burlington breakfast

hello there

yes, i know, look you see, there are plenty of things that you want to read about here. plenty. these would include, but are not limited to, how i got on driving too and from verk for the first time today, the last (for now, possibly forever) of the bus vibes, my correspondence with the bus people over what does and does not constitute as "public transport" and, of course, my recent illness.

in regards of the latter, dear reader, i seem to be plagued once more with ebola loaded manflu that has ebola, sarin gas and scurvy in it. also, and actually quite possibly really the case for a change, it could well be that i am one of the 3000 or so people who contract all that E.coli business in the UK each month. whilst it would be splendid to be a humble statistic, i am really rather keen for that bothersome element to leave me.

instead of any of the above, however, come with me as i taste the final of the three most splendid marmalades that, after careful vetting and consideration, the esteemed Fortnum & Mason permitted me to purchase from them.

the third and final jar of the set i purchased from them, in the presence of Spiros, was the Burlington Breakfast blend, or if you like composition. was it the case that, by simply dining on them in the order in which they were presented, i saved the best until last? perhaps.

of the three, the texture, or if you like concoction on offer here with the Burlington  Breakfast marmalade is the smoothest, in that it has no elements of rind or curd in it. so refined and smooth it is, as point of fact, that one could easily mistake it for the mass produced, paste like marmalade which is made available to the lower classes and peasants through low brow, cheap and invariably anything but cheerful outlets.

the smoothness of this marmalade, fine cut as it is, made it a veritable breeze to spread upon some toast on which i had place ample butter. i felt somewhat heart sore at doing this, for marmalade should always provide something of a challenge to consumption for the members of the gentry on a morning.

speaking of members of the gentry, here, have a look at this cheeky chappie, whom i photographed from a television screen during a recent rebroadcast of a classic episode of Bullseye.

is itjust me, or does this chap have something of a slight resemblance to the celebrated association football player Robbie Fowler? on Bullseye he had the given name of Don or Dan or some other similar three letter concoction, with it of course being rather crass and lowly for a gent to have a three letter name. perhaps, then, it is the case that he resides in the same gene pool from whence Mr Fowler of Robbie spawned.

back, after that pause, then, to Burlington Breakfast.

despite the ease with which one may spread this marmalade over toast, the taste and experience of consuming it was, on the whole, most agreeable and indeed enjoyable. i thought that perhaps my eating of it would be sullied, if not marred, by the lack of battle in getting it on to the toast, but, happily i suppose, this was not to be the case.

a triumphant image of the Burlington Breakfast marmalade in Commodore 64 mode with the scan lines on? my goodness, why the devil not?

of the three marmalades which i have been honoured enough to be able to taste from Fortnum & Mason, it is without a shadow of a doubt that i say it is Sir Nigel's marmalade, the first that i had, which i would return to. this would be second, with, and let me be very careful with the typing here, Old English Hunt (there i did it) a respectable third.

i may well return to London to purchase some more, or i might well avail myself of their so-called "online" service to arrange delivery of further marmalade. actually, i have just consulted with my (considerably) better half on this subject, and she has assured me that i will in fact be ordering it on this so-called "online" facility which Fortnum & Mason invented.

meanwhile, to bring closure to this blog post, here is a rather splendid image of the people of London celebrating a performance by that much admired band The Specials.

Spiros was indeed at this event, and it was he who forwarded this image to me. it sounds like he had a fabulous time, grooving to all them songs that The Specials did and joining in with the crowd when they elected to suggest that certain groups should, as far as they were concerned, "f*** off back" to whichever province or nation they hailed from. the band coming out in support of the striking Tube drivers, if you can call pressing a big button driving, was not, i gather, as well received by the crowd as the band might have both hoped and intended it would be.

i shall take my leave of you now, dear reader, to consume further medicines, or if you like muti, in the most earnest hope that my health is restored to whatever usual level it is, which granted and in all fairness is probably not all that high up in comparison to most.




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

red car

hi there

there's not really any easy way to put this, look you see. those in and around my area, well, all i can say is brace yourselves, but a helmet and watch out for what is on the way. as we will get to later, and in another rather angry post, the decision was out of our hands but all the same my (considerably) better half and i made this happen during the day today, after doing the groundwork last week.

yes, indeed. we have purchased another car, or if you like a second one. a very bourgeois, opulent and extravagant indulgence, maybe, but alas pretty much the only practical choice we had.

why another car? because, as has been mentioned on this blog over the last week, the definition of what does and does not constitute as "public transport" has changed somewhat of late. the people who are responsible for buses in our area have made further service cuts and ridiculous timetable changes. as it was i was leaving home at 7am to get to work; with the new timetable i would not get home until 7pm.

more on that in a future post - the bus people have for some reason decided to engage me in a battle of wits, so let me give them fair chance to reply properly. in the mean time, then, let's focus on the new wheels.

it is one of them A Class Merc things, as you can see (if you are better than me at spotting types of car, which is extremely likely). it was sold pretty much on sight, to be honest - good make, lovely colour, seemed as far as we could tell in good condition, and had a smart looking stereo which we assumed would work.

cost? less than what 18 months of 4 weekly bus passes would have cost me, excluding the very real likelihood of less services being charged at a far higher price just now. so, by my logic, should this car survive for a year and a half - yes, a big ask with my track record with wheels - it's broke even. you can round that up to two years if you want to throw all that insurance and tax business in to the mix. 

my friends and family in South Africa, on the note of the above, might be mildly amused to know that a car here has to get an MOT test, he equivalent of a roadworthy, every year. in SA, a car only needs to be roadworthy tested when you buy it, and then it usually gets passed simply by modifying the engine to the extent of sellotaping a clear plastic bag with banknotes to it.

but hey, you want to see the car. or, to elaborate on that a bit, you want to see the car in the state that it has started off in, for my non-standard driving style invariably means that the car looks a bit different after a few days of me owning it.

that's the fancy dashboard thing. with the car being a diesel, or for some other reason, one must wait for it to warm up before one turns the ignition for it to commence its voyages. to that end, all sorts of fancy lights and sounds come on to alert you as to when it is safe to do so. nice one.

yeah, all them lights and things, and the lack of focus on being overtly circular, on the speedometer were a massive selling point for me. smart, that looks.

