back on the double down

heya


somewhere just north of four years ago i, look you see, experienced the slight joys of a fake and improper 'Double Down' burger off of KFC. the fake ways and improper nature was, as described here with some coarse language, down to it not featuring the bacon what The Colonel in his wisdom decreed should be in it.

my disappointment with that was such that i was not at all interested or excited to learn that this culinary treat was, for the standard limited time only, to be at last available in both England and indeed across the UK wherever branches of KFC could be found.

the ignorance or otherwise shunning of KFC and their latest attempt to get me to indulge in the delights of a Double Down were, however, not to be. James had seen it advertised and was intrigued buy it. this is an intrigue fuelled by an ambition as Andrew, one of the sensational Harlo clan, wanted one but could not eat it due to some sort of dietary concern or other.

with that, then, it was off to the nearest chapter of KFC to feast upon the Double Down, for i felt it suitable to give him the treat what he wanted. also, KFC is quite smart.

it is with much merriment that i can advise you of our nearest branch of KFC being one that sells the ostensibly proper Double Down, for the ones that i ordered came resplendent with the bacon what The Colonel scribed as should be an integral part of it. also, it came in a shiny packaging.

cost of the Double Down in the UK? well, the bacon and cheese variation comes as a mean, which comes with some fries and a soft drink of your choice, which was Pepsi. that clocks in at £5.99, or if you like just a penny south of £6. in the context of standard KFC pricing here that is not unreasonable for a limited edition thing but also places it on the more sophisticated end of their menu.

for those interested in such thing, an as of time of writing price differential around the world looks something like this for the £5.99 paid for one meal. although i bought two.

USA - $7.90
Australia - AU$10.11
New Zealand - NZ$11.36
Bitcoin - BC0.00129 (?)
Falkland Islands - FI£6.01
Bermuda - BERM$7.90
Israel - ILS27.58 (presumably sans bacon)
Japan - JP¥897.12
Eurozone - €6.70
Colombia - COP / COL$2313.89
Russia - ₽ 454.22

and i think that if you want to know what that translates to in other currencies you can investigate this for yourself. it might be a fun comparison thing for you, if you like that sort of thing.

rather splendidly you get the choice here as to whether or not you want the classical Double Down, resplendent with bacon, or the sensitive to religious concerns fake version, featuring no bacon in it. and no bacon replacement. the sans bacon version of the meal was 20p less in cost. interesting that they have determined such a low value on bacon.

how about a look at the business end of the Double Down here in the UK? which is to say, or suggest, the actual Double Down burger, or if American sandwich. why not. and for those of quaint sensibilities that might find such upsetting, here it is at first in the toned down ways of Commodore 64 mode.

a review of how the Double Down performs in a functionary sense? entirely satisfactory. there is always a danger that "limited edition" items, be they food or something else, seem flash to have but fall short in doing that which they are supposed to. not so here. the Double Down, correctly beautified with copious melted cheese and most tasty bacon, is lovely. an added bonus was the gallon or so of barbecue, or if you will bbq, sauce in which it was drowned. this is a timely reminder of just how much i miss the barbecue/bbq sauce drowned Godzilla tie-in burger what the KFC done in the mid to late 90s, whenever the film of that name with him out of Ferris Bueller's Day Off in it.

it is also a filling meal. a gentleman of my size does, from time to time, require a substantial size of a meal to feel sate. whilst at a glance the Double Down looks like it errs towards something of a smaller, more compact size, once some 60% of this is consumed you feel like you are totally knacked and cannot eat no more. i did, of course, finishing it all.

James, whose curiosity and interest prompted this return to the culinary realm of Double Down, was also suitably impressed. for some reason he thought that he was not going to finish his, but i pointed out how much i paid for it and that punishment might be involved he didn't, so he did.

my understanding of the matter is that the Double Down is not a "limited edition" thing in America, or if you will the USA. this calorie infused, artery battering treat is so popular there that it has remained as a constant on the menu of The Colonel at KFC chapters there. owing to the legal system i dare say that KFC might get sued if they removed it.

perhaps if it proves to be just as popular here perhaps KFC shall leave it as a permanent part of the UK menu of The Colonel. this would be despite our legal system not quite allowing such free and easy arrests in respect of fast food establishments. as thing stands, i believe it will be stripped from the menu as of the central aspects of November. so, if you want one, get one whilst you can.

right, that will do for that, then.



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

plodding along

howdy pop pickers


once singles were a massive deal. singles in the music sense, look you see. a big band or artist releasing a new single got some substantial coverage. the release was often announced via huge, one full page adverts in relevant magazines.

that's all gone now, of course. singles, to my distress and to my horror, simply no longer matter. as per numerous posts (whines, if you like, i don't mind the criticism) from this year the way the singles charts are now "compiled" is so completely f****d up that they are meaningless. to even look at or give consideration to the singles chart at any point after that farcical situation where Ed Sheeran took 16 of the top 20 places with album songs not released as singles is to tarnish the history of the singles chart.

so it is no real surprise, then, that another single what i would be interested in has just "slipped" out for release, with no fuss, no fanfare and no attention given to it. not even a mention of it on the NME, and don't get me started on what a mess the BBC radio / music corner of their website has become.

yes, as you can see clearly in the above (thanks to it being in Commodore 64 mode) this will be the 2nd single released in advance of Noel Gallagher's 3rd solo album. or if you will the 3rd album to be released in the name of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. should he really have a preference for the sanctuary offered by a band there is a solution some could suggest, but no matter.

