reading

hello reader

well, what can i say. once more i have finished reading two (2) novels, and so the time has come in which i feel compelled to offer some thoughts on them, look you see. 

so as to dispense with any needless, unnecessary theatricals, as usual there's an image of the books what i gone done read, followed by some spoiler free overview type notes which, in turn, are followed by more comments what might be a bit spoilerish in nature. fear not, a safety warning will be visible. 

it was with some (great) interest that i saw a novel off of Rev Richard Coles on the shelf, for i had not a single clue that he had elected to pen such. this did indeed turn out to be his debut novel, and sadly, or alas, i must confess i was left somewhat (in an overall sense) disappointed by Murder Before Evensong. since the subject of disappointment is here, indeed yes, the next one read after that was another one from Scott Mariani, which means another (ludicrous) Ben Hope adventure, this one called Graveyard Of Empires. whereas not bad, it's just, well, what it is. 

for those of you who(m) were particularly looking forward to this part, well, here you go. please note that a kind of *** SPOILER WARNING *** should be considered as a very real thing for anything which i write from this point onwards. but yes, mostly it shall simply be waffle. 

matters of provenance for the novels i pick up either seem to be a keen point of interest or are just something i insist on including so as to use up some space. anyway, i purchased this one pretty much on sight at Tesco, where it was indeed "book of the week" or what have you, so with my club card waved at the machine it cost me £4.50. 

right, now then. before i proceed, i would feel better making it perfectly clear that Rev Richard Coles is someone i hold in rather high regard and i shall always be interested in anything he does. for those of you not so familiar with him, in (very) short he went from being the ace keyboard musician in The Communards to following his calling, or vocation (is that right) to the church. he is a truly gifted speaker, and his expressions of matters around compassion, understanding and humanity are of faith in nature, meaning that surely they resonate with all regardless of personal belief or religion. when he went through the grief of losing his partner the way he spoke, and indeed wrote, of it, the process, the feelings, was done so in a way which i suspect reached out and touched so many, many people. undoubtedly it helped the great majority too. none of us are perfect; oh if only each of us could harness just some of the goodness and the quality of life possible that Rev Richard Coles speaks of we could make our existence, or world, just that bit better. 

and so it is that, with a heavy heart, i have to say (as per my earlier confession) that i simply couldn't get into this novel, and didn't particularly enjoy it. perhaps i was just misled by the back, and certain assumptions, that it might well be all rather Thursday Murder Club. similar setting and the very clear indication of a similar (but different) premise, but no. still, i cannot determine if it happened to be quite a laborious read, or if it was just me labouring over it. quite a crucial difference. 

let me bring in the plot here. the back of the book speaks of it being murders in a somewhat sleepy and clearly upper class, well to do village. it also states that the protagonist - yes, a vicar - is key or crucial to the investigation into solving who gone done said murders. this isn't quite so accurate account of how the narrative unfolds, but let me not give too much away. so, yeah, i was kind of like "oh" when it became evident that the novel was not to be of the nature, or as paced, as the back suggested. indeed i am aware of a saying concerning never judge a book by its cover. 

the novel pretty much (as in more or less) lost me quite early on. as i recall it's the second or third chapter where, in an Austen if not quite Dickens way, one is introduced to a frankly ludicrous amount of characters with scant reference to details of them. it just proved beyond me to recall who was who as i read on, really. further, or also, the resolution of the matter(s) in hand (murders) was done in an ever so Peter Robinson way. disappointing, and at this stage no, i am not entirely sure that i shall pursue the next novel when it appears in paperback. except i am vaguely intrigued by the dynamics of the debate of installing a lavatory in the rectory..........

well, moving on, and the second (2nd) of the two novels what i read in this instance. and that's the latest but one (at time of writing) Ben Hope adventure off of Scott Mariani, with this one being called, as yes i did indeed mention earlier, Graveyard Of Empires. 

provenance is pretty straightforward to those in the know, for that £5 yellow price sticker tells you Morrisons. indeed i could have held out and purchased it for less ("fewer") off of Tesco, be it as book of the week or in conjunction with a newspaper, but no. a purchase made very much on sight. also, i seem to have gotten into a habit of only reading these when the next one to come out is bought, if that makes any sense. likely not, but still.

on to plot, then. here goes. after finishing off his brief but scintillating and enjoyable tryst with an Australian lady, Ben Hope listens as his one mate at his smart (but still in France) camp going on about the messy, clumsy and chaotic exit of 'the west' from Afghanistan. Ben shrugs. then Ben gets a call, saying one of his dear friends and contemporaries, who happens to be a lady, is "missing" in Afghanistan, in all the chaos. he considers if it is even possible to rescue her, when he then finds himself hustled into a quasi return to British military service, under orders to go and retrieve an important, mysterious figure lost there, known only as Spartan. how very convenient for him. 

i assume, or take it as a given, that there are many, many thousands of us who buy and read these novels, hence it being so that 2 (two) are churned out every year. they are entertainingly, if not well, written (see last one for an absolute clanger of a no-no error in proof reading) and provide a usually thoroughly enjoyable adventure. yes, a scale of how preposterous they are exists, with the zenith, or pinnacle, being that one where he (Ben Hope) had to stop someone from cutting the earth in half with a massive laser. the plausibility of survival in what he faces here is as silly and ludicrous as that one, but then again i doubt anyone is here with these novels for the realism. 

being honest, actually this one is quite good (if not very good) in one aspect. every now and then it is so that Scott Mariani throws in some decent historical stuff. from what i recall the initial success of these novels leveraged nicely off of being a bit Da Vinci Code like at a time when such sold really well on the strength of that comparison. quite a bit of history is chucked at the reader, be it of Alexander the Great or the perpetual futility of anyone trying to "conquer" Afghanistan. no, in this respect, not really to the level of the one novel i would consider his masterpiece (or magnum opus), The Forgotten Holocaust, but still, welcome and enjoyable reading. 

