Well, after a quarter-moon of chilling out, exploring Aberdeenshire and fun with Groupie, it's back to work, back to reality - and back to my sleeping pattern being completely out of sync with everything. I could blame the clocks changing last Sunday morning, but not sure how a one hour time difference could throw me this much. I was dozing for a while yesterday evening and ended up staying at least semi-awake the entire night, admitting defeat about 03.00 as I got up and mainlined coffee in a bid to be fit for work. Not much else to do at that time and in that state but leave comments on blogs and mess around with YouTube playlists, and you'll perhaps notice I've changed the tracks at the bottom of the blog. I've also added another in the sidebar which will show trailers from films I've recently seen. I'm not sure a window that small works, but it's a lot easier to add things to a playlist than mess with the text in a sidebar every time I see a movie...
I did manage to get through the working day OK - quite easily as it happens - but had to fall asleep for a "quick snooze" to recharge about 16.00 or so, and when I woke up, I found six hours had passed...
While the coffee orgy was going on this morning I found an enormous bug of some sort climbing up my shower curtain. This was my second invertebrate visitor of the last 24 hours, following on from a spider which rather freaked Groupie out when it came a-calling. I'm not sure why the bugs are coming to visit right now, maybe it's because I tend to keep my house at a constant 25-30 degrees Celsius, and the bugs are looking for something warm to come to when nights are cold and lonely.... hang on, that's Tammy Wynette, isn't it?
But I didn't intend to stand by my bug, so it was time to quickly grab my bugbuster, which does actually look a bit like something Bill Murray and the gang would use. It's a small vacuum cleaner type thing with a long clear tube for collecting the bugs you find around the home - although I can't imagine it's a nice experience for the bug, it doesn't kill them - just collects them inside the tube, and you can then take the bug outside and release it in more natural surroundings. I've had the thing for years and it works exceedingly well.
I wish it was so easy to get rid of the pests at work. It's that interview tomorrow... pif.
2010-03-27
F-F-S...
I am bloody annoyed. Seriously, heavily, PMS-style annoyed. In fact the most uptight woman on the planet with PMS probably couldn't hold a candle to how annoyed I am right now. It all started when I heard my employers will be calling me in for a disciplinary interview for "taking too much time off work" which was triggered by the absence I had last week. It's all automatic - if your absence record fits the criteria, the letter gets sent out. The bloody boss hasn't even signed it properly - he's written his name in a script-like typeface where the signature goes.
Despite knowing when I made the phone call last Monday week that this would probably happen, I am still raging mad about this. Why we are even bothering to hold the interview I've no idea. I've had experience of this sort of thing before, and have heard stories around the office, and I know that no matter what I say at this interview I will be hit with a warning. They only take what actually is said at the interview into account if it's your job on the line, and I'm not at that stage yet - not officially, but I still will be facing what is in effect a one year suspended sacking from Tuesday.
I dragged myself to work in pain on several occasions during the winter because I wanted to avoid this happening. If I could have held out another moon, it would have been all right. As long as you don't trigger the automatic criteria. One day is enough - and I speak from experience. But then, these are the bloody people who have done the same thing to people who have been off work for cancer treatment. Cancer treatment, for Zog's sake!
To hell with them. And everyone and everything else.
You know what else annoys me? Besides my heartless bloody employers, and besides having to fight my way through third-generation doleites who don't even have the brains to get a pair of headphones to plug into their little mobile phones when they listen to "bangin' choons" on the sick joke they call "public transport" in this one-horse town? I'll tell you what - things are going to hell in a handbasket and all we're worried about is the tiniest bloody details! About how we should have used black ink instead of blue, or called something X instead of Y, or put something in the orange bin instead of the green one. You know the stuff I mean. You're probably guilty of doing this yourself sometimes. I know I am. Meanwhile nothing important gets done and those in charge rape us again and again while cackling demonically to themselves.
Well, I'm rather tired of being raped.
Despite knowing when I made the phone call last Monday week that this would probably happen, I am still raging mad about this. Why we are even bothering to hold the interview I've no idea. I've had experience of this sort of thing before, and have heard stories around the office, and I know that no matter what I say at this interview I will be hit with a warning. They only take what actually is said at the interview into account if it's your job on the line, and I'm not at that stage yet - not officially, but I still will be facing what is in effect a one year suspended sacking from Tuesday.
I dragged myself to work in pain on several occasions during the winter because I wanted to avoid this happening. If I could have held out another moon, it would have been all right. As long as you don't trigger the automatic criteria. One day is enough - and I speak from experience. But then, these are the bloody people who have done the same thing to people who have been off work for cancer treatment. Cancer treatment, for Zog's sake!
To hell with them. And everyone and everything else.
You know what else annoys me? Besides my heartless bloody employers, and besides having to fight my way through third-generation doleites who don't even have the brains to get a pair of headphones to plug into their little mobile phones when they listen to "bangin' choons" on the sick joke they call "public transport" in this one-horse town? I'll tell you what - things are going to hell in a handbasket and all we're worried about is the tiniest bloody details! About how we should have used black ink instead of blue, or called something X instead of Y, or put something in the orange bin instead of the green one. You know the stuff I mean. You're probably guilty of doing this yourself sometimes. I know I am. Meanwhile nothing important gets done and those in charge rape us again and again while cackling demonically to themselves.
Well, I'm rather tired of being raped.
2010-03-24
Guests Of The Gordons
I've been daytripping with GroupieGirl again... this time heading to the town of Huntly in Aberdeenshire. I've not been there for years - 1997 in fact, only a few months after Groupie and I met. She used to have a biker friend who lived there, and she had invited the two of us over for some fun over the Easter weekend. I vividly remember it because the comet Hale-Bopp was visible in the sky about then, and we could see it so clearly in the dark skies over the little town.
Anyway, we had two places to visit there today - the first being Huntly Castle. Nowadays it's just an old ruin, but four hundred years ago this would have been a country mansion owned by the Earls of Gordon. We had hoped to get a guided tour of the place, which we'd heard took place every Wednesday, but apparently that's only done in summer. So, I bought a guidebook and we did our own guided tour instead, and we ended up spending about an hour exploring the old place.
