January 17th - January 23rd 2005
Sunday Oops
Saturday On yr bike
Friday Kilroy-Silk cut
Thursday Housekeeping
Wednesday
Tuesday Revisioned
Monday Zipless
Sunday 23rd January 2005
Whatever
Last week's front page caption incorrectly stated that Titan was 2.8 billion miles from the Sun. The average distance is nearly 900 million miles.
- Correction, Independent, Jan '05
Saturday 22nd January 2005
Obituary watch
Peter Boissier, who has died aged 82, was a housemaster at Sherborne School, where his combination of character, moral certainty and muscular Christianity influenced successive generations of boys....He imposed a breezy, outwardly relaxed regime, which was bolstered by an arcane vocabulary with such phrases as "Anybody want to turn their bicycle round?" which meant, "Does anyone need to go to the lavatory?"
Friday 21st January 2005
Kilroy-Silk leaves Ukip, saying party is a 'joke'
(Pot. Kettle. Black.)
Thursday 20th January 2005
If I say that I have a pretty relaxed attitude to housework, there are those who know me well who will snigger, if not laugh out loud.
I maintain that far too much wasted energy is devoted to cleaning and polishing; they say I'm a slut.
I say that a little bit of grime helps develop a healthy immune system; they say that's no excuse for not having once dusted, wiped or hoovered for almost ten years.
I claim to marshal my energies where they matter - in the life of the mind; they say that probably explains why only four or five people have been invited into this flat since I bought it (not counting public servants, whose opinions I couldn't give a fuck about, to be frank).
I argue that it's only superstition that makes us so concerned to maintain clean surfaces and an empty sink at all times (an attitude that I know - from experience - drives women, in particular, mad).
And then I shrug and admit that it's true, it can sometimes be all too easy for a solitary bachelor to let things slip. A little. Especially if he smokes. And rarely sees daylight. But it didn't do Quentin Crisp any harm!
Astonishingly, one of the more bizarre knock-on effects of My Fabulous New Computer has been the initiation of a mini-whirlwind of cleaning and dusting chez Blogadoon: I had to clear some space to put it, so I needed to dust at least one of the thirty square yards of desk space.I had to get down on my knees beneath the desk to plug and unplug cables, so I needed to vacuum at least that bit of carpet (or risk death by suffocation).I had, finally, to buy a vacuum cleaner.
That was a saga in itself - but suffice it to say that I abandoned my lust for a Dyson once I saw the price, and settled for something I could carry home from Surrey Quays without busting both my back and my bank balance: a dinky little blue thing from Tescos - not the prettiest of appliances by any means, but hey.
I filled my first dustbag within an hour of getting it home - and, three days later, continue to cut swathes of cleanliness, if not godliness, through the dustbunny reserve I've hitherto been happy to call my home.
It's men's housekeeping, of course. None of that systematic room-by-room nonsense - just start with one especially dirty corner and then sand-blast everything within reach until your back gives out or you need a fag. (Actually, it's much more efficient to smoke whilst you vacuum: no darting to the ashtray, just tip it off in front of the sucky bit.)
So now, for the first time in a decade, the centre, south-east and north-west corners of my living room are really quite presentable - you wouldn't want to eat your dinner off them, but at least you'd probably notice if someone else had tried.
As to the south-west and north-east corners - time, and cleverly directed lighting, will see to that.
Wednesday 19th January 2005
Tuesday 18th January 2005
Looking at Blogadoon in Apple's spiffy new browser for the first time has shocked me into making some long overdue alterations to my stylesheet. Nothing too major, but now, at least, it looks like it was always supposed to, both in Safari and IE.
I've been astonished by how much quicker my web access is with this new system - innocent that I am, I'd supposed performance was entirely modem-related.
Whatever, having so much of the pain taken out of web-browsing ought to mean that the quality and quantity of links here improves considerably as time goes by. Hopefully.
That may go some way to compensating for the inevitable glitches that will creep in as I become accustomed to working on a new keyboard with new versions of familiar software.
I thank you for your patience.
Monday 17th January 2005
Reading about Tim Fountain's Sex Addict show, and its impromptu excursion into Sloane Square, you may have been as perplexed as I was by talk of "a sexual act lasting a few seconds".
But then you discover that Fountain's short-term partner had been celibate for seven years - and the timing starts to make a little more sense...
......previous week
