North of the Stupid Line

I am currently being exposed to the fervour of the Valleys that is Joe Calzaghe and his big fight against Bernard Hopkins in Las Vegas, USA.

On the orders of my missus and the in-laws, I have subscribed to Setanta Sports for one month so that they can watch the big fight tonight on Setanta 1 at about 3am in the bloody morning! Yes, the in-laws, and possibly even Kirsty and Sam, are popping over in the middle of the night to watch a boxing match!

I ain’t even that bothered about the match; would rather be in cuckoo land! But, needs must!

For your information, Calzaghe grew up in Pentwynmawr, where the in-laws live, and Joe’s family are quite well known in these parts. In fact, Rachel’s great-grandmother used to live a few doors down from Calzaghe’s family, and used to go “Hello Joe!” occasionally when he walked past as a child on his bicycle or whatever, to which Calzaghe would reply “Hello Mrs Davies!”.

Hence the local obsession!

Rachel and I are currently ploughing our way through all five series of Ally McBeal. We’re currently on series 3, disc 4, if you really wanted to know.

The point of this post is to talk about Cage & Fish, the law firm in which the series is set and where Ally works. The gist is this: I want to work in a law firm like Cage & Fish.

Why?

• Emphasis on fun;
• Bar in basement with a permanent singer;
• Interesting cases;
• Nice, plush offices; and above all
• The embracing of individuality and eccentricities.

I very much doubt there are many law firms out there like this. Oh well, I’ll just have to set one up myself, won’t I?

For those of you who are overwhelmed by the amount of media attention and debate surrounding the topic of eugenics and Clause 14 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, here’s a very errudite summary of the issue: “Should we stamp out ‘designer deafness’?” by Sandy Starr

Thanks to A for bringing this article to our attention.

You will have noticed that North of the Stupid Line was hacked by Russians while I was away. I’m pleased to announce that North of the Stupid Line is back up as normal, and that I’ve managed not to lose any posts (not that there have been many recently!).

I’ve also upgraded the WordPress installation to version 2.5, which is a marked improvement on previous versions. It’s also more secure. So hopefully, hackers will be kept at bay from now on.

I’ll try and post a bit more regularly from now on. Bear with me while I re-insert all the features that were available previously.

Rachel and I have spent the last 3.5 weeks travelling around the world, visiting Hong Kong, New Zealand, Hawaii and Los Angeles, with around 54 hours flying time.

Needless to say, we are bloody knackered. However, it was definitely worth it, and some of the things we’ve seen beggar belief. Here is a sample of photos for your viewing pleasure.