Rachel's weblog.

I got married!

2008-07-07T21:22:00.003Z

I got married, so I am now Rachel Dunkerley! The wedding was at Christ Church, Orpington and the reception at St Julians Club near Sevenoaks.

I shouldn't share this...

2006-01-09T21:07:00.000Z

... but Get Into London Theatre is back. 'Tis cool!

[and yes, it has been a little while...]

You may have heard there's an election soon...

2005-04-15T19:49:00.000Z

If you're wondering who to vote for, here's a site which will tell you - and there are only 23 questions... Here are my results:

Labour -14
Conservative -40
	Liberal Democrat 54
UK Independence Party -2
	Green 8

You should vote: Liberal Democrat

The LibDems take a strong stand against tax cuts and a strong one in favour of public services: they would make long-term residential care for the elderly free across the UK, and scrap university tuition fees. They are in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, but would relax laws on cannabis. They propose to change vehicle taxation to be based on usage rather than ownership.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

It took a while...

2005-02-16T20:42:00.000Z

... but it's there now! Go search for said phrase in Google : )

Future googlewhack?

2005-01-02T22:27:00.000Z

When I looked in Google just now, there were no pages with both the words ruffles and kerfluffles. Hopefully soon there will be!

If not, I can always play more with Google Suggest - 'tis cool!

Smile

2004-11-25T11:08:00.000Z

Only a month 'til Christmas!

Start watching....

2004-11-02T21:48:00.000Z

Results will start coming in soon.... It's less certain when they'll finish!

The Guardian joins the campaign...

2004-10-13T08:15:00.000Z

If you're an independent in Clark County start checking your post!

CHOCOLATE!!!

2004-10-10T09:22:00.000Z

'Tis fantastic : )
I'm a Mediocre Milk Chocolate Monkey!

iPod vs. The Cassette

2004-08-15T21:22:00.000Z

Someone I know may not be happy at this ; ) - 'tho of course he has a Mini iPod, so it's ok.

The Butler Report

2004-07-17T21:30:00.000Z

While half the country continues claiming the Butler report was a whitewash, I'll point in the direction of something a little more measured.

Still going on...

2004-06-09T17:43:00.000Z

Although seemingly no longer headline news. I found this hidden away on the BBC website. Hopefully they will succeed in improving matters, at least a little.

Purpleness

2004-05-19T21:01:00.000Z

Guardian readers are certainly funny!

I want one... Well maybe not, but 'tis cool!

2004-05-11T21:18:00.000Z

Found this while searching the web for virtual gerbils...

Update

2004-05-06T21:52:00.000Z

Someone also found my site searching Yahoo for "charity worker pay"!

Random discovery

2004-05-05T20:27:00.000Z

If you go to MSN and search for ypu ][;iii then the first entry found is my website!

Super Thursday

2004-05-05T20:22:00.000Z

A new idea:
If you want leadership change in Labour, then, even if you are a Labour supporter, don't vote for them. It might even work - Tony Blair can only stand so much. Sadly, it perpetuates the idea that only general elections matter - that your local council, your MEP or your mayor make no difference.

And as well as other good things which happened this weekend....

2004-05-02T11:10:00.000Z

Derby are safe - but could they please play as well as they have the last few weeks, for the whole of next season? It would be a lot less stressful... And credit to George Burley - he deserves it.

Elections and the like...

2004-05-02T10:20:00.000Z

An interesting article in the Observer today, discussing how long Mr Blair is likely to remain leader of the Labour Party. It mentions a website called 'Financial Calculus', which apparently summarises what the results of an election would be, based on the most recent opinion polls. The article doesn't link to the site, and I have so far failed to find it, although along the way, I did come across this - a discussion of the 2001 election. It looked quite thougtful - I must go back and have a proper read later...

On a completely differently note...

2004-05-02T10:19:00.000Z

... but given that I'm here, I think it is necessary to link to MINI.co.uk - it's so cool : )

Hello world!

2004-04-27T22:11:00.000Z

I haven't written anything in a little while. Just a reminder I'm still here.

And so we go on...

2004-01-28T09:51:00.000Z

Go to Google and type in tuition fees victory, then hit "I'm feeling lucky". Ok, there are far funnier ones out there, but this made me smile.

The result

2004-01-27T19:41:00.000Z

They won, but only just. I'm still not sure what I think - I guess it's comforting in some way, that it turns out the whips really didn't know what was happening - although maybe worrying that I have become so cynical about politicians.

It saddens me that with it so close, the government won by making it a test of loyalty - it's clear that the majority of MPs disagreed with it. Labour already seems to be doing its best to kill democracy, so I have no problem in hoping the Lords overturn it....

