If you look to the right (on the main page) you’ll see my upcoming events.
This is my first attempt at playing with the Google Calendar API. It wasn’t as easy as some of the others I’ve used, and a lack of any real PHP code made it harder.
For some reason the XML files return different date formats depending on the type of event. For short one day meetings I get a start and end time inside a <gd:when /> tag down to the nearest millisecond. For all day events I just get the Year-Month-Day. For reoccurring events, a completely different set of data is returned inside <gd:recurrence /> tags, one day events have start and end times, whilst hourly events have a start time and a duration.
It also only shows the last 25 modified events (although you can search by date ranges), so if I enter an event a year in advance it may not show up.
Maybe if a GData library is available for PHP it’ll be easier, but at the moment my nasty hacky code seems to work.

After Blogger ate my template, I’ve finally rebuilt it.
There are some tweaks, but I’ve learnt that you should regularly back up EVERYTHING.
I’ll probably knock up some code soon to automatically backup the template each day. It shouldn’t be hard to make, as I’ve already used the Atom API before.

For now (as it’s 3am) my template is a little screwed. It seems that when I moved a pipe | from the left to the right the bottom half of my template just disappeared.
When I went to check what happened, even more got stolen.
I’ve rebuilt bits so the HTML is valid, but stuff like latest news, archives and the LibDemBlog box will need to be added again.

Well the bidding has begun and Sky have half the packages, but this stupid rule from the EU is going to be the worst outcome for the fans.
Domestic channels won’t be able to afford more than one match, and if NTL gets the final package then those with Sky won’t be able to see these games.
Instead of Sky pumping millions into the sport for exclusive rights, they’ll now offer less.
The only possible winners in this will be Sentana Sports who might get a few more viewers if they win the final package.

On Friday me and Heather went to Nottingham to meet up with some other Joinees for some duck racing and beer drinking.
I tried my luck with a super duck from Asda which came with two small ducks on it’s back (allowing me multiple entries if one fell off). However after being tenth for a while a boat got in the way and I finished somewhere around 30th.
After the race the ducks were kindly rescued, and mine was donated to a small child in a pushchair (after his mother had washed it).
We then ran around Nottingham doing acts of Random Kindness, and then back to the pub for more drinking of beer.
Thanks to everyone who was there and thanks to Joinee Dave whose photo I’ve just “borrowed”.

On Sunday David and I went to the Man Utd – Arsenal game.
I had to sit in the Man Utd stand, as chances of getting away tickets for the Arsenal seats would be near impossible.
I thought I would be able to sit back and not make a sound, but a few near chances in the early stages and I was having to bite my tongue hard.
But it didn’t last long, some great saves from Jens Lehmann and Kolo Toure in the first half ensured a nil-nil draw at the midway point, but the second half Man Utd out played us and deserved the win.

On the way home, we began to notice some snow on the number plates of approaching traffic. And then as we were travelling across the Peak District the snow fell. The visibility was low, and there was a twat in a Ferrari trying to overtake the 100 odd vehicles travelling safely at 40mph. It cleared up once we left the Peaks and the final part of the journey was fine.
It was a great day out, and Old Trafford is a lovely stadium, even if it is the home of them.
Think I need to start going to some more games, even if it is Lincoln or Oldham away games.

An interesting meme via Will:

Go to Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/). Type in your birth date (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death. Post this in your journal.

Birth date: February 13th
Events:

• 1960 – Nuclear testing: France tests its first atomic bomb.
• 1996 – Pop group Take That announce that they are splitting up.
• 2000 – The last original “Peanuts” comic strip appears in newspapers one day after Charles M. Schulz dies.

Births:

• 1938 – Oliver Reed, English actor (d. 1999)
• 1944 – Jerry Springer, American television host

Death:

• 1542 – Catherine Howard, queen of Henry VIII of England (executed) (b. 1525)

Just like that bird in Fife, I too have flu.
Bloke flu that is.
If my words (or typing) are slurred or I start coughing please step away.
Thank you.

Having spent two years of my life in Leamington Spa, I’m sure I would have noticed the Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum and the coastline, but I did spend most of my time in pubs and bars.
Otherwise this is a nice website. Well designed with a mixed of real historical facts including:

A second bomb almost destroyed a statue of HRH Queen Victoria – the blast shifting Her Majesty a full two inches along the plinth.

Worth a visit to workout this years hints.

Using Googles new Google Romance you could find Mr/Mrs Right and have your date paid for by Contextual ads (similar to those Google Ads you see on every website).
Why not give it a try today.