Check out the extremely creative Blog of Beau Bo d’Or. Great stuff.

I’ve been following some of the news about the Terrorist suspects caught in a dawn raid in Forest Gate. I grew up a few roads from there and I have extended family dotted all around that area. In fact only last Sunday I was showing my Mum this exact same street in Google Earth as my auntie lives there. As far as I’m aware the Bangladeshi, British and Pakistani community gets along fine there so I hope this doesn’t create any tensions. It just seemed like a strange coincidence when I saw this picture.

Learn a little more about the geography of Iran for the upcoming strategic missile strikes with this handy BBC map.

Keeping with the politics: The American Empire for Dummies.

The athiest’s nightmare. God invented bananas for man as can be seen in this video. It’s so true. Where’s my nearest church? Quick!

I loved the KLF. And since their demise I haven’t really taken a big interest in pop music. You can check out their old videos at popjustice.com Absolutely amazing.

Today’s game: Keepy Uppy Tennis Ball. I managed 90 but the phone rang and put me off.

Stop buying Heat magazine. Get all your US celeb gossip and pictures from justjared.com

Snooker Update: O’Sullivan 5 – 3 Dott. Play resumes this afternoon.

So much has been going on recently. I’m working hard on a couple of web projects that would be finished by now if it wasn’t for Microsoft IIS and Internet Explorer being ‘different’ to the standards. Time to catch up on some posting.

First lets congratulate the Super Hammers for getting through to the FA Cup final and into Europe. With a not very convincing win over Middlesbrough we’ll now face the mighty Liverpool at Cardiff on the 13th of May. That will kick start two months of football madness as I attempt to watch every televised game in the World Cup.

I’ve put another bet on, my third this year. First I put £5 on Lyon (at 20/1) to win the Champions League but they got knocked out in the final minutes of their quarter-final game. Secondly was my big win on the Grand National. Last week I put £5 on Graham Dott to win the World Snooker Championship at 40/1. He needs to win 13 frames to get into the semis and yesterday at close of play he was 10-6 up but he’s currently at 12-11. Is the last minute knock-out about to happen to me again? I could do with another £200.

Brilliant Rolling Stone Magazine interview with Kiefer Sutherland star of 24. Which this season is back to its best.

Some online games. Give them a try:
Lemmings on your broswer.
3D Logic. Starts off easy but soon gets hard.

Great news: “a dose of PT-141 results, in most cases, in a stirring in the loins in as little as 15 minutes. Women, according to one set of results, feel ‘genital warmth, tingling and throbbing’, not to mention ‘a strong desire to have sex’“. Old age isn’t looking so bad after all!

Oh, and hear what one of those middle of London street evangelists has to say over a coffee. Interview at b3ta.

SNOOKER UPDATE:
12-12 all, deciding frame. Dott 51 – 37 Robertson. So close. The games already been going on for 30 minutes.

SNOOKER UPDATE:
This is getting too intense. Robertson is now 23 behind with 18 on the table. He needs snookers. Come on Dott!!

SNOOKER UPDATE:
Excellent! The tiny Scot did it! He may have to beat Ronnie O’Sullivan to get to the final though so I can’t celebrate yet.

Just heard on Radio Five Live:
Presenter: “Tiger Woods has received condemnation from charities after saying he ‘played like a spaz’ during last weekend’s play at Augusta. On the line now is a ten year old boy with cerebal palsy…”

I also see that Dave Morgan, the “former fiancé of Jessie Wallace”, has sold another story to The Sun. He must be hard up. The headline is “Coke used like After Eights”, which is odd as I always thought you put coke up your nose. It’s just sad to see an “ex-PC” making money off selling three year old stories to the press. I just remember seeing a clip from The Farm (Five) where Flavor Flav asks him what he does and Morgan responds by saying “I dated a soap star” – the look on Flavor Flav’s face, ha! I would like to point out that I read the free online version of this paper.

Popped into the new British Bookshops & Stationers today on Western Road. It’s the new version of Sussex Stationers but bigger, cleaner and the products were actually labelled with their price, take note Woolworths and Robert Dyas (the price slackers of Western Rd). All the staff were really friendly and helped me find a few bits and bobs I was looking for, apart from one. The security guard was casting a shadow around me the whole time I was there. Occassionally I looked at him and he didn’t even look away that quickly. It was so full on though that if he does it again I’ll complain. I’m paying your wages, Sunshine! (Well £4 of it anyway).

Just as I was falling asleep last night I heard on the radio that firefighters were battling a fire at Bleak House in Broadstairs. I spent a good eight years of my youth in Broadstairs and was in the same class at school as the owner’s daughter so I’ve had the odd peek inside this house. You can see it here at the top left:

I’ve read that it has been sold recently to a new owner, which is a relief, who is apparently a jewellery magnate so locals are now calling it Bling House.

Broadstairs is in/on the Isle of Thanet, or Planet Thanet as its affectly known as, which is made up of Margate, Broadstairs, Ramsgate and a big airfield. Once an Island it’s now connected to the Kentish mainland, although you wouldn’t be able to tell that if you went there. People are still wearing Campri ski jackets.

For the latest Thanet news you must check out the Thanet Life blog. You’ll be able to read for yourself that this is unlike any other island. Dr Moores, who runs that site, has taken some amazing aerial photographs from his plane. You can see them at his Flickr photoset.

I’d also recommend the humourous Eastcliff Richard blog, subtitled “Ramsgate, the new millionaires’ playground, as seen by a new millionaire”. A post this morning has already called the Bleak House fire the “Bling Blaze”.

My yearly horse racing bet, the Grand National. I’ve been ‘up’ more often than not and won £300 one year with a £15 bet.

This year the going is good so it’s more than likely that one of the top four favourites will win. The odds of 5-1 for Hedgehunter seem a bit tight for a long 40 horse race though. My to-win bet is on NUMBERSIXVALVERDE at 12-1, I’ve also done three small each-way bets on RISK ACCESSOR, LE DUC and BARON WINDRUSH which will more than pay back my bets if they come in 2nd, 3rd or 4th. I’ll update later with the results.

UPDATE: My horse came in!! I put £15 on NUMBERSIXVALVERDE and I got £195 back from the bookies. Another successful year!

UPDATE 2: I’ve just seen that RISK ACCESSOR came 5th! I had £3 Each Way at 66-1 which would have been another £50 in the pot if it had come 4th. Oh well

“A 600ft observation mast, it would carry a pod holding up to 100 people gently upwards, providing dramatic and sweeping views of up to 25 miles on a clear day. The futuristic, slender structure would be taller than both the Eye and Blackpool Tower, but its narrowness would minimise impact on the cityscape.” From The Guardian.

I’m totally in favour of this as its all privately funded and won’t come out of my council tax bill. I just wonder how much it’ll wobble on windy days. And I’d be a bit scared to live closer than 600ft downwind.

Today’s link: The strange case of the man who took 40,000 ecstasy pills in nine years. From The Guardian.