the arse of cars that i drive tend to not fair quite so well, although i'd like to think they do better than the sides, the doors and the front. here's a look, then, before it gets all dings, dents and scratches in my quest to prove that rear view mirrors and looking behind you is strictly for twats and nancy boys.

it has, if you are wondering, been brought to my attention - cheers Mark - that i might have been somewhat hasty in purchasing this car. when we decided to purchase it, to my retrospective shame, i must confess i was unaware of such a thing called an "Elk Test", or if you like "Moose Test". i was then also unaware of the fact that the A Class Merc, in its original design, had failed this test. well, failed depending on what your definition of success is. here is a link to one of them video things of the A Class doing the Elk Test. 

i appreciate the concern shown in the caution or warning above, but believe me - if i am cruising along and nine or a dozen Elk are stood in a straight line in front of me, i won't be swerving.

vibes? vibes. let's be honest about this - the vibes, the tunes and the sound in a car are the only thing i have ever been bothered about, and at age 42 (when did that happen) remains the only thing i am bothered about. quality music is important for pleasant driving, for drowning out any sounds the car is making which causes displeasure and to give you something to do whilst you wait for a mender to come and have a look at the engine, exhaust or whatever else might have, for no apparent reason, fallen off.

to that end, here's the stereo that came with the car.

quite a smart stag, as you can see. it would appear not to do all that DAB radio stuff, and nor does it do mp3 or connect to one of them iTwat devices, but it does have a serviceable radio and, as you can hear below, the CD playing capability of the stag is most splendid.

yeah, i took that video whilst i was parked, sorry. apparently i am not allowed to make videos, take pictures or do them selfie things whilst i am actually driving; something to do with contractual obligations in respect of the insurance agreement i have in place. sorry.

on the vibes front, that is indeed U2. it would be something of a tradition for me to break in a new car with The Stranglers or Frankie Goes To Hollywood, but i'm in a U2 mind these days, so Zoo Station. was the first tune to be played. and yes, it enhanced driving.

a look at the side of the car, before it gets all knacked and battered? certainly.

the shape of the car had great appeal. it's compact enough to not be too much of a disturbing presence on the road, and yet the way it uses space allows for the taller, wider driver - such as i - to control the combustion engine with a good deal of comfort. ok, fair enough, the roof could be a few millimetres higher, but then again that's what the sunroof is for.

things tend to happen to the sides of my cars, in particular the doors. like it's my fault doors and hinges were not designed to handle being rammed into a garage wall when reversing. admire the sight above, then, before something totally out of my control happens. 

how about a practical driving review, then? well, thus far i have driven it for the duration of my 80 minute U2 compilation, and indeed into a second spin of it. i might go with a bit of Quadrophenia next, but we shall see. so far, to be honest, so good.

it was a bit tricky at first, as 1st and 2nd gear are so far away as thought they seem to be in a different dialling code. that indicator thing - granted, something i rarely use - also seems to have an absolutely massive arc, and from 9 on a clock you have to virtually turn it up to 11 or down to 7 if for some reason you want to give the people in front or behind of you fair warning of your proposed journey.

as comfy as the car is for my width and height, the feet area took some getting used to. i do not believe that Mercedes, much like most car makers, ever envisioned someone with size 13 feet actually driving a car. well, i do, and it is all too easy to hit the not quite right pedal. but, somewhere after Bad or maybe it was Where The Streets Have No Name, i kind of got a balance that i felt to be agreeable.

on an even more practical note, cornering is a rather loose affair, and i can sort of see what they were getting at by crashing it into Elks and what have you.  however, as i can actually drive there was no real issue and i could turn ok.

yes, indeed i did put the car through the pinnacle of testing - the one that all formula one cars and drivers do. it is perfectly possible, i can assure you, to turn a sharp country lane corner controlling the car with your less suited hand and knees whilst lighting a cigarette and reaching the more complicated notes of Red Hill Mining Town. in fairness, yes, the sight and presumably sound of this did sh!t out oncoming traffic a little, but that's just taught them the value of selecting times for their journeys a bit better.

another look at the car, then, before the off chance of some sort of harm or damage befalling it on account of me driving it most days than not? well, i shall be doing my best to look after it, but here you go.

yes, practical testing fans, yes i did go off this afternoon and do a little bit of shopping. everything about what you have seen of the car thus far suggests "limited boot space" and that is indeed the case. it was, however, perfectly possible - with comfort - to fit four overstuff, ill packed bags of shopping into it.

and there's my findings thus far. i am very sorry and saddened that public transport is being so brutally destroyed and made impractical to use, but overall i am thrilled and delighted to be in command of my own destiny once more, at least in as far as when i travel and how i get there.

i shall be taking a ride out tomorrow to do some further experimentation, but the exciting day is Monday, when i introduce my style and approach to driving to the metropolitan, cosmopolitan town in which i work. it should be full of excitement and adventure. if it is, and i get anything interesting or unusual shouted at me, i shall be sure to let you know.




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

bidding farewell to books on the bus

hello there

righty-ho, two more books read whilst travelling to and from verk on the bus, look you see, so here we go with the usual, obligatory reviews for those of you who for some reason find such things useful or interesting.

and yes, as the title suggests, as far as i know, or if you are young AFAIK, these will be the last two book reviews for quite some time, or at least in terms of reading them on the bus goes. more - much, much more - on that particular predicament soonish.

a look at the two books, followed by some sort of spoiler free quick, flash review? surely.

ah, i see google/blogger and apple are having their little ding-dong again about what way around pictures should be rotated. perish the thought that either just allow me to decide which way around pictures should appear here, that would be just silly.

OK, quick fire review - i know it's about 5 years old, but Sister is one of the finest novels i have ever read and rivals the brilliant The Girl On The Train as the best book i have read all year. The Forgotten Holocaust, meanwhile, was a lot less ridiculous than the last few Ben Hope adventures by Scott Mariani, and did what i expected it to with the subject of the title of the novel; both good and bad.

be warned, then, as a truly **** FABULOUS SENSATIONAL AWESOME POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD WARNING **** is now in effect. oh, and as was usual, links to the novels are purely for ease of reference and are not an endorsement or affiliation.