we, the world (at large) now have somewhere well north of twenty (20) Ben Hope adventures. i would assume that many have been reading as long as i have, whilst some may have picked up later (or latter if that's right) ones without knowing they are part of a series. anyway, as i think would be the standard comment in such reviews, yes, overall, this entire series is worth it for those looking for rip-roaring wild adventure type things with plenty of violent and action. yet oddly a surprising lack of foul language, and that sort of thing only vaguely referenced. mostly, well, i wish i somehow had the capacity to always carry as many cigarettes as what Ben Hope seems to do. 

sadly it is indeed so that i just don't get as much time to read as i may like. for some inexplicable reason i have gotten a good deal more sociable on my (predominantly verk) travels, so am not sat with time to do little else but read. hey ho, or oh. 

right, anyway, that's that for this post. mostly. indeed i have started, or if you will commenced, reading another novel. as it happens, the one to read after that is also lined up. something of an interesting idea came to mind for reading order based on the pile of books i have sat waiting to be read, and so it shall be a bit of a theme is in the next post on the subject of books. 

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

unusual spider

hello there

well, this post is pretty much in the title right there above. unless you are reading this upside down. and, of course, except for the pictures which shall follow. sadly no, i did not think to take some video. 

anyway, fairly recently i had every reason to be outside momentarily when i noticed a spider. nothing particularly out of the ordinary with that in itself, look you see. except it had a most peculiar pattern to its back. if that part of a spider is called its back. presumably so. unless a spider has expressed a preference for a different name. 

illustrating, or showing the spider in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode isn't all that bad an idea, except that it doesn't show off much of the detail. sure you can see quite (reasonably) clearly see the spider, but not the pattern on it. 

so, here's just a regular image of it. and by it, i mean the spider. 

there's every chance that this pattern found on a spider is reasonably, or if you will quite, common. it is not all that frequently that i see a spider, and when i do i tend not to look for an easily identifiable pattern to it. except of course a red back to it, thanks to me being (at least) partially educated in that there fair dinkum Australia. 

presumably, or i would at the very least imagine, there will be some sort of website or "app" thing that i could upload this image to and it would tell me what kind of spider it is. alternatively, i could use that google thing to search "spider with a zebra like pattern" and find out. but i have taken the decision to just rather add images here. not every thing needs to be known. 

looking again and maybe it isn't a zebra pattern as such, just some stripes. oh. 

reasonably sure it's a spider, mind, for as far as i can see there are 8 (eight) legs present. 

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

can't be bought, won't be owned

welcome revolutionary brothers and sisters (and all others)

one of them observation posts again, from that there London (innit) place once more, look you see. but also a rather unexpected, if somewhat whimsical, throwback to a term i have not heard in a good while. 

so there i was, sat in a locale what was north of "the river", which is what they call the Thames down there, because hey, London, they assume anyone speaking of a river would do so only of what they consider to be the river. exactly where this was i would not care to say, but shall we suggest no more than a little north of a mile (or so) away from celebrated bourgeois places like Kensington, Knightsbridge and what have you. 

mostly, or for the most part, i was minding my own business (as all do there, they really don't like it when you randomly greet them) having what they wrongly call "a spot of lunch", which of course is dinner in the normal, rest of the country. i happened to glance up, and noted (or observed) that someone had taken the time to add some slogan based art to one of the walls. 

quite the statement, as you can see above in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode. should you not be able to (for whatever reason) work out the statement being made, well, as per the regular sort of image below, it says "die yuppy scum". rather strongly worded, that. as in it's rather direct and pretty clear in intent, is it not? 

honestly one cannot, i suppose, be all that surprised by something like this appearing on the walls of London. it is decidedly so that it's the city which has become the most fashionable, or if you will trendy, for any form of protest. mostly this involves people gluing themselves to various roads, but every now and then there's a march or two intent on (politely) asking members of the constabulary to not go around and cause harm to those which they are ostensibly charged with protecting. the reason for hosting such things like this down there in that London (innit) is fairly obvious; it's one of the biggest cities in the world, and so action there gets noticed. also, if they did this sort of thing in New York, say, or any other major city, they would probably get shot. we are far more inclined to be somewhat tolerant and understanding of protests, or at the least shrug, tut and turn our backs to it, pretending not to have noticed anything untoward going on. 

the main thing of note i have here is, of course, a spelling quarrel. is it spelt "yuppy"? whereas i have not heard the term since the 80s (or possibly early 90s) i am pretty sure, if in my mind alone, the spelling was "yuppie", and it being a word created out of the initials for young urban professional. a corrupted acronym, if you like. 

a problem, or concern, with the above sentiment would be that of who determines exactly how a yuppy, or yuppie (if i am right), is defined in this peculiar new world we have crafted. is it so bad that some wish to get on with life? like, so bad that you would wish anyone who wants to be a success by a certain measure that you may disagree with you'd have them not exist? that's not cool. 

perhaps, and i didn't pay all that much attention, there's been a surge in the presence of traditional yuppie or indeed yuppy (and spell check agrees with me) types there. if so, i may well have noted seeing chaps with a filofax in one hand, then a massive bigger than a brick sized "mobile" phone in the other. let me try and look more carefully next time i am there. 

