Waiting

As expected, no Best Picture for TS3, but they did manage a couple, including best song for Randy Newman. My favourite one of his is Jessie's song (When she loved me) from no. 2.

Now I come to check, I see that it was nominated in 1999, but lost out to another worthy winner, Phil Collins' You'll be in my heart from Tarzan.

Anyway, now that the end of February is here, the long wait is almost over.

News comes tomorrow ...

Oscar

The west coast of the US is 8 hours behind us. Unfortunately, this means that the 83rd Academy Awards will be taking place whilst we're in the land of nod.

This year, for the third time ever, an animated film has been nominated for Best Picture.

The first time it happened was almost 20 years ago, when Beauty and the Beast was nominated. It was definitely my best film of 1991 by a long way. A beautiful story, wonderful animation (think ballroom scene), a delightful sense of humour (think Lumiere and Cogsworth) and great, great songs by Menken and Ashman (Be Our Guest, Something There, Beauty and the Beast ...). The music did at least get the recognition that it deserved, winning both Best Original Score and Best Song for the title track.

Sadly, the voters didn't share my opinion and the Best Picture award went to The Silence of the Lambs. No question a good film, but if given the choice to watch one of the two, I know which I'd pick every time.

Nicky and I went to see The Silence of the Lambs in the crummy old cinema at the end of Chatham High Street. Both completely freaked out by it. In accordance with the rules, we stayed in the auditorium until the credits had finished, but by then everyone else had left. We went what we thought was the right way out, and found ourselves in some dark alleyway round the back of the cinema and couldn't find our way out. Not good when you've just been scared silly!

Anyway, it is shocking to report that it was an 18 year wait until the next nomination for an animated film. Particularly when you think of films like Aladdin and The Lion King, although the latter did again pick up a couple of music awards.

Part of the reason, I suppose, is that a new award was introduced in 2001, specifically for Best Animated Feature. This has probably made it harder for animated films to get on the Best Picture list.

Disney have picked up 5 of the 9 Best Animated Feature statuettes that have been handed out so far (2003 - Finding Nemo, 2004 - The Incredibles, 2007 - Ratatouille, 2008 - Wall-E, 2009 - Up) as well as achieving 7 more nominations in the first 9 years.

However, the first award did go to Shrek, which probably annoyed the Disney team somewhat given that the studio responsible (Dreamworks) included Jeffrey Katzenberg as one of its founders. Katzenberg was in charge of Disney Animation during the period in which The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King all came out. But, Michael Eisner (Disney CEO) and Katzenberg had a rather spectacular falling out resulting in Katzenberg's departure from Disney along with a settlement payment in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Some even speculate that the character of Shrek looks a little bit like Eisner!

The second of the three Best Picture nominations came last year, when Up was put forward, but it was beaten by The Hurt Locker.

So far, a particular franchise of animated films has gone without a mention, namely the truly wonderful Toy Story series, which first appeared, to our joy and amazement, back in 1995. Well, 15 years later, and they finally get at least some of the recognition that they deserve, as Toy Story 3 is on the list for Best Picture.

Personally, I think it would be a worthy winner, but I fear that The King's Speech will sweep the board. Not seen it yet, and no doubt it is a great film, but what are the chances that it will be watched over and over again, and what are the chances that we will remember the details of the characters (even if some of them are royalty) for as long as we cherish the story of Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Rex, Mr (& Mrs) Potato Head, Slinky Dog, Bullseye and all the other friends?

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed in my sleep!

Poker

I've played a little poker now and again over the years, either with people from work or a very occasional dabble online. I think it is fair to say that I am a pretty poor player.

One time I found a free to enter tournament online. I can't remember what the prize was - I think it was either entry into another competition with cash prizes, or possibly a small amount of money. Even though I literally had nothing to loose, I was petrified of mucking things up, and as a result, played very few hands and went out pretty early on.

I seem to manage a little better when playing with colleagues at work, but I think this is due to them all being fairly rubbish as well.