Sister was and indeed remains a novel i referenced in my previous books on the bus post in regards of the insane range of options i had with respect to what price i could pay for it. as things went, i paid the lowest, most modest fee possible. having now read it, i can honestly say i would have had no quarrel at all with paying the full price listed on the cover, or more than that if required, should literature be measured in coins of money.

plot? the novel is told in the form of a letter by a lady to her sister, who is missing. the writer, or if you like protagonist (strictly speaking maybe an antagonist, or 2nd person narrator - Faye, let me say crisp and ask you to bail me out and tell me which one), has returned home to London upon hearing the news that she is missing.

and that, frankly, is all that i am prepared to tell you. the story takes all sorts of very believable, plausible and engaging twists and turns. the conclusion was a massive hammer blow that i did not see coming at all, that made perfect sense and had the kind of emotional reaction in me, the reader, that writers dream of being able to create. i somehow doubt you need my praise in your life, or if you would even ever see this, but all the same, bravo Ms Lupton, what an astonishing work you have created.

as i said, i know i am late to this party as the novel is 5 or so years old. if like me you'd not read it or even heard of it, toddle along now, off you go, purchase, read and if not enjoy then be mesmerised by the sheer wonder of such a magnificent novel.

finally - really then, we have The Forgotten Holocaust, with it being the tenth or so adventure of ex-SAS, wildman hostage rescuer and apparently indestructible Ben Hope.

plot? having broken up with his fiancée and having pretty much everyone he knows turn their back on him as a consequence, Ben Hope has returned to his quasi-native Ireland to drink a lot. there he has a chance encounter with a writer who seems in slight distress, which as it happens to turn into major distress when she gets killed by death, violently, than Ben is too smashed to stop. this sets him off on a quest to find out why, which sees him find out all sorts of things about the Irish potato famine, one of the most suppressed information events in so-called first world history.

i had pretty much sworn off Scott Mariani books, as regular readers will recall. whereas they are intended as escapist, enjoyable entertainment, the last two i read turned out to be utterly ridiculous nonsense, featuring at stages Ben Hope vs Entire South American Drug Industry on account of his (then) fiancée reminding a major drug baron of someone, and of course Ben Hope vs massive laser that could cut the world in half. the idea, however, of using a sensitive, rarely spoken of historical event in the form of the Irish potato famine was interesting and intriguing, and so off i went.

the "conspiracy theory" or "alternate history" it provides about the Irish potato famine, and it's far reaching consequences, is so absurd and preposterous that i dare say even the most extreme and determined of Irish Republican would refuse to put it out as propaganda. that it dares to mention the event itself does, at the least, hopefully highlight for some this most shocking, sad and depressing episode of Irish history.

leaving that aside, as a pure escapist, entertainment novel, it's more right than it is wrong, and a good reminder of why i started reading the Ben Hope books in the first place. above average, at the very least, and well worth a go.

and that, dear reader, is that. decisions of others has determined that i shall no more ride the bus, so no more shall i be reading on the bus. i am very sad about this. over the last year or so i've had the chance to read more books than i had in the previous ten or so years. that time and luxury has now been taken away.

fear not, for i shall still be making my way to and from verk, but as i said, more on all of that later. for now, though, i need to go and contemplate which are the vibes that shall be played as a farewell to bus vibes.

if you try either or both of the novels here, or any of the others i've had a read of, i hope you either enjoy as much as i did, or in some cases considerably more than i did.





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

simply

hi there

this post, look you see, was really rather close to being called day of release at HMV and the amazon order arriving two or so days later, but i figure simply, as you will note if not observe, will do.

what was to be released on the day of release that was, in a very real sense, monday? why, yet another compilation of the works of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, in this case titled simply frankie goes to hollywood. i was aware of the day of release thanks to the superb Super Deluxe Edition website, which is a home for all who still like buying, owning and holding music in a physical sense, and from repeated emails off of amazon saying YOU MUST BUY, NOW.

as tempting as it was to order it off of amazon, i felt it was an ideal chance to go and do that thing which i like doing, which is to walk into HMV and purchase a new release on the day of release. so i did not, at first, place an order with the amazon people.

this was the main, or if you like primary, window display at HMV on the monday. as you can see, there was a distinct lack of focus or emphasis on the fact that there was yet another Frankie Goes To Hollywood compilation available to the gentry and, if you will excuse me, the ladies.

there was, as equally i am sure you can see, a rather heavy promotion of that Ed Sherry (or whatever) lad that upsets Noel Gallagher so much (nice one), strangely for an album that, as far as i am aware, has been available for quite some time. maybe it's the smart price of £4.99 that they are now selling it for which is the reason for promotion. also, as you can see, they are flogging off Disney Pixar creations once more, and a while load of TV box sets. in regards of the latter, the same ones are always on display - i think they are in fact welded there.

no Frankie Goes To Hollywood in the window, then, and no new Frankie Goes To Hollywood on the shelves, so to cut to the chase for you if you are in a hurry this is what happened on Monday evening.

yeah, i went right ahead and ordered it off of amazon anyway, and took delivery, as you shall see below, this afternoon. so yay, i have another Frankie Goes To Hollywood compilation. 

am i angry, bitter and resentful in the direction of HMV in regards of them not having it in stock? not in the slightest, dear reader. it's the kind of compilation that screams for a natural home in supermarkets, really. as point of fact i am sure i have seen other compilations for lesser artists of a similar packaging and with the 'simply' name in the likes of Morrisons and Tesco.

in great fairness to HMV they did have the four most recent compilations on the shelf - Frankie Said, Frankie Said Deluxe, Sex Mix Vol 1 (where is Volume 2?) and Frankie Say Greatest. also, the special editions of Welcome To The Pleasuredome and Liverpool were there for all to purchase, and purchase at pretty decent prices. well, pretty decent if you allow for the fact that the artists who created the music get next to no royalties off of it.

in slightly less fairness to HMV, i was most displeased by my conversation with the staff of the store. when i made my purchases (a Val Doonican CD, and a DVD called Dracula Untold if you must know) i was asked if i found everything i was looking for. i said no. they asked what i was looking for. i told them simply frankie goes to hollywood. they went and looked on the computer. they said that they could offer me Simply Red instead. erm, yeah. actually, no.

so, on to the simply frankie goes to hollywood set itself, then, which i have beautified for you with a picture of the box (a pink tin, no less) taken in Commodore 64 mode.

for what reason did i purchase this? autopilot, dear reader. the novelty factor of Frankie Goes To Hollywood compilations kind of wore off after they exceeded the number of albums the band did. and yet i feel obliged to get each and every one, whether or not it features anything that i do not already have. that i do not already have, dear reader, several times over.

