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So what is timesnewroman? It's not the font, rather my take on the age we live in. The USA is the new Rome and the times we live in are timesnewroman.
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timesnewroman is listening to: Tiken Jah Fakoly, Arctic Monkeys, Biffy Clyro, Kings of Leon, Bloc Party, Led Zeppelin, Jimi, Franz Ferdinand, Youssou N'Dour, The Strokes, REM, The Kings of Leon, Curtis Mayfield, Jefferson Airplane, The Trashcan Sinatras, Jeff Buckley, Phil Ochs, Stan Kenton, The Smiths, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Mogwai, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, The Zombies and Orange Juice amongst many others.
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
It Don�t Come EasyGood Rocking Johnny (Manuel) McSnoater
1950 something � 29th December 2003
Lady El said I should do this.
When I started this blogging lark I suppose I didn�t really have any idea of how long it would last, how serious it would become or how much of myself I was prepared to be out there for everyone to see. Its been around long enough to for me to know that there are no half measures, you have to put enough into it or its just not worth it.
I�m just in the process of going through a particularly shit day, with tears rolling down my cheeks as I write this. I have received the news that my very close friend Manuel, is dead. I�m still really struggling to come to terms with it. It was only a few nights ago that we were having a fabulous night in and now this, I wrote about it here. I am going through all sort of stuff in my head and I just want to numb it all and play loud music. I am currently playing a compilation that I made for him soon after I got broadband and a CD Writer, I emailed him requesting a list of songs that he would love to have on CD, but didn�t have. I made it and dropped it round it goes like this:
It Don't Come Easy, Ringo Starr et al, Concert for Bangladesh Madison Square
Gardens (Apple, I think...1971?)
Jailbait Wishbone Ash, Pilgrimage
Yours Is No Disgrace, Yes, The Yes Album
White Room, Wheels of Fire, The Cream
Green Manalishi, Fleetwood Mac
House of the KIng, Focus
Hocus Pocus, Focus
Sylvia, Focus
Dark Star, Grateful Dead
St. Stephen, Grateful Dead
Magic Carpet Ride, Steppenwolf
Midnight Rambler, The Rolling Stones (Get yer Ya ya's Out)
Happy, the Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street
Locomotive Breath, Jethro Tull
Weaver's Answer, Family
Swifts and Swains, Amazing Blondell
Satisfaction, Blue Cheer
I first met Manuel at a Labour Party meeting, yeah we were young and idealists I guess in 1984. We kind of hit it off and he was a good contact to have for my then new job, we worked together at his office in Saltcoats, and he like helped a lot making the new job pretty successful. Lunchtimes we would hit Culliss� Amusements, he was one mean mutha on the Indiana Jones machine, kids would come from miles to watch him rack up a score in the bonus round the like of which was very rarely seen.
It�s the silly wee things you remember, like the day he was selling his Opel Kadet and gave me a lift home, stopped off to pick up something and I swear the mirror just came off in my hand��
He had just moved from Irvine to Stewarton when we started hanging out so to speak, which was a bit of a nuisance, but less trouble than the Nottingham, Coventry, Manchester, Inverness axis. Despite the distance we still kept up the friendship, Manuel would come up every Christmas stay at my flat and generally have a fun packed noisy time, catch gigs do fun stuff. When I think about it, it was Manuel who got me back into the habit of going to watch Killie again after a gap of many years.
I went my first holiday abroad with Manuel, to Paris. I should I say I met him there, he was already in France and we were to meet at a caf� next to a particular Metro station and I�m thinking at the time you better be there I can�t speak a word of French. It was brilliant, pure brilliant in so many ways, we ended up at a French Anti-Apartheid demo which was fabby, they can really demonstrate the French. Dancing across the street to the sound of Free Nelson Mandela outside the South African Embassy, traffic at a standstill and the CRS in full riot gear.
I remember when I first attached a modem to my Computer in 1992 and we played on Compuserve for a while I have never laughed so much at the antics of a randy dog (you had to be there) in a chat-room.
Even on such a ludicrous level Manuel was the most accomplished communicator I have ever known, he could speak to anyone on any level, I remember a tale of him being reduced to discussing Stars in their Eyes with a relative of a relative to break an uncomfortable silence in a hospital. He could do that.
When work took me down south occassionally I would regularly stay at his place in Coventry which I always looked forward to, immensely.
A bit of who you are is intertwined with who you know and who you choose to know. When I look around at my life and the really important standout bits, good and bad, Manuel was always there even though we lived far apart. New Jobs, Wedding, New Music, My fortieth birthday bash where he agreed to play in the rock band that I formed for the occasion as long as we did it properly. It was around that time that he and Lady El got together which was truly a wonderful thing. They both needed it and they both fitted so FUCKING well together. We did play the gig and by all accounts we were quite accomplished given the minimal rehearsal time. Apart from my wedding that was probably the most memorable night of my life and he enriched it so.
Not just the gig, my whole life.
posted by timesnewroman at 10:51 AM
Saturday, December 27, 2003
I was wrong to believe in the power of lucky pants. There is no earthly reason to believe that pants could influence the events on a football field, one way or tother. On another note, Scottish Referees, I know they are shite and I have seen some of the shittiest refs ever, but I really have to hand it to Kevin Toner. Could he be the world's worst?posted by timesnewroman at 5:42 PM
Great start to the day, mumsy has phoned to say that she has successfully got out of her bed unassisted. Unfortunately thewife, who never gets a cold, has got a cold. We are going out as well tonight, Woody Christmas do, to which I am looking forward. However first things first I am sitting here waiting on me lift to the footie, I have got my (new) lucky pants on and we are going to stuff Dundee United. There, confidence or what.
posted by timesnewroman at 2:19 PM
Friday, December 26, 2003
Hectic hectic hectic. Chrissums eve saw thewife and I partake of a few snifters with Manuel and Lady El, who actually serves unpitted olives for horses douvres, I ask you. Anyway a jolly good time was had by all as I further spread the word of Phil Ochs, before spilling a quantity of red wine over his image on me tee-shirt. We righted many of world's wrongs, hatched a really cool plot for February and listened intently to Teenage Fan Club, which I managed to guess on first go after a couple of clues. Reminisced on Buffalo Tom, and generally caught up a bit. thewife dragged me home, after the wine incident, where the following morning I had a Christmas present of a hangover the like I have not suffered for many moons.We were having mumsy round for dinner, but her back has been causing her pain recently and its worse this morning so we are going to transfer chrissums dinner round to hers. Which turns out really good. I have forsaken nut roast for an olivey garlicky goats cheese and leek tart which is really rather good. thewife and mumsy have chicken and we all drink wine, just a glass of Asti for mumsy though and I have Cava and a really nice red. Then home to fall asleep on the couch to watch About a Boy for the unpteenth time.
posted by timesnewroman at 3:39 PM
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Right, 4 posts in one day thats a fucking lot and I am only doing this one cos of the two Golden Glorys, and a stiffish Cointreau and I'm celebrating the fact that I finally have an MOT. Out of the way, now I've just seen that really funny Ricky Tomlinson British Gas Ad, where he drags a bunch of trainees up into the most windswept weather beaten wilds of northern somewhere, only to explain that there is no reason for them being there because of papereless online meter reading and billing and I am juxtaposing this with the pathetic, second in a row Data Protection act excuse, from the same fucking thieving capitalist bastarding - whoaah boy - company who had to (How Reluctantly????) cut off the supply of an elderly couple who didn't (Weren't able to) pay their Gas Bill. Lets face it they were entirely reasonable about it, following all the procedures laid down , visiting them on a number of occasions as well as writing to them. Lets forget that they were good customers for nigh on 60 odd fucking years, but if you don't pay and you are vulnerable, poor, elderly folks then tough fucking luck. They died some time after being cut off. Good old British Gas managed to protect the couple's privacy by not informing the social services that the couple were indeed extremely vulnerable. Bastards passed it off as a Data Protection Act thing, a few days on from Humberside Police's even more pathetic excuse for not retaining and divulging information on Ian Huntley. Bollocks, loads of Fucking Bollocks. The only outcome of any investigation must be this - The Gas and other Utility Companies should be made to provide all frail, vulnerable people with free power. Consider it retribution for fucking up in the first place. That way someone who has worked all their days, fought in bloody wars, paid their bloody taxes, wont be impoverished and humiliated and killed by a bunch of greedy profit motivated scum. And Ricky, are you still working for these people?posted by timesnewroman at 11:07 PM
the timesnewroman 1st annual festive quiz
A Year in the Death
1. Which Argentinian joined the Junta in the sky in January?
2. Which parentless six year old, died in February.
3. Which singer of �What do you want� died in March?
4. Who began losing an awful lot of weight in April?
5. Who was �touched� at the age of 84 in May?
6. Who swilled his final G&T and wrote his last Dear Bill letter in June?
7. Whose very deep voice was silenced in July?
8. Whose �wish� finally came true in August?
9. Which loathed film director, sentenced to 4 years in prison at Nuremberg, died in September aged 101?
10. Who was done in (not quietly) by his colleagues in October?
11. Whose hopes of visiting Portugal were dashed in Amsterdam?
Television
1 Who never won a Whacky Race?
2 Who Captained Fireball XL5
3.Who were Sabrina Duncan, Jill Munroe and Kelly Garrett?
4.Who Played Jack Regan and George Carter?
5.What took off Doctor Romano�s arm in E.R.?
6. Where did Mike Stone and Steve Lellor work?
7.What programme featured detective, McGarret and Williams?
8.In which T.V. programme would you have found Marshall Matt Dillon?
9.Who was raised in a Shaolin temple and went to America to find his father?
10.In which T.V. programe would you have found Nellie and Nels Olsen?
SPORT
1.Who won the 1936 Olympic 100 and 200 m sprint Gold Medals?
2.Who is the only boxer to have won 3 Olympic Gold medals in the same weight category?
3.Miguel Indurain is the first person to win what on 5 consecutive occasions?
4.In the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, he won gold in the men�s 5,000 m, 10,000m and the marathon, a race he never before entered, who is he?
5.Who ran for Britain in the 1984 Olympics, but for South Africa in the 1992 Olympics?
6.What did Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the Gold and Bronze medal winners in the men�s 200 m sprint, do, to cause controversy at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
7.Which Russian female gymnast won 3 gold medals, aged 17 at the 1972 Munich Olympics
8.Which American swimmer won a record 7 gold medals at the 1972 games?
9. In 1977, he won the World Cup 400-m hurdles beginning a string of 122 consecutive victories, he defeated all opponents until June 1987, who is he?
