Friday, April 30, 2004
On the lash
Part of the fun of being a team member (plus the fact that I don't have to drive everywhere any more) means I can join the crew for an end-of-day drink.
Now
Uborka knows my favourite tipple (Fridays over there is Cocktail Day - go visit and get your order in) so at 5.15 I've got a neat vodka in my mitt and more to look forward to!
And now it's lashing down outside...
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Thursday, April 29, 2004
Venom
T'wind were fair whippin' 'cross London Bridge 'smornin'. Almost needed me coat!
I do enjoy blatant venom in songs. Marianne's (see Today's lyric) thoughts on how life's treated her are wonderfully obscene to listen to - just as Pulp's "Common people" had undisguised contempt for the vacuous rich and the wasted 'beautiful ones'.
Using the medium to vent your bile must have been the forerunner to rantblogs....?
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Wednesday, April 28, 2004
No future?
I loved Rotten's attitude to older generations.
"God Save The Queen" was a truly in-your-face, scruff of the neck, enforced vision of what was to come. We had created that generation, there was now nothing that could be undone and the rest of our lives was to be controlled by "them".
Bolox to that, though.
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Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Jumped or was pushed?
The fatality at Gatwick railway station last night seemed to paralyse Southern England - I got onto 3 trains before one actually left London Bridge. We trundled reverently through Gatwick, which was deserted and the world disembarked at the normally sleepy Three Bridges. The locals must have thought there was a Premier match or major gig going on. Quite bizarre.
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Friday, April 23, 2004
I don't care
if it made it into someone's "
Worst Top 50".
"
The Vegetarians of Love" (see Today's lyric") is memorable
because of its shambolic production.
Nuff said.
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Thursday, April 22, 2004
The affliction of affection
No, not in the diseased sense of the word, more like ‘struck by’. No, even that’s not right. I’ll work on it and re-post when I get it improved.
She wasn’t stood on the street, actually. It was in a youth club called The Wheel (yes, that’s how we amused ourselves then, children) and it was lust at first sight. November 8th, 1970 – me 17, she 15.
Among the other couples we know who have also made it through enormous distances of time – if that’s not an mixed metaphor? – the common agreement is that you have to be friends first and the rest follows.
So as my little readership is
guaranteed to be so much younger than me, I won’t dwell on the ‘marital’ side of the relationship, but will just say I’m happy to feel how
Stuart is right now.
P.S. I forgot to blog what prompted this - our first live gig was to see Free (yes, she fell in love with Paul Rogers, their frontman) and I was reminded of that by what was yesterday's Today's lyric. Confused? You must be.
All right.
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Monday, April 19, 2004
Mr.D.vd
No, I haven’t contracted a std, it’s just that I seem to watch more films on that medium these days than at the movies.
Having battled the elements to return Number One Daughter to Brum yesterday for her last term at Uni, in a hideously ugly but surprisingly agile hired Renault Megane, we decided that a takeaway and film were richly deserved.
So it was Russell Crowe’s “Master and Commander”, about a man o’ war at the time of Trafalgar (and very watchable too).
As the ship’s captain, he was visiting the injured after a battle at sea and came across a boy midshipman who’d just had a broken arm amputated.
“I hear you’re fond of books” he said, “so I’ve brought you a …”
one-handed magazine, I quipped. Number One Son choked on his Chinese!
Btw, I was (genuinely) honoured to receive a visit (and comment) from
bsag, one of my several female Muses. I openly admit that I only understand about 20% of her posts, but her blog is a daily read for me and you should visit, if you haven’t already.
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Thursday, April 15, 2004
Mine
I watched “Finding Nemo” last night, and was mildly amused. I did like the seagulls’ relentless claims of “Mine”.
I’m sort of ‘between books’ at the moment (always open to suggestions?) so I was idly looking out of the train window this morning and spotted a building, which was presumably two semi’s, one of which had been painted a lurid green.
I’ve never been able to understand the mind-set of people who do that? Is it just to provide visible evidence, to an otherwise cheerfully ignorant public, that this half belongs to me? Did they consult the neighbours, to see if they liked (or minded) the colour? Did they offer to paint the neighbour’s house at the same time and got a polite declinature?
So it prompted today’s lyric (yes, the
song actually exists).
