head height horror halloween

hello

so, as it is (well, at time of publication, look you see) all of that halloween stuff, i thought i would do one of them scary story things for you. one which is all the more disturbing and horrific, for it is all real, it happened to me. as in, moi. 

it is a truth, universally accepted, that the quintessential personification of association with a person off of England (the English) is tea. as in, when the British military built and designed tanks in which our soldiers would go to war, we did so with a tea making facility within them. so, yes, then, we really do take the matter - tea - very seriously. 

equally, then, a darkness which is true is when we run low or - gasp - out of tea. measures are of course taken to ensure such folly never happens, but inevitably from time to time a crisis occurs. it is one which has very nearly happened to me. 

due to the neo-classical, art-deco, stark statement what the architect who gone done the plans for my place of lodgings in exile was making, it is so that my stash of tea resides ever so slightly above head height. yes, said tea of choice is picture above, so you may examine and disseminate, to see that i do indeed drink proper tea, thank you. hopefully i shall get some more Fortnum & Mason tea soon, but for now, Yorkshire Tea it is. 

as you can sort of see, in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode, of course i went right with the idea of buying the biggest most massive box of tea bags what i could. this appeared to be a very good idea at the time, but has led to a degree of complacency. seeing as i just reach up and place a hand in to grab a bag, i neglected to track how many bags i had left. oh dear. 

no, fear not, no such truly (fearful) barbaric horror as running out out, but it got close. when i went to make one on the evening of composing this, i noted that i had to reach in deeper, or lower, than usual. so, and here is a horror video for you halloween types, i investigated the box. 

yeah, for some reason that video has come out sideways as i look at it here. sorry, if that is worth much of anything. well, anyway, the point is you can kind of see the horror of me reaching up and discovering that i only had ten (10) bags left in that box. oh dear. 

how do i propose to overcome this horror? well, mostly, i think, by trying my best to full tilt remember to purchase another box when next at the shops or other suitable retailer. actually, on their vans is a number what you can call to get them to send you a bag or two, gratis, so i might have a see if i can remember what it is, and that would do in the short term. 

usually, then, all them halloween horror stories are about some sort of depraved, aroused and quite hungry sex crazed cannibal what has been snowballing heroin and viagra. just remember that true, real tales of horror, like mine and a (slight) tea shortage, can happen to anyone. 

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

the bogs at barnard castle

now then

it would be quite correct to say that i never really intended to spend much time on the subject of gentleman's restroom facilities on this blog. yet equally it is also the same to say that it has, in a way, come to be so, look you see. at the very least, i suppose (hope, more like), this particular episode has some broader interest.

ever since a particular event, or "misunderstanding", happened at the place in 2020, during a most intense period of the invisible war against the new plague, barnard castle has come to be quite well known. many of the residents, to be sure, are not too happy about this notoriety and infamy of such association. in fairness the person at the centre of the matter has a less than stellar reputation now than he did then. which is saying something. 

no, i am not going to name him, you know who, associated with the place. he may well have become an irrelevance, but i suspect he remains a capable instrument of darkness. an unreasonable amount of my time these days is spent avoiding being another statistic of state sponsored assassination without attracting further attention by those who mean pure ill. but yes, i am indeed referring to that particular bellend. 

frames of reference are always a useful thing. did i go specifically to barnard castle to investigate the gentleman's restroom facilities (public bathrooms) there? no, i just happened to be there for verk, and whilst there was caught short, needed to spend a penny (go for a gypsy kiss), and so here we are. further, no, i have not ever gone and specifically researched such a facility. 

at the time when a certain individual went to barnard castle, it would have been, of course, the case that this particular facility would have been closed. to the public, at the very least. no, i am unable to confirm it and would not wish to imply it being the case, but it has been known that people with certain levels of power, in particular political, have been able to arrange for things what are closed to be open for their benefit. so, it is possible he, him, the bellend, went in where i did. not that i wold brag about such an association, but there you have it. 

but, getting back on to some semblance of subject (kind of), the facilities for gentlemen who are caught short at barnard castle. as you can see, the people of the place have elected (or opted) for a quasi subterranean location ('locale') for such a public facility, hiding it away beneath street level. 

generally the tendency is indeed to place such facilities below ground level. this, presumably, is for ease of sewage connection or what have you. also, though, it would be that places which wish to project an aura of sophistication and class tend to hide such things away, accepting that they are a reality of life yet seeing no need to be so brazen as to have them on display. hiding the public restroom facility away can achieve this, true, but it is a double edged sword, of sorts. a visitor may not be aware of such facilities being hidden away. consequentially, they may be forgiven for assuming it's the done thing to just relieve themselves in public. this happens more than you may think. 

it isn't particularly clear in the image above, but that sign to the left of the majestic (at a guess) wrought iron gate is quite involved, expressing a wish that patrons enjoy their usage of this particular facility, and giving details of who to contact if any displeasure was experienced. 

on to the business end of such a facility, then. you may well have already scrolled down and seen, but if not, then be warned, for the below is well within the depths of an admittedly empty gentleman's facility, but all the same. 

my chum Spiros has helpfully given me some information here. whereas i am not too familiar with the nuances, the architecture or the styles of such facilities, he very much is. as has been documented over the years, Spiros rather enjoys making short term, mutually beneficial friendships with other gents, and it tends to be easiest and most convenient to do it (so to speak) in facilities such as this. 

so, what he said (when he calmed down and ceased reminiscing of some interludes in similar looking facilities) was that this is a neo-classical, trough style urinal outlay. apparently, according to him, this is advantageous as several men can stand quite close to each other there, all getting down to business. he offered to elaborate on this, but i declined. when he insisted, i just claimed to have some sort of pressing medical concern that i had to attend to, like a liver failure or similar. 

referring back to the reason (individual, or bellend if you insist) why barnard castle became even more famous, or infamous, than it was, i was quite surprised to see the below on the go in there. yet, also, after some reflection, perhaps not all that shocked. it made kind of sense. 

unsure if clicking on the above would make it any clearer or what have you, but all them sticker things you can see are all anti-vax, anti-invisible war on the new plague. essentially they call for people not to get the vaccine, to cease wearing masks and, as famously someone of (dubious) note did in barnard castle, to ignore all them rules and regulations designed to fight the spread of this coronavirus thing. how apt, i suppose, that they would make barnard castle the headquarters for this battle. well, presumably a "hub" or provincial headquarters, for i believe the main war room is located in the stately home of that piers corbyn chap. 

