Fank Fun it's Friday Fantastic Photo Foolery Fest - 30/12/05

Well, better late than never today, I've been trying to find time to get everything done. It's just dawned on me I have very little time to get things sorted out before work rears its ugly head again so have been madly at it all day with my own bits. That sounded wrong. Anyway, here we go, with a little bit of religion and an eye on the coming year, what better way to make it 'out with the old and in with the new' than the cover of this fantastic novelty calendar.



Clicky here and you can also check out the 'Year of Bad Habits' calendar too!

Treat yourselves to a tipple of your choice after every quality caption!

Tomorrow is going to be a bit manic for me, so let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

I hope it brings you good things - and also the strength you need to deal with anything else. Have a great one!

RO

My birdtable

I have set up a birdtable next to a window this year, so that with cunning use of curtain and camera I can get the visitors to my garden within decent reach of my camera lens. Haven't had a lot of chances to take shots yet, however, from today, here is a lovely little robin who is a regular visitor.

A time for goodwill to all

Although living in a fairly nice part of my fairly nice town, I was today visited by a bunch of youths, maybe no older than 12, who appeared to be working their way up the road having a right old laugh by running around people's gardens, vandalising stuff and generally summing up the whole anti-social behaviour thing. Fortunately this is not common behaviour here although I have seen at least three of these individuals before doing similar things.

Unfortunately for me they decided to kick part of my wooden fence in. Unfortunately for them, they reckoned without my camera, which without capturing that particular event, did capture them in the midst of their shenanigans.

Now, kids will be kids and all that - and I am prepared to cut a very reasonable amount of slack, I think. This is very poor though. It is also not outside of these kids' knowledge though that a lot of the people living roundabout are elderly and are going to be either shocked or initimidated by their behaviour.

Well, the policeman liked my piccies so we'll see what they can do on the ASBO front. Apparently if they can identify those involved they can send a letter to their parents. Who are obviously going to give a toss. Oh well, we'll see.

The trifle not to be trifled with

Hi all! I hope everyone out there is having a jolly time. It is offically Boxing Day and against some of my best intentions I am running mostly on frequent hits of sugar and carbs.

I have been mentioning over the last month or so how much fun I think it is to make cool and groovy things rather than buying them, especially with food and drink if nothing else - and especially at this time of year when indeed it is rather traditional to go near the kitchen and be a little bit creative.

The Philua is going very well thank you and I may post about that tomorrow, however I have also mentioned the 10K trifle which is a bit of a tradition with me and a testimony to the festive rule that you just wouldn't get away with it at any other time without getting locked up.

The 10K trifle is so named because it contains 10,000 calories. That's roughly enough to keep an adult male well fed for about four days. The recipe has been slilghtly refined over time, however I am sure the name is still fairly accurate.

So, for your viewing pleasure, in glorious colour and surround sound (getting carried away now, sorry, but feel free to 'oooh' and 'aaah'), you can see one of these delights being created.

WARNING: The following pictures contain scenes of a high sugar and fat content and may be sensitive to viewers who do not normally eat dessert. Several dairy products were used in the making of this trifle.


Find possibly the largest round casserole dish or bowl you can. It will need to be able to hold several litres. Add lots of trifle sponges:



Next, pour over quarter of a litre of warmed 'Philua' or a mixture of hot coffee and the liqueur/alcohol of choice. If you have the time it's best to dip the sponges into the liquid and then place them in the bowl:



The sponges need to be well soaked in the liquid, if not they will float up when the jelly is added:



Two packets of jelly, in this case orange, go into the bowl and are microwaved with a little water to dissolve them:



Then make up with cold water to a full litre of liquid:



Add the jelly to the bowl carefully and resolve any floating problems if any by giving the sponges a little squeeze. It doesn't matter too much though:



Now for the custard. Cheating here using custard powder. We need a litre, so go anything up to double what the instructions say for the powder to get it really thick, just normal or a bit over on the sugar though, because otherwise it will be too sweet:



More decadence here, using a litre of Gold Top instead of normal milk:



Add a little milk and mix to a paste:



This is looking very extravagant now. Ah! Fruit! That's healthy isn't it? Add some fruit to the sponge and jelly in the bowl. You can do this with the jelly if you prefer, but sitting on top there is just fine. These are tinned, drained, Mandarin orange segments to fit in with the coffee/orange theme. Hopefully this is all fairly cool now so pop it somewhere like the fridge (if it will fit) where it can set:



