KFC - Big in China

well, it seems that the Chinese are very serious about KFC. this is very much a good thing as far as i am concerned; far too many countries take KFC for granted and do not celebrate the fine food of The Colonel as they should.




the above looks like a shrine to the colonel. i mean, this just seems to be massive. i suspect that this is the one that Elvis uses, as the size of it suggests that it has a rather ample kitchen area and would accomodate the dietry requirements of The King.





the fine people of China also seem to be thrilled to be inside a branch of KFC. i have no idea what the cards they are holding say, much like i have no idea how to translate or read the KFC China interwebnetwork site, but it all looks rather impressive.




and just look at and admire the above image. people dress with a sense of style and respect to climb the steps to The Colonel's premises, and are, apparently, seperated for doing so.

my good friend Spiros, who has all of a sudden found himself working for a Chinese bank, has undertaken to do some research into this matter on my behalf. i believe we will have to arrange a trip to China to witness these incredible spectacles sometime soon.

Elvis in China - The Dossier To Date

an alarming amount of evidence is available to the world to indicate that Elvis Presley is in China. Here is the information thus far :

* there are many Peanut Butter Manufacturers operating in China at present, producing several million tonnes of peanut butter a day. why would they do this if not to meet the needs of both export demand and a significant internal demand?

* there are a mind blowing 600 KFC restaurants in China, all serving breakfast. why would there be so many required if not because of Elvis making extensive trips around China, thus needing a number of options at different strategic locations for breakfast?

* there are Cadillac dealerships and Cadillacs built in China. why would they need this in China if not to keep up with the demand for them that Elvis is known to have?


* the internet is available in China (probably). why would China need the internet if not to allow Elvis to keep up to date with the rest of the world?

i do not see how any of these conclusions could be questioned or debated. Elvis is there, accept it as fact.

Mervin Fraser : A Sincere Apology

well, this morning at verk started off with something of a lively debate, quite frankly. much of the language used in it cannot be repeated here, but i will try and give an account of it.
for reasons i am not prepared to go into right now, i was inspecting a box set of the tv series Buck Rogers In The 25th Century. Mervin saw this, and started a conversation around the half man, half hawk character that was in it. i told my learned friend and respected colleague that he was much mistaken, and the half man, half hawk character was in fact in the film Flash Gordon.

with rather passionate language, Mervin said no, that is not the case, and there was such a character in "Buck". like an unstoppable force of nature, Mervin quarrelled this point until such time as i did a search on the matter via the interwebnet to reveal the truth. and the truth was to be revealed :




it would appear that there was very much indeed a half man, half hawk character in Buck Rogers, apaprently a predominant character in the second series. as a consequence, i was thus in the wrong.

Mervin, my apologies. i will never again quarrel nor question your impressive knowledge of the Buck Rogers saga.

my view is that the hawk-bird thingie in Flash Gordon was much more impressive and interesting, but that does not in any way change the great act of folly i engaged in by arguing with Mr Fraser.

be excellent to each other, and respect the wisdom and knowledge of Mervin Fraser at all times.

what's a chicken congee?

good morning

my research into the where and why, or rather why not, one can obtain some fine KFC for breakfast continues. i have found that the KFC branches in China are somewhat more forward-thinking in this regard, as they appear to serve some form of breakfast at their branches :

Breakfast, Chinese style, at KFC
KFC is not the first Western fast-food restaurant to set foot in the breakfast market, but it's definitely the first one who tries to please its Chinese customers with Chinese-style breakfast food, like porridge.

Since Oct. 27, this appetizing Chinese food, together with many other choices, has been on the breakfast menu of all 59 KFC restaurants in Shenzhen. The stores have also changed their opening hours --- to 7 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. --- to reflect the new menu.

The breakfast choices are a blend of East and West, ranging from Chinese seafood and chicken congee, Hong Kong milk tea to Western burgers, potato sticks and orange juice.

The low prices are also appetizing. For example, a burger and a cup of hot tea or coffee is priced at six to seven yuan, and a Chinese-style porridge costs only five yuan.

KFC says they are studying the market to see if they should expand their breakfast menu to include more Chinese-style selections in the future.


i am not certain what "western burgers" involves, and this is not exactly a bucket of KFC with toast, but it is a step in the right direction. this does, it goes without saying, give me enough grounds to state an opinion pretty much as fact - whatever this chicken congee business is, then Elvis must be alive and living in China. the evidence is there pretty loud and clear in this article, and as i cannot think of any reason why one would not be able to obtain peanut butter in any Chinese town, city or market, Elvis is no doubt comfortable there.

sure, i appreciate that cadillacs are not the norm in China, but if the people of China are so blessed to have The King now living amongst them, then i am sure they have accomodated his transportation needs and have arranged for as many cadillacs as he needs. in the mean time, i will try and establish where exactly each and every branch of KFC is in China, and then do a google earth search or something on the locations in the hope of seeing the people of that fine nation having a KFC breakfast, as well as hopefully catching a glimpse of The King.