yes, i did ask Spiros if it was likely, or plausible, that some sort of ultra contrarian faction would select a public restroom facility as a meeting venue to discuss strategies and plan actions. he confirmed that this was entirely possible, indeed feasible, and proceeded to commence explaining certain meetings that he had held in there. at this stage i remembered that i had a critical issue with my liver, or similar, so made my excuses, stating that i needed to see a surgeon or other such qualified person. 

no, i have not used the obvious word for this sort of facility, which is of course "toilet". my understanding is that the upper classes, especially the aristocracy and particularly royalty, hold this word in contempt and disdain, refusing to use the term and frowning on those who do. i still remain of the ambition to be awarded some sort of honour, be it an MBE or perhaps a knighthood, so i have elected not to use the word myself unless absolutely essential. 

above is another look at them stickers what the anti-vax (or whatever) crowd placed up, as well as a look at the "shabby chic" floor design, and something else of interest. whereas most of the facility featured here, as it appears in barnard castle, tends to lean towards traditional, or historic, that is a very modern handwash facility. it's one of these new uber-efficient all in one contraptions, providing soap, water and a rudimentary hand drying service. not bad. 

if for some reason you are interested in, or are considering, a visit to barnard castle to inspect this gentleman's facility for yourself, then i suppose it would be quite handy for me to give some guidance on where, exactly, you may find it. well, you should or could probably just ask a local. it looked pretty central to me, in somewhere called market square or market street. yes, feel free to insert your own joke or satirical comment concerning opticians there. 

oh, indeed, yes, there are (presumably) similar facilities for ladies there, too. no i did not go into them, for what was once obvious reasons but in this day and age i suppose i have to clarify. whereas i am aware of a phenomenon called "gender fluidity", i appear not to be infected by it as such, and so just use facilities as indicated for gentlemen. 

do i hold, or harbour, a wish to either return to barnard castle in general, or to visit the facilities of relief there in a specific sense? i am not adverse to the idea, no, and it is highly probable verk shall have me go again. a suggestion would be to arrive before 8am, for after that it gets very busy, in particular in the market like place where i was at. 

hopefully this will have been of some interest, or use, to those of you with an interest in either barnard castle itself, or public restroom facilities in general. indeed it would be nice if the council, or mayor or what have you, sent a note of thanks for me helping restore the reputation of the place with this look at the location, but reward enough is received via knowing you are all reading this, feeling a sense of being informed. 

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

one more for the dreamers

hi

well, in full, i suppose, that title should be one more for the dreamers if you dream of images and such of car wash facilities, look you see. after the recent quasi "throwback" post on the subject of shopping trolleys (trollies) i figured well, and why not, might as well look at a car wash again. no, this is a quite recent car wash experience, as in all brand new images. yes, animated things too. 

strangely, or unusually, it is quite probable that i do indeed have something new to write of the car wash experience. the last few (half a dozen or so, maybe) have probably been all how i don't have much to add on the subject, but of course these are different times we live in. or in which we live. 

yes, of course, as usual this will all be presented in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode. this i feel is even more better than usual, now that Shatner has been catapulted into space and order is being restored to life. 

on the note of order being restored to life, it has of course been the case that, quite recently, we had a little spell here in the UK where traditional petrol (and diesel) stations with car wash facilities attached to them became exclusive, sort of boutique car wash places only. this, mostly, was down to a minor misunderstanding concerning supply, demand, logistics, transportation requirements and reporting on exactly how much fuel we presently had in our land. went right proper f****d it did, to be sure, for a few days. panic buying like it was pasta happened, but seems to be relatively back to normal now. 

indeed, not every petrol station in the land has a car wash attached to it, and no, not all car washes are based at petrol stations. i just happen to use ones which are, for verk pays for them ones, so there you go, why would i go anywhere else. 

a bit of, or some, water action of an animated type for you in the above, then, with a glimpse of them massive flippy floppy brush things what clean the vehicle you are in. as it happens, or if you are wondering, yes there are indeed height restrictions are in place for these facilities. one can spend a rather enjoyable day sat watching such a facility, as invariably someone will come along with a vehicle clearly too big for it and yet insist on using it. great entertainment, it is, watching the no-nonsense, heavy duty machinery of a car wash rip the absolute f*** out of an oversized vehicle. 

my claim that i may have some new stuff to write of might have been ambitious, for i think i have now covered any such material. oh. 

for all of you who like to keep a record, or some files, on my various car wash exploits, indeed these are off of the "new" one that i have come to make most frequent use of. this is because it is relatively close to my new lodgings, here in my place of exile. staff at it are class, too, and they stock magazines intended for a mature, male audience. not that i would read such, but one cannot help observe they are on display and for sale there. 

these are all "head on" images, and animated things, by the way. no side window shots this time, as i believed expressing my art purely via the medium of the windscreen was what i wished to say. 

with respect to all of the images bar the above (final) animated one, yes, these may well seem a little darker than usual. as in brightness level, and not some sort of abstract understanding of "darker" in the mood attempted to evoke in my art. it is so that we are in that autumn era now, where it tends to be that no so much sun as we may wish for falls on our corner of the world. 

right, so, anyway, i have other stuff to do, and i am sure you do too. 

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

nothing lasts forever

hello

so, what appears to be my one and only cinema trip of a year each year has happened. for this year, look you see. although i might go again before the year is out, but with about two or so months left i am not rightly sure it will be so. i mean, anyone have any idea when this new Top Gun film is due? big screen dobly sound volleyball is, after all, rather smart. 

anyway, in this instance, off i (along with William) went to see the most recent  / latest James Bond film, No Time To Die. rather famously this has been a delayed release (some 18 months, due to all of that lockdown and war on plague business), and as it turns out, going on box office figures, it seems each and every person in our land has been expected to go and see it, or send an ambassador to see it on their behalf. 

to start with, a vaguely spoiler free review? certainly. some elements of the press have, of course, heralded and crowned this as "the greatest Bond film ever". this it is not; nor is it even the best one ever off of Daniel Craig. but, it is very good indeed. brilliant, in some aspects, but to disclose further would mean some of them spoiler things. so scroll (or proceed) with caution.

