Friday 30 May 2008

Is it, is it, ist? It iiiiiiiiis!


It's the weekend, and a 4 dayer at that. Get in!

This is a quick pic' to celebrate the weekend and it is a pic' I took aaaaaaaaaaaaaages ago on the way to work this morning. This is a fine, foggy picture of one of ISB's finest, the 1864 Clifton Suspension Bridge.

I hope you enjoy it. Bridges are cool, and this is certainly in my top 5 bridge-list.

I took the pic at the lights (they were red) so it was a very quick snap.

Thursday 29 May 2008

Perceptions.


I am unsure if this post is naive or inevitable but I am going to write it anyhow (well, when I have retrieved a beer from the fridge, anyway).

400 miles around stores in a van today; a full tank of fuel used, eight counties encountered. This was largely enjoyable - BUT...

Turn up on a store visit in a Mercedes and wearing a decent suit and carrying a briefcase, and answers and greetings are abundant. Turn up in a tired van, wearing civvies, not booked in on a delivery slot and largely unannounced, and you're a c**t.

I dislike this contrast because suited or casual, I am polite, honest, chatty and decent to everyone I meet on store visits. And I always know my brief.

But for one chap with whom I have worked before and two good blokes on FLT's, I met new people today or people who generally resent my role - and they were pretty much wankers to a man (all the women were consistent and kind)!

I just did my bit and kept going. There was one chap who was particularly condescending and offensive but what can you do? He's the tosser not me.

Anyhow, I am home tonight and back out tomorrow because I had 1 van but 1.5 van's worth of stock! A happy run to Birmingham first thing listening to D.I.D .

Kinda' disappointing that there is no team enthusiasm for our stores to succeed ; this us and them mentality is why we do not prosper as brightly as we might. I hope I am made permanent next month and I will see to that - it is not tricky to resolve as long as you can tolerate irritating a few people along the way and holding in mind that you might be a casualty too.

Incivility is a pisser.


The picture is W.S Churchill and Lord (Edward) Halifax, Foreign Secretary en route from the Foreign Office to the H.O.C in March 1938 to discuss the annexation of Austria. Churchill was out of Government at the time but would become First Lord of the Admiralty 18 months later and PM 8 months after that (ousting Halifax to Washington as he succeeded). I like the pic' for two reasons: Halifax is impeccably dressed from head to toe (though he had no left hand) ; and - Churchill was the pariah when this was taken but is so hugely admired now.

Thursday Thinker 4

It's Thursday Thinker time.

Let's hope I am not a menace on the road in my van today!

Today I am thinking CHiPs - very cool TV show or undeniably homo-erotic sub plot? Me, I'm going for the first one; having firmly rejected the idea of Ernie and Burt being lovers on my last Thinker post, I am going for a similar 'good TV' theme today.

Do-doo-do-doooo-dooooo...

Wednesday 28 May 2008

White Van Man!


I am on a run in our store van across half a dozen counties tomorrow. It suits me to go to stores and observe the projects I have a hand in. It suits the store my office is next to as well because I bring stock back with me for weekend promotions. Most folks are just a little too sniffy to do store visits in the van - personally I love it and it's a top lark! Radio on, tunes-a-go and driving a big old van, occasionally beeping the horn for good measure!

I wish Suburbia could read this live because you know she is crazy about her rabbits; my main aim is to bring 30 top of the range hutches back with me in between looking at stuff!

Our van has 118k miles on it but loads of wellie when you put your foot down!

Tuesday 27 May 2008

thirty five


My Manila brother sent me this in a comment and it is from Vanity Fair. This is a pretty stretching questionnaire which I am posting and filling in over the next day or so..I couldn't do nothing at all about it once he had sent it so here goes..it is not a tag. The attached image came with the questions and I quite liked it and that is why I chose it.


The Proust Questionnaire

The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature. Here is the basic Proust Questionnaire.

