Thursday, April 28, 2005
Publish and be damned (Fifteen minutes of fame)
For anyone interested in scuba diving, there's an article on p.114 of May's "
Dive" magazine by your favourite diving Blogger. No, not
her. Me, Fool!
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:33 AM
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Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Meetinged out
Normally, I manage to lead a meeting-free working life, but this week is one continuous round of get-togethers.
I wouldn't mind, but they get in the way of blogging and blogvisiting?
Hey Ho.
Ignoring permanent colleagues (which I try not to do) I wonder how many people I've met briefly in a business environment during my working life? It must run into tens of thousands.
How many do you guesstimate
you've met?
And once, parked up on the M25, I mentally reckoned I'd driven more than a million miles (and I'm not even a travelling salesman).
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:32 AM
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Monday, April 25, 2005
A whiter shade of pale
composed in the wee* small hours of the morning
It took nine rolls of paper to line our bedroom walls. Nine rolls!
Now all we** need to do is select the shade of white we** want to paint them.
We have every matchpot known to man. Enough to fill a pantechnicon and warrant it being called over to a weighbridge. All white. Tinge of, shade of, hue, essence of, vaguely whitish, tint of, shadow of, extract, close approximation to, roughly akin to, hint of, not quite white but very similar, white but we can't just market it as that, can we?.
I get the impression our** next bedroom will be white.
* I was woken by the torrential downpour, decided that I needed to contribute to it and couldn't get to sleep afterwards.
** Mrs. D.
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:44 AM
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Friday, April 22, 2005
Off air
Out of respect for
Big Al, whose funeral takes place today, there is no "Today's lyric" or posting.
I know you'll understand.
Enjoy your weekend.
"Thanks for the ride, Al"
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:25 AM
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Thursday, April 21, 2005
Still waiting..
The seacam on GMTV's weather report this morning showed Brighton's pier sat calmly in the Solent, surrounded by sea smoother than
Muranese glass.
C'mon
Skip, make that call...
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:35 AM
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Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Can you hear the music? (The Rolling Stones)
Do you have an album, buried deeply in your collection, that, without using Search engines, you'd feel sure would never have been released in CD/MP3 format?
Just wond'rin..
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:46 AM
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Monday, April 18, 2005
Synchronicity
Timing is everything, isn't it?
We got back early on Sunday morning from a night at S & C's new home. £300k+ and with a conservatory which has two 'porthole' windows made out of washing machine doors. I kid you not.
I must have missed the makeover programme that inspired the previous owner to instal those. That, and the
other 10 gazillion makeover programmes...
So while we waited for the outside temperature to catch up with the beautiful, azure blue sky (marred only by the aircraft vapour trails pebble-dashing it) - more bedroom re-decoration. It hasn't, but it seems to be taking forever.
Then a welcome few hours in the garden, mowing etc. etc. Nice to be outside for a change. And just, literally, as I put the match to the barbecue, it started to rain.
Perfect timing.
My fishing brolly once again smells like bacon.
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:35 AM
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Friday, April 15, 2005
Mmmm. Pie.
I have just been handed a pork pie.
Not sure why, but it looks delish.
I may break the habit of a lifetime and have "breakfast"?
Random, eh?
Oh. And
he's got a "Friday Pome" for ya.
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:37 AM
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Thursday, April 14, 2005
Two down
Don't feel too much like blogging, today.
We learned yesterday about the wholly premature death of a work colleague.
Big Al was another generous man who meant something to me other than work-related matters. He once lent me his self-built Westfield (Google it for yourself, if you're interested) for a drive and, going well out of his way, then gave me a lift in it to the station, blasting through the streets of Central London late at night. Sheer exhilaration.
And just last week, gave me a minidisk walkman, recovered from an insurance claim, to cannibalise and repair my own damaged one, because it couldn't be sold on.
That's two gentle giants I've said goodbye to in as many weeks. Anyone > 5' 8" who knows me should perhaps beware..
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:48 AM
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Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Roll over, Rover
Our Cooper is in for its first service today. We're not expecting anything more than an oil and plugs change - certainly there's no list of fixes for the garage to work through. Maybe there's something to be said for Teutonic engineering?
Unlike my final company car, the MG ZR 120. While it was the sure-footed pocket rocket I chose it for (an 1800cc engine and fat tyres saw to that) there were far too many minor niggles for a new car. I wouldn't have recommended it for a private purchase. Not when you're picking up the repair tabs.
Now, in the past, both my
Bruv and I have been made redundant. We've both known the stomach-turning feeling of the certain loss of steady and lucrative incomes. So I have an empathy with the workers at MG Rover, who now also face that threat of major changes to their lifeplans through, technically, no fault of their own.
But if enough people are not buying what you're making, you either reduce or cease production. That's a simple fact of commerce. No-one buys mangles any more. And if the product is not deemed sturdy enough for the diminishing Fleet market to buy, a major source of revenue runs in the direction of away. What was it they used to say?
"There are three things you can see from Space. The Great Barrier Reef, the Great Wall of China and row upon row of unsold Rover 75s.
