Da Vinci code and the dots on my blog

Having watched the end of a programme that debunked the book 'The Da Vinci Code' (I really can't be bothered to look up the name of the programme, I think it was on Channel 5), I just want to say that the dots on my blog have no significance. Neither do the missing dots that strangely make the letter 'L' on its side. This is a default, regular template that has dots on it.

I just wanted to clear this up before it was too late.

And the fact that I am saying this has no significance! <- and neither does that.

Deadly romantic - what happened? Where have all the people gone?

Ever since I popped a post on this blog about romantic love drying up my stats have dropped. Interesting as it's not even a serious posting.

It might be that males are being scared off by the subject of flowers and the word 'romantic' in the same posting.

It could be of course, the sight of flowers - makes my blog look a bit like an advert for a funeral parlour. Then again, it could just be that I have a deadly boring blog!

Needless to say, I will still continue to suffer the blogosphere with my postings.

Has your Romantic Love run dry?

Well it seems from this BBC News article that romantic love is all down to a protein called NGF and sadly romantic love only lasts a year. Once this chemical has run dry so does the romantic love.

'Ahhhhh, now I knew that', many men will say but do women feel the same way? Does this mean that 'being romantic' has nothing to do with romantic love? So ladies, why the big problem with flowers? Surely the cessation of flowers coincides with the cessation of NGF - explained! It's not the fault of men, it's this protein thingy - it runs out, you see. Brothers, we have been absolved.

Alas, I fear not. I'm not sure that line of defense will work. Something tells me there is more to this, far more. Those flowers have a greater meaning. However, I will work it out one day, I will, I will ... But until then, better to play on the safe side and buy the flowers - oh dear, I haven't bought any recently!! Better pop out before my dear wife reads this ...



... phew! My wife notes that it appears be men that have conducted the research - did nobody ever point out to them that they would never win the argument?!?

A sentence with 'circular' in

My eight year old son had some spelling homework and one of the tasks was to think of sentences for each of the words. When he got to 'circular' he struggled a little and then came up with, "When you're pregnant you look circular!"

Chip and Pin again ...

Am I the only Dad that has an eight year old (he's got older since the last post) that is desperate to know my credit card pin number? He is fine when I draw money out of an ATM but he just can't control the desire to see if he can figure out my pin.

The other day (night actually) we were shopping at Tescos and he thought he'd figured out a few numbers of my pin, so he started shouting them out. This was pretty terrifying as it was quite late and they were filling the shelves (I know we should not have been finishing our shopping at 11pm at night with an eight year old in tow but sometimes ...), and you must know the kind of people that shop at 11pm at night ... (besides me, of course).

Now I know I should have got cross but if you could have seen his face you would realise that he really could not control his curiosity. So now I pretty much hug the keypad which probably makes everybody else in the queue feel rather uncomfortable. So if you are in a queue behind a parent with a sub 10 year old and he's hugging the keypad as he punches his pin in then you can probably relax - he/she doesn't think you look suspicious, unless you're shopping in Tescos at 11pm. By the way, he doesn't actually know my pin yet - I'm winning, yes!

Scrooge with Tommy Steele

When I was a boy I always wanted to see Tommy Steele at the London Palladium, I never thought that I would do so as an adult. Well, on Tuesday my eldest son turned 13 and we went to London to see Scrooge at the London Palladium. It has not received very good reviews but I do think that critics looked at this production in the wrong light.

It's not panto but it's not Les Miserables either. All my family enjoyed it. My youngest son is just about to turn eight and he came out the theatre and announced loudly:

That was brilliant! Much better than 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'.

I think that says it all.

This is a production to take your children to and it really can not go wrong because it based on a timeless story with a timeless message. So if you have children between 8 and 13 as I do, then I don't think you'll be disappointed. If you're looking for something more intellectually challenging then why on earth would you want to see a musical?

In fact it can't be that bad as on the first night (when the majority of the critics went along to the show) the show received a standing ovation from about 80% of the audience. I noticed that even Andrew Lloyd Webber was standing but I suppose he might have some vested interests. Although I did think that the standing ovation might not go down too well with the critics - probably the other 20% of the audience! They probably felt like they should have stood but couldn't and that would have made them feel all the more bitter and irritated - we English are so strange. Having said that, I'm not sure the production quite deserved a standing ovation but who cares ... only critics.

I suppose I should give you links to the critics but I don't think it is worth the bother - with this particular production they serve little purpose as they failed to see what 'Scrooge' is. I think it best to end by saying that my family enjoyed it and as Charles Dickens said of his story, 'A Christmas Carol':

I have endeavored in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.

Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C.D.

December, 1843.

May the ghost of Charles Dickens haunt all those sad critics this Christmas ...

David Davis - refreshing politics?

Well, after watching Question Time I'd say that the Conservatives are out of touch if they vote in David Cameron - I just don't think they will win with him as leader, not in the next election anyway.

He would be up against Gordon Brown and it would look like a contest between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair - we've have that one already.

David Davis is a fresh alternative. Last night he seemed calm and confident. His answers to questions were both considered and knowledgeable, and he seemed very calm and composed without being arrogant. I partly agree with Clive Davis when he says:

More to the point, they both came across as human beings, which is a rare feat for Tory politicians.