whereas i intend, or propose, to give so very little away, do please pay attention to how there is, from here on out, one of them *** SPOILER WARNING *** things in place. you know what, such warnings used to be all over things on the internet, but i don't recall when i last saw one, other than here. am i even more out of date with this kind of qualification? 

plot? kind of tricky to do with keeping spoilers to a minimum. giving it a go for you, it kicks off more or less quite close to where Spectre (the previous one) left off, with Bond apparently chilling, be it on holiday or having handed in his licence to kill. yet, of course, things go a bit f****d. via one of the most sensational action sequences in cinema, mind, let alone just Bond. 

next thing we are decidedly in a world of a retired Bond, five years later. a dear old friend, however, has a favour to ask of him. reluctantly it is so that James agrees to it, and soon finds himself drawn back into a world that not only he had left behind, but had left him behind too. amicably, apparently. 

in wishing to be positive, the good stuff first. one was mentioned above, but this film contains not one, perhaps not so many as three (3), but certainly two of the greatest action sequences i have ever seen in any sort of movie. for those who have watched the film and are reading this, then yes indeed of course i refer to that incredible opening sequence, and the sheer exhilarating thrill of the Cuba scene. 

but what else? well, Daniel Craig's performance. it feels like pretty much since the second (or third) one he did there's been mumblings and quotes saying he was not keen on doing it. understandable, i suppose, yet somewhat off-putting for audience. even in the "weaker" moments of the less than great ones that he has done, the performances have always been first rate, and here is no exception. much is true for a great number of the support cast. just one exception (to use the word again) but undoubtedly we will get to that. 

quite possibly open to (mass) debate on being a good thing or a bad thing, it is so that No Time To Die does indeed "bookend" the Daniel Craig Bond as a complete, start to finish telling of the James Bond story. or rather a variation of James Bond. bit like how they keep on reworking various super hero types from time to time, i guess. undoubtedly i will come back to this part (aspect) for a bit more musing later, but if nothing else, wherever Bond goes next they have a pure, clean canvas on which to create. maybe they shall try something all the more different, possibly they shall revert to the classic era, who knows. well, i guess them what make it have an idea. 

the very worst element, or aspect, of No Time To Die? suggesting that the villain, the big bad, has even so much as one dimension is pushing it and being generous. what an extraordinary, inexplicable waste it was to cast the astonishing Rami Malek in this role. despite the complexities, intrigue and genuine interest hinted at with his (possible) story, there's just nothing on screen. essentially he only has to, or gets to, 'act' in one scene. ultimately this was, i suppose, kind of a "win win". for Rami Malek one would assume he got a nice payday, a radical departure from his previous most celebrated role and the honour of having a Bond on his credits. in return, the makers of Bond got to put "Oscar winner" on the poster and that, should such still be good marketing. 

right, potentially murky waters i should not be in. some of the comments, or reviews, around this Bond film have been banding around that fancy new word i see a lot; that i am still not 100% sure i fully understand what it means, etc, and simply cannot be @rsed to look up or google. with the word being, so far as i am aware, "woke". if there was something in this film that was supposed to upset (or outrage) moi, a just south of 50 (bloody hell) white English male, then i missed it. no, i did not doze off or go for a bathroom break (p!ss), either, watched it all. 

perhaps it is the thing where (you saw the spoiler warnings and that, yeah?) the secret service (or what have you) went ahead and hired a black woman, and just happened to give her the 007 number, since the previous one had retired? well, yeah, that's how the world verks, is it not? i dare say that one or two places i have called verk have, by now, recycled my old employee number? the exchange in the film around it was quite good, to be honest. 

other aspects to do with what may or may not be whatever (exactly) this "woke" thing is come up, of course, but again i am reluctant to go all spoilers. which is kind of strange, seeing as it may well be that you, right now, are reading this half a dozen or a dozen years after it was written. should the internet still be a kind of thing. 

some criticism and complaint has been aired about the length of the film, with it being that No Time To Die is just far too f*****g long for what story it has. this is correct. at many stages it's all a bit more human drama, perilously close to soap opera, than it is a James Bond (as we would know it) film. which again, i concede, might be all that "woke" stuff. oddly the drama stuff was quite involved, but also rather dislocating when it went back to being an as would be expected Bond film. 

as mentioned earlier, No Time To Die perfectly (and i do mean that) bookends the Daniel Craig era of Bond. more overtly than any other actor change, these films kind of exist outside of the sequence of the others. which is kind of an issue. much of the joy of the other Bond films is that you could watch them in any order and it wouldn't affect anything. here, not so much, at all. other than, obviously, Casino Royale, to be able to know what the devil is going on in any Daniel Craig Bond you really do need to have seen the others. this film also troubled itself with a bit too much with heavy handed references to other non-Craig ones, On Her Majesty's Secret Service in particular. which sort of kind of gives an awful lot of what is to follow away. but big plus to one throwback, the quasi "hollowed out island base filled with ninjas", for i loved You Only Live Twice too. 

had this come out when intended, early 2020, then i am not sure the reviews would have been so kind. many, i would suggest, are likely to have speculated that James Bond has run its course, let this be an end to it all. undoubtedly, unexpectedly, No Time To Die has actually benefited from a delay, the sense of expectation and frankly the excitement of being able to go and see a "big event" film is here, something we maybe let fall away and only realised how bad it was to let it slip when it was taken away. an average film with two great action sequences has, effectively, been turned into a very much above average film purely by circumstance. 

my reflection on Daniel Craig as Bond? well, Sir Roger said he believed he was "the best of all of us who played the part", and i think from an acting perspective, spot on. in seeking this "modern" or harder edge Bond, though, it means he's not going to be as iconic as Sir Sean, i grew up on the Sir Roger ones so he's my favourite, Timothy Dalton was brilliant but didn't get a fair crack. move past Pierce Brosnan thanks and as for Lazenby, well, he did one. looking at all five (5) what Daniel Craig done, Spectre was a bit of a let down despite some good moments and was cursed with the single worst Bond theme ever. that said, i would argue that Skyfall is easily one of the greatest, best Bond films (and themes) ever, at least ranking top three (3) measured however you like, plot, iconic moments, what you will. 

where next for James Bond? all of a sudden that's an interesting question. up to the casting of Daniel Craig that was answered with "more of the same, with a known but not exactly big box office star in the part instead". now, not so much. oh, James Bond shall be back, for there is still an awful lot of money in the films. exactly how they lure us in, beyond just saying "James Bond", to extract the coins is going to be rather interesting to see. 

