Is
this not beautiful?
Does one need to be a microbiologist to appreciate a good bit
of mould?
Surely not.
I found it growing in the greenhouse where some fertilizer (organic
obviously) had been dripping.
Thursday
29th August:
And
talking of babies, as we sort of were t' day afore yesterday.
This poor infant little site has moved home, only two months
old and already a www traveler, glory be to it all, indeed.
So we're finally and rightfully planarchy.com. Thanks to FreeUK
for the slightly more longwinded, but free, hosting that we've
had up until now.
I had some joke lined up about this being a babe-in-nappies-site
and not just because it was full of crap, but I can't remember
why I thought that was so funny in the middle of the night.
So
maybe not.
Tuesday
27th August:
Zee
reckons today's piece is a bit "strokey beard".
So you might want to give it a miss.
Today,
we received an emailed picture of a friend's baby. Good
friends of the DKNZ crew and lovely to see. Have a big
WWW welcome added to the other more conventional ones.
But the picture brought back a memory from long ago. Do
you remember young Damon Grant from the very early days of Brookside?
Well, whether you do or not isn't really important. Its
just important for me to name my sources. For, as I recall,
young Damon came up with the idea of taking a picture of one's
baby/child every week up until its eighteenth birthday and then
turning the resulting images into an animated film. This,
I thought at the time was beautiful. And I still do, up
to a point.
I
take a lot of photographs.
People, places, pterodactyls if I'm lucky. But not often
of strangers (though that's as much from fear as from a respect
for their privacy). Because it IS intrusive, maybe even
some hangover from the old "stealing you soul" idea.
The sad thing is that I find myself thinking this even when
taking pictures of young Dee and Kay. I hope I don't stop
taking the photos because I'm sure the images will give the
girls as much pleasure when they're older as the pictures that
my father took of my siblings and me as children, do today.
Then we come to the internet, and more problems. It is
very sad to me that I think it unwise to place pictures of Dee
& Kay which illustrate a happy childhood, online.
But I do. Not least because even Grauniad readers get
sucked into the DailyMail type hysteria over the internet being
an evil place.
So,
put it all together. If I'd had the opportunity to take
a picture of Dee & Kay every day or week since birth would
I have done so? And if I did would the animation produced
have been uniquely for them or would I have wanted to show it
to others? Like I do with my better pictures.
So,
I don't know. Still unsure.
Monday 26th August:
So,
Channel 4's night of dance, eh.
And they start with Dirty Dancing.
Still no mention of the special effects used in this movie (Jennifer
Gray is 6ft2, Patrick Swayzee a mere 4ft7, so even with
risers in his socks and dancing on a box there was something
clever going on). Zee says I have a thing about this.
Well, maybe I do. But I just think everyone should be
aware of the facts.
The
"You askin'? I'm Dancin'" programme that followed
DD was far more insightful viewing. Though I'd like to
know if, when they scripted the line "And if you thought
Dirty Dancing was a shite movie...." they knew the very
same DD was part of the evenings viewing.
And if so, they just thought, "What the hell, they've watched
it now."
I do hope so.
I like to think of programme schedulers as even more cynical
than the critics. They then went on to show some clips
from "Flashdance" without using the only decent line
from "The Full Monty", ie: "I don't know about
her dance moves, but that welding's shite." Oh well,
gives me something to tune into anyway.
Sunday 25th August:
"Where
do slugs go to die daddy?"
"To
our back garden, darling?"
"Why, daddy?"
"I have no idea, but it is really beginning to annoy me!"
....well that's not quite how it went, but you get the picture.
We,
I like to think, have a nice garden. People compliment us
on it.
And word has obviously got about. Slugs make pilgrimages
here. And when they get here they have a snack and then they die. Literally
hundreds of them. By beer trap, slug pellet, under-foot
or even bisection with my trusty garden scissors (eeee I'm a bloodthirsty
veggie) they do not survive for long. Why do they bother?
Do our plants really taste that good? Are they really worth
the ultimate sacrifice?
Thursday
22nd August:
Oh
dear, back to those "Best of..." charts again (9th
August for most recent previous). The Beeb has come
up with the 100
greatest Brits (source the Grauni,
as ever). The names but not order have been released so
far. The Grauni, going all Torygraph on us, appear
aghast that John Lydon and Sir David of Beckscum are included.
Personally, I'm much more upset that that bleeding Churchill is
at the top AND that there's no mention of the likes of Spike Milligan
(I know he was born in India and carried an Irish passport but
come on!). On the plus side I was impressed that there were
only five names that I hadn't heard of (though it would have been
six if they hadn't written Bono in brackets next to err, sorry
I've forgotten his real name again).
Its a shame I already have a "B" lined up for the soapbox,
since "Best of..." lists would make an excellent one.
