Massive spaz....

This post is true...

I did not tell Bag about this slight oversight from last weekend but whilst getting VX52 ready for wedding car detail I absent mindedly put fabric softener in his washer bottle instead of screen wash. Glass smells really great when I dip the wipers but then it kinda goes a bit smeary.

Sometimes I am amazed I have reached 36 at all.

Alone in the Dark

I just retrieved an emergency cooling beer from the freezer coz' I only had one cold one in the fridge (oops).

How come the fridge bit has a light but the freezer doesn't?

The train now departing...

Here we go!

This is about my third time that I have had an evening before knowing the next day is my last in the current role. It's a curious way to spend an evening. One time it has been in the pub, another on my Jack in the house but tonight was different. My phone rang and showed my vicar's number and she asked me over for dinner at hers with a few of the gang. Rather thoughtful and considerate of her, so I accepted very happily. A couple of hours' chatter and discussion (loosely based on Colossians) and not even a thought about work or the imminent lack of it. I am not papering over the cracks and blindly assuming all will be well as it may very well not be; it's just that I had a top smart night and that was cool. I am going to bed happily.

Frank.

A lengthy working day today from half seven to half six. Long in hours but not difficult in execution, and I did a favour for BS4 in those hours and that was warming.

Before I set out and about across the country today, I came to the office early and started to clear my desk for my Friday departure. Minimum fuss will be the order of the day at the end of the week. I removed the contents you can see here, my desk 'personals'. The Dictionary I use every day , the thesaurus about once a week. The other books I dip into now and again when I have an idle whim for looking up matters WSC or JFK. The cards are a collection of staff shop purchases that have simply caught me. I took schoolboy delight about a month ago from looking up a word in the W pages of the dictionary; I got to W and the first word I found was 'Wank' - much laughter at that and some other explanation given out at the time.

The green chap is FRANK. Frank spent the last year on my desk in North Somerset. Prior to that he did 14 months on my desk in Oxfordshire and previous to that, 3 years on my desk in Wiltshire. I bought him via that Wilthsire job, and Frank came from the Bentalls Centre in Kingston, though he has more about him than that.

Frank was sixty five million and five last birthday and he is a trifle deaf. He is a reliable, loyal, steady chap and he came home today prior to my Friday finish ready for wherever his next desk might be.

We will press on together!

Dinner in BS4

Dinner in BS4 tonight and helped that fine resident of Bristol move house; she is off to London soon and I happen to be passing her folks' house this week so I am taking a few boxes in our work van to help her out (this is not said van, I would simply crash this vehicle). Very pleasant to part in happy 'in touch' company and I'm better for having had that whole BS4 thing that started a year ago and ran so nicely for a while, as I hope she is better for some company from BS5!

:)

Policy Breakfast.

Now I am not much of a fan of Labour and I think as a force they are all too long in the tooth and tired, empty of ideas and arrogantly blinkered about just how out of touch they have become. Labour chose Gordon for PM so stop fucking about and go with him! I think changing leader would be daft and if Labour can't see the lessons from the Tories then they deserve even less credit than they have. Let's give it until after the US election then have our own.

That said, I would have a pint with Gordon; in fact I did as this is a snap of him and Barack in the garden at The Rhubarb just recently when they came to my policy breakfast held at that venue. We discussed regeneration for BS5 and Bristol and I tried to angle a new job with Barack, to no avail thus far.

The deed is done.

Here's a quick post-wedding pic of BS5 with the Groom and Best Man from last Friday.


The two brown suited six foot chaps are the best man in the middle and the Groom on the right as you look. It was very, very warm hence the pint of lager (Guinness was the order of the day thereafter for me). I felt very under dressed as these two chaps sported some fine frock coat outfits. And as Walshy pointed out incessantly, a barnet would have done no harm for me. I have another wedding in two weeks down in Devon and I am looking forward to that too.

I do.

As mentioned a post or two ago, the Friday just gone saw me at the wedding of Guy and Katherine. I have called Guy Guy all of five times and he has been known to many as 'Bag' for an age. Strange when he didn't say, 'I Bee aye Gee take you Katherine to be' etc etc etc...Anyhow, they were married on Friday and it was a fantastic day of good weather, happiness and celebration. Here are some pics as taken by Caz who was looking very like Jemima Khan (nee Goldsmith) in the outfit she wore that day. And a pic of the cake is here also.

Top transport post.

