Korma Chameleon

Dear Tesco,

Thank you very much for having a product research day in store today, my detailed assessment of your two chicken korma samples just saved me from having to make lunch.

Regards,
Betsie

In related news, as overheard on the bus today: "These days you have to ask the driver if you want to go to Tesco, you can't tell if they will or not". Some belated advice, my dear - try looking at the fucking timetable, where it clearly states which buses go where and when. Or if that's too difficult, try looking at the front of the fucking bus, where you can tell whether it's going via Tesco by the big fucking letters saying "via Tesco". I'm just full of helpful tips, aren't I?

In unrelated news, it's the final of Big Brother 7 tonight. Who wins? Who cares! (edit: it is, of course, Big Brother 8. Which does somewhat demonstrate just how dire it's been. If someone who has watched it all from the start gets that wrong, something is clearly rotten in the state of Endemol)

And in irrelevant to the universe as a whole news: Princess Diana In Still Dead Shocker.

The new suede skirt

Note to self: I really need to stop buying mini-skirts, I'm getting a bit too old for such things. However, this was no ordinary skirt: no, this was (almost) the skirt I've been dreaming about for years. Let me explain..

When I was a small child, one of my very favourite things to do was play with my dressing-up box. This was an old wicker number, filled to the brim (or was that just my amazing packing skills making an early appearance?) with my mum's discarded 1970s outfits. There was a grand selection - the yellow polka dot jacket and skirt combo was a real winner, and the baby blue platform shoes were great fun to fall over in. One piece, however, stood head and shoulders over the rest: the brown suede wrapover miniskirt. It was a real beauty, and delightfully tactile. How I longed for the day when I'd be big enough to wear it properly!

However, fate was not on my side. By the time I'd finally grown up enough to nab it, someone had purged that box of wonders. My skirt was gone, and I was devastated. Ever since then, I've been on a lookout for the mythical suede number, but nothing has ever quite measured up. The green one is nice, but it's green. Various other soft fabrics have tried to act as substitute, but they really haven't measured up. Even this new one isn't quite right - it's not got the wrapover thing going on - but it is brown, suede, and only cost a fiver, so I guess it'll do for now..

Woohoo!

Woohoo!


Chris Morris and Peep Show team up

They won't say what it's about, they won't say when it's coming, but it doesn't matter: Chris Morris and the creators of Peep Show are collaborating and you can't miss it. Not least because whenever it comes, anything by Morris will cause a storm in the press.

Morris is best known for spiky satires such as Brass Eye and The Day Today, which so precisely cut through news and documentary television clichés that they're as painful as they are funny to watch. Whereas Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong are on a high writing the fifth series of Channel 4's Peep Show plus a second US pilot version.

It's Armstrong who has confirmed the project but won't reveal specifics: "I can't say anything more at the moment. Chris will announce further details when he wants to."

Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo!

Some mistake surely. I'm always late.

Your Score: Sometimes late.

You scored 60%!

You just need some training and discipline. You are probably late intentionally, but you seem to lose the track of time often.

Link: The Am I punctual Test written by wildlikestorm on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Wendy Who?

So, Wendy Alexander is to be the new leader of Scottish Labour. It's almost as if they don't want me to vote for them. Would it really have hurt some in the Labour Party to support another candidate, as least giving the impression that she was democratically elected? Not that the SNP's second-in-command Nicola Sturgeon is an improvement in any way, they're equally annoying .

However, even more annoying than either of them is Wendy's brother, Douglas Alexander. Many years back now, before he became Gordon Brown's little buddy down at Westminster, he was the Labour candidate in the Perth and Kinross by-election (caused by the death of Tory nutjob Nicky Fairbairn). There was a special "Words With Wark" (Scottish political TV show of the day, hosted by Kirsty Wark) in the run-up to polling day, and I was in the audience to ask a question of the UKIP guy (why are you such a fucking half-witted bigot, only put more politely).

The highlight of that was, of course, meeting the delightful Screaming Lord Sutch, but afterwards I tagged along to the Labour Party do elsewhere in town (they had a bigger draw than the other parties: Glenda Jackson and Gordon Brown won me over to the red side. If the SNP had invited Sean Connery along, I'd have gone there instead).

So, with two chances to view Mr Alexander in action in one night, what lasting impression did he leave? Not a good one. He came across as a New Labour robot, speaking in all the correct buzz words, devoid of emotional connection in anything he uttered, and incapable of comprehending sufficiently questions asked of him so sticking rigidly to the preprogrammed script. So, just a typical modern British politician then. God forbid they should have a soul.