The Gordons were originally granted the land as reward for their support of the Scottish kings (dating back to Robert The Bruce sending "proud Edward's army homeward to think again" as immortalized in the national anthem) They eventually became the most powerful family in north-east Scotland - a little too powerful for Mary Queen of Scots' liking, who captured the fourth earl in 1562. He later fell off his horse and died, but Mary wasn't going to let a little thing like that stop her from getting satisfaction, having his corpse taken to Edinburgh and put on trial for treason!
The buildings that remain date mainly from about 450 years ago and I found myself imagining how it might have felt to have visited the place then, perhaps as a guest of the lord at one of his banquets. Groupie and I might have enjoyed the feasting in the main hall while minstrels played the 16th century top of the pops - and we'd have been careful not to offend our host, for fear of being thrown in the dungeons below!!
We did some feasting of our own after our visit on more modern fare in a little cafe, and then went to Dean's Bakery, another of the town's claims to fame. They make shortbread here - rather a lot of it! - and you can actually watch the stuff being made through viewing windows. I'm not sure how I'd react to tourists coming in and peering at me trying to do my job every day, but maybe the staff are used to it. We bought several packets of fruit flavoured shortbread to take home with us (and some for Groupie's dad as well) I had no idea fruit flavoured shortbread existed - it'll be interesting to see what it tastes like.
The only strange thing was being stared at by the locals - at least, that's the impression we were getting. Surely we didn't look that touristy? Maybe it was our Cyberdog hats that they were interested in. Anyway, I kept hearing the theme from the BBC show "The League Of Gentlemen" in my head - and the misty conditions didn't help...
I should point out, though, the townspeople were friendly enough when we were dealing with them. We were made welcome and we both had a great time - thanks Huntly!!
Anyway, we had two places to visit there today - the first being Huntly Castle. Nowadays it's just an old ruin, but four hundred years ago this would have been a country mansion owned by the Earls of Gordon. We had hoped to get a guided tour of the place, which we'd heard took place every Wednesday, but apparently that's only done in summer. So, I bought a guidebook and we did our own guided tour instead, and we ended up spending about an hour exploring the old place.The Gordons were originally granted the land as reward for their support of the Scottish kings (dating back to Robert The Bruce sending "proud Edward's army homeward to think again" as immortalized in the national anthem) They eventually became the most powerful family in north-east Scotland - a little too powerful for Mary Queen of Scots' liking, who captured the fourth earl in 1562. He later fell off his horse and died, but Mary wasn't going to let a little thing like that stop her from getting satisfaction, having his corpse taken to Edinburgh and put on trial for treason!
The buildings that remain date mainly from about 450 years ago and I found myself imagining how it might have felt to have visited the place then, perhaps as a guest of the lord at one of his banquets. Groupie and I might have enjoyed the feasting in the main hall while minstrels played the 16th century top of the pops - and we'd have been careful not to offend our host, for fear of being thrown in the dungeons below!!
We did some feasting of our own after our visit on more modern fare in a little cafe, and then went to Dean's Bakery, another of the town's claims to fame. They make shortbread here - rather a lot of it! - and you can actually watch the stuff being made through viewing windows. I'm not sure how I'd react to tourists coming in and peering at me trying to do my job every day, but maybe the staff are used to it. We bought several packets of fruit flavoured shortbread to take home with us (and some for Groupie's dad as well) I had no idea fruit flavoured shortbread existed - it'll be interesting to see what it tastes like.
The only strange thing was being stared at by the locals - at least, that's the impression we were getting. Surely we didn't look that touristy? Maybe it was our Cyberdog hats that they were interested in. Anyway, I kept hearing the theme from the BBC show "The League Of Gentlemen" in my head - and the misty conditions didn't help...
I should point out, though, the townspeople were friendly enough when we were dealing with them. We were made welcome and we both had a great time - thanks Huntly!!
2010-03-23
The Alien's Greatest Hits
Back in 2008 when I was finding my feet with Twitter I found myself posting a lot of musical tracks there. I used to do a "track of the day" feature, and I remember a certain person (who actually inspired me to start blogging in the first place) saying to me "I pretty much love every track you post". And ever since starting this little old blog eighteen moons ago or thereabouts, I've tended to finish each entry with a song - an embedded YouTube video. Usually, I try to choose a relevant track to go with what I've written, indeed sometimes I've started with the track and somehow built a blog post around it! I've also added the track details beside the video, because videos can disappear from YouTube for all sorts of reasons - this way someone coming across an old entry can at least see what track I had associated with it and can then go off in search of it if they want to hear it for themselves.
All of this is done by hand - I usually type out my blog entries on TextEdit on my Mac and then copy/paste them over to Blogger. So all my links etc are done by typing in the HTML and hoping things look OK when it's displayed in your browser.
However, I've been thinking that maybe I spend a little too much time on my blog entries - it can take me over an hour to get one just right - and one of the reasons that it takes so long is the hunting for YouTube tracks, particularly the extra details I add like which album it was from. One of the reasons I was considering a move to Posterous is the idea that I can just type out an email and get a blog entry up just like that - or upload a picture to Flickr and have that posted to the blog automatically. Why not let the computers do some of the work? That is what they're for, after all...
So, from today, there will be no more tracks at the end of each entry. There may well still be YouTube clips embedded in blog posts, but the idea of finishing on a song is, well, finished. Instead, I've added an embedded YouTube playlist at the bottom of the blog, and all the tracks will be put there. It's a lot easier to add a track to a YouTube playlist than to copy and paste an embed URL, get details of which album the track was on, and all the other stuff I've done up to now. I had no idea you could even embed playlists until recently, but now I know it's possible I feel this is the way to go.
This is still very much in beta - I may well end up with several on the go down there! Perhaps I'll restart my "track of the day" as an embedded playlist. Who knows? Anyway, for the moment, I've added a mellow "chilled out" list and I'll keep that there for a few days until I've come up with some more. Listen and enjoy!
All of this is done by hand - I usually type out my blog entries on TextEdit on my Mac and then copy/paste them over to Blogger. So all my links etc are done by typing in the HTML and hoping things look OK when it's displayed in your browser.
However, I've been thinking that maybe I spend a little too much time on my blog entries - it can take me over an hour to get one just right - and one of the reasons that it takes so long is the hunting for YouTube tracks, particularly the extra details I add like which album it was from. One of the reasons I was considering a move to Posterous is the idea that I can just type out an email and get a blog entry up just like that - or upload a picture to Flickr and have that posted to the blog automatically. Why not let the computers do some of the work? That is what they're for, after all...
