Self awareness is a cruel being that can rob you of whatever confidence you have. Some may have a lack of confidence due to constantly being undermined, not getting that promotion to the extent that you doubt if you really are capable. I, however, suffer from low self esteem even though people have constantly tried to sing my praises. This is a natural thing for parents to do and when you do quite well at school it is tempting to believe the hype especially when you progress to University which, you are constantly reminded, is for a select few. However, once there you quickly realize that you are not quite so special, there are thousands of others like you and you have no God given right to whatever you think you deserve. Graduating with an average degree, which according to urban legend at the time was worse than I would have been awarded if the library had burned down, wakes you up to reality as does the hundreds of job rejection letters you collect. Generally I am aware that I have a certain level of intelligence but not enough whereby I could eg debate sensibly on certain topics without having to do a lot of research first and then disseminating it which I don't really have time for. I therefore rely on certain trusted sources to keep abreast of certain issues and would not be comfortable arguing with a zealot of the opposing point of view who has the courage of their convictions. My verbal communication skills are poor at the best of times and even this format feels more like talking and so something I still don't feel entirely comfortable with as opposed to taking more time to craft and edit a piece properly but as this is not meant to be that serious I'm sure I'll cope. Friends and family are kind enough to laugh at the silly limericks I compose for special occasions and whilst being fairly quick witted this is no indication of any actual ability. I know also that I will be guilty of knee jerk reactions but this is more of a cathartic exercise and I really need to try a bit of reflection. The trouble is that any number of people are doing the same and their are too many voices speaking at once. This is not a problem per se and is nicely democratic, but the knock on effect it has on news programmes and the amount of coverage that is given to ill informed people is frightening. The following link from a climate change denying MP post underlines how these people are in power but as Ben Goldacre pointed out when he posted this on Twitter is the 2nd comment.

http://www.hearfromyourmp.com/view/message/1084

That comment is what I can only aspire to: properly researched with references debunking the myths perpetuated by the self serving politician. Thankfully there are people like Alistair Jackson around prepared to dig around and stand up to these people, I just wonder how many are listening to him. Many folk may hear the accusation but few hear the rebuttal and if they do may not believe it.
   With the clocks going back Alison has to work an extra hour tonight, although it is her last shift and I'm wondering whether to have an extra hour in bed or not as I'll still be up early to pick Ali up but will have to go back to bed later as I start nights. Before taking her we called at the local store and I stocked up on sweets expecting a number of Trick or Treaters to call, not wanting to be caught out like last night when a group of girls came round and all I had access to as I was trying to get Bethany settled was 13p. Anyway, not one caller so I now feel a little nauseous from too many wine gums. Still no loud bangs tonight unlike last night when it sounded like something falling down. Looking out the back this morning I saw a 8ish foot length foot of fascia on the decking. Where from?: can't see anywhere obvious. How did it get there?: Don't know as our garden backs onto other gardens and we have houses either side with a locked gate down the drive. Upshot: Someone couldn't be arsed to take it to the tip so thought I could take it for them.

My God I can be self righteous at times as I complain about the lack of time and effort my MP puts into a reply when I only cut and pasted a stock form from Amnesty and from a group I'm not sure where they sprang from called 38 degrees. They have been contacting me regularly after I petitioned against the proposed axing of 6music which they were also campaigning against. They now appear to be a rent a petition protest group who I want to resent for assuming that since we both agreed on one issue I should support them on others if it wasn't for the fact that I have had similar sympathies with their other requests. Anyway my initial point about the quality of Ms Chapman's reply was based on the more thorough responses from her opposing candidates and just to undermine me further I received another reply from her today in which she was more thorough and included a copy of a letter she replied in response to the questions she raised on this issue. It may be as well to reflect for an extra day before writing and gain an extra degree of perspective as information is allowed to digest and filter out any knee jerk reactions that would justify Andrew Marr in believing all bloggers were bog eyed, frothing at the mouth loners.
   I'll see how things go although the personal details may be exempt in some circumstances. Today not much reflection is required to mention how I never heard the fire alarm at work as I was hosing out a vessel and the water splashing against the stainless steel drowned out the alarm while I leaned inside. Straightening up I heard the alarm and noticed the place deserted so made my way outside to be greeted by mocking cheers. One of my colleagues mentioned how our manager had told him to evacuate and I pulled him up for not telling me. He did say that he reported my absence from the roll call to security when questioned who casually replied "oh well nevermind" or words to that effect. It is reassuring to know that my invaluable work is so appreciated.

