Overheard on our sofa

Me "I miss jews and I want a pizza"
FRD: "Where are the Puerto Ricans?"

Happy Halloween

Blog pics

I was curiously looking at possible new images for the blog icon. These two came into contention but only for a moment.

enjoy.


Mondale as almost Rock star.



Oohhh! 1984.

Books.

This may sound a bit odd so please bear with me.

It's actually great to be living fairly close to my parents. They adore the wee hen and he gurgles and chuckles right back at them. It's one of the reasons we moved back, so that they could know him as he grows up.

There is a side effect.

It's a benefical one.

The bookshelves at B****s Towers are loaded.

They are loaded with all those books that you thought you should have read, all those books that you might have read, all those books that you sort of thought you should have read or might have read and a few in between. Don't even get me started on The Silver Fox's study which is crammed with sporting volumes from over five decades, everything from how to tune your racing dinghy to photostudies of the 1966 World Cup Finals. In the next room and downstairs there are all the great classics (Austen, Bronte, Dickens, Tolstoy etc) as well as lots and lots of more modern fiction and biography. It's a wonderfully random selection and from time to time it's a place where a passion for books can be indulged, especially as I am currently banned from bookshops (it's a single income thing, we need to tighten our belts a bit and my book habit was costly).

Gretna 0 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 4

One of the most utterly forgettable things about English life?
The media reporting of Scottish football.

Why?

Who cares?

(and I'm not drunk)

This made me smile

From time to time words crop up in an order that touches one's emotions, moves one, makes one cry or laugh. This wee nugget is from a recent post of Weasel's

"But life is not a Greek tragedy (unless you are a Greek person with perpetual bad luck. Then life is a Greek tragedy tinged with irony)."

That's it.

I love the way words, poetic or prose can delight, amuse or move. Mere snippets of poems, novels or songs can enchant and motivate.

More to follow I'm sure.

A lovely stroll.

This afternoon Frau Random Doubt and the wee Hen and I went for a thoroughly charming stroll through the Norfolk countryside. We walked around a man made 'Broad'. Well I reckon it was man made. It certainly felt man made (lovely stroller friendly paths, designated wildlife and picnic areas, signposts etc) The FRD suggested the inevitable truth, surely all broads are man made?

Dammit she's right. Again.

Please enjoy a couple of pictures from our stroll. The first is of a Heron. Upon approaching this bird we had a lengthy debate about wether it was a real Heron or a decoy.



Then the bugger flew away which rather defeated my argument in favour of the plastic decoy theory.



The second picture is of a church across the water. This rather says it all. Church, countryside, broad. And all within 20 minutes drive from our house.

Hometown

Most observant readers of this blog will know where I live, many observant readers of this blog will know me in person. Not a problem although I have have always felt that some small ammount of anonymity will be a most agreeable thing. Therefore I have decided to refer to my new abode as 'Hometown'.
That's pronounced 'Hometown' but spelt 'Yhumeneuyhamtumdedumhayyergortaloightborham'. In order to spare you, my faithful reader, the emabarrassment of attempting to read the correct spelling everytime I refer to this charming South Norfolk Market town I'll stick to 'Hometown' from now on.

World Series

I really miss the World Series.
The October Classic.
OK, I only spent 5 years in the USA and was a Mets fan (as I still am goddammit)
But I need some October excitement.
That just doesn't happen in European sport.
Following on the internet just isn't the same.

nb: After a spot of drunk blogging I realise that come May the football season will be electric. When in Rome.

The Guardian

I suppose I no longer really need to link to The Guardian anymore as I can just nip down the shop and pick up a copy.

I used to wonder about Hometown's relationship with this left leaning daily newspaper. Were there no copies to be had because the few leftists in town got up earlier than I did and swiped them all or were there no copies because there were no leftists in town to buy it so the newsagents didn't bother to order any?

It's no longer a problem as all newsagents now stock it but some still eye you suspiciously if you buy a copy, like you might be somebody who reads.

Book learning #37

In Churchill's shadow by David Cannadine.

This was a delight of a book. A delight made no less by the fact that it was a thoughful gift from a friend but also because it was a really good take on a very well worn historical path. What was Winston Churchill's relationship with Britain? What's the relevance of his achievements?