On the way home from Mr and Mrs Brookes' wedding I stopped several times to take a drink, stretch out a bit and break up the 182 miles. On my middle stop I saw this TOP bit of kit which is an escalator. I don't know if it's an up escalator or a down escalator and couldn't really see anyone to ask. It was smart. I bet it was a bugger to reverse.

Please don't assume I have moved on from said wedding - pics to follow of that happy event.

Wedding

Just back from a great few days in the North with LOADS of smart things packed in including sunshine, a wedding, a beautiful bride, escorting the Groom's (very attractive) sister into the ceremony, beers, wine, chatter, chatter, chatter and a great job by VX52 who was called upon to escort the Bride, the Groom's sister and the Bride's mother from the house to the venue. Great time had by all and wedding pics to follow so that women who read the blog can see the wedding dress and chaps who read the blog can just appreciate the day..

Until those pix are shared amongst the snappers (I took none as my phone would not have done it justice), here is said car dressed for a wedding. VX52 has done himself proud and horsed along the M6 at a smart 57 mpg over the 400 miles driven. Clarke came along too!

The North

F E J,

The North. It's long way from BS5.

Here I am with Bag and Walshy at Bag's house after diner, chat and wine. Bag gets married tomorrow.

Cool.

Off to bed now.

Work was a load of wank today!

Suit.

Tomorrow I will be wearing a button hole - the height of elegance to finish off a suit, in my opinion! This will be for Bag's wedding, and I am looking forward to it. Weddings are always happy days and one meets interesting people, some of them single! Fancy old Bag getting married. Top stuff!

This week I had a very pleasant time hooking up with BS4 and have enjoyed subsequent emails with her since having tea and chat on Tuesday. She is moving out of Bristol and I am happy we met up before she moves (indeed I am helping her move). Always good to be on happy terms and she's a fine woman. Lucky London!

This Blog may be quiet for a day or two.

A bit turgid.

Today on my penultimate Tuesday at work, I have meetings and phone-calls about the following:

Nitrate/Nitrite levels in freshwater and marine aquaria
Perforated paper for shelf edge tickets
Solid wheels for compost trolleys
Dyson air-blade hand driers
Recruitment of Christmas Temps

I also have to prep my final brief to all store managers for Wednesday

There may even be some retail.

Such filth!

So it's not very often there's been an evening of filth and scandal involving this blogger and postcode area BS5 of late. But tonight I came home with a veritable trollop.

Alas I have to report it was VX52 (and he's a chap, and that just has NO chance of happening!)

VX52 (sans badge) has been at work for a good few days as I have racked up 700 miles in a van on store visits and stuff these last few days wrapping up stuff. I parked him sensibly in the middle of last week but too close to a tree and he was filthy when I drove him home tonight. VX has special duties on Friday so he's going to have the clean of the month to restore pride (and I will see to that - no East European car wash here, though I respect the job they do).

No other filth or base depravity appears to be on the horizon; shame really as it might be a lark!

Now I reckon Persephone here has to be cinema's filthiest lass of late! Any takers (poker lads) on seeing Persephone and raising me an alternative? You can't call a porn star - that's not fair.

:)

Weekend tails (and fins)

It has been a strange old weekend with many things to think about. Some of them (impending unemployment) have been a bit scary, even though I am about a plan; some of them (Church Summer Fayre and van larks) have been terrific fun and endlessly easy in retrospect. Some of them (Co. Galway) have been very taxing this weekend, what with the post received and burdensome tidings from you know who (well, you don't) and her tough break in that county.

That said, all in all it has been top! I have remained alive all weekend and not been dead for any of it and I can live happily with that.

Here is Clarke on my bed and shepherding the house and the weekend.

No complaints here and on we go into the week.

Saturday and all's Fayre.

I have had a great Saturday. Curiously I had a HUGE lie in and woke rested, yet I still had a very full day from which I am now completely knackered, yet happily so.

I woke early and worked long and hard filling a van with tables, chairs, an urn, a teapot, crockery, spoons and things to sell at our Summer Fayre.

I was on the go all day and also ran a BBQ for which I had taken no prep' at all, and suffered the pressure thereof (work is never thus and I prepare meticulously for every aspect of the office, yet today I went loose and easy and still bagged it, but under pressure!) All in all it was great and after a long day I enjoyed a rewarding bottle of Guinness sat on the floor in the vicarage kitchen and courtesy of my immensely thoughtful Vicar! My stall exceeded its float and contributed.

