» Irrational Hatred

The Nun...
...who sat behind me on a flight out of Dublin last week and sodding *sang* all the way.

If it'd been Kum Bi Ya (with an acoustic guitar) I'd have just put it down to general nunnery.

But no, she had a score of Verdi's Requiem and was *butchering* the alto choral line, which she couldn't tell because she had some variety of music player on, presumably with the full recording playing, so couldn't hear herself.

Everyone else on the plane could though.

This went on from the departure lounge (20 mins before the flight) until disembarkation at our destination.
(Sun 3rd Apr 2011, 20:27, More)

» Rubbish Towns

Telford and its Many Islands
Telford: the only town so bereft of entertainment, they name their roundabouts. Not once, but twice.

1) The official name (xxxx-roundabout)
2) The local name (yyyy-island)

The local sense of humour is so strong, they gave the following name to the roundabout outside Western Europe's biggest arms dump: Falklands Island.

To be fair, it does have 3 large field guns on it.

In this town, they love them so much, there are hundreds of Islands [sic]; some with one road in, and one road out.

They must have sat there in a Friday afternoon planning meeting and said (in their demi-midlands accent):

"Bored... whaddarewegonnadew?"
"Oiland?"
"Yeah"
"Weer?"
(random finger pointing at map)
"Theer"

Could be worse, I went to school in one of the satellite towns - Telford was a metropolis to us. You could get a train to Wolverhampton and *everything*.

Edit: 1st time posting (rather than just replying) woO! That's how much I hate the place.
(Fri 30th Oct 2009, 16:53, More)

» Irrational Hatred

Wedding Particles
The infinitesimal particles of 'wedding' that turn any easy job of work into a specialist area justified in charging a fucking fortune.

Wedding flowers -v- flowers
Wedding cakes -v- cakes
Wedding hairdressing -v- haircut
Wedding stationery -v- photocopying
etc
(Sun 3rd Apr 2011, 20:44, More)

» The Credit Crunch

It's getting better and better...
So, sold house in Summer 07, and renting (our annual increase was £10/month), waiting for house prices to hit rock bottom.

Petrol under 90p/l is nice too, as expenses mileage rates for my 100mile/day round trip hasn't changed since last summer.
(Fri 23rd Jan 2009, 15:15, More)

» Travel

Back Home In Hartlepool
I work away from home a lot - usually in the firm's main office in central London, rather than the branch office where I'm based and officially employed, waaay up in the North East.

So actually, I'm not home that often - just now and again to touch base with my staff manager. It's a bit like Clooney's character in Up In The Air really; I have a flat there as my home for paperwork purposes and to keep up appearances, but for all intents and purposes, I live where the real action is: London.

On one of these rare trips home, I took the boss out to show him I'd really not been affected at all by being dispatched away to civilisation, and after a few drinks (beer for him; G&T for me), we ended up in a local fast food joint. Being keen to impress, I thought I'd have something authentically local, so asked for Fish & Chips. But I was relieved to see that even in the far outer reaches, they still served Guacamole.

Tasted a bit vinegary though. Must have been the face I made that annoyed the boss.
(Fri 19th Apr 2013, 18:30, More)