What a fine treat for a Sunday. Yes, I am talking about Hallmark Channel airing four Columbo films back to back today.

To think I was only flicking through channels when I made this discovery - and just as the first film was starting too.

I didn’t get to watch Columbo or Doctor Who last night after all that, as I ended up installing various electrical devices for my little brothers in their room. But I’ve just watched the repeat of Doctor Who, so all is not lost.

I don’t usually like period pieces, but Mark Gatiss’ sharply written script shined throughout - ’twas very The League of Gentlemen in many respects too.

Plus, I was reminded that Charles Dickens wrote The Signalman. How I quite forgot, mind, I’ll never know, as I loved the short story at RWS - if only for Atul K’s “Halloa! Below!” moment.

The television schedulers are being very cruel to me tonight: Columbo is on at the same time as Doctor Who. Argh!

After much consideration, I’ve decided to stay faithful to Columbo in leaving Doctor Who until the repeat tomorrow.

But first there are a couple of loose ends I’d like to tie up. Nothing important, you understand.

Writing the text for my Luis Buñuel piece (which has taken the best part of the day), I forgot to record/watch the final episode of My Life in Film tonight. Dammit.

I did remember to watch Columbo, though, which gave me a great surprise-laugh when the dishevelled detective tumbled down a hill. Observe:

And I had turkey risotto for dinner, so all was not lost.

’cause if there’s nothing better than this, what is the point in carrying on?

Today, putting it bluntly, has not been a good day. I shan’t go into details, but retail therapy now means that I’m expecting eight items through the post.

Talking of post, in this morning’s was a Service Pack 2 compact disc that Microsoft kindly sent me for free. Amazingly, when I requested the CD a week ago today, the receipt stated: “You can expect to receive your CD within 28 days.” So I’m quite impressed - as should you be.

The only other niceties of the day:

• A surprise episode of Columbo was on. I say “surprise” - it’s normally shown on Sundays but was on today instead.
• Auntie screened the 20th anniversary edition of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

What to do now…

Must dash - surprise episode of Columbo on very shortly.

We’re English here and we’re going to do Christmas properly, alright? Well, unless The Great Escape’s on, obviously:

Wednesday 22nd

• 20:00 - ITV - The Bill
• 21:00 - ITV - The British Comedy Awards
• 23:35 - BBC ONE - Film 2004

Thursday 23rd

• 20:00 - ITV - The Bill
• 22:00 - BBC TWO - Grumpy Old Men At Christmas

Friday 24th / Christmas Eve

• 21:00 - BBC ONE - My Family
• 22:10 - BBC ONE - Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
• 23:10 - BBC ONE - The Royle Family

Saturday 25th / Christmas Day

• 00:45 - ITV - FILM: Gone with the Wind (1939)
• 17:10 - five - Columbo
• 23:05 - five - FILM: The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Sunday 26th / Boxing Day

• 15:00 - five - Columbo
• 20:30 - BBC ONE - Casualty @ Holby City

Monday 27th

• 04:05 - ITV - The Mythology of Star Wars
• 21:00 - Channel 4 - The Big Fat Quiz of the Year
• 22:50 - BBC TWO - Top Gear

Tuesday 28th

• 20:00 - BBC ONE - Casualty @ Holby City

Wednesday 29th

• 20:00 - ITV - The Bill
• 22:25 - BBC ONE - FILM: Training Day (2001)
• 23:00 - ITV - FILM: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Thursday 30th

• 15:30 - BBC ONE - FILM: Superman II
• 20:00 - ITV - The Bill
• 20:00 - BBC ONE - FILM: AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
• 22:35 - BBC ONE - FILM: Serendipity (2001)

Friday 31st / New Year’s Eve

• 17:55 - BBC ONE - FILM: The Italian Job (1969)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The Italian Job are only listed because I want to see what all the fuss is about. If I’m not doing anything else, that is.

It comes to something when five wins for Christmas Day & Boxing Day viewings though, eh? And there’s sadly no Noel’s Christmas Family Video Accidents this year. Sigh.

Other than posing for some photographs for my big-little brother’s Media Studies coursework (which saw me missing Columbo, I must add), my day has been spent doing even more Racodac related work.

This time the work’s for my group’s Storytelling comic book project due in for the end of this coming week. The good news is that once this project’s complete that’s probably (or should I say “hopefully”?) it until after Christmas.

Let’s hope so, eh?

I was in a bit of a weird mood last night, as I really didn’t know what to do with myself. Oddly, neither the computer nor the television appealed to me. And that’s saying something.

I did go on MSN Messenger twice though, not that I stayed for very long on either occasion.

Columbo today wasn’t one of the better ones. In fact, it seemed very un-Columbo.

Other than that, I’ve been battling with adware & spyware whilst doing a sort of exploded diagram explanation of a 17th century painting for Context Studies homework due this Wednesday.

And I’ve got loaaads more work due these coming weeks.

Posted on this here blog on 6th November 2004:

“I have got some fairly big things planned for the site. But as with everything at the moment, it’s all down to having the time. More information is likely to follow. (As & when.)”

It was because I knuckled down at Racodac yesterday and got my Typography project finished that I’ve a weekend to use as I please.

Sadly, Red Dwarf - The Movie isn’t among my DVD collection for obvious reasons. So instead of watching that, I made my very own site map.

I did actually start on it late last night. But at 3:06 AM this morning, I felt it best to get some shut-eye.

In fact, other than watching Columbo - which isn’t normally shown on Saturdays - and having a twenty minute snooze afterwards, I’ve done nothing else but work on the site map today.

The geek days returneth. Quality nice.

As for the rest of the night, is anyone up for a game of Put a Bit of Sellotape on the Fridge?