So, from today, there will be no more tracks at the end of each entry. There may well still be YouTube clips embedded in blog posts, but the idea of finishing on a song is, well, finished. Instead, I've added an embedded YouTube playlist at the bottom of the blog, and all the tracks will be put there. It's a lot easier to add a track to a YouTube playlist than to copy and paste an embed URL, get details of which album the track was on, and all the other stuff I've done up to now. I had no idea you could even embed playlists until recently, but now I know it's possible I feel this is the way to go.
This is still very much in beta - I may well end up with several on the go down there! Perhaps I'll restart my "track of the day" as an embedded playlist. Who knows? Anyway, for the moment, I've added a mellow "chilled out" list and I'll keep that there for a few days until I've come up with some more. Listen and enjoy!
2010-03-22
Thainstones, Meet The Thainstones...
You know what? It's great not to be in pain anymore. I still have a little twinge every now and then but that's just a reminder to take my little pills :) I'm certainly feeling a lot happier at the moment. Could it be spring related?
Groupie and me decided to go off on a little trip this Sunday. There's not an awful lot to do around here on Sundays, and not an awful lot of public transport to travel on to get to where there is something to do! However, something which does happen every Sunday not too far away from here is the market at Thainstone, on a site out in the wilds of Aberdeenshire. Through the week, they hold livestock auctions, and occasional auctions for goods from liquidated businesses - there's one planned next week with cars, power tools and all sorts of stuff going under the hammer. But on Sundays, the car boot brigade arrive and it becomes the eBay of the offline world.
I like browsing through markets. Even though 99% of the stuff on offer is stuff I wouldn't be interested in buying anyway, and even though I have enough clutter in my little house already, it's still fun to look around and see what's on offer. When in London, it's almost compulsory to visit the famous market at Camden Town, and so I suggested to Groupie an early morning ride to Thainstone for a Sunday with a difference.
So that morning, we both got on a bus, with no idea where we were going - well, we knew what our destination was, but not where! I wasn't sure if I'd get a good enough signal out there to use Google Earth on my iPhone, but as it happened the bus stopped on the road just outside the site, so it worked out beautifully. And there was a heck of a lot of people buying and selling that morning: all sorts of stuff on offer. Things like really old radios (with things like "BBC Home Service" marked on the dials) lots of DVDs, old coins from all around the world, and picture disc LPs (lots of Alice Cooper material there, which appealed to Groupie) Then we went into the main building (where the livestock auctions take place) and looked around the stalls there - country music sellers, gothic/witchy T-shirts, and some "pre-loved" games for the Playstation 2. I bought one of them, a ten-pin bowling game.
There were burger vans all around the site, but we waited until lunchtime and went into the bar/restaurant which was nearby. Turned out to be a lot classier than we were expecting...a carvery, no less! But then, it was Sunday I suppose. Anyway, we had a really nice lunch there. We had a side order of prawns, which we'd never tried before - they were different, let's say. And it's always nice to stuff your face with profiteroles occasionally :) They had a really nice taste in classic rock music as well, going by the tracks being played.
Once we'd come out of there, the place outside looked like a ghost town - everyone was packing up and disappearing! Nothing else for it but to make our way home. Which wasn't quite as smooth as our journey there - we had to cross a main dual-carraigeway to get to the right side of the road for our bus, and then it was about 15 minutes late... but all in all, a great day out!!
Groupie and me decided to go off on a little trip this Sunday. There's not an awful lot to do around here on Sundays, and not an awful lot of public transport to travel on to get to where there is something to do! However, something which does happen every Sunday not too far away from here is the market at Thainstone, on a site out in the wilds of Aberdeenshire. Through the week, they hold livestock auctions, and occasional auctions for goods from liquidated businesses - there's one planned next week with cars, power tools and all sorts of stuff going under the hammer. But on Sundays, the car boot brigade arrive and it becomes the eBay of the offline world.
I like browsing through markets. Even though 99% of the stuff on offer is stuff I wouldn't be interested in buying anyway, and even though I have enough clutter in my little house already, it's still fun to look around and see what's on offer. When in London, it's almost compulsory to visit the famous market at Camden Town, and so I suggested to Groupie an early morning ride to Thainstone for a Sunday with a difference.
So that morning, we both got on a bus, with no idea where we were going - well, we knew what our destination was, but not where! I wasn't sure if I'd get a good enough signal out there to use Google Earth on my iPhone, but as it happened the bus stopped on the road just outside the site, so it worked out beautifully. And there was a heck of a lot of people buying and selling that morning: all sorts of stuff on offer. Things like really old radios (with things like "BBC Home Service" marked on the dials) lots of DVDs, old coins from all around the world, and picture disc LPs (lots of Alice Cooper material there, which appealed to Groupie) Then we went into the main building (where the livestock auctions take place) and looked around the stalls there - country music sellers, gothic/witchy T-shirts, and some "pre-loved" games for the Playstation 2. I bought one of them, a ten-pin bowling game.
There were burger vans all around the site, but we waited until lunchtime and went into the bar/restaurant which was nearby. Turned out to be a lot classier than we were expecting...a carvery, no less! But then, it was Sunday I suppose. Anyway, we had a really nice lunch there. We had a side order of prawns, which we'd never tried before - they were different, let's say. And it's always nice to stuff your face with profiteroles occasionally :) They had a really nice taste in classic rock music as well, going by the tracks being played.
Once we'd come out of there, the place outside looked like a ghost town - everyone was packing up and disappearing! Nothing else for it but to make our way home. Which wasn't quite as smooth as our journey there - we had to cross a main dual-carraigeway to get to the right side of the road for our bus, and then it was about 15 minutes late... but all in all, a great day out!!
2010-03-20
Springtime Springs Anew
It's March the twentieth, the first official day of spring, and to my fellow aliens all over the planet, happy new year!
So welcome to the 23rd orbit of the current generation then. You may think it's a little strange and alien celebrating the new year in late March (and that's partially the point - heh heh) but it makes much more sense to me than midnight in midwinter. Winter is on the whole a rather depressing time for me (expect on the snowy days, so this year wasn't so bad) and now it's over and done with for another year I can awaken from hibernation and get my energy back. I've always thought of the year as having a light half and a dark half, roughly bounded by when the clocks go forward around the end of March, and back at the end of October - or if you like, Renewal Day (which is what I call this time) and Hallowe'en.
