Today, I shall mostly be... Showing 4,051-4,100 of 4,719

[Craig White]

you need a Cadbury's Caramel! 😁

[Collette]

The Symbio/Eon mess appears to be finally sorted out, so tonight I'm looking forward to relaxing with a bottle of white, and They on dvd.

[Brass Neck]

"Eon mess" - is that Boris Johnson when he's not had his t(ea)?

[Anita]

Collette he had actually slipped out from his home.The trouble was he came back the next week when the 14 year old was on her own,she rang the police very upset ,they did come very quickly.Your electrics all sorted I hope?I haven't seen They,I have watched Them.

[Collette]

That's scary, Anita. Bad enough for you, but that poor girl on her own? Thank god for locks on doors.

Electric appear to be fine now. Symbio started it all by telling EonNext we had 2 meters. Apparently they did it with a good couple of hundred customers. Perhaps a twos up to the new suppliers?? Been a stressful couple of weeks. We're just relieved it's fixed now.

They is from 2002. Laura Regan stars in it. You may have saw another horror film she's in - Dead Silence. It has on of the creepiest scenes ever in it.

[Brass Neck]

So this morning, well over 18 months since the first one was cancelled due to the 2nd lockdown in Nov 2020, Minnie had her first 'puppy' training session. I messaged Elisa, the trainer, to explain about Minnie's reactivity to0 big black dogs in general and labs in particular and said I'd give her a go but leave if it was all too much. I needn't have worried, there were 3 other dogs there and she was the calm, chilled one - we were all placed at different corners of a small field/large garden and the other three including, guess what, a big black lab were all straining and barking and whining to get to each other while Minnie just lay there! It was too hot in the glaring sun for a fluffy black dog like Minnie so we called it a day before the end but not for reasons of reactivity. So I have plenty of things to practice with her .... but in reality I probably won't because, so long as there's not another hulk of a hound thrusting its snout into either end of her she's no bother.

We also had a blocked drain from the kitchen sink/dishwasher outflow and the men from Jettech duly came round with their magic self-propelled extending hose which dislodged a ton of putrid fat, all the more fragrant for Summer's belated arrival. Clearly not a job involving much hard labour given both men's impressive beer-bellies and it pays well too - the guy at the end says, "There's two ways we can go; £102 for a cheque or £70 for cash". To my momentary shame (something Bozza is incapable of) I participated in the inevitable short-changing of Dishy Rishy.

I phoned Blind Col to see if he wanted to go to a local blues band gig in Louth tonight. "We can't," quoth he, "we're going to Leeds to see that African band"! Nearly a month of unbroken exam-marking does things to the brain as well as the eyes. The obsessive bugger went to London for a gig on Tuesday, arrived back late due to train shenanigans, may or may not have missed his feeding and watering and was gone for a train to Edinburgh on Wednesday evening. How he does it and where he gets his money from I do not know and am too polite to ask. He's off to London again next Wednesday, not for mega bands but probably for a sub-£20 concert by a little-known blues artist whose tour consists solely of London and the south-east. He'll stay overnight and but up at the crack of sparrers to get his train back. The carers who hook his food and water up are constantly having to shift their visits round but they seem impressed by his will to go on; I suppose one reaction to a diagnosis of inoperable cancer is to just turn to the wall but whileever there are gigs to go to, T shirts and cds to buy and have defaced .........

[Craig White]

eh's a nawfy man, as they say! long may he do your head in! 😁

[Craig White]

we're halfway through Dee Dee's puppy training course - guess who the class clown is? no, not me! she's a little less sedate than the 3 other puppies, and due to numerous issues (cars, biting the lead, etc) gets more attention, last session during re-call, yes, came on command, but sped past mrs t and barrelled straight into one of the other pups rugby tackle style. it was funny, mind. why we stick with beardies, i don't know - we should know by now that they're 'no right in the heid'!

