A Donkey on the Edge

Do you know what they/he are/is doing now? Have the lizards joined in the eighties revival at all? B-)

today if you haven't already. I went against my better judgement and voted for the Tony candidates for all three seats. I'm still cross with Labour and in local government I reckon Camden could use some Green Party seats but I'm feeling the LePen effect here...

So go out and vote, polls close at 19:00

we have now started discussing baby arrival in terms of "early". This is a problem seeing that our flat is still a mess. The bathroom is now going to happen in July and both the hall and the back room (baby room) are filled with rubble and dust.

I am going like gangbusters, but this stuff takes forever :-(

Keep your fingers crossed (as Nick keeps her legs crossed...)

Tell Nicki: no housework, no curries and no raspberry tea! B-)

grin Yup, no ripening required around here for a least another two weeks. Re Lizards, I think they were an art college prank (no not St Martin's for once) - when they first appeared on TOTP they had to make numbers up...

Initially Deborah 'Lizard' made up the duo. I't's her voice on "Money"

I think they're still out there making art and having a laugh :-) David did a piece at the ICA in 1995 and runs a small record label

Both David and Deborah had laywers from the word go (and succesfully renegotiated their freedom of movement with Virgin very early on...

Well, it looks like there was a wee bit of a Le Pen effect in Oldham and Burnley. Only two council seats for the BNP, but they do generate a lot of publicity from that, don't they? I went for one Labour and two Green. Our Greens sent round a leaflet saying which one to vote for if you only gave them one vote. It's a good idea, unless the BNP start using it ;-)

Andy sez,

"http://yugop.com/ver3/stuff/03/fla.html -- I like this...a lot."

Dug sez,

Yup, - this is very cool :-) Are you familiar with human clock? And for no particular reason doesn't the film on this page remind you of a certain very skinny programmer?

it's almost nine o'clock and I'm tired. Deep down exausted (yearning for carbohydrates I suspect...). Off to Thorpers tomorrow which will be good, as I definitely need a break.

"even anarchists spend most of their time talking in meetings"

From Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point"

sorry, I thought I'd grab a few moments after hours to update the template and I think I/05/have broken it :-( please send me a note if something appears to not be working properly - am off to bed now but will try and sneak another hour in tomorrow night...

well, I missed my first deadline. The carpet guy gets here at 8:30 and the plan was for all the plastering and painting to have been done. I've still got a fair bit of wall-mending to do so will have to use lots of drop-cloths. Still, it'll be good fun having new flooring...

On a different note, I've been listening to an emi classics re-edition of a 1959 recording of Puccini's Manon Lescaut. Maria Callas had never performed the opera live before but produced a bit of magic for the microphone. The recording took place at the Scala in Milan with the choir and orchestra Teatro Alla Scala with Giuseppe di Stefano singing Des Grieux. It's a mono recording, but I cry as I plaster during the fourth act. I've heard people complain that Callas used too many paint colours in her coloratura, but I had never heard her before and bought the cd to see what it was all about. What an album :-)

well, the carpet guy came and I if you had told me that buying carpet could bring you hapiness...

Took the day off from building, just back from dinner with Piers and Cally very nice jamon cerano and oil brought back from melbourne. Back to the grind tomorrow :-)

is what i did half an hour ago and Nicki put the Beatles' "Let it Be" on the cd player. Wow, I haven't heard that particular album in ages, and you know what, it good, very good. I had forgotten the concept of concept - lots of J Lennon verbals - strange and satisfying (or was that supposed to be strangely satisfying)...

is something that has been parked quietly off my starboard bow for some time now. Now matter how many midwife visits and trouble-free weeks pass I can't help thinking that something is going to go wrong... My head is a little fucked with right now as I've got the headphones on and turned up all the way as the two young'uns upstairs are having a major house-warming bash and Nick and I have just returned from the Royal Free (hospital) were Nick has just spent three hours hooked up to a monitor.

Basically, Nicki and the little guy have had a regular relationship so far - she rolls over, little guy grabs the duvet and tries to get comfy again. So I noticed she was rubbing her tummy earlier this evening in an attempt to get him to move. No dice.

So we called the midwife and headed off to hospital (warm night, riot at the Czech house, it's starting to rain and folk are just getting liquored up) straight away. Well, to cut a long story short, all is well. But what a fright :-(

always seems to lead me astray. "Moi qui suit peut-etre le Francais le plus brézillien de France" is a silly line from a Pierre Barouh song on the "Man and a Woman" album mostly composed by Francis Lai (you know the one... shabbadabada, shabbadabada...)

Anyway, for some reason this lead me here why oh why oh why...