be very excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alien vs Predator vs Miserable "Fans"

OK, this image is either the work of a fan who has too much time to fill, or it is an image of the hybrid Alien-Predator from the imminent film Alien vs Predator 2 - Requiem.

i very much enjoyed the first Alien vs Predator film, and always found it sad that so-called fans lambasted it because of the relatively low age restriction it got. what, does more swearing and more skin on display make for a better film, does it? sure, there were faults with it (mysterious spiders and cobwebs in a building which had been under 100s of kilometers of ice for thousands of years springs to mind), but on the whole it was rather good fun indeed. i guess i am thankfully in the majority, hence them making another one. a shame that Bishop probably won't feature this time, but there you go!

on the film front, there has not been any more leaks or promo stuff for The Dark Knight of late. i keep an eye out for more stuff, but i guess they don't want to reveal everything right away.

meanwhile, my Elvis inspired ambition to see KFC serve The Colonel's finest for breakfast seems to have popular support at verk if nowhere else. i look forward to one day being able to have peanut butter coated crispy fried chicken pieces with toast, orange juice and possibly hash-browns for breakfast one day soon. so do you, if you think about it carefully.....

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

new art riot in New Zealand

hey everyone


welcome to some very exciting news from New Zealand. it seems that when the children of that fine land are not learning of the social, economic and political value and importance of sheep they are taking a shine to artistic expression!





very nice work young Katie! we are all rather impressed with your emphasis on blue and red in the picture!!

as i write this, James is sat with Mama scribbling all over a Winnie The Pooh dot-to-dot puzzle book! as and when James lets me take away one of his class artistic expressions i will try and put a picture of it up here!!

it is nice to have James home - he has been staying with Grandma and Grandad for the last two nights. it was only supposed to be the one night, but with a bad storm and traffic chaos here on Friday, it was better for him to stay over an extra night!!

oh well, admire this picture and be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jump Into The Fire

well, as and when Michele ever gets around to reading my blog again, i can see me getting a bit knacked for my activities today, but never mind!

i (ahem) obtained the full blown version of Harry Nilsson's magnificent Jump Into The Fire recently, and decided to load it up in the car CD shuttle. as is becomming rather usual for the CD shuttle in the car, however, it decided to refuse to accept that any discs were loaded and would not play anything.

it seems that whenever the CD shuttle decides not to do the job for which it was designed, the ipod decides to freeze up too. so all i was left with was the morning radio stations. these are, quitye frankly, a pile of crap in JHB. there's a talk radio station with an opinionated, contrite and rather proudly thick former Irish rugby player bewlideringly doing his thing, and then there's a station that plays far too much Phil Collins and has too many contrived, set up and scripted practical jokes. so i kind of pulled into the emergency lane with the hazzard lights on to successfully reset the CD shittle instead :)

Jump Into The Fire is one of the most class songs in rock history, if you are not immediatley familiar with it, when you hear the bass kick in (dum dum dumdum, dumdumb-ba-bah BAH! is the best i can do), you will recognize it from a thousand film and tv shows. sort of. the most dynamic use of it was in GoodFellas as part of the awesome soundtrack for Henry's last day as a GoodFella.

this morning was the first time i had heard the full 7+ minute version of it, and i think i have clocked something - going on the structure and sound of the thing, Mr Ian Brown and Mr John Squire had clearly heard it somewhere along the line, as in scope and structure, I Am The Resurrection from the Stone Roses all of a sudden sounds like a wayward child of the track.

sadly, Harry Nilsson is no longer with us. over the years i have never paid that much attention to him, instead opting for the likes of Warren Zevon and Springsteen. that could be changing, i think it's time to explore the catalogue of this clearly talented dude!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!

an ambitious breakfast plan denied

as i was dropping James off at Grandma and Grandad this morning, my way to work involved me driving along a road that had a KFC drivethrough proudly on it. imagine my dismay to discover that they are not open to serve breakfast at 6:30am

this is really unfair, very shortsighted and not the kind of slack behaviour that would be tolerated if The Colonel was still with us. it is ridiculous that the world at large can at that time of the morning call in at McD and have a Big Mac and a diet coke for breakfast, yet one cannot go and have a class tower rounder burger, or even a bucket of fine, fried chicken to start the day off with.

with some luck, someone senior or well connected with the institute that is KFC will read this and immediatley launch a Fried Chicken Breakfast range. they could even stick some eggs, toast and coffee in with the bucket if that helps make it all the more breakfast style to appeal to the masses, i suppose.


there is of course one of us, if you take us as being the human race, who would have championed the idea of The Colonel for breakfast. he probably did, and may very well still do, have KFC for breakfast. i speak, in the most respectful terms, of Elvis of course.

with Elvis still in hiding and refusing to make a wide, public comeback, it is unlikely that he will endorse my campaign as such, but as i suspect that he is an avid reader of my site, who knows? maybe the idea of a bucket of KFC, coated in The King's special recipie peanut butter, for breakfast may inspire him to reveal where he has been hiding for some 30 years and come out in support of a KFC breakfast range.

if anyone knows of any KFC in South Africa that is open for breakfast, please let me know so i can make arrangements to take a detour that way in the morning. if some other country in the world is so lucky as to have a breakfast-serving KFC, please let me know and i shall consider moving my family to that obviously forward thinking nation.

be very excellent to each other.

