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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.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Lithuania Sucks Yet another classic encounter with the dirty diving bastards otherwise known as Heart of Midlithuanian. Yet again a stunningly spectacular level of utter shite refereeing from yet another Scottish shite referee. Man of exceptional taste to boot, a Keane fan no less.Fortunately for us, Nish was not playing, however Peter Leven, his replacement for the day fared no better. I love football me. 2 Points wasted.
Funniest thing I saw at the game though, was the numpty sporting the Lithuanian flag. If he hasn't grasped the damage done by the Loonie Baltic Banker, he must be quite quite mad.
Labels: Eastern European Shit
posted by timesnewroman at 6:35 PM
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Christmas the Aftermath Growing in depth and beauty with every play.
Midlake's the Trials of Von Occupanther, fabby.
I've had a remarkably themed Christmas this year, with an abundance of things culinary, both books and gadgetythings. I am going to spend a while in the kitchen methinks.
Christmas day was spent as per the last few, with mumsy. Spent a totally chilled time sipping champagne and cava and cooked duck with roasted (to perfection) potatoes, roasted parsnips and sprouts finished in the frying pan with butter and bacon. I could feel the weight going on with every mouthful. Fortunately, the starter was a light melon and parma ham and the pudding was a simple concoction of poached apricots with fig and hazelnut in a filo pastry served with vanilla ice cream. The one downside of the day was when mrs tnr opened her pressie from mumsy, my face must have been a picture as pressie was a digital camera, which I had also got her arghhhhh!
I'm on holiday for almost 2 weeks, which means I'll spend too much time on this and too much time watching wall to wall repeats of River Cottage.
Labels: warm and fuzzy
posted by timesnewroman at 1:20 PM
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Woe is us It seems weird having witnessed a display of alleged football, that during the course of watching it I was up and down like a roller-coaster. The game itself was mediocre, both Killie and Motherwell were mediocre, the referee was mediocre, the one saving grace was the brilliance of Stephen Naismith and Gary Hay was pretty good too. Our relief goalkeeper is unbelievably bad, practically guaranteeing whoever we play a goal a game and this man continues his run off bewilderingly inept footballing displays.____________________________________________________________________
On the social front we have done little, but last night, we had Lady El round for a few cocktails. Determined to leave at a reasonable time, she succeeded, although in what kind of state is another matter. thewife who indulged in a few concoctions has been fairly violently spewing the proverbial ring both last night and this morning and has promised never to let alcohol pass her lip again. I suspect it may have been one Screaming Orgasm too many.
Seasons greetings to one and all.
Seasons greetings to one and all.
Labels: mediocrity
posted by timesnewroman at 10:33 AM
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Feet Up thewife has been in this place, getting this seen to. She managed to make an early escape and is now sitting at home with her feet up, whilst I potter around cooking n' stuff. Charlie is looking for a new place to sit for a while.I've had to drive to work and back for the past two days. It's absolutely ages, over a year and a half since I have done this. After tomorrow, it'll be a cold day in hell before I do it again. I forgot how crap it is to sit around in nose to tail traffic for ages, when you could be sitting in the train doing the Guardian Crossword, or at least trying to.
posted by timesnewroman at 7:50 PM
Monday, December 11, 2006
Te recuerdo Amanda - Victor JaraI'm so happy, I need to play you all a song.
posted by timesnewroman at 7:22 AM
Sunday, December 10, 2006
I'm so happy Fucking Pure Dead Brilliant!posted by timesnewroman at 7:20 PM
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Out The boss's partner works for a diffirent department of the council. Apparently there was a guy in his department who had been on annual leave Monday and Tuesday who hadn't shown up for work on Wednesday and hadn't phoned in sick. His manager eventually phoned him to see if he was alright. Guy on other end of phone asks "Why are phoning me, I'm on strike." Ohboy.posted by timesnewroman at 9:10 AM
Monday, December 04, 2006
In We win, we're not on strike tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. Guess the kitchen will have to wait to get painted. Still good news indeed for those who would have lost up to £ 8,000 per anum after a 3 year protected period. Come January we'll just be fairly skint and not pennyless.posted by timesnewroman at 7:07 PM
Sunday, December 03, 2006
High 5s and Low 10s That's one way of getting the shit goal difference sorted. If only we could played the (way below) Pars every week. Actually the result makes us look good. We were in the first half but the game sort of expectedly went very flat in the second half. Depsite somehow managing to get his name on the score sheet twice (Oh my god imagine a hat-trick!) Nish was still very much pish.On the strike front it looks like very much on for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week however talks are still taking place. If only they could consistently apply maths, the whole thing could be sorted out very quickly. I personally find it galling for a Trade Unionist to question the overwhelming mandate for industrial action taken by Unison, on the basis that its 10% of the city's workforce holding the rest to ransom. It's compounded by the fact that further down the page it goes on to state "We've addressed the issue of Equal Pay and we've offered a deal where nine out of ten of our staff will either receive increases or see no change in their pay. We're putting in place measure to protect the pay of all of our staff and ensure that no-one loses out at the end of this process." So let me get this correct, that's only 10% of your workforce who are going to lose money?? Frankly if they were to Guarantee the latter part, for life, not 3 years in writing, then it would be a done and dusted deal.
Still, there's good news round the corner. Not long for this earth I hope, and a merry christmas will be had by many, particularly if his chum follows quickly.
posted by timesnewroman at 2:09 PM
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Von Druben*Guten Tag, ich bin Gerti aus der DDR
*Marius Muller Westernhagen
posted by timesnewroman at 7:17 AM
Friday, November 24, 2006
Ya Dancer I was wrong, Reidski was right, although his comments are no longer there on my post from 2nd November. Memo to self, have faith in the working class.posted by timesnewroman at 6:13 PM
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
More confusing than confusion
Once upon a time there were two Jims in our team. It would get confusing occasionally, indeed our bosses boss couldn't tell the difference despite there being quite a difference. We sorted this by having Jim the Younger ( jimty) and Jim the Elder (me).
