harrumpf!

[caddyman]

I predict that today will be a corker: I am looking at the date and wondering if I know any numerologists who will be able to do something with 24/9/08 or its variants to come up with Friday 13th or some unlikely but equally unlucky combination.

I realised, far too late to do anything about it, that I have forgotten to take my meddies today, so there is nothing but happenstance to prevent my head exploding before I go home tonight, nothing to stop my blood pressure from building to unacceptable levels, my face getting redder and redder and my head expanding like a balloon at Mardi Gras¹. On the other hand, it is clear that the Karma Pixies truly believe in balance in all things, so it appears that I am running out of coffee. I suspect that having less coffee will be a little like pushing a couple of control rods back into the reactor, but at the same time it will make a long day seem interminable².

I am consoling myself by burrowing through a bag of roasted cashew nuts and I don’t care who knows it.


¹These are universally acknowledged symptoms of high blood pressure. According to cartoon time.

²Assuming I don’t doze off because of caffeine deprivation.

Comments

[littleonionz.livejournal.com]

Roasted cashew nuts! are you mad sir?!

[pauln.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the steam coming out of your ears...

[ash1977law.livejournal.com]

24/9/08

2+4=6 / 9 / 0+8=8

6+9+8= 23 (skidoo)

However, you have written the date in a very specific way, with two slashes and instead of 09 you have written just 9 giving us 5 starting numbers. II x 5(Friday being the 5th day of the week) gives us 10. 23-10=13, naturally giving Friday the 13th of Brian.

[ladkyis.livejournal.com]

I bet you did that without using any fingers didn't you? I am always impressed with people who can do sums and to do it without the aid of fingers - well. I can see that you can do adding and take aways and guzzinters too. This place has everyone!

[ash1977law.livejournal.com]

Nope, I used my fingers. Was hard.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

Bryan may remember a physics teacher nicknamed Dan (presumably as in "Dan Dan the physics man", coined before our time) who always impressed me with his ability to do calculus in his head. Not even on his fingers. Nice fellow, mad keen on his subject, and one day he lost his patience and grabbed a particularly dense boy by his lapels and cuffed him repeatedly about the ears. A defining moment that placed him firmly on my List Of Approval.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

Cor! When counting a band into a song, I have to use my fingers...

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Ah, the tuft-headed Mr Reynolds:

"Dan, Dan, the Physics Man.
Legs long and hairy,
Looks like fairy..."

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

I don't remember that little rhyme, but now you mention it, I do remember he was very hirsute. Thick bushes of hair sprouted from beneath his shirt cuffs, and one of our colleagues used to sing that song by the Sweet, "Hell Raiser" about him, as "hair raiser, hair raiser..."

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Do you recall a master called George Ratcliffe at any point during our time there? I don't, but apparently he's just popped his clogs. Would have been in his forties. Went on to great things, apparently, including Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire...

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

The name is not familiar at all.

I started writing a reminiscent piece a couple of days ago about some of those chaps, but gave up. Pointless and a bit self-indulgent. Oddly, none of my usual bitterness about that place came through, mind you I was writing about solid chaps like Jerry, Spock and B Banks rather than oiks like R Jones!