this single, if "single" is even the right word no more, is called Fort Knox. a quasi instrumental tune which, i am led to believe, shall be the opening track for that 3rd album, Who Built The Moon. for those unsure of what, exactly, was the 1st single in this sequence, that would be Holy Mountain, or if you will Holy Let's Stick Together She Bangs Diamond Dogs Mountain, to reference just three of the several songs what Noel "references" in the tune.

is Fort Knox much of any good? well, it's not so bad. you can always give it a spin yourself, since the song is available via various gratis outlets on the web, assuming you are not going to go all millennial be upset about the presence of advertising to fund the free nature of content. here you go, to make it easier, here is the "official" You Tube Link for the song / single.

across the web i am reading comments about how this is Noel "breaking new ground" and "trying something new". someone somewhere also suggested that this song, Fort Knox to be sure, gives a clear indication on how Noel Gallagher is "evolving". the conclusion i would draw from this kind of description is that the raw, dry, sharp ways of subtle sarcasm remains alive and well.

whilst Holy Mountain, for many flaws, is infectious and catchy, this is all really just musician indulgence. it plods along, really, feeling more pedestrian and leaving you wonder how long it has to go rather than being decent to listen to.

it's not a bad tune at all, just an average one. perhaps that is why there was so little fuss made over the fact that it got released as a "single" of sorts. nothing about it, though, is in any way saying i should make plans to head to HMV for the day of release of Who Built The Moon. it's not like i ever got around to purchasing the 2nd Noel Gallagher album, i suppose.

somewhere around, or close to, 20% of my posts for the month of October have in some way related to the brothers Gallagher. time to give them a break from these pages, then.




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

what i watched

hello


so i have watched a fair few films of late, to be sure. for some reason i thought that someone out there somewhere my appreciate or have an interest in comments i have on them, so here we go. if you are not interested then i suppose it is best you know that now, so you can just skip this.

whilst i appreciate, look you see, that my evening habits are of little interest usually on a night i would watch a couple of hours of shows. normally this would be a CSI or NCIS variation, or one of them shows where angry Americans bid for storage lockers or to ship stuff. there has been a lack of ones that i am interested in, or otherwise i have seen the repeats far too often of late. so, with that, i have hit my disc collection.

here we go, then, and please note that for the most part i tend to just watch what many would consider "trashy" films. although one or two decent ones feature. like, for instance, the first one.

For A Few Dollars More
provenance - That's Entertainment, 49p

i have some fancy, la-de-dah DVD box set of this film stored away, but a copy was sat there in That's Entertainment "discs in sleeves" section so i grabbed it. this seemed easier than going through the boxes to find my copy as and when i might wish to view it, again.

what is it? well, the "middle bit" of the so-called "Dollars" trilogy. perhaps the lesser known one, as A Fistful Of Dollars and The Good, The Bad And The Ugly tend to be the two parts that are more frequently recalled.

any good? yes. maybe. i mean it is a really good film, but still it comes in as the weakest of the trilogy. despite not having the longest running length of the three films it feels like it is the longest, as the action and plot pacing are somewhat disjointed. Clint Eastwood is very much Clint Eastwood in this film, but the thing that struck me most on watching this again was how good Lee Van Cleef was. and when i say watched again, it's probably the first time since the mid or late 80s since i saw it.

Phantasm
provenance - That's Entertainment, 49p

no, i did not have this previously and had not seen it before, so this was a most splendid find in that same section as above.

despite having a passion for horrors back in the 80s i never got around to seeing this one. this was partially as i think it got banned or heavily edited during the BBFC "video nasty" revolution. mostly, though, when i was 10 my mate Racey (nickname) saw it and described a lot of it and it sounded like it would give me even more sleepless nights than what An American Werewolf In London did, which i watched after being told not to for that precise reason.

i picked this disc up a couple of years ago. the prompt to watch it came when the Horror Channel here on the tele started running trailers for it, saying they were giving it a "network premiere". it made more sense to me to get the disc out, then, than watch a variation of it resplendent with advertising.

any good? not bad. i want to say "standard late 70s or early 80s horror fare", but then i have to remind myself that this was one of the first of its kind and thus inspire imitators. it was nowhere near as terrifying or disturbing as my mate Racey suggested it was, but then again i suppose i am no longer 10 and so different interpretations of that are applicable. 
 

The Bigfoot Tapes
provenance - Poundland, £1

easily, and by some distance, the very worst film to feature in this post and a sure indicator that the cost of an item in no way reflects the quality. i cannot but help feel betrayed by Poundland with this one.

i think this got released with different names in different countries so as to try and distract the people from the poor reviews. and those poor reviews do not go far enough in being critical. poorly made, poorly acted and a total disappointment.

plot, etc? ostensibly it is a trio of young film or if you like documentary makers heading into the woods after being alerted to some sightings of the mythical, or if you like legendary, Bigfoot. with this being a "found footage" drill, you know the rest. except here it is all really, really poor, with no sense of suspense or interest in the characters. also, at the risk of spoilers, no true payoff for the time invested, unless you were a big fan of certain aspects of the film Deliverance. yes, that scene.

this is a shame as last year i had a pretty decent run on "found footage" films for £1 off of Poundland, as you can read about here if you so wish. actually i might have bought this one around the same time, but for some reason only decided to watch it now. i wish that i had not.