We now have a new guy who goes by the name of... well you've guessed it, Jim. Him being older (slightly) it kind of complicated our original solution. However, one of our wise adminners recalled that the Spice Girls had a number of Mels in their number, but any confusion was resolved through the use of nicknames. Hence I am now "Sporty Jim", jimty is "Scary Jim" and the new guy is "Posh Jim". Boy do we do irony!
posted by timesnewroman at 7:26 AM
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Beyond the wildest dreams of dreamy people The peops behind us spent much of the match requesting that our manager remove Colin Nish from the field of play as his contribution was rather lacklustre and indeed rhymed with his surname. His main contribution to the game came close to the end when having received an inch perfect path from Danny Invincibile and only the keeper to beat, he contrived to stroll round him before falling on the ground like a wounded kid playing Best Man's Fall. Fortunately for us the referee saw all and the two gentlemen behind us had their wish fulfilled.
On a similar note its good to see this man continue with his run of good luck. Just a shame his injury won't keep him out of the game for a year!
posted by timesnewroman at 1:02 PM
Thursday, November 16, 2006
More Superb than a Superb Thing
We went to see Rodrigo Y Gabriela at the ABC. They were absolutely brilliant, loved every moment. Talented talented folks, very down to earth and good humoured too. Spent about 10 minutes after the end shaking hands with folks and signing autographs. Had I been near the front I would have shook their hands too, and stolen their fingers!
Even more of a good thing what a great day indeed.
posted by timesnewroman at 10:56 PM
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Sheikh Speir
"Who is Shaw Stackovitch?" asked Jem when we received an email advertising a concert featuring the man on the left. Laughed so much we almost cried, then went on to make list of others like Bee Thoven; Proko Fiev; Mal Err; Chai Kovsky etc etc. After suffering the ridicule Jem pipes up that anyone can make a mistake and gets young admin worker guy to come over. She points at screen and asks him to pronounce it. He gets it wrong. "See" she says and explains the background to him . "Oh" he says, "you had to bring me down with you!" Jem now feels very very bad and the tears are rolling down our cheeks.
posted by timesnewroman at 7:03 AM
Monday, November 13, 2006
No Comment Fare thee well then Enetation. You served me well, even if at times it was difficult to post a comment on my own bloody page. Lately a number of folks have remarked on the difficulty of posting comments, so I have opted to go for the in-house Blogger comment pages, which weren't an option when I first started blogging. I have spent far too long in methodically harvesting and saving each and every comment from genesis to revelations. Many of these simply weren't worth the bother, my own inanities included. Nonetheless, some are priceless. I had the notion that I would put them all back in again, one by one at the appropriate point, however I realised how sad this would make me. I think the fact that I have them and cast them forth is enough. Scrubbed all of David Duff's though.That as it turned out was the easy bit. The hard bit was trying to extract the enetation code and replace it with the blogger code which proved quite a time consuming and at times the air was sweary-blue. I thought I'd have to start from scratch at one point with anew template, but I think I have fixed. I expect some comments now though since I've gone to all this bother!
posted by timesnewroman at 4:18 PM
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Fuckshitfuck!
Filled in and posted. This is about terms and conditions and bringing in new job structures and wage structures. I am so cynical, given a sizeable proportion of the workforce will gain a few quid and a sizeable minority will lose a shitload of quid within three years, I expect to either lose this or discover the scale of the victory is so marginal, that its not considered an overwhelming mandate. Oh did I mention if its accepted, they'll be a lump sum in the pre Christmas Wage Packet?
I live in hope.
posted by timesnewroman at 5:48 PM
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Archiving The reason for a complete lack of activity around these parts is not that my life is devoid of any interest whatsover, au contraire ! Nope, its to do with a number of people, myself included being unable to enter any comments into the comments box. I am finally giving up on enetation and going over to blogger's own internal system, introduced some time after I started blogging. Problem is that there are some posts in particular that I am loath to lose, so I am going through them all cutting and pasting one by one, into a word doc that I can keep and maybe even paste into the blog archives at the appropriate points. So that's taking my time up. Oh and there's the football, biggie today against league leaders and team of choice for Reidski and Darren. We haven't taken a point from them since the arrival of Mr Jeffries. Perhaps today's the day!posted by timesnewroman at 12:24 PM
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Lookee Here
posted by timesnewroman at 12:24 PM
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Battle of the Album CoversWhooee. Recognise some of these then?
posted by timesnewroman at 8:05 PM
Sunday, October 15, 2006
2 Memes and A Result Father Bell sent me a circulating Meme which I have passed on to some folks. I reckoned I'd stick it on here as well to fill the space and to invite more responses.Four things about me! Me! Me!...
A) Four jobs I have had in my life:
Trainee Carpet Salesperson
Apprentice Electrician
Motor Partsman
Contract/Commissioning Officer
B) Four movies I would watch over and over:
Pulp Fiction
Still Crazy
Casablanca
Woodstock
C) Four places I have lived:
Irvine
Irvine
Irvine
Irvine
D) Four television shows I watch:
University Challenge
Grey's Anatomy
Saturday Kitchen
Spooks - despite the shit, unbelievable story lines
E ) Four (favourite) places I have been on holiday:
Cuba
San Francisco
Paris
Tunisia
F) Websites I visit daily:
The Guardian
Timesnewroman.Blogspot.com
BBC News
Glasgow.gov.uk
G) Four of my favourite foods:
Tournedos Rossini
Lamb Curry
Sea Bass
Lobster
H) Four places I would rather be right now:
*See E
I) Four CDs
Mr Beast:: Mogwai
Mlah : Les Negresses Vertes
Weightlifting : The Trashcan Sinatras
One Flight Up : Dexter Gordon
Gwan respond.
