London) Evening Argus (what's going on in Brighton) Sky News (the fastest news, if not the most accurate), Euronews (what's happening in the land cut off from us by the Channel), France 24 (they always have their own way of looking at things), The First Post (news and commentary in a comfy-sofa style), Al Jazeera (a different perspective again), China Daily News (the most distinctive of the lot...and why not, soon, very soon they will be the dominant superpower)and finally Russia Today (you need to know where you stand with these folk).

I wouldn't want you to think that I spend all day reading...I just scan to get the gist and see how stories are reported in different media...interestingly, it really is the Chinese News that looks at the world differently.....however just recently, Russia Today disappeared - my computer wouldn't open up the web site no matter what I did...at first I thought that may be their site was down, but it was always fine at home....most peculiar...

Last week I had reason to call up out tech guy for another problem, and he quickly identified that our ISP was blocking the site...by fiddling with DNS servers (what ever they are) I managed to restore my news of Putin's latest macho posing...and all is well with my news world again.

But it does raise the issue of why a company would block that site...or indeed any other...it shows just how easy it is to do that...and we the innocent public are none the wiser...sometimes I feel that 1984 has arrived with avengeance - after all Saudi Arabia is now stopping people using Blackberry's because they can't monitor the data, and Apple is now infamous for blocking content which it deems inappropriate...it seems that that technology is bringing more restrictions when it should really be giving us greater freedom...I hope The Boy and The Cat do not grow up in a world of government and corporate censorship. That would be bad....

By coincidence, this was on the BBC today...


...and on a more important note, The Boy returned bearing a wonderful gift - a bottle of Ferrari after shave....it was a great and much appreciated thought...

Funeral for a friend

Last night The Boy returned home briefly...I picked him up from school and then got completely battered by a tornado of tales from his week in Germany...from his Facebook posts I knew he'd been having fun...but really it was just a party from the day he arrived until the moment he departed....he had a ball, of course! There was beer, there were girls aplenty.

We had to do some washing because he today he's off again to spend a few days in London with his Grandmother in Wales, Uncle and sister. I started to put clothes in the washing machine, and felt it sensible to check there was nothing in the pockets of his jeans...I had just enough time to recognise what was in the little pocket before they were snatched away from me. I know what was in there; he knows what was in there. I think he knows that I know what was in there...although he may be in denial. But it is the way of the parent that sometimes it's best to say nothing. There will be a time and a place to talk about such things. But last night wasn't it.

I'd have liked to spent longer with him, but he was tired (at least I assume that is why he was so hyper) and I had to leave early to go to a funeral this morning. I'd never met the person...I was going to support one of my best buddies...it was his mother who had died from a combination of breast cancer and alzheimers. That's a pretty evil combination, and I'm sure that it was a relief when she passed away peacefully.

And selfishly, from my perspective, after a fairly hideous few weeks it's helped put life, the universe and everything back in perspective.

Nature: Tara's Gallery

On the one hand this is an easy topic...plenty of scope, etc. On the other it's tricky...just how do you select a single or pair of images to illustrate the theme?

I choose these from our holiday with Grandma in Cyprus last year:



On the one hand, as divers you are at one with nature...the fish swim around you, and will feed out of your hand...it's quite a magical experience. On the other, without the man-made aparatus you wouldn't be there...man and nature in harmony, perhaps



And in this picture...if you look really, really hard, there's a kingfisher on the rusty iron...nature is doing its best to remove this man-made structure which intrudes into the sea, and by so doing creates a beautiful contrast....

Desk diary

First there was Weird John

Then there was Mad Maria. She rented the same desk, "We may need two you know!" she cheerily said as she set up her 'Sustainable Marketing' Consultancy from our office. Well when I say from our office, I mean she paid the rent and spent her days drinking coffee with friends at the local cafe 100 yards down the road. When she was here, she spent her time playing games on her computer, chatting to friends and organising her holiday photos. Unless she had organised a meeting. She seemed to have a LOT OF THOSE. They went on noisily all day, but never seemed to achieve anything. She did organise a few hundred hessian bags to promote her business. They sat in the bottom of a cupboard until the day she left.

Gorgeous George and Gay John (who also work in our office) didn't take to her...from their days as estate agents they vaguely remembered selling her a property. It had been a difficult transaction. It may have been foolish of Gay John to mention how very, very small her house was. And situated in a very peculiar area. Gorgeous George is really just George, happily married father of one. Gay John is not gay at all, but so called because he once bought a fake designer scarf - it was red when he pruchased it, but turned pink in a matter of days. He insisted on wearing it.

We wondered about her 'ethical' approach to life when she came in pleased as punch one day. Her neighbours were having some work done, and Maria wouldn't let the builders carry some ladders across her garden unless they paid £250. After some heated discussion she got her £250. I expect the neighbours turned up their music very loud everyday after that.

She wouldn't contribute to the toner and paper costs for the printer. "I've only printed one page you know", but would happily say, "Can I make a quick call on your phone because my battery is low" and "I'll just send this fax"....

So Maria went.

Mad Maria was replaced by Super Suzanne. At the same desk. Suzanne the Creative Director of a Lighting Consultancy. Suzanne was in and out, cheery and friendly. We like Suzanne. She's busy. She's enthusiastic. Suzanne always has a smile to warm the cockles of your heart.

But oh woe. The project she's involved in needs her on site for the next few months. So Suzanne is going. She's only been here a month. The lovely be-wedded Girl from Spain (she's actually half Peruvian and half Italian, but don't let the detail get in the way) has been away becoming a Mrs and having a honeymoon, and has never met Super Suzanne. We are all quite sad.

So I don't know what it is about this desk, but t seems to have the evil eye. Some sort of juju. Or some voodoo. We think we should have it exorcised. Or perhaps move it to improve the Feng Shui. But something's got to change 'cos we'd like to have a nice person who wants to keep us company during our working hours....

Filthy lucre

I don't normally keep in touch with The Boy when he's away...I've always thought that short breaks away from the watchful parental eye were a good way of encouraging independence...for both of us. I realise the daftness of his approach during his teenage years when he already thinks he's capable of ruling the world. No, the universe. Still, it's something I've stuck to. However, this weekend I felt the need to text him in Germany...the disaster at the Love Festival worried me, only because I remember his German exchange student friend talking a lot about Festivals. Of course, Duisburg is a million miles away from where The Boy is staying, so I was being ridiculous...but then that's what parents are for...isn't it. Naturally, he was fine...and then revealed that he'd been partying every single night. That's six nights on the trot. And whilst I can admire the stamina...we could all do that when we were younger...I now feel the need to panic about what 'partying' might mean. He's back Wednesday evening at which point I'll be a gibbering wreck, and will no doubt never be any the wiser.

I may have mentioned that I've always kept this here blog free from commerciality...its my bit of fun, my hobby. Nothing more, nothing less. But recently, I somehow ended up on some list as one of the Top 10 Daddy Blogs. I don't know how, but I have. And the net result is that I now get daily approaches from companies wanting something. Some will even put something my way. I'm not sure that the stick of rock that I received in the post will quite swing it for me, but I sure as damn am tempted...so I might just have a 'commercial break' once a month. After all I've done worse things than compromise my principles before...oh now there's an idea for a post!