Recently in Bending Facts Category

Considering the four hours of sleep at best, I was apprehensive about this day. I figured perhaps I hadn't yet adjusted to the time difference (IST = GMT + 5:30), jet lag, all that jazz, but anyway, as planned I made my way by auto to Bandra having spoken to Mr. A from M's phone (as mine still wasn't working).

He said he's pick me up from the National College Gate. The driver had no real clue where he was going & kept stopping to ask other autos where this college was, most of them just pointed straight ahead. Obviously I had no clue at this stage, an hour or so later eventually I gave up on the guy & told him to drop me next to a payphone & that I'd work it out. I did.

Mr. A (joined by Mrs. A too) then took me to a Thali place. Thali just means plate if you take the literal translation, but when you see thali restaurants, what they mean is an assortment of foods (in a plate), this place had 4 curries, 2 starters (dhokala & samosa), dal, rice, papadoms, dessert, 2 types of bread, a lassi & a bottle of mineral water. Ample to feed on. Approximately double the variety I'd expect from a Thali in the UK. In addition, and as though this wasn't foodie heaven already, they come & top-up anything that you want at no extra charge. It goes without saying that I topped up on starters & dessert, repeatedly. The bill came to 175Rs [about £2.50]

The place was called Aram & I'll re-visit it at some point during my stay for sure. I don't think it was intended by Mr. A, but it was quite symbolic that we began here. Aram means to rest, as does Vishram, which is the name of my film banner. It was a name that conveniently came from merging part of my own first name with that of my business partner Vishal. The intent of this whole trip (which I may blog separately at some point - is in aid of developing this company), so it was a sign.

Moving on, we then went to the Mr. A residence by car & hung out there for a while. I might point out I hadn't yet got over the heat factor, any opportunity to hang indoors under a fan was welcome. It was comforting that they felt the same way about the afternoon heat in particular. He had wi-fi, so there was tweetage. I'd moaned earlier about my Sim not working yet & had some helpful suggestions to try (none of which worked, but they were sensible & appreciated), one suggestion was to pick up an alternative sim with Tata Docomo, for they would activate the Sim then & there.

So later, when it got cooler (read tolerable heat), we went for a stroll, I felt the need to get some more cash out of the SRK Bank ATM. In hindsight, I didn't need to, but better to have cash than not is what I'd figured from the previous day. Quite near the ATM I had my first of many fresh coconut waters. From my previous trip to India when I was 12, this was one of the memories I recall well. We used to have 2 or 3 a day. It doesn't seem as common these days, or perhaps it's a regional thing. *shrug*

On the way back we stumbled into a place that did the Tata Sims. In India, they seem to require a lot of documentation to even get a pay-as-you-go sim, so we got the information on what was needed, picked up relevant stuff from his place & returned to this stall. Note: it's useful to keep a few spare passport-size photos with you all the while on your travels, it was required for the sim & it was a fluke that I just had a couple in my wallet, coz I do fancy myself like that. ;)

As the myth suggested, it was active in seconds, i started texting all the tweople I'd yet to reach out to.. Data wasn't working, but simply needed APN settings, then I'd be tweeting away on the move, free, like the wind, or some such.

It was evening by this point & Mr. A was going to a Malwadi (regional Maharashtrian) event relatively close to where I was staying, so I hiked a lift & since I wasn't feeling tired, I thought I'd tag along. Upon enquiring what the event was in aid of nobody seemed to have much of a clue, much like the Belgrave Mela in Leicester each year. We Indians don't need a reason to celebrate, we just do. :D

Okay I'll admit, I didn't care for the event. I was looking forward to meeting Ms. P who was also planning on attending. In fact we organised to pick her up on the highway, so, pretty much as expected, the event didn't really interest me, it was overly crowded & was in no way film-related. I was bored & by the time we got there, I was getting tired too, I think there might be a picture of me & Ms. P somewhere where I don't look too pleased. I assured her it wasn't her, I think she believed me. :) *fingers-crossed*

The journey back was the most excitement I had all day. Despite Mr. A being a local, he got lost & in the process we managed to scout locations just as I had visualised them. Seedy allies, with occassional cows, rams & numerous dead ends. We had a vague sense of direction (I think), but many of the allies we were driving through looked like they'd reach nowhere, despite the drivers frustration, I was loving it! This is precisely what I wanted to see! It made my day.

