I know what lies behind the door

In answer to Abbey's question, no my train almost never leaves on time. It was just 5 minutes late this morning. This was because the train in front of it was delayed and was still standing at the platform when my train arrived. Then the doors didn't open when we arrived at Didcot. The British rail network is a disaster.

It's cold and foggy again. So foggy in fact that the planes can't seem to fly from Heathrow. Thousands of Christmas passengers seem to have been stranded in London as flights have been cancelled. It would appear that BA is the only airline affected and that long haul flights are running much better. Now how can that be? Taking off and landing is the same whether you're flying 20 or 2000 miles isn't it? And why are no other airlines having problems?

Dumpy got me up 3 times last night. I was right about new teeth. His next little fangs started poking out last night. Or at least, I noticed them last night. He seems to be drinking lots of formula milk however and is in generally good spirits.

I just got word that we are being released early tomorrow for Christmas. I just have to come in for the morning and then I can bail early in the afternoon.

JK Rowling has today released the title of the final Harry Potter book. It is to be called "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". Sounds pretty creepy huh? The Do Not Disturb notice has been removed from the door on her website, but I'm at work and I really can't justify playing with it until I get home, sadly. She really does have the coolest website.

*** Pause here while I just spend 5 minutes looking at it ***

Actually, scratch that last thing. I've been playing with it for 20 minutes and I know how to get past the door. Leave me a note if you need help.

I said yesterday or the day before, that I thought that the first guy they arrested for the Ipswitch prostitute murders (Tom Stephens) was probably not guilty. Today he has been released on police bail and the second guy (Stephen Wright) has been charged. I should have been a police detective.

Lost my thread

I heard the following conversation in the office this morning...

J: I'm having a total mental block. Do you know how to spell "Lager"?
D: Yes, it's L, A, A, A, P, U, Z.
J: I'll just put "beer".

This made me laugh, and I have no idea why J would need the word "Lager" in anything she was working on.

It's cold out today. In fact the frost was so thick it looked like snow on the platform. My train was 20 minutes late and was announced to be arriving on both platform 3 and platform 1. It amazes me that anyone ever gets to work in this country. However, just 3 more days and the holiday season officially begins.

I had a better sleep last night, but Dumpy still got me up at 2.30am and 5.30am. His teeth hurt I think. My head aches. I think it's because it's warm inside and cold outside. I feel stuffy. I've just walked round the carpark to clear my head. The cobwebs are still frozen on the trees. It's really quite Christmassy.

The Dragon, who is a trained artist, tells me she could teach me to draw, based on the following sketch which I left in the fridge for her. I have to admit, I was fairly pleased with it. Of course, she could be just playing with me.



I was going to write more than this but the computer asked me if I wanted to upgrade my media player, and then restarted, then upgraded my flash player, and finally upgraded the Firefox browser, which took ages. So I lost my thread completely.

On the way home I got stuck in a train that was 20 minutes late and full of people who had got on it because the previous train was cancelled. I hate the train. This morning my train was late, which meant I ran to catch it for nothing.

It was trying to snow when I left Didcot today.

Good night.

Like a Zombie

I'm like a zombie. Herbert got me up about 200 times last night. I think he's getting some more teeth. More teeth for the baby equates to less sleep for father. It's OK for him, he can sleep during the day. Father has to earn enough money to pay for his living expenses. I could really use a few hours sleep.

***

They've arrested a second guy in connection with the Ipswitch murders. I can't believe two people are conspiring to murder these prostitutes, so I'm guessing one of them is innocent. It occurs to me that the first guy they've arrested is being very smart if he is indeed the murderer. He's given interviews to both the BBC and Sunday Mirror newspaper in which he admits to knowing the murdered girls. He claims they have been in his car and that he has been a client of at least some of them. The police are now going to find it very hard to use any forensic evidence against him. For instance, if they find hair or other evidence of these women at the guy's home or in his car, he can claim it got there innocently.

He sounds like complete knob. In one interview that I heard, he claims that he was the closest thing one of the girls had to a boyfriend. That comment makes him deluded at best I would say. He's an enigma though. He sounds well spoken and intelligent when he speaks, which makes me think he can't be that dim. He's also reportedly a "Team Leader" at his local supermarket. Not a good career choice for a 37 year old. He's not even described as management. In the past he's also been a special constable, which makes me think he's got a conscience, which doesn't seem to fit in with his choice of lifestyle which involves drugs and prostitutes.

I've known a couple of special constables and they've all been desperately insecure people looking for a bit of power and authority to justify their self importance. That fits in with his delusion that he was some kind of guardian angel for the working girls of Ipswitch. I'm still not at all convinced that the guy is guilty of anything other than being a prat.

