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November 2nd, 2009
04:37 pm
There is a beautiful hazy full moon in the twilight sky above London right now. Look east, fellow Londoners!
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October 27th, 2009
02:41 pm - A brief message
Okay, so "contra" means against. So it seems logical that anyone espousing an opinion which they think is contrary should dub said opinion or themselves "contraversial"
But they are not. No. What you mean, you feisty little altercator, is controversial. ConTROversial. Not conTRAversial. TRO. As in TROLL.
What these people really are, of course, is annoying to me on an irrational but very profound level. I have observed both idiots and otherwise articulate people repeatedly make this mistake and I've finally snapped. Please stop it, or I shall resort to violence.
In our next episode: You see that apostrophe? It's being horribly misused and if you can't use it properly you'll have it taken away from you for its own good, you horrible scrote.
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October 9th, 2009
12:51 pm - I'm in Heathrow airport!
Squeak! Canada here I come!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/excited.gif) excited
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September 7th, 2009
01:39 pm - Oh, AND -
As far as I know, Stu still has a spare ticket going for Amanda Palmer on Saturday night at the Union Chapel.
Somebody must want it - if not you, one of your mates.
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August 28th, 2009
10:40 am - Random London observations
Outside the Ritz a man in a morning suit is trying to disentangle a large Union Jack - still attached to part of a flagpole - from the chain holding up one of the hotel's voluminous hanging baskets.
I wish I had a camera with me.
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August 27th, 2009
02:09 pm - In praise of good service
Camper shoes - always keep the receipt, because they're guaranteed for two years.
I bought a pair of sandals in the sale last July and one of the straps came un-riveted on Saturday. Took it onto the nearest shop on Monday, showed them the original receipt, they said they'd take it and have it back to me in "a week to ten days". Got a phone call to say they were repaired and back yesterday, just picked them up. Good repair job.
Well done, that company.
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August 5th, 2009
07:17 pm
Here's a meme, as seen via ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) alasdair and regie
Don't take too long to think about it. 15 books you've read that will always stick with you. They don't have to be the greatest books you've ever read, just the ones that stick with you. First 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.
The Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology
Ways of Seeing, John Berger
The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell
R is for Rocket, Ray Bradbury
The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
The Final Confession of Mabel Stark, Robert Hough
Complete poems, Emily Dickinson
Flowers For Algernon, Daniel Keyes
Mort, Terry Pratchett
Espedair Street, Iain Banks
Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut
Headlines, Malcolm Hall and Wallace Tripp
The Pangs of Love and Other Stories, Jane Gardam
The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter
Nicking alasdiar 's twist: If you'd like to know more about a book, or what it means to me, leave a comment explaining what you'd like to know about my relationship with that book, and I'll tell you.
I have probably cheated, because I started doing this, got the first half-dozen down in about three minutes and then actual work happened, so it sat in a notebook window until now. I occasionally had a flash of "Oh! THAT!" during the course of the day and filled something in. And right now, I'm thinking Oh balls how could I forget The Vintner's Luck arg arg arg.
Also, I have deliberately left out comics. Because I could probably fill a list like this with comics in under 15 minutes, and if you ask nicely, I just might.
If anyone tried to do this with albums, I can just imagine how many people's heads would explode...
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July 10th, 2009
11:30 am - This is what we want!
Less Michael Jackson, more headlines like this:
Drunk badger disrupts traffic
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June 12th, 2009
10:36 pm
Tomato plants. We have a lot of them. Does anybody want some?
No, seriously, does anybody want some tomato plants? Can't send them abroad, obviously, but anyone in London is welcome to have some.
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May 3rd, 2009
12:13 am - Tonight's cocktail experiment
Coquetail au vanilla. From Difford's Vol.7.
For which one needs vanilla infused white rum and some Velvet Falernum. And how could one resist an ingredient called Velvet Falernum? Plus, we had some rum left over from the pants-burning experiement for anw .
The recipe is this: 2 shots vanilla-infused rum, a quarter shot Velvet Falernum. Shake over ice. Strain into glass of crushed ice. Garnish with maraschino cherry, drink w/ straws.
We don't have maraschino cherries, the rest we do. I've been infusing that leftover rum with two half vanilla pods for about a fortnight. I got the falernum from Gerry's on Friday.
It has the potential for being very good. It's just that i may have made a couple of mistakes. Or some compound mistakes. Summin like that.
