Well, that wasn’t the most pleasant way to while away the time whilst ironing. Yes, I am a new(ish) man: the ironing’s my job. It’s the least I can do. (As always, there’s a comedy quote - Denzil in the sadly missed Absolutely: “No, Gwynned, the least I can do are nothing at all!”. Great site at Absolutely Andy - including a petition to get them to release a DVD - I’d buy that!)

Aye:

So anyway, the habit that has developed is that I iron while I listen to Forest games on the internet, but of course Sunday’s FA Cup game was on the telly. With our league position being everything, we really could do without the distraction of any kind of cup run. Really. I’d rather we threw the game and got on with the business of getting promoted. Failing that, a nice easy win would be OK, but a replay is just another chance for your best players to get injured and less preparation time for the real deal: the next league game. Still, sadly, Charlton will probably present too much of a challenge, even if we win on the 12th.

I got so frustrated, I broke the flippin’ iron.

Honestly, E, you’ll have to try harder than that.

Seriously.

Here I am trying to read about Perforce at midnight on a Friday night, while E watches telly. “Ooh look”, she says, “there’s Shane Ritchie in the background”.

Answers on a postcard as to who’s the sadder..

Their news coverage is great - the BBC can still be trusted to provide top quality reporting by talented reporters. When compared to other networks, it’s pretty unbiased, too.

What the hell is it, though, with their studio production? Did some editor pipe up at a meeting and say “What we need here is Look East, only worse. Cheesy links, amateurish shuffling between stories and at least one sound, lighting or camera snafu every 15 minutes.”

Well, last year I predicted that Lauren would meet Vicky Pollard, and she didn’t. Oh well. In fact, neither Catherine Tate nor Lucas and Walliams made an appearance on Children in Need, as far as I can tell. It’s a good job I don’t make predictions for a living. They got my tenner, and more, so who’s counting?

With champagne and fish and chips at work this lunchtime to celebrate us moving into our new office, I’m feeling somewhat discumbobulated this evening. Eleven hours of Thanksgiving NFL games should sort that out :->

If you’re in the U.S., enjoy your turkey!

Get your BitTorrent clients out, mates in the States. Have a search for Garth Marenghi�’s Darkplace. You will not be disappointed.

I thought it was fairly likely I would never utter the phrase “that is a beautiful advert”. I suppose it’s almost like Douglas Adams’ famous quip about there being no language which posesses the phrase “as beautiful as an airport”. Anyway, here I sit having seen what I reckon is a lovely piece of film which happens to be trying to sell me a flash Sony LCD telly. Not that I’m too bothered about that: I’m resolved to wait until SED displays arrive and I can have a shiny flat panel screen hanging on my wall that doesn’t have the shortish life and fearsome heat output of plasma, and neither the lag, poorish viewing angle and murky blacks of LCDs.

Still, the Sony Bravia Advert is indeed lovely. I haven’t seen it on TV yet (and God knows I watch enough telly) but it really blew me away. Of course it helps that the music is provided by none other than Jos��� Gonz���lez. I have K to thank for giving me his CD, and her music recommendations are pretty rock solid usually. His album “Veneer” has that rare quality - a real grower that’s already pretty damn good on first listen. “Deadweight on Velveteen” gets close to Stina Nordenstam at her best, and believe me, coming from my mouth that’s a compliment.

I can imagine that the ad execs are going for the same kind of buzz that surrounded the Honda “Cog” commercial, and they may well succeed. I just think it’s pretty. They don’t miss a trick in that they put the whole website up, including behind-the-scenes stuff, from day one. The director, Dane Nicolai Fuglsig, has done himself proud. Now I realise he’s already done great-looking ads like the Audi “Bull” spot, it all starts to make sense…

This is a rare bit of good karma for Sony at the moment, bearing in mind their DRM snafu and so on. I still won’t be buying their telly, though.

Ha! The wonders of modern technology. If you’re one of the lovely people who are in the habit of buying me presents, and you can’t think what to get, how about:

• Pitman - Pit Closure
• Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
• Jolie Holland - Catalpa

All of these are nice and cheap at play.com :->. Of course, if you’re feeling particularly well-disposed towards me, there’s always seasons 2 to 6 of The West Wing on DVD too…

[Later] Oh dear. I’ve just been told to edit that last part out. Hmmm. Chinny rub. Aparently I’m a b*stard.

I feel rudderless and without purpose. It’s Tuesday, and I haven’t played footy. My knees and ankles are not hurting, and I’m definitely down on the usual weekly dosage of pork scratchings, scampi fries and most importantly beer and banter. Pshh. A.P.U. Societies Fair has no right taking our footy away!

A few little asides:

Powergen are even more of a bunch of useless tossers than I thought. I didn’t even know that was possible, because I really believed they were the pits already. Don’t ask.

There’s a nice new walk for Desdog and myself out Bait’s Bite Lock way.

R.I.P. Ronnie Barker. Thanks for all the laughs.

The West Wing series 1 on DVD is a Chrimbo gift that has kept on giving. No ads, woo hoo, the usual quality entertainment, but best of all, no blurting voiceovers at the start of the closing titles.

She’s got some good ideas, I suppose, BUT THIS WOMAN SHOULD SPEND NINE MINUTES IN THE REFLECTION ROOM LEARNING HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE WORD “ACCEPTABLE”. How bloody hard can it be? Is it spelled “asseptable”? NO!

That’s better.