Hello there!

Three years ago today I took a trip back to the UK. My first since we've lived in Australia. I documented that day with a series of photographs. Some of you also contributed to this little portfolio. We should do that again sometime.

We're now readying ourselves for our third trip back. As per the first and the previous occasion, there will be a wedding involved in this visit. Actually, there shall be two: one of K's school-friends and my brother. Needless to say I'm looking forward to both.

Absence does make the heart grow fonder. It has been two-and-a-half years since we were last in England and we're both looking forward to spending some time with our friends and our families. The impending trip has been coming up in conversations daily for a few weeks now.

This weekend we spent a lot of time with friends that we've made during our time in Melbourne. When we got home last night I said to K that it was if these friends wanted to remind us of how much we love living in Melbourne and not to go staying in England! I'm sure that's not the case.

Anyway, if you're in England, and you fancy a pint of real beer or a vindaloo (one where the waiter doesn't ask you if you would like that 'mild', 'medium' or 'hot'), do drop us a line and we shall let you know our schedule.

Goodnight!

Following my rant about the Melbourne Grand Prix, I find this in the commentage mailbox:

Any FF1 league this year? Tom

Every year, I set up a Fantasy Formula 1 Grand Prix League over at ff1gp.com. This year is no exception and the Murray's Mint league is up and running. If you wish to partake, you need to enter the magic word, 'sensises' to add your team to the league.

Appropriately, last year's league winner is from Stevenage. Michelle, I'll post your prize this week.

Last week I read speculation the State Government will face record losses of up to $50 million on this year's Australian Grand Prix. Last year there was a $40 million loss and $35 million the previous year. I'm appalled by that, really and truly.

I'm a Formula 1 fan and have been for many years. Each year since I've been here I've gone along to the Melbourne Grand Prix and had a great time. I've also encouraged others to go. This year The Who are playing after the main race, which should drag in some extra fans.

This year, I have been putting off buying my tickets for the race weekend. Due to saving my annual leave allowance for the trip back to the UK later in the year I shall not be going for the four-day grandstand passes that I bought the previous two years. I do want to go along to the Saturday and Sunday, though, and I'd like to pay the extra for grandstand tickets to get a better view. Being next to the grid when the full complement of Formula 1 cars rev their engines for the start of the race is an amazing experience. K wants to join me on the Sunday this year, but that's more about the after-race gig than motorcars driving in circles around Albert Park Lake.

Today I went to the temporary Ticktek outlet that has been erected in City Square to buy some tickets. The guy at the counter asked "Who's Next?" I said I'd like to buy two grandstand tickets for me and one for "My Wife" (did you see what I did there?).

He told me that I could only buy grandstand tickets for the whole four days. Now, I could take two days off work at a real push, but there is no way K would want to spend four days at the circuit. No way. I explained my predicament and he said "I know" in a manner suggesting that he'd heard a million other potential customers air the same complaint but there was nothing he could do about it. I want to see the race and so if the only way I can see it live with K is with the cheaper general admission tickets then that is what I shall have to do. I asked for these and he told me that the booking system was down. I walked away.

I am so angry with Australian Grand Prix Corporation right now, I am seriously considering boycotting the race. I wonder how much of the huge annual deficits could have been cut by firstly having ticket booking systems that work during office lunch breaks but also by not having such tedious restrictions on the sale of grandstand tickets. No doubt Australian Grand Prix Corporation will end up giving these tickets away so that the stands are full for the television cameras on race-day.

Frankly, I hope Melbourne loses the grand prix. I'd rather see my tax dollars go to people more deserving: the homeless of Melbourne, the hospitals or the schools. Anyone other than Australian Grand Prix Corporation!

Presumably referring to this blog entry, a reader asks...

What? You test your code? If it compiles ship it. If it doesn't then comment out the bits that error and try again! Let Dodginess rule!?!

Of course I test my code. How else do I know it's right? Not testing my code would be like filling out a su doku grid with random numbers and declaring it complete.

On the subject of my recent shave, a reader shares...

Hmmm I reckon the arms and chest should be waxed as well... it is for a good cause!

Ah... sadly I read this too late. Maybe next time.

Allegedly apropos this entry a reader declares...

Very nice site!

It's not that nice really. Neither are the spelling or grammar in the following email received from our property managers in the UK:

Dear Pete

I am asking my contractors for there advise on the situation as soon as I have this I will let you no.

Kind Regards

Ssssss Tttttt
Property Managment

How embarrassment!

I realise that I have been harping on about Leukaemia Foundation's World's Greatest Shave a lot over the past four weeks. It's all done and dusted now and so I justed wanted to wrap up with a thank you to everyone who supported me, particularly in the past 24 hours.

When I woke up yesterday morning, I was anxious about the day ahead. Having never had my legs waxed, I was concerned about the pain that lay ahead, particularly given the very hairy nature of my legs. At 12:30, I went to Claire Françoise's salon and after a brief wait was led to a little room with a couch and a bucket of hot wax. K came in too, to take some photographs for you people, which I will upload later today.

I have to say, folks, that my anxiety was for nothing. Claire was very fast and in no time at all, I was looking down on a pair of freshly-waxed, pale white, freckle-covered legs. I was reminded of an early scene in Spike Milligan's book 'Puckoon', where The Milligan is giving out to The Author on writing such legs.

Back at the office, I was told that it was now time to go downstairs for my head shave. This was never a part of the plan, but there we go. There was a WGS event happening on the ground floor of my office block, so it seemed appropriate to do it there and then where some of my sponsors could witness the event first-hand. You will have to make-do with the photographs!

