I always wondered if I had a mild fear of telephones. Not the actual phone itself, just making calls to someone. A slight nervous feeling – the odd moment at the beginning when you wonder if it’s a bad time, or they can’t quite remember who you are from your voice, or something. Then I read this rather disturbing account and realised that I was being ridiculous and that a slight nervousness and preference for e-mail \ IM \ in-person communication instead is nothing compared to thinking that a hearing a ringtone is “as though someone hit you across the back of the head with a two-by-four”. Phew!
Anyway – I only mention that cause I just phoned an old friend from primary school who I haven’t seen properly for ages. Weird feeling. But lovely to speak to them again! Thanks to Rob and El Barto for shouting at me to shut up and use the damn phone 
What else? Oh yes – Jeffrey Archer! Or should I say… Lord Archer? I’m so pleased to see him back in the news again. As Sky News put it – the decision to readmit him back to the Tory party is a case of either modern or compassionate conservative, but certainly not both 
I rounded off my extended weekend by seeing this film, and wow, Tasha actually had a point when she described it as the best – film – ever. Well I wouldn’t go that far, but it certainly rocks 
and is much improved from the first three movies.
Best bit of the film: undoubtedly the scene with the Death Eaters at Quidditch World Cup. Far scarier than any confrontation with Voldemort could ever be because it felt very real – the costumes and fire deliberately invoking the terror of the KKK. I mean, I doubt I’ll ever be locked in a wand-duel with a wizard, but I can definitely imagine being in a big crowd of terrified people as a violent group wrecks havoc. Sinister!
Oh, and if you didn’t feel sorry for Hermione at the ball you clearly weren’t investing enough emotionally
The challenges of the Triwizard Tournament were all very well done as you’d expect, and the film benefits from ditching most of the traditional Hogwarts stuff. (We don’t need to see another lesson with Snape to get the point.) However, it still falls down at points when trying to catch up with Rowling’s text. One minute everyone hates Harry (well, one scene in fact) but that’s all forgotten pretty quickly (the next scene actually). Rita Skeeter is disappointingly never really developed… she writes an article about Harry and then, ur, what exactly?
Overall though, the film is a triumph. Just make sure you’ve read the books first!
Edit: How could I forget?! The thrill of suddening seeing the good Doctor appear in the middle of a scene, now that was cool!
Which of these search engines are the best – Google, Yahoo… or MSN?
Don’t answer yet! Take the amazing Search Engine Experiment first and decide which one is really most relevant to you. It’s a blind test, and for what it’s worth, I picked Google each time.
Hat Tip: Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble.
Yes, it’s true, I have shamelessly stolen Alex Trafford’s design for a search box. But I’ve also played around with the comment form to give it a bit more sparkle, although IE users are left out here I’m afraid. It’s all part of my slow refresh of little bits of the site that need improving now that the newsness of the summer design has worn off. As ever – comments, questions, suggestions welcome!
David Tennant
Somehow I neglected to mention that this is a Four Day Weekend for me, as we’re having a double whammy of INSETs. Which is great, cause it means you can curl up in bed to avoid the cold cold weather!
Babbleblog
Helen on It’s (waiting) time.: “Fabulous news, congratulations to you both! X” Jun 8, 21:51
