Please drop me a line at

do.not.reply.404@googlemail.com

Don't you just love receiving emails from companies when the address is something like:

do-not-reply@joeblow.com

...and another thing. What is your reaction when you visit a website and there is no "Contact us" facility?

There is definitely something wrong with my Neo-Counter. It doesn't show any visitors from the Planet Zog!

My Neo Counter now shows the view from the Moon!

It is a NeoCounter mark III and can be swivelled round and round into four different positions. The mark II made my computer crash so I am just off to Neoworx to apply for a rebate of some description!

I don't believe it. Referring to my select gathering as a blog meet? I don't think so! This is strictly by invitation only esp. as I am opening the doors of the Mozart museum to the public for the first time. Weather permitting, Mozart Gardens may also be on view.

Anyway, instructions on how to get here and (more importantly) what to bring with, will be issued in triplicate by my secretary at a date yet to be announced.

I was drinking a cup of tea, when it suddenly occurred to me that I wasn't "Cookies enabled"!!!

One has had a busy day. One is still having a busy evening. Busy 'good' though (for the record).

Whether I have any time free in the next 48 hours to actually blog about what has been happening is more dubious.

On the plus side, my Spanish TV 'appearance' is now back to 60% 'on'. The date of the TVE2 recording is likely to be 4th December [the broadcast will be (well) after this].

I was thinking of getting my car souped-up.

The situation in Burma is as dangerous as many of the other known Political hotspots around the world.

BBC reports that Suu Kyi has been under house arrest yet again, this time, since 2003.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7008217.stm

A lot of this was exposed in the brilliant film Beyond Rangoon.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112495/

Suu Kyi (1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner) appears in several lists of "the greatest women of all time".

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/misc/bl_bio_womencom_millennium.htm

She has her own pages here:

http://www.dassk.com/

Quite a few negative things have happened in the last 48 hours hence the blog inactivity. Nothing life-threatening though, so why let it get me down?

One or two of you know what's going on, as I chat off-blog to a favoured few.

If things continue downhill I might post about it a bit, but really when looking at the macro i.e. bigger picture, I have little to gripe about.

On the plus side, the weather has been 'blah' (my personal favourite).

Mr J you have scored 116 points 'and no passes'.

I am focusing on boring postings for the next fortnight.

"Clacton lifeboat was visited today by 48 students from its French twin town of Valence. The students attend the Paul Valary [sic.] High School and are staying in..."

(Now don't ask me why I was trying to twin Clacton with Villefranche today).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Val%C3%A9ry

Today didn't really bring as much as it promised. Mourinho makes shock Chelsea exit. Bank chief defends role in crisis. I'm not too old says Sir Menzies. In pictures - new stamps reveal British army uniforms over the ages.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

a) nothing worth watching
b) mostly adverts
c) the adverts are better than the programmes

Hope makes a good breakfast but a bad dinner. Even worse if there's no side order of fries.

We all know that blogging is a divertissement from the mundane and harsh reality of everyday life, so I have to say that I find it disconcerting to hear that a member of our little community here is suffering flack in the form of discouraging remarks left on blog by actual family members.

Isn't life tough enough without this kind of behaviour from so-called 'loved-ones'?

...and now I am going to have a nice cup of tea.

Looking for a brass work by Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) today (apparently the first such piece to have brass choirs placed left and right i.e. hifi speakers are borne) I stumbled upon his most famous Madrigal: "The Silver Swan". The text is either anon. or Gibbons himself:

The silver swan, who living had no note
When death approached, unlocked her silent throat.

Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
Thus sang her first and last and sang no more.

Farewell all joys, O death, come close mine eyes,
More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.

The music is (easily) as good as the poem and can be heard here:

http://www.colby.edu/music/saunders/MU111/MU111WebCD7-2.html

or here:

http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=6563

(2nd requires a D/L but is more reliable).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Gibbons

[footnote 8th Sept. - it turns out that the brass work I was searching for was actually composed by Giovanni Gabrieli d.1612]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Gabrieli

with the new house style at this blog.

We would like to see instant access to 'random' messages that are written by "non-friends" (rather than these being '2 clicks away').

Let's start a petition over @ Alec's blog-posting on the subject, link follows:

http://alphamin.blog.co.uk/2007/09/06/bling_co_uk~2937528

I have my own house style on these pages. The rules include good spelling and reasonable punctuation.

Another quiet day yesterday. Considered changing a lightbulb and cleared out a drain.

Have a cup of tea.