The custard is cooked in the microwave, checking and whisking it every few minutes so it doesn't get lumpy. Mmmmm...:



Let the custard cool a little, but be careful because if you get distracted and let it go cold it will become entirely solid. Then retrieve your bowl and pour it over the mixture, carefully if the jelly and sponge isn't completely set - and again put it somewhere cool:



The cream comes next, best to wait until you are nearly ready to eat it to do these final stages I think. This is a pint of whipping cream, duly whipped, oo-er missus. Don't over-do it! Stiff peaks, oh yes!:



Plop the cream on top of the mixture and spread it over evenly. A pallette knife or spatula is handy, but a spoon will do:



Finally we need decoration, of course. Simply some natural glacé cherries and some real chocolate sprinkles set it off nicely, I think:



And there we are, the 10K in all its glory. You can either eat it, or just look at it, because it's quite pretty I think. However, I'll vouch for the fact it really does taste rather good. I'm sure Fanny would be so proud:

Fank Fun it's Friday Fantastic Photo Foolery Fest - 23/12/05

Yo ho ho! It's time for the Christmas FFFFPFF!

So in order to spread some seasonal goodwill and a little cheer, sit down with a festive hamburger or twelve and a few beers and sort out some captions for this:


Just like dear old Elvis, my ability to perform over the next few days may very much depend on how much food and alcohol comes my way. So let me please take this chance to wish everyone in our fledgling collective and anyone who has taken the time to dip in during the last few months a very merry Christmas/Yule/Midwinter/Kwanzaa/Hanukkah/whatever floats your boat and a splendid New Year!!!

A Very Whaling Christmas

Having set out on a very ambitious anti-whaling campaign back in November, Greenpeace have finally caught up with the Japanese whaling fleet.

Already the latest reports are of one of the Japanese 'catcher boats' ramming the Greenpeace ship MV Esperanza in an attempt to move it from blocking the loading bay of the factory ship - a tactic the whalers have employed before (and which is all on film, apparently).

The Japanese are coming up with all sorts of 'piracy' talk and Greenpeace are saying 'Ha-hargh, we be not piratin', we be protectin' the whales, oh yes' - and this brinkmanship, now it's started, will go on weeks and weeks.

If you are unfamiliar with the way whaling works, the boats that normally catch the whales are probably smaller than you'd think, maybe 20 metres in length, so about four or five times the length of Greenpeace's inflatables. This is because they need to be fairly manoeuvrable as the whales don't hang about to get harpooned, they have to track them down, keep up, get in position and fire at them. Once they have killed a whale they haul it along side and bring it up to their factory ship where it is dragged up to deck to be processed. The factory ship Nisshin Maru is 130 metres long - that's getting on for the size of your average cross channel ferry.

This approach is different to whalers from Norway that mostly catch and process their own kills. They are also about 20 metres long, but mostly have an open middle deck and the carcass is dragged across it for processing, almost dwarfing the boat itself. The Norwegian boats can do this as they operate closer to port, whereas the Japanese factory ships are out to sea for months, so the factory ship processes and also stores the catch.

Just about the hardest thing was finding the fleet, now that task is accomplished the Greenpeace plan, as usual, is to send out inflatables to get between the catcher boats and the whales, making it much, much harder to get a clear shot without putting the lives of the RIB crews in danger. It's easy to think the RIB crews must be lunatics, however they are spot-on at what they do and, in my mind, they are heroes. Dealing with the sea is one thing - and that's fun enough in a RIB even when the sea looks nice which it often doesn't. Dealing with co-ordinates of whales and the guy with the big explosive pointy thing is another thing altogether.

The main Greenpeace vessels MY Arctic Sunrise and MV Esperanza don't just launch and support the RIB crews, they actively harry the factory ship. If the catcher boats are bringing kills in, the Esperanza, as in the case yesterday, can position itself astern of the factory ship to make it very difficult for the kill to be transferred. She's over 70 metres in length herself, yet very swift and nimble, so ideal for this task - and it seems it was during this manoeuvring yesterday that one of the catcher boats decided to try to shove her out of the way.

Things are hotting up - and now the Australian authorities are starting to make the right noises as things become clearer - the incident yesterday was in Australian territorial waters.

