An email was received today from a Mrs Trellis of North Wales. It said simply:

"So long Humph...

...And thanks for all the jazz."


I hope he finds eternal happiness with his assistant Samantha.

Doesn't Gordon Brown look tired?

For some reason I find this story incredibly amusing.

We've just eaten dinner. I cooked my own variation of Pasta Bolognese from scratch - and damned tasty it was too. tiggothy has re-christened it "Pasta Tomognese" as it comes-out richer and ever-so slightly sweeter than your average Bolognese sauce.

Following tiggothy's example, please find the ( recipe behind the cut )

It's three months today since I ceased working for Steljes and started Just Like That Events. The time's gone really quick - and thankfully I'm still well ahead of my original plan.

Unfortunately I can't sit back and celebrate right now - I've picked up a van this morning and have an event in Birmingham tomorrow and Friday and an overnight rig in Leicester on Thursday night...

I phoned HM Revenue and Customs earlier today to officially register as self-employed.

I spoke to a very nice lady with a Geordie accent. She took down my NI number and my current address, then she asked me for my previous address, then the one before that...

It appears that their records were eight years and 150 miles out of date. Dammit - I shouldn't have phoned them after all - they'd have been sending the tax inspectors to Walkley...

...Or

Why can't I download any updates?

Over the past few weeks I've been thinking that I could really do with a laptop for work. At the same time tiggothy had been complaining suggesting that our current laptop wasn't quick enough for her needs. After thinking about it a bit, I came to the conclusion that our current laptop would be fine for my work needs, but that there isn't currently a commercially available laptop that meets tiggothy's requirements. Therefore I decided the business decided to build a new desktop to fill the gap in geeky provision created by me using the laptop for work.

So I've put together a shiny new desktop and taken the plunge by putting a copy of Windows Ultimate Fister on it. So far it all seems to be working pretty well - it handles a lot like XP, but with a large proportion of XP's annoyances ironed-out. I'm sure I'll find some things that bug me soon-enough though.

Anyways - I thought I'd check online for updates, and that's where my problems started. I can't access any Microsoft websites (so there's no hotmail, no msn messenger, and no updates). At first I thought it might be a something to do with the new machine, but I can't get to these sites from any of my machines - whichever OS they're running.

I'm left not knowing quite who to blame notify about this problem. I don't think it's PlusNet as their DNS servers are resolving the addresses (although the problem did start just after they reset my monthly usage counters). TraceRT seems to time out at around hop 13, at a Level3 server that (if it's name is to be believed) is located somewhere in San Jose...

Anyway - If anyone's got any suggestions let me know.

I've just watched My Name Is Earl for the first time. I was most dissapointed not to see a credit for Kevin Smith in the closing titles.

If anyone wants to play spot the reference so far I've got:

- Jason Lee seems to be pretty much playing the Brodie character from Mallrats.
- His dumb brother is played by Ethan "Sailboat" Suplee.
- Earl stays with his girlfriend because she has cable TV.
- Earl and his brother bump into Earl's ex-girlfriend at a Quick Stop
- Earl's ex-girlfriend "Kills" herself - leading to an amusing incedent in the funeral parlour (see Clerks X).
- Multiple references to ET in a similar style to the references to the Holy Trinity in Kevin Smith films. All it needs is a reference to Indy to link them.

That's all for now. Next post in 6 month's time;-)

I was in the Hilton London Metropole hotel yesterday - across the road from Edgware Road tube station. Didn't hear the blast, but knew something serious was going on very quickly due to the huge number of police, ambulance service and fire brigade rushing past the building. Parts of the hotel - including the room we were using - were opened up to the public as a holding area for people evacuated from the tube and other buildings nearby. It wasn't really a nice place to be. I'm alright, but I suspect I'm still suffering from shock.

Later on, London was eerily quiet without any traffic noise.

Thanks to everyone who got in touch to see if I was okay - glad to know that everyone I know is okay too.

Aparently today is National Badger Day...