Meanwhile over at Inveresk Street, Darren has an iTunes Meme going. Preferring my Sony for sound, I unfortunately lack the sophistication of iTunes sorting capabilities. I've had a go at it though as follows:
Lost In Music
Total Songs = 3474 With about the same number on another directory in mp3 (I felt compelled to make that clear lest you think me pitiful)
First and Last by Song
A Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash
Zwitter - Rammstein
First and Last by Artist
35 - Something's Got to Give
Yes - Siberian Khatru
First and Last by Album
(What's the Story) Morning Glory - Oasis
Young Team - Mogwai
10 Most Played
You're Just A Baby - Belle and Sebastian
The Battle Of Evermore - Led Zeppelin
Fight Test - Flaming Lips
The Wagon - Dinosaur Junior
Stwisted - Edie Brickell and The New Bohemians
The Stars Of Track And Field - Belle and Sebastian
Rock Lobster - B52s
Les Martyrs - Tiken Jah Fakoly
My Beautiful Friend - The Cahrlatans
Mi Revolueshanary Fren - Linton Kwesi Johnson
10 Most Recently Played
The last 10 songs on Mlah -Les Negresses Vertes
Search - Sex = 3
Sexuality - Billy Bragg
Sex Education Ghetto Style - Gil Scott-Heron
Sexy - Marius Muller Westernhagen
Search - Love = 183
A sampling of 10 includes
Love Hurts - Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris
The One I Love - REM
A Love Supreme - John Coltrane
Lovestain - Jose Gonzalez
Who Do You Love - The Quicksilver Messenger
Crown Of Love - Arcade Fire
All The Love of the Universe - Santana
Bold As Love - Jimi Hendrix
Love Like A Man - Ten Years After
Love Child - Goodbye Mr Mackenzie
Search - Death =7
Death Of A Clown - Dave Davies
Angels Of Death - Hawkwind
Folk Death 95 - Mogwai
Death Or Glory - The Clash
The Death Of All Romance - The Dears
The Black Angel's Death Song
Love And Death - The Waterboys
Search - War = 6
Rumours Of War - Billy Bragg
Masters Of War - Bob Dylan
Talkin' World War 3 Blues - Bob Dylan
Who's Going To Win the War - Hawkwind
Star Wars Theme - LA Philharmonic
And A She Wolf After the War - Throwing Muses
Search Peace = 2
We Have Got To Have Peace - Curtis Mayfield
Search Rain 14 (once I've removed al the Train Songs)
10 of which
Raining - Ancient Beatbox
Rainy Day Women Nos 12 and 35 - Bob Dylan
A Hard Rains Gonna Fall - Bob Dylan
Standing In The Rain - Husker Du
Fire And Rain - James Taylor
After The Rain - John Coltrane
The Rain Song - Led Zeppelin
Pencil Rain - They Might Be Giants
So. Central Rain - REM
One Rainy Wish - Jimi Hendrix
Search - Sun = 26
10 of which
Sunny Afternoon - Kinks
Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks
Higher Than The Sun - Primal Scream
Blood Of The Sun - Mountain
Sunspots - Bob Mould
Another Sunny Day - Belle and Sebastian
When The Sun Goes Down - Arctic Monkeys
Just In Time To See The Sun - Santana
Fell From The Sun - The Pale Saints
Sunset Sawn - Spirea X
Search - Socialist, Anarchist or Communist = 0
Is that bad, I must have Anarchy in the UK somewhere.
Meanwhile back on earth, the bold Killie go from shit to strength. Good performance all round, particularly impressed by: the return of Simon Ford for an hour anyways; Naismith's runs; David Fernandez's deft touches.
posted by timesnewroman at 11:53 AM
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Back We were tremendously excited at the prospect of a week in Paris, plenty of time to relax a bit and see things at a more leisurely place then on our previous visit and a notion that we wouldn't spend outrageously. Where for to start? The airport I guess security procedures a bit tighter than June, with the no liquids thing. Fortunately though, they previous day saw some relaxation of the cabin baggage size. After cleverly being first in the queue for checking in, we then made our way to what we knew to be a rather humungous queue to go through the security screening. Fortunately for us, the queue had shortened significantly and it wasn't long before we were through. Unfortunately, we had to lose the quiche I had made specially for our trip, to keep us going between lunch and a probable late evening meal. Quiche seemingly can be dangerous. I'd have eaten it if it wasn't for the fact that we had just had lunch. So we'd have to have something on the way if necessary. Picked up a couple of bottles of gin as aperitifs, knowing that Paris drinks in cafes etc were pretty dear. Flight delayed but eventually we're on, we're up, we're off and onto the bus towards Paris. Its pouring, I'd looked at the long range weather forecast which said rain late Saturday, chance of showers during the week, but nevertheless still quite warm. Bus drops us at Porte MaillotOn to the RER, only the ticket office is closed but we have enough coins for two tickets then its a short walk from St Michel - Notre Dame to the hotel. Unfortunately by now it is really chucking it down and we arrive drowned rats. Fortunately we're minutes getting up to our first floor room, dried and back out into the rain as far as the Vietnamese Restaurant two doors away that provides me with a fabulous bowl of Pho, caramelised ham and thewife with some langoustine fritters and the chef's special crispy chicken with a bottle of Cote du Rhone for a ridiculously cheap price. Then back to the hotel where we had several gins for a nightcap. and bed.
Next day, weather was nice and bright, we explored the surroundings of the hotel which we hadn't done before, visited the Pantheon and the Luxembourg Gardens. We had dinner in a Tunisian Restaurant that night which was bloody good and again fairly reasonable.
Monday we went to the Caveau De La Huchette, where the music was brilliant but the "dancers" were shite.
Tuesday we wandered round the market and were shocked at the fabulous range and quality of the food you could buy there. Beat the shit out of even the finest farmers' markets at home.
After that we headed off to Pere Lachaise, where anybody who didn't quite make it into the Pantheon is buried. Very impressive indeed, and on a nice day, despite having busy bits it was nevertheless a really tranquil place, beautiful just to wander around.In the evening we went to a fabulous French restaurant near Notre Dame, where I had an amazing Duck Confit and thewife had Breast of Duck with a wonderful sauce and for pudding, I had Tarte Tatin and thewife had the best double chocolate mousse cake with white chocolate sauce an raspberries ever.