Sanitarium
provenance - Music Magpie website, 2 for £2

let it not be spoken that The Bigfoot Tapes was an entire waste, for there was a trailer for Sanitarium on the front. yes, Google, i see the red line on the spelling but that is what it says it is called on the box.

with a cast featuring Malcolm McDowell, Robert Englund and Lou Diamond Phillips out of Young Guns i figured it was worth looking for, so i was delighted to find it at a quite reasonable price online.

just what is it? one of them "anthology" films, with the apparently head doctor of the facility of the title introducing three stories of three patients, or if you like inmates. of the three stories the first is a little bit predictable, a bit Twilight Zone but good, the second is quite dark and heavy but good and the third one is exceptionally Twilight Zone and very, very good indeed, so it is, to be sure.

either this has had a bigger than usual budget thrown at it for a "cheap thrills" horror or the filmmakers did exceptionally well for the money they had. decent sets, well made and great performances from all, whether they are the well known cast members or lesser known actors. overall, my sense was that it would be boss to see more stories of the nature given here. who knows, perhaps this was intended as a "mega pilot" for a TV series along those lines that never came to be.

The Who - The Vegas Job
provenance - Music Magpie website, 2 for £2

yeah, bought as i browsed for films in the "2 for £2" deal. i was certain that i didn't have this disc, and it turned out that this was correct.

what is it? a rather "infamous" performance. i think it is the last one recorded with John Entwistle, a couple of years before he died the ultimate rock and roll death.

the "infamous" part comes in with the fact that this is one of a number of gigs from 1999 funded by a company called Pixelon. it is worth reading up on them, for they are widely credited with being behind, or if you will at fault for, the "dot com" financial investment disaster of 1999 / 2000 that in some way or another managed to make lots of people lose money and the financial system to crash. if anything they were all guilty of "too soon", for the technology and people with access were not quite what they needed to be for people to make money off of an internet.

is the gig any good? well, sadly, not what it could have been. all three admit being "a little rusty" before doing it, having not played together for some three years. the usually reliable Zak Starkey makes a bit of a mess with some of the drumming, dropping his sticks and what have you. as a result Pete misses some cues and Roger terribly fluffs a few songs. but still, you know, it's The Who. off key, in poor form The Who still remains better than most of the bands in the world.

The Ides Of March
provenance - ex-rental, Blockbusters South Africa, somewhere between R30 and R50

yeah, i bought this quite some time ago. dug it out to watch now as my Dad had asked for it as he wished to see it again. as i bought it after his rave review i thought i had better finally get around to watching it before sending it along.

the purchase was also prompted in part by Spiros, who said it might be a good investment. with it being ex-rental, there was every chance that a luminary of the South African entertainment industry, such as Darren Scott, John Vlismas or Oscar Pistorius (pre-incarceration) might have rented it, so the value of the disc would grow over the years. no, i have absolutely no idea if any of them happened to rent this particular disc what i bought prior to my purchase, but what a lovely thought. Spiros also gave me this investment advice for free, which is valuable in itself.

any good? superb acting from Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood. debutant director George Clooney is also in it, doing that "hi i am George Clooney" thing where he stands around looking smug and is basically being George Clooney rather than a character at all times.

mostly, though, it is one of them preachy, wanky, left wing "liberal" things. one of the ones where the hypocrisy oozes through. the idea is that certain politicians should have their dirty, career ending secrets buried, and it is OK for those politicians to be corrupted in doing this, so long as it is for the "perceived" greater good. you know, the same thinking where those who defend a film director found guilty of a disgusting sexual assault are rushing to condemn a film producer accused of similar. or how certain rock starts are investigated for alleged historical sexual crimes whereas others, who flaunted such crimes, are not considered to have done anything wrong.

overall, the film left me with a sense of it being "but yes, Bill Clinton was the right man for the job though so let us stop being so harsh on him", or perhaps it was some other President that was getting referenced.

Pranks
provenance - That's Entertainment, 49p

one i picked up without having any idea what it was, except that it was cheap and a horror with an 18 certificate, so there was every chance some thoroughly enjoyable presentations of sex and violence (but not at the same time, thank you) would be contained on this most digital of versatile discs.

the plot is all about four students who are inexplicable left to clear out an old building during a school holiday, with all this prior to the building being demolished or something. sure enough, as was the standard sort of thing for 80s horror films featuring students, one by one they start getting killed off in somewhat brutal if not exactly shocking or particularly explicit ways. all whilst fully dressed, for the record. absolutely nothing onscreen, nor anything "implied", suggests that this should have had an 18 certificate, but there you go.

in terms of what it is, not bad. Pranks, or whatever it was called when released in the country you are to be found in, is a pretty standard, cheap, cheerful and at times creative early 80s "slasher" film, made and marketed to cash in on the popularity of stuff like Halloween and Friday 13th. i have endured far worse films.

one of the most interesting aspects of the disc was the trailers. perhaps this is why it has an 18 certificate. on the disc there are graphic, revealing and disturbing trailers for Cannibal Holocaust and Mountain Of The Cannibal God, with both featuring scenes what got the two films banned. also, there is a trailer for Psychic Killer, which looks like an amazing film that i will hunt for a copy of.
 

