w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Today's lyric:

"When you're alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go - downtown
When you've got worries, all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know - downtown
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose?"

Petula Clark: "Downtown"

If you're reading this, it needs to be in the knowledge that some 30 years ago, my brother-in-law - for extremely moral reasons - took his own life.

It seems that, after New Year's Eve, the most popular date for prematurely exiting this world is St Valentine's Day? How sad and bad is it that at least one of the driving reasons for potentially becoming a Guinness Book of Records statistic is the commercially-induced realisation that you have less than some others, just because it's 14/2? So you take yourself off to the nearest multi-storey* and spread yourself around for the last time

And for the simple and genuine reason that neither of us can stomach the cynical manipulation of this day, Mrs.D. will not be spending it in the stench of roses.

But maybe, in a couple of weeks time (and when prices have reverted to something approaching normality), I'll sub Number One Son to buy his Ma some for their birthday.

Yes, they share the same day. I told her I'd take her somewhere special 23 years ago. She just didn't realise it would be a maternity ward...

Who said I'm not an old romantic?

Oh, and Scary's got some crackers (and it's not even Christmas) which are only not work-safe because you'll pee yourself laughing and everyone will want to know why?