is it worth the £6.99 price attached to it? i guess so, yeah. i mean, all the usual suspects are there, and a few rare-ish tracks that have only been on CD once or twice before. it's a decent enough set, and paying coins of money for it in essence, for me, is paying someone to select in what order i listen to some Frankie that i would listen to anyway.

a sort of a look at the tracklisting? surely.

there is a lot of laziness on the go with the packaging. no proofreading for a start, hence us having Watching The wildlife listed rather than Watching The Wildlife, or even Watching the Wildlife if you are somewhat pedantic about that sort of thing. also, the running length is proudly stated as "over 3 hours". what, too much effort to add up all the running lengths of all three discs?

it's worth buying, dear reader, for the Paul Rutherford voiced cover of Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?, a previously unreleased intended as a b-side track that in many ways contributed to the breakup of the band and has otherwise only been available via them twats off of iTunes and on the Sex Mix Volume 1 set. it's fun, is what it is, and shows off what a great vocalist Paul is.

interestingly it is not crammed with many, many versions of the big trilogy that was, and remains, Relax, Two Tribes and The Power Of Love.  a somewhat refreshing change, as great as the songs are.

i've got no idea what the quality or mastering standard of the discs are, sorry, as i've not given them a spin as such as yet. but i will, dear reader, i will.

enjoy if you decide to buy, and no i don't blame you if you opt to not purchase yet another Frankie compilation. fear not if you miss this one, surely there shall be another along this time next year.




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

cows, the end of days

hi there

well, amongst other things, look you see, my monitoring and observing of what the cows are all getting up to is coming to an end. it's been a thankless task, with no acknowledgement from the UN and certainly no offers of getting married off of George Clooney for me, but i don't mind. i have been happy to bring you the warning signs.

mostly, dear reader, the cows have been absent from my life, as in they have not been conspiring in a field near where i happened to be of a morning. that changed this week.

there are more cows in this field than you can possibly imagine, unless you are some sort of weirdo or strange type and can imagine more than 15 or so of them.

yeah, i appreciate that you cannot see them all in this picture - in fact probably about none is the amount you can see. well, unless you are really good and observant and can spot.

you can't see them because they are crouching down, poised ready to attack. honest. they look like class ninja sort of things, or maybe like them commando fellas off of the army. they seemed to be just waiting, ready to pounce, ready for action, or if you like ready to attack.

oh sure, some might say, or even argue, that the cows are simply having a nice lie down. that would imply that the cows had done something which had tired them out, would it not? like, for instance, plotting to overthrown the incumbent superior species on the planet - us - and thus needed a rest.

away from the cows for a moment, and here's an empty bottle of booze which had been discarded by a tree.

yeah, the zoom on the blueberry is not all that great, so i am not sure what it was. i do, however, remember that it has the word "cock" in its name, and that is why i took the picture.

Spiros, you see, likes the drink. he in particular likes the drink that is either cider in style, or has some point of relation to the word "cock". whatever this actually is i shall soon know, for he will be off down the offy, waving this image at the proprietor of a licenced seller of drinks that get you all sh!tfaced, demanding that he be sold a bottle of it, along with a straw or a funnel. 

here, with a bit more zoom magic you can make out where the cows lurch and wait in attack.

you won't let it drop, will you? i can hear you argue still, suggesting that cows might be tired from doing something else other than plotting the downfall of man. what would that be, exactly?

the life of a cow is awesome, and one they should be content with. for the most part, right, it's all just sort of standing around in a field, eating grass. frequently, though - and for free - the not only get smart hand jobs, but the, as it were, produce of them gets sold at a profit by retailers around the world. after that it's all getting a few bits cut off of them to make classy belts, and then a very expensive execution so that we may all eat fine cuts of steak. there are probably plenty of people out there who would jump all over a taste of some of that life, believe you me.

is this the last post on the cows i will be doing? perhaps. we will have to see how often my life takes me past them from here on out.

if the cows have taken over and you are reading this, you are the resistance.



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

the day the donkey derby came to town

hello there

ok, so the donkey derby didn't strictly come to town, and it was more that we went to a seaside town where the donkeys were already roaming. it's just that in my experience, look you see, it is always better to make a reference to Mulligan & O'Hare when the opportunity presents itself.

instead, then, this is more a post about the 75% of my family that you all unequivocally like, something of a pleasant change from the 25%, or if you like me, that you normally get.

as we progress through the vagaries of time, dear reader, you and i shall learn only too well how much the phrase red car was of relevance this weekend gone, but for now we shall limit ourselves to speaks of the subject of Redcar. for that is where the road took us.

we had reason to be in and around the place, and so we went the full distance of the sea front, not too far from the somewhat controversial "vertical pier", or if you like tower. a reason for games, ice cream and an admiration of the sea, then.

yeah, that's one of them electronic "rocking horse" giddy up there, get going type of rides. which cost me a mere £1 coin each for them to have a ride on. well, the boys wanted a go, so that was that on the expenditure front, so i extracted my money's worth with the above image and the below video.

Redcar is, like, totes close to us, and we should go there more often really. why don't we? life gets in the way, i suppose. we all get so damned busy with this and that, it seems, that we just don't go, you know what, let's go and throw coins at a flashy light machine, eat fish and chips touched with the salt of sea air and dine on the finest lemon top ice creams known to man.

you'd have thought, what with so many years landlocked in the inland empire of Johannesburg, and me forgetting from time to time that i lived in Cape Town, that i would be mad keen to see the sea as often as possible. well, it's smart to and all that, but so long as i know it is within reach that's fine. 

yeah, that's a view of the Redcar beach and skyline, neither unblemished or enhanced by wind turbines or the petrochemical wonderland works, depending on your point of view. i wouldn't really wish to get too serious in this blog, but i do get differing opinions on the place. to many Redcar is just home, to some it's a place they resent and dislike, to others, one good friend in particular, it's a brilliant town worth fighting for and making it what it should be.

me? i've never had a bad experience with the place, and everyone i've met from there has been perfectly all right by me, thanks. if it was my home town then sure i would get the hump with this and that, just like everyone does with wherever their home town happens to be, but it's a place i do like to visit.

as do the boys, getting back on track, as there are lots of smart games and things for them to play. like, for instance, this absolutely massive, rather boss Transformers game.

yeah, it could well be that the boys are indeed a bit younger than the intended, marketed age for this game. we like, however, to think that we've done that thing called parenting, and thus they know there isn't really cars that turn into massive robots and shoot each other. 

besides, it's enormous fun to play as Beetlebum and Transformer Rex, or whatever it is they are called.

right. the title of this blog post promised you some donkey action, so here is some donkey action. i have, in the hope that it makes your looking at this worthwhile, as big as i can here on this blog. enjoy, all you crazy donkey enthusiasts.

