Some People have all the problems...

Question for you single guys, or former single guys.

---

So what to do about properly dressing the ladies on the back of your bike?

I'm not Don Juan, but I've had a handful of opportunities to have a friend or date on the back, anywhere from around the block to a afternoon ride. Of course, none of them have their own gear, so it's up to me to provide the right equipment.

How can I have extra gear for someone I haven't yet met? Do you wait until you meet the right one and then buy her the gear? Do you choose which size you like, buy that gear, and date only women that size?

Do you buy large gear and tell the small girls just to cinch it up?

Jamie

There is just one life for each of us:

our own.

Blog 202

An apology to anyone who might stumble across this blog (especially this weekend's "contents" to which the later excuses apply) : I have a dose of writer's cramp, the bike is sick in the garage and certain other things are really getting me down at the moment, and therefore this blog has resorted to a form of word association tennis with Mornington Crescent Rules and played only by myself ("titter ye not") . The only trouble is I am unable to keep my balls in the court.
That is all.

Mah Jong on Saturday

At the local dance, whilst posing by the door

A lady begged: "would I come on the floor?"

Above the band, my voice was heard,

Quite suddenly it had occured to me:

I'm Bored!

I'm bored with everything I touch and see

I'm bored with exposes of LSD

[Beatle-like backward sounds]

I'm bored with Frank Sinatra's new LP

And so I roar shoo-be-do-be-do

I'm bored.

Drinking different coloured wines or beers

(Chug-a-lug-chug-a-lug)

Just quite frankly leaves me bored to tears for souvenirs

And quite apart from what one hears,

I've been like this for years and years

You see? Ennui.

I'm bored with Mother Nature or her son

I'm bored with everything that should be done

And so, I just poke out my big red tongue and [raspberry]

I'm bored.

I'm tired of art!
(Drawing bored)
Sex is a drag!
(In a boreding house, I daresay.)
Awk! Australians bore me!
(You mean the a-bore-iginals, don't you?)
I'm bored to death!
(Like mortar bored)

I am bored.

[Repeat many times, round-style]

This is boredom you can afford, from Cyril Bored.

I hate each Julie Andrews film they've made,

[snatch of music from The Sound of Music]

I'm just a nasty narrow-minded jade.

Don't think that I will smile at it,

I'm not a weak-willed hypocrite,

I'll say: I'm bored!

I'm bored with with-it men in spotty ties

Who hum (hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm) tiresome tunes like Eidelweiss

I'm bored, and when I hear it

In a trice, I shout, I'm bored!

The only thing that ever interests me...

Is ME! (Me! Meee! Me! Me!...)

I'm completely bored Nationally Insured

To add interest at meetings at work, we are now able to watch paint dry.

Space City

After a false start and a turnaround ordered by a pretty special constable near the RHS flower show at Tatton Hall, we drove down the M56 looking for helpful AA signage for the Balikonur Cosmodrome.
Eventually we parked in a neo Roman cistern under Central Station and ate pizza in St Peters square. I was a little disappointed at not being able to touch Yuri Gagarin's space suit.

Wednesday Wonderings

Assuming that you did not have a brain before you purchased one of these fellers then the warning is probably valid.

Tuesday Treat

Tarty Fowels

Week 3 in a Travelodge and there will soon be a room named after me, just like for the Davidson family.

"By booking 12 months in advance, they pay £90 a week and have all housework done by maids while often eating at the nearby Little Chef"

Life cannot get better than that!

Friday Night is Greek Music

This is a blog that somehow explains why I listen to Greek music. It's not a blog written because I have nothing better to do on a Friday night (well it could be!).

Judging by the 45s in my inherited collection of vinyl, I certainly heard this stuff from when I wore nappies and quite liked some of the melodies but the lyrics were all matia mou this and s'agapo the other and everything seemed so makria: But somehow it was in my blood.

At university a Greek friend introduced me to Manos Hadjidakis' Giaconda's smile - this featured endlessy on Greek TV during intermissions (frequent) somewhat like Handel's Water music was played on BBC1 with that funny girl with a clown .

Then last Saturday Peter Paphides came on the DAB telling the story of Greek Blues.

Musical Intermission follows: (Dont forget to back arrow your browser to return here when the twanging stops.)

Listen to Never on Sunday

Back to the lecture:

Manos Hadjidakis is generally remembered for composing this song for the film Never on Sunday - Peter Paphides recounts the story of Manos trying to throw away the oscar that he had received for his score - he regarded its popularity as a mill stone around his neck.

More importantly Manos can be credited for defining Rembetika as the only real Greek music - these urban folk songs were despised by the Greek establishment and listening to them would certainly lead to blindness. Manos cleverly combined rembetika with other traditional Greek and Turkish oriental themes and created modern Greek music.

Anyway, that about wraps that up with pitta then...


Gordon Bennett even the Muppets did it!

Vintage Toaster

You're the kind of girl that fits in with my world?

But I bet you don't spend most of your leisure time fixing the b****y thing...

Spot the Merde de Chameau

Week 2 of Travelodge living and I can't face the cooked breakfasts anymore.

Battering My Wallet

BMW - gettit?
I recall spending somewhat less than the £89 demanded by Vines for a similar device that fitted inside a 4 wheel cage. Thanks, Vines, for the "free" cup of coffee.

My Most Faithful Friend

He may have a droopy trunk and a solitary single eye: He may have had maxilla-oral facial surgery (mainly to stop his interior spilling out). But My Dumbo (tm) is my longest serving and least demanding companion. Bravo My Dumbo (tm) and may your next 49 years be a time of reconstitution.

Brave New World

Due to My Life* I find myself living in a Travelodge for a few weeks. So please savour the view of Stanwell Moor and the J14 M25 roundabout and marvel that I have managed to achieve web connection through a little white and green plastic thing. This gadget works sometimes.



*Job vs Home =M6

Hello Knutsford

The third law of thermodynamics is alive and kicking: A collection of chattels is loaded up into boxes initially carefully labeled and then, minutes before the removal men arrive, randomly and at high speed. A relative period of constant entropy then occurs as a white van drives up the M6. In a final cataclysmic conclusion said chattels are deposited randomly in a house that when purchased some months ago seemed to be spacious and now seems disordered and microscopic.

Goodbye Guildford

I shall miss the walking pace crawl to work along the A322 only a little. I need distance - 201 miles should just about work for me.

Back in the Smoke

Evidence that BMW are capable of designing a machine with easy battery access. Too bad the designer bloke with that expertise has long since retired.

Day 7 Galaktaboureco

Food smuggled on board steliosCruise Life is subject to confiscation so keftedes to you Stelios! (well I did buy the nice cup of tea from you).

Seriously Syros

And it's Benellis at €13 per day - seriously peppy for all "...people like others,..." - err what?

Mykonos Muck

Scooters at €20 per day? You can kiss my a**e Mykonos! Deck 7 and the bubbling hot tub provides a stress free day to browse the excellent essays of Lawrence Grodsky.

5th Day on steliosCruise Life and Paros

Should anyone be reading this chronicle of a week at sea on steliosCruise Life, please bear with me for this series of "place holders"....I'm moving house this week and it's chaos.

Kos Tuesday

A short sail away and another crusader castle - St John's mob.

Its Monday so we must be....

at Bodrum!
This cherry juice is fantastically refreshing and Turkey's best kept secret.

Kalymnos on steliosCruise Life

We sailed overnight to Kalymnos famous for sponges. Due to wind we could not park by the pier.