Life changing events affot

I've been silent for a couple of days because life changing events have been afoot. The dragon woke me at 6am Monday to tell me her waters had broken. So we took her to the hospital after breakfast. They kept her in all day and she went into labour at about 1am Tuesday. By 9.15am I was a daddy.

Here is a picture.

Despite the fact that he put in a slightly early appearance, everything went very well. The dragon lost control of her English ability when she was giving birth. I think the pethadin may have played a part in that. The first thing she said when she realised it was over was, "He's so cute, I want to have another one".

In case you are interested, he came out at just under 3 kg and has a mass of black hair. I think he has an Asian nose and western eyes, but like all newborn babies, he looks like Chairman Mao.

I'll do a proper page of pictures when I get a moment. This would already be prepared if he'd come when expected. I'm sure that all this isn't as important to you as it is to me, but I wanted to spread a little of my happiness.

I'll get back to my usual prolific drivel as soon as possible.

Booze

After yesterday's revealations about cash loans to the Labour party in exchange for peerages, the media here is asking how parties in Britain should be funded. I personally think everyone should bring a bottle.

It's bleeding snowing again, in mid March, I dispair of this country. It is however Friday which means that I finish at 1.30 and I can go home to play.

Tonight I am going out with Big Pete and Justin. That will result in Pete attempting to get me drunk and gettign Justin to smoke. I'll stop drinking after a couple and he'll get annoyed. Justin will get angry and threaten to kill Pete over the cigarette issue. I'll report tomorrow on the outcome.

The above was written on Friday, but never posted. It's now Sunday night. I didn't drink too much on Friday night, though it was enough to ensure that I had a hangover on Saturday morning. I had recover4ed by the afternoon. I'll write a proper report tomorrow.

EATAPETA

Well I couldn't persuade the folks that crispy duck was the thing to eat yesterday, but I did steer everyone to Mario's Italian restaurant, Wood Street, Swindon, whereupon we all feasted on the fine fair within. Mother rather let the side down with a vegetarian lasagna, but I think I made up for it by ordering the veal, which also included ham. Father ate copious amounts of shellfish pasta, and the dragon ate about a kg of farmed samon. So I think we did our bit for EATAPETA day.

One of the bloody tyres on our new pushchair appears to be leaking. I wouldn't have noticed, but mother did and the wheel in question is being returned to the shop today. What's the betting that they don't have a replacement and we have to wait about 10 days for a new one?

The dragon is off to the doctor this morning for her weekly baby check. This could be the last one. He was moving around last night. It looked like he was trying to get out. I do hope he doesn't put in an appearance before the wheel for his buggy is fixed.

Yesterday my agency e-mailed me and informed me that my contract was being altered. I replied asking if that was legal and I have received only a stony silence in response. Honestly, what is the point of signing a contract if it can be changed without my consent? It actaully doesn't affect me, but I have a good mind to refuse to sign just on principal.

The ID cards bill has been defeated in the House of Lords for a third time this week and that puts parliament in something of an awkward position. Now that it has been defeated three times, in theory the Parliament act can be used to push the legislation through without Lords consent. The Parliament Act exists to bypass the Lords if it is deemed the Lords shouldn't be voting on something. For instance, if there was proposed legislation to alter the house of Lords in some way, the Lords would have a bias and can't be expected to vote on the issue. The government has already abused this act however to pass the disasterous hunting with dogs legislation. Attempting to use the act a second time for something it really shouldn't be used for would I think be very contraversial indeed.

The sticking point is passports. The government has conceded that ID cards should be voluntary, but they have insisted that anyone renewing their passport would have to register. The Lords quite rightly claim that the scheme is therefore not truely voluntary. Charles Clarke's argument is that passports are voluntary and therefore the cards remain voluntary. The peers are not having that. The government is claiming that they have to continue with the plan since it was a manifesto promise however.

Blair's woes don't stop there. As predicted, yesterday's education reforms bill was voted through comfortably. However, there were a considerable number of Labour rebels and had the Conservatives voted against, or even abstained, the bill wouldn't have got through. Most pundits seem to think that Conservative support will be withdrawn at the next reading anyway, so it's a hollow victory.

