2008

Today’s most pressing issue: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/paisleywitchs/

Just done 31% of my sugar RDA in 2 mins. with a half-litre bottle of Pepsi

Who’d have thought that a 1-year-old would happily share a bag of chilli ‘n’ lime...

Recycling is never going to work. Half of Hackney has yet to master the litter bin.

As spinoffs go, “Go Diego Go” beats “Knots Landing” all ends up

Oh dear, slept in a hotel here last night http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnBRU006721.html...

This morning spent driving past towns called Spy, Wierde and Loon. Heart Belgium.

four nil. And the curva is singing you’ll never walk alone. Hope the six away fans...

watching siena play albinoleffe in the italian cup. Just missed a goal writing this

Tonight I will join just over 480,000 others (2007 estimate) in going to sleep in Luxembourg

Watching this space: http://tinyurl.com/5vx42g

The closing date for Iain Dale’s tombola http://is.gd/15X9 falls on the Feast of the...

Life always looks better from a trampoline. Fact.

Kentish Town: Where advertising and satire meet http://tinyurl.com/5vbpy9

Advert in a pharmacy window, Kentish Town

Not often I bother with the Graun these days, but this is essential:...

Short travel piece by me for The Times: Tuscany on a budget http://is.gd/VIB

Your ITIN and You. « Britwriters

Getting an ITIN number

50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to...

Florence’s Banksy

Okay, am back. Hope y’all missed me

Sunburned, bleeding feet (now just about healed), and insect bites on my face. Writing guidebooks...

Boarded first of 3 trains, St Pancras to Florence. I may be some time.

Contract sorted to write the next edition of this http://is.gd/OXR So, right now is.gd, by 2009...

Yes please http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/7496686.stm

Right, 2 hours to kill in Paris tomorrow between trains. Need something cool to see, Centre/SE of...

Now that I’ve been quoted as an “expert” by Tesco Magazine http://is.gd/O8i,...

Alas, you just can’t write “Sheryl Crow inflames the piazza” in English. LiT....

Foals: live performance of the highest order. Great drummer. See them live to see them best. Koko...

Out to see this lot tonight http://www.wearefoals.com/

If you thought surfing off Cork or Cornwall was cold… http://tinyurl.com/6ef2o5

Garrrr… mixed leaves, balsamic, DOP Umbria olive oil and still this damn sinusitis won’t...

This time next week I’ll be packing my bags to head for Paris and then the Palatino...

Battle Royale on the streets of Florence http://tinyurl.com/6j5ah9

Found wild fennel growing on a patch of scrub on our estate yesterday

How to make your first steps to legend-hood, lesson 1: http://tinyurl.com/6bv3gp

Anyone know of any killer Word templates I can slot a report into? There’s only 3 levels of...

David Icke’s blockbuster http://is.gd/HPG in pride of place in Centerprise Bookshop window....

Not a cloud in the sky http://tinyurl.com/68n779

Not a cloud in the sky

Apart from ‘in a semi-permanent state of crashedness’, what precisely is...

Do we eat any other sea creatures, besides monkfish, by the tail?

Tracking Twitter

Siena's Palio tournament hit by sexism row

Feminism, meet the Palio http://is.gd/Gm5 “referendum of Oca members showed little enthusiasm...

Meta http://tinyurl.com/5ehagu

This BBC trailer http://is.gd/FEw *is* a spoof, right? I lost count of the cliches about 6 seconds...

What is the correct moniker for a female dustperson? A dustwoman? Either way, just saw one....

Florence dedicates a museum to Pinocchio

http://is.gd/F01 Next week: Law Lords declare Jesus Christ’s crucifixion was a breach of the...

It’s got some competition, to be sure, but is this the most revolting thing you’ve ever...

You’ll be safe in the closet… maybe

http://is.gd/Eww A brutal human parable of the new American west that transcends the...

Another. Tory. Snout. In. Trough. http://is.gd/DK2

The Door to Hell

Basic Italian journalism traning: if in doubt, there’s always the mamma angle http://is.gd/DIn...

