The Chicken Party

Krunchy Fried Chicken
Originally uploaded by hugovk

I was busily not helping around the house last weekend when I heard R deal with some visitors to the front door.

I later found out they had been canvassers for the forthcoming local elections - R mentioned her annoyance with one particular council policy but being the conscientious democrat that she is, she took a leaflet outlining the main planks they were standing on for her to study later .

It contained one of those questions that it is often unwise for a politician to ask. It went something like this - "did you know the Council is engaged in a major redevelopment program for Plumstead?" I thought the obvious answer would be no. But reading the detail it mentioned the refurbishment of shopfronts and it slowly dawned on me that I had in fact noticed it. I had been a bit bemused to see that the Chick-Chicken shop had renewed its hoarding a few weeks ago. A few days later I noticed another shop that sells an odd mixture of things including fried chicken had also had its sign renewed. I believe I even chucked a little comment up on my Facebook status line along the lines of "Erik is wondering if the refurbishment of all the fried chicken shops in Plumstead is a sign of development or retrenchment."

That's what the development programme seems to amount to anyway - at least as far as appearances are concerned. (It's just occurred to me that I saw a particularly dodgy estates agents had decided to have a a paint job-struck me as odd at the time). For a bold development program the council seemed to be making some odd choices as to what needed improving. The Chick-chicken shop had a perfectly adequate sign anyway. After all who needs a good shopfront when your marketing team have come up with such an excellent brand name?

Picture: Krunchy Fried Chicken
Originally uploaded by hugovk

fried+chicken plumstead local+elections london

Crimes and Misdemeanours

I've been feeling tired all week. I was woken in the night by Mr Scuttles who has taken over from John and Wayne apparently (did I tell you that Wayne was found looking uncomfortably dead in a trap in the bathroom?) Mr Scuttles was making a fair bit of noise - it sounded like he was trying on my hiking boots at one point.I made a mental note to kill him then went back to sleep. In fact my sleep has been relatively undisturbed but I still feel in need of more.

Is it the stresses and strains of the jury service I have just completed? I'm pretty sure I am not supposed to mouth off about the details but we found him guilty and the whole thing was pretty lame. There was a brutal murder closely connected to it but it was itself a mini-saga about the possession of controlled medecines. It was a bit unsavoury but I certainly didn't lose any sleep over it - it made me laugh a bit and it made me feel sad a bit but it was hardly the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Perhaps it's the troubles faced by Civil Servants this week? I am a bit annoyed that all read/write access to DVD drives and support for flash drives has been removed at work. Getting rid of the ability to copy to them makes sense of sorts - in fact you needed special permissions to write to CD/DVD before the debacle as far as I could work out. But not being able to read from them seems beside the point. We are all going around self-satisfied that it would never happen in our own particular corner of the world and have definitely not felt the need to pull duvets over our heads either metaphorically or actually.

Was it the dismal awfulness of the England versus Croatia game? Did that take it out of me? When I heard Israel beat Russia, coming back from my Irish friend Mariadphod's Birthday drink, I leapt up in the train , spun round and shouted the result down the carriage and one hundred Nigerians,Poles,Lithuanians,Indians, and Finns looked back at me blanky. Two sweet old ladies from Ghana asked me what I was excited about but I am not sure they understood. The Italian and Australian to my right at least knew there was a game a called football but were much more interested in Rugby. After this realisation that no one in England really cared about what happened to England's football team the defeat was a lot easier to take.

Perhaps its all due to not enough cigarettes all round.

Mr Scuttles certainly would not want to be poking around my smoke-ridden bedroom risking passively contracted mouse cancers.

If I had been desperate for a cigarette during our deliberations the jury would have moved along a bit quicker.

I would be getting regular breaks from my computer for fag breaks.

I could have enjoyed a quiet smoke instead of annoying all my fellow passengers.

I bet more members of the Croatia squad smoked than their English opponents.

And I am missing out on the enlivening effects of the plant itself - I now have to rely on the narrow gauge of caffeine that irritates more than it soothes.

A ghastly image of Fag Free Britain arises before my eyes - knackered and stressed and generally useless at everything.

Thanks to BlackScarletLove for the photo



football croatia england hmrc discs cd smoking smoking-ban cigarettes mouse mousetrap

Starlight Foundation

These are the links to donation forms the Starlight Foundation in the UK and the Australian Foundation respectively. You can click back to their homepages to see the kind of work they do brightening the lives of children with serious conditions.

The UK Starlight

https://secure.paradisii.net/Starlight/payment_details.asp

The Australian Starlight Homepage - click through to make a donation

http://www.starlight.org.au/Default.aspx?TabId=1374

Down Under

Melbourne 2006 : Flowers
Originally uploaded by simv

I have just found out about the sudden death of my uncle David.

He emigrated with Margaret and the children to Australia many years ago but I remember staying at their house, that David built himself, in Woodstock.

I last saw him at my cousins wedding and he seemed happier than ever.

I am glad that he got to meet my partner before he died - they got on like a house on fire.

My thoughts are with Margaret, Christine, Kevin and Colin and all the family.

He was buried this afternoon in Melbourne.

Gifts have been requested to go to the Starlight Foundation, a hospice for terminally ill children.

When I can find an obvious link that's suitable for UK citizens I will post it up.

The Gr8 Heelr

58/365 Shut up you stupid girl
Originally uploaded by Toxic Cherry Girl

I came across the following on my internet travels today.

I have no idea what search terms led me to it. Its a Bebo blog.

"Today was ok quiet wiv out becky though, she went to london 2 get a photo shoot done. had grease rehearsel after school that was funny joey didnt half look soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! becky would hav loved 2 be there as she would hav gone all mental coz danny didnt half look cool he look exactly like the lad off grease the part he is playing. danny said 2 me in english is BBT in and i said no she had gone 2 london he shouted yes and smiled.i hav had nothing 2day 2 eat coz i had noone 2 go in2 the canteen wiv me. i am so pissed off wiv chloe i hope i batter her she so has pissed me off i h8 her 4 it i wish i had never told her that little bitch any way fingers r hurting now so im gonna give it a rest
posted by name edited

1 Comment:

(name edited)said... 981 days ago

hey babe lovin ur journal i still fink that dan is sooooooooooooooooooooooo fit even if he did say yes
(and for those who dont know bbt is becky big tits)yes thats me becky big tits"


So far so good.

My tenuous excuse for posting this is that it was the last post I could find for this particular blogger - it was 981 days ago.

It makes me wonder if things have been patched up wiv chloe. I also wonder whether joey still looks soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fit or whether he has lost his charm.

981 days is a long time. It is longer than the period I have not been smoking. A lot longer - I estimate about 411 days longer.

Fingers r hurting now.

(Thanks to Toxic Cherry Girl for the pic)