These early shifts make me more tired than I realize, particularly as the week progresses. I planned to make a few more comments last night but my mind went blank as I started to type, undermining the very nature of this blog as I hope to jot down a few notes on the days events if I can't remember what happened 4 hours later. Not that anything noted (or rather not) is that important only a little frustrating. I do recall that I was going to mention the little frisson of excitement and the Alison's slightly nervous anticipation to find a letter addressed to me from the House of Commons. True we don't lead very exciting lives so that anything above the mundane becomes a talking point. Opening it was an anti climax as I found a reply from my MP after petitioning her to support the Science is Vital campaign. In two lines she agreed that it was important and had signed the Early Day Motion to that effect. It was nice that she agreed and replied but I can't help feeling slightly short changed by the brevity of the reply - almost to the effect that it would have been better not to have bothered. This may also stem from the time during the election campaign when I forwarded a stock letter from Amnesty to the candidates from the three main parties asking them not to forget about human rights. The Conservative candidate gave a windy reply that talked the talk but did not convince especially as he did not make mention of their proposal to withdraw from the European Human Rights Act. The LibDem candidate did a pretty good job of addressing the individual points mentioned but our eventual MP, Jenny Chapman of Labour simply replied that yes she agreed it was important.
   As for today we took Bethany to a Halloween party at her nursery dressed as a pumpkin. Alison warned me that it would be mostly mums there but I thought it would be nice to go along and sure enough I was the only male over 3 years old present. By the time they gave them some tea another man in army fatigues turned up to pick up his child but at least Bethany enjoyed herself and got a goody bag as we left. Thinking that she was still too young for Maltesers which were in the bag we shared them ourselves on the way back home.

Starting to live of scraps as I find a few moments to put down some thoughts and tonight I have a little more time as Bethany went to bed earlier being tired but unfortunately upset with a touch of nappy rash. Hopefully she sleeps through tonight unlike last night when she woke around 2am after working her way up the cot so that she was no longer on the pressure sensor, setting off the alarm and waking us all up. I then spent the next 2.5 hours with one shoulder jammed against the bedside table and Bethany tucked under my chin, laid vertically between Alison and myself, before I had to get up for work. While she was in her cot Alison started wrapping her birthday presents ready for next month in a bid to be organized and did intend to start on her Christmas presents tonight but that may have been put on the backburner. I uselessly listened to the football on the radio now that we've had the Sport channels taken out I'll skulk in the back convincing myself that radio commentary is far superior to television punditry. Actually I do usually find that to be true and used to often say listen to TMS whilst watching the cricket on the TV with the sound down - something I found you could not do with digital TV due o the delay. The delay did have its uses if I was for example listening to the cricket whilst cooking in the kitchen and I heard something of note I could walk to the front room and watch what I had just heard - sadly not now an option.

One of those frustrating days at work where teething trouble in "unmothballing" equipment not used for six months as we restart producing the beer that used them. A number of things were tested last week to see if they worked (they didn't) and repaired only to fail when in actual use. The day passed quickly anyhow.
   Bethany appears to be settling into nursery a bit better now as the assistant said she was far more cheery after settling down when Alison dropped her off. A pity that she started crying when she saw me but as usual calmed down when I picked her up. Heavy lidded now so it's probably time to go to bed, although it's full at the moment - ironically I'm the only one not in bed and will be first up for earlies. Best sharpen those elbows.

My doesn't this news business move fast. So the Rooney saga is temporarily over for the time being as he signs a 5 year contract to stay at Manchester United and the conspiracy theorists have a field day. Someone has definitely been bluffing but I'm not quite sure who. I initially suspected that threats to leave were a bargaining chip to improve the contract on offer but after the language being used on both sides it seemed like a fait accompli that he would leave. It's no longer even worth commenting on any longer as it only encourages them.
   I forgot to mention yesterday concerning the cuts that despite the rhetoric the economic situation is perfect for the Tories who like cutting the public sector back as much as they can. You can feel the warm glow still emanating from George Osborne right now (which will at least save the fuel bill for possibly another 24 hours).
   A bit of calm has now been restored after a power cut saw me rummaging under the stairs for candles. Luckily it was only for about 30 minutes but it was annoying as we were half way through watching "New Tricks" at the time (get us and our Rock 'n' Roll lifestyle) and the house alarm over the road was the only entertainment we had as we realised how much stuff needs electricity. Even the landline phone is plugged in and the small glimmer of hope when I saw that the battery was still powering the laptop was short lived when I realised that I still could not contact our energy supplier as the modem and router were down. Regular checks on Bethany ensued as the various monitors were down although she was oblivious to this. Ironically the breathing monitor has been more of a bane just as she has been sleeping better: at the start of the week we were finally getting her down just for her to wake herself up coughing 2 hours later but the last couple of nights she was sleeping fine but moving up the cot to such an extent that she was no longer on the breathing / movement sensor mat under her mattress. This obviously resulted in the alarm sounding and us running to her room just in time to see her wake up with the noise. I feared that when the electricity came back on some alarm would go off to rouse her but thankfully not.

