Hoo Peninsula

I only discovered this bit of Kent about a year ago. I saw it on a map and thought it looked appealing. Today was my third cycle ride round the area.

The countryside seems to be quite dirty - mud everywhere.

it's turned out cold again

The temperature started dropping yesterday. Today the gritters were out. It's been so warm recently that I've been down to 2 layers on my legs and only 3 up top, and gloveless on occasion.

I was caught a little short tonight for two reasons. The first - it was flipping freezing. The second - I completely ran dry of energy going through Greenwich and woolwich. Had to make an unscheduled stop at the Lidl in woolwich for a cheap sandwhich, reduced pork pie, and some apple juice. While in the shop the security put the gratings at the front of the shop down onto my bike which was chained by the trolleys. I nealry went ballistic, hammering on the shop doors as they'd locked up. The guy responded pretty quickly and eventually, a push of the button and my bike was released. I was told to take my bike inside the shop next time I'm there near closing time.

Anyway - going to have to sort out an extra layer for legs and up top before it's safe to venture out tomorrow.


I pass this makeshift memorial every day, on the way to work and back. A woman was killed by a lorry back in early December. Soon after, some flowers appeared, then a ghost bike, and finally the reefs, which are truly moving.

Deptford Marmoset <---highly recommended website

http://www.greenwich.co.uk/news/02394-cyclist-hit-by-lorry/
http://www.cyclestreets.net/location/20086/
http://www.greenwich.co.uk/tag/cycling/
http://www.southlondon-notices.co.uk/3401012

Greenwich Mercury

The First Cycle Ride Of The Year

I set off rather later than planned this afternoon, cycling off towards Kent, with no clear destination in mind. I somehow ended up on NCN #1 heading out into the Dartford saltmarsh.

It gave me a chance to use the panorama camera function on my mobile phone. click on the picture to see it in all its glory.

Looking east, you can just see the Dartford AKA Queen Elizabeth bridge on the horizon, left....and a few horses dotted about.

Looking back towards London, Erith on the left, Essex on the right.

Looking across the Thames towards Essex.

A helpful notice.

or two

Erith across a muddy bay.

The newly clean bike about to get dirty all over again.

The mouth of the river Darenth, with the Dartford bridge in the background.

Dartford has it's own flood barrier.

The path was fairly rough, churned up in places by kids using motorbikes.

This is where the R. Cray joins the Darenth. And a horse.

Soon after I rejoined the road and headed off to Crayford, through Dartford, and followed minor roads down to Gravesend, before getting a train back to Bexleyheath.

It got dark while I was cycling through Dartford; and while I still had plenty of energy for cycling, the cold and dark got to me slightly and reminded me that next time I need to get out of bed a bit earlier, and getting myself moving before Noon would be nice.

I haven't been posting about Haiti. I don't want to end upsounding trite, or worthy. Haiti has deep-seated problems - I think all of them, ultimately, caused by its unfortunate proximity to the United States.

I think an important point to realise is that even though earthquakes are a natural disaster - the fact that less than 70 people died in a similarly powerful earthquake in San Francisco and we're talking hundreds of thousands in Haiti speaks absolute volumes.

The political will to solve Haiti's problems has never been there because the US are paranoid about losing control, and since 1959, worried it would become another Cuba.

It will be interesting to see if Obama can change America's frankly appalling attitude that it has towards it's less powerful neighbours.

Patrick Cockburn in the Independent
Noam Chomsky: US - Haiti

So much for my intention to blog daily. I thought with the tools at hand I'd have no problem - laptop at the weekend, web enabled phone for being out and about, and being able to post using email during the week. But the phone no longer funcions in the email department - just gives me a page long error message which seems to be written partially in a foreign language, understandable only by the worst sort of IT nerds. The email at work was out this week too thanks to Microsoft's browser security problems my company decided to block all access to hotmail. If I post from my work email it includes a message which identifies who I work for. I don't really want that.

So I was stuck...with lots of thoughts and ideas, and nowehere to put them. Here I am, it's the end of the week, and I'm looking at a screen, with not one single idea in my head.