***

The government has scrapped plans for a dedicated database to handle its evil id card scheme. The official line is that it will save costs and reduce the risk of fraud. I'm not quite sure how the use of existing databases is supopsed to reduce the risk of fraud, but I am sure that the scrapping of a dedicated database is entirely down to the fact that the cost has spiraled out of control. Be afraid, be very afraid. This could turn into the biggest government embarrassment in history. I do hope so.

***

A 15 year old girl has given birth to a baby at a catholic school in Bradford. The girl is not thought to have known she was pregnant. Now is she this naive because she had a catholic upbringing do you think? I was married to a pregnant woman for 9 months and I think I would have noticed she was heavy with child even if she hadn't told me herself. Didn't this child's parents realise?

Harriet needs to wake up

The current investigation into the Ipswitch serial killer has unsurprisingly prompted the government to make comments. Harriet Harman, minister for something, has suggested that men who use prostitutes should be targeted. I didn't realise it, but it is in fact not illegal to pay someone for sex here. Ms Harman thinks this should change. Apparently it is illegal to kerb crawl and to procure a person for sex. I'm not sure if there is a firm definition of kerb crawling. If one drives slowly down a street looking for a particular house number, is it kerb crawling?

Ms Harman is making the assumption that the killer is a user of prostitutes and that he is deliberately targeting them. It could be that he is not a user and that he is simply targeting women. It's just that lone women on the street in the hours of darkness are easy targets, especially when they are willing to get into a car with you.

The more I consider the problem of prostitution, the more I think deregulation is the answer. Prostitution is really not much of a problem in itself. I can understand why people don't want street walkers in their street, but the real problem is the other crime that always accompanies it. The way to deal with it is to tolerate prostitution in specific, non-residential areas. The pimp element vanishes and it's easier to police. It's been tried successfully in several places in Britain. I'm guessing the problem is that no government wants to be the one that puts forward the legislation.

A man has this morning been arrested on suspicion of murdering the five dead Ipswitch women. This is quite a breakthrough. If the police have the right guy, that's very quick work. We shall see. They are not releasing any information. If they have the wrong guy they're going to ruin his Christmas. Actually they'll ruin his Chriustmas even if it's the right guy, but we don't care about that.

The government is in a slightly embarrassing position over an internal memo that suggests they are a shambles. The PM's office is distancing itself from the situation, and the Deputy PM seems to be unaware of the source of the report. No one seems to be denying that the report exists, or that it was internal, which seems to confirm the content, ie the government is a shambles. They are currently also attempting to deal with the problem created when they stopped the probe into the Saudi arms deal, which had nothing to do with economic pressure of course, and the cash for peerages row, which seems to be gathering pace again. Downing Street have been accused of trying to pervert the course of justice over the investigation.

This morning I read that the government is proposing that medical records should be made available on line. I would be worried about this if I thought they had even a remote chance of getting a monster project like that to work. I take much the same view of id cards, though the fallout when the id card project goes wrong frightens me far more.

In other news...

I finally got around to watching the film Amelie this weekend. It's always been a problem in my household because it's in French. I need English subtitles and the Dragon needs Chinese. However it turned up on Film 4 channel with English subtitles on Saturday so I watched it. I've promised that we will come back from our next Taiwan trip with a DVD with Chinese subtitles. I think I can watch it without subtitles now that I've seen it once. It's really good, very imaginative. Definitely worth a watch.

Our next oriental expedition will be in February I think. The organisation has already begun. It really is a nightmare task bringing a 9-month old half way round the world. The Dragon's father seems to think that simply packing a bottle of milk and a spare nappy is all that is required. I started making a list of things to take in hand luggage today and it's already looking frightening. There's no way we will be bringing anything other than baby stuff into the cabin.

Nice Guy

I've never strangled anyone, but I'm guessing that it's not an easy thing to do. Over and above the obvious physical difficulty in restraining someone and crushing their windpipe, there's the psychological issue. Strangling someone must take some time, and the strangler has to be there watching and holding their victim throughout the process. I imagine that the first victim is the most difficult. It must be much easier to stand 3m from a victim and fire a gun at their head.

The Suffolk Ripper seems to have strangled more than one of his victims, but the police haven't released the cause of death for all the other victims. Would it be psychologically easier for a serial killer to kill his victims with a weapon until he had learnt to deal with the trauma of the act? Peter Sutcliffe's weapon of choice seems to have been a hammer, though at least one of his victims does appear to have been beaten with a shoe and then kicked to death. Nice guy! He killed 13 and left another 7 for dead when he was the Yorkshire Ripper.

It's Christmas lunch day in the office tomorrow. I'm told there will be a free bar. Lucky I come on the train to work. I can have a couple of beverages. The fact that this kind of thing can be done here is a measure of the staff's maturity. I've worked at one or two places where this kind of thing would have ended in disaster. I'll bring you a report tomorrow.

