UK Watercooler 32: Fall Into The Meaning Gap

Playing With Fire (subtitled: Nigel Havers - A Cricketing Memoir)

IT's true. I'm so deeply ashamed.

The one book you DON'T want to be buying when getting chatted up by a cuet bookseller.

oh no, it's THURSDAY, not Friday, and so I don't know if I can go to Northampton after all. Whatever shall I do? I can't call in sick on Friday because I'll need to get my timesheet signed. ARGH! I was LOOKING FORWARD to that.

Yawn. So hungry today. I think that might be something to do with not having had enough sleep. I think I deserve some sag paneer at lunch.

Back in the UK. I saw an A380 on taxiing. I think I shall christen it the sky whale and yell 'thar she blows' when I see one.

Welcome home! How long you back for, before you have to go oversees again?

My god, my sag paneer was unexpectedly spicey. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. And they've given me some "healthy" carrot cake for afters. Hrrmmm. Suspicious.

Ah. "Healthy" means that it is as solid as a rock, and tastes vaguely of apple juice.

And I don't have enough change left to get some real chocolate. :-(

Cunt. There it went, my good mood. :-(

Dance, bear, dance.

Hi kate. Don't be sad. How's the reporting - all done?

(has the havers book got juicy pics?)

No, I've hit a wall with the reporting. Crystal just doesn't do what they want it to do. And I have 3 days left, trying to do something I wasn't even really asked to do, and I honestly can't be bothered.

What do you do when you reach something that can't be done?

The pics in the Havers book are not actually as juicy as the one in the Spacemen 3 book. I find this slightly relieving.

I guess I'm just sick of my name being used among children as a by-word for bitterness. Do you think I was bitter at their age? I wasn't. Do you think you might be tempted to be bitter by my age, if you'd been through the experiences I have had to go through?

And it's annoying because I'm not particularly bitter in and of myself. I'm quite happy and contented and sometimes even quite joyful when left to mine own devices in bookshops or curled up watching costume dramas.

The disapproval of people for daring to be an old spinster is almost as embittering as the experiences that got me here.

old spinster

Isn't this term in itself coined out of bitterness and negativity? Maybe find a more positive term for yourself.

Changing your name every few years is not going to make your advice any more useful to me.

Anyway, for those who don't read ILM:

http://www.wz-newsline.de/index.php?redid=204488

:-((((((((((((((((((

If you don't read German, RIP Klaus Dinger of NEU!/La Dusseldorf

Unsolicited advice is often not useful, yes.

So are puzzling statements but I'll let that one lie.

I don't have time for sockpuppets.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41XoRJ0BeZL._SS500_.jpg

I bought a Spacemen 3 book a few years ago when I met Ned in Glasgow. I cant find it though, wonder if I loaned it to someone and didn't get it back.

I'm so ashamed.

Actors are invariably rubbish because it turns out that you're just attracted to the role that they are playing.

Except, well, some of them seem to go through their entire lives essentially playing themselves. Maybe. I shall have to read the whole book to find out. But not in public. I've taken it to bed and it shall never be seen again, into the lost pile of embarrassing and objectionable things.

I don't have time for sockpuppets

huh?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_sock_puppet

Oh, and was this the Spacemen 3 book, Kerr? I don't think there's more than one.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RRSSC5D2L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU02_AA240_SH20_.jpg

It could've been worse. It might have been the Gordon Ramsey book Playing With Fire.

x-post

yeah i think that's it. The drug stuff is quite harrowing IIRC

By naming his book after a Spacemen 3 record, he is sending out siganals!

(I'm sure this has occurred to you too...)

I still haven't read Japrocksampler and that Miles Davis book I bought at xmas time.

I am trying to teach myself to fancy older men by fancying Nigel Havers.

Except, well, I don't fancy him as an old man, I fancy him in his late 20s when he was making all those lovely costume dramas.

And well, all of Spacemen 3 are older than me (I think? Is Jonny older than me? I can't remember) anyway, so I'm already OK with Fancying Older Men.