This is in sharp contrast to my good friend from college, with whom I spent most of three years either playing pool in the local pub, or sat in front of computer games. We did occasionally go to lectures, but the drawback was that they tended to be in the mornings! He, like me, ventured into the world of work after university, and indeed spent three more years obtaining the same professional qualification as me.

However, he clearly wasn't destined for the nine to five, and soon after achieving his qualification he packed it all in to concentrate on making a living as a gambler. His first love was blackjack, but the problem with blackjack is that whilst there are ways in which the game can be beaten, casinos tend to get rather annoyed if you do so. He tells a great story about being escorted (by armed security personnel) from the gaming table at a major casino in Vegas back to his room to pack his bags and leave the premises never to return. No doubt a tale that qualifies as amusing, but only when able to look back on it from a safe distance.

So, after blackjack came poker, mostly online, but occasionally in the flesh as well. Apparently next on the agenda is a move to Aruba, hopefully later this year. Provided there's a decent speed internet connection then I'm sure he can ply his trade based pretty much anywhere. A few casinos just down the road can't hurt either.

Me - I'm still doing the nine to five.

What has got me thinking of the turn of the cards? Well last weekend, once Jake had had his feet measured and new shoes had been purchased, we popped over the road to the Oxfam bookshop, where I found a copy of Victoria Coren's book "For Richer, For Poorer" which gives an account of her life so far in poker, culminating with winning a European Poker Tour event in London - first prize £500,000. Great read.

If the daily blogs start disappearing, it means that I've signed up on the Pokerstars site and that I am engrossed in a tournament and too busy to blog!

Endowment

When we arrived on the house-buying scene - mid nineties - endowment policies were all the rage. I distinctly remember our "expert" advisor bragging to us about how his endowment policy had done so spectacularly well he was able to pay off his mortgage many many years ahead of plan.

No doubt that, along with all of the commissions he pocketed from selling them to mugs like us left him very nicely off indeed.

I got a little endowment policy in '95 when I bought a half share in a house, and then another one came along a little later when we moved in here. Roll the clock forward a few years, and the "red alert" letters started arriving on the mat at regular intervals.

Well, this year I've finally given up on them. Both of the lame policies have been cashed in. It depresses me to report that whilst the smaller one did eventually crawl its way into the black, the larger one, despite being around for well over ten years, didn't quite manage to pay back as much as the amount of contributions that had been paid in, never mind any interest.

So, today I had an appointment at the building society, and the proceeds of the policies have been applied to reduce the balance outstanding on the mortgage. So rather than earning no interest, at least we will now be saving some.

Training

Jake has his friend Owen over for a sleepover today. This evening we've had pizzas, home made by the two of them, for tea. The pizzas were pretty well loaded with ham, chorizo, pepperoni, and piles and piles of cheese. None of us could manage more than a couple of slices.

Then, we settled down in front of the TV to watch the Disney holiday planning DVD as we'll all be off to Florida together in the summer. We now have two fairly hyper boys giggling together in front of the telly whilst Nicky is setting up the games room as their sleeping (eventually) room for the night.

Jake and Owen went off to an extra football training session for a couple of hours this afternoon, enjoying the surprisingly warm and sunny weather. Jake was pleased to report to me when I got home that he'd scored a couple of goals.

I've been doing training of a different sort this afternoon. I had been booked to attend a course today, and yesterday at about 5pm I got a call to ask whether, rather than just turning up to the course, I could be one of the trainers!

Well, I was in Brighton all morning this morning, and just about had time to stop off at the office long enough to print out the training guide and then turn around and head straight over to the course. Thankfully the material wasn't particularly complicated and I seemed to blag it ok!

Visit

Today was a working from home day. Main reason being so that I could be at home for a visit from Mum and Dad.

They came bearing gifts. I now have a rather splendid new work bag (great pressie - my current one was starting to look a little tatty), and they came laden with gifts for Jake as well, ranging from croissants to jigsaw puzzles.

