too much big

We enacted the secular right of passage that is the sock merge this week, now that the Bomber's size eight feet and close enough to my nines to make separating foot wear in the laundry more trouble that it's worth.

That is all well and good, but setting up the bikes for tomorrow's Richmond to Windsor ride I have noticed that his saddle is now higher than mine. I am less happy about that.

I have no intention whatsoever comparing the other measurement you may be wondering about.

Hello, Hello

Is Vertigo the greatest film of all time, as the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound magazine poll suggests?

I've downloaded an HD hire from iTunes, so I'll have my own opinion after the weekend.

eschatological musings

93 And immediately there shall appear a agreat sign in heaven, and all people shall see it together.

Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet at Kirtland, Ohio, Dec 27 1832.

• Meteor explodes above Cwmbran in Wales and wakes families with 'sonic boom', Aug 28, 2012
• US election: Ann Romney tells Republicans of Welsh roots, Aug 28, 2012

Myself: Mormons believe that specific events must take place as signs before the Second Coming can occurr. Ah'm jess sayin' is all.

Mind your own business

General Mills, the company behind Cheerios cereal and Häagen-Dazs ice cream, is headquartered on a leafy expanse outside Minneapolis, Minnesota. Enclosed walkways connect a network of modernist buildings, protecting Midwestern workers from heat and humidity in the summer, and bitter cold and towering snowdrifts in the winter. Inside the halls, some 3,000 people work on everything from product development and marketing to litigation, regulation and mergers and acquisitions. The employee base is generally reflective of middle America – predominantly white, casually dressed and possessing a genial, if hard-working, disposition.

Yet there are signs that in some significant ways, General Mills has a distinctly unusual corporate culture. Open the right door on a Tuesday morning and you might find a few dozen team leaders and executives meditating silently together on cushions, steeling their minds for the work week ahead. Enter a conference room later that afternoon and witness more than 50 senior employees from across the organisation standing on one leg in the tree pose as they practise yoga. Note that in every building on the General Mills campus there is a meditation room, equipped with a few zafus – or cushions for sitting practice – and yoga mats where, day after day, employees duck in to grab a few minutes of equanimity in between their meetings. These are the most obvious signs that, as an organisation, General Mills has something resembling a collective spiritual life.

What strange times we live in. Read the whole thing here.

RULES OF THE GAME OF NUDE BILLIARDS

DEFINITIONS 
1. Game
2. Match
3. Balls
4. Stringing
5. Striker and Turn
6. Stroke
7. Pot
8. In-off
9. Hazard
10. Cannon
11. Break
12. In-hand
13. Ball in Play
14. Ball in Baulk
15. Forced off the table
16. Miss
17. Running a coup
18. Foul
19. Spot Occupied
20. Push Stroke
21. Jump shot

 THE GAME 
1. Description
2. Start of Game
3. Mode of Play
4. Scoring
5. End of Session and Game
6. Playing from In-hand
7. Ball on Baulk-line
8. Spotting Object Balls
9. Limitation of Cannons
10. Limitation of Hazards
11. Ball on Edge of Pocket
12. Ball Moved by Other than Striker
13. Touching Ball
14. Fouls
15. Action after a Foul
16. Action after a Miss
17. Four-handed Billiards
18. Use of Ancillary Equipment
19. Interpretation

Myself: Is there anything more reassuringly British than sniggering at imagined innuendos, Your Royal Highness? May I draw your attention to "Playing from In-hand" sir? "Push Stroke" and "Touching Ball" are also excellent options.

Prodnose (thinking quickly): Great and manifold were the blessings, most dread Prince, which Almighty God, the Father of all mercies, bestowed upon us the people of England, when first he sent Your Highness's Royal Person to Las Vegas. For whereas it was the expectation of many, who wished not well unto our Sion, that upon the setting of that bright Occidental Star, the Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth of most happy memory, some thick and palpable clouds of darkness would so have overshadowed this Land, that men should have been in doubt which way they were to walk; and that it should hardly be known, who was to be in a right old two-and-eight of a State; the appearance of your Highness, as the Sun in his strength, instantly dispelled those supposed and surmised mists, and gave unto all that were well affected exceeding cause of comfort; especially when we beheld the Partay established by Your Highness, and Your hopeful Seed, by an undoubted Title, and this also accompanied with peace and tranquillity at home and abroad sort of.

Finbarr Saunders: Your hopeful Seed!!! Fnarr fnarr.

Sallying Fourth

I have just signed up for my fourth consecutive Richmond to Windsor Bike Ride next Sunday. The Bomber - who first did it as a nine year old - is coming along as well as his rugby season doesn't kick off until September 9th this year.

I bought him a new bike this morning as an early birthday present. The agreement being that he does the event on it and then returns it to me until the wheels are officially handed over again on September 30th, the day he turns twelve. Does that sound fair?

Your punishment must be more severe

taking the mickey

Myself: Strictly, speed is the first derivative of distance with respect to time.

Prodnose: You're no fun anymore.

Myself: Strictly, the mickey is used to measure the speed and movement direction of a computer mouse.

Prodnose: We used to laugh all the time.

Myself: So strictly mickeys are not precisely measurements of speed and speed alone

Prodnose: I don't care. It's just supposed to be a bit of fun

Myself:: Unflinching moral rectitude and intellectual rigour aren't fun? There are more important things than fun let me tell you.

Prodnose: I'm not bringing you to the quiz next week

Myself: What do you mean an Angstrom is a unit of length not distance? Distance is the same as length! I don't care what it says on your stupid answer sheet ....... it's the same .... it's the same ....  it doesn't make any difference that it's very small ... damn you .... you're all crazy ... am I the only one who's listening to this?  Get me the Imperial College physics department on the phone .... what do you mean they've gone home .. Jeez ....

cont. page 94

The Dai Vinci Coed

JESUS, THE HOLY GRAIL.... AND BARRY ISLAND....

TENSION ON THE BEACH AND PROMENADE

   coeden [coed, f.] - (n.) tree; (n.pl.) woods, wood, timber
     { (tree) Coeden may be more common in some dialects than in others. }
     { (wood) Coeden in the plural "coed" can mean either "a wood": "mynd
       am dro yn y coed" to go for a walk in the wood, or the substance wood,
       timber. }

Hot Stuff

West Dean being a client, I have been comp'd with tickets for the Annual Chilli Fiesta this weekend, so that is where I will be on Saturday or Sunday.