These are some pics and I am now off to bed.

Long Friday.

A curious day.

I think I encountered a worm hole on my way to Evadne 4, a bit like JLP and the gang in the *TOP* TNG ep' I have just finished. It really is a smart 44 minutes of TV with Mr Data giving it the full on Blag!

I watched it on a Friday night in the house after a day of many miles, many counties, many tasks and an unusual variety of emotions for a chap so normally unflappable.

I woke in Herefordshire at 5.35am and had an easy morning at Ma and Pa's, taking them tea at a little before 7. From there I drove back to work in Bristol and then on again through several counties and many miles to our store in the Midlands. I worked hard and long and had a decent afternoon. Many miles racked up in a big old van full of stock. I won't work for them in ten days.

Tonight I was due at a house party in BS4; BS4 is also a fine woman I dated last year and she is moving away this month and asked me over to say Au Revoir but after 500 miles and 12 hours, had I been there and on a sofa I would have just fallen into a long sleep so I sent my apologies and will try to fix wine tête-à-tête before she leaves; she is important. Kinda' left me feeling unperturbed..

That said, a rare Friday night of not popping into my local was replaced with a totally solo night in the house and dinner, wine, Pete Tong and chillin'. It was pretty bloody excellent! Sometimes (often) living and being on your Jack is immensely satisfying!

I came home in the van that was the stuff of earlier today, and tomorrow I am filling it with ten million tables and chairs from the Church I attend in order to set up our Church Summer Fayre at the Vicarage, which is about 2 minutes' walk from my house. It will be a full on Saturday holding it all together and being there to support other people. I am quite looking forward to it, though I have put less effort in than I should what with wrapping up work and all.

I encountered 3P/woman in the office today (briefly) but made time to chat with her about weekend plans. Hadn't seen her for days; she is still tops!

Sigourney Weaver didn't walk past the wall yet!

Most happily to bed now.

Sigourney Weaver, show us yer.....Alien!

Oooof!

I heard an interview with Siggers yesterday; she is the voice of WALEE (I think) the new robot in Pixar's latest movie.

Sigourney was my first movie star lust! Tall and sublimey voiced. Bit of a fox in Ghostbusters, y'see.

I wonder if she will wander past the house as I sit on my wall(ee) this evening?

Hope springs eternal

Curious news from the star on my car (it wrote to me in comments on the post below)

Give it up for...........Birmingham.

Much mileage and consultation today and briefed a good project with two sharp people in Stores. Was supposed to be in Devon tomorrow but need to go back to world of 021s, sunny Birmingham! Irritatingly on the way home I had to stop at each service station to pick up messages, only to find that on returning them, all the issues had been sorted out by the person leaving the message speaking to someone about ten feet away from them! Wish they'd messaged me back to say 'all sorted'. Hey ho.


Anyhow, off for a pint now with HR 9, aka Dad! And that's smart. Here overnight, back to BS5 the morra then off again up the M5.

We should have shotguns for this kind of deal...

Some quiet sort of a day that was!

Worked like a mofo' and non-stop end to end!

Came home to enjoy a quiet evening but then lots of stuff happened at home too; my good pal Stevie Hopes helped me put up two canvas adverts for my local Church Fayre. I was planning to do it tomorrow but was asked to do so tonight. We counter balanced the bottoms with 2inch batons to stop the wind getting them and hung them off the wall, decently weighted in the Vicarage garden behind. It was all kinda' fun! Home to a 9.30pm dinner and just stopping now for a glass of wine and some tunes. Out and about the next two days and it's a non stop week all over again taking in stores, projects and sociable things.

It will stop soon enough at the current place but plenty of hard work towards the next billet with an interesting public service role thrown my way today on behalf of the Blood Transfusion Service of all things! I have asked my recrutiment man to throw in my CV! A good man in the north sent me two useful leads as well.

Missed calls from Bag who was a good man today and from Helen. Catch up detail the 'morra!

Happily tired and closing the day, and I didn't even write a thing about work - got loads done, planned, prepped and ready to brief. Got ignored too but hey, not my problem and losing no sleep on that one. Still wish it wasn't so, but hey-ho, if it is it is.

Off to bed via Colossae.

Colossae.

