Saddam Hussain in custodyHow charmingly American. Yes, that was Paul Bremer’s opening to the news conference in Iraq where he officially confirmed that (7 months after the war’s official “end” in May, mind) Saddam Hussain had finally been captured. Well, I’m sure we’ll all sleep more soundly tonight. In fact, more interesting was Tony Blair’s assertion that Saddam will be tried in Iraq, not an international tribunal à la Milosevic. One would have thought the Americans would have different ideas, but Blair seemed quite adament that te Iraqi people should and will be able to deal with him themselves. Now, these days I trust Blair’s promises about as far as Stuart Little could throw him, but we shall see…

I was at the Old Palace production of Oliver! last night, which went down extremely well. There was an exceedingly large chorus all on stage at one time, which meant some of the choreography was a little static, but organising that number at once is an impressive feat! Congrats to Rad and Friya in their capacity as assistant directors, and also Ally, Sarah and Lily in the band (may I have a chocolate? ;o). Very enjoyable evening, and great to see a bunch of the OP 6th formers before Christmas.

For Opeth fans who have not yet bought their first three albums (and even those who have!) now is most definitely the time to do so. The band have just made a limited pressing of about 2000 copies of each album, presented in an embossed circular tin case which looks very cool. Not easy to get hold of (I found one copy of Morningrise in the whole of Croydon, and that was it) and they’re likely to disappear extremely fast, so get your mitts on ’em now!

And so now there’s just four days left until I leave for the states. One of things about spending Christmas abroad is that it makes things much cheaper, since there are so many fewer gifts to buy! (Well, cheaper if you ignore the £400 plane tickets, that is…) I may have sporadic internet access while I’m away, but I doubt there will be any opportunity for posting updates. However, I may post occassionally at the forum to let people know what I’m up to instead.

Merry Christmas.