w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Today's lyric:

"There's no heart you can't melt, with a certain little smile
And no challenge should be faced without a little charm and a lot of style
Don't put your faith in time - She heals but doesn't change
And only a fool won't take the chance to stay the same."

The Bluetones: "Bluetonic"
From the album: "Expecting to fly"

Finally linked up to Buddy1 on that there Skype*. Not bad for two ageing gimmers?

* I know - this thread worthless without pictures.

Today's lyric:

"Each part was played though the play was not shown
Everyone came but they all sat alone

The dawn opened the play, waking the day
Causing a silent hooray
The dawn will break another day."

Emerson, Lake & Palmer: "The endless enigma (part II)"
From the album: "Trilogy"

From a low on Friday evening when we had our worst suspicions confirmed that Mrs.D's dad has got lung cancer (but considering he's smoked for 60+ years, the prognosis is not too bad) the three days flashed by at 90 miles an hour.

Saturday was spent dolling up the house for Mrs.D's dinner party guests. Her new boss and I sloped off to the pub before the dessert course and spent a very pleasant hour in the beer garden, before their 2 a.m. departure led to Number One Daughter and me rifling the cd's 'til 4 a.m.

Sunday was spent mowing and flower tub re-siting ready for the next dinner guests, with freshly-oiled garden table and chairs dragged from their over-wintering corner of the garage to enable us to sit outside for the first time in many a month. Red wine 'a plein air' - can't beat it.

And finally, Monday down to the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, where we haven't been since we went with S. and her first husband, and here we were again with S. and her second beau, plus her two rapidly-maturing sons. Then a flying visit to the outlaws to get the lowdown on the cancer-curing options they have to 'look forward' to (because both partners go through it when this sort of thing happens.)

So kids - even if you only smoke 'socially' - pack it in now. Life's tough enough -stack the odds in your favour where you can, eh?

Right, I'm off for a de-toxing glass of water. The first of many today, suspect...

Today's lyric:

"She sprinkles flowers in the dirt
That's when a thrill becomes a hurt,
I know I'll never see her face.
She walks away from my resting place."

Paul MacCartney: "That day is done"

Odd premise for a song, that - the cognisant observation of your own burial?

Anyway, I love the way Costello sings it.

Now. Of absolutely no comment-inspiring interest to you faithful few (nor, indeed, the hordes who come here looking to find out what noseeums look like) tomorrow will be mainly spent preparing the estate and grounds for a dinner party for Mrs.D. and her ex-colleagues. Upon whom I and Mrs.D's new boss will be waiting. Hmmm.

And for Sunday, Mrs.D's ex-future employers will be arriving to vacuum up whatever food is left in the house. (They've been angling to employ Mrs.D. for over two years now, but the lure of working in Letsby Avenue proved the stronger*)

Finally, Monday (weather permitting) we will be visiting Lord Montague's Beaulieu (more properly pronounced Bowlier) where I haven't been in many a year, with our ex-neighbours. It may be a sodden affair but wtf.

So - enjoy yours, whatever you get up to and despite the forecast.

* I've already said too much.

Today's lyric:

"And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
'Cause sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight."

The Goo Goo Dolls: "Iris"

I know - it's all too easy just to post up (someone else's) lyrics and class it as a blog.

But it's all I've time for right now...

Today's lyric:

"You're the kind of person you meet at certain dismal, dull affairs
Centre of a crowd, talking much too loud, running up and down the stairs
Well, it seems to me that you have seen too much in too few years
And though you've tried you just can't hide - your eyes are edged with tears."

The Rolling Stones: "19th nervous breakdown"
From the album: "Forty Licks"

Still v. v. busy.

Sorry. Promise to try harder.

Today's lyric:

"Dark skies are falling down on my head tonight
But I looked up and I could clearly see that moon
For a second I thought I was somewhere romantic like Mississippi
But I was walking down Chelsea Bayou."

Bob Geldof: "Walking back to happiness"
From the album: "The Vegetarians of Love"

Sorry, but too busy to blog today.

So just some Moonwalky-type lyrics to hum along to...

Oh. Has anyone (other than me) heard the expression "up the pictures" meaning all gone wrong, banjaxed, kai-boshed, kaput &etc?