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

design of interior in tin ideas

heya

make no mistake, i am aware that exceptionally few in the known universe would give the slightest consideration of interest in any beautification that i made to my lodgings in exile. it remains so, though, that one or two might quite like the look of that which i propose to do such with, look you see. and so here we very much are. 

over the last few weeks i have taken to obtaining some non-traditional posters. well, they are posters, but not on fancy paper. instead they are printed (or whatever) on tin (or some form of thin, light metal). quite a class idea, for one can "hang" them, as it were, without needing frames. or that blu tac stuff. a rather nice lady runs a market stall near me, and each weekend i go to see which new ones have arrived. normally, but not always, i pick up a new one. for those interested, here are the five (5) i gone done got so far. 

indeed this is a post which would probably benefit from not being presented in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode. sadly, or alas, some vindictive person has taken a shine to reporting my posts for content, despite every effort being made to ensure they are not obscene or intentionally hurtful. well, mostly, for you are (inevitably) always going to upset someone in the universe no matter what you do. so, this mode it is, as it happens to act well as a quasi censoring thing. 

do i go looking for specific ones? not really. sure, it would be wonderful to find a Bowie one, or a Stone Roses or Suede, but hey. it's far more fun to just browse and pick up which ones on the spot "speak to me", as it were, or look quite class. like, for instance, these two. 

up to now, or so far, these are the only two (2) what are film related. certainly other film ones are available, but from a list of beloved iconic favourites, only these two have been made available to me as such. not two films i would have immediately declared an interest in having posters of, but when placed in front of me they were (more or less) straightforward purchases. 

presumably, even in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode, there's not all that much need for me to clarify what they are. but, go on. a poster of Star Wars from when it was just that, and not an episode, was a lovely find indeed. as for the other, well, there's iconic, there's very iconic, there is, i would guess, uber iconic and then there is Brandon as Don Corleone in The Godfather. the only person i can think of who has had less (or fewer) screen time in a film (i believe he appears for all of 20 minutes in a nearly 3 hour film) to have created such a strong image that has lasted for decades is that ponytail bloke who played the sax in Lost Boys. 

everyone who gets all emotional and upset about things in general may well wish to depart this post now. if you have not already done so out of boredom, and if you have then how come you are reading this. answer that and stay fashionable. 

by no means would i declare myself a Pink Floyd fan as such, but in recent times i have gone back to give their albums another go. i very much "get" why they are held in the esteem they are by many, but mostly it's just not my bag. of course it is (very much) so that the (ahem) art on this particular poster pertaining to them has significant appeal. 

as it happens, i can pretty much remember when this picture was taken. well, no, i wasn't there for it, but i do recall all the marketing fuss around it. quite early in the 90s, as i remember, with painting six iconic or well known Pink Floyd album covers on the back of some models was done in order to promote a box set of their works. pretty much every news agency in the world covered the story. imagine a time when someone re-releasing a set of albums was worthy of news. that's from when it was time that music was valued properly and appreciated. 

which is exactly where the remaining 2 (two) of the five (5) i have so far picked up are from. and yes, they are decidedly vibes related. going left to right, i bought a poster (and the posters are all A4 size, which i should have mentioned earlier) of an advert for the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club because why exactly wouldn't i buy a poster of the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club. rock and roll used to be all about gigs that would come to be the stuff of mythology and legend. this celebrates one of the most important, ever. none can, of course, claim to be the greatest. but this was significant. 

finally, then, the eventually settled on artwork for Appetite For Destruction off of Guns N Roses. that image in the middle of the CD booklet, or gatefold lp or tape cover? yeah, that's what the band wanted on the cover. instead, this. such a striking image, and no doubt when they saw it every single band in the world, ever, no matter what genre, probably went "gosh, why didn't we think of that". as i recall Axl had it tattooed on his arm. last time i saw it had faded badly, unsure if he had it removed entire. the tattoo, not the arm. 

right, now just need to get around to working out exactly where i wish to put them on display, and get around to putting them up, so to speak. but yeah, will likely pick up more before i get to that stage. 

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

journalism in this curious world

greetings

i would imagine it's likely that concerns over who actually decides on what constitutes as such have existed ever since someone decided it was a good idea to record (and present) details of recent events and current affairs. or who controls the news is often behind what news we receive, look you see. many, many fine works, be it novels, plays, films or general articles, have been presented about this very concern. there is no way i can compete with such, but all the same i can observe such. 

once - and this is kind of relevant even today - it was so that newspaper owners were considered all powerful, for their reporting could very much make or break anyone. celebrities, certainly, but mostly the concern has always been in regards of doing so with politicians. power, wealth and money were usually what swayed such thinking. here in the UK, it is so that the overwhelming number of such proprietors tend to favour a certain political party over another based entirely on how little they will get taxed off them. 

yet these press owners today face a whole new threat. however you word it, the answer is of the same result for them - fewer people buy newspapers, more and more people get their news off of that internet thing, online. so a priority is to make sure your publication gets more and more "hits" or visits on the net, or your level of power shrinks (diminishes). and that means bowing to the internet overlord. 

quite by chance i happened to be on the webpage of a certain newspaper website as this boo boo appeared. it was quickly taken down, of course, but i managed to do one of them "screen grab" things. pretty sure you can work it out for yourself, but clearly an exchange of what the current state of play was in terms of Google rankings was copied and pasted into a headline. basically, or essentially, a real time, live insight into just how much effort goes in to making sure all stories appearing connect or pertain to ranking on search results. 

a reasonably (or quite) superficial take on this incident may well be does it really matter how they determine to do a story on events leading up to a high profile game of football. yes, of course it does. if they are putting that much weight, or importance, on how this story ranks on the world's most used search engine, then surely such dictates all stories.

should you wonder why one gets bombarded with stories on a particular subject - a television presenter resigning in some disgrace, for instance, or a casual royal assuming his belief in something happening counts as actual evidence - there you are. people in large numbers are, for whatever reason, searching for information on the subject, the newspapers see what people are searching for, they create content, which used to be journalistic articles, to meet the search criteria. 

there is, of course, absolutely no way of fighting or reversing this. circle the wagons, indeed. my curiosity, if it can be called such, i what will come next to shape how and why we get the news we do. 