I had planned to invite Groupie over tonight, but I fell asleep after work and have just awakened, so I guess that'll have to wait till tomorrow. Ah well, never mind. Not that I really want to remember those hateful days, but of course this time last year we were supposed to be breaking up - things had got that bad between us - and I'm glad we managed to work things out, particularly considering all the fun we had in what turned out to be the "year of blag".
Anyway, I've been floating around the internet again looking for music videos and came across this one after a bit of searching. Thought I'd show you just how eclectic my musical tastes can be - so here's a little bit of popular classical! I don't usually go in for string quartets. But then, this is no ordinary string quartet :) I could watch these ladies play all night long, and perhaps I will!! Happy Renewal Day from the alien amongst you.
So welcome to the 23rd orbit of the current generation then. You may think it's a little strange and alien celebrating the new year in late March (and that's partially the point - heh heh) but it makes much more sense to me than midnight in midwinter. Winter is on the whole a rather depressing time for me (expect on the snowy days, so this year wasn't so bad) and now it's over and done with for another year I can awaken from hibernation and get my energy back. I've always thought of the year as having a light half and a dark half, roughly bounded by when the clocks go forward around the end of March, and back at the end of October - or if you like, Renewal Day (which is what I call this time) and Hallowe'en.
I had planned to invite Groupie over tonight, but I fell asleep after work and have just awakened, so I guess that'll have to wait till tomorrow. Ah well, never mind. Not that I really want to remember those hateful days, but of course this time last year we were supposed to be breaking up - things had got that bad between us - and I'm glad we managed to work things out, particularly considering all the fun we had in what turned out to be the "year of blag".
Anyway, I've been floating around the internet again looking for music videos and came across this one after a bit of searching. Thought I'd show you just how eclectic my musical tastes can be - so here's a little bit of popular classical! I don't usually go in for string quartets. But then, this is no ordinary string quartet :) I could watch these ladies play all night long, and perhaps I will!! Happy Renewal Day from the alien amongst you.
bond
victory
born 2000
2010-03-19
Not As Young As I Was...
...but then is anyone? :)
Had a l-o-n-g day to get through today. I've returned to work, and that went OK I guess - my bloody employers may well slap a disciplinary charge on me for "taking too many days off sick this year" (a number in single digits, incidentally) but they'll have to wait until after my alien new year holiday to do so and I'll worry about that then. Or rather, I won't worry about it at all, as I no longer care. It's not just me - a workmate of mine has been involved in a situation at work straight out of a Franz Kakfa novel for months, which would be hilariously funny if it wasn't so serious. Obviously I will not go into details here, but you really couldn't make it up, trust me! Thankfully it's all looking like there'll be a happy ending. As for me, I shall be organizing things at work to suit myself from now on - the least the bosses have to do with me, the better, I'm just going to be "the grey alien in the background"
Today was so long as I had a doctor's appointment in the middle of it, which went OK as well! The MD's not entirely sure what's wrong with me, he reckons the pain I have could be a simple muscular strain, or it could be related to excess stomach acid. So, he prescribed me something for both!! I now have a couple of boxes of little pills, some of which are strong painkillers which I've been told could make me feel a little "floaty" - sounds heavy, man! Maybe I should put on a Hendrix LP, drop one, get my GroupieGirl and go far out.... or, alternatively, go down to some of the nightclubs and sell them. I'll be rich!
Anyway, this is, as regular readers will know, the equivalent of the last day of the year for us aliens - today was officially the last full day before the spring equinox, and rather fittingly I saw my first bee of spring today. Along with the return of the oystercatchers and the butterflies, this is a sight I look forward to seeing as it's a sign the indeterminately long winter is over, a time that is always an ordeal for me. Although this winter had plenty of snow, which helped. I won't be complaining if we get that again in 2010/11, although I feel I may be in the minority there... Should you wish to celebrate with me, the moment of the equinox is at 17.32 Universal Time tomorrow, when I'll wish you all a happy renewal day...
I survived another winter then - there's been quite a few now (shudder!) This was brought home to me last night during an online conversation with a certain UK ex-pat now living in Sweden. He was posting up all sorts of links to reminders of growing up in the UK in the 1970s/80s which really had me wallowing in nostalgia. I did say "that one's going in my blog", so here's a couple of videos to showcase what was so cool about my childhood. If you're in your thirties or forties you'll already know, and if you're in your twenties or younger - well, this is what it was like... It's all there, including my dad's favourite aftershave of the time!
Had a l-o-n-g day to get through today. I've returned to work, and that went OK I guess - my bloody employers may well slap a disciplinary charge on me for "taking too many days off sick this year" (a number in single digits, incidentally) but they'll have to wait until after my alien new year holiday to do so and I'll worry about that then. Or rather, I won't worry about it at all, as I no longer care. It's not just me - a workmate of mine has been involved in a situation at work straight out of a Franz Kakfa novel for months, which would be hilariously funny if it wasn't so serious. Obviously I will not go into details here, but you really couldn't make it up, trust me! Thankfully it's all looking like there'll be a happy ending. As for me, I shall be organizing things at work to suit myself from now on - the least the bosses have to do with me, the better, I'm just going to be "the grey alien in the background"
Today was so long as I had a doctor's appointment in the middle of it, which went OK as well! The MD's not entirely sure what's wrong with me, he reckons the pain I have could be a simple muscular strain, or it could be related to excess stomach acid. So, he prescribed me something for both!! I now have a couple of boxes of little pills, some of which are strong painkillers which I've been told could make me feel a little "floaty" - sounds heavy, man! Maybe I should put on a Hendrix LP, drop one, get my GroupieGirl and go far out.... or, alternatively, go down to some of the nightclubs and sell them. I'll be rich!
Anyway, this is, as regular readers will know, the equivalent of the last day of the year for us aliens - today was officially the last full day before the spring equinox, and rather fittingly I saw my first bee of spring today. Along with the return of the oystercatchers and the butterflies, this is a sight I look forward to seeing as it's a sign the indeterminately long winter is over, a time that is always an ordeal for me. Although this winter had plenty of snow, which helped. I won't be complaining if we get that again in 2010/11, although I feel I may be in the minority there... Should you wish to celebrate with me, the moment of the equinox is at 17.32 Universal Time tomorrow, when I'll wish you all a happy renewal day...
