Neil's Slightly Random Wiblog

Fopp (and the remaining MusicZone stores) are dead. They have run out of money to pay thier staff, and have not been ordering new stock for weeks now. (Telling customers it was for “technical” reasons).

So long Fopp, and thanks for the CDs.

… Being English is great for many reasons, we get a cool accent, no smoking in pubs in a few days time, every month is the hottest/wettest/coldest/driest on record and we love to back a loser.

Ivonne showed her non-Englishness the other day when we were talking about Wimbledon and who might win.

“Do you think Henman will win?” She asked. I just laughed.

(To be fair I think it was more a lack of interest in Tennis rather than not being English that made he ask the question!)

…Gordon Brown is still in there, has the Queen eaten him?

I like the fact that the Queen still has to call him to invite him to form a government even though he has been the next PM for about 10 years…

Ring ring…
Q: Is that Mr Brown? I would like to invite you to form a British government
GB: Really? Wow, that’s amazing, so unexpected, I feel all faint…

Come on Tim!

I can almost have an interest in tennis, its not the sport so much, more the clonking noise of the ball, so relaxing and summerlike! For the next 2 weeks I will pretend to be interested in tennis.

Just listened to Christopher Hitchens on the Daily Mayo podcast, what he said about religion was really interesting at first, but then they got a vicar from Somerset on, a gentle mild mannered man who said nothing that radical, and Hitchens went mad, calling him a deluded idiot and all sorts of other things. All my respect was lost, and I was almost thinking of buying his book as well. At least Dawkins (recently anyway) has been polite in his dealings with religious people, and as he admits some of his best friends are bishops.

Sorry Hitchens, I will be ordering a copy of The God Delusion and avoiding you at all costs.

…This is a poster in a car just down the road.

For Sale, Astra 2.6d, Good Condition, £1450 ono. Baby forces sale

I can just imagine the little baby demanding “Either the car goes, or I do!”

… It’s a sign, a perfect black and white representation of the St Georges cross in the ice in Ivonnes coke last night (in Georges meeting house too!)

Next week we are hoping to see the face of Jesus in a slice of lemon, or Saint Christopher in the head of my beer.

…I looked at the window at about 11pm last night (after finishing listening to the Mark Steel lecture on BBC7, that man is so clever, who else could make Marxism funny?) and everything looked misty, or smoky and light was being reflected in odd ways. It is just low cloud, but it reminded me of a scene just after a bomb attack, like the grainy pictures we got used to of Bagdad.

Zoom in and heighten the exposure a bit and it looks like the blitz!

As you might be able to tell now my exams are over I am a little unsure how to spend my time.

…an odd day today for a variety of reasons, the manager was back from the managers conference and there was a lot to catch up with, some good, some bad, then an email which rather shook the way we have to do things. Then an old face from the past turned up, then he rang us three times, then he came in and shouted and threatened us with various things. The police were nearly called, but we will give him the benefit of the doubt… can’t really say much more than this…

This evening went to the Picturehouse, I have not been for weeks because of exams and general busyness, but it felt good to be back. I sat in the bar and read a book for a while, then saw Taking Liberties, a rather one sided film full of reactionaries, hippies and New Internationalist types. Interesting stuff though, and a good reminder how absurd and amusing Boris Johnson is.

…I know I have said this before, but a big building, full of books that any member of the public can borrow for free. The existance of libraries gives me faith in this country. Long may they live.

…The last exam is over, yay! I am a free man, I can read and do whatever I like

The last exam was quite good I think, I certainly wrote plenty anyway!

We had the crazy idea of a classics reading group though… I think some of us are addicted!