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

back where it started car wash

hello there

well, at the very least i think this is going back to where i believe the very first ever car wash post what i gone done was staged, look you see. memories of things slip, and no, i am not going to go right ahead and search for the first to confirm such. unless i run out of things to write. which may happen. 

that, the latter part of the above is (on reflection) extremely likely to happen. for some reason i have uploaded, or added, five (5) images, and do feel compelled to write around them. i know there is every chance that anyone actually looking at this is merely doing so for the pictures, but still. 

so, anyway, the vehicle what i have elected, or rather been delegated, to drive around in was looking somewhat dirty. it required a wash, which for a fair bit now has not been all that much of a heartache or mission, for a suitable place to have a vehicle washed that - and this is the important bit - verk paid for was just around the corner from my lodgings in exile. alas, no more. oh, it is still there, but there has been a change of franchise with a change of ownership, and so my verk credentials work there no more. the options i had were to continue to use it (the carwash) pay for it myself and then claim it back off of verk, getting the funds returned a month (or so) later, and likely taxed, or i could take a drive a bit further away and make use of a facility which verk paid directly. no brainer, i believe. 

indeed, yes, all of this is presented in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode. over time i have indeed experimented with other formats (feel free to search) and none of them were as satisfactory. no, i am not likely to find any other format satisfactory for any use. 

above is some of that animated business one or two of you seem to like. quite trippy, the effect, every now and then. not sure if the above animated one, showing them massive soaking wet soppy floppy brushes doing the windscreen, counts. might look a bit interesting in the of them "VR" things i suppose, yet i suspect it is not in a format suitable for such. 

did i have an acute sense of nostalgia returning to this car wash? or even some sense of guilt, going back to an old stomping ground which i abandoned a few years ago? not particularly, no, in either case. mostly i was just annoyed that i had to travel so far out of my way due to me being cheap. rather likely that Greta and her contemporaries would be miffed by it all, but then again they would be miffed that i was using a vehicle at all. more that likely the resources (energy, water, soap) used for this vehicle wash thing stole at least part of one of her dreams if not an entire one. these things happen. 

right there in the above image is them big floppy brushes going past the driver side. this, of course, means the driver side of a vehicle designed for driving on the correct (as in proper) side of the road. readers in America, and indeed mainland Europe, for some reason drive on the wrong side, and would see that as being the passenger side. but this point has been made here before. 

no, it hasn't taken all that long to reach the point where i did indeed go right ahead and search for the first post what i gone done on car wash services (facilities) that i documented in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode. so far as i am aware, this link takes one to the first such instance. well, perhaps. it looks like the first. and i am really not certain it was created from an image taken at this very same car wash. oh. 

further animated excitement (if only partial) above, then, with some more animated magic in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode. to both state the obvious and repeat, the above is the big floppy brush going past the passenger side of a vehicle in a country in which vehicles drive on the proper (or if you like correct) side of the road. 

will, or shall, i be making my way to this particular car wash again in the future? as opposed to the past, certainly. there is no other closer that i am aware of. also, fate (or destiny) keeps placing me in that there London (innit) place for prolonged periods. i haven't been paying all that much attention, but what with space, land, real estate or what have you costing so much there it's unlikely many of the petrol stations what they have would have such a facility. 

by my word, yes, i have indeed managed to pad these images (still or animated gif) with what i consider to be a not unreasonable amount of words. splendid. 

and on that note, i don't believe there's much else to write here. 

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

to fortnum and mason once more

greetings

does what it says in the title, really. as has been the sporadic case over the last several years i had chance and opportunity to visit that most beloved of establishments, Fortnum & Mason, if not reason. and so i did do precisely that, look you see. 

actually, it is perhaps not correct, or is inaccurate, to say that i had no (actual) reason to visit. in deed, in retrospect, my reason came to a number of two (2). firstly, or in the first instance, i had some colleagues off of verk who had not visited (or heard of) the place, and so of course i felt duty bound to expose them. secondly, well, i wished to purchase an item (or further) in celebration of, indeed commemorating, the recent (at time of writing) coronation of HMKC3(PO). 

in respect of the most important aspect of being (once more) at Fortnum & Mason, indeed yes. my colleagues, or if you will contemporaries (for who of sanity would address me as friend) were most taken by the distinguished splendor of the place. and this was based on visiting the ground section alone. time, and budgetary constraints, prohibited further exploration in this instance. but, with every will and the hope of good health, further sojourns can be done. 

the second element of reason is a tale of mixed fortunes. if we take as a given than the primary celebration of Fortnum & Mason is their (most excellent) tea, then it was to be disappointment with which i was greeted on seeking an item of memorabilia associated with the coronation. for some reason it was so that the tea to celebrate the formal crowning of HMKC3(PO) was a peculiar concoction, with the cylindrical tin threatening that the contents within were "infused" with elements (or the essence) of pineapple and coconut. no good could come of me attempting to drink such, and so i did not purchase.  

merrily, alternate forms of homage were available to procure by patrons such as i. in the above image you can see precisely which of these i did. yes, the yellow tin which stands so proud. as i am sure you are quite capable of reading, it is no less than ling heather honey biscuits which they have crafted in celebration. to be fair they also had some celebratory ground coffee for HMKC3(PO), but i do not have as much use for such as i do for biscuits. 