Wednesday
21st August:
Never mind
faking the moon landings, now they can read
our minds! Though only if we're a) a terrorist and b)
at an airport, apparently.
And could this not have come straight from the
Onion?
Tuesday
20th August:
Now,
I guess a band of twenty three white robed guys from Texas should
set some alarm bells ringing in a wizened ole liberal (with a
small El) like me, but The
Polyphonic Spree, or at least the single "Soldier Girl"
sounds pretty good. Describing the single, however, one
fails to inspire any enthusiasm. Telling folk that it sounds
a bit like ELO, albeit before Roy Wood went elsewhere, seems to
turn people away. Can't think why.
Monday
19th August:
As we drive
back into our little corner of good old London E 10 we can't fail
but notice some good souls have brightened up our block with some
nice little yellow shoes for six of the cars that have opted to
spend their last days in this quiet little spot. As we pull
up in front of DKNZ towers I spot two suspicious guys sitting
in a white van with the engine running. Whilst we unpack
the car they jump from their van and award another unlicensed
vehicle with one of their little shiny prizes. Tee hee hee.
And to think only the other
week t'estate agents were claiming this car graveyard was
the new Islington.
Friday
16th August:
Good
to see someone's taking the 25th anniversary of Elvis's death
seriously. The Xfm breakfast show finished with a cross
London 21 flush salute. Good stuff. Other good stuff
from Chris
& Christian this week included some additional suggestions
for the anti-social behaviour on-the-spot-fines. To speed
the process up they suggested that PC's carried swipe card readers,
possibly with an option of cash-back on top of your fine (so you
could get another round of drinks in!).
But
now we're off for the DKNZ weekend on a narrow boat. Expect
the travelblog shortly.
Wednesday
14th August:
With
the girls avec les grandparents Zee and I decided to sake the
opportunity to have an evening at the cinema. While first
choice would for me, obviously, have been "Lost in la Mancha"
this was not on locally and we're far too old to jaunt into t'West
End of an evening, aye. So we ended up with "Minority
Report" over at t'local multiplex. We allowed an hour
beforehand for a pizza next door, which was just as well as it
took them an hour to serve us. As recompense they knocked
the salad off the bill. Considering all there was in the
salad bins was peas, carrots and pineapple chunks I think they
had a bit of a cheek daring to describe it as a salad in the first
place. THe rest of the piece is probably only really
worth reading for those that have seen the film. I won't
actually discuss any plot ruining action but will assume a working
knowledge of the story.
It was enjoyable if a bit long (the last half hour could easily
be condensed into ten minutes for anyone with an IQ above ten).
In fact I thought it HAD finished twenty minutes or so from the
end and, if the screen had stayed blank for two seconds longer
would have started to leave. Apart from being too long
my only other major complaint was all this nonsense with the hands
controlling the computer interface. I find that a good interface
involves minimal movement not conductor like histrionics just
to move one futile over another. Ditto with the display
they worked with. We all like a big screen but if you've
got to move your head around like a newly qualified news reader
(excellent examples on BBC News 24 at the moment) then maybe its
a little over the top.
Why not
use a mouse, Tom?
My final regret is that they didn't, in the end, debate the morality
of the pre-crime concept. That is, is it right
to lock up people who are just about to commit a murder?
And more interestingly if, by doing so murder becomes a thing
of the past does it matter if you get it wrong occasionally?
An extension of the old its better to let a guilty man walk
free than lock up an innocent guy type thing. Only
the other way round which I'm sure is what many people believe
anyway.
Tuesday
13th August:
I've
just narrowly avoided having one of my ears cut off.
And it was the one that works!
I was sitting nervously in the barbers having a number 2 over
one ear (heh-heh) when on the radio (bleedin'
Magic FM) comes "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay".
Now, I hadn't realised up until this moment just how deeply the
excellent Vic
& Bob sketch ("What are you doing Marvin?" "I'm
sitting on the dock of the bay, Otis" etcetera, etcetera)
was ingrained in my consciousness. As a result, this airing
of the song left me unable to stifle a short guffaw. Which
nearly cost me my ear. Steve (of local barber's "Steves"
so named as they're both called Steve) didn't know the sketch
and you can't explain that sort of thing can you.
Apologies
to the large percentage of readers who once again have no idea
what I'm talking about.
Monday
12th August:
Cheers
to my Lambeth born, Canadian mate Em for bringing to my attention
the final proof that the moon
landings were fake. He's been convinced for years
but I, as someone who remembers it all happening (or so I thought)
I have been a little more sceptical until now. If you've
missed the less convincing evidence then maybe its time to visit here,
but there are thousands of other equally convincing sites.