Tuesday night we went to see Mogwai at the Olympia. Were they good, nope they were fucking absolutely brilliant, Even thewife enjoyed them and as a rule she can take or leave them, she likes the quiet stuff quite a bit, but shudders sometimes at the noise. Live though she got them big style. Lights were superb, concert was superb and we got chatting to a big guy who spotted me pointing out his Celtic strip to thewife. One of the best bits though was the fact that we had seats, good seats too, so no standing for ever or stretching up and down to see over the big guy in front of us. Then home via Opera which was pretty outstanding at night.
Wednesday morning Eiffel Tower, up to the top where thewife phoned mumsy who advise her to stay clear of the edge. Wednesday PM the Louvre. We'd looked at it before but not gone in this time we would. We did the normal stuff, like Venus De Milo and La Giaconda which I was surprised at being able to see and to look at for pretty much as long as I wanted. Then we went to have a look at Napoleon III's chambers and the Islamic art section. And that was it, any longer and we would have been all cultured out.
At night we went back to the Vietnamese, cos we were knackered and couldn't be bothered going too far.
Thursday we went to Giverny by train, bus and foot. I'll let the pictures give you an idea of just how fabulous it was.
To cap a fine day off we went to a Persian Restaurant which I have to say dragged us in by its menu and stunned us with the simple beauty of its decor and the sheer joy of its food. Chez Bibi, 15, rue Fréderic Sauton if you are ever in the vicinity
Friday we went to Le Grande Arche. Don't fucking understate things do the French! Grande? It was fucking Ginormous, surrounded by shops which we had to go into. Surprisingly out of the 250 shops on 3 floors of a sort of supermall, thewife fortunately was sated by a brief stop in about 4 of them. Then we went for lunch miles away to the boulangerie which makes the best quiche on planet earth. Well worth a trip out of your way, to Abbesses.
Friday night, we had to eat out, local French Bistro where they had a Soiree Menu, expensivish, but interesting nonetheless 4 courses with wine included, and coffeeand an accordionist thrown in to boot, who managed to play all but the most obscure of thewife's Piaf requests.
Saturday and its a case of last day blues, packed, suitcase in basement and a last tramp around the Latin Quarter, buying wine cheese and extremely tacky stuff for mumsy. Lunch at a place that specialised in Moules, and then slowly heading back to the hotel to get our stuff and get moving towards the airport.
A fabulous time was had by all and we hope to get our pennies gathered so we can go back soon. I've looked at the Ryanair site and we can get 2 returns for fifty quid inclusive for March of next year and I am tempted.
Did I mention that I brought a Quiche back into the country? True, you can't take them out but you can bring them in.
I think we are definitely turning Francophile which gives us a problem later today Allez Les Bleus! Actually, that we would be Le dark Bleus
posted by timesnewroman at 11:19 AM
Friday, September 22, 2006
Vacances Yahoo! It's a holiday weekend after such a busy period. Not to mention Killie's outstandingly dull (except for the first goal) midweek victory over "plucky" (translates as fairly shite) Livingston. But did we care how dull the football was? Nope not a sot, cos we were indulged by the Corporate Hospitality of the CIS. Three courses, wine and as much drink as one was greedy enough to partake of, plus a half time famous "Killie Pie".Double Yahoo! as the wife and I, not happy enough with a long weekend, are off to Paris for a week on the cheap.
posted by timesnewroman at 10:13 AM
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Disruption, Chaos, Overwork and ............ The past few weeks have been a blur. Following our weekend in London, it was back to a crazed period of activity at work, which has meant longer than normal hours and much fretting. To put a cap on it, total upheaval on the home front too, as we bade farewell to our 44 year old original single -glazed wooden windows and said hello to our brand spanking new double glazing, complete with French doors at the back. Posh or what. Needless to say, the upheaval is still ongoing as apparently we required new curtains and various other bits and bobs.Nonetheless its very much worth it as you can probably tell from the before and after shots below.
posted by timesnewroman at 11:44 AM
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Tasteless? Patronising? Downright Bizarre? A paper version of this fell from the newsaper belonging to a colleague at work. Frankly we couldn't quite believe it, but it was in fact very real. Don't forget to turn the pages!
posted by timesnewroman at 11:00 AM
Friday, September 01, 2006
48 and 3 days, Oh how I'm aging I know someone who knows someone who knows someone who at work has been doing a big piece of work involving loads and loads of people for ever and a day, the conclusion of which is imminent. Next week in fact, after numerous wrangles, debates and negotiation as well as a substantial cash sum have gone in to this, not to mention the blood sweat and tears. All that's left to be done is the physical testing of a tool prepared by an external supplier. It needs to be looked at via the internet. People went in early to do this, only to discover that they couldn't access that particular website. Not authorised. After spending the morning getting authorisation approved and sent off to the clearance givers, they waited with baited breath, for quite some time and then decided to follow this up because patience was not one of their virtues. "Ah, that normally takes 5 days to clear. Only we're not fully staffed at the moment" "When did you send it in?" "Oh this morning, mmmm ""But we need this today!!"says our intrepid friend of friend......"Okay, I shall have to call for intervention." Someone on high intervenes, this has been delayed twice already and the company will look silly if its delayed further cos people can't surf. After lunch time, the clearance comes through via email, except it only partially works and they still can't get into th site they need. A few calls, and there was the suggestion that they might have to submit a second form requesting clearance for another unblocking. Yep, like having already chased around looking for senior managers to sign something once, they are going to do so again! Nope it was signed it was inclusive please fix it. "Okay, I'll speak to my colleague." So too cut a long story short come 5.00pm there was no further word and they'll have to go in and try again today. Who would work for M15?Luckily for them, they didn't have to go through the SWP cadres on their way into work. lurking to leaflet all and sundry about "The future of the left." Tommy Sheridan is planning a new party and folks trudging wearily into their work of a morning are just desperate to hear about it from a couple of revolutionary newsagents. Frankly Tommy I no longer give a fuck!
posted by timesnewroman at 6:06 AM
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Down Sarf I had a few days off, just for a break, disappeared ever so quickly, then at the weekend, we headed down to Reidski's for the weekend, where we had a wonderful time with Reidski and Jane, drank lots of wine, ate them out of house and home, played guitar hero, (courtesy of Reidski's lad - I was crap!) visited Father Bell and partner who made THE most fabulous Thai Curry both thewife and I have ever eaten, with of course Partner's fabulous fluffy rice. We do so need the recipe Andy! Now for the diet. We also listened to lots and lots of music and went to the Tower of London.We also took a route as advised by Reidski and indeed the AA, which on the way down saw us leave home at about 10:45 am and saw us arrive in London about 11 hours later. They said it would take about 7.5 hours. Never again. On the way back standard M1/M6/A74- M74 we shaved 4 hours off that.
