Had this strange thing happen to me while making the long drive from my parents in Manchester back to the new forest. I stopped of for a toilet break and upong returning to the car noticed the mileage on the car which was 51515. When I checked the trip meter I had done 515 miles this weekend!!!!

I watched half of Baz Luhrman’s “William Shakespeare’s Rome + Juliet” last night. And although the film was excellently shot and produced, it couldn’t get me past one thing… Shakespeare. What the f##k is he going on about? There are many beautiful lines in Romeo + Juliet and these are amplified by the context of the actors in the film and Baz Luhrman‘s interpretations, but on the whole I just can’t keep with the plot.

–
Romeo: Has my heart loved ’till now? Forswear it, sight! For I never saw a true beauty ’till this night
–
Juliet:
My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy
–
Juliet: What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
–

Actually, reading Shakespeare is at least easier.

I’ve never really got into Shakespeare, although I like many of the reinterpretations, and Mel Gibson‘s Hamlet is about the best that stay close to the original narrative, I just get lost in the text; I just don’t understand it!

I guess I would have enjoyed the film had it ditched the original text.

I was reading through the poetry blog of Mark Hibbet… Hey Hey 16k for those of you who know it, and those who don’t go and check it out now..

Anyway, I cam across this gem;

Programming Is A Poetry For Our Time.

Take a complicated idea
And make the underlying point of it clear
Compress it down to fit in memory
Now tell me what’s the difference
Between programming and poetry?

Programming is a poetry for our time
It’s a poetry for our time
…

I’ve snippet the rest for copyright reasons, but you can check it out here…

Also, check out his other lyrics here…

Well, the weather finally broke near us last night, and the rain eventually fell. it’s been threatening to storm all week, but to no avail. The days and nights have been getting muggier and muggier.

Anyway, I fell asleep last night with the windows open listening to the rain. I love the sound of hard rain hitting the trees. Since moving to the south of england, one thing I noticed is the difference in the rain. Northern England has rain than lingers around, drizzles for days on end. And I know this will sound odd, but it’s like wet water. It gets you really soaked through to the bone even though it doesn’t seem like it’s raining much. It’s a bit lile the difference between hard and soft water areas. We live a hard water area, full of limescale, etc. The water eats detergent for breakfast and is easier to dry yourself. Northern water is soft and fluffy and keeps you wet no matter how many towels you use! Southern rain comes in monsoon like bursts. It rains hard and then moves on.

Last night was like that, big fat water droplets. The temerature, although still warm, was cooling and I fell asleep to the pleasing sound of rain hitting the oak and chestnut trees.

Spent Sunday taking in the sun with the family in the back garden. We had the kids big paddling pool out and they played happily all day.

At one point I was sat chilling when Jacob came over and so lovingly handing me a present. A turd! I double took a couple of times before realising what had actually happened. He looked so innocent and affectionate as he handed it to me… neadless to say Victoria and I cracked up laughing.

I hope it’s the first and last time my son gives me a shit present.