[Brass Neck]

Tech XXIII wrote: "we're halfway through Dee Dee's puppy training course - guess who the class clown is? no, not me! she's a little less sedate than the 3 other puppies, and due to numerous issues (cars, biting the l..."

Pictures or she doesn't exist.

So yesterday BC and I schlepped over to Leeds for the gig by Ghanaian band Santrofi. I picked him up early so we'd be there for early entry ensuring him a seat. Shouldn't have bothered as we arrived at 7.25 to be informed the band had only just arrived and doors would be delayed. They must've just thrown their gear on stage when, 20 minutes later, it was announced we could go in and fewer than 10 people trooped in which wasn't terribly encouraging. I fetched a seat from the bar and esconced BC at the back with his baby beaker spittoon and waited until the support band came on. They were Onipa, an electronic/Ghanaina fusion band led by KOG (King Of Ghana), a Sheffield based singer/rapper/percussionist who played, of all places, Grimsby's Dock's Beers Academy last year with his other band KOG and the Zongo Band who, to my amazement, went down a storm. They weren't the full band but with the help of programmed backing and a white guitarist and Ghanaian singer/dancer Wiyaala they got the by now slightly larger crowd moving (yours truly excepted, natch). I was impressed enough to by the album which had to be on vinyl since they only had that and ..... cassettes! Turns out this wasn't a hipster, "Hey man, that's what the kids want nowadays" thing but an oversight as they got the train up from Sheffield. They played without a set list and kept extending things with one more song.

Santrofi trooped to the stage about 10pm by which time the crowd had swelled to 100+ and it was obvious there'd been no sound check. meantime a very good dj was playing African music pretty loud over the PA so the band members kept running between stage and sounddesk to rely issues and requirements. Given they're a 7 piece band this took quite a time and the 2 sound guys, particularly the older one, looked increasingly fraught but eventually they were ready, didn't bother going off stage and just exploded into some pretty joyous highlife music. They only played for an hour but it was 60 minutes of funky bliss. I'd taken a gander at the merch desk and all they had was their debut album Alewa (highly recommended) on cd and vinyl. I'd already bought cheap promo copies for myself and BC off ebay but knew that BC had brought his with him. Wjen I saw the cds were in a thick tri-fold card sleeve compared to the thin on the promos came in I suggested strongly to Col that they might be offended being presented with it to sign as I knew he would; it seems more important than the gig itself at times. "I'll just buy the proper cd then, " he said. I led him over to the merch stand at the end, I relayed the prices to him (only a tenner, very reasonable), he fumbled in his capacious cargo trouser pockets and fished out a Sharpie and ..... the promo cd!" I retired to the back out of embarrassment, an emotion BC is an absolute stranger to. Turns out they didn't have a Sharpie and all the other punters, seeing Col get his signed, also wanted their merch comprehensively defaced too leaving this 5' blind guy standing bemusedly in the midst of the band and other punters waiting for the return of his cd and pen. When I'd had enough about 15 minutes later I wasn't prepared to count up whether he'd got the full set of 7 band members. He didn't apologise for the delay, in fact I can't recall him ever using the words please, thank you or I'm sorry despite the shenanigans I put myself through for him. Good job I don't work as I didn't arrive home after an hour and a half's driving until about 1am only to find that Minnie's dicky bowels from Tuesday, despite not having anything to eat all day Wednesday, had returned in my absence with a vengeance. Mrs Neck had been out too and Minnie had had the run of the downstairs but was now locked in the kitchen so I know she'd seen and must've smelt the three huge dollops of completely undigested puke on the living room carpet and gone to bed leaving them to marinade nicely! Minnie , possibly unbeknownst to Mrs Neck, had decorated most of the (thankfully) tiled kitchen floor with liquid poop and retched froth. There were precisely 2 sheets left on the kitchen roll and the spares are kept in a secret location neither in the kitchen nor utility; I know, I searched frantically but quietly given the ungodly hour! Very difficult to mop that lot up with bog roll which is much thinner, less robust, smaller and more inconveniently perforated than kitchen roll I can tell you but I did it and the took a 2am walk around the block to allow Minnie to void whatever was left in her system (a wise idea it turned out). Must've done a decent job as I couldn't smell anything when I finally emerged after 9, Minnie hadn't had any further episodes and Mrs Neck hasn't mentioned it. She's been fine today with no signs of lethargy so I'll try feeding her tomorrow (Minnie not Mrs Neck - the latter is always lethargic and If she didn't cook I don't know that I'd rush to feed her!) so fingers crossed......