For the skinny, please see http://www.westdean.org.uk/Chilli%20Programme%202012.pdf

spukhafte Fernwirkung

Quantum dynamics of the avian compass

Zachary B. Walters

(Submitted on 13 Aug 2012)

The ability of migratory birds to orient relative to the Earth's magnetic field is believed to involve a coherent superposition of two spin states of a radical electron pair. However, the mechanism by which this coherence can be maintained in the face of strong interactions with the cellular environment has remained unclear. This Letter addresses the problem of decoherence between two electron spins due to hyperfine interaction with a bath of spin 1/2 nuclei. Conditions necessary for long lived coherence are identified, and a simple yet robust model for sensing magnetic field orientation is presented.

This week I will mostly be failing to understand quantum entanglement.

Pussy Riot

The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which creates an offence in England and Wales of inciting hatred against a person on the grounds of their religion. I railed against it in 2005 (see Icons passim) and I still think it is an absurd piece of legislation.

The bill contains wording to amend the Public Order Act 1986:

• Section 29A
  • Meaning of "religious hatred"
    • In this Part "religious hatred" means hatred against a group of persons defined by reference to religious belief or lack of religious belief.

• Section 29B:
  • (1) A person who uses threatening words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is threatening, is guilty of an offence if he intends thereby to stir up religious hatred.

Do you really think that if you stormed a mosque, synagogue or church in dear old Blighty disguised in a balaclava and chanting "Crap, crap, this godliness crap! Crap, crap, this holiness crap!" that you wouldn't have your collar felt?

"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" as someone once wondered.

Boy and Bicycle

Tony and Ridley Scott were close collaborators from their creative beginnings. Tony even starrted in his brother's first foray into film making (Boy and Bicycle)  made initially on a budget of £65 using a Bolex 16mm cine-camera, borrowed from the Royal College of Art in London, where Ridley was a student.

RIP Tony Scott 1944-2012

GBH

I'm not as a rule much of a man for Peter Hitchen's Why Oh Why Oh Why articles in the gastric band for the brain that is the Mail on Sunday. Today he reports that "puzzled by hearing about ‘Team GB’ during the Olympics" he "sought to find out exactly why the entire United Kingdom wasn’t represented at the Games". I remember that I always had to be very careful to distinguish British and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland construction statistics when I worked at Wimpey so I also raised a quizzical eyebrow at the name Team GB during the games myself.

Here's what he says:

The International Olympic Committee, that politically correct body, doesn’t seem to recognise the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. Could that be why the Olympic Torch veered down to Dublin at one point? I’m not sure.

It’s quite well-known that athletes from Northern Ireland can compete in the Irish or British teams, as they wish. The rule was made in 1952 after two Northern-born swimmers were barred from the Irish team in 1948 amid some bitterness.

The gradual departure of Northern Irish athletes from the British team is a sensitive measure of Britain’s diminishing power. The process is not over.

The red rag waving in paragraphs one and three remind me why I try not to read the Mail, but paragraph two is intriguing and certainly not previously "quite well known" to yours truly.

Point of order Mr Chairman - the Irish rugby team is made up of players from Eire and Northern Ireland. I had long thought that was a unique arrangement. Apparently not.

Vegging Out

My plan for a little later today is to cook this courgette, basil and lemon risotto recipe, using onions and garlic from Bondy's allotment, courgette and basil from my weekly organic Reverford vegetable box, and a wedge of lemon left over from last night's kebab.

Prodnose: Representing for the gangsters all across the world?
Myself: Still got lemon from streets, prepping 213
Prodnose: No stress, no seeds, no stems, no sticks?
Myself: Still D.R.E to the Delia Smith

Super

The Bomber is competing for Herne Hill Harriers at U13 level in the South London Athletics Super 8 League on Sunday.

Super8 is built around 8 events (4 track & 4 field events) and 2 relays. Teams are made up of 8 boys & 8 girls with each athlete doing one track event, one field event and a relay. They score points in their respective disciplines that go towards their individual and team score.

He's only 11 but athletics seems to be organised in cohorts that are two years long; U11, U13, U15, U17 etc.

They are away Sutton Arena and a mini bus will take them from the Tooting track at 9am.

All grown up.

Hardly Perennial

His Master's Voice

Adrian Bayford who, along with his wife, just won £148 million on the lottery owns and runs a second hand record shop. His father has said that his lucky son was hoping to expand his record shop business using his new fortune.

Helia Ebrahimi, writing in the Telegraph, has pointed out that he could snap up HMV, the British global entertainment retail chain, with "pocket change".

You can run your finger over her back-of-the-envelope calculations here.

In fairness, she also points out that to the while the Bayford business "has grown in recent years, HMV has seen its fortunes dwindle".

Schadenfreude over HMV's misfortunes notwithstanding however, I am rather a fan of Wimbledon's HMV Curzon and I would be sorry to lose it.

At last

Annie Last is the niece of Debs who works in the office next to mine. The Bomber and I watched he come in 8th in the Olympic Mountain Bike race on Saturday; she was the first British woman to qualify for the race in twelve years.

I may well get himself a new bike for his birthday at the end of September, though the spec may be little less refined than Ms Last's, maybe something out of the TREK Dual Sport range.

Cynicism be gone!

The Olympic Spirit: In accordance with tradition, I declare the Games of the 30th Olympiad closed, and I call upon the youth of the world to assemble four years from now in  Rio de Janeiro to celebrate the Games of the 31st  Olympiad.

The Youth of the World: I wanna, I wanna, I wanna ha, I wanna ha, I wanna really really really wanna zigazig ah.

Search me

Tia Sharp: police apologise for failures in search of house where body was found. Sometimes you have to laugh or else you cry.

Too Much Reality

The Bomber played tennis as usual at the Sir Joseph Hood Memorial Ground this morning. The Ruts train there sometimes as well if the club is overcrowded.