10. He won 5 Wimbledon men�s singles finals in succession from 76-80 who is he?
General Knowledge
1. What are the six categories of Nobel prize?
2. What is the Chemical Symbol Co?
3.Which wormwood based drink was banned for many years?
4.Which aperitif is white wine infused with herbs and sugar?
5.Who�s album was �This left feels right�?
6. Who wrote the book about the Highland Clearances that opened peoples eyes to the reality that it was ethnic cleansing?
7. What is the Chemical Symbol Cd
8. Whose 1983 hit was �What is love?�
9. Put these Ranks in Order of Senior to least Senior
Major, Colonel, Lieutenant, Brigadier
10. Whose 1986 Single was �Don�t leave me this way?�
11.Whose Album was Nine Lives?
12.What year was the Act of Union?
The general knowledge section was geared towards particular areas of knowledge of work colleagues, which says a lot about us I guess.
Oh and you are missing out on the music and picture rounds cos it would take me to long to sort it out, but if you could have guessed Simon Dupree and the Big Sound: Kites, then you would have done very well indeed and are older than I.
Answers on an email to times(remove-anti-spam)newroman@omne.uk.net. There is no fabby prize, but names will be illuminated in reverential terms on the blog. Oh and no surfin the net for answers, that would make you incredibly sad indeed.
Ready steady GO!
posted by timesnewroman at 3:16 PM
Weep ye some tears before I cause you pain with the timesnewroman 1st Annual Festive Quiz.
posted by timesnewroman at 3:05 PM
Should be at work and here I am blogging. Why, simple really. Took the motor for its MOT re-test and chap was just finishing off the test, checking brakes and he says that something has just gone in the brakes. I climb into seat, he raises ramp and I push brake pedal and its really soft, and he's saying that a pipe has burst and I'm thinking shit I could see that MOT certificate inches from my fingertips and now its gone. However I can apparently get it re-re-tested as long as it can be done today or tomorrow which might just be possible, but it mucks me about in terms of getting to work. I can get today off probably, to get it seen to, but tomorrow as well would be chancing it.
That and a three subsequent telephone calls, all with not very good news at all, sort of puts a dampener on things all round.
Quiz to follow.
posted by timesnewroman at 11:09 AM
Monday, December 22, 2003
Bluetealeaf, 18/12/03 pretty much sums up tonight for me. For added ggrrrr, checj the comments.posted by timesnewroman at 11:23 PM
Sunday, December 21, 2003
thewife and I went out last night, something we rarely do on account of being frequently skint. That and the fact its chrissums and the MOT failure. Well what the hell, I work hard enough, no giggling there jimty, so off we went to the Harbour Arts Centre for Big Licks' annual festive gig. Pure 70s throwback with an excess of indulgence and three fine guitarists to boot. Most excellent it was too, from The Who, to Stevie Wonder via Deep Purple. Had a brief conversation with another fine guitarist, Paul of rock gods Spleen who is going to check out Phil Ochs, on account of my new advertising campaign tee-shirt.Should be in a real belter of a mood as I have the motor back ready for its MOT re-test and at a price that's almost affordable. Then some dickhead leaves a note on my windscreen at Tescos calling me an "asshole" for my laissez faire approach to parking. Nothing, nothing gets to me like anonymous notes on my windscreen, like cos if I catch the bastard I will have to think REALLY Fluffy Clouds.
We are gonna have a quiz at work tomorrow and I'll put it up here as a festive treat shortly afterwards.
posted by timesnewroman at 8:29 PM
Saturday, December 20, 2003
All I want for Christmas is for Jim Jeffries to just fuck off somewhere, anywhere, but the vicinity of Rugby Park.posted by timesnewroman at 8:32 PM
Thursday, December 18, 2003
On the busyometer today ranked busyish. First up the announcement of this year's Guardian Blog winners 1st prize for the proper category of best written as opposed to best designed, best by a bisexual teenager, best blog with photos and interactive sanskrit course goes to a London Call girl Belle Du Jour, with a creditable runner up in the form of Beyond Northern Iraq. Never having read either of them before I think the content, rather than the writing may well have influenced the panel somewhat here.Second, secret Santa comes this way at the office, or in some cases it may be secret satan. Me I got a special mini disco kit. This could have been suitable for either a young child or someone who had a diva-esque Disco Parrot aka Conrad Cool. Speaking of secret Santa, we have been incredibly guilty of some kind of persecution, where PHEDRA was sort of forced into being Santa, he definitely didn't want to be Santa and we kind of left it there and agreed that uncle Joe would be Santa instead except he had to go elsewhere which left us in limbo. Step in PHEDRA, who has to have been the most convincing Santa in the history of Santas. The beard was good as was the patter. Our policy of last one in is Santa proved sound, although he was less than amused when we realised it was unlikely that the team would ever enlarge.
Third Mr Tweede. He spent the morning breakdancing. Unpc is Mr Tweede, and in the immortal words of the Who, I can't explain. We all, 6 of us, wore the t-shirt bearing the elf like image of Mr Tweede on a tee-shirt, they came from miles to see them, much as folks come from miles to see the Mr Tweede window treatment. We, Jimty and me, are dead. Still, how we laffed.
posted by timesnewroman at 11:49 PM
We had our team lunch the other day. It was excellent. Normally I really hate going out for meals at this time of year. The food is usually overpriced, reheated crap served in a not at all interested in you rush in the ambiance of a London Tube to Kings Cross in rush hour. We usually decide to hang off until January and go then, but we went on Tuesday instead. But it was excellent, well except for forgetting jimty's main course - but they were attentive and apologetic. - and didn't humiliate him too much either when he inadvertently was looking for two sweets. We had paid full price a few weeks in advance whilst booking, which along with choosing the particular date entitled us to a free bottle of very decent house wine for every 3 people. The food was by all reports fabulous, I had Roasted Goats Cheese on a salad with a really nice dressing, Wild Mushroom risotto with asparagus and of course the christmas pudding, washed down nicely with several glasses of red. So, a wee well deserved ad for Papingo, did I mention it was reasonably priced as well. We then headed to the nearby Pot Still, an establishment that jimty and myself sought out several years ago on a Christmas outing, under the mistaken notion that it was called the cask still. We never found it and it passed into mythology until this year, when we did find it. It has now passed into Legend. My god I did not realise that there were THAT many different Malt whiskys. This place had 3 sides of a vary large gantry adorned with what appeared to be some of the rarest looking bottles imaginable and these were not for show. I swear I saw the bartender climb and retrieve a bottle of some obscure 1930s golden nectar into a glass. It could well have been the very last glass of that distillation ever and here it was, history occurring in front of our very eyes. Of course he may well have had another bottle through the back. Me I had a pint of Deuchars which was very good, followed later by a couple of pints of Marston's Old Empire, the guest beer. We then went fairly soberly home. Except for the ladies in our midst who went on to party or whatever ladies do and it showed yesterday morning, particularly in the case of young R.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:56 AM
Monday, December 15, 2003
Looks like thewife is getting a nice set of subframe bushes for Christmas. Its not what she is expecting but they will come in useful.posted by timesnewroman at 8:43 PM Win one for the gipper.
So they finally "got him." What sort of an idiot is Paul Bremer and what sort of idiots is he pandering to? After a long time, they finally catch public enemy number one and the announcement of this is aimed at 12 year olds. thewife looked at the pictures and said he's been living rough. Hmm thewife can be astute.
On a more adult note, I Invented Chocolate Orange Pudding. Take one big bar of Green and Black's Dark Chocolate and melt it. Take the zest and the juice of an orange and put it in a pan with 2.5 tablespoons of sugar, bring to the boil and reduce until its a syrup. Heat 250ml double cream until its very hot but not boiling. Add the chocolate, the orange syrup and some Cointreau together stir and serve in small quantities. thewife and I had this much between us cos we were really greedy but its should serve four. Its very rich and tasty if you like that chocolatey orange sort of thing.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:19 AM
Friday, December 12, 2003
thewife is a dame indeed a large dame as it were. A damned fine performance of a not entirely traditional panto, but with all the elements of a traditional panto in there somewhere. The weans loved it as did the group of people with learning disabilities. To be honest I enjoyed watching other people enjoying themselves and being entertained by a bit of enthusiastic, honest toil.The motor has failed its MOT. I was expecting this, but depending how much sub frame bushes cost, it may not be as sore as first imagined. We shall have to wait and see.
All weekend pretty much to myself and I decide to stay, drink booze watch telly and generally debauch.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:43 PM
Thursday, December 11, 2003
Exremely busy week. thewife is still heavily involved in Pantomiming which means I have to make my own dinner sometimes! That and iron, aren't I clever. Following the European demise of Glasgow's south western football team. The workplace yesterday was for the most part an office of muted celebration, muted not because followers of Glasgow's east end team don't indulge in Schadenfreude, no, merely that they don't do so prematurely. Today will be one of dissapointment for them and the bold Reidski, who may yet be able to partake of another European adventure given that the eastenders are heading eufa way.posted by timesnewroman at 7:50 AM
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
I hate Mondays. I know that's hardly original, but I really hate Mondays. It's not about work, I'm perfectly happy to go there, okay I'd rather be living the life of an extremely rich person, but I'm not so I'll work. No I hate Mondays because all I seem to do on Monday nights is lie on the couch and fall asleep watching shite on the telly. Ineed to get a hobby. A proper hobby, not blogging. Well not just blogging. I think I may become a folk singer, I had a dream last night, where I was a folk singer. Maybe it was an omen.posted by timesnewroman at 6:44 AM
Monday, December 08, 2003
Ever wanted firm proof about the existence of the and I mean THE most base stupidity on this or any other planet. Look no further than here. Yeah they are Amurrican, but we have them too. thewife in a previous life delivered 1 Ocean Levi and 1 Pocahontas, 1 Annette Curtain and had to explain to a mother that Chlamydia wasn't a real cool Greek name.posted by timesnewroman at 6:40 AM
Sunday, December 07, 2003
Blogger down for a wee while, which was annoying. Stuff to do and no time to do it. thewife has been treading them boards the entire weekend. Hansel Village and a Nursing Home. Enjoyed by all watching. Me, I did guy stuff. Finally got round to doing my art piece. A Mondrian in bedroom colours and its pretty cool if I say so myself. I shall finish and hang it tomorrow. Its fucking huge actually, 2 metres x 1.5 metres, still if you are going to take up art, take it up big!posted by timesnewroman at 10:53 PM
posted by timesnewroman at 11:00 AM
Friday, December 05, 2003
BBC Scotland Blog Day today. Its my 15 minutes so to speak, only it won't be 15 minutes because its a half hour programme and there are 16 of us and well anyway its today and someone is bound to bring a radio into work and like where's my anonymity? thewife is phoning round people telling them to listen and I'm saying that you don't get Radio Scotland in Dublin unless you have a computer or cable tv.posted by timesnewroman at 7:07 AM
Thursday, December 04, 2003
Diageo finally give up on their notion of trying to turn the malt whisky industry upside down with the introduction of Cardhu as a "pure malt" in the same bottle as that that was Cardhu the Single Malt. Pah there is Single Malt or blend and there is NOTHING in between! Apparently the Guardian thinks this is everything you need to know. Its not. You need to know what it tastes like as well.posted by timesnewroman at 10:53 PM
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
I got a phone call at work on Monday from thewife. "What shirt are you wearing?" "Purple cord shirt." I say. "It's not ironed!" Says she. "It looked ironed." I reply. "Its not, your yellow shirt is hanging up ironed." "Hope no-one notices." I have to tell the colleagues though.Yesterday. In at work and I notice a piece of paper in the shirt pocket. I take it out and read it. Its reads...Dear... this is an ironed shirt, love, the ironing fairy!