On top of all this, there is now a new row about "loans" to the Labour party from people who then expect to receive a peerage. The Labour party treasurer has fanned the flames somewhat by admitting he knew nothing about the "laons" in question. All this goes to further the perception that the current government is indeed the most corrupt in living memory.

And I've just seen news that claims MPs have voted to send the ID cards bill back to the Lords for a fourth time. There are now claims that each ID card will come with a pin to establish identity. This appears to be an admission that either the biometric id feature doesn't work, or more likely, that readers are too expensive. This of course changes the shape of the whole ID card plan. The Lords can either defeat the bill and bat it back to the commons for a fourth time, or they can capitulate and let the bill go through. I hope with every fibre of my living being that they defeat it. If they do, this will continue until one side backs down or the Parliament act is used. I think they would already have used the Parliament act if they were going to however.

Judge for yourself

OK, before I start, don't forget that today is "Eat An Animal For Peta" day. Chuck something dead on the barbeque for lunch and dinner and then go to the PETA Is Full Of Crap website to list the animals you ate. I'm going to try and persuade my family to eat some Chinese duck this evening just to be different. I also had a pig sandwhich at lunchtime.

Good suggestion from Abby; I quite like the name "Ragnar". I see it's a Norse name and means "wise leader". I still think I like Angus, Oliver, and Sanders better. While researching Ragnar, I also found Raghnall (not sure how to pronounce that) which means "wise and powerful". Raghnall is apparently Celtic/Gaelic, which appeals to me. It's good to see that Dickie approves of Humphrey, everybody else thinks I'm mad.

The parents will be paying us a visit today, and this time I might even be home before they leave. I'm going to call them shortly and remind them to bring their keys for our back door. There are three keys currently (four if you count the one the estate agents failed to recover) and they have two of them. They are no use at all on their own since I installed a second back door lock, but it's a pain in the butt not having them.

It's been suggested that my current employer might ask me to extend my contract. I quite want to, but right now I'm not really ready to commit myself to anything over the arrival time. It's annoying not knowing when he's going to pop out. I quite like the name Giles too, but it means baby goat apparently (or shield bearer, depending on where you look it up) and that would just be cruel wouldn't it?

I seem to have attracted notes from Taipei and Virginia on the last entry. Isn't that where the Waltons live? (Virginia, not Taipei of course). The picture painted of Virginia by Brandenburg's Angel would seem to be rather different to Walton's Mountain, but an interesting read non the less. A pagon commenting on my page, who'd have thought it?

Tonight Tony Blair is to face a commons vote on his education reforms. He will win, but he's already had to bribe and blackmail his own backbenchers to vote for him and he will still have to rely heavily on conservative support to make up the numbers. I can't say that I have strong feelings about the reforms themselves. It's another one of those votes that can go either way and still please me. If he wins it's only because he was bailed out, if he loses it's because he's a failure. According to the Telegraph editorial this morning, the Blairs have mortgages totalling £4 million and that's why Cherie is charging outrageous amounts of cash for talking bollocks to people with more money than sense.

And, in conclusion...

Is it just me, or does Pope Benedict XVI looks exactly like Fester Adams. Too much for coincidence? You never see them together do you!


Uncle Fester:



The Pope:


Judge for yourself!

Glowing red

We're having trouble choosing a name for the baby. We should have this sorted out by now I realise, but we haven't. I think the problem is that the dragon doesn't really understand western naming conventions and I'm just, well eccentric. I like "Humphrey" because it means "peace" and Humphrey Bogart was cool, as is Humphrey Littleton. However, I seem to be the only person in existance who does like it. I also like Nelson, but even I can see that I can't choose that for him. What do you people out there think of "Sanders"? I think it sounds quite posh and it means son of Alexander, which is my name. It's a bit out there isn't it. I also like "Maddox" but it doesn't have a good meaning (son of the lord). I like Maddock less, but it has a better meaning (champion, good fortune). Other names I thought were nice were Oliver, Angus, Argus, Grumpy, Sleepy, and Sneezy.

Like an idiot I managed to pour boiling water over my hand last night and it now glows red. I'll probably survive. I was preparing a hot water bottle for the dragon. It eases the back pain you see. Note to self, do not attempt hot water bottle preparation in dark again.

