Personal: September 2005 Archives

No blog yesterday because I went to an aperitif tasting at the Almeida in Islington. Yes, very swanky and chattering classes. Still, just to show I'm not betraying my Eltham heritage, I'd point out there's not many places you can get five glasses of swish wine (Lillet, Nouilley Prat, a Muscat, a Kir and do you seriously think I'd remember the fifth one?) and five tapas for £15 a head?

Not sure how I got on their mailing list except I booked a table there once via Toptable.

Anyway, had a great time: met some nice people and had some good food and drink. In a weird “small world” sort of way, the couple we sat with were a former PR for GMTV whom I used to speak with when I was back on Televisual and the son-in-law of one of the main influential speech and language therapists ever, who pioneered work in dysfluency (my wife, Sarah, is a speech and language therapist, specialising in dysfluency).

So if you can get on their mailing list, do! They also offer French cooking classes: £75 a person and you get a four-course meal included. Bargain.

I was at a wedding at the weekend. This is not too unusual for me: I've reached that time of life and I'm averaging three or four a year now.

But something's been bothering me and perhaps someone could help me out here.

A wedding is the most important day in just about anyone's life. Not only is it one of the few days dedicated purely to the happy couple, but it marks the beginning of a whole new life for them both. Then there's the enormous expense of it all, with thousands of pounds being spent to make the day as enjoyable and as memorable as possible.

So answer me this: why is it that there is a peculiar class of person who attends weddings and thinks, “No, of all the people here, I am actually the most important of you all.”

I am, of course, talking about parents who bring their infants to weddings.

Feeling quite chuffed with myself today. Helped someone fix a networked LocalTalk printer even though the LocalTalk connection was broken. Saved a magazine from putting a piece of software that wouldn't work onto their cover CD (and worked out what the problem was for the developer!). And I got two potential new clients.

Right, off I'm off to learn some Spanish now.

I've released an update to my completely free script SCHWIF2004, which lets Entourage users create complex HTML messages with inline files. Lots of bug fixes: hopefully even the jackals at Versiontracker should be pleased with it; I expect it'll still be too much to ask them to tell me if they spot any bugs…