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

variations on plague tests

heya

and so the invisible war rages still, look you see, against this new plague. one cannot escape the sense that everyone but those infected with any version of this "covid" or "coronavirus" have gotten all frightfully bored of it now, and no one else is fighting any more. yet, somehow, i kind of am. 

my verk, along with other types, involves being in situations where one might unavoidably come in to contact with people what have got "it". no, my work is not, alas, as a male stripper, but yes i do apply for similar positions as and when they become available. so, in order to check that we have not been infected or are going around infecting others, i, we, are "encouraged" to do these lateral flow tests twice a week, at the very least. 

the reason, or impetus, for writing of this is that i had to order another set of these kits what have the lateral flow test in them. it was so that when it landed, or arrived, i observed that it is yet another different type, with different fancy packaging and made off of different people. 

it is with some interest i note, or observe if you will, that we are now at a stage when branding is the norm for these tests. as you might be able to see, in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode, this new one is not only called 'FlowFlex', but they gone done a trademark on this name. i guess this was done on the basis of the war not ending any time soon. 

which is a bit of a shame, as the much loved (ahem) government here is considering bringing an end to dishing out these free lateral flow tests. apparently they have noticed that it costs quite a lot to get them and send them to people, go figure. there is also a school of thought that many, many people here have been jabbed, as they say, twice over with this vaccination, and surely the idea of that is to mend it all so we no longer need live in fear of it. but when i say "free", actually we are all f*****g paying for them via f*****g taxes, especially me with the f*****g stupid high tax they put on f*****g fags. 

for my side, or for me, i am frankly not that @rsed. happy to do the tests if that gives them stats and info, and of course i would prefer to know if i gone done got plague. but do i like shoving these swabs down my throat and / or up my nose twice a week? not in particular. 

something that surprises me is the lack of actual, in your face conspiracy theories around these tests. i mean, for years and years now we have been reducing the use of plastic, and yet all these test kits are all plastic. undoubtedly such makes Greta quite cross, for we are not allowed to send used ones off to recycling, they must be destroyed as medical waste. 

of course, or also, there's questions about if these tests are any good at all. from what i gather, they are to be treated as entirely reliable and correct if they give you a positive test, but if they say you do not have plague they are not to be trusted alone. can't really win, then. so far all of my tests have come up as failed to get plague. long may it stay so. 

right, if these tests do continue to be a thing, and they come up with yet another manufacturer with yet another design change, then of course i will do what i can to showcase it here. 

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

my poor soul all bruised passivity

howdy pop pickers

nothing really, just a bit of general housekeeping. well, of sorts, look you see. as it all seems to be well and truly over now, i thought a look back at, rather than forward to, all of that Brilliant Live Adventures stuff from the Bowie Estate would be in order. quite a good deal of this shall be, i suspect, a bit of a whine and groan, since the releases did not really live up to the name (much), with the only two points of general success being making resellers very wealthy and actual fans quite cross. 

shall i try and get the majority of moans and groans out the way first? yes? ok. whatever good intentions there were in releasing these (certainly not financial for the Bowie Estate) pretty much went out of the window immediately. for some reason them what control his affairs think there is an unlimited market for belt buckles, wallets and - i kid you not - bar stools what have "Bowie" written on them. inexplicably, they somehow determined that there was a very limited, finite market for his music. other than some really, really interesting devout Labyrinth fans, i would suggest the majority of Bowie fans were, are, drawn in by the music, and not by his name looking good on things. although yes, in fairness (or to be fair) it does. 

faux pas after faux pas, then. these Brilliant Live Adventures were released randomly, and in limited numbers. all bar the third one (oh we shall get to that) were sold out long before the email alert came in saying it was available. you had to check daily to try and secure them, and i was successful with five of the six in this regard. many copies ended up, of course (welcome to the 21st century), in the hands of people trying to sell them for 3, 4 or more times the sale price. the mind boggles as what they might have thought would happen with this sort of thing, but it was the predictable which did.

making the above somewhat worse is the fact that, overall, exactly how "brilliant" these Brilliant Live Adventures turned out to be was highly debatable. indeed i am a Bowie fan, but no apologist, and do not go around saying all that he did was amazing. far from it. some more on this below. 

briefly it seemed the site were going to make a form of amends. not so long ago they put out an apology saying that they were (ahem) aware some fans had been frustrated by the release system, leaving them with incomplete sets. we were, what, 4 to 6 months ago, asked to make an "expression of interest" in purchasing some copies. all information regarding that apology has, at the time of writing, disappeared, with them now more interested in flogging a box set called Brilliant Adventures, covering the studio recordings of the 90s (excluding Tin Machine, alas), and an at last official release of Toy, with a hideous cover, that has been widely bootlegged for somewhere close to twenty years. 

undoubtedly a few more moans and groans about the whole mess of a release this turned out to be shall follow. but first, a couple of nice pictures of David, and then a look at each release. i shall try and give a decent rundown of them, but also link to my original thoughts or "review". 

warning signs were very much there, then, in the first release, Ovrez Le Chien. this was a recording of Bowie on what was likely his first tour "proper" since dispensing with obligations to do all the usual greatest hits with Sound & Vision, the demise of Tin Machine and two very, very good solo albums. it was a tour of his quasi-jazz odyssey Outside, mind. as with all of these i am going to say hit the link provided for more details, but the biggest issue with this average sounding gig is the hideous sound quality of the disc. everything about it suggests it's a polished up bootleg rather than something recorded with any intention of ever releasing. 

second came something much better in the form of No Trendy Rechauffe. quoting one of my all time favourite Bowie tunes in the title was an easy way to win me over. as was including the song quoted itself, Strangers When We Meet. quite close to approaching brilliant, in fairness, this release is. sound quality was miles (decibels?) better than the first, better set and a David clearly loving the love from his audience. 

oh, how the wheels came off with the third release. ideas of this being all "previously unreleased" went away with the release of LiveAndWell, the only volume not to sell out on the day it was announced. also not sell out for two (2) weeks. the bulk of the songs here were on the 'fan club only' (and so widely bootlegged) CD of the same name in the 90s, with others featuring on discs what came free with magazines and that. it's not as appalling as i suspected, but ultimately it's dominated by Earthling. 