It was great to see them both. If you are reading this (and its lovely to know that you do usually look in) thanks so much for coming up to see us today, and we were sorry to hear that the journey home was such a long one. Still, at least Dad has been reunited with his camera.

Dad - you'll be pleased to know that after a quick google search for the instructions and the right code for Samsung TVs, and after a bit of select / red button stuff, I now have a remote that does both the TV and the Sky box again. Nice one. Thanks for the tip!

Muddy

For Barley, happiness can be measured in depths of puddles and quantities of mud.

So, as can be seen here, Barley's had a lovely day today! And, whilst I don't think anyone else managed to get quite so grubby (although Jake had a good go at it by going through some puddles himself, and then falling over playing footie with Felix) I think it is safe to say that much fun was had by all.

I even managed to join the party for a while, and by happy chance, just in time for tea!

Thanks so much to Kate, Phil, Maddie and Felix, for the hospitality, the fun, and the lovely food.

Must go to bed now, and must not eat any more shortbread!

Dexter

One of my posts earlier this month was about the launch of the new Sky Atlantic channel. Well, a few weeks in and the only show I'm watching is Six Feet Under, which we enjoyed the first time around anyway (although I don't particularly remember the first few episodes).

One of the main characters in Six Feet Under is played by Michael C Hall, and he also plays Dexter in the series of the same name. I am hoping that Sky Atlantic will start showing that series from the beginning as well. This is one that I haven't watched before, but I've just finished Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the first book (of 5 so far I think) upon which the TV series is based.

Good stuff in the US Thriller / serial killer mould (don't know why such gruesome subjects make for good books, but I enjoy them). The twist this time is that Dexter is both one of the good guys and one of the bad guys as well.

Magic

The Sagrada Familia is a truly amazing site to behold. Designed by Gaudi, and towering over a corner of Barcelona, it has been under construction for over one hundred years. Progress is slow to say the least, but maybe it will be finished in our lifetimes.

We went there on our summer holiday in 2006 as Barcelona was a stop on our first Med cruise, aboard Legend of the Seas. We'd signed up for the Tapas tour, and before we got stuck into the food and drink, our first stop was for a quick look at the famous cathedral.

Unfortunately, being on a guided tour with an itinerary to keep to, we didn't have time to go in, so had to make do with taking a few photos from the outside. Whilst I do enjoy a bit of tapas, I could quite happily have stayed there all day. Must go back and do that sometime soon.

One of the sights that impressed me most was that of the Passion Facade, a comparatively recent addition to the building. In a series of sculptures forming an 'S' shape, from bottom to top it tells the story of the Passion of Christ.

Just to the left of the door is a depiction of Jesus being kissed by Judas, and next to the figures, on the wall, is a square which contains a 4x4 grid of numbers.

This is a magic square. Add up any row, column or diagonal on the square and the total comes to 33, believed to be Jesus's age when he was crucified.

The magic square in Barcelona is actually a slightly amended version of another famous square. You will notice that in the square above, two numbers appear twice, 10 and 14. If you add 1 to the 14 on the right, and add 1 to the 10 on the left and then rotate the whole thing by 180 degrees, you end up with this:

This is also a magic square. Also, it is called a 'normal' magic square because it features each of the numbers from 1 to 16.

(I think that the left hand column is a bit hard to read, so for avoidance of doubt, from top to bottom it is 16, 5, 9, 4. To me, the 5 looks to be upside down, and also if you look closely I can't help but wonder whether it is done that way to cover up a mistake - looks like there might once have been a 6 there. Also, the 9 looks more like a question mark.)

This square is known as Durer's magic square, and this is because the image above is an extract from an engraving made almost half a millennium ago by Albrecht Durer. In fact the date of the engraving is 1514, which can be seen in the middle of the bottom row of the square, with 4 and 1 on either side (the artist's initials being the first and fourth letters of the alphabet).

The square in the engraving isn't just magic, it is very magic!

As in the Barcelona square, adding up all of the rows, columns or diagonals (i.e. 10 different possibilities) gives the same answer, in this case 34.

