as Ben Elton used to say.

This Thursday sees local elections across the UK, but in Scotland we also have the election for the Scottish Parliament. It might not mean much to you now, but by Friday it will probably dominate the news.

As things stand, looking at the opinion polls over the last few weeks, the likely outcome is a coalition government led by Alex Salmond’s Scottish National Party. For the first time in 50 years, Labour won’t be the dominant party in an election in Scotland.

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We were invited to a Travel Marketing Event hosted by Affiliate Future in London last week. As we hadn’t got all us HW’ers together for a while we thought it was the perfect excuse!

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It’s baby fever here at HW Headquarters! Chris and Claire had a surprise this week when Ella arrived a few weeks early, I’m sure he’ll be blogging about it whenever he gets a few minutes..

I’m pleased to be able to finally make our own future arrival public knowledge too, with Baby Clarkson #2 due on the 18th October. Just got back from our (well, Lorna’s) 12 week scan and all is well. Poppy got to see her future brother/sister on the ultrasound scan and is finally happy to reply “a baby” to the question “What’s in mummy’s tummy?”.

eStuff are looking to hire a new web developer, to help us get through our ever increasing to-do list!

This is a great opportunity to join an exciting young company on the way to world domination. This is a full-time position working from home.

Requirements:

• HTML / CSS 
• PHP / MySQL
• Build Websites from brief to completion
• A firm grasp of the English language
• Knowledge of JavaScript and XML and AJAX would be useful, but not essential.

The key attributes we’re looking for is someone who works hard and is willing to learn, willing to follow the companies coding practices and ask for advice if needed.

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Went along to the first ever Barcamp Scotland yesterday with Alan, Clarke and Fraser. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but it was an interesting experience.

The general concept is that it’s all very informal and everyone participates to some degree. On arrival we wrote our names on bits of paper along with 3 words to “tag” ourselves. This was then cellotaped to our chests leading to the usual conference chest-gazing at strangers.

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It’s not very often I get to wear my full kilt outfit these days, but it’s going to be a doubler this weekend.

Tonight is the rugby club’s Burns Supper. Yes, I know it’s the 24th of February. Almost a full month since actual Burns Night. It’s been getting later and later every year, mainly to ensure we get good entertaining speakers I believe.

Sunday night I’m off to the Scottish Hotels of The Year awards, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Glasgow. Looking forward to it, might even do a post on it!

It’s been an interesting year so far, lots of meetings, the January rush and my rugby weekend away. Suddenly I’ve got nothing in my calendar! Back to a proper weeks work with no major distractions.

Thankfully Fraser got in touch to tell me about BarCamp Scotland, which looks promising. I’ve also convinced him we should carry on after for some beer and curry, so that’s going to be a nice networking day!

I can also start planning a holiday for sometime in the next few months, as soon as I can work out where to go. I did consider trying to get over to the US for one of the big search marketing conference/expos and tie it in to a holiday, but it seems everytime I look another one gets announced/invented.

So I’m currently trying to find the last to-do list I put together sometime in December and see what still needs done. I’m willing to bet whatever #1 was it’s still not been done. I’m sure this not having a “real job” thing used to be much simpler.

I’m currently sitting in my hotel room in the Radisson Edwardian at Heathrow, unable to sleep. Happy and I are down for a few days, to earn our keep. We’ve been chatting over a few beers in the bar having the conversations you can’t have with anyone else you know as they would just stare at you blankly.

A quick run through of the talking points

• Social Networking may after all just be a fad
• Why is it so difficult to use URL rewrite on ASP?
• £3.60 a pint seems reasonable by the fourth one
• He’s too young for kids
• HW may actually only need 8 dynamic pages rather than the 32 directories and hundreds of files we currently use
• Everyone should have a blog

I’m sure there was lots more, but it’s all a little foggy now!

Tomorrow we have the first of a series of meetings with a new client, so I really should stop raiding the mini bar and get to bed. Night all!

Happy New Year to one and all. In about one hour my favourite day of the year begins. It’s the 2nd of January, a bank holiday up here in Scotland and also my birthday!

Every birthday for the last 10 years or so I meet my mates outside a pub at 10:50 am and wait for the barmaid to open the doors. We then drink copious amounts of alcohol for the duration of the day. It’s a great laugh, I thoroughly recommend you try it at least once a year.

Highlights from previous years include my only ever early bath, when I was handed a “birthday drink” that was made of a few spirits from the dusty bottles on the top shelf of the bar. As it turned out one of these spirits was actually one of those poisonous type liquids you’re only supposed to swirl round a glass and pour out. It didn’t taste too bad, but I was home in bed by 6pm.

So don’t expect to hear from me tomorrow and most of the next day either! Apologies to everyone who has to start work tomorrow ;)

Blog tagged, that is. I’ve been tagged by Dan and Pete. Since I haven’t posted for a while, this seems like an easy way to slip back into it.

Rules of Blog Tagging - I have to tell you 5 things about me you wouldn’t already know, and tag 5 other people.

Things about me:

1. When I was 11 years old my mother took me to the doctor as she was worried I was too thin. No, really!
2. My RL nickname is Baloo, given to me by one of my rugby mates because of a similar walking style I’m told.
3. I have broken my nose seven times. Or rather had it broken by other people usually.
4. I can drink a Bacardi Breezer in under 3 seconds on a good day!
5. My Great Grandfather was awarded the Freedom of the City of Glasgow for his part in the Boer War. My Grandfather was a POW in WWII for over 18 months. My father quite sensibly became a plumber.

People I Tag:

Don’t really know any of these people, but I do read their blogs!

Darren, Kevin, Jason & Graham

These two are random, just for the hell of it -

John, John.