Dead Snow
provenance - Music Magpie website, 2 for £2

yes, another one that i found as browsing the web for that Sanitarium film. there were a few i could have ordered but i tried to limit my purchases some.

when i ordered it i did not, as it happens, know that it would be in Norwegian with English subtitles. no matter, for i am happy to say that - by some distance - it is in the top ten of Norwegian language films wat i have seen.

is there a plot? yes. a bunch of students, or young adults, head off to some cabin in the woods in some snowy mountains. there they hear the legend of how Zombie Nazis roam the land, looking for the gold, treasures and jewels they looted from the locals towards the end of World War II. yes, indeed, sure enough it is not all that long before they are confronted by these undead, presumably wanted war criminals. they must battle with them to survive and escape the remote location.

very funny, very entertaining, exceptionally violent and graphically gory. there, that's my review. you have then been warned, but it is absolutely worth it for those of you who like such things. a nice bonus on the disc was a documentary thing, following the cast and crew going to America for that Sundance Film Festival thing. for a change this is a thoroughly entertaining extra to watch.

Drag Me To Hell
provenance - That's Entertainment, 49p

much like Phatasm, i disc i picked up but never watched until prompted to by adverts for the Horror Channel announcing they were doing the "network premiere".

yes, i am and always have been quite the fan of Sam Raimi, so it is my disgrace that i had not seen it before. somehow my (considerably) better half had indeed seen it when it came out. anyway, seen it now.

quite good, really. a not too graphic but all the same full of bits that make you jump in front scenes horror film. i believe much of the reason for this getting made was that Raimi wanted to get "back to basics" in making films after the CGI and special effects heavy series of Spider-Man films what he made. well, whatever. all i know is that it is a rather enjoyable horror film despite the lack of gratuitous nudies and violence.

one disappointment with it was the absence of a key Sam Raimi film feature. let me try and do this without spoilers. in every Sam Raimi film there are supposed to be two things certain to appear - his Oldsmobile car and legendary actor Bruce Campbell. only 50% appear here.

The Colony
provenance - Music Magpie website, 2 for £2

phew, last one then. and yes, bought as part of the deal or otherwise special offer i looked at when procuring that Sanitarium film to watch.

this rang some familiar bells when i saw it. i could recall starting to watch it on TV one night but not the whole thing. for some reason i was sure that i had only seen between 25% - 33% of it. after watching it in full on disc it was clear that i had in fact seen between 54% - 68% of it. oh well.

it's one of them films that is not entirely sure what it wants to be, for it blends science fiction, dire warnings on environmental concerns, horror, thriller and drama all as one. mostly this works, with a plot concerning a frozen planet with pockets of colonies holding out in buildings. when something seems to go wrong at one such colony off a team goes to investigate and finds a whole load of ragtag, cannibalistic, quasi zombie like "outsiders" looking to finish off the job what nature started.

not bad. i mean, i really like Laurence Fishburne, man, and can pretty much watch him in anything. also, Bill Paxton is in it, and he was always awesome. when the extreme, graphic violence does crop up in this film, however, it feels very much like it was forced in after the fact, as if to jazz up the certificate it got. but still, not a bad film at all.

and that's that, then. it may well be that another huge batch of discs what i have watched feature like this, assuming that the repeats of shows that i like continues to be absent. no, there is not even quite so much Bullseye on as usual to keep me entertained.

happy days, then, if any of the above has been of use or interest to anyone out there!




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

lynx you under review, again

hey there


well i would consider this to be an unusual move. unprecedented, look you see, or if you like something what has not been done by me before. apparently, due to a branding decision, i am to once more visit - revisit, maybe - a style of fragrance off of Lynx. this decision has not been taken lightly, although it has been prompted by some branding.

earlier this year, as opposed to an imagined date to come, i did a review of what was the most recent of Lynx branding exercises, namely You. in that post i highlighted how "you" and "your" are major marketing tools used here in UK advertising, for making something "all about you" seems to be the key to successfully selling stuff.

this or that latter element would appear to be anything but lost on them what make the Lynx deodorant tins, for they have vastly expanded the range of products branded "You".

quite right you are, not all of them are You. no, one is Lynx Apollo, which i bought on the off chance that i might be feeling of a mind to evoke the Greek / Roman deity at some stage. yes, it was cheap on sale and it was the only one of the ones on sale that i don't mind so much.

yes, once again i acknowledge or if you like confess that i am fully aware of not being in the target market demographic for Lynx products. as point of fact i am moving quite close to being three times the upper age anticipated for use. what can i say, it is not so much me clutching at a long gone youth as it is that Lynx are the only ones that do the decent type of deodorant that i prefer.

that there is one of the variations of You that Lynx have issued, with this being the most recent of them. it is, as you hardly need me to point out, some sort of "limited edition" version in some way explicitly endorsed by Anthony Joshua. Anthony Joshua is the renowned pugilist and is not to be confused with Mr Joshua out of Lethal Weapon.

for those interested the other You variation - the first such one after the original that i am aware of - is called, in simplicity, You Refreshed. at first i thought it might be that they gone done and redone the original in a response to my original review. that is quite an egotistical and patronising assumption by me, and anyway seems incorrect as now everything out of Lynx seems to be variations of the You branding. a marketing tool that works.

just maybe, i mean perhaps, Lynx have gotten this idea off of Kasabian, a band you would think they would hope use their product so as to make it seem "cool" and "hip". as you might recall, or may wish to read here,   Kasabian have unleashed an ambitious plan to call all their albums For Crying Out Loud, with the differentiation factor being the year added to the end. hence this most recent record off them being called For Crying Out Loud (2017).

and how do the new variations of You perform? well, tough to say really. thus far i have only had a try of the "refreshed" one. it isn't bad, but i do not recall what the original or if you like initial one smelt like. i mean, i have bought a tin of it ostensibly to remind me, but that's not quite the same as the first time one does such things.