Spiros, oddly, was someone who could "take or leave" donkeys for the most part, right up until the most recent edition of Viz landed. he is now actively exploring ways to hold an encounter with a donkey, and is planning to visit those seaside towns most closely associated with the london life, namely brighton and margate.

moving away very nicely from whatever proclivity has struck Spiros as exciting and if there's one thing that people in close unison think of when they think Redcar, it would be the wonders of the lemon top ice cream. my (considerably) better half indulged in one, whilst the boys had all sorts of exotic things on the go.

i also indulged in the ways of the lemon top, but had to abandon my attempt to eat it. myself and ice cream often wrestle, if not quarrel, with the ice cream getting the better of me. i got terrible, painful brain freeze, look you see. yeah, no doubt i, and not the ice cream, was at fault.

and oh yes, that's two buses in the background. if you live in Redcar, right, the council throw more buses than you could possibly ever wish for at you. if buses are less than a quarter empty going to and from Redcar, the authorities think that increasing the number of buses there whilst decreasing services everywhere else is the action that is required. lucky Redcar people, i say.

well, that was elements of saturday for us, on top of shopping, cleaning, having a 40 or so minute power cut and visiting relatives. all this and, as you can see, moments of summer were with us in terms of the weather. nice one, and i hope your weekend was equally splendid.




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

Mad Max Fury Road

hello there

i know, i know. i am, look you see, rather late to this particular party, so please don't read this as some sort of "oh go see this / don't see this" review sort of thing. as i've finally (ahem) gotten around to seeing it, i thought i had best pass some comments and observations on what is, or if you like was, the long awaited Mad Max Fury Road film. as more than 8,500 of you have taken the time to read my Mad Max 2 post, i figured i had better.

a quick, spoiler free account of it? the film is all that it can be, and as good as it could have been, despite the "not so great" parts below if you choose to read on. there's a case to say that the original three Mad Max films pretty much told all of the story there could be to tell without bringing a definitive closure, but if a fourth chapter was to be ours, i'm overall glad that it was this.

right, some scrolling text? sure. the *** SPOILER WARNINGS *** could for all four Mad Max films. you have been warned. so after this point.........



*** SPOILERS ALL OVER ALL AHEAD KIDS ***

ok, then, let's boogie and start off with what was really rather good

the look of Mad Max (character)

this is pretty straightforward really, and has been mentioned here before when i've had a gander at the trailers and promo posters. the casting of Tom Hardy was inspired, the costume, dressing and styling team got this note perfect.

in appearance he is unmistakably Mad Max. however, it's not done (despite wearing the original jacket) in a way that resorts to simply dressing and styling Mr Hardy to look like Mel Gibson. he is very much in his own in appearance in the film. nice one.

the look of Mad Max (film)

one of the reasons i can watch Mad Max 2 again and again is that it's just so damned beautiful. no, not the violence, the mayhem and the arse of Wez, the colours. that astonishing, crisp (hello, Faye) blue sky, those lavish, luxurious, rich deserts. i watch that film and see why people can stare at oil paintings, or indeed watercolours, for hours at a time.

yeah, sure, in Mad Max 2, and here as we will get to, all of the audacious action and that helps inspire repeat viewing, but still, it's that attractive, compelling beauty that is inherent in the visuals that makes it all so incredibly awesome.

Furiosa

a comment i have noted and indeed heard is that people are baffled as to why the title character seems, for the most part, to be secondary in the movie. that is, more or less, the way of Max in the world of Mad Max stories. his tale is told via the circumstances he finds himself in or stumbles into, rather than he being the one to instigate events.

each Mad Max film has thus required a damned strong actual protagonist, and with Charlize Theron as Furiosa they have created a most splendid, brilliant one.

there's always a lot of song and dance, indeed fuss, about a "lack of" strong female action hero characters. no doubt the song, the dance and the fuss is quite correct, but the problem is usually that it leads to a woman being cast in a role clearly written for a man by a man in the hope that "it will do". the most audacious example of someone actually getting away with this was with The Bride in Kill Bill. other than making her a mother at the last moment, and the obvious reference of the name, not a single element of the character was feminine or female.

not so here. Furiosa is the perfect female action hero, and follows the standard set by, off the top of my head, Ripley in Aliens and Sarah Connor in Terminator - a driven, determined character who just happens to be female rather than being defined by it.

i am not sure i can say more, really. in this day and age, as i am a chap if i say anything about a female character i am being either patronizing, condescending, sexist or some other easy label. hey ho, it's the world we all made that we live in, and for some reason we chose to allow a minority voice to somehow control and direct public opinion. but bravo Charlize Theron on a sterling performance, and for what it's worth the sacrifice of shaving your head for the role was well worth it.

continuity resolved

is it a remake? a reboot? is it supposed to happen between Mad Max 2 and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome? does it happen after Thunderdome? yes. that's the answer to all of them questions - yes. it functions beautifully as whatever you want it to be. the film works wonderfully as either 'just' another chapter in the story of the Wasteland, or starting it all over again, admittedly but not reliant upon after the events of Mad Max. a wise approach.

the story

the best stories are, often, the most simple - clear good vs clear bad, a journey, etc. keeping it simple is what has worked for Mad Max this far, and continues to work here.

the plot of Mad Max Fury Road? Furiosa wishes to rescue five girls, effectively held prisoner for pure breeding purposes by the leader of a well organized tribe, and take them to a paradise she remembers from her youth. Max ends up entangled in this great plan. so yeah, basically the same plot premise as the previous two outings. it worked then, and it works here.

cheeky references to the original films

eyes popping out, the jacket, the music box, the misfiring gun - all unnoticed irrelevances to those who have not seen the original films, all very much loved by this fan of the original films. thanks.

the action

the cars and the stunts were, believe it or not, the least interesting part of Mad Max 2 for me. there's no doubting they were impressive, but they were of interest to me only as far as they moved the story.