I don't think the TENS machine is the destroyer of worlds Andrew. I wouldn't claim it was a relaxing passtime, but then, neither is giving birth. I can't believe it's 16C in Ontario. My thermometer said 5C when I looked on Sunday. I thought Canada was cold.

I had a stroke of luck this morning. The window washer on the car has been out of action for a week or so, and today it just came back to life. It must have been a blockage. I was prepared to replace the pump. Actually I couldn't find the pump when I looked. It seems to be hidden in the wheel arch somewhere. So it's lucky that I didn't dismantle everything to remove it. Little things like this please me.

I heard recently that despite 12% of the world population claiming to be agnostic or atheist, more than 99% of US prisoners claim to belong to a recognised religious faith, while around 90% of Nobel prize winners claim to have no faith at all. I don't know how true this is, and it would take quite a bit of research to confirm these figures. But I so hope it's true. I've always been annoyed by Christians who tell me that I can't have a moral life without religion. It would be great to toss back a statistic that suggests that 90% of Nobel winners are without morals.

I got a note from Dickie somewhat dismayed that I used the word "cute" in the last entry. I concede that it's not a word that I would generally use, but my brain is preoccupied with my impending fatherhood these days and I think there was a certain sarcasm in the usage yesterday. I think the "cute" in question refered to the clock I mounted in the nursery. In fact I think the jpg file is titled "FunkyClock" so I hope that is more in keeping with my usual style.

I might have mentioned that my sister in law is now running an establishment somewhere between bar and tea shop in Taipei. I have visited and I can recommend it if you find yourself in the Taipei area. This week it actually made the national press in Taiwan. So, if you find yourself in Yongkang street, give it a try, mention my name and you might even get a free beer.

Funky sunflower clock

Well another weekend has passed and no baby goblin has emerged. This may be a good thing since it's been so cold that the baby is possibly better off where he is. Global warming my dimpled arse! There was bloody snow on the ground yesterday morning again and there was snow on the hills as I drove to work this morning. Seriously, it's got no business being this cold this time of year.

It's been a good weekend in general however. We didn't do a lot, it was almost relaxing. I finally found my drill which meant I could at last attach the bookcase to the wall in the nursery. I also hung the cute baby clock on the wall. It has a sunflower pendulum and a floating butterfly. We also cooked a chicken, a devasting bolognese sause, and a very passable pasta salad. Oh, oh, and a great risotto yesterday with the leftover chicken.



We also rented a TENS machine on Saturday which has been the source of much amusement.



For those who don't know, a TENS machine is a device designed to ease pain during labour. TENS stands for Transcutanious Electrical Nerve Stimulation, according to the instruction manual. It works by administering mild electrical stimulation through pads attached to the skin, and appears to deliver everything from comfortable tingling, to really quite frightening shocks depending on how you set it up. I have no idea if this will work, but the dragon has some faith in it and I think a positive attitude is probably half the battle. Big Pete came round and played with it for quite some time.

I am relaibly informed that 15 March is "Eat an animal for PETA" day, and events are being held at various steak houses and barbeque joints around the world. Check out the PETA is full of crap website to find a venue near you. I can't find one in my area sadly, but I will be chucking something dead under the grill on wednesday and maybe I'll even bring you pictures on this very page. I would really like to eat something that day that I have hunted down and slaughtered myself, but that may be difficult. I was thinking of heaving a brick at a pheasant that often visits my parents' garden, but pheasant is out of season now and I can't get over there before Wednesday anyway.

I knew pushchair was called something different in American parlance, now I know it's stroller. Do you guys have "prams"? I did a trial car seat fitting on Friday, and it seems to go in quite easily incidentally, though we can't use it in the front passenger seat because there is an airbag.

I was told this weekend that Operation Ore, the police operation to track down sex offenders, has decended on my home town and two people I know were convicted on child porn charges. I worked with both of these people and One of them I knew quite well. I don't really approve of operation ore, which I think is more of a witch hunt than a legitimate operation, but I don't approve of child abuse either of course. I was shocked when I heard about these two people. Apparently neither of them was jailed, but at least one of them got a probationary sentence, was ordered to go on a sex offenders' course, and was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register. People caught by operation Ore for child porn offences were all tracked down when they used credit cards to pay for internet access to pay sites. My initial reaction when I heard about this was that neither of my aquaintences would be stupid enough to use a credit card to obtain illegal material. It seems however that I was wrong, at least, according to the report I read.

