Monday, September 12, 2005 AD
Back from my hols...
...but may still be a few days before normal service is resumed here.
Am currently Otherwise Engaged by (i) the new-look "Berliner" Guardian, which looks rather splendid so far (browse it online for free here); and (ii) the Ashes, where England are now 199-7 in what promises to be a very tight end to a very tight series. My suspicion is that Australia will nick it, but then I'm always overly pessimistic about these things, largely as a self-defence mechanism. (Update: England have now made it to tea with three wickets in hand. Barring a very rapid post-tea collapse and the greatest batting performance in Test history from Australia, I reckon we're there.)
My holiday reading included Counselling for Toads (in which Mr Toad from Wind in the Willows sees a counsellor - much better than it sounds, being utterly convincing in its depiction of Toad's "backstory", and providing an illuminating introduction to counselling) and the first 525 pages or so of E.P. Thompson's 850-page behemoth, The Making of the English Working Class (as recommended by DS Ketelby - thanks, DS!).
Mr Toad will probably make an appearance here this week; Mr Thompson (who really doesn't like John Wesley or William Wilberforce at all) may or may not, depending on how much I feel like stirring up the hornets' nest of politics round here again (answer: not very).
Am currently Otherwise Engaged by (i) the new-look "Berliner" Guardian, which looks rather splendid so far (browse it online for free here); and (ii) the Ashes, where England are now 199-7 in what promises to be a very tight end to a very tight series. My suspicion is that Australia will nick it, but then I'm always overly pessimistic about these things, largely as a self-defence mechanism. (Update: England have now made it to tea with three wickets in hand. Barring a very rapid post-tea collapse and the greatest batting performance in Test history from Australia, I reckon we're there.)
My holiday reading included Counselling for Toads (in which Mr Toad from Wind in the Willows sees a counsellor - much better than it sounds, being utterly convincing in its depiction of Toad's "backstory", and providing an illuminating introduction to counselling) and the first 525 pages or so of E.P. Thompson's 850-page behemoth, The Making of the English Working Class (as recommended by DS Ketelby - thanks, DS!).
Mr Toad will probably make an appearance here this week; Mr Thompson (who really doesn't like John Wesley or William Wilberforce at all) may or may not, depending on how much I feel like stirring up the hornets' nest of politics round here again (answer: not very).
