The Rest Of Saturday And Sunday...

Don't worry, Nev... once again, your computer's not borked - I'm playing catch-up again.

Well, Saturday night after I left here, I decided against watching "Hairspray", instead opting for the DVD of "xXx", starring Vin Diesel (I've not watched it for ages, and I fancied an ogle at his muscles) - just as well I didn't opt for "Hairspray", because I was asleep about halfway through "xXx".

And then was Sunday - my friend and I went ahead with our balloon release.... which wasn't the best success, unfortunately - but I can imagine our friend having a good laugh at our efforts! It was raining when we went out to the beach, and there was a little bit of wind... so we wrote our messages on parcel tags, tied them to the balloon, and let it go...

... and it blew up over the wall of the beach, and scudded across the car park.

So, we retrieved the balloon, removed the labels (in case they were weighing the balloon down) and let it go again...

... and this time it didn't even make it over the wall - it just scudded along the beach a bit!

Third time lucky, we thought - So we let it go...

... and it set off (slowly) along the beach a few feet... before the ribbon snagged on a pile of seaweed and stayed there!

At this point, we gave up and went home again - noting as we left that a family had just arrived with a dog - so probably one of two things happened after we left...

1. The kids decided to either rescue the balloon and take it home, or burst it.
2. The dog decided to play with it, burst it, and ended up with a high-pitched, squeaky bark!

Made dinner after I came home, and then watched telly. Did anyone see Orkney on "Songs Of Praise"? Isn't my home island beautiful?

Watched "Dancing On Ice" after - Now, own up... who voted for that bloody Aggie woman? You know, the harridan who comes and tells you how dirty your house is? Come on... she was TERRIBLE! Poor Sarah Greene was better than her! Comedy value is no reason to keep someone in - nor is the crinklies sympathy vote... GET RID OF HER NEXT WEEK!

Well, that's it for my weekend...

Bloody Hell, Folks

I don't know what it's like where you are, but in bonny Orkney tonight it's cold enough to freeze the cassocks off a brass monk, and everywhere is covered in a layer of lovely, sparkly - and very, very slippery - frost!

Seriously, the roads and pavements are like a skating rink! It was slippy when I went to work this morning, it thawed a bit (where the sun shone) all day - and as soon as it got dark down came the ice again... meaning it was already slippy when I finished work at 5pm.

And, speaking of roads, I wish I could line our roads department up against the wall and shoot the whole bloody lot of them... Remember I told you on Monday that they road men were digging up outside the house again? Well, they've turned the bit outside my house, going up to a housing scheme, into a no-through road! There's a big square in front of the house, and they've put a kerb right across it - effectively cutting my house off from the rest of the street (I'm the top house). It means now that to get to the taxi in the morning, I have 3 choices:

1. Go down the road a bit.
2. Go along the road a bit.
3. Get the taxi to go down my road, along another road, up a road, round a corner, along a road, round another corner and down a bit to get to the parking space outside my house.

I'll take a photo once they've finished so you can see how bloody stupid the idea is. I'm actually glad Dad's not here anymore, because there's no way he'd have been able to walk the distance out or down the road to where the taxi would stop... and I'd bet that at least 90% of taxi drivers wouldn't go the longer route to get a 90 year old man to his gate!

And all this because somebody complained that the road is "dangerous" for kids playing - despite the fact I've not heard of any accidents in the 20+ years I've lived here... and despite the fact that there's a big sign on the wall a bit above my street that says "NO BALL GAMES" - so they're not MEANT to play there!

Grrrrrrrr.

Work was boring as hell today. In the office, catching up on what I can't do when I'm in the shop... and it's flipping cold in our main building (the shop's lovely and warm because the heating needs to be on to keep the paper dry - no such luxury in the electrical bit). Boss buggered off for a while at lunchtime, then mid-afternoon, then decided he'd go home 10 minutes before 5o'clock, and leave muggins to close up. So I didn't get past Starbucks for my usual XL gingerbread latte with cream - and I'd had no coffee all day, because every time the boss went out, he "forgot" to buy milk! So, no caffeine, and no warm liquid to warm me up... Is it any wonder I'm a little wound up?

Tomorrow I plan to do as little as possible. Not heard from my friend yet, but I suspect tomorrow's not going to be ideal for balloon-releasing either. I don't think it's going to be windy enough... and if it's still freezing, I'd rather not venture too far. I've no desire to start 2008 with any broken bones, thank you very much!

Right... I'm off to (possibly) treat myself to a Sky Box Office film. I kinda fancy seeing "Hairspray" - just for the absurdity of John Travolta in a fat-suit and frock. It might be funny... But, on the other hand, it might just be cringeworthy. Oh, what a dilemma...

Okay, see ya!

The Musical Interlude...

Subtitled: Girl Power (with not a Spice Girl in sight)

From the new movie Hairspray, "Ladies Choice"... Thankfully John Travolta in drag doesn't appear in the video - that's just wrong...

"Just A Girl" by No Doubt...