Weekend Update

[vin_petrol]

Saturday I took gothgrr over to the barbecue at cyberspice's place. It looked a little showery before we left, so I guaranteed we would NOT be rained on by making us both wear plastic pants. There's a strange biker-universe effect there: put your plastic pants on and it doesn't rain, risk it and strap them to the back of your bike and it does rain. The roads were still very wet on the way over, so I took it easy.

Ate sausages at the barbecue, met Ben the dog (woof) and chatted to various people. Ate a positively terrifying garlic thing. After a while we returned to York. The ride back was *much* better. Dry and fairly empty roads, so I was able to treat gothgrr to some of the fun bits of biking, like Traffic Light Grands Prix and mad acceleration down slip roads. We touched 100mph at one point so she can say she's done that on a bike.

Getting ready for the Wendy House took ages. Bah! I can remember when it was a shower and a fresh black t-shirt and jeans. Nowadays it involves sorting more complex clothing out (big thanks to gothgrr for creating the latest skirt), shaving my head, putting make-up on, etc...

We drove over in owdbetts's car, which was French (eek!) It was also *huge* on the inside. Reclining in utter luxury in the back it occurred to me that most of the cars I travel in have small interiors. Some are simply small cars (i.e. gothgrr's and mistressmalaise's). Others are performance vehicles were comfort is secondary (i.e. my own, road_runner's and Damian's). When the driver's seat was pulled forward I had positively palatial accommodation in the back!

Wendy House was lots of fun. Thanks to the people who wore stripy tights, vaguely due to my request. Danced a bit, chatted a bit, took some pictures. I was struck by how wonderful so many of the people there looked.

Discussing with miss_wonderly the lack of places to stick things in my attire (no cleavage being a disadvantage for me), she pointed out that the only thing she carried was some make-up in her sock. I reached into my sock and produced a tube of lip-gloss. miss_wonderly then reached into her sock and produced her tube too: both were the same type, from Superdrug. We put them back in out socks and looked oddly at each other. "Well, there's a coincidence I never expected to happen", she concluded :-)

Sunday morning I realised that Trash was away, and so I could GO TO BOOKSHOPS without anyone moaning at me. So I got up and wandered into the city, with Borders on my mind. Spent a very pleasant hour in there browsing books. I bought Andrew Collin's Where did it all go right, the story of his happy 70s upbringing, full of talk about Space Dust, Action Men, comics, orange squash packed with E numbers, etc. I also got Grumpy Old Men - I read a page of it, and had to suppress my laughter so much I was crying. I'll lend it to resyk - it was his voice I heard reading it out to me in my head.

Leaving Borders I encountered He-Who-We-Do-Not-Name-On-LJ. I quite like seeing him every few months, so we retired to a coffee shop and he told me all about American politics for an hour... Phew! I managed to get off to steer's Ph.D. picnic without mentioning where I was going. andyguest talked me down by telling me about a kitten book he was reading.

The picnic was very mellow, and steer did like his watch. Museum gardens is a lovely place. Pictures at:
http://toybox.twisted.org.uk/~vincent/pics/lj/steers_picnic_0.jpg
http://toybox.twisted.org.uk/~vincent/pics/lj/steers_picnic_1.jpg

Comments

[ellenscult]

He-Who-We-Do-Not-Name-On-LJ

So who would that be, then? ;)

[steer.livejournal.com]

Name him not for fear you will invoke him.

[angelic-angie.livejournal.com]

Who is this guy, the antichrist?

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

I dunno - I'm just happy that there's someone more unpopular than me!

[steer.livejournal.com]

Damn - you mean we weren't talking about you?

:-P

[vin_petrol]

Who is this guy, the antichrist?

He's OK, he's just a little ... er ... intense. He's been around York for a long time and most people have formed somewhat strong opinions about him. I find him OK in small doses, but it wouldn't want to see him too often. He kinda "performs" his life, and you're a bit part player in it.

[sara-lou.livejournal.com]

And he's so recognisable in so few words... :-)
(Unless I've got the wrong person!)

[steer.livejournal.com]

You have the right person.

[ellenscult]

I'm fairly sure I don't know this guy, then. He doesn't sound familiar...

[vin_petrol]

Be careful! All the danger signs are there:
* You live in York.
* You've not yet been subjected to him.
* You have a house he could come round to lots and sofas he could sit on.
* You like Buffy (a TV series he can talk at you lots about, including numerous stories about how he met the writer/director/etc).
You may well be his next 'victim' :-)

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

He is a man who can use the term "story arc" and mean it.

