Down the Bog

Having commented last weekend on England’s unexpected victory against Australia in the Rugby Union World Cup that’s taking place in France I should have made more of a noise on Saturday over England beating France to get into the final.

As I said last week I’m not a big fan of Rugby but it’s still good to see England do well in any sport and to have beaten two of England’s biggest rivals over the course of the last two weekends is very nice indeed. With my limited knowledge I believe that both victories have gone against current form so it’s all rather sweet.

Next weekend they take on South Africa in the final and they were beaten in an earlier round by South Africa with a score of 35-0 so if England win this time that will definitely be unexpected but you never know.

Lets see now. England to beat South Africa next Saturday followed by Lewis Hamilton winning the Formula One World Championship on Sunday. It should be a good weekend!

We recently decorated our baby daughter Abby’s bedroom with a Princess theme because of course she really is quite the Princess. Here are some pictures.

The room actually has ended up with a Disney theme as most of the Princess’s in the decor are from Disney movies. It makes me think back to when my other daughters were a lot younger and were such great Disney fans. Hannah, Sarah and Ruth absolutely loved so many of the movies that we had on video.

If I recall correctly the first one that we bought was The Little Mermaid from 1989 and it was a spectacular success especially with Hannah who was soon heard to be singing all the tunes with her little girl voice. I think it was the movie that captured all of their imagination because I remember so well a holiday that we took down in Devon and we got them each a mermaid doll. I don’t think that the doll’s were ever put down the whole two weeks.

We added several Disney movies to the video library. Amongst them were Beauty and the Beast (one of my favourites) Alladin with the great voice talent of Robin Williams and a little later the very popular Lion King.

A big memory that stands out for me was how the girls would each take several roles from the movie they’d be watching and act out the part with one eye on the TV. I think it’s fair to say that on more than one occasion there were arguments about who played who.

Now up to date with Jake and Abby the Disney movies are not really their thing yet. Jake has autism and so is less focused on the TV at this stage and Abby is still a little young. But we already own Alladin on DVD which we bought a couple of years ago and today we bought The Little Mermaid. I tried sitting down with the kiddies to watch it but their interest was still minimal bso I watched it for half an hour or so and the memories came flooding back to me as to just what a favourite this movie was in our family. I suspect it will have it’s time again.

This is just another short post to encourage people to go to the Daily Mail website (again) and read this humbling story of a Mum and her disabled daughter.

Sometimes I can feel so sorry for myself and yet I’m so fortunate to be able to have the life that I’ve had, am having when I read of other peoples constant struggles.

If you’d like a good laugh because your day has left you feeling a bit down then check out this story. The Tate Gallery in London, England have their latest bit of art on show for everyone to enjoy and appreciate.

It’s a 548 feet long and 10 inch wide crack zig-zagging along the floor. It took Colombian artist Doris Salcedo six months to create the “masterpiece” along with £300,000. They should have asked me. I could have done it in a day with a pneumatic drill and a packed lunch.

Three people visiting have already fallen over as a result. I guess that health and safety together with art don’t mix well.

I mentioned yesterday playing World of Warcraft on Minday evening but I didn’t play last night because I’m working extra hours at my job at the moment and I felt too tired to log in and tackle any more quests. Do you think the WOW universe survived without me?

Anyway I checked into the cost of playing the game and I noticed that if I want to continue playing after the ten day trial (there’s one day left) that I’ll have to go and buy the game and enter the serial code from it. I think the boxed game will have a month’s subscription with it and can probably be picked up for around thirty or forty dollars. That’s probably not too bad assuming it includes a manual and as I say a month of online play.

I looked up the monthly costs and I believe it to be $15 per month but if purchased for three months in advance that it drops down to $13 per month. A six month subscription reduces that to $11per month. These are US dollars and I assume taxes have to be applied depending on where the subscriber lives although I don’t know that for a fact.

But I don’t see myself going that route right now as I really enjoyed the game on Monday evening and I’d certainly recommend it but I reckon I’ll be too tired during the working week to feel like playing as last night proved. So I’ll keep the cash in my pocket for now and consider that I’ve had a close shave with World of Warcraft addiction!

We have two small children and I find myself wondering what the world will be like for them as adults. I already have three grown-up children and I used to think the same thing about them.

Just a fews years before they were born back in 1977 US President Jimmy Carter had the vision to create the US Department of Energy as part of a plan to lead America to a more sustainable future way a head of the global warming concerns that we have today. However nothing really changed and America’s importing of 9 million oil barrels per day back in 1976 has grown to 13 million today. The plans to build a sustainable future with a sustainable energy supply were discarded and President Reagan even had the solar panels removed from the White House placed there during Carter’s presidency.

But things are looking up and since 2002 BP has joined forces with the US Department of Energy to sponsor the BP Solar Decathlon. Every other year twenty university teams from around the globe put together a house designed to be attractive and pleasant to live in along with being completely solar powered. This year from October 12th to the 20th all of the competing houses will have been moved to the National Mall in Washington DC to form a solar village and take part in ten tests to find a winning house design. Visitors are very welcome on those days and the opening times are 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m weekends and 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m weekdays.

There’s a BP Solar Decathlon Blog to be read to get much more inside information from some of the teams.

