Remarkable Roadside Vistas

Roadside architecture rules!


(Thanks to interesting ideas)



(Thanks to I Like)



(Thanks to The Society of Commercial Archeology)



(Thanks to Agilitynut)

Chasing My Tail

I am constantly running in circles at the moment, trying to catch up with one thing or another. Perhaps I should just learn to let it go, forget about it. It probably wasn't that important anyway.

Yesterday I spend the Bank Holiday with Mum (it's her birthday today) and Iain. I bought her a complete kit to make a hanging basket after failing to pick up a copy of Ray Charles - Genius Loves Company at Asda. It turned out to be a much better present in any case. We went out to lunch at the Hobby Horse and was tempted back to Iain's for home-made cookies, a DVD and Singapore Noodles. Divine!

We watched The Manchurian Candidate which was scored 8 out of 10 on the thrill-o-meter and reminded me of three or four movies all out recently mashed up together. Being a remake, I guess it was ahead of its time when it originally came out and many other film writers have been influenced by it since.

On Sunday night, Lando C and I finally got round to watching Sideways armed with a rather large glass of Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet. It was a great insight into my forthcoming years I think and made me want to head out to those California vineyards pronto.

Bargain of the weekend was The Royal Tenenbaums on DVD for £4.72 from the Blockbuster near Iain's place. I don't care what anyone else says - I love that movie! A trip to the big store also reminded me of the movies I need to rent (but that may not be available at our modest little village store).

• The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
• Beyond the Sea
• The Motorcycle Diaries
• Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
• The Merchant of Venice
• I Heart Huckabees
• Ray

When it comes out:

• The Aviator

At the cinema I need to watch out for:

• Sin City
• Batman Begins
• War of the Worlds

April and May 2005 Highlights

I have just realised that in the mayhem of recent months, there hasn't been any highlights for April, and May is just about to end too! This chaotic lifestyle is the reason why this blog exists - so that I don't forget anything. And then what do I do? I forget to write in it. Well done me.

tunes to remember apr-may '05

Beck - Guero

flicks to remember apr-may '05

• Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
• Sideways
• Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
• The Manchurian Candidate

books to remember mar '05

Planet Simpson - Chris Turner

At Last - A Dream Illustrated...

Thanks to Flip Flop Flyin' my dream is now illustrated for all to see. I (5'1") have been bitching at Lando C (6'2") about this for years. Thanks!



Image by Craig - Flip Flop Flyin'.

I Am Whole...Although a Little Less So Than Before.

It's been just over a week since my epiphany and so far I've managed to keep up the gym and diet. I've managed to lose 2 pounds which is a good start and I actually played well on Saturday with some scores, an assist and some D's. We also won all of our games too, scoring some great upwind points proving that "he who wins the toss, wins the game" isn't necessarily true.

Bargain of the fortnight is from a local car boot sale in Gotham. We bought two tall-backed cast iron chairs with wittex (like wicker but a little more stringy) manufactured locally for £25.00 for the pair. They are beautiful. The lady selling them had to move into a smaller property and had bought them for £79.00 each. What a steal! I hope to post a picture up of one soon.

Oh - and a week last Saturday, we saw it. My life is now complete.

A Collection of Sets

Following on from Sentimental Collections, I finally realised what it was that I did collect now and that is anything small that forms some kind of set. Maybe it is the familiarity of repetition or feeling of organisation or the fact that I can generally hold these things in my hands. Whatever the attraction is, I think there may be a slight addiction brewing.

Shock Tactics

At last. The kick in the arse has arrived. And what a large arse it is.

Yesterday I saw some photographs taken last weekend at the tournament which have been published on our team group. I had no idea that I had become so fat. I mean really fat.

It's strange how you have no comprehension of what you really look like and how you appear to those around you. I knew I'd put on weight here and there but not this.

And I can see how it happened. You catch a glimpse of yourself in a shop window or in the bathroom mirror in the morning. And as soon as you see yourself, you automatically suck it in and straighten yourself without thinking. They say the camera never lies and never has that saying rang so true.

Above everything, the self-loathing, the shock and the realisation, I am just plainly embarrassed. Within 30 minutes of seeing them, I was in the gym for the first time in about 4 months.

About time.

On a lighter note - I love these butterfly collections (thanks to I Like).

1960s' Throw Back

This is a photograph of an old vase I bought from a charity shop years ago. It's made of beautiful red glass with a wibbly rim and cut bottom (I think that may sound like something it shouldn't?). If you could climb inside, maybe it would teleport you back to the 1960s'.

I'm feeling in a creative mood which means I am going to get jack all work done today. S'pose that beats the bad mood I was in at the weekend.

I Love My Shoes

I bought these the weekend before last. I love them!