There was a story all over the British news this weekend about a runaway BMW. The guy claims his throttle stuck open, his gear selecter stuck in drive, and his brakes burnt out. He ended up crashing at 130 MPH but was able to walk away from the wreck. I have to say, this doesn't ring true to me. And while I can understand that turning off the engine would result in no power steering, I would be prepared to give it a go when I realised the other option was to keep going until I crashed or run out of fuel. The driver called the AA and the police from the car while driving and a police helicopter was sent out as well as a number of patrol cars. The car is being examined by BMW and the police and I am interested to know what they find.

Modern technology

The pushchair was waiting for me when I got home yesterday. It's now all assembled and ready to go. I haven't tried the car seat bit in the car yet, but I read the instructions and it seems straightforward. Pushchair and car seat technology has come a long way since I was a child. I don't think they had really invented car seats back then, and my pushchair was not the wonder of engineering that this is. I realise that not everyone will be as excited about this pushchair as me, but it's my page, so here's a picture.



And while we're on the subject of pictures, here are a few of my tomato plants. I was hoping I could put them out in the conservatory soon, but the weather looks like it might get cold again, so it may have to wait another week or so.



It looks as though David Mills is going to have to face charges of corruption and false testimony in Italy along with Silvio Berlusconi, which can't be good news for Tessa Jowell. One wonders what the weekend papers are going to make of it.

Michael Jacksons Neverland Ranch has been closed because he hasn't been paying his staff or keeping up his insurance payments apparently. I guess he just forgot about it since he has been living abroad. I wonder if he took his kids with him to Dubai.

Slow

It's getting warmer, which is good news for tomatoes, and probably many other species. It's also raining, which may also be good. The dragon just called me and said that the nurse at the surgery listened to Herbert's heartbeat and said it was fast. She has to go back tomorrow and have a quick check. She also needs iron tablets it seems. I hate getting news like this. I'm sure there's nothing seriously wrong, but it does bother me.

My parents are visiting the dragon today with the new pushchair. I don't think I will be home in time to see them, but who knows. I'm pleased they will be there. She's emotional and not enjoying the final month very much. I arrived home to find her in distress because she cut her finger with the meat cleaver yesterday. In fact that was the second day she did it in a row. She's sharing her brain with the baby.

I've been thinking about windmills. Windmills fail as a method of electricty generation because electricity is difficult to store and we can't rely on the wind to blow when we need it. So I have the answer. You should use windmills to raise water, and then use the water to generate your power. You can always rely on gravity you see. Remember, you heard it here first. Coastal areas would be ideal. There's lots of wind near the sea and lots of water to raise. I should charge for this kind of inspirational thinking.

It's a slow news day. Pete Doherty is to face a further court appearance on drugs charges on 23 March apparently. He left court today in a gold Jaguar with no tax disc according to reports. That boy just can't sort his life out can he? Boy George has had his charge of cocaine pocession dropped but was found guilty of wasting police time it seems. I really want to know what was going on here. He called police to report a burglary that didn't exist and they found packets of cocaine all over his apartment for which he is not being charged. What's the deal here?

Hideous

Mother called last night after visiting the baby shop. The red push chair was apparently "Hideous", so we went for the black with red trim which I'm told is is "very smart". We got a good deal in the end because the model we ordered was discontinued and we got the upgraded "New for Spring 2006" model. They even pumped up the tires for us. I was begining to get fed up with them, but they came through.

Did you see Tony Blair on Parkinson the other night? The media made a big fuss and claimed he said that god and history would judge him over his decision to go to war. This actually isn't what he said at all. He said that people with faith believe they will be judged by god. And he had a hard time saying even that. The embarrassment really showed. If like me you believe that Tony Blair's faith is about as real as the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the comment is far more telling than the media is saying. He didn't say, "I belive in god and he will judge me". He made some vague statement about people with faith believing they will be judged by god, because he doesn't believe any god will judge him. He doesn't believe in god at all. He believes that telling people he has faith will give him a better chance at the Euro President job. But it's almost as hard for an atheist to claim to have faith as it is for a Christian to claim he doesn't.

