Chicken Yoghurt is one year old today. Have some and some. How about a game?

Doesn’t time flies when you’re vainly railing against how crap everything is. Do blogs age in dog years, do you think? That would make my level of political sophistication around seven years old, which sounds about right.

That’s me for a bit. I’m off to contemplate the social pressures that I allowed to force me to spend money I haven’t got on stuff my kids don’t need in order to celebrate a festival I don’t believe in.

I’ll also be pondering why, in this season of goodwill to all, when you go down the shops, people are invariably grasping, ill-bred savages incapable of showing good manners let alone goodwill.

Have a Happy… Thing.

UPDATE: Except to say, was Tony’s visit to Basra to have his picture taken really necessary? We are, after all, living in an age of stupendous special effects. Tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money could have been saved with a little bit of judicious photoshopping. They could have asked Tim Ireland to do it. At least, as a former soldier said on Radio 5 this morning, the squaddies bestowed the honour of meeting Tony will have been issued with clean kit so they look pristine for the photos. I wonder if they were allowed to keep their guns unlike the Iraqi soldiers inspected by Dick Cheney the other day.

And lastly, a fine, flawless diamond amongst the almost unmitigated horseshit that is the output of the BBC these days. Ten solid days of Bach and all to be available for free online. I know almost bugger all about classical music but if nothing else, I recommend trying to find the Six Suites for Solo Cello which are achingly beautiful. The licence fee (just) gets my blessing for another year.

…from the wilderlands with nothing much to say. One or two things may appear later this week including a mathematical formula that encapsulates my attitude towards this bloody time of year.

There is one thing. If the person in Slough who found Chicken Yoghurt today by entering “can i leave a child of 10 at home alone” into Yahoo Search should find their way back here, can I just say: No, you can’t. Please don’t.

Up North, where the beer is best
Up North, where they don’t wear a vest
Up North, where men are men
Up North, ooh, I’ll say it again…

Pre-Xmas duties beckon in the shire of my sires. Back Tuesday.

I’m off Up North, land of my forefathers, for the long weekend and will be out of radio contact for the duration. Just as the election campaign might be warming up as well, Goddammit.

See you Tuesday.

I’m a big fan of “pushed” content from the internet, information delivered straight to my email inbox rather than me having to scrabble around dozens of sites to find what I want.

As I’ve probably said before, tools like Google News Alerts are a boon to bloggers with pet subjects they want to chase.

To that end, those wishing to can subscribe (in the box down in the righthand sidebar) to a Google Group and have Chicken Yoghurt posts emailed to them. You’ll get an email every time there’s a new post but by tweaking your personal settings you can receive a daily email of all the posts together.

I’m thinking of moving Chicken Yoghurt to Blogsome. It’s a free host for the WordPress system.

Anybody out there got any caveats, recommendations or owt?

Got to do some real work today so here’s some links to keep you entertained while I endeavour to get my dander back into the “up” position.

BBC News: Iraq agency ‘run like Wild West’
The Coalition Provisional Authority, the US-led agency that ran Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, has been accused of wasting millions of dollars.

BBC News: Lula and Chavez sign trade deals
Brazil and Venezuela have signed a series of 26 bilateral agreements to strengthen what they call their strategic alliance.

Guardian: Saturn’s moon is the double of Star Wars space station
That’s no moon, it’s a space station. Actually it’s Saturn’s satellite Mimas, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Death Star - the planet-destroying space station in the film Star Wars.

Independent: Attorney General ‘distanced himself from war advice’
The Government’s most senior law officer distanced himself from the decision to invade Iraq by asking for an 11th-hour personal assurance from Tony Blair that Saddam Hussein was flouting the ban on developing weapons of mass destruction.

George Monbiot: Mocking our dreams
It is now mid-February, and already I have sown 11 species of vegetable. I know, though the seed packets tell me otherwise, that they will flourish. Everything in this country - daffodils, primroses, almond trees, bumblebees, nesting birds - is a month ahead of schedule. And it feels wonderful. Winter is no longer the great grey longing of my childhood. The freezes this country suffered in 1982 and 1963 are, unless the Gulf Stream stops, unlikely to recur. Our summers will be long and warm. Across most of the upper northern hemisphere, climate change, so far, has been kind to us.

Welcome to Chicken Yoghurt.

I used to run a blog a few years back that attained a small level of success. You may remember it.

I’m not going to say who I am or what my former blog was just yet - I want to see if it was a flash in the pan or if I can generate a similar level of wild adulation on my second attempt.

Come back soon - the place will be growing in the next few days.