(Billy:)

You just reminded me of how worrying it all is. We were scared for most of the Apoa pregnancy, also during the birth, and even afterwards. My auntie Isobel always says "ye've nae worries until ye have kids, and then ye've nothing but worries". Cheery thought, eh?

(dug:)

It is indeed a bit of a roller-coaster ride (and only the beginning for Nick and I) this parenthood thing. Luckily, all of Billy's children are well :-) Hopefully one forgets the bad bits and only remembers the wonder. I'm pretty sure my mom looks back fondly on having two under-eights (of course things are going to get rocky at puberty)

considering the amount of time I spend online, I think it's amazing I've only just come accross http://gbloogle.benhammersley. com/

readers/05/remember several posts on the subject of Macromedia Flash's resistible rise.

While my personal design philosophy remains the same it has always been (as regards plug-ins) that the good ones are great and if used appropriately, are welcome.

For a funny and much less level headed assessment of the destruction of the internet by the legions of vile Flash-wielding wankers, read dack.com

I've lifted this little pearl...

Maybe you have never seen e-commerce sites in flash, forms, chat rooms, but I can tell you they not only exist, but are in most cases superior, as they require less back end work from the server, thus making them more reliable

So less server involvement makes sites more reliable. I'm sorry, this isn't even funny...

especially seeing as I am about to have a child, but I can't help being excited about the imminent arrival of my replacement Snell speakers (you/05/remember from an earlier post, that my original ones where damaged shortly after returning from the service centre). Seeing the old ones hurt was heart-breaking, but the new ones should be here soon.

The Snell site has a story about the K.5MkII and any accoustigeeks can download the pdf if they really want to ;-)

Nick and I have just got back from an (rare) evening out. Had Thai food in Bayswater followed by Bend it Like Beckham. The film is completely ordinary and faultless in terms of structure, but magic in terms of acting and story. Would definitely recommend :-)

Billy says: hello? You're about to have a kid? And you've just got yourself some groovy speakers? I'm sorry. There's something about this that just doesn't add up. Next thing you'll be telling me you're going to jump on a motorbike and ride to Dakar...

Dug says: well dear, that was the plan ;-) But seriously, I couldn't have afforded to replace my speakers myself (particularly since I had just shelled out a pretty penny to have them mended) but luckily, they were covered by my contents insurance.

Speaking of speakers, my next CD curiosity is Decca 414 383-2 this was recorded from the studio monitor during a major recording - capturing the composer's voice (one half of a sometimes surreal conversation) without his knowledge. While he condemned this at the time, it would have been a shame to keep it under wraps...

I just thought I'd add that my friend Billy has decided to become a prolific blog poster;-) You know you want to read it. Do it now.

Lust lust lust http:http://www.apple.com/xserve/

630 gigaflops of processing power. The Xserve 1U form factor enables you to deploy a formidable array of up to 84 PowerPC G4 processors in a standard, 42U 8-foot-tall rack...

Where did I put that piggy-bank?

Got a call last night from a slightly pissed José-Antonio from a bar in Köln - the whole gang was there, Ben and Laura, Bill and Caroline, I think Ado, Robert and Daniel were all going to make the big day.

Darn, I'm going to miss his bloody wedding. Again.

I wonder if you can still send telegrammes (multiplyforthgo - stop - wishesbestyouboth - stop - dugnicklove - stop) from the post office? I guess I'm condemned to never make it to one of Jasr's weddings, but I'm hoping this one is "The" one and will therefore be his last :-)

Have just picked up a nifty digital camera (which works with iPhoto, which turns a gimmick into a useful appliance) and have started snapping. In the nav over on the left there's a link to "scrapbook" that's where I'll be keeping pictures.

Of course, as soon as we have pics of junior, I'll upload em

first contractions at 04:30 this am - mother currently in bath...

Darn, this is one serious roller-coaster ride ;-) What happened today is only just becoming clear now (at 17:17 - twelve and a half hours after we thought Nick went into labour). What actually happened, was that Nicki contracted some quite potent tummy bug (probably from her friend Alison's mother-in-law who came down from Scotland with a bug) and the pains were the aches of violent food poisoning (imagine violent vomiting and endless diarrhea, body temperature all over the place - not nice, but for someone due in a few days, easy to mistake for Labour).

Well, nothing is definite, but we're monitoring the situation closely (in case it was labour).

To whom it/05/concern:

I recently read of your patent infringement lawsuit against Dickson supply and ten others.

Web-based systems cannot be protected by patent. It is foolish to assume otherwise and I am pretty sure that this little tomfoolery of yours is going to bite you in your corporate ass.

