Now before I begin I’d like to say that I’m not in the habit of blogging at around 4.30 in the morning. It’s just that I had to be the taxi-cab for my sister after she’d helped do something important at the 41st JCI European Conference and it finished late and I’ve just got in. Anyway that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it … and I haven’t been watching Big Brother 4, (well, maybe a little).

What it is, is that I seemed to have started something that is getting a bit complicated now – I’ve been talking to the soliloquist about the soliloquist! (you really do need to follow the link)

As I’ve said in the soliloquist’s comments, (err that’s the soliloquist who is from the British Library and not the British Museum… not that the other soliloquist is from the British Museum, infact I think she’s from a news organisation based in Dubai … except that she’s actually from Pakistan … I told you that you need to follow that link … anyway…), I like both soliloquists and I already have one listed and just wanted to list the other one. So I mentioned the one to the other but then the one thought that she was different because she uses the definate article, except that the other found out about what was being said about him and registered his concern. Now I find out that he’s also the definate article and … you see what I mean about things getting complicated?

Confused? … I am! … I’m going off to bed … my head hurts!

She’s Back! … Bella, my rust bucket of a Fiat Panda has finally come back from the garage and she’s purring like an ageing Italian B movie star … cat.

Actually, I’ve never known of any Italian B movies featuring cats as stars but if there ever has been one … Bella would be it’s automobile avatar.

Infact, I’m so inspired by the return of my beloved that I’m going to share a poem about her with this blog…

My beautiful Brum brum Bella,
Forever in the heart of this fella,
I’m deaf to cold calls saying sell ‘er,
Besides, I ain’t even bin offered a tenna!

Living near Shakespeare Country has obviously rubbed off on me… don’t ya think?

Salam Pax filed his first report for the Guardian today and I can’t think of a better person to be writing about Baghdad.

That it falls on the day when Wolfowitz finally comes clean and confirms that the Iraq war was about oil is fitting… sort of. The US Troops’ guarding of the Ministry of Oil while 10,000 years of culture was being smashed at the Baghdad Museum opposite, should have been proof enough. Perhaps out of guilt but at least the Univ. of California is trying to make amends. However, Wolfowitz should be given his due now that he’s telling the truth – something Blair and his Glasgow Goon seem incapable of.

If I sound pissed off it’s almost certainly because today Birmingham lost out to Liverpool in it’s bid to be European City of Culture for 2008.

(I blame Blair for that aswell… but good luck to Liverpool anyway)

[UPDATE: "The facts should never get in the way of a good story" ... and I didn't let it! Soliloquist explains]

Bangladesh’s newly re-designed Daily Star newspaper ran the following article today;

World’s ‘oldest’ woman dies in Sujanagar
BSS, Pabna

Begum Poirunessa, presumed to be the oldest woman in the world, died Saturday night at her Chargobindapur residence under Sujanagar Upazila here at the age of 151.

Family sources said Poirunessa was born in 1852. She married Ketu Sheikh of Chardulai village of the same upazila at the age of 10. But she lost her first husband after six years following the birth of her first child.

Later, she knotted tie with Abdul Pramanik of Chargobindapur village.

She had 167 grandsons and granddaughters and her youngest granddaughter died last year at the age of 95.

Earlier, Begum Poirunessa shoot into prominence when newspapers and electronic media made exclusive reports on her.

Hundreds of local people went to the residence of the deceased as soon as her death news spread. She was buried at a local graveyard yesterday after namaj-e-Janaza at Chargobindapur government primary school.

Well, sadly, she won’t be knotting ties anymore. The Guinness Book of Records wont have it though and states,

The oldest living woman in the world whose date of birth can be fully authenticated is Kamato Hongo, born September 16, 1887, on Tokunoshima Island, Kagoshima, Japan…

Guinness also reveals that France is where the world’s oldest ever woman came from,

The oldest fully authenticated age to which any human has ever lived is 122 years and 164 days, by Jeanne-Louise Calment. She was born in France on February 21, 1875, and died at a nursing home in Arles, southern France on August 4, 1997.

and adds some details about what this irrepressible woman got upto…

President Jacques Chirac once said Jean Calment was a little bit like a grandmother to everyone in France. She was 14 when the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889. She led an extremely active life, taking up fencing at 85 years old, and was still riding a bicycle at 100. She portrayed herself at the age of 114 in the film Vincent And Me, to become the oldest actress in film.

Also in 1852, (the alledged year of Begum Poirunessa’s birth),

The Duke of Wellington/Arthur Wellesley inventor of the boot died, (I think he had something to do with defeating Napolean at some point).

The Countess Lovelace/Ada Byron inventor of scientific computing also died that year, (her dad was that naughty poet Lord Byron).

Paper money was first issued in the United States on March 10, 1852, and became legal tender by an act of Congress seven days later (and more or less the world’s now)

The first public toilets for men opened in London’s Fleet Street in early 1852. Toilets for women opened nearby on this day in the same year, but only 82 people used them during the next 12 months (well a penny was a lot of money in those days)

[update: I found, via Rezwanul, the World Toilet Organisation... well that's a relief]

Thank andi bradley for the last two

I found this stunning picture of yesterday morning’s annular eclipse on the Beeb’s website, the description of it says,

The main eclipse was hidden by mountains in Lochcarron, Wester Ross, Scotland, but Alex Ingram took this just after.

…lucky sod! I saw nothing from Brum. I was even awake at dawn for it and at 4.45 in the morning, as I squinted out of my window, bleary of eye, I saw nothing but clouds.

I’m not really an eclipse anorak. I just happened to be awake after getting in at 3.00 in the morning. I’d made a lightning trip down to London but on the journey back was treated to a delayed train (thank you yet again Mr. Branson).

London, however, was fine – very warm and perfect really for meeting up with a couple of friends. One of whom, Nicola, managed to persuade me that Terri Walker should be the next big thing in RnB. Nicola’s probably in a good position to know, as her friend James is a producer on Terri Walker’s new Album Untitled.

The other friend has recently returned from quite a lengthy residence in Pakistan. It’s always great catching up with old friends, we’d been to college together and there’s a core of us who have always kept in touch and met up whenever the opportunity arose. Actually, there shouldn’t have been that much to catch up on. I mean with email and cheap international call charges we’re all better informed about distant friends’ activities than ever before but this friend had an interesting tale to tell – which had somehow missed being mentioned in any of his emails to me.

For the past few months, he’s been in email contact with a British Pakistani woman who he’d met through a muslim introduction website. They’d got on well enough for my friend to decide to return from Pakistan and try to re-establish himself back here in the UK. This itself shouldn’t be too much of a problem, he’s got family and friends here and he’s a resourceful businessman. For me though, the shocking thing is that he made this decision largely on the basis of a budding relationship with a woman who he hadn’t even set eyes upon – not even in picture form!

Of course that’s not unheard of, particularly amongst members of the various South Asian communities, I’m more astounded by the juxtaposition of traditional practice and modern technology than by my friend’s actions. Infact, the more I think about it now, the more it seems obvious that the Internet is the perfect forum for meeting like minded partners if you happen to be a traditionalist, (muslim or otherwise). It would appear to offer a safe, abstracted environment which doesn’t breach any ‘purdah’ rules and, according to the Beeb, is increasing in popularity amongst muslims.

I should add that the friend in question has now met his Internet lady and although it’s early days yet, so far the signs are good.