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? Uninhibited and intimate company
2. What is your greatest fear? Right now? The US invading Iran - the world would go crazy in about two months
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Very tolerant but about once every 5 years I will be unspeakably rude, unkind and vitriolic to some poor sod. TTG!
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Rudeness
5. Which living person do you most admire? Jonathan Sachs, I think
6. What is your greatest extravagance? My car
7. What is your current state of mind? New Jersey, or maybe Idaho
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
9. On what occasion do you lie?
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
11. Which living person do you most despise? No one - despise is a very strong word and a failing in oneself . I'm not fond of George Bush but then I don't really know him
12. What is the quality you most like in a man? Decency
13. What is the quality you most like in a woman? Height
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Pint of Guinness, please
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life? Go away!
16. When and where were you happiest? Loads of times in my house on my own of late
17. Which talent would you most like to have? Flying!
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? A big tree
21. Where would you most like to live? Right here
22. What is your most treasured possession? Breadth of mind (arrogant but there it is)
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
24. What is your favorite occupation? Israel 1948 to date - hold on to it lads but c'mon, share a bit too.
25. What is your most marked characteristic? Height, maybe
26. What do you most value in your friends? Their friendship (dim question)
27. Who are your favorite writers? Anthony Trollop and Matthew Parris
28. Who is your hero of fiction? Marlon Shakespeare (Google him!) or JLP - not sure.
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with? WS Churchill (from a suitable distance of talent)
30. Who are your heroes in real life?
31. What are your favorite names?
32. What is it that you most dislike? Intolerance of Faith
33. What is your greatest regret? Didn't happen yet, hope it won't
34. How would you like to die? Old, married and with children off doing happy stuff
35. What is your motto? Be decent and remember to goon about a bit too

A message from our sponsors...


Not very often in 350 posts that I have pushed a commercial angle - my blog isn't like that and is just harmless observation. However this TV ad' which I have seen for the first time this week is fantastic. Not so much the concept or the marketing or the arty stuff; more the product - wow, I am shallow but this is just a fabulous bit of kit (and then they throw in a really attractive woman just to tittilate but I was hooked well before) .

You can take a look HERE

Not sure if it will work in America!

Monday 26 May 2008

A rare night of TV!


A long day today; woke at 5.00 and had a steady morning before work. Only two of us in the office, me upstairs and our Finance Director downstairs. The store was absolutely heaving and we soon put forty thousand pounds into the till.

Home and cooked a fine piece of rump with green beans and chips. Cooked the rump on a very hot griddle pan and cooked it fast and rare - delicious! Had a little glass of wine too. The number of units did not appear on any of the walls or anything, as happens in the current patronising government ad'.

And then a great evening of TV taking in about a month's worth in one night. Ray Mears first of all with a wander about in Oz, then Days that Shook the World with a piece on Chuck Yeager and finally a fly on the wall documentary about HMS Illustrious.

Happily into the bath now and then to bed!

A satisfactory Monday indeed.

BS5 Skier!



After two spod posts about the SR-71 plane and top spaceship action on Mars, here is a third post in the same manner.

At work today I was looking for stuff to read at lunchtime and found a magazine addressed to our Property Director - it had some top looking articles about cranes, big holes and that sort of stuff so I gave it a coat of looking at.

The Mag' is called 'Building' and rather like many Blogs, they have a picture of the week. Check this out!

How smart to be able to design this and know it will all hang together! Once people are fed up skiing on it, maybe the architect could put a curved bit on the end to make Europe's biggest spoon.

I have never skied and am not fussed if I never do, but I would fancy a go at this one day!

I am contemplating having a gander at this mag' each week now; well certainly at their picture of the week anyway.

Life on Mars?


My mate Ken works at Mission Control in Pasadena (California) for NASA and he called me yesterday for a bit of advice on the landing angle for the Mars probe. I cleaned up the maths a bit and emailed him what I thought to be the right approach angle, hence the successful landing overnight. The Mars probe is there to look for signs of life. This is an early image! Don't these people just get bloody everywhere?

My good friend Bag would have you believe that the Americans didn't even get to the moon, let alone Mars and that it is all just a conspiracy. Bag knows all about conspiracies having solved Dallas , November '63 using only the internet and a bottle of vodka.

BS5 Dating


It's a bank holiday Monday but I am going to work today, hence being up at 6.00.

