I'm stupidly excited about the new series. Only about 3 weeks to go...

I've just learnt that ALL dogs are to be insured for fear of them harming others. Errm, what about pekingese?, what about shitzu...? Sounds like this legislation is potentially well meaning but, as usual, not very well thought through.

Still haven't 'compared' anything. Does that make me a bad person...?

Just bought the original version of this film (think Gene Wilder is just brilliant in it.) And I've come to the conclusion that Granpa Bucket is a lazy so and so. Bed-ridden for 30 years, show him a golden ticket and, he's dancing around the house...

I watched Canada v USA play ice hockey, purely because I know it's a huge game. I enjoyed it but I can't claim in just over an hour to have ever seen the puck. Surely that's the most important thing in the game...? They might as well have been ice skating...

A mixed day...

Obviously it's tragic... but aren't killer whales so called for a reason...? It surely shouldn't be put down purely for behaving in a way that it was meant to...

Quite heartbraking to hear about the migration programme to various former commonwealth countries that I only heard about today. I was under the impression that it was just a post-war thing but apparantly, it went right on to 1970...

Little bit of electioneering perhaps...?

My money's on Ryan...

Are we the only country in the world in which t.v. owners are required to buy a licence...? I wouldn't mind so much if the BBC didn't spend so much airtime, advertising their own stuff.

Watching his interview last night confirmed what I've always suspected, Gordon Brown is a good man. I'm not a labour supporter but, he always strikes me as a thoroughly decent man who cares deeply about his country and its people, more than can be said for many of his peers.

Only two days to go before the marketing machine kicks in and 10% of the public get to feel completely worthless...

Been trying to write a poem about not being able to write a poem but, it seems to have neutralised and imploded.

Why are opera-lovers so sniffy...? I'm no expert (short of Andrea Bocelli and Nessun Dorma) but even I can see that opera can be so stirring and moving. It's not for everybody, but surely everybody should have a chance to hear it. Not be surrounded by this kind of elitist field.

Was sitting in the first sunshine of the year yesterday, felt fantastic...! Weirdly, it felt just like the start of the summer holidays when I was at school.

This advert for Dolmio that has this Italian family all excited about their favourite pasta sauce. I've known several Italian families and all of them would find the idea of eating Dolmio (or any shop bought sauce) so abhorrant, that they would throw it at the wall. And they would also find this advert quite offensive.

Is anyone else fed up with constantly being told to 'GO COMPAR-EEE!!!...?

Roger Federer should charge Andy Murray for the tennis lesson that he just gave him.

I'm a bit confused. What is the Chillcot investigation designed to achieve...?
Is anyone going to learn anything from any of this...? It just all seems a bit backslappy to me...

Feeling a bit down today. I suppose writing these things down helps me to monitor its frequency. It seems like it happens roughly every 2 weeks...

I couldn't believe that Esther Rantzen is nearly 70! And she's running for MP! Quite inspirational...

Alfie seems to have perked up over the last couple of days. It seems like it's service as normal. I tend to put his behavioral oddities down to his 'senior moments', something he tends to get more and more of. He's 'out' at the moment, somewhere where he usually is. I sometimes think he's the worst pet cat in the World but then I remember, I love him really.

I'm a little bit worried about my cat 'Alfie' he's not eating and he's taken to lying around. Is it just his age, he's 13 now. Is that old for a cat...? What's their average life expectancy...?

Just watched the news to learn the absolutely heartbreaking news that over a million Haitian children have been orphaned. Have doubled my donation but just wish there was more I could do.
Also over 50% of those Australians asked want Prince William to be the next King. What they don't mention is the probably 99% of them who really couldn't care less. Are the English over estimating their own importance again...?

Finally got round to my new year resolution which is GETTING SOMETHING PUBLISHED,when browsing through the various press's though, I was quite surprised at how many that state that, poetry should not rhyme. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that poetry HAS to rhyme, I've just always found that poetry that does has always been that much more enjoyable to read and certainly that much more satisfying to write.
I always just ask myself, 'what would T.S Eliot do?'

I'm so ridicously happy that it's reached 5 degrees! The pavement is grey and the grass is green! I've heard nasty rumours that it might snow again but I'll have to worry about that if it happens for now, I'm soon going to go outside...!

January is like the ground floor of the year's skyscraper with tinted windows. It just stands there, intimidating, because no-body knows what lies within, higher up the building.
Now, the past, I can handle, even bad bits, you can lock away into a box with no hope of parole, so you are free to play, with your past.
It's the future that scares me.
That's what I hate about January.

Having my first writer's block of the year. I find it's usually best to not worry about it, just wait for something to strike me out of the blue and keep pestering me until I write it down and shut it up.

Is it just me or is anyone else starting to feel a bit like Captain Scott...? At least he probably had the odd penguin to chat to...

Anyway, as expected, my cold broke yesterday. As expected, all of my body's natural defences were otherwise engaged so this cold was probably whistling to itself as it nonchantly strode toward my brain. As a result, I was bed-ridden for most of yesterday and barely able to stand up. Anyway, I do feel a bit better today so I am more able to think about what the rest of the country is depressed about. THIS APALLING WEATHER...

I've spent the last couple of days in the state of pre-cold. You know, when you're fully aware that a cold is on its way (sore throat, headache, general grogginess etc.) but the actual cold itself is sadistically stringing you along.
I think because of my MS (I have primary progressive multiple sclorosis*), a simple cold (as with anyone who has a chronic condition) tends to knock me flying. I think it's because our immune systems are busy fighting their own endless and constant war. A simple cold is able to slip in, behind our defences, un-noticed like a terrorist and cause absolute havoc....

In the past I've kept diaries very secretly, for my eyes only. But it strikes me that now in the third millenium and as the century approachs its teenage years, (hopefully, it won't take to wearing a hoodie and aimlessly standing on street corners) that we are now living in an open age. Everywhere there's a call for total transparancy and this is what I hope for so I can read this back to myself when I forget who I am.

This is very exciting...!