My what a lot of news we've been having - or at least a lot of comment so I might as well add my two penn'orth. The CUTS: I'm in no way qualified to discuss macro economics but even a financial dunce like myself knows that if you make more people redundant they are not going to spend as much money to stimulate the economy. New governments like new owners of a business always make claims of improving efficiency by eliminating waste. This can only go so far as for the twenty odd years I've been voting all these efficiencies would surely make us some streamlined freak. What it always really means is job losses as it does at work where for example you have six people on a shift and the new owner reduces that down to five. A few years down the line and another takeover later and the new boss realises that you operate with four people when someone is on holiday so why not all the time. Now when someone is off somebody will have to work over from another shift. They will throw in some guff about switching lights off but the real saving is in the wages they no longer have to pay. If you're making more people redundant you seriously can't expect the private sector to pick these unemployed up and those they do will be on lower wages and rather than cutting the Welfare budget more claims will come in. Saying that you should earn more in work than on benefits is all very well but you can't do it by just stopping benefits and leaving the vulnerable in poverty. We've just started claiming the Working Tax credit, which was all rather vague to me and I realised that this is a complete nonsense and an admission that employers can't be paying high enough salaries that the government has to effectively top your earnings up. Surely raising the minimum wage so that people can earn more in work would be more sensible. Earn more, spend more, increase tax revenue and improve profits for the businesses that you are spending your extra cash on (the same ones that will probably complain that an increase in the minimum wage will ruin them).
   Wayne Rooney: A shift in the air may be in the offing. This is by no means the first or last case of mercenary footballers and for those who castigate his greed a number of people also say they too would follow the money or simply gloat at Manchester United being the victim and not the perpetrator. I think there is a slightly subtle change in the latter case where one example cited was Dimitar Berbatov who left Spurs for more money / medals. That subtlety is that Berbatov didn't publicly claim that he wanted to leave before any offers for him came in - whether he was tapped up or not is another matter but again that is usually par for the course. In this instance the major unsettling figure appears to be his agent whose sole purpose is to keep his clients moving from club to club so that he can get his cut of the fees. Claims that United haven't signed any big players is a little disingenuous as at first that is true but then not many other Premiership teams have signed big world class stars - most of them play in Spain or Italy still and for all Man City's spending they have spent a lot of money on decent or good players but no Messi or Kaka. The timing with the cuts in the background could have been better but it may help signal the end of the silly money flying around the top end of the game. This may be wishful thinking but not every club has a rich sugar daddy and they are not going to last for long if the money does dry up. With Alison set to leave work and concentrate on part time nearer home while spending more time with Bethany means we had to look at economising and the first thing to go was Sky Sports. In the current climate we won't be the only ones, as well as a number foregoing the season ticket or getting a cheap knock off version of the shirt as opposed to the official merchandise. When this happens more and more some clubs will struggle and be unable to sustain the current wage structure. Tax laws in Spain for example means that players can take home more pay on the same salary and there may be an initial outflow of talent, but this financial situation is global and will possibly have a knock on effect. Or it may just be wishful thinking only the impression seems to be that the fans are not happy and something's going to happen soon - perhaps FA intervention with wage caps of some sort to nip any dissension in the bud and prevent clubs going insolvent.
   Final point: Just read that Ari Up, front woman of the Slits has died aged 48 and it feels like another era of legends is about to start losing its battle with mortality. Scarily she was only 10 years older than me despite the Slits debuting when I was 5.