I survived another winter then - there's been quite a few now (shudder!) This was brought home to me last night during an online conversation with a certain UK ex-pat now living in Sweden. He was posting up all sorts of links to reminders of growing up in the UK in the 1970s/80s which really had me wallowing in nostalgia. I did say "that one's going in my blog", so here's a couple of videos to showcase what was so cool about my childhood. If you're in your thirties or forties you'll already know, and if you're in your twenties or younger - well, this is what it was like... It's all there, including my dad's favourite aftershave of the time!
2010-03-18
The Dead Tree Lives Again
One thing which makes life with Groupie interesting - and always has done - is the fact that we're quite different in several ways. There's a few things in life where we find ourselves on opposite sides, ranging from the trivial (she watched Swap Shop on the BBC as a child on Saturday mornings, whereas I was a huge fan of their competitors Tiswas over on ITV) to the more serious (she's generally supportive of the death penalty, I'm very much against it) Probably the most striking difference between us is our attitudes to technology. Groupie has no computer and no real wish for one, and prefers to write letters to penpals. I of course have my trusty Apple Mac and use email and social networking to keep in touch. In fact, I find it difficult to write for a prolonged period now as I'm so used to typing things, which I can do much faster.
I never used to be like that though. Obviously back in the 1980s when I was at school and had exercise books, I was into paper-based things a lot more. I had all sorts of notebooks stashed away where I'd write things down on - all sorts of random things. In fact, my Dad often said my bedroom was a fire hazard with all that paper! For a while back then I had the names of the Top Twenty records written down on strips of paper which I'd stick on my wall in the order they were in that week's chart, moving them up and down and replacing them with new strips each week like my own version of the displays at record shops. I was also into pen-pals back then, and wrote to them on coloured writing paper which you could buy (by the sheet) at a printer's in the nearest town, with envelopes to match!! Then, around the end of the decade, I was given a typewriter for my birthday, and the rest is history... Now I've got things like Evernote and the like, there's probably no need to write down anything. Just type it in as an email or a text file and there you go.
Recently though I've found myself scribbling various things down on backs of envelopes - idle plans, notes, etc. and while I could type these into a textfile, sometimes that's not always convenient. I reckon I stare at a screen a little too much as it is. And what if I need to draw something to illustrate these notes? Get a graphics tablet? I've always wanted one of those, and they're dirt cheap nowadays - but even a technophile like me has to admit that sometimes pen and paper is the best solution. So the little notes appear on the backs of the envelopes, and then they start adding to the clutter which invariably surrounds me. I started thinking to myself "I should be scanning these into the computer and then recycling the originals - but sometimes that feels like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Maybe I need to get hold of a notepad for this sort of stuff". Yes - there's not even a notepad in my house these days!
So I went out and bought one today. It's an A6 journal, with 192 pages and a ribbon bookmark. My first notepad of the 21st century. I can imagine being curled up in bed with it and writing down stuff from my thoughts - maybe planning out projects. And if I want to, I guess I can scan the pages into Evernote if I want them in the digital sphere, can't I?
Maybe Groupie was right after all...
I never used to be like that though. Obviously back in the 1980s when I was at school and had exercise books, I was into paper-based things a lot more. I had all sorts of notebooks stashed away where I'd write things down on - all sorts of random things. In fact, my Dad often said my bedroom was a fire hazard with all that paper! For a while back then I had the names of the Top Twenty records written down on strips of paper which I'd stick on my wall in the order they were in that week's chart, moving them up and down and replacing them with new strips each week like my own version of the displays at record shops. I was also into pen-pals back then, and wrote to them on coloured writing paper which you could buy (by the sheet) at a printer's in the nearest town, with envelopes to match!! Then, around the end of the decade, I was given a typewriter for my birthday, and the rest is history... Now I've got things like Evernote and the like, there's probably no need to write down anything. Just type it in as an email or a text file and there you go.
Recently though I've found myself scribbling various things down on backs of envelopes - idle plans, notes, etc. and while I could type these into a textfile, sometimes that's not always convenient. I reckon I stare at a screen a little too much as it is. And what if I need to draw something to illustrate these notes? Get a graphics tablet? I've always wanted one of those, and they're dirt cheap nowadays - but even a technophile like me has to admit that sometimes pen and paper is the best solution. So the little notes appear on the backs of the envelopes, and then they start adding to the clutter which invariably surrounds me. I started thinking to myself "I should be scanning these into the computer and then recycling the originals - but sometimes that feels like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Maybe I need to get hold of a notepad for this sort of stuff". Yes - there's not even a notepad in my house these days!
So I went out and bought one today. It's an A6 journal, with 192 pages and a ribbon bookmark. My first notepad of the 21st century. I can imagine being curled up in bed with it and writing down stuff from my thoughts - maybe planning out projects. And if I want to, I guess I can scan the pages into Evernote if I want them in the digital sphere, can't I?
Maybe Groupie was right after all...
elvis costello & the attractions
everyday I write the book
punch the clock 1983
2010-03-16
Sundial In The Shade
Well, I'm feeling a little less tired than yesterday, which is a start. I called work to keep them informed of the situation (told them about my doctor's appointment etc) and they of course asked when I would be returning to work. I was thinking about going back on Thursday, but this evening I was checking myself out in the mirror and noticed something a little worrying. I feel, well, different on my left side than on my right - there's a sort of bump about where the pain is, and it feels hard, like bone or something. I'm sure I didn't feel like that before and I'm sure I was a little more symmetrical in the past, so that's started to scare me. Think I may have to wait until my doctor's visit until I return to work, for the sake of my mental piece of mind if nothing else. Friday can't come soon enough...
To happier thoughts, then. I finally managed to get a picture Groupie bought me hung up - rather than bang a new nail into the wall, I just took down an old cork noticeboard I never use anymore and did a little re-arranging. The BBC Test Card F is now adorning my wall, a sight I am well familiar with from my childhood. It was often broadcast for much of the daytime back then, accompanied by some light music. I've got a fridge magnet with this design also (another Groupie gift - she knows what I like)
Groupie came round today to see how I was, and wanted to know if I was feeling up to a little trip to the Cruickshank Botanic Gardens, which we found out about recently. It's been around for over a century but we had no idea of its existence until last week! To be honest, there's not much point in visiting a botanic garden at this time of the year but we went anyway to check the place out. It's a small site, only about 4 hectares of land, but it's very peaceful and I can imagine what it must be like in late spring or summer with all the flowers in bloom. We'll have to revisit then, and have a picnic!