So, in case any of you salty Greenpeace sea-dogs stop by, all the very best to you guys out there for doing the business and well done for getting the best present you could have got - finding the fleet. I really can't think of a place I would rather spend Christmas and New Year! Have a good one!

Help make 'Fairytale of New York' the UK Christmas No.1!

Please, everyone, I have written this post in the style of an e-mail you can simply lift and send to your friends. So, please feel free to copy it and pass it on - and perhaps we can put a little bit more Christmas spirit back into Christmas:

Hurrah! The Pogues have re-released Fairytale of New York, widely regarded as the best Christmas song ever, on the 19th December 2005, the day after the fifth anniversary of Kirsty MacColl's untimely death - and just in time for Christmas.

We have the chance to:

1. Put right one of the greatest pop travesties of all time (you may remember the Pet Shop Boys beat it to the top spot in 1987 with 'Always on my Mind')

2. Seize the opportunity to make a proper 'Christmas' song the UK Christmas No.1 (instead of some tat from The X Factor, for example)

3. And perhaps most importantly, raise some money for both homeless charity Crisis and the Justice for Kirsty Campaign - trying to bring those responsible for Kirsty MacColl's death to justice.

The single has been released in a variety of different CD single and DVD formats - and if you can access iTunes UK you can download the original version of the track and even download a special, live, re-recorded version, featuring Katie Melua doing the 'Kirsty karaoke spot' - and another live downloadable version you can learn more about on The Pogues website.

If going to a shop, HMV, Virgin and Woolworths are good places to buy for chart-counted sales, although buy one or two at a time, as bigger multiple purchases tend not to get counted.

Please, also visit the Justice for Kirsty Campaign site and the Kirsty MacColl site for more info.

Send this e-mail to your friends, if you like - and wish them all the best for the festive period and the New Year - and perhaps they will have friends they want to pass it on to as well. Nothing bad will happen if they don't - hopefully their holiday will still be all they want it to be and the New Year will hold peace and real prosperity for them all. However, if you do, it might even help do a little bit more good. And, if so, you'll have helped do that.

So, whether you're handsome or pretty, a slut or a scumbag, or all or none of those things, here's hoping your dreams come true.

Merry Christmas!

Withheld number madness

A recent call from a mobile phone company to my landline phone reminded me what complete insanity 'withheld numbers' are.

Now 'Caller ID' information is reasonably accessible to everyone, I challenge anyone to give me a good, i.e. legitimate, reason for a system allowing 'withheld numbers' to be maintained.


Madness No.1:

Now, although I have never had a serious problem with nuisance calls, I am registered with the Telephone Preference Service. It is free to register your phone numbers, including your mobiles and fax numbers - and now hefty fines, amongst other things, can be imposed if companies are caught out. It's worth noting that other options are available there too, including the Mailing Preference Service to cut out that random junk mail.

BT (finally) now offer free Caller ID and offer to register you with the TPS via their Privacy at Home add-on.

Therefore: If every caller has a number, people getting nuisance calls would always be able to report the call to the TPS or appropriate agency.


Madness No.2:

Our financial institutions, for example, seem very keen to clamp down on fraud, employing a variety of systems that can throw up tags if you do something 'out of character', at which point they will probably call you. They may, of course, also call for other reasons.

What makes me laugh though, is they normally call you as a withheld number, however as sure as eggs are eggs, the first thing they will ask you is that because they have called you, on the phone number you have given them, anybody could technically have answered, so they need to ask you some security questions.

Look, Captain! Coming in loud and clear on the irony radar! Umm... call me paranoid, however they could be anyone, couldn't they? Yes. Because they have a withheld number. To me this seems so thick I can't believe they don't do anything about it, however after pointing this out several times with the companies I use - and I refuse to believe I am the only person who thinks this is odd - this has never been changed.

Therefore: The number on your display should be the one on the back of your card for their 'customer services' should it not? Easily verifiable, instead of taking a risk, or having to call them back on that very same number.


So, anybody come with any good reasons for withheld numbers yet? There must be at least one, surely?


STOP PRESS: I actually asked BT this question earlier on today and they got an employee who was unable to actually formulate/spell/grammatically correctly compose a sentence on the case:

"Thank you for your e-mail dated 20/12/05 regarding withheld number.

In response to your e-mail, I would like to inform you that withheld number is a special service for those who does not want their numbers to be flashed out for security reasons.