with films today apparently believing that all action sequences should be created on a computer by some 16 year old who has a really ragged notion of how gravity and kinetics work, it is refreshing to see a return to the values of mostly going out into a massive desert and just doing it for real.

the numerous actions sequences are so damned impressive that even i took notice of them and was impressed beyond just what the conclusion would happen to be. it would be, i imagine, very easy to enjoy Mad Max Fury Road purely as two hours of mindless action and sensational violence, if that's what you want out of watching a movie.

ok, so that's the really good parts that came to mind. let's go on, then, to the not so good parts of the film.

a few people, knowing my love of the originals, kind of diplomatically suggested that i rather skip watching Mad Max Fury Road all together, as it was likely to just upset me. i can see why, as you will read below, they would say such a thing, and i am grateful for their efforts to protect and shield me.


the sound of Mad Max (character)

oh dear. whereas they get the look right, they get the voice wrong. very wrong. for some inexplicable reason Tom Hardy's accent changes in the film. it goes from Bronx to Scots to posh English to bad Australian. it's really very distracting and annoying.

it is at its worst when we first hear his voice, for the worst reason - he is the narrator of the film. oh dear. the joy of the other films was always someone else telling a story which involved Max, not Max telling his own story.

there's a rather compelling fan theory, however, that makes the above all make sense. it's not Max Rockatansky we are following and watching, but rather The Feral Kid off of Mad Max 2, all grown up and adopting the ways and traits of his father figure. this fan theory, which is backed up by many by the fact that Max has a music box in this film, also explains a few flaws to come.

redefining the mad part of Mad Max

Mad Max was mad in the angry, violent, vengeful and reckless sense in the original films. here it seems to have been used in the derogatory, referring to mental illness way. for some reason they've decided to make Max quasi-schizophrenic, a touch bi-polar and a trifle mentally unhinged in a non-vengeful or driven way.

they didn't stay true to the Mad Max character, unless it really is meant to be that we are watching a grown up Feral Kid. i don't understand why they made such a character change and i didn't like it. and, on that note

making Max crap at everything

the character of Max Rockatansky was not perfect at everything, and it was his over-confidence and ego which usually got him into scrapes.

the Max we know is the only one who could stop both the Knightrider and the Toecutter. he was the only one that could face down Wez and live. he was the only one who could beat the snake. he was the first and only one to survive the audition for the Thunderdome. he is the greatest driver left alive.

in Mad Max Fury Road, Max is not particularly good at driving, is slow and not too quick witted, has a terrible aim and basically flukes survival. less the ultimate anti-hero, more the personification of "jammy bstard". i didn't like this much, at all.

too many resources, too many people

this is all apocalyptic wasteland, yeah? gone are the sparse tribes of the previous films clutching at survival, here instead are quasi-colonies, populated with thousands and pretty well organized with lots of resources.

there's a city that produces food and water, a city that produces fuel, and a city that produces bullets. they all barter and trade with each other - quite peacefully, it would seem - and are, in essence, recreating the world they all once knew.

that the people have everything they could want to survive and have very good trade relations with neighbouring cities, to me, somewhat took the edge off of the "apocalyptic nightmare world" in which Mad Max exists. but, still, there was enough ill in this new utopia to make someone rebel against it, making the plot premise, at the very least, plausible.

that stupid crappy camera effect at the start

for the first five minutes of Mad Max Fury Road i hated the film. having Max as the narrator was bad enough, but that "stop motion then sped up" footage effect in Max's second attempt to escape his captors had me worried that we were in for a really bad cinematic experience.

here is some of it, filmed off of the trailer on that you tube thing with my blueberry camera.

fortunately, and happily, this camera trickery dickery pretty much vanishes after this sequence. but it should not have been in the film at all.

lack of icons

as impressive as Furiosa is, and as mental as the big bad, Immortan Joe, looks, neither of them, nor anyone else, shall linger in the memory quite like the characters of the first three films.

no character on display here will conjure a mental image based on the name alone. examples? sure. Feral Kid. Gyro Captain. Wez. The Humungus. Tina Turner in chainmail. The children abandoned by Captain Walker. all of them, 30+ years ago, create a vivid image. i don't see that happening here.

the ending

you saw all of the spoiler warnings and you have read this far; don't blame me.

the end of the film sees Max walk away. oh dear. the other three have seen Max abandoned (more or less, in a sense, in the first film) as the events of the story he is mixed up in have now passed him by. there's a case to say that, at the end of Fury Road, Max has found what he wanted - people, peace, a place to live, to forget and to rebuild. that was what he wanted for the children of Beyond Thunderdome. why exactly, unless he is The Feral Kid, would he walk away?

2015 looks like a year of disappointments. Avengers Age Of Ultron screams "wait for the DVD". Terminator Genysis or whatever says "the first film should be the only Terminator film ever". Star Wars Episode VII : Mission To Moscow, as we get closer to it, looks like being an amazing trainwreck, for the merchandising issued thus far all screams that Disney thinks we all believe the Stormtroopers to be the be all and end all of the films. against this, and despite my grumbles or raised eyebrow at some elements, i believe that Mad Max Fury Road is going to end up as the best film i see this year, unless a wildcard takes me by surprise at some point.

i have heard that the next Mad Max film shall be called Mad Max : The Wasteland. other than the potential for this to feature a certain Frankie Goes To Hollywood song on the credits, i would agree with a commentator of the internet that said "that's pretty much the same as making a film called Star Wars in SPACE". whatever they end up calling it, on the basis of this, i very much look forward to it, and somewhat hope there's not a 30 year wait this time.

if you, like me, loved the original three Mad Max films and you've been holding off on this one, for what it is worth i would say hold off no more, go see, have grumbles but mostly enjoy.

yes. i am aware that i have ignored the elephant in the room, the Mel Gibson factor, or lack thereof. i would imagine that a Mel Gibson version of Mad Max Fury Road would be virtually the same as this one, only it would have lost loads of money as no one wants to see Mel Gibson films any more.

thanks as ever for reading, and so long as there are four Mad Max films in the world then i know that there shall always be four films well worth watching.