I will take next Monday instead as two good sets of friends are coming to see me then - 3 of the 4 adults are ex BS5ers and the fifth person is a little chap I have not met yet!

Now then - at church yesterday I secured a double date and am meeting two women of the congregation at work tomorrow where I said I would stand tea and cake for them both in our restaurant.

Much as I am looking forward to meeting Muriel and Jean, each of them is more than double my age plus a decade, and between them they have notched up one hundred and seventy years! They are keen on knitting patterns and plants so they are catching the bus together and coming for a look about. Muriel is surprisingly tall for a woman in her eighties but Jean is a touch under 5ft. They are both very sharp, a little slow on their pins and fantastically forthright in their opinions, which I suppose is entirely fine for all their years.

Sunday 25 May 2008

Geeky stuff!


It's time for a Spod post! I have been larking about on Wikipedia which is always good for randomly smart things. Today I read about Lockheed-Martin who make very cool stuff. The pictured SR 71 Blackbird is about the coolest thing they made and it was pretty versatile as well as being nippy. Flying at a height of 17 miles it had a camera that could take a picture of a car number plate - feck!

When the plane was retired in 1990 one if its pilots did a US coast to coast speed run and crossed America in 68 minutes. How smart is that? He had to slow down to refuel on the way. Also to verify a speed record, the plane hoofed it between two radar points in St Louis & Cincinnati - these two are 350 miles apart (had to look that up as I couldn't place them on a map) and that part of the flight lasted 9 minutes. The same plane did New York to London in 1hr 56 mins. That's not bad for a plane made in the early seventies.

Next time Barack O calls me for a strategy brief (Tuesday, I reckon) I am going to ask him if he can arrange a go in said plane once he gets to The White House.

If this plane was 30 years old I wonder what they have now.

PS: Zoom in on the pic - it's me flying it! You have to look closely though, like the dude in the coffee beans pic.

Saturday 24 May 2008

Badger!


I have more grey hair than either of my two brothers and they each stack up as 2 years older in turn than me, so we cover 36-40 right now.

My 38 brother has NO grey at all and my 40 brother just a little bit on the sides. I have loads and have had for years. My Cheltenham friend F gleefully shouts BADGER! whenever he sees me, and my Irish friend Seamus always says' Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus, Dickie, that's queer grey, sure!'

Anyhow, this is a contemplative self portrait I now recall that I took last week. I have no issue with grey hair, it is part of me and I like that! I think the most insulting comment I had was someone saying I should dye it and I think I rather sharply told him to foxtrot oscar.

:)

BS5 Saturday


Seventeen comments on my last post - the most prolific ever and I just lobbed that together whimsically before work the other day! (Thank you for taking the time to write your comments!)

Now then, it's a big, big day here in BS5.

This morning I am going to tackle my back yard; I work in a garden centre and people often say 'ooh, discount on all those plants, you must have a great back garden' to which I add a diplomatic 'well, indeed'. Plenty of stuff growing, it's just that I didn't plant any of it. Anyhow, a 'before' pic is here, taken from my spare room.

After the gardening (I will post an 'after' picture) I will start to get excited about the football - Bristol vs Hull for a place in the Premiership next season. Total drama! A 32 strong party from the pub is on the way to Wembley even now.

I might clean VX52 as well but let's see how the day goes.

Thursday 22 May 2008

Coffee!



You may have seen this about the place. It often turns up at bullshitty work seminars where the HR dep't tries to justify itself and tell you about the cognitive side of the brain and learning styles, and empowering behaviour and all those totally toss-filled acronyms to drive the latest work initiative. Make a note that it's always the HR team that lines up to do the paperwork for firing and redundancies, so don't believe their fluffy hype about valuing you in the work place - they are all wankers!

Anyway, click the image, have a look and tell me how long it takes to get it. It will suddenly pop up just like it wasn't there before!

No sugar in mine thanks, just a spot of milk.

Thursday Thinker 3


It's that time of the week - a 'Thinker' post! This week I think Ernie and Bert should decide the US Election.

Ernie and Bert have a knack of grappling with complex issues and boiling them down to the essentials in about three minutes; they see all sides, weigh up the options, consider the outcomes, challenge pre-conceptions and then agree on a choice and get back to whatever else is vexing their day.

