w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Today's lyric:
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"Why do I have to be different to them
Just to earn the respect of a dance hall friend?
We have the same old rows, again and again.
Why do I have to move with a crowd
Of kids that hardly notice I'm around?
I have to work myself to death just to fit in."

The Who: "Cut my hair"
From the album: "Quadrophenia"

With Mrs.D. on a belated post-Xmas fortnight's dietary regime - which involves nil consumption of alcofrolics - I too am on a supportive stint on the wagon*.

Unless:
Someone visits and wishes to drink - but not alone; or
We go out with friends/colleagues

And guess what - I'm out tonight for a post-Project celebratory drinkie or five and Number One Son's stopping over for a few days.

Let the good times roll...

* I'm going to get the Judith's** if I sit here much longer. Or a halo.

** Judith Chalmers = Farmers. Farmer Giles = piles

Labels: Abstinancage

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"Cos everybody hates a tourist
Especially one who thinks it's all such a laugh
And the chip stains and grease will come out in the bath?"

Pulp: "Common People"
From the album: "Different class"

Having had our tickets snatched away by a late cancellation of the gig by the band, because of "unscheduled commitments" (surely an oxymoron, there?) it looks like - through the good grace, patience and funding by Mr and Mrs Buddy1 - we are definitely? going to see them on April 5th?

They've provided the soundtrack to our lives for 35 years now and I can't believe they'll tour again after this year - so it's got to be a 'last chance saloon' event?

So Yahoo! And enjoy your weekends, y'all

Labels: Eaglage

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"I don't wanna say goodbye, baby
but look at the tears you made me cry
every way that's nice you show
you've got a heart that's made of ice
and I know."

Free: "Fire and Water"
From the album: "Fire and Water"

And, in fact, for life. Plumbing, that is.

Resolving to fix a long-overflowing header tank, I rerasonably presumed that even though only a replacement of the washer was required, in my experience I'd never get it back together again, so would fit a complete new valve unit.

Except that the old one would not quite come off. And would not quite go back again. Even after five hours of coaxing. And just a little sweary.

So with no isolation tap to control the mains-fed pipe, it meant shutting the whole house down after filling buckets with fresh water for the loos etc.

Number One Daughter woke us up at godawfultime to announce she could hear dripping?

Snotpozzibl I declared. But someone who sleeps not 2" away from me hadn't quite shut down the mains tap completely tightly, so a gentle weeping had filled the rafters and was now providing an equally gentle curtain of rainfall.

The plumber is calling this afternoon.

Labels: Leakage, plumbage

Today's lyric:
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"But whenever I hear your name
A mist comes down over my eyes
The burden of hiding my shame
It grows weak and eventually dies, then it dies.
And what can I say, if confession won’t send them away?
These demons inside are refusing to die
I hope against hope but they stay."

Bluetones: "The Jub-Jub Bird"
From the album: "Return to the Last Chance Saloon"

I just cannot believe that another week has flown by? And with the prospect of another busy - but pleasurable - weekend in mind, that'll be the full seven days blurring into the distance.

Enjoy your weekends, y'all..

Labels: Ramblage

Today's lyric:
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"Talk talk talk, it's only talk
Comments, cliches, commentary, controversy
Chatter, chit-chat, chit-chat, chit-chat,
Conversation, contradiction, criticism
It's only talk
Cheap talk."

King Crimson: "Elephant Talk"
From the album: "The Construkction of Light"

Wandering around SE10's Greenwich Market yesterday in the glorious sunshine, I concluded that there were more milfs per square foot than I could shake my stick at?

Wall-to-wall beauties with buggies, sashaying along the Embankment. Hand-feeding squirrels.

Yep - saw it with my own mince pies.

And in our friends back garden, in leafy Petts Wood, their cats calmly faced off an urban fox who is obviously such a regular visitor that he's made his own path through the winter grass.

Shame that the Cutty Sark's completely shrouded in tarpaulin, with nothing visible through the chink in the gates.

Eleven quid for three soft drinks and one glass of wine.

Seeing my god-daughter for the first time in far, far too long.

A grand weekend.

Today's lyric:
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"If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air,
quaint little villages here and there."

Groove Armada: "At the river"
From the album: "The Best Of"

The bespectacled, greasy-haired guy I sat next to on the train was watching a comedy show on a portable dvd player. I could hear the canned laughter coming out of his headphones over the music from my own earphones.

Occasionally, he would lunge forwards towards the screen? When eventually the show finished, he switched to a cd and his paper. Which he read from a distance of - literally - two inches.

Maybe he couldn't see his way to Specsavers?

Enjoy your weekends, y'all

Labels: Visionage

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"The street is cold, its trees are gone.
The story's told. The dark has won.
Once we set sail to catch a star.
We had to fail, it was too far.
It was on the way,
On the road to dreams, yeah.
Now my heart's drowned in no love streams, yeah."

Cream: "Deserted cities of the heart"
From the album: "Wheels of fire"

Apart from summer holidays, this is probably the longest I've gone without blogging.

It's only because work is manic and there seems to have been no spare time since I got back from a long weekend.

Yet the number of referrers is strangely up, from the usual 25-odd per day to an average of 40, topping at 50 at one point?

Still, the Dive Lectures at the Royal Geographical Society last week were - as ever - xlnt, with the fabulous, Tigger-like Mike Valentine showing us behind-the-scenes underwater filming of movies such as Casino Royale and just about any advert that involves dunking a camera in water.

His joke-du-jour was:

Name a fish that starts with "K" and ends with "k"?

Answer: Killer shark. There's another one..

Answer: Kilmarnock. It's a plaice in Scotland.

/cue groan

Labels: Lecturage