Viddy up

Excitingly, all my videos are now working. See below.

Shocking news about the British girl who was murdered in Japan. I used to work for her employer, Nova. One of my friends who's still in Tokyo said "there are some reports that the Japanese police were really lax in not holding onto the guy and that he actually absconded while they were there. Don't know if its true but..." So now they're searching for him, looking for a man with no shoes. I've always told people that there is virtually no violent crime in Japan and that it's incredibly safe. I always felt safe, anyway. I hope this incident doesn't put people off wanting to go out there and teach.

Wii cuties

I just had to share this video; no not one I created myself although I'm thinking of making my own version using Muffin and Flake. Apparently, some mad scientist has discovered that rats laugh when you tickle them.


Via: VideoSift

I had a moment of eBay madness earlier and ordered a Nintendo Wii. I've been desperate for one ever since I saw one in action on one of my fave sites, GeekBrief TV. I've persuaded Sara that it's going to be great exercise, and, well, we're not going to be going out much in the foreseeable future. Let's hope she doesn't thrash me every time like she does on Singstar.

My sister was telling me the other day that when she was pregnant, during the final weeks, when she was in the bath she could actually see the shape of the baby pressed up against her stomach. This sounds far too freaky to me. It's scary enough when Quiche does one of her super kung fu kicks.

Meeting Sara Sizzle

After this morning's video blogging success (and thanks Liz for saying I sound butch, though I think you have a very strange idea of butch!) I set about creating more cutting-edge content for your viewing pleasure.

In clip one, I interview top blogger Sara Sizzle.



Then we decided to play a word association game. Please let me know if you can work out how she got from donkey to Samuel L Jackson.



There are more videos over at Sara's site.

Twinkle twinkle

OK, this is my last attempt to embed a video blog or vlog or whatever the hell you call it.

If this doesn't work, I'll give up and go back to plain text!

This is Sara entertaining me (and Quiche, who is wriggling a lot at the mo) with her rendition of a children's favourite.

Video nasty

The video clips aren't working! They were fine on Saturday but have all gone down. I think there's something wrong with the site where they're hosted. If you see a blue man, it won't work. You should see a frame from the video, with me or me and Sara.

If it doesn't start working I'll take them all down because it's doing my head in!

Hair indoors

Buffy is back, bringing with her bagfuls of posh presents for Quiche and a new headful of hair. I went to Euston to meet her and wondered who the young blonde girl grinning at me and throwing her arms around me was. It was soooo good to be reunited. When you spend 24 hours a day together like we do, I think it does you good to spend the occasional day apart, even if it is crap at the time.

Want to see Buffy's new hair? Here it is. If you can't see the vids it might be because the SightSpeed site is down.



She's a bit tongue tied. This is the girl who says her ambition is to be a TV expert!



I might do another post later. I know, with all these blogs I am spoiling you.

The Muffin and Flake Show

In an exciting development for both readers of Chicken's Roost, I've discovered vlogging. In other words, I'm using this cool little programme called Sightspeed to record mini video clips. I know I could use iMovie and YouTube but this involves less messing about. Unfortunately my cheapskate (free) account only allows me to record 30 second clips.

In number one, we meet Flake...



Then I reveal a shocking cheapskate publisher, er, shocker!



Then we meet Muffin.



I think you'll agree, I'm a screen natural.

And is my voice really that camp?

I'm doing this because I'm home alone this weekend, as Buffy has gone to Wolvo to see her family. I really hate being on my own. I'm rubbish at it. I end up eating crap and going a bit mental because I've got no outlet for all the stuff that goes on in my brain, so it just goes whirling round and round until I go bonkers.

I'm watching Eurovision. The nation is voting to choose the UK's entrant this year. I quite like the fact thatthe whole country has accepted we have nul chance of winning, but we give it a go anyway, coz it's a laugh, innit. Brian Harvey sang out of tune and mentioned his car crash sixteen times in a desperate bid for the sympathy vote. The French bird was alright but is French and therefore noone will vote for her. Big Brovaz have a good chance. Justin Hawkins was screechingly good - I still have a soft spot for him, even though he's supposed to be a horrible person with an industrial coke habit.

Ooh, stop press - the two in the final spot are the French bird and Scooch. I can't believe it! And Justin H stormed off in a mood. Blimey.

Let me know if the videos worked for you.

Rats' nest

Buffy's third trimester nesting instinct has kicked in. With a vengeance. "You're so messy," she complained while staring at a mountain of her clothes piled up at the end of the bed.

She then proceeded to spend all of Saturday dusting, rearranging stuff, buying some rather cute pink and purple shelves to store her collection of belts (you can never have too many belts), and shouting at the rats. I can't say I blame her: she had discovered holes in two of the only items of clothes that still fit over her bump. She looks lovely even though she's utterly fed up with being pregnant.

It's hard to believe that it's 29 weeks since... well, since Quiche was conceived. (We think it happened on our company sports day.) Our flat is filling up with nappies and nipple cream, baby baths and bouncers. Quiche now has more space in our chest of drawers than I'm allowed. I feel like this is the calm before Hurricane Baby hits. There was a three-year-old on the train today screaming over and over "I want my do-do." I hope Quiche doesn't ever want a do-do.

Here's a picture of another baby, Ellie, on her swing:



Last night I went with Mimo to see my friend Andrew Wallace at the Chuckle Club, a comedy night at the LSE. Andrew is starting on what to me is a terrifying journey: trying to make it as a stand-up. He's very funny, but he was on first so I missed the first five minutes, which was annoying. One of the other comedians was a very scary Canadian called Jason Rouse, who pushes the boundaries of taste so far that just watching him makes you feel unclean. He'll never be on telly. Mimo and I sat in the second row, which was dangerous, but fortunately only the people at the front got picked on by the comics. The fear of being picked out of the crowd usually deters me from going to comedy nights. This fear possibly stems from the time when I was at college and was picked out of the crowd and forced to put a condom on a banana. Or was it a cucumber?

I haven't recommended any books on here lately, so here's one: Taming the Beast by Emily Maguire. When Sarah is 14, she starts a sexual relationship with her English teacher, Mr Carr, a relationship that mixes literary study with lashings of violence: S & M - Shakespeare and Marlowe. Then his wife finds out and he leaves town. Fast forward a few years and Sarah is wildly promiscuous, sleeping with everyone - and I mean everyone, from her best friend to another friend's boyfriend, plus a neverending parade of dangerous strangers. She's searching for the feeling she had with Mr Carr. Redemption appears to be on the horizon in the form of Jamie, who loves her and wants to save her. But then the novel takes an unexpected twist and things get really twisted.

It's a brilliant novel because the author never pulls back or flinches away from extremes. It left me feeling quite dizzy, and now I want to get everyone to read it. If I read a better book this year I'll be shocked.