The Exception Gradually Becomes The Norm.

And you thought function creep was just a buzz word. This is how it begins. State sponsored snooping into the private life of the individual, your private life.

"We've gone from a situation where surveillance was exceptional a few years ago to a situation where it's now considered to be a normal part of what any public authority, or even private organisations, are doing."

Eventually there will be incredulity at any suggestion that this is not how it should be, because it will have become simply the 'way it is'.

Adventures In Plumbing.

I have just come to the end of what could be described as an 'adventure' in plumbing. It could also be described as a 'hellish nightmare' in plumbing. I was happily watching TV when my wife alerted me to the fact that the tap in the kitchen was leaking under the sink. It was leaking badly but we couldn't put a bucket under it because there was no room to do so. I tried to tighten the valve on the pipe to stop the leak.

That was when the 'adventure' began in earnest. That was when the valve broke and the pipe dropped free resulting in cold water flowing full blast into the kitchen. I tried in vain to re-attach the pipe to the valve but the force of the water wouldn't let me (when the plumber eventually came he said that it couldn't have gone back on anyway). While all this had been unfolding we had called my dad to see if he could fix it, as at that point it hadn't broken fully. When it did he came straight out, and my wife called for an emergency plumber. While that was happening I was struggling with it. I tried to turn the water off completely. The tap was somewhere through a hole in the panneling beneath the sink. I was lying under the sink, soaked to the skin, freezing water pouring on me, as I struggled in vain to find the main water tap. I could not find it. I was soaked and freezing and in a panic as water continued to flow happily into the kitchen.

My wife turned the electricity off while I tried again, this time with numb hands, to force the pipe back into the valve and at least stem the flow till the plumber arrived. It wasn't happening. Imagine your cold tap turned on full blast pointed into your kitchen, imagine yourself standing watching helplessly as it did so. Then imagine being soaked to the skin, freezing and shaking. That was me about an hour ago.

My dad came and had a look and quickly reached the conclusion that the only thing to be done was to turn the water off. Turn it off with the tap I couldn't find/reach. I had to go back under, back into the freezing water, sticking my arm through a little hole, grasping blindly for the bloody tap. Finally I found it. It wasn't far in at all, but straight down. I had been reaching right in to the back and side walls trying to find it. I turned the water off.

I was soaked head to toe, the kitchen was about an inch deep in water. It was a mess. The plumber came while I was getting dried and changed. So the problem is now solved. We've been drying up as best we could. It could have been worse I suppose. It happened to my dad years ago except the pipe itself broke above the ceiling, so water was coming down the walls for an hour before he found the water tap, which was handily located behind the cooker!

Baby Girl

We went for the gender scan on saturday morning at a private clinic a few miles away. When my wife was pregnant with our son we were both convinced it would be a boy, we just sort of knew it would be somehow. This time niether of us had any idea and we didn't want to wait. They can't/won't/don't tell you on the NHS so we went private and paid £70.

So we're having a girl, which of course I knew all along. Could have saved myself £70 quid... I am happy about it. I think having all the kids here the last 6 months made me warm to the idea of another child in general (which sounds crazy considering), but I also liked the idea of having a daughter too. Now all that remains is the matter of agreeing on the middle name. I already decided the first...

Manic Miner

More old school gaming this time with the classic Manic Miner, the precursor to the equally legendary Jet Set Willy, which acts as a sequel. Manic differs from JSW in that to get to the next room you must collect all the keys in the current one. There are more than 16 rooms to get through, and with only 3 lives to do so this presents a real challenge. One which is fun and frustrating in equal measure.













I played this on the Amstrad CPC464 when I was a kid, and am thus well equiped when it comes to reliving the game on the emulator software I downloaded. It is amazing that these games which took up to ten minutes to load, and cost £20.00 each or more (a month's worth of pocket money), now load in seconds and are free to download from sites such as this one.













For those who grew up playing with the slightly cooler ZX Spectrum, or the equally nerdy Commodore 64, there is plenty of emulator software out there for those too. Manic Miner and the sequel Jet Set Willy were, and are still so popular and indeed iconic that they transcend all platforms to stand alone.













There are reworkings and pc updates of these classics just as easily available, and just as fun. But I prefer to play in its original form, that way I can pretend never to have grown up, something which may well be very close to the truth.

New Arrivals To Planet Earth.

No, it's not another UFO post, and as far as I know my wife has not been abducted. She is however harbouring a tiny human form within her. Yep, the Bad Clan is going to expand by one. I hope it's only 1... We're both happy about it and hope it'll be a little girl this time.

I think we'll be much better prepared than we were when we had our son, because we've been through it all once already and know what to expect. We won't be stressed so easily, or overreact to things. Having said all that, as happy as we are, it is still a little bit scary.

Nine Inch Pearson

Nine Inch Pearson in a Spitfire yesterday.

The tiny World War Two fighter ace is celebrating his 85th birthday this week. Hendon Aces Flying Club are planning to put Pearson at the controls of a Spitfire once again, so that he can relive the glory days of The Battle Of Britain. In the summer of 1940, Pearson, just nine inches tall, became the first, and smallest pilot in the RAF to shoot down a German Messerschmitt, and mark the beginning of the historic struggle to decide the fate of Britain itself.

Pearson himself recalls that he struggled at first to get to grips with the controls of the Spitfire but that this was made easier when his older brother, Thirteen Inch Pearson, serving with The Royal Engineers, constructed a specially raised seat complete with finely woven safety harness, as well as a miniature trigger for the wing mounted canons.

Once inside the specially customised aircraft Nine Inch Pearson wreaked havoc upon the Luftwaffe. He engaged in an astounding 63 sorties, bringing down 41 enemy aircraft. It was this alone which drew admirers ranging from The Queen herself, to the ordinary rank and file servicemen to whom Pearson was a shining beacon of hope in the dark days of 1940.

Knowledge.

Knowledge cubes yesterday.

Knowledge is not only measurable but has in fact been measured, in 1976 in fact by Dr Quang Johnstone. Knowledge was found to form cubes of no more than 8 centimetres square, and that there were exactly 1.7 trillion liquid hectares of these cubes in existance.

Of course since 1976 these cubes have multiplied to reach a staggering 4.3 trillion liquid hectares. It has also been calculated that knowledge cube growth averages around 10,000 per day.