What's Doing

Christmas joy should indeed be running through my veins. Sadly I’ve just finished a twelve hour baking stint. So the only thing running through my veins is an absence of Stella Artois which I will be remedying as soon, and as quickly, as possible.

Accompaniment to this evenings cooking recovery will be Anoraknophobia by those nice Marillion boys.

Stop what you are doing. Right now. I don’t care, its not that important. No really. You will thank me.

Good. Now go and read late_bland’s story, possibly the funniest piece of writing I’ve seen about the Rugby World Cup.

Right, thats me done with rugby references. At least until the Six Nations starts in February anyway.

Thanks to this year’s Guardian Unlimited – best of British blogging awards (and Scary Duck) we bring you two crackers;

Call Centre Confidential
The Bottle Shop: On the arcade

Both of which will be appearing on the left hand side of this page just as soon as I can be bothered to updated it.

Rest assured, gentle reader, that I have vigourously quality checked both site and have declared them A1 double plus on the funny and well written scales. Of course, with such spiffing weblogs knocking about this here intarweb I’m not so much inspired to raise my game as tempted to chuck it in altogether. But then who else is going to post random pictures of my son and completely meaningless mentions of what music I’m listening to? Looks like Whats Doing will be around for a bit then.

Oh, and is it a coincidence that both of these authors have, dare I say it, mundane jobs? Perhaps not being mentally over taxed during the day allows one more time to come up with witty slices of life. Or maybe not.

Once more I must ratchet up the geek factor. Now you can go to a web page and find out what music I’ve been listening to. If that isn’t a pretty pointless use of technology I don’t know what is. Oh hang on, there’s more. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed containing the last ten songs I’ve played.

How geeky is that? [Courtesy of Ben Hammersley]

I for one shall not be watching the International Idol contest whenever it appears on the television in these parts. Words can do no justice to the disdain and I feel for this brand of entertainment.

You know, it would all be so much better if they could at least sing.

So, its been sitting on my mental "to do" list for a couple of years and tonight, when SWMBO popped out for a couple of sherbets with the ladies from Nappy Valley, I thought I’d solve a little mathematical problem.

Each year (apart from this year) we have a Christmas celebration dinner at the Watermark in Sydney. There are four couples, my good self and SWMBO, Emma and Jon, the Executive Brain Stormer and Robyn, Richard and Belinda.

A couple of years ago the Executive Brain Stormer asked me if there was any combination of seating arrangement that ensured that no-one sat next to or opposite their partners. Well, old chap, by my calculation there are 3840 that fulfil your requirements. Don’t believe me? Here’s the code.

Its amazing what I can get up to when left at home on my own for a couple of hours.

Look, I’m cool because I was doing it first. Jamie Oliver has a blog. He’s copied my title, software of choice, cheeky persona and everything.

Mind you, I’m about a good a cook as he is a software developer so I reckon we are about even.

An interesting weekend for the Todds. On Saturday morning I visited the cheeky, chirpy, Chelsea loving Cockney barber. He’s still not a patch on the unofficial Mayor of Manly (Rocky) but he has managed to make me look vaguely presentable.

Then on to deepest, darkest Sussex for a ride on the Bluebell railway’s Santa special. Its difficult to tell who enjoyed it more, Phoebe and Maddie or SWMBO. Photos may be forthcoming, but then again maybe not.

I was delighted to see that champion of fairness and balance, David Campese on the BBC last night, awarding a prize to the England Rugby team on the BBC Sports Personality of the year show. Even more pleasing was the reason for his presence in this fair isle – a walk of shame down Oxford Street. Oh, how I wish I’d been there, if only to cheer him along.

Its been a while, and frankly I hadn’t been checking, but Bobo’s favourite restaurant in the whole wide world now has its own web site. Say hello to Ribs and Rumps. If the menu isn’t enough to tempt you through their doors, how about the celebrity endorsements?

I don’t know about you, but anywhere that gets a rating of "The best ribs and rumps in the world, all the best" from such a screaming xenophobe as King Stan will have me running straight to the front door.

Then again, you could just give him a slap the next time you see him there and carry on with your steak.

Whilst I’m having a quick surf around the BBC sport web site at 11pm on a Monday night, here is something for Jonny Palmer to put on his desktop – some quality wallpaper.