It
is very quiet in the house tonight. Yesterday we took
the girls down to my parents to stay for a few days. Its
now well past their bed time now but something still seems missing
from the house. Jay, Zee's dad came round for supper and
suggested we just do the things we used to. The thing
is, I really don't know what we did with all those spare hours
that we had only three and a bit years ago. I guess its
just a little example of the "taking the whole day to do
nothing" syndrome which is so easy to slip into on a day
off. You only really know how much time you've got when
you're cramming everything you can into it.
Saturday
10th August:
The first
post brings the stopwatch that Zee ordered online Thursday evening.
The shame is that this excellent internet shopping experience
will never result in any great rewards for AST
Ltd, as we'll probably never want another stopwatch.
They're not like CDs or jam are they?
And how can they make money on it anyway? £4.70 for
a stopwatch including shipping anywhere in the world.
It came from Ashby de la Zouche by the way, which to me meansAdrian
Mole.
"Why does Zee need a stopwatch?" I hear you ask.
Well, Dee and her are in training for the Flora
5K run on Sunday 1st September. The stopwatch is an
integral part of the training regime. Oh, yes.
If its
Saturday it must be family shopping! I had a new mobile
to purchase (the old one having broken despite only £30
worth of calls over three years). Zee meanwhile takes the
girls off to buy the final bits of Dee's new school uniform (she
starts secondary school in September).
"Has dad approved these purchases?" she asks Zee.
I think Zee just made a face. But its good to know that
Dee misses nothing of her parents budgetary discussions (I'd suggested
leaving it all until the Saturday before term started 'cos "they
never sell out of school uniform"). It was with
a certain wry delight that Zee informs me that they've sold out
of grey sweatpants. (As if!)
The evening
sees us all seated in awe around the recently purchased DVD player
to watch "The Lord of the Rings". Still a little
bit underwhelmed I'm afraid. Not at all a bad attempt at
a vastly overrated book. My main interest ultimately was
the EnZee angle (see....). As mentioned in the The Real
Downunder travelblog I still don't really see how this film can
be an advert for this beautiful country (the mines of Moria and
Mordor were special effects guys!!). And not a single tree
fern in sight. And let me tell you, EnZee is tree fern central
(well maybe second to a certain garden in London E10 maybe).
I don't
want to turn this into a "Kids say the funniest things"
type affair but before the film Dee asked K who her favourite
Hobbit was.
"Birdwatching!"
spake young Kay.
Friday 9th
August:
Now,
I think I have discussed "Best of.." polls before
(Robbie lost to the calculator by the way). Well,
Sight
and Sound and their twin poll of Directors and Critic have
agreed(!) that Citizen Kane as the best film ever.
Obviously, this is untrue.
So until I've actually watched "Citizen Kane" all
the way through we'll have to agree that Terry
Gilliam's meisterpiece Brazil
is the best movie ever made. A future item for the
soapbox here also, why is" Brazil" not available on
DVD for British audiences (the same question applies to Eddie
Izzard videos incidentally!). That state of the art
DVD player is
appearing to be more and more of a white elephant every day!
PS: I've
only just discovered that Terry Gillliam was behind those Nike
adverts involving the three a side football on board the rusting
boat. Should have sussed that out earlier I suppose, very
Gliilamesque. Not sure how I feel about a hero so blatantly
selling new millennial slave market but there you go.
Also,
and appearing everywhere from noospapers to radio and beyond is
the so-called Clever
Crow. Apparently, this bird can bend a bit of wire into
a hook and get meat out of a beaker. Pah!l. Our local
neighbourhood Jay will, if I leave out some bread, butter and
a jar of jam, happily make himself a sandwich.
Clever crow indeed!
Stop
Press:
Wow! Anyone see McAlmont
& Butler on TOTP. I've been hearing the song ("Falling")
for weeks on Xfm and not thought much of it. But live
it really made me sit up, in a way that TOTP appearances rarely
do these days (I know I'm not really in the target audience
but I still think young). Anyway, the girls enjoy
my witty comments(!). The Butler's guitar was out of tune but
much further up in the mix. And he was obviously having
a whale of a time. The two still don't appear to be on
the best of terms but.... Truly excellent stuff!
Thursday
8th August:
So
in an attempt to reduce the numbers that are stolen and dumped
Asda have unveiled a new type of supermarket
trolley. The trolley is automatically stopped at the
boundary of the store car park by invisible magnetic rays (or
something). I'm sure I'm not the only one who has experienced
a prototype of this device in which the wheels lock for no apparent
reason half way round the store. Still its nice to know
I was playing a part in this important scientific breakthrough.