it's ok, i suppose. i mean the scent is not overtly repugnant, and it does not carry the air of a blocked drain or something like that. to quantify, no, it does not to me smell better than the two Lynx types i prefer. should for some reason you want to know them, they are Excite, which is infused with a scent of coconut so as to pay tribute to the song Coconut by Harry Nilsson, and Black Night, named in honour of the song Black Night White Light by, as you are well aware, Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

the problem, and bear with me, is that i am simply not using any Lynx product as it is intended and nor do i have any intention of doing so. Lynx exists so that feral teenagers may be drawn to each other, to congregate for ad hoc copulation engagements at places like bus shelters and railway platforms. if there was ever a time that i did such things it has long since gone and shall not return, thank you very much.

it is of course the bus stations and railway platforms outside of London (innit) where such happens. London, to be sure, has a thriving public transport system; one which is busy. as such not even the most bold or brazen of feral teenagers would engage in such at these locations. instead they do a quick spew at them, as shown above in this picture from Spiros, or otherwise just roam around spraying acid at each other.

the rest of the country is another matter. in this brave new world of "better" deregulated public transport it is the case that most of the country has next to no public transport available to them. as such the bus shelters and railway platforms are maintained purely as to give these feral teenagers some semblance of a breeding ground for their activities, whether they are inspired or prompted by Lynx products or not.

would i give my support, endorsement or approval to the one new You variation that i have tried, with that being Refreshed? well, it would appear not to displease me. nor does anyone find me more disgusting or repulsive than they normally would. what you have to ask, though, is exactly why would my view be of any use at all when i am so clearly not the intended type of user.

should i get around to trying the You variation endorsed by Anthony Joshua (the boxing fella, to remind you, and again not Mr Joshua off of Lethal Weapon) and it is noteworthy then i shall surely mention it here in passing. as and when that happens, of course. but then that's that for now.


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

of no interest

hey there


thanks for stopping by but, look you see, you might want to skip all of this. probably just a post of moi if not feeling quite sorry for myself then just doing all that nostalgia stuff.

yeah, that's me at the start of the late 80s period, modelling that classic look of a buttoned short sleeved shirt over a t-shirt. quite popular, it was not, despite my efforts to inspire people to wear similar.

the above, which does indeed show me brandishing what i think is a badminton racket, was taken just a little south of 30 years ago. sure, you can say that i have retained my looks, since i had none to start with, i suppose.

it was during the very same holiday that me and a couple of mates figured, with absolutely nothing to lose, that we should form a band and do a gig as soon as possible. here is the recording of that gig, with a video montage i have put together.

should some of you not have left as suggested at the start and have been able to play this, well, thank you. fond memories for me if no one else, i suppose. and if it is on here then i guess, as some sort of legacy thing, it is preserved for however all of this lasts.

that's it for this post.


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

its trick is you and me

hello again


if there are universals that we all believe in then surely they are time and money, to be sure. one of the most interesting aspects of this is neither actually exist, look you see. as in there is no scientific basis for them. they are just made up and we all accept them for the sake of making day to day life easier.

usually at this point i would note that, as a consequence, any atheist or agnostic that has a watch is a hypocrite, for there is exactly as much scientific evidence of God as there is for seconds, minutes and hours. but this is not the point here.

no, instead, it is something beautiful and less argumentative related to time, and money. this gives the former but i suspect the latter shall preclude me from getting it.

yes, some bloke called Raymond Weil has created a timepiece of beauty in the shape, or if you like form, of this Bowie watch. one that i would assume has been officially endorsed by the estate of David Bowie.

quite lovely. fellow Bowie fans will hardly need me to point this out, but i rather like the Aladdin Sane lightning bolt and the iconic Diamond Dogs era font used for his name.

cost? no idea. it does not appear to say anywhere on the site where you get the information for it. one really rather suspects that it is an item which if you must ask the price then you cannot, alas, afford it. which is a shame as this looks most splendid.

anyhow, it is has been some time since i last wore a watch. i dare say that if i ever wore one again it would be the splendid Che Guevara Swatch that my sister got for me on her travels. but, yes, given the chance, i dare say that i would wear this one.

hey ho, happy days for each and all that can afford this item of beauty!



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

on packaging

hello there


well, here we are again. not all that much of excessive importance or interest, look you see, just rather a few things that have struck me. irked me, perhaps. certainly there is a lack of anything here which is quite so exciting as the last post what i did, that one on the buzz and entertainment of ripping up car parks.

certain items have arrived for me of late. they have, to be sure, been of both a solicited and unsolicited nature. which isn't quite so nasty as that sounds. far from it. it's simply that whilst some of the stuff what came was arranged by moi some was also of a happy surprise nature.

and then there is the return of texts and phone calls intended for someone else not me, but we will get there. well i suppose we will if you keep reading, but for now, this.

this, i appreciate, is nowhere near as exciting as the present so-called Catalan question troubling certain corners of Europe. it is, however, a matter of interest for me. as you can more or less, indeed pretty much, see, that's a classical courier item what came for me. yes, with a DVD on the top of it, but that is there purely for scale.

whilst that there above was expected but came late, these two items - for i can assure you that there are two - were decidedly unexpected. one of them was, apparently, problematic. 

how kind of Royal Mail, or whichever privatised subsidiary is  responsible for such these days, to bandage up an item meant for me and say that it was "like that when we got it". honest. one would really like nothing more than to believe and accept at face value such statements from them, but alas those days are gone now.

three, at least, separate entities now appear to exist where there was just one before. on top of Royal Mail we now have Parcel Force and the Post Office. so far as i can work out the reason these three things exists as their own thing is to allow one of them to blame another, then the other, for anything which may go wrong. for tax efficiency and profit reasons they are "the same thing", of course, but for customer service and taking responsibility less so.

