Utensils?

Before my shower, I stood in the kitchen brewing up a nice cup of tea to settle me down before sleep.

It occurred to me, whilst I was watching the tea spoon fail to sink as it rested athwart the most buoyant teabag in the history of er... teabags, that I am one of two people who can say without fear of contradiction that we have a boxed TARDIS, and inflatable shark, two plastic eyeballs in an ancient jar of hair gel¹ and an X-Files Erlenmeyer Flask, complete with alien phoetus sitting in the kitchen.


X-Files Flask on left. Real Erlenmeyer Flask on right. The boring one.

We also have a potted plant called Bilbo.

I daresay that many kitchens out there have one or some of these items, but I am reasonably certain that only The Carpathia can boast them all.

Life is grand.

¹Answering to the name Claudius, what else?

Utensils?

Before my shower, I stood in the kitchen brewing up a nice cup of tea to settle me down before sleep.

It occurred to me, whilst I was watching the tea spoon fail to sink as it rested athwart the most buoyant teabag in the history of er... teabags, that I am one of two people who can say without fear of contradiction that we have a boxed TARDIS, and inflatable shark, two plastic eyeballs in an ancient jar of hair gel¹ and an X-Files Erlenmeyer Flask, complete with alien phoetus sitting in the kitchen.


X-Files Flask on left. Real Erlenmeyer Flask on right. The boring one.

We also have a potted plant called Bilbo.

I daresay that many kitchens out there have one or some of these items, but I am reasonably certain that only The Carpathia can boast them all.

Life is grand.

¹Answering to the name Claudius, what else?

Phew...

I think that I have Cologne issues.

I don’t have them in an intellectual sense, but I do, it seems, in a physical one. Until about twenty minutes ago my lungs felt raw; on the journey down to Euston, I was sitting for much of the time next to a young woman who had doused herself in something. I don’t think she had over done it – I only got wafts of it; it wasn’t like a mustard gas attack on the Somme – but it irritated my sinuses and the back of my throat. By the time I changed trains at Euston I was beginning to feel as though someone had lightly sandpapered my upper respiratory tract and that developed into a strange raw feeling in my chest the likes of which I haven’t experienced since the first couple of days of nicotine withdrawal when I gave up smoking.

I have never been over enamoured by eau de cologne or any other perfumes. They are nice enough in discreet amounts, but as long as a person doesn’t smell bad, which can be achieved quite nicely by regular showers, a good soaping and a light deodorant, I am happy. It is very unusual, however, to feel physical discomfort (outside the scents floor of a department store), just because some one has over done the slap.

My chest feels pretty much back to normal now.

Phew...

I think that I have Cologne issues.

I don’t have them in an intellectual sense, but I do, it seems, in a physical one. Until about twenty minutes ago my lungs felt raw; on the journey down to Euston, I was sitting for much of the time next to a young woman who had doused herself in something. I don’t think she had over done it – I only got wafts of it; it wasn’t like a mustard gas attack on the Somme – but it irritated my sinuses and the back of my throat. By the time I changed trains at Euston I was beginning to feel as though someone had lightly sandpapered my upper respiratory tract and that developed into a strange raw feeling in my chest the likes of which I haven’t experienced since the first couple of days of nicotine withdrawal when I gave up smoking.

I have never been over enamoured by eau de cologne or any other perfumes. They are nice enough in discreet amounts, but as long as a person doesn’t smell bad, which can be achieved quite nicely by regular showers, a good soaping and a light deodorant, I am happy. It is very unusual, however, to feel physical discomfort (outside the scents floor of a department store), just because some one has over done the slap.

My chest feels pretty much back to normal now.

Cards

For no important reason, I have been trawling through old LJ entries from last year; I had it in mind to see whether we were in Portland House this time last year, or whether we had made it back here to the main building. Just idle curiosity, really.

Inevitably I got distracted by other entries, and in one of those marvellous coincidences that life is wont to throw up, I note that I ordered some business cards on 7 June 2007, exactly a year to the day before we signed the tenancy agreement on the Carpathia.

At the time I wrote, "I hope that I haven't jinxed anything and that I shall continue at this address long enough to give out at least three or four other than those that go to family members, obligato."

Well of course, the Karma Pixies had their fun didn’t they? Of the 250 free cards I had printed, at least 225 went into the shredder. I need some new, Carpathia friendly cards...