Hey, now I can add inline images in my blog! Only took me, what, a year and a half...
To happier thoughts, then. I finally managed to get a picture Groupie bought me hung up - rather than bang a new nail into the wall, I just took down an old cork noticeboard I never use anymore and did a little re-arranging. The BBC Test Card F is now adorning my wall, a sight I am well familiar with from my childhood. It was often broadcast for much of the daytime back then, accompanied by some light music. I've got a fridge magnet with this design also (another Groupie gift - she knows what I like)
Groupie came round today to see how I was, and wanted to know if I was feeling up to a little trip to the Cruickshank Botanic Gardens, which we found out about recently. It's been around for over a century but we had no idea of its existence until last week! To be honest, there's not much point in visiting a botanic garden at this time of the year but we went anyway to check the place out. It's a small site, only about 4 hectares of land, but it's very peaceful and I can imagine what it must be like in late spring or summer with all the flowers in bloom. We'll have to revisit then, and have a picnic!
One of the sights which is visible all year round is this magnificent sundial, which I took a picture of. I'm actually quite fond of sundials - they're actually a lot more accurate than people give them credit for! Most people don't realize that sun time and clock time are two slightly different things, for example, at this location and at this time of year a sundial will be about 15 minutes behind a properly set watch. For different locations, and different times of the year, the difference will be - well, different :) - but if you can allow for these, sundials can be made pretty accurate... In fact, there are precision sundials called heliochronometers, and they can be accurate to within a minute, which is about as good as you can physically get with a sundial. Sadly, it was cloudy so I had no chance to test this one out, but you have to admit it looks magnificent.
Hey, now I can add inline images in my blog! Only took me, what, a year and a half...
culture club
time (clock of the heart)
kissing to be clever 1982
2010-03-15
New Moon On Monday
This morning when my alarm went off I knew I wasn't physically (or psychologically) capable to go into work, and so reluctantly I did call in sick. Equally reluctantly, I called the pitiful excuse for a doctor's surgery we have in this town, and got an appointment there for Friday. As I said last time, there's clearly something wrong with me, and I may as well get it sorted out, yeah?
Two things that happened today made me feel quite emotional, the first one being a Twitter update from someone I follow. It read simply, "dreams come true, if you're strong willed enough" and while I agree with the sentiment, I thought to myself, "but what if you have no dreams?" I don't think I have any at the moment - I don't think I've had any for a while. I've been too busy dealing with getting myself through the day without being in too much pain. Or maybe, as this article shows, I've got used to the gallows.
The second thing was a documentary I was watching on the BBC iPlayer which took in various sites in London such as the British Library and the National Portrait Gallery. At one time or another I'd visited them all, and looking at them I had that strange sense of familiarity I often get when London is the subject - it's strange that despite never having lived there I recognize these places as if they were in my home town. One thing I'd never seen for myself, but desperately wanted to, was the green laser line projected across the zero meridian at night in Greenwich. Last time I visited London with Groupie our base was in the (soon to be Royal) Borough of Greenwich and at night I would look up into the sky in a vain hope to see the laser. I knew it was close by since the O2 dome is practically on the meridian and we were just across the Thames from there, yet we never saw it, perhaps due to the less than clear October skies (it was the week of Hallowe'en after all)
It was featured in the documentary, though, and it was nice to actually see the thing even if only virtually. And thanks to this website, you can see it too :)
Anyway, a few minutes after 21.00 (Greenwich Mean Time, of course!) we'll have a new moon. Hopefully it'll be better than the last one, and given the date, it's a rare opportunity to post a link to this great song which I owned on vinyl back in the last century :)
Two things that happened today made me feel quite emotional, the first one being a Twitter update from someone I follow. It read simply, "dreams come true, if you're strong willed enough" and while I agree with the sentiment, I thought to myself, "but what if you have no dreams?" I don't think I have any at the moment - I don't think I've had any for a while. I've been too busy dealing with getting myself through the day without being in too much pain. Or maybe, as this article shows, I've got used to the gallows.
The second thing was a documentary I was watching on the BBC iPlayer which took in various sites in London such as the British Library and the National Portrait Gallery. At one time or another I'd visited them all, and looking at them I had that strange sense of familiarity I often get when London is the subject - it's strange that despite never having lived there I recognize these places as if they were in my home town. One thing I'd never seen for myself, but desperately wanted to, was the green laser line projected across the zero meridian at night in Greenwich. Last time I visited London with Groupie our base was in the (soon to be Royal) Borough of Greenwich and at night I would look up into the sky in a vain hope to see the laser. I knew it was close by since the O2 dome is practically on the meridian and we were just across the Thames from there, yet we never saw it, perhaps due to the less than clear October skies (it was the week of Hallowe'en after all)
It was featured in the documentary, though, and it was nice to actually see the thing even if only virtually. And thanks to this website, you can see it too :)
Anyway, a few minutes after 21.00 (Greenwich Mean Time, of course!) we'll have a new moon. Hopefully it'll be better than the last one, and given the date, it's a rare opportunity to post a link to this great song which I owned on vinyl back in the last century :)
duran duran
new moon on monday
seven and the ragged tiger 1983
2010-03-14
Still Here, Just About
The usual proviso as I start this entry applies - I'm feeling rather tired and my brain is obviously not working as it should be, so hopefully you can make sense of this all. As we reach the last day of the last moon before the alien new year (which is on Saturday) I'm still finding life very tough to cope with, although having spent the last twelve hours lying on my bed sleeping has improved my mind this morning no end. But when you're so zonked out you can't even be bothered to eat, there's something wrong, although I think I could do with losing a couple of kilos despite being told 78kg is perfectly normal.
Currently I'm sitting on the sofa in my Japanese comic style PJ bottoms drinking water and thinking "how the hell do I improve this situation then?" My employers are working me to death - at least that's how I feel about it, and there's all sorts of pain in my body which I reckon can't be helped by the heavy lifting which is part and parcel of my job. I can't go off sick because I was off sick in October and they'll slap me with a disciplinary interview (which I will not give them the satisfaction of doing, the bastards) but thankfully I do have a week's leave coming up - once again, I asked for and got a week's holiday for the alien new year :) and this will at least let me get some strength back and perhaps even book an appointment with the doctor. Which as long term readers know, I only do as an absolute last resort.
