w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Today's lyric:

"She said that she was working for the ABC news
It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use
Her perfume was unspeakable, it lingered in the air
Like her artificial laughter, her mementos of affairs
'Oh' I said 'I see you know him, isn't that very fortunate for you?'
And she showed me his calling card
He came third or fourth (and there were more than one or two)"

Elvis Costello: "Brilliant mistake"
From the album: "Extreme Honey"

I (almost) can't be ar5ed to blog.

It's been a very long week and it'll be a very long day. But we've got a couple of days in Pompey to look forward to, visiting Buddy1 and Mrs Buddy1.

I may teach him to upload photos for a diversion. After all, as Scaryduck often intones, "this thread worthless without pictures!"

Have a good weekend, y'all.

Today's lyric:

"Throw away your television
Take the noose off your ambition
Reinvent your intuition now
It's a repeat of a story told
It's a repeat and it's getting old."

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers: "Throw away your television"
From the album: "By the way"

Choice last night was a post-work walk or a singles match of shuttlecocks against Number One Daughter.

NOD won - in the sense that we played badminton - but lucked out result-wise as, in a nail-biting whitewash, she failed to score more than 4/15 in any of the four games and failed to score at all in one of them.

Not that I'm crowing or anything. Oh no. Because the hams are singing this morning!

But those old endorphins give you a great, natural high, don't they?

Today's lyric:

"My jacket's gonna be cut slim and checked
Maybe a touch of seersucker with an open neck?
I ride a GS scooter with my hair cut neat
I wear my wartime coat in the wind and sleet."

The Who: "Sea and sand"
From the album: "Quadraphenia"

Maybe not strictly PC, but it's my blog...

A little American girl accompanies her dad to the barbers.

While he's sat in the chair, she goes to stand by him, eating a cake.

"Honey" says the barber, looking down concernedly "you're gonna get hair on your muffin."

"I know" agreed the girl, "and I'm gonna grow t1ts too!"

Today's lyric:

"Voyager 2 where are you now?
Looking back at home and weeping
Cold and alone in the dark void
Winding down and bleeping
Ever dimmer, ever thinner
Feebly cheeping in the solar winds
I'll turn you up
Sail on, sail on, sail on
On past the howling storms
Through electric orange skies
And blinding methane rain
Sail on.
I'll turn you up."

Bob Geldof: "Thinking Voyager 2 type things"
From the album: "The Vegetarians of Love"

I sometimes think that blogging's like a video cassette recorder. Hey, remember them? VCR's, eh. With dvd recorder prices dropping through the floor, how soon will it be a schoolkid's project to chart the rise and fall of the VCR, and its impact on society?

Being able to store history and bring it back to life whenever? Taping today and reliving it tomorrow?

Anyway. A thread of thought.

Being an atheist, there's no way I can conceive of living my life in thrall to any religious beliefs. They're the product of mankind anyway, not from the god(s) they're allegedly to be used for the purpose of worship. I'm too independent for that line of thought.

And yet, despite the fact that I believe I'm a free-thinker, it sometimes seems odd to me that a large part of my job involves very detailed construction of rules and regulations for software - providing programmers with the english orders to turn into gobbledygeek and thus into an interactive piece of work.

I don't know where I'm going with this. Two intensive days of data mapping last week has microwaved my brain. I'll sort myself out and come back again refreshed...

Huzzah!

Today's lyric:

"Are you pacing through the streets, 'til you cannot feel your feet?
When the people look at you, can they see right the way through?
Are you thinking that they know?
Were you ever happy in his shaky arms?"

Graham Coxon: "Are you ready?"
From the album: "Happiness in magazines"

A beautiful day for a training walk - hope the marathon runners get the right weather for tomorrow's London run?

Mrs.D's gone to collect S and C for a soiree chez nous (they've got a cab booked for the return trip, so everyone can have a drinkee)

Talking of which, I'm about to produce that wonderful sound when the cork leaves the bottle.

As I missed the chance to post yesterday, a belated exhortation to have a great weekend, y'all.

Today's lyric:

"Would they drop the bomb on us while we made love on the beach?
We were the class they couldn't teach, 'cos we knew better."

The Police: "Born in the 50's"
From the album: "Outlandos d'Amour"

Mrs.D. is going to work for the Old Bill!

Not in a hand-cuffing capacity, but personnel. So she'll be leaving the Major Supermarket she's worked for, for the past fifteen years.

Less money but - more importantly - less hours. Weekends will be ours again. We won't have to plan meeting friends on the one Saturday in four that she doesn't work.

Yay! and - I believe - Woot!

Today's lyric:

"Arabs at oases
Eskimos and Chinese
If you feel blue, look through Who's Who
See la Goulue and Nijinsky.
Do the Strandsky."

Roxy Music: "Do the Strand"
From the album: "Roxy Music"

Here we go, for a (second-half) week of meetings, meetings, meetings...

Gets in the way of blogging. Harrrummph.

