Heaven In The Back Seat

Romeo's Daughter video from 1989. Superb band - I interviewed them once at the Oval Rockhouse in Norwich on the 93 tour.

Richard Hammond

Richard Hammond was seriously injured in a car crash yesterday. He has made Top Gear, Braniac and Time Commanders, along with other programmes, with his own brand of enthusiasm and energy, as well as a love of blowing things up. We wish him a speedy recovery and return to the screens. Top Gear has changed from a run of the mill motoring and review show to one of the few genuinely watchable programmes on television at the moment. They were pushing the boundaries, doing very different things while still being informative and fun. The amount of messages on the BBC's forums testify to Richard's immense popularity and the great feeling of affection that people have for him. This should not be used as an excuse for Top Gear to be removed from the screen or toned down - television and, dare I say it, humanity, need people like Richard who will take (acceptable) risks in the name of pushing back boundaries. Properly assessed items on Top Gear, yes, but not complete removal. Clarkson, May and Hammond are a superb team.

Best wishes to Richard and his family at this time.

I've just realised that the background to my blog is basically flock wallpaper.

My Space

In case anyone cares - my profile on MySpace.com:

Born in the 1970s and can remember most of them.  From a small Oxfordshire village, West Hendred, otherwise known as The Shire.  Pub (The Hare) doubles as the Green Dragon and houses my godfather and my son's godfather.  Cynical and jaded.  Married to the lovely Sam, son the lovely Rafferty, dog the very smelly greyhound Buddy, cats PJ and Boots, tortoises Compost and Tinkerbell.  Learning Greek, learnt Law and Italian since finishing PhD.  Just finished Diplomas in Occupational health and Environmetnal Management.  No longer a chemist.  Playing rugby very occasionally, playing cricket for Didcot 3rds.  My typing is shite and my wife keeps telling me (that my typing is shite, pedant).  Ironic since I keep reading Lynne Truss.  Mac user and loather of Microsoft and PCs.  Digger of holes.  Interested in history, archaeology, sport, practically bloody everything.  My wife thinks I'm strange.  Come to think of it, I think I'm strange.  Don't do drugs.

An Inconvenient Truth

Yes, I understand that this is a very worthy film that lots of people should see. However, I think that the advertising warning small print is going a little far. they've gone from the "contains sex, violence and bad special effects" type warnings to more specific ones: "contains peril", and "contains moderate cartoon peril where one character gets a mild nosebleed". The above film has a warnign of "contains scenes of ecological devastation". or something similar. Now this may be ironic and I'm not gettting the joke, but then again it is an American film so I doubt it.

Time Trumpet

Sometimes inspired, sometimes just misses the point badly.

Labour

They seem to be doing their level best to shoot themselves in the foot, to which the Torygraph are reacting with undisguied glee. It makes you wonder who will actually be the next leader and if Blair is simply waiting until Brown is as unpopular as he can get before Tony resigns. Who do we have as possibles for the leadership then:

• Gordon Brown - has gone from being the nailed-on certainty to merely the "likely" successor. If he doesn't make it, I suspect he would be very very bitter. However, I think he's been at the Treasury too long.
  
• Alan Milburn - rising star of the right wing of the party. Again, seems to be being groomed by Blair (innuendoes at the ready).
  
• John McDonnell - the only one to have actually stated he will stand, and he is being very forceful in his language against Blair and Brown.
  
• John Reid - I actually think he'd be good at the job, but the words "safe pair of hands" and "troubleshooter" seem to come up far too often in his job/career description. Used to be a communist, which I find interesting.
  
• Charles Clarke - the ultimate payback for being hung out to dry by Tony and then John Reid. He could very well do to Blair what Lamont did to the Tories.
  
• Alan Johnson, David Milliband, Peter Hain, Hilary Benn, Jack Straw - all others that are touted by the BBC. For Straw, read Charles Clarke.
  

The Clarkes

So if Ken Clarke had won the election to become Tory leader, and Charles Clarke throws his hat into the ring as the stalking horse for the Labour leadership, we'd just need Ming the Merciless to change his name and we'd have no choice over our next Prime Minister.

Jonathan

Why is it such a common name? There were 5 "Jonathan"s at school with me (and only 50 children in the entire school, 25 of which were boys.

At one stage at work, with less than 400 people, there were 14 "Jonathan"s.

And I'm the only one who refuses to answer to Jon.

Yes, well

I cannot comment on this one.

Canon

ESPN Classic has started up on Sky. I've always felt this was a good idea and I was surprised that the BBC and UKTV didn't put together a UKTV Sports channel to use up the BBC's library. However, ESPN are doing much the same thing and they were showing Sunderland vs Sheff Utd from the old Division 1 in 1985. To me, 1985 is not actually that far away, but when you saw the adverts around the pitchside and the crowd behind their steel cages, it really brought home that it really was a different world. Canon typewriters were advertised. Do Canon still make typewriters? Does anyone still use a typewriter?

Modems and routers

Once upon a time, I thought I was reasonably intelligent. I could manage to get a large number of exam passes at good levels, I could write web pages 15 years ago, I could easily understand the latest technology. Now, however, I am struggling. I can't get my head around any of the following:

• Setting up my new ADSL modem which turns out to be a router not a modem.
  
• Working out exactly how pensions work and how to understand the letters they send me explaining them
  
• Tax retuurns and applications for child tax credits.
  

The memory loss has started in that I can't remember the other things I wanted to add to the list. I made a list the other day of all the things that depress me, but I ran out of paper.

Sorry, I think this is the start of my mid life crisis.

Rafferty

He's standing up on his own now. And he's had his first trip to the pub in West Hendred.

Ladygrove

On the last two nights while walking the dog round the estate, I've stamped out a fire on the mounds and followed a very drunk person home. Such excitement.

Grand Prix and Politics

The prizes at the Turkish Grand Prix last Sunday were given by the leader of the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus". Slight problem about that as according to everyone bar Turkey, the country does not exist. Cyprus has even joined the EU without its Northern half - another example of the EU changing its rules to admit countries which are not politcially stable. The government of Cyprus only controls 60% of the country - the ceasefire line drawn many years ago is to all extents and purposes the border.

My opinion is that the Northern part should be able to secede - thay have voted for it and have been trying to make a go of it for a considerable time. Is this any different to Ireland, Korea, Vietnam, India/Pakistan, Pakistan/Bangladesh, Germany, Belgium/Holland, Spain/Portugal, Norway/Sweden, etc., where as a result of a war or dispute new sovereign nations were created from the split of large ones. Some of those examples go back a very long way...

Flemish only

A Flemish town has banned speech in any language other than Dutch in their schools. This covers the playground, parents talking while waiting for children at the gate, etc. The town, Merchtem, is in the Flanders region of Belgium where 90% of the population is Flemish but there has been an influx of French and Arabic speakers from elsewhere in Belgium and other areas. This is deeply worrying for the newcomers and for general integration.

The mayor said that said ordinary townspeople were upset by the sound of non-Dutch speakers chattering among themselves while waiting to pick up their children. If that is all they have to worry about, then they have it easy! How is this enforceable? How is this not complete discrimination? How do you teach languages in classrooms?

In the home of the EU, how is this even allowed. Or maybe it gives hope that the EU can be beaten.