Talk about wasting £1.4m to state the bleeding obvious! I could have told them the answer for a fraction of the price...fuckwits. How has the world got 1.4million quid to wank away on shit like this while other people starve. grrrr....

Excellent April Fools joke from the Guardian. Must admit I did believe it at first but Chris Martin re-recording Talk as Talk to David was a step too far and suddenly it dawned on me...

Annie Mac's dance music show on BBC Radio 1 really is a pleasure to listen to and I recommend it to anyone with leanings towards doof doof music. Her enthusiasm for the music and the clubbing lifestyle is very infectious....Go Annie!

A song is about to go to the top of the charts in the UK on download sales alone. This is surely a watershed moment in music with downloads now beginning to threaten the existance of CD singles. The scam of the rip off CD single is slowly coming to an end....

Add together the infamous British incomptence and extremely slow building practices from the Aussies (I mean HOW long has it taken to build Southern Cross station?) and what do you get? An $80million loss and no Wembley until 2007! Nice. Next time just get the bloody Germans to do it eh?

Coke, Shmoke.

Save our BYOs! A restaurant in Sydney is now charging it's patrons a $25 A BOTTLE corkage fee. Mind you this is the City where a one day travelcard costs $15 so it's hardly surprising....

Even by her usual standards yesterday's op-ed piece in The Australian from Janet Albrechtsen is breaktaking in it's chutzpah. Instead of writing about the real villians in the AWB scandal - the AWB Management/DFAT/Government Ministers - she took this opportunity to lay into those namby pamby lily livered liberals who promote corporate responsibility. Yes, once again those damned bleeding hearts are the real problem! Not the men who put profits before ethics or Government ministers who turned a blind eye to illegal activities.

The problem with Janet is that she is so blinded by her hatred of the 'left' that she fails to see what is right in front of her eyes.

The wife and I went to Taxi last night to celebrate our third wedding anniversary (ah, bless). Was a sensational meal, as to be expected from the Restaurant of the year, and a really nice ambiance about the place. I had deepfried GarFish with a Pink Grapefruit jus to start, she had a Crayfish cannelloni. Mains were Wagyu Porterhouse steak for me and twice cooked duck for her and we finished it off with the divine chocolate plate for two.

I recommend a visit there for sure although it is not as spectacular as Ezard where I found the service to be more attentive and the food slightly better cooked.

Details of the preparation Madonna is putting into her upcoming tour. Let's hope she blesses us down under with a visit!

This is most amusing. Seems someone has made a statue of Britney Spears but has completely forgotten to make it actually look like her! Excellent work.

Cocaine Kate is helping Lindsay Lohan get her life back on track. Mmmm....Great role model to follow Lindsay! Are you going to be getting pearls of wisdom dispensed at you as well from Kate's sensible boyfriend - uberbore Pete Doherty? Before you know it you'll be shooting up in some dingy starwell in Hoxton and people will start pretending that you are interesting. Good luck with your rehab though - I'd say going into retox with those two is like taking lessons from Kevin Federline on how to be a good husband.

If you have an interest in US politics (unlikely I know) then this is essential reading from The Nation.... Nice to see those 'compassionate' conservatives, the Republicans taking advantage of Katrina's devastating effect on New Orleans.

The debate over Nine's coverage of the games continues.... This is quite an frank exchange of views between Eddie Maguire (MD of Channel Nine) and The Age's TV Critic. Eddie has some fair points but unfortunately Warneke does not question him on the sheer amount of ad breaks that were on during the games and the numerous occassions when they cut away from live sport to show these ads. Maguire has to be happy, his channel has no doubt made shitloads of cash out of this whilst the viewing public have been short changed once again.

Welcome to Howard's new Australia where people can be sacked on a whim and given no redundancy payouts. People have already been sacked with no explanation a mere 2 days after the new IR laws come in. Welcome to a world where the working poor have no rights and no recourse to justice. Let's hope that those in the 'burbs are also effected so they can turn their wrath on this lame excuse for a government and boot them out at the next election.

What's Tim Blair's genius solution to the problem of women being sexually assaulted? Guns. Yes, Guns. Those things that kill people. Brilliant Tim! We might have 1% less sexual assaults but a whole lot more murders instead. Wouldn't that be swell?

Andrew Sullivan mentioned this in his blog yesterday and I thought it worth repeating on here. IS Tom Cruise about to challenge Michael Jackson for the title of the weirdest man in showbusiness?

Shrink you bastards...

I spotted a superb letter in today's Age:

I SAT in a city park yesterday morning, trying in vain to appreciate the "souvenir edition" of The Age to mark the end of the Commonwealth Games. Poster-sized pages flapped in the breeze; whole sections escaped my grasp and literally flew away. Opposite me, an elderly couple enjoyed their Herald Sun with quiet dignity. I refuse to be made a laughing stock. For God's sake, go tabloid.
Sam McMillan, Richmond


I couldn't agree anymore Sam McMillan. For God's sake Andrew Jaspan, DO IT! Is the publishing of this letter the first stage of an under the radar campaign by the Age to soften its readers up to the prospect of turning tabloid? I live in hope....

More on the banana shortage about to hit Australia.

Fernando V Alexis

So I promised I would keep you all up to date with the story of how our cats are getting along. Those who know us know that we have a rather curmudgeonly but utterly adorable cat called Fernando. Here is a picture of him in a big pile of leaves in our backyard:


We got Fernando from the Save A Dog scheme in Malvern, Melbourne. They have loads of cats and dogs that have been picked up by the council warden and have been abandoned by their owners. You can either adopt the animals or foster them until they find permanent homes. We ended up adopting Fernando but because the shelter desperately needs foster families we agreed to foster a small black cat called Layla.

Now, Fernando didn't like Layla. In fact he hated her and there wasn't a day went by when he wasn't trying to tear her apart from limb to limb. So although we were sad when Layla left we were happy for her as it meant she would finally be able to spend her days without the fear of being brutally killed.

Then a week ago we got a call from Save the Dog asking if we could foster another as there were so many cats there in need of homes. We agreed on the proviso that we could return the cat if, as was likely, Fernando didn't like it. We picked up the new cat, Alexis, on Saturday. She is a gorgeous looking creature and very very elegant and princess like. Here's a rather unflattering picture of her:

I expected more cat inspired fireworks in my backyard so thought it would be an interesting addition to my blog to let you know how they are getting along but I'm afraid it's been somewhat of a non story.

When they first met Alexis hissed at him in that terrifying way that cats do. Fernando snarled a little but then just couldn't be arsed and just slumped on the floor. And that's been the end of their antagonism really. Fernando has been watching her every move though and appears to be following a containment policy in much the same way Clinton contained Saddam. Maybe Fernando realised the errors of his George W Bush (i.e. attack first, think later) methods with Layla and has decided he has better things to do with his time (like sleep).

Hell, they even shared a bed with each other last night. Admittedly at opposite ends but who knows it could be the start of something beautiful. I'll keep you updated if anything significant happens but it looks as if I am going to have to think of something else to fill this webpage up with. Bugger.