(Note that all normal 4x4 magic squares share this property. If c is the magic constant, then we know that the total of all of the numbers in the square, that is the sum of each row, must be 4c. But also, the sum of the four rows must also be the sum of the numbers from 1 - 16 which is (1/2 x 16 x 17) 136. So if 4c = 136 then c = 34.)

But, it isn't just rows columns and diagonals that add to 34. It is also the case that if you add the four digits making a 2x2 square in the top left hand corner, that adds up to 34. The same applies to the top left, bottom left, and bottom right 2x2 squares, as well as the 2x2 square in the middle of the main square. The answer can also be achieved by adding the squares in the corners of the Durer square (that's another 6 possibilities).

Now, take a look at the picture below:

Each of the twelve examples above gives more ways to find 34. Taking each numbered square above in turn:

1. The four numbers in the corners of the slanted square drawn here add to 34. Similarly, there is another slanted square (2, 5, 15, 8) that works (that's 2 more possibilities).
2. The four numbers in the corner of the rectangle add to 34. Rotate the rectangle 90 degrees and it works again (another 2 possibilities).
3. Again add the corners of the rectangle, this time a diagonal one, to get 34. Also rotate by 90 degrees for another (2 more).
4. Yet again, corners of the rectangle add to 34, and there are three more like this (by moving the rectangle either one space to the right, or down two, or both). Also, if you stand the rectangle up so that its corners are on 16, 3, 9 and 6, then we still get 34. Similarly there are four of these stood up rectangles made by moving the first one either down one, across two, or both (that's another 8).
5. Sum of the corners of the square is 34. There are four such squares made by starting in any of the four corners of the Durer square (4 more).
6. The sum of the points of the diamond is 34. Another one can be made by going top left to bottom right (another 2).
7. Kites. There are four kites whose corners add to 34 - the one pictured, plus one moved one space to the right, plus the two made by rotating those about a horizontal axis (that's another 4).
8. The sum of the the ends of the tripod plus the square in which all the lines meet is 34. Four different tripods can be made using the exact same operations as for number 7 (4 more).
9. Uneven tripods work as well. The one shown above, plus another three made by rotating in horizontal or vertical axes or both (another 4).
10. The zigzag adds to 34. So do the other three made by rotating and/or reflecting. Also, if you move the top two numbers up one and the bottom two you get 16, 15, 2, 1 which is a more pronounced zigzag that adds to 34. Again there are four of these made by rotating and reflecting (8 more).
11. The two pairs shown in the diagram add to 34 and once again there are three more similar examples made by rotation and reflection (so we get another 4).
12. Finally, just like for 11 above there are four ways to make this shape that adds to 34 (4 more).

If we add up all of the highlighted numbers in the list above and the paragraphs above that, we've found 64 ways of making a total of 34 whilst also making a pattern on the square.

How many ways are there to make a total of 34 from the numbers in the square, irrespective of whether they make a pattern or not? I think that the answer to that is 86.

(Dad - need your help here as I haven't proved that, I've just written them all down! There are 1,820 ways of picking 4 from the numbers 1 to 16 (16! / 12! x 4!). The smallest possible answer is 10 and the largest is 58, so the most common answer will be 34. Knowing this much, along with, I presume, the possible sums being normally distributed, is there an easy way to prove this?)

So, we've shown that the majority of possible ways of finding 4 choices from the square such that they add to 34 are arranged to make a pattern within Durer's square.

Now that's magic.

Milestones

Half term is here, and once Nicky was finished with her teaching today, we headed into Maidstone. First stop was a nice new (to me anyway) cafe where Jake and I had burger and chips, and Nicky had a fish finger sandwich. Then it was to the Golden Boot for Jake to have his feet measured and new shoes bought. Following a trip to the pediatrician earlier in the week, Jake now has inserts for his shoes to support his arches, and so we wanted to make sure that he had shoes that fit properly. He was wearing the inserts in his trainers as we went round town, and seems to get on fine with them.