fourth (4th) release was Look At The Moon!, a no less than 2 (two) CD set covering, more or less, all of his set off of the Phoenix Festival. again, at least this moved somewhere in the vicinity of being brilliant, for David at least sounded like he was having fun with the audience and loving the songs played. quite a bit of Earthling in the set, but balanced with songs that people may actually wish to hear. 

if you are wondering about any of the Brilliant Live Adventures being actually brilliant, wonder no more. yes, volume 5 (five), Something In The Air, is amazing. superb performances of an outstanding selection of songs, probably wasted on a French audience but still. this is so good it did not need to be a volume in a "limited edition" thing; it should have been put out as a proper release. however you can get your hands on this one, be it streaming, bootleg, not overpriced disc on ebay or if the Bowie Estate do decide to re-release them all, this is the one to get. 

a bit of an expectation existed that the sixth (and final) release might have been a nice CD & DVD of the infamous London Astoria 99 gig, what Bowie set up specifically to be filmed and recorded for released, but never did. instead, we got a half baked, this will do, not even bothered with a name Live At The Kit Kat, and not the proper one but one in New York. dire, really. Bowie sounds like he cannot get off the stage fast enough, all the songs here feature in much better performances on the fifth. 

my copy of the last one came off of ebay, more or less (as in south of 50p more) the same as what the website sold a "limited" number of copies for. i think ebay sellers have clocked that nobody is going to pay a fortune for these "rare" releases which can be streamed for me. there is a finite number of people who are like me and still prefer to have music you can hold. 

exactly how anyone, or someone (and it's vaguely interesting to imagine that Iman sits there and just has good ideas alone) can have full control of the Bowie Estate, access to his recordings and his fans and somehow manage to completely f*** both over and up. hey ho, what's done is done i suppose, but yes this does seem to have left a quite cross sense in some fans. let us hope that the Bowie Estate has taken away from this that there is a demand (well) in excess of 3,000 (three thousand) copies per release from here on out. 

do i regret falling into the "trap" of having to feel a need to have almost all of this set? it is, technically, incomplete, because they could f*** right off with the idea of me paying £20 for (i kid you not) a cardboard box to put them in. no, i don't feel bad, for i know that if i did not purchase them i would wander around bugged by a sense of wonder, a "fear of missing out". 

this i have been mentioning for a while, but in conclusion, i really do hope the Bowie Estate has its act rather more together. coming up are the "big ones", the 50th anniversaries of the likes of Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. also Pin Ups. please don't make a mess of them. 

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

stocking up on trolleys (trollies)

hello there

well, possibly a quite timely return to one of them subjects which is inexplicably popular here. yes, an instance of reports of any shopping trolley (or multiple of them), look you see. and yes it was quite deliberate of me to sidestep that great (or mass) debate concerning how to spell the being of more than one singular trolley as trolleys or trollies. the latter seems correct, but the former does not attract a red line of spelling disgrace. 

it's not so much that there aren't a great number of trollies (ys) out and about, i simply have not been paying attention, or taking pictures. however, i was prompted to engage in this art once more by, of course, my good friend Codename Magic. as an act of kindness he forwarded on a picture, which is indeed (as it would be) pictured below, but not immediately so. no. 

above is one i happened to see, my observation (and will to capture an image of) inspired by my chum. this one, presented of course in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode, was in a slightly not so natural inside setting, for the only time they are meant to be inside is when used at the facility, usually a supermarket, what issued them. one hardly suspects any clarity is required, but indeed some enterprising soul, of male, female of fluid persuasion, has taken to re-purposing the trolley to be used in a way that they have seen fit to. which is shifting or possibly storing stuffs of things. 

so, to recap in terms of where we are in the world, with specific relation to the shopping trolley, i believe now we are at a time where the invisible war on the new plague has not been won or lost, rather just all - actually that' unfair, a significant number - are now bored. to this, the world (our our nation) is now "back open", so to speak. just that minor inconvenience, as has been widely reported, of shortages of things like food, petrol and so forth. yet trolleys (trollies) appear to be bountiful and profligate. 

to just about the point of boredom, i suspect, in previous posts on this subject i have given a broad overview of how important these tollies (trolleys) are to our economy. in brief, supermarkets give them away free, people take them to scrap yards, or at least ones which operate on a "cash is tax free" basis, sell them on, money flows. capitalism works, etc. 

right, so yes, above is the picture what Codename Magic sent on. as you can see, more or less, someone has taken not one, and also not as many as three (or five) but two (2) trolleys (whatever spelling) for further use. not sure if they intend to take them straight to a suitable purchaser, or if they are stored for some other purpose, quite possibly like the one i spotted. who knows, should the problems or issues concerning access to petrol prevail, then maybe someone shall work out how to make an effective steering device for them.

no, if this for some reason hasn't come up in conversation before, i neither collect nor trade in the trolley market at this time. i have little interest in doing so, really. perhaps one day this may change, but for now i am perfectly fine just observing them every now and then. and, for those of you who are for some reason interested in the first image (above) here not in Commodore 64 mode, well. 

unsure, but i think that is a bit of carpet and some rubbish, being sent off no doubt to be recycled in a reasonable and responsible way. or, for all i know, it's some new carpet and a (bin) bag full of tools with which someone proposes to fit it. not really my business. that i saw a gent who, in a professional capacity, was coming to shift a sofa what someone had discarded, i would speculate the former. 

bereft, i am, of anything further to say or add in respect of this subject. at the very least, momentarily so. let me leave you to enjoy these pictures with no further commentary, or indeed wish you well as you look at other corners of the internet. 

