roysworld: the world according to roy

31 August 2004

Yes that's right, Derren Brown's TV seance has officially become the most complained about television programme in the history of British television. Here's what Derren has to say about it:rn

It attracted some 700 complaints. I might add that the prospect of me blowing my head off on live television last year attracted only twenty. Fair enough, I suppose.rnAll bar about thirty of the Seance complaints were made before the show aired, mainly from Christians who felt that such a show would usher in demonic forces. One doesn't want to attack anyone's personal beliefs, but having been a Christian myself, I remember how wonderful it was to decide one was 'offended' by something: such a feeling allows one to hold ones head up high when one might feel otherwise outcast, and to bewilder others into a kind of apologetic stupor. Certainly much more rewarding than trying to take an objective look at the 'offending' matter: here, and generally elsewhere, some psychologically interesting charlatanism. Ho-hum.

30 August 2004

We have just got back after spending time in Hell; well the HellFire Caves anyway.

To quote the website "They were originally excavated in the 1750's on the site of an ancient quarry by Sir Francis Dashwood (who later became Lord le Despencer) in order to provide work for unemployed farm workers following a succession of harvest failures. It is thought that his inspiration for the design of the Caves came from his grand tour of Europe and the Ottoman Empire. On his return Sir Francis Dashwood founded the Hellfire Club and became a leading member of the Dilettanti Society and the Divan Club. The Hellfire Club originally met at Medmenham Abbey on the River Thames. After this burnt down accidentally they reputedly then held many of their meetings in the Caves, some three hundred feet underground and half a mile from the entrance! At the end of the tunnel is the Inner Temple representing Hell - and it is located 300 ft below St Lawrences Church.We entered the gates on a cold wet bank holiday monday, armed only with a guidebook and two glo-sticks. Billy loved it, although we did play down the spooky haunted stuff until we had come back out again. He now of course remembers it as being more scary than it was. Really good fun and a good way to spend an hour if you're passing.

25 August 2004

A new series of Monkey Magic started last night on five.
Here's what they say about it: (Britain's Maddest Magicians) Papa, Monkey Boy, Tufty and The Colonel return to perform amazing tricks with the strangest stuff in the weirdest places. Once again they'll be doing magic naked; fooling the public on hidden cameras and surprising unsuspecting celebrities.rn Here's what I say about it: (Britain's Maddest Magicians) Papa, Monkey Boy, Tufty and The Colonel return to recycle standard textbook tricks in a not very original way.

I must say I'm a little disappointed with these lot. I thought the last series was OK, but judging by the 1st episode this series is far from exciting. Most of the tricks were performed well, but I saw nothing new or original. Performing the Linking Rings in a phonebox is hardly awe inspiring, and OK doing magic in the dark is vaguely interesting but could they not have picked a better trick than torn and restored cigarette paper? rnI will watch the rest and hope it improves.rnrn

24 August 2004

rn
Russ Prince has built his own arcade cabinet out of particle board. He's done a brilliant job. It's now joined my ever expanding 'to do' list. I wonder how much it would cost to hire an odd job man to make one?rn

23 August 2004

Conversation between Billy and his Grandad Bill:
Grandad Bill: "Shall we go and find Grandma?"
Billy: "What?"
Grandad Bill: "Watch my lips. Shall we go and find Grandma?"
Billy: "Watch my head." and he shook it.
rn

23 August 2004

I've just stumbled upon these brilliant space invaders stickers that you can use to convert a boring white wall into retro heaven. They are available from Firebox and are available in green or multicolour. I love 'em and I've got to get some for Billy's space themed bedroom.

23 August 2004

At the weekend we had a Dads and Kids weekend away camping. Me and four other Dads plus kids headed down to Swanage and found a campsite near the Herston Halt railway station. This meant that after we had put up the tents, we could catch a steam train down to the beach. We had brilliant weather and a great time building sandcastles, catching crabs (well one actually), having fish chips and beer in a licensed chipshop and winning Shrek2 toys out of those 'grabber' arcade machines that are meant to be impossible but for some reason I always manage to win. Billy thought it was great and he slept like a log snuggled up in his sleeping bag. I had a less comfortable nights sleep when I realised that not being able to move any limbs in a 'mummy' type sleeping bag is only acceptable when you are in a drunken stupor (as I would have been last time I slept in it). I must get a more rectangle sleeping bag before next time. As always cooking bacon and sausages for breakfast was a winner, they always test fantastic when outside, so much so that Billy reckons I am the 'best cooker in the World'. Roll on the next camping expedition, we're trying to decide if Annie is old enough to rough it yet.

21 August 2004

We just built this castle.