indeed, what a lovely day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
 

the compresed deception

hi there

another one of them ever popular, so it seems, posts from me about all things lynx deodorant. i appreciate, look you see, that i am too old and too married to be part of the demographic target that lynx wishes to sell to, but they seem to be the only people who make deodorant with a proper spray on them. the others go for all that sporadic, hit and hope wide release rubbish. so, i am stuck with them, and they are stuck with me.

readers in south africa, and possibly other locations, please note that you should read "lynx" as "axe", or whatever they call it where you are. it's the deodorant that advertises itself - incorrectly, in my experience - along the lines of how when you wear it the ladies find you so irresistible that you have to resort to beating them off with a sh!tty stick.

the above is the one that i am presently engaged in the use of, and it is this one which is my problem. not the excite blended scent as such, the one which smells of coconut. no, the actual scent is acceptable, to the point of satisfactory, if not quite delivering unto me the rather desirable "fanny magnet" sort of lifestyle. the issue, or if you like quarrel, is that it is seemingly only available in this "compressed" tin format these days.

this "less is more" thing in the retail world has been all the rage for a while. it has perhaps been best used in the world of toothpaste, where the great toothpaste manufacturers of the world decided to reduce the amount of toothpaste in a tube rather than increase the price of a standard one. an awful lot of people got their knickers in a twist over this, but for the most part people appreciated that they were getting products packaged to a specific price. 

none of the toothpaste manufacturers, however, pretend that 75ml of toothpaste is exactly the same as 100ml of toothpaste. granted, they did not go around shouting "woo hoo everyone, look, we are giving you less for the same money", but it is fair to point out that they didn't make any mathematically unlikely statements.

not so, it seems, with lynx. that is at least, for the sake of clarity here, my experience with the stuff. you will observe that they make a rather bold statement here, saying that this compressed tin "lasts as long as your normal 150ml lynx bodyspray". observe, if you will, there is no qualifying "*" next to that.

to be kind, in my experience no it does not. to be rather more abrupt about it. no it f*****g doesn't.

in neither of the possible instances where they could practically be applying this statement to does the 100ml "compressed" tin last as long as an uncompressed (as uncompressed as an aerosol can be, i suppose) 150ml traditional, or if you like classical, one.

first off, the tin does not last as long as a 150ml one. on average i get some 5 - 6 days use off of a 150ml tin. a 100ml one, as you would possibly assume after a simple ratio calculation, lasts me all of 3 - 4 days. considering it is sold at the same price as the 150ml tin, you tell me how this is it "lasting the same".

secondly, in regards of actual fitness for purpose, it isn't. granted, it is particularly humid and muggy at the moment, but still it's the case that i am having to supplement this compressed deodorant with a cheeky bit of roll on deo application by mid-morning.

that the spray, as you shall observe here, has all the power and force you would associate with a tadpole having a go at a fart, does not help.

as i filmed the above on an apple device rather than blueberry one, no, sorry, there is no secret scent recording embedded in it. as and when scent players are made available to the general public, it shall remain the case that you cannot smell the above.

lynx, rather like apple with their watches, will no doubt turn around and say that any problem or issue, indeed shortcoming, with their product is down to the end user using it wrong rather than it being a fault on their side.

the only way to make lynx compressed cool is to take a picture of it in Commodore 64 mode with scan mode switched on, so here you go.

why don't i, i hear you say, simply just p!ss off and buy the regular 150ml cans and not trouble you with blog posts like this one. it is a fair comment, dear reader, even if there is no need for you to be quite so hostile in tone, and i would love to do just that.

sadly, however, it seems that the lynx business model is one of making only either the compressed tin, or the ludicrously overpriced "xl" 200ml tins, available for sale at points of purchase. i suspect that for some reason the incumbent head of nice smells, CEO if you like, of lynx, has for personal reasons got it in for the classic traditions of the 150ml tin and are seeking to remove it from the world.

as all other deodorant, or if you like "body spray", manufacturers steer well clear of a proper, serviceable spray on them, i am, alas, left with little choice but to spend coins of real money on this, a quite inferior or if you like not fit for purpose product. cheers for that, lynx.

what i need, i suppose, is for a super serious attractor of ladies - Jason Donovan, perhaps, or maybe even Nick Beggs - to kick off about the lack of availability of 150ml tins, saying that they no longer attract the ladies by the hundreds as a consequence of not having the proper deo tins. will this happen? maybe.

if you are presently using lynx compressed, i sincerely hope that your experiences are better than mine. if you are finding it enhances your abilities to attract the ladies, and indeed the gentry, well then so much the better.



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

bus vibes #24 - essential movies

hello there

the end is in sight, look you see. bus vibes, and for that matter bus books, will very quickly become a thing to look back towards here rather than waiting for the next instalments. this is for reasons entirely out of my control, and for concerns which are more good than bad.

but still, what'd you say, let's boogie whilst they are on the go. having finished a book one journey shorter than i expected to, i turned to the vibes to entertain me on the voyage home this friday. having been in receipt of some very smart cds recently, i decided to turn to one of them, transformed of course to "ipod compatibility" for ease of listening on the go.

oh, wow. most of these pictures, as you can tell off of the outrageous commodore 64 mode use, were taken on the iTwat phone. blogger has agreed to upload them with the rotation i intended. nice one.

The Essential Movies is a set i picked up off of a basket by Morrisons cigarette counter. this 3 CD set, containing 63 vibes famously associated with or written for some films of significance, set me back all of £2. wow, what a deal. if you follow that link in the title, you will see that amazon propose to charge you a good deal more.

how awesome are the tracks? very. there's not a bad track on it, in truth, with even the one and only decent thing that anyone connected to Echo & The Bunnymen did, a cover of People Are Strange for use in the film The Lost Boys, featuring. you are probably better off clicking the link i have included to see the tracks proper, but here's a rare non-Commodore 64 mode picture for you.

particular highlights? there are many, dear reader, many for the movie lover out there. actually, it's that good that it is probably worth the price amazon are asking for it, but bonus if you can get it at the fee i got asked for.

a snippet? sure. here's a gem from Giorgio Moroder, in the form of The Chase off of the brilliant but not easy viewing film Midnight Express.

they have not messed around with the packaging, either. it's one of them cardboard things that seem very trendy with eco fans. it is, however, a shiny gloss four panel one, with some really smart pictures of movie making stuff on. which you can sort of get a sense of from this Commodore 64 mode with scan lines on images on the middle, or if you like central, panels.