However, BT also provides with a service that if some one does not whish to attain calls from with hold number. One can always avail a service by the name of anonymous call regection.

If you should have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us again via e-mail or kindly contact our customer services department on 0800 800 150. This number operates from 08:00-20:00 Monday-Saturday .

Thank you for contacting BT."

Oh dear. Oh dear me. And here I was all this time thinking that GCSE English was actually of some use in the real world, when I could actually have solely spent my time on drinking gin and shagging women, then land a job with BT.

Christmas Shopping - or Reasons to be Fearful, Part 1

I have blogged recently about the merits of making stuff for Christmas over buying stuff in shops. I cannot recommend this more highly.

To start at the beginning, I went into Poole today to buy some drugs as I was woken up this morning at about 0130hrs by the teeth in my upper jaw fighting to get out of my head - and such is the irritation it always takes me at least five minutes to work out this is actually not specifically a dental problem, it's a sinus problem.

So, off I trot to Boots to buy something to knock it on the head, along with so many other bits for good measure that the very nice lady at the proper medicine counter, where I paid, took about five minutes to explain what to do with everything - including taking plenty of water with the diarrhoea tablets - at which point I had to explain I didn't actually have diarrhoea at the moment, however my 'be prepared' genes take over and try to cover all possible angles the moment things start running out of places they generally shouldn't and so on.

Anyhoo, the upshot of this was I got to witness the vast throngs of people doing, I imagine, mostly Christmas shopping (or going to Boots for drugs like me).

It amuses me that the commonly dredged-up Dickensian 'Christmas Carol' view of festive events is that everyone is chirpy and cheerful at this time, apart from that old git Scrooge. That may well have been the case in Victorian Britain, although I have my doubts, however we've properly turned that on its head, haven't we?

Next time you go out into hordes of shoppers just hang fire for 30 seconds and actually check out whether or not people are actually enjoying themselves. I can promise you the majority are not. I don't want to go into another rant about how exceptionally bloody rude a lot of people are, common courtesies or even the acknowledgement of other people a distant memory in their zombified state, so instead let's get to the root of the problem - I see this, very clearly, as the overwhelming cult of consumerism.

So, I've already covered the 'do we need to buy stuff' and the 'let's be creative' angles to some degree, however if we do need to buy stuff - and to some degree that's a given for must of us - maybe we should make a little more effort to use our nice little local shops (if we have them), and to be nicer to people out on the streets by acknowledging they exist in some small way. (Or use the internet, I suppose, which is a nice cop-out because it pretty much removes the hassle factor altogether.)

For example, the cult of consumerism tells us bigger shops are cheaper and have more choice, however deep-down I know that's not always true, as they will often charge more. And if I ever want something really specific - say a nice bunch of flowers or a specific 'widget' I'll go to a local florist or little hardware shop because they'll actually serve me up what I'd like. And that highlights the fact that I know the vast majority of times I'll get better service in a small shop - in fact if I use it often they might even recognise me or even know my name. These are all things we've lost to some degree into the cult of consumerism. We are certainly socially poorer as a result.

Fank Fun it's Friday Fantastic Photo Foolery Fest - 16/12/05

It must be just about time enough for a FFFFPFF!

Thoroughly sick to the back teeth with junk e-mail, the only thing I find worse is these crap chain e-mails which are just so entirely, awfully saccharin they make me want to 'blow chunks' (that's two really good slang terms for throwing up in two posts in one day, incidentally) before I even get to the bit at the end about how beautiful everything is and let's all be friends, however if you don't forward it on to the entire contents of your address book straight away, your reproductive organs will wither and die within ten minutes.

So from today's batch, a picture from an e-mail entitled 'Pictures the news never shows' - of some soldiers captured at a moment when they weren't blowing the shit out of stuff with the advantage of highly superior firepower - and God too damnit! - on their side.

Bournemouth and cultural homogeny

I am a country lad, really. I think I've probably mentioned before that on the rare occasions I go out in Bournemouth, I find it a bit odd.

Odd, because whilst you can't turn on a TV these days without seeing scantily clad young ladies, in sub-zero conditions, staggering around on the arms of their mates, delivering pavement pizzas - apparently showing how endemic binge-drinking is in our youth - the centre of Bournemouth - as a rule - just ain't like that.