Whilst we were away, something really quite good happened. Good in the sense its the first time a certain Mr. Jeffries has managed this!
posted by timesnewroman at 5:31 PM
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
First Harvest
posted by timesnewroman at 1:21 PM
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Question Is David Hasselhoff the new William Shatner?posted by timesnewroman at 9:06 AM
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Happy Birthday Big Man
posted by timesnewroman at 10:47 AM
Thursday, August 10, 2006
est arrivé
Guess where we're gonna be on 26th September then! Watching these guys, Here. Ya Dancer.posted by timesnewroman at 8:20 PM
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Can I have my money back?...... No, hang on, I think I want to keep it! Excited I was. First home game of the season. Despite last week's disappointment, I was led to believe by several Celtic fans present at the game that we looked a useful side and had we taken our chances early on could have been 2 or 3 Nil up early in the first half.So the first half kicks off and I'm beginning to think they must have been taking the piss. Hibs were all over us, we were dire. The Ayrshire version of Stadler and Waldorf sit behind us. They are harsh but funny. Last season Nish got it mostly. Clumsy, lanky striker who somehow manages, sometimes, to beat players, mostly by stumbling around, retaining the ball, god knows how, at his feet. His name also rhymes with Pish which is helpful. This time round its Danny Invincibile, who has become Danny Invisible. How very droll we are. Anyhows, this is not looking good, I'm wondering if I can get money back on some kind of trades descriptions grounds and young Stewart next to me is suggesting that I may be a Jinx! Half an hour or so in, Hibs go 1-0 up and our defence looked static. I watched it, it was slow motion, you could see the build up and they did nothing. Top six my arse.
Second half and things began to look up from the start. That man Nish practically from the kick off. Much laughter at the beraters. Then we're playing much better. This is what I like, football and we're playing it and singing it. Then halfway through the half, young wunderkind Stephen Naismith (There is Only One) jinks, jives, Maradonnaesque round 3 defenders to beat the keeper with a well placed shot. Rather than this be a cue to sit back and protect a slender lead we keep playing, the ball rarely leaves their half and its so much easier this way. Final whistle and its been a clear success. Home with almost a spring in my step. I say almost as I'm breaking in a new pair of Docs.
Stephen NaismithWatch out for this young man. He's very good indeed.
posted by timesnewroman at 9:05 AM
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Sorted
Been too long without one of these! Got this today, ya dancer!posted by timesnewroman at 5:46 PM
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Royal Blue Jerseys and White Knickers - Final Episode What the fuck must Barrow in Furness have been thinking? I have no idea how good goalie John actually was, but an offer of employment prior to having seen someone play seems a wee bit bizarre indeed. Maybe goalies were difficult to come by in those days.
Two final wee stories to conclude the goalie John series.
First up, Chelsea were apparently interested in him at one point, but he seemingly turned them down as he wanted to follow his father down the pit!
Second, the displaced one (son of Goalie John) tells us how he never saw or even realised his father played, he doesn't know if he was any good or not, he did however hear of an apparent radio commentary where the commentator suggested that perhaps Goalie John couldn't blame the sun in hiseyes for the fourth goal that he'd let in one afternoon.
posted by timesnewroman at 2:39 PM
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Visitors
Reidski and Jane arrived, we had an aperitif, we had dinner, we opened this lot, we listened to music, we chatted, outside until the insects began to bite, then we retired indoors to drink more wine, listen to more music and then the time seemed to disappear and my bed beckoned because I couldn't get the day off work, so a 6.30am rise was on the cards. Fortunately I managed it. Way too short a time though, next time we'll head south for a weekend. With a bootload of wine.
posted by timesnewroman at 7:39 PM
Friday, July 21, 2006
Rant If Weapons OF Mass Destruction are such a bad thing, how come Israel gets to use them on the Lebannon and that FUCKING WANKER in 10 Downing Street happily lets them get away with it without even a word of criticism?posted by timesnewroman at 6:24 AM
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Spirit of the Summer of 76 and the route map to our lives Reidski, and Jane have both done it. Following on from Houses of the Holy in a Parallel Universe. I couldn't remember initially much about 1976 other than it was hot, like today. Bits of Reidski's made some kind of sense, but I guess I was bit older (18) and wasn't subject to parental fears. So I pondered a bit on what I did do in 1976 and lo and behold it kind of smacked me in the face big style tonight, that's a slightly different story, which I'll come to later.1976 then was this big spaghetti junction of a point in my life that I guess most people go through at one time or another. Maybe not a big fankled version, but certainly some intersections and links with people in the past and future. Before I get too complicated though, I should point out I had left school, been a trainee carpet salesman for two weeks (I had an ultimatum to get my hair cut or find another job, the same lunchtime I found another job) apprentice electrician into my second year before the firm went bust and then a brief period of unemployment before at the start of the summer of 76 I became a trainee in the jobcreation factory. You couldn't make that up. Some jobcreation schemes were ridiculous ploys to massage unemployment, particularly youth unemployment including one which had people counting lamp-posts. Ours was a bit more creative and practical. You got to do woodwork, metalwork, car-mechanics, electrical work, gardening and office work (if you were a chick!) It could be interesting, depending on the instructors, most of whom were decent folk, interested in passing on skills to young people. Managers though were another kettle of fish, so perhaps it was a realistic attempt to provide youngsters with an accurate grounding of life in a factory.