Apparently today is National No Smoking day. I don't think it was very well organised. I didn't know anything about it until this morning. I wonder whether my brother has begun his quitting programme yet. His workplace is banning smoking completely on all sites from the end of this month and he was going to stop smoking then. I don't think he's very serious about it though. He needs someone to kick his arse every time he lights up. He does claim to have cut down.

Today David Mills, husband of the Culture Minister Tessa Jowell, will discover whether he is to be indicted over corruption allegations involving Italian PM, Silvio Berlusconi. I still think JOwell is going to lose her job over this, but she has some chance of keeping it if the case against Mills is not pursued. I think it will be however.

Yesterday the news was full of the story of Natalie Evans who has been to the European court of human rights in an attempt to overturn UK court rulings that prevented her from using her frozen embryos to become pregnant. Ms Evans was left infertile after cancer surgery but had IVF treatment to fertilise some of her own eggs before the surgery. The eggs were fertilised using her partner's sperm. The couple split however before the embryos were implanted and her partner withdrew his consent for her to use their embryos.

I do feel some symapthy for Ms Evans here. She wants a child and can't have one. I also fully understand the position of her ex-partner. On balance I feel the courts have made the right decision. I think Ms Evans has a case, but I think her decision to have children in this way would put a lot of pressure on someone that doesn't want to be an absent father. I also wonder how the child would manage growing up knowing that his/her father didn't want anything to do with them. If I was Ms Evans, I would be tempted to adopt a child, but that is just me. I can't really look at this from a woman's perspective. But this case interests me just because of the moral issues here.

Warm and wet

It's getting warmer, but it's raining. I suppose that's better than freezing to death. The bloody baby shop we ordered the push chair and car seat from has not called me again. The thing was supposed to arrive the middle of last week, then on Friday, then Monday. I'm going to call them today. Maybe I've been away too long, but I don't remember service being this bad everywhere in Britain when I left.

The government is apparently concerned about the low conviction rate for rape in Britain. That is to say, rape cases apparently do come to court, but often end with no conviction. So in its wisdom, the UK gevernment is setting out new guidelines to encourage men to ensure consent is given before the act. I'm not sure what this means. I'd suggest that a signed statement taken before removing clothes might destroy the moment more than a little. The problem appears to be situations where the female is drunk, has sex, and then decides the following morning that she was forced into it. If this kind of case goes to court it inevitably hinges on how drunk the woman was and whether or not she was able to give consent. The possibility of changing the law to allow juries to make a judgement on how drunk someone was and whether they were in a position to give consent is being floated.

I have a problem with the whole idea of government getting involved in this. How can a jury judge, possibly weeks after the event, whether someone was so drunk that they couldn't give consent? How is a horny man, possibly also drunk, supposed to make the judgement himself at the time come to that? And one has to consider the crime itself. Two people falling into bed drunk and regretting it in the morning is a far cry from a man dragging someone into a public lavatory and forcibly having sex with them. It's really not the same crime. In my view, a drunk woman must accept some responsibility for a situation that wouldn't have arisen had she not made herself drunk. That's not to say that a man is free to take advantage of a drunk woman of course, or that getting a woman drunk is acceptable.

One other thing; according to a police survey, more than a third of women who reported being raped, admitted to consuming alcohol immediately before the event. I would suggest that warning women of the dangers of alcohol was at least as important as changing the law to make it easier to convict men who acted without consent. The cynical side of me suggests that the law makers are more interested in pushing up the conviction rate than preventing the crime. Clcik.

Yesterday the House of Lords defeated the government's ID card bill again by a very large majority. The Lords had said they would pass the bill if people could opt out of the scheme when renewing their passport. The government said no,
and the Lords has booted it out saying that the passport section goes against the Labour manifesto promise to keep the cards voluntary. I have issues with an unelected house of lords, but right now, they're the only thing keeping the most corrupt British government in history from running amok. Click.