After getting back, I pretty much passed out after having a quick shower. It had been a good day & I knew that this was only the beginning.

The early hours:
Despite having slept at stupid o'clock, I was up at about half nine. This is when the heat had become a hindrance to my movement. I found myself wide awake mentally, but unable to move away from under the fan. That's when I wrote-up my first blog entry & caught up with e-mails, facebook messages, tweets & suchlike. Okay, I'll admit, I'm just trying to make myself sound supremely organised, truth is I probably let quite a few messages slip between the cracks without even realising. ;) When you manage your inboxes by practically having an iPhone embedded in your hand 24x7, shifting to checking once every few hours when in a wi-fi zone is a tad overwhelming.

Anyway, shifting from under the fan for over a few minutes was like walking into a sauna. Quite the predicament. As I sat around, a number of thoughts were running through my head.. I'll share 'some' ;)
- is what the rest of my trip would be like? spending my days racing between fans & air conditioned places until dawn & then coming out to play at night like The Batman?!
- still kicking myself for booking a flight on a Friday. I'd seen London Dreams on Thursday in London. That's 1 of the 2 releases. Aladin had been out for at least 36 hours & I hadn't seen it yet. Shameful. This said, to my surprise, I have yet to meet somebody who has that sense of duty towards releases.
- Aaaargh, need cash, so many people I need to get back to, meets to organise, so many things to do.. go-go-go-go gadget!

The afternoon:
Like one of those kids who keep testing the water temperature of a swimming pool immersing themselves a little more with each test, I eventually shifted out to non-fan territory. The temperature was tolerable. Okay, maybe I got pushed into the pool somwhat. It was past noon & my babysitter, whose place I'm staying at was headed to the dentist in Navi Mumbai (which is a couple of hours drive away), so I figured I'd get on with what I had to do too.

My agenda for the day was clear:
1st priority, acquire funds via an SRK Bank ATM,
2. acquire local sim card (ideally with data),
3. go see Aladin,
4. do that socialising thing .. provided time allows.

My babysitter was kind enough to organise an Airtel Prepaid simcard on the way to the cinema, a spare key to the flat & some Dhokla for brunch. So we got a Rickshaw to Inorbit Mall (near Malad) via these pit stops & then parted ways.

It was a relatively smooth ride, with the exception of one small collision. Our driver smashed the back lights off another rickshaw when trying to maneuver. The incident was quite amusing. Both drivers stepped out of their vehicles, had a bit of a stare-off for a minutes, hand gesturing away & then just decided to carry on.

I'd been informed by the seller that the sim card should be active within the hour, so by the time I was done with the movie, I could get hold of the people I wanted to meet & so on.. wait hold up, I forgot to acquire funds from the SRK Bank ATM.

Luckily I'm at a mall, so they do have ATM machines, but they didn't have an SRK Bank one in particular. At this point I was unaware if much like in the UK, you can use any cashpoint to withdraw money. So I withdrew a small amount of cash from my NRE account. I didn't want to use the UK account in case I did get charged then it's possible I'd get charged twice as much sue to currency conversion too. I've yet to know whether I was changed but at that point in time, it was a necessity, if I didn't acquire funds I wouldn't even have money for a cab anywhere, the film, etc, etc..

I saw Aladin at the 15:15 show. During Intermission I got me a fruit juice smoothie, I was dubious that it was blended with ice & that the ice would be from water that wasn't filtered, but I caved. It looked good, so I thought I'd risk it. The juice wasn't as good as it looked. Mweh. Wasn't expecting much from the film yet was disappointed, but still, at least I had seen it now.

The evening:
3 of the 4 things were checked off my list & it was only around 18:00, time to get hold of some people I thought. So, I tried calling Mr. A. The call failed. Well that's rubbish. Tried calling C*, same message, tried calling their customer services, eventually got info from them that it can take upto 24 hours to activate. Baah .. This sucked.

