w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Today's lyric:

"So imagine a mirror bigger than the room it was placed in
Imagine my wish for a future that cannot hold my wish
Imagine the want to hold a rod that cannot hold the fish
Imagine a rod that cannot hold the fish ."

The Beautiful South: "Mirror"
From the album: "Blue is the colour"

courtesy Ol' Sparky

Paddy goes to see his mate Murphy, who's home with a broken leg.

"Me feet're freezin', Paddy. Do uz a faver and nip upstairs ter get me slippers?"

As Paddy passes an open bedroom door, he spots Murphy's two gorgeous twin 19-year old daughters, sprawled on a bed.

"Yer Da sent me up ter fock yez both" he announced.

"He did not" they chorused.

"I'll check" says Paddy, calling down the stairs "Murph, yez did say both?"

"Of course" calls back Murphy "fockin' just one's no use!"

Now: tools named after places (or places named after tools?)

Blair Athol (nah, cheap shot...)
Chislehurst
Hammerpot
Anglesey grinder

(bet mr b w'll be good at this...?

Today's lyric:

"Lying there dying in each others arms, oh you said to me.
Don't worry about a thing my little sweetheart.
We're together we shall never be apart.
You took a chance on a loser like me, but you never let me down.
And whether we're in Heaven or Hell, I know it's better than in separate cells."

Space: "You and me versus the world"
From the album: "Spiders"

No, not goodbye. Just that I've only just remembered it's now over 35 years since I first met t'Missus. So long...

If memory serves, it was 15th November. The Yoof Club (yes, where else when you're under age) was definitely called The Circle and it was lust at first sight.

I fancied her too. Heh heh.

Today's lyric:

"Your everlasting summer - you can see it fading fast.
So you grab a piece of something that you think is gonna last.
Well you wouldn't know a diamond if you held it in your hand
The things you think are precious I can't understand."

Steely Dan: "Reelin' in the years"
From the album: "Can't buy a thrill"

as a late lunch. Meetings today mean I won't get my usual noon sarnies (cheese on Bovril, if you're interested) so I'll be droolin' around 11:59, like one of Pavlov's mutts.

And since I downloaded the IE7 update at the weekend, Blogger's been bu99ered at home? (not that I tend to homepost, but you never know...) and hotmail's been very erratic at letting me in. (So, sorry Debster, haven't forgotten to send the kitpix, but not been able to read or write for a couple of days now).

Today's lyric:

"They'll be sending him round from door to door
To sell you back what's already yours
"So many good deeds, so little time" say the advertising agency swine
When man has destroyed what he thinks he owns
I hope no living thing cries over his bones
If you don't believe that I'm going for good
You can count the days I'm gone and chop up the chairs for firewood."

Elvis Costello: "Coal Train Robberies"
From the album: "Spike"

there's nothing like a lazy blog...

Today's lyric:

"When it's love you make, I'll be the fire in your night*
Then it's love you take, I will defend. I will fight
I'll be there when you need me, when honour's at stake
This vow I will make - that it's all for one and all for love."

Rod Stewart: "All for love"
From the album: "The Story So Far"

So - *fire in the night, eh? Yes, we have heat once again!

Cosy toes and kittens.

Bliss.

Enjoy your weekends, y'all. We're goin' nowhere!

Today's lyric:

"Sitting in a carriage of a Bakerloo
Erotica my pocket, got a packet for you
Advert on the escalator on my way home
I don't need no skin flicks, I wanna be alone."

The Clash: "Protex Blue"
From the album: "The Clash"

but not quite rarin' to go.

In the saga of the central heating boiler, last night we achieved flame and steam, but instant cut-off as soon as the thermostat's setting was reached.

By the time we decided to call it a day (again) the manufacturer's helpdesk was long since shut, so a cork was pulled and we belatedly tried to get some relax time.

Tomorrow it will be four weeks without heating. We can't believe how lucky we've been with the continuing mild weather, but it's beginning to wear us down...

Update: 18:45



It may look Heath Robinson - but... it works!

