At last, a news source we know isn't biased!

The Random Times has to be one of the best things I've seen on the internet ever. A newspaper without biased, by virtue of the fact that it hasn't been written by anyone. Take the newspaper I generated a few moments ago...

Alabama 22°C, precious, lying later
Mongolia 32°C, new, whimsical later
Vesuvius 21°C, autumnal, tall later

Even unbiased weather!

Conquering Parliament Hill

At last! After Bank Holiday's pitiful effort, I finally made it all the way down London's tallest hill, in some style. Guy, naturally, did it in rather more style, but I'm not by nature a jealous man, and he has put a lot into snowboarding. As usual there are no photos, which seems a shame. I'll get a new camera some time and sort it all out. The ankle is making remarkable progress, and I may even start cycling to work by the end of the week!

What a nice man that Frederick Forsyth is

He's much nicer than Bruce, anyway. I was watching 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' on Saturday evening, as a part of my exciting urban lifestyle, and Gloria Hunniford and Frederick Forsyth were on. They got to a question about Katy Sexton and which sport she competed in, and they used all three lifelines and still weren't sure. In the end, Forsyth said 'I want to go for 'c', and if I'm wrong, I'll make up the money to your charity.' Apparently the money Gloria's charity would have lost was £15,000. He's either very rich or very brave. Possibly very stupid. But I thought it was a touching gesture, and as a result of it, instead of leaving with £16,000, they're now on £125,000 (might even have been £250,000) each. The best bit seemed to be how easily Forsyth knew all the answers. For example, a question about the (something or other) sands was something no-one would casually happen to know. Forsyth, on being asked if he had any ideas by Tarrant replied 'I've camped out there. If you go to the such-and-such hotel in Muscat, the capital of Oman, and get friendly with the Sultan's private SAS regiment, then they'll take you out for a couple of days' camping'. To be so well travelled, to be so well versed...


Forsyth and sons diving off the coast of Oman. Presumably the £250,000 question will be "In what country is the Mussandam Peninsula?"

I do not have a satelite dish up my ass!

This is me, this morning on the way to work. Apart from the snow of course.

Courtesy of this site, and highlighted by this one. And the title is a reference to this episode of South Park.

Time to go home

Every evening before I go home I make a list of the things I need to do the following day. Every afternoon at around 4pm I look at the list and realise I haven't done any of those things. Many evenings at about 6pm, I simply copy the list from one page of my diary to the next. One day, I want to come in to work to a diary page that has nothing on it....

On a more cheerful note, here is something funny found at B3TA.com, who have already sent about 30 people to my site because of this, so I owe them one. Oddly it probably links into one of the reasons I have this big list of things to do... It's a spoof movie poster for the most boring movie ever.

Something I've never seen before

A squirrle running across the road in rush hour. But I saw it this morning, on Brixton Hill. The most entertaining bit (in a twisted way) was where the squirrel tried to jump over a wall, but didn't jump high enough. I don't know quite how to describe a squirrel falling in an uncontrolled manner, but it is a sight to see.

He ran on afterwards, so he's probably ok.

A lovely weekend in the country

I was up in Snettisham this weekend. Snettisham is a small Norfolk village, famous only for its butcher, who is frequented by Her Majesty the Queen when she's at Sandringham. And the sailing club, which is home to former National and European champions in the Dart 18 catamaran class. And home to this weekend's Snettisham TT (Traveller's Trophy) Dart 18 event, which is why my parents were there.

I went for the break from London, and to see my family. And to fly my kite on the beach, which I did for most of Saturday. The wind was mostly pretty consistent, though it got patchier in the afternoon. The rain didn't help, but it was all good fun anyway. Unfortunately, a large lump of concrete on the beach took me by surprise and caught my already twisted ankle. I collapsed to the ground in agony, swearing furiously. After a minute or two I was back on my feet and walking fine, but it has swollen up slightly, and will probably put the healing back by about a week, sadly. And still no photos of kiteboarding. Maybe in late October.

Other than that, the weekend was a great opportunity to visit the RSPB reserve, which was full of geese, ducks, wading birds and general wildlife, and the beach, littered with cockle shells and driftwood. And Jamie has asked that I mention the cricket. Today there is a cricket match, but it will probably be rained off. There.

Focusing on the task in hand

For some reason today has been less than productive. Why, I can't say but I think I may have to stop an extra hour and catch up on the stuff I should have been doing.

Making tea

Sûm pëple don't knõw håw to mèk a cupp øf tæ...

Not to mention the people that don't know how to make a browser support special characters.

If a job's worth doing

Yesterday evening I removed the RACs temporary clutch and fitted a new one.

Saying it simply makes it sound like it was a 3 minute job. Step 1, remove clutch. Step 2, apply new clutch. Step 3, go inside and open nice bottle of Cotes Du Rhone acquired earlier at Tesco. In fact, I spent half an hour removing the clutch, and a further hour trying to get the damn pedal clip through the damn bulkhead. At which point I began accosting random strangers to see if they could help. One managed to help me get the clip through the bulkhead, and, defeated by the onset of the night, I retired to the bottle of wine mentioned above. This morning, in the light of day, it was another 10 minutes of grunting and swearing to get the thing in place, but as I drove to work, every gear change was a reminder that I'd done it (nearly) all on my own.

My hands are still covered in oil, and lots of tiny cuts and scratches.

No such thing as a free...

... car, on this occasion. A colleague has just got a new car, and has a spare one. She feels it won't be worth selling, and has given it to me. Which means all I have to do is ensure it's through its next MOT and then it's running costs only for a year. I clearly work with some generous people, and have the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time, at least now and then.

A great place to mountainboard

On Saturday evening, as the sun was going down, Rob and I drove through Richmond Park. We watched the deer frolicking through the trees, and the shards of light through the gaps in the branches. And we wandered from the car park to the cycle path that runs down a hill on the east side of the park. There, we found a gravel path full of turns (apparenlty called Beverley Brook) and we jumped on the mountainboard and off we went.

The hill has a sign at the top, advising cyclists to dismount. As we felt we were more at risk than the average cyclist, we decided to start halfway down. The path had just enough turns in it to be challenging and entertaining, yet accessible to the complete beginner, and to a man with a swollen ankle. We slowly worked our way up the hill, and I'm sure we'll be back there in a couple of weeks, to tear it up some more. Maybe even from the top.

Once again, my camera is not in the best state of repair, so I'll be leaving taking mountainboarding photos until after Braunwin and I head to Ottawa together in October - everything is so much cheaper there than here. But photos will come; I think this is a particularly photogenic sport.

You know you've had a good weekend when....

...your fingers hurt at the ends. This weekend I played bass at a wedding. Only it wasn't a wedding, it was a blessing of a union. Unconventionally in Catholicism, a forthcoming union - the couple are to marry in a couple of weeks in Mexico. The music seemed slightly dry during rehearsals, but the congregation clapped along and sang with enthusiasm, and playing for them was a real pleasure. The reception was also a pleasure to play at, and the jazz stylings we attempted seemed to go down well. Jean and Jasbeth were very gracious hosts, and will make a wonderful married couple.

My only complaint was that, at the end of the evening as I went to leave, my clutch cable snapped, and I had to wait more than two hours for the RAC to come and put on a temporary one. They did an excellent job though, as my clutch seemed to work in a way no other clutch does, and they still managed to put it all together fine. I got home by midnight, driving the car I left in. Now all I have to do is convey my concern and mild distaste to the man who lent me the car, my brother...