Today's lyric:

"I walk along the city streets you used to walk along with me
And every step I take reminds me of just how we used to be
Well, how can I forget you, girl?
When there is always something there to remind me."

Petula Clark: "Always something there to remind me "

Unusually, I'm blogging on a Sunday because, although I am truly cream crackered from The Moonwalk last night, I'm also elated that the whole crew made it to the bitter end, just as the skies opened and the threatened deluge came down.

The atmosphere in the marquee where we all congregated before our staggered starts was really something to be part of. The bicycle bulb horns (available from Halford's - six quid each) mounted in my bra elicited more than one "Nice hooters, mate" from a nubile lovely. And of course, they all wanted a squeeze to see if they worked. I'll see if I can Photoshop something later.

We were the last party to set off - at midnight - and finished 4 hours 29 minutes and 29 seconds later. The worst parts were the bottlenecks, where we came 'off road' and onto the narrow Thames embankment pathways, at one point unwittingly joining a 'loo queue' of several dozen women. It meant shuffling along instead of power walking, and getting cold and achy leggy while waiting to get past.

Actually, that wasn't the worst part. As one of only a handful of male entrants (is that the right collective noun for a group of blokes - a handful?) it was strange to 'appreciate' what it is like to be ogled. I wouldn't say the streets were lined with pervs, but there was many a man peering down over bridges or just plain leering from the pavements. And the shouted comments from the unter mensch in passing cars made me ashamed to be a man. Here were 15,000 women giving up their time, energy and blisters for a truly worthwhile cause and they did not need the lascivious yelling from open windows as support for their efforts.

I had jammed two speakers into the rucksack and throughout the trek, I could hear someone different singing or humming along to the many tracks I'd mixed so that there was something for everyone. Elaine Paige from Evita, The Prodigy, The Beach Boys, Abba, David Essex (struggled to find a track from him in our collection!), Queen &etc.

So it was really nice when several ladies (after the customary "Nice hooters, mate" comment, wandered over to thank me for providing some entertainment during the hours.

So whether I may try to get in for the full marathon next year, I don't know. As Sir Steve Redgrave once famously said "If I ever get into a rowing boat again, shoot me", and the same could be said of my walking trainers. But then again...

Today's lyric:

"Oh we make the standards and we make the rules
And if you don't abide by them you must be a fool
We have the power to control the whole land
You never must question our motives or plans."

The Jam: "Standards"
From the album: "This is the modern world"

A colleague/friend of Mrs.D. blurted out that after four years of trying, she is finally pregnant again. But by a strange sequence of circumstances, she'd not yet told her husband. So Mrs.D. knew before he did.

And she told me. So I knew before he knew.

And assuming he now knows, what I need to know now is, does he now know that I knew before he knew?

You can see my predicament, can't you?

Wish me luck for the Moonwalk (weather doesn't look too promising)

Great weekends, y'all..

Today's lyric:

"I left but she found me again
Threw borders around me again
Smothered and drowned me again
Walks the walk, talks the talk
I fake it and smile, live in denial
I bleed and I ache, I'm barely awake."

The Bluetones: "U.T.A."
From the album: "Return to the Last Chance Saloon"

Thought you'd appreciate a break from the S&G theme>>

Traditionally, Wednesdays have been Mrs.D's late night down the mines, so Number One Daughter and I have taken to playing badminton while she's at the face. Last night was her last late 'un though, as the new job doesn't require the same time-trade. So, end of an era, Huzzah!

But clearly ignoring our culinary talents, she nonetheless has always insisted on preparing some cheesy mash and pies for us to heat up, which we wolf down as soon as we get in so that it's digested before we appear in court.

Unless, of course, the 'phone rings constantly for both of us from the minute we get home and means a very late wolf.

In which case, we arrived pied up and barely able to lumber around. Until we discovered that her best friend and her Dad are on the court next door and it's almost obligatory to offer to play a doubles match.

The overhead lights at the leisure centre are appalling, dazzling you when going for a high shot (like being interviewed by the Gestapo.)

So between the four of us, we blamed pies and lights for air misses (when you swisshhh at the shuttle and blatantly miss it).

But NOD and I won, then we swapped NODs and they won, so all's fair, I guess. Then we staggered away to hose off the leakage (sorry, too much info, I know).

