I just ate a pimento-stuffed olive, and got washed with flavours of aniseed. Which I do not love. Or like, except in limited circumstances and when I am prepared for it. Fennel's okay, fennel's good these days, but that's about as far as I will go. Tarragon's good. Like that. This? Hmmph. I think the olives are Greek, and some reckless fool splashed ouzo over 'em.

In other news, many of my novels have secret titles undisclosed. I may have mentioned this before, but this one? The Game of Cat and Dragon. Which one of them will have to lose.

In other other news, sickness is like a second adolescence: my head hurts, and all I want to do is lie on the sofa and imbibe. Soup, tea, whisky. Stargate and Neal Stephenson. That's about the limit of it. I was not an ambitious adolescent...

I can be ambitious for my friends; it would be a fine thing, it seems to me, if y'all went out and bought copies of Dragon in Chains by Daniel Fox for all your friends for Xmas. Then they could read it just in time for the sequel, Jade Man's Skin, and love you for evermore. Wouldn't that be nice...?

Urgh. Aargh. *creeps off back to sofa*

One of the big gains from being able to check and respond to my email so easily with my iPhone, is simply keeping it within manageable limits.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Tags: via ljapp
Current Location: United Kingdom, England, Greater London

Last Thursday was of course TUN day. As I got there a tad early and always have my trusty Lumix compact with me, I decided to walk around the nearby area to see if there were any photographic opportunities. The following few are the best ones...



( Eight More... )

Tags: architecture, flickr, photography, urban b&w, urban geometry
Current Location: @ Home
Current Mood: Layouts. layouts
Current Music: Quest Channel, T.J.Hooker re-runs

I'm sure it was here a little while ago!

Riding on Monday was a bit disorganised (in that the whole 'having a lesson' thing never really got going: I'm hoping that it was just the fact that there were two new people in it, one of them who didn't seem up to the level, and not a sign of the teaching going crap again), but Taylor and I did lots of nice practice on our canter transitions, so it wasn't too bad. Still couldn't get a decent sitting trot, so I'm just going to blame it on him being wonky, I think.

Taylor again today, in a bit of a bitty lesson: I was late getting there (bus bah), and Taylor takes ages to get ready because he has so many boots and bandages. When we were ready to start, Jackie had someone in the school so (I am a coward...) we went out for a walk around the block , and then into the field for a quarter of an hour of (slightly muddy) canter. Nice lesson, and given it was my last one with Keeley I wasn't too bothered about the walk-and-talk to work ratio!

Mike back. Much better. Approve of Mike being back.

PS: Seriously, what is the deal with bananas on BoingBoing lately...?

PPS: Coo, power cut. I hope those burglar alarms aren't going to go off all day... Oh, no, there we are. Phew.

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Tags: riding, riding:taylor

I was teaching yesterday so went from Bath to Gloucester to have dinner with my family and go to a MB concert at Gloucester Cathedral. It took ages to get through Bath, which is a nightmare to drive in at the best of times...

However, the concert was very good and featured what might be the only song about female genitalia ever sung in the cathedral: it was in old Welsh, though. The cathedral is an ideal place for it, with its huge Norman pillars and creamy stonework. The cloisters (scene of some of the Harry Potter movies) were ethereal. There was a big Christmas tree with pale sparkly lights. When the lights were turned down, the whole building was filled with shadows, like a huge ship sailing into the winter dark.

There is also a hilarious Nativity scene made out of papier mache, featuring a Gloucester Old Spot pig and a stout Joseph in wire rimmed spectacles:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/gloucestershire/hi/people_and_places/religion_and_ethics/newsid_8401000/8401026.stm

Kodaly / Tchaikovsky / Mussorgsky: Philharmonia @ RFH 03.12.09
Cond: Maazel: Piano Simon Trpceski
Kodaly - Dances of Galanta
Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto #1
Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition
( Read more... )

Tags: music, reviews: concerts
Current Mood: calm

Three other people here with the attendant and I right now. A woman reading the paper, man staring out onto the street and a young lad doing his drying while the attendant is folding a service wash.

As the store gets busier leading up to the 25th, my training duties get less and I spend my time helping out where I can. Yesterday turned, unexpectedly into a rewardingly different experience.

I only found out about it on my arrival at 11am but was told it was the day of the Annual Retired Staff Christmas Lunch. As I hadn't much on except a bit of filing, I asked if I could assist in some way as I wasn't in on this day last year. I was given the task of recording the event with the store compact digital camera.
The Lunch started at 12:30 and 26 former staff members inc guests were in attendance. The food was dually served by the Sales Managers. As I shuffled around the tables taking groups of 3 & 4, I got chatting with folks. Mostly ladies but there were 6 gents. The crowd were of varying ages, from 60 to 92 and the stories of their experiences spanned a multitude of topics, (Least of all retail). Extremely entertaining and fascinating.
The party continued in which much wine, fruit juice and water were drunk with traditional Christmas fayre. (Veggie option of course) and was completed with a visit from the Store's Santa and boxed present for each of the attendees.
My final task was to see everyone out of the prepared area safely and bid them 'Merry Christmas'. Which was a pleasure and before I knew it, nearly two and a half hours had past and it was done for another year.

Seeing everyone smiling and enjoying themselves really put a shine on my day and it was hard to pry the happy expression off my face for the rest if the shift.

Roll on December 2010! :0)

Tags: christmas, laundry, work
Current Location: Next to tumble dryer
Current Mood: Folding now
Current Music: David Gray, Sail Away

moar funny pictures

Tags: calling toastbusters

( There's always the money grabbing horror cash-in remake: )

I don't normally do this--i.e., give away secrets of the universe--but someone sent me this and I felt I would do a disservice to everyone on my flist as well as you stealthy off-list readers by not sharing it.

One caveat: the numbers of years are off. I believe this is because time was reckoned differently back when the universe was young. There wasn't as much to do so the days were actually longer. Therefore 10 years in the old currency is somewhere between 20 and 30 in today's inflated temporal currency.

Anyway:

On the first day, God created the dog and said, "Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years."

The dog said, "That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?"

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said, "Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span."

The monkey said, "Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did?"

And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said, "You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years."

The cow said, "That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty years and I'll give back the other forty years?"

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created humans and said, "Eat, sleep, play, marry, and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years."

But the human said, "Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?"

"Okay," said God. "You asked for it."

So that is why for our first twenty years, we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years, we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you. Carry on.



Hey, this explanation is as good as any other.:)

Tags: explained, life
Current Location: Planet I-Caught-Chris's-Cold
Current Mood: knowledgeable
Current Music: Cover disk from THE WORD