Royal Oak

North now gone.

Helena Bonham-Carter Tim Burton Richard Burton

P J O'Rourke's "Holidays In Hell" Out of date (a lot has changed since 1989 after all) and I wouldn't necessarily agree with O'Rourke's politics, but funny and pithy anyway.

I agree. Two thousand (pounds, not dollars) for a vaccuum cleaner?

then you would have enjoyed today's conversation over lunch at work more than i did... (the subject was "when did you first realize that "michael jackson" (as read and pronounced in german) and "michael jackson" (as pronounced correctly on tv and on the radio) were one and the same person?" surprisingly many people could contribute their experiences...) Would that be pronounced something like "Mish-ale Yack-zen" in German? Been a long time since my German O level, and I've spoken very little since.

Robert Graves's "I, Claudius" (or "Clavdivs" as I used to think as a kid. Saying that, i often wondered who the hell "MUFC" was, and why he was always writing his name on walls).

Are you supposed to give the first answer that pops into your head? I ask, because the longer I look at these things, the more I just see inkblots.

Interesting that the UK's "hotter than average Summer" long range forecast of a few months ago has now been cancelled by the Met Office! Rained almost all day today.

My analyst told me That I was right out of my head

They all look like pelvises to me.........(worried)

Eddie The Eagle Eric the Eel Carlos the Jackal

Read his obit today in The Telegraph; interesting to read that his mother denounced "Angela's Ashes" as lies. This wouldn't be the first "misery lit" book to have been questioned by those who "were there" - didn't Dave Pelzer's family say much the same? I know there has been a recent court case in the UK where the mother of one of these authors has sued her daughter for something like libel or defamation.

Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited. I well remember the British TV adaptation of this. Obviously, being about 12 I really didn't understand why, apart from being able to snigger at the gay thing (it was the 80s, forgive me) and the odd boob shot. Let's see if it makes sense now.

I didn't see it, but I'm amazed Clarke gave Swann the charge with only 6 wickets down. I can't imagine Ponting is happy with him.

Rut-a-tut-tut

rrrrrrrrrrut

Hmm, this could go horribly wrong for England tomorrow.

I read somewhere that the end of the cricket season is when a cricket fan notices that his wife has left him. Clarke and Haddin resisting well here. England still big favourites though.

Hussey gone too, looking good.

Finished "One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich" - stoicism is a virtue not rated highly enough these days. Now reading "Goodbye Columbus" by Philip Roth.

You shouldn't read the Sun, it's bad for you. It depresses me that it's the most popular paper in my country.

Pissing down for much of the day here.

a bit small, but you get the picture

Joe Henderson - Multiple

Fine book! I'm almost entirely ignorant of the wider story of the Russian politics of the time, but I'm enjoying the simplicity of the prose. I've only dabbled in Russian literature (Dostoyevsky, Gogol and some Tolstoy) but I find it speaks to me somehow. All bleak and cold and filled with injustice - don't know what that says about me! I've read some tremendous novels that came out of Stalinist oppression: First Circle, also by Solzhenitsyn, Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon and Victor Serge's The Case of Comrade Tulayev. I shall bear those in mind Bill, thanks.