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

experiments with american food

yeehaa dudes

no, as it happens, i did not intend, anticipate or plan for quite so many cuisine themed posts for this month. it has just kind of come to be, look you see, as has been the case with accounts of gigs. yet, here we are. 

as is somewhat usual, i was out for a spot of (domestic) shopping, getting a few basics. whilst doing so, it was so my attention was drawn to one of them food things off of america that i had frequently heard of, but had neither seen nor (obviously) tried. this would be that "peanut butter and jelly" thing, what in television shows and films all the kids seem to always be eating. 

like, i guess, a lot of people here in the UK, i had always assumed that this "pbj" was what it said on the box. and by that i mean i, or to be bold we, used our understanding of it. the peanut butter part was easy to work out, but an assumption was made that "jelly" was the word used by our friends in america as the word "jam" proved to complex for them. evidently, i was wrong. no, not the first time. 

of course i should have recalled, or been aware, that our friends in america have a preference for food which has been processed to the gates of bablyon, had a look, mulled around a bit and gone through them. they are, after all, a nation that simple processed cheese is not enough for them, they have to hoy it in some sort of compressed squirty can too. 

my initial thinking of my assumed idea of a "pbj" sandwich was a perfectly reasonable one, which would be "eurgh" or "yuck" or similar. well, come on. peanut butter is smart, (proper) jam is smart, but the two together didn't seem so wise. but, yeah, "jelly" in this instance is not some pretend word for jam which americans embraced, and nor is it proper jelly, like what we have at parties. also, it is not a certain other kind of jelly, that i am not going to discuss here, but what Spiros says is cheating. 

care to have a look inside this jar, to see what all of the fuss is about? of course you do, or i imagine you would, for there would be little sense you still reading if not. 

quite an aesthetically pleasing presentation, in truth. indeed yes, that is William showcasing the jar. he, too, after hearing of all this "pbj" stuff on videos, was curious. i took the jar over for him to see and possibly try, but he recalled that he cares not for peanut butter at all. still, he wished to see. 

this stuff, i have to say, is pretty darned good. i mean, one bite and i could see why them kids off of documentaries like Goonies live on the stuff. a very, extreme sweet taste. the peanut butter is a smooth paste thing, and the "jelly" is also a paste thing, like grape. whereas i am no expert, i am pretty confident that somewhere north of 80% of the content of the whole thing is sugar. 

yeah, the above is, i am sure, not the most pleasing image of food ever to be shared on that there internet thing, but here we are. i just made it as best i thought to, assuming no butter would be required on it. 

how likely is it that i shall radically change my diet to incorporate frequent pbj sandwich festivals? not at all in truth, but it was kind of nice to get a random curiosity addressed.

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

friends for boris

greetings

it was just a little while ago (at time of writing) that i had a jolly good go at making some friends for a former prime minister. yes, sure, here is a link to it. sadly, or alas, i have no idea how that worked out, look you see. no, i don't particularly care how it did. 

with some interest i noted that the chat requests on that scrabble variation i like to play ceased just after i posted that one. perhaps the pirates, the bots or who(m)ever worked out that i was amusing myself with responses, and had no interest in joining whatever it is, exactly, that "google hangouts" is. 

the silence has, of course, been broken. hence this post. yes, another fake profile, or automated bot thing, and no i am not 100% sure what that is, is attempting to lure me into downloading something called google hangouts to "chat" with them. 

full well it is that i am aware (or have an awareness of) that i am either "chatting" with a machine, or no one, or what have you. indeed i could just block the messages, or utter a few casual obscenities, getting myself banned off of it and so on. but, as you can see, i quite like just writing whatever pops in as a response to these things. sure, for my own amusement, but maybe one or two reading this are touched by mirth on reading so. 

not sure if i mentioned this in the previous post, for i am not as brave as you and thus do not read what i write. but anyway, i seem to recall hearing that you can soon work out if you are chatting with a bot thing, or some computer, simply by asking two (2) questions in 1 (one) message. that is to say that you have two things with a "?" at the end. should i recall right, the AI things deployed cannot cope with a dual question. 

moving on, and assuming that i failed in efforts to get a former prime minister to sign up for some sort of scam friendship thing, i figured well, why not try the incumbent (at time of writing) one. 

he, boris, done an interview recently. i didn't see it, but headlines i saw in passing suggested that he believed a wide range of issues facing the nation which he ostensibly leads the government for were, i kind of quote, "not his problem". with that being the case, i figured he probably had lots of free time to chat to people. also, my understanding is that he really, really likes fanny, so yes, no doubt some lass inviting him to speak on some chat thing would hold appeal. 

precisely what is the deal with this "google hangouts", and random invitations from strangers to join it? not sure in an exact way. some basic research is that it is a means to solicit money, or to share and spread various obscenities and other forms of questionable material. undoubtedly, dear reader, if i did really install this thing and add people who suggested it, there would be some effort made to extract personal info off of me, like my bank stuff and that. so no, they can f*** off. 

one would have thought, even if it was one of them spam hacker bot things, they would have put in a form of code (or whatever) to work out when a patently false email address was given. although, that said, you would not put it past boris to actually have an account on this sort of thing. 

absolutely no idea if either of them email addresses are right, to be honest. one i grabbed off google, and the other i just kind of copied the template for the one what was given for jeremy corbyn's address. no, i was not trying to forward "jezza" for one of these, but yes was looking for an email for his more mature, sophisticated and rational thinking brother, piers. who has excellent hair, if nothing else. 

well, that's about that. i very much doubt the lure spam rubbish attempts shall stop any time soon, but i have every confidence that my amusement value at responding has a definitive shelf life. as and when further invitations to google hangouts, or other such rubbish, come my way, i shall certainly share any responses i send if i find them vaguely amusing. 

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

cave concert

howdy pop pickers

no, i am not really sure, look you see. exactly how, after not doing such (or so) for a number of years, i ended up at two (2) gigs (concerts) within 4 (four) days is, or was, a trifle unexpected. perhaps it was just how the dates fell, or me embracing some quasi "mid-life crisis" (no way do i have as many years left that equals those past). maybe it's just me getting on with things, with my new life in exile and grabbing what i can after the time of the invisible war against the new plague took such away from all. doesn't really matter, i suppose, it just now is. 

so, after a very much unexpected trip to go and see the Manic Street Preachers once more (details here), just a small number of days later i found myself seeing Nick Cave live. to be correct, mind, that would be Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, for it was their most recent (excellent) album Carnage what was being toured. hence, i suppose, and now that i think of it, it being called the Carnage Tour. makes sense. 

as it happens, i wouldn't have gone right ahead and called myself a Nick Cave "fan". but, before you set fire to me (or similar) and that, i of course mean "proper" fan. of course i was quite aware of him, and held a very healthy appreciation of his rather incredible work. just never been as much of a fan as to have had shelf after shelf of his recordings in the collection, which may well change now. 

enough of a fan, i am, i would suggest, to at the very least spend north of £40 on a concert ticket to go see him. not sure of the final figure, i do not recall, but it was ticket + "booking fee" + "admin fee" + coronavirus cancellation insurance. yes, about 50% of the four costs make some sort of realistic sense, the rest should surely be built in to one or the other, but what do i know. also, the concert, or if you will gig, just so happened to be within (reasonable) walking distance of my lodgings in my place of exile. had i not taken the chance to see Nick Cave, all of a ten minute (give or take) stroll from home, well, i do have friends around the world who would have broken restrictions and come over to punch me square in the face for such disrespect. 