I had a coffee at Barista, got some change & then figured out how to use the local payphones. I called Mr. A who was quite enthusiastic, tried arranging to meet, but I was rather unsure about where I was, what I was doing, etc, etc so it wasn't quite happening. I decided to go for the safer option & waited for my babysitter to return & share her plans, there were a number of people coming round to the flat in the evening & it'd be a fun & frolics driven evening. I rescheduled meeting Mr. A to Saturday lunchtime, with an easy going evening ahead. In good time, the tweople arrived staggered in numbers, 6 or so by about 3am. We ordered in take-away. Much merry-making & conversation was had overnight, the conversations were quite random, reminded me a little of my lunches with Adam at work, one of the girls pointed out that I have good looking feet. :) At around 05:30, a few of us went to see the sunrise on the terrace of the building. I took my camera along too. Most my snaps turned out crap, too blurred. Eventually, I slept at around 7am (for 3-4 hours).

As I'd been told a gazillion times, the first thing that hit me was the heat. It's those first few seconds after you leave the airport where there is a sudden punch of WTF, that's not right, who's been playing with the thermostat?

Merely a few minutes later, I got over it, it wasn't so bad. It was hot, but there was a nice breeze too. I met with M who had come to receive me & we got declined an auto-rickshaw by the first driver we approached. Another agreed & took us on board. As we hit the roads, the abundance of stray dogs was notable, we scooted over to Smokin' Joe's pizza place where I had my first meal.

Pizza. Quite ironic, I know, but it was late at night and only a handful of options were going to be available really. Ah, I didn't mention the time before did I? Yep. It was 1am at least, oh, and that thing about getting over the heat. Yea' .. now that it's daytime, I take that back.

Anyway, back to the narrative: We'd put my luggage inside the pizza place & were waiting outside for the arrival of K. Once he arrived, he did suggest an alternative place to eat but with luggage already sitting in this place we decided to stay put. The pizza wasn't half bad. The cheese here seems quite different, not bad, not good, just different. If you'd offered it to me in the UK I would just think it's one of those cheeses people buy for their wine-tastings, not cheddar, not mozerella.

So, after fighting a mustard bottle to its death, discussing the philosophical integrity of whether mustard really even is mustard once it merges with other things, in time we left & got another Auto back to M's flat where I'm staying currently.

I was amused that halfway through the trip, the driver skidded to a halt & asked another fellow driver on the side of the road to give him a paan. The other guy shuffled about a bit. Our driver demanded that he was given a paan pronto, he was, upon receipt, he did the side-nod shoulder to shoulder thing & off we went again at 40 odd miles an hour. It was so random, yet cool.

During the journey I found myself smiling away as I took in the unique smell, that very smell I find in every official letter I've received from India. I can't describe it any other way but the smell of India. :)

Silent Salutes,
_ram-jaane'

Notes on the Auto front:
- Some will flat out refuse you any service
- Stray Dogs
- Paan
- 1.5x rate after 1am

People might recall from earlier in the year how Christian Bale set that stupid DP Shane straight by ranting at him with ample profanities & giving intense looks on the sets of the recently release Terminator: Salvation (which wasn't T2, but was still pretty impressive).

Well, as it happens, recently it's been reported that this DP got a job on the Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel aptly titled Alvinator 2: Munchin' Day on which the same events seem to have unfolded. A frustrated Chipmunk recording was leaked by some guy on set that signed the envelope 'Theo'.

That's all we've got I'm afraid.. & ofcourse the recording itself.
http://ramchandra.me.uk/technicolor/alvin_flips.mp3

I feel you deserve a gap filler while I catchup too ... So ..
Cheers for the heads-up to Captain Nemo

Well actually today I am to attend the xmas curry with the 'Support' department, but last Saturday we had a company party, of a similar scale to last year but this time not in Mayfair.

The Venue:
The Riverbank Park Plaza, 18 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7TJ

The Event:
6.45pm Drinks Reception - The Thames Suite
7.45pm Dinner - The Ballroom
10.30pm Entertainment and Dancing
1.30am Coaches depart
Approx finish 2.00am

We were unfashoinably late, (we being Demon & I, since I don't have a hot girlfriend or any girlfriend for that matter, I just fill in the space with fellow comrade's from my time in 'naam).

