My first three blog posts.

About A Twitter conversation which led to this post at Mike's blog about longevity has reminded me that I need to do something about my archives which for the past few years have seemed a bit misleading because the first three posts from 2000 are from the pre-feeling listless days. So I'm going to put them into draft and post their content here instead. Here then is my first attempt at a blog:

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Published on 19/11/2000:

Before getting myself ‘on-line’ I hadn’t realised actually how difficult it is to build a website. I mean you visit the web café at your local library or a Cyber-café, and you visit these sites and just feel yourself yawning at how mediocre they all seem. Until you actually try and do it yourself.  So you’ve got a modem. Yes. And you’ve got an idea. Yes. Have you got the software? Well I’ve Word 2000. (pause) Not an ideal choice, but since you don’t want to fork out £400 for Dreamweaver, it’ll have to do. Have you got any web space. About 10 meg. (pause) Really. You’ll have to be a bit frugal. So not photo galleries. Won’t need them. What’s your idea? It seems a lot of unusual things happen to normal people like me, but these get lost eventually. I think it would be great if people had somewhere to send them so everyone can read them. (pause) O.K. A bit odd, and slightly new age, but it might be fun. What now? Well go and create the thing. Right. (four weeks later) Finished. Better get it uploaded to the ftp site . . The what? And so it goes on). I’ve got nothing but admiration for everyone now. So don’t worry, the site will improve. I just thought it important to start collecting stories now. So why haven’t you clicked on the menu yet?

Published on 07/12/2000:

The panto season is in full swing. A quick glance of the What’s On brochures presents night after night of glimmering entertainment. At the Stafford Gatehouse, Hinge & Bracket are Queen Rowena Rat and Fairy Maybelle in ‘Dick Wittington (and his amazing cat)’ also featuring Lance from Neighbours as the eponymous Dick. At The Tameside Hippodrome we have the Gladiator, Hunter as Aladdin in ‘The Fourth Protocol’ (just kidding) with Irene from Home and Away as the Genie of the Ring and Frank Williams as Widow Twanky (you know, the Vicar from ‘Dad’s Army’. The Regent Theatre of Stoke-on-Trent pays host to the double decker pleasures of Russ Abbot as Doctor Dolittle and Paul Nicholas (of Just Good Friends fame) in ‘Peter Pan’. But perhaps the cream of the crop (not counting of course Julie Goodyear as the queen in ‘Snow White’ at the Manchester Opera House) is Aladdin at the Crew Lycium, offering such luminaries as TV’s Otis the Aardvark, Rod Jane and indeed Freddy (although not seemingly the original Freddy (oh Bunny), Greg Donaldson (you know THE BILL’s DC Tom Proctor), Emma Steadman (Bruce’s dolly dealer) and the unforgettable Hugo Myatt.

Published on 12/12/2000:

It’s Christmas, you know. Well almost. When I was growing up, certain things would flag it for me. At school the nativity play, then the carol concerts. Then there would be Christmas Fair at school. Then the Christmas Radio Time. Well at least that’s still around, even if its given into rampant commercialism, what with Harry Potter on the cover and everything – not that Santa in his big red Coca-Cola hood wasn’t an rampant ad for soft drinks of course. So without giving too much away (in case anyone reading uses the TV schedules as a tradition as well), what broad strokes have we to look forward in the coming weeks. I think the general consensus amongst the channels is ‘Another chance to see . . .’ which is a polite way of saying ‘We’re stuffing the channel with repeats because you’ll watch them anyway . . .’ At the proper millennium there also seems to be a hell of a lot of costume dramas around. I mean more than usual . . . should that have happened last year?

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That's better.

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