and, sigh. here we go again. this is a most unwelcome return, for me, of text messages and phone calls from debt management companies looking for someone called Stephen Carr. i had a couple of years of this, as highlighted here and indeed here. for just over a year this nonsense had stopped, but now it has started again.

presumably, then - and this is not far off the "Royal Mail" model above - some other debt collection agency had blindly bought a whole load of bad debts from another one. despite the existence of several laws which are supposed to prevent as much, no, alas, i am getting contacted about something which has nothing to do with me.

one can only assume that this Stephen Carr fellow had my telephone number at some point, but abandoned it and it ended up recycled in my hands. either that, or they just had the wrong number from the start. anyway, here's hoping that Stephen Carr does the decent thing and pays his debts, or more likely whatever he owes just gets written off. either, i don't care, just stop bothering me with stuff that has nothing to do with me.

so, then, the courier parcel. there it is with a DVD for scale. yes, that's the occasionally celebrated  Parallel DVD ff of R.E.M., as it happens. recently, with me older rather than getting any younger, i have developed an appreciation for this band that i would not have thought that i would have ever had at the time they were about. who knows, perhaps i had to reach a certain age, or experience certain things, before what it was they had to say said anything to me.

if we leave the DVD, as splendid as it is, aside, what is in this parcel off of a courier, then? a parcel that, as i shall get to later, got delivered to me eventually? as it happens, another parcel.

yes. within that brown packaging, which was roughly LP or 10" EP single size, was a padded envelope. one of those padded envelope which is just about the size of a standard CD, thank you for asking.

perhaps the most interesting thing about this courier item was that it was, theoretically, due to be delivered to me on a Friday. alas, no. i tracked the item on the web, as the company what was delivering it allows clients to do. not that i listed UPS but anyway. it seemed to be on the way all fine, then all of a sudden there was a message on the tracking saying "problem with address".

i phoned them, which is UPS, then. when i asked about the nature of the problem they said that the address was incorrect. i gave them my correct address. oh, they said, that is indeed the address on the item. not to worry, then, they further said, they were sure that it would be OK for them to deliver it on Monday. oh, i see. it was not really much of a problem, just their driver having a case of "Fridayitis". quite a miserable curse, this condition is, and one which seems to affect many delivery people.

that, for those interested, is the postcard what arrive. quite a pleasant street or cafe or if you like street cafe scene depicted. presented in black and white, or if you like monochrome, of course, because to do anything in such a way immediately makes it "arty".

many of you may well have suspected as much, but for the sake of clarification yes indeed, my good chum Sprios did indeed send the above postcard to me. he collected it on one of his jolly adventures around the world and elected to send it on to me. which was most kind and thoughtful.

above, then,  is what was in the white padded envelope which was inside the classical style brown courier type of packaging. yes, a replacement micro sd card off of SanDisk who were, as pretty much said, replacing a defective / not working one what i had.

it's interesting that the replacement card was sent from a place called the Czech Republic. that is where, at their expense, i sent the defective one. as far as i can work out their "head office" is, as point of fact, in the Republic of Ireland. same building as them what are upsetting airline passengers, Ryanair or something. perhaps having an office somewhere but actually working in another place is all like that Royal Mail "tax efficiency" as mentioned above. anyway, happy to get a replacement sd card for the one that never worked. eventually.

that there is the message what Spiros wrote to me on the back of the postcard. as opposed to on the front, over the image. my knowledge of Eastern European languages is not all that it could be, alas. i am, however, led to believe that it is not really of a "wish you were here" nature. more, as point of fact, closely related to the passion Sprios has for forming short term, mutually beneficial friendships with men in public restroom facilities.

so yes, i believe there's not much else i can add here. except, perhaps, the usual wish that somehow and for some reason any or all of this has been of interest to someone somewhere.



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

Spiros on the pink

hey there


more tobacco adventures, then, courtesy of the infinite generosity of Spiros. going into tales of cigarettes, or if you like fags, necessitates a disclaimer form of warning, look you see. please do not forget, no matter how exciting or sensational all of this may seem, that smoking is particularly bad for you. to this end you are advised to not start smoking. equally, if you are a smoker, seek assistance and guidance in quitting.

and with that cautionary in place, to be sure, on we go.

Spiros has been on his travels again. as usual i cannot divulge much detail of what he does in a professional capacity, but with him being the greatest legal mind of his generation you can be assured that it is something important. what i can say, though, is that once again he has kindly picked me up some cigarettes what are both cheap and resplendent in colourful packaging.

yes, quite, indeed. this time, rather that procuring for me yet another example of Greek cigarettes Spiros has gone for one of the most luxurious brands in the world. these are, as you can very clearly see above, Sobranie cigarettes.

Sobranie, it says on the internet so it must be true, is a luxury tobacco brand based in London, England, innit. they are also the oldest luxury brand of cigarettes out of London if not the world, or at the very least the longest surviving. posh members of society down in London will smoke these, then, be they part of the landed gentry or simply nouveau riche sorts from Eastern Europe and Russia.

none of the above was, but of course, in the thinking of Spiros when he selected them. no, in a way unaware of the history, he happened to get these as they are pink and were quite cheap.

what a lovely, lovely bit of branding there on the inner lid packaging. Sobranie presumably take a great deal of pride in their luxury packaging. it must delight them some that there still exists countries where they may show off their flair with elegant branding on the packaging.

the branding in this instance, as you may well have noted, is most decidedly focused on pink. i do believe that it was the pink nature of these pink branded cigarettes what served to draw the attention of Spiros. maybe he saw them and instantly decided they were the ones, or perhaps one of them men he forms short term but mutually beneficial friendships with in public restrooms and so forth suggested them in passing. i would quite like to think the latter, and further would hope that the gentleman was called something like Jerome or Tristan. often, alas, these friendships are so short term Spiros fails to catch the name of his chum, but no matter.

