Kevin's Watch

Yeah, I just smoke thanks.

--A

Travelling across London on the Underground with my wife, I stuck my hand into my coat pocket and pulled out a printed reciept. Thankyou for your donation of £15 to the Cornwall Air Ambulance fund. "Whats this!", I exclaimed, suspecting that I had been the victim of a proxy bout of generosity on her behalf. Her expression was flat and her reply dry. "It's the reciept from the second-hand shop where you bought your coat."

So in this case, you actually weren't thinking?

Not an uncommon state of mind for me Ali - and one that gets [unsettlingly] more frequent as I get older!


News of the death of The Reverend Ian Paisly has prompted Leaders across Northern ireland to call for two minutes of shouting. But on a more serious note I found it heartening that on the announcement of Rev. Paisleys passing, one of the first to express regret was former IRA man Martin McGuiness, Paisleys once implacable enemy but latterly his second minister in the Northern Irish Assembly at Storemont, who said he "had lost a friend." We who were raised in the era of the troubles recognise the significance of this.

peter wrote:But on a more serious note I found it heartening that on the announcement of Rev. Paisleys passing, one of the first to express regret was former IRA man Martin McGuiness, Paisleys once implacable enemy but latterly his second minister in the Northern Irish Assembly at Storemont, who said he "had lost a friend." We who were raised in the era of the troubles recognise the significance of this.

Hear Hear Peter!

Iolanthe wrote:

peter wrote:But on a more serious note I found it heartening that on the announcement of Rev. Paisleys passing, one of the first to express regret was former IRA man Martin McGuiness, Paisleys once implacable enemy but latterly his second minister in the Northern Irish Assembly at Storemont, who said he "had lost a friend." We who were raised in the era of the troubles recognise the significance of this.

Hear Hear Peter!

My father's side of the family were all born and brought up in and around Belfast and Lisburn, so I know at least a little of what went on/goes on there (I was born in the south of England but have spent time in Northern Ireland).

It is heartening when people forget their Troubles (sic) and just talk about people as people rather than someone on the other side of a real or metaphorical fence.

Glamour model and celebrity clothes horse Kelly Brook scored some revenge points on her ex-fiancé this weekend by selling the tale of their relationship break-up to a number of Sunday papers. An example perhaps of a 'Dog bites Man' story in journaleese speak.

I hope that is only an ill-considered choice of phrase, Peter, or else I'll have to take that post as an indictment of your character.

Le Pétermane wrote:Glamour model and celebrity clothes horse Kelly Brook scored some revenge points on her ex-fiancé this weekend by selling the tale of their relationship break-up to a number of Sunday papers. An example perhaps of a 'Dog bites Man' story in journaleese speak.

This story didn't make it into my purview this weekend, peter, but thank you for amending that loss on my part!

You could maybe start a service, Essential Tidbits For the Celebrity Declined

u.

P.S. I know you are exposed to the Sunday newspaper headlines because of your work You have my sympathies.

Well - it has numbers of ways of folding with it's multiple layers of meaning Murrin [which I sort of thought was quite clever] but any [lasting] offence to the pulchritudinous Miss Brook is entierly unintended. I was and remain her no 1 fan [also alas, probably an indictment of my charachter since I am so for no doubt all the wrong reasons] and look forward to seeing her star rise once more on the cover of 30 newspapers and 65 celebrity periodicals per week over the coming years [not bad for a girl that Johhny Vaugn had evicted from the Big Breakfast on the grounds that she was 'thick'; Vaugn himself now scrapes a living making double glazing commercials and the like].

Well Guys, I'm off to Jordan in the morning so won't be around for 10 days [ish]. Just to say thanks for another fun year of 'Watching'; thanks for all your patience and the pleasure I get from this place. See you post-hols!

What, no internet in Jordan?

--A

Have a great time, peter!

Hi Guy's - like Garry Glitter, it's good to be back. {Well, no actually - it *is* good to be back but not like......Oh hell to it, if you're from the UK you'll know where I'm coming from. }

Le Pétermane wrote:Hi Guy's - like Garry Glitter, it's good to be back. {Well, no actually - it *is* good to be back but not like......Oh hell to it, if you're from the UK you'll know where I'm coming from. }

At least you referenced that single and not the one that preceded it...

Welcome back, peter! You'll have to tell us all about your trip.

There you are.

--A

Did anyone 'get' the Le Pétermane thing or was I just p*ssing into the wind .

Hi Ali - A good trip all round. High spots were Mt Nebo [where Moses was said to have got his look at the Promised Land before 'drawing his legs up into the bed', of course Petra, the rose city of the Nabateans, Wadi Rum [where E. and I were spirited off into the mountains by a mad bedouin who made the mountains echo with the cry "PEEETER, ELAAAINE, UKAAAY - WE LOOOOVE YOU!!!!"], and finally watching the jordanian ladies on the beach on Sunday morning going swimming in thier full length burkha's complete with face coverings in place. Oh - and I got smeared in mud and baked like a potato on the Dead Sea.

[ps Ali - can I pick your brains sometime about that 'Amazon' publishing thing I saw you talking about somewhere?]

peter wrote:Did anyone 'get' the Le Pétermane thing or was I just p*ssing into the wind

I checked it out when you changed it first and saw that it was the stagename of a French flautist and left it at that.

I just rechecked it see that he was actually a 'flatulist' which is something altogether different

Do I recall some thread or other recently where this edifying topic was being discussed? If there was one it surely involved the Scandologicals!

u.

We have Scandologicals? Oh wait...I get it now...

peter wrote:[ps Ali - can I pick your brains sometime about that 'Amazon' publishing thing I saw you talking about somewhere?]

Absolutely, peter. Whenever.