w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Today's lyric:

"He pulled on a cigarette, in the crook of his first finger
Felt the static electric charge of her perfect hour-glass figure
As he undressed her with his eyes, her weakness was his talent
How could she know as she stepped through the lights
That her dress would become transparent?
And with his face pressed to the screen,
He muttered words he'd never dare to say if she could see him.

All over the world at the very same time, people sharing the same cheap sensation
The thrill of watching somebody watching those forbidden things we never mention."

Elvis Costello feat. Chryssie Hynde: "Satellite"
From the album: "Spike"

Yes, it's been a bit of a Costello week, lyric-wise, hasn't it?

But the man generates raw-created songs that have the power to lift you, dash you down, inspire and despair you. A freakin' genius.

And "Satellite" - with the haunting harmonies of the still-sexy Chryssie Hynde - hmmm, me, her and a bed of lemon grass... enough, Mr.D! has to be one of my many favouritest tracks.

You may get more next week. You have been warned.

'Til then, enjoy your weekends, y'all.

Today's lyric:

"I don't care how much money I got to spend
I won't find my way home again
Oh the lonely days are gone
I'll be right home
My baby, she wrote me a letter."

Joe Cocker: "The Letter"
From the album: "The Voice"

I'd become vaguely/idly aware of the plethora of red rubber bands on our front lawn and drive. And elsewhere on my recent walking expeditions?

Apparently, they're the band of choice of the Royal Mail and because the first lamppost in the lane is outside our house, the posties park their bikes against it and sort the letters out, discarding the bands while they do.

So the next time the cost of postage increases, ask one of the high ups in the RM what their annual expenditure is for rubber bands.

/rant>

Today's lyric:

"The place in mind is always sweet
It's wonderful and time to meet
Here's a new thing - gotta change up
Got to let go of the past
For a new thing - for some new ground
Only change will make it last
The hardest thing is letting go
But once you do, life starts to flow."

Paul Weller: "New thing"
From the album: "Paul Weller"

Then I'll forget it.

Today's lyric:

"For Bruv

The black sand stuck beneath her feet in a warm Sorrento sunrise
A barefoot girl from Naples, or was it a Barcelona hi-rise?
Whistles out the tuneless theme song on a hundred cheap suggestions
And a million false seductions and all those eternal questions

Chorus: What do we care if the world is a joke?
(Tokyo storm warning)
We'll give it a big kiss, we'll give it a poke
(Tokyo storm warning)
Death wears a big hat, 'cause he's a big bloke
(Tokyo storm warning)
We're only living this instant."

Elvis Costello: "Tokyo Storm Warning"
From the album: "Blood and Chocolate"

For no-one else's benefit (so click away now) - and before senility fully kicks in - I thought I'd log the (company) cars I've been lucky enough to have 'owned'.

(It's a slow news day, Ok?)

Morris Marina 1800
Morris Marina Ital 1800
Ford Escort GL 1600
Austin Maestro (I did say quite lucky 1300)
Volkswagen Passat 1800
Volvo 360 GL 2.0
Vauxhall Cavalier CD 2.0
Toyota Carina GL Exec 2.0
Vauxhall Cavalier not CD 2.0
Toyota Carina not Exec 1.6
Renault Laguna 2.0
Volkswagen Bora SE 2.0
MGZR 120 1800

And now, the Cooper. My first own No Claims Bonus.

Today's lyric:

"Underneath your dreamlit eyes, shades of sleep have driven you away.
The moon is pale outside and you are far from here.
Breathing shifts your careless head, untroubled by the chaos of our lives.
Another day, another night has taken you again, my dear."

Eurythmics: "When tomorrow comes"
From the album: "Revenge"

Although the weather was crap yesterday, I was determined to get out and stretch the distance I'm walking. And despite the drenching drizzle and gusting winds, managed just shy of 9 miles in two and a half hours.

Interestingly, I feel less knackered the day after, even though I'm covering a bigger distance each time?

The official training instructions (which as an inveterate desk jockey, I'm following) advise us not to do any serious walking in the two weeks before the Moonwalk itself and to train up to a mile short of the full distance. So we've got 45 days to increase the sessions to 12 miles, or half a mile a week in old money.

