Nor can I. The chocs  got opened last night. Its not my fault I have no will power  

completely understand.. my mum had a big box of celebrations... not good.

badges arrived, there were three stitched the first one on to my bag. looking good.

as i type... Shelob is loitering around my lightswitch... wish i had my wand to shout lumos and have light with.

Glad the badge(s)came. You may get HP fans accosting you in the street asking where you got it, though.

Shelob = spider? Horrors!

yeah. massive brown spider... was icky.

my wand is sitting in the stupid gpo... closing at 12:30pm.. i ask you? what good is that to anyone?

Oh no, thats crap. is Royal Mail at fault?

they were. especially since the note says they left it on wednesday when the GPO is open to 8pm and not thursday when they did actually leave it.

regardless...  have my wand! not a great pic though. weird angle makes the wand look tiny, and as a result, my hand massive. lol

Looks really cool, as do the badges ... wish there was Hufflepuff at my school. I was Crescent. The other Houses were Pakenham, Marlborough and Wellington. Notice the English names there, for a school in Belfast  Lets not pretend we're even a teeny bit Irish!

we never had houses... just your class.. and that was it.

at least cresent sounds nice... if english. i guess at least english names would have stopped it sounding twee. scots have a horrible leaning towards to the twee. (as in all male westies are called jock. *headdesk*)

It was all for show Hitch, there was no house system as such. At my brother's school, they had proper houses, with a house master and a proper sense of belongingness.

Ahhh how I wish I'd gone to Hogwarts 

How are you enjoying your wand, are you pleased with it?

i am! pointing it at things and yelling random spells.

although, i was watching dickenson's real deal, and tim the dealer put down an offer i didn't like. so, i pointed the wand at the telly and yelled 'crucio', as you do. then i remembered, this is neville's wand... cruciatus curse is high inappropriate (don't know if you are aware of neville's story in the books? very sad. ). so, i've been keeping away from the unforgivable curses since then.

in other news... did you watch strictly? i expected anton du beke to get edwina curry... i had the contracted team name (eton) all ready... sadly, it was not to be.

russell grant'll be a laugh though.

oh yeah.

my friend teaches down south in a posh school.  she also lives and works in the school boarding house. she is the assistant house master. even better, her husband has a title too... assistant house master's wife.

Think I remember Neville from the fims, but don't tell me his story - just in case I read the books.

Is Strictly good this year? I shoud get into it more

Assistant House Master's wife!  I bet he's pleased

i wont say then.. it's mentioned in the movies, just not to the same degree as the books.

hasn't really started yet... they just got matched up this weekend.

he's thrilled. he seems to enjoy telling people that.

Ha ha good on him . 

By the way, you know the zero-carb sugar-free toffees and chocs?  Not worth it - how can I put it delicately... they give you the runs from hell, and gas *parp*

I'll never try them again.

oh heck. *puts pegs on nose - just in case*

lol 

I suspected sugar-free sweets were too good to be true. Apparently they contain sugar alcohols ( a sugar substitute ) which ferment in your stomach. Cue much belly gurgling... 

ah.. ok.  which will probably be why diet cola does the same to me then. *ahem*

Diet Cola doesn't affect me nearly as badly - dunno what sweetener it uses. The bad stuff ( often found in Atkins bars ) is called malitol. It even sounds bad.

Anyway time to change the subject 

yes, let's do...

what shall we speak of? pointless? steve backshall's arms? dickson's real deal?  the fact i watch too much daytime tv?

Had to google Steve Backshall. Ah yes I know him  Um... rather toned isn't he?

the watching of pointless has reintroduced me to cbbc. looking at steve backshall is a high point of this. remarkably... umm.. healthy... indeed he is. and quite good finding reasons to remove the shirt/wear tank tops. nice to have some 'arm porn' during day time tv. *nods and fans self*

Yup he sure does  I remember when they went into deep jungle to find undiscovered species. It was raining constantly. Naturally he avoided getting his shirts wet, by whippin them off 

*Feels a bit flushed in a Mills and Boon way"

quick! the smelling salts!

lol... I hope they're extra strength !

indeedly so!

Hitch have you seen Grace Dent's write up on SCD in the Guardian?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-a...e-dancing-grace-dent

She really makes me laugh  If Strictly is anything like she says it is, I'll be tuning in. 

yeah that's pretty much it to a t(ea?)

*is now imagining steve backshall in that male dancer get up, the luminous shirt open to the navel*

 Thank you. I shall keep that image in my head for the next time I'm having a bad day. 

i'm telling you though. russell grant needs to be as crappy and daft as he promises to be. *nods*

I think he can do both those things with ease.

Oh Neil Oliver was on Richard Bacon's 5L show last week, I listened to the podcast. N.O. was articulate as usual, though the other guy was a poor interviewer, he wasn't listening to the replies 

i'm sure he can. unfortunately, other people *glares into living room* have taken to watching the x factor. i'm going to go deaf due to the volume i have to turn the walkman to to cover the noise, if i do. i sue gary barlow.

Maybe they're trying to lure you into watching it 

My favourite thing on telly at the minute is Natures Miracle Babies on Sunday. Baby tasmanian devils and aye-ayes... awww

i missed the second episode. first one was amazing, pandas are the best mothers ever. i am now officially a ghost after dying from cuteness. haven't seen sunday's yet either... aye-ayes are creepy though, with those middle fingers and the uncanny resemblance (facially) to the manimals from tank girl.

This baby aye aye is cute though. Also I love the noises tasmanian devils make  soooo cute.

Episode 2 had baby orphaned elephants which probably = 10 on the cuteness scale 

i shall iplayer. *nods* work stopped for the september weekend today, plenty time.

I've loads to catch up on in iplayer. I keep meaning to watch that Monty Hall series in Ireland ( loved the 2 Scotland ones ). Then theres Horrible Histories...

 i saw the horrible histories prom the other week... that rocked. the4 georges were great.

saw miracle babies today... so sad about the tazmanian devils, their babies are totally cute. still not sure about aye-ayes. baby koalas look like a handful.

Not keen on koalas... they just sit round dozing all day. Tazzies are great - love the way they're always scrapping and roaring at each other.

Episode 2 was good, but theres a sad bit in it too ( not with the elephants ) 

if only it was the scrapping that was killing them.

sometimes iplayer keeps episodes on for a whole series... maybe this'll be one of them?

Series catch up  yes ep 2 is available until Sun 2nd Oct.