Random burblings since 1999
The date has grabbed the headlines, it’s all over the news but still no-one is asking the question.
What the HELL do they coat the outside of bagels with? It manages to reach super-thermal temperatures after only a few minutes toasting, making the extraction of said bagel, from said toast, bloody painful.
Funny how it happens, call it coincidence, call it fate, call it pain in the arse timing, but why ohh why ohh WHY do these things happen?!
I’ve been invited to a birthday party, and I’d really like to go. Unfortunately it’s in London and, on the day in question, I’ll be in Spain. I’m a bit miffed about this, but such is life. There will be other birthday parties I know.
In other news my mate Stuart and I spent HOURS demolishing part of a ceiling our our mate Ian’s house (he’s just out of hospital and not up to doing the work himself ya see). Hours we were at it, and to pay us back Ian made a fabulous steak pie. Delish, and rounded off with some Peckham’s cheesecake.
We also drank a lot of red wine, talked about old times, new times, and daft things. Tried not to laugh too much when Stuart said… ohh no, I said I wouldn’t mention that 😉
So, we were slightly fuzzy headed this morning as we sat in Ian’s living room, supping coffee and watching the neighbourhood sparrowhawk have it’s blackbird breakfast. Lovely.
I had planned on getting up early and heading home for my morning jog session but, well I couldn’t be arsed. We’re approaching the last week of the ten week block and it’s only the second time I’ve missed it so it’s not too bad, especially as I went out this afternoon and ran for longer than I would’ve anyway.. AND it was hilly, and hot. Still enjoying it though and have a 5K in my sights soon.
So, after the ceiling destruction yesterday, today we planned the shuffling of the ‘office’ (the spare bedroom, or ‘wee’ room in most houses) to accomodate Louise’s sideline. Basically it means clearing out a load of junk (I’m about part way through and can’t be arsed finishing it right now), buying a new desk for the computer, and shuffling some furniture around. We think it’ll work.
At least we think the desk arrangement will work, whether we can work in the same room, at the same time, remains to seen…
How the hell was your weekend?
It never EVER fails. No matter how much music I have, a visit to FOPP always brings more. Yesterday saw me return to work with:
And all for less than a tenner. Brilliant.
However if you add in other recent acquisitions – three Amon Tobin albums (whom I’m sort of discovering at the moment), Starflyer 59, a boxset of Thelonious Monk (Moods), Wolfmother and Lou Rhodes albums and, well, my cup floweth over.
Thankfully I’m at home today, waiting on a survey on the house, so can listen to them as and when I want.
And, of course, other suggestions are welcomed. What are you listening to at the moment?
Never one to pass up a free book, most of which come via my parents, I have an ever growing “to be read” pile that is currently tottering at an alarming level. So, lest it fall over and kill someone I’ve started to work through it.
Now, I should explain that I have two ‘sets’ of books that I’ve yet to read. There are the neatly “placed on bookshelf” classics — Don Quixote, Count of Monte Cristo etcetera etcetera — and the the other “piled wherever I can find space” books which are typically more modern and on bestseller lists. What can I say, I’m a book whore. I’ll read anything.
And so it was that I found myself reading an awfully pedestrian, badly written thriller called The Righteous Men by Sam Bourne. No link as I’d hate anyone to buy it. Labelled as… wait for it… yup, the “The Next Dan Brown” (their capitals not mine), it was, quite simply, rubbish. I’ve had more thrills waiting for a bus. I won’t bother you with any more detail than that, my only advice is DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!
However, the odd thing is that I still read the damn thing from start to finish, only skimming over the boring bits.
It’s all his fault, him and his “old skool kicksology“. Although I guess I could work a little harder on the willpower front…
Let’s rewind a little.
I enjoy playing basketball, but don’t get much chance these days. Many moons ago I used to play every Sunday night, and my idol, like every basketball fan of that era, was Michael Jordan. These were the days when rampant commercialism was just beginning, in fact I’m not even sure we realised, back then, where it would lead, so it took me all of a nano-second to decide to buy my first pair of basketball boots and, naturally, they’d have to be Air Jordan (V).
I can remember trying them on in the shop and the first time I wore them on a court, the squeak and slap of the sole on the varnished wood still etched in my memory. You see, of all the sports I’ve ever played, basketball was not only my favourite but something at which I was, well, let’s say above average. Ohh balls to that, I was pretty good! I’m still not sure why, possibly something picked up from my Dad — memories of being allowed to play in the school gym where he taught, and entire basketball court and more to myself — or maybe it just suited my brain better. Whatever the reason I know that, in my year, there were two good basketball players and I was one of them.
Those basketball boots lasted me for several years before, having worn them almost constantly, they kinda fell apart. Ohh yes, it was a sad day when they were finally laid to rest. A touching ceremony, although Mr. Jordan declined the invitation to attend.
Zip forward several years and, in Stoke Mandeville, I found a group of guys who met up on a Sunday night to play basketball. I hadn’t played for years but leapt (no pun intended) at the chance to get back on the court. Admittedly these guys were all MUCH better than me, including the guy who could dunk, but I held my own and enjoyed every minute. I invested in a new pair of basketball boots and, unable to shake my youth, I plumped for the latest Air Jordans again (the XIII). I still have them, as I don’t really wear them often, and it’s those very same boots that I was wearing when I broke my foot.
That was three years ago, and the boots are still at the bottom of my wardrobe. With no basketball in my near future, Lord knows I’ve no reason to buy another pair, not even if they were the same as my beloved original Air Jordan V.
Hey, they were cheap, doubly so as I paid for them a couple of weeks back when the dollar to sterling rate rendered things virtually ‘half-price’, and they arrived on Monday. Yes, I have NO willpower. Unfortunately you can’t buy that on a whim (which, surely, is kinda odd?).
Frivolous? Hell yes. But you should see the smile on my face!
Related: Air Jordan History
… working on a WordPress theme and finding it both easier than I thought, at times, and decidely harder than it should be, at times. My design-fu is failing me.
… looking for an instrumental version of “Holding Out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler in MP3 format. Ideally it’d be the version from Shrek 2 to which Jennifer Saunders sings along with.
… glad that today I have remembered my mobile phone. I don’t use the damn thing that often but it is comforting to have it.
… feeling bad that I didn’t go out for a run last night.
… wondering if the girl who sat beside me on the train this morning realised that her lacy gold knickers and most of her arse were visible everytime she bent over to get another item of makeup from her bag.
… pleased that our mortgage application may be processed quicker than we thought.
… not so pleased at how much it is costing us (although it’ll only take two months to make that money back).
… waiting on a phone call from a journalist to ask about women bloggers. No I don’t know why *I* am the person to ask!
… feeling a little guilty for spending a small amount very VERY frivolously, more on that later.
… trying to figure out if those extra three cups of coffee yesterday were responsible for keeping me awake until 2a.m. this morning. I’ve been trying to cut down and have little more than one or two a day at the moment. So I think it’s a safe bet, especially as the last cup was around 8.30p.m.
… sure that this style of posting is a direct consequence of the above.
… not as funny as I think.
… bored with this now, might post more later.
So, what are you?