... but fortunately the open bar ran til 2am and utilised thoroughly by my goodself and many others. We then hungout in the 'other' bar until about 3. Unfortunately no funny stories to tell, Demon drank far too little and was far too sensible, damned it. I wanted him to excel and outshine the Farmer who came along last year, hit on every female there, got hit on by some welsh guy, left his jacket there, puked up as soon as we got home & even got offered a job. Ah well .. Guess if I'm there next year Charlie won't let me down!! :D

ooh & some pics (which I will update and add to) .. naturally I filtered out any pictures where I look below average because you know they don't really exist .. Looking through I seem to nate a certain lack of the Demon, I really didn't see him much at the party .. I recall telling him I'm going to now mingle and then spotting him on the dance floor 3 or 4 hours later .. Hmm .. Good Timez ... uh 1am ... shud sleep considering I'm in work at 8 .. Zzzzzzzzzzz

no no, he's not off moving to Birmingham, however if he really wanted to go there to hear the soothing sirens, he could just drive up. Thas right, upon merely second attempt (i took a whopping six pack), this tall youngster has passed his driving test. Bravo Ozwin, you've managed to make me like a fool once again, bravo.. hehe. Though in fairness at least we both know how to drive stick, (that is shift gears), Demon was telling me its standard in the US to only drive automatics. Well talking of gears, (note the strenuous link here, to try and make some connection that leads to this) You can really tell a Gear of War when you meet one, just don't go driving off to 'nam or summin, without telling anyone, there is much sand there & little food (perhaps??!!)

Sometimes days just go well, today for example, I woke up at 6 had a shower, had a cup of tea, made a decent salad mix, with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, chopped lettuce, a sprinkle of black pepper & salt, which I then used as filling with slices of cheddar cheese to make sandwiches to take in to work. I then had a shave, synchronised my iPod so that I had the most recent podcasts setup, washed the dishes and set off to work (on time). I get the 08:22 Haslemere train, calling at Woking and a bunch of other places before reaching its final destination of Haslemere. I get of at Woking. the time is 08:46 and I have completed the Soduku puzzle in the free Metro newspaper and read the comic strips & horoscopes.

Getting in I realise that Lestat wouldn't be in until 1 as he was on the uber-late shifts, this meant any FTW work that came in before 1 was directly assigned to me. I then trawled through the 1600 odd emails that were in my Inbox and the 20 odd sent directly to me, thankfully no issues required urgent attention. At this point I realised my team leader was still on holiday (away for a weekend in Madrid) and Ricky Bobby who sits two seats down from me was on holiday too, Speadie (now 23) was on the London shift, I knew this as it was one of the many emails I had now deleted. So, since the remainder of the team are busy, have a power complex or are plain lazy, *shrugs*, I know nobody else will so I grab the intra-day checks and return to my desk realising that all the seats surrounding my comfy windows-seat corner are empty. Awesome!

Since half my team was absent I took on more checks than I usually would and this got past my usual lunchtime of 12:30 without caring too much, When Lestat is on uber-lates, it usually pisses me off because I can't go on lunch until he gets in, since we're the only 2 FTW specialists, one must be there at all times they say. (its total crap really, if things went out of shape and all hell broke loose, neither of us would be able to do anything, besides the FTW always works. The only time it doesn't work is if you're being stupid or you're screwing with it, neither of which is recommended. - but all that said if it makes someone feel they have some backup plan with one of us there, so be it).

I see an email telling me he's going to be late due to train difficulties, followed by a discussion thread of emails covering whether there were any train issues or had he just slept in. Like it really mattered. Normally I'd be a little disapproving if he was late on a late shift due to my head ready to pop and me wanting to get out, not today though, It's okay, I don't feel the need to get out into the open to feel free.

13:15, Lestat arrives and I have a moment of realisation that I am actually hungry & for a change, I have food. I get myself a can of Five Alive (am avoiding fizzy drinks) and a can of Coke Zero for the Vampire. Open up my sandwiches & dig in, the vampire comments that my vegetarian sandwich looks well made - I look at him surprised as all the salad is falling out of the sides.

14:30, finally I deide to nip out for a half hour, getting myself a Grande Xtra-shot Latte from Starbucks, using my recently acquired Starbucks card ofcourse. My balance is 6.10 after this transaction.

