Sod the rising sea levels....

...global warming is affecting me in a much worse way. here in the UK we have had a dry and mild Winter. As a consequence all of those evil little bugs that come out to play in Winter have been able to breed unchecked.

Pretty much everyone in our office has had the flu. I had it a couple of weeks ago and it was a nasty b'stard of an illness. Aches, a fever, coughing, sweats, shivers, headaches - the works. Then, having just got over that my beloved came down with what has been dubbed 'the winter vomiting virus'. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

It has been nearly a week and she seems to be over the worst which is great. But on the train this morning, jammed in like sardines I suddenly started to feel nauseous. A swift drink of evian allayed the danger. I made it all the way to work, and now I feel a little better, but I wonder whether I am now going to think myself ill.

So, positive healthy thoughts from now on, and I will try to supress and rumblings/gurglings from down below.

Curse you damned cfcs!!!

Brits

They say that you should never meet your heroes. Well I'm not so sure about that. As long as you haven't built up an unrealistic picture of them in your imagination you generally get what you expect and often much more.

However, watching The Brits last night I decided that perhaps the maxim should be changed to "you should never see your heroes drunk". The Kaiser Chiefs won three awards and each time they went to collect an award they dropped in my estimation. I had based my perceptions of the band on their lyrics, music, and image. What I saw last night was a bunch of incomprehensible drunks who were incapable of stringing a sentence together or saying anything remotely interesting or witty. What a shame.

Coldplay on the other hand were every bit as you would expect. Bland. I like their music but it rarely shocks you, and that was like their behaviour at the Brits. You can't imagine them trashing a hotel room after a riotous night of drinking. But you can imagine them folding the towels neatly and doing the dusting before checking out.

Paul weller won the lifetime achievement award. Well deserved, but strangely he didn't seem to have the requisite gravitas to close the show. An odd choice of songs didn't help and I felt underwhelmed - which is a pity because I love The Jam, The Style Council and much of solo material.

Highlight of the night for me was Prince. Years ago when I was at University I bored people rigid by insiting that although he had gone bonkers and was purveying paint-by-numbers funk/soul he was actually a fantastic guitarist. Well at this years Brits he rolled back the years and put on a show-stealing performance with some exquisite guitar playing. The guy still has star quality and I hope we see more in the vein of Purple Rain in the future.

Other than that, awards went to James Blunt (most annoying twonk in popular music) and Green day (most over-rated bunch of middle class white boys playing at being punks).

Tonight it's the Bafta film awards. Hurrah!

You say tomato...

The big topic in conversation at work today has been how to pronounce the word croissant.

M pronounces it crossont whereas I pronounce it kwasson. Now clearly I am right and M is wrong. The question of course is - who cares? A rose by any other name smells as sweet and no doubt M's crossont tastes as nice as a normal croissant.

Still it passed 10 minutes of the day.

The Passing of Common Sense!!!

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who
has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was
since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as
knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the
worm, life isn't always fair, and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend
more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not
children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but
overbearing regulations were set in place.

Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for
kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash
after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student,
only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the
job they failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental
consent to administer paracetamol, sun lotion or a sticky plaster to a
student; but, could not inform the parents when a student became
pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became
contraband; police forces became businesses; and criminals received
better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a
burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to
realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in
her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust;
his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son,
Reason.

He is survived by three stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, Someone Else
is to Blame, and I'm A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone.

-------------------

sadly I can't take credit for this but I like it nonetheless

So much to write about....

... but I will have to compress it all into one post.

Last Friday I went to lunch at the Reform Club with a University friend. A fine day of fine food, fine wine, and fine company ensued.

On saturday, (with only a moderate hangover) I went to Northampton for the Quiz Grand Prix. Run by quizzing.co.uk the Grand Prix provide a very tough quiz and from the results compile national rankings. The current Mastermind champion and past Millionairre winner Pat Gibson was there. As were Kevin Ashman and CJ Demooi from BBC1s Eggheads.

180 questions (6 rounds of 30) in 80 minutes under exam conditions. At the end of it your worst round is eliminated to give your final score out of 150. I scored 73 which I was informed was a very good score for a beginner. I was 40th out of 61. Now I'm a competetive soul and would not have been happy with that beforehand, but after doing the quiz I doff my cap to those who scored higher than me.

In the afternoon there was a team quiz. There were 2 superteams who unsuprisingly came 1st and 2nd, but the team I was on came 3rd. Hoorah!