smells like fun: 10/01/2006

Tuesday, October 31

Gastroporn and Molecular Gastronomy

Today I fulfilled a dream and had lunch at Heston Blumenthal's pub the Hinds Head, which is about as close as I think I'll ever make it to his 3 Michelin-star restaurant Fat Duck named 'Best in the World' by Michelin and all that crap, which is across the road from the pub. Mmmmmmmm. Three hours later I rolled into work, too full and sleepy to do anything. Molecular Gastronomy rocks.

Monday, October 30

"Possibly the Greatest Live Band Ever"
- NME, October 2006

"Unbelievable - Urgen Burgen has to be seen to be believed."
- Drum Media, August 25, 2006

"Forget Wolfmother; for brilliant riffs and in-your-face rock, it's Urgen Burgen."
- Sydney Morning Herald, September 16, 2006

"Someone once said, 'wow, look at that'. And they were right."
- Sydney Rock Online, August 28, 2006

PS. Can you identify the person with the loud giggle in the background?

Want to see what Richard Alston is spending your taxes on?

Things like this really important Wedgewood Tribute Vase given to Bath as a gift in October 2006, entitled 'Admiral Arthur Phillip, First Governor of Australia and Gentleman of Bath'

Click to expand.
Did you know there's something called the Britain-Australia Society, and it has a West-Country branch? Seems they commission Wedgewood pieces when they aren't busy whacking Aboriginals with sticks.

Time for a Bath, smelly.

I'd been waiting for a year for the Thermae Bath Spa to open (marketed as 'Britain's Original and only Natural Thermal Spa'), since my last disappointing visit to Bath, when I turned up in togs and towel in-hand to take the waters, only to find the entire building boarded-up and devoid of a single therapist poised to give me a seaweed wrap or exfoliation treatment.

I finally found a free weekend and took myself off again to Bath, full of excitement about the prospect of soaking up all those natural minerals which would melt away my fat and make me look as fresh and young as a fetus. What did I find? The world's most expensive (£29 entry fee for 4-hours) public swimming pool full of Japanese tourists and Europeans of non-descript origin who looked like Borat and ignored the 'Please shower before entering the water' signs and then all their wives' stupid Eastern European makeup melted off their faces and dripped into the water that I WAS TRYING TO RELAX IN. JERKS!

Pros: It was lovely swimming in the roof-top pool with the steam rising out, especially when it started raining. There was a lovely view of Bath from the roof.

Monday, October 23

My cool new house

I have moved house yet again. Am now in a proper house, rather than tiny flat. I even have my own ensuite, ooh luxe! However, I also once again have a large array of international flatmates, which is reminiscent of my lovely/crazy old place in Angel/Islington - two germans, a frog, one brazilian and a token english.

Umm, Budapest?

Blue Danubians. I'm supposed to be going to Budapest for a holiday in 5 weeks but there's been another riot; this time not because of retarded politicians but because it was the 50th Anniversary of their emancipation from the USSR. Or something.
The British Foreign office has supplied some rather useful advice:
"Since mid-September there have been political demonstrations against the government in Budapest. Further demonstrations are likely, especially in front of Parliament. As a precaution you should avoid political demonstrations. We strongly recommend you obtain comprehensive travel and medical insurance before travelling."

Thursday, October 19

Hurrah to the Happy Couple!

Here's Leen & Matt in a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park, NYC.,NY., USA just after Matt Proposed.

I am extremely excited because I have designated myself Wedding Planner. I have decided that the theme of the wedding will be 'Autumn Country Vineyard' and the era will be reminiscent of the 1950s to match Leen's dress, which will be a bit Audrey Hepburn. In terms of colour themes, I'm thinking silver and pale blues, which are Leen's favourites.

Tuesday, October 17

WTF?

There is some shit-looking Christmas movie being filmed in the shed next door called Fred Claus. We've seen Vince Vaughn dressed up as santa. It all screams QUALITY.

Speaking of Quality
There is a new competition at work - first person to have an illegitimate child by Vince Vaughn gets to shout a round at the Red Lion. It seems fair. My tactic of parking as close as possible to his trailer and walking casually to and fro hasn't yielded results thus far. The European HQ finance team (Wendy, Sue, Leslie) have started taking their cigarette breaks further up the end of the carpark near the entrance to the studio. The Marketing Communications team (Jo, Jane) have bribed reception to call them anytime he walks past.

Monday, October 16

Fan Fiction is so five years ago

My new guilty pleasure is watching fanvids on You Tube. If you've seen something you really like on TV or at the movies, chances are someone with the right combination of aspergers syndrome and technical skill has already produced a fanvid; distilling the best scenes and setting it to music MTV-stylee for your viewing pleasure. Take for example the clip below, from the BBC's latest brilliant Goth-tastic series of Jane Eyre. Rochester makes Darcy look booooring! Toby Stephens fills out a frilly-shirt extremely well and is set to be the next Colin Firth. Woohoo!