***

The above was written yesterday, but I forgot my flash disk once again and I didn't mail it to myself either, so it didn't get published. You'll all be pleased to know that the Christmas lunch went very well. I had the beef. There was also alcohol involved and I am typing this after three glasses of wine, so the odd spelling mistake is sadly inevitable. There were crackers, paper hats, mince pies, and cheese involved also. Unfortunately there was no roast turkey or potatoes. Most of my colleagues are currently watching Cars on the big projection screen in the conference room. Slackers, at least I'm at my desk and it looks like I'm working.

Today Tony Blair is in trouble over stopping an inquest into Saudi Arabian arms deals. Good! A man has got drunk and fallen asleep on the railway line. I mean actually on the line. He was sentenced to 180 hours community service. And nothing else of importance has happened.

Later then...

Standard Pervert

I never managed to write anything yesterday again, and I don't know why because I'm not exactly overwhelmed with work now. I did forget to bring my flash disk to work with me, but that's not really an issue, I can mail things to myself. I forgot it today too. I think I'm winding down for Christmas. Half the problem is the fact that we've changed Dumpy's schedule and he now sleeps between 8pm and 7am. That's good in as much as we don't have to feed and bath him at 10pm, but bad in that I don't get those 20 minutes after I bathed him to play on the internet. It's complicated, don't waste any time thinking about it.



Currently the only story really making the news at the moment is to do with a serial killer on the loose in Ipswitch. I don't remember ever going to Ipswitch. It's not a must see place. If I was trying to make my name as a serial killer, I think I'd start in Whitechapel. Why mess with a proven formular? Anyway, there were five dead prostitutes at the last count. They all seem to have been murdered within the last 10 days and within 6 miles of Ipswitch town centre. He's going to run out of working girls pretty soon. I read yesterday that there are only about 30 regular street walkers in the town.



The main topic of discussion on the Have Your Say section at the BBC website seems to be whether we should be calling these women "prostitutes". People get themsleves worked up about the strangest things. Does it matter what we call them? Surely the important thing is the fact that there's some nutter out there bumping off women.



There is a £250,000 reward for hiscapture. So, what do we know about him...



He seems to dump victims naked in rural areas outside the town, yet no clothing has been found apart from a pair of trainers. The sites where the bodies have been found don't appear to be murder sites. So I think we can assume he drives the bodies there. He either hides the clothes, or he's keeping them. Underwear fetish maybe? He left a pair of shoes behind, so he probably doesn't have a foot fetish. He doesn't seem to have sexually assaulted the women, so maybe he just likes looking at them naked. Maybe that's how he gets satisfaction. Maybe he can't perform. Some are saying he's a religious zealot on a personal quest to remove prostitution from the world. So why is he taking their clothes off? Nah - he's your standard pervert if you ask me.

So that's my take on the matter, where's my £250,000?

OK that's all for tonight.

Banjaxed

It's been a good week off. I had planned to write something in these pages, but simply never got around to it. I can't remember the last time I had a week's paid holiday. I think I took 8 days for honeymoon in 2004, but that wasn't paid. I couldn't shake the feeling of guilt at not doing something productive. In fact I did do many productive things for myself. I'm pretty much ready for Christmas now.

We were intending to go down to Devon for a few days to relax, but the old folk managed to rupture their water tank and a flood banjaxed that idea. Instead the parents came to us for a day visit, which was very nice. Their house is I understand, almost back to normal.



***



I don't much like cold calling. People that call me on the phone trying to sell me something invariably get a very short tempered response. I treat door to door callers with more respect usually, but I still object to the intrusion. Last week a man knocked at the door offering free exterior wall inspections. Under normal circumstances I would have sent him away, but there is a damp patch on one of the walls. I know what it is. I need to get the chimney capped, but I thought an inspection couldn't hurt, so I said yes.



I regretted this decision almost immediately. There was suddenly a barrage of questions which culminated in, "can I have a contact telephone number?" I don't give the house phone number out to anyone other than friends. It's not really a privacy thing so much as not wanting the Dragon to have to deal with tradesmen as well as a 9 month old baby. I tried to give the guy my mobile number, but he wouldn't take it, they only take home phone numbers. I should have refused, but I was caught off guard and gave it to him.



About 30 seconds after he left the phone rang once and stopped. The caller id was witheld. I then started creating nightmare scenarios in which low-life thugs wait for me to leave the house, call the phone to make sure the place is empty, and then break in to steal anything of value, and trash the place before leaving.

