:: Hair today, gone tomorrow? ::

Anyone who hasn't seen me for the past two weeks will be unaware of the fact that I have acquired a beard. For PopBitch readers, I can reliably inform you that I don't mean that type of beard. Indeed, you may wish to indulge in a little Devukha Beard Bingo and try to guess the precise style of follicular chin-sprout I am currently wearing. Aside from the fact that yesterday it felt like I was wearing a hessian nose-bag, I must confess to it having been a success. The compliments it has received have far outwighed my expectations, even to the pont of disbelief. Whilst La Gribouilleuse is not a dedicated fan, most other people have avoided downright derision. The Organisation for the Advancement of Facial Hair is an institution worthy of my patronage, I thought. But then Wilverine pointed out one of the fundamental flaws of facial hair: after a centimetre or so, it becomes difficult to eat soup. So, the chin-bush might be heading down my plughole rather soon, and I shan't get an opportunity to enter the World Beard Championships...

Christmas is looming and my wallet's getting thin in the rush to complete the present shopping whilst holding down a job and stage-managing a musical. So it was with some amusement when one of our directors sent round a message to say our company had received an enormous gift from Ferrero! I'll leave you to guess what it might have been, but this might give you a clue (courtesy of b3ta's Northern_Blerk).

While we're on the topic of the dreaded festivities, I ought to mention these delightful crackers. What a pity they're not commercially available - I think someone's missing out on a business opportunity.

And finally, in the week when EU tried to outlaw spam and many top UK websites were found to fail on these privacy criteria, I decided to take action. My email inbox, once impervious to the spam menace, has become a repository for pleas for money from starving Nigerians, offers of cheap-rate mortgages and links to those pictures of Paris Hilton. All this come through naughty web-bots plucking my address from this site for spam-xploitation. I found a rather useful site which details the measures you could take to make your "mailto:" link more secure. God knows if it will work, but I know quite a few people who would appreciate not having to wade through mountains of crap to read their mail, so, fingers crossed...