Wednesday 21 May 2008

Fine larks at work. No tie though.





I really can't tell you what a top-smart day I have had. It was a hoot right from my 7 am kick off through to finishing up. And I got paid for doing it !

I am an office wallah and I am into Operations which is kinda just looking at the whole thing end to end and making sure it works like a fine machine so that you as the customer see a smoothly Operating retail outlet. Today I was in work-civvies (no suit) and in the Warehouse. Having bemoaned my lack of time to watch a 40 foot unit lowered in by crane yesterday, today I helped fill the bugger right up and it was a riot! Large delivery wagons, fork lift truck action, hydraulic removal of a dirty great skip and a little bit of goonin around on warehouse racking. I worked hard and was filthy by the time I got home. No one in the house to get at me for being in a filthy state and abandoning clothes all over the bathroom floor before leaping into the bath - hurrah! (I have tidied them all up now).

We emptied and stacked 22 pallets of heavy oak furniture today and had it placed as efficiently as poss' - plenty of other opportunities to climb on stuff and bugger about and also a really instructive day for my job.







Pics various to illustrate the day:

First - This was the 40 ft ready to go
Second -Bonus interlude action with the huge skip replaced
Third - Right to the back with some F**K heavy boxes!
Fourth - full as a Sausage!

AND there's footie tonight. What a day!

Tuesday 20 May 2008

Top smart!


Top and massive drama at work today - randomly out at the back of our warehouse to put some shelf edging in a skip when I came across this! Alas I was in my suit so hanging about 'just to have a look' would have stood out a mile. Tomorrow I am on a warehouse working day just to help out and I bet nothing so exciting happens then!

I loitered for about a minute, enough time to see the unit come very close to the top of the shed - a collision would have been very exciting!

We had a sweep-stake in the afternoon for this weekend's Eurovision song contest and I got Moldova at 500-1 whereas everyone knows Dustin the Turkey (who is from Ireland) will romp it! There goes a quid.

Monday 19 May 2008

BS5 has not left the building.


Oh dear. The Rhubarb, to which I am not an entirely infrequent visitor now poses a challenge. Steve the Landlord has played a master stroke and taken on a pinball machine! Now back at University in the early 1990s I put a fair few pound coins into pinball machines at The Roebuck public house. You know where you are with pinball; you, some mates, a pint and so many plays for a quid. Nothing won, nothing lost and more sociable than a fruit machine! And here we are a few years later at the same caper it's just there's no degree to jeopardise this time.

Cas is current pub champ with sixty odd million and he is very pleased about that, claiming to have been the best Pinball player across all Africa when he lived there 20 years ago. I am not bad at Pinball and am nipping at his heels. Do I dare go in on a school night and get in some pinball time? This is my dilemma. I have been quite good of late about not going to the pub on school nights but this week I might cave!

The pic' is said same machine, but not our one.

Sunday 18 May 2008

Gangly spaz


I am the tallest in my church by a long way owing to my relative youth and the fact that I am nearly 2m end to end. Anyhow, this means I always get picked for light bulb detail. Today it was some very high bulbs indeed so it meant a huge ladder and some 'organisation' by the menfolk, and we approached that with unabashed school-boy excitement.

After much 'to me, to you, to me...' down the ladder came from the bell tower over the edge and into the seating area. I went up to inspect bulbs. Since turning 30 I have disliked heights increasingly each year and today with the ladder at a very steep angle I must admit I felt quite scared, but a little fear on my part is better than one of the old ladies attempting it. I trip over stuff on flat floors so a ladder up high was a bit of an ordeal. By default and testing of different bulbs we determined that the bulb was good and the wiring was bad. I have not been invited on to the wiring party as for sure I would trip the whole place and probably kill myself. An appropriate building in which to go though, I suppose.

Anyhow, it was kinda cool to look out over our church from right up in the air and it was nice to receive the thanks of various friends.

I didn't feel coordinated enough to take a pic so you'll just have to imagine.

Link!


I think I have sussed out making a link to another page in a post. Let me know if this works. The linked page is worth a (here we go)..... visit

Tagged again :)


I have been happily tagged by Suburbia to Post 6 things about myself.


