I been to Suffolk on occasions, mostly to observe USA warplanes taking off. It’s not really been the sort of place I have visited deliberately! However, this changed when I went and stayed with some friends near Ipswich. I had a lovely time but was slightly horrified and curious when they mentioned a particular, occasional, pastime.
Poo Crime
Just suppose there is someone you don’t particularly like and they live near you. Then, you might indicate your displeasure at that person by defecating in their garden. You don’t want to get caught so you do this at night. I am vaguely reminded of a “Dave Bowman” plan to plant one on the desk of the Bolhp monster while at college. This is something I would have to deny any knowledge of whether there was such a plan or whether it was carried out!
Obviously, I’m a bit of a stickler for language and how to interpret it. I like my spoken words to mean exactly what I intend (obviously, no mean feat given the English language). I will also compose emails and edit them over a few hours so they mean exactly what I want them to mean. This is probably why I, obviously, struggle with SMS (text messages to the masses) and occasionally Twitter.
I agree that we use some fillers in our language.
er
um
like
well
literally [people using this should be literally shot]
obviously
My pet hates are any of these mentioned but particularly:
It was, like, well hot.
WTF does this mean? It was like it was hot? It was hot? It was really hot? My usual response would be “So was it warm then, if it was like hot?”
Obviously, I’m going to play some tennis today.
Unless you know me really well, it probably wasn’t obvious to you. Me saying “obviously” belittles any comment that you think would be appropriate or any questioning of my statement. This annoys me. I am trying to only say “obviously” when I then wouldn’t need to end the statement because whatever followed you would automatically know/understand.
Maybe I’m too much of a stickler for literal interpretation of language. Which would be odd as I am happy to accept that language can evolve and things change over time, not always following survival of the fittest though. Language evolution seems to follow the stupid uses of language rather than the correct ones. We are doomed [not literally, except for APG].
Saw Red2 this morning at Cineworld in Rochester. It killed a few hours after my run. It also was very nearly not Red2 that I watched. I sat through adverts and trailers only for the wrong film to start. We all left the screen and the management said they’d put on the correct film.
Did have to sit through more adverts and trailers though which was a bit shit.
The film itself is funny in a few places and full of crazy action, but overall enjoyable. It’s nice to see old stars doing the action thing. I particularly loved Helen Mirren shooting cops and general up-to-no-goods from a Lotus while it was spinning along the road. Also, the pick-up of Bruce Willis into an Aston (?) driven by Zeta-Jones was excellent and laughable. Great fun. The plot was pretty poor and very “early Bond” but then they made loads of money.
Went to see a few bands at The Ivy in Sheerness last night. I was most interested in the band called:
The Antithesis
I’ve seen this band a number of times and really enjoy their music. I thought they were good. Also saw Where’s Billy? who were ok. It was an enjoyable evening. Thanks Dave.
It was a hot day today. The car said 32C at one point! I decided to spend some time in the direct sunlight in the garden fitting a water butt. That was a bit stupid. Had to spend the next hour drying out the sweat from all my clothes. Mind you, the water butt looks good and we should have its first rain tomorrow.
Along with Andy, my sister and niece, I went to the Underworld in Camden to see some bands. This was an important gig as I was taking my niece to see some proper music for the first time [she confessed that she has seen Olly Murs but didn’t say it loud enough to cause threats of physical damage to us].
The line-up was:
Ingested
Senser
DJ Starscream
We got the train into St Pancras and then walked the twenty minutes to Camden High Street. After some food and a drink in the World’s End pub we entered the venue and I showed my guests around the delights of the basement. Ingested were on first. They had shouty vocals. They weren’t the worst example of this type of music I had seen but they weren’t that good either.
The main reason I had wanted to come along this evening was that Senser were playing. I have liked their stuff since I was, ok, let’s just say since about 1994 and I saw them once before in Southsea! I like the music and the sound that they have. I thought they were really good. They played two new songs, I think, and the rest I knew. Very good, very energetic. I’m glad my niece saw these as her first proper band. All good stuff.
DJ Starscream was on next. He is the DJ from Slipknot. We tried it. But it’s not our stuff. We left and went for coffee. That’s not down to his ability to play, I’m sure he’s very skilful at what he does, but it left me cold.
I’ve just passed 500 communications on this website. I have to admit most of them are shockingly boring but then it’s not about you it’s about me. This is my thing. I don’t really care what you think.