News update: 270306:13.15 (courtesy MSN News)

"Magnitude 5.5 earthquake shakes southern Japan"

'The quake was not felt in Tokyo, about 800 km (500 miles) to the north.'

It wasn't felt here, either. Strange, that...

Today's lyric:

"Don't you know I can't dance, I don't dig it,
I can't see it at all
You say I'm just a specimen and baby I can crawl
My physique just don't look the way that physiques really should
But then again I've got an engine underneath my hood
When I'm cutting up the road with a sports car on my tail
Frankenstein's inside my mind and the wind's inside my sails."

Rod Stewart: "Let me be your car"
From the album: "Smiler"

Tomorrow, I'll be chauffeuring Mrs.D. 15 miles to her work at the mines, so that I can drive on a further 45 miles to see me Ma for Smothering Sunday (yes, I know it's Saturday tomorrow, but whatever.)

Then I'll be driving back the 60 miles to home, because there are things to be done that can't wait until Sunday.

Then I'll be driving back to collect Mrs.D. (30 miles) and when she's scrubbed up, will be driving her back whence we came, as we're having dinner with friends in the same town that she works (30 miles).

My little bit for pollution, then.

Enjoy your weekends, y'all.

Today's lyric:

"Better stop dreaming of the quiet life -
cos it's the one we'll never know
And quit running for that runaway bus -
cos those rosy days are few
And stop apologising for the things you've never done,
Cos time is short and life is cruel -
but it's up to us to change
This town called Malice."

The Jam: "A town called Malice"
From the album: "Beat Surrender"

Picking up on one of Witchy's earlier posts, we like to think that some personal information is able to be withheld.

But pay a visit here, click the "People" tab and enter your name and town, as in "Fred West" "Bristol" and see what is legitimately and publicly known about you.

You can unsubscribe by e-mailing privacy@b4u.co.uk with your full name and address.

I'd recommend.

Today's lyric:

"Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
You've been out ridin' fences for so long now
Oh, you're a hard one
And I know that you've got your reasons
These things that are pleasin' you
Can hurt you somehow
Don' you draw the queen of diamonds, boy
She'll beat you if she's able
You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet
Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can't get
Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home
And freedom, oh freedom well, that's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walking through this world all alone
Don't your feet get cold in the wintertime?
The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine
It's hard to tell the nighttime from the day
You're losin' all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?
Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before it's too late."

The Eagles: "Desperado"
From the album: "Desperado"

When we married in '73, a family row resulted in us unexpectedly footing the bill for the planned celebrations. Busted, all prospects of a honeymoon away evaporated overnight, and the only thing we could afford to buy new was our bed.

Once solvency eventually kicked in, I 'persuaded' Mrs.D. that what we desperately needed to buy first was a stereo. Bearing in mind our food for a week cost a Lady Godiva, she let me spend 55 quid on a Thorens TD 160 turntable, double that for the amp (Marantz 1060 - 38 watts rms per channel, and still working 33 years later) and 127 quid for a pair of Tannoy 15" concentric speakers, mounted in teak and weighing - honestly - half a hundredweight each! Man, they were a bu99er to get upstairs to our flat. And they could pick up CB conversations, the magnets were that powerful!

Unfortunately, all this expenditure left damn all to spend on anything to play on it, so the first four (vinyl) albums got played to exhaustion. Being the first of our circle to have a crash-pad of our own, we became the focal point for record-playing sessions (those Tannoys could make downstairs' chandelier rattle in its mounting!) and the pass-out centre for mates too pi55ed to go home to the approbrium of their parents.

Shortly after our nuptials, I jumped ship career-wise into the industry I still serve today, and while I was away for the induction course, Mrs.D. treated me to Pink Floyd's seminal "Dark Side of the Moon" - which I supplemented with the cd version on the 25th anniversary of its debut, and the SACD version on the 30th.

Romantic, me, eh?

The other main stock in trade of our album 'collection' was The Eagles' "Desperado" their de rigeur anthemic album about the creation and death of a gunslinger.

"Four men ride out and only three ride back."

It took more than 30 years for us to see the band live, and we honestly thought it would be the last time, too. But we've been lucky enough to get tickets to see them at Twickenham later this year.

When they encore with "Desperado", I'll be crying as usual.

Romantic and soft, eh?

