Nicola was working all day Saturday, which meant I had to busy myself with jobs: paying in subs, collecting uniform shirts etc. In the afternoon there was a gift day at Church which I'd sort of heard the Explorers were supposed to help with. In the end I saw no-one else of a Scouting connection. Still it was interesting getting to climb the bell tower and see inside the belfry.

After work Nicola and I headed over to Manchester to see my parents. Emily had come to stay too, as Anna and Darren were off out for the evening Emily was very much Auntie Nicola's little girl, which was awkquard as Nicola had things to do.

On Sunday we had another church-y day with a SAGGA friend's daughter's baptism. St Alban's Broadheath is a small church meaning the baptismal party really swelled the congregation.

While Claire Short's comments on bugging on the Today programme have wide reaching implications, the debate in blogland seems to be over Ann Winterton's joke. While most correspondents agree she should have been sacked, and that she is a foul minded racist, there is disagreement as to whether the joke itself (about two sharks in the Irish Sea popping up to Morecambe Bay for a Chinese) is racist or merely very sick and insensitive.

Background matters

Yesterday was my annual review, due to one thing and another I was not as well prepared as usual. But they seem reasonably happy with me, so I'm hoping for a decent rise if not a promotion to the next grade.

Nicola is away at here parents old house, and currently has the entire contents of her room out ready to be put in appropriate boxes. She returns tomorrow.

We're going away at the end of March, and after waying up they options have gone for the cargo ferry to Dunkirk, staying at the Formule 1 in Zebrugge on our first and last nights. This will be a new country for me and a return to childhood holiday locations for Nicola. Tony (Nicola's dad) has provided me with a couple of guide books to plan our time in Austria, so I have some extra reading to do.

Best wishes to all readers.

Two things spring out for comment today.

The first is the creeping tide of racism. The media seems to be making racism, hate and discrimination OK again, with any objections being described as anti free speech, or "PC".

Michael Howard put out a self-contradictory message yesterday, condemning the BNP as a stain on Britain's character, before going on to spout the kind of myths and hyperbole about asylum seekers that tell people it's OK to be racist and vote BNP.
And his cronies at Cathartical Bleed Worm call the Lib Dems "Januslike"? Sheesh.

The second is the Scout Association who are currently looking to get rid of all but 3 of the 17 or so sites centrally owned. The sites may be sold to the Scout Counties who currently manage them, or closed and sold for housing.
The Scout and Guide movement is an undervalued resource in our society and because of this our numbers are declining, especially at the adult volunteer level. Even if the HQ sites are closed rather than passed on to local Scouting, there will still be a number of Scout sites availaible, and it will not limit the opportunities for traditional "Green field" camping.

The problem is everyone has their own favourite site, and many are understandably very upset at the thought of theirs being unavailable for use in the future. So naturally HQ's moves are seen as insensitive to the wishes of the Association as a whole. And perhaps they are. However I feel consolidation of resources is probably what is needed at the current moment in time.

What ever became of

Tim "and bring back hanging" Metcalfe, www.conservatives.com doesn't seem to think this PPC exists.

I begin to understand why people get confused with Banking.

Money. It's not rocket science. Even ISAs which are said to be too complicated are well within the mental grasp of a person of normal intelect.

It's pay day, so naturally I contact telephone banking to check everything's gone in OK. Only instead of getting a computer I get a real person pestering me about my soon to mature TESSA. Marvelous. I want a real person to speak to, i get passed to the automated service, and when I just want a quick balance from the computers, the operators cut in. This person persuaded me to have someone call me back later about my reivnestment options. There are only two reinvestment options, why does it need so much discussion? So anyway I say yes, and this afternoon someone rings me from the branch to arrange a time for a management to talk to me. I'm bright, I know what the options are, and what I want to happen, I don't need some financial "expert" patronising me.

But it's not that easy. I can see why some people dislike banking now.

Just got back from the district Explorer Scout hostelling weekend. All my explorers who participated enjoyed it. Keeping just a dozen 14-18 year olds occupied for a weekend in the country was exhausting- where do they get their energy.

Spamity Spam, wonderful Spam.

It's fantastic how all those new laws on spam have made... no difference whatsoever.

What astounds me is the logic that someone disitnerested enough to block messages containing the word "Viagra" should want to purchase some from a cold caller who can't spell...

Service to the community?

It's why I do a lot of what I do. What makes me want to is a mystery. However.

As readers who skipped across to my now defunct plog may know people were trying to persuade me to stand for a seat on Leeds City Council. Not a particularly winnable seat, but one where we stand a chance if we put the work in, next year.

Unfortunately this came in the run up to my problems in November and I was persuaded by family that certain elements of society give elected officials a bad time, and even if I was the best councillor ever (I flatter myself I could do the job better than my current Labour representatives) I would have my life made difficult.