30 Days of Night

well, if there is one film released for my dear Michele this year, then 30 Days Of Night would most probably be it!

this link is here especially for you, my dear - click away, yes we will go and see it, or get the DVD :)

anyone else browsing for it, knock yourself out!!

FAC23

in celebration of the release of the film Closer, the 2nd appearance of the Ian Curtis story at the cinema this decade, i am delighted to see that the magnificent Joy Division single Love Will Tear Us Apart has been reissued on 7" and CD.

that fine source of music Record Store have both versions available at a very nice cost and shipping price - sadly no bundle of the two, but as regular readers of this site will know that's not an issue, it is only the 7" i want anyway!

if you are reading this and have no idea who Ian Curtis is, well, what can i say? go and read up on him on the interweb net, or rather see the excellent film 24 Hour Party People as soon as possible! i will get around to seeing Closer one of these days, but for now 24 Hour Party People remains for me a good, broad introduction to the man and his band, as well as putting the tale of Joy Division within the context of the extraordinary, explosive and fantastic music scene they were part of.

as Love Will Tear Us Apart should be in every record collection, i would say that now is as good a time as any to get a copy of it. obviously i would advise on the 7", but if all you have is a CD player, you can always get the CD single shipped from the above link too!!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

try, try, try to be decent losers for a change!

hey everyone

well, the fantastic achievement made by South Africa on Saturday in Paris appears to be subject to attempts to make sweetness turn sour by those sore losers back home in England.

the gripe is a disputed try which was not given. i am no expert, but as far as i can see the referees and officials looked at it six or seven different ways and it was pretty clear that, at best, there was a 50-50 chance it was valid, but realistically it seemed correct not to give the score.

England, of course, are now claiming that they would have won if that score was given. not the case - SA's score would still have been the winning one, even if you added a try and a conversion to the England score. England just did not score enough to say that they would have won it.




it just seems that England cannot accept being beaten fairly and squarely. they have to blame someone when it all goes wrong, even turning on their own if need be. i cannot understand the mentality of always having to be a victim, which i suppose is why i choose not to live there any more. sometimes your best is just not good enough, under which circumstances you should just say "fair play" and congratulate the victor.




it would be nice if all could just put that incident aside and acknowledge that the best team won, the team which deserved to win won it.

and on that note, a huge round of applause to the proud South Africans in their triumph - well done, congratulations and may the celebrations go on for a good deal of time to come yet!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!

looked for one in the bush, ended up with two in the hand......

prior to ordering Bullitt recently, i browsed a 2nd hand store to see if the disc was there on the off chance. they didn't have it, but they did have some laserdiscs going for all of R20 each!! as my dear friend The Colonel has at least one armed and fully operational Laserdisc player, they were a practical investment, and at R20 a go, well, if nothing else they are worth having on the shelf to just look impressive.

sadly, there was only 5 or so, and the majority of the titles were probably not worth having. that said, the two i got, Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now, are indeed well worthy of anyone's collection!

the guy in the store tried to stop me buying them, as they were "laserdiscs and not lp's". i pointed out that i knew exactly what they were, and indicated that Apocalypse Now did feature the word "laserdisc" in rather large letters across the cover!



as for the Laserdisc format itself, well, it was more widespread in terms of availability before VCR's took off. as you could only play the discs (there was never an LD recorder), and the discs are the size of a 12" record, they never really took off on a wide scale, i guess. a shame, as in most instances the playback from a Laserdisc surpasses what you get on a DVD. They also took the trouble to format the films on a Laserdisc properly - to date, only the Laserdisc version of 2001 : A Space Odyssey features the exact aspect ratio in which Kubrick filmed it, for example. ho hum, as DVD is cheaper to make and easier for the consumer to store, i doubt there is much chance of an LD revival as such. a nice find for the collection for me and The Colonel to mess around with, even if neither film features Steve McQueen bombing around in a Mustang!!

