Recently, I saw a display of cheap inflatables intended for swimming pools. A ring with a horse's head, a dolphin. The seams of the plastic stuck out, rather than being nicely taped flat ( Read more... )

This week's stack of library books included Arthur & George. On the train in to work this morning, the first chapter introduced me to both the gentlemen ( Read more... )

Help... my views are under attack! It seems that something I arbitrarily claimed on someone else's LJ is very wrong.

My claim was: everyone (in the UK, for approximately accurate values of everyone) had the BCG jab (ie TB vaccine) at secondary school. It seems that this isn't true, though.

What we need is a poll.

( Poll! )

I have just been watching a little bit of the world yo-yo championships on youtube (which is very impressive, by the way, you should check it outHowever, it led to a conversation with colleagues about the 1980s yo-yo craze. A colleague of mine insists it was around 1987-1988, which I dispute since I'm fairly sure it was well over by the time I went ( Read more... )

Over on someone else's LJ, I've just been reading a comment about someone's school hymn. Which has just reminded me to muse what a bloody odd choice my school made.

( O Brother Man )

Every so often - usually when cooking - I notice that I'm doing something exactly the same way the mother does it. Of course, it's possible that this is because there is one right and obvious way to do it, and everyone else on the planet does it the same way too.

( Why custard made me sad )

This is a question for anyone who has small children, hangs out with small children, or, I suppose, is a small child.

( How do the youth of today decide who's 'it'? )

I'm working from home today, and I've just been overcome by a fit of nostalgia.

( Little-dinner )

I'm heading to Whitby folk week, and this evening have staged as far as my parents' house in Darlington. Normally, when driving north, my route goes M1->M18->A1 but today I made a special detour ( Read more... )

The BBC has just reminded me that it's twenty years today since the "Great Storm" in 1987. Among people my age - old enough to rember it, not really old enough to appreciate that it was more than a spot of run-of-the-mill bad weather - I suspect it's most commonly remembered as the storm which arrived in defiance of Michael Fish's jocular remarks ( Read more... )