Today is a relatively quiet day in the office and one for bringing together several loose ends and outstanding correspondences before going out again on Thursday and Friday. Those days and evenings will be busy so this evening after dinner I plan to read Collosians. This was a suggestion floated last Sunday and was in keeping with the sermon I heard so I shall give it a go and do a quick Google search on Colossae which is now Anatolia in Turkey. The middle syllable of said book is a 'shhh' sound. Box no. 2 is the chap, I think. The book is about 4 pages only (probably has no room for spaceships or car chases).

This post is just here because it's here.

Tricky Dicky on Pump 3!

So this evening, I get back to Bristol from an easy but long day. It had been a decent combination of early emails to square things away (work, career, personal, supplier meetings and wah wah wah) and an afternoon on an Awards jolly with an ice skating cricketer and droves of summer dresses (alas none of them 3rd PW).

Back to Bristol after a long haul taking people back to work. I had been provided with a hire car and dutifully fueled it up prior to its collection from here in BS5 tomorrow. As I was at the fuel stop, a decent Audi pulled up and I noticed it had cool headlights but that was it. Then, on queuing to pay I finished my transaction and turned to see the queue behind me. Audi man was in fact Richard Milhous Nixon, back from the dead and reincarnated at about 35,and fueling up courtesy of Sainsbury's!

I was kinda tempted to ask RN if Lyndon Johnson's Tonkin 'Resolution' was in fact a specious get out clause hatched for bombing Cambodia and SE Asia, and an end run around Congress, but perhaps that would have been rude and delayed the queue. Nixon rescinded the resolution you see, and that to me was tacit acknowledgment that it was bullshit (I wrote an essay on this at Uni' but never imagined it would come back to me in a petrol queue)

Anyhow, Tricky-Dicky in an Audi at Sainsbury's. Smart! And on a Tuesday nothing even remotely Super.

Other stuff tonight: two things - (1) Cooked a fine joint of beef again just now and it came out rare, pink and perfect - meals aplenty to follow all week. (2) Two new commentators on Blog BS5 tonight, and '99' is particularly welcome (2nd commentator I.D TBC) as I have held this scribe in high & quiet regard for many months.

Top new gadget action!

Another long day today and into the office for half seven to bang out a few emails and see to this and that before driving a hundred odd miles to attend a rather jolly afternoon Awards do for the industry in which I remain another 2 weeks. Lucky with the weather and pre-lunch drinks were served on a sunny lawn affording a decent view of rather a lot of summer dresses and what have you. Every one was pretending to spot people from other firms but it was a total sham; men checking out women, women checking out men, and mixtures thereof! I don't know why people pretend.

Anyhow, my firm did well and had a clutch of gongs, including a woman I work with, and rather like bagging a Gold award for her department in our store in Devon. Hurrah! Prizes doled out by Mark Ramprakash who seemed an urbane fellow.

As the usual awards hoo-haa unfolded to the unimaginative 'Simply the Best' soundtrack, the chap on the mic' threw in the usual enticement of the Awards Do goodie bag, telling us there was a gadget worth thirty pounds (sixty dollars) in the bag this year. Cool! Maybe it would be an MP3 player or a budget end diggie cam'! I have been to a handful of these events and indeed I have organised the goodie bag a stack of times. Good gear = good retention of key facts; that's the rules.

Imagine my top smart delight at getting THIS, and imagine the poor m*****f****r who had to pack 300 of them into bags!

One should be grateful of course, and someone will find a use for it I suppose! Let me know if you want it and I'll Blog it to you.

I say, old chap, can you tell me the year?

Well now, this chap stopped at my house this morning saying he had been in the 1930s when he was right at the other end of the road but went through a Mobius strip at about no.86 and came forward in time by 70 years. He said that when he got to my house he felt a 1930s vibe so he knocked on to see what was occurring.

Last time I experienced a Mobius strip in BS5 it involved planet Zanussi and a lone sock. The outcome was all good on that one!

Anyhow, the ice cream fellow is on his way back to the 1930s and I let him know business might dip around about September 1939. I asked him for the email address of the woman in the background (because she looked rather a fox in her beret) but he said he didn't know what I was on about.

And on we go with work and the day in their proper perspective. On that score, as Walshy nearly said of the Polar Bear post, F.I - T.T.G!

Different Hats and long days.

A long day today with many different hats and some pretty close-on involvement with an HR Team at another firm for an early stage of a new job app'. My views of HR teams are documented here on BS5 and have (I think) caused controversy and offence where none was intended; I regret that, and I regret that two colleagues are clearly not talking to me (F.I - TTG!) but my views remain; HR teams - kinda like a world of fluff and forms!