Today's lyric:

"She's cool water, her momma taught her
I got news, she's mine and mine alone
And if anybody's lookin' for trouble
You know I'm the one you want to try
Well, I'll fight any man who wants to
And I don't care who or why
You got to gamble on your story
You got no guts, you get no glory
And I'm bettin' my money on an ace in the hole
Think I'm gettin' out of control."

The Eagles: "Out of control"
From the album: "Desperado"

These days, I think I'm disappearing up the wrong end of my own alimentary canal...

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."

MacCartney/Costello: "That day is done"

NOD's UniChum arrived for the weekend. They decided to stay in with us on Friday night, so we crashed through some bottles of the red falling-down juice until they decided that my choice of background music needed livening up. So every cd got trashed from the racks, with three of us fighting over which track was going to be blasted out next and all singing raucously along with the lyrics we could just about remember.

Lucky we're detached (house-wise, not mentally. Well...)

Saturday night saw us hosting a dinner party for our long-lost friends and was only marginally less alcoholic as one of them was driving. We were joined at the end by NOD+UniChum, but vaguely remembering the antics of the night before, the music stayed off as we made up for twenty years of lost chat.

And finally, as yesterday saw such glorious sunshine, I just had to head out for a 7.5 mile hike (in two hours) with two Moby albums on random shuffle so that I couldn't 'time' myself by the length of the individual albums.

Needed that sun.

Today's lyric:

"And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything feels like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know you're alive."

The Goo Goo Dolls: "Iris"

Off to deepest S6 (again) for a(nother) meeting. Camp-bed purchase coming up, methinks?

The sponsorship forms for The Moonwalk have arrived, so we're officially "in".

Now, how can I post one up, to tempt you lovely, generous, selfless bloggers/readers to support me?

And also, on the subject of support, suggestions please as to how I should adorn my bra? (yes, everyone - including the blokes - has to wear one).

Sponsor me and I'll post a (discreet) photo. Would the attachment of a couple of soft toys of young dogs (work it out) be just a bit toooo tacky?

Sponsor me heavily and I'll supply photos of the other people* who will be at the event... And if you're willing to supply your address on the form, there's some tax exemption thingy that means that the charity gets more of your dosh (rather than that nice Mr Brown).

Enjoy your weekends, y'all.

* nubile young ladies (who will, of course, have given their consent)

Whaddya take me for, eh?

Today's lyric:

"In my dreams I'm dying all the time
Then I wake its kaleidoscopic mind
I never meant to hurt you
I never meant to lie
So this is goodbye
This is goodbye

Tell the truth you never wanted me
Tell me...

In my dreams I'm jealous all the time
Then I wake I'm going out of my mind
Going out of my mind."

Moby: "Porcelain"
From the album: "18"

It's lightly sleeting here, in the capital. But I seek warm weather, the sun on my back... scuba diving in clear, blue waters. Drying off on a sun-kissed beach.

Can't we say goodbye to Winter, skip Spring (despite the glorious days you sometimes get) and jump straight into Summer?

Or do you revel in this dreary, grey coldness?

Today's lyric:

"Rolled in from another town,
Hit some gold, too hot to settle down,
But a fool and his money soon go separate ways,
And you found a fool lyin' in a daze,
Ha ha woman what you gonna do?
You destroyed all the virtues that the Lord gave you,
It's so good that you're feeling pain,
But you better get yourself on board the very next train."

Electric Light Orchestra: "Evil Woman"
From the album: "Face The Music"

Driving down to Cornwallland last week, I was forced - by a majority of two to one - to listen to 'mainstream' music on Radio 1.

On the basis that:
a) I was doing the driving - and therefore concentrating - (and the weather was at its crappest); and
b) I don't (generally) like rap

I wasn't really listening but subliminally recognised that a track (performed by, I'm reliably informed, The Black-Eyed Peas?) was being repeated during the various shows that came and went throughout the trip.

I guess what 'registered' was because of the incredible amount of 'bleeping' (mainly at the end of most lines) as in:

de dah de dah you're playing with your *bleep*
de dah de dah while you're looking at my *bleep*

Get the picture?

"Are the bleeps actually part of the song?" I enquired innocently.

"No" explained Number One Son, with barely-feigned patience, "it's the only way they could air the track during day-time broadcasting.