Its
the eighth of the eighth again, which means it's my 14th anniversary
in my current job (hooray!). Now, maybe you think its a
bit sad to be celebrating such things (it is) but the only reason
I remember the date so specifically is because I started there
on the 8/8/88 which is a little bit memorable. Also very
lucky according to Chinese numerology, I believe. As to
just why the Chinese consider eight so lucky there seems to be
some disagreement out there in web-land. FIrst I'm told
its because the word eight sounds like multiply but
elsewhere that it is because it sounds like the word for prosperity.
I suppose they could both be right, I can see multiply and prosperity
meaning the same thing in some contexts?
Anyway, needless to say no-one at work had seen fit to get me
a card.
Gits!
Wednesday
7th August:
And
the site goes from yellow to grey. Yellow and purple was
just too much like young Kay's very colourful bedroom.
Tuesday
6th August:
Hiroshima
day, nout else to say.
Monday
5th August:
Excellent
stuff!
Today's G2 section of the Grauni has a wonderful piece on Estate
Agents, specifically an office in 'stow. Though,
technically we're a Leyton family since we moved across the
great High Road we still greatly enjoyed their description of
Walthjamstow as the "New Islington". Aye, we're
fighting off them Tony cronies as I type.
Sunday
4th August:
The
closing ceremony of the Commonwealth games held but one amusing
spot for me (other than the rain). This man of light thing
had me thinking alternatively of "The
Wicker Man" and Eddie
Izzard's Roman(?) funeral sketch where they end up by "twanging
him into a tree" (it was all those strands of elastic I
guess) but maybe you had to be here. Apparently
the real message was of all the world's faiths coming together.
Yeah, right.
Saturday
3rd August:
Ta-da!
We
are, at last, a DVD family (the last in Ingerland if some of
my younger friends are to be believed). I've been thinking
about it for a while but remained un-convinced about any benefits
other than that the discs take up less space on our overcrowded
shelves than those of the humble old VHS cassettes.
"You'll really notice the picture quality," people
would crow.
"Harrumpff,"
I would reply, "Films aren't like music, you don't look
for the detail like you do on a CD."
I still stand by this one, by the way.
"But the sound, the surround sound will blow you away,"
my would-be-convincers retort, changing tack abruptly.
"Then again since I'm deaf in one ear how's that going
to work exactly?" I reply. Its at this point that
most folk remember why it is they don't discuss anything remotely
contentious with me very often.
Nevertheless, with the impending release of "The Lord of
the Rings", Kay and I went out to purchase the Which Best
buy model. We eventually found it a whole 1p cheaper than
the list price, so I'm glad we didn't just buy it in the first
shop we went into (those lessons in thrift my my Ma are still
burnt deep into my very existence). It's a Toshiba SD220
by the way. And Alexi used to advertise Toshiba didn't he?
So it must be OK, eh? Why no website Alexi (or have I missed
something obvious)? As for the SD220 I'm a little perturbed
that the Toshiba website picture is the same as for the earlier
SD120 (indeed, the picture is called "SD120").
This is obviously the state of play. Why bring out a new
model every year? Just change the model number and hope no-one
will notice. After all if you bought a DVD player one
year you probably wouldn't be looking for another player a year
later, would you? This way everyone has the same machine
but the satisfaction of thinking they've got the latest technology.
So,
having purchased the latest model Toshiba DVD player we leave
the shop. Foolishly, I let Kay carry the boxed machine
to the car. Obviously she decides that this is as suitable
a moment as any to play "Race you back to the car , dad."
I just about manage to re-memeber the psychology behind positive
reinforcement and thus warn her to "Be careful" rather
than shout "Don't drop the DVD player". This
elicits a turn of the head rather than a slowing of pace.
Great, so now she's running across the car park looking back
over her shoulder. I find myself hoping that DVD players
bounce.
Having got the item home, Kay was happy. THis was it,
we had a new status symbol. I felt there was still something
missing, however.
Like
something to play on it.
Saturday
afternoons in 'stow aren't my favourite shopping experience.
But, I'm glad to report that by far the widest selection of
sensibly priced DVD's were to be found in our independent record
shop (as I still think of it), "The Cavern".
Loads and loads they've got. And two for £22 to
boot. But what to buy for family viewing from their selection
which was geared to a slightly more adult market than our 9
and 11 year olds might demand. In the end I settled for
"The Matrix" (well you have to have it on DVD don't
you) and "Tootsie" because Zee's been moaning that
someone had nicked her VHS copy and she thought the girls would
like it. Not really my cup-a char but it did have a few
more good moments than I remembered and the girls indeed enjoyed
it. I can't see why its a 15 certificate though.
The expletives I suppose.
Friday
2nd August:
This
is good, no real purpose but surprisingly addictive for something
so simple. Maybe you could try the Reflex
Tester during an evening of alcohol consumption and find
out just how slow you get. My best, before intoxication
is 0.16 seconds, but I'm old (apparently).