Cold light of day
Getting in there with today’s blog before the hacker does. I have of course changed my password now. The new one is TOMBASDEN. Use it wisely, infiltrators.
Didn’t realise my middle name would become an object of so much speculation. Happy to confirm it’s Andrew. Want a go at Emily’s middle name next? Also an A. We can work through my whole extended family over Christmas.
One of the largest manhunts of 2010 is underway to discover who did this, and why, and how come they didn’t at least claim I was dead or something more ambitious. More news as we get it.
The snow is coming down in every direction at once. It really is astonishing. You used to get this type of fall about once every five years. Now it’s a couple of times a year. You’ll never hear me joining in these middle-aged people who do jokes about how it must be global warming, because I’ve been extensively versed in the science by Mr Al Gore in person, and I’m not going to defy my training. But I would like someone to explain why, with the overall planet getting hotter year on year, we’re getting more freezes than ever. Ideally in a pithy form I can quote over the Christmas table. Ta. Keep warm.
Posted by Tibbs on February 15, 2011
So I’m still making my way through the posts I missed / only skimmed from back before Christmas, and I just wondered, did you ever find out who the hacker was?Cause that was certainly an odd (not to mention rather mean!) thing to do.
Posted by BJA on December 20, 2010
Reading about the chaos the snow’s caused back home I really don’t feel I’m missing out one bit. Although being surrounded by desert doesn’t help with the festive mood. Something a little strange hearing ‘Driving home for Xmas’ on the car radio when theres nothing but clear blue skies.
Hope the snow calms down and everyone gets to wherever they need to be at Xmas.
Posted by Anji on December 19, 2010
Annabel? Of course it would be fantastic to be Anji, or a little less fantastic Angie/Angela. Middle names eh – I have two, that would keep you all guessing!
-14 it got to last night. Which was lovely being out in a party frock. Luckily hardy people had 4x4s and could sail thru the snow! Haven’t made my mind up about the snow yet, but think I would like it more if I could just stay inside!!
Posted by Ingrid on December 19, 2010
I swear i used to know! When i read the blog i thought ‘ill be able to explain this!’ but when i tried to write it down, i got stuck. Guess i must have forgotten at some point. Ah well
Im going with Anna for the middle name. I thought of alex but… no its Anna x
Posted by Rachael on December 19, 2010
Alice?
Not sure about the snow, maybe something to do with trying to even it up?
Posted by Tracey on December 19, 2010
Hi Mark. I think you’re getting the worst of the snow, unfortunately. Here in Paisley we had a couple of centimetres yesterday but nothing as bad as a couple of weeks ago, take care. My husband, being Glaswegian wanted to live in Scotland but I sometimes wonder why he brought a chilly person like me to the coldest country in the UK to live! It seems the coldest to me although others may well say differently.I’ll hazard a guess at Emily’s middle name : Alexa? Anna? Annaliese? Arabella? There’s four and they’re most probably all wrong! Take care, Tracey x
Posted by Lisa D on December 19, 2010
New England hasn’t been hit by anywhere near as much snow as Olde England…which feels odd. No pithy comeback just an increasing feeling of unease like waiting for the other shoe to fall. It’s called climate change not climate-stays-the-same, surely that’s a good enough explanation for the weather to be different.
PS I say Anne. Emily Anne has a nice ring…
Posted by Custard_Cream_Dreams on December 19, 2010
Ooh by the way, isn’t there a couple of Dutch people who follow this? Is there any way we could unite in some kind of MW-related effort? I get 40% off train journeys… sweet sweet OV-chipkaart.
Posted by Custard_Cream_Dreams on December 19, 2010
Ooh my middle name is Andrew too! I had the pleasure of taking 4 hours to get to Schiphol when it should take 40mins and my flight is now on Tuesday. Still, it makes for a nice story I guess. I’m lucky considering I have a flat in the Netherlands. I teamed up with a British businessman who, along with hundreds of others would’ve had to find a hotel in a city in the Netherlands. Bear in mind a 10km journey to Amsterdam was taking about an hour at this point. As schmaltzy as it sounds, I appreciated the situation I was in, a 9 hour round trip to a waiting girlfriend and pizza and beer is paradise compared to trudging through an unfamiliar city looking for accommodation.
Oh, is it Alison?
Posted by Alex on December 19, 2010
Alice?
Although I very much approve of the suggestions of Alex(andra). It’s a great name. (It doesn’t particularly suit me though.) (But it’s still good).
Posted by Matthew B on December 18, 2010
What Josh said is correct basically, the earth is warmer which makes more energy in the climate which does seem to allow more unusual weather systems.
The main thing it does is affect the gulf stream the thing that stops London (same lattitude as Moscow) quite warm really.
Anyway I vote Anna.
Posted by Aislinn on December 18, 2010
I don’t think it’d be Amanda. I could imagine Ann, Amelia or Alexandra, but Alexandra was my first guess so with it I shall stick.
Posted by misha on December 18, 2010
Just becase.
I guess Alex. Short comment, battery low.
Posted by Someone on December 18, 2010
I TREKKED (with the help of amazing family members with cars) to London in snow today. Mission and s HALF! But finally got to see Basden and KEy’s Joseph K which was brilliant and worth it. Just thought was funny you should mention him :] Did anyone here/Mark see it also? I’m on train back home now. Or is it a cinema?
Anyone going to the Christmas freeze thing at invisible dot on thurs? I wanna but… Bit sick of always being a loner, ha.
Posted by Josie on December 18, 2010
Blah this snow is irritating me! How am I supposed to do my Christmas shopping now?
And is Emily’s middle name Annie or Amelia or something adorable like that?
