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A five-year-old captive-bred panda fell to his death less than a year after he was released into the wild, possibly after a fight with other pandas, Xinhua news agency said today.

Xiang Xiang, the world's only artificially bred panda living in the wild, was released at the Wolong Nature Reserve for Giant Pandas in the mountainous southwestern province of Sichuan in April last year.

That's very sad.

At lunch time today in general conversation about the local football code, I referred to the Worlds Greatest Footballer (TM) as Chris Rudd.

Freudian slip? Or perhaps I'm onto something... They both certainly seem to be teflon coated right now. Still. Makes for fun with the photoshop.

Have you read the Phillip Pullman 'His Dark Materials' Trilogy?

If so, isn't it unreal? If not - WHAT ARE YOU THINKING - get ye to a library/book-selling emporium immediately!

I'm actually serious. It may be pitched as young adult fiction (even though there are many who think this is not the case), but (at the risk of being howled down) it is honestly one of the most beautifully created fantasy worlds since the Lord of the Rings - and I don't even LIKE fantasy.

This mildly hysterical outburst has been brought to you by the fact that the books have been turned into films and the first official trailer for the first film "The Golden Compass" has JUST been released.

Quietly - I'm excited. Really very excited. Some may even say pumped.

Now I try to keep these things a little under wraps. The last film I got this excited about was Happy Feet and that let me down in any number of ways, but this one has real promise. Starring an unknown young actor as the principal protaganist Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards - sounds more like a show name for a pedigree dog than a young girl, but still), the film includes notable performers such as Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Eva Green and Sam Elliott and with the screenplay adaptation from Pullman novels by none other than Tom Stoppard, it could be ace.



See the first official trailer here. Wheee!!

On Saturday morning I was woken by my clock radio.

I was confused.

What room was I in, how did I get there, what country was it, why were there people speaking in Australian accents?

Eventually I emerged from my drug and flight induced stupor sufficiently to work out that I was in fact in Melbourne, in my own bed at 9:30am - not in fact in Barcelona at 5:30 in the afternoon.

Crazy business.

So yeah, I'm home. Woot. And it only took 36 hours of transit.


I shall shortly be boring you all senseless with irritatingly smug tales of European jaunts and jealous-making photos of sun-drenched larks. Lucky youse.

Remain tuned etc.