Brilliant photo in the Guardian today, Page 11, of a really flash loft apartment. As part of the sales pitch for advertising space in Inside Labour Magazine its touted to potential business advertisers as the kind of place young New Labour activists might live in. Indeed, which is probably why none of the sharp suited gits come round our council estates during elections any more.
posted by timesnewroman at 8:41 PM
Monday, December 01, 2003
See that bit about being really chuffed about fixing the motor yesterday, well I think some aspects of the ham fisted repair jobs may well have caused some kind of wiring problem, which resulted in head and tail lights failing on the way home, along with the heater blower. Resulting in numerous vehicles flashing all sort of lights at me on the M77. Finally it dawned on me that perhaps there was some problem with the motor, so I pull over to the hard shoulder and then I notice that there are no headlights. I call the RAC, just prior to the battery in my mobile running out, thankfully they came within 25 minutes and identified the problem immediately. Most excellent.posted by timesnewroman at 8:18 PM
Nice to see the revelation of the true colours of Bliar's good friend and mucker Jose Maria Aznar. Makes it all so much clearer what sort of creepy bastards he likes around him.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:27 AM
Sunday, November 30, 2003
These people are seriously taking the piss big style. The Big Conversation is Bliar's newly launched New Labour big idea to dupe (sorry the cynic in me took over for a bit) the populace into the notion that Tone actually gives a shit and wants to hear your opinion. You can call them, email them or wait for it even txt them with your views at at your usual text rate plus 25p. Maybe they really just want to rake in some much needed money, cos there is no way that the lying Tory entryist is going to listen to anybody.posted by timesnewroman at 4:59 PM
Spent the entire afternoon tinkering with the motor. Chuffed to bits that I managed to get the heater, tape deck and washer nozzles working to an extent.
The heater is a bit erratic, I fixed it previously and it stopped heating after a bit, so there are no guarantees. The tape deck crackles occasionally. The washer nozzle on the driver's side is fine but a bit feeble on the other side. But what the hell.
posted by timesnewroman at 4:10 PM
2- 0, Young Stuart sees his first victory for Kilmarnock. Despite the atrocious weather, chill wind and driving rain, we had much joy, if little entertainment.
posted by timesnewroman at 1:25 PM
Saturday, November 29, 2003
We were invited to jimstewart's for dinner last night, amazingly after a 12 hour shift he manages to get home and pull off a gourmet 3 courser for 4 in an hour which was pretty damned impressive. Stuffed mushrooms for a starter, followed by crepes with vegetables for me and chicken and ham for the others, followed by a huge gateau. The man has no conception of the term portion control. If he ran a restaurant he'd be bust in a week. Consequently spent the rest of the night stuffed.posted by timesnewroman at 1:21 PM
Thursday, November 27, 2003
Painless, sort of. Just been along to the BBC to read out the 5th November entries in the Blog for the Scottish Blogday Programme. It was fascinating, being in the BBC studios and Margaret, the producer made it really simple and down to earth, even if there were a few takes and some artistic licence. thewife asked if I saw anyone famous and I did I saw Tony Roper of Only an Excuse. thewife asked if I had remembered to kick him when passing and I said no, I like only an excuse, he's funny. She said that he wanted a fortune in fees from her little community drama group to stage one of his plays. Oh well, I'll remember next time. The programme goes out next Friday, 5th December at 11.30am and 10.30pm.The apprentice entertained us with an enthralling circular sort of Deja Vu event when he recalled a time as a builder, working on the roof of a building overlooking a primary school that he spotted this lad looking up at him from the classroom, which took him back to a specific moment in his life when at school he was looking out of the window at a workman on the roof of a nearby building and the teacher shouted at him to pay attention or when he left school he would have a job like that, working on roofs.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:55 PM
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Twas thewife's birthday today and I had a flexi which meant we could go to IKEA which was pretty much what she wanted for her birthday. Really bizarre coincidence happened on the way there though. Her friend moved to near Dundee just over a year ago, and is seen only occasionally, they speak on the phone and text and that's about it. We were heading to Braehead on the A737 and were static for a while because of roadworks. thewife's phone goes and its bestfriend, who is on her way to Ayrshire to visit in the course of work and she asks thewife where we are and can we meet up and thewife tells her where we are and she says keep an eye out for me as I am coming the other way and would you believe it she passes us a couple of minutes later heading the other way and I'm thinking weird or what.After thewife spent all her birthday money, we went home and bestfriend came round for tea before heading back for Dundee. thewife went thespianising and I had to go and work with kids which I struggled to drag meself to do but did anyway and it was worth it really. I think thewife had a good birthday.
posted by timesnewroman at 11:04 PM
Monday, November 24, 2003
Jimty beware! I have just had a thorough clean out of my computer with a new virus check, courtesy of some nice people at Panda I've had a couple of strange looking emails over the past couple of days which look very much like they are worm infected. They were from people I know but totally out of context. So I'm checking my machine with the software above and discover that the bold jimty is to blame for a whole batch of infected stuff! Ahhrggh! (Re-edited following the comment from you know who - can't have the folks at the bbc reading bad grammar)posted by timesnewroman at 9:47 PM
Saturday, November 22, 2003
After checking to see who has been around of recent. I came across a search of Google France which threw up this site in response to Calvin Klein Eternity. Hmmh. Anyway this is what it looks like translated into French which I thought was amusing, particularly my favourite band of all time "avion de Jefferson", Ale Fan's link was a cracker too.posted by timesnewroman at 12:52 PM
Eejits
thewife and I were sick of there being bugger all on tv to watch, despite shelling out a massive sum for around 100 channels, some of which could not be remotely considered entertainment, except of course as some sort of perverse comedy like god tv or shopping channels. So its Friday night and we decide to rent a couple of DVDs. We really shouldn't visit the shop together. thewife really wanted X-men 2 and like I didn't at all. So we ended up with a compromise of sorts. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Welcome to Collingwood. Yep George Clooney in both. After a few minutes of Confessions, thewife pipes up with "we've seen this!" and I'm saying no, don't recall this at all and then she starts telling me the plot and I think mm maybe I have its coming back to me now, didn't we get this a couple of months ago duh! So it was Welcome to Collingwood, by which time I had more than my fair share of South African Pinotage and of course fell asleep before the end. Bollocks I hate that.
One of the myriad channels we get that I do love is BBC4, good for films, music and documentaries. So just as I was waking up again, we watched a Neil Young concert from 1971. Fabulous it was too, until thewife asks was that really over 30 years ago, we must be getting old!
posted by timesnewroman at 12:43 PM
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Back to earth with a bang.I've gone off orange!
posted by timesnewroman at 9:54 PM
So they have invaded here as well. Find out where monkey boy and his posse of dimwits are hiding themselves. I particularly like the alternative state procession. To take part you will require a dark suit, white shirt, black tie, dark glasses and an earpiece for one ear. If you don't have the latter a button on a piece of string will do.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:43 AM
Monday, November 17, 2003
Ninea Gramsci is in business already. 1 Day and 2 Guestbook entrys and already the bait has been taken. Stephen Madu, the Auditor General of a bank in Africa, during the course of auditing discovered a floating fund in an account opened in the bank in1990 and since 1993 nobody has operated on this account again, after going through some old files in the records, discovered that the owner of the account died without a [heir] hence the money is floating and if this money is not remitted out urgently
it will be forfeited for nothing. The owner of this account is Mr. Phillip Morris, a foreigner, and a sailor, he died, since 1993. Stephen Madu's address is stmadu3@yahoo.ca. Watch this space.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:48 AM
Sunday, November 16, 2003
The power of advertisingRight, that's it, I am getting sorely pissed off by that little advert up above. I promised myself that I have to do this for a year before any upgrade so I'll have to live with it. The thing is, it obviously runs through your blog to decide on whatever it's going to advertise and unfortunately it seems to have chosen, because of recent football commentary, a certain weegie football team from Govan.
posted by timesnewroman at 3:20 PM
Scam Surfin'
Following my post on 30th July, regarding the Nigerian "419" scam. I read an article in the Observer about how some people are turning tables on the scammers. By far the funniest was here. Of course you get sucked in when surfing, so had a look at the bait advice and found this. Which is also extremely funny. Seems the whole world is out to catch guymen and mugu. Not to be left out of things Ninea Gramsci is born. Thats nineagramsci@lycos.com. Why not drop her a line.
posted by timesnewroman at 1:23 PM
Saturday, November 15, 2003
The future's bright, the future's possibly not orange.Always a team to suffer defeat in total ignominy against minnows and raise their stature in a valiant, but nevertheless vain effort against the best, Scotland's football team have for once done themselves proud. A massive victory, if not in goals, in guts against Holland, a team ranked 5th in world standings.
