What's Doing

Just when you thought it was safe, and the political posts had stopped, I discover that ID cards are the talk of the day in New South Wales now.

The fact that I’ve already got a photo driving license in my pocket has got nothing to do with it. I’m opposed to centralised population databases of any sort, mainly because they are never secure. I’ll be writing to my MP on this, just as soon as I figure out who that is.

Update. On the good news front Teenage Fanclub are getting back together again and releasing a new album in May. Which on past performance will be a thing of wonder and beauty. So I’ll be able to listen to nice music whilst my civil rights are being trampled courtesy of the taxes I’ve paid. Oh the irony.

I used to work with a chap whose first act every day, upon sitting at his desk and turning on his PC, was to check the obituaries column in the Times online. A morbid hobby, but apparently a very intesresting one. These days I suspect that he would be better served by the ever fantastic Wikipedia which has, I discovered today, a recent deaths section.

Anything you could possibly want is on that site, with the possible exception of how to calculate and store sub-contractor retentions on supplier invoices. But that’s my problem and not yours, so take a look and don’t drown in the seas of knowledge you find there.

I’ve extracted the latest group of photographs from my camera and uploaded the half decent ones to Flickr. Enjoy.

Selected highlights of this set will be appearing here with hilarious commentary in the next few days (or weeks if I get a little distracted).

From the always readable Neil Gaiman the finest euphemism I’ve heard in ages (and I went to a Bill Bailey gig three days ago;

"he’s also distancing himself from the reality-based community"

All it takes is a little puff of wind and the Manly Ferry stops running. Which rather inconveniences those of us who use it to travel to and from work.

It only took me two and a bit hours to get to the office this morning, a little longer than my usual, leisurely, hour long trip. I did, at least, manage to get out of the house though, unlike the brummie pseduo-salesman who last night stayed in and didn’t come to see Bill Bailey. Apparently he was concerned that his roof would blow off. Wuss.

Those of us who made it to the theatre had a great time. The part troll was hilarious. Truly, truly funny. Just don’t ask me to remember any of the jokes because I have this mental plug hole they all disappear down as soon as I leave the theatre.

Oh hang on, there was one – "A true sign of a gentleman is someone who can play the banjo but refrains from doing so." See, it’s not as funny if you weren’t there. I’d also like to point out that Mr Bailey is the finest theremin player I’ve seen since John Otway.

I’ve long maintained a personal list of people who will be "first against the wall come the revolution". Rapidly ascending that list is Dan Brown who stole several hours of my life when I read his execrable novel "The Da Vinci Code". Luckily, I’m not alone in this opinion and Ben Last explains the pain that is a Dan Brown "novel" much more eloquently than I ever could.

But today further evidence reaches us that accelerates Mr Brown’s rise up my personal pick of the tossers. Take a look at the picture in this BBC news article. He’s wearing a polar necked jumper and a tweed jacket. Heresy! Is it still the 1950s? I rather think not. Last smoke with your blindfold Mr Brown?

P.S. If you’re reading this the interruption I mentioned is over. We are now hosted at TextDrive and powered by WordPress. Which is nice.

Over the next couple of days I’m going to be doing a little surgery. You may notice that this fine web site isn’t available for a short period of time, for which I apologise in advance. I’m also mucking about with my e-mail so if you send me a message in the next few days and I don’t respond it’s not because I’m ignoring you, probably. See you all on the other side.

A few good wishes today. Good luck to my brother (SLAHWHM) who started a new job this week, here’s hoping they don’t work you too hard.

Then good luck to the 70’s throwback’s liver. He’s spending the weekend at Minehead watching the finest band from Aylesbury. There will be much drinking, and I’m sure he’s eminently well prepared for that. I am entirely not jealous that he will be seeing the first (and probably only) live performance of Ocean Cloud. Not jealous at all.

Just in case anyone is counting, Todd Too is now at week twenty and everything, so far, is looking tickety boo. We’ve got another appointment with the obstetrician next week, but I’m not going to make it as I’ve got to be at work. So much for that good old work/life balance.

In my defence I would have made it if we were in any way worried but I’m just expecting it to be a routine check up. Let’s face it, my presence isn’t strictly necessary as I’m not the one doing the hard work.

This popped into my inbox today;

"Hi there!

Fatty, Sterlo, Matty and Chief are back on your TV screens next
Thursday night at 9.30pm.

We’re kicking off the season in a big way, our first show will be at
the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre and we are inviting you to be there
with us to welcome back the footy season!

Tickets are only $25.20 and can be purchased from Ticketek by clicking
on the following link;
http://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=FOOTYSHO05

We hope to see you there!

Regards,
The Footy Show Team"

Twenty five dollars? Twenty and five of your Australian dollars! To see the Footy Show, when it’s free to watch it on TV? You have got to be joking. Seriously having a giraffe. Unless they are going to pull an Oprah, in which case I’m there.

Chances of that happening? Slim. Expected value to be received for forking out twenty five bucks to watch the Footy Show live? About the square root of bugger all. Amusing MasterCard punchline? Not likely.

I’ll get me coat.

It had to be today that they cancelled the ferry. After tallying in bed for about ten minutes too long I got a shift on with the morning routine and hustled down the hill to the wharf just in time for the 8 o’clock ferry. Only to find that it was cancelled.

So faced with a choice of squeezing onto the crowded Jet Cat or taking the next ferry and arriving at work a little bit late I did the conscientious thing and shuffled onto the Jet Cat with all of the other thrusting executives.

On the whole though, it’s rather a nice way to travel to work. It certainly beats the Northern Line.