Spiros had hoped that the cigarettes within the pink packaging were as pink as the box. alas, no. it is quite rare for cigarettes to be any colour other than predominantly white. fear not, though, as no total failure greeted this ambition of Spiros. as you can see, at least the cigarettes have "pink" written on them, indeed yes in pink.

once again, then, quite like them rather splendid Ome cigarettes what he got me, these are "slims".  what this means is that they are close on 50% thinner than the more traditional "king sized" cigarette, but do have the length of 100s or "super king" sized fags.

visual comparisons are always what work best with the above point, so with that in mind here you go, here is a visual comparison.

there you can see one of the Sobranie fags unhoused from the packaging. for scale i have added a regular pack of so called king sized fags and a new £10 note. for those entirely unaware of what scale is implied by a new £10 note i thought it best to include the old £10 too, so you may compare with a frame of reference you are comfortable with.

what are they like to smoke? well, they get the job done. just. one of those speculative Google search things suggests that the much desired nicotine content of these particular fags is 0.05mg. should you think that is a lot, alas, it is not.

on the plus side, they have a much more interesting aroma than one would normally associate with cigarettes. there's a distinct musky rose scent to them. the kind of thing, going on what Spiros has told me of such places, that you would expect to smell in the heavily perfumed "dry down" area of a Turkish Bath which seems to attract only gentlemen as clients.

and just what is it that Spiros is doing on these travels around the world? other, that is, that getting me some much needed fags and forming friendships with like minded men around the world? as pointed out earlier i cannot disclose too much. several of the many fans Spiros has have speculated that he is in some capacity engaged to sort out all this Brexit / leaving the EU stuff. others have assumed that he is perhaps involved in the legal recourse being followed after the "banning" of the Uber system in London. perhaps is the only answer i can give to any such comments, perhaps.

so anyway, that is that for this post. i do hope my fellow cigarette enthusiasts have found something of interest somewhere in this article. my great thanks again to Spiros for his highly appreciated kindness and generosity in making articles such as this possible.




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

no one i think is in my tree

heya


just another infrequently regular update on the boys, look you see, for the benefit of them friends and family around the world who use this blog as a conduit to maintain awareness of such. and of course well wishing, random strangers who pop by from time to time.

at first to the last, then, with William. or if you will, indeed perhaps more pertinently, William's passion for  strawberry that is more exotic or notable than would be the norm. he recently requested some strawberries, upon which he may feast, and so i did my best not to disappoint.

yes, indeed. as you can perhaps see without further wording from me, i was able to procure a packet, nay punnet, of strawberries what featured a "twin" strawberry in it. this is a matter which delighted William a great deal, for it is not something that he could recall seeing before.

normally, or perhaps usually, it is the more  massive the size of a strawberry which impresses William. adventures such as those related to the size of a strawberry can be found by clicking here, and for good measure here too. whilst the twin strawberry lacked the usual exciting size value, it was all the same welcomed. 

and now James. many of you have followed, with altering degrees of interest, the cricket season which has just been completed. there was recently an "end of season" awards sort of thing, and i can tell you with considerable pride that James collected one of the awards that was issued.

most splendidly James won the award for best bowler of the year. considering his team featured some truly great and promising practitioners of this art this was rather fantastic in the most excellent sense of the word.

to his infinite credit James has played down the nature of this triumph. for him the focus is always on how well the team is playing, and how fantastic it has been to be part of a special, indeed spectacular, season. his taking of such a view makes us all the more proud, but yes we are encouraging him to, even if but for a moment, accept praise when it is given.

so what happened with the twin strawberry, or if you like strawberries that was but one strawberry? not long after this picture was taken - moments, as point of fact - it was eaten. and i am reliably informed that it was a most splendid thing to eat, it being particularly sweet.

as i have commented before it is a truly wonderful aspect of the modern world that we can now eat strawberries (of any nature) throughout the course of a year. at one stage, before the globalisation of crops and all that, here in England you really only got strawberries during the two weeks of Wimbledon and that tennis thing. well, fresh ones at the least. now the supply of strawberries no longer seems to depend on any sort of sport, let alone one which employs racquets or if you like rackets.

righty-ho, that would be that for this for now, then. more as and when it happens!