Not only has the victory provided more than a glimmer of hope of reaching the European Championships in Portugal next year. It has also shown that there are a number of extremely promising young talents out there in the form of McFadden, Fletcher, Pearson, Miller etc. Things are looking very promising for the future of the Scottish national side.
posted by timesnewroman at 5:35 PM
Friday, November 14, 2003
Just when you think, well what was the point in having a comments bit if nobody ever comments and it suddenly gets busy again. Or was it a case of I'm really worried that nobody actually reads my blog? I dunno, but I did discover that its quite important that you are careful about what you say in your blog as this poor chap learned to his cost. Has Gates and co. no sense of humour or decency, or is the U.S.A. full of corporate scum and corporate scum lawyers. They should be put up against a wall............... and have the wall knocked down with a bulldozer. That would sort them.posted by timesnewroman at 6:31 PM
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
After some years between 15 and 20 I think, we changed our Woodie night from Friday to Tuesday. We were competing with too much modern nonsense like discos and the like and weren't coming out best. Sou Tuesday it was, with a bit of publicity and letters round the former attenders, schools and a bit of word of mouth and we were innundated with a good mix of kids. I'm looking forward to this again. A night of silly games to get to know peoples names before we really begin with the lets change the world for the better stuff. Oh and Pantos and camps and messy craftwork as well.posted by timesnewroman at 6:20 AM
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
The most bizzare of referrals. The sitemeter on this page tracks visitors to an extent. Yeah, I'm spying on you, I know roughly where you come from e.g. ntl.com, when you visited and how long you stayed. Its fascinating at times, what with visitors from India, USA, Netherlands, Sweden and more. Some people arrive via a search engine which is a hoot. Somebody was looking for "mature porn pigs for free" at 2.56am yesterday, as you do, and ended up here, as a result of an MSN search, top result in fact, bet they were really impressed probably should have used google.posted by timesnewroman at 5:58 PM
Monday, November 10, 2003
The monkey man cometh, soon. The cerebrally challenged Dubya is soon to visit our shores and perhaps share another prayer with Tone Bliar. Hilarious article here where Dubya claims god chose him as president. Mmmm tha would make god a cheat too.It's scary though, where these people are taking us.posted by timesnewroman at 7:37 PM
Sunday, November 09, 2003
Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks. We deserved at least a draw, possibly even a win. But it wasn't to be. You can read the BBC's version of events here, but suffice to say they are a mite blinkered, that they "deserved a win" bit could only have been someone of the hun persuasion and as for Lovenkrands being "bundled off the ball" well I am sorry but that was a poor impression of Petrov. The only world class players in evidence in their team are Klos (M�nchen bound?) and Arteta, with Arveladze possibly chapping at the door. Emerson looked pretty useless, just doesn't cut it without Lake and Palmer methinks.Overall a much better performance from Killie but with some work still to be done in the midfield. Young Stewart got some excitement though seeing a couple of Killie goals for a change.
Finally what is it about their fans and their peculiar allegiance to that banjo plucking gaggle of parasitic European inbreeds that is the British Royal Family? Its bizarre. No less bizarre than the current speculation over prince Charles. The Italian press have published the following extract, kindly but poorly translated by Google, from La Repubblica:
LONDON - Whichever thing is, prince Carl says that it has not made it. It will remain more in annals of Buckingham Palace like the refutation bizzarra than all the times: "I want to assert frankly", ago to know the heir to the throne through its secretary, "than circulated chiacchiere recently regard me, but they are completely false".
What says in concrete that to chiacchiere, Carl not if it feels to tell it it; and up to now the average local has not been able to speak of liberations because of the strict British law on the defamation. But it is a history that circulates the same one for a long time, on Internet, in the references of the English newspapers to that the foreign press writes, and in monito the more times express openly from all the average here that the vicissitude, if came to the light, could "make to fall the monarchy".
Well, hour is coming to the light, is pure in oblique way: it is said in fact (presumed) sinner, not the sin, but enough the same one in order to understand nearly () all. We reassume, in three actions. First action: in 1995, George Smith, valletto of prince Diana, reveals to them of to have been stuprato two times from a dependent of court and of then to have seen the sodomita one to bed with a member of the real house.
Diana records the testimony on one video cassette, then guarded from its butler Paul Burrell, therefore seized passing or from the police. A scene, second the indiscretions made subsequently to trapelare from the butler, would have gone therefore: Smith opens the door of a room and discovers one of the Windsor under the sheet, between the arms of its violentatore.
So future King allegedly shags personal Valet. Who cares?
posted by timesnewroman at 8:14 PM
Friday, November 07, 2003
thewife and I were sort of surfing through the tv channels and couldn't quite believe the title so we watched this and boy was it a hoot. Totally unmissable. 5 gay blokes try to provide this guy called "Butch" (honest I am not making that up) with style. We are addicted already.I'm off for a long weekend and getting ready to head off for the Isle of Mull, for a couple of days. Yahoo.
posted by timesnewroman at 10:46 AM
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
The BBC Radio Scotland Blog Day reaches its conclusion and finally its quietened down a bit outside and we can let Charlie out. I used to like fireworks as a child, I still do to an extent, but only when they are part of an organised display. Maybe I am becoming an old killjoy, but frankly I find them increasingly annoying and dangerous. Given the rise in injuries caused by fireworks, ohmygawd I'm supporting David Blunkett for once, I would ban their use in public places entirely, and severely limit the sale and use of them.posted by timesnewroman at 10:50 PM
Briefed we were, but not about our place in the big picture. It looks like they are still drawing the big picture and we will be phase 2 of it. Its not exactly comforting and we are no clearer about our future roles now than we were before the briefing.
Yet another group of workers facing re-organisation are the firefighters. It seems that at every stage of their recent industrial dispute that they bent over backwards to be accomodating and yet were simply abused by the government. Now even the reduced pay deal that they fought for and accepted is to be reneged upon by the paymasters. Sue them, I say, for loss of earnings.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:10 PM
Its that day already. We are going to be briefed today at work, on the staffing review. Initially most people thought it was about regrading and the need to get qualified people working in local Area Teams. There's a dearth of ordinary social workers in Scotland and it does have an effect. This most undervalued of societies' workforce (and I am not one) who get vilified every time something goes wrong, but rarely praised for what goes right, are pretty much under siege. Some of the work they should be doing, in terms of getting in there early and making a difference to young people and to families is not happening. Its not happening because they are so short staffed they can only deal with critical child protection stuff day in day out. Which brings me back to the need to get people back to the basic social work. Most of Scotland's local authorities are desperately trying to recruit social workers and most are increasing staff salaries, grades and in some cases conditions to entice people to come to them and work and to stay. Hence our staff review. Prophets among us are suggesting that it'll be further reaching than just gradings and salaries. There is the suggestion that there will be major changes in the structure, to move people into the local teams. That strikes me as being more of a stick than a carrot. You build up teams and relationships that work well together and every 5 years or so, someone somewhere seems to decide that there is a better way, so you demoralise people, move them around and generally mess up something that, if it didn't work in the first place was at least beginning to take shape. Watch this space.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:40 AM
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Omne or should I say Wight Cable has been down since first thing (6:00am) this morning. I was mighty unimpressed and have written an extremely stroppy letter of complaint which is currently winging its way to them. thewife phoned them and they gave her some cock-a-mamey story of how their technicians were working on it. I phoned again on returning from work a 6.00pm, still not on, major problem somewhere in Carlisle or Lancaster with the fibre optic cable and their engineers were still working on it and would be working through the night if necessary. They didn't offer, I had to ask, about a Dial Up alternative which suggests just how keen they are to retain customers. The Radio Scotland Blog day thing is tomorrow, where a few Scottish Bloggers and me will be Blogging a Day in the life of...and I did promise to go easy on the language ... and I still can't get broadband access. This time I really think we will be saying bye bye.posted by timesnewroman at 10:32 PM
Monday, November 03, 2003
Strange day indeed, there is a "Staffing Review" happening at work, much of it to do with regradings and possible salary increases for some staff, however the feeling is it is likely to be accompanied by some restructuring implications. Whether it will affect our goodselves directly is as yet unknown to us, but it almost certainly will have some impact on morale if nothing else. There's little point speculating, there will be briefings over the course of the next week or so, when things will hopefully become clearer.Father Bell kindly emailed the following moral observation on the Anglican Church
"The actions taken by the New Hampshire Episcopalians in ordaining a gay bishop are an affront to Christians everywhere. I am just thankful that the church's founder, Henry VIII and his wife Catherine of Aragon, his wife Anne Boleyn, his wife Jane Seymour, his wife Anne of Cleves, his wife Katherine Howard, and his wife Catherine Parr are no longer here to suffer this assault on traditional Christian marriage."
posted by timesnewroman at 5:29 PM
Sunday "Spring " clean at the Woodcraft Hall. Its been long overdue. The building is looking sorely dilapidated both outside and in nowadays. We used to regularly get a gang of folk round to wash and buff the floors, give it a good clear out and feed them at the same time for their trouble. But we have sort of let it drift for a while, people are just too busy I guess to run a group night during the week as well as give up precious weekends as well. Ideally we could do with a lotteries grant for a � 100,000 or so for a prefab new building, which I am damn sure we would keep clean and tidy. For a wee while anyway.
Fascinating article in the Guardian about it's digital picture editor, Simon Waldman's blog. He recently uncovered an 1938 Homes and Gardens edition featuring Hitler at home in "Haus Wachenfeld." A sort of Hello of the 30s it refers to the evil one in fawning terms throughout. Seemingly the house painter favoured a cool fade green throughout the chalet, tranquil or what? His decision to let IPC magazines, the publishers of the magazine, know that he had put scans of the magazine on his web site, led them to invoke their copyright ownership and request that he remove it. Which he obligingly did. Following a bit of a stushy, it became apparent that the magazine did not own the pictures at all, but that they were publicity shots (propaganda) taken by the Reich Fuhrer's personal photographer. Whether Goebbels wrote the text remains to be established. What does beggar belief is that the article appeared in a British publication, in 1938 following Hitler's seizure of power, Kristallnacht, persecution of Jews. Were the publishers worried about copyright at all or the adverse publicity of the public knowing just how far the British establishment had a soft spot for the Fuhrer and his achievements?
posted by timesnewroman at 6:53 AM
Saturday, November 01, 2003
Home from football. 0 - 5. The result more than flattered them, against recent performances I thought we played okay. Totally lacking imagination in front of goal, but the new guy Greir at the back looked very good.If any Celtic fan ever mentions conspiracy to me again I will laugh at them. 2 outageous penalties given in their favour and 2 penalty claims denied Killie. Stilian Petrov is a diving cheat and I hate him. Refer to 14/09/03 post regarding Hugh Dallas. Applies even more so. Scotland's finest, can you begin to imagine what our worst are like?
Young Stewart's second Killie game and he certainly can't complain about not seeing goals, that's 8 so far, unfortunately none of them have been ours.
posted by timesnewroman at 3:26 PM
Off to the fitba. Filled with trepidation, we are likely to be on the end of a gubbing and thewife, bless her is ironing a tee-shirt for me cos I'm late, only its a bright green one and I'm looking at her like she is from planet woman. She laughs, brings out the fawn one she did earlier and yells gotcha. We are going to get a gubbing, but you have to go anyway.