Part III

2004-01-27T17:09:00.000Z

Thank-ypu Ian Gibson for talking a little sense... (This is a link to an article he wrote a few months ago, but he has stuck with his principles this afternoon, so this gives some idea of what he has said)

Apparently the government is still claiming that the result is not certain, but I am assuming this is just to persuade even more Labour MPs to switch.

Education, education, education (2) ?

2004-01-27T15:56:00.000Z

Some issues which this bill does not seem to address:
- This may be naive of me, but I believe university choice should be based on ability and suitability - if even one student chooses a different university because of top up fees, then are they not having an undesirable effect? (see poll)
- The government has still not said how the rest of the higher education funding gap will be filled...
- Where are our future doctors going to come from (Stealing doctors from other countries, and letting them fund the majority of the training is not a good answer)
- Oh, and what about that teaching crisis - with the huge debts (and while exact amounts are disputed, I think everyone agrees it's a lot) - apparently using teachers from abroad (although at least this time we're not stealing them...) is again the answer.
- Why should the middle class charity worker pay back significantly more than the working class investment banker?
- These proposals help the generally more 'debt averse' working class, but what about the exceptional 'debt averse' middle class student?
- Grants will be given to many of those who need them most - but what happens to the student whose parents have a high income, but refuse to support him/her? (This was also a failing of the current system).
- The Labour leadership seems to view its backbenchers as votes belonging to them, and is pressuring those who have more qualms than them. It looks like this tactic will work this time, but how long do they expect this to continue?

Education, education, education?

2004-01-27T15:25:00.000Z

I am spending today becoming more and more depressed. I've known for days that Labour were probably going to win, but I've been clinging onto some small hope that they might not. I guess that hope is not gone for another four hours, but it is disappearing.

Up until I read of Nick Brown's announcement (I think through this article) I have been questioning what has happened. I almost wrote him an email through the parliament website, but I guess although his timing is very bad, I do feel sorry for the guy - I am sure he has been under a lot of pressure. That is enough that he deserves my sympathy, although also enough that he has lost the respect which he had been gaining in my eyes over the past weeks.

William Hague, however, has perhaps regained some of my respect this afternoon - he pointed out how bad this victory will make democracy appear. It is not a point I had considered before, but an important one: people struggle to differentiate between the parties, and to believe that their vote is of any value even now - if we can no longer trust our politicians to do what they said, what is left?

Barry Sheerman, however, as I have just looked up, is making some silly claims. If higher education, as he claims, is really rigged to help those from privileged backgrounds, then this bill will do nothing to help. I disagree with his claim - having attended one of our 'elite' universites, I believe the concern of the vast majority there is to let in the best, regardless of background. The only way in which treatment differs, is the reasonably significant amounts of money which are made available to any who might struggle financially. Barry Sheerman is now defending his point, claiming that he thinks Offa will achieve his aims.

Time

2003-11-30T04:00:00.000Z

My attempt at posting at an odd time failed, because I forgot to publish it... Ah well, I can always make this one look like it was done at four in the morning!

Smiles

2003-11-25T08:30:00.000Z

I'm feeling all happy today. Maybe because it's only a month 'til Christmas : )

Exciting new titles

2003-11-16T10:10:00.000Z

Please note the new titles!!! When I'm feeling energetic, I might go back and put titles on the old posts... But not for the moment!

Look!

2003-11-08T22:29:00.000Z

I have just noticed Blogger have introduced a load of new features. Although the one I've just tried to use, doesn't do what I expected it to...

2003-11-08T22:23:00.000Z

James has complained that I haven't mentioned him on my weblog.

So now I have : )

If you don't know me, then you probably won't know James either. There might be a link to his website one day, if it's ever less than two years out of date ; )

2003-09-02T17:53:00.000Z

OK, so it's a little while since I've written anything : )

If anyone had noticed the counter was broken, it's fixed now... And thanks to Bravenet for bringing back free graphical counters ('tho it was them that took them away in the first place!)

2003-04-11T18:06:00.000Z

I was all clever and commented my html : )

2003-04-11T18:04:00.000Z

Have *just* discovered that gblogs no longer exists - d'oh! That would be why the linking thing never seemed to show a picture... I always just thought it needed refreshing. Anyway, if I can find it in the html, it will be removed momentarily. 'Tho I may manage to lose some other links too : )

2003-03-08T11:42:00.000Z

According to the poet laureate, there is a crisis of creativity, because schools no longer have time to read many great works of literature. He gives a list of nine books he thinks students on his creative writing course should have read.

Now, I won't be going on his course any time soon, but I still thought I'd have a look at the list. I've read two of them. One of them (Jane Austen's Emma) is the book I most often state if asked for my favourite book. On the other hand, while I made it through Great Expectations, I don't like the book. Part of the problem is that I'm very into endings, so discovering he wrote two was very disillusioning.