Possibly, the first mistake - the domino mistske, if you will - was using overprood rum. It makes the final result very strong. Very very strong. I should have balanced this out with more falernmu, but i did not, what with the whole thing being new to me and all. If you should find yourself making the same mistake, a trickle of syrop de gomme seems to balance the whole thing.
That leads me to the second mistake. The gomme, with its tricksy balancing, makes it much more drinkable.
The third mistake is that stu_n found it "too perfumy" and i drank his. After adding a bit more falernum and some gomme. So I have drunk nearly forur shots of overproof rum. On top of about half a bottle of rosé with dinner.
I can't feel my fingertips. Aaarg.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/drunk.gif) drunk
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May 1st, 2009
01:35 pm - Or maybe getting greased up with other men...
Poll #1392950
Open to: Friends, detailed results viewable to: Friends, participants: 11Tell me, Conan, what is best in life?
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April 19th, 2009
07:34 pm - Run, skinny boy, run!
OI OI!
This time next week my mate regie will have run the London Marathon and will be on a train back up north, hopefully with a seat and a nice cup of tea. He's running in aid of Brain Tumour UK - if you visit his Justgiving.com page, you can read why and sponsor him easily.
I know that his time of year your inbox is probably full of people sending you links for London Marathon runners to sponsor, but if you could spare whatever you can for Regie, he and Brain Tumour UK (and I) will appreciate it.
Thank you for your kind attention.
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April 9th, 2009
10:25 pm - Dear Sir,
Just because you have the yoga/stretching area of the gym all to yourself does not mean that you will always have it all to yourself. Also consider that said area is carpeted and covered with mats, and everyone in the gym is wearing trainers. This means that you will not be able to hear anyone coming. And if you're lying on the floor with your eyes shut, you might not know that they are coming.
Therefore, although I appreciate that your yoga exercises are very relaxing and the gym rather quiet, it is still not a good idea to stuff a hand down your sweatpants and give your bollocks a jolly good scratch, because... well, it's just not something anyone wants to see.
Yours,
The lady with the discreet cough.
P.S. Next time, I'll just swear loudly.
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March 30th, 2009
11:06 pm
There are times in one's life that one thinks "there's probably some perv out there who'd pay to watch this on the internet". Tonight, as I stood in the kitchen wearing only my underwear and slippers while frying sausages, was one of those times.
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March 25th, 2009
10:41 am - Birthdays!
Happy natal anniversary, tyrell and alasdair !
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March 21st, 2009
05:45 pm
What is the essence of comedy, o master?
O my pupil, think deeply upon the sight of Vin Diesel on helium quoting 'Withnail &I' and you may find it.
Um?
That's "om", kid. Have you been paying attention to anything I've said?
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/amused.gif) amused
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March 6th, 2009
11:17 am - Happy nerdday!
The promised day has come (to the UK)!
The Watchmen film is out!
Time for a parody, then. I'm sure everybody's seen the 'Saturday Morning Watchmen'. Most of you probably read PVP as well, but for those don't, here's this - http://www.pvponline.com/2009/03/02/ombudsmen/
The second strip is particularly spot-on.
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February 5th, 2009
03:08 pm - Drakes and cocks
As the young people say -
o_O
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February 4th, 2009
11:52 pm - Quis custodiet...?
I'm pretty sure that someone must have made this joke before*, but... this is the emoticon for Rorschach, no?
(!!)
*(Possibly I've seen it and forgot I ever did so, letting it come up to the surface of my mind pretending that it's an original idea when it's the remains of someone else's witticism.)
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February 3rd, 2009
10:51 am - YAY I AM AT WORK
No, I wasn't expecting to feel like that either, but I was so incredibly grumpy yesterday that it's nice to be back and to have access to a computer which will let me do the things i need to do for my job.
Theoretically, I should have been working from home yesterday. There wasn't a lot to do, but there were a couple of things. And yet I spent most of the afternoon trying to get my sodding work laptop to connect to our broadband hub. I was even on the phone to our Systems department - all one of them who managed to get in - and it still came to nothing.
If I just plain didn't have the capacity to work from home, I would've been fine. It would have been a day of ironing, DVDs, hot chocolate and a long soak in a very foamy bath. And gazing out of the window at the snow falling. And watching the kids build snowmen on the back lawn of our flats. I would have been happy. But I spent hours hunched over the broadband hub, the telephone and the laptop, swearing myself silly and feeling generally useless and shite.
But now I have access to the chart-generating software and the editing system and my sign-in to EIU publications and even if I do not need them right this minute, I am a great deal happier.
This lunchtime, I will be going out to St. James's Park. I can't wait.
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