We have progress! Well I found the video remote at least giving us a full compliment. Embarassingly it was sitting on the bedside cabinet upstairs brazenly in full view while we assumed it was for the video in the bedroom. We don't use either machine that often any more and less so the one upstairs so the actual remote for that was tucked away in a drawer batteryless like its oppo. It seems there main function is now to provide batteries for something we use more often, so no doubt the two new Energizers I put in the newly found remote will bide their time for a few weeks until we need to operate a new toy for Bethany.
   My voice is getting rougher so that Helen did not recognize me when I just phoned her. She had texted this morning asking after Bethany but my phone wouldn't let me text - not just not sending them but not even writing or drafting them (I managed to put my message as a template but it wasn't fooled) - so I rang her when I got back from work. Momentarily forgetting I was landline to landline not mobile to mobile so that she would not know who was calling I was taken aback when she asked who I was. I like to think that I now sound deep and sexy like Barry White or Mariella Frostrup and went around work singing the opening line to "Wanderin' Star" last night. This one line served it's purpose for the, admittedly, not very funny joke and also proved convenient not being able to recall any more of the song.
   Bethany is still not herself although her temperature seemed more stable today as we have her pumped full of drugs. She is refusing to go to sleep and is getting to be a bit of a bugger to get down - those first six months or so when she slept like a dream were too good to be true afterall and I suppose this is when you start earning your parent proficiency badges.

A long weekend and not just because of my shift pattern as Bethany continues to ensure we survive on only basic sleep rations with a bit of worry thrown in for good luck. Unfortunate timing as Margaret and Del were down this weekend with Diane and Tim, the former hoping for a first look at Bethany whereas Diane and Tim were the only members of our southern family members who could make it down for her Christening. They spent yesterday in the Lakes and the hope was that I would take Bethany round to my parent's where they intended to have a little buffet. Bethany, however was not aware of these plans and despite continually doping her up as instructed on Friday (I paraphrase) Alison called in work to let them know she could not go in over the weekend. After a little sleep her temperature rocketed so we took her back to the walk in centre where this time they confirmed an ear and throat infection and gave us some antibiotics. When we got back Alison and Bethany had a lie down and went to sleep and my dad brought, who we collectively call the "London Lot" (despite Margaret and Del living in Reading and Diane and Tim in Somerset) round after taking them up to the place Margaret had lived as a child, not far from our house, as they had a present for Bethany. Disappointingly they still did not get to see her this time but hopefully another occasion will present itself soon - it may have already passed but I was fairly sure that Margaret and Del's 60th Wedding Anniversary was on the horizon. More importantly, at the moment Bethany is settled and asleep and I just hope she manages a good night and doesn't need comforting in our bed - I don't want to get all self pitying again but my head feels a little frazzled with running around, lack of sleep and flu which is not helping aches and pains either so I'd rather not have another night squashed up in bed to be woken by a snotty kiss 4 hours after going to sleep and then having the mattress used as a trampoline. I mean I love you to bits Bethany but...
   Inbetween Bethany's fitful sleeps yesterday I managed to get down town and pick up the photographs we had taken of her using a voucher Helen had given us for Christmas. We were both a little taken by surprise by the photo shoot and had not really expected anything as professional. I assumed it would be similar to when she was born and someone came round the ward with a camera. That time it cost about £30 and you got various sized photos you could share out like you did with your school photo in the cardboard sleeve plus a couple of bookmarks with the same image. It was just over a month ago when we went and I thought 9 months was a good time for the next "proper" photograph of her to go into the album so I was a little taken aback when we spent an hour in the studio with different outfits and WE had to pose in them as well. That is the part that I was least expecting and had I known I might have at least had a shave or changed. The session would have gone on longer but Bethany was getting bored and letting us all know so we left with reassurances that if there were no decent shots we could come back. That should have started the alarm bells as the major part of the price will be for the studio time, however when we went to view them there were a number of good photographs, mainly any that did not have me or Alison in them (there was one good one with Ali in but any with me were horrible). It was during this viewing that we realized that what we had been expecting was rather different from what we were going to get. In the end we picked 5 photos and had them framed as a diptych one on top of the other and a triptych in a horizontal row, which cost just over £500. Anyway I picked them up yesterday and they are very nice.
   One definite positive today was when I found the remote control for the DVD player. For a couple of weeks this, along with it's close friend the video remote, have been missing either because Bethany likes playing with remotes and had buried them somewhere or because we had hid them away from her and could not remember where. Drawers and cupboards have not been tidier and I found 43p under the settee. I would not have bothered so much if the DVD player had more than a few basic buttons on the front of it meaning that while I could press play to watch a film box sets were a problem as on the TV series that we were working our way through we could only watch the first episode of each disc. Now we might finally get to work our way through that box set of "Bones" after I found first the back of the battery cover on the floor to the side of the TV stand before closer inspection revealed a number of video cassettes (you may need to ask about them) that had been pushed between the gap formed by the underside of the stand shelf and the digibox. Pulling them out I saw the remote balanced on the Scart cable and retrieved it sans batteries, although still no sign of the video remote - luckily that is a lazy remote and not essential to the operation of the machine.

