End of the week roundup time......

Yes, it's those odd little stories usually found tucked at the end of a news bulletin or hidden away in postage-stamp size squares in the corner of the newspaper.

Except that these are mine.

# Thanks go out to the orange one currently living V.F.A. - it was nice that my attempted rallying call in a land elsewhere found another voice to add to mine. Perfect timing. Sorry, I'm being cryptic now too but she'll know what I mean and the rest of you would need a very long explanation. Which I just started writing. Arse.

# Walked into work this morning to be greeted by a colleague from accounts and a murmur of "So, we're losing you then ?" which stunned me for far too many seconds until they added "Noticed yesterday you've lost a lot of weight". Thinking they knew more about my employment status than I did wasn't nice. Seeing the fact I've lost two stone in the last 6 months is a very good thing in return. Nearly worth the moments of panic......

I'm off to harvest some ice for my absinthe fountain and then it's time to chillout and decide why neither "Hero" or "Zatoichi" won the World Cinema Awards last night. It's a scandal. Truly it is.

Feel free to read my story further down the page.

I'm pushing the "publish" button on this before I realise that the points in it make me look like a cryptic, vain, alcoholic film-snob that whores the one decent thing he's written ;o)