Pancake Day

Ugh. Remind me never to eat part-cooked, part-burnt, but definitely inedible batter again. Even with lemon juice and salt.

It just smelt so tasty!

New Layout

Thought I'd update the layout on this thing, after five years. Whaddya think?

Shit on a Stick

It is now 1 a.m. Last night at eight of the clock I got back from working late at the office, to find my brother dave, now 25, lying in bed very ill. Putting the kettle on for some soup, I immediately scraped together some cash to get him some drugs, and went back out of the flat to get the lift to the ground floor. As I pressed the button for the lift, the power behind me in the flat died and everything kinda groaned to a halt. The life immediately popped up an error message - luckily I'd not got in there five seconds earlier else I would have been stuck for three hours. I checked the trip switches in our flat - nothing had tripped. Moping around our floor, I found that our neighbours had power but no water - it's powered by the electric pumps on our side of the building. No power meant no water and no heating and it got cold quickly. Going further down I found that the entire side of our building was dead. I went down to the bottom floor and went into the "Danger No Entry Death" room to find a bunch of anciently smashed electricity boxes and piled metal. I went back up to my flat, grabbed my tealights and distributed them to everyone on my side of the building. Then I went out and got my brother some lemsip powder. I met an old resident leaving who explained this happens "every time it rains heavily and they know all about it - there's one landlord who won't let the others do anything about it though." My fingers have acquired a grasping, flexing itch for the throat of this person. Two hours later the lights came back on. The water is still off as is the heating but now I can sleep, so I do. I shower at work.

Tonight I got back to find that the man upstairs had turned his taps on when the water went off and forgotten to turn them off again before going out. The water from his flat was leaking down through our mains power box into our storage cupboard. Again we are without mains power (though the plug sockets are working, perversely) and have several hundred damp items scattered throughout the flat now. I am very, very annoyed.



This windowframe is an example of how our building is maintained. It is a veritable deathtrap - amazingly bad walls, sewage pipes that lead nowhere, electricity connected by the medium of loose cables dangling through hacked holes in the ceiling/floor.

EDIT: Woke up this morning to find the power had gone completely again, so no shower for me before popping out to view houses. Hurrah!

Help Wonted

Right. Looks like I'll need a friend with a driving license to help me move at least once on the 18th March. Any volunteers?

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Baronet £$£

I'm a bit bemused about this Lordship scandal. Granted, giving the money to T.Blair so he can buy himself houses, or to his party so they can buy votes, is somewhat corrupt, but we mustn't forget that certain titles were created for this purpose. The baronets were created in 1611 by James I, desperate for funds, who ennobled 200 gentlemen in return for hard cash for three years. Notably, this money went straight to the government.

I do not think that people in the Oldene Timese were nobler, more sensible or more morally upright than us; however, I do think they can provide useful examples of alternative living that can inspire us. I'd suggest that if the rich want to pay money to the government in return for titles, let them. Let them buy baronetcies straight from the Exchequer. The more money they give, the better title they get - though they should be excluded from sitting in the house of Lords. Higher-up titles can be hereditary or not; hereditary titles should require an inflation-adjusted yearly payment in perpetuity. Just don't let them give the money to the parties and make sure that the money is put into a closed fnnd that can't be accessed for five years, so another election has passed before the money can be used. This is to stop them giving money to help balance the accounts of their favoured party when in government.

Secondly, isn't it funny that these rich people spend so much time and money avoiding giving the country their taxes by dodges and canny accountancy then end up giving it to the parties? It's kinda foul.

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello 1-3

Absolutely gorgeous cut-out animation.

The Marxist Party

The rules were simple. A party, David's birthday, where you're obliged to come as Groucho Marx, or Karl Marx if you'd never heard of Groucho (Phyllis Stein's, the lot of you.) These three won easily though with their tribute to the Duck Soup mirror scene, here available by the miracle of You Tube. Huzzah!

Relevant To The Centre's Holding.

The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Ah, my favourite piece of poetry. Wonder why I like it so? I tink it's the lack of definite description and the leaving of linking of items to the mind of the observor, I tink. A great piece of abstract art. By this Yeats feller I believe.

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Because UV is a Hairy-Legged Girl's Best Friend

Ultraviolet Light Is Key to Spider Mating

And in jungles all over the world, the coming of the black lights symbolises a time for... love. Female spiders cease munching on their tiny wannabe beloveds and instead stare longingly into their remaining eyes. Jungle shrieks and squawks segue into groaning saxes and pumping rhythms, Barry White love-making music. Uhuh, you hear what I'm saying woman? Do those legs go all the way up? All eight of them, all hairy eight? mm-hmm, woman!

A Family Food

Unhappy Meals - Michael Pollan - New York Times

if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.