I have it. And I want to get this stuff finished by the end of the month. This encouraged me, though. I shall take her advice and try to row tomorrow.

Jilly Cooper, novelist: There's a Rudyard Kipling quote from The Thorkild's Song which goes: "There's no wind along these seas,/ Out oars for Stavenger!" ? and that's what writer's block is, really, simply putting one word in front of another, just as the sailors of the poem had to do with their oars.

Chimpcam Project IS on iplayer. I was misled by the listings last night. Yay!

On a different tack entirely, does anyone else remember Tingha and Tucker? Steve's never heard of them but I can't imagine being a 60s child without watching T&T.

Who said the scariest thing in the world was finding "a yeti sitting on your loo in Tooting Bec"?

Usual litany of travel delays, but there was a big pile of snow at the end of our road, and no-one was looking, so bounce, bounce, wheee!

I won't have a chance to post tomorrow afternoon, so best wishes to everyone and have fun!

2GB of memory later and all is considerably speedier. Yay!

The Katherine Briggs Award is the award made by the Folklore Society for the best folklore book of the year. The award is preceded by the Briggs Lecture and I was particularly looking forward to this one. In 1987, aged 22, I did a one week summer holiday course in British Customs and Traditions at Sheffield Uni. I'd never been to a university before and wasn't sure what to expect. I had a fabulous week, learned so much and met some lovely people from Switzerland, Japan and the UK and we all toured Yorkshire and Derbyshire in our minibus on field trips in between excellent lectures from the course leader, Dr John Widdowson. In that week John not only turned my mild curiosity about folklore into a lifetime interest but he and a female academic whose name escapes me now gave me the confidence to take some evening classes, pack in my job as an admin assistant in the civil service and do a sociology degree.

So it was lovely to see John 22 years later giving the Briggs Lecture tonight on why we should expand teaching and research in folklore in universities and colleges.
John is now retired, but made it to Professor before he went and is a past president of the Folklore Society. I was too shy to go over and say hello as I don't imagine he'd remember me, but the lecture was interesting and timely, with all the cuts in HE at the moment.

And the award goes to... Honourable mentions for Ronald Hutton (Blood and Mistletoe) and Owen Davies (Grimoires - I would have put my money on this one) but the winner was Kathryn Marsh with The Musical Playground: Global Tradition and Change in Children's Songs, the result of a 20 year study. She made a very nice acceptance speech.

After a grotty weekend it cheered me up no end to find some posh ginger beer in the bottom of my filing cabinet at work. I bought two ages ago, drank one and completely forgot about the other one. Tomorrow it will be chilled and consumed with great enjoyment.

Has anyone had a built in electric oven installed lately? We need to get ours replaced. I know Argos do delivery and installation but other ideas most welcome. And phone numbers of reliable tradespeople also welcome.

It's led by John Constable, author / channel of the Southwark Mysteries. I'm going - let me know if you are too, especially if you fancy meeting before or after for a drink.

http://www.london-se1.co.uk/whatson/event/7776/ghost-walk

There's no rational explanation for why I like Dickinson's Real Deal. But I do. And if I am home on a weekday afternoon there's something cosy about having a coffee and a biscuit and watching The Duke. I was thinking it was getting on for 3pm so I checked the TV guide in happy anticipation and it's Alan bloody Titchmarsh instead! Boo!!!

Glastonbury Diary

( Glastonbury Diary )

Tigertailz are playing The Borderline in October, doing the whole of the Bezerk album (they were good with makeup but poor with spelling). Is the correct approach:

1) It was 20 years ago, get over it. I should do something more useful that night - the garden shed could do with a tidy.

2) Go out of curiosity, drink lemonade and hope it's not too loud.

3) Pretend its still 1989. Grab the hairspray in one hand and the eyeliner in the other, teeter out of the house in stilleto-heeled boots and come home pissed on cider at one in the morning.

Answers on a postcard please!

I Don't Want To Lose You Yet by Steve Earle is the most gorgeous love song ever and I'll BITE anyone who disagrees with me. And not in a good way.

Home by 8am this morning. Hurrah for English loo paper, doorstep bacon sarnies and my own bed!

More on the trip later.

In summer when the windows are open we often get invaded by several moths a night, but there's been a particularly pretty one hanging out recently. Steve ushered it out of the study window the other night and it made its way back in. I found it on the bathroom mirror. Steve made a successful eviction, but it didn't want to leave us so it flew round to the front of the house and spent several hours glued to the front room window until I disturbed it trying to get it to open its wings so I could make a positive ID. And I did - it's one of these http://www.bbc.co.uk/jersey/content/articles/2009/04/21/wonders_tigermoth_feature.shtml

Apparently they're common in South West England and the Channel Islands (hence the name Jersey Tiger Moth) but seem to be spreading in London now too.

All of this is just a preamble for one of my favourite jokes:

"Doctor, doctor, I think I'm a moth."
"I can't help you. I'm not a psychiatrist."
"I know, but I saw the light was on so I thought I'd come in."

Graham has given me five words to write about.

Feminism
Is important to me although I'm not as politically active as I was as a student. I've moved from radical to liberal feminist, I suppose. I don't think I sold out when I got married because I'm not in a relationship where a man treats me like property. And I don't think I could be in that kind of relationship.

Bunter
Ah, William George Bunter, my favourite anti-hero. I liked Bunter when I was a kid but didn't own any of the books. About six years ago I found a second-hand copy of Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School and the collection started from there. I now own over 100 Bunter books and Magnet comic reprints. I'm not sure what the charm is. Bunter is greedy, stupid, lazy and a liar. Perhaps his appeal is that he brings out the best in all who encounter him, or just that he's very funny.

Spiritualist
I'm not one. I've done some mediumship at the College of Psychic Studies, and got some OK results, but I'm not terribly interested in bringing through Aunty Nellie from the Other Side. I'm not convinced it's from the Other Side either. I think mediumship is probably a mix of telepathy and (unconcious, perhaps) cold reading. Some are just charlatans. I do believe in ghosts but they're just as likely to be trace memories as concious spiritual beings. Am I going off topic a bit here?

Roleplaying
I still like it, and occasionally dabble, but it doesn't really do it for me anymore. I use my time for folkloric, psychic and occult interests instead. Like maths, Steve does it for both of us.

Music
I love it and don't listen to enough of it. I like rock, metal, some country and some folk-rock. Favourite bands are The Georgia Satellites and Led Zeppelin. From the current crop I like Kings of Leon and The Killers. Going to see Dan Baird (ex Satellites) on Sunday night.

I heard this on the radio earlier and it totally cracked me up. Let's hear it for Christian Creationist Country & Western. Yeehah!