Of the rest, I think I have seen a television adaptation of Middlemarch, and I have heard of all but one of the authors... Ah well.

2003-03-03T20:18:00.000Z

Apparently every other weblog in the world is talking about Blogger's acquisition by Google. So there you go, I've done my bit now! : )

2003-03-02T17:08:00.000Z

Good to see that the Guardian agreed with me about the significance of Wednesday night, describing it as "one of the most remarkable political events the House of Commons has seen for decades". The article makes interesting reading - if it weren't for a concerted effort by the government, and especially the whips, the number 'rebelling' might have been far higher.

2003-02-26T19:26:00.000Z

Happy new year!! (Yes, I know, this is fairly pathetic...)

Anyway, I thought I would write something here, as if I ever had any readers, they've probably all given up now : )

However, I've just realised what is currently happening in parliament, so I'm going to go and watch that instead - this is Britain-changing if not world-changing stuff.

2002-12-30T22:21:00.000Z

Was watching channel four's 100 greatest films last night.

Anyway, it got me thinking about all the films I want to see again...

From the top five I want to see, but haven't, the Godfather films, and Pulp fiction (yes, really). Also from the 'top 100', the films I would most like to see, but haven't are probably Casablanca and Brief Encounter. Some day...

Then, elsewhere, there's Run Lola Run, Memento and the Green Mile. Which someone I know has in their DVD collection, so maybe I should have got around to them by now : )

On the other hand, I have seen Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, on Friday. If you haven't already, then go see it!!! 'Tho if you still haven't got round to watching the first one, then you perhaps need to see that first!! I have to disagree with Empire, which despite giving the film five stars, claims it is less good than the first one. If anything it is even better!!!

2002-12-25T18:27:00.000Z

Happy Christmas everyone!!!

2002-12-23T01:34:00.000Z

Hiya all!

Thought I'd pop in and write something, while I'm on holiday : )

Something cool I've found, in development at google. Webquotes allows you to type in some terms ( as usual) but as well as the usual results, gives you some idea of what other sites say about the sites it is listing. It's a cool idea, 'tho it seems to work rather better with big, well-known sites, rather than those of my friends' which I tried out. Still, I like!

2002-11-14T19:08:00.000Z

I haven't been here for a while - things are quite busy at the moment!

Work is great, 'tho I'm not there at the moment - I am on a course this week. It is very good - I'm learning lots, and our 'trainer' (she isn't really a lecturer) is brilliant. I only have one problem with her - I was already using the word 'fantastic' far too much, and she has a slight tendancy to do the same, so I am getting even worse...

2002-10-26T09:48:00.000Z

So, I have moved down to Orpington, and done my first couple of weeks of work. It all seems to be gong pretty well so far, 'tho I have mainly been being trained so far - it'll be good to start work properly on Monday. And someone has tracked down this weblog - Andrew! - I didn't expect it to be this quick! Anyway, have lots to do, so I should get on with all of it!

2002-10-11T22:38:00.000Z

I leave home tomorrow. This is scary.

2002-10-09T17:40:00.000Z

I was considering beginning a rant about our dear government's education policy... However, first, perhaps I should let you know roughly where my political beliefs lie...

According to fantasyelection2001, I come out as 56% in accordance with the Lib Dems, 48% in accordance with Labour, and -4% in accordance with the Conservatives. However, the site asks you which party you normally vote for beforehand, and apparently the Lib Dems are the most likely to 'lose' people, which I find a little hard to believe, as amongst my friends, at least, most would prefer the Lib Dems to be in government, even if they do not vote for them through 'wasted vote' feelings.

On the other hand, How2Vote found that 52% of those who used their site were nearest to the Lib Dems' policies. Admittedly, the largest number of those who expressed an initial preference on party were Lib Dems, but 42% had no preference to begin with.

Just goes to show that you can show anything given the right questions, and then the right statistics : )

Moving back to my views, the excellent Political Compass site tells me I am -4.12 on the economic left/right line (I am in favour of regulation of the economy, and more taxes!) and -2.62 on the authoritarian/libertarian line (I'm not about to start killing individuals, in order to help the state!) Basically, this puts me in the same quadrant of the political compass as Charles Kennedy and Tony Benn among others.

I am not a member of any political party, as none of the main three completely represent my views. However, I have, so far, always voted for the same one (you might be able to guess which!). So, when I am a little critical of some policies dreamt up by our political parties, you know where I'm coming from now!

2002-10-08T22:53:00.000Z

Well, either this wasn't working yesterday, or something equally strange was going on!

I appear to be addicted... the dynomite game at popcap is excellent - and a brilliant way to waste time when you should be writing replies to e-mails...