Cards

For no important reason, I have been trawling through old LJ entries from last year; I had it in mind to see whether we were in Portland House this time last year, or whether we had made it back here to the main building. Just idle curiosity, really.

Inevitably I got distracted by other entries, and in one of those marvellous coincidences that life is wont to throw up, I note that I ordered some business cards on 7 June 2007, exactly a year to the day before we signed the tenancy agreement on the Carpathia.

At the time I wrote, "I hope that I haven't jinxed anything and that I shall continue at this address long enough to give out at least three or four other than those that go to family members, obligato."

Well of course, the Karma Pixies had their fun didn’t they? Of the 250 free cards I had printed, at least 225 went into the shredder. I need some new, Carpathia friendly cards...

Filling the afternoon

I am so bored that I have decided to list the next five random plays from my Network Walkman. I’ve done this before and it can be quite fun to try and say something about the songs as they appear.

That said, I have a policy of just dropping entire albums onto the player, so the fact that the first song that has popped up is Grazed Knees by Snow Patrol, is a puzzle. It is from their breakout album, "Final Straw" and pleasant enough, but not memorable. Maybe this wasn’t such a hot idea after all.

Second up: Puppets by Curved Air. Now this is more like it; less for the song itself, which is an acceptable if average offering from the band, but it allows me to daydream about Sonja Kristina and recall the fact that an early posting on LJ involving a photo of same taught me about compressing pictures for display on web pages!

The third random pick: Clean by Robbie Williams. A dark, dark secret: I like Robbie. Since Val Doonigan fell off his rocker, Robbie and his energetically routine pop has given me the aural equivalent of those little chewy cola sweets you get in lucky bags.

Number four on the random playlist, pop-pickers. My Walkman is clearly trying to undermine the little credibility my music tastes have and has offered up California by Belinda Carlisle. A fine, if lightweight foot-tapper from a largely forgettable artiste. It has a surprisingly good guitar break half way through. The secret is in the lyric – chardonnay music for disposable people. Myself I have no idea where I was when River Phoenix died.

Fifth offering: Ah, thank you, Karma Pixies. I Don’t Mind by the Buzzcocks. This takes me straight back to college discos in the late 70s and early 80s, trying to get served cheap but warm beer during the interval in the students’ union, hoping that your trainers wouldn’t adhere too much to the sticky floor and freeze you in place. Nostalgia in three minutes!

In the meantime, jfs has responded to my plea for a meme letter, and so ( below the cut, there is a music meme: )

Filling the afternoon

I am so bored that I have decided to list the next five random plays from my Network Walkman. I’ve done this before and it can be quite fun to try and say something about the songs as they appear.

That said, I have a policy of just dropping entire albums onto the player, so the fact that the first song that has popped up is Grazed Knees by Snow Patrol, is a puzzle. It is from their breakout album, "Final Straw" and pleasant enough, but not memorable. Maybe this wasn’t such a hot idea after all.

Second up: Puppets by Curved Air. Now this is more like it; less for the song itself, which is an acceptable if average offering from the band, but it allows me to daydream about Sonja Kristina and recall the fact that an early posting on LJ involving a photo of same taught me about compressing pictures for display on web pages!

The third random pick: Clean by Robbie Williams. A dark, dark secret: I like Robbie. Since Val Doonigan fell off his rocker, Robbie and his energetically routine pop has given me the aural equivalent of those little chewy cola sweets you get in lucky bags.

Number four on the random playlist, pop-pickers. My Walkman is clearly trying to undermine the little credibility my music tastes have and has offered up California by Belinda Carlisle. A fine, if lightweight foot-tapper from a largely forgettable artiste. It has a surprisingly good guitar break half way through. The secret is in the lyric – chardonnay music for disposable people. Myself I have no idea where I was when River Phoenix died.

Fifth offering: Ah, thank you, Karma Pixies. I Don’t Mind by the Buzzcocks. This takes me straight back to college discos in the late 70s and early 80s, trying to get served cheap but warm beer during the interval in the students’ union, hoping that your trainers wouldn’t adhere too much to the sticky floor and freeze you in place. Nostalgia in three minutes!

In the meantime, jfs has responded to my plea for a meme letter, and so ( below the cut, there is a music meme: )