Yes that’s right, Derren Brown’s TV seance has officially become the most complained about television programme in the history of British television. Here’s what Derren has to say about it:rn

It attracted some 700 complaints. I might add that the prospect of me blowing my head off on live television last year attracted only twenty. Fair enough, I suppose.rnAll bar about thirty of the Seance complaints were made before the show aired, mainly from Christians who felt that such a show would usher in demonic forces. One doesn’t want to attack anyone’s personal beliefs, but having been a Christian myself, I remember how wonderful it was to decide one was ‘offended’ by something: such a feeling allows one to hold ones head up high when one might feel otherwise outcast, and to bewilder others into a kind of apologetic stupor. Certainly much more rewarding than trying to take an objective look at the ‘offending’ matter: here, and generally elsewhere, some psychologically interesting charlatanism. Ho-hum.

rn[Via Derren Brown]rn

Whilst playing lego with Billy yesterday I thought it would be cool to create a reproduction of a space invaders screen out of lego. We made a couple of prototypes and I thought the project would be a good one to blog about. I checked on the internet to see if anyone else had had MY idea – and of course someone has. This guy has started creating one, and has realised it would be about 6ft by 8ft and has decided to scale the image to ‘lego resolution’. His project is not yet complete, but he is listing the parts required and so is one to watch (for me anyway!).

Maybe I should do PacMan…

Here are some images:

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We have just got back after spending time in Hell; well the HellFire Caves anyway.

To quote the website “They were originally excavated in the 1750′s on the site of an ancient quarry by Sir Francis Dashwood (who later became Lord le Despencer) in order to provide work for unemployed farm workers following a succession of harvest failures. It is thought that his inspiration for the design of the Caves came from his grand tour of Europe and the Ottoman Empire. On his return Sir Francis Dashwood founded the Hellfire Club and became a leading member of the Dilettanti Society and the Divan Club. The Hellfire Club originally met at Medmenham Abbey on the River Thames. After this burnt down accidentally they reputedly then held many of their meetings in the Caves, some three hundred feet underground and half a mile from the entrance!

At the end of the tunnel is the Inner Temple representing Hell – and it is located 300 ft below St Lawrences Church.We entered the gates on a cold wet bank holiday monday, armed only with a guidebook and two glo-sticks. Billy loved it, although we did play down the spooky haunted stuff until we had come back out again. He now of course remembers it as being more scary than it was. Really good fun and a good way to spend an hour if you’re passing.

A new series of Monkey Magic started last night on five.
Here’s what they say about it:

(Britain’s Maddest Magicians) Papa, Monkey Boy, Tufty and The Colonel return to perform amazing tricks with the strangest stuff in the weirdest places. Once again they’ll be doing magic naked; fooling the public on hidden cameras and surprising unsuspecting celebrities.rn

Here’s what I say about it:

(Britain’s Maddest Magicians) Papa, Monkey Boy, Tufty and The Colonel return to recycle standard textbook tricks in a not very original way.

I must say I’m a little disappointed with these lot. I thought the last series was OK, but judging by the 1st episode this series is far from exciting. Most of the tricks were performed well, but I saw nothing new or original. Performing the Linking Rings in a phonebox is hardly awe inspiring, and OK doing magic in the dark is vaguely interesting but could they not have picked a better trick than torn and restored cigarette paper?

rnI will watch the rest and hope it improves.rnrn

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Russ Prince has built his own arcade cabinet out of particle board. He’s done a brilliant job. It’s now joined my ever expanding ‘to do’ list. I wonder how much it would cost to hire an odd job man to make one?rn

Conversation between Billy and his Grandad Bill:
Grandad Bill: “Shall we go and find Grandma?”
Billy: “What?”
Grandad Bill: “Watch my lips. Shall we go and find Grandma?”
Billy: “Watch my head.” and he shook it.
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At the weekend we had a Dads and Kids weekend away camping. Me and four other Dads plus kids headed down to Swanage and found a campsite near the Herston Halt railway station. This meant that after we had put up the tents, we could catch a steam train down to the beach. We had brilliant weather and a great time building sandcastles, catching crabs (well one actually), having fish chips and beer in a licensed chipshop and winning Shrek2 toys out of those ‘grabber’ arcade machines that are meant to be impossible but for some reason I always manage to win. Billy thought it was great and he slept like a log snuggled up in his sleeping bag. I had a less comfortable nights sleep when I realised that not being able to move any limbs in a ‘mummy’ type sleeping bag is only acceptable when you are in a drunken stupor (as I would have been last time I slept in it). I must get a more rectangle sleeping bag before next time. As always cooking bacon and sausages for breakfast was a winner, they always test fantastic when outside, so much so that Billy reckons I am the ‘best cooker in the World’. Roll on the next camping expedition, we’re trying to decide if Annie is old enough to rough it yet.

I’ve just stumbled upon these brilliant space invaders stickers that you can use to convert a boring white wall into retro heaven. They are available from Firebox and are available in green or multicolour. I love ‘em and I’ve got to get some for Billy’s space themed bedroom.

We just built this castle.

Annie was looking through a Saturday magazine today.She spotted a picture of George Clooney, pointed to it, and said “Daddy”.I was chuffed and promptly told Paula. 2 minutes later – Annie saw another picture, again pointed to it and said “Daddy”. Paula looked, laughed and said it was Linford Christie. To add insult to injury, when she looked more closely it turned out to be P Diddy (or puff daddy or whatever he calls himself now). Kids do NOTHING for your self esteem.