It's Father's Day here and these are two images to illustrate the fact. Each, in their way, representative.

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Intermittent posting is the result of continuing distractions (exam grading mostly) and the little time available being directed to a specific project. (Watch this space).

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Wasted a couple of hours last night watching England draw 1:1 with the U.S.A.. And, as so often happens, I regret the decision afterwards. I could have done X ... and Y ... and ... instead.

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Saturday was spent running a stall in the school's Garage Sale. A first time for me and fascinating for the sociological insights. Who is drawn to what. The people who return. The ones who drift by with scarcely a glance. The psychological effect of a box marked 'EVERYTHING ONE EURO - EVERYTHING MUST GO'. Anyway, we covered out costs (and a bit more).

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The freebie CD with July's Wire (experimental music from Poland) is well worth a listen.

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Disappointed by James Corden's performance at some Awards ceremony. Gavin and Stacey begins to wear thin towards the end of Series Three and the interviews on the Extras CD smack of self-indulgence and mutual back-slapping. It's funny but ... . Much the same goes for Corden himself, thinking about it.

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Recurrent dreams of not remembering where I parked my car. Sexual, no doubt. `

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Strange feeling of camaraderie with Frank Skinner (someone I've never felt particularly close to) when he admits to an obsession with The Fall. He, too, got into them late. What is it about the music that's so compulsive?

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Start reading Elizabeth Bowen on Italy - the build-up to Rome in July. I appreciate her self-confessed incompetence with directions and maps.

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Irritation with the wide-eyed awestruck manner of the iPhone video presentations. Disturbing memories of Tony Blair on Iraq ... Cult leaders ... . The grey T-shirts, too. Nostalgia for those 1940s-style wooden Public Information films: "Now, Mr Cholmondely-Warner, this is what we call a telephone." "A what?" "A telephone. And if I hold it to my ear ... ". After all, it's just another bit of kit and an indirect way of milking more cash out of the customer for Apps and such like. I remain - defiantly - with my iPod Touch. (Which is to say, not very defiant ... but still ... ).

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Anything else?

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And the weather continues fine.

Sincerely.