15:00, i come back, do some of those things they pay me for *chuckle*, I also have a chat with Bulky Bob about soundcards with optical outputs, iPods, music keyboards, Gears of War on the xbox & recommend Call of Duty 3 to him for possibly the millionth time. He had been on the early 6am shift and is ready to go home, before I know it the time is 17:00 and so am I.

I get a train back listening to the Halloween Ricky Gervais podcast (numero uno on iTunes podcasts & free, so get it if you haven't already), I'm looked at by random people as I fall into hysterics every few minutes. I get off the train and wonder whether to go catch the 17:40 showing of Hollywoodland .. seeing as I could have got a train 6 minutes earlier had I tried and it is 17:40 now, I decide to refrain and hold that venture for another day, so I go home & hit Gears of War for an hour, Charlie joins me on xboxlive and we shoot some aliens and say things like Sweeet and Kickass as we watch each others backs like true soldiers of fortune.

19:00, Charlie tells me the dead farmer is waiting outside and that he is going to the gym, being inspired I do the same, I do a 45 minute run on the treadmill and listen to the Ricky Gervais Thanks Giving Podcast - also free, been available 4 days now. I hangout in the sauna for 10 minutes and then go for a swim, shower up & drive back home listening to the Don soundtrack once fully thrpugh the journey there and back.

21:00, Could check my blog and see if anyone has commented, could play on the xbox again, nope, I decide on making a curry to take into work tomorrow, Soya Mince, Potatoes and Peas. I finish the remainder of Cherry tomatoes in the process too. Cumin, Coriander, Cloves, Chilli, Turmeric, Pepper, Salt, Cinnamon, more Chilli - turns out when I can be bothered I do make a decent curry.

21:45, I decide the curry would go well with Khichdi (a rice and split lentil dish), so throw on the pressure cooker and get that done. I take a small sample with the curry and I am overly impresssed with my cooking, usually its plain crap, but today with some patience I've done a damned good job, I treat myself to an innocent yoghurt smoothie, prepare my packed lunch for tomoroow and at about 23:00 after washing all the dishes I write this huge pointless post about my supposedly perfect day. Next time I'll do a post on a crappy day for y'all to compare and contrast with.

-- this last paragraph is for the Demon pedantic, feel free to ignore if you don't fir the bill --
It did all happen & it has been a very good day however I guess I did lie about the perfect part, since perfect would mean there would be no room for improvement, but there always is really isn't there? :)

Silent Salutes'
_ram-jaane

Eric the Bender claims he's owed 20 quid.

.. & i read in the metro that when Charlie turned 4 (20 years ago) the release of Chris De Burg's classic Lady in Red had hit the no. 1 spot in the charts. So as a dedication to my brother from another mother ... "i'm amazing"

Inside information passed on to me from a work colleague from Waka Daka Daqa regions:

One particular Christmas season a long time ago, Santa was getting ready for his annual trip, but there were problems everywhere. Four of his elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular ones, so Santa was beginning to feel the pressure of being behind schedule. Then Mrs. Claus told Santa that her Mum was coming to visit. This stressed Santa even more. When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two had jumped the fence and were out, heaven knows where. More stress. Then when he began to load the sleigh one of the boards cracked and the toy bag fell to the ground and scattered the toys. So, frustrated, Santa went into the house for a cup of coffee and a shot of whisky. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered that the elves had hidden the scotch and there was nothing to drink. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the coffee pot and it broke into hundreds of little pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten the straw from which it was made. Just then the doorbell rang and Santa swore all the way to the door. He opened the door and there was a little angel with a great big Christmas tree. The angel said, very cheerfully, "Merry Christmas Santa. Isn’t it just a lovely day? I have a beautiful Christmas Tree for you. Where would you like me to put it?" And thus began the tradition of sticking the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

To all you people that bother visiting my site. (& maybe some select others). Meri pronounce merry in hindi means 'my' .. MY xmas!! Jus so you know & that when I tell you so next year you can look clever by finishing my sentence. ;) mayhaps.