I just rang the baby shop and they have our push chair, but it's not the colour we ordered. I can't actually remember what colour we ordered. They said it was green and the dragon says it was beige. It transpires that only black with red trim or just plane red is available however. I'm inclined to go with the black. I've sent mother in to pick one up anyway. She's got a good eye for colour, she won't let us down. Mother wants to come down and spend the day with the dragon on Thursday and perhaps one day next week. She feels she needs to play the part of real mother to her for a while I think, while her family is so far away. Anyway, she can bring the push chair when she comes.

Something interesting and French

I tried roast beeef yesterday. It wasn't the roaring success that the roast chicken or the roast lamb was. It was OK. We ate it, and I did manage to produce very passable roast potatoes. I also finally unpacked the capuccino machine and, though I only ever drink coffee black myself, the frothy milk went down very well with the dragon. In other news this weekend, I spent Saturday clearing the flowerbeds of dead material, and I've planted some chilli plants. Chillis are difficult to grow and I'm not confident of my ability here, but I wanted to give it a go. We still have an abundance of tomato plants.

We cleared out the conservatory this weekend. There are still one or two boxes to unpack, but we have pretty much moved in now. The loft still has boxes of books that I would dearly love to put on shelves, but we're short of shelf space now. That will change when we have settled in to a routine.

The dragon's belly is periodically tightening and relaxing now. I think they are practice contractions. We're both getting nervous about the big day now. Sleep is becomming something of a novelty, but I got our breast pump working yesterday, so that's one less thing to worry about. We were given two breast pumps second hand and neither of them had a bottle. I have found suitable bottles now however, and they seem to work. I practiced on myself, so there was no milk of course. Strange sensation, and probably a sign that I should shed a few pounds.

I got around to installing Macromedia utilities yesterday, so I guess I can make cahnges to the web page now. I realised late last night that I still haven't installed any ftp software yet. I'm going to try and do that tonight and you might even get a few pictures from me this week.

The Oscars are over. I can 't get interested in the Oscars. I quite like looking to see what everyone wore, but the show itself is so boring isn't it? And the wrong people nearly always win. I mean Speilberg picked up 7 Oscars or something for that awful Schindler's list. A worse film I think I have never seen. So I don't care who wins. I think it's nice to see Wallace and Grommit picking up an award for us Brits.

Something interesting is happening in France. Apparently the French government is voting on whether or not to make file sharing legal. I didn't know anything about this, but apparently they will be voting this week on the matter. It will be the second time this has been voted on, and last time they voted for making file sharing legal for a small monthly charge. The government was apparently embarrassed by it. If legislation is passed to make file sharing legal in France, there are bound to be huge knock-on effects. The music industry is frightened by the move of course. But by far the scariest element of the row so far is the picture the BBC found of aging French rock star Johnny Hallyday, who looks like something out of Madame Tusaude's chamber of horors. Check it out.

Whitewash!

One generally expects that inquiries initiated by the government into potential government misbehaviour will be a whitewash. The latest inquiry into Tessa Jowell's alleged misconduct sets a new level of whitewash however. Apparently she was not guilty of breaking the ministerial code because she didn't know that her husband had received a "gift" of £350,000. Presumably also she didn't realise that the paper she was asked to sign by her husband was to allow him to take out a £400,000 mortgage on one of their homes and then mysteriously pay it off a few days later. Even if it's true, and Ms Jowell knew nothing of the allegedly dodgy dealings of her husband, and had no idea that her jointly owned home was used as security in a move to bring a large amount of money into the country, that surely makes her too stupid to be a cabinet minister doesn't it?

What really bothers me about this is that the media knew that Ms Jowell was going to be cleared a day before she actually was. This was because Downing Street dropped very heavy hints to the press that she would. How did Downing Street know what Gus O'Donnel's report was going to say? The only logical conclusion to which we can come, is that they told him what to say. Which in turn leads me to believe that they're now instigating whitewashes so blatently that they don't even care that we can see how they do it. I still think she'll go. The press is now hounding her and demanding answers to questions.

Gary Glitter has got himself three years in a Vietnamese gaol. That can't be a nice prospect. We are led to believe however that he may be released after just 1 year and he has already served four months. That sounds like the British justice system.

