My well travelled and no doubt much wearied Ma is home in Totnes.

We had a fantastic time cycling to Urunga and Coffs Harbour, exploring the markets and beaches. We even had a trip down to Port Macquarie all together which was great. In fact Zaida had been Port and both our subsequent places and was showing _me_ around. This is the difference between being a parent with dependent kids and one with middle aged kids.

We walked down into the rainforest below Katoomba and climbed up the (Leuma?) waterfall stairs beyond the Three Sisters. We walked all over central Sydney as well as a 4/5 hour stroll out Manly way. In the evenings we would sleepily 'nerd' on our computers at the hostel. Zaida played Scrabble and I made my phone automatically send all it's photo's to the web. Now I shall have to be careful not to take too many incriminating photographs. The weather was (and still is) beautiful. I really felt sad to say goodbye. It was great to see my Ma.

When I got home C's mate Madie with her partner Mick and their lovely little boy Sam had arrived. We have been getting up and taking Sam and the dogs for morning walks on the beach. The surf this morning was huge.

Emmy declared Friday a holy day. It is a traditional for Pastafarians to enjoy a robust meal of Pasta. Added holiness can ensue if the participants dress in the holy regalia of the Pastafarian faith.

Shortly after declaring it his ten year old brain forgot all about it. Granny Z didn't though, she went home and knitted herslf an eye patch.

Unfortunately I was unavoidabley detained at the pub and was ten minutes late for dinner. When I arrived there was Pirate Granny with a moustache, bandanna and eyepatch. My shamefully conservative kids were pretending there was nothing at all odd about this whilst they tucked into spag bog.

Beryl Cook and Nanette Newman would agree that Granny Z has definitely earned an award of the highest distinction. I was thinking she should perhaps be ordained as an honorary Pastafarian Bishop or somesuch. Any suggestions?

Attached are some photos and an instructional video...

Just to balance the 'Terrified Zaida' picture here are a couple more, one shows a happy Zaida and the other an equally happy Emmy.

This weekend we plan on taking Z and Em for a bicycle ride and overnight camp to Urunga. Where we shall sample the towns' extensive range of fish'n'chips.

If you do one thing today, click on this picture of my Mum.

She is on the verge of going over the rapids at Nymboida Canoe Centre. Don't worry she survived with a big grin. We all did, it was a fun weekend.

I recently set up a Minecraft server for Em and some of his mates. It's been lots of fun... but I should be working.

Last night I installed the MoveCraft mod. I'm not sure if it works though...

Attached is a screendump map of the world they are currently playing in.

Here is Cheri bringing some luck to Evan for his birthday.

My magnificent son was 17 today and my tired travelling wifey, Cheri, came home from Burma.

'Hurrah' I say.

Welcome to 17ness Ev and Welcome home Cheri.

OK, I'm just going to let it all out now...

RANT ON >>
I canned my Facebook account a fair while ago for various reasons. Unfortunately as a web developer (although you'd never guess from looking at this naff blog) I need to test out stuff in Facebook. So for a while I happily used a fake account for such shenanigans. Unfortunately it stopped working one day, not sure why, not sure I care. So I decided to reuse my real name and email, just so's I'd not have to remember a bunch of fake stuff. Unsurprisingly Facebook had an uncanny knowledge about who I was without me having to tell them all over again. Some may say that this is a handy feature, others may find it creepy.

It is creepy.

What really sucks is that they are all at it. Google knows what we want before we even hit the 'Search' button, Apple is wishing it could keep closer tabs on us, even our own governments are monitoring us more closely than the Stasi ever had a hope of doing. There are web-dev start-ups appearing faster than I can spit and they are all trying to dance the 'Social' tango.

Why do I have a problem with this?

• I like random happenstance.
• I don't like being told what it is that I want before I have even finished exploring the notion of what it is I think I may want.
• I do not like being suckered into providing all my thoughts, whims and weaknesses to the gigantic amorphous tentacled electric cloud that is the 'Social' net.
• I'm the very last person to denigrate a nice chat. I was made for idle chit-chat, you know me? You know it's true. Having a chat in an environment that is designed primarily to take what you say, do and think and then use it to manipulate you. That's just evil and it is what google, twitter, facebook... all of them are trying to do.

Inverted commas for 'Social'? Why's that then? I'll tell you why, it's because Social is just an idea that is being abused to steal our freedom.

Just for a random example: Avid users of Facebook may well find that they can go for days without visiting any other websites. Facebook likes to keep it's users corralled inside their Facebook world. They bring the web to Facebook, that way they can see exactly where you click, how long you hover over that picture of the shoes, what videos amuse you. Photo tagging is just for your benefit, they can identify you on all their photos regardless.

RANT OFF <<

I could go on...

Cass and Molly have recently tracked me down which has caused me to hark back. I tend to do that a bit.

I found myself searching for some of the bands I used to listen to with my brother Charlie. We used to go to lots of gigs mainly around north London. The Artrockers', Sausage Machine in and around '91 was fantastic. We used to frequent the cellar of the Whitehorse pub in Hampstead. I remember the polystyrene ceiling tiles being torn off by The Plastic Bertrands(?) during a set. It later moved to the Camden, but the party for me was over. I remember being hypnotised by Stereolab in that crappy little cellar. Charlie was flirting with Harvey at every opportunity. I don't think you stood a chance mate. I'm not sure I can remember half the names... Gallon Drunk, Pram, Moonshake, The Pale, Plastic Bertrands.. and a bunch of others: Andy White, all them fantastic Irish Fleadh/Feile/Finsburty Park lot. The Orb and all that annoying, yet strangely compelling Industrial Ambient. None of them compared to the unjustly forgotten, 'Sultans of Ping'. They were awesome.

I pushed my recent youtube history into this playlist, they are all there, encased in the museum of YouTube. Crank up the speakers and enjoy.

What bands did it for you back in the day? Let me know in the comments...

I just returned from a night in Thirst Café as an extra on the set of the latest DarkLabs film. I found myself stuck with my back to the film set silently pretending to talk acting.

For some finished DarkLab films see Vimeo