Sometimes I wonder whether the blogging software is programmed to stop people turning every single issue in the world into an opportunity to bemoan their lot. That it has a subroutine that kicks in whenever the bigger picture gets too far away, triggering the fatal error-inducing headuparse.exe.

I ask this because the bytes occupied by this question were meant to be an exploration of my feelings about many of my friends, and particularly those of my age, having had babies in the six months, and those who haven't seemingly taking great strides towards it (Alex - for so long my beacon in bachelorhood, my symbol of single solidarity, proof that I wasn't the only nice bloke to be ignored by the opposite sex - getting hitched in a matter of weeks. Glorious news - splitter!:).

There was naturally much celebration of the roll of honour (Signe Barrett, Molly Hulse, Thomas Woolhouse, Rachel Bean - welcome to the world. Enjoy your stay and listen to your parents - they're all good people. Hope to see you soon) and one or two nice turns of phrase, but mostly it was me feeling old and lonely again, like life is a spectator sport, and that I'm never going to be a father (which, to be honest, would be a shame, cos I want children - irritating, selfish, puking, argumentative, frustrating, intolerant, spiteful, noisy little bastards that they are).

In short, I said, these bundles of joy are rubbing my nose in their nappies just to remind me, once again, what a full life I'm missing.

And then my damn PC decides to crash. The one time it's really lost me a full-on blog entry - and it happens to be a serious case of introspective incontinence. Believe me, what's written here is light on the self-pity compared to what went before, so you get the story (happy time for my friends) without the bleeding heart - which is as it should be.

Coincidence? I think not. Technology wins again.