Month: February 2004

Meat Update

Tried Bison for lunch. Wasn’t really terribly impressed – it was nice, but I prefered the other interesting meats I’ve had at the gastropub, I think. The spinach was the nicest spinach I’ve ever had, faint praise though that is.

In a staggering move, I’ve actually had really good customer service from BT. Our ADSL has been moved to our new provider, and when I phoned BT to confirm that my old account with them had been closed, the man on the other of the line noticed that they’d take a payment for a month’s ADSL yesterday (I knew it’d happen and was OK with it – just an unfortunate coincidence of dates) and he didn’t think this was terrbily fair, given that I’d essentially paid for a month’s BT ADSL, only to use less than 24 hours of it before switching ISP, so it’s going to be refunded to me apparently. Result.

Gosh, my life’s exciting.

Edit: Del, here’s the link to Paul’s review we were talking about last night.

Heartbeat

I’ve mislaid my Kodo CDs, which is annoying, because after seeing them on Friday, I really want to listen to them some more. There was a bit more flute/dance Kabuki type-stuff this time out, and I confess, it’s more the drumming that I go for, but still, massively impressive. I see there’s a DVD of this tour coming out later in the year, which will be very cool, because while the drums sound good, it’s the sheer physicality of the performance that’s most impressive – in particular, the second half closer as two mad bastards beat on a taiko drum that’s bigger than they are, using sticks like baseball bats.

Went out round town on Saturday, looking for a new bag. Failed to find one, although I did get a new shirt. The met up with Gordon and fire_sermon for dinner at Garlic and Shots which was a bloody good laugh.

Spent most of yesterday in bed, because I didn’t have anything pressing to do. So I finished Be My Enemy (which, truth be told, I was a little disappointed by, although the bit with the chef made me laugh like a drain, which I suspect means there’s something very, very wrong with me), and watched Plunkett and Macleane, which I’ve always liked a lot more than the film probably deserves, but hadn’t watched in a while. I suspect I’ve mislaid my copy of the soundtrack as well, which is annoying.

Horse’s Nosebag

So, I’ve joined the Scottish Malt Whisky Society. I’d be planning to wait until my birthday, but since it’ll take three to six weeks for my membership to come through, I figured I’d do it now, and claim the money back off my parents, who have offered to get me the membership for my birthday.

I was out at the society’s tasting rooms with work colleagues last night and very pleasant it was too. Tried (among others) the sweetest whisky I have ever enountered, from Glenrothes distillery. Seriously, the damn thing smelled more like treacle than whisky. Very nice. I’ll have to get a bottle before they sell out.

The rooms themselves are near Farringdon, where I can get a direct train from Tooting BR, which is ace for me. But the reason I’m boring you all rigid with this is that among the things I’m thinking of doing for my birthday is going for dinner either here (the pub beneath the rooms) or here (the separate restaurant that’s part of the pub but has a different (read: posher) menu), and I’m just looking for a show of hands in case anyone’s interested. I can only take a small number of people in, and will undoubtedly be going more than once this year, so I’m really only looking for people willing to do both, on this occaision.

“Books! Old and new!”

Well, OK, just new. There’s a new Brookmyre book out in a few days, which I’m looking forward to, but more importantly, I’m pleased to discover that not only does Cory Doctrow have a new book out today (OK, yesterday, but I was asleep when it was announced), but that he’s done the same thing as his did with his last one, and made it freely available on-line under the same sort of Creative Commons license that he did his last one. His last one was one of the most interesting and entertaining sci-fi books I read last year, so I’m looking forward to this…

“As I Gaze At The Planets In Wonder”

I don’t trust astrology. It seems like a pile of bunk to me. But I do, on the other hand, make periodic use of the tarot, so y’know, it’s not like I’m occupying some kind of atheistic high ground here. But still, it’s in that spirit of skepticism that I have just looked at chineseastrology.com (via arcana_j). I was born under the sign of the Fire Snake, apparently, which means that I am a wise philosopher and basically an all round mystic sage, which I chose to believe is entirely accurate. Of course, it also means that I’m supposed to hugely physically attractive, and have flawless skin, and I’m damn sure my skin’s not flawless.

But the real reason I know all this is crap is that this year, the one that started on January the 22nd, is the year of the Wood Monkey. This is, apparently, the best year I’m going to have in the next decade or so at least. Given that I woke up on January the 22nd feeling largely unable to face the world, this does not fill me with confidence. I mean, it’s entirely possible that I’m going to have a staggering wonderful year, but I was reflecting the other day that I had a brilliant 2003, and all it feels like 2004 has done thus far is piss on me, so y’know, maybe I was just born at the wrong time. Well, I know I was, but sadly, it would make no difference to my Chinese astrological sign if I’d been born at the right time.

But y’know, this isn’t a pity party. (Well, maybe a small one. Shut up.) So, after due consideration, I have decided that while I do not, under any circumstances believe in astrology, I shall, this once, assume that it is true, and astrology had damn well better look grateful about it. But I’ll be watching closely. I’m going to be looking back on 2004 (and early 2005, I guess) hard, and if things don’t rock utterly from end to end, I shall be demanding my money back. I don’t trust fucking monkeys, anyway. I mean, humans are basically just monkeys that decided that we liked plumbing and electricity better than throwing turds around and eating each others’ fleas, and look how we’ve turned out.

So: I have the week of my birthday off (20th-28th of March). It’s not a terribly special birthday, other than that it more or less obliges me to stop thinking of myself as “mid-twenties”, so I have decided that I’m going to do something (or possibly several somethings) interesting and special in that week, because my age isn’t being obligingly exciting. So, kids, I turn to you for suggestions please. As many, and as creative as you can come up with. Don’t worry about cost, time, or any other limiting factor other than, y’know, the laws of physics and basic possibility. I may not do somethings because they’re too expensive or time-consuming, but I don’t want to discount anything at this stage.