I've been thinking maybe I should change jobs if I feel this way about things. However, there are no jobs about - as Groupie will tell you - and there's no point in both of us being out of work. Plus I'm far too mentally tired when I get home to do much jobhunting. So I guess I'm stuck in the gulag doing a life sentence. Ah well, if it kills me, it kills me. At least then the pain will stop.
I may write some more later. Right now I'm finding I can only cope with life in small doses, so this is all I can manage right now. So I'll leave you with this track, which I heard on the radio at work yesterday. I can't remember the last time that happened!! It reminds me of happier times during the autumn of 2008, when I was playing it pretty much every day...
P.S. Due to Chinese porn spam, I've had to turn on comment moderation. Don't let that put you off leaving a comment though, if you're genuine, it'll get published. Be patient though, it may take a while...
Currently I'm sitting on the sofa in my Japanese comic style PJ bottoms drinking water and thinking "how the hell do I improve this situation then?" My employers are working me to death - at least that's how I feel about it, and there's all sorts of pain in my body which I reckon can't be helped by the heavy lifting which is part and parcel of my job. I can't go off sick because I was off sick in October and they'll slap me with a disciplinary interview (which I will not give them the satisfaction of doing, the bastards) but thankfully I do have a week's leave coming up - once again, I asked for and got a week's holiday for the alien new year :) and this will at least let me get some strength back and perhaps even book an appointment with the doctor. Which as long term readers know, I only do as an absolute last resort.
I've been thinking maybe I should change jobs if I feel this way about things. However, there are no jobs about - as Groupie will tell you - and there's no point in both of us being out of work. Plus I'm far too mentally tired when I get home to do much jobhunting. So I guess I'm stuck in the gulag doing a life sentence. Ah well, if it kills me, it kills me. At least then the pain will stop.
I may write some more later. Right now I'm finding I can only cope with life in small doses, so this is all I can manage right now. So I'll leave you with this track, which I heard on the radio at work yesterday. I can't remember the last time that happened!! It reminds me of happier times during the autumn of 2008, when I was playing it pretty much every day...
ultravox
hymn
quartet 1982
P.S. Due to Chinese porn spam, I've had to turn on comment moderation. Don't let that put you off leaving a comment though, if you're genuine, it'll get published. Be patient though, it may take a while...
2010-03-05
Danserez-Vous, Monsieur Zaphod ?
I've had the weirdest, strangest dream - and there's no way I could have fitted this into 140 characters so I guess I will have to make another entry here after all. Is there a place on the internet where people can blog their dreams?
I was in some town in France - which is odd, despite never having visited France. Groupie was there too, which is odd, since she rarely shows up in my dreams (and maybe that's my brain saying I should see her again, yeah?)
Anyhow, we were walking down the street when we passed by a charity shop - whether they actually have charity shops in France, I have no idea, but there was one here. And in the window I could see something which looked familiar. It was the record player I used to have in the 1980s - the one my brother-in-law had built from a kit (yes, really!) I couldn't believe it! I thought to myself "I've not seen this in years. I need to photograph this" so I dashed inside to try and find the person in charge.
I tried to explain to the staff, in (very) broken French, what I was trying to do - that I used to own the record player in the window, about thirty years ago, that I'd like to photograph it and that I would of course make a donation to the charity if I was given permission. Luckily a girl behind the counter could speak English and knew what I was on about, so she fetched the manager and explained to him what I wanted.
"This was yours?" he said, pointing to the record player. Yes, I answered. "Ah, so perhaps you know how to dance to this" he said, getting hold of a 45rpm single and putting it on the record player. Not just any single, though. One I have vague, and rather embarrassing memories of getting when it was a hit. He put on the Birdie Song.
"Will you dance?" he asked? "If you let me take a photograph" I offered. And then I started to dance to the Birdie Song. Putting everything I had into it. Before long the entire staff and customers of the shop were dancing it with me. I finished to a round of applause, and the manager said I could take as many pictures as I liked!! I got some of the record player, and some more of the staff, all taken on my iPhone.
When I went outside again, it was a lovely warm afternoon and I started to make my way back to wherever it was we were staying, passing by a crowd of people at some plaza, who were watching some street theatre. Suddenly I heard a rather familiar laugh. "I'd know that laugh anywhere" I thought, and shouted out "Groupie!!" Sure enough, she was there, taking part in the street theatre as a willing participant. At least she wasn't dancing to the Birdie Song though.
It was at that point I woke up. Clearly my brain needed to be brought back to reality before things got even more surreal.
By the way, you didn't click on that YouTube link up there, did you? That bloody track will be in your head for weeks if you did, and I take no responsibility for that at all!!
I was in some town in France - which is odd, despite never having visited France. Groupie was there too, which is odd, since she rarely shows up in my dreams (and maybe that's my brain saying I should see her again, yeah?)
Anyhow, we were walking down the street when we passed by a charity shop - whether they actually have charity shops in France, I have no idea, but there was one here. And in the window I could see something which looked familiar. It was the record player I used to have in the 1980s - the one my brother-in-law had built from a kit (yes, really!) I couldn't believe it! I thought to myself "I've not seen this in years. I need to photograph this" so I dashed inside to try and find the person in charge.
I tried to explain to the staff, in (very) broken French, what I was trying to do - that I used to own the record player in the window, about thirty years ago, that I'd like to photograph it and that I would of course make a donation to the charity if I was given permission. Luckily a girl behind the counter could speak English and knew what I was on about, so she fetched the manager and explained to him what I wanted.
"This was yours?" he said, pointing to the record player. Yes, I answered. "Ah, so perhaps you know how to dance to this" he said, getting hold of a 45rpm single and putting it on the record player. Not just any single, though. One I have vague, and rather embarrassing memories of getting when it was a hit. He put on the Birdie Song.
"Will you dance?" he asked? "If you let me take a photograph" I offered. And then I started to dance to the Birdie Song. Putting everything I had into it. Before long the entire staff and customers of the shop were dancing it with me. I finished to a round of applause, and the manager said I could take as many pictures as I liked!! I got some of the record player, and some more of the staff, all taken on my iPhone.