14 August 2004

Annie was looking through a Saturday magazine today.She spotted a picture of George Clooney, pointed to it, and said "Daddy".I was chuffed and promptly told Paula. 2 minutes later - Annie saw another picture, again pointed to it and said "Daddy". Paula looked, laughed and said it was Linford Christie. To add insult to injury, when she looked more closely it turned out to be P Diddy (or puff daddy or whatever he calls himself now). Kids do NOTHING for your self esteem.

16 July 2004

My mate Dave has just set up a blog. He's a gadget junkie so check it out to find out what's hot and not.

14 July 2004

The Incredible Hulk has a blog. It's really funny.nn(via Boing Boing)

12 July 2004

Annie after having scoffed second bowl of icecream: "More ice-cream" Billy: "If you have any more icecream you will be as fat as a tree trunk"Annie without having a clue what Billy meant:"<hysterical laughter>"

06 July 2004

Annie has discovered she likes lolipops and is onto her 3rd in a row. Wait for the sugar rush...

05 July 2004

Today is Billys fifth birthday so Happy Birthday Billy.rn

Yesterday we had a Red Indian themed birthday party and he had 10 of his friends came (Molly, Eleanor, Edward, Joe, Conor, James C, Charlie, Ben, James E and Stephen).rnIt was great fun. We started by making head-dresses and applying face paint, moving on to building four tipis out of garden canes and cut up dustsheets. They looked really great and the kids loved huddling up in twos and threes inside them. Other activities were "pin the feather on the indian", panning for gold (actually it was gold pyrite but everyone was fooled), making a campfire (with twigs and tissue), building totem poles, and a treasure hunt. Eleanor had the closest feather, and Joe collected the most gold - so both won prizes. I managed to find some real audio native American music that was broadcasted into the garden and the kids loved eating their hotdogs and chips around the campfire. It rained a bit but we had a big gazebo to keep everyone dry and put it down to the kids doing a raindance. Thanks to everyone who came.rn

Billy was at school this morning, but came home at lunchtime and had a great time opening all of his presents. There are too many to mention, but special thanks to Molly and Ben who both bought magic themed presents giving Billy his first steps into becoming a magician courtesy of Marvin's Magic We spent the afternoon sliding down his new waterslide in the garden and rapidly switching between his new toys, never spending more than 5 minutes playing with each.

30 June 2004

I spent several hours last night upgrading RoysWorld from b2 to the latest version of b2evolution. It looks like b2evo supports a number of new features I will like like multiple blogs, nested categories and a rich support for RSS and Atom. The layout is not how I want it right now, but I will work on that over the next few weeks. I hope you like it.

14 June 2004

For three days a week I commute to work on an express bus service from Oxford to London. It's a good service and I catch it very early in the morning.

On Thursday one of my colleagues was on the bus and I hadn't seen him for a few days. During the ride we sat on adjacent seats and caught up on a few things; some work and some play. As soon as we started to talk - a rather stroppy woman (who has complained about people talking before) gave me a stare and put on some headphones. We thought nothing more of it. As she was getting her things together to get off at Notting Hill, she turned to Ian and said (in a particularly patronising voice) "Next time if you insist on talking for the entire journey can I propose that you sit closer together". She thrust her handbag under her arm and stomped off up the isle. Ian and I looked at each other with disbelief. Fancy that. Talking. On public transport.

This morning Ian phoned me see if I had read the Times on Saturday (I hadn't). He found it rather amusing to find the following letter

How far is it acceptable to challenge fellow passengers on public transport who are being annoying — having very loud conversations, playing with mobile phone ring tones, drumming their feet, whistling? I have occasionally been driven to speak up, then subsided crimson into my seat, feeling I was the one at fault. What alternative strategy could you recommend?

Jane Mann,
Oxford

Jane Mann, Oxford? Coincidence? I'm not sure.

07 June 2004

Paramount are filming Lemony Snicket's "A Series Of Unfortunate Events". I loved this book - really dark and frankly quite scary for kids. They have released the trailer and it looks quite good.
One thing bugs me though. Can't Hollywood find anyone other than Jim Carrey to do these films?

02 June 2004

Billy: "Dad?"
Me: "Yes Son"
Billy: "I love you as much as to the moon and back again."
Me: "Oh thanks Billy, I love you too."
Billy: "I love Mummy as much as to Pluto and back again one thousand times."
Me: "Wow that's a lot. Why do you love Mummy so much more?"
Billy: "I don't like the look of you."

02 June 2004

Receive DaVinci's notebook as RSS, one page a day.

[Via James, via Boing Boing, via Kottke]

21 April 2004

Norris McWhirter died today. When I mentioned this to a colleague at work he didn't know who he was. When I mentioned "Record Breakers" he replied "Oh you mean that TV show with Kris Akabusi in it?".

I am feeling old.