This has been brought home by the hounding one young person has been given for one ill-judged comment on a private Young Lib Dems mailing list. She has since apologised for any misunderstanding, but remains a target. I'm not going to give the website, who you could call Calibrated Camel Wroth, any publicity by naming it, but they would be down for my loonies of the day. But thye won't for the fact it would only encourage them.

It's not just politics, but people are out to take pot-shots at Scout leaders too. There is a suspicion of anyone who wants to do something for others.

Campfire songs

Peter Black has recently discovered the delights of “The Fast Food Song.” Which is as good an excuse as any.

The core of "The Fast Food Song" is an old campfire song usually referred to as "A Pizza Hut." I never did find out if The Fast-food rockers claimed to have written it, or if they honestly credited the writing as “Traditional”, or “Scout and Guide Associations”.

I don't think he'd approve of some of the other verses:
“A little chef, a happy eater, and a little Chef.”

And the absolute killer:

“A fat Girl Guide, a skinny little brownie and a fat girl guide, the leaders…” preaching both inevitability of getting old and fat, and taunting some with a poor self image. Not the most PC of songs, but nonetheless a favourite at campfires for Scouts and Guides alike.

On GaSCiT last summer it was remarked at how Guides sing about nice things, but Scouts (even the girls) like to sing about violence and death. “He jumped from 40,000 feet without a parachute” being a particular favourite, along with songs about bumblebee tortuture, zombes and all those horrible things that happen to Nobby Hall.

I accept no responsibility for passing this on..

Should you have exams to revise for, coursework to complete, reports to write, marking to do, or anything more useful to do with your time, playing Fling the cow is probably not what you should be doing.

Originally found by Amy.

I have little interest in football.

But having been brought up in in walking distance (admittedly walking distance for a Scout Leader) of the City of Manchester stadium, this result caught my eye. Way to go city! That is what you call a turnaround.

Darren and my sister are Manchester United fans, unlike us Darren was brought up outside Manchester. However as he often has to do commentary for IRN or ITV Darren gets to see a lot of the other lot. Wonder what he made of this?

I'm being impersonated

... by a computer virus. Someone's got a PC infected with mydoom, connected to BT ADSL, and it's sending out emails with my "Registrar" email address. I keep getting "delivery failed" emails for those sent to non-existent accounts.

Thing is it's also trying to infect other SAGGA emails at random now, and Jon the Webmaster is getting suspicious. My home PC hasn't been switched on since Monday, so it can't have been me. Especially since I'm still on dial-up. Highly annoying.

Be careful out there.

Who are they kidding?

You’ve got to hand it to Michael Howard’s Conservatives. (Well you don’t but that won’t stop them.) Jumping on the bandwagon by joining the Lib Dems’ calls for an inquiry into the intelligence and decision making leading to the Iraq war. Are they trying to convince us that they aren't in it up to their necks alongside Labour? Are they trying to make us forget they egged the government on at every step of the way, while the Lib Dems' urged care and caution.

As empty a piece of rhetoric as Michael Howard’s “beliefs”.

Understanding and enjoying Doctor Who - a lesson for non-fans.

Some facts dredged up by fans of the classic series of Doctor Who for your enjoyment.

2 - While watching any story whose title contains the phrase "Of The Daleks", it is customary to express surprise at the episode one cliffhanger arrival of a Dalek.

3 - Contrary to popular belief, Tom Baker stayed on for seven years because BBC Contracts transposed his telephone number with his salary.

7 - The plot ideas of Charged Vacuum Emboitments, N-Space and E-Space were in fact stolen by Script Editor Christopher Bidmead from Christopher Biggins during a drunken encounter in 1980. In revenge, Biggins often ad libs about 'recursive occlusion' and 'chronic hysteresis' in his role as Mother Goose during panto season.

8- Doctor Who was not above tackling big topics of social and political importance - pollution and ecological disaster in The Green Death, Thatcherite persecution of gays under Clause 28 in The Happiness Patrol, the assassination of John F. Kennedy in The Deadly Assassin and the ideological conflicts of the Mensheviks with the Bolsheviks complicit with the dismantling of the Russian Imperial caste system in The Sea Devils.

11 - With the advent of cost-effective CGI, any new series of Who can be filmed entirely against blue-screen in the studio with the gravel pit dropped in digitally during post-production.

12 - The BBC are reported to be planning to cast the next incarnation of the Doctor during a six-month public-vote elimination show, Who Idol.

13 - For the 1998 Xmas edition of Auntie's Bloomers, they screened all four episodes of Doctor Who story, Image of the Fendhal.

14 - Many stories feature Hitchcock-style cameo appearances by production staff. These scarcely-noticed and barely-distracting novelties include the Producer in Silver Nemesis and Arc Of Infinity; almost everyone behind the scenes in The Brain of Morbius and Sylvester McCoy from 1987 to the end of the regular series in 1989.

So... now you know.

(Courtesey of Henry Potts).