This gives me something to do, although I am amazingly aware that it is public and so won’t let out all my thoughts here. I have considered writing another website and really going for it but, you know, that’s just not cricket. I do have some ideas for a new domain but the content of the website is not enshrined yet. It was going to be a site of my album reviews but that didn’t seem worth it. I’ve put them on here. Perhaps I should make it a photolog website? Yes, I do know that there are sites that let you do that for free but, once again, I don’t care. This is for me.
About 30 years ago I can remember playing a game of “fire running”. Every now and then in the good old days parents would burn the garden waste on a big bonfire. These were wonderful times of cooking apples and potatoes (not together) in foil in the embers and generally doing boy stuff with flames.
The best thing we ever did was place a plank of wood on a big fire. The wood was probably 1″ by 4″ by 10′. I am aware that wood burns but that just adds to the fun.
Start about 4 metres away from the fire making sure that the flames are high and it is burning properly. Then RUN. Don’t lose your footing as you run up the plank and over the fire. Jump from the top of the fire and then land with style.
Sunday at Download 2013 and we drove in to Donington Park. I didn’t pay attention to where we parked the car, principally because Andy said he would remember where it was. We walked up to the natural arena and met with Andy’s olds. Today was going to be a monster day and so I was really looking forward to it. I bought a t-shirt for a friend and went to get one for me – whoops – they had sold out. Never mind, that’s what eBay is for.
One last beer at 10:30, just to keep the blood-alcohol levels from dropping too much. A pint of Trooper, of course.
First band – States of Panic. I can’t remember them.
Then we walked over to a small tent and watched a London based band called Mordecai. They were good enough for me to buy their album and actually listen to it. I would see them again, preferably in a small London Club.
Cancer Bats and Coal Chamber were on the main stage next and I don’t remember much about either of them. Cancer Bats did nothing for me but Coal Chamber were a bit better. I liked the singers’ tattooed face and the bass player.
Up next on the main stage were Five Finger Death Punch and I was blown away. I’d never heard any of their stuff before but thought it was brilliant. They had fun on stage and the lead singer was brilliant at controlling the crowd. Superb.
Amon Amarth were a joke. They had a Viking ship on the stage. No, I didn’t like them. Funny how within such a tightly confined definition of music there are still bands that do absolutely nothing for me. Perhaps my views change as I “mature”.
Stone Sour on the main stage were brilliant. The lead singer just smiled through it all. I expect bands to enjoy what they do and these guys were great. One guitarist was bald and dressed in a suit. The other guy had the best beard ever. All in all I had a great time.
Over to a tent and watched Newsted. Jason got a great round of applause and I really liked the music. I have pre-ordered the album because I want more. They finished with Whiplash and, oh my (to borrow from George Takei) it was a dream come true. They were most enjoyable. We stayed in this tent to listen to POD but any band that has a Christian story bothers me and they were rubbish.
After that we saw some of A Day to Remember but curiously I haven’t remembered. We also saw 30 Seconds from Mars who could improve by literally being 30 seconds from Mars so they are nowhere near this good planet of ours.
Last band of the shebang:
RAMMSTEIN
I love the music, I love the show, I love it all. I think I could quite happily see these guys every week for a year. The sound was massive, the show was pyrotechnical mania. AND they played Buch Dick. Look you need to see them on YouTube and you need to be converted. These guys make everyone else look like pussies. Absolutely brilliant and I can’t wait to see them again.
A Day To Remember
Amon Amarth
What Rain Does
Stone Sour
Mordecai
Newsted
Rammstein 1
Rammstein 2
Rammstein 3
Rammstein 4
Rammstein 5
Rammstein 6
The End
After the show we chatted to Andy’s olds and waited for the car park queue to die down a bit. When we left them it was already 12:30 and we headed off to find the car. We had lost it. We walked completely around one car park in the chuffing dark trying to find a dark blue car!! Eventually we re-traced our routes and found the car. Left or Right? There looked to be no queue to the left of the main exit and so I decided to turn that way. Bugger, just around the corner was a massive queue and no room to turn around. Eventually after rallying through some small villages we found the M1 and headed south.
Things I don’t really want to repeat:
Seeing the pre-morning glow of the sun coming up as I drive down the M1
Stopping for extreme caffeine input
Getting flashed by a speed camera
Watching the sun arise while drive along the M26
Getting in at 5 and then getting up at 7 to go to work!
This Download weekend was one of the best things to have happened to me this year and I had a great time.
