Time Taken Training

It's been a surreal time. Lots of very strange things have happened this week, but now things are a whole lot clearer and I have me some very good friends.

The dragon has been in high spirits, turn out he likes pomegranates too. Rare treat, but he ate two and a half seeds. Oh, and he just headbutted his shadow on the wall trying to eat it. He also discovered he likes apples this morning, I was eating one and he decided he wanted in on the crunchy action, so I had to share. I tried to get a photo, but he ran off with it. Munched three reasonable chunks before he got bored of that, but sour apples are pretty good. When I popped him back in his house and picked up a bug to feed him, he was a little bit enthusiastic: He leapt off his platform, scrabbled across his plant, THREW himself on my hand, scrabbling up my fingers, and lunged for the roach. Missed and bit my thumb. Thanks.

He also made a valiant attempt to eat one of the shrimp in my axolotl's tank. Potted (the shrimp) was clearly amused, and confident in the knowledge that the glass and water would probably do a good job of keeping him safe.


The course was all good too, learned a lot and had an interesting time to say the least. I'm so glad I wasn't silly enough to go for a hangover on test day lol. Even with the knock-door-runners and two-and-a-half hours sleep, I came off with a 59/65. Not great, but better than I thought, considering I fell asleep on my paper. Oh gosh yes and I was trying to revise for the exam, I had everything sent up by room service (I could get used to having an expenses account...), I had roast tomato soup with creme fraiche and basil, then best local ham, eggs and chips with mushrooms fried in a special garlic butter (I have the recipe somewhere, will look for that), and then cinnamon, raisin and apple pie with whisky custard! Oh yumness. And the steak, you would not believe the steak. Medium-rare, with thyme-roasted carrots, and MASSIVELY chunky chips. I stuffed myself silly every day there. (I'm not obsessed by food, just very nice food.) And the sunsets... Well, see for yourself. This is out of the window of the training rooms.

And yes Mum, as always your words of wisdom hold true. I'm still single, but that's ok. I do however have a lizard sitting on my head - SITTING I emphasise for those that misread things - and a good friend. See folks, you should listen to Mums, they're very wise. If you don't like yours, try mine, she's the best. She's lots of people's second-mum now. "Aloo aloo ping ding -that's baked potato where you think it's ready but you have to put it back in for a little while longer." - the brand of wisdom unique to my extraordinary mother. That discussion got a bit silly after a while, didn't it.

Thanks to G for doing an um, grand job of explaining what went wrong in the match. Not sure that made things easier to see, but have a go for yourself:

"the square is the other team person. the X are me and steve on the same side. the little lines are the goal. the first green arrow shows where the shot was going. black arrow shows the way i wentlower green arrow shows what actually happened as a result"
Does that make things clearer?

Also, a big shout to the strange child by my friend's local shop. "He doin' it with a lawn mower with a mask on as his guy lol... i just had to give hime something for the originality" You what? Sounds like autoerotica if you ask me. Turns out the kid was doing penny-for-the-Guy. That's a relief.

Sian introduced me to her radioshow on StreamRadioLive (<--- clickable) and I in turn introduced SRL to the wonders of Bauer. You should have seen the video further back in my blog of "Connected", but if you don't know who they are, then read The Bauer review here. Here's a little excerpt for those too lazy to go a-lookin'. "Greg Matthews fallen-angel vocals and Mikey's insouciant guitars summon the sublime, and the song is driven with great optimistic urgency by rhythm hub Neil Treppas (Bass) and Lee Bradbury (Drums)."

I managed to get a quick little chat with Mikey Guitar himself the other evening, and he gave me these comments to post: "I was thinkin' 'bout summat for ages last nite - would I rather die slowly after midgets had cut my p***s off slowly and eaten it for their tea... Or would I rather be forced to attend a Mika concert and then listen to his album every day in a Ford Mondeo driving to my job as an accountant? I realised i`d rather die." One could say Mr Guitar finds them distasteful and corporate then. I also got given a doodle to reinforce said comment.

Just so you know, Sians show on SLR is today, 3-4pm, and then Monday 8-10pm. I'll be listening in, as I know many other people are, and some evenings she does dedications. Thanks very much for the pure nostalgia value (and sheer CHEESE) of "Tiger Feet". I'm mildly embarrassed, but it is such a funky song.

Talking of nostalgia, I was trying to remember the songs from Mary Poppins the other day with Graham. Don't ask. We end up talking about such strange things. "Early each day to the steps of Saint Paul's, the little old bird woman comes. In her own special way to the people she calls, come, buy my bags full of crumbs... Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag." Even though I don't have a TV, I hope they play it on Boxing Day. Whole generations would be missing out on this classic otherwise. Oh, and Chitty-chitty-bang-bang. Great stuff.

Quote of the WEEK: "I don't like people beating around the bushes, the sounds of leaves moving annoys me." - Shroom.

Yars, m'off to bed to hunt under the pillows and search the mattress and forage the sheets and check under the bed and peep behind the headboard, see if I can find this rare and elusive item they call "sleep". Let me know as soon as you find it, won't you?