That may well be the last time too, as NOD moves out into the big, bad world (well, Hove, actually) soon and it's a bit of a trek for a lumber round. And there'll be no enpie_cement* to pitch up for dinner, either!

* groan

Today's lyric:

"Making love in the afternoon with Cecilia up in my bedroom
I got up to wash my face - when I come back to bed
Someone's taken my place."

Simon & Garfunkel: "Cecilia"
From the album: "Bridge over troubled water"

the recurrent theme of S&G lyrics this week?

Mrs.D. listens to the radio when driving my Mini Cooper to and from work. Generally R1, but occasionally R2 when the mood occasionally takes. And while she's never been a fan of The Ginger Whinger (who has quite recently been allowed back into The Beeb), he was playing "The Boxer" and she was surprised to find that she had no S&G cd in the motor.

So I burned a "Best of" and have been playing the minidisk version ever since.

Today's lyric:

" 'Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat.'
We smoked the last one an hour ago
So I looked at the scenery. She read her magazine.
And the moon rose over an open field.
'Kathy, I'm lost I said
Though I knew she was sleeping
'I'm empty and aching and I don't know why'
Counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike."

Simon & Garfunkel: "America"
From the album: "Bookends"

.. that the conclusion of "See no evil" last night didn't explain why Hindley was never paroled (for the benefit of anyone freshly arrived from Mars who didn't know what she did).

As one who favours the death sentence (provided there is incontrovertible 'smoking gun' evidence) I resent paying for someone to live their life totally at the taxpayers' expense, albeit minus their freedom.

But if she had been released, how long would she have survived retribution?

Today's lyric:

"Ah, seasons change with the scenery, weaving time in a tapestry
Won't you stop and remember me at any convenient time?
Funny how my memory skips while looking over manuscripts
Of unpublished rhyme
Drinking my vodka and lime."

Simon and Garfunkel: "A hazy shade of winter"
From the album: "Bookends"

First album I ever bought, that one. At fifteen, I was working in the school holidays at a factory (I was a rear chassis panel builder, believe it or not) and a fellow student colleague was waxing lyrical about the new S&G record. So, out of my weekly wages of £5 17s 6d I bought it. Unheard. Which pretty much characterised the way I bought most records from then on.

Anyway. Saturday hosted an almost surprise birthday party for Mrs.D's new boss-to-be.

We elected to supply The Cake by way of a present and got one of those where you can have a photo burned onto a sheet of icing paper and transferred onto the cake. Trouble was, the only one I had of him was on my moby, so I had to e-mail it to my Flickr site, then download it back to the laptop and fiddle with it in Photoshop to get a printable version which they then scanned in for the transfer.

At 6:30 a.m.

Good job he loved it.

And non-gardeners that we are, we spent the whole day yesterday communing with Mother Nature via mowers, strimmers, shears and secateurs to get the patches of grass-covered earth which we call lawns semi-presentable for Mrs.D's leaving dinner party (at which I will be waiting, in best bib and tucker.)

Because I don't want to be mithering with it all next week, as I shall be mainly trying to get some extra kip in, in readiness for the Moonwalk.

Did I mention I was doing that?

* shakes bucket for donations *

Amazing what you can see just by looking upwards sometimes?



And is this a sign in the sky from Scotland?

Today's lyric:

"Tommy Gun
You better strip it down for a custom run
Tommy Gun
Waiting in the airport 'til kingdom come
An' we can watch you make it
On the nine o'clock news
Standing there in Palestine, lighting the fuse
Whatever you want, you're gonna get it."

The Clash: "Tommy Gun"
From the album: "Give 'em enough rope"

There were three police cars and their crews 'interviewing' one man, all parked on the red "Definitely no stopping here under any circumstances" line by the Monument.

Not overkill at all, at all.

But if I report a neighbour's house alarm going off - a panda car from the 70's arrives about three hours later, with a tired old cop clambering reluctantly out and asking me to enter the house with him?

/gripe.

And wasn't it sad to see Heseltine on Question Time last night, losing the plot mid-sentence and having to get the panel/audience to prompt him about what he had been saying? Either that or he was pi55ed?

Great weekends, y'all.

Today's lyric:

"Looked around on Wednesday, took in all the sights
The Promised Land they'd left to man's been ruined overnight.
Peering through the portholes, teardrops in their eyes
The ship they took, one last look at Thursday's setting sunrise.."

