What's Doing

The good news is through. We have sold the boat thanks to Jason at Church Point Yacht Brokers, and have thus avoided penury when we couldn’t afford the residual payment on the lease next month. Phew.

After sitting in traffic jams for what seems to have been the whole weekend we have now bought a television – on the internet. We got a good deal on a Panasonic model and they will even deliver. at a time and date of our choice.

This is scheduled for next Saturday afternoon, at our new house. The timing is fraught with the possibility for disaster though, as England v New Zealand kicks off a Twickenham at 2:30pm and I would really like to watch that on our new tv. Here’s hoping we are the first stop on the delivery round. Oh, and that our Sky digibox is installed before then as well.

What on earth did the Disney company think they were doing, producing Santa Clause 2. Did no one at the company see the first one? Good grief. [courtesy Mr Cranky].

Today, I would like to send you elsewhere. Mainly because I have nothing to say.

First destination, Geek bling bling, or how to make your computers look good. I recommend this to DIY enthusiasts like Iain and sad techos like Ciaran. [courtesy of Slashdot]

Next, this day in music. This site lists musical anniversaries for today. Strangely enough. Bound to be enjoyed by the 70s throwback and Mr Buck. [courtesy of the Metro newspaper]

Satire fans, say hello to Chaser Non-Stop News Network. A random sampling of their current list of stories gives us this pearl about everyone’s favourite sacked Australian cricketer, the dud. Whilst you are there, make sure you check out the terrorthon. [courtesy of Mrs Palmer]

This defies all description. Do not click on the link if you are of a nervous disposition. [courtesy of a very classy geezer at work]

Finally, it wouldn’t be my diary without a gadget reference. Say hello to the Pogo. I am in the market for a new mobile phone but I think this one may be going a bit far. But then again. [courtesy of Slashdot]

Courtesy of Mark Pilgrim let me introduce you to Googlism. Fire up the page, type in the phrase of your choice and – voila – a precis of what the web, or rather the web as viewed by Google thinks of it.

I tried a couple of variations on my name, "Andrew Todd" gave me this gem; "Andrew Todd is full" so no more burgers thanks.

"Andy Todd" got some very interesting results. My favourite, by a long way, was; "andy todd is at it with his fists again". So just watch it, right!

The migration is almost complete. The keen eyed amongst you may have noted the subtle changes that show my work. For the slow, the address of this page has changed to http://www.andrew-todd.com/diary/.

There is one more immediate change that you may have noticed. You can now add comments to this diary. Lordy. Be gentle with me, ok?

There are still a few more bits and pieces to change, primarily the old posts (prior to March, 2002) and the navigation bar to the left may change a little. But the majority of the work is done so I thought I would unleash the beast. Enjoy.

With the impending migration I am going to stop using Francis Dunnery lyrics as titles on this page. Its not as if anyone noticed, anyway.

On the news front. Mark Waugh has quit international cricket. Only the dud could jump after he was pushed. The only sadness I feel at this news is for viewers of the cricket on Channel 9 who will now be subjected to one of the dullest commentators on the planet even more often.

Finally, for now at least, I have joined the gym. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologise for doing something I have always said was the exclusive realm of fools and idiots. If it is any compensation, I’ve only got a swimming membership and will not be seen in the workout room.

I had to add an entry just so that the changes that I made to my diary template would propagate. Say hello to Uncle Baldy in the links panel on the left.

We are mobile again. Thanks to Bobo’s brother Giles we are now the proud owners and drivers of an Alfa Romeo 145. Pictures to come soon, but it goes well and will do us a treat. We are very happy. Unlike Britain, where today has been a bit of a nightmare.

Our own experience of this extreme weather was the journey to Reading to pick up our new motor. It should have taken about an hour and a half, so we left home at 10:00, aiming to be chez Perry before 12:00. Lunch was served at 12:30 and we didn’t want to be late. We managed the first part of our journey (Balham to Clapham Junction) relatively painlessly. Although the train was delayed by twenty minutes that is fairly normal on the line I travel to work on every day. When we got to Clapham Junction, however, things took a turn for the worse. The station announcer informed us that all trains from Waterloo had been suspended. This was a bad thing. Mainly because the Reading train we wanted to get on leaves from Waterloo.

After hanging around for a bit and not getting encouraged we decided to try plan b. The main line express trains to Reading leave from Paddington. So we thought we would have a bash at getting one of those, despite having tickets that were not valid for that route.

We got on another train to Victoria and then the circle line to Paddington. Once we arrived we discovered that our trip had potentially been in vain. All trains from Paddington were suspended.

Gluttons for punishment that we are, we decided to give it a bash anyway and wait out the storm at Paddington. After a particularly unsatisfactory chat with a nice man at the ticket office, who refused to re-issue or refund our existing tickets, we decided on a cup of tea and a sandwich at the cafe. As soon as I was served. of course, the station announcer said that the Reading train was pulling in to platform twelve and would be departing in a matter of minutes. Carefully stuffing the drinks and sandwiches in my bag we legged it. Just managed to get on the train which then took the scenic route but it got us to Reading. We finally got to Perry Mansions at about quarter to two. An hour and a half journey took over three hours. You have to love this country. Because if you didn't, you would go barking mad living here.

Oh, on a technical note, I was planning to move this diary to Movable Type in the next few months, just like my other blog. The recent trouble at Blogger has made me resolve to make the change sooner rather than later. Whilst the transition is taking place we apologise for any inconvenience.

I bought the latest Saint Etienne album, called Finisterre, at lunch time. The first line of the first track is "Have you ever been to a Harvester before?".

Well it tickled me anyway.

Whilst I am talking about music, the new Beth Orton album Daybreaker is an absolute corker. The first couple of listens are a bit dissapointing, but after a few plays it just clicks, a series of sublime tunes topped off with a lovely voice. Of course, your opinion may vary but this is my vanity web site so I can say what I like.

Before this turns into a reviews page I would just like to point out that I am warbling on about music because I now have my MP3 jukebox plugged into my PC at work and am actually getting to listen to all of the CDs I have bought over the last six months. Oh, and before anyone accuses me of musical elitism I would like to point out that I am booked on the Marillion weekend next year. Which almost legitimises Jonny Palmer's taste in music. Almost, Jon, but not quite.