Watched the Dave Spaced marathon last night. My wife banned me from watching it when it was originally shown although she never told me - she just tended to distract me when it was on, or insist on watching something on the other side, want me to take out the bins or go to the shop, or early to bed. I soon twigged that she wasn't keen on me watching it; I managed to watch one episode from start to finish, asked her why she wouldn't let me watch it, and she explained that it was far too much like watching ourselves on tv for comfort and it upset her - made her angry, disappointed, and depressed...and now i can see what she means. The lead characters aren't a couple, but pretend to be so they can have the flat. I think my wife thought we were more like flatmates than a couple. I still think that could be a good thing. We were after all very good friends. And I think I avoided intimacy in much the same way that the Simon Pegg character does, instead, spending my time obsessed with trivia. But I thought we were having fun. Well we were, but fun probably isn't enough. I thought of my wife quite a bit while watching, I miss her terribly even now, nearly two years since we split.

Similarly she wouldn't watch 'Nathan Barley' - I think because she was surrounded by Nathan Barley types (living near Brixton and being involved with Urban 75) - and she got the point in the first show. I'll see them on DVD at some point.

Spaced though - I can now understand why it is so revered. Now it looks a little cliched - but at the time, it wouldn't have done; in fact it invented the cliches - good use of references throughout - not just film references but cleverer stuff such as super8 style film and theme from 'rhubarb and custard' to show a childhood memory.

I was kept laughing pretty much throughout the 7 or so programmes, and looking forward to series 2.

Integrated Bus Routes on Google Maps

Thought this looked like it may be useful.

nice clean bike

I tend to spend Saturdays trying to catch up with those things I can't do in the week. This week it included about 5 hours extra sleep, my laundry, a bath, and basic maintenance on the bike.

I started by sorting out the front gear mechanism, which governs which chain ring is used. It seized up enitrely at the start of the week, caked in grit and muck. It's a bad time of year for bicycle maintenance.

I attacked it with WD40 which soon shifted the crud; and slowly I managed to coax the machanism back to life. After that I fitted the new brake blocks for the rear wheel; and readjusted the front brakes to put right a cack handed job I'd done on on Xmas day.

Fairly soon I'm going to have to replace the chain and block. It feels a bit rough right now, but nothing I can't deal with. There's two reasons for waiting. the first is financial. I'm due a fair amount of back pay from work. A union dispute over pay has given TfL every excuse they need to hold back our 2009 pay rise, but we should be getting it all in March. Then I'll get the bike sorted. The other reason is that if I get the work done now it's likely to have to endure the current harsh conditions for another month or two, so I think I'll get better value for money if the bike is made as new just as we head into spring.

Hopefully, after that, my monthly mileage will leap from the current 4-500 up to 7-800.

Media Lies Over chavez

I remember reading the report that Chavez claimed the US had caused the earthquake in Haiti - and felt embarrassed that the leader I'd been publicly defending for years now would be spouting conspiraloon nonsense like this.

Then today I happen to have come across the true story - that the quotes attributed to Chavez were from an opinion post on the state television website, and nothing to do with Chavez.

click on the title (above) for full story.

The Sad Death of Bobbie Brooker

She died on Xmas eve. This memorial appeared shortly after; candles have been left burning every evening this week. I can only imagine how devastating the sudden death of a child can be. Visit the website (title link).

broken spokes

A couple of broken spokes which was nearly much worse has left me high and dry and without a bike until next week. so it was the wonderful buses, DLR and Jubilee Line this morning, which by some miracle all worked perfectly. There's a first for everything. That said, the bus was bloody slow; anywhere where the bus lane is blocked or non-existent and the bus just crawls along. I really don't undertsand why all bus lanes aren't 24 hour, why bus lanes aren't on all major bus routes, and why parking in bus lanes is allowed. It makes no sense that potentially hundreds of people can be made late to their destination just cos one van driver fancies a late full English Breakfast at the greasy spoon caff.

Peter Ackroyd

I've started reading Peter Ackroyd's Biography of London. Since I'm working close to the city of London now I might as well take the chance to explore it. I'm also reading a book of ghost walks - where the ghosts are just excuses really to explore odd and interesting bits of London. four of the walks are round where I work, and there's one in Greenwich.
 
Ackroyd does like taking liberties with the truth. He's decided that London pre-dates the Roman era, even though I'm pretty sure, there's no real evidence for this; and I'm interested to note that he decides Londoners are a Romano-London mix, which is compeltely unture. DNA evidence shows that Londoners and Britons generally were left completely untouched by the roman population, genetically speaking. Obviously there was so little cross-fertilization, if any, that it left no trace at all in our DNA.