Just think about it: These houses are designed to be powered completely by the sun but still provide all of the modern conveniences that we are so used to. This requires innovative design and planning but also the fantastic prospect that as this competition continues over the years that we will be able to look forward to seeing houses, peoples homes, built in this way.

For me it was a surprise to see BP, so obviously an oil company involved in such a project but BP has a strong interest in this contest as it has a large involvement already with solar power as part of BP Solar, a global company who’s purpose is to harness effectively the suns energy.

Apart from being such a fascinating competition and one that if I lived closer I would dearly love to attend it makes me wonder that if when my two youngest kiddies are grown up whether this time things will have changed for the better. I really hope so.

This past weekend was a holiday weekend because of thanksgiving day. So yesterday (Monday) was a holiday.

During the early part of last week we were enjoying very nice, sunny weather and the reports were saying that it would be even warmer for the weekend. But it wasn’t. Saturday was a wet day followed by a sunny but chilly Sunday. We woke up to a miserable, wet and overcast Monday that dried out but didn’t cheer up at all.

Anyway I was okay with all that until I saw on the news this morning that there were record temperatures of 30 degrees celcius plus in Toronto, Southern Ontario. The newscast showed people on the beach playing volley ball and lapping up the glorious weather. I was most unimpressed. They had the weather promised for us. They stole our weather!

The trouble is we’re further north in Eastern Ontario and I guess that makes the difference but it is surprising to see such warm temps for October as nice as it is and even if we didn’t actually get them.

A couple of posts ago I was talking about the magazines that I like to read along with newspapers that I read online. I like to keep up with current news and the sports that I’m interested in.

But I do get fed up with the anal reporting that goes on in the tabloid press regarding celebrity. I know by saying that it means that I read some of it but I can honestly say that my interest lies in “what are they saying now?” The newspaper I mean.

For example I realise that Britney Spear’s life has been apparently falling apart for quite some time and she certainly seems to have some problems to face up to but is eating a taco one of them? Is it really newsworthy?

Desperate Housewive’s star Felicity Huffman has celluite according to the Daily Mail. What’s worse is she wears shorts too! Just stop everything. I’m not sure I can go on with life having heard that news.

And goodness me Peaches Geldof (Who?) has had her third tattoo in three months. Gasp!

I don’t mind reading about a bit of celebrity. In fact biography’s of people past and present can be a really good read and even an inspiration at times. But reporting on how famous (and actually not always that famous) people choose to do lunch, experience the ageing process, put on some weight or even might be losing their hair is just desperate reporting.

I’m not a big fan of Rugby but with the Rugby World Cup taking place at the moment in France I’ve been keeping half an eye on it.

I’m so delighted that England have booted Australia out of the tournament. The way the Aussies were behaving pre-match it was as though they believed that all they had to do was turn up for the game to win it. But it wasn’t and they haven’t.

The thing is that there’s a long history of sporting rivalry between Australia and England concerning cricket and rugby. But the Aussies really hate losing to England because in the main they normally win whereas we from England are more used to losing so we tend to take it on the chin more and accept it. Maybe that’s why we lose more often. We just don’t think it’s a matter of life and death like the Aussies.

Still, big smiles from England fans everywhere I think!

One of the things I miss about the UK since moving here is the large selection of magazines and newspapers. They have them here but I don’t find the selection as comprehensive or as enjoyable to read. In particular I’m thinking of computer magazines. I’ve been very disappointed with what I’ve bought here and although it’s better than nothing they aren’t up to the standard of the mags that I used to buy back home. (I still call the UK home I’m afraid.)

My two favoured magazines were PC Format and PC Zone which use to entertain me and kept me informed of the stuff I felt that I needed to know. I’d buy them most months and I had a subscription for PC Zone for quite a while. Since I moved to Canada I’ve had various friends and family pick up random copies for me when they’ve been visiting from the UK and I’ve tried to make the best of that.
I think that the bookstore “Chapters” in Montreal used to have imported copies of PC Format but they were around $22 (canadian) to buy and that was just too expensive. I’ve occasionally considered an international subscription and so far not made the decision to go with it although after I finish this blog entry I think I’ll take another look.

In the absence of having the magazines I’ve resorted to frequent visits to their websites and that’s satisfied me a little although I find that the PC Format website not to be that great. It does have a good forum though and an Ask Luis section (taken from the magazine) which is always worth a visit for Luis’s caustic wit although it doesn’t seem to be updated all that much anymore.

The PC Zone website does a much better job and in general is more entertaining.

For my fix of daily UK newspapers I go to the Daily Mail site along with the Daily Telegraph. The Mail doesn’t have the best reputation because of it’s perceived “scaremongering” stories but I still find it a good light read and I visit the site daily. I’ll often cross reference stories there with the Telegraph to get a different slant on things.

Both of these newspapers offer a daily electronic edition of their newspaper on a paid subscription basis which means that the subscriber gets to see the newspaper in it’s actual format on their computer screen just as if they are reading the paper but I find that the website’s satisfy my needs.

But I really wish that my two favourite magazines offered a full electronic version of their monthly publication that I could download because I really would be tempted to subscribe to that. The only trouble with that as a plan is not being able to avail myself of a quick read while in the washroom.