tracks that i was particularly happy to all of a sudden own for £2? whereas i was not at all impressed by Kill Bill, that massive battle towards the end of Vol 1 was quite something. as point of fact, those that claim the films are brilliant are really only talking about that bit. the entrance music to that scene, Battle Without Honour Or Humanity is present. and, no matter how much of a twat he is, Moby is on here with Extreme Ways off of them Bourne films. amazing song, man.

a bit of funk in your life? why, certainly. here's Curtis Mayfield (not the football one, so far as i know), with the uber-funk psychedelia sounds of Superfly

 
 there's a fair few songs on here that have been used to great effect in more than one film. Mirror In The Bathroom by The Beat, for instance, is here attributed to the underrated Rocknrolla, but i associate it more closely with Grosse Pointe Blank. that film is represented here with A Message To You Rudy by The Specials, that band that i apparently quite like.

and yes, The King, Elvis Presley, is here, with the original version of A Little Less Conversation off of the Oceans 11 soundtrack, rather than the remixed one that got used by Nike and them that do dodgy deals in charge of the football.

yeah, this picture is off of my blueberry, so it did not feel left out.

the only real problem with this set is that it is called 'The Essential', a phrase which started off life at being aimed at tossers, wankers and other wastes of space.

it was the early 90s, look you see, when that big massive Italian, Pavarotti or similar, got all famous for doing some incoherent whining to celebrate Italy hosting a world cup. wankers, tossers, et al all jumped up and down, excited that someone off of opera (or whatever) had crossed over to the mainstream. the record labels clocked this and this foisted the first ever CD to be called essential, The Essential Pavarotti, on the world. utter, utter wankers that somehow managed to also have a social life could buy it and go "here, illiterate peasant friend, you may listen to this, so that you at the least have experienced the essential works of him that did the song for the football and that". it was also a lovely, handy present to buy elderly relatives.

the days ahead might feature a final bus vibes or two. if not, well, wow, what a mix to bow out on.




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

giddy, and the generosity of spiros

hi there


apologies, look you see, for july thus far being a quiet month here on this blog. or, if you like, sorry for getting around to finding a few moments to break the most welcome, pleasant silence.

i probably do have a couple of things to update here, but i haven't found the time - sorry, my free moments have been spent engaging politicians of a provincial and national nature to debate what does and does not constitute as "public transport". but more of that later.

yesterday, presumably ahead of celebrations of the day today in which America marks their independence, Ben at verk and, to an extent, i, were presented with some American chocolate. a brand, style and nature of which i was hitherto unfamiliar with.

my life has been somewhat bereft of anything one might describe as giddy for a few weeks now, so it was all the more pleasant that we be presented with some chocolate that is called Giddy. cheers for that Mark, it was much appreciated. and me making Ben eat some first was not that i did not trust you, just rather a small test for him about the danger of accepting sweets off of strangers.

how was the chocolate? really rather pleasant, in truth. i would not go so far as to say that it is the single greatest every chocolate that i have tasted, but i would be delighted, indeed prepared, to say that it is some considerable distance north on the list from the worst ones that i have ever had. American milk chocolate, it would seem, does not focus on the higher volume of milk that us Europeans associate with that terminology.

in regards of their celebrations, well, i mean it's awesome that they are an independent country and that, and what a many magnificent thing America has done, but i really do not see how electing a succession of people off of the Clinton and Bush family is all that more brilliant from having Her Majesty The Queen in charge of it all. when they run out of members of the Bush or Clinton family, or simply get bored, i dare say we would, with good grace, welcome them back to the fold.

this? it's just a t-shirt celebrating the band The Specials that Spiros decided to send me. nice one, man.

am i a big fan, or in any way rather enthusiastic about The Specials? not really. i mean, i am vaguely aware of that one song they did, Too Much Too Young, and they might have done Pressure Drop, but that is it.

why do i have this shirt, then, you may well wonder. Spiros, it seems, was all p!ssed up on the cider when he decided to order himself a t-shirt off of the internet, and ordered two in error. it was, apparently, easier, or "same difference", to send it to me as it was to return it. as for why exactly he is ordering t-shirts celebrating The Specials, it's due to him getting all p!ssed up on the cider and buying some tickets for a gig they are doing. if you're noticing a common occurrence in the Spiros decision process, you are quite correct to have done so.

should you wish to get an item in the post off of Spiros, do not forget that, as far as i am aware, you can still email him and ask for something to be sent to you by clicking here.

i have just had a look and, unless the Spiros has deleted them, no one beyond Google has yet taken advantage of the winwithspiros@gmail.com address. hey ho, perhaps someone will one day, now that they know things like t-shirts celebrating Bad Manners, or whoever, are being randomly sent out.

more as and when, dear reader, more as and when.



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

WIN with SPIROS

hello there

July already, blimey isn't it hot, etc, etc. sorry, just getting the two points of conversation presently underway in England all out of the way now, look you see.

Spiros is excited. that's pretty much it, really, for he is always excited. however, in this instance, his excitement has some purpose and direction. mostly, dear reader, this is as a result of him having a smart new branding iron.

quite a smart thing, as you can see. i have helped him with this a little bit by getting him two of them massive welder like lighters to heat it all up with.

what shall he be branding? mostly cuts of meat, i would imagine. but if i don't ask any questions then i don't have to testify later on.

to celebrate this, and indeed just how popular stories featuring Spiros are on this blog, Spiros has requested that i set up a competition in which he may thank you, his fans and followers, with a gift.

what gift? we don't know. winners, and this might as well be open to everyone who reads the tales of Spiros around the world, will be sent a random artefact or relic off of Spiros. except Greek entrants, who will be sent a couple of Euros to help with their plight.

yes, we are serious, and there's the email address what we have created for entries. you simply need to reach out to the winwithspiros@gmail.com address and you will get a class Spiros owned or otherwise endorsed item.

what do you have to do to win? we have no idea. just send along some sort of message, picture, or whatever you like really. say how much Spiros pleases or displeases you.

legal stuff : we will not harvest, store, keep, sell or use your email address for any reason at all and will use it only to arrange for Spiros to send you something. you are advised not to send any personal info or postage addresses at first - please rather reach out to us with the mail, satisfy yourself that we are real, and then Spiros will send you something.

thank you for taking the time to enter - i trust and enjoy whatever artefact, or if you like relic, Spiros sends you!


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