Holiday

I've been impossibly busy and distracted recently -- work, house move, family, travel etc., -- so no time for this indulgence. Also, finding Facebook a tad less time consuming. I will return though, but in the meantime..

Sick Of Being Sick

Well it's inevitable that I'll pick-up the occasional cold -- especially when my route to and from work is among the bucolic commuters of old London town.

However, I had a bit of a fright this morning when I woke with the tell-tale sore throat, body aches and gooey sinus. All standard stuff -- only that I was informed that a colleague who sits next to me at work has been 'quarantined' from the office as of midday yesterday. The reason -- the cousin she'd spent all last weekend with has been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, more commonly, the dreaded Swine Flu.

This news naturally made my mundane sniffles rather more alarming -- especially as we have a four-month old boy in the house whose immune system, like the rest of him, is somewhat under-developed.

And as I still haven't yet registered with a local GP I called Tollgate Lodge on Stamford Hill, the one P and the boy use. Amazingly, I was told that I must go in-person to the surgery today, fill-in a registration form and then return tomorrow in order to be checked-out --and even then there would be no guarantee that I'd be seen. That's two+ visits to a public surgery waiting room populated by ill people and with potentially a very very highly contagious ailment!

As this made no sense at all, I called another GP's office, Barton House on Albion Road to double-check, only to be told -- more sensibly -- that I should stay at home, monitor my situation, and then they would arrange for a home visit if things deteriorated.

Thankfully, all I have is a mild summer cold and am fine and the yukiness is abating in resopnse to Lemsips and Strepsils. But I am astounded by the crass ineptitude of Tollgate's 'front-of-house' staff at my family's surgery. (Actually, they're the reason that I haven't yet registered as their system is not in the least user-friendly to the working stiff.. ) And if I weren't convinced that P&G's personal doctor isn't utterly top-notch I'd be very concerned for their on-going healthcare.

I for one, though, will be registering myself with the kind, caring and customer-oriented folks at Barton House tout de suite.

Unfortunately, the NHS is as brilliant as it's broken, or as broken as it's brilliant. The best put Patients ahead of Processes, while the worst are slaves to their own out-dated, inefficient and potentially dangerous Processes.

Flowers Of Romance

We only needed a couple of additional blooms to replace the few decaying stems removed yesterday, but P went a bit wild at the florists.

It is however, quite a magnificent display, I think you'll agree.

I am so metro..

Still Ill

I am destined never to see Morrissey perform again –- ever. And it’s not through want of trying. All of the last three attempts have been cancelled at the last minute. I was really hoping that tonight's Royal Albert Hall gig would break the run of disappointment and be a third time lucky.

But no.

Frankly, Mr. Shankly I'm a sickening wreak, AND I’m getting rather pissed off with this too.

So instead of going to the meat is murdering veggie nutroast's gig, I'm going home to feast on lamb chops. Yes, Mozza -- icanhascheezburger!

Take some vitamins yer bucolic Mancunian gobshite.

Monday, 11 May 2009 13:36
Morrissey cancels Albert Hall Gig
Singer Morrissey has cancelled a show scheduled for London's Royal Albert Hall on Monday night due to illness. The concert's organisers apologised to fans in a statement and said he was "unable to perform and, on doctor's orders, has been told to rest". The concert may be rescheduled and fans should keep hold of their tickets, the statement added.

Saturday, 26 January 2008
Ill Morrissey Cancels Roundhouse Shows
Due to poor health, Morrissey has regrettably had to cancel his hugely anticipated London Roundhouse shows tonight and tomorrow (Saturday, 26 and Sunday, 27 January). The iconic artist lost his voice last night 5 songs in to the fourth night of a run of six sold out shows at the legendary venue. He has been ordered by doctors to rest for four days. The sold out UK tour is scheduled to continue in Doncaster on Wednesday night."

Tuesday, 31 May 2005
Morrissey Cancels Isle of Wight Slot
Morrissey has cancelled his appearance at this year's Nokia Isle Of Wight festival. The solo star was due to play the event on the Saturday night (June 11), prior to headliners Roxy Music, but, in a statement issued on his official site, revealed 'the pressure of preparing a new album' would compromise the set.

Do The Dog..

..LolCat stylee

In Bloom

A few warm days and Spring has quite distinctly sprung.

Here are a few pics of the park yesterday.

Boy, dog and I are getting the hang of our little jaunts -- not least getting both in and out of the house avec buggy, nappies, blankets, poo bags etc., -- and giving P an hour or so of peace.

Three Steps To Heaven

1. Oi you..


2. In here please.


3. Mmmm, good.


Merci beaucoup

And Then There Were Three..

..plus Ems of course -- so that's four really.

Anyway, welcome to the world little Georgie boy -- born at 06:30 at 7.5lbs on Saturday, 28 February at UCH in central London. Due date was 27th, and contractions began on Thursday evening, so Mum's pain and discomfort of a 32 hour labour aside, that's pretty good time keeping.

top lad.

xxx

Blue Day

A touching stanza or two for an indulgent new father..

