The GNL party was just astonishing: two music rooms, aerial acrobats, poker, roulette, ever-lasting dinner, umpteen bars, a grumpy editor, the postroom boys, human sudoku, and much, much fun. Of course, it’s all in a day’s work for Lost Vagueness. Here are some pics: the high wire act, poker, roulette and sudoku. There are plenty [...]

A surprising juxtaposition in today’s Guardian. An item headed “British police powers toughest in Europe” looks at our benevolent government’s proposal to extend detention without trial to 90 days, and compares that to other European countries: “France… 48 hours… Germany… 24 hours… Greece… 24 hours… Italy… 24 hours… Norway… 48 hours… Spain… 13 days…”.
Then beneath [...]

I’m listening to the Moral Maze, which weirdly is live from the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. The audience laugh when Melanie Philips makes a sarcastic comment, claps when a guest dares to object to being interrupted… Frankly, it’s got more than a whiff of The Day Today’s spoof Question Time: Live from Wembley Stadium.
Next [...]

Since Pashmina is writing about restaurants (and despairing of chains) I thought I’d report our restaurant experience last night: we dined at Cigala in Lambs Conduit Street.
[Note to clickers: Cigala's home page is cack, involving a splash screen (more pointless work for you, dear reader) followed by a site which is only visible if you [...]

Because the lease expired. The freeholders thought they could get more money but it didn’t make sense to the Petit Prince people. So while that doesn’t make the closure any better, at least there was no family tragedy which caused it.
Don’t ask me how I know these things; I just know.
Meanwhile, as I was saying [...]

Passed this again today in Upton Park, and thought I ought to take a photo. I think it’s terrific, and that’s almost entirely because it’s physically very accessible. It’s positioned about 2ft off the ground in a specially-enlarged pavement area on the corner of a busy street. So people see it all the time and [...]

An anonymous friend in dark glasses and a raincoat with the collar turned up has passed on these to me. They’re from CVs for a job they advertised:
“Seek a job in the field of solid technology, where every footstep has different challenges.”
“Design of digital watch with added features such as moose etc.”
“Attended Workshops on: Personality [...]

This headline tickled me for no reason I can adequately explain:

It reminded me of a Guardian story from, ooh, maybe 1997. It concerned a committee of the Church of England who had said eternal damnation was much more about despair and loneliness than about fire and brimstone. The headline was “Hell not so hot, says [...]

Following my discovery yesterday from Neil about the Tom Coates/Cilit Bang incident, I relayed it to my cousin who happens to work for the Sunday Telegraph. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to tell the news desk about that,” he said, “but not the bit about the detergent.” Turns out he’s far more interested in [...]

Neil has written up an incredible story, of how Tom Coates has been blogging about his attempts to make contact with his estranged father, only to be callously mugged by an ad agency. It’s compelling and human, with the strange twist that this is all taking place in a new online world.
I can’t precis it. [...]