condemned by commerce

hi there

a post of limited interest, even by the usual somewhat exclusive nature of appeal for posts here, if i am honest. i do not imagine too many will have interest in this, but the child of the condiment phoenix quite likes it when i do the shops and share what i shopped for, so here you go!

the child of the condiment phoenix and i tend to disagree on the correct terminology for certain clothes. threads, strides and pants are words that i am comfortable with, but they tend to prompt argument. i may well just use regular words, then.

i had every intention, dear reader, of getting "one or two" new shirts. as those of you with a calculator, or rudimentary, perhaps makeshift abacus will have worked out however, i seem to have - quite by accident - got five new ones. whoops. well, they were all rather smart, and i was not inclined to put any of them back. yeah, the white one is a disaster waiting to happen, with my skills of slopping stuff down me and that. i will try to keep it spill free, but history suggests the odds are stacked quite against that.

yeah, the above cost a bit more than i expected. something close to just over my expenditure on threads, excluding suits, combined and consolidated over the last two, maybe three, years. hey ho, when in Rome. they are smart clothes, after all.

not that i bought just threads, mind.

yes, i picked up, or "downed", the e-book of Doctor Sleep last year, and sang mighty praises of it here on this blog this year. or did i "down" it and read it this year? not sure, but as the paperback was going at half price, it seemed astute to purchase it. my (considerably) better half shall enjoy it, and i would not object to reading it on the bus at some point in the future. yes, read again. that good.

i would be reasonably sure not much in the way or reason or motivation for this shirt would be required amongst my chums.

yes, that's one of them 'mod' logos on that shirt, as made popular by The Who. so that was a buy anyway. having Lambretta written on it just makes it all the more awesome.

i did contemplate buying the traditional white version of this, but then thought i would totally knack it so just went with the blue instead. makes for an easier life. i will mess on this, mark my words, but possibly less so than a white one. white clothes on me become some sort of magnet for coffee and food. or perhaps it is simply that i am just clumys and that.

so probably best to have another look at it before i wear it and make a mess of it.

yes, indeed, it was off to jacamo for these fine, if somewhat at a cost, threads. they do some smart clothes in bigger sizes - sizes bigger than what i need to fit with comfort, no less. ace that i can go there and select stuff from the middle of the rack, rather than going to the end and looking for the biggest. that's what usually happens in stores with me.

since i have returned home i have been able to do that thing that i love loads in that direction, which is take a stroll and walk around rather than drive. to do so with increased style and a significantly higher level of comfort, my (considerably) better half very kindly took it upon herself to furnish me with these fine beauties.

i can assure you that they are indeed as magnificent to wear as they are to look at. a formidable walking experience they give one, these do. if fortune smiles on me, i suspect young Zama will gaze at these and be very glad that i am some 7000 miles away from him, thus he will not be the benefactor of a "test" run.

i have not, as it happens, retrieved my brown boots from storage as such as yet. i have not really been in the mood to do the cowboy look i fashioned last year, look you see. as and when i am of a mind to do that, i shall go and fetch them. as for now, though, these black beauties will be fine. more than, even.

so yes, Doctor Sleep. a superb novel it is. it does not really matter if you have never read The Shining, or only seen the film version which differed from the book somewhat. this one can be read in its own right with ease, i suspect, due to the lavish introduction.

as for the DVD, well, i suspected we needed a slight boost to the contents of our trolley to qualify for a discount voucher, so grabbed it and shoved it in. it looked like it might "not be all that bad". it stars, as you can possibly work out, him off of Prison Break. no, not that one, the other one. they probably said, right, when they were casting it, "get him off of Prison Break to do it", and when they went right ahead and did that the director probably said "actually the other one, but never mind, he is here now". he also played, very badly, Dracula in Blade 3.

moving on, then, and it was Sunday, so traditions called very much for a traditional Sunday lunch. or, at the least, as close to one of them as one could get at McDonalds, which happened to be the closest place to us to get a spot of lunch.

well, maybe it is not actually all that traditional to have McDonalds for Sunday lunch, and it is not something we have had in quite some time for any sort of lunch. but it was lovely, and much needed, as we were quite hungry, buying threads and that.

how is that tax disc sticker of The King, Elvis Presley going? very, very well in my opinion, but you are most welcome to have a look and evaluate yourself. just, as you do, ignore the air bubbles on it. and look at just how rubbish the one on the car in front of us is.

an astute investment, that tax road car sticker thing has been.

anyway, back to threads, or clothes, or whatever one wishes to call them. those things that one can cover their body with.

another very good way to get me to part with notes is to put the name, support and endorsement of cricketers that i approve of on the product for which one wants coins of money. few get the approval from me that Freddie Flintoff gets, so any shirt that he considers good enough to carry his name is most certainly going to be good enough for humble, simple me.

i don't think Freddie actually makes these clothes himself, but you never know. bonus if he does, i suppose, but one would suspect he is rather busy doing all that boxing, cricket and tv work stuff, not to mention attempts to cross the Atlantic in pedal boats.

does Freddie wear these threads himself? certainly in the adverts he does.

the boys, when not having a traditional McDonalds, also got some new shoes too. exactly like mine, except smaller and to their size, and looking entirely different except that whole left/right thing shoemakers of the world seem to get so fussy about.

no, alas, they do not do smart Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shoes anywhere near my size, so what you are looking at are indeed a pair for the boys. if i got four or five pairs i suppose i could hack them up a bit and, with the constraints of that whole left and right thing, fashion a pair for myself with a bit of stitching, perhaps some welding for good measure. it is probably best, however, if on the whole i just stuck rather more towards shoes made for the purpose of fitting me. i would imagine i could just get some ace stickers to make them pretty like this if i was really all that bothered.

it is getting late, so i am rather tired. my apologies if these last comments are rushed, then.

go on, since you have been good, another look at the road car tax disc sticker of The King, Elvis Presley, doing its thing, live and in action.

and, for the sake of a semi-complete and almost entire account, here are the backs of the fine book Doctor Sleep and this dodgy looking film called Vikingdom. i've just noticed that i have not mentioned the title of the film up to now, but i suspect you saw it on the box.

Vikingdom, what a name. it's one of those ones that sounds class when you come up with it, right, but you become aware of how rubbish it is right around the time it has gone to the printers.

i will watch it at some point, but certainly not this evening.

anyway, do that will, look you see



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