James on the mend!!

heya

just a quick update - James slept right through last night, and his temperature is back to well within normal!

i gather he was rather excited to get to school with all his friends today and, as i type this, i have no doubt that he is busy telling all and sundry of his adventures over the weekend, running around with the scooter and chasing after ducks, chickens and geese!!

we will pop into the doctor with him later just to check all is OK, but at this stage it would seem that it is the last of his teeth popping through that bothered him so much!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bullitt on the way / Daleks Abduction obtained......

well, i have given up on trying to find the fine film Bullitt on the shelves here, so it is on the way from amazon. i went for the cheaper one disc version as i am not all that interested in the extras, i prefer the stylish silver cover to the one pictured here, and it is some three pounds sterling less!

i hardly need to comment on what a great film Bullitt is, do i? yes, there's the whole Mustang car chase through San Francisco, but there has always been a great deal more to the film than that. certainly one of McQueen's finest roles, but then again it is difficult to think of a bad McQueen film, except perhaps the vanity project that was Le Mans.




on the other end of the quality spectrum, i now indeed have obtained this Abducted By The Daleks business. it is pretty much what you can guess, really - vastly cheap in scale and budget, and made purely on the basis that someone got hold of an old Dalek prop or two and wondered what to do with it. "make a cheap sleazy adult film with some eastern european babes" was clearly where the wondering ended up!

Abducted By The Daleks has a humour value for fans of Dr Who, but i would imagine fans of the more adult nature of the film would get very bored, as it is all rather tame. a nice touch is certainly the alien dude with a cheap mask bought from a joke shop on, and the Daleks act, well, somewhat like Daleks, just with the wrong kind of voices. not a bad crack at it. my thanks to the patience of an anonymous individual who facilitated me getting this film!!


a recommendation? for a variety of reasons, i would recommend that you see either or both of these films if you get the chance to do so!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Biker Dude!!

hello again

well, the bath and the teething powder seems to have helped him out. he is all smiles, song and play at the moment - he was playing jumping, which involves jumping off Daddy's tummy to another part of Daddy. Daddy will leave that exact part to your imagination, frankly, but let it be said that it is indeed rather sore but all in a good cause, presumably.

anyway, more pics from yesterday's birthday party!! at the party there was a range of those scooter bikes for the kids to play on a massive tennis or basketball (or both) court on. they certainly had fun with them!!




the majority of James's scratches and bruises at creche / school come from trying to do rather ambitious things with these scooter things. he kind of gets the hang of how to ride one, and then decides it is time to try and do wheelies or ride it with one hand, or both of those things. bumps and scratches are certainly all part of growing up, especially for a young boy, and he is covering this part rather well.




as the years roll on i somehow doubt we will be quite so keen to encourage him on the bigger, engine driven versions of bikes, but in the mean time he is having fun with these. well, in the next pic he does not look like he is having that much fun, he's just contemplating where to try and push it next.





right, time to focus on James's temperature and the reduction of it on this side. on that note, i am seriously considering an ice pack for that unnamed area of me at the moment!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!

James and the Birthday Party / James is unwell......

hey everyone


well, as i write this James is in the bath with Mama in an attempt to bring his temperature down. sadly, the poor little fella seems to be somewhat under the weather at the moment - he seems OK in himself, and certainly has not abandoned his love of dinosaurs or shrek! the high temperature seems to be of a dental cause - we suspect that his molars are on the way out. hopefully they get a move on, and hopefully these are the last of the teeth to visit!

the weekend did, however, start off well for him. we were invited to a birthday party for his friend Shaun, who has moved to another creche / school type thing, so he does not see him all that much. i think it is fair to say that James had a most excellent time running around their big plot for a couple of hours!!

one of the best parts of a birthday party is of course the birthday cake. Shaun's parents had arranged an excellent Postman Pat cake, made of chocolate, chocolate and a bit extra chocolate for good measure!! James certainly enjoyed his slice!!





and if you are wondering why James is looking around in the above pic, the answer is down below. he made a new friend in the form of a delightful little Yorkshire Terrier! i think the terrier was somewhat wary of James and all the other youngsters, but Mama was on hand to try and keep the terrier under control whilst James told it how nice it is!





and this next pic shows exactly why the Terrier was so wary of James and most of the other children there!!





well, i have just gone and checked on James and the tepid, lukewarm bath with Mama seems to be working - he is playing and kicking away in the water. fingers crossed that the temperature stays down!!

be excellent to each other!!!

Manics - Indian Summer

my thanks again to those fine people at Record Store for the delivery of my latest 7" single, Indian Summer by the Manic Street Preachers.

i am rather enjoying being able to play 7" singles again - they are just so much better than this CD business!

as for this particular single, well, it is one of the better tracks off the Send Away The Tigers album, but it still remains then that it is a good track off a very weak album. ho hum, it looks good on the shelf and sounds great when the needle hits the groove!

obviously, if you are of a similar mind to me in regards of how music should be heard, please click on the links provided here and buy yourself a copy!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!

Gordon Bennett!!

hey everyone

well, words are something of an interest to me, so i found this article rather interesting! it's always a curious thing to learn where phrases and words we take for granted come from. if you are of a mind that is equally interested in it, enjoy this article!!