As it's half term, so the half term projects have begun. Nicky has been helping with the science, which involves dissolving some solids into water, and then leaving them to see what happens when the water evaporates. The 'before' photos have been taken, and we will wait to see what happens. Hopefully, the cat won't find them and think that they're for him!

I've been helping with the maths project (well, ok I kind of did the project!). The challenge set was to pick four different digits from 1 to 9, and arrange them into a square. Then consider the sum of the two two-digit numbers made by reading across the rows and the two two-digit numbers made by reading down the columns. So, for example:

1 2

3 4

would be 12 + 34 + 13 + 24 = 83.

The question was - how many arrangements of the digits give an answer of 200?

The answer is 22 arrangements.

How did I work this out - well, basically by considering every possible arrangement, and seeing which ones gave an answer of 200.

How many arrangements are there? Well, the first step is to pick four digits. The number of ways of picking 4 from 9 is 9! / (5! x 4!) = 126.

For each of those 126 combinations, they can be arranged in the square in 4x3x2x1 = 24 ways. So, in total there are 126 x 24 = 3,024 possibilities.

(Although note that they come in pairs, as swapping the top right and bottom left digits makes no difference to the sum.)

I checked them all (using a spreadsheet) and there were 22 answers.

For the children in Jake's class who try to find them by trial and error, they will need to have a fair amount of staying power, given that there are so many to choose from, and less than 1% of the possible options give the right answer.

As to milestones, a couple to note today. Firstly, as a mini milestone, today is the 50th day of the year and my 50th blog of the year. Secondly, it is 100 days until Jake and I set off on our boys' adventure to the IOW.

Chronicles

And so another week draws to a close, Jake has packed up for half term, and Nicky is tucked up in bed nursing a rotten cold. I nearly managed to go a whole week without a visit to Brighton, but missing it as I was, went there for a meeting this morning.

Last night I finished off Stephen Fry's latest book, his second volume of autobiography. Amazingly, despite being all the way through two books-worth, we have only made it through to the mid eighties so far, so should be lots of material for when he decides to squirrel himself away in LA (and cut himself off from his twittering) for a few months again.

Fascinating read - amongst many other things, I never knew that he was involved in Me and My Girl when it reappeared in the West End (and subsequently on Broadway) in the eighties.

Birthday

Regular as clockwork, exactly one week after my birthday, every year another one comes along:

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday dear Bec

Happy Birthday to You

Bread

The latest arrival in the kitchen is a bread-maker, purchased at the start of the week because it was a bargain in Sainsbury's.

So, Nicky made me a sandwich packed lunch to take to work with me yesterday with home baked bread. My sandwich bag made it as far as the bottom of the stairs, but then in between putting my shoes on and getting in the car, it got left behind.

I had a call just as I got on the motorway saying "Guess what you left behind?!"

The sandwich was safely stored in the fridge, and to avoid mishap this morning, Nicky put my sandwich bag in the car for me while I was getting dressed.

Today's sandwich was made from a granary loaf. Apparently it's white tomorrow.

M&S are going to start fearing for my health if I don't appear there at a lunchtime soon!

Lecture

As the evening progressed, I was wondering what today's blog was going to be about. For quite some time, it was looking like the events in Milan were going to be the main feature, especially when Crouch netted the all important away goal and we hung on for the last ten minutes to bring a lead back home for the second leg.

There, I've mentioned it anyway now!

But, then after the news I watched the Richard Dimbleby lecture.

It is another literary confession of mine that I have never read any of Michael Morpurgo's books. That is going to have to change. Thankfully we have most of his books, or at least Jake does, as fairly regularly, his great aunt in Yorkshire sends one of his books for Christmas or birthday. We think that she must have kept a list of what she's sent, as there's never been any duplication.

Anyway, Mr Morpurgo was delivering the Dimbleby lecture, on the topic of the rights of children, and put simply, the man is a genius.