It is, to all intents and purposes, the same piece of ground Cannon Hill Common where Stuart Hazell was arrested last night on suspicion of Tia Sharp's murder.

Words fail me.

The Big Questions

Prodnose: What is the nature of knowledge? Can a theory be valid if it cannot proved? Where does knowledge end and philosophy or religion begin?

Myself: Some people think Jessica Ennis is fat.

Prodnose: At least with the discovery of the Higgs boson, the last gap in the "Standard Model" of physics has been filled.

Myself: There's always that I suppose, but it only encompasses the visible universe .......

Bird on the wire

Like a bird on the wire,

Like a drunk in a midnight choir,

I have tried, in my way, to be free.

That's Entertainment

I was saddened to hear that Marvin Hamlisch has died. I wasn't a huge fan of his chat show schtick, but he did have prodigious musical gifts. I have always thought that "What I did for love" is a wonderful understated song, for example.

It has also reminded me that an apology to my family is overdue for all the abuse I gave their eardrums when I was a kid teaching myself The Entertainer on the piano after he popularized it in The Sting. When I site down at a keyboard my neurons fire in a pattern that reflects what the playing is supposed to sound like. Audience members can only hear what it actually sounds like, so my juvenile attempts at rag-time syncopation must have been particularly trying.

Browne with a knee

Arriving at the gym earlier this week without my membership card I announced myself as "Nick Browne with-an-E" so that my bona fides could be checked, only for the London2012-befuddled receptionist to start looking up Nick Brownlee.

Them's the breaks I suppose and - over five years (and half a stone) on from my triathlon (Icons passim) - I will be cheering on the Brownlee brothers on in the Olympic tri today.

Spanking the plank

Since Garageband for the IPAD swam into my consciousness last year (Icons passim), it has been upgraded and extended to the iPhone (and iPod Touch for that matter).

I plugged my guitar into the phone yesterday afternoon (via the trusty Apogee Jam) and had a little noodle around. For all that it seems ridiculous to be cranking out blues riffs into such a small device, it really is a joy to use. It is going to make practicing so much easier that I will have to develop a whole new range of excuses for why I don't do it enough.

Dem apples

The apple tree I planted last year (Icons passim) has borne fruit and I have uploaded a photo directly to the 'blog from my iPhone for the first time. Truly my cup overfloweth.

well.i.neva

I caught the video above earlier this week when  was vegetating in front of a music channel before I went out  and realised that I had seen them filming it near London Bridge when I was there on May 11th.

Don't let the excitement engendered by this revelation distract you from the Olympics though.

Dark Knight Capital

In The Dark Knight Rises, the villainous Bane attacks the stock exchange and bankrupts our hero, forcing him to relinquish control of Wayne Enterprises, by uploading a series of massive automatic and fraudulent trades.

Unlikely as it seems, this is eerily reminiscent of  US equity broker Knight Capital losing $440m yesterday. The huge loss came from orders triggered by a software glitch in Knight’s systems that led to huge price swings in dozens of stocks on Wednesday. “It was a software bug, it just happened to be a large software bug,” Thomas Joyce the Chief Executive said on Bloomberg television with fairly spectacular sangfroid.

Shut It!

Blimey, even Regan in the Sweeney used to give stories to the News of the World on a nod and a wink. The Leveson Inquiry may never end.

Det. Insp. Jack Regan: I sometimes hate this place! It's a bloody holiday camp for thieves and weirdos - all the rubbish. You age prematurely trying to sort some of them out. Try and protect the public, and all they do is call you fascist. You nail a villain and some ponced-up pinstripe Hampstead barrister screws it up like an old fag-packet on a point of procedure, then pops off for a game of squash and a glass of madeira. He's taking home thirty grand a year, and we can just about afford ten days in Eastbourne and a second-hand car. It's all bloody wrong, my son.

Lord Justice Leveson: Right. We'll rise now and resume at 1.50 pm. Thank you very much indeed.

Work Ethic

Your probably working all day like me, but - if it happens to coincide with a coffee break - Winston Gordon will be looking to reverse GB’s dire fortunes in judo when he meets Canadian Alexandre Emond in the ExCeL at 9.51am in the Elimination Round of 32.

As far as I can tell, it will be on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2xyt.
Update: It seems to be on http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2yg5

Just before 10 am: Ippon! Super win.

If he gets through that, other coffee breaks will be as follows:

10:40 - 11:07 Men's -90kg Preliminaries
11:36 - 11:49 Men's -90kg Quarter-finals

14:28 - 15:23 Men's -90kg Bronze Medal Finals Medal event
14:42 - 14:55 Men's -90kg Semi-finals
16:10 - 16:20 Men's -90kg Gold Medal Final

Over and Out: Lost in the second round, dagnabbit!


For the video record:

First Fight
Second Fight

Aphorisms

It is impossible to experience one's own death objectively and still carry a tune.

The universe is merely a fleeting idea in God's mind -- a pretty uncomfortable thought, particularly if you've just made a down payment on a house.

Eternal nothingness is O.K. if you're dressed for it.

If only Dionysus were alive! Where would he eat?

Not only is there no God, but trying getting a plumber on weekends.

It seems to me that it was Woody Allen back in the 70s who perfected the ludicrous aphorism that juxtaposed existential angst with the most parochial of observations.

That said, https://twitter.com/KimKierkegaard - in which the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard mashed with the tweets and observations of Kim Kardashian - is carrying on the tradition with some style:

All feel the dread of being alone in the world, overlooked by God. A pop of red gives your look a boost & helps you feel more confident.

Dr Baruah (whom God Preserve) of Assam

"Look at this," said Dr Anuj Baruah, holding up a vial containing a few drops of rusty red liquid. "With this I could make you senseless." His nose started twitching; his eyes watered. "Oh dear. I think I may have got some on my fingers," he said, looking remarkably unconcerned that his skin had touched something the Indian government has developed into a biological weapon.

"I know what happens. Your brain starts to not work properly, you become restless … " He scurried off, returning a few minutes later after washing a particularly pungent strain of bhut jolokia chilli concentrate off his hands on his farm-cum-chilli research lab in the north-east Indian state of Assam.