Mind you, despite that, or because of it, Ackroyd can weave a good tale, so I forgive him. but his "facts" need to be taken with a pinch of salt. I wonder what his views on climate change are?

Right to Protest in UK Withdrawn

Mr Choudary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The word 'terrorism' has been defined in the dictionary as the use of violence against a community or a section of the community. I have been campaigning to say that that is precisely what the British Government is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan and even domestically.

"Oddly, we are now being targeted as an extremist or terrorist organisation and even banned for merely expressing that. I feel this is a failure of the concept of democracy and freedom. Ultimately, what the people will see is if you don't agree with the Government and you want to expose their foreign policy, then freedom quickly dissipates and turns into dictatorship."
BBC Website
 
And this is after over 12 years of Labour Party government?

Stop-and-search powers ruled illegal by European court

More Climate Denying Malarky

See some of the ridiculous comments underneath the article. Good for George Monbiot though - happy to get his hands dirty in the climate change wars. I haven't got the patience I'm afraid.


This simpleton called buono puts a familiar argument:

Q:George, if you were faced with absolute, unequivocal evidence that global warming is a myth, what would you do for a living?
Would you agree that you are dependent on global warming as an income stream?
Because I would absolutely say that you are. You simply cannot afford to be wrong and so attack those who disagree with your point of view.

A:I write about lots of subjects: you can see the list here. Of my seven books, only one is about climate change. I would like nothing better than to stop writing about it, in fact I wish the issue would just go away, not least because having to deal every day with people like you is doing my head in.
But let me turn the question round. What would it take to persuade you that manmade global warming is taking place? What proportion of the world's climate scientists would have to agree that it was happening before you accepted the science? 90%? 95%? Or is your rejection of it the equivalent of a religious belief, which cannot be shaken by any level of evidence?

Climate deniers

The deniers seem to have got it into their heads that use of that word for what they are - those that deny - somehow implies holocaust deniers, and therefore we're calling them Nazis! This is a truly odd position.

What are we supposed to call them? I've heard many claim that they are sceptics, but frankly without any counter-evidence, or any rational argument at all, they do not deserve to be called sceptics. I consider myself a sceptic. Sceptics use rational arguments to counter irrational belief. Climate change deniers are the opposite of sceptics. So I ask again what are we supposed to call them if not deniers?

Blog Recomendations

Postcards From The Revolution
by Eva Golinger , Venezuela
Eva Golinger, winner of the International Award for Journalism in Mexico (2009), named “La Novia de Venezuela” by President Hugo Chávez, is a Venezuelan-American attorney from New York, living in Caracas, Venezuela since 2005 and author of the best-selling books, including “The Chávez Code: Cracking US Intervention in Venezuela” (2006 Olive Branch Press), “Bush vs. Chávez: Washington’s War on Venezuela” (2007, Monthly Review Press), & “The Empire’s Web: Encyclopedia of Interventionism and Subversion”. Eva...has been investigating, analyzing and writing about US intervention in Venezuela using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain information about the US Government’s efforts to destabilize progressive movements in Latin America.

This story appeared on her Blog over the weekend. Obama's administration are stepping up operations in Latin America, much as liberal darling Kennedy did nearly 50 years ago.

Eva Golinger writes: "Caracas, January 9, 2009 [she means 2010, I'm sure] - Yesterday’s violation of Venezuelan airspace by a P-3 US military combat plane is another example of the escalation in provocations against Venezuela and evidence of the danger US military presence in the region represents. During a live television broadcast on the evening of January 8, President Hugo Chávez revealed that at approximately 12:55pm earlier that day, a US P3 combat plane took off from the air base in neighboring Curaçao and entered Venezuelan airspace during a 15-minute period. Two Venezuelan F-16 planes intercepted the foreign military aircraft, prepared to escort it outside Venezuelan territory. “When the F-16 planes attempted communication with the US aircraft, it immediately took off towards the north, but later it returned”, announced President Chávez. He said that at 1:37pm Venezuelan time, the combat plane returned and flew for about 19 minutes inside Venezuelan territory. "

And a mention for "Our Time Is Now" a Blog written by Amy (phnx0221) based in Arizona who describes her blog as being about "libertarian socialism, anarchism, social justice, direct democracy, keeping a watchful eye on governments", and also Twitters at this address.