I don't think iplayer has a recording of the lecture, which is a shame as it would be worth a second listen. As he promised, he wove a number of stories into his lecture to illustrate his points, focusing on three of the fundamental rights enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. Those three rights are to freedom, to survival and to education. Doesn't seem like much to ask does it?

On the topic of education, a couple of comments (no doubt slightly misquoted due to my poor memory) that resonated:

"In the heart of every child lies a unique genius." and

"The most important thing in a child's education is the quality of the relationships they make."

Valentine

Valentine was an early Christian, living in the second or third century AD. He lived in Rome, and at a time when the Emperor was clearly keen to be expanding the Empire. It was important to the Emperor that the soldiers in his army had no distractions, and so he decreed that they were not to get married.

This wasn't very popular. Valentine took pity on the love-lorn legions and would provide an important service of blessing couples' unions in the eyes of the Lord. Unfortunately, the Emperor got wind of this, and Valentine was arrested, thrown into jail and sentenced to death.

Imprisoned, Valentine met the jailer's blind daughter and fell in love with her. He healed her of her blindness, and on the morning that he was led out to be executed, he passed her a note, professing his undying love, signed: "From Your Valentine".

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Not that any of the above could be called history. There were a couple of early Christian martyrs named Valentine, but other than that, the rest is embellishment that has been added over the centuries. Still, makes for a good story.

I was very lucky today - I got two Valentine's cards, but they were both from my one true love. There was a film theme going on - one said "Truly, Madly, Deeply", whilst the other one quoted the famous, wonderful, heart-melting line spoken by Renee to Tom in Jerry McGuire. You know the one!

I'm in love!

Captain

Firstly, thanks to anyone who has posted a comment to one of my blogs. It's nice to know that they are read by more than one person! I'm not sure if Blogger allows subsidiary commenting as seems to be the case on Wordpress, so please don't think that if you post a comment that I then ignore you - it would be nice to respond to each comment individually, and if anyone knows how, please let me know. However, I do see them all, both on the site and because each comment triggers an email to me as well, so please keep the comments coming!

Anyway, today is Sunday and the Captain of today's title is in fact Jake. Being Sunday, we've had a selection of many of the Sunday staples - piano at church, roast dinner with Nanny and Granddad, and Jake and Granddad are currently at the ice hockey. But also, being Sunday, Jake's football team had a game.

Jake knew that there was something special taking place today but wasn't sure what. Well, when he got to the game he found out that he was going to be captain today. Not only that, he was awarded the "most improved player" trophy at the end of the game. The result is not important (yes, I know I wouldn't be saying that if they won!) - what matters is that Jake is doing well for his team.

And the team picture was in the local paper this week.

Chinese

What a good Saturday - chilling out at home, taking the dog for a walk, playing a bit of footie with Jake (both real and virtual) and then a birthday tea.

John and Margaret came around, and we ordered a box-load of food from Chan's, starting, obviously with some duck pancakes, and then followed up with a fine selection of rice, chow mein, seaweed, prawn toast, Chinese chicken, prawn balls and more.

If that wasn't enough, we then had the ceremony of the blowing out of the candles, sensibly done in tens rounded up rather than one for each year, to avoid the need to call the fire brigade. The cake had been made by my lovely wife this afternoon and was yummy indeed.

Might have to have a rummage on-line now to contemplate spending some of my many birthday vouchers.

Journey

(Firstly, in response to a reader request, the Shrewsday Times refers to Kate's wonderful blog which can be found by clicking on this link.)

My journey home was a long one today. Leaving Brighton I heard on the radio that there had been an accident on the A23 so I turned off and went along the A27 to Lewes and up past Crowborough and Tunbridge Wells.

Whilst wending my way along dark, damp and windy (by which I mean with lots of bends, not blowing a gale) A roads, I was reminded of the lovely sun-kissed, dramatic-viewed Highway One in California, down which we travelled last April en route from San Francisco to LA. May seem like the journeys in question don't have much in common, but it was Journey that took me there.

To be more precise it was their song "Don't Stop Believing" which was being played on All Request Friday.

