Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm getting Alberto and Kovacs mixed up (not in real life, natch).

Me too.

All this time without an avatar and now this... I'll do something about it when I get home. Just note that my one is more better.

You should keep that one, and everyone else should switch to an Assassin's Creed one for giggles.

It'll never catch on.

First person to do a "repeat" loses, obv.

Chinny's going to throw a fit.

Hopefully he'll come back then.. I miss Chinny.

I already have a character from Assassins creed as my avatar...

Maybe.

I had my first Nando's today. It wasn't in Liverpool and I didn't leave a tip.

Very tasty, I must say.

Oops, I should have read this before I changed

Same, most certainly.

Just discovered episodes of Megafactories on Sky Player so I'm watching the Henekein episode. So far, it's a pretty accurate depiction of my work, minus the on site brewing although we do have a demin plant like they do. This is a cool way to spend a Saturday night, right? Drinking tea and watching Megafactories?

I'm glad I did it. No really. Anyway, the phrase for you is "quality of life". It is better. Honest. Spent my Friday evening and Sat morning in Huddersfield this time - glorious. Town centre much the same kind of "bang bang" type of pub and so on, but a good atmosphere round the place, purely because it's North, and there are many many fewer people looking at you thinking "why should I talk/not smack/think about... you - how are you valuable to me".

A bit like the difference in England and France when cycling - England, everyone but everyone (bar a few, obviously) looks at the bike. In France, not one did. NOT ONE. They all looked at me, and almost all said good morning/afternoon etc. Just a different mentality - there are obviously large numbers of exceptions to that, but it's so much easier when you can take it for granted that if you're talking and someone's blanking you, *they're* a bit odd.

Might have found a place in Bingley. Really liked Bingley.

Drove to places in Chapeltown, called up and cancelled appointments.

Also got radar gunned doing 50 in a 30. policeman were waving at me to slow it down. Feel very embarrassed right now.

Nope.

Place in Bingley:

Good points - Driving up to it, I liked it straight away. It's a mid terraced house, probably built from the blood and sweat of the proletariat back when there were mills and stuff like that to keep the Northerners under the oppressive heel of the bourgeois. The front door opens out into the living room, which is comparable to the Northern Room at MaliTowers. Behind a door is the staircase which leads up to the first floor. There's a landing, a decently sized bathroom and the bedroom on this floor is large. Up another flight of stairs, and you get to the second bedroom, which occupies the whole floor. Everything is newly painted, new carpets and so on. The roof has been re-insulated and weatherproofed and there's gas central heating. Rent is acceptable, at a shade over £130 a week. The house is about 5 minutes from the railway station (£.80 to Leeds, takes 20 minutes every half hour) and thirty minutes walk to MrsA's new place of work. I liked it so much, in fact, that if it was just me, I would have bought it some years back. The surrounding area has houses with well kept gardens, no graffiti around and there's, soewhat comfortingly, several religious and friendly society buildings in the immediate surroundings.

Bad points - The kitchen is tiny. Only one door in and out. Getting stuff up the stairs could be filed under 'tetris for pros'. No garden, or yard, so the pig'll have to live inside. Dunno about bins. The cellar is basically bare, but with plumbing for a washing machine, and a pump to raise the water up to the sewerage level. No off street parking.

We've just seen another place on the internet, which is a couple of streets over. The house shape is pretty much the same, but it seems to be laid out better, and there's a proper room in the basement. It's a little more expensive, mind you.

Bingley itself seems to be a lovely place. We had a bit of a drive around, and a bit of a walk. We crossed over the river, and there was a Timothy Taylor pub, with 6 hand pumps of TT beer, a 'Sausage of the week', quiz on Tuesday nights and it was very, very smart. And two cokes came to £2.50! There were at least three curry places, too.

So, current plan is to call up the estate agents on Monday morning, to see if I can look around this other place. If I can, it'll be a straight toss up between it and the first, and I'll get the paperwork underway. It's been so long since I've done something like this, I can't remember what to do, but I think if I just offer all the cash up front it's probably going to be turned down. Anyways, back to Oxfordshire in a bit, and then do some more thinking.

Exciting! Good luck with it.

Why would it be turned down, you say it's rental?

Are you moving "oop North", MaliA? The BEEX "Northern" contingent is growing by the second!