.............. you could, for example, "blast a container of capsaicin into a terrorist hideout and make them all drop their guns when they take just one breath." 

The Strabismus of the East.

Recommended

Ben's mate Jonnie came to Cardiff with us last week. He had an Outnumbered Christmas special and an episode called "The Tennis Match" on his laptop. They were hilarious. The Burglar has been recommending the show to me for years to no avail, but I am now officially a convert. (The tennis was filmed at the courts where Ben plays which added to the fun.)

I also managed to meet up with Sean (Icons passim) when I was back. He's extolled an American series called "Breaking Bad" to me, and I have to give it mad props as he's the small screen guru who tipped me the wink about The Wire three years ago.

The photo above shows Ben and Jonnie around Christmastime in their first year in primary school. They'll walk through the gates in the same secondary school in September, which reminds me that  Sean and I went through  De La Salle and then St Illtyd's together all those years ago. "Those Christian Brothers thought they could beat an education into us; I guess we fooled them," to paraphrase Terry Molloy.

Left to my own devices I watched "A Dangerous Method" last night  It is one of the worst films I have ever seen; the only fun to be had is in sniggering at how overwrought the whole sorry mess is. I am in dire need of any viewing steers I can get from B, J and S.

links like this

Have I finally found a hack to put links like this back into titles after they were discontinued in the new Blogger interface?

Update: Yes I have.

Torchlight

I am back in London.

The Olympics have my permission to begin.

In one era, out the other

The Bomber has now finished in primary school and is off until he starts secondary in September. I am taking him to Wales for the week tomorrow, so the world probably won't be getting the benefit of my opinion on these pages until I get back.

In the growing up too fast stakes, the mother of a contemporary of his told me that her son had changed his Facebook status to in a relationship.

Prodnose: It's complicated.

Myself: Go to your room until you are twenty one years old!

Once Upon a Time

In Grimms’ Fairy Tales there is a story called “The Stubborn Child” that is only one paragraph long. Here it is, in a translation by the fairy-tale scholar Jack Zipes:

Once upon a time there was a stubborn child who never did what his mother told him to do. The dear Lord, therefore, did not look kindly upon him, and let him become sick. No doctor could cure him and in a short time he lay on his deathbed. After he was lowered into his grave and covered over with earth, one of his little arms suddenly emerged and reached up into the air. They pushed it back down and covered the earth with fresh earth, but that did not help. The little arm kept popping out. So the child’s mother had to go to the grave herself and smack the little arm with a switch. After she had done that, the arm withdrew, and then, for the first time, the child had peace beneath the earth.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; Keeping It Real & Kicking It Old School.

sums

Google Analytics is telling me this morning that our auctions site has had 132,673 visits with an average visit duration: of 13 minutes and 39 seconds over the last month.

That's 108,659,187 seconds, or 1,810,986 minutes or 30,183 hours or 1,258 days or three and a half years of attention over the last thirty days or so.

..... because I'm worth it ........

on yer bike

I am a huge fan of the Tour de France and try to watch the highlights every evening. As the chief executive of security firm G4S prepares to go before MPs later to explain why his company was unable to provide the thousand and thousands of Olympics security staff it promised, I can't help but wonder how it is that the tour manages to get bay with - as far as I can tell and tack scattered roads notwithstanding - the tour seems to get by with what looks like no security at all on the roads.

I know about the tragedy of Munich, but what are all the Olympic staff actually for? What is it they actually do?

A problem Shard is a problem Halved

Misled by its laser-illuminated, royal-attended opening event I went along to take a look at The Shard yesterday. Opening my foot, you can't go up to the observation platform and the restaurants aren't going to be up and running until next February.

The day wasn't a complete waste though. I stumbled into a pop-up whiskey shop in Southwark Street that stocked everything from moonshine to three grand a bottle wonder malts, and then cooled my heels in another find; The ReUnion.

Samuel Pepys described the pub as the 'heart of England'. This summer we invite you to explore The reUNION Public House - celebrating this cornerstone of British life.

Under the railway arches of Southwark, discover a haven of open air courtyards and gardens abuzz with activity: rediscovered pub games, neighbourhood feasts, live music and film screenings. Our inn is open for overnight guests, and our patrons can enjoy a piping hot sauna to chase away those British summer chills.

Four years ago EXYZT created the acclaimed Southwark Lido, which celebrated the tradition of Roman baths in the heart of the city. This year, we take inspiration from the Beer Act of 1830, in which any householder could apply for a license to sell - and even brew beer from their own front room.

Nuance

I was going to write a post today saying that the dictation feature on the iPhone 4S is quite amazingly accurate, but apologizing in advance for the unpunctuated stream-of-consciousness texts and emails I am bound to use it to send, and to explain in advance that I haven't forgotten the difference between there's and theirs, wheel and we'll etc. if there are transcription errors I can't be bothered to correct.

Dilly-dallying round the interwebs though, I stumbled upon Some Tips For Siri And iPhone 4S Dictation, There are rich voice formatting features; "pound sterling sign" will produce £ on the screen for example. That said, the jury is still out on whether I can be bothered to learn these bells and whistles..

Old Jokes Home

Prodnose: I thought you used your dictaphone.

Myself: No I generally pick the numbers out with my finger.

palpable nodules

I finally got a sports massage earlier this month. It had been in the back of my mind for a long time but I have never quite got round to it.

When the masseuses was working around the shoulder/lats area I could feel that she was finding and sort of crackling (if that is the right word) hard little lumps under my skin.

When I asked he what they were afterwards she told me that they were trigger points.

Trigger points, also known as trigger sites or muscle knots, are described as hyperirritable spots in skeletal muscle that are associated with palpable nodules in taut bands of muscle fibers, according to Wikipedia.

I developed something not dissimilar when I hurt my shoulder skiing years ago and I very occasionally do some foam rolling, but I really had no idea these knots were so prevalent.

What's intriguing is that trigger points arise at predictable places in the muscle and cause predictable patterns of referred pain. I have had one at such a predictable place on the back of my left calf for years and have always thought it was on old injury.

Jump to it

I finally popped my HD cherry and was pleasantly surprised by what an improvement it was over a standard definition iTunes version.