This song, which I didn't know at all before last year, featured twice on a CD that we bought on our way to America and which then got played over and over in the car. It was the latest of the "Now" series and had both the original and the Glee versions on it, so one or other came around fairly regularly.

Now whenever I hear it, I am reminded of Pacific views, Big Sur and Bixby Bridge.

I won't stop believing - that we'll be back there sometime soon.

Birthday

Well it is still my birthday but not by much. I've been testing out one of my birthday presents which is a (music) keyboard that plugs into a USB port on the Mac and works with Garage Band. Lots of fun.

I suppose it was a bit of a downer going into the office today when I'd been at home earlier in the week, but better better than poorly. Besides which, work got me a card and then my bosses bought me a cake at lunchtime. They only let themselves down by asking if it was a milestone birthday and when I said no they assumed that the milestone must have already passed.

I will make sure to thank everyone in person for their kind cards and generous gifts, but if you're reading this before I get round to it, then thanks very much.

One of my more unusual presents was a new edition from the Shrewsday times. I am honoured indeed.

Mandelbrot

Today I have been working from home, wading through the email mountain that builds up if you don't keep it constantly at bay, and getting back up to speed with how things have, or haven't in some cases, moved on in my absence. Will be back to all the fun of the office tomorrow.

Last night I finished reading The Ghost from the Grand Banks by Arthur C Clarke. I'd read it before, about 15 years ago, but wanted to re-read it because of its mention of the Mandelbrot set.

The book is set around now, even though it was written about twenty years ago, and one of the most striking things about it is Clarke's ability to look into the future. Admittedly he wasn't looking very far, and got a fair few things wrong along the way, but there were a number of times when he was pretty much spot on. (One of the things for which he was most famous was anticipating the use to which geostationary satellites could be put within telecommunications, rather longer ago!)

The book is set around now as it deals with the impending centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, which will come around next April, and with the story of two rival attempts to raise the liner from the bottom of the Atlantic. On a re-read, one thing that is noticeable is that the book is rather short on plot, and feels as though Clarke is looking for excuses to shoehorn in things he has found out, ideas he's had and facts that he has found interesting. I can gladly forgive him this as I found most of it interesting as well!

One point in particular was the Mandelbrot set, which featured heavily in the story. I remember being intrigued by it the first time that I read the book. So much so that I wrote a little programme for my Psion Organiser (remember those?!?!) which drew a rough version of the set. Can't remember how I did it now - may have to set myself a similar challenge to get a spreadsheet to do something similar. Yes - I know - major nerd!

Thanks to the wonders of You Tube I've found a video which starts with a quick clip of Clarke and then gives us a zoom into the Mandelbrot set. If you wanted to know what infinity looks like, here's a good place to start.

Barley

Uploaded a few more photos to flickr today. Still a long way to go until I'm completely up to date, but here's a nice one of Barley taken last summer.

Home

Today was a day at home, spent mostly sleeping or on the sofa. Progress is being made on the food front, with some cereal this morning, soup at lunchtime, and some jacket potato and a little gammon this evening. Still look forward to my four-hourly tablets. Have ignored my work phone which has buzzed from time to time reminding me I should be doing something.

Watched a few of the BTTF Blue Ray extras today.

Superbowl

Superbowl Sunday has arrived. Will give me something to watch if I can't sleep again tonight. Have been told in no uncertain terms that work is out of the question tomorrow. No complaints from me. Progress today in the form of managing a couple of bits of toast. Everything aches.

Poorly

Proper poorly

Bond

Bond is back. Well, actually he's never really gone away, but there have been a couple of pieces of good news over the last month or so. Firstly we can look forward to a new Bond novel this May, and secondly, the next Bond film is back on track after some uncertainty regarding MGM's precarious finances, and it should be released towards the end of next year.

