Christmas List

Christmas is over; how did it go?

- Presents. Ms T gave me a GPS that straps to your wrist and tells you where you are, where you've been and how quickly you've been getting to where you want to go! Then it plugs into the PC, and generates a friendly map showing how fast (slow) my meandering around the park has been. This could be a hit if I marry it to an OS map; we'll never get lost during a Time Out Country Walk again.

- Eating. My God, how we did eat. A whole ham was demolished on Boxing Day. But while delicious it was all very rich, and I started yearning for some spaghetti.

- Cats. Losing Harvey has been like eating grit. I hate that he's gone and I won't speak of it to Ms T because she'll get upset. The other two cats are fine, and apparently sanguine about his disappearance.

- TV. Quite good. Liked Gordon Ramsay's American Kitchen nightmares, Catherine Tate made me crease up but I fell asleep during To The Manor Born. Loads of movies were on, but I missed them all.

- Friends. Saw whole squads, and it was good. A surprising number of people didn't leave London this year, despite the evidence of the startlingly quiet streets. Ms T cooked till she dropped, then got up and cooked some more.

- Work. The newsroom was actually quite fun on the night of Christmas Eve. I shall say no more on this, lest my observations are passed to the Daily Mail or something.

- Books. Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran; a gift from Ms T and a must-read for Iraqologists, ie me.

- Weather - scraping the ice off the car then suddenly all warm. Weird.

Harvey

We were on our way out of the house to pick up some parcels from the Post Office when we saw him. He was surrounded by a small group of people and still moving a bit, but when Ms T and I reached him I knew instinctively he was no longer with us. People said a silver car had hit him and not stopped, naturally.

Losing a cat is not straightforward; this is the second time it has happened to us in five years, and in the same place. I blame myself; a roving cat is always at risk when people drive so poorly and at such speeds. Perhaps having one is selfish. On the other hand the other two only go as far as the garden.

I'll miss him, though he could be a little sod. The mood in this house will be a little flat this Christmas.

Understanding Children

It's very important to understand what's going on in childrens minds, and their motivations. So as we go up to Christmas I here reproduce a certain twelve year old's Christmas list, which arrived in my e-mail last week, and which I feel lends an invaluable insight.

Christmas list… (to Santa)

• Hoosiers album

• My Sims ds game

• Mario cart ds game

• Sims shipwrecked ds game (shipwrecked might not be the word)

• Plain whites T’s album

• The killers album

• Hamster cage

• Hamster cage stuff

• Phone talk time

• Ds accessories kit

• Internet for my computer

• Sims 2 extension pack

• The feeling cd (album)

• Chip for phone to give it more memory for stuff like music

• A phone case

• A case to put my panner in

• Chocolate

• Snappy snaps canvers picture of meee

• Storage boxes to put my junk in

So now you know. But what is a 'panner'?

CNN and Youtube

The US election is well underway (not much covered here) and the candidates are debating (which they don't do here for the most part).
The latest gimmick is to have people record questions on Youtube, and play them to Hillary et al, presumably hoping they'll be wrongfooted.
I thought it was a great idea which brought the internet into the campaign in a vibrant way, but I don't now - not after reading this.