w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Today's lyric:
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"On the real volcano
Floats like a cushion on the sea
Yet I can never sleep here
Everything condones in the night

Rosalie, we been talking all summer
picking the straw from our clothes
see how the breeze has softened
everything crosses in the night."

Brian Eno: "Everything merges with the night"
From the album: "Here come the warm jets"

The office's (in aid of charity) quiz is famous buildings and skylines.

I am sooo crap at that there geography, I may as well just hand in the quid entry fee and a blank page.

Enjoy your weekends, y'all..

Labels: Geographage

Today's lyric:
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"Tonight the geese are flying
And everything you say is a call to arms
Tonight there's something in the air
Don't come too close and you'll come to no harm."

The Bluetones: "Marblehead Johnson"
From the album: "A Rough Outline"

Clear off all of the crap on my desk today.

That is all.

Labels: Tidyuppage

Today's lyric:
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"Then walk in single file in a worn out smile
That you found on the ground
Somebody else threw it down
Looks like you're the next blessed in town."

Paul Weller: "Brushed"
From the album: "Brushed"

If Milliebound gets any further up Golden Brown's ar5e they're gonna have to remove him by operation when he needs to breathe. Shades of Bliar and The Shrub all over again.

And now he's stepping into the Burmese catastrophe - which is coincidentally the subject of the current read (over there on the right) - as if there ain't enough needed to be done here to sort the sh1t out that this 'government' has caused..

Labels: Coincidencery

Today's lyric:
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"There was an open chair.
We sat down in the open chair.
I said if Destiny's kind, I've got the rest of my mind.
But my heart, it don't beat."

The Killers: "For reasons unknown"
From the album: "Sam's town"

Hard to believe that Number One Son's been gone two months already (it's rent day today, we were informed.)

His old bedroom is freshly papered, awaiting a coat of something-close-to-white, whenever Mrs.D. has decided on the precise shade of non-colour..

Labels: Rentage

Today's lyric:
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"Home improvement expert Harold Hill of Harold Hill
Of do-it-yourself dexterity and double glazing skill
Came home to find another gentleman's kippers in the grill
So he sanded off his winkle with his Black & Decker drill."

Ian Dury & The Blockheads: "This is what we find"
From the album: "Do it yourself"

I reckon t'wind were blowing from all four points of the compass, s'morning.

Hooligan weather out there.

Stay in and watch crap tv with a bar of nutty slack if you haven't already left the house.

Update:
Monsieur M Marceau is no more. Apparently he died quietly...

Labels: Meteorolage, mimicage

Today's lyric:
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"Now as the light is falling - one candle left to light the way
Sailing home to morning, she comes to me calling,
To brighten up my darkest day,
And the world fades away.. with her smile."

Paul Weller: "Wings of Speed"
From the album: "Stanley Road"

Our next-door neighbour recently returned from a Norwegian cruise to celebrate his eightieth birthday, and was almost immediately diagnosed with lung cancer, which had spread throughout his body.

And last night, he died.

His widow was kind enough to 'phone us barely two hours after he passed away, understandably in bits, but fortunately had two of her 'children' with her for comfort.

Buggah.

Labels: Griefage

Today's lyric:
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"All the children were laughing their faces in half at the pain
Of the girl who loved talking to walls and jumping at trains
And the words that ring true in the playground of fools will remain
And nobody minded the hole in the sky or the rain

But it doesn't really matter when the rights have been read
'cause we all take our chances to glance at the wife in the opposite bed
And I bet Nero and Pilate could easily explain
How policemen and pirates get stoned in glass houses just finding their way."

Ocean Colour Scene: "Policemen and Pirates"
From the album: "Moseley Shoals"

Today is National Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Avast, me 'earties.

Get. In. There.

Yarrrr!

Labels: Piratage

Today's lyric:
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"Now the old man got up and stumbled out in the street
He'd been drinking all day and left his bar tab with me.
I didn't have the money to cover his bill
But I found me a man who looked like me, younger still
And said, "Buy me a drink and I'll tell you a tale
About the old man who taught me so well."