wasn't really sure what to expect, if i am honest. i knew enough to know it would all be so very different from the Manics, especially as the venue was and is exceptionally strict on that "this is a seated performance" stuff. a truth is that i'd had that Carnage album on as i drove around for verk, pretty much on repeat. not to make sure i was familiar, or "force" myself to like it, but because it is one hell of an intriguing, captivating, brilliant album. many forms of art, for this generation onward, is quite inevitably going to be informed or inspired by things such as "lockdown", the whole invisible war against the new plague and all which has been triggered by it. at the least, in the way i hear it, how it speaks to me, what it say, for me, Carnage is a perfect work of art touched by such times and yet feels destined to be relevant no matter how far the distance we end up away from it all. 

one or two people i know, for i do have friends (highly valued), said that they knew of people what had been to see Nick Cave, and they expressed that he was amazing. i can confirm that this is, indeed, very much the case. should you have no wish to read beyond an understanding of whether a Nick Cave gig is something that is ace, yes, it absolutely f*****g is. 

the one (1) warning i got was that, apparently, Mr Cave was "known" to get a bit arsey with people if it were that they just sat and filmed or took pics with their phones. so, the footage above was taken with some care. not as much video as i took of the Manics, but i assure you all of the very same poor, why even bother quality. mostly, i just wished to enjoy the performance, but of course grab a couple of clips, like the one above, which of course is of his arrival. from what i could see, no he didn't get at all arsey with anyone over phones or pics or vids, but then so far as i was paying attention most, if not all, like me were just wanting to take in what is likely an one off experience. oh, i would absolutely go see him again, but i am uncertain if the chance shall ever be present once more. 

how, exactly, or generally, would i seek to describe Nick Cave, artist, here on my blog? only in the ways that i relate to his music, or see him. lyrically, i absolutely would not hesitate to utter the word poet, or even genius. he has a remarkable gift for a turn of phrase, to use words effectively. quite Bowie-esque in many respects, certainly in the use of religion, be it overt or in an allegorical way. in some parallel universe, or "multiverse" as they now call it, there is a variant of me which exists which Cave got to me first, and i devoutly followed him, then saw Bowie just as an aside. that sort of thing. 

in no way, shape or form am i going to claim an expertise on the subject of the man, and i would not for a moment claim to be able to give a decent overview. some of you reading this will no doubt know more of him than i ever could, and others interested are advised to go and seek out more. so, on i go with the gig, and some comments on the album, no doubt. 

above is one of the better (by comparison) clips i managed to capture, a few moments or seconds of the track which opens Carnage, the magnificent Hand Of God. what was powerful on record became extraordinary, intense and sheer genius with the in your face live performance. by this point i already knew i was lucky enough to be seeing (and hearing) something special, but cemented by this in particular, if you like. we all need milestones, i suppose. 

something more or less unexpected, knowing that the content of the music was to be pretty dark, heavy and in instances bleak and being advised that he could get "a bit @rsey" with audiences, was the banter between songs. or "bantz" as i believe the kids call it these days. Warren Ellis, co-artist of Carnage, had a whale of a time teasing about playing on one leg whilst seated (i believe at some Bad Seeds concerts he did a more conventional on one leg performance), and Cave appeared to have a quite comfortable awareness of some lightness being needed around some of the songs, in particular the considerably more personal moments of Ghosteen. 

during the odd quiet spell it was so that one or two braver souls in the audience shouted out the names of some Bad Seeds songs, in the hope that they would get played. i was rather pleased to be aware of knowing all the titles called out, really. one, The Mercy Seat, caused Nick to pause and answer. if by answer you understand it was "yeah, we could play that one.......but we're not gonna". 

of the many highlights (and i really could not fault or point out any weak moment in the whole thing), that there above is a bit of Balcony Man. my understanding of the origins of the song is that how he came to be known by neighbours during lockdown, for he sat on his balcony, occasionally having an off the cuff conversation with people if it amused him to do so. the footage, i believe, has some of his banter, or "bantz", with the audience. all i can say for certain is that, due to a particularly niche favourite film of his what featured a gent on a balcony, Spiros found me, ostensibly a man, sat on a balcony, listening to a bloke sing about a balcony man, as being very agreeable and slightly "meta". 

highlights beyond those clips? well, White Elephant was a real tour de force, if that's the correct phrase or expression. i did, as it happens, take some footage of that, but it is really poor, which is saying something considering that which i am prepared to show off here. of the better known, or "classic" material he has at his disposal, it was amazing to hear Into My Arms, and during one (of two) encore things we were fortunate enough to get Henry Lee. obviously no, PJ Harvey did not turn up to sing it, but one of the excellent trio of backing singers stood up and delivered an outstanding performance. a cover of Cosmic Dancer off of T-Rex also featured, which was boss.  

for those wondering or asking, no, i did not buy any "merch" or merchandise. a bit strange, as this would have been more or less a formality for (virtually) any gig i had ever been to. sadly, or alas, they appear to (ahem) have stopped making tour shirts my size over the last 20 (or so years). to be honest, i think all money what may have gone on a shirt (and the standard price, going on Nick Cave and indeed the Manics, for a tour t-shirt appears to be £20) went instead on actual concert tickets. 

but, en route to the Manics gig, i was told by someone who had been to an earlier, rather than later, Nick Cave gig that the show was excellent, and to watch out on the merchandise stall for an item which was marked as £295 (two hundred and ninety five). sadly it was not on display as such, but the price label, pictured above, was. ahem, yeah. i would, to be fair, expect a Bella Freud and Nick Cave designed jumper (or cardigan, or what have you) to be that much at its cheapest, really. 

yes, there was a temptation with one (1) merchandise item, a new Reni (or "bucket") hat, which had the name of the album Carnage on it, for £20. but no, i am still breaking in my one off of Bridlington, since i appear when transferring to my place of exile to have misplaced the other, much beloved one. as in the one what i saw Stone Roses in, close to (blimey) 10 (ten) years ago. 

