28 June, 2005

I've eased myself gently into my 'oliday like an Angel Delight which could perhaps do with a few more rotations of the whisk and I'm flopped out in the blissful warmth of a late June day. I'm in Blue using their internet facility and sipping gingerly on a large Cappuccino. The music sounds a bit David Grayish which normally grates but hasn't bitten into my reverie.

I have just checked my hotmail for the first time in ages and to my horror my account had been deactivated due to a prolonged period of unuse - my goodness if people were to extend this rule to other elements of my life I'd been in a right old pickle. Still, this holiday is all about picking up things I have left to dust - books, kites, fishing nets, paintbrushes, mooching in shops for hours. I have already scooped a nice pair of trousers from a closing down sale. It was quite a scrum. Women with push chairs all after the same crop top. It wasn't pretty. I tried on the trousers in a changing room which had a faint whiff of sick about it but I wasn't put off, I'll look a bobby dazzler on the beach in 'em.

Matthew Szurgott - you'll be pleased to know my book is full of knights, blood and gore and I watched two episodes of Spaced with the Homageometer on before breakfast this morning.

24 June, 2005

Oooh I'm dashing away with a smoothing iron trying to get everything at work ready for my holiday. In ten minutes I will have my freedom. Two weeks off to explore coves, read books, experiment with fusion food! Oh tres jolie! My next post will be from an internet cafe!

21 June, 2005

Happy Solstice every one. I didn't make it down to Wiltshire AGAIN! It's a bit like Christmas, every year it comes around and you're not prepared (staying up all night means a day off work and if you don't book it you don't go etc, etc) and just like Christmas when it comes around you say 'next year I'm going to be better prepared (buy presents in June and keep them tucked in the sock drawer, etc, etc) My new age batteries are well in need of a charging. I need to get down with the crusties and shake my thang in Avebury.

By the way, above is a picture of me waiting at Eastbourne train station for the train to Hastings Jack in the Green. It is me in my elf ears which you can't really see, never mind. I haven't got my garland in my hair so you will have to use your imagination. Next year however, I intend to dress as Mr Tumnus.......as I was saying about Christmas.....

20 June, 2005

I'm lightly toasted like a prematurely grabbed out crumpet which you can't wait for because you're too hungry. I tried to stay out of the sun as best I could, rubbed in the sun lotion and sat beneath a brolly on the beach but the UV's caught me here and there. I've got those ridiculous t-shirt marks that make you jump when you have a bath.

The New Forest was fun. I love camping shops. Boxes of tent pegs, rails of leisure wear, collapsible kitchen equipment and miles of string which you cut to order. Marvellous. A romantic world of the open road, starry skies and bird song. A joy. The ladyfriend and I have pencilled in August for a return journey with the two man.

Yesterday it was too hot to mow the lawn. We just managed a third of it, as a result the back garden looks like a pikey kid's hair cut. I must press on with it tonight. I take my annual leave on Friday so everything has to be ship shape and ready for my summer seaside break.

17 June, 2005

Aaaah, this is baby Amy my nicest niece. She's fab. I went to see her last night with my wonderful mother and the ladyfriend. We clucked like hens, passing her amongst ourselves as soon as she started to cry.

Last night I sliced a finger on my left hand furiously trying to open a packet of noodles with a sharp kitchen knife. As a consequence my ablutions this morning were hampered and I dressed myself more by accident than design.

Rugger Bugger Matthew Szurgot has his own website now so I must point you to it - it's in its infancy but he is keen for his audience to grow from the outset, so here you go www.yououttonight.co.uk

I'm off to the New Forest this weekend, it's going to be a scorcher, I reckon I might peel off and take a plunge in the solent.

16 June, 2005

Round. Like a circle in a spiral. Like a wheel within a wheel. Never ending or beginning. On an ever-spinning reel. Like a snowball down a mountain ...

I've been watching the wheel of my bike as I slug along to work in the morning. There's a big dollop of muck on it, quite possibly dog related, that comes round quicker as I pedal faster.

It makes me feel young again riding a bike. Not because I feel fitter and thinner (I don't think I've dropped a dress size yet) but all the things I used to do (like getting dog muck on my wheels) is happening again. I fly down the hills, lean over to fly round corners, whack scratchy overgrown hedges, ride on the pavement and best of all - pull up the handle bars to leap up kerbs. My heart is always in my mouth, will I make it? Or will I go arse over mammary infront of the rush hour traffic.