Another trip to the drop in surgery as Bethany's temperature fluctuated throughout the day just for them to tell us to continue pumping her full of paracetamol and ibuprofen as we had been doing. The nurse suspected that she may have a slight ear infection as well as a sore throat which wasn't a great surprise as I believe that she has passed that on to me. She woke up not long ago and wouldn't stop crying until I carried her downstairs where she was happy to fall back asleep in Alison's arms. It feels like that she has constantly had some sniffles since starting nursery but I suppose it's all part of the process of building up resistance. It is probably no surprise that she has been kind enough to pass any flu symptoms on as we have been in the habit of giving her dummy a quick suck when she drops it before popping it back in her mouth and doing so without thinking when covered in snot may well account for myself feeling feverish at work last night. The feeling was not unlike the end of a long haul flight as I was stiff as if not moving for a while, popped ears, tiredness and even the low hum of the vessels was not unlike the drone of the engines. The difference kicked in with a headache for the last couple of hours of my shift which lasted until I got home. The extent of it was such that I was tempted to put on my sunglasses to protect my eyes from the glare of the traffic lights despite it being pitch black just after 6am, but resisted for fear of looking a dick in front of the bloke I was giving a lift too. Christ I'm a moaning git: Bethany is curled up in Alison's arms in the next room after being unwell all day and I've got a bit of a stiff neck and a sore throat and I'm still playing the self pity card. A shot of my "cure" should do the trick anyway: whiskey and Covonia although the latter may have to be substituted for Sainsbury's own brand cough mixture.

   I was cut off a little bit last night as I had to leave for work so if it seemed rushed at the end...Saying that there was always that faint danger that while not all the Chilean miners had been rescued something terrible may occur but now it is safe to comment knowing that all are safe including the Uncle Albert amongst them: Omar Reygadas. One comment I heard during the operation that I enjoyed was the rejoinder to God being constantly thanked - although it is understandable for people to find religion in such circumstances if they were not already inclined to such beliefs. However, those who search the skies for a celestial higher power now know where to look after many found him underground ling believed to be hiding Satan. Anyway the point was how a priest was walking past a house with a beautifully tended garden when he turned to the man pruning away and commented "Isn't it amazing what we can achieve with a little help from God", to which the gardener / owner (I was only half listening at the time but got the gist) replied "You should have seen the state of this place when He had this on his own."
   Before signing off just to report on a short pang of guilt when rifling through the fridge and could only find some jellies of Bethany's for a quick snack. Justifying my actions with the knowledge that she wasn't to keen on them, karma came back to bite me on the arse when I noticed that it was eight days past the Best Before Date. Thinking that it didn't seem so bad and what's the worst that jelly can do I ate another - I'm already feeling a bit fluey so I probably wouldn't even notice any effects.

It's about time I started writing on here as I intended as a diary as well as a repository of random thoughts and rants and post for myself and not some imaginary audience. Far too much exposition is unnecessary relating who's who - even if thousands of people were reading this how many would actually care about the minuteae of my life or even my radio phone in style rants. This is supposed to be something for me to look back on and remember and if anybody else happens to be bored enough to find it a distraction then so be it.
    Quick change of pace with an oddly moving day watching the Chilean miners being evacuated - as of this moment just over half of the 33 have safely been brought to the surface to be greeted by a beaming President Sebastien Pinera. While it is undoubtedly good PR for him and he has seen his approval rating improve, though not as much as that of his Mining Minister, I find it rather uncomfortable. It is right for him to be there and he know doubt is genuinely pleased to see each man safely rescued only he is far too prominent hugging each man on his appearance when the human drama of each man is far more important. The images that have impressed me so far are Mario Sepulveda, the second to be rescued, who broght a bag of rocks with him as souvenirs then proceeded to hand them to the rescue workers and the president before running around high fiving his rescuers. Other stories such as how Victor Zamora was unlucky to be involved as he was a mechanic repairing a vehicle and not a miner and Omar Reygadas who had been trapped underground a couple of times before highlighting that such events are actually above politics.