Deeply Flawed But Trying is a funny, personal and often political Blog written by prolific Twitterer "generally quite nice. Mostly. A bit gobby" Slummymummy based in picturesque Hebden Bridge.

As I seem to have free use of the laptop today i have jettisoned all plans for a cycle ride - sick of snow and ice anyway - and decided to try to sort out my virtual affairs. I was scared off slightly by all the weather warnings but now it's been downgraded apparently. Hoping for significant thaw by tomorrow now.

I've revived my photobucket account as trying to organise and make use of my photographs has become a slight nightmare if that's possible. sometimes when you wake up only slightly perturbed - well that's how organising my photos has become.

My photos are spread all over the place - some on disc, some on an old hard drive, some on Smugmug and Flickr and Photobucket, and there's a load on my laptop, and my new hard drive. What I really need to do is put all the private ones on my hard drive and ones I want to share onto Photobucket. since I only have access to PB from home, and the connection is often slow or non-existent, it'll take a while to see through, but half the battle is having a plan and sticking to it.

Instead of posting all my pics on my blog or using Twitpic which is crap, I will post albums on Photobucket and link to them. I did consider moving to Flickr but tbh I have so many pics on Photobucket already I can't be arsed moving. Just need to remove slightly embarrassing personal ones first or sort out the security arrnagements.

Who's Sorry now

This is a story from Los Angeles - a driver who has been waging a perosnal war against cyclists has been sentenced to 5 years in prison. Fucking right too!
http://ow.ly/UkAW

Today's Random Twitter Recomendation

All the sausages reports mentions of sausages across Twitter. Odd. Pointless. Quite amusing.
Click on the Sausage avatar:

America's Worst Sheriff

According to Wikipedia:
"Joseph M. "Joe" Arpaio (born June 14, 1932) is an American law enforcement officer, and the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. Arpaio, who promotes himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff," has become controversial for his approach to operating the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. He has a large number of vocal supporters as well as opponents. Arpaio continues to earn the support of Maricopa County voters who reelected him sheriff by double-digit margins in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. In 2007 a petition to recall Arpaio from office failed to gain enough voter signatures to get on the ballot.

"His practices have been criticized by organizations such as Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Arizona Ecumenical Council, the American Jewish Committee,[4] and the Arizona chapter of the Anti-Defamation League. The editorial board of The New York Times called Arpaio "America's Worst Sheriff"."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arpaio
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-arpaio9-2010jan09,0,3473496.story
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/051/1997
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-10-18/news/breathtaking-abuse-of-the-constitution/1

All this has come to me attention thanks to this blog: "The prison blog of an Orwellian unperson" - click on picture below:
"Jon is Shaun Attwood, a British stockbroker and rave organiser formerly imprisoned in Arizona, blogging the prison stories of his friends inside, documenting his return to society, and campaigning against Sheriff Joe Arpaio."

Happy Birthday David Bowie!!

Happy Birthday, David, if you happen to read this.

As the week progressed it became clear that the arctic weather wasn't going away. I managed to cycle in to work every day this week, even putting in a few extra miles. Competition is stiff in the SC Stats - and I was determined to reach the Top 5. I'd been in the Top 10 briefly last year, but my cycling suffered badly in the early part of the year through lack of fitness, and ill health. but I've put all that behind me now and am determined to cycle over 7,000 miles this year (less than 5,000 in 2009) and to be in Top 5 all year.

Cycling in icy conditions can be exhausting and stressful. It's cycling home in the dark that's worst. Poor visibility means that ice on the road is hard to see - I've slipped a few times, though managed to maintain my balance. And motorists have gone completely mad. How many times have vehicles pulled in front of me at almost zero stopping distance across give way lines? I've lost count. It's happened several times, every time I go out. This evening I really lost it with a van driver who had stopped halfway across the road, seemingly waiting for me to pass, and then suddenly pulling out in front of me when i was inches away. I lost it with him - I screamed obscenities at him, and he stopped in front of me waiting - for what? I wasn;t sure, so I stopped behind him and waited until he finally moved. then i lost it again with a motorist who did exactly the same in Welling - I stopped in front of him and screamed that I had done nothing wrong and what the FUCK did he think he was doing having a go at me? then I really lost it, and vocabulary went out of the window. I said "Fuck you! Fuck you!" Then I paused and thought I can't say fuck you again, but couldn't think f anything else so shouted "fuck you!" after that I thought it had a strange kind of poetry of its own. everyone in the street was looking at me by then. I took off and went into Morrisson's for some Belgian beer.