But it wasn't the deleted expletives that invaded my semi-consciousness, it was the repeated decrescendo of solo violin that half-registered with me, but which was promptly parked somewhere in the cranial recesses when the radio was turned off.

But then, listening to the best of ELO this morning on the commute in, I realised I'd recognised my first "sample" - the violin piece had been cut from ELO's "Evil woman" track, first released ooh twenty five+ years ago at least?

What goes around...

Today's lyric:

"I'm not saying right is wrong, it's up to us to make
The best of all things that come our way.
And all the things that came have passed
The answer's in the looking glass
There's four and twenty million doors down life's endless corridor
Say it loud and sing it proud and they...."

Oasis: "The Masterplan"

Nothing wrong, it's just going to be a heavy day...

Today's lyric:

"She drives me crazy
Like no-one else
She drives me crazy
And I can't help myself."

Fine Young Cannibals: "She drives me crazy"
From the album: "The Raw and the Cooked"

I've had this post knocking about in my head for a couple of weeks. But because some people who know me 'in real life' read this rubbish occasionally, I've wondered what they might think of me/it. Oh well, it's my blog and anyway, it'll disappear off the bottom* of the screen soon enough..

Those who know me know that I love women. All women. Without exception. I love knowing them, working with them, meeting them socially. Even Margaret Thatcher - who didn't exactly endear herself to all and sundry - would make a fascinating dinner party guest, imo. As would Winnie Mandela, (though I'd ensure there were no stacks of old car tyres lying around, just in case I upset her?).

So I'm not sexist, right?

And just as much as I love women, I hate French cars. Now I know that's a hugely sweeping generalisation, but I've never driven one which I've thought "yeah, nice".

But the tv advert for the newly-nosed Renault Megane has me hooked.

The presenter's pretend pique at being forced away from the concentration on the re-modelled front-end is generated by the recurrence of the "Shakin' that ass" song and theme which they've used so successfully. Right at the end (sic) there is a shot of a young lady's * ahem * waist area, in which a pair of the briefest white shorts are barely concealing the cutest cheeks in Christendom.

Movie moguls must be falling over themselves to find out if the rest of her is as filmic as her derriere, while Lads' Mags editors must just be looking for the craique?

There. I've said it. Now I'm off for a rub down with a damp edition of Woman's Weekly. And may Le Createur d'Automobiles have mercy on my soul, before anyone else says it!

Today's lyric:

"Cold night air everywhere, holes in my feet and bats in my hair
TV meals scattered round, glazed-up eyes rolling through town
And when night black me out in a flash I found out
Lovers get caught just the same in the thunder and rain."

Graham Parker and The Rumour: "Thunder and rain"
From the album: "Stick to me"

As you can guess from yesterday's post, we're back from Cornwallland. We left home for out three day trip in a monsoon which signalled the end of the South's drought and basically it didn't stop persisting down throughout our sojourn chez NOS.

The sun came out as we left the deep South (West) and we hoped for better driving weather for the return trip. But no, we just got more driving rain.

Good fun, though, with a saddows picnic sat overlooking the sea, just like three old gimmers...

Flickr is looking after the other photos (up there over on the right)

Came back to find the eldest Burmese the worse for a fight (why, after 15 years, doesn't he just learn to run away?) so a 37 quid trip to Vet'nary this morning to ward off the nasties that his raked belly would generate if left untreated.

Little git can spend a few days indooors, now. That'll learn him...

A Kernow* views the natural beauty of his coastline...



A Kernow displays to an Emmitt** tourist that he thinks he's a City banker***

* Native of Cornwallland
** non-Native of Cornwalland (i.e. a tourist)
*** Kernow rhyming slang

Off to the deep South (West) with NOS for a couple of days.

Be good and I'll bring you back some virtual Cornyshe fudge.

Today's lyric:

"I caught a glimpse from the dreams of children
I got a feeling of optimism
But woke up to a grey and lonely picture
The streets below left me feeling dirty."

The Jam: "Dreams of children"
From the album: "Snap"

So, Mr Gadd has been convicted of 'abuse'. (I'm not going to 'honour' him with a link.)

Stood in the dock, with not very rock 'n roll shades on, he got three years, which will probably be finished by November this year. Strange, but I thought that having sex with minors was called rape? So I've learned a new Vietnamese word today.