15 June, 2005

There is such a thin line between being tidy and slovenly, a good housewife and a slattern. Take Monday night, I was making Cod in Parsley sauce - I was feeling a little under the weather and the favourite family dish is ideal invalid food. My fish was cooking nicely so I prepared myself to Bechamel. My butter was in the pan so I pulled out a bag of flour from the cupboard and that's when it happened. One minute I'm Martha Stewart the next I'm Wilfred Brambell. My generous spoon of self raising was crawling with weevils! I had let things go and my pantry had become infested. I checked another bag and the blighters were there! The shame of it. It just goes to prove, when you think you are on top things you really aren't, there are always the small things building up. Check your flour bags ladies.

14 June, 2005

What a weekend! I've tacked, jibed, capsized and fingered an admirable (or should it be Admiral) Bowline. This sailing lark is fantastic fun but I still can't get the turning bit to work properly. I flounder about in the boat, the sail flapping madly, whilst the other students pass me with ease. I'm no Ms MacArthur, that's for sure. I am enjoying sailing club life however, especially the tea and sponge cake afterwards.

Ah ha - Miss Diane's kiddy wink is doing nicely - Click here

08 June, 2005

Koo-koo-ka-choo, Mrs. Robinson,
Jesus loves you more than you will know - Oh it's very sad. I don't like it when the really good ones die. What a shame, and what a tragic way to go. Oh, too sad to write today.....I'm off to Play.com and see if they've got a nice box set going.

07 June, 2005

I'm all arse about face today. Here I am, the sun truly over the yard arm and I am only now settling down to write my memoirs. I've been working like a stable hand and that's the truth. It won't stop yet either. I've got a bit of Monty Don to do when I get home. I've a cart load of plants to pot up, a delightful meal to prepare and then, if I'm not too wan from my labours, Spring Watch to watch. Tonight we get to see Hares boxing. I'm getting back to nature at the moment. It is very fashionable to provide for wildlife and roll naked in wet grass. I'm loving myself in my Cotton Traders Wrinkle-Free Chinos. I have already instructed the ladyfriend to build me a hide, I'll have her dashing off to B&Q before you can say "Lesser Spotted Dendrocopos minor".

06 June, 2005

To the country this weekend to stay with MR & Mrs Brown. We had a lovely time, drank like a fish. Browsed around some nice antiques and kicked a few Queen Anne legs whilst no one was looking. We went to the Newbury Farmers Market yesterday, my goodness there was some good stuff. The ladyfriend and I filled our baskets with ham, free range eggs, tomatoes, plants and a huge bundle of asparagus. I felt very Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as I man handled the goats cheese.

The ladyfriend and I ate all the produce last night and it was quite heavenly. However, I fear the old water is rather pungent today. I am flushing through but I was a bit greedy, piling on the spears last night....thank goodness the season is short.

03 June, 2005

Beautiful June day, sun high in the sky, swallows on the wing, few clouds and a gentle breeze and I am sitting here at work in arctic conditions. Our modern offices come complete with the modern day asbestos - air conditioning.
The best form of air is that that floats in through a window. The natural stuff. I can't wait for the outbreak of disease. Did you know the most sterile environment is in the middle of a field? That little gem of information comes from experiences in the first world war. Germs multiply because they can't get out - yuk, yuk, yuk. I should start a sweep stake to see who the first victim will be.

01 June, 2005

On a dismal first day of June the Double D's are leaving on a jet plane - I don't actually know if they'll be back again. Dawn and Dave are heading off to a life in Spain. As the plane taxis along a Malaga runway England, with its escalating crime and plummeting family values, will drift away like a packet of fags on a receding tide. Lucky them. A life of sun, sea and sangria awaits them. And sunburn no doubt. Keep 'em covered Dawn.

I've gone right off that Natasha Kaplinsky, actually I always viewed her with caution. She's boss eyed, a constant auto cue reader and, if today's performance is anything to go by, a drunk. She's a rotten apple in the BBC barrel and I for one do not want to watch her slurring at my and other licence fee payer's expense. That nice Jan Leeming was a good little performer, yes she read the autocue but you couldn't tell. Jan looked up from time to time. Perhaps Natasha thinks she's 'bigger than all this' now she turns up like a bad penny on most of the BBC's output (all be it poor)and I don't like it. Ooooh those Russians. I've got one word to say to Kaplinsky - Selina Scott.