w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Today's lyric:
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"I have sworn every time
Thoughts of you would leave my head
I was wrong, now I've found
Just one thing makes me forget..."

UB40: "Red, red wine"
From the album: "The Best Of"

Lola - that's her with two of her kittens - was taught as a kitten herself, by her breeder, to drink from a glass. The woman would simply set a tumbler to the chilled water dispenser of her American fridge, put it on the floor, and the litter lapped.

And when she came home to us, she promptly taught the trick to our other Burmese (and of course, ultimately to her own litter) so that for years, when we go to bed with our glasses of water for the night, we have to set them on coasters, but with another coaster on top. The penalty for forgetting is to wake up to the sound of slurping and the knowledge that you'll have to go downstairs to refresh the glass!

And on the food front, all of them have very catholic tastes. Even the Old Boy - who lost the plot at the age of 18 just before Xmas and is now buried in the back garden near his erstwhile mate - particularly liked Hot n Spicy Dorritos and would happily cham on one held out for his delectation.

Mrs D. cooked Indian Cottage Pie last night. Basically it involves putting turmeric in the mash and chillies in the mince. Except that she didn't have any fresh chillies, so for the first time ever used chilli flakes (putting in another half-teaspoon 'for good measure') as you do.

(That's gonna cause some rectal damage later today...)

But I left barely a chef's smear and set the plate down on the floor to digest it all, before clearing away. Lola meandered into the room, got a whiff of the remains of the meal and set to with gusto - even though there was bu99er all to hoover up.

And of course, what else do you do after dinner, but hop up onto your master's lap and slurp some red wine out of the glass in his hand!

We both sat there stunned, until Mrs D. collected herself and stuttered "Stop her, she'll be pi55ed!"

Happy Days!

Both seen in our garden today, New Year's Eve, 2009..




Happy New Year, y'all... may be around a bit more often in 2010?

Labels: birdage

Today's lyric:
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"And I see myself and it seems so clear
I can walk through the world like I'm not really here.
And I really don't care."

Paul Weller: "Friday Street"
From the album: "Heavy Soul"

Today is my sixth Blogday. Happy Blogday, me.

I can't, won't and don't blame people for not calling by as often as they once did.

My posts are so sporadic and inconsequential these days, any expectancy on the part of my visitors has long evaporated. But then, I always maintained that if I had nothing to blog, I wouldn't.

So what to do? Close down the site? Board over the windows?

No - somehow I think I'd end up regretting that action. Circumstances will change and one day, this medium may be my crutch in life. Who knows?

So in the meantime - enjoy your weekends, y'all

Mahalo

Today's lyric:
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"I got mine, let me tell ya - I got mine.
I grabbed that money 'n out the back door, I went flying
Well, ever since the big crap game
I've been livin' on chicken and wine.
I'm the leader of society since I got mine."

Ry Cooder: "I got mine"
From the album: "Chicken Skin Music"

I'm still bemused by the UK Governm1nt's unilateral decision to impose and subsequently increase airport taxes, on the grounds of environmental damage?

Now my daily commute takes me twice through Gatwick railway station and I'm not alone among my fellow passengers to continually marvel at the miracle that is man-made flight. Because many other travellers will also always look skywards as we approach the station, to see if any jets are dropping in to land. They really are so low at this point in their approach to the runway as they transverse the train at right angles, that you feel you could reach up and pluck them from the air!

Yet for most of the year* I'm unable to see the actual landings because of the foliage on the untended trees and bushes which form a natural barrier between the tracks and the runway.

How can it be that with thousands of landings spewing countless litres of hot kerosene vapour like industrious crop-dusters, these plants not only survive but flourish well enough to provide an impenetrable curtain?

Someone who does her damndest to promote green issues does use this method of transportation on occasion, so I'd like to know if I'm maybe being just the tiniest bit cynical that the tax is not actually a means of atoning for us wanting to see our world but just another financial leach by our Dictator**?

* in Winter, it's too dark at both ends of the day to see anything anyway
** Dictator = Unelected leader of a country or nation

Today's lyric:
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"If you ever feel neglected,
If you think all is lost,
I'll be counting up my demons, yeah,
Hoping everything's not lost."

Coldplay: "Everything's not lost"
From the album: "Parachutes"

* Peers round door *

Gawd, it does look deserted here, doesn't it?

My only excuse is that I'm now officially a department of one, the 'phone is constantly ringing its head off and my unread e-mails now total 563. No, make that 564, another's just arrived..

Still, am off on holiday soon. Somewhere in Portugal. Don't know exactly where, but who cares. I'll be off.

So if anyone wants to be literally involved in this 'ere blog, feel free to volunteer.

Obviously that doesn't include you as you're coming to El Porto with me. And you're going to study that bl00dy Nitrox manual, what like I did!

Nyerr.

Today's lyric:
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"I have a TV screen of some 32 inches
TV dinner and an easy chair
From where I view a disaster
And switch the channel fast
And thank my lucky star I wasn't there
The world's in a hurry but I don't have to worry
There's a movie on with a happy end
I've seen it before but I can see it some more
So I don't have to go out and pretend."

The Hellacopters: "Everything's on tv"
From the album: "Air Raid Serenades"

Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the Fleet Air Arm (the Royal Navy's Air Force) and they decided to launch a phalanx of choppers from HMS Illustrious (moored down in Greenwich) and perform a flypast up the Thames. Representing one of every type of whirlybird they've ever flown.

So I pegged it down to Tower Bridge for 12 noon, to find that the east walkway was closed to pedestrians - meaning that any shots of the display coming upstream would have to be taken through carefully-timed gaps in the buses and lorries passing in front of me in both directions.

But the worst decision for your intrepid snapper was whether to take a shot of a single helicopter (waste of effort when variety was the theme) or a group of them in flight looking skyward (so no obvious clue to where the event was taking place) or wait until they reached the far skyline (seen from the 'good' side of the bridge) and give the flight some perspective.

So they all looked like a bunch of orderly flies in a very dark sky that was more like 12 midnight!.

Enjoy your weekends, y'all.