Gordon Bennett! Revealed for the first time, the man who gave his name to a favourite profanity


The Gordon Bennetts of this world have probably got used to hearing their name blurted out in moments of surprise.

Now word detectives believe they have pinpointed how the quaint exclamation came about.

Gordon Bennett, often considered a euphemism for a four-letter word, has been traced back seven decades after the public responded to a TV appeal.
The phrase is one of 34 words and phrases that have been updated by the Oxford English Dictionary, with the help of viewers from the BBC2 programme Balderdash & Piffle.





Hundreds wrote in after the programme makers asked the public to help them trace the history of 40 well-known words and phrases.
It had previously been thought that one of the earliest mentions of Gordon Bennett was by the character Alf Garnett in 1967 in the BBC TV series Till Death Us Do Part.
With the help of viewers, the phrase was initially traced back a further five years to the comedy Steptoe and Son in 1962.






Now, however, experts have agreed its first mention comes in a novel about low-life characters written in 1937 by James Curtis.
The book - You're in the Racket, too! - includes the phrase: 'He stretched and yawned. Gordon Bennett, he wasn't half tired.'

Rambo Returns

well, this does look somewhat promising! i am hoping that this is going to follow the pattern set out by the excellent Rocky Balboa, which is to say that with some luck Rambo will go back to the story driven roots of the original film, First Blood, rather than follow the cartoonesque, over the top nature of the sequels.

that said, early word on this film is that it is exceptionally violent. apparently a rough and ready trailer, and indeed some footage, has been available out there for a month or so now. the indications from that are that we can expect a return to the action scenes so popular (and rightly so) in 80's movies.

2007 has been a somewhat dour year for cinema, so at least 2008 is going to start off with a film of interest, i guess. at least it seems they are sticking with the name "Rambo" alone - i believe there were suggestions of "Rambo At The Gates Of Hell" or something equally silly.

i recently, for reasons i am not prepared to discuss here, had to endure High School Musical 2 on the Disney channel. i will wager that i shall enjoy this film somewhat more.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if only he was interesting enough to do this.......!

'I'll probably just watch the match in the pub' says McLaren

England football manager Steve McLaren has revealed that he couldn’t really be bothered travelling to Moscow for tonight’s match versus Russia. He confirmed that he’ll probably just watch the game in the pub with a few mates. Despite having a pretty decent ticket, the Head Coach feels it’s just too much hassle, for a game that he predicts will probably be a drab nil-nil draw anyway.

McLaren said, ‘I haven’t missed a game in the last two years, home or away. Yet the thought of wasting three days at the match isn’t very appealing. It’s cold, you queue for warm beer and cold burgers, the toilets are a disgrace and let’s face it without David Beckham there’s no real showbiz factor.’

The 4pm kick-off means that after staying on for a couple more pints to watch the Scotland game kicking off at six, McLaren is likely to head home by eight. ‘I’ll probably pick up a Chinese takeaway and try and get a snuggle with the wife; she’s always saying that Wednesdays should be our night together,’ said the former ‘Boro boss, ‘besides you don’t always have to boo Frank Lampard in person, it’s just as satisfying to jeer him on the telly.’

It transpires that a number of the England players apparently unavailble through injury are also staying at home because they would rather watch it on the telly ‘You get to see the replays and that fancy graphic showing how far back the wall should be.’

This revelation comes after recent commentators have questioned the commitment of the England players. Wayne Rooney was recently spotted in public clutching a can of lager and eating a kebab. It was no surprise when he was taken off at half time.

where have you gone, Bullitt?

well now this is most annoying. i have never gotten around to getting Bullitt on DVD for some reason. now that a friend, who we shall call 'happiness', has asked about it, i decided it was time to buy it or something.

can you find it, in SA at least, on the shelves or on the online sites? no you cannot, it seems!

bummer, man, that's a bummer. oh well, it seems reasonably available in the UK, so i may well buy it from there. as and when our dear South African Post Office would get around to delivering it is another matter.

on the note of those clowns, i did have a chat with them, asking how exactly it takes 7 days to send a parcel from here to New Zealand, yet 18 days to get one from Johannesburg to Cape Town, a distance of some 1200kms i think. they didn't, surprise surprise, have any answers for me. when they commented that they were not at all sure how to explain it or what to do, i suggested that, just for the novelty factor, they have a go at doing the job they are paid for, and if that works out, to do it properly to see if they like it. will they take my advice? who knows, but i am not optimistic.....

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go Wogan!!!

i would ask if people do not have too much free time on their hands if they are complaining about this, but then again if i was bored i probably would too. or at least do something similar to amuse myself, so to speak!!


Tight-trousered Terry's wardrobe malfunction sparks BBC complaints

It's difficult to say who was squirming the most - Terry Wogan or the TV viewers.

The BBC veteran presented Sunday's Points of View in a pair of moleskin trousers which clung relentlessly to a certain area and left little to the imagination.

The corporation has received a flurry of complaints about 69-year-old Sir Terry's wardrobe malfunction.

