Too expensive; too small

Well, I’ve had the maudle for the day. Doesn’t tend to last long, there’s too much helium in my personality to keep me down for long. Thanks for the good wishes and tolerance.

Moving on, I feel a grumble coming on. I like grumbling; it doesn’t have to be justified, though that does make it all the sweeter (although I find unjustified grumbling quite pleasurable, too). Two things have set me off today, one of which has been on the slow boil for a couple of weeks. I may have already mentioned it; I can’t remember, so I’ll mention it now.

The new object of my ire are Roberts Radios.

When I was a kid, I inherited or otherwise acquired a Roberts Radio. It was the best tranny¹ I have ever owned bar none. It was made sometime in the 1960s with a wood and aluminium frame, varnished and polished along the edges and covered in a plastic veneer finish down the sides. There was an on/off knob on the top left, a volume knob on the top right. In the middle was a matching dial with a tuning pointer beneath a transparent top with loads of now defunct radio stations. Green for medium wave, red for long wave. That radio saw me through college, when I would listen to Radio Moscow on it to them bragging about tractor production in the Ukraine, or to Radio Tirana, so I could listen to the Albanians being rude to everyone except their special chums, the Chinese.

Good times.

Then the radio fell in the bath and that was that.

Anyway, Roberts are now doing retro style DAB radios and I saw an advertisement in The Times for them. They are not identical to my old tranny, but they are similar enough. I decided to investigate the web site.

ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE POUNDS?

I don’t think so. I paid 50 quid for a DAB radio three years ago and thought it expensive. I have no intention of being hornswaggled for a quid less than two tons just because the radio looks forty years old! ²

My other grievance is the constant taunting I receive from the new winter range of coats being peddled by Marks & Spencer. I would like a new coat. My trench coat is twenty years old and showing its age, the formal coat is fine but a little warm with a jacket under it (and although it is double breasted, it does not button around the neck by design, which means I need a black scarf when I wear it. I have a warm, padded parka, but even assuming that it hasn’t shrunk (ahem), it is generally far too warm with a jacket under it unless I move to the Arctic. So I though one of the new range of coats M&S have would do the job. There is a variety of designs. They are all frock coat length (there must be a proper word for it) but varying in style. The one that took my eye was the double breasted one, not dissimilar to a cross between a donkey jacket and a mariner’s jacket. Much nicer than it sounds.

The trouble is, that the largest size they do is XXL and this is and English XXL, which means that it is designed for a fat pixie, unlike the German or US equivalents. Even so, it is tantalisingly close to being wearable over a shirt (which would do me!). Another inch of fabric would have done the job…

M&S do a so-called “Big and Tall” range, modelled by a bloke whose name I forget, but he is a former England rugby captain: the sort of chap with muscles in his spit. Nice trousers, jackets and shirts, but no coats. Either big blokes don’t go out in the cold weather or they are so big and tough that they eschew outer garments. Pah! Maybe I’ll shrink into it, but I’m not buying a coat on the off chance.

At lunchtime I went for a wander around St James’s Park with fencingsculptor and then back for a chicken sarnie.

Just have to kill time, now and then go home in time to pick up my new prescription.

¹See LJs passim for discussions of the use of the word “tranny”.

²Though tonight is quiz night again and if we were to win the £1,000 jackpot…

Too expensive; too small

Well, I’ve had the maudle for the day. Doesn’t tend to last long, there’s too much helium in my personality to keep me down for long. Thanks for the good wishes and tolerance.

Moving on, I feel a grumble coming on. I like grumbling; it doesn’t have to be justified, though that does make it all the sweeter (although I find unjustified grumbling quite pleasurable, too). Two things have set me off today, one of which has been on the slow boil for a couple of weeks. I may have already mentioned it; I can’t remember, so I’ll mention it now.

The new object of my ire are Roberts Radios.

When I was a kid, I inherited or otherwise acquired a Roberts Radio. It was the best tranny¹ I have ever owned bar none. It was made sometime in the 1960s with a wood and aluminium frame, varnished and polished along the edges and covered in a plastic veneer finish down the sides. There was an on/off knob on the top left, a volume knob on the top right. In the middle was a matching dial with a tuning pointer beneath a transparent top with loads of now defunct radio stations. Green for medium wave, red for long wave. That radio saw me through college, when I would listen to Radio Moscow on it to them bragging about tractor production in the Ukraine, or to Radio Tirana, so I could listen to the Albanians being rude to everyone except their special chums, the Chinese.

Good times.

Then the radio fell in the bath and that was that.

Anyway, Roberts are now doing retro style DAB radios and I saw an advertisement in The Times for them. They are not identical to my old tranny, but they are similar enough. I decided to investigate the web site.

ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE POUNDS?

I don’t think so. I paid 50 quid for a DAB radio three years ago and thought it expensive. I have no intention of being hornswaggled for a quid less than two tons just because the radio looks forty years old! ²

My other grievance is the constant taunting I receive from the new winter range of coats being peddled by Marks & Spencer. I would like a new coat. My trench coat is twenty years old and showing its age, the formal coat is fine but a little warm with a jacket under it (and although it is double breasted, it does not button around the neck by design, which means I need a black scarf when I wear it. I have a warm, padded parka, but even assuming that it hasn’t shrunk (ahem), it is generally far too warm with a jacket under it unless I move to the Arctic. So I though one of the new range of coats M&S have would do the job. There is a variety of designs. They are all frock coat length (there must be a proper word for it) but varying in style. The one that took my eye was the double breasted one, not dissimilar to a cross between a donkey jacket and a mariner’s jacket. Much nicer than it sounds.

The trouble is, that the largest size they do is XXL and this is and English XXL, which means that it is designed for a fat pixie, unlike the German or US equivalents. Even so, it is tantalisingly close to being wearable over a shirt (which would do me!). Another inch of fabric would have done the job…

M&S do a so-called “Big and Tall” range, modelled by a bloke whose name I forget, but he is a former England rugby captain: the sort of chap with muscles in his spit. Nice trousers, jackets and shirts, but no coats. Either big blokes don’t go out in the cold weather or they are so big and tough that they eschew outer garments. Pah! Maybe I’ll shrink into it, but I’m not buying a coat on the off chance.

At lunchtime I went for a wander around St James’s Park with fencingsculptor and then back for a chicken sarnie.

Just have to kill time, now and then go home in time to pick up my new prescription.

¹See LJs passim for discussions of the use of the word “tranny”.

²Though tonight is quiz night again and if we were to win the £1,000 jackpot…