Heat!

Yay!

And, er, Woot!

The Three Mouseketeers




Turns out the blue's a tortie, and therefore - female!

So, Mr and Mrs Buddy?

Today's lyric:

"On the corner of 5th and Main
by an old riverbed and a railroad train
There's a shop near the track, the owner works in the back
He's got a hole in his shirt, a hole in his shoe
He walks around without a whole lot to do
He's got no car, he's got no clothes
Does what he does and that's all he knows."

The Dickies: "Donut Man"
From the album: "All this and puppet stew"

that the weather's still very mild, as we're still without a working boiler?

The kittens and the tropical fish are the only warm creatures in the house!

Today's lyric:

"Everybody helps me make my own mistakes
If I'm left alone I'd make them anyway?

Great events, but can't predict what's happening in present tense
No reference in code to me."

Mansun: "Inverse Midas"
From the album: "Six"

Mr Plum8er called by last night to say he wouldn't be working any more that day, so see you tomorrow?

"What are the flags and balloons for? Someone's birthday?"

"No, we were planning to celebrate having hot water and hot radiators again"

"Oh...."

Enjoy your weekends, y'all (and think warm thoughts for me)

Today's lyric:

"I'm sitting here on the top of the world
I hang around in the longest night
Until each beast has gone bed
And then I say "God bless" and turn out the light
While you lie in the dark, afraid to breathe
And you beg and you promise
You bargain and you plead
Sometimes you confuse me with Santa Claus - it's the big white beard I suppose?
I'm going up to the pole, where you folks die of cold
I might be gone for a while if you need me."

Elvis Costello: "God's comic"
From the album: "Spike"

Mr Plum8er is predicting unregulatable* heating by c.o.b. tonight.

There may be cheers and waving of bunting.

And at the request of one of my many readers**, I've relented (oh, how grandiose of me!) and am showing five posts at a time again.

* pending it being wired in, it'll either be on, or off
** Sitemeter reckons I average 20 a day (but I'm trying to quit)

Today's lyric:

"If holy is as holy does, this house will burn straight down to hell
Take its conscience with it as it falls
Nothing said could change the fact my trust was blind, you broke the pact
If god's my witness, god must be blind?"

Garbage: "As heaven is wide"
From the album: "Garbage

Time was - and, in truth, until quite recently, I could virtually guarantee a seat on my daily commute into work. But lately, I find myself paying three grand a year for a season ticket to stand on my pins for the 45-mile trip in.

Honestly, if it wouldn't take forever to fight my way in and out by car, I'd cheerfully stuff the environmental consequences and congestion charges in exchange for my own private, germ- and smell-free space.

Dirty bombs? Why not just charge people to spend two hours a day with coughing, sneezing, wheezing scrotes, some of whom appear to need sat-nav to find their way to a bathroom?

Yes, you. Pretending to be asleep while the gaseous by-products of last night's meal escape unchecked from your seated arse.

If it wasn't for the fact that I'm more caring about my fellow passengers, I'd fart back from my vertical position and then quietly stand by, the picture of innocence, while you took a turn to be enveloped in noxious fumes.

Oh yes.

And I'm still bloody cold.

Today's lyric:

"And a hundred lonely housewives clutch empty milk bottles to their hearts
Hanging out their old love letters on the line to dry
It's enough to make you stop believing when tears come fast and furious
In a town called Malice."

The Jam: "Town called Malice"
From the album: "The Gift

Today's lyric:

"Give me one last love song, to bring you back, bring you back
Give me one last video, just dressed in black, dressed in black
Give him a chorus and that bit at the end
Where he wails on and on 'bout the loss of a friend
Let him scream loudly 'Well this love could mend'
Let it die, let it die, let it die."

The Beautiful South: "One Last Love Song"
From the album: "Carry on up the charts

Last night, Mr Chips* finally gave up his week-long struggle to survive in this world.

We'd spent the day trying to handfeed him, because he just didn't have the strength to fight for his place at the milk bar, but we were really just stopping nature from
doing what it does?

