Right - time for a long blog to catch up on a bunch of things:
1) Doing some general tidying up around the site last week, I had a really good go through the traffic logs, and realised, upon back-tracking some of the referrers, that more people than I realised have this site in their list of 'recommended blogs' or 'daily reading' or whatever. I'm going to update my people page to reflect these, in a spirit of mutal support/one good turn, some time in the next day or two, but I may have missed some, so if anyone is linking, and would like to be reciprocated, drop me a line.
2) I was heart-broken to read of the death of Nigel Hawthorne, a fine actor, a talented speaker, and based on one extremely brief meeting with him many years ago, a charming and intelligent person.
3) Some general holiday season stuff - thanks to one and all for emails, e-cards and general messages of goodwill. All are much appreciated and returned with best wishes. It's been a generally very quiet week or so at my house - I haven't seen many people, and I've spoken to only a few more, so apologies if you were expecting to hear from me - I've been in 100% personal space mode.
4) So that was 2001 then. Seems to have gone by very swiftly, and considering I was in a completely different situation this time last year - different job, etc - a lot seems to have happened in a pretty short space of time. It's been a good year, generally. I think I've calmed down a little, done some things I haven't done before, and probably generally been happy more than not. There are regrets, of course, I wish I'd been better at being the kind of partner Chris needs, and I'd like to have done more things that 'counted' for want of a better word - I used to do all sorts of voluntary things and stuff, and I've got right out of the habit.
5) For the first time in years, I have more than one New Year thing I've been invited to. My last couple of New Years have been a mixed bag. Last year I was in bed and asleep by 10pm....though my extenuating circumstance was that I'd been on a 9 hour flight to the Caribbean and been eating and drinking fairly substantially since I got there. The year before, Chris and I had a 99/2000 party at his, as it's near the river, and we all went out to watch fireworks and drink champagne at Stave Hill then back for the first breakfast of 2000. This year I'm heading down to Lewisham. Ailsa is planning on selling her flat down here in the new year and moving to Sheffield full time, so she wants to have a last New Year party down here.
6) Resolutions: I don't usually bother with them as I'm completely rubbish about sticking to them. That said, I used to be crap at keeping a diary, and I'm not doing too badly now, so maybe I should at least set out a few aims: I aim to keep in touch with people directly rather better than I've been in the last year or two. And I'll aim to eat rather more healthily than I have been.
7) I'm writing this watching the first episode of Smallville on Channel 4 - It's an interesting take on the Superman/Superboy story - no costume, no use of the name Superboy, certainly no Krypto the SuperDog, not even any actual flying ('for a long time' according to the producers). Apparently it's a huge rating hit in the US - will be interesting to see how it develops.
Poor Dillon - I've had her to the vet's today to deal with what might politely be called 'Women's Trouble'. She seems a bit perkier this evening anyway.
That's it for now - Happy New Year festivities to one and all.
Silence for a couple of days - I actually got back home on Boxing Day, but apart from a quiet little secondary gift-exchanging that evening, I've done pretty much nothing - this is the first time I've got the machine out of its case since I got back.
I'm off to the office to check that all's well there, then I'll be back to do, well, bugger all again, actually.... May Blog more later.
My first blogging Chrismas dawned a beautiful, bright, crisp one - it's really lovely out. I'm taking a break from getting lunch ready to send a few seasonal emails and do this posting, but I may even go out and have a bit of a walk, it's that nice out.
Anyway - a little Christmas Present for one and all: cool little game (via Swish Cottage)
Well, it's been a curiously busy couple of days 'rest', but I think we're all set for a pleasant enough Christmas Day. I've been on food duties since I arrived, but since Andy has a dishwasher, at least I've got out of most of the washing up.
The trip to Edinburgh was a good, useful one, and re-ignited an occasional thought I have about renting a cottage in the country for a weekend and getting out of London for a bit with a group.
Otherwise, the last few days have been fairly unremarkable. And so far - no violent clashes or bitter recriminations.... possibly an all-time record.
Seeing Andy's new home has hammered home ('scuse the pun) the madness of London propoerty prices. He's got a three-bedroom house for more or less exactly half the price of my *small* one-bedroom flat.
Well, blogging over the next few days might be slightly sporadic, as I'm off to Scotland in the morning for meetings tomorrow and then over to my brother's for Christmas. Anyone I don't get a chance to speak to beforehand, have a happy Christmas, or non-denominational winter festival of your choice.
And for a special Christmas treat - check out the new Spider Man trailer. It looks fantastic.
The Fellowship Of The Ring review is up - sorry not to be more chatty - I need to get some packing done....
My ongoing quest to get broadband into the flat continues with the latest installment of the long-running "BT really are crap, aren't they?" saga:
My flat can't currently receive broadband, because of something to do with the local exchange. So I signed-up for an email notification when my exchange became able to receive it.
About two weeks ago, I got some (snail) mail from BT telling me that I should go to their website and sign up for broadband. Weh-hey! I thought - It's happened at last. (Note that I'm not necessarily going to get my broadband from them - I just need them to make it possible.)
So I went to their website and checked my number and postcode on their handy broadband-checking tool. Shock horror, I still can't actually get it.
So I emailed the address on their site pointing out that it would help if their marketing people bothered talking to anyone else in their organisation in order not to send mail telling people they can get a product when they actually can't. And also asking if they would deign to let me know when the connection to my relatively well-off, residential area in Zone 2 would be given the opportunity to join the rest of the world in the 21st Century.
To date, I've had three responses. The first informed me that the recipients of the mail sent to the address on the broadband website were in fact members of the narrowband team and therefore not able to help. Though they 'took the liberty' of forwarding my mail to someone who could.
The second informed me that my mail had been received, and would be passed on to the appropriate sales team (What?????)
The third, which arrived yesterday, I reproduce in its entirety for the world's entertainment:
> Dear Jon,
>
> Thank you for your interest in BTopenworld broadband.
>
> As you may know, the majority of phone exchanges can support a broadband
> service. Some exchanges are yet to be upgraded - this programme is
> continuing.
>
> However, at the moment we don't know when your local exchange will be
> upgraded and ready to support broadband. We're sorry about this, and are
> doing everything we can to move things forward. As soon as we know more
> we'll let you know.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Kirsty
I'm not sure what I find more annoying about this; Kirsty's casual use of my first name, the fact that BT apparently don't know which order they're upgrading their exchanges in, or the fact that all the >s suggest that this is just a forwarding of a stock reply. Or mostly the fact that they still haven't bothered actually reading the main part of my complaint, which was about my time being wasted because their organisation doesn't know how to communicate internally in order to do so effectively externally.
Perhaps they should be taking the advice they provide themselves in places like this and this.
I see the word 'weblog' has made it onto BBC News' list of 'words of the year', along with 'blinking' and 'net babies' among others. I suppose this means we've all arived. Or somthing.
Various links, just to keep people on their toes:
Which Corporate Mascot Are You?" - I'm the HMV dog apparently.
Hollywood Bitch Slap - Online film reviews submitted by the world at large. Check out the contrasting views of Vanilla Sky....
Cut Off My Feet - I found this in my referrer logs, scarily....
Snowball fight! And a Christmas card too.
ChrisR's weirdness with KPMG continues, with an item about it appearing in this week's Big Issue, including one of the photos we took outside their office last week. Madness.
Entirely unconnectedly, Nick now has his site up here, and has a description of me in it that I can't decide whether to be flattered or offended by.