Here are the rules:
Link to the person who tagged you (I still can't do this, I am such a Blog retard, but I think it might just have worked!)
Post the rules on your blog.


Write six random things about yourself.
Tag some people (don't know 6 who are untagged already) at the end of your post.
Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

So, six things about me:

1 I will eat pretty much anything (ate Dog once) apart from Mushrooms (yuck!)
2 I went to school with the Lead Singer of Goldie Lookin' Chain (like that's gonna register with anyone).
3 There have been 2 murders within visible distance of my house in the last 4 years.
4 I have a wooden frog (he's called Stills), a fluffy shark (he's called Clarke) and a stone hedgehog (he's called Smith and was once taken hostage by Walsharoo who sent me a pic' of him blindfolded).
5 I walked right into Michael Caine on Regent St once and left a bit of my BK burger on his jacket. I apologised, he was civil. Serves me right for eating in the street which is a bit vulgar.
6 I did not really know or recognise the Twin Towers prior to Sept 11th 2001 (and I 'm a right spod about massive buildings).
7 I am not very good at maths




Saturday 17 May 2008

Bingo BS5


Friday night rock 'n roll in BS5. I went to Bingo where I was years younger than anyone else. I had said in the week that I would go along to the event at our church hall, and even though The Rhubarb was calling, I try to be a man of my word so I braved it after work with a load of fierce old ladies plus the nice seniors I know from church. I got into my stride and won two games with a quiet shout of 'House!' and looks of slight disapproval that as new church Soc' Sec' this might have been a fix. Bingo action went on until 8pm and I then strolled to the pub (having washed up a ton of coffee cups and folded up all the tables) , did a turn on the Karaoke, had 4 beers and came home. All very civilised indeed. Here are my Bingo winnings.

I put my prizes quietly back into the pot and will put them into the next event as I don't really have need for lavender soap and I am not that partial to chocolate. I think I might step up as Bingo caller next time...

Friday 16 May 2008

R-Tag!


From my eloquent, American friend Scargosun...
Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things. Nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl.

What is your name: R (hello!)
4 letter word: Rain
Vehicle: R S 8 (Audi)
City: Rio D J
Boy's Name: Raphael
Girl's Name: Rosemary (my dear mother)
Drink: Red Wine!
Occupation: Retailer (Whey-hey!)
Something you wear: Really good shoes
Celebrity: Robert De Nero
Food: Rice
Something found in a bathroom: Renovation (ha ha!)
Reason for Being Late: Rare
Cartoon Character: Ren (& Stimpy)
Something you shout: Reeeeeeeeeeeeeee'ach! :)
Animal: Restaurant
Body part: Rear
Word to describe you: Remember

I'd like to Tag Walshy because of his hand grenade and I want to ask Suburbia to play, but Sub', it would sooooooooooooooooooooo spoil it to know your first name, so maybe just play by initial only on Q 1 , please ? x

Carl Lewis


The Carl Lewis line always makes me :)

This morning I have been listening to my favourite NWA song. Now NWA is a divider of opinion because they are a tiny bit sexist and they are into killing, shooting, robbery, violence and general misogynist action. I am not trying to distance my welcome readership but as lyrics and rap go, '100 miles and runnin' ' is a pretty taut set of lines and it hangs well. The lyrics are spectacularly offensive and here's a selection. As Pete Tong says on a Friday night, 'If you think you might be offended please tune away now'...

This song has come on in VX52 once or twice to the spluttering shock of work colleagues who were with me and did not really expect a suited and booted chap to be listening to gangster rap.

You Tube the song - look beyond the initial prejudice and have a listen to how well the lyrics hang. Here's a selection:


Got us tick and runnin’ just to find the gun that started the clock. That’s when the e jumped off the startin’ block.
A 100 miles from home and ,yo, it’s a long stretch.
A little sprintin’ mutherfucker that they won’t catch.
Yeah, back to compton again.
Yo, it’s either that or the federal pen. ’cause niggas been runnin’ since beginning of time. Takin’ a minute to tell you what’s on my mutherfuckin’ mind.
Runnin’ like I just don’t care. Compton’s 50 miles but , yo, i’mma get there.
Archin’ my back and on a straight rough.
Just like carl lewis I’m ballin’ the fuck out. >
from city to city I’m a menace as I pass by.
Rippin’ up shit just so you can remember i’m A straight up nigga that’s done in, gunnin’ and comin’ Straight at yo ass.
A 100 miles and runnin’...