so far as i am aware it has been a reasonable amount of time to pass since i last included a selfie here. well, this is my blog, so whether you wish to see how i am getting on in this world or not, such an image is very much below. 

yes, that's me (moi) near the eros statue in piccadilly, more or less just off of the tube and prior to paying a visit to Fortnum & Mason. note, if you will, the most intriguing way in which i simply blend in, and don't look at all like tourist filth or in any way awkward. 

did i, per chance, make purchases other than the biscuits. certainly, decidedly so. one (1) item is a gift for the (known and immediate) 75% of my family who(m) i imagine you would still like a good deal more than you like me, so the detail of such shall not feature here. beyond that, i was delighted to see that a modest jar of their splendid Old English Hunt (typed carefully) marmalade had been marked down to a price south of £4, so i purchase one. 

for the sake of completeness, then, is the reverse of the tin of coronation biscuits. no, i did not purchase any darjeeling tea and i certainly don't have such in my lodgings. these biscuits shall be enjoyed with either a fine cup of Yorkshire Tea (perhaps gold blend), or maybe some of the Fortnum & Mason royal blend, which i purchased on my visit most recent previous to this. if that's how one would word it. 

well, there we go, or here we are. i have every confidence that if chance and time permits it shall be so that i attend Fortnum & Mason again. should it be so that this confidence is misplaced. well, let it be recorded that i thoroughly enjoyed those moments which i spent there. 

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

we'll pretend we're walking home because your future's at stake

salve ibi

it recently occurred to me that i have not showcased any dabbling with the dark arts here for a bit. partially this is indeed, predictably, forgetting that i had such (immense) powers, but mostly sure, it was so, look you see, that i was at a loss for what to write here. feeling oddly compelled to put something saw me get the tools of my dark art dabbling out. 

not sure when, exactly i did this sort of thing, as opposed to, you know, that sort of thing. a few years ago, i would suspect, and so far as i can recall, no, i haven't dealt the deck since taking up residency in my place of exile. but then again to look for answers it the past is somewhat at odds with the art of being able to see the future. 

for the sake of saving on suspense, there you go. above are the five (5) cards what i drew, after shuffling the deck and tapping on it like what i saw in that documentary with the dude off of Darth Vader film and the dude off of Record Breakers and Kenny Lynch off of Tarby. the claim that i have some sort of immense powers may well be misleading, for no, i am not certain i drew (or placed) the cards correctly, but here we are. 

what, exactly, do the cards mean for my future? not sure. that's an awful lot of pentacle cards i somehow managed to draw, so perhaps that features prominently in what is to come. or i did not shuffle quite so much as you are supposed to. my suspicion is that little (if any) good could come from one drawing the card of the devil. oh dear. and, to round it off by returning to the first card, my knowledge of the page of cups card is surprisingly limited. 

there is every chance, of course, that the reversal of a self-fulfilling prophecy becomes true when seeking a preview of the future. no matter how oblique or vague that glimpse on offer is. drawing these cards and seeing what they hold, even without fully understanding them, could well mean that the future which they reveal has happened (quasi quantum style) on one level, and thus fate decrees the path forward shall not be the same. or something like that. 

right, well, as and when fate decrees to intervene perhaps someone reading this at some point is digging around trying to work out what, exactly, may have happened. should that be a matter which ties in with a reading of the cards drawn then it would be so that perhaps the previous paragraph is not as correct as it could have been. i, of course, shall never know. 

optimum inter se!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

platform

ow do

there is every chance that this post counts as some sort of "throwback" thing, look you see. it is so that the platform referenced in the title pertains to its use as a descriptive prefix for boots, or indeed shoes. going somewhat further, it relates to some abandoned footwear, which i don't think has featured on this blog for a fair while now. could be mistaken, for i certainly don't read what i write and shall forever wonder why it is you do. 

perhaps, or maybe, i should have called this post "platforms" (as in the plural) for it is two (2) shoes abandoned. a complete pair, so far as i can tell, but obviously i did not stray too close to them. 

yes, indeed, there's one (1) of them, in the image above, presented in the greater good and glory, of course, of Commodore 64 mode. the pattern of the upper shoe / boot aspect would appear to sort of blend in with how, exactly, Commodore 64 mode interprets the pavement. it's very likely that some form of statement is being made by such, but i am not cleverer enough to understand it. 

i must (one would presume to assume) take great caution with notions of provenance here. whilst i can, or may, speak freely of where i saw these boots (or shoes), i cannot speak of from whence they came. these images were captured, or if you will recorded, in the vaguely east end area of London (innit). from what i recall not that far away from where i saw the touching Vivienne Westwood tribute. who knows, maybe the items of footwear were purchased in one of them fancy spots for such down there, like Carnaby Street or Camden Market. unlikely, i would speculate, that they are of Saville Row. 

mostly for the sake of completeness, then, the other shoe. or boot, if that's what they are. it was, on the whole, quite a surprise to see platform boots once again. sorry, if i seem distracted whilst writing this it's because i have the video (disc) what came with Dog Man Star off of Suede on at the same time. anyway, whereas i have no sense of fashion and no knowledge of fashion trends, i would have thought generally that the platform boot (or shoe) had had its day; that now they were worn exclusively by certain film stars and television presenters to appear (somewhat) taller on screen. 

believe it or not (and to be blunt i care not which) it's on;y now, having added the picture, that i have fully paid attention to the graffiti on that door. perhaps, maybe, that was gone done by who(m)ever left the shoes (boots) behind. actually, maybe that's an integral part of the art installation i actually went past, making it rather wise in retrospect that i touched none of it. or they could be unrelated. 