Bournemouth used to be quite exciting. There used to be lots of different pubs and clubs that would spring up and down quite often, playing a variety of different music and catering for various groups and styles of people. Now it's just chock full of lounge-type bars with very minimalist decor or the odd 'bold' splash of something. There's no heart in it. And there are hardly any 'real' pubs at all.

It's seems like a place most people go to be a bit posy. All the women dress up without showing copious amounts of flesh, apply a lot of slap, but very tastefully done, of course, and then add some finishing touch, probably made of chiffon. It's a place for the 'beautiful people' and if you don't conform to the set rules you can almost hear people tutting, tastefully of course.

I suppose, if you take out the competitive, exclusive, posy stuff that gets right up my nose, it's kind of commendable really - it looks fairly well behaved and all that. However that's part of the problem too. I dislike drunken thuggery as much as the next person, however I think there's a difference between that and making evrything so horribly homogenised that there's no 'life' in it at all. I think it says a scary amount about what people seem to want from life - the sociology worries me. It's always a breath of fresh air when you see somebody compromise their 'emotion containment field' by getting thoroughly pissed off with their partner or bursting into tears - or even looking at someone else in a particularly withering way. It's all a bit like Abigail's Party on Prozac.

Once you start working your way out of town a bit there are a few more options, but it rather quickly descends into Wetherspoons/Yates's territory. Back in the early 90s, when big freehouse pub chains were feeling their way there seemed to be a bit of variety and everyone loved the cheap prices, however now it's just the same decor and bits of fake old tat wherever you go.

Again, the sociology says we like this. We know what to expect when we see the logo, we know what the food and drinks are going to be like - it caresses our comfort zone. We know this because, as with most cultural shifts in our society, the USA has 'been there done that' many years before and has developed the business models which are now ripping our town and city streets to shreds, purging them of all that inherent 'Britishness', that real-life charm and eccentricity that apparently made us 'Great'. It's a quandary isn't it?

Of course there was rebellion in the USA too, but without concerted efforts - and there have been many, of course - it isn't long before financial concerns and 'the path of least resistance' overtake the desire to carry on using that nice diner, or to use that nice family-run store now they've built a Wal-Mart opposite - especially if you don't actually know the area and don't know how nice they actually are.

In our hearts, though, is this really what we want from life? Having everything all safe and cosy at the cost of community and individuality? It's easy to say we'd rather see cultural homogeny rather than the 'evil' side of people being 'different' for whatever reasons they always have been. With some things, like race for example, it sounds like a worthy idea in theory. You know, the idea that if we try to get a bit more racially mixed up than we are it might be less easy to inspire hatred and make it easier to inspire knowledge and tolerance. Part of me kind of likes that idea. Culturally though, I believe we need to nurture what we have rather than rush headlong into losing everything into a mess. I can't believe, deep-down, people really want it any other way. I really hope not. It scares me silly. What do you think?

Busy-ness 2

Well, not quite normal service. I have this extreme desire to sit down and do very little, however circumstances are just not on the same page at all. Possibly the highlight of today has been 40 minutes on the phone to Sky TV. No, we didn't have a lot to catch up on, taking out all the holding nonsense there was probably a generous three minutes of actual conversation. Ho hum.

Tomorrow I am going to be mostly on the sauce, in a rather Christmassy stylee, so if I can focus on the keyboard at some point a post may be forthcoming. I hope so, as I am feeling rather remiss this week.

Busy-ness

Blimey, getting made redundant at this time of year is a right pickle. As if sorting out Christmassy things isn't enough I am having to apply for jobs and all sorts of complicated, brain-stretching stuff. All I really need now is a good, complicated interview bang after New Year to look forward to.

Normal service will hopefully be resumed tomorrow...

What we wish for

Possibly as a result of all the extra contemplation I have been doing recently, I have become more aware than normal that thinking is something we traditionally do during this period - as we weigh up our experiences to date and look forward to the coming year. We take stock and perhaps decide on things we'd like to change or try in future.

My biggest problem at the moment is I know pretty much where I want to be as a person, however I still feel a remarkably long way away from it. Getting there often seems to be like swimming back to shore against the tide, on a hot sunny day at the beach. The surroundings and the method seem okay, but it's bloody hard work and there's that little thought at the back of your mind that panic is going to set in if you don't keep your head.

