Monthly Archives: June 2006

Help the Homeless

There’s a tunnel I walk through every day on the way to work. It leads from Blackfriars underground station to the pedestrian walkway that runs west along the Embankment from Saint Paul’s to just after Blackfriars Bridge. It’s a great … Continue reading

Posted in London, Short Story | 4 Comments

Stuckism

There was a heated… spirited… well, anyway interesting exchange of views about Stuckism over on Same Identical Sun. Alan Hay, the proprietor, usually writes, extremely carefully, a mixture of entertaining discussion and invective about poetry and nearby topics. On Sunday … Continue reading

Posted in Art | 6 Comments

Bang bang

I found a bullet on the pavement outside my house today. It was about 9mm wide and flattened from the side rather than from the front as most spent bullets are. I thought that I’d better tell the police about … Continue reading

Posted in London | 8 Comments

Builders’ Tea

My dad is an architect so I used to read the RIBA journal, Building Design, a lot when I was a youth. I am still very interested in the more technical aspects of building, despite having a pretty low opinion … Continue reading

Posted in Media, Shopping | 3 Comments

Get Shredder

I just read an interesting article in Wired which pointed out that credit card companies actually lobby against legislation which would make identity theft more difficult because there’s so much money for them in offering “fast and easy credit”. The … Continue reading

Posted in Media, Politics | 2 Comments

The World cup is good

Yes, that’s right, you heard me right. Driving around London in the last few days I noticed that at certain times there was a noticeable absence of scumbags, idiots and unsavoury elements. How useful it would be, I told myself, … Continue reading

Posted in London, Media | 2 Comments

Zarqawi update

The Americans are saying that they have captured information in raids following the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi that will enable them to track down more of his colleagues. I heard a rumour that what they actually had was the … Continue reading

Posted in Media | 1 Comment

Zarqawi

I’m sorry to be a misery guts but the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi isn’t something to celebrate or be proud of. Here’s why: Civilised countries don’t assassinate their opponents, they capture them and put them on trail. I don’t … Continue reading

Posted in Media, Politics | Leave a comment

UK music fans can copy own tracks

See, the British Phonographic Industry isn’t so behind the times as everyone thought. They have very generously announced that we are now allowed to listen to tracks from our own CDs on MP3 players. I predict that this unprecedented and … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, Shopping | 4 Comments

It’s all gone Pete Tong

My oldest daughter Poppy grew up watching the BBC. She never saw adverts, which was a great advantage in the supermarket since she never realised that all that shiny packets stacked up by the checkout were sweets. However, since Five … Continue reading

Posted in Media | 2 Comments