On Friday night I went to the South Bank to watch Steamboy - shown outdoors, and free as in air, as it should be. A better choice of film than the previous week, when they showed silent movies adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, from the beginning of last century. A baffling selection - Shakespeare with no words is like a lap dancer with ho boobies. Steamboy looked good, and the sound system was excellent, but it was a bit too windy, and none of us was in the right mood for sitting around watching anime. We therefore progressed to the lower terrace, where we carried on until some of us had to catch the last trains home, as dictated by London Transport's trade unions.

The plan for the Saturday was to get up early, buy a few things, and go to the Forest of Dean in time for watching the two footbal matches. Sadly, extreme fluffing around prevented us from getting anything done, and we were still in London by the time the England match kicked off. We stopped at a pub in one of the thousands of undistinguishable London suburbs, a place by the unlikely name of Shirley. It was your standard  Sarf London pub, where everybody looks exactly the same.

Men: shaved head; round brass ring earring the size of a two pound coins; reproduction white England football top; jeans; white trainers; fag; pint of Carling. Women: bleached blond, shoulder length, straightened hair; white top; jeans miniskirt; bare legs; undescribed shoes; fag; alcopop. We had lunch (crap) and we watched the match (crap). England didn't look like they knew what they were doing - shouldn't Eriksson have tried that formation in a friendly beforehand?

We decided to cut our losses and jumped in my mate's battered old Ford Capri, and set sail for Oxford. There we stopped in a family pub to watch the second half of the Italy match. The pub was full of regulars and their kids, they all spoke loudly to each other and stood in front of the screen. The kids were hyperactive (too many crisps and soft drinks, no doubt) and a pain in the arse. Everybody was fat. Never understood this custom of spending all day at the pub, particularly nice sunny days, and especially with kids, but to each their own.

Scotland rattled us a bit, but overall we were in control and there's no chance Scotland could have scored again. Mind you, the press here seems to think Scotland were on the verge of a famoius victory - prehaps they were watching another match. Still, we didn't look that hot, and I hope it's only down to the fact Serie A it's only just started.

And then off to the Forest of Dean, where we spent the rest of the week end. We walked in the forest, had a cookout, took pictures, helped our sound designer friend record a few sounds for his library, and generally had a good time. The Forest of Dean is really nice, and there are many places where you can walk for 15 minutes befire you bump into another Londoner. The joy.

I tried my first pint of ale, but found it too flat - I think I'll stick to lager, thank you very much. The locals were chatty, although with a funny accent, but there was a League of Gentlemen undercurrent.

Thank dog it looks like out in the States they have pulled their finger out and are beginning to sort everything out. What happened there sounds really awful. I don't think it's done much to improve the USA's standing in the world either - they fucked up Viet Nam Iraq, they fucked up when their own people were dying... how can anyone in the world take them seriously? Ah, I forget - they MAKE us.

Talking of Katrina, Friday was flamewar day on HuSi. Sometimes I wonder why we do it. I mean, I think the whole rescue operation was a cock up, but I am willing to accept there are some people who genuinely don't believe things could have been done better. And it's not that important to me - if people want to believe in fairy tales that's alright, I can live with it. Why spend hours arguing with them? And yet, there I was, biting furiously into HuSi's Republican Guard's trolls. Bah. Mind you, I was hungover and in no mood for doing any work, so that was the best way to get through the day I suppose.

Thank you, and have a good Monday.