[ellenscult]

But I have a whole *bunch* of friends who'll use the term and mean it. That's no indicator of deviancy! *thinks about friends* Well, alright, it is. But not *bad* deviancy! ;)

[ellenscult]

I will be careful who I invite into my house, now! *grin* I'm impressed with my friends, given the number of open invites I issue (come round and watch whatever, have a party, barbeque, pass the invite along) that no-one has brought this guy round. I love my friends!

I do have a high tolerance for people talking at me, though, so it could be that if I do talk with this guy for a while it won't irk me. Until the next time... *grin*

[angelic-angie.livejournal.com]

Remind me to be very careful who I talk to the next time I go to York. *smile*

[ellenscult]

There was a guy like that around York for a year or so, from Brooklyn, who was in the archery club (and royally annoyed me the very first time he showed up there) and freaksoc. People used to shout "incoming" when he turned up at the socials. Please, tell me it's not him! He used to turn up if you said his name 3 times...

[steer.livejournal.com]

Not the same person I assure you.

[ellenscult]

*phew* Thank you! At one point he was volunteering with an MS charity in Wales, and I thought 'that's a bit unfair, they can't run away'...

He did take a tour of the highlands and islands - and went on a plane trip to some place they were speaking something he didn't understand, and didn't even notice he'd gone to Denmark.

He missed his exams at York (doing an economics masters) thinking they were only the end of first year exams and didn't count. It was (an expensive) one year course.

He asked the president of the archery club, 'We have 35 pounds in the account. Does that mean we can spend 46 on equipment?'
*blank stare* 'Which sum is greater?'
'I don't know, we don't have pounds back home.'

The list goes on...

[capt-prickle.livejournal.com]

There was a movie with that same name that was released back in 1993 - is that the same book? If so I may buy it 'cos the movie was hilarious.

[vin_petrol]

is that the same book?

No, this book is a very British look at the little things in life that wind people up and make them Grumpy Old Men, where 'old' is actually defined to be 35-50. Stuff like annoying mobile phones, the state of the bloody railways, wasps, etc. Hopefully this link to Amazon will work.

[steer.livejournal.com]

That program just irked me. Whiny old farts. They should be shot (except john peel).

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

Will Self, John Peel, Rory McGrath - all heroes. They are My People. And the narration by Geoffrey Palmer is perfect.

[capt-prickle.livejournal.com]

Hopefully this link to Amazon will work.

All to well I'm afraid. As well as purchasing the above book for £5.99, I spent over £100 on "other stuff". I hate Amazon... And I blame you for sending me there with a hyper-easy-to-spend-money-link... :-p

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

Collins has brought out a second volume - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now in which he acts like a typical art-school tosser for three years - it's just as brilliant.

[vin_petrol]

Yes, it was seeing that on friendsreunited last week that reminded me of the first volume. I figured that would be available as a cheap paperback by now (which it is). I'll get volume two in a year or so.

Have you read Toast by Nigel Slater? Another childhood autobiography, although this one covers 70s food in much more detail, and is a lot sadder too.

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" was in 3-for-2 last time I looked.

I would like to read Toast, I think Slater is one of the most brilliant food writers around...


Another book for anyone who remembers those wonderful brown dralon sofa and burnt-orange curtain years is Jonathan Coe's The Rotters Club - just a gorgeous novel, perhaps one of the only real Bildungsromans in English.... I had to go for a long walk after the stream of consciousness that closed the book.... beautiful.

[vin_petrol]

"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" was in 3-for-2 last time I looked.

*giggle* I shall point Trash in your direction when I buy it and say "it was all his fault, foul tempter."

The Rotters Club

Yeh, I've read that too. I suspect I have a taste for novels about people growing up in the awful 70s! :-)

I was reading it *in* Birmingham last Christmas, wondering when certain historical events contemporaneous[1] with the novel would intrude into it. I then got to *that* chapter ending, and I could hardly speak for about half an hour afterwards. Fortunately, Trash had already read the book so she knew where my head was at, and she led me away to recover in a quiet room.

[1] One of my favourite words, you know!

[vin_petrol]

Oh, another point just in case you didn't know. On friendsreunited there's some of this letters to home from his art college days - which (obviously) his parents kept :-) Originally they were going to go into the book, between chapters, but they decided to cut them as they broke up the flow. He still does all the footnotes too.