Deathly Hallows Spoilers ahead

25 July

Well I have to tell someone, it's my birthday today. I'm not quite as depressed as I thought I would be. In actual fact, being 40 doesn't feel a whole lot different from being 39. There is a certain fear welling within me. It does seem such a big number. And I look 40. I'm fat and out of shape. I think that's the worst thing. If it really was just a number, and the body hadn't let go, it wouldn't be such a hurdle to jump. But the mirror really doesn't lie. Everything is on the long journey south.

The Dragon has been really good about my birthday this year. I'm difficult to handle as the day approaches every year. I'm aware of this, but somehow unable to control it. She's learnt how to deal with it though. She knows that suggesting parties would be a bad idea, she knows that making a fuss would be wrong. It's not that simple though. She has also discovered that forgetting it altogether would be wrong. This morning I received a card, and a new umbrella. I suspect that there may be a further gift this evening, and we will have a special dinner I think. Friend Eugenie is coming to stay with us. This level of fuss is just about perfect.

27 July

It seems that I have less and less time these days to write anything here. The birthday went quite well and I'm comfortable enough with being 40 now.

Important events that have happened this week include me finishing the last Harry Potter book, and our new kitchen arriving in pieces. Let's deal with Harry Potter first:

OK, there are Harry Potter spoilers from here onwards, so don't read unless yoo're already finished with the books yourself.

I was in general impressed with the final book. I did think it lost a little pace for a while in the middle, but there were a lot of loose ends that required tying up. It wasn't an easy task and I think it was accomplished well. There were a lot of holes left open. I wanted to know what lies beyond the veil, but the department of mysteries was never visited in the final book. Indeed the ministry of magic only made a very brief appearance. I wanted to know what James Potter did for a living, and Lily come to that.

I wasn't surprised about Snape's revelation about Lily Evans. I had that down as a possibility. I was surprised that Ginny Weasley played such a small part in the final book.

I thinK JK changed direction somewhere along the way. I think Harry was supposed to sacrifice himself. Well, Harry did sacrifice himself, but got a reprieve. I was convinced he was going to rise again on the third day and then join Dumbledore forever. It didn't really happen quite like that.

The final few pages were odd, and an obvious attempt to prevent alien writers carrying on the Potter Story. It won't work because there are gaps to fill in between the demise of Voldermorte and the scene DESCRIBED 19 years later. I wanted to know if Harry became an aura and what Ron and Hermione ended up doing.

I'm glad it's all over and I hope that JK doesn't try to milk the HP thing. She doesn't need to make more money and further books would ruin what already exists. I don't think she will.

Now, the kitchen. I may already have mentioned that I'm going to attempt the installation of the new kitchen myself since the installation costs were ridiculous. I'm quietly confident, but the working surfaces were delivered this week and they weren't cut to length as I was expecting. I was also expecting holes to be cut for the sink and hob. I can do this, but I'm not happy about it. I'll be calling them today. More news as we get it.

One other thing I should mention is the fact that our new PM Gordon is currently enjoying a honeymoon period and there is much speculation that he will call a snap election. I believe he would win if he called an election right now, but morale is pretty low and I don't think it's a foregone conclusion. My gut feeling is that he will not call an early election. Apart from anything else, he will want to win after he's put his mark on government policy. I can't believe that the British would be short sighted enough to keep the most corrupt government in British history in power. But I was astounded that Blair won the last election also, so what do I know?

This weekend is the Swindon Mela, Asian festival. The weather has been foul this summer and it was nearly called off, but it has been confirmed for tomorrow and the forecast is good, so I might post something about that here on Monday.

Week at a glance

19 July

OK, time for a quick entry. Tomorrow night Waterstones bookshop opens at 10.30 for a Harry Potter party. It stays open until 2 am and the book itself will be available from midnight of course. I still haven't quite made my mind up about whether or not to go. I have been granted an evening pass by the Dragon. I do quite want to take Dumpy with me. I was thinking of painting him green and sticking cardboard ears on him - voila, Dobby the Hose Elf. He's not even old enough to call childline about it. It would mean waking the little soldier up though, but it's not a school night.

It emerged today that the Home Secretary is an ex pot head. Apparently this came to light as the government made public its intention to reclassify pot as a class B drug instead of a Class C drug. This is about the fourth change of classification is 4 years or something. I don't personally care what it's classed as. I just want the chavy scum bags smoking the crap on the streets of Swindon to piss off and wreck their brains somewhere I can't see them.

It's quite interesting to examine the reasoning behind the latest government change of direction on pot. When it was moved from class B to Class C, it was apparently because it wasn't as harmful as other Class B substances like amphetamines, and public perception was such that it shouldn't be so strictly controled. The cynical amongst us saw it as attempting to win over the pot head vote. The latest move to reclass it as a Class B sustance is apparently because new "skunk" varieties are more harmful than the standard stuff. The more cynical amongst us are wondering if the skunk varieties only suddenly appeared in the last 2 years, and whether the fact that the chavy scum bags on the street which can't be arrested for Class C posession, may be more of a problem than originally envisaged.

20 July

So, tonight is the night. I'm still in two minds as to whether I should go and get my Deathly Hallows at midnight, or wait until tomorrow morning. It's absolutely peeing down with rain. This may affect my decision. I could go tonight, take a few pictures and post this tomorrow with images. Well, by the time you actually read this, you'll know what I decided anyway.