Firstly I shall state what little I know about Mayfair. In a game of Monopoly, its the more prestigiouse (ie; expensive) place to buy. Logically this means the rent is high when people from the opposition decide to stop by. If you have a house they're you're loaded, if a hotel you're GOD! Well our xmas party was in a hotel at Mayfair (on the 10th), a champagne reception at 7 followed by dinner at 8 and a flush supply of drinks on the house throughout the night. The dresscode was black tie, though bow ties of the red & blue varieties were spotted in the midst of the crowd. All provided by the lovely Fidessa people it was a good night out. I heard mention that not including drinks it cost them £600 quid a head, makes me glad I brought a guest, I tried champagne for the first time ever, (was quite excited about this), saw The Farmer & many others make fools of themselves, hit the dance floor as soon as the heard the sound of the dhol, I later even managed to say a couple of things I now wish I hadn't but probably nobody remembers, or so I hope ..

Some Photos from the event:

Geoffrey Banks - Ghost Buster

Kin Ho - Thundercats Hooooo

Matthew Browne - Matt Daymon

Oliver Wardell - Hollywood Warcraft

Paul Skelly - Dr. Skeletor

I'll add more photo's picked up of Network drive at work later as a separate entry ..

I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine. - Fritz Perls

It is now official I will soon be moving homes again. No dates set in stone as of yet, but within the next 2 months I will be moving to Wandsworth/Clapham (between the both.) I've seen the flat I'll be moving into. Once I get the keys I shall inform all the key individuals of my new address, if I forget you or you feel you should know, send me a quick email & I'll consider your stalker requests based on your attached C.V and merits ;).

I know I haven't been paying much attention to the blog in recent times in more personal depth but I'm in more of a position to play catchup & make an effort now. Over the next few entried I shall fill you all in on changes that have occured over the last month or two.

Meanwhile in Gotham City .. POW!

Alice in Wonderland turns 22!! Looking forward to the night out!
A Light In Some Ominous Night ... Surely'

last edit 30/11: --pictures added-->

No none of that bathroom polyfiller crap ... its just been a while since my last rant so i'll fill in some gaps ... for the last month or so'. Kinda like one of those flashbacks in a film but probably not as exciting. m0stly. Nyeh, I've had second thoughts. Forget the rant. I can do what I want. My Blog!!

So I went swimming yesterdayafter many many yonks (Feb) .. & bloody hell, 7 lengths & i was knackered. Back in Feb I could do 29 an hour. This is terrible business. Need to get back into practice. I think I'll make a point of going once a week. Having said this a lot of such activities remain pending due to the house sale in Leicester being delayed since Mid-August. I have been informed there should only be 3 weeks further. But how it really pans out only time will tell. I'm beginning to enjoy these late shifts at work as it means I use the mornings wisely, evening tend to go wasted in the summer. With winter approaching I will rise once more from the half-dead & make pi a million times. m0stly.

to my little brother google ... yay!!!

Well I hung out in Leicester with the old crew. My Batman T-shirt from the Colchester collection still did me wonders of many many ... Nananana Nananana BATMAN variety. I even managed to convince people that Demon was my sidekick (Robin) & after much pushing & prodding I managed to convince him that speaking to a girl in a club would not be a suicide mission (m0stly). Charlie saved the moth that somehow managed to crawl into the basement of the club using his bare hands. Saw Salaam Namaste at the cinema which was all I expected & more. Superb film. If you're gonna cathc a hindi film this month, its definitely the one, I can see it fetching awards when that time comes. Popz managed to hit another car while dreaming of Preity Zinta but came out unharmed. My father rang from the Unites States of INDIA while I was in his house sleeping in his bed. Thats the 2nd time this decade he's done that. Freaky Stuffs. The green place then called & I had pizza, chilli paneer, onion rings & then we all had ice cream. Amen!

"It's easy to distract fat people. It's a piece of cake."

.. surprisingly I might add. SO this one is dedicated to he who has the one-button mouse! (Hover over the picture to see the cool tooltip, no joke its true ...)