And there was speculation that he might be forced to report on the widespread dismay in the next edition of the audience feedback programme - not to mention Auntie's Bloomers, his show featuring TV faux pas.

Viewers were initially placed at ease when the avuncular Irishman appeared on screen in jacket, shirt and tie for the teatime show - well before the 9pm watershed.

But then the camera panned down to reveal mustard-coloured slacks which offered him little in the way of, ahem, support and evoked memories of sprinter Linford Christie's infamous 'lunchbox'.

Even Sir Terry's most ardent female fans appear to have found the experience a little unsettling, if the BBC's on-line message boards are to be believed.

One said: "I have just watched Points of View with my daughter and my husband. When the camera panned out on Terry Wogan, I didn't know where to look.

"Both my daughter and I (who are in no way prudish) were totally embarrassed to see Terry with very revealing trousers on. I'm sure we can't have been the only ones to notice."

A fan of Sir Terry, who earns £800,000 a year, leapt to his defence, saying: "I think the cameraman was taking the proverbial.

"Terry isn't usually framed that way. He probably thought it was the usual waist-up shot and wasn't giving a thought to the lunchbox."

Another added: "Can't the man have a mid-life crisis in peace? In the animal kingdom such displays often attract a willing mate."

Sir Terry, who was knighted in 2005, appeared to be taking the furore in his usual light-hearted manner yesterday on his Radio 2 breakfast show. He read out a message from a listener which asked him if he had borrowed the trousers or whether he had got 'someone else to fill them in other vital areas'.

It advised: "Try crossing your legs when in full shot - if you can do that without wincing. Try something a little more roomy in the which-side-do-you-dress department and try not to sneeze."

Wogan insisted they were his own trousers and defiantly added: "Everybody's an expert - you can't appear on television without a crowd of idiots telling you look like something the cat dragged in."

This is the latest controversy for Wogan after he was criticised for being paid to present the Children In Need charity event. He received nearly £10,000 for fronting the seven-hour show in 2005.

Earlier this year he also came under fire when he blundered on the results show for the UK entrant into the Eurovision Song Contest by announcing the wrong winner.

Wogan and co- host Fearne Cotton simultaneously announced different winners.

Daleks, Daloids and Deviant Brainwave

heya

just a quick message to Deviant Brainwave - sorry man, could not work out where to leave a message on your site!

in regards of what you commented on, you may want to look......




for assistance. just follow the instructions and good luck with your research!!

links removed as the intended recipient has them!! if you want them yourself, best you leave a nice comment and ask :)

Dalek / Daloid Abduction Update!!!

well, i am not at all sure if i should be including this kind of thing on my blog, but i will try to be delicate with it! it seems that Abducted By The Daleks / Daloids is indeed (ahem) available online, although not too widely. for my friend who left a message - you can find it on the "share and share alike" networks, i imagine you have a better connection that me, so good luck in your quest to find it too!


is it worth getting? well, only seen about 10mins of it - i believe it runs for all of 45mins though. oh yes, it is worth getting! the plot pretty much goes along the lines of what i said in the bit below, only funnier.

can one even have spoilers for this fine looking and sounding movie? probably, some people tend to get sensitive, so you have been warned about the next bit!!

*SPOILER START* one lady is running around in the forest with a torch, gets cold, inexplicably sees a jacket in a tree, inexplicably decides to take all her clothes off before getting jacket, jacket "disappears", presumably a Dalek / Daloid trick, she is left running around in the natural *SPOILER END*.

i will press on with (ahem) trying to obtain the whole of this masterpiece, will let you know as and when i have it!! i guess all broadminded fans of Dr Who with a sense of humour should do the same!!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!

waterfall!

hey everyone


as Grandad was feeling a bit stiff and poorly this weekend, i took James around to see him to wish him well, and of course to do his gardening work for him!

it all started off reasonably well, with James showing his flair, dexterity and skill in getting the hosepipe to sometimes fire in the direction of the flowers instead of his shirt and pants!





however, ever the keen scientist, James soon turned his attentions to seeing what would happen if he tried to water his beloved tortoise!





i think he managed to successfully prove that the shell on a tortoise is rather water resistant!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday 20 October 2007

hey everyone


well, thanks to the events over the weekend in Paris, isn't this coming Saturday night going to be interesting in our household? with Michele being South African and your humble narrator being English, watching the big final should be quite tasty!

people have already been asking if they can buy tickets to rather watch us watching the game instead of the match itself, would you believe!

so who is the favourite for Saturday night? i am far from being an expert - i mean, i played the game for a while, but do not really follow it, but common sense suggests that this lot will take a great deal of effort to beat!




in particular, this young lad is fantastic. he seems to create something from nothing when he plays, and makes it more entertaining than usual to watch. he was certainly the star of the show on Sunday night. well done lad, and all the best for Saturday night - beating Jonah's record will be something!