The police have recovered "several million" pounds from the mega heist in Kent a week or so ago. I find it strange that a gang could be organised and diciplined enough to carry out the actual robbery, but then foul it all up the following week when all they had to do was lie low. That said, there must have been dozens of people involved and someone was bound to get caught and talk I suppose.

NTL are unethical

Yes Dickie, there was snow in March. It was very localised however. I left early yesterday because I was worried about traffic chaos getting home. Outside Newport the snow stopped fairy abruptly, and back in Swindon it was non existant. I did snap a couple of pictures off using my phone, but I haven't installed ftp software yet so you may have to wait for pictures to hit the site. The snow is almost gone this morning.

There was a very serious traffic accident this morning on the motorway. The road was closed eastbound as I came in. I was heading west however, so I wasn't held up. The BBC site says that someone was killed. It makes me drive more carefully when I see road carnage like that. The traffic was backed up for miles.

I used my free afternoon yesterday to go to town and buy a rice steamer, food processor, and steriliser unit thing. It all came to about £100, but they weere all things we needed and I think we are just about ready now for the big arrival. We don't have the push chair yet, but I called the shop yesterday and it should show up tomorrow.I guess that means we'll be in Devon for the weekend again.

NTL are trying to stiff me by making me pay for a cable tv service they gave me in error and I didn't even know I had. Apparently when you subscribe to the "base package" they give you one month "family package" free. What they don't tell you is that they also give it to you the following month and expect you to pay for it. I called them last night but they couldn't help me because their system was down. I will be calling them later.

It seems that my prediction that Teresa Jowell will lose her job is going to turn out to be wrong. The BBC website is today predicting that Ms Jowell will be cleared. One wonders how they reached that conclusion.

The trial of Gary Glitter begins today. He was seen in defiant mood as he approached the court room. He's changed his appearance radically, now sporting a freaky beard and baseball cap. I still don't have any sympathy for the guy.

Remember the Pet Shop Boys? I'm a child of the 80s and they were a large part of my teenage years. They are, to my surprise, still a going concern, and they've become political activists. Two of the tracks from their latest album are very close to my heart. One called "Integral" attacks ID cards, and my personal favourite, "I'm with stupid", examines the relationship between Bush and Blair. Tracks can be found on the new album "Fundamental". I might even go and buy it.Click.

Linda Smith, who radio 4 listeners will know, died yesterday of ovarian cancer which is very sad. I didn't realise it, but she was a major player in the humanist society, which places her highly in my list of cool people. Also today saw the death of Jack Wild who played the artful dodger years ago in the famous version of Oliver starring Oliver Reed. He was suffering from mouth cancer.

Thick snow

I left Swindon this morning. It was cold and frosty but no snow. I got to Chepstow and there was a light dusting of icing-sugar snow on the hills. I get to Newport and it's 10cm thick. I guess that means if any more comes I'll have to go home early. It's not snowing now.

My brother called last night. He lives next door to a transexual. This has given my brother much politically incorrect comedy material. In fact, my brother and his friend "Big Dunc" claim to be the bread in a transvestite sandwhich. They live on each side of "Julie-Bob" it seems. The jokes were getting a bit stale however, until last night. Apparently "Julie-Bob" has found a boyfriend. Not only that, but he's German. I had to endure about 10 minutes stand-up over the phone last night which ended with "I hate the bloody Germans. They bombed my Grandma". It almost made me feel sorry for "Julie-Bob".

Tessa Jowell is stil in very deep smeg indeed. I think this all hedges on whether her husband is found to have taken a bribe. It doesn't look good however. Currently he has admitted receiving a "gift". He has said that it was nothing to do with Berlusconi however. It seems to have come through some organisation in the Bahamas. It all sounds very suspicious. Ms Jowell has essentially claimed that her husband asked her to sign something and she did so without realising what it was. It doesn't sound very likely to me that an educated woman like herself would sign a document to pay off a mortgage without asking what it was. Besides, I don't think ignorance is much of a defence here. She's a cabinet minister, she can't be seen signing things without knowing what they are. She hasn't gone yet anyway. Did I predict that she would resign yesterday? I will move the prediction to the next 24 hours.