I'm not proud to say that 21 Jump Street was the movie in question. Perhaps I should download something like The Tree of Life over the weekend so I can claim that was summer-the-first-time and keep my poseur credentials  nice and shiny.

Desolation Angels

Twenty months or so after moaning (Icons passim) that Jack Kerouac's Desolation Angels was out of print I've finally got a copy on my Kindle.

The paperback was republished by Penguin in May and they seem to have produced the electronic version at the same time. Amazon have only got seven copies of the physical version left, but I suppose that once a Kindle copy is available it means that to all intents and purposes the book will never go out of print again.

That's a rather splendid. I had never thought of it before.

Opening Night

AbbeyFest kicked off for another year on Friday night. The local MP was up on our balcony, but I couldn't persuade her to have a drink on us.  I know various scandals continue to cast long shadows but surely being in my pocket to the tune of pinot grigio (one glass thereof) needn't be a matter for the Register of Members' Interests.

A Shropshire Lad

On the day that we can see Team GB: the full list for the London 2012 Olympics, here is a nice parochial story.

What is known as Wenlock Edge, a great palisade, almost 1,000 feet high, running for 15 miles through the county of Shropshire, overlooks, near its eastern end, the tidy town of Much Wenlock. (Much Wenlock being so named, you see, to distinguish it from its even wee-er neighbor, Little Wenlock.) However, to this quaint backwater village near Wales came, in 1994, Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, the grandiose president of the International Olympic Committee.

Samaranch, an old spear carrier for Franco, was a vainglorious corporate politician, either obsequious or imperious, depending on the company, who was never much given to generosity. Yet he found his way to Much Wenlock, where he trooped out to the cemetery at Holy Trinity Church and placed a wreath on a grave there. Samaranch then declared that the man who lay at his feet beneath the Shropshire sod “really was the founder of the modern Olympic Games.”

....... read on .....

Bungling

Cops sell PSP with cannabis in its case. Our auction system was in the Sun yesterday for the first time since the great  Bungling cops sell knives on the internet scandal of 2008.

...... And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids.


Update: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-18774844

Rites of passage

We bought the Bomber's new uniform for secondary school yesterday morning.

In the afternoon he caught the bus and went off to the movies with his mates on his own (if that makes sense).

That seems like a lot of growing up for one day.

Hello World

I have joined the iPhone generation and this address to the nation comes from my new 4S.

Wayne Hernandez

Wayne Hernandez is playing AbbeyFest tonight in the first of nearly two months' worth of free Friday night gigs from the bandstand.

Sometimes when the band is quiet I join in and sing along to try and keep their spirits up. I am sure it helps.

Prodnose: Oh tell me why, why, why, why, why, why .....

Myself: Why do people break up, turn around and make up?

Prodnose (head in hands): No, just why, oh, why?

This Means War

I hired This Means War on iTunes last night and watched it, with the Bomber and a couple of his mates, via  the iPAD plugged into the big screen over HDMI. It was ephemeral but absurdly entertaining.

Conclusions:
1. I have probably bought my last DVD.
2. My aesthetic sensibilities are exactly the same as those of eleven year old boys.

stealth health

The Bomber will be getting old school corned beef hash for dinner chez moi this evening, but, unbeknownst to him, the spuds, carrots and red onions in it will all be organic courtesy of the weekly Riverford vegetable box that is now delivered to me on the office.

At least we've moved on from the time time I used to "hide" grated carrots and spinach from him in minced beef, though salad remains a hard sell apart from the ever reliable BLT.

I was there

The image above is not the greatest photo ever taken, I'll grant you that. But it does prove that I saw Tom Jones in what was essentially a small sweaty club last night (Icons passim) and he was just as good as you imagine.

You may remember that Prodnose and I covered his first hit back in 2008. I can't help but think that if he returned the favour with Rizzle Kicks taking my part while he filled in for Prodnose, It's Not Unusual 2012 would be tearing up the dance floors again.

epistaxis and emesis

I only get to Bikram yoga about once a week lately.

Yesterday was my first visit in a fortnight. One person quit after vomitting and another went out with a nosebleed but gamely continued after a running repair.

As Richard Cockerill knows (see Icons passim), the heat and the effort will kick your backside if you don't respect it.

Weekend

I went to see the greyhound racing at Wimbledon Stadium on Friday night, Codebreaker – Alan Turing's life and legacy at the Science Museum yesterday, and I'll be watching the Euro2012 Final tonight.

You been up to anything diverting?

Be prepared

It is July tomorrow, I should be thinking what Christmas single I am going to put out in December

A la  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Eck6rox0s  I am thinking along the lines of ...

White Christmas - I wanna Christmas
White Christmas - a Christmas of my own
White Christmas - I wanna Christmas
White Christmas - a Christmas of my own

Black people gotta lotta presents
But they don't mind throwing a snowball
While white people go to school
Where they teach you how to program in Cobol

An' everybody's singing
Gloved hands to hold too
An' nobody wants
To go to bed!

White Christmas - I wanna Christmas
White Christmas - a Christmas of my own
White Christmas - I wanna Christmas
White Christmas - a Christmas of my own

All the love is in the air
no one's rich enough to buy it
While we walk the streets
singing carols even as we mince pie it

Everybody's singing
Gloved hands to hold too
Nobody wants
To go to bed!

White Christmas - I wanna Christmas
White Christmas - a Christmas of my own
White Christmas - I wanna Christmas
White Christmas - a Christmas of my own

Are you taking orders?
'cause if you're taking orders
I will have some cocktails
and please bring me some h'orderves

athlete

The Bomber had his last primary school sports day yesterday. He won every single event except the javelin and he came second in that by a centimetre.

The Thursday before that he won the long jump and ran the final winning leg of the relay as his school won the Merton Primary Athletics Championships 2012.

This term he's training at the school running club with Vicky Griffiths, who represented Great Britain at 800m at the World Athletics Championships in 2010, and was also a GB Senior International at 4x400m Relay and U20 at 400m.

I am sometimes astounded that he's related to me.

Plumbing the depths

Don't ask me how, but the Bomber's mate Jonnie managed to mess up the flushing mechanism on the upstairs toilet last night.