Today's lyric:

"Measuring a summer's day,
I only finds it slips away to grey,
The hours, they bring me pain
Thinking how it used to be,
Does she still remember times like these?
To think of us again?
And I do"

Led Zeppelin: "Tangerine"
From the album: ">LZ1"

Don't know about you guys, but the weather over the four days was generally sh1te?

Managed to clear the blocked guttering before it poured down on Friday (and stupidly volunteered to do the neighbours' too - which took two hours compared to the twenty minutes I spent on mine.) Still, he 'agreed' to sponsor me for the Moonwalk, so I guess it was worth it.

And spent some time collating 183 tracks for the night of the walk itself - something for everyone (except any Genesis fans - I have to draw the line somewhere!) so at least we'll have some choons to while away the hours...

How was yours?

Today's lyric:

"But I would walk five hundred miles
and I would walk five hundred more
just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
to fall down at your door".

The Proclaimers: "Five Hundred Miles"

For me, 1000 paces on my (freely-obtained) pedometer equates to half of one mile.

So this



means that I've cracked the recommended distance to cover in preparation for a half-marathon. So now I know the route (and therefore the distance) to step up the pace.

But just for now, feet up and r e l a x x x x x x

breaking news

Spark Out

Today's lyric:

"Good Friday arrived, the sky darkened on time
'til he almost began to negotiate
She held his head like a baby and said "It's okay if you cry"
Now he wants her to dress, as if you couldn't guess
He desires to impress his associates
But he's part-ugly beast and Hellenic-deceased
So she finds that the mixture is hard to deny."

Elvis Costello: "All this useless beauty"
From the album: "All this useless beauty"

Maybe Costello is just being cynical, but the weather doesn't seem to be shaping up too well for the upcoming four days' break?

As it will dictate what I do, skyward glances will recur during the days to come.

What are you guys up to?

Today's lyric:

"On a convenient seat by the lavatories in the sodium glare
We used to wait for the bus in a passionate clutch and go as far as we dared
Do you remember when I passed my driving test?
Took you to the pictures, forget the rest
Do you remember, all those nights in my Zodiac?
Playing with your dress, underneath your Pac-a-Mac

Reconnez Cherie, quand nous avons vive en ecstasy?"

Wreckless Eric/Larry Wallis: "Reconnez Cherie?"
From the album: "Live Stiffs"

Welcome back, me hearties!

Monday was a 6:00 a.m. start and a 11:00 p.m. finish and yesterday an 8:00 p.mer, so today, I'm absolutely shattered.

Two years ago, I finished a six year, daily commute of at least 120 miles every working day and have only driven about six times in the past two months, but every time, it has pi55ed down big time.

And we're supposed to be in the middle of a drought?

Maybe the water companies should pay me to drive round the block each day, to provide them with the (freely-obtained) raw material they then sell back to us?

So, how's it been for you?

(Over)paid for by Pompey's own good people (and they're being charged to go up it!)

Not much time to say Goodbye
Sorry, but I have to fly
So for yourselves you'll have to fend
Y'all, you have a good weekend

Today's lyric:

"Are you confused to the point in your mind
Though you're blind, can't you see you're wrong?
Won't you refuse to be used?
Even though you may know I can see you're wrong
Please, please, please open their eyes
Please, please, please don't give me lies."

Emerson, Lake and Palmer: "The Endless Enigma (Part 1)"
From the album: "Trilogy"

I was recently bemoaning the fact that my time is no longer my own?

Yesterday saw a 'breakfast seminar' (whatever that was supposed to be?), Friday sees another day in S6, Monday will comprise two hours of meeting in Halifax, followed by being chauffeured (oh, how us execs live!) to Worcester for another two hour meeting, then home (for 'home', read 'work')

Hey Ho!

Today's lyric:

"You got your works in a drawer and your colour's on track
You have to break away but you always come back
You make a hundred changes but you're always the same
You make me so excited and you make me so lame
You're just a tube full of gas and a box full of tin
But you show me your charms and I want to jump in
Oh if only your chassis was covered with skin
'Cause TV, you're my everything."

The Tubes: "Tv is king"
From the album: "Remote Control"

Resorting to pussy pictures (Hello, Google!).

Who'da thunk it?

But what bemuses me is why:

when the house is centrally-heated (and therefore generally warm all over); and
there are hot-water pipes that are close to certain floorboards (therefore creating carpeted hotspots; and
a permanently-on low-wattage heatpad is in the catbed (for the benefit of the arthritic old 'un)

they insist on draping themselves across an angular, plastic portable tv?

I always thought they were supposed to be the ultimate creatures of comfort?

Today's lyric:

"I want to be the wandering sailor
We're silhouettes by the light of the moon
I sit playing solitaire by the window
Just waiting, seasons change, ah hah, you'll see
Some day these dreams will pull you through my door."

Brian Eno: "I'll come running (to tie your shoe)"
From the album: "Another green world "

begins with a single step.

Woot - a Saturday post!



10:08 Train to Brighton
10:56 Train to Home

In between, bought these mothers.



We're gonna be very close...

Just off to test drive 'em.

milestone update 15:25 p.m.


just short of 12 miles in just over 3 hours. Man, I'm bushed!