When I went outside again, it was a lovely warm afternoon and I started to make my way back to wherever it was we were staying, passing by a crowd of people at some plaza, who were watching some street theatre. Suddenly I heard a rather familiar laugh. "I'd know that laugh anywhere" I thought, and shouted out "Groupie!!" Sure enough, she was there, taking part in the street theatre as a willing participant. At least she wasn't dancing to the Birdie Song though.
It was at that point I woke up. Clearly my brain needed to be brought back to reality before things got even more surreal.
By the way, you didn't click on that YouTube link up there, did you? That bloody track will be in your head for weeks if you did, and I take no responsibility for that at all!!
2010-03-02
This Could Be The Last Time
I started this blog back in October 2008, nearly 18 months ago. Since then, I've written over two hundred entries covering all sorts of things happening in my life and elsewhere. However, I'm not sure how many more of them I'll be writing. To be honest, I'm not sure if my heart's in this any more. And it's not just the blog - it's the entire web presence of Zaphod Camden. I'm finding I'm checking social networking sites less and less, and posting things less and less.
This could be caused by my general hibernatory mood at the moment, if that is a word. Or maybe it's a symptom of something worse. I mentioned Pink Floyd's excellent album "The Wall" a couple of entries back, and posted a track from it. Well, I feel I'm becoming like the main character "Pink" in the album, and slowly building a wall between myself and the outside world. I say slowly. Actually, most of it's probably complete.
I'm going to work with earplugs in my ears, mainly as a concentration aid, although it helps to block out the truly dire radio show we get subjected to over the PA system every morning. It also helps to block out the conversations going around the office, which mean very little to me anyway. I couldn't care less about who John Terry or Ashley Cole is sleeping with, or what the Man.United score was last night and how that was never a goal, bloody biased referees, or who's getting drunk where this Saturday evening. Actually, I just want to go into work, do my job, and get out of there. I certainly don't feel like talking to anyone in there, it's too much effort these days - and I'm fed up of people saying I'm weird. I know I'm weird - I've known for 36 years, it's getting tiresome having it pointed out to me.
I'm not even talking to Groupie as much as I was. For example, we've exchanged one SMS each in the last four days. Again, it feels like too much effort - and that's a shame, because I genuinely cherish the feelings we have for each other. But there's not much point in talking when you're not doing anything worth talking about, is there? I sleep a lot at the moment, my house is a mess again after my efforts over January to clear it up - a real stake through my heart - and I find it difficult to get myself enthused about stuff (if that is a word). And I mean stuff like checking my email... or even going grocery shopping...
OK, my life is pretty empty at the moment, but the fact that I've had a week away from work where I've travelled to Glasgow with Groupie, been to two concerts (Mika, and the Sergeant Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Show) and one movie (The Crazies) and can't really work up the motivation to blog about any of it probably speaks volumes about how I feel about things right now. I rather doubt the readership of this blog is anything other than single figures, so it's not as though I'm making much of a contribution to the whole blogosphere type thing. So I'm certainly doing this more for my own benefit than the benefit of others. And I'm not sure whether or not I want to continue doing this, because I'm not sure I'm getting the benefit any more. Perhaps it's just a fun idea which I no longer find fun. There's a lot of things I no longer find "fun" at the moment anyway.
And yet, I sincerely hope this is not the end. Those that have stuck with me particularly during the proceedings of this time last year will know how hard it is for me to actually pull the trigger on something. Maybe come the alien new year (which is about half a moon away) I'll feel differently about things. Or maybe I just need to change my style of blogging - there's been thoughts of switching to a "tumble-log" style rather than the one long article each time followed by a YouTube track.
Anyway, it is hoped that I'll be writing some more stuff here soon - but, as they say, there are no guarantees. And there ain't no joy for an uptown boy who just isn't willing to try, as someone famous once sang.
This could be caused by my general hibernatory mood at the moment, if that is a word. Or maybe it's a symptom of something worse. I mentioned Pink Floyd's excellent album "The Wall" a couple of entries back, and posted a track from it. Well, I feel I'm becoming like the main character "Pink" in the album, and slowly building a wall between myself and the outside world. I say slowly. Actually, most of it's probably complete.
I'm going to work with earplugs in my ears, mainly as a concentration aid, although it helps to block out the truly dire radio show we get subjected to over the PA system every morning. It also helps to block out the conversations going around the office, which mean very little to me anyway. I couldn't care less about who John Terry or Ashley Cole is sleeping with, or what the Man.United score was last night and how that was never a goal, bloody biased referees, or who's getting drunk where this Saturday evening. Actually, I just want to go into work, do my job, and get out of there. I certainly don't feel like talking to anyone in there, it's too much effort these days - and I'm fed up of people saying I'm weird. I know I'm weird - I've known for 36 years, it's getting tiresome having it pointed out to me.
I'm not even talking to Groupie as much as I was. For example, we've exchanged one SMS each in the last four days. Again, it feels like too much effort - and that's a shame, because I genuinely cherish the feelings we have for each other. But there's not much point in talking when you're not doing anything worth talking about, is there? I sleep a lot at the moment, my house is a mess again after my efforts over January to clear it up - a real stake through my heart - and I find it difficult to get myself enthused about stuff (if that is a word). And I mean stuff like checking my email... or even going grocery shopping...
OK, my life is pretty empty at the moment, but the fact that I've had a week away from work where I've travelled to Glasgow with Groupie, been to two concerts (Mika, and the Sergeant Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Show) and one movie (The Crazies) and can't really work up the motivation to blog about any of it probably speaks volumes about how I feel about things right now. I rather doubt the readership of this blog is anything other than single figures, so it's not as though I'm making much of a contribution to the whole blogosphere type thing. So I'm certainly doing this more for my own benefit than the benefit of others. And I'm not sure whether or not I want to continue doing this, because I'm not sure I'm getting the benefit any more. Perhaps it's just a fun idea which I no longer find fun. There's a lot of things I no longer find "fun" at the moment anyway.
And yet, I sincerely hope this is not the end. Those that have stuck with me particularly during the proceedings of this time last year will know how hard it is for me to actually pull the trigger on something. Maybe come the alien new year (which is about half a moon away) I'll feel differently about things. Or maybe I just need to change my style of blogging - there's been thoughts of switching to a "tumble-log" style rather than the one long article each time followed by a YouTube track.
Anyway, it is hoped that I'll be writing some more stuff here soon - but, as they say, there are no guarantees. And there ain't no joy for an uptown boy who just isn't willing to try, as someone famous once sang.
george michael
one more try
faith 1987
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