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I’m saying nothing today. On a technical note I have changed the scope of the archive pages from weekly to monthly.

That will probably be enough excitement for one day.

All in all a very busy weekend. I don’t know if that justifies the fact that I waited until Tuesday to post here but it is the only excuse I have.

The panto went very well on Friday night, even though the lighting supplied by your truly was very basic. I followed the Mr Miyagi school and all they got was “Lights on, lights off. Lights on, lights off.” The script was full of some very imaginative lighting cues involving all sorts of colours and effects. It is very hard to pull off a disco effect when you only have open white lights though. It was also a bit worrying to turn up two hours before the performance and find that no lights had been rigged. Still, it was alright on the night.

On Saturday Bobo and I spent some joyous hours helping the Reeves move house. Well, Bobo did anyway, she got to look after Redmond. I had to lug furniture with Ben, but I am sure I will get my reward in heaven. We did get to go to the panto again on Saturday afternoon, so that was a good excuse to stop carrying things from one house to the other. Oh, did I mention that Ben and Robyn only actually moved three doors down their street? Hence the cheap labour. If they had gone a decent distance they would have hired a proper removalist, but because they were only exchanging houses in the same street they bought in the rank amateurs. Still, we did get some pizza out of Ben for our efforts.

Sunday was fairly uneventful, apart from the ’round robin’ tournament at the tennis club. I managed joint fifth in my group (of eight). That definitely gives me some room for improvement.

Bobo is at home this week, taking a well deserved rest. She is cooking vegetarain lasagne tonight. To which there is only one response – “where’s the beef?”

Phrase of the day, from Francis Dunnery, also spotted in Apocalypse Now, but originally from Abraham Lincoln;

“better angels of our nature”

Don’t know why, I just like it.

Now I’ve gone and done it. I am going to be doing the lighting for the Church panto this weekend. Which is strange because I don’t go to church. Maybe that should be “Church and Richard’s mates panto”.

Regardless, I’ve been stitched up. Luckily there are only three performances and I hope the lighting requirements are not that complex. No fx lights, follow spots or fancy cross-fades timed to music queues. Because if there are I am toast.

My commitment level is so high that I’ve blown off the dress rehearsal tonight to go and see Apocalypse Now Redux. At least I’ve got my priorities right.

I just wrote a very long post and it got sucked into the internet black hole. Here is a summary;

I don’t control the remote control in our house now that Bobo is back from her travels. Occassionally she makes me watch rubbish. Two particularly awful examples this week were;

The Michael Jackson 30th anniversary concert. Channel 7 treated us to this ‘entertainment extravaganza’ on Monday evening. I could say so much, but my thoughts are expressed so much better in this Salon article. The man is a screaming loony.

Fox8 are running the quality show Cheaters. This show is terrible. It has been compared to The Jerry Springer Show but at least the Springer show has a sense of humour. This show drips false sincerity and to say it insulted my intelligence is an understatement. It is complete and utter toss and the planet would be a better place if it was never broadcast again.

There, I feel better now.

Two things today. First is that Harry Potter frenzy is reaching fever pitch in our house at the moment. Bobo and the smelly backpacker can’t wait to see the movie as they loved the book so much. My protestation that the film of any book never lives up to expectations is roundly pooh-poohed, but I shall maintain my own counsel.

My second thought for the day was prompted by the very first paragraph in the ‘hard news’ section of last week’s NTK. It reminded me of the pre-launch campaign for a youth ‘portal’ which was being built by a media company and television network here in Australia last year. Their posters (and banner ads) were all black, and contained the phrase “there is no scape” to tantalise the audience. The intention being, I presume, to intrigue the viewer into wondering what this could possibly be and to then launch www.scape.com onto the world with a flourish and a ‘well there is one now’ message. Sadly the joint venture perished in the dot com crash and the web portal was still born. The amusing factor here for me was the amazing foresight of the advert designers, there was (and is) “no scape”. Well, it makes me chuckle anyway.

Well, I’ve gone and done it now. Yesterday, at 5pm local time I became an Australian.

Its quite a formal process you know. I received a letter from the Department of Immigration in July saying I had been accepted, but you don’t become an actual Aussie until you take the oath of citizenship. This is done at special citizenship ceremonies organised by local councils. So I dutifully toddled off to Manly Council yesterday afternoon for my ceremony. Whilst my cheer squad looked on, I swore to do various things and received in return a lovely certificate, an electoral enrolment form and a native tree. Oh, and they can’t chuck me out of the country now.

Oh, and in news from ‘sad man central’, I had trouble with my tie today. I usually use a windsor knot, which looks good and doesn’t ruin your tie. Unfortunately the new tie which I bought yesterday is far too fashionable and is shorter and wider than the ties I am used to. This means that a windsor knot ends up about the size of an apple and the ends of the tie barely reach my midriff. It was a fashion disaster, but luckily the internet came to my rescue. By searching for “windsor” and “knot” at me old mate I found the helpful how to tie at tie site and its easy to follow description of the half windsor. Problem solved, my old man is a mushroom, etc.

I have been very, very quiet. This has probably got something to do with the fact that I have bought a copy of Civilization 3. There goes my spare time. Of course, to lose my spare time I would need to acquire some first.

In unrelated news it is Wednesday, so I’m off to play tennis this evening. If you are ever in Sydney and stuck for something to do on a Wednesday night or a Sunday morning come and join in the fun at Wakehurst tennis club. Or not, its up to you. No pressure.

Inspired by Mark Pilgrim and Brent Ashley I decided it was time for my very own ego search.

This is not always good for the ego apparently, Andrew Todd gives me nothing. I’m not even on the first page. Still, it is nice to see lots of very well qualified people with the same name as me.

But wait, trying Andy Todd gives a much more satisfying results. The third entry is me, but does that make me famous?

None of the other entries has anything to do with me though. For those who are easily confused let me just say that I haven’t signed a deal with Charlton Athletic and have no plans to play in the English Premiership in the near future.