This morning, after an hour locked away in the bathroom (during a thunderstorm for effect) with a large tub of Veet and a Mach III, I emerged with smooth arms, chest and head. Again, there will be photos online later today.

You've kindly donated $2,120 to the Leukaemia Foundation. I'm extremely grateful for your generosity. And now, I have to concentrate on hair growth ahead of my brother's wedding in Swindon, England on 12 June. Thank you very much.

The Leukaemia Foundation World's Greatest Shave is happening this weekend!

To bring you up-to-date:

1. I thought I'd raise a few bucks by shaving my head.
2. People wanted more to give more, so I offered to shave my legs as well as my head for $500.
3. You called for my legs to be waxed, so I asked for $1,000.
4. I'm now sponsored to the tune of $1,782!
5. Claire Françoise Salon in Melbourne's CBD are going to wax my legs tomorrow (Friday) lunchtime!
6. If I raise $2,000 by Friday, I shall shave my arms and my chest, too.

Your donation will make a difference, in the short term it could mean the loss of more of my hair, in the long term it will help those suffering with leukaemias as they undergo treatment. As an Australian tax payer, you get to claim your tax back at the end of the year! You'll be sent a PDF receipt when you donate (let me know if you think you've donated but not received a receipt).

Photographs will be shared via my Flickr Stream after the event.

Most importantly, here is the link you need to sponsor me. Every dollar counts. If you cannot spare a dollar right now, then perhaps leave some words of encouragement on my profile page. I really appreciate the support.

Many, many thanks for your generosity, financial or otherwise.

Last week, after I hit the $1,000 target that would mean that I have to wax my legs, I mentioned that I am dreading it. I've been hearing many tales of home-waxing and also have had the scene from The 40 Year Old Virgin recounted to me more times than I would like.

Yesterday evening I had a very nice email from Claire Françoise, telling me that her studio would love to be a part of the World's Greatest Shave and that they would be more than happy to inflict 'pain' on me for the sake of a good cause.

Since the Claire Françoise Salon is only a few blocks away from my office, I can pop by in my lunch break next Friday for the dreaded waxing.

This has calmed my nerves a little, knowing that professionals are on the case. I promise to take some photos of the event and to blog of my first waxing experience. I'm sure it shall be an experience.

According to the total on my profile page, my arms and chest are still safe but there are still ten days to go, so you still have time to sponsor me.

Now I must think about how to execute the head shave... I'm open to suggestions!

Thank you all, once more, for your amazing support. I really am very appreciative.

I've just received the following SMS:

Msg from Vic Police:Extreme weather in Vic expected Mon night and Tues.High wind & fire risk.Listen to local ABC Radio for emergency updates.Do not reply to this

According to The Age, another two million similar messages will be sent.

Speaking of The Police, I recommend this Mashup of Watching the Detectives + Walking on the Moon.

Stay safe.

Before I joined my current employer about two years ago I had heard of both Python and TDD but used neither. Now Python is the first language I reach for whenever I want to write a utility and I naturally start by writing a failing unit test. It's a fun way in which to program, but more than that... Today I was telling a friend (and former colleague) why I prefer test-driven development as a way of writing code. Here are some of the reasons I enumerated:

• TDD helps me think.
• TDD helps me design.
• TDD helps me create clean interfaces.
• TDD helps me focus on developing just what needs to be developed.
• TDD helps me clean up my code.
• TDD tells me that my code does exactly what it is supposed to.
• TDD lets me test my code as often as I like at the press of a single key.

That last point is more an artefact of unit-testing, but is still valid.

If you're a programmer and you want to learn about TDD, you could do worse than reading Ron Jeffries' bowling game examples, first the C# object-oriented example and then procedural version.

My first post of 2009 was on doing TDD in Python using Vim. Unfortunately, not all of the Python code owned by ${PETES_EMPLOYER} was written using the same editor or coding standards. I love the fact that Python uses indentation to determine code blocks and has no need for ugly braces everywhere but it doesn't do anything to enforce discipline in this area. Occasionally, when working with Other People's Code, I've encountered problems where a mixture of indentation styles have been employed and Python hasn't behaved. Recently I discovered that Python can throw an error when this happens by supplying the switch '-tt' to the interpreter. This is why all Python code that I write now begins with the following shebang line...

#!/usr/bin/env python -tt -Wall

I hope that is of some use to somebody.

Dear all,

You are quick, and generous. You are kind but brutal. I thought that calls for me to have my legs waxed were harsh, but you've quickly rallied together and raised the extra $500 I suggested would be enough for this to happen. And now it must. I have to say that I am dreading this.

Now there are calls for a "BSC". I'm sorry to have to disappoint but despite my hirsuteness, for reasons unbeknownst to me, I don't have a hairy back. And since neither the 'sack' nor the 'crack' will be photographed in the name of good taste, this would be a pointless (yet painful, I imagine) exercise.

Since you have reached the $1,000 target I feel duty bound to offer more so that you might do the same. This time I am doubling the target to in return for my shaven arms and chest.

I feel I should mention that this is not an event that I am undertaking lightly. I really, really don't like shaving my face in the morning. To shave more than that is a huge ask, so please drop by my profile page, give generously and help me help the Leukaemia Foundation in World's Greatest Shave.

As ever, I'm deeply thankful for your support, be it financial or emotional!

Much love;

--paj

P.S: If there are any Olympic cyclists, swimmers or cross-dressers out there, I have a burning question: Do you use the same shaving products for your face as your body hair or do you use a products aimed at women?