I had a big post about Big Licks gig, which I'll redo later cos I lost it.
posted by timesnewroman at 11:36 AM
Friday, October 31, 2003
Looks like he Tories are going for one of their dark lords. Why didn't they just throw the towel in and admit that Tone is probably going to be the most succesful Tory leader in history.Off on a flexi and have done bugger all. Just the way I planned it.
posted by timesnewroman at 5:22 PM
Thursday, October 30, 2003
I really cannot get excited about the Tories' gorefest, although it is fun to watch. How could anyone trust these people when its so blatantly obvious they all have their own individual self interest at heart?As I get more and more sucked into the world of blogging, I keep adding to my list of blogs along the side bar. Today's addition is Ale Fan. Have a look.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:24 AM
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
timesnewroman is not applying for lottery fundingSeems like forever ago that the Community Fund distributing National Lottery funds was being attacked by chip wrapper editors and the home secretary combined for giving money to the National Coalition of Anti Deportation Committees. Currently being investigated by the Commons' public accounts comittee, the Fund should be congratulated for standing by the original decision to make the award, although its officers will now check through funding applicant's websites in case they make defamatory statements about that fascist ratbag Blunkett.
BBC Radio Scotland, bless them are going to be make a "Blog Day" programme on 5th November. At the risk of sounding pompous and pretentious I have been approached, presumably along with everyone else in the Scottish Blog Ring. with a view to contributing. Watch this space.
posted by timesnewroman at 8:57 PM
Blogger down at 6:30am. So I�m using word to paste into it later and I don�t lose me post. Why didn�t I think of this before?
K (Not their real name) got exceptional leave to remain. We are much joyed by this, JEM, PH and Jimty especially, but all of us are.
"Your country is in chaos. Death squads and gangs rule the streets. Your nearest relatives have been killed, and you fear you will be next. Selling your last possessions in exchange for passage on an unseaworthy vessel, you risk your life travelling across the world in search of a new beginning. But when you arrive, you are locked away in blatant defiance of UN laws. Those who have locked you away are acting illegally, but it is you who are treated as a criminal..." Yeah it could be Dungavel or Yarlswood. This is actually Woomera, in Oz as I believe the antipodeans call it. Fabby new computer game being developed. Forget Wolfentstein, Quake, Doom et al. This is really reality bytes. Escape from Woomera.
thewife was out thespianising last night. She's a dame, I know this, in a Panto that her community drama company, Stagefright is producing. Anyway she comes in when I'm in bed sleeping and tells me that they have limited the numbers at the theatre to 50 and I'm not really thinking, but thinking nevertheless that getting 50 in will be a problem, not a 50 people limit. Of course she's not referring to the Panto. Its a 'Big Licks' gig on Friday at the Harbour Arts Centre. If you like 70s excess rock then its a definite. However that means being there for 2 hours before the band are on, drinking bad beer and worrying about whether you have the right t-shirt on.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:40 AM
Monday, October 27, 2003
Weekend gone already and seemed to do very little at all. Not that I particularly wanted to do anything. The previous weekends have been busy and all of last week was like a months work packed into 4 days. Vegging out watching a whole weekend of House Doctor gave us the impetus to clear out the back bedroom and that's about the sum total of activity.Needless to say Killie got beat yet again on Saturday and with the next two home games in a row versus both sides of the old firm things are not looking too good. Jeffries must go!
What has the butler character got on the royals, normally wouldn't give a monkeys, but here's hoping its something to bring the whole lot of the banjo plucking inbreeds down.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:20 AM
Saturday, October 25, 2003
thewife and I had a quiet night in, and for the first Friday night in a very long time not a drop of wine passed my lips. Nope, none. thewife and I have discovered Badger Golden Glory. It's fabulous, probably the best beer I have ever tasted. Now in the more mature phase of my life I have the ability to choose to drink for taste rather than effect. I choose Golden Glory because it tastes like and looks like what it says on the bottle.posted by timesnewroman at 8:20 AM
Thursday, October 23, 2003
Numbers.. So Gorgeous George has been kicked out of New Labour for whatever reason, you can point fingers at treason, at socialism, at the sharp suit, or simply cos Tone dislikes dissent. Have you ever in your life seen the epitome of pig ignorant labourism rear its ugly, and I mean incredibly ugly, head in the form of Ian McCartney. What is it about the Labour Party in Scotland that it can vomit up the likes of him and George Robertson in the space of two decades? Jesus what happened to Trade Unionism that we end up with that calibre of arsehole as a representative?Anyway back to numbers. I have laughed befor at the haemorrhaging of members over the years since the arrival of Tone the merciless, myself included. The number 360 is not only the number of degrees in a circle, but rather the total membership, apparently of the Glasgow Kelvin Constituency Labour Party - as advised by the "Chairman" of said Constituency, a supporter of George, like many of his co-members. What has the Labour Party become? I remember the days, pre Tone when my Constituency Party had a membership of 1,500, that's Cunninghame South a relatively rural sector in comparison with Glasgow Kelvin, itself a merged Constituency with a significiant student and academic left tendency. How bizarre. It kind of highlights just how out of step or just how far removed from British Politics that Scotland is. How we can vote albeit P.R. for a credible left alternative and how Tone and his MI6 planted cohorts ought to realise that we wont buy his pish and we wont stand for his acolytes being thrust upon us. To hell with New Labour, McCartney, Joyce and the other sycophants.
posted by timesnewroman at 10:19 PM
There's some changes going on around here. Having spent a good whack of the past few days peering at a work related web site (that I have to get some of the content up on) which is going to be 8 pt Verdana and I'm thinking what about the visually impaired who even with their browsers set at big font sizes are gonna struggle. I am striking out here for the BIG. Lets hear it for readability.
posted by timesnewroman at 5:43 PM
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
I hate when you blog something and then it just disappears into the ether somewhere and you didn't cut and paste so whatever pearls of wisdom you may have had have gone.Its finished, the bedroom, apart from the fripperies and those are the department of thewife. Its actually looking a lot better than I thought it was going to after the first few strips of wallpaper, but then, maybe practice makes it not so awful.
posted by timesnewroman at 5:24 AM
Monday, October 20, 2003
In at work today only to discover boss is off sick as is another colleague and we are busy like blaming the apprentice because in some ludicrous attempt at trying to wrestle the employee of the month award from me he spent most of last week coughing, sniffing and spluttering all over the place. Boss is not chuffed. I must admit I had a tingle of a sore throat Sunday and this morning although thewife puts it down to my snoring, as if.Later discover that on top of people charging parking fees for a previously free car park, the on ramp to the M8 homewards has now been closed and traffic forced to detour because of the construction work outside the workplace. Total chaos. Bollocks, serious consideration will have to be givent to public transport, which although I agree with the notion in principle is more costly and more inconvenient.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:37 PM
Sunday, October 19, 2003
Wallpapering, I thought after the bathroom, that I had cracked it, easy peasy, piece of piss, as hard as a rufus crossword, but no. Spent much of Saturday and Sunday making an absolute arse of a job in the bedroom. The very first strip I attempted to hang on the wall got all fankled and ripped and the air was blue and well I just sort of bundled it into a ball and flung it in the bath in a rage. Having calmed down somewhat I had another go, this time gently, patiently, and it went on fine, but with a couple of bubbles in it. thewife was out shopping with mumsy and I am sure she is not going to be pleasantly surprised on her return. I have come to the conclusion that its down to the cheap vinyl paper we got, unlike the bathroom stuff which was expensive and quite heavy.thewife reckons the colour is great and she sort of realises that I am not a decorator and that we can live with it, if we cover up the really bad bits with furniture and pictures and I'm saying that next time, we are getting somebody in who can do this properly.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:13 PM
Omne. Useless bunch of gits. Broadband has been down from 8.00pm Friday until almost 2.00pm Sunday and they expect to get paid for this, well I don't think so.
New Labour look set to oust George Galloway from the Party. Surprised that they can afford it given hw few memebrs they have nowadays.
posted by timesnewroman at 12:38 PM
Friday, October 17, 2003
I chanced upon this article in the Guardian. Sound advice too, I wish I had been given this advice some time ago. Come to think of it, if as Matt Barrett says, that credit cards are an expensive way to accumulate debt, is there the distinct possiblity that this could easily be linked to health and mental health issues and in which case do I, and many others no doubt, have some grounds for suing the banks that issued them in a similar vein to the large tobacco company suits?Interestingly, if you click on the link above, have a look at the advertisements along the right hand side. Ethical old Guardian.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:16 AM
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Okay so here's a hoot. I was still fizzing at the home secretary and decided he was in need of an email of my opinions. I found his site, it's hereRight, now before you just dive in there follow these navigation instructions
1. Click the link above
2. Hit the WWW links button at the top
3. Look down the list of links til you get to the people who designed his site
WAC Perfomring Arts & Media College www.wac.co.uk
4. Click the link! ...........Wait! If there are children present, or if you are at work and would get sacked for viewing porn, or you really don't want to see porn you can take my word for it......Home Secretary links to Porn Site Shock.
posted by timesnewroman at 5:48 PM
David Blunket is a Bastard. B-A-S-T-A-R-D. Got that! The man is evil. Watching the news again, I know, I should learn, but ...anyway thewife was getting as heated as me.
First time prisoner, young offender, 19 year old Asian lad gets sentenced to 3 months for theft. I'm not into a debate about the merits of custodial sentences here. I'm just a tad concerned that the lad described above can be allocated a shared cell with a racist, persistent offender, with extremely violent tendencies, whom the authorities themselves had concerns about, who had R.I.P. and a cross tattooed on his thuggish, idiot, "I'm a psychopath" face, who had a penchant for burning cross wall decoration and a white hood. Did I forgot to mention the string of previous offences, escape attempts, hostage taking and threats of violence to prison staff and other inmates. Well this deformity of a human managed to get a blunt instrument to beat the young asian lad to death with.