You/05/protect your written creations (including software) with copyright and you/05/prevent those that you trade with from stealing your business secrets by issuing non-disclosure agreements.

But you can't patent what happens between computers on a network using html - much the same way you can copyright a book but you can't patent the English language.

As news of your heinous activity spreads across the internet, you will find yourself increasingly under pressure to desist. I urge you to stop now before this gets out of hand.

Regards, Dug

.....................................

dug falby

creative director pumpernickle.net http://www.pumpernickle.net

Info re the latest patent nonsense from the USA (http://panipcase.homeip.net/defendants.asp)

You know, when I started this thing I thought "gee, we're spending cash on a fancy bathroom refit, why not be mr helpful and do the back room?"

This was never supposed to be a marathon I mean it's a tiny little room - how hard could it be? But for the last I can't remember how long I've been bashing away in there. There is not a single solitary inch of wall, ceiling or even floor that did not require some form of engineering or design...

But we're nearly there, which is a good thing considering we almost gave birth yesterday ;-)

More legal rubbish Chris and Derek have started trading under the name "warm company" and some other "warm company" in Seattle (yes, trigger-happy lawyers living amongst Starbucks-drinking ingenus) USA isn't happy about it.

They want Chris to stop trading under the name. This is crazy as they are in a totally different line of work (the other lot make quilts) and damn it, this is pissing me off. When we all started this internet thing it was supposed to be a collaborative effort.

Who let the fucking lawyers in?

Hi Chris,

Heard about this horrible thing. I don't know if it helps, but I found this via Dug's friend Jose Antonio's blog

It's a decision about a dispute over the domain name www.dada.com. Jose Antonio's brother, Juan Carlos, was sued by a sportswear company called dada and he won. I'm not sure I totally get it, but it seems that some of the relevant things are "legitimate interest", whether there is a "confusing similarity" with the names, whether you have a "sufficient interest" in the name.

Anyway, maybe Juan-Carlos or his lawyers could help you.

Hope you get it all sorted. What a bloody annoying bore,

Billy

Dug,

Remember your posting about the letter from 'Dr. Isah Gambo, Senior Accountant in the office with the Honourable Governor of Central bank of Nigeria'?

This scam is becoming more widespread, it seems (I don't know why, but I've been getting these for years now). Matthew Engel has a piece about it here in today's Guardian. He's amazed to find that at least 300 people have fallen for it in the states in the last 8 years. But what percentage is that? The thing with these scams is that you don't need a large percentage of suckers in your target audience to make it worth your while.

Looks like 'the Nigerian letter' is now in the top ten of confidence tricks, and/05/soon be challenging 'the Spanish prisoner' for that number one slot.

B-)

== Forwarded Message ==
Date: 21/05/2002 18:54
Received: 21/05/2002 17:58
From: andy@purplemanchester.co.uk (Andy Ward)
To: poncholove@ic24.net (Mark Aspinall)

http://www.liquid.se/pong.html

andy@purplemanchester.co.uk
http://www.purplemanchester.co.uk

from Zimbabwe and from zdnet (http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-918960.html)

Six people were arrested in South Africa over the weekend on suspicion of being involved in the infamous "Nigerian" e-mail and letter fraud.

I thought this was just a variation (different scale, different location) on the classic New York con that goes along the line of "would you just hang on to my money for a few minutes"... (this is sort of like the "pigeon drop")

It's funny, this type of thing used to be really popular in New York - it was like getting mugged, everyone had a story to tell...

You'd think I'd learn to not attack simultaneously on two fronts (bedroom and hall)

or so the ubergeeks would have you believe. I remember Chris explaining at great length how he could upgrade parts of his Linux kernel while the machine was running.

What the Unix guys don't tell you, is that those amazing uptime results are helped along by a total lack of device control (no usb bus etc). When a company tries to make a use friendly version of BSD that is the "hub of your digital lifestyle" they bump into USB bus barfing and nasty driver conflicts. The following image is what happens to an Imac if it goes to sleep when tethered to a usb camera (the lovely Canon ixus) - nasty kernel panic...

As much as I dearly love Nicki's little white Imac (pictured) this is sad - really, depressingly, woefully sad. So the question is, who ya gonna call, Apple or canon?

EDD+1 - no news on the baboo front... putting finishing touches on nursery and moving on to hall bookcases (if Nicki could keep her legs crossed for two more days we'd be all done ;-)

my friend Ben in Washington DC wants to know why there are no pictures in the scrapbook of the back wall of the back room. Well, that would be because the back wall is a horrible fright as Luis the carpenter's business associate has not delivered the closet units yet. Confused?