But I do hope he's not lonely during his all-too-brief incarceration. I do hope that he has every sexual gratification that the other inmates want. And comes out with a ring the size of a bill-poster's bucket. And an ar5e with a similar volume of contents and consistency as said bucket.

That would be a fitting punishment. Not bitter, Glitter. You evil b@st@rd.

On lighter matters, me and t'Missus have made it to 33 years today. Number One Son's ex is coming to visit (seems she liked us, too?) so it's likely to be Chinese take-aways all round, with a bottle of wine or seven.

Tomorrow is a dinner party for friends, who hopefully will be bringing a potential job offer for Mrs.D.

And Sunday is her and Number One Son's birthday, so maybe another celebrationette?

And we're off next week, using up the remains of last year's holidays, chauffeuring NOS back to the deep South (West). Taking the camera, binoculars and possibly the laptop, in case there's a chance of some Cornish blogging.

So please call by, still. And enjoy your weekends in the meantime.

Today's lyric:

"Once you're lost in twilights's blue
You don't find your way, the way finds you...

Tempt the fates, beware the smile
It hides all the teeth, my dear,
What's behind them...."

Queens of the Stone Age: "Someone's in the wolf"
From the album: "Lullabies to paralyze"

I must be the last person on the planet to have read "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown, having held out while all the conspiracy theories were thrashed out by earlier readers.

But if I'm not - and you haven't read it yet but intend to - look away now, because


am I one of millions who guessed that the final clue was APPLE?

Talk about the bl33din' obvious...

Today's lyric:

"Our brief acquaintance was such a mistake
Now it seems more like a sentence
Or something you always had to fake
This magic moment concludes when they turn out the light
It's not the days when you leave me
But all I fear are the nights
But all I fear are the nights."

Elvis Costello: "It's time"
From the album: "All this useless beauty"

Number One Son, fresh back from the deepest South West, arrived back from the local, ably abetted and propped up on both sides by his mate and his mate's girlfriend, both desperately trying to keep him in the vertical plane.

So instead of retiring to our pit - tired from last night's practice Moonwalk (it's for charidee, Witchy) and a nice chilli dinner - 'emergency' bottles of wine were located, vented and raided. Not having seen them all since the now customary Christmas Night gathering of both kids' friends (at which I triumphed in the Trivial Pursuit marathon, while seeing off the lion's share of a bottle of Smirnoff Blue - hah!) we eventually crashed out way too far the wrong side of midnight for a school day, leaving them to wreck the kitchen in the usual attempt to thwart the munchies.

Around the same time, Dick - on his first ever world cruise - was sat in the ship's main bar, feeling decidedly sorry for himself.

At some point, the ship's doctor - finally relieved from his ministrations to the rich and elderly - came off duty and sought the bar and a well-earned nightcap.

So unhappy was Dick that he resolved to disturb the beleaguered doctor's precious free time.

"I'm not seasick, Doctor, but since I came on board, I've had a queasy stomach and it's ruining my holiday. Is there anything you can prescribe for me?"

"Do you have a nut allergy?" asked the man.

"No, I don't think it's that?" replied Dick.

"No, no, I wasn't asking for that reason" said the doctor "it's just that, believe it or not, I have the same problem, and find that a Daiquiri (strangely, pronounced 'dakkary') cocktail, mixed with a liqueur made from chicory, really settles my stomach?"

"Right" said Dick - desperate to try anything - "two of those, please George."

Well, it only worked, didn't it. Next day, Dick was able to start enjoying the culinary delights of the ship's many fine restaurants, and their fine wines too.

He was also able to swim in the huge outdoor pool up on deck, without fear of embarrassing himself in the water. And - because he no longer had to keep running to the toilet - he was able to discourse with the laydeez. Things were looking up.

But then, one evening, he went into the bar to order two drinks for himself and his new-found friend, for when he came off duty. "Usual, please, George."

"I'm sorry" said the barman "but between you and the Doctor, you've drunk all of the chicory liqueur. All I've got left of a nut-based drink is one made from hickory. It's darker than your favourite tipple, but just as nice."

"Ok" said Dick, a bit warily "we'll have two of those."

When the doctor finally came in, he eyed the drinks suspiciously.

"That's not a chicory Daiquiri Dick?"

"No, it's a hickory Daiquiri Doc."

I thang yew.