I stripped it down and shut the water off, and I've been doing a little online research this morning; it looks to me as if I will have to replace a Gerberit Impuls260 dual flush valve.

It seems that Facebook's heuristics have been misled by my intense interest in faulty plumbing however; they're promoting a "discreet male catheter" to me in one of the adverts on the left of my stream. Stream! Geddit? Geddit? Funny!

ExCeL

The British Olympic Association (BOA) announced the 14 athletes that will represent Team GB in the men’s and women’s judo events at the London 2012 Olympic Games, yesterday.

Winston Gordon (35; born and lives Tooting) got the men’s -90kg berth for his third successive games.

I sometimes feel like I go on and on about this, but I am awed by the physical (injuries and rivals) plus the political (last August, Margaret Hicks his original mentor, was sacked as the BJA's elite performance director) obstacles he has overcome with this achievement.

90kg Men Olympic Judo - Wed, 1 August.

Lil' Pulp Fiction

It is never too early to introduce one's offspring to the Tarantino universe.

Gamblers Anonymous

Mum and Dad met the owners of Black Caviar a couple of weeks ago when they were cruising down the Rhine. She won the Diamond Jubilee Stake over the weekend, so here  they are being presented with the trophy by the Queen; extremely cool.

P.S. I bet £20 on Black Caviar at 2 to 7 so I won £5.71 on the race myself. I then reinvested the £25.71 at 15 to 8 for England to beat Italy in the Euro-footy last night, so I am back down to nothing.

Go Kart Mozart

The sleevenotes for Go Kart Mozart's third album take almost as long to read as its 18 tracks take to play. There is a reading list, containing books on sociology, music and mental illness, many of which appear to be made up: you'll search Amazon in vain for Sanitary Ramblings: Women With Their Knickers Down by Dr Ono Powers. There is a playlist, which reveals that On the Hot Dog Streets was made under the influence of both Wiley's Avalanche Music 1 and Thing, a flop 1972 novelty single by Edwina Biglet and the Miglets. And there is a list of potential band names for anyone inspired by the album itself and "thinking of having a go": Doughnut Corporation, Female Rejection, Unlikely Pub, Bing Bong Crosby.
.....read the while thing...

I read the review above in a chanced-upon Grauniard, waiting alone early at the bar and genuinely cried and snorted with laughter, all on my Jack, to the evident bemusement of the other customers. Without hearing a note, I have a new musical hero.

alike in dignty

To the Albert Hall last night to celebrate the 50th anniversary of West Side Story with a high definition film screening that had the score played live by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

The movie's fifty and I'm fifty one. Unlike other classics we grow younger.

Something's coming, I don't know what it is, but it is gonna be great!

Happy Birthday to me

Here's the present I got myself.

In Patagonia

Argentina turns to Wales for help with Falkland Islands

Buenos Aires is thought to have been trying to capitalise on historical links between Wales and Argentina.

In Patagonia, in the south of the country, a dialect of the Welsh language is spoken among thousands of expat descendants of Welsh ancestors who first settled there in 1865.

The settlers built Welsh chapels and their descendants even organise a regular cultural festival. In 2004, the Welsh speakers in Argentina asked to access Welsh television programmes to encourage the growth of the language.

During the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina 30 years ago, there were Welsh language speakers in both sets of troops.

That last sentence is as sad and poignant a thing as I've read in a long time; Kirchner's and Cameron's UN grandstanding are equally distasteful if you want my opinion,

Ho ho, very satirical

I took this picture lunchtime yesterday. If you can sit on the the shelf labelled BUTTS and get your laughing gear around the hole labelled GUM you are more flexible than I am and I've been to one hundred and seventy odd yoga classes.

Breaking the surface

Prodnose: Very pretty, General. Very pretty. But, can they fight?

Myself: It is interesting that Microsoft displayed ARM and x86 versions of the hardware.

Prodnose: Not to me it isn't.

Awesome!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman recently participated in a live chat with The One Ring's Cliff Broadway. During the discussion Kevin revealed that Michael Bay's Ninja Turles will draw inspiration from the fighting styles showcased in The Raid: Redemption (See Icons passim).

You can see said revelation 1:32:55 into this video.

"Michael Bay's Ninja Turles will draw inspiration from the fighting styles showcased in The Raid, " is too much weird in one sentence for me (they want a more credible fighting style for mutant turtles perhaps?), but it has to be acknowledged Mr. Bay can laugh at himself as well as at us.

Furtherst Day

I was genealogically adrift last week in the run up to Father's Day as the Bomber was away camping in Ashdown Forest with the school, while my mum and dad were cruising on the Rhine.

Everyone's back now, and I am taking Ben and Raybs out for Chinese food later so so order is restored to the universe.

I broke the Tarantino code

More revision above for the cinema round in Monday's increasingly esoteric quiz. (It turns out that the guy who sets the questions used to be a film student. He gave me a point for Bubba Ho-Tep last week. The actual quote was from Army of Darkness, but he grokked that they referenced it in the Elvis v The Mummy movie;the technical term, I believe, is a second order Bruce Campbell differential.)

The McKitterick Prize

Ginney Bailey (sister of Greg with whom I've had many a drink in the Gower and the Claude) has won the 2012 Society of Authors' McKitterick Prize, for first novels by writers over the age of 40.

Isn't that great? (Sometimes I feel like almost everyone I know has published a novel or made a movie.)

Only a few minutes until lunch!

Call me anything but (don't call me) late for dinner.

Leveson Inquiry: Winners and Losers

As Rebekah Brooks appears in court over phone hacking 'cover up' claims, her well orchestrated PR fight back begins:

See Icons Passim

There's a city in the Ukraine (see Icons Passim) that was founded in 1869 by a Welsh businessman, John Hughes, who constructed a steel plant and several coal mines in the region; the town was named Yuzovka (Юзовка) in recognition of his role in its founding ("Yuz" being a Russian or Ukrainian approximation of Hughes).

In the Soviet era it was renamed to Staline,and then Stalino.

Today it's called Donetsk, and it is where England drew with France in Euro 2012 last night.

Isn't that great?