I think that Cameron was too Blair-like. Don't get me wrong, I'm not that against Blair but in this time of fashionable politics I'd say that Cameron is 'so last year'. With Davis leading the Conservatives I 'might' even be tempted to vote for them ... but not if they are going to waste more time on discussing hunting, but that is another topic for another day - perhaps.

Davis might not only win the Conservatives the next election, he might win a few people back to politics. I think a Brown/Davis clash would be good for politics - they both seem to have an honesty that would be truly refreshing.

Granary Bread

"Is 'granary bread' bread for Nanna?"

What it must be like to be seven.

Need to be more serious - getting old

I am very aware that I haven't published anything very serious recently. I do think of serious items for my blog and I have lots of drafts with just titles on them - all serious but not written. So I've decided to write something almost serious!

So here is a thought for you. It is quite possible that we or our children might live a significantly longer than say our grandparents did. In the near future we might well have therapies that not only halt or slow down ageing but could possibly even reverse ageing. This together with the ability to grow body parts that have been damaged might mean that we live to ages of 150, 200 or more.

I personally do not doubt this will happen but only highlight the science as this generates some very interesting questions.

If you were told tomorrow that you might be nowhere near your deathbed and that any ageing or damage could be reversed in the next ten years what would you change in your life?

Would you start a second career?

Go to university?

Would you want to travel and see more and more of the world?
I personally couldn’t do this – my experience is that after about four weeks I’ve had enough of sightseeing, I don’t think I’m much of a spectator.

What would you want to do differently?

Even if we are not presented with these questions in our lifetime, the process of considering them I found quite enlightening. I found myself considering if I was doing with my life all that I wanted or hoped to do. Had I subconsciously planned out my life to fit into the three score and ten years that we purportedly have been allotted? Interestingly, I think I had!

I don’t want to give you the idea that these questions arose out of some middle aged fear of death – it really didn’t. I’m very happy with my life to date and have few regrets – even some of the regrets were kind of fun at the time. No, this chain of thought arose from a number of articles I’ve read recently that seem to indicate that living passed a hundred is a very serious possibility. Of course many issues are raised: over-population; economics; retirement; social effects of a youth that is a significant minority of the population; families; housing etcetera, etcetera. All are important issues but I think that would need a book ...

Well, there you have it, a sort of serious blog post that was not actually one of the titles in my draft folder. Oh well, maybe another day.

Chip and Pin

Now am I the only soul that thinks 'Chip and Pin' spoken out loud sounds like you're swearing? The words have a certain rhythm to it them that just sound like you're swearing.

So when I receive literature from banks and credit card companies telling me to 'Chip and Pin' it has a bit of a negative response. Needless to say they keep repeating the words 'Chip and Pin' again and again - 'Chip and Pin' this, 'Chip and Pin' that. I even start feeling obliged to hide the literature from my children! Is it just me?

I'm not particularly against the Chip and Pin concept (no offence intended) but I do find myself sometimes glancing over my shoulder to see if the character behind me seems suspicious, and then quickly pretending I was looking for somebody else by glancing over their shoulder.

Unlike when using an ATM to draw out money where people tend to keep a respectful distance, shops often have tightly spaced queues. I think us Brits tend to keep queues tightly spaced to ensure that everybody understands that not only is there a queue but that 'I' am in it and ‘I’ am in this precise position and if you don't understand or respect queues (i.e. you're probably a foreigner) then I am removing any spaces for you to push in and don't you dare try it on, right (glare) ... phew!

With that in mind how long before we hear of Chip and Pin rage. Have you seen the older among us stagger back when presented with the keypad, glasses go up, then down, the head moves forwards, backwards trying to focus on this keypad and a frown takes shape on the brow. There is a tangible increase in pressure as you see them not only trying to work out how to use the keypad but also panic as they desperately try to remember the right pin for the right card. Then just as they are about to press the keys they pause and look around suspiciously forgetting the frown still pinned on their forehead. Then they hit the keys as if touching teeth on a rabid dog - the hand flicks back each time and they keep checking if the keypad is still 'calm'. Can't you just see a frustrated shopper in a hurry losing their rag? Maybe 'Chip and Pin' should become a swear word after all.

Perhaps it should be 'Tom, Richard and Harry'

Two of my sons catch the train to and from school. Last night round the dinner table we were chatting about how school was, who their new teachers were, new subjects etc., when we arrived at the subject of the journey to school by train. My middle son, who has just started school, was confused about which Harry from my eldest's class was on the train. Anyway, the talk seemed to include lots of Harrys and lots of Toms and so my mind conjured up the image of 'Tom, Dick and Harry' sitting in a row on the train. So, to complete my mental image I asked my eldest son "Have you got a Dick?".

I realised when I'd said it. Oh dear! Stunned silence. Then laughter. Yes I did feel a bit silly - maybe it's age. I don't think my seven year old quite got it - my 12 year old son did though!