Anyhow up at 6.00 and out the door at seven to drive to Exeter for a stage 1 assessment day with EDF Energy. I went with the support of my boss who is an increasingly decent soul in my closing days of working for her. Usual stuff on the old phsyco-metric codswallop, and no actual mention of the firm, the role or anything significant but I filled in the boxes that reflected my choice of answer to the various verbal and numeric questions. They will run it through the grading and measure me up on the Spaz scale. We shall see. I reckon I scored Bingham but not Deacon, so you never know.

On then to the store we have near there and a useful couple of hours reviewing stuff and briefing-in to a couple of managers. Need to make sure all my work looks after itself and goes with momentum. Nice drive back to work, and received a Dickensian email from one of the chaps about handing over some work.

And then a church meeting at my house tonight for our Church Summer Fayre this Saturday. That lasted until 9.00 and then I knocked up dinner and had another great chat to my brother who was his usual totally dependable self. I missed him on a social weekend at home just gone and am looking forward to seeing him next time.

I am going to fall into bed now, though not before just one small glass of wine.

Off to an afternoon 'Awards Gala Party' tomorrow, standing in for my boss who is up north at a trade show with 3rd paragraph woman.

Not a bad day but it was far too long and involved for a Monday!

See You Next Tuesday

I don't swear much on this blog (tend to leave that for the pub and the company of the chaps) but if you are the TOTAL CUNT who nicked the 3-pointed star from my bonnet last night then I hope you get eaten by a bloody Polar Bear who's not had a square meal in a few days. Unlikely in Bristol but I hope it happens, you totalfuckingwanker! I want YOU to look like this! And then I'll happily give the bear the star to wear round his massive Gregory.

Commando

Being a bloke and all that, I am a bit of a spaz when it comes to domestics.

This morning I have run out of kaks because I forgot to put the washing on last night. This means I am going Commando today and will be so at Church later this morning. I am relying on the fact that God is a bloke, and omnipotent as he might be, I am pretty sure he occasionally forgets to put the washing on too and therefore won't mind this underwear faux pas.

I couldn't really find a suitable image today so here's a smart picture of a Scania in the meantime. The more astute of you might notice the poor attention to detail regarding the strop. Bad form if you ask me and risky load retention. Yes.

Cotswold jolly!

Well now, here are some pix of a day out in the Cotswolds. A strange sort of day for a chap in his thirties, and younger than the group by more than two decades but it was a lark nevertheless. These pics are from Bibury, a small village about fifty miles from Bristol.

The three senior ladies you can see here spent much of the day talking about The War, austerity, who had recently 'gone on', and their youth in Bristol in the 1930s - all fascinating. They asked me not to get a job too far in away in case it stopped me coming to church (kinda nice!)

The fish was in a fine river running through the village - completely clear water and abundant with life.

Saturday trip.

Today I am driving to Bibury in the Cotswolds (near Cirencester and up the road from Tetbury where Prince Charles has a gaff). This is a pic' of part of the village.

It's a little jolly church outing and there are too few of us to make hiring a minibus viable and too many of us to make cars practical. Hopefully the usual drop out rate of folks who sign up will bring us down to a couple of cars and eight or nine people. I think the day will be pleasant enough but it is an unusual Saturday caper for BS5. I consulted the chaps last night and they seemed surprised at my Saturday errand but assured me there was a fine little pub where I could have a sneaky pint. 10-4 in a Cotswold village will be enjoyable but not the whole time in antique shops or weighing up jam and scones.

Reports to follow, and may reward myself with a pint in The Seven Stars (in BS1) at about 5 or 6pm.

I will need to take NWA out of the CD player.

Ritual.

These last few weeks and since turning thirty six I have noticed a real acceleration in beard growth each day. I am not a particularly hirsute fellow and would not be mistaken for australopithecine but just lately by the time I head for bed of an evening there is no longer any way I can skip a shave the next day, and that used to be an occasional indulgent thought on Thursday evenings going into Friday, that last liberating day of the week.

This train of thought reminds me just how very, very good a wet shave is, and one delivered by someone else.

I have enjoyed this in New Delhi (on the street), in Cairo, (in a back street) in Shanghai (near The Bund and a bit clinical) and on Regent St (at Austin Reed, and entirely fine) and every time it is fantastic and you really don't need to shave at all the day after.

Impressed.