Since Casino Royale first appeared in 1952, Bond hasn't been out of print. His popularity, and the willingness of Fleming's estate to work with others, has meant that the stories available for fans now go way beyond the original 14 books written by Ian Fleming before his early death in 1964. Other authors who have penned Bond books have included:

• Kingsley Amis, who wrote Colonel Sun under the name Robert Markham;
• John Gardner, who kept the franchise going in the 80s and 90s and kept Bond up to date;
• Charlie Higson (Swiss Tony himself!), who has brought a new generation to Bond through the Young Bond adventures; and
• Sebastian Faulks, who penned Devil May Care in Fleming's centenary year.

This year we will be able to add another name to this list, that of Jeffrey Deaver, who's thrilled us with the Lincoln Rhyme series in recent years. The new novel will be called Carte Blanche, will be at least partly set in Dubai, and will be a current day story.

Faulks took a different view when writing Devil May Care, which I bought as soon as it came out, and which I have only just got around to reading. The story picks up in the 60s where Fleming left off, and the author does a great job of capturing Fleming's style. He's also made sure that we have a fine collection of Bond trademarks in the book. Bond's first face to face encounter with the villain of the piece is when challenging him to a sporting contest. Not golf at Royal St George's this time, but tennis at a club in Paris. The villain is also a cheat, and has his henchman help him in trying to deceive Bond to gain an unfair advantage. The henchman even has a funny hat - just not a killer bowler this time!

Bond is sent to investigate the villain (Gorner) and his suspicious activities, gets captured (along with the girl, obviously) and is taken to the villain's remote hideaway / headquarters. There he is able to discover what's going on, is set to completing tasks and challenges that nearly kill him, makes good his escape and saves the day. Once the world has been saved, the disgruntled villain comes after Bond, giving Bond an ideal opportunity to finish him off. Mathis, Leiter, M and Moneypenny all get parts to play in proceedings as well. Oh, and guess what - Bond gets the girl! Vintage stuff!

Rabbit

Early start today. Alarm went off at 5.15 and I was up, out and on the road to Brighton. Turns out that lots of people get up to go to work in the middle of the night, but I was still in Brighton for my morning porridge by eight o'clock.

Anyway, Happy New Year to you all. Today we move out of the year of the tiger and into the year of the rabbit. Not sure if this means that we should expect the birth rate to increase soon?

There are twelve animal signs of the Chinese zodiac, and there are lots of stories about how they came about. Most of them seem to centre around the Emperor challenging all of the animals to a swimming race across a river, and that the ordering of the signs of the zodiac correspond to the order in which the animals completed the race. The rat was the winner of the race, and so is first in the cycle.

Despite not being good swimmers, the rat and the cat both hitched a ride on the back of the ox. The sneaky rat pushed the cat into the river half way across, and then waited until the last minute to jump off the ox's back to claim first place with the ox coming in second.

After the ox came the strong tiger, and only then did the nimble rabbit arrive on the far shore. But, it hopped across the river, bouncing on stones, and came in next, and that's why the year of the rabbit follows the year of the tiger.

By the way, Nicky and I were both born in the year of the ox. Apparently, some of the characteristics associated with the sign of the ox are:

- dependable
- calm
- patient
- hardworking
- modest
- logical
- tenacious.

Obviously I am far too modest to say anything further. I'll leave it for you to comment ... !

88mph

One of my Christmas gifts (from John and Margaret) was the Back to the Future trilogy on Blue Ray. I look forward to posting about how excellent it, and all of the extra material that comes with it, is, just as soon as I've found time to unwrap the pack and watch some of the discs.

In the meantime, Nicky has decided to get some new ringtones for her phone, and now any time that I call her she gets the BTTF main theme announcing my call!

"Roads! Where we're going, we don't need roads!"

Atlantic

Sky have launched a new channel called Atlantic. I think that my evenings may be disappearing towards it for a while. Just watched the first episode of Boardwalk Empire, which continues tomorrow, and they are showing Six Feet Under from the very beginning (seen it all before but so good that may have to watch it all again) as well as The Sopranos from the very beginning (never watched it but given how much it has been raved about will have to give it a try).

We love a good HBO drama!