11.08.2003 - 1:22 p.m.

I'm back, and still in one peace although slightly browner. My time on the IoW ferry created a question, does a registered ships captain, who has spent years training for the job, only to end up going back and forward between england and a small island every half hour feel cheated ? Does he long to take a badly trimmed supertanker of hydrogen into Milford Haven without a pilot in force 8 weather just for the crack, just to see if he's still got what it takes ? If there's anyone out there who knows a ships captain please ask for me.

The one or two people who read this may have noticed an increasing tendancy towards rabbits, this isn't specifically directed towards rabbits but more generally towards furryness, rabbits are just a handy example. I attribute this mainly to J's influence as she has a sizeable portion of her mind dedicated to fluffyness in all its shapes and forms. I have always had cats, hamsters, gerbils etc as pets and find it a rewarding experience, they're just like little people really with small furry personalities ( espesh cats and hamsters ) except they don't argue and screw you around. I've never owned a rabbit, but there's so many of them in the areas around my house I sort of have them by proxy. This has broadened out into ( fake ) fur blankets to throw over the casualties that occasionally litter my living room and characterful furry cushions for the heads of the aforementioned casualties, they're always well received.

Plus I find it amusing to think that Cisco's success is all due to the special breed of minature Netherland dwarf rabbits they use inside their routers, it's not cruel, the wabbits enjoy the challenge of directing the worlds ether-based traffic, and it contributes little by little to my new and improved view of the world.

Everything else I planned for today has surreptitiously crept out my ear during the last paragraph, so now i'm forced to start working again, bugger.

I'm sure it's going to get momentarily better as the week goes on before descending back into incoherent ranting, ah ha...

... now I remember, the news over the weekend has been both sad and darkly funny at the same time, and in no particular order :

1) british railways - the laughing point for every country we exported steam engines to earlier last century ( most of which are still working ). The temperature creeps over 100.c and all our rails melt, inciting speed restrictions over half the country and yet more travelling chaos. And in a few months the falling leaves will be turned to a carbonised residue on the very same rails, forcing more speed restrictions, and soon after that some snow might fall which will stop trains running full stop because it seem like a good idea at the time to put the air intakes for the engines of little local trains near the axles which then fill up with snow when driven through *the* snow, hurrah for design by commitee.

2) Iraq - I'm not pro or anti war, there are valid reasons for both arguments but as a front line soldier, being shot at is a very unpleasant experience. Wars are generally fought as a series of set pieces one of which involves taking out the water and power supplies before an assault. Iraq apparantly has civil utilities based on designs from the 70's, if you KNOW you're going to smash them up with 50 grands worth of guided munition, is it not a wise idea to have replacement pumps / filters / substations / reels of cable all loaded into container sized packges which you can then speed into the city to patch up the precision guided destruction and thus keep the civilian population HAPPY and on YOUR side ? if you thought it was hot here, it's currently 50.c in the shade over there and there's been no mains water / sewerage / electric for fridges or air conditioning / petrol for generators for months, and only now the general population are starting to shout about it, complete bunch of rotten food based arse.

That'll do.