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Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Loosely connected
Maybe it was watching some of “The Games” last night? The male contestants had to dive, whether from a springboard or platform. It takes some nerve, believe me.
I’ve stood on the edge of the 5-metre level, looked down and thought, “It’s water, not concrete, what can go wrong?” But we’ve all seen belly-flops and sworn we’d never risk it. But I did, and was glad I’d had a go.
I recalled the Olympics when they were staged in Barcelona and the high dive was set against the backdrop of the city – a truly magnificent vista for the sport.
Then up popped Mr Mercury and Ms Caballe on today’s randomly-selected minidisc, crooning the song that I have to fight hard not to cry over whenever I hear it.
And London Bridge is not overly-convenient for a weep.
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Tuesday, April 13, 2004
The Wow Factor
Wow – what happened to Easter?
4 solid days of d.i.y. and attempting to restore the lawns to something like, well, lawns?
Skinned knuckles, grime-ingrained fingertips and a back that constantly is reminding me to go at it a bit easier next time.
I need a holiday.
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Thursday, April 08, 2004
I'm from Suffix
Heard an article on the radio about the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Now, if you were an Associate of that august body, what letters would you put after
your name?
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Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Your first time
Both of my parents have been enormous influences on my life, especially my Dad.
Ill-educated because of the upheaval of evacuation during the Second World War, I’m convinced he could have gone much further if he’d had the proper schooling. But he can still wipe the floor with me at chess and cards, particularly the latter, because of his acute memory of which cards have already been laid.
And I have to thank him for teaching me to read. Apparently, he’d sit me on his lap from when I was two and coax me to pick out words from the newspaper. So by the time I got to primary school, I was able to radg (=get through quickly, as in “I radged through my salary this month” – you read it here first) through the “Janet and John” books and their “See Emily play” tweeness.
Before I blogged for myself, I posed the question over at
Uborka: “What was the first book you ever
voluntarily read?”
Mine was “Bark – the Bush Pig” about a domesticated pig which escapes and goes feral (reminiscent of the Tamworth Two) and has to become ever so wily to survive the wild. It clearly made an impression, because I can remember the title and plot despite it being over 45 years ago (shades of Dad, then?).
So what was yours, then? Take a straw poll in your office/workplace/circle and get an insight into your colleagues’/friends’ literary initiation.
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Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Shaving your father / Standing by
1. No, the ol’ pot and pan isn’t too infirm to shave himself. In fact, he’s in exceptionally good nick and I’ll take great comfort from that, especially if it’s a hereditary thing?
It’s just that the face looking back at me in the mirror this morning is how I tend to remember him – and therefore marks my own passage of time. Today's lyric just somehow reinforced the imagery.
2. And in other news.
Amid all the kerfuffle, hullaballoo, furore and general media frenzy about the (allegedly) parlous state of the Beckhams’ marriage, is it true they’ll stand by each other, Thick and Thin?
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Monday, April 05, 2004
Already Gone
Friday Night : Portsmouth Guildhall :
The Illegal Eagles
Our friends had bought the tickets for our third gig by this tribute band and we hadn’t realised it was the first one of the new tour – hence the uncharacteristically hesitant opening number. I thought we were going to be disappointed.
But they quickly got into their stride and were belting out the numbers with customary energy. The second half started with the a capella version of “Seven Bridges Road” by Steve Young, with the band’s founder/drummer leading the quintet…
“There are stars
In the Southern sky
Southward as you go
There is moonlight
And moss in the trees
Down the Seven Bridges Road”
I found myself drifting off into a reverie of when we visited the volcano in Hawaii last year. Scrambling back to the road over the lava, in the inky blackness, someone behind said “Switch off your torches and look up”. With no streetlight or headlamp pollution of the darkness, the entire sky, from horizon to horizon, was a pure canopy of brilliant stars. And so prompted today’s lyric.
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Thursday, April 01, 2004
How very carless of me
After 25 years of having a company car, I am actually (and voluntarily) without wheels paid for by A.N.Other.
The A12 witnessed a glorious exhibition of sheer grunt (hopefully no speed cameras did) before it was returned to base, washed and waxed and looking (almost) like new.
Closure.
# posted by Mr.D. @ 12:46 PM
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Drinking and Driving (but clearly not simultaneously)
