chez dafyd

Look! I’m back! Sort of – this is very much a holding blog until I get everything sorted out on my super-shiny, all-bells-and-whistles, systematic, hydromatic new site.

Many apologies for my sustained absence – believe me, I wish it hadn’t been so long. Anyhoo, I have returned, with a temporary blog here to hold my pearls of wisdom until I finally get round to finishing the new-look version of my full site.

But, I hear you cry, why have I made such a sudden reappearance? Well, I’m going to be spending much of the next week in bed (more on that anon), and feel I may wish to vent my frustration in more than 140 characters. So I shall be publishing, with luck, longer form rants here once again.

So, yes, more blogging here again. Starting tomorrow, with a brief catchup of what’s going on with me and why.

I was going to post on Twitter that Twitter is currently down. It took me at least three attempts to realise the flaw in my plan…

Should be blogging more, but I’ve been awfully busy with work (yes, proper work, here) and haven’t really felt like it. More anon, though, I promise.

…his face is permanently blurred to protect his identity.

Google Maps launched its Streetview service in the UK yesterday, and some intrepid sightseers have already found the Stig at the BBC’s White City offices. Fun.

Also Nottingham High School, on a rare “not rainy” day:

Oh, and Wally on Putney High Street:

As a long-time Radio 4 listener, it’s fascinating to get a glimpse behind the scenes of the Today programme…

One might argue that a viral video stops being viral when the programme it is promoting has to promote the video itself… Still, fun though.

This BBC headline confused me for a few moments:

I didn’t think turkeys were flightless (wild, they’re not), so why the plane? Images of Chicken Run came to mind…

Bad bit of journalese there, I think. Not a great idea to associate plasticine poultry with a plane crash, however unintentionally.

Update: The BBC has updated the title to “Jet crashes…” – much clearer.

Eaten alive, originally uploaded by dafyd.

This poor Lego chap appears to have become something’s lunch – my bet is on the mice that seem to have moved in…

Tonight is the final of series 15 of University Challenge, as Corpus Christi, Oxford, take on Manchester. Both teams have done phenomenally well in all of their previous games, so tonight promises to be a tough game.

I’m tipping Manchester to win. I know a lot has been written about about Corpus Christi’s captain, Gail Trimble, and she’s certainly very bright, but I think Manchester has a better team overall. Trimble has dragged her team through the previous four rounds – without her, I doubt they’d have made the second round – whereas all four of Manchester’s team members contribute a great deal (also, the Manchester captain is doing a PhD on “the history of the book” – awesome).

Team Durham, two years ago, did rather well (if I say so myself) because we were able to rely on each other, rather than having one person answering all the questions. Kudos to Trimble, though – she’s a general knowledge machine. I’d love to see her on Mastermind. Heck, she could easily have been the sixth Egghead. I really can’t work out what angle this article in the Sun is going for – are they suggesting that she’s out of touch, elitist, or that it’s good that she doesn’t bother with such trivia? Knowing the Sun, I’d say the latter, but the tone of the article suggests the former. Curiouser and curiouser…

A quick snippet of a track from the brilliant Avenue Q, which describes pretty well how I feel about job hunting at the moment…

On a related note, the West End production of Avenue Q closes at the end of March. If you haven’t seen it, go now. If you have seen it, go again – I’m fairly certain I’m going to…

It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these, but I really don’t feel like posting anything else at the moment.

Rules: 1. Put your iPod, iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle. 2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer, hit skip if you get the same artist. 3. You must write down that song name, no matter how silly it sounds. 4. Have fun!

If someone asks if you’re OK, you say… “We’re in the Money” by the Original Broadway Cast of 42nd Street

How would you describe yourself? “Sugar and Spice” by the Searchers

What do you look for in a girl? “Brown Eyed Girl” by Everclear

How do you feel today? “Hurt” by Johnny Cash

What is your life’s purpose? “Purpose” by the Original Broadway Cast of Avenue Q (Seriously, this is what came up. I think iTunes is slowly turning into HAL…)

What’s your motto? “Walk Like an Egyptian” by the Bangles

What do your friends think of you? “Crazy” by Aerosmith

What do your parents think of you? “Wonderful” by the Original Broadway Cast of Wicked

What do you think about very often? “Little Moments” by Brad Paisley

What do you think about your first kiss? “La Belle et le Bad Boy” by MC Solaar

What do you think of your best friend? “Rolling Stock” by the Original London Cast of Starlight Express

What is your life story? “Crippled Inside” by Widespread Panic

What do you want to be when you grow up? “I Wish I Was James Bond” by Scouting for Girls

What do you think when you see the person you like? “You Raise Me Up” by Josh Groban

What will you dance to at your wedding? “Megamix” by the 1991 London Palladium Cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Seriously.

What will they play at your funeral? “Raiders March” by John Williams

What is your hobby/interest? “100,000,000,000 Green Bottles” by Max Boyce

What is your biggest fear? “If I Can’t Love Her (from Beauty and the Beast)” by John Barrowman

What is your biggest secret? “(I’m Spending) Hannukah in Santa Monica” by Tom Lehrer

What do you want right now? “The Perfect Nanny” by the Original London Cast of Mary Poppins

What do you think of your friends? “Fat Bottomed Girls” by Queen

What title will you give this post? “Moi j’aime le music hall” by Charles Trenet

So, when I said that I’d be blogging more frequently, it looks like I lied. Sorry about that. No real excuse – just didn’t have anything to say.

I’ve still not got a proper job, seven months after graduating, which is incredibly frustrating. I’ve been doing odd bits of freelance website work, which keeps me busy, but I don’t think counts as a job, and certainly isn’t what I wanted to be doing. Lots of applications, lots of rejections, lots of not hearing anything at all. Most frustrating? Being told that you’re “over qualified” or would “feel restricted by the role”. Frankly, I don’t care – I just want to work!

Still, light at the end of the tunnel, and all that: there’s a 50-50 chance that I’ll end up in the States, where there’s an even bigger jobs market in which to not find work. I’m also seriously tempted to take a PGCE – teaching seems to tick all the boxes on my “what I want from a job” list, and they pay you to train, so that may be what I’m doing next year if the dates work out. I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, a snippet from an email I received from East Midlands Trains. Seems they need to revise the difference between “less” and “fewer”…