MAPS ARE GETTING A BIT TOO REAL!

View Larger Map
I went on Google maps new street view today. Firstly, I was impressed at how nice the weather in Glasgow seems to have been on the (I presume) numerous days these photos were taken. Secondly, I was more than gobsmacked to see Charlotte clearly standing in my back door on the view of my house. The photo seems to have been taken before our old garage was knocked down and replaced by something a bit less messy - can I apply to google for a newer photo, do you think? After that, I went wandering round a few neighbourhoods I know. I had to laugh when I found my dad sitting on a deck chair reading a magazine in the photo of his house!
These maps are definitely a bit more real than the old ordnance survey ones, don't you think?

NEW DYSON

Now here's something weird we discovered last week when our old Dyson broke down... I went onto the officialDyson site just to check their new ball hoover - it was way overpriced so I reluctantly started comparing non-Dysons to replace my beloved dead Dyson. By chance Thomas happened upon an ebay site selling Dysons - mainly demo models but totally refurbished, serviced and MOTed complete with 2 year guarantees at 60-65% of the official Dyson site prices - stranger still - on further investigation it turned out to be Dyson themselves running the ebay site. My new ebay Dyson is now here looking shiny and new and is so compact even Léon can use it!

BEBO, FACEBOOK AND SOCIAL NETWORKING

Marcel and his pals are all majorly into Bebo these days. As far as I know you are meant to be 15 to be able to get a Bebo account, but just as us 80s kids sat reading Just 17 at the tender age of 13, today's kids want to be 15 at 10, so are creating pretend dates of birth to get on to Bebo.
I have a Facebook account myself, though I don't use it much, but Bebo is definitely aimed at a much younger audience, I feel - it's bright, it's messy, it's noisy and trendy - in short it makes me feel old. I mentioned Facebook to Marcel and he looked blank - I logged in to show him it. He looked for 2 minutes and concluded - oh Facebook is a tidy boring Bebo for adults! I actually find it quite strange Bebo is pretending to be enforcing a 15 limit, given Marcel and many of his school friends have not only uploaded photos, showing they are really just little kids, they have created groups like 'Kirkhill primary' group - primary? A sure giveaway you aren't 15 if you go to primary school, no?!
Anyway, as is to be expected - the Bebo pages are full of little kids trying to sound all grown up using pseudo swear words etc. I figured my best bet, instead of heavyhandedly banning its use, was a bit of supervising, and threatening to check up and actually creating a Bebo account of my own, linking it to Marcel's so I would be notified of any updates he makes, and logging onto it periodically. At first it seemed to gain me some 'cool' Brownie points - a mum with a Bebo account! Within 2 hours of creation, I'd had an email from his 11 year old friend Kristian asking me to be his 'friend'! Sweet! By the time Marcel got in from school, however, I think the cool factor was wearing thinner - he asked me to log in so he could create a profile for me, complete with photo and a background of red roses chosen by Charlotte - I think my bare bones Bebo was starting to embarrass them. By tomorrow they'll have attached some dodgy Youtube clips, a gif or two of Homer Simpson farting or burping and no doubt some stick dogs shagging!
I have to conclude I am way too old for Bebo, I can just about cope with Facebook, but am really more of a Bloggy Flickrer myself, sorry!