a particularly disarming moment came during one of the encore sections, i believe (but please don't hold me to that) the second. Mr Cave thanked us for "risking our lives to come to a concert". no, he did not do it all late 80s Bono or Jim Kerr self righteous pious, and nor did he do it jokingly. the best way i can describe it was as in relief that such (a concert) was possible once more, tinged with the oblique absurdity where death is all of a sudden a realistic possibility at a concert, just from breathing.

from what i recall, and i think i got this right, that footage above is Mr Cave and band walking off for the final time, as in after the second encore. would the chance permit me to see him again, i am not sure it would be taken. believe me, this was brilliant, but i suspect no opportunity will come again. if it did, i wonder, how would i take it. rather, maybe, leave this all as one rather fortunate, unexpected and brilliant moment, laced with images and sounds that i shall recall forever. easily one of the greatest gigs i have ever seen. but yet "gigs" does not seem right. this was performance art of the highest quality. 

some of you may be wondering, referencing back to a bit of the above, how it all works. that's gigs, in this brave new world of the new plague, or if you will coronavirus, or covid as the popular name seems to be. well, there are indeed checks. most of us, from what i could ascertain, had this "covid passport" thing ready to display, off of the nhs "app" on phones. quick and fuss free. one or two had the card thing showing that they had been double vaccinated, but they had to show photo id to prove it was them. in a worst case, and this was at Nick Cave and the Manics, if you had nothing to show you were, as far as possible to prove, plague free, they had a section to the side where you could go do one of them things called a "lateral flow test". this gives you a quick, reasonably reliable result. no, at neither gig did i see anyone kick off about anti-vax, rights, burn 5g masts (whatever they are), etc. i suspect a rather different crowd gets attracted to the gigs what i went to. 

on, then, to the next gig or gigs, depending entirely on what plans turn out. no, it is not for me, here, to comment or speculate as to who i may see next and when. but yes, i suspect there is every chance that they, too, shall get written of here, for anyone interested, even if only in passing. 

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

kiwi footwear statement

g'day

i tend not to expect any feed back, or if you like retort, from things that i post here. sure, there is, i believe, some sort of comment section beneath each post, but it seems seldom used. my guess is anyone looking at all of this is happy to do just (or precisely) that, with no wish to comment further, look you see. 

but, that said, comments and what have you are usually welcome. i would say always, but then i believe that there are some what roam the internet just to go and write mean, rude or nasty things about certain matters and various people. such strikes me as a rather wanting way to spend time, but far be it from (or for) me to question how it works for others. 

some creativity was used, indeed (or as point of fact) deployed with a response to a recent post, though. well, i am not sure it was actually intended as such, but taken all the same. not so long ago i wrote of a recent (mildly) exciting shoe acquisition, the details of which can be found by means of clicking here. no response was expected, and even if it was, i did not believe such would be Grant showing off his shoes. 

yes, Grant enthusiasts, full well it is you may, should you be so inclined, for pictured here, somewhere around this text, is indeed a glimpse of the one you hold in such high esteem. proudly showing off his shoes, and so he should. and a bit of leg, i suppose, which is undoubtedly of even more interest to a certain faction of the world of Grant enthusiasts, who number a lot more than you might think. 

what do i make of, or think, of his choice of shoes? not sure that it matters, but since you asked, i would not (personally) be so bold as to pull of a rather stark, dynamic matching mix of blue and red. that it is all offset by some white is an interesting statement, even if i am not entirely sure what, exactly, is being said by it. 

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

britain bounces back

hello there

a little while ago - last month, look you see - i wrote with some sadness of how the entire nation was knacked. or something like that. kind of. look, it's not like i read what i write, but if you want to see what i wrote of such a stern subject, here is the link. yes, true, the "broken" side of it was all due to my preferred sort of chips not being available, but still, such is important. 

things, ever since that great chip shortage of as long ago as a month (give or take) have gotten ever so slightly worse. well, worse from a certain point of view. indeed, i have no wish to make light of such things as a shortage of proper drivers, energy costs and petrol running out, but still, with the latter on, well, i am not going to pretend i all of a sudden do not love Mad Max 2 dearly. so yes, the petrol shortage is a bit of an inconvenience, but if it means i can go off with an intricate haircut, marauding around seeking to take over an oil refinery whilst having my @rse hang out of a pair of trousers, well, every cloud and all that. 

but now is not the time to indulge such (wonderful) homoerotic laced fantasies about being in a mental gang of excitingly dressed petrol thieves. no. here the subject is chips, and it is a much loved type of chip what has returned. 

yes, presented in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode, triple cooked beef dripping chips. off of Lidl, for the record. and they are a most splendid of thing. fondly is it that i recall my first encounter with them. not long after taking up residence in my place of exile, i went off shopping. rather than carrying on with what i had known, for the boys preferred them french (freedom, if american) fries, i was now ipso facto free to experiment. whereas i had little (no) understanding of what triple cooked or beef dripping might actually imply, i went all "yolo" on them. 

my first taste of one, cooked by moi, provoked a very "ooooooh" sound. no, not the sort of deep, sexually provocative "oooh" like when you say "ooooh Gary Davies on your radio", but that rather, and yes i suppose similar, eyebrow raising, higher pitched, cor blimey that is a lovely nice sensation sort of sound. lovely, they were. 

i did indeed go a bit like (forgive me, it is a while since i read it) like that father character in the celebrated novel Pride & Prejudice, where he got all excited about how "handsome" a letter was and he went off and showed it to all. so yes, i spoke to people fondly of these boss, mega ace chips. even cooked them for one or two, at times when people visited me. with striking similarity, different people said unto me that frozen chips were always rubbish or poor, then tried some of these utter b@stards and also made that "oooooh" sound described so eloquently above. 

going by somewhat standard frozen chips, and indeed Lidl, prices, yes, £1.09 for a less than one metric kg bag is a trifle steep. but you get what you pay for. Van Halen albums, for example, what feature David Lee Roth are always going to be priced higher than the horrid ones what that tw@t Hagar is on. my recollection is that when i first discovered them they were south of £1, but no matter. placing a prohibitive price on them stops me having an entire freezer full of them, and so in turn probably helps in preventing me from feasting on nothing else but these, which would totes sort out, as in knack, my arteries even faster than what cigarettes (sorry) probably shall. 

do i really believe that having these chips available once more in some way more or less makes up for all of the other ills in our brave new world? perhaps not entirely, no. or not at all. but, you know what, i like them, and it makes, for me, a better place in which i live. it's the little things one has to clutch to, i have come to accept. 

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