Sentimental Collections

I was lying in bed last night thinking about all the crap I used to collect as a kid. I think we all felt the need to collect something or another as a child - maybe to help us fit in and provide our friends with the perception that we had some kind of material wealth.

Here is a list of things I used to collect from what I can remember, none of which I still have today:

• Novelty rubbers (that's erasers so some folk)
• Badges and Broaches (that's pins to other folk)
• Snails (the live slimy slugs with no housing problems)
• Fossils
• Stickers (particularly the cushion plastic ones filled with a layer of sponge normally with bobbing eyes)
• Football Player Stickers
• Smash Hits Pop Stickers
• Garbage Pail Kids Stickers
• Stationary Sets

That's all I could remember. What I used to love about them (not applicable to the snails and fossils I think) was the cool designs that you just can't get these days. I wish I still had some of my collections now but after the 3rd move as a teenager, I think they all ended up in a charity shop or just used up (not the novelty erasers were capable of rubbing out the lightest of pencil marks).

This Flickr site reminded me of what it is to collect stuff, the same stuff and similar but not quite the same stuff in mass quantities. Also from MassDistraction - Glow Stick Fun.

Space Cadet

Feeling like the muppet version of a space cadet today. Fell over at practice last night and it seems to have shaken me up a bit.

Anyhow, here are some pictures I took in the garden yesterday. The top one reminds me of a tryphid, although I seem to have a lot of unknown tryphid style plants growing in it right now. The ones at the front have till the weekend to flower spectacularly and if they fail, they're out.


Thistle?


This one reminded me of John Travolta - all arms and attention seeking.

Let's play catch up then. On Bank Holiday Monday we went and played golf with Al after a quick BBQ. It was great to be doing something non-Ultimate related for a change and it has inspired me to do more activities that are different. That's the trouble when your job is also your hobby - it becomes difficult to do anything else. I scored a miserable 75 on the 9 hole main course near home, but it was fun nevertheless, especially in the thunder and lightning storm.

That night we went to see Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. I really enjoyed it as it was both very similar to and very different from the book and the TV series, if that is possible. It was nicely eccentric in places and yes, let's dumb this down a bit - I loved the special effects. Just before the movie started, the Showcase was struck by lightening which knocked out most of the screens. We got free tickets for another movie of our choice afterwards, even though we weren't really affected. Bargain.

Next stop - Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.

The Best Kept Secrets of Paradise Circus

As well as the "Hall of Hate" (although there's not been much use for that recently) I think I'm going to compile a "Best Kept Secrets" list - just so that I don't forget the most amazing hidden away experiences we discover on our travels.

The weekend before last, Lando C and I needed to get a hotel for the night near Oxford. With it being Bank Holiday weekend in the Cotswolds though, it soon became an impossible task. We'd already scraped a top class Blue Audi backing out of a tiny but full B&B car park in Witney that was only accessible via a narrow tunnel too small for a Mini Cooper let alone our Big Red Van.

Just as we began to think it would be better to drive the 2 and a half hours back up the M40 to our own bed instead, we soon discovered a beautiful Inn hidden away just down the road in Hailey. We could see a courtyard surrounded by rooms from the ample car park outside the restaurant and it looked awesome.

To cut a long story short - there sadly weren't any rooms available here either. Well there would have been had a honeymoon couple not broken the bed in the superior room the night before. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to see Lando C in action, I offered up his DIY services to fix the bed so we didn't have to journey further. The owners (Kim-Marie and Rod) agreed and gave us a free night's accommodation in exchange for some of the big Canadian's handywork.


The Bird in the Hand, Hailey, Oxfordshire

Not only was the welcome warm but the room was also amazing. Whirlpool bath, king size bed, "Tea and Coffee Making Facilities". Lando C did a fab job reinforcing the effect of someone's elses night of passion.

And that night we ate like kings. I'd been dreaming of seafood and a fish dinner all day and had almost given up hope. To our surprise we were offered a platter of Oysters to start, the most incredible Dover Sole filleted at our table by the owner, and some kind of desert that I can't remember because by that time I'd drank way too much red wine. It was just divine!

Lando C and I wondered if we'd perhaps died in some freak accident involving a Blue Audi and we were wafting on another ethereal plane of existence where all your wildest dreams come true. We booked the room again that night so we could enjoy it all over again, minus the goose chase and woodwork.

Bird in the Hand, Hailey, Oxfordshire - you are the first to be inducted into the Paradise Circus Best Kept Secrets list. Well done!

It's Fixed - Sort Of...

Tonight I managed to get the camera to work. Huzzah!!! It's not fixed or anything but some gentle tweaking and the display actually fired up. There have been a million and one missed opportunities of late and at last I feel like I am on the road to recovery.



I took this one tonight as Lando C cleaned the kitchen window so that our solar-powered-rotating-crystal-make-you-happy device could work through the grime. Our window cleaner hasn't been round for ages. I wonder where he's been?