I've been snowballed by local yoofs quite a bit too. It seems that cyclists are sitting targets...almost. The first lot missed me completely - hitting a moving target is more difficult than it looks. I was also missed by a load of yoofs in Woolich who were targeting me from a high vantage point, and all missed too. I did get hit though on another occasion - on the arm and on my back - and it's a bit annoying if you've cycled 12 miles and managed to stay dry and warm and then a bunch of kids fuck it up for you so near the end of your journey.

I am only just hanging in there with the cycling. I managed the bare minimum of 30 miles today, and t's really not easy with icy cycle lanes, and ignorant motorists just not willing to accept the compromises we all have to make in this sort of weather.

I'm having a busy week at work - having a new push to get people to fulfill their duties wrt the environment. It's really not difficult, mostly involves following written procedures and not breaking the law. Surely it's just as easy to put your waste in the correct bin as putting it in the wrong bin? Surely arranging for admin staff to file documents correctly is a basic in any organisation. Can environmental training for new staff not be identified the same time as vocational and safety training. Apparently not - it must involve and entirely different and seperate process which requires intervention by an advisor before anyone does anything!!

Durutti Column & Worst Ad EVER!!!!!

I've had numerous chances to see this band - fronted by the brilliant guitarist Vini Reilly - the forgotten Factory Records genius.

Well now they've record an album in tribute to Factory boss Tony Wilson, and are on tour performing it. I've decided, finally, that it's time to see them, before it's too late, after all none of us are getting any younger.

I had the extreme misfortune to see what is probably the worst and most annoying advert ever, by the people that brought us a series of annoying ads; and who could believe that they could plumb even lower depths than the Howard ads. And even more annoying than the Josh supergroup ads. Yes!! It's the Halifax. A crap bank who makes crap ads.

Watch at own risk:



http://advertsihate.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-debilitating-halifax-adverts.html
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1194162


The snow arrived today. the snow I really din;t want. I'm trying to get fit on the bike by cycling a minimum of 30 miles a day. If the weather deteriorates again, that is not going to happen.

Got snowballed by yoofs, and nearly run over by a bus.

Labyrinth

This arrived from Lovefilm just before new year. I wasn't sure it would be worth watching, even though i am an obsessive Bowie fan, and used to be really into Jim Henson's stuff too; I saw Dark Crystal in the cinema when it was first released.

I got into Bowie during the Scary Monsters period. first was a re-recorded version of "Space Oddity", then "Ashes to Ashes", "Fashion" etc. through 1980. then came sparse years for Bowie fans, allowing me time to catch up. During 1981 and 1982 I bought most of his 70s and 60s output, and all of his new stuff - "Catpeople", "Baal's Hymn", "Under Pressure".

Then in 1983 we Bowie fans - three of us at my school - all became incredibly excited at the prospect of the first new Bowie album for years. RCA released exploitation album "Rare" which, nevertheless, I bought....and then...the day came...."Let's Dance" was released.

I liked it as it happens, but it got a lot of flack a the time, though I believe it to be recognised as a classic these days. The album though - only 8 tracks, and I think only about 5 or 6 new songs, was quite slight, and not all the songs were exactly the quality expected from the man we accepted as the chameleon king (queen?) of pop.

1984 brought a far worse effort, the even more slight "Tonight" which included ill conceived covers of Iggy Pop songs, the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" and embarrassing duet with Tina turner "Tonight".

1985 saw some good news with "Absolute Beginners" and "When the Wind Blows" two of his greatest songs ever. and the in 1986 - the Goblin King arrived, and we all tried hard not to snigger. It was laughing gnome revisited. bowie to his credit comments on this during the making of documentary on the DVD - which btw is excellent - when he said "who'd have thought after 20 years I'd be back to gnomes." Hilarious!

