Jaded Journeyer

My Nan made me laugh: She said I ought to get the earlier train, because I don't really want to be doing the Tube in the dark. It occured to me a short while later that, hang on, the Underground is, well... underground. It's going to be dark anyway! (Flikr "Tiedye" - The colours I see in the dark.)

So here I am, on the train home to Somerset, having a laugh at scaring the conductor silly. I got a headsup that my train would be coming in on Platform 7, so I swiped my ticket through a codebarrier and hopped on down. The train pulled in, the people got off, and I got on.

Interesting fact for you - if a train is going to be waiting at station for a few minutes, the cleaner will lock the doors when he or she gets off. And thus the conductor found me comfortably ensconsed in my forward facing, sunside, airconditioning ported with good view of all services table seat LONG before anyone was even allowed on!

People are finding the remaining Ninja'd BookCrossings, a young blonde girl has picked up the Bergdorf Blondes - sadly I can't see the other hidden books from here. From the noises, it sounds like people have discovered them. Hurrah! I'll take a trip along the carriage and see where they've wound up when we set off; I'm not risking my cushy position!

It always tickles me that folks are determined to get their "reserved seats" - even if the train is already full. Poor saps haven't learned like the wiser, jaded riders like myself - there's no such thing as "reserved". It's purely first come first served, very few travellers will actually give seats back to the ticketholders. (Pixdaus: HWMcDaniel "The Green Jade Vine")

Train drivers don't get stuck on last trains - the trains either return to terminal or bank close by - our particular driver will be doing the last train on this line and lives just a few miles from his final destination.

The other books have vanished and a lady is curled up with "The Other Woman" against her partner - lucky him!

New Wanderings and NumberWang!

The early morning fog was a delicate, wispy veil at dawn; tinted a juicy, fresh shade of apricot against the bruised plum purple clouds and kingfisher blue skies. Glorious!

So far the BookCrossing mission is going great guns! The trip in distributed a total of 11 books, my favourite being a ninja delivery to the sleeping guy a row ahead of me - he woke up to find a book propped up against him and wandered happily off with it.

Three more went to some people on the Flying Scotsman - one lady looked bored, so I gave her it, another lady wondered what BookCrossing was about, and her husband on the row behind stuck his head over. "Tom Clancy?" says I. "You've got me perfect!" says he, so he now has a copy to enjoy and pass on.

Various others were deposited on busy station benches - a Steven King outside of Body Shop in Waterloo, Alchemist's Cat at the waiting point at King's Cross and Stupid Cupid on a tubetrain seat - as I got off, the fellow opposite picked it up and started reading. Success!

I have always liked That Mitchell and Webb Look, and they're releasing a book soon - This Mitchell and Webb Book.

Thanks to that, I found a nifty little link to their website (see below) where you can play their famous game NumberWang for yourself! Very difficult, see if you can get further than I did.

Statutory Health Warning: This game is designed to, and will, drive you insane. Good luck! (Sometimes letters help.)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/thatmitchellandwebbsite/numberwang/round1.shtml

Engrish

Ha - I was saying to my cousin about "Engrish" foods earlier. I found some wonderful ones on EngrishFunny. Great restaurant offerings: "Squid to be monolithic", "Prawns to the pill pill", "Squid mustache" "Popsicle roasts the intestings" "Chicken with herpes" "Vegetarian in oil" "Starfish usually cooked in a soup with crude drugs" "You inhabit a child's overall with ham" and my personal favourite: "F*ck a bullfrog"

Today's Quote: "You couldn't be any more thoughtless. Oh, wait no... That's not right. Selfless, that's the one." - Himself. "mnnnngggggh"

Continued: "If your family remembers me for my red hot pea-ness, then it must be good!" Long story.

Picnics and Plants

We had a lovely picnic today, as I made an effort to make this washout season feel a bit more like summer. We had scotch eggs, crisps, fresh fruit, baked ham, applewood smoked cheese and fruit chutney sammiches and a truly summer desert - gooseberry fool. Asda's own is surprisingly nice, a rich mouthfeel that vanishes, somewhat akin to candyfloss.