For christs sake, what kind of raving lunatic would in the first instance allow this to happen and secondly what kind of shit for brains home secretary would rule out a public enquiry to investigate how it happened? First postcard with David "Bastard " Blunkett as the answer wins a 3 month holiday in Feltham, charming residential accommodation in a resort geared towards the youngsters.
read more here
posted by timesnewroman at 5:31 PM thewife and I watched Micahel Portillo become a lone mum with tree kids and two jobs and a low income. Twas odd, seemed like a human being with an interest in what he was doing. Bit mad though and extremely malleable in the hands of an 11 year old. Troule id when you see people in situations like that its difficult to hate them any longer. Of course we will always hate Thatcher.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:04 AM
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
I really must stop watching the news when I get in from work. thewife trys to start a normal civilised type of conversation and out of the corner of my eye I catch a distraught Palestinian introduce the world to the rubble that was once his home. You could actually make out what was probably once a fridge under it all. I'm slowly becoming a Nazi I think, as I hurl the odd obscenity at the state of Israel. Or is it the Star of David that is becoming the new swastika? Their newly acquired nuclear submarines capable of hitting Iran, the recent invasion of Syria and continuing determination to stamp out the Palestinians in the occupied territories. There is also the notion that there are these tunnels from Egypt that are used to bring weapons and explosives in.It looks suspiciously to me like the U.S. and Israel are intent on completeley anhilating any supposed threat to Israel, starting with Eyeraq, to be followed by Syria, Iran and where next Egypt? Jordan?
posted by timesnewroman at 5:40 AM
Monday, October 13, 2003
You'd think from the previous post that I have had a lazy weekend whereas the opposite is in fact the case. I was working Saturday at a Family Learning Day at the YIK. unfortunately only 2 families seeemed to want to learn anything.....publicity perhaps? Followed by Scotlands thrilling victory over the Brazil of the Baltic, Lithuania. How we contrived to make it so very difficult but hey, enough of the national psyche bashing and bring on the Dutch. A spirited victory in Amsterdam methinks, only to ......Sunday was kind of lazy except the wife really wanted me to paint the bedroom ceiling, despite the fact that she knows I hate painting ceilings. That and a brief daliance with that mince, beloved of thewife, happening down under, where farmers run around a field holding a ball and pretend to be tough. I'm getting all sorts of looks on account of I'm gutting myself at the hapless prats struggling to overcome Japan, who I understand only learned the game yesterday. thewife is not impressed.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:58 PM
Sunday, October 12, 2003
And so it beganposted by timesnewroman at 8:53 AM
Saturday, October 11, 2003
Pass the sick bag.all together now
posted by timesnewroman at 12:50 PM
Friday, October 10, 2003
There's me looking around to see what sort of traffic I've been getting and I discover a blog that links to mine and I read it and I'm thinking that we have a lot in common. A lot, politics music football blogging ...scary world, interesting planet.posted by timesnewroman at 8:57 PM Bush, Bliar, The Pope, Bono!!! Thank christ for the Nobel Prize Committee now that the Peace Prize has been awarded to someone worthy of. Lets hear it for Shirin Ebadi.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:41 PM thewife and I went to see Wishbone Ash play at the Renfrew Ferry last night. Wallowing in nostalgia or trying to reclaim lost youth. I'm not sure which. When I was a kid I loved Wishbone Ash - they were introduced to me by this blog's commentator, Father Bell. Argus was one of my favourite albums ever and I had gone to see them a coule of times in the seventies. I thought they had gone off the rails a bit around the fifth album and didn't really hear anything of them afterwards. I preferred I think to hang on to the recollection of them ending a set with Phoenix at the Reading Festival in the rain in the mid seventies. It was in torrential rain again last night that we headed off to the ferry.
I have had this aversion over the years of my favourite bands of my youth, Pink Floyd for example, I cannot stand big style. Bunch of pretentious middle class prats who don't need no education cos they got it bought for them at public school. However I digress, I have often re-listened to and even bought stuff I used to think was magical only to be very sorely disappointed. Was this going to be the case with Wishbone Ash? Well No, not at all.
If I had been asked what I wanted to hear in advance and in what order I would have pretty much opted for the set list. To be fair they have to play a couple of songs off the new album, but everything else was perfect, I can almost list it still in my head, The King will come, Warrior, Throw down the sword, new one, Time Was, etc right up to a finish with Phoenix, and an encore of Jailbait and Blowin' Free. Close you eyes and you are 16 again.
Of course when you open them you realise that rock n' roll is the domain of balding, middle aged men with substantial beer guts sueezed into blue jeans, leather jackets and the right band tee-shirt. A very enjoyable night was had by all. I suspect Manuel should have been there as well and in spirit I think Father Bell was too.
posted by timesnewroman at 7:03 AM
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
Spent some time at work today trying to figure out some sort of Scottish or British equivalent of Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming governor of California, just how stupid are these people? How we laughed, how we struggled. Personally I went for Cameron from Big Brother becoming Scots First Minister any contributions??posted by timesnewroman at 6:06 PM
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
New WMD Find! Apparently a test tube of Botulism was discovered in an Iraqi scientist's fridge, where it had been languishing for 10 years! Hmm! Try leaving a container of soup in your fridge for a couple of weeks and see what happens!posted by timesnewroman at 6:33 AM
Monday, October 06, 2003
Another weekend gone and getting ready to go back to work. Article in the Guardian on Michael Moore and the launch of his new book. Interestingly agrees with Manuel's conviction that Bliar could have stopped Bush invading Eyerack.There will be no talk of football here, other than Jefferies must go and take his hopeless ex-Jambos with him.
After an extensive gubbing, thewife and I like to cook, so we did this really tasty Onion and potato tart with olive pesto, simply yummy.
Got a cat flap for Charlie and fitted it. Looked a bit weird, reread the box and discovered we got one for the wrong kind of door. Duh!!!
posted by timesnewroman at 5:34 AM
Friday, October 03, 2003
Its Friday and I'm on flexi, oh joy. Actually last month I kindly donated an extra days work, free to my employer and I was almost going to give them 2 days this month so I thought what the hell, lets take it off. So instead of doing whatever is waiting for me on my desk I'm stripping wallpaper off the walls of the bedroom and suddenly I feel I should have a bit more commitment to my day job.posted by timesnewroman at 12:52 PM
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
Great Joy may be coming soon to a place near me. Read between the lines. We will be having a party thewife and I, and anyone wishing to share in the "Rejoice"ing is most welcome. Bring your own (Red) wine.posted by timesnewroman at 8:42 PM
Monday, September 29, 2003
hEaven, I'm in heaven...took long enough but here it is!posted by timesnewroman at 9:14 AM
Saturday, September 27, 2003
Fool. It said raspberry on the tin, the paint tin. Of course now that it's on the window sill and surrounding woodwork and door its more of a bright bubblegum pink colour. Mmph this may take some getting used to.posted by timesnewroman at 4:05 PM
Friday, September 26, 2003
Holiday weekend and boy do I need it bad. Seems like the past few weeks have just flown past cos I have been extremely busy and it doesn't look like slacking any. Not that I am going to be filled with rest, no, thewife has plans that include the purchase of paint and major decor work in the bedroom. Also on the agenda is some exterior woodwork paint, so weather permitting, it looks like a fun weekend, of course a painter works up a thirst that will be slaked. One good point on the paint front is that thewife has departed from her strong desire for white woodwork around the window. She actually suggested raspberry, which I agreed with. Meant we were in and out of B&Q in a matter of minutes rather than hours. Although she did bring the duvet cover with us.....posted by timesnewroman at 6:04 PM
Tuesday, September 23, 2003
It's official, Kofi Anan says that Blair and Bush are threat to world peace. Additionally, having already been politely turned down re requests for UN intervention, Dubya now wants the UN to foot part of the bill for the U.S./U.K. axis of folly. Methinks another polite "fuck off" is in order.Likewise Blunkett should be told in no uncertain terms what to do with his irrational identity card scheme. Another moneymaking scam for newlabour.
And I used to think the Tories were bad. At least they never claimed to be sincere......
posted by timesnewroman at 5:36 PM
Monday, September 22, 2003
For Sale:Large Middle Eastern Country. Apply L. Paul Bremer, Baghdad.
posted by timesnewroman at 5:33 AM
Sunday, September 21, 2003
Salon Mexico calling. Just had Manuel and Lady El round for dinner of Tacos with a variety of Mexican accompaniments, supplemented by a couple of jugs of damned good Margaritas. Sampled oodles of wine and beer as well, and chilled to a few rocking 60s and 70s tunes from the Rolling Stones pre-zimmer, Jethro Tull, Jefferson Airplane (Live - newly discovered wonderment at Bless its pointed little head, Joe Walsh - pre Eagles. FDollowed by thewife's homemade Mango Ice Cream. Oh and we forgot the cheese and biscuits, which still languish in the fridge.Laugh, I genuinely thought I was going to die laughing when Manuel recalled a recent supermarket visit where Lady El had purchased a bottle of cranberry scented windscreen wash. I kid you not.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:11 PM
Friday, September 19, 2003
Worried about the direction the world is taking? Can't sleep at night for fear of alien abduction? There is hope KS sent this to me. Go on make a hat!posted by timesnewroman at 10:33 PM
Thursday, September 18, 2003
Three arses, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel and Gamepad Gonk. Former presidents of sorts of a variety of offbeat eastern European feudal statelets of sorts. Once upon a time I had a little bit of time for Havel, seemed like a nice bloke, liked beer and Frank Zappa, bit arty farty nevertheless was never particularly objectional unlike that wee fat ludicrous Polish electrician who probably couldn't tell the difference between a Mars Bar and a Buzzbar, Thatcher's favourite trade unionist and working man. President of a shitty big republic whose people aparently used to queue at shops with nothing to sell, but who now have shops filled with stuff only nobody has the money to buy it. The other guy, well who cares, other than Puskas and the Rubik cube what has Hungary ever given to the world?Anyway what's the beef? Why the rant? The three amigos have written a letter - taking the piss here cos Walesa is too stupid to write, so it must have been Havel, calling for an end to Fidel Castro's dictatorship, printed no less in that fine upstanding British Newspaper of note, the Daily Telegraph. Owned by Conrad Black who I have already ranted about (22/04/03) I can picture the loathsome sight of the 4 of these getting into bed together however I am not going there, I am digressing.
Who the fuck do they think they are? Fidel Castro overthrew a brutal dictatorship and turned Cuba from a playground for rich yankees, where the people were beyond impoverishment into a society envied in not only the developing world for its education and health services. Fidel Castro fought against it actively, he didn't arse about writing a few subversive lines, or help to form a pathetic vatican inspired conspriatorial league of lazy bastards.