This is a picture of the gas meter showing the rotten plaster and 30 years of water damage. This all gets walled off (ok, I can hear you tut, but until you've been exposed to long term British cowboy damage, you can keep stum...) so there is only sound wall visible. Note the new plaster door frame in the other pics :-)

EDD+2 - no contractions yet...

The following reproduced from http://www.nominet-no.co.uk/

...they are planning on publishing private home postal addresses, for personal web-domains which are registered through them; that's ALL the .uk Top Level Domains which includes the .co.uk Sub-Domain. Nominet will be introducing an expanded WHOIS reply format this summer. In line with the format used by other Registries, the new WHOIS will include the name and address of the domain name Registrant.

I have to say, I've always felt that the chaps at Nominet were a bit of a piss-take, I mean have you tried becoming a Nominet tag holder? The amount they expect you to pay for nought is shocking. I've just started boycotting their top-level domain...

EDD +3

There was an old woman who swallowed a fly I don't know why, etc...

Well, there was a moderately young woman who swallowed a horse, I don't know why she swallowed a horse, It's a metaphor for pregnancy, of course...

Not looking forward to labour, but God, I wish I could just get it over with.

Yeah, it's the real thing (at least it's all going ahead as one would expect). Contractions now every 8-9 mins, lasting 45 secs to 1 min. I have been beetling about doing washing and organising the kitchen and what not, and have just woken up Dug with breakfast in bed (for the last time ever! I don't think he has quite grasped this fact).

Almost three hours in, it's not really sore yet, just very abdominal with surges across my lower back, but it certainly makes me sit up and take note. The most pain (or discomfort) is from diarrhoea which is absolutely red hot and stinging (too much information?), but I would rather the discomfort now than the indignity later. Dug bought me a big clear plastic ball for this very moment (beach games? now? surely shome mishtake) and I've been bobbing up and down on it for the past 45 mins, drinking peppermint tea and reading up on what to expect. The ball is great and seems to absorb any pain which is very civil of it. The cat is being weird - she is normally comatose at this time of day, only rousing herself to soak up the early rays on the window sill, but she's been steadily following me around since I got up and has spent a long time sitting staring at me.

As for when we go to hopsital, who knows. We'll see how it goes. If it all gets a bit hot and heavy we might make a move in that direction, but not for several hours. My experience last weekend put me off the whole thing and the less I see of the labour ward the better. I'll keep you posted.

Off for a bath,

Love N

PS I have no intention of getting my hair cut and returning to hedgehog state. It's taken me this long to get this far, and I fully intend to pursue my femininity until I have exhausted it (motherhood, flowing tresses, leg wax, etc), so no scissors, no siree.

contractions started at 05:05 and are the right strength and distance (see Nicki's post below). It's now nine o'clock, and mum is chilling in the bath. I think we're both happy that the wait is over...

Bit of a weird moment there - I got in the bath and everything slowed down, or at least it was so dreamy in the bath I couldn't feel the contractions. So I went to bed and they kicked in again with a vengeance. Now they are every seven mins, lasting about 45 secs - 1 min and definitely stronger. Duggie attached the TENS machine so we'll see how that goes - we might have left it too late - it's supposed to go on from the off, but frankly I'm glad I had the bath. Still no broken waters - I am now ruffing the script for that soap in my head.

the idea being to get a few minutes sleep in preparation for tonight's big push... Off to the Royal Free soon.

this is pretty rough going for Nicki, she's in labour, but not yet 'enough' in labour (getting to know the labour ward quite well, tho...)

Nicki still in pain but contractions getting stronger - might head back to the RFH later tonight, if not it'll be tomorrow am

well, Nick's just had another bath - this seems to both relax her and slow the contractions (or 'rushes' as some womenfolk have been known to call them) which should give her a little window to get some sleep in. Back to RFH tomorrow I think.

Well, I've just woken up - it's 08:14 and I had to abandon Nicki last night which was both a relief (as we were both going to get a little sleep) and a very frightening experience. The antenatal ward at the RFH doesn't allow husbands to stay outside of visiting hours - I brought her bags, put her to bed, hugged her and then abandoned her :-(

On the plus side, the staff there are all very good and I'm pretty sure she's in good hands.

The story so far. Arrive at RFH this morning at 03:30, At 05:00, Nick has been having regular contractions for 48 hours! At 05:30, baby's heart rate is good, but position is posterior (slower, more painful delivery) and Nicki is only one centimetre dilated.

I'm off now, this morning we have to try and get the little guy to turn around.