2002-10-06T16:34:00.000Z

Oh dear. I went back today, to see if I was still there, but I've managed to disappear again. It is very sad. : (
I clearly need one or two more links to my page, before my google future is secure....

2002-10-06T01:36:00.000Z

NEWSFLASH!!!

The google search for the phrase 'rachel craig' and the word ruffles gives my weblog!!! I'm on!!! Yeah!

2002-10-06T00:17:00.000Z

Thanks to Caffeine diary , I have just discovered that according to quizstop I am 'incredibly flexible'. Actually, I wasn't absolutely sure I could do the last one quite properly, but the rest were very do-able - I knew there was a reason I spent so long learning the piano!!!

2002-10-05T23:47:00.000Z

Aargghhh!! My e-mail isn't working - how will I cope?!? I've tried accessing it from the web-based thingy as well, and that doesn't seem to be working either... Not that I'm obsessed or anything : )

As may be apparent, I haven't been here for a few days. On Thursday, I watched some of the Chelsea v. some Norwegian team (who "would struggle in the lower reaches of the Nationwide league" according to the Guardian.) It was hilarious. I was worried it was unpatriotic to support the opposition to an English team in Europe, but my brother pointed out that Viking probably had as many English players as Chelsea, so it was OK!!! I have to admit it wasn't quite as good as the time Chelsea lost to Tromso (it's nothing particular against Chelsea, just that while there may be worse English teams in Europe, Chelsea are best struggling against unknowns) - but anyway, it was the fact that Tromso-Chelsea was played during snow that made that one so good.

2002-10-02T01:02:00.000Z

Just a quick hello tonight. As may be apparent, the vote caster is gone...

2002-09-30T23:54:00.000Z

I've temporarily added a vote caster to my page, but I'm not sure I like it, so it'll probably be gone before you see this... But I may go and add another question to my guestbook (and you never know, it might get used!).

2002-09-30T23:25:00.000Z

I didn't get around to writing about it last night (it was late, and I do like to sleep some times!!) but I have a new counter on my page (courtesy of Bravenet) - allowing me to spot that some random people have already looked at it. And they didn't leave me a message : (. A hello would have done, and I'd be sure to visit your page, if that's sufficient a bribe : ) !!!

2002-09-30T01:02:00.000Z

Have had a busy evening, looking at lots of websites - I am moving in a couple of weeks time, and I am looking for a new church. Anyone know of any good churches in Orpington??

2002-09-28T23:17:00.000Z

And now I even have a clever link thing to my new guestbook. It may get changed later if I get round to making this all look a bit nicer. And when I momentarily stop playing around, there may even be some actual content...

2002-09-28T22:53:00.000Z

Back again for some brief, mad entries!! I now have a guestbook you can go and sign, at rachelcc.signmyguestbook.com. If you're reading this, go on, sign it, you know you want to!!!

2002-09-28T00:34:00.000Z

Oh pigs. I've been looking around everything, trying to fix something (which actually didn't need fixing) when I noticed there's a clever little tool for doing links. Ah well, I'm sure I have some kind of moral high ground in having learnt how to do it all properly...

2002-09-28T00:25:00.000Z

Well, that seemed to work in the end. I had some great plan to tell you what's going to be happening. Part of what I want to do is see if, without telling many people about this, it will ever get 'found'. And that means not just people reading it, but actually linking to this page. So I suppose it's going to have to be good!! I'm not sure how great my HTML is ever going to get, so there goes any hope of it having a fabulous style of its own, so I guess the content is just going to have to be sensational. Oh dear. Going back a few sentences, getting my page found is not an end in itself. At the moment, if you type the phrase 'Rachel Craig' into google you *will* find many pages, but none of them will be about me. [This isn't true of all search engines, but I think I'll leave that for another time]. And this page in itself will not get me on there, unless other people link to it. 'Tho that's not to say you *must* link to my page - unless you know me, of course, in which case I'll come and get you if you don't : ). Anyway, it's late, and I want to see if I can make this work this time, so here goes!!

2002-09-28T00:14:00.000Z

Well, that was great, other than that when I try to view my page, it doesn't seem to be working... So, we'll try publishing another post, and seeing if it works/anything works/aargh...!

2002-09-28T00:06:00.000Z

Well, my made-up HTML clearly wasn't up to that...

Visit Dave's Site! - it's taught me how to do links : ).

Also, you can send me email at weblog@rcraig.plus.com. Yeah, I have learnt something this evening : ).

2002-09-27T17:45:00.000Z

Now to see if I can do a link... http://ruffles.blogspot.com

2002-09-27T17:35:00.000Z

Well, here it is - my first post. I guess, at the moment, I'm just testing to see how this comes out!!