Public announcement: panic buy ice-axes!

Picture from www.IamTonyang.com Not in England.

I think this opening paragraph in a BBC news article sums it up:

Forecasters say Kent could get the worst of the snow, with up to 10cm expected in some places.

This is an article with the words "heavy blizzard" in the headline.

Oh, how smashingly British. Or should I even say English? For the Scots and the Welsh have mountains. They also have snow which, when it is barely deep enough to bury a tin of emergency food stocks, is not called a blizzard.

And why is the most snow described as the 'worst' thing? Unless you are a slave to your car, which is so pathetically British that a thick enough frost can have it out of commission, or (reasonably) are a decrepit elderly person likely to slip, what makes piles of cold, white, wonder coating the world a bad thing?

I'd love some snow please. As much as possible.

Yes, this is a photo. Click for more...

Lions, Witches and Wardrobes

<* Here is a brief epitaph to the long, insightful and well-researched blog post which I wrote about the current Disney version of CS Lewis' story. Sadly the browser crashed, and Blogger.com fails to provide an auto-save feature yet. *>

Narnia, as it's branded for ease of Franchisation (spot the cynic... it's not too hard really), seems to be off on the right foot.

I thought it was rather good.

How's that for a succinct review? OK, you want more? Lucy was very good. Mr Beaver was amusingly cockney ("blimey!", "Aslan's the top geezer"). The White Witch actress is quirkily named after a curly punctuation mark (Tilda ~ ); the same punctuation mark about which I wrote a Limerick once. The spiritual significance is more than amply intact. Thanks to Disney for not making me vomit, cry (with frustration at least) or simmer with resentment.

Thanks also for making me appreciate my King a little bit more.

UFOs in Covent Garden

This was one of the various interesting and festive sights to which I was treated while spending a few days in London (pronounced 'Laan-dun') with Poppy and friends. Alighting gently in a corner of a courtyard, just around the corner from the buskers and extravagantly priced mulled wine, was what seemed very much like a UFO of some sort.

And with churlish reference to Rolf Harris' new royal portrait... "can you guess what it is yet?"

An expedition to go to see the famed Oxford Street lights was largely disapointing. In its original intention at least. The Oxford Street and Regent Street lights this year are nothing worth writing home about. Nothing, in fact, even worth writing in a blog about. But there we go... blogging is almost an inherently unnatural and irrational activity. 

Change of address

Shortly, my address will change from A house in IPR of Aberystwyth, to A Seat (hopefully, unless gentlemanly behaviour requires relinquishing a seat to any disabled, elderly, pregnant, Asian, lesbian members of the House of Lords... or indeed anyone more needing of it than myself) on a Train of unknown Operator.

This will facilitate my leaving the little, simmering, hot-pot of pre-revolutionary content that is the (soon to be, I'm sure of it...) Independent People's Republic of Aberystwyth.

As I type, the murmurings of my heart, sighing quietly at having to leave such a glorious and wonderful town are drowned, seemingly with rocks tied to their ankles, by the wailings of a singing lesson next door. You Lift Me Up seems to be being sung with a tortured emphasis, to imply that the lyrics go:

You lift me up
With hooks through both my eye-lids
You lift me up
To stand on burning coals
I'm in pain, when I have punctured shoulders
You lift me up
To more pain, I must flee

I had better run, before they get on to My Heart Will Go On.

And for a little Advent cheer... I warmly reccommend the Advent Calendar Cartoon Blog.

Fly, you fools!

Which is more disquieting? That someone would produce such models of pigeons and their flight patterns, in wireframe gifs... or that I would be finding them at 4:30am?

When the depths of night find you searching the internet for pictures of pigeons, you know you must be onto something.

I want to fly away...

Pognographic trends across denominations

Yes, you can read that 'Po*nographic' word again.

A graphical guide to beards of the church.

If anyone could explain to me how 'grace' is implemented, I'll be grateful.