Anyway back to my intersection, which is really about moving on or gradually away from friends from school. I kept in touch with some, but even then it sort of faded until..................well that's an entirely different story mrs tnr and Father Bell. I had now started to hang out with colleagues from work and their wider circle, people who I am still best of friends with today. It was a fairly wide circle of Labour Party, Scouts/Guides, Folk Music and general all round party loving people.
One of the instructors was probably instrumental in getting me involved in youth work, through having met him in the pub one night after his Scout Group meeting, he invited me along to help as I had been one in my younger days and I remembered him from then. (Can you imagine inviting someone you'd met in a pub to your youth group nowadays?)
Anyway I went and linked with all of the other things I've listed above I reckon it was one of those defining moments of my life. To keep the roadway intersection thing going it's like a big signpost on the routemap that shows you what jobs you are going to do, what people you are going to meet and re-meet, who you're going to marry, who you are going to keep in touch with, whets important and what speed you should be going. One of the motorways on this particular journey was getting involved in the Woodcraft Folk. We, a collective we, kind of stumbled on them in 1976. They were different to the Scouts and guides, no queen and country, no religious nonsense, mixed we liked them from the start. With an organisation like that maybe young idealists could change the world. We had a go. I was a leader with them from then until I just didn't have time any more, recently. I worked for them, in a fabulous, fulfilling job for 12 years, before moving to the outfit I am with now. During that time we set up and ran a number of groups in our town, over the years probably working with thousands of youngsters and indeed their children over the period. We also had any number of leaders including one Reidski and I know that one of his intersections will be in there somewhere as well. Over that period, we were lucky enough to have built up a strong group, with a lot of support and eventually acquired our own hall, a former prefabricated school building, which served as weekly group meeting accommodation, store, fundraising centre, party venue etc. etc. Fairly recently it was given up, it had long outlived its life expectancy, and was unsuitable and unsafe to have children using it. So it was given back to the council. It's opposite the Youth Drop in I work at on Wednesdays or should I say it was opposite. Its been demolished and there was a big vacant space there tonight. I felt sad when I think of the many good times, good people and good things that I associated with that rickety old wooden building.
I can actually link all of this back to one night when I went for a pint in the summer of 1976. But that was only a junction, you see going back further I actually met thewife in that building. We went to school there when we were seven. The building was also only a junction though like 1976, the people who maybe have it as one of there own junctions are still connected to my big route map somewhere. Enough of this metaphor, its done finished and goodnight.
posted by timesnewroman at 9:30 PM
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Hotter than July Glasgow Fair Monday and it was a beautiful day. Too beautiful to waste so having sorted mumsy out with requisites and medication we packed our picnic cool bag and headed southwards to the coast. Black box on shuffle the machine went on a rampage of stunning choices Trashcan Sinatras - I've Seen Everything, just at that point on dual carriageway heading towards Ayr where you can catch glimpses of the coast, the cool blue sea, joyous, genius. Traffic around Ayr was unusually busy, slow moving, irritating on what must have been one of the hottest day of July. Still the machine chose some Impressions - Preacher Man and John Coltrane's excellent In A Sentimental Mood and we were chilled but good. The machine seems to know.We arrived in Dunure, a scenic little harbour town, where they actually still have fishing boats and we had our picnic amongst a throng of picnickers. Some with fancy hampers, however ours was cool and we had enough for two picnics with some left over. We sat around looking at what I think is the most beautiful coastline on earth. The sky so incredibly blue, cloudless, the sea darker but gentle. In the distance you can see Arran's mountains, darkly scratching at the sky. They lie there on a carpet of haar, beautiful. We chilled. Then wandered round the beach and the harbour.
thewife spotted a sign at the back of one house overlooking the sea. Its for sale she wants it and she wants it now. I hate to imagine how much it would cost, but I have a look anyway. She'll have to wait a while.
We decided to head home around five o'clock. That would allow us enough time to pop into Tesco's in Ayr to pick up some stuff to Barbecue and drink, preferably cold and possible even fizzy. We drove back along the coast, into Ayr which seemed busier than it had been earlier. Traffic slowed to a standstill at times. The gods of gridlock had conspired to finish our day crawling through Ayr and then when we neared our destination we saw the crowds and the traffic flowing from Ayr Racecourse. It had been a race day and we were stuck in the middle of a mass exodus, being controlled by what seemed like 2 Traffic Wardens and a couple of policemen. We decided to go into Tesco's, kill some time there and hope that the traffic had cleared by the time we got out. Half an hour later, thirty quid lighter we emerge into the same incompetent gridlock that didn't seem to have changed at all. I put this down to the sheer incompetence of the uniformed controllers. Given an attendance of around 3,500 people, significantly less than a Kilmarnock home game (much less if the old firm are involved) and these people can't deal with a volume that Kilmarnock's finest can disperse in around 30 minutes. Pah. Practically spoiled the day except that we cut through a housing scheme and eventually hit the A77 as the machine hit us with Rammstein's Ich Will as I engaged 4th gear for the first time in a while.
Then home to barbecued lamb and fizzy white.
posted by timesnewroman at 7:14 PM
Sunday, July 16, 2006
All That Jazz We had, in a rather inebriated state it must be said, agreed to spend the day in Glasgow for another Saturday afternoon of Jazz in the city. A beautiful day for it as well. Lady El hadn't been home when we popped round in a taxi on route to the station so we assumed, wrongly, that she had made her own way there. Anyways we got on the train without her and left a message on her machine. This time we thought we try a different Tapas place out for lunch and a fine choice it was too with some really excellent tapas and a lunchtime special price of £6.95 for any three.Lady El phoned midway through apologising for completely forgetting about it and arranging to catch up with us later. Then we headed off for a really good session in Bar Sola. George McGowan's Orchestra seemed as tight as anytime we heard them previously. Sola is a big place but it really gets filled with the tremendous noise of a big band with a lot of brass. There were moments that were simply sublime, it could have been Stan Kenton we we were hearing, they were that good. The singer, Kenny Paterson has a great voice that fits the sound nicely. Lady El joined us and opted for white rather than red this time due to an unmentional incident in the course of previous foray. The young bartender had the most original and interesting tatoos I have ever seen on his arm. Titles and snippets of lyrics from John Lennon songs in a variety of fonts and typefaces. Cool I thought.