Yet again another weekend draws to a close and I feel like nothing has happened but I don't seem to have stopped running around and so I quickly thought I'd post as I've not been on for a while despite having to leave for work in quarter of an hour. Sundays when I'm on nights always feel like a race against the clock at the best of times despite the rest of the week when I get up later running somewhat smoother. This resulted in a laugh or cry moment when I spent two hours preparing meals for Bethany. The chicken was poached, vegetables finely chopped (which always takes me the longest amount of time) and cheese sauce made all whilst stopping to drag Bethany away from the stereo or printer. I made enough for her tea and some extra to freeze for future meals and as her meal was cooling Bethany fell asleep in her high chair. When she awoke some three quarters of an hour later we attempted to feed her but still being tired she wasn't in the mood and after a couple of spoonfuls started crying. Alison tried her on her dessert and she managed half a pot of rice pudding before crying again. Giving up we gave her some bread and butter with a banana which she happily ate before getting upset again. Luckily I suppose I saw the funny side of preparing her food when she was happier with bread and a banana and hopefully she wasn't commenting on my culinary skills. Also she thankfully perked up when Alison took her in the bath which always seems to make her happy.

Well managing to get an extra hour of sleep the other night did me the power of good to such an extent that I had a relative spring in my step as I got into work just after 5:30. This was certainly a refreshing change for a Monday morning that turned into a pretty good day when I returned home to find that the wife had bought Halloween outfits ready for Bethany and she was grinning from ear to ear whilst dressed as a pumpkin. Add to that Europe's narrow win in the Ryder Cup (is it just me or does it always seem to fall to an Irishman to gain the winning point) and it looked like a faultless day until of course Alison dragged me round town looking at shoes and coats. Still more plusses than minuses and another one came later when someone slightly famous of that there telly replied to a tweet I'd posted. Granted it was in response to a thread he started and it was slightly critical but hey a response and I do exist! He may be more confused as I couldn't let it lie there and responded but as is my wont on twitter in haiku form. This seemed like a good idea at the time and may have had some comic merit for my own amusement, but is probably quite tedious although thankfully I have no followers and I have not quite tired of this gimmick yet and so will probably persist for a little while longer.

A rather tiring weekend for all as Bethany has not been in a good humour so before I finally go to bed a quick account. I returned from work Friday evening  where Alison said that she had been upset and took a long time to go to sleep, possibly as a consequence of being to nursery and then picked up by my parents before Alison returned from work so breaking her usual routine. I wasn't feeling particularly well with an upset stomach and could not drop off to sleep myself. Finally managing a couple of hours we were rushed out of bed by oversleeping and ran around to get ready before taking Alison to work luckily only a few minutes late. As Bethany was tired herself she was becoming increasingly grouchy after her tea and so I decided to set off a bit earlier to pick Ali up as she would not settle unless she was held up, not even allowing you to cuddle her whilst sat. My thinking had a two fold plan in that I know she is prone to fall asleep in the car seat, especially if she is already tired, and she was fighting sleep in my arms and also if I got there early enough I might catch forty winks myself depending on how quickly Ali's handover lasted. Thankfully we both had a nap - Bethany from just after I left the Darlington bypass and myself half an hour outside James Cook waiting. Unfortunately Bethany wasn't as sleepy when we returned home and we were up until 3:30 in the morning before she went down. So now it's time for bed just in time to get up at 4:40 for earlies.

Well now that Tony Curtis has passed away there are very few actors from the so called "Golden Age" of Hollywood left alive save Kirk Douglas and Eli Wallach. Certainly I can't recall any of the stellar names who were active pre war except the child actors such as Liz Taylor and Mickey Rooney and it certainly does feel like the passing of an era with few links back to that time in film making. Curtis himself helped forge a link to the previous generation with his Cary Grant impersonation in "Some Like It Hot" and I would like to think that there are enough people who still enjoy watching the older films and film makers still indebted to their predecessors. Silent comedy had a recent upsurge thanks to Steve McQueen's art instillation and Paul Merton's TV series but as mentioned previously I miss being able to see such movies on TV during the daytime instead of the endless uninspiring chat shows, makeover shows and cut price quiz programmes.
   Anyway just to annoy my daughter at some undetermined date in the future I remembered the various people (sort of) that she reminded me of when first born.



Bethany




Ken Stott




Wallace




Slitheen

Granted I'm not claiming some sort of spitting image and tiredness may have played a part but at a certain angle and light there was an occasional passing resemblance.