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

ripping up a car park

oh, hello there


welcome, and indeed thank you for stopping by. it is always wonderful when someone, look you see, takes the time to come and have a read of whatever i have put up here on this blog.

now then, to business. there are a number of ways in which i am not all that different from anyone else, to be sure. sometimes it does feel like i exist outside of the norm. as this can be truly depressing it is all the more delightful when i clearly see and feel the same as others.

this is all the more so when it's something positive, and surely all of us react in an aspirational, gleeful way when we encounter the sight or if you like site of a car park being ripped up.

i understand entirely that many of you are going to be all excited and a little worked up to see something as wonderful as a car park being ripped up here. let us, then, take this paragraph to be a moment of silence in which we all may enjoy it.

surely little in this world can match the joy all motorists experience when they reach a proposed or otherwise intended destination and discover vast swathes of the car park are being ripped up. a bonus is, of course, when it's all being ripped up in its entirety. the inconvenience of not being able to park with ease, or even perhaps not being able to park at all, is inconsequential when contrasted against the unbridled delight of seeing this sort of building and construction work on the go.

it must surely not be that i am alone in extracting pleasure from such? to my mind all of us most love seeing cordoned off areas, populated with traffic cones and gentlemen in hard hats and shiny vests. 

yes, there i am, proudly smiling as i know i get to stand in front of a car park being ripped up for a picture. this did indeed confuse James, some. he happened to be with me when all of this happened, and was unsure as to why i was so happy or what i would need so many pictures for. perhaps one day he will drive himself and so will discover the joys of a ripped up car park as a result.

making this particular incident all the more rewarding was the fact that the car park did not seem to be in any urgent need of getting ripped up. forgive me, for i am no expert, but to me the car park looked as though all was fine. how splendid to know that there are those that will roam the lands, steadfast in the belief that things can always be better and rip up car parks accordingly.

what is that above? there was a tacit claim, or remark, that it was a time travel machine. well, the way one bloke sort of glanced at it suggested that there was an implication of such. as you can see, though, it is a broken one. the sign sellotaped to it mentions an issue with the generator or something like that. not sure, sorry, the picture is a little blurry or if you like blurred.

earlier i mentioned how wonderful it is to see gentlemen in hard hats and shiny vests at the site of a ripped up car park. what makes this even better is the way in which they strive to make the scene one big vivid still life. they, in a sacrificial way, achieve this by doing as little movement as possible. it is their understanding that motorists do not like to have their view of a ripped up car park disturbed. a bit like them toys in that film that was a story about toys that i cannot recall the name of, if they sense someone watching them they instantly freeze, flat refusing to do any work so as not to disturb the ambience of the atmosphere of the moment.

in some instances these gentlemen - i wanted to call them workmen but that sounds misleading - go one further and simply exit the site of the ripped up car park all together. well, why would they not? for the most part their work is done in ripping up the car park. to make any effort in respect of undoing this would rob the scenery of a scene of quite natural beauty.

from time to time they are, however, expected to do something in respect of undoing that what they did. every now and then someone of consequence comes along to inspect the work. at such times, then, they get on with the delicate and apparently slow moving work of placing some tarmac down, ostensibly to replace that which was torn up.

this must be done properly, of course. and properly means slowly. under no circumstances is such delicate work to be rushed. tarmac is, after all, one of the most fragile materials to be found on this planet.

and, well, right, there you have it. should you not have encountered a ripped up car park on your own travels then i sincerely hope these images have, even if only in some small way, made up for that.

blessed be, then, those who go around randomly ripping up car parks. thank you so very much indeed for striving to make the world a much better place.


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

hang on a minute

howdy pop pickers


there would surely be little surprise, look you see, in news that Liam Gallagher's debut solo album, As You Were, has made its own debut in the album chart at the toppermost of the poppermost positions. which means yes, to be sure, it went straight in at number one. as you do, i suppose, for it is a really good album.

during the week the aptly named "midweek chart update" indicated that this record was outselling the rest of the top twenty albums combined.i believe by the end, which is to say the cut off time for chart calculations, this was down to outselling just the rest of the top ten combined, but still. most impressive.

many thanks indeed to them at the BBC what put the visuals together so that i can present the above illustration. and as i paid for the BBC to pay to do that via the licence fee, oh yes i am allowed to do so, for i and everyone else who does the legal thing have paid to own whatever they do with our money.

is there some sort of moan or complaint, or if you like grumble, coming? oh yes, but wait. although of course it does involve those corruption of charts people, the Official Chart company.

the Official Charts company are most excited about Liam's success, celebrating 103,000 "sales". impressively, 91% (they say) of these "sales" are actual  sales of physical records and digital downloads. some 16,000 copies of the album were sold this last week on vinyl alone.

in terms of this, then, Liam should also be charting quite well in the singles chart. after the fiasco of Ed Sheeran's Divide album dominating the singles chart they jiggled the system so that only three songs off an album could appear in the singles. i fully expected the first three singles released from As You Were, namely Wall Of Glass, Chinatown and For What It's Worth, to feature.

no, not one of them does rank in the top 40, despite the impressive sales and "sales" via streaming. i have included the top 13 here to show that Ed Sheeran still lingers with one of his "singles". yes, for the sake of it i checked the "rock" and "indie" charts, and Liam does not feature there. not that he would on the "indie", since Warner is not exactly what one would call a small label.

i refer those interested back to this blog post, then. it chronicles the death of the singles chart. whilst the Official Chart company promised to "fix" everything after that debacle, clearly they have not. by the same standards what was given to Ed Sheeran, and the measurements put in place since, over 100,000 sales of his album should have secured Liam at least one top 10 single too, if not the number one.

the frustration here is that the singles chart has been tarnished forever. artists prior to Ed Sheeran's "record setting" feat had no possible way of doing the same themselves. now, it seems, artists after the event, with a supposedly new and fairer system, cannot do it either. and so we are left with Ed Sheeran setting a chart record that no one else was able to do and no one else now can do.

probably not is the answer as to if i should really get all bothered about this kind of thing. but then maybe i should. the music charts belonged, in a sense, to all of us music lovers. it has been taken away from us for no particular reason beyond celebrating Ed Sheeran's success with singles that were never actually released as singles.

maybe i should take pen to paper and write to the Official Chart company.......




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