[Collette]

(...sounding like my usual Saturday broken record...) looking forward to a nice cold bottle of white later and a horror film.

[Brass Neck]

Collette wrote: "(...sounding like my usual Saturday broken record...) looking forward to a nice cold bottle of white later and a horror film."

No, I detect a massive change; a bottle of WHITE rather than red. Go girl!

[Collette]

Yep. I sure know how to party, ha ha!

[Brass Neck]

So me an' the Blind Colster and two other blokes schlepped over to 'olmfirth and the wonderful Picturedrome to see Walter Trout last night. BC had said he would get us on the guest list since WT and his roadie, Andrew, know him well. I don't understand why, if you really like an artist you'd want to freeload but there you go. BC took a mobile call in the car, it was his sister, Sue, and I could hear, since he's deaf as well as blind and wears aids in both ears, that she'd set a text but heard no reply. Oh well, not the first time he's put me in such a predicament and the two others in the car had tickets so we'd have to continue and see what transpired.

When we got there, finally emerging from the band of rain that had dogged the whole journey (I had shorts on and the car's temp sensor read 10C at one point!), I noticed BC had an old WT t shirt on despite having gone solo to Chester which is of course only a short distance from Grimsby (not) earlier in the week to see him and must surely have bought this tour's t shirt. When I enquired he said he had bought one, "but I lost it". He normally stuffs merch in his cargo trouser pockets or threads it up and over his belt but since he had his overnight bag (a small plastic bin bag if I know him) it had been in that which he put down while waiting for a taxi and left it. Someone is the proud owner, not only of a WT t shirt but also BC's jim-jams and a bar of carbolic soap (no toothbrush/paste - I've seen his yellowed stumps and caught his halitosis). The guy on the door looked at the very short guest list but no Col +1. "Will you get Andrew?" asked BC, fully expecting the guy to abandon his job of getting the long queue of punters in so when he answered in the negative I had to fork over £30 of which he'll pay half. I loathe unnecessary shenanigans like that but they're not uncommon with BC who doesn't inform me of potential hiccups like forgetting his spit cup or not actually having bought tickets which he'd said we would be picking up on the door.

It's a mostly standing venue and the few seats on the narrow balconies were taken so I pointed him at the front barrier knowing he would use his white stick to do a Moses-like parting of the punter sea and hang himself over it which he achieves by tapping the heels or ankles of those in front of him so they, startled, move aside. Does he thank any of them Whaddya thunk! At that point I left to join the other two at the back. At the end I went down and retrieved him as he was painstakingly counting out £30 (for that is the going rate of a tour shirt these days) so he took my arm and I guided him to the merch table at the back. Turns out they'd done a roaring trade, this being near the end of the tour and didn't have mediums or larges but only small and XXXL. I opined that the former wouldn't fit (although in his shrunken state it just might) and the latter would drown even me and I'm best part of a foot taller and twice his current weight so let's be off. Not a bit of it, he handed over his £30 so that's cost him £60 across the two gigs to end up with a T shirt that he might not be able to get into or one that will look ridiculous, fitting only where it touches. None of my business really but such desperation and lack of any logic exasperates me more than it should. When I dropped him off at almost 1.30am did he thank me? Whaddya thunk? Oh well, shouldn't think I'll still be doing this in a few months time, he is getting visibly skinnier, saggier and feebler.

[Val]

Great yarn! Go BC! And how was Walter?

[Brass Neck]

Val wrote: "Great yarn! Go BC! And how was Walter?"

