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September may not have been the most exciting month but it has filled the gap between August and October is a chronologically acceptable way. It had its moments, I think, and the website has grown in a rather alarming, and may I say it, obsessional way....I am now planning a trip to the Balkans next month, and debating the best approach to get into Albania. I'm sure that Mussolini didn't have these problems with his invasion plans in 1939. As a foretaster to this Eastern European malarkey, I have set up my Moldovan Monitor page, but I wouldn't worry about not visiting it- my advertising of the site hasn't really borne fruit, so I shall have to sack Saatchi & Saatchi.
I suppose I ought to be getting a bit worried about the contents of these monthly messages. Yes, I suppose I call them that with tongue gently in cheek, and hey, you shouldn't be expecting Proustian investigations into the nature of being, but I suppose they're in danger of becoming a bit banal, and domestic.
Never mind, I shall bring you next month's message from a Bosnian Police station....... |
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I get to play with the grown-ups as married couples risk a meal Chez Mike! |
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Margaret Thatcher used to get her visitors to 10 Downing Street to pose with her in front of a fireplace, but I have a more homely solution in the shape of Clanger and the big red sofa. Clanger is the most extraodinary ice-breaker in social situations, and I count myself lucky to have him as a flatmate, and Lynn appears to have taken to him as much as she has to her husband, as the progress of these photos demonstrate. Duncan arrived late as he is charged with keeping the National Grid going in his job at the DTI- I suspect that they've got him wired up to a dynamo there to keep the lights on.....the results of his labours can be found in the latest Energy White Paper. Duncan's website is certainly worth a look, even though it has been hijacked by a government department. At work, Duncan explains Energy Policy to government ministers; I explain Council Tax to octogenarians, so my job is obviously nuch more more difficult and technical.
There are consequently very few clangers to be found on Duncan's website, and I have yet to find Patricia Hewitts's impersonation of the Queen. |
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The Wrong Trousers, Hell's Agents, and Noises Off |
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My next victims were Bill & Ewa, now back in England after a peripatetic tour around the world in search of VAT troublespots, rather like UN peacekeepers, but better paid. Gary joined us later (you are very welcome to click |
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I really was feeling that I had had better weeks. I was faced with an ultimatum about the colour of trousers to be worn at work (just don't ask...please), and then my landlady turned up at my door informing me that she had fired the letting agents for general incompetence, and that
she will be giving me notice in January as she will have to sell the flat, and I'll have to move again ( I can think of several tens of thousands of reasons why I can't buy it). I went and shouted pointlessly but cathartically at the agents for a while, but I didn't feel completely recovered until I went to see the utterly brilliant Noises Off at the Piccadilly theatre, which left me hoarse laughing. and completely lost in admiration for the entire cast whose acting & timing in the production and in the beautifully terrible farce-within a-play Nothing On were miraculous. As one of the reviews said, it should be available on prescription. |
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here to apply for a grant from him if you live in Runnymede), despite having eaten at home in a blatant attempt to avoid my crimes against vegetarian cuisine. I do believe he appears to be rather strangling |
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poor Clanger in the photo above.
Bill, however, appears to be displaying the double faux pas of squashing Clanger to death and having questionable taste in pyjamas. |
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Computer Game Review: Roller Coaster World |
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I'm forever complaining that my book reviews are useless, so I may as well have a go at doing the same to computer games. I have only bought one, Roller Coaster World, which I guess is pretty Cro-Mangon by now, but I have to say that when I start it, I am completely hooked. The game is basically a construct-yourself a roller-coaster kit, and has some great 3D graphics and an inane, annoying but compelling music track that urges you onto construct as gargantuan a track as possible. Annoyingly sometimes, but regrettably sensibly, you're not allowed to break the laws of physics, and you can only build to a certain height, but the fiendish ways I developed to try to increase the speed of the track, and the |
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tortuous weaving of track that are neccessay make it something of a Rubik's Cube. A very oddly-shaped Rubik's Cube, admittedly, and it has been known to deprive me of many hours' sleep. "Sorry I'm late for work, I was up all night building a rollercoaster." |
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click here for August |
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click here for my home page |
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click for quick menu |
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