Gold from my bowels.

Well after three days of losing as much fluid as possible out of every orifice that leads to my stomach, I am finally on the up.

In these three days however, I have discovered something great. I have discovered Dream Evil. (disclaimer - this picture on this site is sooooo camp it completely ruins any respect you may have for them. I almost cried when I saw this picture, my heroes shot down in a hail of silver face paint and guys holding hands) However, any damage the picture may have caused is quickly erased when you hear the first track of their new album The Book Of Heavy Metal. You can download it from the site but I'm not sure of the legality so I didn't tell you to, ok. Anyways, should you download it, you are only in for disappointment. The best part of the track is missing. At the very beginning of the track on the album version, the singer lets rip with a high pitched and sustained voice tearing scream of "Meeettttaaaaaaaaaaaalll." Pure Genius. It sets the song up perfectly. This tracks has now knocked Metallicas The Call Of Ktulu off the top spot as my Clean The Workshop track.

This song rules, of this there is no doubt. But when someone from the store came in my workshop and went "the singer sounds like that guy from The Darkness" I nearly puked and crapped myself all over again.

. . . and relax.

Having spent the day carefully crafting a cd of immeasurable quality with which to astound a friend of mine, I sat back and did some good old fashioned day-off relaxing.

Firstly I started reading Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom, I got to chapter 4 and will finish it off after I've printed it so I can sit in a comfy chair to read. Then I played a bit of piano, then a bit of guitar (man, I wish I was good at either of these) after which I decided I would leave it up to the pros and retired to my favourite spot in front of my speakers.

However, I then spent the next hour-and-a-bit in random and impossible to resist bouts of inane grinning and spurts of laughter. Go and see for yourself.

Thanks to Grumps for supplying me with the link.

Proof positive, as if you needed it, that all the time I sunk into getting my contact page to work is starting to pay off.

Flame On!

About a week ago Chris thought he would kick the proverbial hornets nest around a bit and see if he could cause a fuss. Post Here. He did, and quite managed to upset Ann. I did my bit to calm the situation but ended up not helping at all. Mike then jumped in with one of the best units of measurement I have ever heard off and quite upset Sarah. Chris did some clever self-depreciating and Sarah calmed down with a little self-hate of her own and everything settled.

Chris then moved on and talked about oil prices. Post Here. ydelek and SoCalJ helped with providing real time statistics and Mike thought he would add a touch of British humour. SoCalJ completely missed the British art of sarcasm and got narked.

With all that going off I thought "It will never last. Sooner or later we are going to get a post that starts 'I don't know what to talk about today' and then go onto talk about nothing for three paragraphs." I was expecting this, it is the way of Chris.

But then what happened, something incredible. The flame wars truly came to life and some random lass came in, all guns blazing with insults and more. Boy is she pissed! This is what Chris has been trying to do for days now, really really get under someones skin, and finally, he cracked it. Sarah helped translate for those of us who could only read the short words and then ydelek comes in with the greatest closing sentence in history.

Keep up the good work people. You are brightening my days.

Fatties, Tramps and Jews.

No, not the clever title of a book, but the clientele of a petrol station we were at Saturday night, pre camping trip.

After filling the car up we took another twenty minutes to get to the car park in the Peaks that we were to depart from. A swift walk into the woods and were at our clearing. We collected wood, pitched our tents, lit the fire, then got down to some serious chinwagging and drinking.

It seemed like such a good idea in theory. We would work all Saturday, then go camping Saturday night, then get up and go to work on Sunday.
It seemed like such a good idea in theory.

Waking up on Sunday was horrible. I lay there, fully clothed in my sleeping bag, thinking ?I?m laying in the middle of a wood in the peak district, and I have to be at work in about an hour!?

We made it to the door with not a second to spare. We got changed on the shop floor and spent the day serving customers in our unwashed state, stinking of wood smoke.
It was ace.

My love of music is refreshed.

I have recently found some sites on the internet which have reaffirmed my faith in good music. Having been on a bit of a sabbatical from hunting around for tunes, I thought I would give it another go last week. Am I ever glad I did! Thanks to the wave of blogs out there that concentrate on music I have managed to find myself some of the most amazing music. Yeah, you still have to listen to the hours of crap and average stuff before you get your hands on the gold, but that?s half the fun. It makes finding those special tracks so much more satisfying. I spend my days listening to what I?ve scavenged and then when I get home I whittle it down to the select few.
The quality of what I have found even spurred me on to go and buy new cables for my stereo so I can use that istead of relying on headphones.

Which brings me to another point.

While listening through speakers is better during the day, when night closes in headphones rule. I have taken some of these tracks to bed with me (so to speak) and laying there in the dark, fully submerged in music. . . it just blows me away.
Some people get passionate about films, I rarely go to the cinema. Some get passionate about books, I?m a casual reader. For me, laying in the dark, eyes closed, submerging yourself in music. . . that is a passion that owns me.

The holidays are over.

My bedroom is a medlee of beer bottles, tea mugs and clothes. There is a quarter eaten Toblerone on the floor, assorted socks, travel insurance information, one glove and unplugged computer speakers in between my bed and the door. I avoid these things rather than move them, somehow moving them is too much effort and stepping over/around/on them each and every time I use my door is acceptable.

Next to my keyboard I have pennies and bottle tops, pay slips, cd cases and a remote control for a stereo that doesn't work. Even the files on my computer have somehow become jumbled. My usual anal habit of keeping the desktop clutter-free has been left by the wayside.

I got in from work today and had a beer and a quarter of Toblerone for dinner, then I washed it all down with a couple more beers.

Next day off I get, I have to tidy.

The holidays are over people, get back to normal.