11:57 And Nicki is still in the antenatal ward at the RFH. I went in this morning and she was asleep. I waited for her to wake, hugged her and took a bath with her - she looks great and is feeling much better. The antenatal ward is fantastic, they've given her all manner of dodgy tablets to help with the pain and to help her sleep. She needs the energy for the big push.

I've put some snaps in the scrapbook. The very qualified and extremely reassuring nurse midwife is called brida - she's the one at the desk in the picture. I'm going to go back to bed now so I can be my supportive best this evening, and knowing what the ward is like, I might actually get to sleep this time - Nick's in good hands.

More info soon no doubt

still no news - mum in antenatal ward at RFH (18:26)

Well, back at home again. Nicki is spending the night in the antenatal ward (no husbands allowed after 20:00) - they're keeping her comfy with pain relief and she's looking a lot perkier. More excitement tomorrow morning...

Those wacky guys at the London design collective bring you a web site that fits in 18 by 18 pixels and still includes a range of content (such as art: http://www.guimp.com/warholsoup.html)

The beeb have webcams of their two (Docklands and New York City) telehouse server cabinets - grin:-)

07:52 having a piece of toast and am about to head in to RFH. Our friend Julie in Dhaka has asked a few questions

However, it looks as if things are improving and hotting up? There's some dilation? Nick's been able to get some rest (couldn't imagine how tired she must have been getting). Presumably, if the labour's not happening, then they must be getting close to inducing or something more radical?

which I thought I'd better answer as others reading this/05/want the information. There is some dilation. At least when Nick was examined at three am yesterday morning, the midwife "could get one finger in" (not the technical of appraisals, but hey).

Labour has been happening, it's just very slow, and when Nicki gets relaxed and sleeps (codydramol, two tablets once or twice a day depending on the pain) the contractions slow. Yesterday evening, Nick woke after being in bed all day and found the contractions were very far apart and not too hard. In the 90 minutes I spent with her on the ward, contractions picked up.

The baby was 'posterior' - it had its back to Nicki's back. This position effectively means that your uterus can push for England, but juniors head has nowhere to go - obviously both frustrating and exhausting, not to mention painful.

The plan as it stands is that we are going to start walking around and bouncing on the ball and see if we can't get junior to move. We are at the point of induction, and Nicki isn't against it, but we're going to see how it goes today.

11:20 Thursday - still no news.

Well, still no baby. But I've uploaded some snaps from the inside of Nicki's ward and great news for Sam and Ben - they have a (not-so-little) girl called Georgia. She is the prettiest thing I've ever seen and Nicki held her for a while in the hopes of tweaking the right get-a-move-on hormones. Needless to say, no dice.

Also from the NCT mob, Michela and Andreas Staab arrived earlier in the labour ward. Michela was doing the water birth thing at the Edgeware, but when her waters broke, they found evidence of meconium so had to ship down to the Royal Free, just in case. So if only Junior Falby would get a move on, we could have a party in the neo-natal ward;-)

4cm dilated - off to labour ward soon

03:55 - epidural, sleep, poss induction in the morning

Syntocinin drip, contractions 3mins, transition soon:-)

8cm, the landing lights have appeared in the distance

Right, just a quick one as my batteries are almost dead. It's a girl :-) her name is Clementine Luz and she finally joined us at 13:23 this afternoon (Friday 31/05/2002). Pics in the scrapbook

A beautiful little girl called Clementine. I have to say, this experience has been beyond intense, as wonderful as it is to hold your little girl - I held her for a couple of hours this morning as Nick had a shower - having to watch the woman you love suffer like that at close range, all the while knowing that there is basically nothing you can do to fix it (fixing it is what us men like to do with problems) is very, very upsetting. Try doing it for coming on five days, a guy could burn out.

But back to Clem, she had the cord wrapped around both her body and neck, which means her heart rate slowed when Nicki pushed (which is bad) and was lying in the wrong direction which made it impossible for Nick to push her out. When she was pulled out via ventouse by the obstetrician, she was blue, had a crazy stare and for a second I worried she wasn't going to make it.

As it turns out, she was completely fine :-) She's a tiny thing at 6 pound 11 ounces - a wee girl. She can almost fit entirely on my forarm.

Nicki is currently sleeping in post-natal and is going to stay in hospital for two days to make sure all is safe and well. She was epiduralled up for almost twelve hours and had not been able to eat beforehand, so she is feeling happy, but weak. Sleep and food should help.

As Nick and I were reading our way through hours of labour, two other couples from the same NCT class were also at the RFH. Sam and Ben now have a daughter called Georgia, and Michela and Andreas have delivered young Sophia.

For the benefit of other NCT folk who/05/have been reading this (as i email Akiko with the details) here are pics of Sam with Georgia and Michela with Sophia