The big news today is that there are to be no charges in the cash for honours case. This I find astounding. The news isn't officially confirmed yet, but it's all but over. How can there be a 16 month investigation, with 4 arrests, thousands of pages of evidence, and no charges? I believe the evidence is to be made public, which makes me wonder if there will be fallout anyway.

OK, it's now 15.11, and I've just heard that all the trains have been cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. So, god knows how I'm going to make it home tonight. Looks like it could be a £50 taxi ride. More news as we get it.

OK, now 15.50 and the office has booked me a taxi. Sadly it won't come until 17.30, but hey, it's a means by which I may get home. I may still make it to get Harry Potter tonight. We shall see. The rain has in fact died off a little. The car park is flooded and apparently water is entering the building, though I haven't seen any. I'm going to take some work home with me in case it's not safe to come in on Monday. I'm working at home on Tuesday anyway. Oh, and the taxi was apparently £61, but I don't have to pay. Oh I love my office so much.

22 July

I got Harry Potter, about 10 chapters in. It took me 4 hours to get home on Friday. 4 hours! There were floods, abandoned cars and emergency vehicles everywhere. I'll write a proper entry tomorrow.

Hand Signals

I'm teaching Dumpy to drive.



I'm starting with the basics obviously. He's already learnt quite a few hand signals.



It is Friday 13th today of course. Nothing bad has happened so far. In fact the train actually arrived early today for the first time in history. I imagine that it will be extra late on the way home to compensate. Oh, I did forget my umbrella this morning, and it looks a bit grey, so that might qualify as bad luck.

It's been suggested that the head of BBC1 step down after the channel suggested that the queen had a bit of a stampy with photographer Annie Lebowitz and stormed out of the photo session. Apparently this was not the case. It seems that her Maj was a bit fed up with the photo session and the garb she was wearing. She also apparently did have something of an altercation with the photographer. It turns out however that she didn't storm out at all, which is a shame in a way because it would have made a much better story.

Broken nose

I nearly broke my nose with a didgeridoo last night. I was playing my own version of Sunrise, made famous by Rolf Harris of course, when Dumpy decided to race across the room in my direction. One learns very quickly when one has a toddler running around the house, that they have bad brakes and don't look where they are going. It was therefore a reflex action that caused me to pull the didgeridoo out of his path, and hold it over my head. It was just plain old clumsiness that caused me to drop it on the bridge of my nose. I was wearing metal framed glasses at the time, which was probably a blessing since they didn't break, they merely produced a gash on my nose. Had I been wearing my Michael Caine plastic framed pair, I'm sure they would have suffered a loss of dimensional integrity.

So, I'm sitting here at work wearing the plastic glasses because they hide the injury better than the metal pair. It doesn't look like I've been fighting, more like I fell out of a pub drunk and walked into a bus shelter. The question is, given that no one will believe the didge story, what do I tell them when/if they ask?

Apparently cows cause 3% of Britain's greenhouse gas output due to farting and belching. I'm not making this up, apparently cow farting is a huge issue. But scientists have come up with the answer, and it appears to be garlic. Yes, garlic in cow feed can apparently reduce farting by up to 50%. Sounds like bull shit to me.

It seems al Qaeda has issued a warning to Britain that retaliation will ensue in response to Salman Rushdie being awarded a knighthood. That seems a little unfair to me. I don't approve of Rushdie being knighted. I have a problem with the whole honours system come to that. How come I have to suffer retaliation? What bothers me about Islamic terrorism, is that I have no idea what the demands of the terrorists are. When the IRA were blowing cars up, they were targeting politicians and they wanted an independent Northern Ireland. I didn't approve, but I understood. The Muslim scum blow up a train of innocent people and what do they expect us to do? You want me to convert? You want to kill all non muslims? You just like loud bangs? What's the manifesto?

Cobblers

Well I'm back at work again, drowning in SQL. I've never done any SQL until now. It's something of a challenge, but I'm actually enjoying myself. Most people start learning by building a little database and manipulating it. I've been given a database the size of Mars, the goal being to pull the right data out of it. It's a bit like pulling apart a jet fighter to find out how a hang-glider works. Incidentally, you remember when they told you at school that planes stay up because the air flows faster over the top of the wing then the bottom? Cobblers, how do those little planes fly upside down then? It took me years to find out the real answer. I'll maybe do an entry on that another day.

I've not been posting here for a few days because I've had family commitments. Now there's something I never thought I'd hear myself saying. Last week the Dragon's sister came to stay with us. She was touring Europe and stopped off here before flying back to Taiwan. She was with us a whole week, which made the Dragon very happy. I think Dumpy enjoyed himself too. I took a week off work to be taxi driver and tour guide. We did quite a few things. We spent a couple of days in Devon and visited Castle Drogo. We also went to Glastonbury, and Oxford.

After Sister in law left last Thursday, we had a couple of days left before I had to go back to work, so we decided to visit Hampton Court. This was a mistake. We went to visit because they were demonstrating the Tudor kitchens. Unfortunately it was also Hampton Court Flower Show week, which meant we had to drive three hours to get there, and it's only 75 miles. The journey back was quite easy since not everyone was leaving together. Actually, the visit itself was fine. It was only the journey that was a nightmare.

Yesterday the new Chinese supermarket opened. We went along to that because they were having a few celebrations, and it's not easy finding Asian celebrations round here. It was actually a good day. There was lots to see and loads of cooking demonstrations and dragon dances, and stuff like that. We bought loads of supplies.

Thanks to Mr Cat6 for the link he sent me about Paedophiles. I don't know how he knew that I would be interested, but he was quite right. I actually remember reading the original Telegraph article some time ago. Click here to read thte article.