So though I bought the soundtrakc album - Underground is another classic - I was too scared to see the film. would bowie's extremely threadbare credibiilty be finally torn asunder. would the emporer be laid bare in his invisible cloak? Would I, in short, be left facing the prospect of selling of my Bowie albums and admitting that my hero was merely a false idol, a sham, an embarrassing ham actor who once managed to write a few good tunes.

now that I've seen the film, I know I was being far too sensitive; my defences had been knocked down by years of dodgy product and false dawns where the 70s bowie would return and break new musical ground. Looking back, I expected too much from a man headig towards 40, who's creative juices had run like the amazon, but finally dried up after over a decade, to a mere trickle, but a mere trickle of utmost quality at times. a trickle to be treasured if you could find it in the mudflats of mediocrity.

I have learned over the years to accept the one or two treasures a decade that bowie is still able to produce, while lamenting the fact that he doesn't write more albums like 2002's Heathen or Buddha of Surburbia.

But back to the film, weather the 19 year old me would have liked it is still questionable, but I found ti a thoroughly entertaining film, thought bowie was more than passable as an actor, and all the songs are great, performances funny., and the making of film one of the best making of films I've ever seen. There are numerous bowie interviews throughout - all of which satisfied the Bowie fan within. Recommended. If I see for under a fiver, think I'll buy it.

2010 shaping up to be quite cold

The week started well enough. I had the new year's eve of a sad and lonely internet geek: stayed in and Tweeted my way into new year. Then had a thoroughly lazy weekend, getting out of bed both days after twelve, hardly venturing out of doors, consuming vast amounts of chocolate, and Belgian beer. Work on Monday came as a slight shock, especially having to be at the mangement meeting that morning. Luckily I'd done the hard work on new year's eve, where i updated my visualisations and added a few concerns for good measure.

Ice had mostly cleared by Monday and my cold had mostly retreated - leaving just a cough, which still lingers over a week later. So I had no hesitation in jumping on the bike for a bracing 15 mile ride into central London. The first 15 miles of the year, immediately added to the Bike Radar Commuters Forum stats table / come league. I rocketed into about 20th place.

The meeting went well. I made a couple of demands form the managers which were met the very same day. Invites in my in-tray to this year's IEMA social events, quite a few environmental inspections some of which read "nothing to report". That sort of report pisses me off - it says nothing, it's lazy, and requires quite a bit of effort on my part to confront. Ran it by my boss, who has so far been completely supportive, and set up meetings, trying to be diplomatic. No point in alienating my clients.

One Eye Grey

http://www.fandmpublications.co.uk/

and this

earth mysteries

http://www.lemc.webs.com/

Must check this lot out

So far this year I've barely been out of the house. Two things happen when I go out: my cough gets worse; I spend money. Neither of these things are allowed to happen, so I'm staying in.

I'm back to work tomorrow though. And I have to be on time; it's the top management meeting, and unusually, I have things to say. I'll need a bit of preparation, two coffees, some breakfast, and a bit of panic and subsequent calming down time.

I intend to cycle in tomorrow too. The ice has gone and I have 7,000 miles to cover before the end of December. That's 30 miles a day for each working day of the year plus an extra 40 miles a month. It should be fairly easy as long as I remain disciplined.

It means I need to go to the Local Bike Shop (LBS) this afternoon for some rear brake blocks otherwise I'm buggered before I start.

Rockford Files

I hardly bothered to get out of bed today. Too ill to go out. Back to work the day after tomorrow. Marvellous.

What's getting me through this Xmas and New Year period is season two of the Rockford Files on DVD.

I watched this programme obsessively when it ran first time round on British TV, and I wasn't even sure what it was that gripped me so. Now I think I have an idea, and it's the characters, the car, the stories, the humour and the location, and not least, Jim Rockford himself.

If anything was going to drive me to become homosexual it was Jim Rockford. I can't help finding him attractive, and not as a drinking buddy like Starsky and Hutch, but in an entirely latently homo-erotic way. But apart from that - I love the locations, the female guest stars, even the repetitive formula doesn't irritate me in the least.

So, Rockford - what a man; what a programme. there's nothing else like it.

the car's pretty good too, phwoar, sexy car!!

Happy New Year!

This is the 44th year that I have had the pleasure of being involved with...although I was only around for 3 weeks in 1966. Might as well have not bothered.

I'm supposed to be out there notching up the miles on my bike, but I'm too ill. Go away and leave me alone!