Saturday, October 14

Dreaming of the Peaks

It was the Jen of times, it was the Smith of times...
I'm in the Peaks District living the lovely country life with Jen and Paul. Today we went for a 'ramble' along a beautiful river-type forest thing. We took a mushroom identification book and went along identifying mushrooms in the hope we'd find some edible goodies for dinner. Alas, all the fungi we came across that was identifiable in our 'Mushroom Guide' said they were totally poisonous and came with the phrase in big letters: 'not to be eaten'.

Shroom Pickin'

To eat or not to eat?

Jen and Paul

Having a moment

Wednesday, October 11

Jeff's Moby; I'm Spike Lee and we both seem to be James Spader

Thanks to Mike for finding this site and providing endless hours of procrastination-y enjoyment.

Tuesday, October 10

Ha Ha! Caught you on a Technicality Erin!

Hello Rani, friend and fellow blogger. Thank you for drawing my attention to this scandalous article written by friend and ex-blogger Erin. Seeing as I'm still overseas and therefore technically still on holidays you still have to read my blog Erin! Suck eggs! Remember - friends must read them because, let's face it, if they don't who will? So from now on, even when I am not doing anything remotely interesting, I will catalogue the event (see entry below, entitled 'God I'm Bored').

P.S. WTF is Garry?

God I'm bored. An MSN Dialogue.

RC: God I'm bored. I might as well be listening to a Leonard Cohen record.

JC: I'm so board, you could iron on me.

RC: I'm so board, I have 100 members.

JC: I'm so board, someone just finished a game of monopoly on me.

RC:Oh butthead! I was going to do boardgames next!
PS. good news. The car by some miracle passed the MOT test! Only a bulb was changed in my headlights. So £50 only! I guess it's a relief considering I thought there'd be an extra 0 on the end of that figure.
PPS. I'm so Bore-d, I've just struck oil.

JC: I'm so Boer'd, they've declared me a war.

RC: I'm so boar-d, I'm a wild pig and favourite meal of Obelix.

JC: I'm so Bohr'd I've just done a whole heap of ground-breaking research into atomic theory.

RC: WTF? Okay, you win.

JC: I'm so board, people are starting to think I'm a fee paid for medium to long term accomodation services.

RC: I said you win! No wait! I'm so board, you could go surfing Bodhi's 50-year-storm at Bell's Beach Oostralia on me.

JC: What, you don't get it? Neils Bohr! A pioneer atomic physicist. Hehe, imagine a fizzy cyst...

Sunday, October 8

Retro-Post: This time 4 years ago

Mum, Dad - if you're reading this, it really did happen. Jim Beam has alot to answer for...
October 8, 2002
"Can you believe I just had a fight with my parents about how many legs a spider has? My mum wanted to know and dad said "six". When I said "um no dad it's actually eight" he didn't believe me and made me go on the internet to find a site that proved it. Sigh."

Nice things

Crack Dogs for Sale at Anne Frank's

Evil Dutch Cupids

Saturday, October 7

Geez! They are like, everywhere!

After a visit to the Van Gogh Museum this morning there was a sunshower. I ran into the closest restaurant. It was Italian. I sat down in the corner to have lunch and wait for the rain to stop. Then two thirty-something American travel guides walked in and sat at the table next to me.

AG1: Oh my god, listen! They're playing James Blunt!
AG2: Oh no I love him so much, but you know what? I divorced him.
AG1: Really?
AG2: Yeah, it was just after I split from Mike, and we were on the tour to Lima. I had 'Goodbye My Friend' on repeat on my iPod. After that trip I just couldn't take him anymore.
AG1: Really?
AG2: Yeah. I like, re-synched and took him off the playlist. It was for the best.

The tour guides downed some house wine and left. They were replaced by two more of their countrymen, twenty-somethings definitely in town after one thing (besides pizza):
American Dude 1: Dude, what's next?
American Dude 2: You mean after the pizza? Chicks, man.
AD1: Cool.
AD2: Maybe we should have some pot first. You know, to like, get in the zone.
AD1: Yeah the zone. Cool.

Friday, October 6

It Just Gets Worse

I just endured a KLM flight to Amsterdam sitting next to two American College students. Before the plane took off there was an announcement in Dutch:
American Girl 1: What's that?
American Girl 2: It's not English, that's for sure.
AG1: I think it must be their language.
AG2: Whose?
AG1: Like, from Amsterdam.
AG2: You mean they don't speak English? Geez.
AG1: It's okay. Oh like, listen. She's saying stuff in English now.

As the plane starts to descend into Amsterdam:
AG1: Oh look there's Netherlands (sic).
AG2: Netherlands? I thought we were going to Amsterdam!
AG1: Like, we are silly! Amsterdam is in Netherlands!
AG2: Oh listen, she's speaking Netherlands again.
AG1: It sounds weird hey!

smells like fun