I like to think I am reasonably well informed; I could name every UK Prime Minister since 1900 and each US President since about 1920, and I reckon I could bag 100 of the 245 countries in the world on a world map. I could make a reasonable impromptu minute-speech on feck all notice on a breadth of subjects and I'd recognise the President of Iran if he came into my local for a game of darts. All that said I had not heard of Ingrid Betancourt until this week but I had heard of FARC.

I think this is a top story with a bit of decency and hope whilst the rest of the world talks its way into economic gloom.

This woman has dignity and gravitas and if I had been chained up in the Colombian jungle for six years I don't think I'd be quite that measured and composed. Smart stuff. And she's not un-attractive.

Impressed.

Thursday Thinker 9

I haven't done a Thursday Thinker in a while but then a Blog shouldn't always stick to convention.

Anyhow, as I type this morning on a grey but dry Bristol day I am thinking 'Should I grab a Historic Motorbike and leave in a flurry of chaos?'

You see, next week I am representing my boss at a garden centre awards do at the National Motorcycle Museum near the NEC in Birmingham. We are up for a gong or two and I wrote the copy for quite a lot of the nominations. I could either network a little, enjoy an idle day with a slightly free lunch, or go out with a right old caper on a WWII motorbike!

Three county poker

Whilst working today there was the usual exchange of sociable emails amongst the work at hand.

I had told the chaps excitedly about a paint mixing machine I had just seen (in North Somerset). It was like a big old ice cream machine and had plenty of cans of base paint (white) on a carousel. Above them was another carousel of various colours with a large pump on each. The chap in charge then added precise measures of certain colours to the white in order to get the required pantone. The machine then shook the can to buggery and bingo, there was the perfect colour. Two pantones required, two 'goes' on the machine keenly observed by me!

Bag came right back at me from Yorkshire and said 'I'll see your paint mixer and raise you a building site'.

After a small wobble I saw Bag's Building site and raised him a Supertanker, kinda thinking I had won.

Bag, the poker ace then saw my Supertanker and raised me an SR-71! Total master stroke.

Walshy then came in late on (from Lancashire) and raised us both the Universe claiming the game, but Bag called for his openers and claimed victory right back.

And I wonder why they are letting me go from the office?! Ha ha.

Whaddayaknow? Jean Luker's selling tellies...

Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarkin' 'ell, Jon (Jean!) !

My top-smart friend Walshy sent me a text message tonight about Patrick Stewart signing up with Currys. I had no idea what Walshers was on about but he's 100% dependable so I knew an explanation would be along soon. Turns out he was watching Next Gen' on the Virgin TV channel. I caught it an hour later on V+1 with dinner and whaddayaknow, here was the first ad' break with THIS! Press play on the image of the TV/video player screen on the right hand side.

Top stuff! The tune is fine too. Mylo - in my arms.

Oh yes, also got an invite to an assessment day next Monday for a new job. Cool.

On Strike

My computer speakers seem to have stopped working this morning. I can't help but think this is their way of protesting about recent mental fast loud thrash punk that I have subjected them to. Could need a re-boot. Could need blander music. Could need sentences that don't end in prepositions (bad form and all that).

No beef about Monday.

I seem to have blogged quite a bit tonight but hey-ho, it has done no harm.

The roast beef was just fine, I turned it down towards the end to ensure it was not roasted right the way through, and I let it settle a good while before carving.

The beef was absolutely divine! I had put in rosemary, coriander, garlic and grain mustard and all the flavours worked! The wine just finished it off and the piccalilli did the trick. Sandwiches should be top!

This is a pic' after carving and the detritus you can see is roasted garlic, little bits of rosemary and those nice chewy bits one gets when cooking beef carefully. I like the way the light reflects in the surface of the wine.

My thanks and respect to the cow; I hope you were a happy beast.

All in all a very happy start to the BS5 week.

TOTAL drama!

I have had a blog visit from Bozeman, Montanna and you know what is going to happen there come April 5th, 2063!

Montana also sent a visit to my blog from a place called Altoona. When I read that I said it out loud (and I am on my own in the house) coz' it sounds cool.

Alttttttoooooooooooooooooooona and the Vulcans on a Monday night.

SMART!

Right, off for my roast beef now and giggling at Spod references!

Dillinger Escape Plan.