Fank Fun it's Friday Fantastic Photo Foolery Fest - 09/12/05

Avast me 'earties! It be a FFFFPFF time o' the week and no mistakin' it. Today, we be avin' a maritime theme - and for some reason this be remindin' me o' that thar fine lass Misty, but I can't quite be puttin' me finger on why, so I can't.



A lick o' the cat or a fine drop o' grog, whichever be takin' yer fancy, for every entry that be grand enough to tickle me pirate ribs. Ha-hargh!

Zombie Nation

Oh lordy. What a week. I have been vexed at virtually every turn by idiots that have tested my patience sorely, merely because they forgot to leave their houses with their brains. This is a serious problem. It quite simply makes me want to lock myself in my house, board up the windows and doors and not venture out at all, leaving the outside world to the zombies who apparently are its current inhabitants. I think Romero has missed an opportunity by not making Christmas of the Dead. Although Dawn of the Dead was pretty close I suppose.

I have also been feeling a bit queasy the last couple of days which has made it even harder to smile and count to ten. I have tried to though, mostly successfully.

Also, more work is in the process getting foisted on me, which I am now plainly just having to stamp my foot about. If anybody at my company is reading this, please understand I just don't care anymore, it was hard enough in the first place. I am not going to spend several months winding down from doing lots of work (I think I always had one of those jobs where a lot of people wondered exactly what I did, which can be a great incentive for people thinking you did nothing) - to actually doing next to nothing, just to turn around and break my neck in the last month or two. Nope. No way. It ain't gonna happen. Sorry.

Ho hum. I think I am going to have to post a swift FFFFPFF tomorrow and spend the rest of the weekend avoiding zombies and putting my head in a 'better' place.

'Tis the season to stop buying pointless crap

I had a look around the shops today and I am increasingly sickened by the amount of genuine crap on offer in the guise of 'the ideal Christmas present'. A lot of these items are apparently increasingly sourced by ripping the environmental guts out of China. Apart from that, Christmas and end of year festivities often involve people over-reaching themselves financially, often ludicrously so - and often to buy stuff people just don't want.

Now is the time then, to take a look at buynothingchristmas.org. The point is simply to think more fundamentally about your 'giving' at this time of year. Is it really necessary to buy stuff or could you achieve something even better by being more creative?

Perhaps you could offer somebody some personalised coupons for a free massage or for an evening's baby-sitting, for example. Perhaps you could agree with friends that you will exchange something home-made like a cake or something to drink, instead of going out and buying something especially.

There are lots of ideas on the site. It really isn't a matter of telling people, 'Sorry, we aren't doing presents' - it can be a whole lot more fun than that. And by thinking in terms of what you can do rather than what you can buy, you may just find your effort is appreciated that little bit more.

Older and wiser. That was the plan anyway.

Today is an exciting day for your Recruiting Officer as I am having a birthday!

This means today will mostly involve some work (boo!), then some lunch (hurrah!), then some cakes (hurrah!), then some more work (boo!), then some drinks (hurrah!), then some good food and some drinks (hurrah!), then some more drinks (hurrah!) - and then some sleep at some point, followed by a lie-in, if I get my way.

Also, the past weekend has, amongst other things, involved 'Philua' batch number two, which may feature tomorrow if I can bear to look at pictures of alcohol.

I really do enjoy making things in the run-up to the end of year festivities. I've left pickling a bit late (I'm going to do myself later), although I will get something done - and plans for my trifle have entered the procurement phase. My trifle is legendary round these parts and I'll be sure to post a photo of this year's effort during a festive moment. Suffice to say it has the nickname '10K' because that's how many calories are in it.

Of course it's traditional to make things at this time of year, even if - or indeed because - we don't always make the time during the rest of the year. So, does anybody have any festive favourites? And are they standard fare or something a little unusual? I'm hungry, time for lunch methinks!

Forgiveness and understanding

In the UK, at least, you will probably have seen news coverage this week of the racist murder of student Anthony Walker, from Liverpool, whose killers have now been sentenced. Even the most hardened heart must find it difficult, surely, not to be touched by the views of his family, perhaps most obviously voiced by his mother, whose stance of forgiveness of the killers and understanding and care for the families of those convicted is nothing short of remarkable.

On a special edition of Real Story on BBC1 last night, it was put to Gee Walker, Anthony's mother, that people must really admire her for her response because they would find it difficult to react in the same way. She explained the crime had been committed because of hatred and she would not let that emotion rule their lives. The family's response seems to be very much borne out of their faith - they are committed Christians, I understand - and what a fantastic example of the power of faith. They now want to start a charity, in his name, to further understanding - encouraging increased knowledge and respect between those from different backgrounds.

