Awesome weekend, am very tired still - due to lack of sleep and much lovely Guinness. Got sung at, yelled at, lied to, hugged, photographed, annoyed, drunk, and happy - though not necessarily in that order. An interesting lesson in life and people and confined spaces. But - the music was ace :) and that's what mattered. Neil was on top form and it was good to see ;) I could write about it and probably should, but some things and certainly most feelings don't translate too well to this medium; especially when other people's feelings and egos are involved....

Just went to see Bridget Jones' Diary - great film :)

Bugger. Forgot to set up the palm pilot.

And what time of the morning is this??!!! The gig had better be GOOOOOOOD tonight... 5am is not my most favourite time of the morning to get up.... now where's the sun??!

Great quote: via Pete McCarthy's book 'McCarthy's Bar', quoting the American novelist Kinky Friedman on the subject of belief.

"I'm a Jehovah's Bystander. We believe in a supreme being, but we just don't want to get involved".

Oh, I'll only have very patchy access to the net the next few weeks; will have lots to write about (must remember to set up my palm pilot) but it will be infrequent.

No change there then... ;)

Davo has honoured me today; he agreed that my new niece Jasmine is very ickle. Awww!

It's another late one tonight.. last night I was up for ages, making additions to my site. Tonight I had a nice chat with old and new friends, and realised I had done nothing "constructive".

My excuse?

It's E.R. night ;)

Off to bed; trying to finish my book about Ireland BEFORE I go there on Saturday!

This from Lukelog caught my attention today, a pleasurable respite from grappling with CGI script configuration on Apache (if anyone is an expert on the latter, please mail me as it's driving me mad!)

QUIDQUID LATINE DICTUM SIT, PROFUNDUM VIDITUR

I had a lovely weekend. But as with all holidays, I feel more tired now than when I started. Why is that?! It's just coming up to 11.30, about the time I usually log on and sit down for an hour to either chat with friends, or update my sites / blog / email. But I don't feel inclined to right now (sorry!); I had a really bad day (nuisance txtmsgs and calls on my mobile, spent 1/2 hour in the police station - AND I am 'homesick' for New Zealand having seen my friend Daniel's photos) and so...

...I'm off to bed with a funny book and a cup of chamomile tea. I've got a site to finish tomorrow (before I go to Belfast on Saturday at 5am!) and the laundry to do; but I kinda envy Meg in her "thinking" state, and will therefore throw the "to do" list out the window for once, and curl up with the cats for some Zzzzzz's.

Sweet sleep, sweet repose, hope the flies don't tickle your toes...

Lunch: Warm scallops and bacon salad, roast cod with tomato and fennel ragout, with cardamom rice pudding to finish. Followed by a brisk walk along the seafront.

Dinner will be: smoked salmon to start, grilled sardines with mashed sweet potatoes and leeks with salad. Not sure about desert - probably baked bananas in rum with orange zest.

Oh, and found some amazing apple juice.. fresh Suffolk Bramleys. Yum!

I wonder if there is a weight limit on people or cars entering London after the Easter holiday??!!

By the way, this is very cool (sent to be me by Matt on thursday, but Blogger was down then). And you always wondered what its next career would be...... ;)

On holiday in deepest Suffolk, without a computer or network connection. *How will you cope* I hear you cry!

It's lovely - fresh air, great food, fish, beer, sea.... what more can you ask for !

Oh, and apparently I am an Idealist (Kiersey Temperament code: NF). What are you?

Confusing, as my Myers-Briggs score is ISTP (realist)!

[I did these tests properly about 3 years ago - I wonder if I've changed? Will have to dig out the old results...]

What colour are you? Any guesses as to mine?

Now Playing: Waterfall - from The Stone Roses (The Stone Roses, 1989)

I still can't get over how cute my neice is !

Oh, and the weirdest (and delicious) ice-cream flavour is won hands down by peanut-butter yoghurt ice-cream from Ripley, North Yorkshire. A tiny village, home to the best vanilla ice-cream and butchers in the North, as well as a beautiful castle. Mmmmm.

These posts are like London buses - you don't see any for ages, then they all come along at once.

If you're mad about UK TV, click here. Meanwhile, I am chomping (naughtily) through a pile of Italian chocolate biscotti, whilst throwing java methods into a JSP page. Don't you just so want to be me?!

Don't answer that.

One of the best images I have in my brain right now is of Johnny Marr (ex The Smiths) playing the ukelele. Because my BT (Bloody Terrible) ADSL line decided to fail, I got to see this on a 56k connection - but it was still marvellous nonetheless. Good news is that Johnny will join Neil Finn for some of his imminent UK tour, too. Oh, and Eddie Vedder is lovely and ickle. So sez my friend Peter.... (who got to transform Eddie a la 70's glam!!) It was such an amazing line-up. [pics from Peter]

Awww - bless! Davo sent me back a lovely email, and put a link to my NZ pics on his site. He also said the traffic-light idea has already been utilised @ a top London gay club night; where 'taken' blokes wore red tshirts, etc. etc... :) At last!

An old school friend called last night with her latest gossip. The outcome of the conversation was that guys should be genetically modified to include trafficlight indicator - red for attached/uninterested, amber for interested but either attached or still hasn't got over the last one, and green for all systems go. I am sure this should apply to everyone - men and women alike ! Life would be so much simpler all round.....

Passed on to me by Rodney to cheer me up, this is cool.

This (via Rodney) is cool.