Posted by Irwin on December 18, 2010
Global warming/climate change, I’ve been told, isn’t about weather becoming warmer, but more extreme. So warmer seasons become warmer, colder seasons become colder, rain becomes wetter, and wind becomes more windy… or something.
I don’t know, I’m just glad it’s snowing.
Posted by Sarah el on December 18, 2010
I would say Amelia, although Emily Amelia might be a mouthful, but I think it’s pretty. Andrew’s a nice name too.
Posted by Kathryn on December 18, 2010
I hope it doesn’t get colder. I’ve been cold all day travelling through the snow trying to make it back across to Ireland.
I’m going to go with Adele for Emily’s middle name, for no reason other than I like it.
Posted by Katie on December 18, 2010
I actually text 63336 asking about that a few days ago. They said it’s got nothing to do with global warming or anything like that – it’s just a bit cold. Which is a huge anti-climax.
Posted by Rhian on December 18, 2010
Further to Josh’s summary of climate change, I think the reason the UK will see more chilly winters is to do with the position of the gulf stream, which keeps us warner than we other wise would by pushing warmer air at us. With changes in sea temperatures the path of the gulf stream will change and we’ll actually get colder winters in the long run. I think, I ain’t no scientist.
Posted by Josh on December 18, 2010
Seeing as Anne has already been plumped for, I’m going for Alexandra.
As for the weather, firstly weather is not the same as climate, which is long term, continental trends in temperature and stuff. If somebody loses a leg in a tragic mincing accident, that doesn’t mean that all human beings are going to lose their legs.
Secondly and more importantly, Global Warming is a misnomer, which is why you hear Climate Change more these days. Although the first thing to happen is it getting warmer, this causes all sorts of crazy stuff to happen. The sea warms up in some places, which makes more of it evaporate, making more clouds in other places, cooling some places down. Rather than everywhere just getting hotter, everything just gets messed up. Over a couple of decades we’re expected to get colder, less sunny summers and, depending on the simulation used, warmer, wetter winters or loads of snow all the time.
That’s probably a bit much and a bit rambly to use at a dinner table, but if you just say the bit about “climate change” rather than “global warming” that should sound intelligent.
Posted by MusicalLottie on December 18, 2010
Well, whoever did it will either be feeling very proud to have instigated such widespread panic, or very foolish indeed.
I missed last night’s actual blog, but it ended up being a three-blog day! In a manner of speaking … I’d rather it have just been the one, non-eventful blog though. I’ve now completely forgotten what I was saying however many hours ago when I began typing this comment so … yeah. Welcome back, anyway.
Posted by BeauBrummel on December 18, 2010
Ah – but how do we know this IS the real Mark?
A clever hacker could have taken over the blog, pretended that it was finishing and THEN pretended that he was the ‘real Mark’ putting it right again.
The stuff about the snow is in itself fishy as I know for a fact that Mark lives in North London and this has been the one area of the country completely devoid of snow.
The real Mark may well be tied up in a basement somewhere, struggling to untie the sticky tape and get to his laptop.
We need actual real genuine proof of Mark’s identity – like a birth mark or something. We demand proof that this is the REAL Mark Andrew Watson!
Posted by Tom Beasley on December 18, 2010
I still can’t work out why the hacker didn’t do something imaginative with his access to the blog.
Posted by Lydia on December 18, 2010
I vote Abigail for Emily’s middle name.
The hacker thing is really irritating. I know I said this before, but I really don’t understand what the point of the whole thing was. It was barely even a thing. Perhaps it was another comedian jealous that their blog isn’t as popular as yours? Lol.
I quite like the snow storms, they are really pretty. Sadly though I still had to go to work today because it’s only just up the road from my house.
Posted by Nathan on December 18, 2010
Call me paranoid, but I say it’s a double bluff and that this is the hacker’s work. The use of the password TOMBASDEN (i.e. Tom Basden, of Cowards/Armstrong and Miller) suggests either authorship or accusation. As the blog then claims that the author doesn’t know who did it, I’d say it’s a sly/blidingly obvious claim to authorship.
In other news, it’s pretty cold when you’re living off the grid and your clothes are made of tin foil…
Posted by Miz on December 18, 2010
Hmmm, my guess is Emily Abigail Watson. Am I allowed to giggle at how the hacker thought that the most shocking thing s/he could post was the closure of the blog? In either case, all is well again!
Posted by Georgie on December 18, 2010
All this talk of snow in the UK makes me all jealous even though I know you all hate it! haha.
Anyway, I just discovered that your show is already on sale for the 2011 Melb comfest. I hadn’t even started thinking about buying tickets yet! Looks like I’ll be back in something like row E rather than the usual front row. Ah well.
Also, well done on beating the hacker today! xx
Posted by amycool on December 18, 2010
Hmmm, ann and amanda are good guesses. It definitely won’t be Amy as that’s too much of a mouthful. Perhaps something exotic like anneka. Named after the challenge.
No, I’m going to assume her parents are fans of crime fiction and go with Agatha.
Posted by Beth on December 18, 2010
Putting my vote in for Amanda as a middle name for Emily… I don’t know why.
Also, glad everything is a ok and blog is back to normal. Although, if I was the hacker, I’d be feeling pretty ashamed and disgusted with myself that I didn’t use my time more creatively. Just saying. He/she should take a long hard look and ask themselves why they didn’t take better advantage of having a large internet based community to tell their lies to…
Hm…
Posted by Suzy on December 18, 2010
Hello Mark Andrew, am I the first?! So glad you are ok and everything is alright. Last night was rather worrrying. Who would do such a thing? I hope there’s not a disgruntled emergency blogger or something
Anyway – positivity wins – all is well 
I vote for Anne for Emily’s middle name. Or Ann without an e…