Not so much a yarn, more essential venting/therapy?

For a 71 year old who almost died, suffered posy liver transplant brain damage meaning he had to learn to walk, talk and play guitar again from scratch 7 years ago he was great. The first time I saw him was at the same venue 8 years ago when he couldn't stand for long, had to play with his guitar held at the side due to a massively distended gut/liver and it looked like it might be his last tour! He had played at the Beachcomber Club less than a mile down the road many times but I never went to see him. D'oh! Played for almost 2 hours full on, was his usual generous self by inviting the support act, Elles Bailey and her guitarist (whose gigs bookended the UK's lockdowns on Sunday 15 March 2020 at 'ull and a date I forget at Sheffield some months later) by bringing them on to jam and encouraging the guitarist to take multiple solos. I'll go and see him whileever he still tours. He says the Picturedrome is his favourite UK venue; were it a little nearer I would concur.

[Craig White]

"Pictures or she doesn't exist."

proof on view.

[Brass Neck]

Tech XXIII wrote: ""Pictures or she doesn't exist."

proof on view."

Sweetie, pity she's not looking camerawards eh, David bleedin' Bailey?!

[Craig White]

Darling, she was concentrating 100% on the trainers' instructions!

...................in actuality, she was watching cars on the nearby road!

[Brass Neck]

So, I gave Blind Col a lift home after the CCR tribute gig. It was an excellent singalong show although there were the usual 'Hell is other people' moments with totally plastered blokes, always blokes, shouting, braying, flailing and always next to me. Thought things were really going to kick off when one of the idiots guffawed with a gobful of beer and sprayed the back of the young woman in front, she turned round and slapped him across the face but then her shaven-headed, bearded and tatted amour looked like he was going to wade in until she dragged him away as he was making richly-deserved w@nker signs and giving the middle finger to the offender.

Now BC lives in a street that is definitely one of the roughest in Grimsby, itself a rough old town. The other evening when I picked him up a couple were loudly engaged in a domestic in their front garden for all to hear which is about par for the course and BC's sister who lives directly opposite has a lockable letter box which came as a revelation to me. He exited the car and shut the door with an almighty slam as usual despite his diminished physical condition and I drove the 100m to the junction where I turn left. As I approached said junction I could just make out two small red lights in the dimly-lit gloom, one on either pavement. As they reached the junction I could see they were dressed head to foot in black and wore balaclavas but I thought this was just the mandatory dress code for feral cyclists in Grimsby along with having no lights or reflectors and going the wrong way down one way streets. And then it struck me as I could just make out the Steyr-type assault rifles both were cradling in their arms - they were armed police and the lights were on their radios or bodycams! I didn't hang around to nosy but hightailed it rapido. Gonna have to wear kevlar next time I collect or deposit BC I reckon. I've never encountered armed police outside of Parliament and Sellafield and certainly didn't expect them in my adopted home town.

[Val]

Never a dull moment with you and Blind Col!

[Brass Neck]

Val wrote: "Never a dull moment with you and Blind Col!"

Technically I wasn't WITH BC at the time ...... perhaps he was the focus of the cops' operation for heinous crimes against t-shirts and Tommy Tippee beakers? And there are in fact many, many exceedingly dull moments on our sojourns as he's no great conversationalist and his opinions tend towards the brief, extreme and unqualified; "That were brilliant" being one of the more profound comments, another being "Will you do a deal,?" but that's to the merch person rather than me.

[Collette]

Tonight I'm sat with a bottle of Barefoot Merlot watching The World's End.

[Post Soviet]

Just finished Carpenter's magnificent classic Big Trouble In Little China. With a cup of self made fireweed tea.

Coupla days ago rerewatched no less awesome 1975 horror classic Race With The Devil, featuring Peter Fonda (with him before in Dirty Mary Crazy Larry).

[Anita]

Snap Collette,I was on Barefoot merlot earlier as well,I've been watching Beck ,I do like the occasional Swedish murder.I have discovered Kling Eve at last,been watching it when the beasties are at school.I have to say Brass You do have fun with BC,I've never been to Grimsby but it sounds lively.

