[visiting] order of visitation

Just deleted a comment - a rare event on this blog.

The reason? It feels like Guido to say it but the format: "I'm lucky to have found this blog, please visit me and comment at …" sounds to me like spam.

Anyway, let's wait and see if he returns. Meanwhile - the visiting technique [revised]:

1] Visit all those in the MyBlogLog panel in the left sidebar;

2] Go to sitemeter, click on referrals and go to whatever sites visited in the last 100;

3] Go to Blogpower;

4] Visit the others.

The problem is people like Bryan Appleyard and Oliver Kamm who never seem to visit anyone and yet how do we know? They might be visiting and my primitive mechanisms don't pick it up. And is "people visiting us" the sole criterion?

Anyway, that's the way it will run for now.

[joy of maps] are you on this one

Do you love to pore over Kummerley and Frey maps or any maps for that matter? I'm sure Bill Bryson wouldn't object. I do and I was just marvelling at the fact that Praguetory, The Last Ditch and Sicily Scene are all on the above map. Did I leave anyone out?

[east meets west] most agree it worked

I've been a bit slow reporting on this, sorry.

The excitement on the weekend was because we were hosting a forum and annual meeting for an EU body for the first time but that was only part of the story.

The real story was that it was conducted on European, not Russian lines and this was duly noted, right down to the keynote address in English. Doesn't sound too exciting until you think it through.

You'd agree almost all international fora and other summits in the economic field are conducted in the local language, with simultaneous interpretation. We felt we were far enough advanced in our trade ministry to dispense with that and there were key reasons for this, some classified.

The Minister not only gave the keynote address but also conducted workshops and answered questions both in English and using EU protocols. Even more commendably, there was no back up whatsoever - he stood or fell by his own efforts [and so did I as one of the many instigators].

This was nothing short of a triumph and we're more than chuffed, I can tell you. It has to be fair to say that our region staked its claim as a serious player and this was noted with nodding heads by Europe and warily by Moscow.

Our relations with Moscow are always delicate but this must have been a boost for all parties and in stark contrast to the Samara meeting of a few days earlier which, to be fair, had a different agenda - and I'd put Ms Merkel in her place too if it were me.

It just convinces me more and more that open trade is the only sure-fire political way to stable relations between disparate parties and that religion has no place in politics. Now if only Hamas, Fatah, Syria and Israel could do this as well and leave off the gung-ho militancy.

It also convinces me that if there is a man of genuine talent at the helm who is not gung-ho, who doesn't stand on ultimata, who is easy-going and always seeking the common ground, not only does the region enjoy peace and prosperity but it filters down to all levels and things work better.

Well, all right. You're never going to satisfy everyone and that's in the nature of compromise but with a good leader there always remains hope. You always feel he can pull you through, find a way, stand firm when necessary and meet future demands.

And he'll embrace religious values anyway if he's halfway reasonable as a person. But that's just a bonus.

[blog on hold] june 28th to 29th

For seven years, my apartment has been virtually untouched - not painted, not repaired and the taps slowly disintegrating. It can't go on and a windfall offer was made yesterday and these repairs are scheduled for:

June 18th to June 29th.

I don't know if I can do any blogging during that time period because I suspect the computer and sundry bits will be packed away. This site and other sites associated with it will effectively remain up and I'll try to do a mega-posting just before the hiatus. I'll leave comments on as well. If you could spare the time to mosey on over and look through some of the archived material in that time period, I'd consider it an honour and that it wouldn't be so much of a "dead" blog.

[misanthropic curmudgeonry 2] personal testimony

I'd add to the post below on curmudgeonry from personal experience:

I love company on the net - visitors who come in and comment, new friends, the sense of community and all round niceness of my blogfriends. Genuinely I do. I'd love to have a drink with each and every one of you but thee's a little problem.

If you'd actually approach me to come out for a drink, I might find an excuse to run and hide - nourishing obscurity. Then again, I might not.

I'd go for a drink with one person, as I relate best one-on-one. With 2 to 4 people, they can entertainingly relate to each other and leave me to get on with my beer. With 5 to 20 I'd sneak away and only come back in a crowd of 100.

As my work relating to the young ladies is 12 to 15 to one, I deal with that by relating individually to each one in turn. Group is not my thing.

Now a confession. Sometimes I call off appointments if there are no blank spaces in the diary, not because I'm lazy or because there's anything wrong. It's just that at that moment the tolerance level of other humans is somewhat impaired - to have to go through the small talk and being on my best behaviour takes it out of me - nothing personal, you understand. I don't want to see dogs or cats either.

I don't care about money. Of course none of us let opportunities slip by if we can help it but I don't go out of my way to find the cursed stuff.

My greatest bliss is to be sailing a boat with one other person. With a lady for the ambience and the champagne or with a mate to see how fast we can get this thing going.

I almost instinctively take the unpopular point of view and attack the unattackable - the higher the better. That's quite soothing to the fevered soul.

And you?

[cleese rubbished] justice done

Sheep have long memories:

Palmerston North, which was rubbished by British comedian John Cleese as the "suicide capital of New Zealand", has rubbished him back, naming a city council compost dump in his honour, a newspaper reported today. "Mt Cleese" reads the sign posted on the rubbish tip at suburban Awapuni, which is being turned into a compost dump, the North Island city's Evening Standard reported.

Cleese dubbed it one of the world's most boring cities when he toured New Zealand in November 2005. At the time, comedian John Clarke suggested the local dump be renamed the "John Cleese Memorial Tip - All manner of crap happily recycled".

Contractor Roy Harding, who erected the sign, told the paper: "It's just to get back at him. Most people seem to be quite happy about it".

Justice must not just be done - it must be seen to be done.