I was enjoying a scan through the archives of Andrew Sherman’s incisive, witty (and occasionally downright scary) blog when I suddenly thought ‘Hey Andrew - where are the links ?’ Then I realised. The hyperlinks are actually embedded in the title which is exactly where they should be. At last. After 7 months, I have finally discovered something useful you can do in Blogger which is not (currently) supported in WordPress.

Doug’s post about early memories of attending football matches got me thinking. Years ago, I was a LMTB (League Match Ticket Book) holder at Manchester United and went to every home game at Old Trafford. An LMTB was similar to a season ticket but only entitled the holder to attend League Matches with no priority for FA Cup tickets. Consequently, whenever United got to the latter stages of the FA Cup, there was a black market in the Manchester Evening News for the little numbered tokens that were printed in the matchday program. You needed a large number of tokens (including reserve games) to get a ticket. ...

Another in the recently launched and incredibly unsuccessful ‘30 second guide’ series. After learning all about data warehousing, I didn’t see Sue for a while. I assumed she was working elsewhere on a long term project. However, after 18 months I finally managed to track her down. For some inexplicable reason, she had left IT (and data warehouses behind). She lived, alone but content, in a Crofter’s cottage in a remote part of Scotland making tartan rugs. She looked a little surprised but pleased to see me on her doorstep. ...

Look at this gentleman’s very amusing profile on LinkedIn. Look at his modest, self-deprecating description - ‘I hate it when our friends become successful’. Such a refreshing change from some of the pretentiousness you usually find. This is the title of one of my favourite Morrissey songs. If only space had permitted the author to add ’especially when they’re Northern’. Now look at his employment record and the impressive list of high powered job roles he has fulfilled for major blue chips in an exciting and varied career spanning over 20 years in IT: ...

Many years ago, my horrid manager refused me a wonderful opportunity to go on an all expenses paid training course all about data warehousing in some exotic location. I was moaning about this to a colleague over lunch. She was an ex-teacher and happened to work in the prestigious data warehousing consultancy group. ‘There, there Norman. Don’t cry. Tell me exactly what you wanted to learn from this course ?’ ...