Too Much To Declare

Posts archive for: 16 May, 2008

showy business

by alecweston ^Pro @ 2008-05-16 – 22:58:47

Eating out for the nth time this week (kitchen still not functioning), the empty brasserie is suddenly filled with merriment, show business-looking people presumably down for the Brighton festival. Some know each other, some don't.

"I'm on television" one man says behind me.

I wait for (forced) laughter, an embarrassed giggle. Instead a momentary, serious, silence. I think of Troy Macluhan on the Simpson's: You may know me from such TV shows as... I don't look round.

They have now pulled half the tables of the brasserie together and have sat down. The man nearest me looks like The Pub Landlord, only half the size.
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"Gordon Brown just doesn't cut the mustard"

by alecweston ^Pro @ 2008-05-16 – 13:50:01

Er? I know he's an incompetent idiot - but exactly why do we need a Prime Minister who is good at mustard cutting? It's about the most stupid proverb ever

Even allowing for the fact that mustard is not only that stuff that gets up your nose and is wasted on a plate - but also one of the brilliant yellow-flowered plants that bloom so exuberantly in the Britricide at this time of year - isn't it best cut by farm machinery, as badly illustrated here?

Personally, I would never describe a tractor as something that "really cuts the mustard"
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exile in my own home

by alecweston ^Pro @ 2008-05-16 – 10:48:55

I have low and unispired ever since the builders moved in to my kitchen on Tuesday.

Except for the plumber, RIP, they are nice enough - but invaders. I haven't been able to cook or make coffee. They arrive at eight and I've been sleeping very badly. The rest of the place looks like a tip - the whole operation has demotivated me. Even my blogging appears to have suffered. And I have been sinking back to old mental patterns.

All the work should have been finished today, with the tiling. But there's a snag, and I can't really blame the builders for it.

I thought (extravegantly; now I'm beginning to worry about money) that I'd use the chance of the kitchen rejog to replace the elderly fitted gas hob, plus electric oven (already departed). I did my Which?work and found quite a cheap all-electric cooker... but it now turns out it will need a new, three phase, supply from the fuse box, plus specialist eletrician to fit it - cost, as much as the cooker itself.

... and I probably won't get it done till Monday, Tuesday...

Meanwhile, I'm keeping my madness to myself. And to you, daer blog-diary
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- life
- builders
- madness
- cooker
no white hair

by alecweston ^Pro @ 2008-05-16 – 05:13:56

I get up to check if my hair has gone white while I have been trying to sleep.

But I can't find a mirror that works.

Good news. On my pillow, every last strand has fallen, dark as it ever was.
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- dream
- white