Thursday 15 May 2008

Yolonda!



WTF is wrong with Barack O calling a reporter (Peggy Agar, of whom I know very little) Sweetie?

Was he polite, was he respectful, was he courteous? Yes!

I don't get this at all.

It's not like he dodged the question there in Deeee-troit and said in a Jules Winfield/Pulp Fiction styleee 'Tell that BITCH to Chill!' like Jules did with Yolonada now, is it?

Mind you, that would have been Funny as fu*k, and maybe he should say that to Billary.

And how come America names its TV stations kinda strangely? - they all have names like WKHDGFTYABFID -TV and stuff. Over here we have 1, 2, 3 and 4. Oh and 5.

Sprung!


I got totally busted at work today by the 'checkin' out women' police whilst walking across the shop floor.

I was walking with genuine purpose from the glass covered plants section through Barbecue and out to the warehouse. I did a small U-turn and nipped down an aisle in order to encounter a fabulous and very tall woman who I worked out would end up meeting me if I took a detour down past 'fresh veg' encountering her at the end. She had these great boots on and long hair and really nice shapely hips, and a healthy un-skinny figure.

She also had a bloody good radar coz she sussed my game before I had even got out of bed today. Busted and thinking 'oh well' I just smiled and ventured a 'Good afternoon, madam', and she smiled and asked how I was doing and took a look at my name badge.

I was quite pleased about the whole encounter because I suspect she was flattered (but probably thought 'nice suit, total bloody pervert!')

Lovin' it!

Thursday Thinker





It's time for Thursday Thinker and this week I am thinking...

I am glad I have passed on my knowledge!


This is a South Korean Special Forces soldier on an Anti-Terrorism exercise yesterday. Maybe he is training to take out Jackson Pollocks? Anyhow, he is giving it some special forces action to a load of glass bottles. In Britain's Special Air Service this sort of thing is called C.Q.B or close quarters battle which is a euphemism for actually taking someone out up close and personal with or without a gun . Without in this case, clearly.

I bet this chap's wife had a go at him about not getting his uniform in soak straight away.

The writing on his Bandanna translates at 'Thank you BS5, Jedi Master'

Wednesday 14 May 2008

Feet.

A long day today and this week I have lots to do with busy days at work and social stuff each night of the week too. I like that but it has robbed me of blogging time.

We had a memo' at work this week about a new concession that has taken space in our stores. It's called Shuropody and apparently we can get a very discounted foot service as we own the space they rent. Several thoughts occur...

1 Why would I?

2 What's the benefit of a poke in the foot with a stick and some massaging, and some person telling me about foot karma?

3 I would feel very uncomfortable taking my shoes off on the shop floor in front of a load of women I did not really know. In private maybe, in public - good God, no.

4 How does this concession make money - they seem to have lots of interest?



All most odd. Bed now and Zzzzzzz's welcome

Come on Bristol!


Well worth a very late night last night to see 90 minutes, extra time and some roller coaster moments before Bristol City bagged a place in the play-offs for the Premiership.

Bristol are at Wembley a week Saturday and if they win that, it's top flight football next season.
Imagine being able to see Arsenal play within a shout of BS5 next season!

I am ever neutral about Bristol football and can't get excited about the City vs Rovers debate. Premiership football will be good for all!

Off to work soon and it will seem a very flat affair, although I have to draft a press release about one of our stores and I am quite looking forward to that.

This is Temple Meads station, an Isambard Kingdom Brunel affair that brings the world into the city, and it's just as nice as Paddington (which is my favourite and also by the same man).

Tuesday 13 May 2008

A couple of quiet ones...


Oh dear. Out for a quiet school night drink with the chaps last night...

Not a great start to this more sensible year of being 36; I think at least seven people bought me a Guinness. And there was Sambucca.

Weyhey!