Cannadine doesn't particularly delve into the great man's life and works and a casual fan of the V sign and cigar may become disorienated and confused, no rambling speeches here, no ash dust from the Blitz and evocations of the supernatural English spirit. No, Cannadine selects a series of contempories of Churchill and assesses their impact upon British life and in a mild way, their relationship with Churchill. From Stanley Baldwin, to Ian Fleming and many in between , including Noel Coward, Neville Chamberlain and The National Trust.

I read this book over the course of five months having misplaced it during our move to the UK. I was delighted to pull it from the carnage of our move and finish it off last week.

In true Churchill style I wrote this review whilst nursing a bottle of 2006 Malbec (Come on, it's half term)

Thank you Mr former Vice President.

And by that I mean Nobel winner Mr Al Gore. After all, he invented the internet (oh lord I'm shaking, it's so good to be out of the early 1990's hellhole that was NO INTERNET CONNECTION).

WE ARE BACK!

We can look for a replacement fireplace online, no need to trapse around shops with a baby.

We can check the weather rather than rely on BBC weather reports which inform us daily "Today will be a lot like yesterday".

We can look at blogs and blog and fantasize about vacations and things that we would like to buy online and then not buy them but just investigate cheap flights anyway.

Oh goodness and so much more!!

Watch this space,

MONDALE IS BACK!!!!!

Hey, here's a picture of a quiet backstreet in my hometown.

Kitten. 1991?-2007

Kitten 'went upstate' last week. She had developed cancer and that was that.
Our deepest thanks go to the Park slope flying circus who took her in during her final weeks and cared for her, she was a plucky lady.
(I'd like to point out that despite regular visits to the vet she was never diagnosed with anything whilst in our care. The she was taken to a real vet who discovered her condition.)

Kitten , formerly known as Lucy el diablo Miaow was allegedly discovered wandering on the beach at Montauk in the early 1990's. Will Smith's chef took her into care and brought her back to New York where she lived in a variety of circumstances including East Village bohemia and pre gentrified Carroll Gardens. It was with tremendous wrenching that we decided that she could not make the journey with us to Blighty. She would have loved it here but we inhabit a neighborhood of large, well established and distinctly territorial cats, it would have been difficult for her to reap the real benefits of country life.

Kitten had many friends and will be missed greatly.

Book learning 36

A bit of a blur by Alex James.

I think I read this in August. I've been so busy/tired lately and have completely fallen off my 'one book at a time' monogomy trip.
As far as I recall this was a fun read full of tales of rock n' roll hedonism and then redemption in the arms of a true love and an organic farm. hey everybody needs a dream right?

Yeah, light and engaging with lots of sex, drugs and booze.

Hello again.

I've noticed that it's been a horribly long time since I last posted. I will get over that and soon begin posting again and writing posts about matters other than lack of postings.

Things are moving..

..but oh so bloody slowly.
This blog will return to full operational status as of OCTOBER 21st 2007.
That's when our broadband should be set up at home.
We've signed up with a rival phone compny and, well, it's just taking a while.

Still alive

and still waiting for the North Korean phone network to set up my landline.

501st post

Blood and sand! I had such high and mighty ideas about how to celebrate my 500th post. Then i went and missed it!
So here it is, my 501st post.
Not much to report, still waiting for phone connection, paint to dry, electrician, builder,gasman to call, oh and entire wordly posessions to be delivered!
But hey, the sun shines and the beer is warm.

More eastern tales

Our days are long and full of toil, our boat has docked with all our worldly goods aboard, now we wait for it to get port clearance and delivery.
Some good news (well, its all pretty good)our almost neighbour/my sister's old chum is away on holiday for a couple of weeks. We will be lounging in her slightly marvellous home until our place is sorted, it's half a block away!
More soon,stay lucky.

News from the east.

Right, I'll be quick.

No flooding here, we live on a hill surrounded by sheep. A fair bit of rain, lots of wind but mostly sheep.

The house is coming along, slowly. No consrtruction/restoration project ever ran smooth, under budget or quickly.

Most English people are completely and quite brilliantly mental. Or may be it's just Norfolk. Yes, I think it's just Norfolk.

The wee Hen is doing fine and loves the sheep.

Sheep are really noisy, especially at night. We spent the first few nights going upstairs because we thought Hen had woken up, it was just a sheep coughing.

The weather is 70 f and windy and sunny. Then it rains a bit then the sun comes out again. Repeat until dusk.

I've never drunk so much tea.

We are all feeling refreshed and busy and very happy, but we do miss our American chums.