since we are on the subject of the door, and indeed if not traditional graffiti per se but general defacement, a look at more aspects of it above. they don't half like moaning and groaning about everything or anything down there in that there London (innit). far be it from me to voice an opinion, or view, on the stickers and what have you that you can see. not sure, however, that adidas, what do all them sports things, were likely to have approved of their branding being used in regards of a well known, rather derogatory comment on the constabulary. my understanding was that the comment being made was traditionally a Merseyside one, so it was kind of interesting to see it being made further afield. if, of course, my understanding was (is) correct. 

under what circumstances do i imagine these shoes (boots) ended up where i saw them? if we take it as a given, if but for a moment, it's not some sort of fancy art exhibition placement, likely down to them being rather uncomfortable for who(m)ever had them on, and they had the bravery, courage, indeed common sense to discard them. a story about that comes to mind but, well, another time, another place. indeed it's possible that someone simply felt they didn't need to be all that tall no more, too. 

not sure to what level of interest it may be, but it might be an interesting thing to see just how far apart these items of footwear were when i spotted, or simply saw, them. quite likely they were both in the same place and one got shifted. but, that said, if they were then where they had been since discarded, one could, i suppose, gain insight into the decision process behind discarding them. 

and that's just about, if not entirely, all i could think of to write about this one. 

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

four needles

hello there

well, the potentially inevitable has indeed happened. yes, the title of this post does indeed relate to the purchase of another light up hedgehog off of a service station. ostensibly the title refers to how the branding of them is indeed needle. which, if we are honest, is a pretty smart name for a hedgehog. at the very least i think so, look you see. 

so now i have, and i doubt i need to clarify this but still, four (4) such hedgehogs. it is quite difficult to know, or grasp, what else i may write on this particular subject, but let's see how this goes. 

above is the pre-unboxing stage, then, showing my entire needle collection (kind of) in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode. nope, no idea why i took the above image, but there it is for you all. provenance, again, is Tibshelf service station, which by some (considerable) distance is the second best service station on the M1, if we assume (or take as a given) that Donington cannot be beaten at all due to reasons of Castle Donington. further provenance would be the southbound M1 variation of said services, for recently i lost £1 trying to get a fifth one for no apparent reason and found the machine was busted but still took my cash. 

from what i gather the "big" thing on the "internet" these days is a video of stuff, or filmed reveal. hopefully people don't go overboard (or OTT) with this and start disrobing on the internet, but for now, well, if you shall excuse the phrase, all four (4) hedgehogs doing their light thing for you. 

i did indeed try to remain silent for the above. however, i am perfectly aware that the damage i have done to my system, mostly (but not exclusively) via cigarettes (sorry) has led to a permanent sort of noise, or if you will declaration of ill fitness as i exist. yes, i did try to hold my breath, or cease breathing, as the above was recorded. probably did not do so for long enough in the eyes of some, but such a day presumably gives them something to live for. 

have i ever considered (or taken pause for thought) that i might be subconsciously, if not overtly, be trying desperately to fill a void by purchasing these hedgehogs? indeed. they may well be the wallpaper i place over the solitude of exile where i, mostly, find myself. but, still, it simply could be that i rather like hedgehogs, and buying these on an ad hoc basis serves as a quasi passing of a landmark as i make my journey; metaphorical and actual. you are, to be honest, better off enjoying the images rather than troubling yourself with such concerns. 

up above, then, is all four (one and one for all) of my led flashy hedgehogs. not in the greater good or glory of Commodore 64 mode for those with a preference for "regular" views. 

whereas i have not considered the needle machine (see previous posts for images) in any great detail, it is so that as far as i am aware i now have all four (4) shades of needle what they sell. if so, that's quite a slice of astronomical luck, if not a fluke, for i got so without the accidental (or incidental) procurement of a duplicate. this is indeed how low on things i am to write here.

obviously it would be unfair to keep all of this too much of a Commodore 64 mode free affair, so above is one of them animated gif things of the needle hedgehog range doing their light thing. please take extreme care not to get all hypnotised by it. but obviously hypnotise yourself with it if you wish.

a not entirely unreasonable, yet very obvious, question would be if there shall ever be a post on this subject again. if it is so that i have "all" the shades of the statue possible, then there would be little sense in purchasing further. traditionally i would not do sense, but in this instance perhaps i might.

certainly there are other effigies, or statues, or what have you (toys, perhaps) of other animals i could purchase. generally these motorway service stations have six to 8 of the machines, each a different variation, all seeking your £1 in theoretical exchange for an item. perhaps i shall consider these other machines, see if any of them offer wares with could sway me. likely. 

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

season end

heya

and so, more or less, another season (series) of football has drawn to a close. in England, that is, look you see. well, sure, there's a couple more games to go, but the league bit is done. 

undoubtedly one will, if inclined, find all sorts of reports, comments and verdicts on the season. this isn't really that kind of post. instead i am here to congratulate, if not quite celebrate, a "win" that has been surprisingly absent from much coverage. 

quite a few go on about the "big six" of the dominant premier league, although recently people have postulated as to if it's now a "big seven" with the sudden success of Newcastle. perhaps it would make more sense to keep it as a "big six" and exclude the lowest finisher of the traditional (for the last few years) six, Chelsea i believe, and have Newcastle in their place. but then, as it happens, really there's only an actual "big four", with the four (4) clubs making up that number being ones what the legendary Joe Cole played for at some point. 

