Here's to you Mrs Robinson

I decided to drive to the office today despite the sonw. I don't know why because there appears to be only one other person here. We do make an awful fuss about snow in this country. It's really not that bad. The only problem was the carpark. It was untreated and covered in about 20cm of snow. Brakes didn't work very well. I still managed to get parked up though. There was no risk of hitting anyone, since everyone had decided to stay at home.

I was somewhat startled by an alien light on the dashboard when I started the car this morning. It glowed yellow and said "LO". Yellow lights are of course less frightening than red ones in general, and I was fairly confident that the car wasn't about to explode or anything, but I pulled over and had a flick through the manual anyway. I was expecting to find that I was low on water, oil, window washing fluid, or something. I even wondered whether it was objecting to the low temperature. It was none of those things however. I had the low ratio gearbox engaged - doh! I had been experimenting with with it yesterday in the snow and forgot to put the lever back to 'Normal'. Felt a bit silly. Probably best not to attempt motorway driving in low ratio made anyway.

The boy is all set to get his pig flu vaccination this afternoon. He's going away to Taiwan next week. I mentioned this already didn't I.

Above was written yesterday and never finished. You'll be pleased to know that the boy had his pig flu vaccination and didn't make a fuss about the needle - that's my boy! He was worried about going to the doctor when we told him, but it turned out he remembered me having the knee surgery a couple of months ago and thought he would have a big bandage on hius leg and a walking stick.

I made it to work again to day, but I'm beginning to wonder if it was a good idea since the snow is coming down again. We were intending to go down to Devon this weekend to see mother, but I just spoke to her on the phone and she says no one can get to her without a tractor, and we don't have a tractor. They had about a foot of snow in the west country this week.

I heard this morning on tv a climate scientist desperately trying to explain that climate and weather are different, therefore a cold winter still means global warming. What he was trying to say was that you can't claim a trend is interrupted when one incident makes it look wrong. I agree, but ironically I've been saying this for years every time I hear a climate scientist try and justify global warming with claims about the hot summers.

Harriet Harmen has pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention. She was fined £350 plus costs. It was claimed that she was driving while using a mobile phone, hit another car, and left the scene without giving her details. Somehow she seems to have escaped being charged with the mobile phone offence, or leaving the scene of an accident.

Why is Jonathan Ross newsworthy?

I see that there is new scientific evidence to suggest that mobile phone use can help alzheimers sufferers. Research carried out on mice with alzheimers seems to suggest that exposure to mobile phone radiation can protect against the condition and even reverse the effects. I love the idea of scientists working with senile mice. I have visions of them waiting by mouse holes for a mouse to emerge and then look like he forgot what he came out for. Sadly however the mice were actually genetically altered to give them the condition, which is much less amusing.

I see that the wife of the Northern Ireland First Minister is in all sorts of trouble after admitting an affair, and some irregular financial dealings. The story is incredibly dull and I really don't care, except that this 59 year old woman was having an affair with a 19 year old man, and she's called Mrs Robinson. That should have been a gift for every headline writer in the world. Why has no one picked it up? Also, on balance, despite the fact that she seems to have done some pretty shady things, she still has some credibility as far as I'm concerned because she was sleeping with someone 40 years her junior, yeah go Mrs Robinson.