about

hello there

well, looking at the amount of pics i have "upped" this could be quite a lengthy blogpost. looking at the time i am uncertain that i should be even starting this now, but hey ho, off i go.

it being as pleasant a Tuesday as one could ask for today saw me heading off to go out and about around town. with a purpose, certainly. one purpose, after some deliberation and thought, was to skip or otherwise bypass the complex ways of taking a car into town. a bus ride should have been, in theory, more relaxing and easier.

so yes, here we go, selfie at bus stop time for your entertainment.

yeah, i do kind of look a lot smarter than usual there. no, i did not say i look smart, far be it from me to call that one, but at the least smarter than i would on most days. with reason.

the bus journey was, alas, not as pleasant as it could be. sadly the cut in the times of the service has now been accompanied by the use of the oldest, smallest and most uncomfortable buses they could find for the route. they are, it seems, doing all that they can to drive every single person off the buses so they don't have to do the route any more, cutting off a village or two entire. sadly, many people rely on the bus to get to work, the doctor and what have you. so i wish they would cut it out and give a decent, proper service.

anyway, i went off to town today to make a visit, in person, to these employment and recruitment agencies. nope, no luck with the applications since my last post on it. i was getting somewhat fed up with just sitting and applying online, to be honest, so i thought i would have a go at rejuvenating that peculiar thing we did in the 20th Century where you went and did things in person.

more on that later, but as i went about i was contacted by my chum Spiros via one of them wireless phone things that are portable. it sounds like he is still having an absolute bugger of a time getting a haircut it Grantham, Wapping, Tooting or whatever area of London (innit) he is in. he has gone as far as considering approaching a homeless chap with some scissors and a can of lager to see if he can't sort it out for him.

in order to help, with a waiting time of about 3 weeks in London (innit) for a haircut, i suggested that he take the bus, train, plane or whatever car he has up this way to get his hair sorted. he asked for photographic evidence of suitable hair stylists in the area and so i agreed to take a picture and send it.

Spiros does seem quite excited about this one, and i anticipate him heading this way soon to pay a visit and get it all sorted out. it's not like he wants that Jedward style hair again, just a trim really. it would, oddly, be quicker and cheaper for him to come here and get it done instead of waiting to pay for it to be done in London (innit). go figure.

how did my business about town work out? good and bad i suppose would be the single most accurate answer, despite it theoretically not being single. all the places i visited were nice and polite, but basically directed me towards their website and suggested i email my CV and all that to them. basically, do what i have been doing for two months here and three months or so before i headed home.

this is the 21st Century, i suppose. newspaper adverts for jobs are just about dead, and recruitment agencies seem to exist only to handle everything via the web. i was kind of hoping for some advice, guidance and that, for these agencies surely rely on filling positions for their income, but alas no. hey ho, will mail them, thank them for seeing me, include my details and request that they perhaps offer their thoughts on some sort of clarity of direction for me.

earlier in the day we asked William what he would like for breakfast. he shunned or flat refused any of the suggestions we made, instead indicating that he would quite like a cheeseburger. as in the breakfast of The King, Elvis Presley. my (considerably) better half and i deliberated this request for a few moments. it was clear he was not interested in anything else and we couldn't quite say we were awake enough to debate the merits of this choice with him, and thus off he went.

he seems to have had no adverse effects from having the breakfast of The King, Elvis Presley, but i suspect we shall discourage him from having this frequently. he certainly performed just fine in one of those "egg and spoon" races later on in the day!

back to images around town, then, and there are not all that many to be honest. people wandering around taking random images doesn't seem to happen all that often. actually, it didn't in South Africa, really, but here i do get a sense that people would much prefer it if i did not, whereas over there no one seemed to particularly care.

bringing those two together meant that i could not skip this place when taking what pictures i did. i am sure friends and family over the equator will be highly interested to see this place down town.

no, no i have not been in. the place looks like one of them "young people" things with loud, "modern" music and alcohol and all that. perhaps i will in passing call in one day, when i am about, but that day was not to be today.

so i would not describe my efforts today as a write off. would it have been idea if one of these recruitment specialists took a shine and directed me? yes, of course. no matter that they did not, i shall just have to keep plugging away at it as i was i guess.

anyway, i wandered in and around, about even, town. there was the opportunity for some class selfie action in an elevator and so, by my word, i took the opportunity.

not bad that one, if i say so myself. not sure how or what i was trying to do with that look there. perhaps, maybe, trying to recreate the look that Mickey Rourke had in his final elevator trip in Angel Heart? could be i guess.

it was around the time i was taking that picture when Sprios contacted me again. my, this wireless technology is grand, it is. he was quite excited because on his travels he had spotted some picture or other that had been beautified by no less than Sir Elton John. he illustrated this with an image.

nice though it was to see the above, it was a blatant approach from Spiros to request from me further pictures of the hairdresser i had located for him here. he was for some reason very excited indeed about what other business premises were located near the hairdresser.

time was in my favour, so i agreed to his wishes and took further images along the lines of his request.

he was most satisfied with this, and to show his pleasure decided to locate and send to me an image of Sir Richard Branson. i think it was a fluke that the people he found signed stuff by were all Knights of the Realm, but you never know with him. he studied history and that, so these Knights probably quite excite him a bit.

anyway, here is the picture he forwarded on.