Tommy Zoom, puritan superhero. He’s Mary Whitehouse with a cape.

Secretly happy. Just don’t tell my Italian partner… Long Live the People’s...

TV’s Iain Dale, on 5Live today: “without mainstream media coverage, blogging would...

Michelangelo 'hid secret code in Sistine...

Tim Ireland: An Internet Bully?

http://is.gd/BXE Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia

Harry’s Place is a perfect cipher for NuLabour. From triumphalist to nasty to increasingly...

At least the semi is in Basel. Enough with those 1683 Gates of Vienna gags.

I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff. http://is.gd/Cdt The People’s Republic of Torres...

Two unexplained, and worn, tyres appear at the estate recycling station. Is someone expecting Lewis...

“I’m aware that my style is generally too informal for crusty...”
— Am I too good or not good...

A spokesman for McDonald’s said: “It seems inappropriate to place an image of Ronald...

Charity shopping: just picked up my (appropriately) third copy of The New York Trilogy, for 99p....

The dark side of mass immigration: bought what I thought was tzatziki, to find it had herring in it,...

Failure n. 1. lack of success. 2. not provoking an appearance by an English Democrats spambot below...

“Anyone is a fine writer compared to Ricardo. That’s...”
— Marx’s readability

Gothic splendour: Giotto exhibition in...

http://is.gd/A4v Political correctness gone mad! ZaNuLabour’s high-tax dhimmitude agenda in...

When questioned in a survey, 1 out of 1 respondents claimed the 20-minute power nap on the sofa was...

http://is.gd/yhO “Hackney is now Fairtrade, ethical produce only at council...

Judging from the horns, every set of traffic lights in Dalston just failed… or Turkey came...

Right, no one’s going to be sleeping in Dalston tonight then.

Newington Green: you can take the winos out the park, but you can’t take the park out the...

http://is.gd/wvw Maybe once Davis skewers him, one of the Liverpool MPs could stand down too, and...

Decent article http://is.gd/ww3 but you need to get about 10 comments down the thread to experience...

Gillett Square, and the Vortex Jazz Club

“So in this post-democratic age, when the Labour...”
— Why David Davis is a hero

“If Labour chose not to stand a candidate...”
— Resignation ‘not...

I’m sure glad I don’t live in Howden. I’m proud of my Tory-free lifetime voting...

Aah, a circle is complete. This lot http://is.gd/vGC *heart* this lot http://is.gd/vGD

Habeas corpus… won with blood, then given away in a backroom deal with a party that wants to...

Bertolli’s “Bolognese” sauce is “Inspired by Tuscany” http://is.gd/uh6...

Don’t mention the Apennines, m’kay?

Chariot of ire: museum told to return...

Gary, 2 Alans, Martin, JP, Lawro, Ray, Lee, Garth… did it really need 9 BBC reporters to cover...

Hove beach huts, yesterday

“successful writers are going to be those best [at] promoting their own brand”...

Hornsey must be on some sort of parallel track speeding towards the End Times. No other parsimonious...

What exactly has Spring got to do with the spring roll?

http://is.gd/s7z Poor Plymouth: just when it was getting over the suicide bombers, this rocks up...

University professor discovers new Giotto

Maybe they could occasionally do these knifeandguncrime things http://is.gd/rLK in Berkshire say...

Twitter spammers are weird. I don’t get it. And how come they all have the same haircut.

Blogs vs mainstream media

Great idea… but who’s checking the stuff inside is accurate? Odds-on when I get myself...

“The Return of History is the type of easy-to-digest book...”
— The Great Seduction: History...

Curious that Wikipedia has no entry for the 1949 Iva Valley Massacre (Google it). History written by...

I appear to have outstayed my welcome… by about 20-odd years http://is.gd/mZi

National Trust: one of the (vanishingly few) advantages of aging. http://is.gd/qkH

“I assumed “socialism = national socialism” was just a joke....”

A greener way to travel to Umbria's capital

http://is.gd/pke: An idiot race, to honour lost / Who know them best despise them most (Ta,...

The Pantheon, neoclassical folly and sculpture gallery,...

