Free the Sudan-1 The guys at Lea & Perrins are understandably cheesed off with the Sudan dye scare as Worcester sauce is noted as the primary source (no pun intended) of the banned colourant. L&P’s famous ingredient for Bloody Marys does not and never has contained the dye but the problem centres around their rival Premier Foods' chilli powder, which was used in a Worcester sauce then used to make other products. Small consolation for the thirty-five employees of Lea & Perrins who’ve been making the famous sauce since 1835.

Izzy Returns! I got a phone call about lunchtime today from a lady who found Izzy on Wimbledon Common. Izzy looks none the worse for her adventure and acts as if nothing has happened. We are chuffed to bits to have her back and I now understand how much she is now part of our everyday life. Welcome back mate!

I want to kill! I came home on Thursday to find the house had been broken into. They took the home cinema system, my guitar, about 50 DVDs and a universal remote. Most distressing of all however was that Izzy is now missing. She was in her pen and it looks as if she escaped and panicked them, however as they had left both the back door and back gate open Izzy ran off. The stuff can be replaced but she can't and as you can imagine myself and Mrs C hope that she'll turn up. She is far more than just a pet, she is our buddy! Pity I didn't catch them at it as I might have stretched the limits of what could be considered 'reasonsable force'.

Bicycles and Football. I’m now a month into my two or three days a week cycle to the London office and I’ve noticed a few things. My first impression of it being an extreme sport was spot on, nothing gives way to you unless you stick yourselves in the way and then of course you’re in danger of a ‘Sorry mate, didn’t see you.” Buses should be treated as giant slow moving obstacles but as they stop every 500 yards they don’t present much of a problem. To car drivers, especially mothers in 4x4s on the school run, you are invisible so you have to ‘treat them all as idiots’ as a motorcycle tutor once told me. Actually his language was a bit fruitier than that, but as this is a family blog I thought I’d spare peoples blushes. But it’s cabbies who seem to be actually out to get you, however I think this might have something to do with the fact that they assume all people on two wheels are couriers and they get a bounty for everyone they knock over! I’ve had a couple of occasions where ‘non standard manoeuvres’ have been required but nothing drastic. I noticed that Arsenal fielded a team without any UK passport holders last night against Crystal Palace. It was claimed to be the first time this has happened in the English Premiership, but didn’t Chelsea do this a couple of seasons ago or was that an FA cup game so didn’t count? Dazza will know. Now this raises a bigger question. If teams can easily do this, especially the top teams with large squads, and as big money men like Chelsea’s Abramovich and Man Utd’s soon to be owner Malcolm Glazer buy up more and more of the game; how long can it be before the European Super League rears it’s head again and like American Football franchises, teams can move wherever they like? It’s not as mad as idea as you might think.

Boring old gits to wed! It’s odd that the Daily Star sums up my feelings about the upcoming Royal PR event that is the marriage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles. My hope is that in the run up to the ‘big day’ the levels of sycophancy and forelock tugging doesn’t raise above the usual background noise of Royal nonsense, but I’m not sure the middle market tabloids and celeb rags will not be able to resist. Viva La Republic!!

Prescott Alert! When it comes to news Today on Radio 4 is without a doubt the best, be it on radio or television and listening should be compulsory. It does mean of course that any and all politicians want to get on and make their point, especially with a General Election in the offing. But the government seems to believe that shipping John Prescott over to Broadcasting House for a chat with Humphries and Co helps their cause, but rather than engage in what could be considered ‘a discussion’ Prescott just turns up for a free coffee and a fight. The truth is he’s a political bully and does more damage to the Labour cause than a coach load of Alistair Campbells. Anyone who remembers the pre ‘97 Conservative government will recognise this kind of political arrogance which was key to their downfall. Don’t these idiots ever learn?

Star Wars fan alert! This will make you laugh and probably cry too.

Apocryphal for sure but it made me smile… A crowded United Airlines flight was cancelled. A single agent was rebooking a long line of inconvenienced travellers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk. He slapped his ticket down on the counter and said, "I HAVE to be on this flight and it has to be FIRST CLASS." The agent replied, "I'm sorry sir. I'll be happy to try to help you, but I've got to help these folks first, and I'm sure we'll be able to work something out." The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that the passengers behind him could hear, "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?" Without hesitating, the agent smiled and grabbed her public address microphone. "May I have your attention please," she began her voice heard clearly throughout the terminal. "We have a passenger here at Gate 14 WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to Gate 14." With the folks behind him in line laughing hysterically, the man glared at the United agent, gritted his teeth and swore. "F*** you!" Without flinching, she smiled and said, "I'm sorry, sir, but you'll have to get in line for that, too." And anonymous comments are now enabled. Sorry for taking so long...I was being a bit of a thicky...

Working for Microsoft is interesting on a number of levels. Firstly everyone I speak to as part of my job is interested in what I have to say, even if they don’t necessarily agree with it. Secondly I read and hear lots of stuff about the company that causes me to smile as it’s more often than not bollocks. Now I don’t often feel compelled to blog about MS, there’s already enough people doing that and I’m not sure there’s much more I can add but as this is something that made me laugh why not? I’ve seen recently is an article in Wired, with the usual journalistic device of the unnamed source, about MS management telling iPod users at Microsoft to stop. Well the hundreds of iPod users in the UK, of which I count myself, feel left out because they haven’t bother telling us, nor I suspect would they. Whilst the company does promote Windows Media Format players internally it doesn’t in anyway suggest that owning an iPod is verboten, besides I can imagine the colourful responses they’d get if they did. So to anyone who asks…yes I work for Microsoft and I own an iPod. If anyone wants an argument as to why they know where to find me. However I guess all this beats my previous job where people thought I worked for a small Norfolk based sport car manufacturer.

I wonder if anyone else saw ‘The Real Da Vinci Code’ last night on Channel 4? It examined all the central tenets of Dan Brown’s book and took them to task, and unsurprisingly only a few stood up to any kind scrutiny and even then it was a fifty fifty call. The rest were either middle age inventions or on the case of the Priory of Sion a recent embellishment by a couple of French hoaxers, oh and there’s no historical evidence for the Holy Grail either. However for me the biggest crime is not the historical baloney Dan Brown passes off as fact, which he does incidentally, it’s just not a particularly well written book. Maybe we should examine our religious and political institutions and little more closely. This leads neatly on to the new so called “Freedom of Information Act”? Which is of course nothing of the sort. Want to know how many schools in UK still have outside toilets? As the Independent On Sunday found you can’t. If this can’t be disclosed what chance do we have to finding out what evidence the government used to take us to war in Iraq, or more frightening how they are assessing future attempts as George Dubya describes, ‘Spreading Freedom’. It should be renamed the “Information They Want You To Know Act”. I have to mention the chap from Cycle Training UK who stopped this morning to help me with a puncture. Thanks fella.

Whilst I know that I’m not the thinnest person on planet earth and have been carrying around a little more weight than I should, I wouldn’t have considered myself obese, however as I have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 33 I officially am. To get down to a BMI of 24 for my height I need to be under 12 stone or 74kg, now I can’t remember ever being that light and I think for my build I’d look ill. OK, I might not get as low as the BMI suggests but I have lost half a stone since the beginning of the year.