The gecko will be pleased - I nabbed a patch of moss growing near the building at work yesterday and planted it in the strawberry corner of the tank. Already, from a pale yellowy colour, it has gone a deep glittering green and will look lovely when it matures in and starts growing. Gecko is an impressive 5.4g now. [Edit: 24/08/09 - 5.6g!]

We suddenly realised Snake hadn't been fed today, so I said I'd feed her in the morning. His Lordship asked if that wouldn't take her off guard. I responded "It'll keep her on her toes." And then realised what I'd said. Hang on - snakes don't have feet. (Epic Fail - Awwww: rettungsdroge.com)

I've been eating garlic cream cheese. With a spoon. Yummy.

Stop - Book Crossing!

Today we used my award vouchers at Pizza Hut after a good afternoon at the cinema, which was nice - but the nicest thing happened on the way home. I spotted a book abandoned on a bench in the middle of town and strolled across to pick it up. I stopped in surprise at reading a sticker on the front: "This book is not lost!" Fair enough thinks I, looking for the owner. The rest of the sticker explained: "It's a travelling book, waiting for you to find it!" How wonderful!

I'm now a member of BookCrossing - a team that's best described as guerilla librarians. It's really rather a beautiful system for sharing a book you've enjoyed and want to pass on. BookCrossing gives it a unique BCID Number and you then "release it into the wild" to be found by a passing stranger. Whomever finds it, like myself with this book, "Witchcraft & Black Magic" (BCID: 003-7425446) is to read it then log a record of it and it's release on the website. You can even follow my BCID to see where it has been, and where it goes!

This book (along with some of my own BCID'd novels!) will be released somewhere on my travel home to Lincolnshire in a couple of weeks, so if you're in any big train stations between Somerset and Lincolnshire, have a look round - you never know!

Weightloss Water and Cream Cakes

That's just grand. After a month of fussing and promising, I only found out that I'm not being shifted after all. Now I'm deeply annoyed - I don't want to be where I am. I wouldn't mind so much if anyone actually asked before swapping my role. I turned down a nice admin position out of "loyalty" because I knew we needed staff and I thought they were doing their best to help me too. I won't make that mistake again.

But anyway, enough rant. We did have giggle at work for a change today - one of our regular phone customers called up again in his ah... influenced state and offered us all free holidays in Brittany.

I heard THE most ridiculous thing today. "Bio Synergy Skinny Water!" - low calorie water?! What the - Contains "L-Carnatine, a vitamin-like nutrient." Having done a little looking into it, this "miracle substance" hasn't been proven to help increase weight loss. Snakeoil anyone?

On a plus note, and not "lo-fat", we're making apricot and rhubarb cookies again! I smell of ground cloves. Also, I have a fridge and freezer full of yummy, yummy cream cakes. Get this - Tesco normally order 2 cages of creamcakes for the weekend. Due to an administrative error, FIFTY NINE arrived in our local branch. Everything half price! We've had eclairs, cheesecakes, slices, doughnuts, custard, choux pastries... It's going to be a good defrostables month.

"Halle Berry's boobs - slightly more interesting than Pokemon" - Himself

Chicken and Chilli...

Wowwee. Well, I've recovered from the week of crazy that was the family visiting - small dog and all. His Lordship was... impressed is the wrong word, with the ability of the dog to choose the nice carpet to go to the toilet on. I wouldn't mind the livingroom carpet so much, but it was the nice carpet.

Oh well! It was good to see everyone, chicken gravy just as I remember it should be and a fiiiiine pot of chilli. My great big stockpot didn't even last the evening, it was that good! My Mexican Chilli cheese was greatly appreciated by my sister - she likes the spicy. I may have to post some, but I haven't decided yet.

So much for recovery - I just found this shocking photo of one of my old friends... Augh! Get me some eye bleach, quick!

It's my own fault, I've been looking for a friends of mine from back home. Properly weird though is another chap I know, whom I lost touch with at least five years ago. He's turned up living less than 30 miles away. What are the chances of that?! I hate to admit it, but Facebook's actually really handy for this kind of thing.