however, as said, your humble narrator is English, and so although the lot above are without much doubt the most deserving side to lift the final, i have to be supporting the team of my mother land. i have not supported them at all for the whole tournament, so watch me jinx them in the 11th hour by saying that!





and then, of course, there is the small matter of the man pictured below :





he is surely to be remembered as one of the greats? i mean, in 2003 he was surrounded by an above average set of players and still shone. in 2007, you could argue that England are as far as they are because of him. he will have to have the performance of his career on Saturday to drag England to a victory. that would be a formidable thing to do, but then again, even those of us who do not know all that much about the current game know that he could do it.



well, whoever you will be supporting in it (should you watch), let's just hope for a good game i guess. there's also the novelty factor that whoever reigns on Saturday, James could with ease claim to be a follower of them!!'


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and i thought the place was boring!!

my apologies to Gillian, Grant, Katie, Daniel, the platform thing in their garden and everyone else - it seems that New Zealand is not quite as dull as i thought!!

NZ police hold 17 in terror raids

New Zealand police have arrested 17 people and seized a number of weapons during a series of anti-terror raids.
More than 300 police were involved in the operation, reportedly aimed at Maori sovereignty and environmental activists - not foreign groups.


The head of New Zealand's police, Howard Broad, said those held had been in military-style training camps.

The North Island raids were the first use by the authorities of the country's Terrorism Suppression Act.

Police Commissioner Broad told reporters his officers had information that a number of suspects had used firearms and other weapons at training camps.

Those targeted were from "a range of motivations" and from various ethnicities, he said.

"Based on the information and the activity known to have taken place, I decided it was prudent that action should be taken in the interests of public safety," Mr Broad said.

Media reports said the raids came after months of work by anti-terror police.



the whole thing strikes me as being rather People's Front Of Judea in nature, and a rather neurotic, paranoid way of reporting it is somewhat apparent. oh well, at least there is something to print in their newspapers for a couple of days!!

be excellent to each other, and it would seem avoid upsetting the fine Maori people if you can!!!!!!!!

charming

well, is first (ish) thing on a monday morning really what you want to read about your dear old home town?


It is the kind of tabletopping performance the good citizens of Middlesbrough could do without.

While other towns and cities win accolades for their culture, sport and lively social scenes, the only recognition heading for the oncemighty industrial port is that of worst place to live in the country.


The town has achieved its unwanted eminence through high crime, severe drug and health problems, and poor education results.

According to researchers for the Channel 4 show Location, Location, Location, which compiles an annual list of the best and worst places to live, Middlesbrough has plenty of other problems too.

Estimates suggest that about 27 per cent of adults in the city bingedrink, way over the 18 per cent England national average. Only 16 per cent of adults eat healthily and 10 per cent are physically active, against 24 per cent and 12 per cent national averages respectively.

Its residents are paid on average £16,998 a year, against a national figure of £23,580, making it the 16th lowest city or borough for salary in the country.





Last year Hackney, in East London, was ranked the worst place to have a home but it is 12th this year.

Hull is now second, followed by Newham in East London.

Indeed, a quarter of the worst 20 are London local authorities.

The best place to live will be announced on Location, Location, Location on Wednesday.

Presenter Phil Spencer said: 'Each year we seem to create a storm of controversy with this survey but it's all based on official data and all we do is tell you the results.' Fellow presenter Kirstie Allsopp added: 'What I want more than anything is to champion, not condemn, the places on the worst list as there are some real diamonds in the rough.'

But the show's survey, which did not include Scotland and Northern Ireland, was dismissed by David Budd, leader of the controlling Labour group on Middlesbrough council. 'We've got a massive regeneration programme taking place, we have one of the country's fastestgrowing universities, we have the largest new public square in the country, and the BBC Proms hosted a concert here this year,' he said.

'No one would deny we have enormous problems but to say Middlesbrough is the worst place to live in the country is ludicrous.'





well, i would love to argue, rant and get upset about this one, but as i have never lived anywhere else in England but Teesside, and i now reside some several thousand miles away from the place, i suppose it is not my place to comment!

i do, however, believe that the list is a little rough on Hull, and i am somewhat surprised to see Sunderland missing from the list........

be excellent to each other, and have mercy on my home town please...............

nostlagia update

well, we tried James out with the previously mentioned The Land Before Time, and he did seem to be enjoying it. however, it struck Michele and I as being rather more violent that we remembered, and certainly more openly violent than Jurassic Park and of course the numerous animated or Disney Dinosaur films. oh well, they are now put away for the time being. he can watch them in a couple of years time, or Mama and Dada will watch them when they are older and get all nostalgic!!

as for a review of a brief trip into the past, well, it is always ace to see Keith Barron (he of the TV show Duty Free) running around on screen, all the better if it is running in the direction of and then well away from dinosaurs. The dinosaurs themselves are, well, ahem, probably as good as they could have been with very little money to spend and technical constraints. they at least do a good job of hiding all the wires!!

i am sure i will sit down and watch this in the not too distant future, actually. there are many things in it that are now "cheesy" or easy to poke fun at, but they did the best they could and tried to make a decent adventure film. what's wrong with that??