A great shame, though, because he deserved a better shot at life.

* He was the firstborn and had a terrible delivery. When he finally made it out, he looked like a chipolata - hence, Mr Chips.

Labels: kittens

Today's lyric:

"I've seen it before, it happens all the time
You're closing the door, you leave the world behind
You're digging for gold, you're throwing away
A fortune in feelings, but someday you'll pay

You're as cold as ice, you're willing to sacrifice our love
You want paradise, but someday you'll pay the price, I know."

Foreigner: "Cold as ice"

I am - it has to be said - very tired of being cold at home.

Mr Plumber has removed the condemned gas boiler (almost rupturing himself in the process, it were that 'eavy) and 'soon' will be installing the new one. As in, hanging it on the wall. Then plumbing it in. Then getting a C0rgi-registered fitter to sign off the work.

So - hopefully - by this time next week!! we may have a house without frozen condensation on the inside?

Meanwhile, my biceps are benefitting from lugging around scuttles of coal and tubs of logs (more winter fuel gathering tomorrow, from my mate wot flogs a wheelbarrowfull of logs for a Lady Godiva).

So, enjoy your weekends, y'all, and as you do, please blow a warmed kiss my way?

Er, that's my lady readers, btw... You and you and you can just wave. 'K?

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"

They've done nothing wrong.

I can't find any referencable? link to this expression, which seems to be diminishing in common usage, with less and less men wearing cuff links.

Can you think of any phrases which you no longer hear regularly these days?

Today's lyric:

"You little shit you're in it now, I hope they throw away the key.
You should have talked to me more often than you did, but no!
You had to go your own way, have you broken any homes up lately?
Just five minutes, Worm Your Honour, him and me, alone."

Pink Floyd: "The Trial"
From the album: "The Wall

One of the four kittens (not the smallest, either) seemed to be failing to suckle, so we made up a supplementary feed last night and 'forced' him to neck it. Then got up early this morning (and yes, it's still freezing cold without the central heating boiler) to pump some more in and the little bu99er was swigging away like a teenager on lager.

You might say "Typical!" but it's a result (assuming he carries on fighting for his spot at the milk bar)

Labels: kittens

Today's lyric:

"And he's a world-wide traveller - he's not like me or you
But he comes in mighty regular for one who's passing through?
That one came in his work clothes, he's missed his last bus home
He's missed a hell of a lot of buses for a man who wants to roam?"

The Beautiful South: "Liar's Bar"
From the album: "Blue is the colour"

The Ginger Whinger finally delivered four male Burmese kittens, albeit after a Guy Fawkes night caesarian (so that's what one of 'em'll be called - Mr Guy Fawkes) to get the final two out.

She and the two that were born naturally were dragged from a cold - well, freezing - house (the central heating boiler's bu99ered) into a cold Fireworks Night and brought back with the other two slackers to face their first night as a family.

Despite the traumas, anaesthetic and general dragging about, she's coping remarkably well. But we needed a duvet day - which ended up with us half-hanging in the kitten box for the best part of the day. And although it's early doors, they seem to be quite sturdy little fellers, so there's a good chance of survival?

Labels: kittens

Today's lyric:

"Oh the snow fell without a break
Buffalo died in the frozen fields you know
Through the coldest winter in almost fourteen years
I couldn't believe you kept a smile
Now I can rest assured knowing that we've seen the worst
And I know I love ya."

Rod Stewart: "Mandolin Wind"

from The Frozen North to ... The Frozen South.

Our boiler's bu99ered (it's actually been condemned) so we have to organise a new one. From the confines of a very cold house. Brrrrr.

And TGW has still not dropped the kittens?

Today's lyric:

"Now my voice won't sing and my tears won't cry
Your disciple waits for any good advice

Our place in time, it's not set in stone
And we'll still be here when the cows come home."

The Finn Brothers: "Part of you, part of me"
From the album: "Everyone is here"

Right - that's me off to GeordieLand, so I'm bound to be away when parturition occurs?

So, an early "Enjoy your weekends, y'all"