When I was an impressionable teenager, I once had a jacket with this painted on it:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/183/484060338_2b7f874e31_o.jpg

No idea what happened to it. I hope it still exists somewhere...

Gödel Escher Bach is such a total Kate book, I think! I found the first few chapters fascinating, if slightly hard work in places, and somehow have never managed to read the rest, because I'm very bad at putting books down and not coming back. Hope you enjoy it.

I'm sure I will. It's been reccomended by a couple of different people now, and that's generally a good sign.

Jeez, I've got to get off that "kids" thread, I just made the mistake of glancing down at the Abyss, and yup, there is was, all scary and black and horrible and glaring back up at me, as cold and shiny as it ever was.

gah I hate banks, went to get certified copies of my statement from old bank to take to the new bank, huge queue, full of sensible well dressed me changing £7 in coppers (ok only one) and the bank said they do not give out certified copies but they would be happy to send them internally to whatever department needed them I explained that this was the sort of thing that was making me leave.

Nigel Havers on tv now advertising www.privilege.com

I'm really posh. Can I have my butler watch the telly instead?

ARgh, stupid banks, they're so rubbish, we'd all be better off taking our money out and storing it in gold bricks under our beds.

Which reminds me, I got a call from a "wealth manager" offering to look after my finances as a freelancer/contract worker and save me ££££ in tax. Which actually might not be a bad idea if I continue with this contracting lark, instead of going through the agencies and getting stung with bloody emergency tax every single time because I never get any P45s or anything. I'm sure they'll shaft me too. But I do like the idea of having a "wealth manager" - that's even better than a financial advisor.

Ed! I completely forgot! You turned up in my dream last night. You rang me from Liberty, saying they were having a sale - I turned up and you were swanning around in a dressing gown, getting your hair cut. You ended up with this ridiculous curly blond bonce, it was quite funny.

I am trying to teach myself to fancy older men by fancying Nigel Havers.

Ha ha. I often find myself trying to think of "older" women to fancy but, let's face it, young people are so much more physically attractive, them's the breaks.

Today is a good day, the sun is shining and I have been tackling the huge funk comp, there is a a lot of good stuff on it. I think need to go and buy some Chambers Brothers albums.

I would like to be fancying people mine own age. But there just don't seem to be any of them.

Some people improve with age, though. I think Carruthers is much better looking now than foetal DDB in the photos in the book. It's hard to believe that it's the same person.

Wealth management. Will they provide me with some wealth to manage? I just like the idea of having a wealth manager. Not as good as a butler, but hey. I will have a butler again before I die.

The rhythm section of my band are getting t-shirts that say

TEAM DISCO: CHERISH THE FUNK!

(preferably in French)

Équipe discothèque: chérissons le funk

I need to start making music again. Spring is in the air and I feel like is should be 'NO SLEEP TILL AUTUMN'

We should go bass shopping soon.

(Or maybe work on that spangly folk side project where I get to play the autoharp.)

Speaking of which, are you or Lisa *ever* going to make me a copy of the remixed Shimura Curves album?

Sounds good. I think I need a strum stick or something so I can play when I travel.

Yes, tonight. (I had forgotten)

A strum stick?

A strum stick! Awesome! They do good drone. Just 3 strings, tuned octaves and a fifth. We can do spangly folk drone with a high body count. Tom, do you want to bring your balalaika in for a drone session?

Autorotation appear to be turning into a prog band (my fault, I think).

I don't have my balalaika anymore!

Get another one! Come instrument shopping with us.

I STILL need to get a tuning key for my autoharp, as they're out whenever I've been to Hobgoblin, and it's become unplayably out of tune now.

By the way, my brother's got an album out, this is the band:

http://www.abelganz.com

4 tracks! Shortest 13 minutes! Longest 23 and a half minutes! Can you guess what kind of music they play?!?!? I've never heard them but I'm badgering him to send me a copy...

Goodness! I like their website design, even if I can't listen to the music.