bitful

Been asking yourselves what's been hiding under Silvio Berlusconi's bandana? Wonder no more:

[Picture of unknown origin, via email from an Italian friend. The caption reads "I could as well become a woman, if need be", and it refers to the string of multiple public appointments (and private interests) the man collects as if they were [...]

From today's Metro:
Given that these numbers all have a common property, explain the significance of the dividing line.

[Answer in comments below]

Why is it that, after a week marked by an uncharacteristically low Lola's count*, I get to sniffle and cough with a cold? I thought staying in was meant to be good for the immune system.
And, as a reminder for future ailments, taking two non-drowsy Sudafed capsules before going to bed is rather stupid, even [...]

Famous movies in 30 seconds (and re-enacted by bunnies): The Exorcist, The Shining, Titanic, Alien, Jaws.
[via ^ FeSTeN ||||]

Dinner at a friend's last night. Quite a lot of catching up to do since the last time we met, which I think was…
- …at Brighton Pride?
- Yes it was.
- Did we meet on the Friday or Saturday night?
- I don't remember.
- Was I wearing white?
- Yes.
- Friday night then.
- How can you remember what [...]

The world's first TV text service - the BBC's Ceefax - is 30 today.
My Teletext memories? Unscrambling what at first glance appeared to be gibberish, due to poor reception of Slovenian and Croatian channels in the corner of North-East Italy where I was born (and to my poor understanding of Slovene and Croatian), to browse [...]

Last weekend I saw old places in a different light.
Just when I thought that Old Compton Street (the heart of London's Queerville) held no more secrets for me, I enjoyed a very pleasant meal at Café España last Friday night. The five pitchers of sangria helped, as did the excellent company and the very reasonable [...]

The book is out - and the blog is no more. Movie on its way, probably.
Ciao Belle. I have been entertained.

My computer is still agonizing
on a hospital bed at Dr
B.'s laptop clinic. A disk failure has been diagnosed (although running
ScanDisk via
DOS surprisingly detects
no problems), and I have therefore started copying content I want to keep on
to floppy disks, by chunks of 1.44MB at [...]

Choon of the day: Michael Gray - The Weekend. You know it, it's the one going "I can't wait / For the weekend to begin" - which is uplifting when listened at 6pm on a Friday night but feels quite pointless on the DTPM main floor on a Monday morning at 4am when it dawns [...]

A very good weekend, with a dozen of Dr B.'s friends over at his for his Coming Out Party, followed by a drink and a dance at the White Swan.
Sunday taking care of a friend at the RVT. After the previous night's visit to the White Swan he had gone on to a string of [...]

English not being my native language, I sometimes switch on subtitles to help with understanding. I have been known to use them for Will & Grace (hardly ever been exposed to American Jewish culture), the Sopranos (not particularly familiar with New Jersey mafia) and - early on when I moved to the UK - Eastenders [...]

Susannah Constantine's (one half of What Not to Wear's Trinny and Susannah) real family name is Pugacheva. I saw it on the door of the dressing room she shared with Trinny, spelled out in large cyrillic characters.
I thought it would be funny to replace it with its Latin transcription. Susannah did not laugh.
At least in [...]

For no apparent reason, last night my laptop kept telling me it failed reading data from drive C.
I'm taking it to Dr Bitful's laptop clinic tonight. Let's all wish it a prompt recovery - it just can't die on me after I just invested the best part of one hundred pounds in extra RAM and [...]

Just like buses: nothing for half an hour, then three in a row.
Last night's terrestrial offering at 11:

BBC1: Jack Dee live at the Apollo (that for some reason featured Joan Rivers' stand-up comedy that I so wanted to see but that it turned out to be so-so)
BBC2: BBC Four on BBC Two: Time Shift: Fantasy [...]

After a studio assistant warned me of my interviewer's ruthless technique, I turned to my manager who ran me one last time through the instructions: look uncomfortable and contrite, but refrain from overreacting with outrage in order not to look like too much of a prude. He then reminded me that had not been for [...]

I knew there was a reason for popping out of bed at 5:50 last Saturday morning:

Impure thoughts are firmly lodged in my mind today.
The fact that the desk in front of me is temporarily occupied by an ex-army-man-recently-turned-HP-contractor (and keen triathlete and skier in his spare time) is not helping.
The fact that the upgrade of my colleague's machine is taking longer than expected, and G.I. Contractor has just looked up [...]

Calm down dear, it's only cheap Swedish furniture!
(Via Blue Witch)

The mobile phone I carelessly let slip off my pocket on to the grass during Monday night's Vauxhall debauchery is still sending blank text messages to my landline.
I obtained the list of numbers that have been called from it and have left a message on the voicemail of the most frequently called number.
If this Regan [...]

Received letter. It's OK. Not unexpected.

Thus texted Dr B.'s father - or that is the basic jist of it as Dr B. told me on the phone, I hope the message was slightly more elaborate.

Dr B. needs some support. The coming out letter to his parents is likely to be delivered today and he is terrified of a bad reaction on their part.
As he has taken time off work this week, he is at the moment wondering in a park with his favourite comfort food (the very unholy trinity [...]