round at louise and dazzers

One of the stinking cats getting comfortable on me

Remains of the curry

Dazzer hard at work (I have a hay fever sick note)

The willow tree

My shadow

Another comfy cat picture

As Louise and Dazzer (and she that shall not be named) moved into their new home on Thursday/Friday, myself and the FPO popped over on Friday night to welcome them to the new abode and prevent them calling round to our place (where the doors are both now kept locked). We were rewarded with a curry for our enevours, so it worked out pretty damn well. Hurrah! Stayed for a while chatting and drinking the finest ale known to man, and even returned for a brief chat yesterday as the parents and Nora also made an appearance (their's not mine, l am a poor orphan). I prefer the new home to the old one in Stockton, and there is a great view of a willow tree from their living room. The home needs some work doing to it, but at least it has character and potential, and they have plenty of time, as, unlike me, they are not old gets. What the???!!.. I am starting to sound like an estate agent! Keith would be ashamed off me, so l will have to overcompensate with booze and drugs for the next couple of days so l can earn back my rock and roll spurs. Chin chin!

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roxyrama at the georgian theatre richmond

Off with the FPO to the Georgian Theatre Royal last night to see Roxyrama. who are a tribute band of Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry. They were pretty good, and we had great seats next to the stage, but by the time of the interval, we had seen enough (too many later slow songs) and went for a drink at the Cavern instead, where we chatted to Mark (the owner) for a while. Another lad (Steve) and his wife/girlfriend came in, and it was good to discover that he also collects comics and records, and keeps a little list of the comics he still needs (who in their right mind dosen't?). Back to sunny Catterick afterwards for a quick one in JT's and The Wine bar, then it was back home for some Vodka and coke while we watched Elvis in Vegas (which was pretty rubbish). Another date night ticked off! Hurrah!!

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oasis - liam and noel argue cartoon style

This is an old argument recorded during a 1994 interview with John Harris from the NME , after being thrown off a ferry, which was released as a single (Wibbling Rivalry), but it makes it funnier when it is done as a cartoon. Classic stuff.

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size of a planet

I am sure l have posted this kind of stuff before, but space and the planets, they are big....very big. People always think we are so important, we have souls, we are special, created by God or whatever, but in the great scheme of things, we are all insignificant in the vastness of time and space. Here are the sizes of the planets in relation to one another. As l said, space...it's big (l would argue infinite).

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scarborough flat in a church for sale

This is a Church in Scarborough that has been modernised and is presently for sale. It looks pretty impressive, but l am not sure l would want to be staring at the plate glass window in the top photograph every day. Is that sort of filth allowed in a Church?

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the oslo bombing and the news

The bombing and shooting in Oslo has taken everyone buy surprise, but l was annoyed at the news coverage as it was unfolding, as all the commentators (and obviously the editors/producers etc) were trying to do was blame it all on Al Qaeda, without a shred of evidence to support their statements. Reasons for the so called Al Qaeda attack were debated, such as the reprinting of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, the Norwegian troops in Afghanistan etc, but with not one jot of evidence put forward to substantiate the claims by the mouth pieces and (so called) experts. It is conveniently forgotten that some of the past worldwide attacks have been by citizens attacking their own people, such as happened with the Oklahoma City Bombing and the Admiral Duncan pub, so don't be amazed if this turns out to be the same. The News...Pah!! Don't trust anyone and always be cynical. Saying that, l am still amazed at the destruction a car bomb can make.

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some new york city photographs

I don't know who took the photos, but as they say, only in America.....

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olly moss posters for captain america

Very good indeed. I like the German one the best.

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a short history of tractors in ukrainian - marina lewycka

Even more Majorca stuff. Two daughters, one a hard faced capitalist (Vera) and Nadezhda, the narrator of the story (and a bit of a hippie), try to deal with their ageing father, who has decided to marry a young woman (Valentina) with outrageous (like twin warheads) breasts. Throw in some history about war, tractors, and the Ukraine (it's better than it sounds) and it turned out to be a lot more readable than l was expecting.

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catcher in the rye - j.d salinger

Still with the Majorca stuff, this is a book that gets some bad publicity, and with good reason. It's protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is one winging spoilt (yet intelligent) kid who is on a downward spiral and who whines about everything, especially the people and things he deems to be ''phony'. After being expelled from school, he returns to New York, stays in a hotel, and gets in trouble. He visits his family home to see Phoebe (his younger sister) and wants to preserve her innocence (he worships and admires her, as she does with him). He eventually realises he cannot save children from running through the rye and falling off a cliff, (the catcher in the rye bit). This is through mishearing Robert Burns' Comin' Through the Rye . Holden realises he is sick and ends up in some kind of institute, although he states that he is to start school again. This was a lot better when l read it as a teenager, and l can see why someone disturbed such as Mark Chapman (who shot John Lennon) could take it at face value and act disproportionally, but reading it as an older person, you just want to slap him (Holdon). OK, l know he is ill and all that, but still....

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

Comin' Through The Rye

O, Jenny's a' weet,^[A] poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry:
She draigl't^[B] a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!

Chorus:
Comin thro' the rye, poor body,
Comin thro' the rye,
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!

Gin^[C] a body meet a body
Comin thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?

(chorus)

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need the warl'^[D] ken?^[E]

(chorus)

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the grain;
Gin a body kiss a body,
The thing's a body's ain.

(chorus)

Ev'ry Lassie has her laddie,
Nane, they say, have I,
Yet all the lads they smile on me,
When comin' thro' the rye.

• ^A weet - wet
• ^B draigl't - draggled
• ^C gin - if, should
• ^D warl - world
• ^E ken - know

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brave new world - aldous huxley

More Majorca stuff. I have obviously known about this book for years but had never got around to reading it, but it was pretty good. a bit clichéd with the names (Bernard Marxs, Polly Trotsky etc), and also a bit stilted, but l enjoyed it. A tale of the future when everything is regulated and in order, people are preconditioned for certain roles and sorted by caste, and soma is taken for enjoyment. However Bernard is dissatisfied with this and visits the Malpais in the Savage Reservation, from where he brings back John. It does not end happily.

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the double - fyodor dostoyevsky

One of the books l read while l was in Majorca (in between the hard work). I like Fyodor Dostoevsky's tales and at least this one was short. The main character, sees a double of himself and very quickly loses his sanity. Lots of unpredictable actions, free association gibberish and rambling from 'the hero of the story', until he is finally carted away. Similar to work by Nikolai Gogol, especially The Nose, which l thought was great when l read it about 20 years ago (in fact l remember starting to read it on a bus into Northallerton). I still wish the Russian names were a bit shorter though. Next up for holiday reading,The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov.They should keep me busy and out of mischief.

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the 'original' forest gump with james stewart and marlon brando

Clever work by Ivan Guerrero ( http://whoiseyevan.carbonmade.com/)

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old sugar packets

To continue with the collecting strange theme, here's some old sugar packets

collected by ussiwojima which can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41606952@N07/tags/sugar/

I already have a few myself, so this is a collection l could be cracking on with.

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old bread wrappers

I could easily go crazy and collect all sorts of junk (the FPO reckons l do already), but this is a new collection l would not have thought of accumulating. Old bread wrappers. Pretty cool looking and much better than the crappy wrappers we have nowadays.

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majorca scans

Obviously as l was hard at work, l did not frequent, witness, involve myself or participate in any of the above. l was somewhere else at the time guv - honest.

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