Friday, Jan 3rd.

Wanda Ventham. Hot. (see below)


So, anyway - almost back to normal. Supposed to be in work today - and handing over the 'forgotten' takings for NYE, but, to be honest, I can't be bothered. We are expecting severe weather and a storm surge later today - I'll be staying at home instead. Just saw the most vivid double rainbow, which - as usual, sprung from the roof of the B&Q. I was out in the dark last night adding more big timber props to next doors fences - today may be a bit of a trial. I've also decided to go without coffee - I've been hitting it hard recently and might need time to acclimatise to real life again.

I went for a drink last night in a nice pub with an open fire, and spent the evening with someone the same age as me, in the same industry, with the same personal and financial problems and as we cancelled each other out - we ended up having a nice time.

Read the interview with Nigella Lawson with some incredulity - it's a carefully engineered campaign to rehabilitate her image for the American market - I'm not really sure how anyone can bleat that their personal life has been distorted when she's spent the last 20 years creating a totally distorted and artificial personal life to sell to gullible and needy people.

The most entertaining thing that's happened so far this year must be PJ Harvey guest editing the Today Program. I listened to it and liked it all very much. I don't always agree with PJ Harvey, she has made a number of statements supporting Fox Hunting and is certainly not the needy, left wing liberal that many of her detractors assume - but she's also one of the most important and original talents in the UK. I was also less than comfortable that she accepted an MBE last week, but I thought she was a very good choice. Many commentators have bleated on and on about including Assange without actually listening to what he said - which was excellent, his thesis that knowledge was power and is controlled to control 'us' was spot on. Yes, the church did react badly to the invention of the printing press, because it gave the common man access to knowledge, and they feared that. I think Assange is a narcissist and very vain, but most successful people are - that's what drives them - he is no better or worse than Tony Blair, Alan Sugar or Robbie Williams in that respect. I personally don't think he's a rapist - but I doubt that he's a very good boyfriend. Regardless of your personal feelings towards him - he's one of the most significant figures of the last decade - and in decades to come he will still influence society. It put me in mind a bit of Polanski - I don't want him in my house, but I think the Pianist and Chinatown are two of the best films ever made (incidentally - there is a scene in The Pianist where there is an underground printing press used in the Polish Ghetto to communicate resistance to the Germans, and if you have seen the film - you know what happens to the people who ran it).

The interview with Giles Duley (and not 'Julie" as the Guardian reported) was moving and upsetting - he's an X Hastings resident and we have a lot of mutual friends, and a bit of a hero of mine. It was made even moving by the inclusion of the song that followed it. I really liked the reading by Ralph Finnes at the end - it was original, thrilling, even exciting. The whole show really cheered me up and made me feel good about this year. I was even heartened by the incompetent broadcasters who kept trying to explain what was happening - so well done BBC radio 4, and thank you.

I'm about to make ANOTHER attempt to collect a parcel from December 20th - it was supposed to be at my local post office yesterday but didn't arrive... this is after a 40 min wait to be served. My Broadband box DID arrive... by post, through the letterbox - which I wasn't expecting, having been told to spend the day at home waiting. I have to take Monday off while they install it.

The shouty couple next door have bought their daughter a drum kit.

I watched no telly over Xmas - except 'The Eagle has Landed' - which was total tosh but I really enjoyed it, and the 'big reveal' episode of Sherlock.... which wasn't really very good.. too smug, too self important, too many short cuts and easy solutions (an off switch.... really????) and frankly - a bit ... dull. It was all too pleased with itself - the only good bit was the inclusion of Cumberbatch's real life parents as his screen parents, his mother, Wanda Ventham, was one of the most beautiful actresses of the 1960's, and starred in UFO, which is pretty cool in itself.

I think it's time for toast.