My good friend and near neighbour Stevie Hopes has introduced me to a band called Dillinger Escape Plan. They sound like a drill in a washing machine and actually received a review 'Sounds like a flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs'. They are mental, and they hail from Morris Plains in New Jersey in the U S of A, where they appear to put out fastasfuck punk. Track 13 on the album Ire Works is a current (only) favourite, the rest are plain odd.

This is the album's front cover. I like the clean, easy font. They are not really like The B.H Surfers and Locust Abortion Technician but it's the same bizarre Steve type tunes that make one think.

Roast beef update and Third Paragraph woman.

Le Rosbif is in fact in the oven this evening owing to beer related delays on Sunday and a lack of inclination on the part of the chef last night.

This makes for a late dinner tonight, the first night of the week but right now it is smelling pretty fine with a waft of mustard, garlic and rosemary coming up from the kitchen.

Another day at work working kinda' hard and a realisation that I have more work left than month/tenure so I will need to think about a response and an attitude to that.

Nice chatter with 3rd P/W who was looking just fine today (and wearing very nice perfume) and I even nearly asked her out for lunch!

Some small glimmer of hope on the job front with a warm response to my CV as thrown against one job app' by an agency.

Ha ha, I put 'third paragraph' into Google images just now and it came back with a picture of JP-II, so I am going with it, even though the Pope is usually a right spanner!

Roger Noodle.

Yesterday I watched the tennis whilst in the pub. There was a big screen but the sound was down. I was not sure who was in the final and could not identify either man. It is 5.20 on Monday morning now and I have just heard the result on Radio 4. Apparently one stopped the other from making it five on the bounce. I have not had much interest in tennis since Steffi Graf finished up.

The Formula 1 was very smart though and I did pay attention to that!

Back in

Yesterday I went back to church where I had not been for three weeks. The three missing Sundays were on account of the following:

Three weeks ago: In Ireland
Two Weeks ago: Cider after Guinness on Saturday afternoon = major hangover
Last week: Had just found out about work and spent the morning on job apps.

So I put my head in yesterday and was very pleasantly surprised by the welcome and the care. Everyone said it was nice to see me back and asked about work and stuff. What a nice, caring lot. My Vicar is particularly nice too.

Met the chaps afterwards and had a Sunday beer.

This is the church I attend; I took this after the gig.

Tasks and roast beef.

This is the piece of beef I am going to cook mid afternoon (probably whilst watching the Grand Prix) but before that there is work to be done. I have a couple of job applications that I didn't do yesterday on account of a pint here in BS1 , and I need to write to some bright young things in London who have started an Agency for Retail Operations and told the world so in a bright ad' in Retail Week on Friday.

The rain it raineth as I type but it is a pleasant day nevertheless.

Yesterday we enjoyed a couple of pints in BS1 and had quite a right old chat about this and that as we drank some excellent beer.

Saturday Choice

Saturday choice - do all the domestic stuff like laundry, hoovering and dusting OR get on the sofa and watch TV!

You KNOW it makes sense! Living on your own is top sometimes as there's only really one person to make all the choices around!

Off into jolly old BS1 shortly.

The Weekend!

I love the weekend! Kick back from work and spend two days larking about - fantastic. 2nd favourite tee-shirt, fave jeans and dressing for larks!

It's the St Paul's festival today here in Bristol. I went along last year and it was a hoot but I don't think I will look in today. Last year I tried curry-goat for the first time and it was really nice! You wouldn't imagine a goat would have much taste because a goat is a scrawny little beast and they eat anything at all they find but hey, it was just fine (as was the company last year!)

I saw the Reggae reggae sauce man last year but this was news to me because I did not know who he was and have never ever watched any sort of 'Britain's got Apprentices on Ice Factor' sort of a show (well, apart from the top series when Raymond Blanc chose to run a restaurant in partnership with an amateur).

I think I will just spend Saturday larking about and filling in a couple of job apps and speculative emails to agencies. A beer may be required at some point, or a glass of Merlot whilst cooking (a sliver side joint of beef this weekend with a little garlic and rosemary, cooked just nice and rare).

All in all a pretty quiet day here in Bravo Sierra Fiver. The joint of beef which was a canny bargain in Sainsbury's last night is massive if anyone wants to call in for dinner!

Off for breakfast now with my pal Steve from down the road. Smart!

404

This is my 404th post and it is absolutely devoted to my terrific friend Walshy because I rather hope he will find the pic' amusing with a mix of my enjoyment of the good book and his enjoyment of the error message gag!

Walshers...here's to you, Caz and the little chap, old bean :)