Dandelion - how nice to see you on comments (and thank you). How are you? Did you feel yesterday's earthquake wherever you are in China? All your friends safe and well, I hope?

Thanks to everyone for kind comments and good wishes. Longer post later after work!

Have a good day wherever you are

Monday 12 May 2008

Thank you!




I wasn't going to post until I got home from work today as I am not sure that I felt like it but then I was totally delighted by two posts on other blogs.

Suburbia made me a Blog cake over at her blog (here it is, tho') and Alaina gave me a Blog award with the following citation!

For his terribly uplifting comments and British humor, perhaps to offset the terrible symptom of 'sitting on the wall' withdrawal or perhaps to encourage his belief in my super-powers... I'm honoring BS5 with the following award on my I'm Unavailable post.

Cool!

I plan no increase in wisdom or sense in this new year and Blogs made while I am 36 will be just like blogs made at 35.

Thank you (both) very much!

Sunday 11 May 2008

I'm afraid not, Sophie, I've just mopped the floor! (Oh bugger!)


It's ten past one in the morning and I have just mopped the kitchen floor. WTF's that about? I have normally been in bed a good three hours by this time but not today. I woke at 5.20 and bed approaches 20 hours later. It's been a top day!

I think my little two hour kip after watching Bristol - Crystal Palace helped. Bristol won 2-1 and the second leg is Tuesday. Winner gets a place in the play offs to go up to the Premiership.

Weatherman says 77 degrees tomorrow! My friend Helen is coming to see me and I think we might take a picnic; she is going to tell me all about what is going on in her life as I think it is a bit stressful at the mo' and she needs a wingman.

Once I had mopped the floor, whaddayaknow, but top foxy Newsreader Sophie Rayworth knocked on the front door (in her PJ's no less) asking if she could come in for a glass of cold milk and a chat on the sofa. I had to turn her away coz' the fridge is a couple of paces across the floor, which was still wet of course. Bloody typical!

Saturday 10 May 2008

Wash 'n Wax (and wine)


This is VX52 after his wash at 7.30 this morning.

I get so much more pleasure out of car washing than the effort that I have to put in, and I should bottle the karma and sell it on. Amazingly for the first time in ages, and probably because it was still early, no one who walked past said 'I'll bring mine round if you like'. It's one of those things you are obliged to say but should really stop and think about it - you have to know five people said it before you already!

Anyhow, VX52 is clean and shining and pointing in his favourite direction. I also half filled his tank, an ever increasingly expensive chore these days. Ran out of polish today so there's a fun purchase next week.

Ooh bugger, I've finished my glass of white wine - cue Fridge run!

Madge


Now then, Madge is 50 this August. She is on stage right now at a Radio 1 weekend in Maidstone, Kent and I have the radio on and (another!) glass of white wine, listening in.

Scargosun's questionnaire the other day asked if one would date someone 10 years older than self. Now Madge will be 14 years older than me by the time of her birthday , and is this controversial ............could she? Heck yes, she could. Severally too.

I am not sure Madge would feel the same about this Blogger but unless she reads BS5 we won't know and can pretend.



('Could she' come round for a cup of tea - that's what I meant, but you know that, right?)

Moo!


This is a post with no particular purpose except to share with you a random picture that shows two of my favourite things...a crane and a cow. I found this randomly whilst larking about on line this morning. I am pleased to say this rather top-smart crane company is from Bristol! This city has everything!

Three of these cows were installed at Glastonbury (the festival, I think) after leaving this location, all stacked one atop the other.

Merde, il pleut!



Bristol was the wettest place in the country last night and this was on account of about an hour's rain that fell at around 9pm - quite a lot of it on my house. It was tops! I sat in the front doorway on my trusty barstool and watched it all with a glass of plonk. The rain was intense and the lightning was constant. Here's a pic' of the storm as it came up the road. It doesn't look very stormy but it got dark very fast and ker-poww! a deluge! There was also a bonus that it took the sandy coating of VX52 so he will be easier to clean this morning.

The other pic' is my dining room about 20 minutes before the storm when it was still really bright.

Big rain is smart when it washes down the street.