"When I was a little boy -- I wanted nothing else.
One day my Daddy took me to the Bridge to see the Chels'.
We stood there in the Shed that day, my father by my side,
When I called out "come on the Blues",
His heart was filled with pride.

Now I have a son myself,
At Stamford Bridge we'll be.
There to cheer the Chelsea, on to victory.
We'll wear the famous colours of the Chelsea royal blue,
And live to follow Chelsea unto victory anew"

Carefree, little GFHS

Too Old To Rock And Roll, Too Young To Die

It would seem that all this technology is bad for us after all.

D'dya -- tell me something I don't know..

As our first world economies have made us all into 'knowledge workers' over the last 20 years, we're a generation of RSI sufferers and sedentary borderline diabetics with decidedly gooey front-ends.

And as technology has followed us from the office to the home, and media has become social, we're indulging in new kinds of bad habits, equally as unhealthy as smoking cigarettes or conkering -- it would seem.

Dr Aric Sigman's report published in the journal of the Institute of Biology made headlines recently. In it he postulates that social media is leading to a lack of "real" social networking involving personal interaction, which could have biological effects by altering the way genes work, upsetting immune responses, hormone levels, the function of arteries, and mental performance.

Eeks, I could be in big trouble -- but maybe there's hope..

I can claim to have once been to technology what my old employer terms a fast forward -- or 'early adopter' to those of you better accustomed to more accepted marketing demographic speak.

I first got online in 1993 using Mosaic and doing limited navigation via Bigfoot, AltaVista and Excite and kept up-to-date with news through CompuServe. In 1995 I 'upgraded' to Netscape and even though it took 20 minutes to load a page -- many of which I recall were devoted to The X Files -- I was hooked by this new-fangled Information Super Highway thing.

Check all those extinct brands..

Practically everything I've bought over the last decade has been done online and I eschewed the limitations of a landline phone for mobile in 1999 -- just around the time that I had my first ISDN box installed.

My iPod adoption came at the introduction of Apple's first 40Gb model -- 3rd gen', I think -- back in 2001 and I've been Web 2.0 and blogging this pointlessness since 2006.

All of my physical media is in storage and the 6,000+ albums I own are digitized, backed-up and backed-up again. My TV is totally on-demand and I got my personal email early enough to have it whole name without any appended digits.

I love my iPhone and in equal measure hate my Blackberry. I bought an XBox at launch -- but only to play Halo. The upgrade to a 360 was necessary only to indulge in the last in the Master Chief trilogy. Previously, I was in a monogamous five-year relationship with GoldenEye on Nintendo.

However, in recent years I've fallen behind.

I don't have a Facebook or Bebo presence (well, I kinda-do, but didn't progress beyond initial sign-up), I don't RSS, FriendFeed, Twitter, Scrobble, Wibble or Jigger. (I made-up the latter two). I prefer the implied 'ownership' of iTunes over the free and legal lending libraries of Last.fm and Spotify. And my beautiful designer Danish telly ain't HD-ready and is nearly old enough to sit its GCSEs.

So, have I gone as far as I'm going to with technology?

Hell no, but I'm certainly no longer blazing the trail.

And looking at all this stuff -- music, movies, gaming, communication and information -- it occurs to me that none of it really knits together very well, exposing the long-held promise of the networked home as a sham.

..One day it may one day work together, maybe, but certainly no time soon.

As demonstration of my now confirmed status as technology laggard, I get very confused by Internet and texting shorthand.

I was recently a bit surprised, marginally embarrassed but vaguely complimented when I misread the acronym LOL in an email from a female colleague. I interpreted LOL to mean an inappropriately familiar 'Lots Of Love', instead of the correctly informal 'Laugh Out Loud'.

So, in the spirit of 'don't quit quitting' and for the good of my health, I'm off to dust off those long-forgotten LPs, write a letter -- with a pen and ink -- and pick-up the phone instead of pinging a tweet.

:-p

A Forest

I think I've blogged this before, but I keep forgetting how close we are to Epping Forest -- just a short hop through those jewels of the East End, Clapton, Leyton and Walthamstow and voila -- a wonderful ancient forest on the Essex boarders. On weekend mornings when the roads are quiet it only takes about 30 minutes.

It's doggie heaven too and Ems is very muddy, but now peacefully sleeping after a riotous run.

Counting Crows

...Or rather magpies.

A superstitious auld sod, I am. I blame the rural-born Irish strain for this reliance on an Old Moore's Almanac-stylee belief in tenuous portents.

A family of magpies have set-up home in the tree just outside this rear window. It means that I spy at least one every time I look garden-ward or indeed, when out in the yard.

But this single bird is by no means a sign of 'sorrow'. No siree. In the knowledge that maggies mate for life, there's always the other nearby -- so much 'joy' must be ours.

And in the coming months there'll be a nest full of nippers to boot..

We have little GFHS safely in belly, so we're covered on the foursome (i.e., we've got the 'boy' bit), and are really looking for a 'gold' six, or at the very least, a 'silver' five.

All we need now is to find tomorrow's lotto numbers in the froth of this evening's first pint in the Shakey or in the runic scatterings of discarded fried chicken bones on Allen Road.