In fact I don't think that the company in question is necessarily disreputable. They called me and arranged an inspection for Sunday at 10. But by the time Sunday arrived, I was still regretting my decision to let them anywhere near me. I was also busy, and when they didn't turn up at 10 I got more fed up. I gave up hope of anyone coming by 10:45 and went to have my morning poo. Of course, the doorbell went just at that moment. I was so angry I almost feel sorry for the guy.



"Good Morning Sir."

"You're late."


"I know, the original inspector got held up. His car broke down. I came instead, sorry."


"Well, you have 10 minutes."


"OK, I'll tell you what, we'll reschedule."


"No, you have 10 minutes."


"We don't work like that."


"Goodbye then."



Pause...



"Why did you take up this offer?"


"I'm not going to stand on the doorstep arguing about it. You're 45 minutes late, and I'm busy, goodbye."



I feel better now that I've sent them packing. I've also been taking burglar prevention measures.



***



We went to Bristol one day last week and built a Teddy Bear at the Bear Factory for Dumpy. I've mentioned the Bear Factory before. You start with an empty bear skin, poke in a heart, stick a pipe up his butt and stuff him, give him a name, generate a birth certificate, and give him some clothes. I had fun, but Dumpy slept through the experience. Well, it's supposed to be a surprise anyway.



***



I must have mentioned the making of dumplings already because Dickie made a comment. They were quite awesome and we fed the old folk with them when they came to visit on Saturday. You are quite welcome to sample our dumplings by the way Dickie. Incidentally, where the hell are you? I have a Christmas card for you and no idea where to send it. I'll have a look at your site and see if you're updating.

We also made Christmas gingerbread men. They are hanging in the tree. Yes, we actually went to the bother of erecting a tree. Well, we did eat some of them.

***

Dumplings

Ah, Monday and I don't have to go to work. Isn't life fabulous?

Today I actually got around to wiring in the washing machine properly and there are no trailing cables any more. I also cleared the drain of leaves, which means the water can drain away as well. I know these things don't amount to much in the grand scheme of things, but it's good to get them done. I've also found some spacers to put behind the new CD cabinet so that it stands upright when screwed to the wall.

One thing about being back in England that I regret is that I don't get great Taiwanese food anymore. It's difficult to recreate some things here because the ingredients are hard to get. I can report however that we have perfected boiled dumplings. We had our first test run at the weekend.





Tomorrow we go to Cribbs Causway in Bristol to build a teddy bear at the Teddy Bear Factory. I'll bring you pictures of this tomorrow if possible.

We are planning to take Dumpy to Taiwan in the new year to meet his Taiwanese family. This means that he has to have a passport. It's ridiculous, but he has to have a photo. This passport will last five years, he's 8 months now. This photo will be almost useless inside 6 months I should think. However, there are strict rules about passport photos, and very few consessions are made for babies that can't even sit up reliably.

I decided to have a bash at taking and printing a photo myself. The paperwork that came with the passport application form says that home made photos are unlikely to be acceptable. I felt it would be easier than using a booth however.

Holiday

I've hardly been writing here at all lately. It's not that I don't want to. It's just that I haven't had time. I usually write something at lunchtimes, but work has been busy these last couple of weeks, so even that has been difficult. I've been working on computer based training material for a client. I had to finish a first draft for this week because I am taking next week off.

This will be the first paid holiday I've had since 2001. Actaully, that's not quite true. My last contract in Taipei did pay me for a few days off, and they gave me some time to have a honeymoon. But it wasn't like proper, paid leave. I'll probably feel guilty.

I can't get worked up about anything in the news lately. Maybe I've just not be paying attention, but there simply doesn't appear to be anything happening. I did notice that the Daily Sport led yesterday with the news that Brittany has been snapped exiting a car without underwear. Who'd have thought it?

I got the car back today. It drives much better after its service. The brakes work now, which can only be a good thing. They changed the disks as well as the pads. I'd have stopped them from changing the disks if I'd been aware that they were going to do it. I'm sure the disks were scored up, but they would have passed an MOT. Anyway, the whole lot came to 500 quid, including new radiator, new door handle, fixing the horn, full service. It's much smoother.

We had all the weekly grocery shopping finished by 11 o'clock today and we went into town for Christmas shopping, The festive season is truely upon us now. There were hoards of people in town and it has become impossible to walk more than about 5 yards without being accosted by a santa clause raising money for charity (aren't they suppsoed to give presents?) or some weirdo bent on saving me from eternal damnation. THe Salvation Army were out in force blowing their horns also today.

We got a little Christmas tree and some decorations. I've never decorated my home for Christmas before. I'm looking forward to it because of Dumpy.

We were going to go to Devon for a coupel of days, but the parents are having a plumbing disaster and we elected not to go in case things worsen. The probelm should be fixed on Thursday.

I'm goingto trya nd write a few entries here next week.