O.S? Oh Yes

I am finding Safari Reader which "displays web articles sans ads or clutter so you can read without distractions" to be a huge boon reading web content on the browser. It is also one in the eye for megalomaniac graphic designers, which can't be a bad thing.

By way of contrast with regards to usability, I couldn't even work out how to log off from Windows 2012 Release Candidate Datacenter from the dreaded Metro interface.

QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM

(Note to self: Brushes is the iPad app that David Hockney has used to such acclaim. That has got to be worth £5.49 to try out at some time.)

Noob Training

I play minecraft with my Dad. It's funny because he is new and fails miserably!

The Bomber and I watched a great deal of this last night. I can't help but feel I'm being subtly guyed.

Not you, fat Jesus

"Not you fat Jesus," being one of the quotes that defeated my in last week's quiz (Icons passim), I watched The Hangover via iTunes last night as gross-out-comedy homework. Hand on heart, it was actually pretty funny.

Myself: You guys might not know this, but I consider myself a bit of a loner. I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack. But when my sister brought Doug home, I knew he was one of my own. And my wolf pack... it grew by one. So there... there were two of us in the wolf pack... I was alone first in the pack, and then Doug joined in later. And six months ago, when Doug introduced me to you guys, I thought, "Wait a second, could it be?" And now I know for sure, I just added two more guys to my wolf pack. Four of us wolves, running around the desert together, in Las Vegas, looking for strippers and cocaine. So tonight, I make a toast!

Prodnose: I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.

Myself: Leave me a message, or don't, but do me a favor: don't text me, it's gay.

Prodnose: Young, young man. Did anyone ever tell you you look like a young prince out of the 'Arabian Nights'?

Myself:: Would you please put some pants on? I feel weird having to ask you twice.

Prodnose: Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

Myself: Paging Dr. Faggot. Dr. Faggot!

Prodnose: Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable! It is the one unforgivable thing, in my opinion, and the one thing of which I have never, never been guilty.

Two cheers

Microsoft released a preview of Windows Azure Virtual Machine yesterday.

Virtual Machines give you application mobility, allowing you to move your virtual hard disks (VHDs) back and forth between on-premises and the cloud. Migrate existing workloads such as Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft SharePoint to the cloud, bring your own customized Windows Server or Linux images, or select from a gallery.

To deploy the inelegant jargon, this makes it a provider of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) as well as a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).

That it has taken this long to announce a competitor to Amazon's EC2 is brain dead quite frankly. "The service is expected to move to General Availability by the end of the calendar year," so its not as if we can use it in anger until 2013.

Two cheers only.

And I beheld ...

Cardiff City confirm change to red kit from traditional blue.

1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

3 And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

4 And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

"Red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword." Friggin' awesome!

blah blah blah

Violent peace
blah blah blah
buy it right now
blah blah blah
we are the world
we are so huge
blah blah blah
johnny can't read
blah blah blah
I' can't see
blah blah blah
tuna on white
guns all night
blah blah blah
Saying nothing with Iggy and the Writers' Guild of America.

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday

Hubris and imperial overstretch last night as our three week reign as winners of the Monday night quiz at the Antelope in Tooting came to an end.

As a rule it is my imperious form in the final round of film quotes that puts the foot to the enemy's neck. Classics and indie fayre are where I generally make hay but last night's tone was a little, shall we say, broader.

To take one epic fail at random,  I've never even seen Pineapple Express far less committed its screenplay to heart.

"Has anyone seen my bigger knife?" is the deathless dialogue I couldn't identify.from that.putative Library of Congress' National Film Registry candidate.

If there is a bad-taste-comedy genre, I'm pretty much with it up to Porky's. But after that nothing, and it's 30 years old now.

This week I will be mostly rentin' and watchin' Talladega Nights::The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Knocked Up, Superbad, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,  Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Drillbit Taylor,  Step Brothers,  Pineapple Express, Year One, Funny People, Get Him to the Greek, and Bridesmaids.

Expect a coarsening of sensibility and a steady decline in IQ points.

On blogging

Myself:

I have resolved on an enterprise which has no precedent, and which, once complete, will have no imitator. My purpose is to display to my kind a portrait in every way true to nature, and the man I shall portray will be myself.

Prodnose:

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately.

Hot Chip

It was an iTunes download I grant you, but I have bought a single for the first time, as far as I can recall, since Love Track by the B52s all those years ago, and Hot Chip's Night & Day is my official Bank Holiday Weekend soundtrack.

Player of the Year

The Bomber won U11 Player of the Year at the Old Ruts Awards night yesterday. He got a trophy and a specially monogrammed jersey he can wear to make himself a marked man all next season.

I am over the moon. (If I had my time again though, I'd pay more attention watching the award than to trying to take a photo of the award #mindfulness.)

The job for this afternoon is to work out how I can watch the Wales Barbarian game. On Facebook, the WRU say I can buy the programme on iTunes; on Twitter the Barbarians say the game will be aired live on BBC 2 Wales and on the BBC website, kick off at 2pm so I ought to be able to work something out for all I am in London.

Accordian to Hoyle

Improvising on his accordion, he clucks, shouts and screeches, while looping in audio samples: the result is a sound that is orchestral in its power and range, delivered in a style that is inherently theatrical. Four years ago, he put together a project called Earth Machine Music in which he sampled farm sounds – principally tractors – and weaved them into a concert. Then he worked on a project called Iron Lung, in which performance artist Ville Walo made sculptures out of old accordion bellows while Pohjonen played. Now he is bringing a show to the UK that may even top that for eccentricity: accordion wrestling.

In the show, Pohjonen plays his souped-up, electronic accordion while wrestlers from Helsinki grapple with each other. It is extremely Finnish. How did he get the idea? "Around 15 years ago, I was in the north of Finland and an old accordion player told me he used to play for wrestling matches. I thought it was a joke – but I discovered it was true. It started in the 1920s and was common in the 40s and 50s, when wrestling was the most popular sport in Finland. That was also when accordion players were stars."

This is as mad as a box of frogs. I demand that you read the whole thing.

Look at http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=12898. It's sold out. My faith in human nature is restored.

Halo Effect

In a News at One bulletin about the United Nations Security Council, the channel accidentally used the logo of the fictitious United Nations Space Command from Microsoft's Halo.