'Lost' Brazilian tribe found in the Amazon - now, in what sense were they lost? Carelessly misplaced? Left on a bus? Ran off in a crowd? Leave them alone !! I am sure they have a darned good reason not being "found" for so long - council tax, foot and mouth, Mr Blair, G. W. Bush and blue Smarties - being only a very few items on a long list of reasons NOT to interact with the "civilised" (ha!!!) world.....

A bit of a radio silence - a road trip to York to visit my new neice. I am rather biased but she really is gorgeous! She met her cousin Henry - 1 month and 2 days her senior - for the first time, too. Pictures soon to come on her own website.

Spooky fact.
My sister called her brand new daughter Jasmine.
My sister was born whilst we lived in Indonesia.
Jasmine is the national flower of Indonesia.
And she didn't know that.
Spooky.

Currently enjoying a webcast of Neil Finn playing with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, Phil Selway and Ed O'Brien of Radiohead, and Lisa Germano - live from Auckland, NZ. AWESOME. Now playing: "There is a light that never goes out" (The Smiths) sung by Neil. Beautiful. Next up is Eddie Vedder...

I became an aunt 5 minutes ago.

A little girl :)

"Jasmine Morrel Newman"

Sleep is over-rated.

Now, this is VERY cool.

I can't sleep. There's been a police helicopter hanging low over our house the last 1/2 hour - bloody loud - with the searchlight peeking in (more like burning in) every couple of minutes. Ok, so quite exciting for such a relatively quiet area of London, but I had this happen all the time when I lived in a really dodgy area of Liverpool as a student. It gets boring after a while. And I'm tired. A policeman friend of mine once told me that the searchlights are powerful enough to melt metal doors. Well, I'm not sure of that but I do know that the camera on board has a very handy zoom for looking in tower-block windows.

In Liverpool the 'copter was virtually parked in our back yard the night before my finals, looking for a guy who'd hidden in the bins behind the house. If you thought the Toxteth riots were bad, where I lived (Edge Hill) made Toxteth look like Knightsbridge. We had someone shot virtually on our doorstep on Bonfire Night one year; I don't think we actually noticed (Liverpool becomes a warzone a month before Guy Fawkes!). But I never had a problem when I lived there, and I really loved the place. You wouldn't mess with people, and you knew what to do.

I then moved to Stockwell in London, which wasn't much different - 3 shootings in one week. I moved out after 18 months, and the 6th shooting on our street that month. It was weird - though brought up in London, I could handle the violence in Liverpool a lot better (despite having an obviously non-scouse accent!). It helped that in Liverpool I taught at the school next door, so the kids really did look out for me. "Eh, Miss, 'ow yere doin' today?" All the other student houses seemed to get burgled, but we didn't! It was a lot more indiscriminate in Stockwell; no one really cared who you were.

No doubt be NOTHING about this midnight search in the news tomorrow. Whatever it is, hope it isn't serious. I am sure there'll be a little bit in "Police, Camera, Action" in a few years time. I can watch it and go "ooooh, that's me, in my PJ's, TRYING TO GET SOME SLEEP THANK YOU GO AWAY".

I'm glad to see that the pro-vaccination petition reached 4400 signatures before it was closed and sent to Downing Street.

Oooh it's further away now.

G'night !

Oh, in answer to question about the first site I did - no, I am not diabetic, it was just a job. However it was really interesting, as I know a load of diabetics. I learnt a lot more about the disease this way, very useful stuff to pass on to friends and people who DON'T understand.

I think I need therapy.

I actually *like* a Westlife song.

Albeit the cover of "Uptown Girl"... a classic in my time.

But still, aren't I meant to dislike it on principle? Even though it is an awesome song?!

Oh well, I don't care cos Virgin Radio are playing Neil Finn right now. Did you get your free NF CD in the Independant on Sunday yesterday? Bloomin' great video. Better still, I managed to get Quicktime to pause the video at just the right places so I could print the coolest frames onto sticky labels to use on recycled envelopes (I use to mail CDs to people). Pretty funky really.

Stop smirking.

Oh, and I went to see Billy Elliot with Rodney. GREAT film, I really don't understand why it didn't get nominated, let alone sweep the board at the Oscars. Am I the only person who wasn't even tempted to go see Gladiator?

It's not a bad day today -homemade couscous for lunch, a blue sky, sun; I'm able to wear a tshirt without 3 fleeces on top. and I am still waiting to be an aunt (only a week overdue!).

But very sad news - my granny died this morning :( Although glad she won't suffer any more, I will miss her. She made the best pineapple-upside-down-cake and trifle on this planet, too.

I guess life is a question of balance; Although I may not be a "true" buddhist, most of my belief in whatever is "out there" leans more towards Eastern philosophy than Christianity. For my sister's baby to come into the world, a place must be made. Reincarnation is a much nicer ideal than heaven and hell (in my books anyway). Or is this belief just the product of going to a high-church CofE primary school?

God I have been naughty. I have decided that there are definitely not enough hours in the day to work on the web all day, come home and work on my own sites, AND blog. So I have made an executive decision - there are to be 4 extra hours in the day. That would mean that I get 3 extra hours sleep (bringing it up to about 7hrs per night), and that 1 hour would be reserved for doing this blog properly.

It was a good week though - the Vaccination petition is growing by the minute, with all associated emails that have been generated positive and encouraging.

Made a cute new animated interactive map for fameIS.com, which will go up really soon.

And there is a free Neil Finn CD in the Independant on Sunday today, so I must go ring the newsagent so he can deliver my copies - now that I am awake !