The freedoms that this triumvirate of shit for brains hold so very dear are evident in their own shitty countries...freedom to vote for whoever will lie to you and the freedom to be poor and exploited. Democracy is so fabulous you can eat it. People have other human rights too. The freedom to have shelter, to have food, to have love and affection, to be educated and cared for when in need. Quite frankly I know where I would like to be if I needed these and it wouldn't be the Czech Republic, Poland or Hungary guys cos you are so fucking far behind Cuba if you started running now you wouldn't begin to catch up. Which is why you want to bring it down isn't it?
What I also want to know is do we get a referendum in vetoing the EU membership of these people, cos I want bog all to do with them.
In case you think I am making this up here are some facts, from the World Health Organisation and UNESCO.
Table 1 Life Expectancy 2001
Cuba 76.9
Czech Republic 75.4
Hungary 71.7
Poland 74.0
Table 2 Current Expenditure Per Pupil on tertiary education as a percentage of GNP Per Capita
Cuba 88
Czech Republic 35
Hungary 33
Poland 44
Another fine example of just how fabulous Czech Democaracy operates here.
Funny how they are all members of the Club of Rome, except Walesa but you couldn't really invite him anywhere. Why not go and vote to let them know if you thnk its a good or bad thing, few more votes could tip the balance. Vote Here.
posted by timesnewroman at 8:20 AM
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Went on training today to find out how to work the content management system that writes and uploads web pages at work. Looks not that different from blogger, which I suppose I was expecting. Lot less control but you can't have arty types arseing about with the corporate image.I read this superbly written article about Lee Kyung Hae in the the G2 Section of the Guardian today. I thought it was incredibly sad indeed. I shall re-apparaise my views of farmers, although the British version are still almost to a foolish man, a bunch of tory voters.
In case like me you missed it, there are numerous other links worth checking.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Global Political Action of both the direct and economic kind. I like it, Papa's got a brand new bag.
Not that I eat meat but there is clearly an option to say go to hell to the agri-business multinational conglomerates and their mass produced shite. Soon it will be McDonalds burgers for all and if you don't like it tough, that's what's on offer. Whilst the French notion of trashing the burgers, sorry buggers is amusing to say the least. Economic action is the action they understand clearest. Todays rant slogan is "BOYCOTT THE SAM(perhaps a golden arch of an m)E OLD SHITE!
posted by timesnewroman at 6:46 PM
Monday, September 15, 2003
Blogged too soon didn't I. I did fit the tape deck and it did work. Of course that was when the vehicle was stationary. As soon as one hits the accelerator pedal, or puts on the windscreen wipers or indicates, great scratchy interference descends. I believe I need a supressor.posted by timesnewroman at 10:18 PM
Sunday, September 14, 2003
Some things I have learned this weekend.1. Colin Meldrum is not a goalkeeper.
2. Hugh Dallas is an arse.
3. Killie need to get a lot better quickly if we want to stay in the premier league.
Football aside a particularly productive weekend. Went for a walk along the beach which was nice, blustery with big surf, smell of ozone and relatively few people around. We promise, thewife and I that we shall do this more regularly. Apart from need ing the excercise, its fun and enjoyable.
Spent some time fitting a tape deck in the motor. An old thing, but at least it work so I can now play some tunes on the way to work and back. Makes for a far brighter day on the horizon.
jimty I believe has sent me a virus and I think I may have tried to send it back to him. the postmaster advises that the JS/Fortnight.gen@M virus was found in my replied to email. Having checked this out I seem to be clean and certainly none of the symptoms are showing, so I'll check it out with him.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:51 PM
Saturday, September 13, 2003
New term at the woodies and a discussion on food and hunger threw up a gem from rebecca, aged 10 "the cows certainly have plenty of food!"posted by timesnewroman at 11:39 AM
Thursday, September 11, 2003
and so to the true power of blogging and its intricate webiness. Having just discovered eatonweb via a salam pax article, I discovered a blog locted (not physically) in western sahara, a place and people dear to my own heart. I have to link it now and I have a clever wee tool to do it with!Notes from Somewhere Bizarreposted by timesnewroman at 5:39 AM
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Slam Pax speaks to a Radio 4 Web AudienceRadio 4 - The Today Programme - Webchat: "Name: Kate D
Question: We keep hearing so much about how Saddam Hussein never allowed anyone to have satellite dishes or internet access, yet that's clearly not true if you were able to post on the internet on a daily basis. I take it you've seen a lot of what the Bush administration has claimed about life in Iraq under Saddam ... have they exaggerated the hardship of life there, or do you support the coalition's attempts to oust the regime?
Answer: Yes, I support the ousting of the regime. Most Iraqis don't have any problem with the coalition coming in. We needed their help. It was never going to happen any other way. I don't think they exaggerated the hardship of life. After 25 years it is a bit suspicious that they look at how Iraqis feel about the regime and publish Amnesty reports which were written years ago. The US was supportive of Saddam during the 80s. When Halbaja happened, the US knew about it. They sent Rumsfeld to tell Saddam not to do it again. Now suddenly they care, so this is what makes people suspicious. Iraqis and the coalition wanted this outcome for different reasons. I hope we can work it out in the end. There was a massive media campaign saying 'We're hear to liberate the Iraqis' but we're not so stupid. If they really meant it, they'd have done it 10 years ago when Saddam was killing thousands of people down in the Shia region. "
posted by timesnewroman at 5:53 AM Google Toolbar Features this may well be useful tool. I've ignored it up to now, but it could weel be a fast efficient link thingy
posted by timesnewroman at 5:39 AM
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
Good Guysposted by timesnewroman at 6:04 AM
Monday, September 08, 2003
Bollocks! Bollocks! Bollocks! Just spent the evening posting a huge chunk of blog only to lose it yet again in cyberspace.Anyway it kind of went along these lines. Weekend and a half crammed into one. Jimstewart made the 50 mark, well attended party with folk's from all over the place, London, Glasgow, Miami, Rome okay I made the last 2 up. The powerpoint presentation went well and was enjoyed by jim and the assembled throng. It was good to catch up with loads of folks, Jaykay and Ceekay who we haven't seen for a while. Made a tentative dinner invite which needs to be extended to the poet of pollok. Rumour has it he is appearing soon at a cabaret in the west end on Friday, but I can't go cos I am woodie-ing. Anyway how we laughed, danced, drank, and sang karaoke. I thought I knew James Taylor's Fire and Rain, but there you go, well pleased I pulled back from "If you tolerate this" and "Dock of the Bay" those would have been just plain daft.
Saturday and despite being a tad knackered thewife dragged me round to tb's party, which was thoroughly enjoyed.
Sunday was a really lazy day, just conquered the world in one of the harder modes of Civilisation 2 and watched Back Beat, again.
Monday seemed to come round really quickly. Back at work, the boss is off but has left jimty a wee note detailing expectations whilst away. The apprentice is off too, on a tiling holiday no less. Which leaves a much depleted team time being, with JEM Bigstepping 3 days a week.
Finally and not a moment to soon see's the development of this here blog woth the introduction of a fotolog (f'log) It will be a bit slow as I can only post 1 pic per day, but we are off to a great start with a classic of the reidboy following his scooter adventure. See post from 26/07/03, reminder once again never to drink and scoot. Coming soon is thewife does "scary" pose, her being a thespian and all. CTP will feature soon as will contributors to the comments section and pretty much all manner of things, open to suggestions.
posted by timesnewroman at 7:42 PM
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
On Monday, on arrival home from work, thewife asks "can we have a cat?" I knew this day would come, it has been coming regularly since the death of Bronstein a year and a half or so ago, much loved cat of many years. I reckoned I didn't want to have to deal with cat death again so I sort of avoided the question. This time I kew the question was loaded, it was not just any old cat, she had a particular cat in mind. To cut a long story short, Charlie arrived last night complete with food toys and superloo. Handsome young lad claims the wife and she's probably right. Friendly enough soul and seems to have settled not too badly. Oh joy.posted by timesnewroman at 5:25 AM
Monday, September 01, 2003
Tea break over back on your heads. I hate it when you wake up 45 minutes before the alarm goes off. 1 hour would be okay, you can go back to sleep, but 45 minutes is the zone where you know the alarm is due soon so you sort of half snooze and wait for it. I would probably be better getting up but I don't.So its back to work again and I'm not sure you would call London a restful holiday despite the enjoyability factor. Done nothing since I got back apart from go to football. Killie were sort of worth the 1 - 1 draw, certainly because the Kris Boyd goal was a contender for goal of the season. The rest of the play was a bit off at times.
posted by timesnewroman at 5:41 AM
Friday, August 29, 2003
The last blog of the holiday, the last London Blog. We have had a really nice last day, a lunch of noodles at Ned's Noodle Bar, followed by a quick look around the the Foyer of the Saatchi Gallery, damned if I am giving those buggers a penny, besides we didn't have the time. Then the trip on the London Eye which I highly recommend to anyone. Got lost again around London Bridge and Guy's hospital, but thewife asked someone and we were kinda headed on the right track.We had hoped to go to the Tower of London but basically we ran out of time. A quick look around the South Bank again where thewife saw something previously that she wanted to get for me birthday and turned out place was open and she got me a designer waiter's friend which will come in handy indeed.
Then off to Chinatown for dinner. thewife really likes Chinese food and frankly I don't, for vegetarians its horrible bland nonsense. Every so often I have one last shot just to please her, but honestly it never gets any better. So imagine my surprose when I get deep fried tofu (Which lets face it is boring tasteless shit) with garlic and chillies and my god I love it. This is the best Chinese food I have tasted. She sort of purred her way through an entire duck knows, we may return.
Then home. Its a bit late and we have to get up early tomorrow, so a glass of Andy's fizzy and then bed. I thought about trying to change the flight time, but the prices on offer are a joke, with Ryanair you have to book a few weeks in advance for the cheap stuff. Both our return flights cost collectively � 62 whereas for a single on the same flight tomorrow, they are looking for � 90. So its early to bed.
A final thanks to the reidboy and Jo for their kind hospitality, to Andy for the reminisences and Ken for the tube.
posted by timesnewroman at 9:12 PM Thursday the last day of our 7 day passes and jolly useful they have been may I add. I would like to take this brief moment to pay tribute to the fine service that is the London Underground. Those 7 day tickets for example cost a mere 19 of your earth pounds apiece and for that you have unlimited travel on zones 1 and 2 which is pretty much all a tourist is likely to require. Additionally there have been but 2 occasions when we have waited longer than 5 minutes for our tube (notice how easily one slips into the ways of the locals) to arrive. That and for the most part it's clean and tidy to boot, of course that may be due to our frequent use of the Jubilee line extension. Well done Ken.