In response to an A-L private (can't quote it for obvious reasons, but obviously 'Google hits' came under discussion), kiki2u wrote the following:

I Know too Hahahahaha i found it few time after Google did it because a friend told me that if i write my nickname, kiki2u or kiki on Google my blog appears and i tried it and yes i was there like happened to you ;when in the end of 2005 they did it they picked me up and put me there without asking me, so no worries because i never had troubles because that...yet!
Hugs and Kisses2U
Enjoy your day
kiki

I answered k2u as follows:

Hi kiki2u, now, I must say when I read your comment that Google - "put me there without asking me" I was MOST surprised. Google always personally asks me about every single page my name appears on and I am surprised that they don't have the same policy with you - perhaps it is because you are based in Portugal? Not only do they email me, but they also send me a snaily-letter, hand-written with a quill fountain-pen on special vellum paper.

is it really necessary? I am having to invite a load of new friends just so that you are pushed off my 'top nine' (oh, also, becuase I keep finding interesting new bloggers to invite).

Two Names You Go By:
1. Jonathan
2. Mister J

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
1 Purple Jumper
2 Green-Grey M&S ‘proper’ trousers.

Two Things You Would Want (or have) in a Relationship:
1 Another person, preferably female.
2 Item 1.

Two Things You Should Do:
1 Compose Music
2 Write Literature

Two Things You Want Very Badly At The Moment:
1 A first class flight to anywhere, although preferably, Madrid.
2 A session of Aromatherapy.

Two Things You Did Last Night:
1 Shot some cards.
2 Checked out how the economy was goin’.

Two Things You Hated Today:
1 My father turning up early on my doorstep.
2 Just the utter predictability of everything.

Two People You Last Talked To:
1 Bridge Partner.
2 The guy who’s in charge of the CCTV @ Asda Colindale.

Two Things You're doing tomorrow:
1 Teaching some Piano.
2 Writing an email to an unspecified victim.

Two longest recent car rides:
1 Trip to Throckmorton (to see a Piano showroom) via Oxford (starting at N W London).
2 Trip into Central London’s South Bank Centre to hear a Classical concert.

Two Favourite Holidays: (of all time?)
1 Vancouver Island, SW Canada (British Columbia) where I stayed as the guest of novelist, Peter Moss.
2 A trip to Portland, Oregon where I stayed with my 3rd cousin Jacqueline who is now ‘something’ in politics there.

Two Favourite Beverages:
1 Bloody Mary
2 French Coffee

Two Things That Would Surprise You About Me:
1 Only two?
2 I am a born teacher (although you’ve probably worked this out by now).

Two Jobs I Have Had In My Life:
1 Paid Job = Piano Teacher/Music A-level teacher etc.
2 Not particularly paid so far = Composer/Writer/Artist (still hanging in there though).

Two Movies I would watch over and over:
1 Topsy Turvy (although, having seen it 10+ times I wouldn’t suggest doing this with any film really).
2 A Richard Curtis Feelgood factor film (there are three doing the rounds currently but I’m sure he’ll bring out an even better one soon!)

Two Places I have lived:
1 Edgware, Middlesex
2 Harrow, Middlesex

Two Favourite kinds of foods:
1 French
2 Japanese

Two Places I'd rather be right now:
1 Melbourne, Oz
2 Jo’berg, South Africa

Or early morning if you're being pedantic! I am about to push off to Asda Colindale to buy a massive load of fruit and veg etc (I won't elaborate on the etc).

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well at this silly post-witching hour time of day.

I've had quite a constructive one today I am pleased to report... and more of the same scheduled for tomorrow.

I am developing a thoery concerning boredom. I think the best way to fight it is to fill your life full of interesting things.

His helpful remark [?] (when I told him I was writing a novel) 'so is everybody else in this country'.

I don't think my plumber is writing one; then again, he may be (he's a bit of a bright spark and a jazz fanatic to boot).

Anyway, I am actually writing a novel which I claim will be "like Douglas Adams on acid" (with a bit of J.K.Toole thrown in for good measure).

Unlike my blogging pal Alec Weston, I will not be serialising it on blog, but will go the self-publishing via Lulu and/or iUniverse route.

At least that's the plan.

I like Alec's phrase: "sucking sympathy out of cyberspace" which he used recently in a blog posting. This describes posting things and then expecting loads of feedback from readers which gives you an instant feelgood factor. What Thomas A. Harris the writer of I'm OK: You're OK called 'receiving a stroke'.

You can read Mr Weston's work here -

http://alphamin.blog.co.uk/

and here -

http://start-rainbow.blog.co.uk/

"I would like to apply for a position of a pastoral nature."

I was going to write a blog about 'enjoying the quality time', but it came over as slightly condescending, so I deleted it.

What I was driving at though is to enjoy time more while it is happening - don't necessarily expect things to go on forever and you will virtually never go wrong surrounding yourself with loads of friends.

Oh well, you all knew that already.

On the plus side, this weekend didn't drag like last w/e which seemed (to me at least) to go on for a month or something.