Henge

Some clever person has taken typical Ikea instructions and moved them back in time 3500 years...

Manual handling

As I am officially based at home with my job (though I am out seeing clients - i.e. Financial Advisers, most of the time), my employer wants me to complete a long questionnaire on my 'home working environment'.  It covers many things such as the space I have to work, wires on the floor, position of computer etc.

I chuckled when I got to this question:

Are you aware that you are not permitted to carry out significant manual handling activities?

I did not know this and have therefore broken the rule many many times since the age of about 12.  Is this fact going to get me in trouble?

Kind hearts and Coronets

When I was young and I mean early teens, I saw a film called Kind Hearts And Coronets.  I knew that this film made many decades earlier was something very special. It is an Ealing comedy unlike their other offerings.

So how could this movie, released in in 1949 and obviously in black and white, have entertained me to the extent that I can still class it as one of my all time favourites?  The answer:... this is near perfect cinema. 

The art of making a black comedy is a tough area of film and one that has produced more duds than successes.  There are no laughs as such, yet you know that this is a comedy from the start, despite it being dark, moody and serious.  To be able to turn the topic of jealousy and death into comedy is an amazing feat and it is not until you realise that Alex Guinness is playing multiple parts that you fully understand that this is not your typical film.

I wont give anything away, but I urge you to watch and enjoy this masterpiece.

The digitally restored film will soon be available and I hope that I get to see it at a cinema.

Post weekend

On Saturday night, a few of us went out for Pete's brothers birthday. We went to the 'best restaurant in town' and after the debt of a small African nation to passed to the waitress, we left very full and also a bit drunk. 

On Sunday morning, on the spur of the moment, we decided to go to Cambridge and spent virtually the whole day looking round in the lovely sunshine.  The cute guys were out trying to flog punts.  We had a beer and read the papers while watching the punters.  There were a few good buskers worth stopping to watch and we had a voucher lunch - a bargain!

I bought a new camera - it was 'sort of' planned and I didn't really have the money set aside, but I realised that technology had moved on so quickly, that my camera was looking a bit tired.  It's a great piece of kit. I have found that amateur photographers don't have cameras, they have 'kit'.  I will sell my old camera and a few lenses on eBay I think.


I don't want to dwell on the sad events from the weekend in Norway. We were all shocked by the evil acts and I hope that the nation will never stop leading the way in promoting peace. 

Anyway, here is the famous Cambridge Uni... taken with that old camera:

So much... too much

I have lots to blog about at the moment and need to get my thoughts down on the page.  While  I think about the content, here's a little joke that made me laugh...


Alien couple come down to earth and go to a swinging party.

They swap partners and go to respective bedrooms. The alien man takes his clothes off revealing a one inch willy. The woman says I'm not impressed!

The alien then twists his right ear and his willy grows to ten inches.

Now I am impressed says the woman.

The alien then twists his left ear and his willy becomes two inches thick and he gives the woman
the best seeing too she has ever had.

She meets up with her husband later and asks "how was it for you?"

Her hubby said 'f***ing shite, all she did was keep twisting my f***ing ears!"

Kings Cross to St. Mary Axe

A little longer than the usual 30 second movie, here is the journey I took on Thursday afternoon from Kings Cross station to 30 St. Mary Axe via the Underground.

A conversation with... #2

A long time ago, Andrew and I took a Facebook conversation and shared it with the world.  It seemed to work, so here we go again...

SC - The perfect man...

AB - I think the concept of the The Perfect Man, or indeed, The Perfect Person is deeply flawed. No one is ever going to be perfect.

SC - Indeed, but what about Perfectland where everything is perfect - what do the guys look like?

AB - Hmmm… I suspose they would look like they'd just walked off the set of Kylie's Aphrodite Les Folies show. Which probably betrays an element of body fascism in me.

SC - Its the only good fascism! Despite the fact the Abercrombie & Fitch shop floor helpers are employed because they have good genes, they are a welcome sight in their shops.

AB - Good Fascism?! Hmmm... I've never been to an A&F. Have tried going into Hollister twice but just find it too weird!

SC - Hollister is a strange place - you cant actually see the stock it's so dark. That makes me sound old! A&F is better, though there you have to sometimes shout to be heard over the music!

AB - I was thinking I sounded old complaining about Hollister - and that was without mentioning the music! Or the ridiculous facades. But this is in danger of turning into an edition of Grumpy Old Men...

SC - At what age do you become old and grumpy? I quite enjoy complaining about things!

AB - So what's your favourite thing to complain about!

SC - People! I despair of society sometimes - the selfishness of people saddens me.

AB - Yes but not everyone is like that - or like that all the time. For example, the British public, through various means, raised £102m for Comic Relief this year, at a time of apparent austerity.  I think we should be positive and celebrate the good as well as attack the bad.

SC - You are correct of course, but when I see individual acts of selfishness, I get pretty angry!

AB - Perhaps we should get you some anger management courses!

Dutch courage

My old friend Jan (pronounced Yarn), his wife and 2 kids came up for the weekend and we had a great laugh.  We basically ate and drank and chatted. We ended Saturday with the film 'Paul' as recommended by his oldest son Anthony. It's a really funny film, with loads of 'in jokes' based on science fiction classic movies.

Anthony is almost 16 and is extremely clever (not sure who he takes after!). I have no doubt he will go to University and be very successful. Pete and I have already suggested that he should be aiming for a place at Cambridge... mainly so that we can get on a train and be his guests are the student bar where beer is £1 a pint!

Jan's wife is Dutch and Jan has picked up a lot, having lived in Assen for a number of years until recently. The boys are bilingual of course. So this weekend I learned how to pronounce 'Beach' and 'Turd' in Dutch. It wasn't planned that way, but my pronunciation of the word 'Strand' sounded more like 'Stront'. At least it gave the Dutch speakers in the room a laugh. I am not sure how I will work either word into conversation though.  Perhaps it would go something like...


Er is een stront op het strand.

Classic jokes

In the newspaper today, they listed a few classic jokes. I thought some were so brilliant, I had to share them with you...


You see I'm against hunting, in fact I'm a hunt saboteur. I go out the night before and shoot the fox.
(Tim Vine)


A man loses his dog, so he puts an ad in the paper. And the ad says: 'Here boy'.
(Spike Milligan)


They laughed when I said I was going to be a comedian. They're not laughing now.
(Bob Monkhouse)


Thanks for cheering me up. I needed cheering up. I loaned a guy 8000 dollars for plastic surgery and now I don’t know what he looks like.
(Emo Philips)


I have kleptomania, but when it gets bad, I take something for it.
(Ken Dodd)

Hangover and out

A quickie blog posting today...

Last night I went out with 2 guys I work closely with - Dan and Adrian. As we cover a large region and drive everywhere, we had all commented that in 3 years we had never really socialised.

So we started at 4.30 in the City with many beers, followed by a curry and even more beers! We learned a lot about each other - it's amazing it took so long.

I got the 12.05am train from Kings Cross, which stopped half way home and we had to wait for ages due to faulty points. I made it home at 1.50am and today feel rather delecate. Thankfully I am "working from home" today.

One significant event for me... I am now OUT at work. Not sure who knows, but I am really pleased that Dan and Adrian now know. It's a weight off my mind... if that's the right cliche to use.  Now to sort out a couple more people I work with sometimes.