Gary Jules: "Barstool"
From the album: "Trading snakeoil for wolftickets"

Strange not to have a third party entering the house, laughing or complaining about their day, cracking a tube from the fridge or commandeering the laptop.

It's clearly going to take some time coming to terms with just the two of us being home alone, but after First Night, no complaints so far..

Today's lyric:
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"The sugar-coated pill is getting bitterer still
You think your country needs you but you know it never will.
So pack up your troubles in a stolen handbag
Don't dilly dally boys - rally round the flag
Give us your daily bread in individual slices
And something in the daily rag to cancel any crisis."

Elvis Costello: "Pills and Soap"
From the album: "The Very Best Of"

So, with Nephew D. packed off to that there London - and after some 25 years - we're back to being just the two of us.

And because dinner portions for two will take some getting used to, my lunch today consists of the third left over from yesterday's Indian Cottage Pie dinner, and will drive my colleagues mad when the smell of turmeric in the mash gets re-nuked in the microwave.

Meanwhile, though the memories of the fun of raising a family will not disappear, it will be interesting to see how the next wave of our lives together will unravel?

We could manage another fifty years on the planet. Who knows?

But while that still feels a little way off, it's Empty Nest Time.

Labels: Empty Nestage

Today's lyric:
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"If fashion is your trade, then when you're naked
I guess you must be unemployed?
But once it's on the way, there's no escaping
The fact that you're a girl and he's a boy."

Pulp: "Underwear"
From the album: "Different class"

Which, subsequently translated, meant "Are you going to the Gate?" In Geordie.

Whatever that is/was.

Gotta love the denizens of Newcassell.

Still uberbusy, so enjoy your weekends, y'all..

Labels: Language

Today's lyric:
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"Gone so soon, the time I spent with you
And like an old, old tune -
Keeps running through my head
I wanted to say, so many things
But my mouth went dry - and one word and I'd cry."

Paul Weller: "Time passes"
From the album: "Stanley Road"

Actually, it's not that I can't be ar5ed to blog, it's just that I don't seem to have enough

Labels: Bereftness

Today's lyric:
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"You - Lynyrd Skynyrd hat and me - little kitty
Sat across with the velvet jacket, wild orange hair and dark, dark eyes
I galked like a 12 year old smitten
Carla the stripper straight from LA
You seem cool for a naked chick in a booth
Let's be pals someday
In other words, put some clothes on and call me."

The Presidents of the USA: "Stranger"
From the album: "The Presidents of the USA"

We've been together for what, over twenty years?

Not seeing each other every day, of course, but on the high days and holidays - when we did - they were always good.

Even though you were always cool at first, as the day went on, you'd thaw out and we'd always end up having a great time.

Often I'd be fishing, while you stayed in the shade, waiting for me to get hungry. Then we'd share a sandwich or a roll. Egg with curry powder was always my favourite. A sort of premature Coronation chicken?

You were never much of a one for hot drinks, so it was usually just a bottle of water - sometimes maybe a beer. And sometimes a frozen bottle of squash, which would defrost during the hot day so that there'd be a cold drink while we were out.

And now you're going overseas, so we'll probably never see each other again?

Don't be a stranger. You know where we live...

(Number One Son is going to the Isle of Wight festival and taking the family cool-box. I don't expect it'll make it back!)

Labels: Griefage

Today's lyric:
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"No time, no place to talk about the weather
The promise of love is hard to ignore
Who said the chance wasn't getting any better
The labour of love is ours to endure
The highest branch on the apple tree
It was my favourite place to be
I could hear them breaking free
But they could not see me."

Crowded House: "Private Universe"
From the album: "Recurring dream"

Spent Saturday at Marwell Zoo - the usual but always amazing privilege to be with some of Nature's beautiful animals.

The better photos are in the "Animals" set over on Flickr, if you're interested. I was only disappointed not to be able to get a pic of the Amur tiger other than through the wire.

Transparent mesh, anyone?

"Hello - Dragon's Den?"

Labels: Animalage