In the end, he was soundly defeated by the SNP's Roseanna Cunningham (who actually has some principles, amazingly enough. And still uses public transport. It's a miracle!), but the Alexander clan continued their ascent through the political ranks

Lucky us...

Blimey...

Oh the irony..

The Ideal Job for Your Personality Test

Your Score: Computer Programmer

You scored 53 intelligence, 37 diligence, 35 charisma, and 37 compassion!

You don't do well with people. Avoid them at all costs. Machines are your best friend.


Other jobs you might be good at: web designer, engineer

Link: The Ideal Job for Your Personality Test written by newbluechampion on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Yeah, because that postgrad IT course went ever so well...
(It's not a good idea to sign up for a class for the sole reason that you can get funding for it. Generally speaking, it helps if it's something you actually want to do in the first place)

Ooh, sharp

I think it might be time to cut my nails

Especially this one

RIP Lee Hazlewood

I've only just heard.

A true legend.

Sometimes, when you see someone in the street, it's best just to look away..

Half-good news...

From BBC News (quoted in full, cos I'm too lazy for editing):

Actor Chris Langham has been found guilty of downloading child porn.

Langham, of Golford, Kent, said he was only studying the porn as research for a television drama - but he was convicted at Maidstone Crown Court.

However, the 58-year-old actor has been acquitted of charges of indecently assaulting an underage girl and two counts of a serious sexual offence.

Judge Philip Statman remanded the BAFTA winner in custody for sentencing on September 14.

The jury of seven men and four women deliberated for about two hours and 40 minutes before they returned their verdicts.

Langham claimed in court that he had looked at the images while formulating a character for the BBC series Help.

He said he pleaded not guilty because he did not want to be called a paedophile.

While giving evidence his Help co-star, comedian Paul Whitehouse, told the court that he had no knowledge Langham used child pornography for research.

During his time in the witness box, Langham said when he was eight he had been the victim of abuse while on holiday in Canada. He said he did not want to go into any detail, but he felt "deep, deep shame" about what had happened.

Langham also told the jury victims of abuse were his "brothers and sisters" and he felt no shame in looking at child pornography.

When asked by the prosecution why he had saved images on to his computer, he replied: "I thought if I could become angry enough I might be able to break this problem I have in accessing this stuff myself."

The jury were directed to clear the actor of four other indecent assault charges part way through the trial.

In a statement read out by his solicitor, Langham said: "I am absolutely delighted my name has been cleared of all the charges I have consistently denied.

"I have been found guilty on charges I have made admission to from the moment of my first arrest.

"I am grateful to the jury for their careful deliberation and I would also like to thank the press for their restraint in not making the lives of my wife, children and family difficult during this time and I implore them to continue to grant my family the privacy they need.

"I am afraid I am unable to comment further until sentence on the 14 September."

Det Insp Derek Cuff, of Kent Police, said: "Let us not forget that child abuse images circulating on the internet are real situations involving real children, who are sexually abused for other's gain and self-gratification.

"Viewing such images simply perpetuates child abuse."

He added: "The jury had to view some images that had to be selected carefully - but what they saw and heard in evidence is harrowing and disturbing.

"I think this itself puts some measure of perspective on the level of child abuse we are dealing with."

Admitting in court that he'd probably have kept on downloading images if he hadn't been arrested may have been a little too honest, frankly. The more serious charges have clearly been shown to be utter twaddle though, so that's a good thing.

Feet haters of the world unite

What is it with Yahoo and foot fetishists? Every second person on there seems to be one, and they all want to talk to me. Shame for them that I hate the scabby things then.

(I never caught the shoes-and-handbags bug that seems to affect so many women either. Buy shoes - wear shoes till fall apart - buy new shoes, that's how it works in my world)

Two down...

So that's Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni both gone in one day.

This piece here is s little harsh on Antonioni's later work:

Moreover, when he made a belated return to film-making in 1995, the result proved faintly embarrassing. Stuffed full of earnest voice-overs and toe-curling sex scenes, Beyond the Clouds was the cinematic equivalent of an old man reading poetry to a young woman while simultaneously using his stick to lift up her skirt. No doubt this was a film that came from the heart (or someplace near it), but it notably lacked the poise and confidence of his earlier work.

Well I rather liked it. And there's some gorgeous imagery contained therein. So there.

Still it's more for the "events on my birthday through the years" file. And highly preferable to a certain football team cheating their way to a World Cup win. Pretty much anything is better than that.