sun, sea & gripe water

At last I have arrived in the UAE to join Solveig (brown) and Freyja (grown) for a relaxing week at the in-laws** with much lounging by the pool and a bit of investigating Dubai's numerous shops and beaches and restaurants and golf courses and that.

Pictures will appear soon (in a rather random fashion, strangely related to when I need to stir from beside the pool and get another beer...)

Freyja in Dubai

Bliss.

** no, honestly :)

the Real deal

Real Madrid 0-1 Arsenal

"Thierry Henry struck just seconds after half-time to give Arsenal a stunning Champions League victory over Real Madrid in the Bernabeu."

Having been written off as the underdogs, Betfair prices for the Arsenal win pushed out at far as 7-1 at one point. So thank you very much, everyone, from the heart of my wallet :)

Did I mention I had a ticket for the second leg at Highbury? *sigh*

Big brother is watching you watching Big Brother

(Not really, but I like that headline so much...)

Guardian Unlimited Technology Technology Licence warning over watching TV on computer or mobile phone

So how are they going to police this little mess then?

arsenal in transition?

A lot of sense talked in this column:

Transition: This one, the next one, or not at all?

and on ArsenalLand in general.

P.S. Theo Walcott for President...

performancing

Despite sounding like some dreadful middle-management-speak ("We need to revisit our blue-sky performancing dichotomy...") this is great:

performancing

"Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits right within Firefox...easily post to your Wordpress, MovableType or Blogger blogs."

Nice.

Update : You can also bookmark to del.icio.us from it - double whammy!

back to work :(

So my paternity leave is nearly at an end. Bah.

Two weeks really isn't enough, you know. New parents have only just about worked out which end does what by then, and there's certainly no pattern to their sleeping/feeding. We were a bit lucky in that she arrived over Xmas/New Year so there were a few Bank Holidays thrown in for good measure, but if the Government are serious about wanting the best possible start for today's children, they could do worse than raise statutory paternity leave to four weeks paid leave. Or even six. And yes, they should fully reimburse those nice employers who encourage fathers to take time off to assist their partners by offering them more than the pitiful £106 per week basic.

Come on Tony Blair, father of four.
You can do better than this. Yes you can.
Stop being scared of the CBI and make a difference.

Update One

Thought I'd send the link to this post to Mr Blair.
So I went to the 10 Downing Street website and tried.
And got this:

Dear Adrian
We are aware that there is a temporaray fault on the Email the Prime Minister link which we are trying to fix so please bear with us.
Thank you for your patience.
Katie Smith
No.10 Web Manager
Prime Minister's Office
10 Downing Street
London

Inspired bit of e-government...

Update Two

Apparently, dough-faced-tight-fisted-Celtic-loon Chancellor-of-the-Exchequer Gordon Brown is to be a father again! Splendid, that can only mean a prompt revision of the paternity leave position and an increase in both time and remuneration. Surely...?

freyja sallie lightly

Yes, we've decided on the name(s).

Freyja: Norse goddess of love and fertility
Sallie: Solveig's maternal grandmother

*lump in throat*

unto us a child is born

Girl, 7lb 5oz, arrived at 9pm on 27th December 2005

First few shaky snaps: baby lightly

Mother and daughter both well and hoping to be home tomorrow.

I think that warrants a woot:

"WOOT!"

merry christmas(h)

I do love sprouts. Try sprout mash, with cream and parmesan. Mmmmm.

Sprout Mash

Oh, and a Happy Chrimbletide to you all (surely "both" - Stats Ed.) as well.

so today was the due date

No sign yet.
Baby still happily swimming around doing laps of the womb.
Watch this space.