You can tell a lot about a man from his study

This was going to be a simple confession about my addiction to pens and the joy that I have had in liberating them from stationery cupboards and conference stands around the world but when I cam to take a photograph of those on my desk in my study the realization suddenly hit me that I have several other things that I could confess to and the evidence for these is for all to see in my study.


This is part of my desk, about half of it is shown here. I bought it in Habitat some 25 years ago when the Black Ash finish was trendy and I still like it. The simple answer to "why are there 2 PC on your desk?" is "Because the third is downstairs in the living room". By coincidence they are all IBM Thinkpads. Also in the picture are three mobile phones, again for good reasons.

The discerning viewer may be able to tell that between the two PCs are 5 pen pots, all from Muji, and a desk tidy with three pen compartments. A quick count makes that over 120 pens, and that does not include those in the two pencil cases just about visible on the left edge of the picture, nor does it count those in the rest of the house where Muji pen holders are more common that light bulbs.



This view of my study is far too revealing!

The piles of comics on the floor should not be a surprise to anyone, nor should the two long boxes of comics behind them. The other boxes of comics are elsewhere in the room. In the bookcase at the back of the picture are graphic novels, e.g. Sandman, Daredevil and Dreadstar. My plan is to get some custom built shelving, probably System 180 stuff (I have a lot of this including a desk, a wardrobe and a bed), to keep all my comics in but I need to do some work to design them first.

Also in the bookcase are a few books. Most of them are old, battered and written by Leslie Charteris and featuring The Saint. Hopefully the rumors of a new TV series will come true this year.

What looks as though it might be a black bag in the middle of the picture is, in fact, fourteen black bags in the middle of the picture, and there are at least seven other bags spread around the room. My addiction to cheap bags with corporate logos on is probably even worse than that for cheap pens with corporate logos on.

I could not show you the big bookcase in the room, nor the filing cabinet in the desk, otherwise I would have to explain why I need so much A4 paper that either has a corporate logo on each page or which has been nicely bound into a book with a corporate logo on the cover.

Time to go to the pub and think about things!

Two Pints is back on Sunday and I'll be there!!

Series 7 of the fabulous Two Pints of Lager and ... starts this Sunday on BBC Three at 9pm.

The first episode is being shown live and I am delighted to say that my tickets arrived this morning so I'll be there.

What fun!

The rest of the series has already been filmed and I went to a recording of one of the episodes in early December. On the evidence of that episode the new series is going to be as good as it ever was.

Building Schools for the Future

The Labour Government has put vast amounts of money into the building of new schools and the rebuilding/refurbishment of existing schools. This is a good thing generally but unfortunately a lot of the money has been wasted by local councils who have little idea of how to spend the money and by builders who have seen all this extra demand as an excuse to simply put up there prices.

In Kingston upon Thames the local council has asked schools to describe their visions for the future as the start of the process of deciding how to spend the next round of funding. We have responded but the framing of the questions shows just how little the council understands about how schools and schooling are changing and the extent to which they are likely to change over the next fifty years plus, which is the expected life of the new school buildings.

This is one example that explains why I strongly believe that local councils should have nothing to do with the management or organization of schools.

At last, a posh tomato sauce!

Having eaten a substantial amount of Heinz tomato ketchup over the years, the introduction of an up-market tomato sauce is most welcome!

Tiptree Tomato Sauce is darker and thicker than the mass-market sauces and tastes just great.

My usual lunch is now cheese on toast flavored by Tiptree tomato sauce and fresh ground black pepper - it's yummy!

My operating system is now ten years old

It might seem odd for somebody who has worked in the IT industry for almost thirty years but the operating system on my main computer at home is running an operating system that is now ten years old!

The PC (an IBM ThinkPad X21) still works well enough but I suspect that 2008 is that year that will finally see it replaced, probably by one of the new Macs that are rumoured.

My pride at still running Windows 98 was dented a little at Heathrow recently when one of the displays above the check-in desks, instead of showing the flight details, was displaying the Windows 95 logo!