Since writing the SAAB Advert: Release Me post, the traffic to this site has increased by over 7 times the number of daily unique visitors. It shows the power of social media. People see something that grabs their attention - they search for it. It also shows the power of the blog - regularly updated content means regular indexing. If you’re regularly indexed you’re in a position to deliver content to people as and when they want it. Be the first to communicate valuable information and people will link to you.

I knew I wanted to put the advert on my blog, as soon as I saw it I knew it was special. Not just the music but the message was extremely poignant to me. How we as humans control so many things. All I need to do is look to my window sill to see the bonsai tree sitting there, to see how I myself am controlling that tree. By keeping it in that tiny pot, I am stopping it from growing, much like the motorway flyover is doing to the plants in the advert.

On watching the video on You Tube, I wanted to see what people had written about. That’s how I came to find out about the whale in the advert - Lolita, and the online petition set up for her to try to persuade her owner to build her a new tank. Most who have posted have called for her complete release from captivity.

When I signed, the petition was at around 150, it is now well over 300 and growing. The petition is being hand delivered in July. I hope many more sign by then.

Thailand soon - more than a month, less than three. Can’t say when exactly [SA is worried you'll come rob our house - LMAO].

Two nights in Bangkok, 9 nights in Phuket - I’ve said that already but fuck it, tres excited! Phuket is the main event, this time we’re staying at Pansea Beach. Decided to Google Map the hotel in Phuket:

That is the beach our hotel is located on. Supposedly one of the best beaches in Phuket - check out the beach, you can see you’re face in it! Roll on holiday time - we need a holiday, it’s nearly Monday again and it feels like we haven’t rested. Jimmy Carr in London on the Saturday [Gag Reflex/Off the Telly]. The show was absolutely hilarious and there is a chance we might be on the DVD!

Sunday was cleaning, Sky+ installed [by two engineers who absolutely stank - thanks Sky!] and a barbecue in the evening with Jo and Jim. It was a great weekend, but it feels like we haven’t rested at all. Roll on Thailand.

The Lolita Petition is up to 269 signatures [at time of posting]. It’s good compared to the 150 odd at the time I posted, but still needs many more. So get signing!

A great day, a holiday booked, the site is coming together more. A very good day. We are heading back to Thailand - Bangkok and Phuket to be precise.

In just 70 days we fly [via Doha by Qatar airways] to Bangkok. Two nights in the Montien Hotel, feet away from the awesome Patpong road. After that it’s back to Phuket where we get our own cottage on the beach at the Chedi hotel. We nearly did the unforgiveable thing by going back to the Evason Resort & Spa. Well holidays are expensive, and how can you tell by a few doctored photos in a brochure whether the place is gonna be any good?

Fuck it, you live once right, and it’s good to try new things. We have it on good authority that this place is awesome and we just can’t wait.

Kiam Chai [according to a Google search] is salted vegetable soup with duck. We had always considered it to be chinese pickled cabbage, whatever it is, it is amazing!

Tonight was kiam chai night. Great in soup or stir fried with pork, but tonight was soup night. Boil some chicken broth [better to use duck soup but we were short on duck], add the juice from the kiam chai, cut the cabbage into pieces and add to the soup. Add white vinegar [yum], hot pepper sauce salt and pepper and some light soy sauce.

If you’re feeling a little crazy, add some belly pork or duck to that great big pot of goodness and have yourself a feast. If you are really in the know, get some dried chinese mushrooms, soak them in hot water, chop them and add them in too - argh! I’ve made myself hungry and have only just had some! You go have some. Now!

Sunday was my Aunt and Uncle’s 25th Wedding Anniversary. We celebrated at the Inglenook Restaurant in Pagham - West Sussex. It gave me the chance to take some snaps of my nephew, and a small water feature in the restaurant’s garden allowed me to try out the long exposure feature of my camera for the first time.

I am pretty chuffed with the results as even though they are pretty crap, to me the photos look great, when in reality, the feature itself looked pretty naff! Below are some of the other shots I took that night.

Today was SA and I’s [I's – that sounds wrong] 6 year anniversary. Not wedding, but 6 years of being together. We tie the not in september 08.