Jimmy B(S5)


My friend Scargosun who lives on the other side of the pond tagged me in the week with a challenge to write an epitaph or to encapsulate 'me' in 6 words.


Here we go...this is supposing I have carked it..

'You know! The James Bond-ish fella!'

Oh yes!

Thursday 8 May 2008

Tag poetry..


Hi all,

If you are reading this you are considered to be tagged.

Suburbia, Scargosun and Alaina, you definitely are anyway.

Here's the Tag:

What I would like you to do is post a comment on someone else's Blog tonight - anyone you like, anywhere on the planet. Make a note of the letters that make up the 'word verification' for your comment.

Now write down a few words yourself on your Blog - the words starting with each verification letter you had to type in. So if you typed in 'kjdffs' to verify your comment, the first word of your little list would start K, the second J, the third D and so on. Each word has to reflect something cool or important to you and your take on life! No cheating! Also tell us where you commented to get your letters!

I last commented over at Scargosun 20 minutes ago and the verification was PZQLPJBF so here goes:

Pa!
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzs at the end of a long day
Queen (The)
Lager
Prince's album SOTT
Jean Luc Picard
Breasts (really sorry but, hey!)
Friends

:)

Thursday Thinker 2


Now this time last week I put up a post called Thursday Thinker with an idea to do a weekly pic' about something that ... well.... makes me think. This was inspired by Suburbia and her weekly 'ABC Wednesday' Post.

This pic' might make you think, it might not; the point of this is not to try to be profound, but just to be here.

This week I have pictured a BASE jumper in Kuala Lumpur (it's not Lummox).

This makes me think...

Total lunatic.


Cheers!

Oh will you just clear off, woman?


Come on Hillary, give it up! Throw in the towel, have a bit of grace, support the man, then go and live far away!

Here's a snap of Barack O on a political rally in BS5 last night where he came to talk about the Special Relationship between Bristol and the US. Barack said there was a lot of resonance in International Relations focused on the BS5 area and America. After the rally he tried to beat Lummox's Rhubarb initiation record of three pickled eggs in under a minute but he got nowhere near; that's still Lummox's crown.

Another sunny morning here.

48 hours until my hot date with three women; they all excitedly asked me out for Friday but they are all around twice my age (and half my height) and excited about Bingo!

Wednesday 7 May 2008

Pino Schmeeno.


Phew! My Blog is back after a four hour drop off when it wouldn't load!

Top night in BS5 this evening and ended up as an emergency call in point for my friend Steve who was in a right old two and eight and came around for a quick chat. He's better now and I feel good for being a wingman and helping him out.

During the evening I drank a couple of glasses of white wine - first time in a year or so I did that and first time I have ever knowingly had a glass of the type of white wine pictured here.

Tonight's wine? Jolly nice it was too and I wouldn't be surprised if I buy another bottle of it this year alone. I bought this bottle for a Gigi visit earlier in the spring but we didn't get to drink it and it languished in the fridge all Feb, March and April unopened and alone next to a bag of Colombian coffee. Come to think of it the last bottle of white I had was at Gigi's house in county Galway a year or so back.

Drinking wine that is not red does not normally compute but I think I am onto something here...hmmm.

Wall version 2.0


Hi all!

As my astute pal Lummox pointed out, the shot of the wall earlier was actually not the part I sit on. Lummox must have fine eye sight because he lives in Malaysia!

Anyhow, this is the actual part pictured tonight and about half a beer ago. Although I like my wall very much I will stop posting about it now as I am sure it is of dwindling interest to the rest of the planet! Thanks for your interest so far, though!

Scargosun, I am not so sure I can generate quite such an erudite and passionate post about the book pictured on the wall as your book post of the other evening but I have read this book four or five times and it is entertaining enough if a little bit vulgar (in its limited respect of JFK, I mean).

I wonder if JFK sat on the wall at 1600 Pencil Sharpener Ave' after a hard day?

Afterthought:
Even if I do say it myself: check out that mid-week shoe shininess! I like that!

Sitting on the Wall.


This is my wall where I enjoy sitting in the sunshine of an evening, watching as much of the world as chooses to pass through BS5. I had a couple of comments about the wall so here it is.