Noise Annoys

My characterisation of this morning's fellow commuters would make a great name for a modern psychobilly band..

iPod Zombies and the Bucolic

A Message to You Rudie --

If you're really sick, stay at home. If you've got a cough, get some linctus. If you've got a runny nose, get some Kleenex. If you have to sneeze, please cover your face with an aforementioned hankie -- or at the very least, your hand.

And if you really want to listen to Ministry of Sound compilations (or whatever ting-ting, boom boom, bang-bang beat floats your proverbial) at full-blast at 07:30 on any given morning, please acknowledge the fact that most of the rest on the bus and tube carriage don't.

This city is overrun with snotty, cretinous and inconsiderate peasants.

And C -- Congratulations on being probably the only person this year to be hired by a multinational bank. I hope your commute is less toxic than mine.

The Wait

Where are we now? Into the 39th week of P's pregnancy and we've both had about enough of this waiting.

The boy's head is fully engaged and deep down in P's pelvis, while his arms are thumping her stomach and his feet are kicking her ribs like a Cantona. And all this mother abuse is internal.

And he's BIG -- an estimated 8.5lbs last week, so potentially over 9lbs now and still growing..

Poor P. She's the size of a small country and going spare having to pee about every two minutes -- which is no surprise given the pressure on her bladder. She's been having light contractions for over a week and is in a constant state of Sarbanes-Oxley (or rather Braxton-Hicks), sort-of 'practice' full-on contractions.

I know we're not quite at due date yet, but please little one, don't wait too much longer.

You're not yet born and already you're driving your parents nuts.

Dad.

Addendum 200209: The NHS can't scan accurately, count, add-up or properly test for simple conditions. Another scan yesterday and midwife consultation tells us that he's actually nearer 7.5lbs, progressing perfectly and P has a 'text book' pregnancy. At this stage, the wee chap could make an appearance today, tomorrow, anytime next week -- or indeed, the week after. The wait continues..

Supper's Ready.. Or SCB 2.5

The event of our small addition's imminent arrival has provided fodder for another entry to my infrequent series observing Stupid Corporate Branding (SCB).

P has been hangin' out with quite an undesirable crowd of late -- the earth mothers of the NCT (National Childbirth Trust). All relaxing massage techniques, water births, yoghurt knitting and primal screaming.

Delightful.

Last Sunday was the NCT's breast-feeding class -- which begs the question, why is boob school necessary? Surely, it's a basic human instinct. Child is hungry, pop nipple into mouth and 'Robert is indeed your father's brother.'

"There was this one time at Boobie Camp..."

I digress. To the SCB.

P was informed that if she ever encountered any problems with the feeding regimen, then she shouldn't hesitate to contact her...

wait for it...

Lactation Consultant.

What tit.

Snow Patrol

With London at a standstill due to a few inches of snow, everyone gets an extra day off. (No, I didn't bring my laptop home with me on Friday -- and even if I had, there's no IT support at work and the London VPN is broken to-boot).

So here are some shots of the park this morning -- which had a carnival-like atmosphere with everyone enjoying the surprise fall.









Memo to self -- must get a new camera as the iPhone is terrible..

Get Rich, Or Die ..Phishing

Today, I was lucky enough to receive this generous offer in my email..

Damn, the scammers have learned English and this nonsense is nearly gramatically correct. They've even made an attempt to make the MSN and Rocketmail addresses vaguely plausible.

Feel free to respond if you really want to give them your house.

From: David Shearer [mailto:davd.sh51@msn.com]
Sent: 20 January 2009 09:19
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: Business Deal, Call Me

Dear

I want to make a proposal of business transaction value sum of GBP £30,000,000 (Thirty Million British Pounds Sterling) to you, of which I believe will be of much interest to you and also a mutual beneficial relationship to us.

I need your co-operation to transfer the above mentioned sum out of England to any part of the world. And I am confident that you will give your consideration to this proposal and response positively within a short period of time.

I am available to discuss this proposal with you and to answer any questions you may have in regard to this fund.

As soon as you give your positive response to this proposal, I will not hesitate in sending you the details and procedures of the transaction.

Please call me on this telephone +44 704 572 3648 for more additional information or send your response to this e-mail: davd.sh61@rocketmail.com.

Look forward to discussing this opportunity further with you in more detail shortly.

Sincerely,

David Shearer (Mr)
Chartered Accountant
Halifax Bank of Scotland Plc
London
Tel: +44 704 572 3648
e-mail: davd.sh61@rocketmail.com.

When Saturday Comes

Yay! Just checked the footie fixtures for the rest of the year and wonderful news -- practically all of our remaining home games are on Saturdays at 3:00pm.

This is when I like to go to the Bridge. It's what I was brought-up on and is the traditional time for fixtures pre-dating the advent of Monday evening and Sunday morning kick-offs dictated by the great God Murdoch and his lucrative broadcast wonga.

The only remaining question is will we be able to win at home in 2009? Something we miserably failed to do in '08.

Either way and for what it's worth, they'll have me cheering on from Shed lower through to mid-May..

Carefree.