perhaps the most baffling aspect of the season gone is the proliferation of Joe Cole as some sort of sage. various broadcasters have got him in, and i think one or two newspapers (and related periodicals) run articles based on the views of Joe Cole. surely, i thought, a natural extension of this, and the bewildering determination have such a thing as a match declared a Joe Cole Derby, would be to have the Joe Cole League. only four (4) clubs in the present premier league qualify for it, so they are the big four i suppose. 

here, then, in no particular order, are the results of the "big four" matches which could in some way claim to be that apparently most desirous of things, a Joe Cole Derby - 

yes, i did give (brief) consideration to writing them up on a Commodore 64 emulator, but frankly i am not that bothered or interested. but still, somehow i had the time and inclination to get these results together to share here. 

further, showing i still have all the numerical, mathematical skills what came with a Grade C at GSCE in maths (please stop calling it "math", Americans, it is maths), here you go, i worked out the Joe Cole League Table for the season too - 

congratulations, then, to Liverpool for being crowned Joe Cole League Champions. and they did this undefeated, which is to say they did not (unless i missed a result) get beaten off of any other team what had once fielded Joe Cole in the premier league. wow. despite having a relatively poor season Chelsea did a decent job of trying to honour Joe Cole. and West Ham finish bottom having scored fewer goals than Aston Villa. but the bottom two should be ashamed of themselves. still, no one finished the Joe Cole seasons without at least 1 (one) win. 

do the winners of the Joe Cole League get a trophy, or special badge or other such presentation thing? not that i am aware of, no. perhaps he could be guest of honour at Liverpool's first home game of the season next season, with a bit of an announcement that he's there because Liverpool won the Joe Cole League in a most impressive fashion. push comes to shove i could probably knock up some sort of poster of congratulations on MS Paint. 

oh, certainly i am aware of there are other players turned pundits i could have done a league for. i suppose the most obvious would be Lineker, but he gets paid loads to sit and ask Alan or Ian what they thought of a goal for an hour each week, so he can calculate an Everton, Spurs and Leicester league if he wishes. on that note, a Shearer one consisting of Newcastle and Southampton could be done, as well as a Wright one of Crystal Palace, Arsenal, West Ham and Nottingham Forest. knock yourself out if you wish to calculate such for yourself, for i am already on the Joe Cole bandwagon. 

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

justice must be seen to be done

oh, hello

quite to my surprise it is so that The Viz actually bothered to remember to publish the verdict off of one of their crown court cases. perhaps more than me have sent them complaints in this regard, or they simply had space for it, look you see. 

the more regular (or frequent) sort of reader here may recall that, at the start of this very month, i brought forward news of the cheap pens what i got in return for sitting on the jury. in this particular instance it was so that Jacob Rees Mogg (that one) was on trial, stood accused of falsely placing a reduced to clear sticker on an item so as to get it cheaper. yes, this was a rather different sort of trial to the usual in The Viz, as normally it is cases such as someone trying to bum a crocodile what gets heard in the court. 

as you might be able to see (if you squint and hold it to the light) in the above, presented in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode, the verdict was surprisingly one of not guilty. well, blimey. one would have assumed that most readers of The Viz were if not left leaning then inclined to simply vote guilty the moment they were informed it was pretty much any member of the present conservative party on trial. so, i guess, applause are due to all who sat on the jury and reached a balanced verdict, even if i disagree with it. unless, of course, Jacob Rees Mogg got loads and loads of his supporters to write in and declare him not guilty. 

for the sake of making this a formal report on the result, the verdict was published in 326 of The Viz, which is prescribed as the June and July one. of 2023. except the back says the next one comes out at the end of June. oh. as it happens, this has been a particularly pleasing edition, with most of it being very funny. sadly no Drunken Bakers, but then the only total waste of space was the disappointing and quite depressing return of "Wee Radge Joe". it's right crap, not funny and a waste of ink. 

some may (might) well query that "48 to 52" split of the vote. it does, at first, seem to be identical to another poll, the details of which escape me for the moment. 

undoubtedly they will have more trials in The Viz, for little of this Fulchester place they chronicle suggests it will ever be a crime or incident free utopia. indeed they also appear to have stopped or otherwise ceased to beg for sponsors, so one can hope (and trust) they are on a bit more stable ground these days. 

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

prime saturation point

hello there

i appreciate this post is very much one of no need. but then, i suppose, all that i bother to put here could be spoken of the same, look you see. no matter, i press on. 

as to why this one likely needs not to be, it's all to do with that darned "prime" drink. you know, the one off of them kids what do the videos and that on the internet, but also i think at least one of them routinely does that thing where you can end up with your head kicked in, kickboxing or something. 

this drink caused quite a fuss when it was first launched, what with shortages and quasi riots at shops which had the temerity, bravery and nerve to stock it. mostly those what did buy it at a retail price (so i am led to believe) of £2 or so just tried to sell it on for considerable profit. like, for instance, all them suspicious shops down at Piccadilly Circus, London (init) what had mountains of the stuff yet seemed unable to shift it at £12 (!) a go. 

most, if not all, of the fuss appears to have died down now. either everyone got bored of trying to get it without being ripped off (not easy), or people actually tasted it and it possibly occurred to them that it's not too bad a drink but really, really, really (really) not worth the fuss. i base this on the fact that i was able to procure bottles of it for my sons without even trying. by that i mean it was just sat there, or at least four (4) of the variations were, in regular shops. 

for those for some reason using this as a buying guide, i picked up some at no less than W H Smith, who(m) of course were charging £2.99 a bottle. that's quite fitting for their usual pricing vs every other shop. by chance i went into a Sainsbury's and they also had it, for the not unreasonable markup price of £2.25 a bottle. with interest the staff told me they had very little interest in it, and had sold unexpectedly little, or if you are one of them types "fewer", as to what they had imagined. sill, W H Smith were selling unrestricted amounts, which meant staff off of the nearby McDonald's were buying it by the bag load, and Sainsbury's had a limit of three (3) per patron. 

no, it (the drink) in itself isn't anything spectacular. i am unaware of what it claims to be inside, other than of course "the greatest source of hydration" (which water may wish to have a word about), but it seems to be just slightly, moderately flavoured coconut water. yet, if that is so, full credit to these lads for what they gone done, for their efforts to put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up appear to be much more better than my own. 