As the set finished the bar emptied into the brilliant sunshine of the terrace and we sat there, people watching. I was absolutely stunned when I saw the staff leave Emporio Armani all the bright cool young poseurs actually had their bags inspected as they left the premises. Shocking. I'd be surprised if they get paid enough to buy the stuff.
When we finished our drinks we ambled through the streets towards the Buchanan Hotel. The Jazz there runs from 6.00pm til 9.00pm. We'd been before, but that was the Lady El incident visit, which we don't remember much of. This place is a rundown seedy dive which has clearly seen better days. There a bucket in the middle of the floor gathering drips of water from the ceiling and there's no end of peeling paint and fading grandeur, but despite this we walk in to the unmistakable opening bars of Art Blakey's Moanin' which is a fabulous thing and they do it real justice too. The trumpet player must be Big Bob and this is his band for the night. They look the part too, drummer, pianist and guitarist, only that's not a guitar she's playing its a six string bass. Tina Weymouth, Kim Deal, Yvette from that really good band who used to play the HAC now and again, move over there's a new chick bassist in town and she's fucking awfully good. I discover late that she's Jennifer Clark and she must spend about 10 hours playing Jazz on a Saturday.
We can't stay until 9.00 so we leave at the break. We head home via the Blue Lagoon. Black Pudding supper, perfect finish to an excellent day out.
posted by timesnewroman at 1:19 PM
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Royal Blue Jerseys and White Knickers - Part Seven
Bill is definitely keen on Goalie John. Bill also displays a wicked sense of geography. In the latter half of the 20th century when people have access to cars Motherwell may well be "not very far" from Carlisle. I suspect public transport in 1951 would have made it extremely bloody far.posted by timesnewroman at 10:03 AM
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Royal Blue Jerseys and White Knickers Part Six
Frankly Mr Shankly is still keen on Goalie John.posted by timesnewroman at 6:13 AM
Monday, July 10, 2006
Game OverSo that's it over for another 4 years. Some awards then
Team I'd like to have seen more of.
Team I'd like to have seen go home earlier.
Grinsi Klinsi obviously.
Sven obviously, but who cares he did the job.
Player of the Tournament.
Would have been Zidane. What the fuck was he thinking and what the fuck did Materazzi say to him. Regardless, he was old enough and wise enough to know better. So despite that that I have no fondness for their team, I have to go for the key player from
I'm sure there were many, however outstandingly bad for me was Pauleta. There's constant mention of how many international goals he's scored as the basis of how good he must be, given that whenever you watch him he seems to be pretty much ineffective. Let's face it his team reached the semi finals of the World Cup and he their main striker scores but 1 goal?
Kind of puts his scoring prowess into perspective then. Interestingly
posted by timesnewroman at 6:23 AM
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
That's Entertainment Robert Newman's History of Oil was on More 4 tonight. First time I have seen this and the guy is a genius. Not only is he possibly the funniest comic I have seen in a long time, his politics have an educational edge over the likes of Mark Thomas. Much less gimmicky and considerable more cerebral. Also extremely educational. I finally get the First World War. Anyway you can and MUST watch it here. Enjoy.Zizou what a guy, thanks for the tenner Zinedine! Also nice to see those cynical cheating Portugese sod of back home.
posted by timesnewroman at 10:14 PM
thewife was cheered by Italy's progress to the World Cup final, although she is likely to miss this bloke.
Me, I rather warmed to the Germans. I think Klinsman has done an amazing transformation and they actually played some interesting football rather than the normal, safe, boring German stuff that we are used to.
posted by timesnewroman at 5:50 AM
Monday, July 03, 2006
Royal Blue Jerseys and White Knickers - Part Five This is the one where Goalie John has attracted the interest of a football demi-god. Have a close look at the signature below.
posted by timesnewroman at 8:59 AM
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Royal Blue Jerseys and White Knickers - Part Four
Goalie John becomes a professional Jaggy!
posted by timesnewroman at 10:45 AM
Friday, June 30, 2006
Royal Blue Jerseys and White Knickers - Part Three
Another year another trial. Ah the days before tippex.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:39 AM
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Royal Blue Jerseys and White Knickers - Part Two
Those nice chaps at Kilsyth Rangers respond re Goalie John's pending trial with Queens Park.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:38 AM
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Surprise Been a away a few days. thewife and I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary and where better a place to spend it than in Paris. She didn't know though until pretty much the last moment. She thought we were going to London, spending a few days at Reidski's new pad and most likely having dinner at some fancy restaurant. That would have been nice and we'll do it soon I expect, but Paris on a cheap Ryan Air flight was too good to miss. Thanks to Reidski and Lady El, thewife had no idea until check-in. Face was an absolute picture when I showed her the confirmation slip. "That says Paris!" she said, with a look of Oh my god. Had to stop her running around the airport screaming, because we needed the time to change currency and stuff.We go there, about 8 0' clock which was earlier than expected and made our way to the Hotel Marignan. We emerged from the RER into an extremely bustling Boulevard Saint Michel. Bustling is actually not the word, it was positively heaving as we had arrived amidst the Fete De La Musique in the heart of the Latin Quarter, right next to the Sorbonne. I explained to thewife that Paris wasn't usually this busy and also they didn't normally have a band playing in practically every street corner. Nor were the streets normally filled with drunken students dancing in the rain. We trudged a few blocks, found the hotel, were warmly welcomed and discovered our room was on the 6th floor of an elevatorless building. Still the exercise would do us good, and ensure our memories were keen if we were to keep the climbing and ascending to one of each per day.
Quick change and off to join the students in the streets. We headed off to a Vietnamese restaurant where we had incredibly good affordable food, and then to a night cap where we watched a previously interesting band disintegrate into a bizarre metal-disco cacophony.