I spent a good couple of hours on the terrarium the other day, carefully layering the hydroleca, netting and potting compost. After, I released some earthworms and woodlice to create a natural biocycle and topped it with some dead magnolia leaves. I planted two miniature palms, Terry's favourite peace lily and my own special treat for the gecko - miniature alpine strawberry plants, so when they fruit, s/he can eat them fresh. Thankfully the nice old gent of the magnolia plant didn't think it weird that I wanted dead leaves. I must pop a pic of the tank through his door as a thanks.

Ridiculousness and ROLLED!

Our lager, which art in barrels; hallowed be thy drink. Thy will be drunk, (I will be drunk). At home as it is in the tavern, give us this day our foamy head snd forgive us our spillage as we forgive those who spill against us. Lead us not into incarceration but deliver us from hangovers, for thine is the beer, the bitter, and the lager. Barmen. - Anon.

Interesting fact for you: the loose skin on your elbow is called a "wenus". His Lordship started rubbing his wenus on me, and asked me if I liked him.

GinjaNinja just dropped a pile of baccy on the floor - and used the dustpan and brush to sweep it up - then proceeded to roll a fresh one using it!

Schoolboy gains bus qualification

"A schoolboy has gained a qualification for getting on a bus - despite not knowing he had taken the test. Bobby McHale, 15, received a letter from an exam board recognising his ability to walk to the bus stop, wait for it to arrive and to board the vehicle

It came from the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, the largest of the three English exam boards, and was titled Using Public Transport (Unit 1)." - With thanks to UK MSN News.

Pensarn, Pensarn...

What a journey. We got on multiple trains as of silly o'clock on Saturday morning, having discovered my party earrings had not arrived. The dragons were sound asleep wrapped in their towels and the journey was perfectly planned to the minute - connection after connection made beautifully (I realised I had forgotten my specially bought hat on the second train) and almost pleasant if it weren't for the extraordinary amount of Scouts. In fairness, they were wonderfully behaved and great entertainment for the dragons, whom had a fabulous time watching the humans and out of the window. (Points A through D on the map to see our trip!)

We arrived in Pensarn a couple of minutes late - and couldn't see our taxi. The conductor, just preparing to head off, suddenly said "Is it Abergele you're going to?" We agreed and asked if he knew a taxi number, being as ours hadn't turned up. "Oh

." he says. "This isn't it."

Apparently, the Pensarn the trainline was advertising isn't OUR Pensarn. Our Pensarn is Abergele. In fairness, our Pensarn is big, with a little town (Abergele) just down the road and the inhabitants of our Pensarn didn't even know there was another one! The Pensarn we ended up at was simply a train track with a shelter... There was one house across the road, and some sort of traveller's day centre. That's it. And we were now late for our friends wedding.

Thankfully a lovely girl called Rachel in the Pensarn day centre sorted out a cabbie to take us the 50 miles completely across Wales to the right Pensarn. He was fantastic, and I'd like to thank him and his two little boys who had a bit of a long trip to get us back to Abergele. We got to the Bull Hotel whom kindly let us borrow their phone to call the Black Lion accross the road from the community centre where the reception was being held and let the bride know we hadn't got killed - just delayed by four hours.

The reception was lovely, the bride was delighted to see us, which made my day, Tsam and Kyle had a brilliant time tiring themselves out running around on the grass, taking Wee C for a walk, Rich discovered he didn't like Belgian lager but the cake was just right for him (no marzipan) and I found a yummy carrot, orange and lemon juice goes well with sparkling perry. The bride looked fantastic and the blushing groom was as happy as jam scones. Wee C made me laugh - on receiving and taking a big bite of her very own cake, we asked her what it tasted like. "Hmmm. It tastes like... cake."

We finally got back to the Bull - if you ever end up in Abergele, please do visit the Bull Hotel at the very least. The landlord and his family are lovely souls, the rooms peculiar in shape and with luscious dark wood furniture. Our room had a curved wall that leant in on the one side... We slept in a very comfy, creaky bed and awoke to enjoy a huuuuge cooked breakfast.

We got to the local trainstation and had to wing it from there... F-J on the map. We explained to each conductor the Pensarn-Pensarn situation, and they let us continue on our way. With some creative map reading and sensational timing, we managed to knock four hours off the journey! The lizards always enjoy train trips, but Tsam had a particularly good journey, flirting with a nice lady passenger. She got this great picture of Tsam showing off how big and male he is... (Pic credit K1m)