The Stranglers: "Who wants the world?"
From the album: "Live and sleazy"

Seems like I'm getting this year's first (and hopefully last) head cold.

Yeah, ManFlu.

Still, better to get it now that just before the hols. Strangely, the common cold is one of the few things that can stop you scuba-diving. The pressure underwater means you have to equalise the air in your head cavities, so if your sinuses are blocked with goo, basically you'll implode. Which makes a mess of your wetsuit...

Today's lyric:

"It's the harrowing story of one man's mistake,
And the names have been left out for the innocents' sake.
And the man who would save us from the hurt the world brings,
Neglected to mention who would save us from him?"

The Bluetones: "Home fires burning"
From the album: "Science and Nature"

Mrs.D. is in the penultimate week of her notice and is busily working herself into redundancy. Naturally, her employer of fifteen years has decided not (yet) to replace her. That is, until they discover the massive amount of work she does above and beyond etc.

Then, I suspect, the soft brown stuff will come into contact with the revolving blades.

I know that no-one is indispensable, but it's amazing how a firm which "invests in people" can afford to lose someone with her experience and superciliously believe they can 'get by'?

Today's lyric:

"Measuring a summer's day,
I only finds it slips away to grey
The hours, they bring me pain."

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

a very grey, dull and overcast day out in the capital today.

Drop me a joke in my Comments box, why don't you - cheer the hours up?

Today's lyric:

"The girls come crawling on all fours,
Banging on locked doors,
High cards call the tune.
I know, you know, they know, we all know,
Everybody's gonna burn down.."

Electric Light Orchestra: "Poker"
From the album: "Face the music"

Highlight of the weekend had to be an interlude in a colleague/friend's anniversary barbecue (against the weather forecast for the day) during which I was treated to a seriously fast run in his Dax Cobra, an absolute brute of a car, with a 5.7 litre Chevrolet engine under the bonnet and a sound to make your ears bleed.

(This is not actually their car, and the photos aren't of the best quality, but you get the idea...)

I've not (yet?) experienced such acceleration even on any motorbike I've ever ridden or been on.

It took hours to peel the grin off of my face afterwards...

Today's lyric:

"I'm a little pimp with my hair gassed back
Pair of khaki pants, and my shoes shined black
Got a li'l lady, she walks that street
Tellin' all the boys that she cain't be beat."

Frank Zappa feat. Captain Beefheart: "Willie the Pimp"
From the album: "Hot Rats"

I honestly cannot think of anything to blog about today. So in keeping with my self-imposed 'rule' of not posting just for the sake of it, have a great weekend, y'all.

Today's lyric:

"But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a girl
Come on, come on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll be all right."

The Lovin' Spoonful: "Summer in the city"

Sunday we were freezing our respective nuts off (I woke in the night to find my exposed shoulder icy cold) but today the cloak stayed in its own little room and short-sleeve shirted I stode manfully over London Bridge.

Anyone got a clue as to why The Lovin' Spoonful were so called? I have a suspicion (actually, two) but would be interested if you've got the definitive answer?

Today's lyric:

"Got no good plans but a good idea
Let's put this town in my rearview mirror?
Yeah, I got enemies, but they don't know
They won't get no glory on that side of the hole

We are united, by drifting alone
This is the army of none - got no flag, got no home
Just witches and scabs, an awful mess, I confess...
Let's do it again"

The Queens of the Stone Age: "You got a killer scene there, man"
From the album: "Lullabies to paralyze"

Off early this afternoon to attend the launch of a product I drafted quite a while ago, which is to go with some software I wrote even further back!

It'll be interesting to wander around anonymously, listening to what people have to say about the combination, unaware of my hand in it?

If I hear anyone say "This system is crap" they'll get a poisoned canape served to them...

Today's lyric:

"They made love while she was changing her dress
She wiped him off, she wiped him out and then she made him confess
A little amused by the belief in her power
You must remember this it was the fetish of the hour."

Elvis Costello: "This town"
From the album: "Spike"

That was a very nice three days.

Had a wander around the newly-developed areas of Old Portsmouth and nearly made it up the Spinnaker Tower (see yesterday's post) but decided that the haze would have made the view not worth the effort.

Good to get some salty air into the lungs. And to see some beautiful dray horses on parade.

I will get up this bu99er!