my understanding was that one was supposed to get a Knighthood only for valour and courage in battle, and were expected to rise to the challenge of battle if called upon to do so once more. i am in no position at all to comment on the hard man status of either Elton or Richard, but to my mind it seems unlikely that either would be suited to military action and endeavour should we get invaded any time soon.

was the above all enough for Spiros? no, of course not. he wanted more pricing details and specifications, so i did the best i could for him.

that, i would be very happy to agree with you, is quite enough of Spiros and his bloody haircut problems. i have done all that i can to help the chap; it is now time for him to stand up, man up and be the ball with it all.

nope, it's that time of night where carriages turn into pumpkins or something. i am bravely clicking "save as draft" here in the hope that it does not all get deleted, right, and then shall return to write more of this in the morning. not that any of that matters to you, that is you who is reading the finished product.

right, back after a night where i had a strange dream in which i did a blog post thing about my chum Spiros wanting a haircut. where was i?

oh yes, after my adventures in and about town it was back home, and a nice lovely walk around. did i take some selfies of this? yes, of course i did.

i think that one is one of them "arty" or post-modernist ones. some sort of statement, assuming that the statement intended, and read, is one of "i got the angle wrong, here is up my nose".

some chap was stood on a bridge not knacked by a truck recently taking pictures of the beck. he was using all sorts of fancy equipment, so there must have been something blooming important going on. i did not see what it was myself, but decided, to give you a chance to decide for yourself, to use my somewhat less fancy equipment to take a picture or two. well, three, but i am only putting the most decent 33% of them here.

there were some ducks and that doing their thing in the beck, perhaps that is what the chap was taking pictures of. it didn't seem appropriate to stop and ask him. nor did it, as it happens, seem appropriate to ask the shop i popped into if the marginal increase on every product in the last day or so was in some small way instigated by the need and requirement to rebuild a bridge.

obviously i don't mean that beck that is better called Beck or Beck!, him that does the music and knows where it's at. but i think you can clock the difference between a stream of water and a North American musician.

another selfie around the village? sure, why not, kind reader, thank you for asking.

actually, speaking of Beck, and North American artis...musici....people who make records in general, renowned country star (give or take a few letters) Noel Gallagher was on that sports radio thing the other night. it was fascinating. he was discussing Manchester City's recent cup win, which is interesting as he has all but stopped going to the games or mentioning them, apparently for the grown up and mature reason that "Liam goes". anyway, he said that City winning the League Cup was not the best thing ever, rightly pointing out that they had won the League; a matter that carries a fair level more provenance. he also mentioned that Alan Pardew, after his recent theatrics, probably "won't ever get to be England manager". what an insight that is, and they say Liam is the less intelligent and out of touch one.

speaking of which, i had no need for either therapy or much in the way of retail, but as i was about town i thought it best to indulge and see if there was anything which appealed in the realm of what one might call retail therapy.

happily, at the shops, there was indeed an item or two which made everything feel all better.

yes. oh yes, Sports Direct. despite the name of the store, they do seem to have a way of stocking items for members of the gentry who either equal my size or go beyond, as well as items for the ladies too. why would a sports store carry items in a shape and size for those of us not of a mind for the realm of sport and physical stuff. far be it from me to indicate that it in some way relates to the chief proprietor of the chain, or indeed the entourage of what they reliably inform me consists of members of the "cockney mafia" that follow him around and gain meaningful employment with him. which, in fairness, puts them one up on me.

it is the solemn duty of all non-Newcastle fans to purchase as many items as they require from Sports Direct. why? because what the proprietor does with the money you hand him seems to only upset and cause distress to those in this world who are Newcastle fans. that's why.

presently the proprietor is engaged in a most fascinating use of such coins of money. he takes the profits, pays a member of the "cockney mafia" for doing a job, the member, Pardew, then physically strikes someone during the course of his work duties and the proprietor takes the coins back. i think this is a bit like what "trickle down" economics is like.

yes, that is indeed Mr Ali on the bag, a major reason for giving the proprietor a bit extra cash to own one, it's smart it is.

it's the kind of bag that one would imagine that no less than Ian Brown would walk around with. he likes the boxing, and it is a bag big enough to carry all the vibes, goodwill and conveyance of universal peace and love that he likes to spread across the people.

what did i but? some boxers and another form of underwear that was on a rather special price and seemed, more or less, to be my size. they are also from a brand associated with the world of boxing, which of course makes them all the more class. these could well be the same type of boxers that Joe Bugner prefers.

i don't think that Joe Bugner actually wore the very ones i bought. they would not be as so modest in price as they are if he had personally put them on, or otherwise got an assistant to dress him. i suppose it would be quite a bonus if Bugner had worn them, despite no indication or celebration of this on the packaging. they will get washed anyway.

as you can see, the boxers also come in a most sturdy, solid and hard to argue with box. things that come in boxes are always a touch more classy than those things which do not. depending, of course, on how you yourself interpreted a certain scene or two towards the end of the film Se7en.

other than that, i popped into one of them pound shops, where everything for sale costs one pound each. i spotted a book of some considerable resonance and relevance to my current circumstance. i decided to purchase it, but i am sorry the price of it escapes me for the moment.

but here is a picture of me pretending to read it. i will actually read it, of course, but for a picture i thought i would just pretend.

i will have a read of it, i promise. i would not have purchased it had i not planned to read it, and my (considerably) better half says that i have to read it anyway.

and that's about that. i hope i have not gone on for too long in this post, other than the bit where i went to sleep it doesn't feel as convoluted and lengthy as i feared at the least!



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