I think this explosions incident is a good excuse to travel 1000 miles & go be trained by evil ninjas but my NEW wireless router holds me firmly as I could now make these entries from 'The Powerbook' .. while in my bed with only my pants on. 'Could' ~ more on this later ;)

For all the people that tex'd & tried calling, Yes I'm alive! .. you've all failed & I manage to walk the earth some more. Its good to see I've trained you well enough to double check your work though. Only joking, really though etc; etc; - when I got the text message of Aditi (Princess) over lunchtime I was so so tempted to reply "Help.. I can't feel my legs" ... but I don't think she'd see the humour in it so I sent it to somebody else instead.

I'm on London shifts Monday & Tuesday next week though which should be a good fun as always. In other news my neighbour has made me a copy of the key for the back door which he alone in the builiding had. The other 7 in the flat block have to use the front door which is slightly less convenient. Winner!

Also the parking space where Frank Castle (my car) used to once reside has now been layered with a new dose of tarmac to cover up the burn stains from The Farmer's earlier attack in April.

We call ourselves a multicultural society & yet I still get this pushed at me for having a wife of the Apple-Mac variety. I have only one answer for those of you that think this is justified. ;)

Quote of the day.
"never explain.
your friends do not need it
and your enemies will not believe you anyway."

On a related subject: ctrl-alt-del pretty kool site, from time to time. :)

After years & years of being fascinated by the words & the x-files that I had read about it, I finally took up the investigation upon my own hands & bought an exfoliating shower gel. I've since discovered its magic in that it has some small amount of clay incorporated with a normal shower gel, to make it easy to scrub in its hard nature. I was a little dubious of its intentions initially, because the description made it sound like rubbing sandpaper against yourself, but after preliminary tests I remain impressed. *humming x-files_theme_tune*

Next week .. I'l be looking to use an herbal mint face mask. I'll keep y'all posted of my updates.

A thought: Isn't it something that the word lisp has an 's' in it. Could it be so those with a lisp would say they have a lip as though they were grateful to have it, or perhaps so they just give up & keep their lips shut?
~ Ram-Jaane (god-knows)

Sticking feathers up your butt," Tyler says, "does not make you a chicken". Well as a part of my prior mentioned adventure to Starbucks (Fcuk Yea'), my trip to the Guildford was actually a journey of self-discovery. I mean "what can you know about yourself if you haven't been in a fight" right? Uh - Whoops got sidetracked. My trip involved meeting an acquaintance (from 'The Agency') that has been promoted to the level of a friend.

Sipping latte's & scoffing chocolate cake, though can be thoroughly enjoyable on your own, its definitely a better experience with friends. I know this because Tyler knows this. Uh - Sidetracked again.

This entry is dedicated to that green black-haired friend I've made without paying the usual admin fee & ongoing monthly subscription (+ vat). His name was Robert Paulson .. *frustrated-sigh*
Right.. Enough of the sidetracking .. Its time I just let it out of my system ..

I get around .. Okay thats actually not true at all. Since my move to Chav Island I've only ever left to go back to Mini-India or to Central London to catch the odd film that Chav's aren't allowed to watch. But yesterday I decided: Ford Prefect {Hitchhiker's Guide} claimed to come from Guildford. Why Guildford? Whas there a reason that an alien would choose to claim their heritage was from Guildford. I went to investigate this & after liasing with a contact from 'The Agency' that had been planted here as a local student resident for preliminary research, I came across something far bigger than any discovery her research had put together in her 1 year there. A discovery beyond those man has ever made before...

His claim to fame comes from loitering in areas it strictly says you shouldn't loiter, his name he stole from a feller who went by the name Charlie Chalk after beating him with a brick, or was it a horseshoe?! It gets difficult to keep track since the haze between the world of Sony's PS2 invention, Apple's Macintosh computer invention & the world wide interweb {aka World War I} is a haze in which he is lost. I know this because he knows this.

He's an artist of kinds, he plays the flute in a professional orchestra {that whole yale thing} & well its fair to say he's not quite normal ..

Its like popping down & visiting your family after years to find you're now an uncle or a granparent, or like catching up on a soap opera after a long time, being introduced to all the new characters, seeing development in some of the old. A pleasant experience each & every time. I am referring to my visit to the Castle of VUe {Leicester}.

Once known as Warner Village, now the Castle of VUe .. I have many fond memories here. Many still to make I always feel. Every time I visit I always make new acquaintances here. The stud in the middle is me by the way. In case you couldn't recognise .. *cough*