It was also one of those moments when my eldest sons glinting eyes spoke of the young man he was becoming and the little lapse was indicative of the forty-something that I am. It was good to see my eldest son growing up but it was also good to see my youngest was innocent enough to not get the joke - I still felt a bit silly, that never feels very good!

Ego maleness

Now you really should see Robert Sharpe's blog. In an email to me in which he encouraged me to pop some postings he mentioned that self publishing might be giving a little nourishment to the old ego.

He is probably right. But it made me think that an 'ego' always seems to be a male sort of thing - so do women have a female equivalent for 'ego'? Do women have egos? Dangerous territory - answers in an email.

Grumpy about Brits in Mallorca

Well, here I am again prompted by Rob to start blogging. I'm back from a week in Mallorca where two of the Jenks had to make visits to a doctor and one was a little sick! But it was a good holiday - Mallorca was beautiful.

Now what I fear is that us Brits have sadly lost our sense of adventure. Alas, the vast majority of Brits seemed to be found roasting around water - any water - pools, sea, ponds, lakes. As long as us Brits are within 100 feet of water we are happy.

The beach would be full of bodies but go inland and it was empty. The main tourists we came across were German.

And another thing, I was given the impression that Germans grabbed the sunbeds. Not where we were. We stayed in a quiet apartment overlooking a marina with probably equal numbers of German and British tourists. The pool was never crowded and a lot of the time we had it to ourselves. But there were some sunbeds that had towels draped over them from early in the morning to late at night - yes, they were Brits!

Oh yes, and why are we so obsessed at throwing money into pools, puddles, ponds, wells and fountains? Do people really think it brings luck?

Oh dear, I'm in a real grumpy mood - I must be getting old.

Mobile blog

My first mobile posting :-) My mobile's dictionary did not have 'blog' in it!

Do we have bad teenagers or poor memories?

I think that teenagers get a really bad press.  Child curfew zones are an example of society’s paranoia with groups of teenagers.  I can assure you that people have been feeling intimidated by groups of teenagers for years but should that mean that we place a curfew on them.  We could place curfews on village pubs because strangers might feel intimidated and we might save some fights.  We can also prevent over zealous fans for any sport, political party, share holders, rights group or religion from congregating -  I’m sure we would cut crime.  In fact why not just have a police state, crime would be low.  

 

No, let’s just pick on the youngsters because we feel ‘intimidated’ by them.  And we all know that teenagers are violent and out to get us!  I’m sorry but my experience from Scouts is that teenagers are pretty much the same as when I was young, and I was pretty much the same as my Dad’s era and so on and so on.  So was it better in ‘our day’ or do we suffer from bad memories – and do our young people suffer from bad media coverage.  Well do Liberty and 15 year old ‘W’ who won a High Court challenging child curfew zones (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4699095.stm).

 

0 Second Visitors - STOP

My visitor statistics tell me that two visitors to this blog viewed it for '0' seconds! Wow, how do you visit a site for 0 seconds? What kind of repelling force achieves zero viewing time of a blog?

There were two other visitors and one of them was me :-)

A Safe Blog!

Watching the number of hits I get, this blog is almost as safe as a personal diary :-)

At first I sent a few people my Blog's URL but now I think I shall just leave it here for people to find. Am I addicted?

I have quite a few draft titles that I have not published but I'm a bit too busy at the moment.

The Importance of a Cycle Helmet

Today my 12 year old son went cycling with some friends. One of his friends was knocked off his bicycle by a car going about 10mph. He is okay but he did hit the back of his cycle helmet as he fell and cracked it. I wouldn't like to think what would have happened had he not been wearing a cycle helmet.

I am the Group Scout Leader in our local Scout Group and I often have to tell young people that they need to wear a helmet to, from and during any Scouting event whilst cycling. This is one of the rules in Scouting in the UK and as a young person is covered by Scouting insurance from the time they leave home to the time they arrive back home then they must wear a cycle helmet when cycling.

But, of course, everybody knows that adults heads are much stronger that children’s heads! That an adults head is made of much, much stronger bone and their brains will just bounce back :-) Unfortunately, I ended up with a head a bit like a child's so I wear a helmet.

I never wore a helmet when I was a child but then nobody wore helmets. You never meet any adults who fell off and hurt their heads when they were children but sadly that is because those that did...

But I shall climb down off my soapbox.

Dancing Dads

I actually quite like dancing but nobody else is that inspired by my attempts. My wife says that if I was more serious when I danced then maybe she'd think more of my dancing - she's probably right.

Well today at breakfast I started dancing near my youngest son who is 7.
"Stop it Dad"

"I'm just dancing", I said as I made what I thought was a particularly good move to a change in tempo that took me in front of the window.

A look of grave concern came over my 7 year old's face and he pointed to the window and said, "People walk passed our house you know .... they might see you!"

Oh well, I shall just have to dance privately - have you ever tried dancing when you're taking the dishes out of the dishwasher? Try it some time - just keep away from windows!

Why do post resignation Tory leaders always seem more electable?

Maybe it is just me but it seems that the most electable leaders in the Tory party are the ones that have resigned. Perhaps the secret to success for the Tories is for aspiring leaders to resign and then return - but I suppose we wouldn't have an opposition then!