So I do not want my taxpayer's money to be used to support what used to be called, in pre-PC times, a lame duck. Even though I appreciate the financial considerations of not only the MG workforce being on the Old King Cole, but parts suppliers, showroom salespeople, the sandwich suppliers, the bakers who make the bread for the sandwich suppliers etc. etc.
I am sorry for them all. But
we had to move on.
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:31 AM
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Tuesday, April 12, 2005
NuTaTu
I did post a link to
here* as she's on my blogrollcalling list, then Deleted the posting, then thought "What the hell - maybe she'd like the 'publicity'?"
*
marginally work un-safe.
# posted by Mr.D. @ 1:26 PM
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Conspiracy theory
Because I bought
this fabulous album from them,
they thought I'd like to buy
this.
What a cynical example of blatant commercial capitalism.
The bu99ers were right though!
Now. I have a little projectette for
her, which will keep me amused/quiet for a while..
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:33 AM
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Monday, April 11, 2005
Heading out East
Off to S6 today.
Have managed to sort out
Bruv's timezone (a case of me scrolling before exiting/saving the field) but can't seem to get my own clock to GMT?
* goes off to enrol in Haitch Tee Emm 'Ell course *
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:36 AM
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Friday, April 08, 2005
Training coincidences (and cue "Aaaah's)
A fellow commuter sat opposite me yesterday (also bedraggled from the serious hailstorm that caught me unawares crossing London Bridge) and he also opened up a copy of Catch-22 (my current read).
It reminded me of an earlier deja vu moment.
I was on the train, coming back from a rare trip to London, and got talking to a black guy who'd just bought a tennis racket in Harrod's sale.
About two years later, the same guy walked into my compartment, with a Harrods bag and we instantly recognised each other. He told me a 'coincidental train' story.
A friend was getting off the train, reached up to collect the umbrella from the rack above his head and was stopped by its owner, who simply said "I believe that's mine?"
Weeks later, as his own umbrella was damaged, he left it in a shop for repair. As it was raining next day, he took in his spare umbrella and picked up the repaired one during his lunchtime. Getting off the train going home, he reached up to pick up both brollies and his fellow passenger looked up and said "Looks like you've had a good haul today?"
He couldn't get off the train fast enough!
Ready with those "Aaaah's?"
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:27 AM
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Thursday, April 07, 2005
CrapWebMaster
As glaringly obviously crap as I am at building and developing my
own blogsite, I'm enjoying fostering and mentoring
him and
him.
So can anyone tell me (in simple English) how I set up and post to another webpage (for photos, etc?).
I thang yew.
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:28 AM
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Wednesday, April 06, 2005
and Birth
I threatened
here that I'd try to kick
him off.
It only blummin' worked, didn't it?
Please go visit/welcome.
# posted by Mr.D. @ 12:40 PM
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Pricking the balloon
I love seeing the grossly inflated brought down to proper dimensions.
Apparently* the spoof interviewer Dennis Pennis went up to the corpulent 'astrologer' Russell Grant and asked "Can you read palms?"
"Of course, of course, darling" enthused El Rotunda.
At which Pennis held up his open hand, on which he'd biro'd "Fcuk off, you fat cnut"
* According to Zoo magazine (so it
must be true).
It was someone else's copy. Honest.
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:32 AM
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Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Ol' Blue Eyes is (at the ) back
The only natural light percolating into Marwell zoo’s Giraffe House was from fanlight windows, twenty feet high up on the wall.
Perfect for the adults to see and eat from their hanging hay baskets, but when you’re only three weeks old and seven feet high, the artificial gloom at floor level makes for a perfect skulking place. Somewhere to camouflage yourself against the grey walls and escape from the prying eyes and lenses.
I was very reluctant to deploy the flash but there seemed to be no restraint on everyone else’s part, so I risked it.
And got a “batteries not included” shot!
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:37 AM
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Monday, April 04, 2005
Croak?
It took slightly longer than the 25 minutes suggested on the CD-Rom.
Four hours later, we finally had wireless BT Broadband installed, with great walls of fire and spam-friers and things (albeit running at half-Meg, which is the maximum the line can offer) and can now surf the interwebnet thingy from the privacy of our own garden (should we so wish).
And if I ever had any doubts about the efficacy of
her powers, they were certainly dispelled (geddit?) by the fact that she managed to get
him to finally add a new post.
(I’ll sort the Comments issue out asap – promise!)
So as a thankyou, here’s a possible new Familiar, taken
here – where I haven’t been for yonks.
They’re apparently very poisonous, but friendly?
The Amur tigers were evidently getting frisky, with guttural growls drawing people from all over the zoo to see what was occurring. Two massive beasts were mirror-pacing the length of chain-mail fence separating them from each other, with one rearing up occasionally – to at least nine feet high – and making intentions fairly obvious.
But it’s the more placid rhinos which held my attention – so in a brief series of cutesy shots this week (including the zoo’s three week old giraffe) – here’s a nice white..
# posted by Mr.D. @ 8:57 AM
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Drinking and Driving (but clearly not simultaneously)