The presenter Sophie Raworth was talking about Amnesty International's criticism of the UN involvement in the ongoing conflict in Syria.

But next to the Amnesty symbol behind her was not the light blue of the UNSC symbol but the black and gold of the computer game organisation.

Master Chief was unavailable for comment.

Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC)

The irony of this will be lost on anyone apart from the profit burglar.

Catching Fire

The Bomber nearly having finished The Hunger Games, I need to pop along to WH Smith, after my lunchtime visit to the gym, and pick up a paperback copy of Catching Fire which is the second book in the series.

The exercise scheduled today is half an hour on the recline bike. I usually read my kindle while I'm doing that, but I've left it at home this morning so the iPad will have to take the strain.

Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking arrived in the mail from Amazon yesterday. It's not available as an ebook and thus becomes the first physical page turner I've bought for some time.

So that is what is happening with me bookwise. Thrilling eh?

Seven Fat Years

The line up for AbbeyFest 2012 is out.

The WBI time machine tells me this is our seventh year of sponsoring it. That went quickly.

Prodnose: The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years.

Myself: The dream is one.

Minecraft

Minecraft is a game about placing blocks to build anything you can imagine. At night monsters come out, make sure to build a shelter before that happens.

It's taking the Bomber and his friends by storm at the moment on both XBox and PC, though noses have been turned up at the iPad version.

You can read the story of the game at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minecraft. It does my heart good to see what was until comparatively recently a one-man-band achieving like this.

And so it came to pass

I have now binned Netflix, as previously I binned LoveFilm.

I'd prefer simply to rent or buy from iTunes or Zune. I'm quite happy to pay as I go. I think the all-you-can-eat flat price subscription services flatter to deceive.

So now you know,

The Hood

With the European Championship and the FA Cup in the bag, I have to acknowledge that bringing in the super villain from Thunderbirds as Chelsea manager for the latter part of the season was an inspired move.

Wikipedia:What is known for certain about the Hood is that he possesses a significant reputation among the less ethical groups of the world, as he has been shown to be contacted by spy agencies or military generals seeking information or for a target to be eliminated, such as in Edge of Impact when he was hired by a general to sabotage the Red Arrow program as it was a threat to his work. He regularly spends his time in a strange Aztec-themed temple in the heart of an unspecified jungle, which features a statue of Kyrano that he regularly stands in front of when communicating with his brother, as well as other high-tech equipment that he uses to monitor his enemies and prepare his plans.

A shoe-in for Chelsea; could that be Roman Abramovich he addresses as General X in the video below?

gross hypocrisy

How dare they criticise London Welsh. Who do Premiership Rugby think they are? Have they completely forgotten recent history? At various times Harlequins and Northampton have rightly been relegated to Division One but prospered massively from the experience and bounced back as model teams.

How dare Premiership Rugby, via the RFU, attempt to deny that to other equally ambitious rugby clubs. How dare they be judge and jury when the only people benefitting is their self-appointed elite. It is so against everything Rugby Union stands for as to be laughable, which they will quickly discover if this London Welsh situation is allowed to go any further.

A sober and judicious response from the Telegraph's Brendan Gallagher of Premiership Rugby's denying London Welsh the right to play in top flight.

Vulcan Mild Meld

Vulcan pub to be preserved at St Fagans
Peter Finch says the loss of historic Cardiff watering hole is only partly compensated by its finding a home at the National History Museum.

Farewell to the Vulcan. In the Second World War, my father would peep from his bedroom window to watch watch American servicemen spilling out of it  fighting, then being clubbed and thrown into wagons by their own military police. It was a 1940s XBox for the children of Newtown.

Soul of a Man

I bought  Tom Jones new album "Hit or Miss" on iTunes yesterday. Sufficient to say it is just as good as 2010's "Praise and Blame" and inspired some truly appalling electric blues guitar stylings from your truly before I went out last night. (Oh, we won the quiz in the Antelope again, thanks for asking.)

I for Novello

The Cockney Alphabet:

A for ‘orses (Hay for horses)
B for mutton (Beef or mutton)
C for th’ighlanders (Seaforth Highlanders)
D for ential (Deferential)
E for Adam (Eve for Adam)
F for vessence (Effervescence)
G for police (Chief of police)
H for respect (Have respect)
I for novello (Ivor Novello)
J for orange (Jaffa orange)
K for ancis (Kay Francis)
L for leather (Hell for leather)
M for sis (Emphasis)
N for lope (Envelope)
O for the garden wall (Over the garden wall)
P for relief (Pee for relief)
Q for music (Cue for music)
R for mo (‘Arf a mo)
S for you (it’s for you)
T for 2 (Tea for two)
U for films (UFA films)
V for la France (Vive la France)
W for a fiver (Double you for a fiver)
X for breakfast (Eggs for breakfast)
Y for God’s sake (Why, for God’s sake)
Z for breezes (Zephyr breezes)

Which is by way of a grudging acknowledgment for me of Chelsea' European Championship win.

Cathays Park

My trip to see Gareth Evans' The Raid has been put back until Tuesday due to the giddy social whirl that is and will be watching the European Championship Final in the pub yesterday and cycling to, round, and from Richmond Park today.

Luckily I got my Welsh-connected action movie fix from Wesley (straight to video) Snipes on Freeview's 5USA channel on Friday. To my mind, there is something irresistibly funny about the scene above in which Cardiff's Cathays Park Civic Centre stands in for London in an identikit rifle-assembled-by-a sniper-from-a-brief-case-on-a-roof-top assassination scene.

Gosh

This Is Local London

Plans to bring AFC Wimbledon to Colliers Wood have been drawn up by the council alongside massive regenerations plans for the area, we can reveal.

The Wimbledon Guardian understands proposals for a football stadium on the site of the Savacentre in Merantun Way, currently home to Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer, are being worked on by planners.

In what is being called the "Merantun Way transformation and AFC Wimbledon master plan", it has also emerged insurance giant Aviva has been identified as a developer to build a mixed use development of 1,000 new homes along with the 20,000-seater stadium.

Perhaps the Merantun Boulevard (Icons passim) wasn't a flash in the pan after all?