I am technically a Christian, however from a reasonably early age, I decided that for all the good in that faith, there were parts I either disagreed with, or was unsure about, including the existence of God. I decided a broadly Humanistic approach was more in-keeping with the way I wanted to live my life.

As society in the UK has become increasingly secular it is more common, I think, for people to simply equate religion with trouble, or divisive views, without also appreciating that there have also been very positive benefits of organised religion. Singling out Christianity as the predominant faith here, might it not be said that an increasingly secular society in the UK has suffered because in many cases the good parts of that religion have been replaced with nothing, or with the temptations it often educates against?

People who can so publicly show their tolerance and forgiveness are like beacons to me. This story, last month, about the Palestinian family who, after their sun was killed by Israeli troops, let their son's organs be used to help Israeli people in need comes into the same category.

Whether based in religion or not, these are the people who can highlight doing the 'right' thing - something we should all understand and be able to identify.

It is examples such as these that show the fallacy of religious war for what it is - hollow power and resource-grabbing, based on inducing fervour in those who either must agree it or fight for it, whether that be the USA or any number of other countries around the world.

When we see these gestures I am at least happy that often the media seizes upon them and holds them up. By showing these moments to as wide an audience as possible, perhaps we can cut through the crap we are so often fed and see real people setting a real example to us all.

Then, yes, we can admire them - and perhaps even think about how we could better live our lives so, if it ever comes to the worst, we might also do the 'right' thing.

Fank Fun it's Friday Fantastic Photo Foolery Fest - 02/12/05

FFFFPFF alert! Yes, it's Friday, and along with all the usual fun that brings, we have an opportunity to write silly captions in the box that is called 'Haloscan'.

This week, a pic from Greenpeace's recent blockade of Downing Street with several tonnes of coal, reminding our Mr Blair about his climate crimes.



And for this week only, one of John Prescott's unwanted solar panels for every quality effort!

Work - you know you want to!

Well, after a whole two posts on Tuesday, I have been rather remiss as it is now Thursday evening. Please accept my apologies, however there is a very good reason indeed.

Work.

Yes, several months of careful shutting down or selling off nearly every product I have anything to do with at work has had two rather important side efffects:

1. I am being made redundant (although they still won't tell us when - aaaargh! gimme the money!)

and

2. I have absolutely nothing to do. Apart from on Friday when I do the work I've saved up all week, just to pretend I actually still have a 'job'.

On the whole, this hasn't been too bad. On the good side I have started blogging, which is nice, and I have the chance to do everything on the internet I could ever think of. On the bad side, I have severely battered the plastic by spending too much time looking at nice shiny websites that sell things and I have the chance to do everything on the internet I could ever think of.

That's all changed though. Oh yes. The powers that be who thought up this 'business re-alignment' have finally realised that a lot of the stuff that was being done before is now being done, or rather not, by people who have transferred to a company we sold some stuff to. Plus, they are also trying to transfer large chunks of a large sales/publishing operation from Dorset to that there London.

They have now realised, this equals 'oh shit, we really actually have to think about how we're going to do this don't we?'

Here is where I come in. Being the handy chap I am, I am now getting work - yes actual work - foisted on to me. Bugger.

Today somebody e-mailed me asking if I knew how to do something, signing with just his name. I checked his e-mail address and it wasn't a 'company' one. So I e-mailed back and asked him who, if I might be so bold, he actually was. He replied, saying he was the 'Group New Media Director'. Oh, how I laughed. Not put off (and knowing everyone else copied in on the e-mail would find it even funnier), I explained to him people normally had an e-mail signature. In fact, not having one is a clear contravention of the company IT policy. Group New Media Director. Oh, how I laughed!

Highly paid people are popping up and disappearing daily at the moment. Lines of communication have taken a bit of a beating to be honest. In fact, if I wasn't so honest it would be an ideal time to make up my own highly paid job and commandeer an office and a large salary somewhere, I really don't think anyone would notice.

So, the upshot is, I still have a job although hopefully that will all end soon - however, if I cannot post quite as often as I have done recently, please be sure that I have not deserted our fledgling collective, your Recruiting Officer is still here, he is just currently having to put his mind back into work mode and it might take some time...