To celebrate we ate mexican food at Limings in Worthing, seafood enchiladas, bbq ribs [I love ribs] and chicken wings, with the best fries you have ever tasted. What makes fries great I hear you ask? They must include some if not all of the following: be crunchy, potato skins preferably still on, be thin[ish], taste great [no - honestly] and lastly but not leastly, they must come in abundance - there is always room for chips.

If you’re ever in Worthing - which I doubt you ever will be and if you’re not but have the choice to, don’t bother - then go there. It’s nice!

Living with wolves was on Animal Planet again today. I caught the end on my lunch break. It remains for me the best documentary I have seen. I have written about Living with Wolves before but hey, it’s good, so good I have to make people aware of it, and the traffic has been spiking through the roof recently so I should give any potential audience something they can take away right?

If all you take away from looking at this site [and lets face it, there isn't much to take away - sorry] is the recommendation that you should see this documentary, then trust me, your trip over was not a wasted one. If you love nature, you love animals, then this is for you, it will truly touch your heart, that I promise you.

So what are you waiting for, go buy it or consult the TV Guide. Either way, do not miss this!

Easter was an eventful one, arguments about a phone, a journey for a new phone, shows, films and cutting grass. The argument was with o2 - no deals on an upgrade, even having been with them for 6 years.
The new phone, the Nokia N73 - an awesome phone. So good to be back with Nokia where you can get great looking Themes [says it's N93 only but thats a load of bollocks!].

The journey bit was the irritating part. Apparently City Link ran out of time [my arse] and were unable to deliver, so for the third time in 3 city link deliveries, we had to travel 70 miles to go pick them up. As usual, the queue was out the door, a line of people who had been let down by them.

Sunday we took the train to London to see the Lion King [for the second time] in the West End. I had my reservations as I’m not a huge fan of musicals, even though I thoroughly enjoyed the first, I was certain I wouldn’t enjoy it a second time round. I was right! My attempts to catch 40 winks were thwarted by the family behind who decided it was a good time to have a full on conversation, chomp loudly on sweets - after taking hours rustling round their bag to select their desired one, and using their mobile throughout. Is it just me or does anyone else boil inside when people act with such utter disregard for those around them, having spent £50 each on a ticket, they seem set on pissing off all around them.

But on a happy note, spring is here, the only downer being the lawn mower rears its ugly face, but now we wear t-shirts, drive with our windows down - bugs dotting our windscreens, we go to see Jimmy Carr in a few weeks [oh yes!] the shorts make an appearance and barbecue smells fill the air. Summer is coming :)

Finally, this site is 100% Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict. Well not quite the whole site, but every post contained on the homepage and every individual post page. Some of the older post pages won’t be, but I will get round to them.

So what does it mean, I’m not entirely sure, but I intend to find out, it has something to do with the web moving to XML, and valid XHTML is the easiest way to begin this transition. Another thing I know is that I can add the little logo provided by the W3C - stating that I have bothered to make my site compliant (I won’t be though, the logo is ugly ).

I had to do a little digging about to find out how I could make the You Tube code compliant: <embed> is not allowed so <object> can be used instead. All I needed to do was to take the URL of the video given by You Tube (or any other video site for that matter) and insert it into the following code:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="[URL]” height=”267″ width=”325″>
<param name=”movie” value=”[URL]” />
<param name=”FlashVars” value=”playerMode=embedded” />
</object>

…and Voila - compliant You Tube videos dotted all over my site. The next thing was the JavaScript I had on the site. Strict XHTML means limitations with the use of JavaScript so this had to be pulled in on an external .js file and the language not be defined.

This valid code also means no links annoyingly open up in a new window. Annoying for me as I lose visitors but what the hell - I don’t get that many anyway!

I can’t add photos of my dogs without including “the guys”. The guys are my new adopted dogs, my fiancé’s dogs. Alice is a chubby blonde, pretends she is stupid but is incredibly conniving. She chases anything on wheels, attacks any dog twice her size or more and bullies her brother Pepe.

Pepe is a total ponce! He allows himself to be bullied, runs like a girl and barks too much! They both get under your feet, make too much noise but both are adorable(ish).

Whilst out walking them, I took a few photos. Most came out incredibly crap, but I quite like these two:

Hands up who made daisy chains at school. (Gay)