Just noticed my unpunctuated “Great White South Africa” cap can be parsed in at least 2...

My corner shop has fitted a 36” HD-ready LCD flatpanel playing a 24-hour Turkish satellite...

Magna Carta, one copy, in English, 2.50. That’s the bedtime reading sorted.

Real T-shirt: “Sex, Drugs & Sausage Rolls” Bet it hasn’t been a great seller.

Off to Salisbury tomorrow, a break. Apart from re-reading http://is.gd/mPk (done) any other...

The only people we trust *more* than we did in 2003 are fat cats and tabloid hacks: http://is.gd/mer...

Anyone not seen this? http://is.gd/mdH I suggest you go correct that asap. I did yesterday

billy corkhill, vince hilaire / freddie flintstone, fred astaire / desmond tutu, steve and claire /...

sir bufton tufton, jean paul sartre zippy, bungle, jeffrey archer

Best kids museum in London: http://is.gd/lzn And this exhibition, mixing sport, design and politics,...

Exclusive: I can confirm that local squirrels eat white sliced bread. Brand preference unknown.

If the Greenwich economy can thrive despite Coke at 70p a can maybe resource wars aren’t...

Greenwich’s Painted Hall: officially the most grotesque load of baroque nonsense in the city.

In case you haven’t heard the news elsewhere, Tower Bridge is open.

A day on the Thames Clipper. First stop: mtb comp at Tate Modern. Hoodies and skaters everywhere....

How could they: http://is.gd/kTE I won’t hear a bad word said against @towerbridge.

http://is.gd/kLr Could this be the Big Idea for New Labour’s fightback?

Recycling day, gate by gate: nothing, nothing, green box, nothing, box, nothing, nothing, box, box,...

According to my calendar I should be wishing you all a joyous Fronleichnam. Or a pensive one, if...

Blair made a point of facing down the nutty wing, in public. Cameron triangulates. http://is.gd/jAS...

Michelle Malkin: Why I gave up Starbucks

20 obvious rebuttals to Nadine Dorries'...

Mr Kadim the clairvoyant has spammed our street again. Saw it coming etc.

http://is.gd/j4A The government *only* chucked away a billion in tax credits overpayments last year....

http://is.gd/j49 The latest informed comment from the Fundamentalist Right. (Warning: pack a sick...

“What most mattered… was never photographed, while too...”
— Abu Ghraib: Tortured truth

Indy, on ‘Chianti’: http://is.gd/iYi. Volterra, Ponsano, Casole d’Elsa, San...

http://is.gd/iUX Why don’t Mail readers purify their souls by opting out of any medical...

““I cannot see libertarians cuddling up to left-wing...”
— Liberal Conspiracy: Where Will...

This month’s 4 colour, 8 page, fully funded Hackney Homes News just hit the doormat. Cover...

I’m assuming all these Labour Catholics http://is.gd/itw voted with the Pope against Iraq and...

One large, fragrant Costa Rican pineapple, £2. Screw the food miles, you gotta love buying produce...

Re: http://is.gd/hoC Mission accomplished: http://is.gd/ibR Forza, Viola

Some throwback has scribed Ramones in neat caps on the tenner change I just got.

Hills of Tuscany: Vines and views

Crap final. And where was our reporter at the Potters Bar Ramada telling us what the Blues had for...

TEEN CHARGED IN OXFORD ST STABBING

Nuovo sciopero a sorpresa dei lavoratori...

It’s not a terribly original thought, but this is proper superb...

A Google Maps meets panoramic photography meets some of the best bits of Tuscany mashup. Here:...

Taking You Back to Tuscany

Forza, Viola

Post http://is.gd/hoC In which your intrepid political commentator and travel hack turns sports...

Used to think this guy was alright, if often mistaken, but he’s going into the...

I wish you could smell this Costa Rican pineapple. Ridley Road Market Rules.

Seven new cameras ready to operate in one...

Goocam World Map - Webcams from around the...

Fergie’s Bonnie Prince Charlie Manchester analogy (http://is.gd/gSp) was a bit too prescient...