[Brass Neck]

Anita wrote: "Snap Collette,I was on Barefoot merlot earlier as well,I've been watching Beck ,I do like the occasional Swedish murder.I have discovered Kling Eve at last,been watching it when the beasties are at..."

I think Grimsby is an example of nominative determinism; grim by name, grim by nature. Just another British seaside shit'ole town but then I haven't lived IN it for over a quarter of a century due in large part to its undoubted 'liveliness'.

[Collette]

...gonna be a devil later and have a bottle of cider instead of the usual wine. 😈

In a good mood as well because D's fixed my AEG hoover so it's picking up all of Miss Snowball's hair and cat litter stones and not firing them back out again. So nice not dripping with sweat while hoovering the living room. (Shark hoover's brill but it's corded and a heavy bugger.) Turns out it was just the filter needing cleaned. DOH!

[Huck]

Brass Neck wrote: "Anita wrote: "Snap Collette,I was on Barefoot merlot earlier as well,I've been watching Beck ,I do like the occasional Swedish murder.I have discovered Kling Eve at last,been watching it when the b..."

Hooked on Barefoot Malbec, Brass - at one stage at Tesco with price per btl reduced to 5.75 and then a 25% off offer for 6 btls or more, i got a load of it for approx £4.25 a btl !!

[Brass Neck]

Huck wrote: "Brass Neck wrote: "Anita wrote: "Snap Collette,I was on Barefoot merlot earlier as well,I've been watching Beck ,I do like the occasional Swedish murder.I have discovered Kling Eve at last,been wat..."

It's a good few years since I drank any vino - I would regularly drink a bottle of red plus a third of a bottle Mrs Neck hadn't/wouldn't finish on a 3 day weekend binge. I switched to beer; much more difficult to drink in quantity and I have no regrets viz the switch (except when I think about the 'bargains' I buy to restock my old man in his care home - it was pretty much a dealbreaker if he couldn't bring his exceedingly tall wine rack with him. They readily agreed; it must have 21 or 24 slots although at least half are filled with non-alcoholic bottles which he doesn't touch - he has a glass or 2 max every night, no more. He got a bit panicky when he was down to his last bottle recently before I restocked).

[Collette]

Think it's gonna be one of those days. Went to make myself a cuppa there and Miss Snowdrop was doing her moany baby act. So I opener hr a wee sachet of Gourmet Mon Petit...and poured it into my mug. Doh! Roll on wine o'clock tonight.

[Serial]

Collette wrote: "Think it's gonna be one of those days. Went to make myself a cuppa there and Miss Snowdrop was doing her moany baby act. So I opener hr a wee sachet of Gourmet Mon Petit...and poured it into my mug..."

Well, I hope you ate every drop, we can't be wasting food in these days of higher prices.

I do remember as kids, my sister and I trying a cat biscuit from a bag that was split in the Supermarket. Definitely YUCK :)

[Brass Neck]

Serial wrote: "Collette wrote: "Think it's gonna be one of those days. Went to make myself a cuppa there and Miss Snowdrop was doing her moany baby act. So I opener hr a wee sachet of Gourmet Mon Petit...and pour..."

Bet you also tried licking your own arse? Yum!

[Brass Neck]

From my experience I have to say, cat food (plastic pouches = environmental disaster until Tesco's recycling of soft plastics initiative) is far more boakworthy than Minnie's dog-chow (Butchers tripe loaf for preference, label removed, can rinsed, both in recycling).

[Collette]

Serial wrote: "Collette wrote: "Think it's gonna be one of those days. Went to make myself a cuppa there and Miss Snowdrop was doing her moany baby act. So I opener hr a wee sachet of Gourmet Mon Petit...and pour..."

Yuck. Wasn't sure if I had tea still in my mug from before so I put it into her bowl then drained it. Tonight's joy was poop gate. Chasing Snowdrop around the living room with a bit of wet kitchen towel for 20 mins was no bloody fun at all.