Well as I mentioned yesterday we were setting off for hell in the form of Oxford Street, but hey did we go there, no we went to Knightsbridge instead. That way we were very clearly going to window shop, as we don't have the means to purchase anything there or thereabouts.
First call was Harrods, well the tube drops you at the side door where the Saudi chauffeurs await their mistresses beck and call. We did enter and have a look around and emerged some time later with a couple of wee pressies for Mumsy and Mumsy'spal. The food hall was impressive indeed lots of stuff from all over the planet. I thought that the Beluga at �750 for 250g was a tad overpriced myself nevertheless, we did get a cople of hot baguettes, mine with cheese and thewife's with cheese and ham, these were a mere � 1.39 each which in fact provided us with probably our cheapest lunch to date and tasty they were too.
I'm a liberal sort of bloke and welcome asylum seekers with open arms. I did observe a scam of outrageous proportions however, being perpetrated by (possibly Romanian) women with babies. There was one begging outside Harrods and a few minutes later I noticed a group of 8 no less, all with baby in arms, crossing the road and slowly seperating to their various pitches. Frankly I would have got the local Social Services to take the bloody kids into care.
Anyway we moved on to Harvey Nichols once thewife had visited Harrod's loos smelling of something expensive, seems they have samples in jars around the place.
Harvey Nichols was similar in that its a big Department Store, a bit more modern and trendyish. I do have to ask though, does Calvin Klein have no end to his ego that he thinks he can design beds as well as pants? Three steps on and it seems Ralph Lauren likewise wants to have his name on everything possible as well. Its was like when we passed BabyGap, what the fuck is that about? I offered up for thewife my new concept of FoetusGap, designer amniotic fluid for mums to be huh niche or waht? Up there with "CheesyDrink"(c) methinks. Shoot the designers shoot all of them!!!
Rant over we headed back home in the rain, first we've seen so can't complain, also, I don't need to water the garden tonight. Hit Sainsbury's around 6.10pm. bought our dinner and were just making our way to the checkouts when the famous London Power Cut happened. Sainsbury have a genreator though and within minutes the computerised checkouts were re-booting themselves and I was then impressed that they started off from where they finished, no need to rescan anything. I suppose they need that sort of back up. It was only when we got home and the power came on and we watched the news we realised the scale of things. Tube's out etc, could have been stuck underground for a while jeez would not have liked that.
Next morning I read that in fact the tubes operated succesfully during the blitz for christssake. Up until last year the tube had it's own power station, that was until the Government stepped in with it's new Part Privatisation Programme and PFI and hey they closed it down didn't they.
Rant over off for a shot in the London Eye in the rain.
Oh and almost forgot, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me............
posted by timesnewroman at 10:20 AM
Thursday, August 28, 2003
Wednesday, gone already. We had a very quiet day planned, long lie, lunch at home and a fine lunch it was too, I tried to charge thewife � 7 for it and she agreed that on the South Bank, she would have paid that. Then it was off to meet Andy Bell near his place of work. thewife and I sat there and discussed what would he look like, would we recognise him and conjured with images like, will he have long hair and a denim jacket, will he be wearing a tie? Will there be evidence of comfortable middle aged spread? I had plumped for a moustache and goatee-like beard, with a blue shirt and I was right. We couldn't possibly comment on middle aged spread comfortable or otherwise, but I suspect he eats well. I had worked out yesterday that I hadn't seen Andy since I were a youngster, but he reminded me we had an encounter once in the Ship Inn, Irvine (No Children's Portions, No Chips) about eight years ago. I had this vague recollection and recalled the event to an extent, but I was probably quite pissed, given the location. Anyway enough of the distant past, last night was a refreshing opportunity to catch up on much. Where we'd been what we'd done what who was doing with what etc. I even managed some work related stuff in terms of high risk assessment in relation to the supply of meat, what the hell has that got to do with what I do you may ask, but I won't tell so there.We had a few pints in the Hope opposite Smithfield Market. Thence on to an Indian Restaurant, the Raj I think - Opposite Farringdon Tube Station - which Andy recommended as good. It was in fact wonderful, best Vegetarian Thali I have ever had and the lime pickle was sublime. The wife, more of a chinese person enjoyed it tremendously as well. The one downer on the night was the fact that Andy beat us to the bill. Like Patten, we shall return though, and it'll be our turn.
Finally on to a nearby bar where they sold budweiser budvar which very much suited me, for a brief discussion on music and our need to acquire a mini-disc and dishwasher, but not necessarily in that order. Finally to the tube station and home. Andy pointed out that we didn't always need to find our way onto the Jubilee line for Canada Water, but could take a direct train to Whitechapel. Longer here and wiser for it. And he left us with a bottle of fizzy to boot.
Enjoy the hols Andy, and we hope, thewife and I, that Jo gets her job.
And a txt on the way home but I don't know if you got the return message, which kept being returned as couldn't be delivered. It was pretty much ta for the great evening.
Today, Thursday I fear we head for the part of a London holiday that I am not looking forward to. thewife got a brief sniff of Oxford Street yeasterday and methinks she enjoyed the smell.
posted by timesnewroman at 9:26 AM
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Another full day of Culture under the belt with sore feet to show afterwards. Spent the day at the Tate Modern which was pretty fabulous, well for the most part pretty fabulous, I still have difficulty with Arte Povera, but what the hell if someone wants to look at shit, they can. Frequent contributor to the comments section, Andy Bell called, whilst we were in the Tate Modern and we have arranged to meet up (today) for a swally. Looking forward to it, thewife and I have worked out that I haven't seen Andy in about 20 years and she hasn't seen him in about 25. I know he has changed though, his voice is different, dropped? No just kidding, more anglified I think. The good thing about long walks along the South Bank of the Thames is that one does need to frequently stop for a rest and refreshment and we had several of those. I would skip Gabriels Quay though, boy can those people seriously overcharge for almost evrything in their little handmade craft stores. We skipped the pint of Stella in a shed for � 4.50 and instead found an attractive pub on the Bank which sold a decent Pint of 80/- for just under � 3.00 hah.Then off to a Mexican restaurant Pacifico (Free Ad) in Covent Garden. Damn fine place, authentic looking, smelling and sounding and the food was extremely good, as were the Margueiritas! The service was fine and we were quite happy to accept the (Optional) Service Charge already added to one's bill which seems common in this part of the world, as the service was extremely efficient, courteous and attentive.
Even made it home in time to catch the West Wing.
posted by timesnewroman at 9:03 AM
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Bank Holiday Monday and the culture vultures made their way quite early to the Natural History Museum, the choice of thewife who has always wanted to see a model of a huge blue whale ever since she were little. The first thing we came across was a fabulous, massive, outdoor photograph exhibition of the earth from the air. This was absolutely brilliant and successfuly managed to convey the fragility of the planet, the interdependence of our world and has given me much scope for an envigorated Pioneer programme, once our group re-opens.The Natural History Museum itself was quite impressive too, even if the big whale wisnae.
After the Natural History Museum it was my turn, for The Science Museum just along the road and that was brilliant, exceeded all expectations, could have spent more hours than we had quite easily, even lost thewife, she was at the lunar landing site while I was admiring the Cray Supercomputer, it didn't impress her at all but the �8m price tag did. I was most amused by the quote from Seymour Cray, who apparently liked pencil and paper himself when he was told that Apple had bought one of his Super Computers to design their new machine, he remarked that that was funny, he was using one of their's to design his new machine.
We were all knowledged out so we decided to leave some for another day and go home before Sainsbury's closed.
posted by timesnewroman at 8:58 AM
Monday, August 25, 2003
Started Sunday lazily. the plan was for thewife and I to make our way to the Covent Garden Odeon, via Covent Garden Market, have something to eat and drink and then watch Good Bye Lenin. After visiting the overpriced but oddly quaint and original stalls at Covent Garden, we got lost slightly didn't we. Walked the wrong way along Charing Cross Road. Adjusted bearings and then found roughly where we were aiming for. Then turned left rather than right into Shaftesbury Avenue. Soon realised that this was wrong, so I wanted to walk a little bit further, thewife demanded we stop and ask someone. Like I would do that, for god's sake I'm a guy we don't ask, we plod on hopeful that we'll eventually get where we want to be. Besides I suggest that everyone around is a tourist so they won't know either. She goes into a shop and emerges moments later pointing in the opposite direction to the one we were travelling in. This delay put a serious dent in my plan for a pint and something to eat, so we settled for a quick pizza instead.Goodbye Lenin? Go see it as soon as you can. It's a while since I've seen such a tragicomedy this good or this funny. thewife agreed, despite the subtitles.
posted by timesnewroman at 8:52 AM
Sunday, August 24, 2003
Sunday morning already. Boy was Saturday a scorcher, very very hot, particularly at night, sweltering I was, had to have a shower to cool down and that only lasted for a short while. Spent the day around Camden markets, god they have loads of markets and loads of stalls which is pretty much hippychick heaven, suited thewife no end. Got bored though, there are only so many tee-shirt stalls and bolivian crafts that one can take. I reckon we spend far too much time walking around that come evening we are pretty knackered and can't be bothered going out anywhere. That changes tonight though because we are going to see Good bye Lenin, in Covent Garden, yes that's the same Covent Garden famous for it's market.posted by timesnewroman at 8:14 AM
Saturday, August 23, 2003
thewife and I have arrived and are well esconced in Sarf London. I think its actually East London, but it's definitely sarf of the river thames. Yesterday, we bid bon voyage to the reidboy, Jo and Ewan who are Italia bound, and then found a pleasant enough pub, Bar Alchemy to have lunch of Tapas, Veggie Burger and Beer. The Scottish �20 was viewed closely and after checking with the manager, eagerly accepted. Spent an eternity waiting for food, woman at bar did apologise and say it was on its way, however thewife says she would have left had we not paid for it up front. When it did arrive we were quite pleased with the generous quantities and it was generally okay. Methinks a 4 though and won't be back. We then spent the afternoon pottering around the South Bank which was pretty, full of tourists though. Some of the housing looked fabulous and going relatively cheap at 750k.Walked perhaps a bit too far as both of us complained of sair feet, so home via Sainsbury's, (the wife and I are in near heaven having a humungous Supermarket practically on our doorstep) where we selected a nice light salad with olives and feta and bread for our dinner al fresco, sat out until almost dark, watching the local squirrels pick plums and eat them from the tree at the foot of the garden.
thewife is making breakfast as I write, I am supposed to be surfing to plan an itinerary but one must blog.
Rainbow and Ginger are both well, although thewife speaks to them like they understand
posted by timesnewroman at 8:19 AM