The World Is Yours is mine!!

hey everyone

well, after not much post for a bit (the public holiday on September 24 took the South African Post Office by surprise, even though it seems to have been on every calendar in the country), my PO Box was parcel city yesterday. one of the packages featured the 'special edition' of The World Is Yours by Ian Brown!!!





the rather lavish packaging and effort put in to the detail gives a strong case for CD's never ever going away, really. downloads are easy and convenient for people, and to a degree the record labels (in regards of legal downloads i guess), but nothing beats buying an actual product instead of a data file. that's my view at least, but then again i still buy 7" singles when they are available. the kids today probably see storing things on CD and what not as cumbersome and annoying when you can just shove it all straight on to the ipod or device of choice. ho hum, their loss.

whilst on the subject of 7" singles, here is my set of The World Is Yours opened out, along with the two vinyls of the lead single, Illegal Attacks.





i know Gillian over in New Zealand is going to be thrilled to see all of this!!

if you have a record player, may i suggest you purchase the 2 x 7" set of Illegal Attacks from Record Store. they ship everywhere on earth at a good price, and as one 7" features an awesome live version of Keep What Ya Got with Noel Gallagher, it is well worth it.

as nice as it all looks, you ask, what about the content of The World Is Yours? is the music on it any good? well, i am not likely to give Ian Brown a bad review, am i??

that said, this is not his masterpiece - of his solo albums, Unfinished Monkey Business and Music Of The Spheres remain the best of the best. but that does not mean this is bad, far from it. whereas those two albums were quite introvert and reflective, this one sees Ian comment on a whole range of things which are annoying him, a destination he has been creeping to of late and illustrated in recent interviews, one of which was posted here not so long ago. as major concerns of Ian are the homeless and soldiers dying for little or no reason, it's difficult to fault him for his views, but Mr Brown is never subtle in delivering a message.

the album is easily his best defined in terms of structure - you are never abruptly jolted, the whole thing plays in one sitting very nicely indeed. if the function of a work of music is to inspire dance then this does it, Mr Brown may have adopted a more overt political view than usual but he has not disowned his sense for a bangin' tune in doing that!

this special edition features the entire album recorded by an orchestra. no, Gillian, Ian does not sing on that version of it. this alternate reading of it is rather ambitious, and more or less works in the translation.

OK, stop reading this, go off and buy this album in whichever way works best for you!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!

Dr Who - an unusual version

well, now that BBC Prime has got bored or repeating the same thing again and again, we here in SA are at last getting to see the "new" Dr Who series, featuring Christopher Ecclestone, made 2 or 3 years ago. nice one!!

any of my relatives will regale you with takes of how i used to hide behind the couch when Dr Who, or specifically the Daleks, appeared on screen in the 70's. well, many of us did it seems. that said, i doubt very much i would hide away from this film of the Daleks, if you will excuse a slightly more saucy than usual update from me with this one!!

it seems that someone somewhere, and i imagine they kept their name well out of it, managed to get hold of the actual Dalek outfits from the BBC and made the film Abducted By The Daleks. now, as this is a non-official product, it may come as little surprise to learn that the film does not contain many elements that the makers of Dr Who would ever have considered including in the TV series.


presumably in some attempt to avoid any form of legal action from either the BBC or the creators/owners of the Dr Who product, this masterpiece is also known as Abducted By The Daloids, which you have to say is a pretty nice way of trying to work around it in theory. in practice, however, a Dalek looks like a Dalek, so excuse me for not falling over surprise at the news that this attempt to deflect legal attention did not quite work. apparently about 2000 copies of the DVD made it out into the world before the plug was pulled by the lawyers. yep, that means this film is out there somewhere!

the plot sounds delicious - some girls are driving around, hit an unspecified object, the car won't start and thus they start walking around with torches in some woods. at some stage they apparently feel it is a good idea to disrobe, and who would i be to ask why or argue with that? anyway, one imagines that not long after this they are indeed abducted by you know who.....

for what you would think is a reasonably rare film, the pricing out there is not at all bad or excessive - i have seen it on the net for about thirty pounds, and oddly at US$30, which undermines the exchange rate principle somewhat. that said, i cannot see circumstances under which i will be purchasing this 45 minute film, as the humour value, if changed into money, is most likely considerably less than that. i suspect a copy will turn up, so to speak, much like my print of Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers did. as in, it just turned up, and i have no idea how or why it did.......

not many of you who read my site ever take the time to leave a message here, but in this instance, well, if you have this film or know from where it can be "obtained" with minimal cost, you are encouraged to leave a message!!

be excellent to each other, or EXTERMINATE!!!