[Anita]

my 20 minutes to ight was trying to get a dead rabbit out from behind the TV, Treacle walked in through the open window and went straight behind the TV.We have one of those very useful grabbers for long distance picking up ,I have in the past picked up a polo mint and a penny,could I get hold of this bunny ,I tried his ear ,his foot ,quite depressing actually,I did manage to get a grip in the end .Sometimes you just think blo-- cats.she went out during the week and the badger was having her dinner,They looked at each other for a couple of seconds and Treacle ran!Obviously knows she wouldn't have a chance if Doris turned nasty.

[Serial]

We had a live Shrew dropped in the house a few years back.

We never found it.

:0

[Collette]

Looking forward to tonight's bottle of wine and watching One Missed Call on dvd.

[Serial]

Swam in the sea, then pub meal and a pint of ale.

My kind of day :)

[Serial]

More sea swimming on the costa del Kerry.
No pint or pub grub today.

[Post Soviet]

Serial wrote: "More sea swimming on the costa del Kerry.
No pint or pub grub today."

Same here around Sligo, refreshingly +23C on the coast, back home in Leitrim - bloody +30C! Yes, took day off today, no way gonna do welding on such conditions.
Saw only two jellyfih today thankfully, last year it was disaster.

[Collette]

Settled down an hour ago with my glass of white wine to watch Boarding School on my stick, when it cut out 15 mins into the film. Now watching Rings on All4. Only saw said film once ages ago so I'm really enjoying it. Only just now realising Leonard from The Big Bang Theory is in it.

[Brass Neck]

Off to t'ope Tavern's blues fest shortly via minibus. Oo-er, no driving, my favourite venue and 6 blues acts in 30C muggy heat, what could possibly go wrong?

[Brass Neck]

My rear view is on a fair few of these shots from yesterday's festivities; should've been asked to sign an image rights waiver ..... or summat?

https://www.facebook.com/steve.yourgl...

[Craig White]

that looks perfectly awful! you, on the other hand, look superb.................................from the back! 😘

[Brass Neck]

Tech XXIII wrote: "that looks perfectly awful! you, on the other hand, look superb.................................from the back! 😘"

All about perspective; to me it was awfully perfect with 4 bands I hadn't heard before, 3 of which I really liked and even bought merch from. The guitarist/singer in the Five Points Gang has only 3 fingers (and a thumb) on each hand, looked like a malformed middle digit had been surgically removed from both but he was a tremendous SRV-style player. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCv5Z...

Anyway, how do you know which one's me?!!

[Craig White]

Ve Haf Eyes Efferywhere, Meesturr Neck! 👀

[Collette]

Looking forward to tonight's bottle of red and either The Return or The Forest on dvd.

[Brass Neck]

Collette wrote: "Looking forward to tonight's bottle of red and either The Return or The Forest on dvd."

The return of Forest is on Match Of The Day?

[Collette]

I'll pass, ta. In the end I didn't watch either. I tried Boarding School for the 2nd week in a row on my Firestick, got halfway through it and it cut out yet again. Ended up reading my book.

[Val]

Collette wrote: "I'll pass, ta. In the end I didn't watch either. I tried Boarding School for the 2nd week in a row on my Firestick, got halfway through it and it cut out yet again. Ended up reading my book."

Do you read horror too Collette?

[Collette]

Val wrote: "Collette wrote: "I'll pass, ta. In the end I didn't watch either. I tried Boarding School for the 2nd week in a row on my Firestick, got halfway through it and it cut out yet again. Ended up readin..."

My favourite genre, Val. My all-time favourite horror author is Richard Laymon, but I enjoy the likes of Graham Masterton, Amy Cross, etc as well. Another author I'm really getting into is David Haynes. I went through the Koontz, Herbert and King phase away back. Just finished reading Peter James's Possession which gave me the willies when I was in my 20s. Sadly though not quite as enjoyable all these years later.