The following morning it was bright, as were we as we took a lengthy walk to take in Notre Dame, the Beaubourg, The Louvre (Just the buildings), The Orangerie which was well worth the queue, The Tuileries, and thence back to the hotel to make our way to Le Bilboquet, which I had booked for our Anniversary dinner. Well I thought I had it booked but they hadn't got my return email, they gave us a table nonetheless, good location and we had a brilliant night with good food, good wine and excellent music. Expensive, but well worth it we thought. The only downside of the evening was in my heart stopping, stomach churning, terror filled moment when I thought I'd lost my wallet, as I got ready to pay the bill. As it turned out I had taken it out my pocket and put it on the table. Pheww.
A night cap and then home. The following day we did a whistlestop tour of Montmartre, The Sacre Coeur, Pigalle - really really seedy - The Arc de Triomphe, The Champs Elysees and The Eiffel Tower. Before heading home to pick up the bags and head for the airport bus.
Busy few days that both I and thewife will never forget, especially the steps.
posted by timesnewroman at 12:06 PM
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Royal Blue Jerseys and White Knickers - Part One And so it came to pass that the displaced one, who currently occupies a shared desk behind me turns out to have a famousish father! Well minorly famous but in nevertheless a fascinating way. He has brought in a wee series of historical letters, which are just too damned fabby to sit around, they need to be on the interwebby thing along with a wee story and where better a place is there than here I ask?So let the illustrated story of John the goalkeeper commence.
Enough of this amateur stuff. lets get serious.
posted by timesnewroman at 9:17 AM
Monday, June 19, 2006
Five Years thewife and I will have been married for 5 whole years on Thursday. We're getting away for a few days. There's a surprise in store, I can't say too much though as she reads this sometimes. I'm sure she'll love it!posted by timesnewroman at 6:13 PM
Sunday, June 18, 2006
The Boys from Kilwinning Its not often that you get anything interesting on the front page of our local rag the Irvine Herald. Its usually crime city, however this week saw three kids from Kilwinning, one of who's relatives entered a competition which will see the lads lead Brasil out onto a footie stadium in Germany. Pretty fabby stuff I thought. Imagine the kudos that would have in the school playground._______________________________________________________________________________________
We were driving past Troon golf course yesterday, when thewife asks if its the 18th? I explain that I have no idea but the 18th is usually next to the clubhouse. She bursts out laughing and says "the date stupid, is it the 18th?" Duh!
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile, back on the interwebby, those nice lads at Toppler Records (yes records 7 inches of plastic with a hole in the middle) have a My Space Site where they play their fabby tunes.
posted by timesnewroman at 11:05 AM
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Transgendered Jimty a bit puzzled. Somebody has made a comment about a feedback form that he'd been involved in in someway. In the interest of equality it had been suggested that perhaps it might be an idea to include a box for transgendered as well as male and female. As a rule we don't have hang-ups around issues of equality. However this started a bit of a debate around if someone was actually transgendered, they'd probably already have an idea of whether they wanted to be considered male or female and that being the case would already have a box to tick. To be fair we couldn't quite get our heads round the politics here, but we did think that such a box would be more about someone defining themselves as different rather than male or female. Are we being inconsiderate, ignorant of the underlying issues, or just plain pedantic? Throw your thruppenceworth in please.Further discussion which had apprentice, jimty and others in jeering mode when I suggested that the answer to todays Guardian Cryptic Crossword Clue for 17 Down was OFTENER Oh how they laughed and said it wasn't a word. I'll be proved correct tomorrow though I'm sure. The displaced one behind me reckoned that his mum was offonher holidays tomorrow and therefore it was a real word.
France, merde or what??
posted by timesnewroman at 6:45 PM
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Dance with me Germany* I've been remiss or had nowt to say. For the next four weeks this is very likely to continue because I'll be glued to the screen watching events unfold in Germany. thewife is happy enough to watch World Cup Football, because the quality is a bit better than that I usually watch. My money's on Spain to win although they've flattered to deceive so often before. My choices are a bit like that, previously having gone for Nigeria, Portugal and the Czech Republic for Euro 2004. Brasil are head and shoulders above everyone else, but I would have said the same about them in France 8 years ago. They can be beaten.Anyway my betting record to date has been pretty crap - Zurawski to score First for Poland, Germany and Poland to win. I think I might go for England to win with Peter Crouch scoring first to get the odds up a bit. I'm a shit pundit though so feel free to be derisory.
It's hotting up round here, Cape Fear man who lives across the road has a big St George's flag dangling in his window. Surprisingly no-ones panned it in yet, although that may be because they've had a look at him.
Cape Fear Man lives across the road from us. His hair is longer and he's a lot uglier!
13:38 and I've just heard my first reference to 1966. For fuck's sake, that is actually why I don't want England to win. I'm sure as a bunch of footballers they are probably a nice bunch of lads, supported by a bunch of folks the same as me who happen to live geographically south of here, but as soon as I convince myself of that some fucking media plonker has to mention 1966!
*xtc
posted by timesnewroman at 12:26 PM
Thursday, June 01, 2006
No.7 in an Occasional Series - Uncle Ho, Sportsman.
Uncle Ho - Weightlifter
posted by timesnewroman at 6:34 AM
Saturday, May 27, 2006
I'm not a believer*
*With apologies to The Monkees
posted by timesnewroman at 11:39 AM
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Holiday Over, Back On Your Heads A week in sunny Spain, eating huge quantities of excellent tapas, paella, seafood and fish dishes, not to mention a sampling of rabbit. A week in sunny Spain, imbibing huge quantities of Cava, Rioja, Cerveza and Sangria. Its all finished, we're home, its raining and following a final jug of Sangria whilst watching Manchester triumph in a close run University Challenge, I foolishly weigh myself and realise there's some payback for that enjoyment. Oh well. Back to work. Fortunately for this week and for the next two this involves only 4 days a week. Can I plan or what?
I read this and a couple of others whilst away. This is extremely good and it looks like I have a bit of catching up to do. I'm going out and I may be some time!
posted by timesnewroman at 6:28 AM
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Dinner
Starter
Main
Pudding
This was bloody good. Australian Rock Lobster, Followed by Tornedoes Rossini followed by Blackberry Brandy Baskets with Dulce De Lecce
Just the thing to start the holidays with!
posted by timesnewroman at 1:09 AM