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

on our way home

howdy pop pickers

no, as it happens, i wasn't there. offers were made, look you see, but i declined. all of it felt quite strange, somewhat dislocating and my destiny. oh, that of which i speak is of the entirely unexpected and ultimately quite confusingly brief (for now) reunion of one of my most beloved bands of all time, the great Frankie Goes To Hollywood. 

when the rumours commenced of it being so, i went no, surely not. they simply, really don't, as a collective (although on an individual basis it's different), get along. also, due to the infamously sided towards the label record deal they signed, any sort of reunion would likely cost them more than was brought in, making certain other parties even richer off their art. but within just a few weeks north of a month, it was indeed a done deal - Frankie were to be back together, "performing" at the opening concert for Eurovision, being held in their home town of Liverpool. where just the one of them, Nasher, still remains a resident. hey ho, it's not like any Beatles live in Liverpool still. 

certainly i was, to put it (exceptionally) mildly, excited and interested. but then details emerged. this was not to be a Frankie Goes To Hollywood concert, per se. no. they were to be doing one (1) song, in the form of Welcome To The Pleasuredome, and it would be live vocals over a backing tape. oh. well, if we are fair, the latter is understandable based on how quickly this all came to be. i had precisely no, as in zero, interest in the other acts "performing". despite the kind offers from at least two friends, and yes there is some surprise in me having so many, i declined to go. destiny surely intended for someone other than moi to have the chance. i, after all, saw them in 1987. for decades there have been fans just as devout as me yet never so fortunate, whatever ticket i may have used was surely meant for them, to see the impossible become real. 

it all looks like my chums, and Frankie fans i know of who came from far to be there for it (a big shout out to the one from America) had a sensational time. most got to meet 80% of the band, and you can guess the 20% who(m) did not hang around to meet and greet. but no, je ne regrette rien, i don't believe i should have been there. 

fascinating reviews and reports from it. comments from the crowd for this Eurovision launch party have been sensational to the point of inspired. one or two commented that the Frankie fans appeared to all be quite "a bit rowdy". no kidding. the single best comment i saw, presumably from someone there purely for the not so covert ethos of all things Eurovision, was one who complained "some of them [the Frankie fans] clearly weren't even gay". i was not aware such was a prerequisite for Frankie fans or for the Eurovision itself. being a fan of both, i don't believe i am gay, but haven't checked my passport for a while, so who knows. still, shout out for the unusual reverse prejudice, no matter how innocent. 

easily the most baffling aspect of it all was the abject, surprising lack of coverage (or interest) in it all off of the BBC. sure, the same night as the gig they had long since already gone big on planned coverage of the concert in celebration of the coronation of HMKC3(PO). you would have thought they might, especially considering (a) how much they have rammed Eurovision down everyone's throats and (b) exactly how much of a big f*****g deal this reunion was news wise, have put it on a different channel or at the least broadcast it on that iPlayer they advertise every 15 minutes, but no. instead they showed limited highlights the next day. 

some have questioned their choice of a one and only song to perform. realistically i doubt there's any of the others they could have done. for a start, well, let's not forget why, exactly, Eurovision is being held in Liverpool instead of Ukraine, so that's Two Tribes off the list. indeed Relax may have been appropriate for all sorts of reasons, but one feels that, individually and all together, they tire of being linked with just that one song, as proud of it as they may be. the most obvious would probably have been to do The Power Of Love, but that famous string arrangement might have seen the band stood around doing nothing. one suspects that a back up plan, had a reunion not been possible, might have been to have just Holly doing that one. 

as good (no, great) as they were, any of the three (3) singles off of their second album, Liverpool, probably would not have gone down so well. so, thus, or therefore, by default we are left with their 4th single which should have been number one but was blocked by despised and disgraced war criminal phil collins, which is also the name of their sensational debut album. which celebrates it's 40th anniversary next year, and if they can all get on might be a thing to celebrate with a far more expansive reunion. 

just why, if we shall never know the how, did all of them agree to this? for most of the band it would have been an immediate yes. the trick, or key, would always be Holly, though. he was absent from the ill-fated but not disastrous attempt to get back together in the early 2000s. let me not sound too cynical or presumptuous, but how handy on the timing, for just a day (or so) after this reunion (and the inevitable headlines) Holly announces a quite rare pair of live shows (solo), which of course sold out by all reports. indeed i should be at one of them. 

reviews have been pretty much unified in celebrating the performance, in particular the buzz and excitement caused by it all. but then speak of the frustration that it was so bewilderingly short. also some, with possibly a fair dose of truth to it, speculated that five or so minutes was the maximum the five of them could be together without a fight breaking out. calls for more are certainly there, but shall they be heeded, and will there be enough interest for them to get along with each other enough for some more fuller shows? remains to be seen. 

yes, it remains so that this is a century i don't particularly understand or care for. it is, be fair, meant as an era for my children and their generation to do with what they will. but still, so far it is a century, or time, which has delivered two impossibles - a Stone Roses reunion and now an actual proper Frankie reunion, or if you wish to be pedantic a second Frankie reunion. not sure how long, exactly, i shall be part of this century, but it does seem to have things of interest now and then. 

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