Sorry for not saying much recently, I’m just relaxing in holiday mode so it’s the usual ‘sleep till late’ routine. Oh, and my watch has just died \ run out of batteries. Press the light button and it beeps like a cardiac arrest machine, resetting itself to midnight on the 1st January. Quite fitting, given that each day is much like the last on summer holidays, and that’s how it ought to be 
We have been being rather geeky and watching the very first Doctor Who stories from 1963. It amuses me how the Thals (um, the nice, well-mannered people who were the very first race the Daleks wanted to exterminate a lot) sound like a travelling Shakespearian performance set with act-tor voices aplenty.
Accents are a funny thing. We might have changed and progressed since the 1960s but I have still heard people complain that they will have to change their accent to work in the media, or that they even dislike it, and when both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant were cast as The Doctor, they had to answer question after question in interviews about which accent they would be using. And I still have to convince people that I do have an accent myself, it’s just boring 
Welcome to the new – ultra masculine – Self household! On Friday afternoon the girls left us for a two week holiday in Tanzania, and I think it’s worth reporting that my first two meals afterwards were takeaway deep-pan pizza and hot dogs with heavy doses of ketchup. Heart attack beckons?
In Defence of History
I would also like to brag at finally solving a network issue that’s been bugging me (and Tasha, for whom it affects) for a long time. Hurrah! Now I can stream her utterly brilliant music folder across to my room. We are living in a material world, and I am a material girl… Yay!
Finally, I want to say how touched I am to be bequeathed things in Josie’s will. 
Just playing about with my new phone gifted from my aunt. Love the e-mail features though a way to kill the t-mobile branding would be good?
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Just a heads-up that journalism.co.uk is running a feature on Rubery Village and Nic certainly deserves all the recognition for the tremendous accomplishment that it was. The article also describes the (amusing, in retrospect) incident where I came close to being threatened with legal action by George Galloway.
The then 15-years-old-editor claimed he was contacted by George Galloway demanding that a comment story on the site that referred to the MP as a ‘madman’ was removed.
It still annoys me that he basically just vanished after complaining rather than engaging in a dialogue with either me or Nic. During the life of DomSez we did happily publish corrections and clarifications when they were raised, and on this blog I have taken things down in the past when people had a valid objection. But it’s all about the discussion – and barking down a phone doesn’t count as participating.
Oh and incidentally, George Galloway’s participation in those discussions that form part of his actual job? “Has attended 16% of votes in parliament – well below average amongst MPs.” Look, there’s even a source for you.
Given that Lucy claimed to be disorganised and dislike surprises, it was only right for me to be organised and surprising today by ‘turning up’ in good old Cofton Hackett (No thanks to the bus that threw me off early because it’s a Sunday and they don’t go all the way on Sundays. Pah.) I consider it an educational trip – did you know that the local church was built in 1330 by Robert de Leycester? No? Well now you do!
Slight difficulty getting back. Well, the megabus was an hour late and also decided to pick up survivors from some earlier coach disaster on the way, leaving us all rushing to catch the last of the Tube trains in London. An unusually low count of nutcases about though – only approached by one crazy guy asking for money and chewing something that I really hope was edible.
While I was away the family watched the final Top of the Pops – end of an institution? Mlur… well, yes it is, albeit not one I was ever really that into. Probably just born too late for it, since TOTP2 always struck me as the more interesting programme. If you got bored with the music, there were the hairstyles!
Oh, and the girls (Mum, Tash and Katie) are off to Tanzania on Friday leaving the boys (Dad and moi) to fend for ourselves. I predict we’ll go camping or something, and end up trying to light a fire with twigs. Either that or pizza takeaways? Mmm… yes, I’ve given myself an idea there!
Linda Moffitt on Colombia: “Such a sweet memory of the four of you meeting up in Colombia!” Dec 2, 07:42