Bloody hell. I might move to Bingley if the rent's £130.

Welcome to northern prices.

A Tim Taylor pub on tap...why haven't you moved in immediately?

As for curry, you can always go to Bratfud. Also, Saltaire is lovely.

Let's all move to Bingley!

My fear is someone else might get in first. So, tomorrow, two places to look at, I'll choose which one is bestest, then we'll go for that one, then the next, etc.

Indeed. I'm really quite excited.

Awesome. Why don't you stay up there tonight, it's a fair trek from Oxford isn't it?

He is afeard of the lion.

Geordie Jumpers.



Don't forget the new series of Shooting Stars is underway, episode two on iplayer now.

been punting in cambridge today. Lovely weather. Rammed with tourists.

Picked a good day to be in the river. I'm a bit jealous as I've not punted in months.

You do realise that they punt from the wrong side over there, don't you?

Bloody hell, is that Will Self? I had no idea.

I never really got into Shooting Stars when it was on (although we did steal their jokes, referring to one teacher as the Breast from the West and the Tit from the Pit. We were 13, okay?). That was great, though.

I am really happy with New Kern Hall. My only regret is not getting a place to myself sooner.

Now to move all the bags of clothes to the wardrobes, get some bookcases, and finish off shifting stuff (then mucking out) from the old room. But I'm really pleased with it, especially the ground floor. Four more sleeps before broadband gets switched on!

I was never told there was any particular side to use when I was there. I seem to recall the pole mostly went in on the right hand side tho, which I think was the 'norm'.

Edit: Or is it a euphemism, know what I mean, nudge nudge, wink wink?

I watched one episode of the previous series of Shooting Stars and it was horrifically bad. Did they get rid of the unfunny guy taking the piss out of the mentally handicapped yet?

I think you mean Angelos Epithemiou, and yes he's still in it, he does the scores now.

I don't believe he's taking the piss out of the mentally handicapped though.

Jazz omelette/pancake.

ARREST THAT JAZZ PANCAKE!

Also, Ulrika, yes or no?

Today I had pancakes, bacon & maple syrup for breakfast, waffles, bacon & syrup for lunch, and went on a miniature train ride through some woods. Dinner is yet to be decided, but if it involved something, bacon & syrup I wouldn't be disappointed.

Yes. To AE and Malabelm.

And I know the latter wasn't a question, I just wanted a moment of bacon solidarity.

In my book, that's totally cool!

Err, oh wait, that makes it totally uncool, sorry

Would have missed out on a fun evening in the pub with Kern, then. Heading up tomorrow to do some stuffs. MrsA, Him and me would have won the quiz had we taken part, mind.

Still, Bingley and back tomorrow, clean up the car in the evening as I'm swapping it for a camper van fir a week or two, then music quiz on Wednesday. Busy busy busy.

Would.

Have.

[edit] That's not what I meant, but I'm going to leave that there.

This should be in Song Club * really.




* Song Wars is just so confrontational.

Every day should be spent drinking tea.

I'm yet to watch the Heineken episode of Megafactories, but the Lego one was awesome and just made me want to go to the nearest Lego store and spend silly amounts of cash I don't have, on Lego sets that I don't have room for.

Paid for another fifty quids worth of the stuff* yesterday, so hopefully that will arrive this week.



*Lego, not tea.

Over here, we stand on the sloping bit, whilst they stand on the flat part. The benefit of our way is that if you lose your footing it's easier to make a few steps to adjust your posture whilst remaining inside the boat, rather than sliding off.

Put simply: We don't have the skill to do it properly in Oxford

There's a lovely pub 40 minutes' punting from a boathouse on the Cherwell which has a punt harbour so people can moor up and have a pint or several (punting back afterwards is always, er, interesting...). One hot day a few years a back I approached the pub and, seeing there was one space left, magnificently swung the boat round and docked it perfectly. Both my friends and the pub's patrons sitting by the river were impressed with my mastery of punting technique and manoeuvres. I was enjoying the experience of soaking up their admiration, then had to sheepishly admit that the mooring rope was tied to the other end of the craft...

Beeeeeex come back!

Sorry, my fault. I'm in Blackpool. I gad to run a cable to get the internet out here

I'm posting from the future, woooo!

Are you just the same hour in the future as everyone else or are you further along - who's the supreme ruler of the country ?