Trim

As its only a few weeks until my sidekick and his intended missus get hitched, and I'm doing the talk in the service I felt I ought to go and get a haircut today.

But what I want to do is grow it to a decent length and with no other weddings/occasions looming I think this might be the first time in a few years where I can get on with the serious business of growing my hair.

But do you, discerning blog reader, think I should? Or should I go for a buzz cut and admit to the world that I'm no longer as youthful as I once was? Let me know in the comments...

Chilly

Did you know that Australian Aborigines used to use dingos as living blankets? Apparently when it was a bit parky they'd call it a "three dog night". One to remember when winter swings around.

(I could also imagine the phrase being used as a description of one of those nights clubbing when you get groped by drunken harpies. If it hasn't happened to you, then you've obviously never been to Flares.)

Published

Third Way arrived today and I’ve got a letter published in it. What I’m most chuffed about is that it’s right in the middle of the letters page with my name in big bold type. OK, I know it’s only a letter, but it’s still nice to know I can write coherently enough for an editor to choose my letter from the hundreds/thousands/tens they receive every month.

Background: Last issue they introduced Claire Fox from the Revolutionary Communist Party (relevant political mover and shaker, obviously, what with communism's implosion nearly 20 years ago) who blathered on a bit about how she became a communist and why she was anti-anti-apartheid. But the cover picture showed her striking a pose with a cigarette which irresistibly reminded me of when I was 17 and my friends joined the SWP, ANL or whatever, and smoked as a sign of their rebellion against society. I always felt smoking was a particularly stupid part of the posturing then, and I still feel that way now.

Cue my letter:

Nice to see that Claire Fox is still a rebel at heart. Why else would she strike a 'look at me, I'm so cool and rebellious I smoke!" pose on the cover of Third Way.
It's hard to respect a revolutionary communist who's also a nicotine slave, and through her addiction funds global capitalism while being the consumer at the end of a long chain of third world oppression. But then, maybe by smoking she's being anti-anti-capitalist. Or something.

I guess being sarcastic about their interview subjects is the way to go if I want to get my name in print more often!

Overdone

Cadbury's Caramel - one of the nicest chocolate bars around, even if we do miss the sultry bunny rabbit who used to tell the woodland folk to 'Take it Easy'. People said the Flake adverts were sexy, but compared to Caramel...

Cadbury's Caramel Eggs, however, are far too caramelly. And, frankly, are not very nice.

Whatever doesn't kill you

I've reordered my links to list my creative writing posts. If you'd like to critique them, suggest changes, or just slate them, then, hey, kill some time (but not my enthusiasm) and leave comments.

And, who knows, one day if I'm ever a super-famous writer you can brag down the pub how you helped make me a success.

Guardian of good taste

At work today Matt the designer complained because even though he had thousands of songs on his iTunes account, he couldn't find one he wanted to listen to. I offered to send him one, at which point he resoundly mocked my musical taste based on my liking the Scissor Sisters (as he has done before). This from a man who admits to having a Hanson album on his iTunes. When, I asked, were they ever cool?

Anyway, having shut him up with that, I sent him the song. And a couple of hours later discovered he'd posted it on his blog as "the best love song i've ever heard"*. Not only did he not credit me, but he surreptitiously posted it in work time too. Dodgy geezer. Still it makes a change for Matt to be thieving blog material off me because usually it's Lorenzo who does that.

And what was the song? Well, it's called Your Personal Penguin. It's the song of a book by cartoon genius Sandra Boynton which I bought for Cath in America, sung by Davy Jones of Monkees fame. Listen to/download it here!

*pedants like Tez be aware this is a direct quote, hence the lower case I

Sometimes it sucks to be a baseball fan in Britain

San Diego's Trevor Hoffman has just become the first player to notch up 500 saves and nobody in my office knows what that even means.

We've got a new person starting soon who is apparently American. I hope they like baseball.

Lawbreaker Jon

I drove through a red light this morning.

I was in a hurry, taking a different route round the back of town because of a snarl up on St Mary Street. A truck was parked up and obscured my view of the pedestrian crossing light until the last minute so I just didn't see it was red until I was going through it. Fortunately no one was actually crossing at the time, but I felt a bit sick at the thought of what could have happened if someone had stepped out onto the crossing.

So, if there was a camera on the light I'll be getting a TS10 through the post. That's one of the benefits of working in an insurance call centre in a previous life - I know the codes for most traffic violations. I also know if you have four bald tyres on your car you can be charged with four 3-point offences, and when you hit 12 points they take your licence away. Scary, huh?

(I don't know if I ever 'fessed up to Mum and Dad about this, but just after I passed my test I was driving their old Astra and had to stop at a red light on a big roundabout. I had a good look round and then drove through it because it was really late at night and there was nothing coming. Looking back, I can't believe I ever did that.)

Shadow Queens

Keep an eye out on your envelopes because the post office are celebrating 40 years of the 'Queen's Head stamps' (Machin definitives to stamp nerds like myself), and part of the postmark is a silhouette of the Queen's head design.

So what you might get through your letterbox tomorrow morning is a Queen's Head stamp with a ghostly shadow Queen's head printed over the top of it.

Well, I think it's cool.

Bye bye Ryan

Ryan Giggs' retirement probably added about 5,000 or so to the gate, but there were some large echoey spaces in the Millennium Stadium for the 0-0 draw with the Czech Republic. Of course Rowena jinxed it by saying she hoped it wouldn't be a 0-0 draw. I'm not overly superstitious, but you know when someone says something like that, what the result is bound to be...

The game itself summed up Ryan's international career. There were moments of brilliance (Bellamy's free kick hit the bar) and frustration (as yet another short corner didn't work). Wales might have grabbed some glory, but they didn't, and so this match became another one of those 'could have been' moments that Wales excel in. And for Ryan, a standing ovation from both sets of fans probably won't help him shake the feeling that his international career was one long 'could have been'.

And I reckon Wembley one weekend and the Millennium Stadium the next is spoiling me in time for the New Meadow's official opening.