Somewhat unnerving...

I had an experience today which was - well - somewhat unnerving...

I was off work today doing a spot of musicing and afterwards was listening to music on my iPod via my PC.

One of the albums I was listening to is called Ballard Landscapes 2 by a group called Cousin Silas. It's an ambient album but it's not entirely benign in an Eno-esque way. Some of the tracks have a rather dark edge to them and, as they are all rather similar in style and construction, there is a sense of continuity throughout the album, even if you listen to it in reverse order, as I was today (don't ask why...).

About half-way through the album, I noticed myself getting decidedly edgy and ill-at-ease. As the album progressed, so did my feeling of discomfiture. At one stage, I felt a little nauseous and had to go outside for some fresh air.

To make matters worse, when I came back inside, I noticed that Panther, our cat, was uncharacteristically burrowing behind a cabinet in the room where the music was playing. He never does this. I had to manhandle (or cathandle) him out of the way before he did some damage.

Now, on further reflection, it might have been all the cups of coffee I'd had this morning, allied to the disorientating effect of the ambient music, which had me the way I was today. But how does that explain Panther's behaviour? He doesn't drink coffee - or at least he's never told me that he does...

Regards,


djp

I'm not right, I tells yah...

Last Sunday, I went out on what might be described as "a bit of a lash" with two work colleagues. We went to a local hostelry to watch the Italy v Ireland 6 Nations match, and afterwards repaired to a different watering hole where I could watch the lads playing pool (I don't indulge, thanks for asking).

All told, I was out for at least 9 hours. Got home. Went to bed. Got a relatively decent night's "sleep" and went in to work the next day. Not a happy camper.

And even now, six days later, I'm still not right. Oh, the aftereffects of the imbibing have been sorted days ago, but I seem to have caught a cold on the day which is hanging around. A general "stuffed-up" feeling, allied to a hint of a sore throat. No cough, thank goodness...

Normally, I'd take some form of remedy to deal with the cold, but for some reason I haven't done that on this occasion. As a result, I feel tired and a little listless all the time. On Thursday, I had the joyous task of installing a new washing machine and getting rid of the old one. Do you think I could get my brain to function properly in order to carry out that reasonably logical sequence of tasks? No way. Even bending over was difficult - a vague dizzy feeling came over me.

I reckon a good walk in God's clean, fresh (apart from the whiff of slurry) Spring air would probably do me a power of good. But I just can't be bothered...

Regards,


djp

Telephonics for the troops

Mrs. P just got a copy of the new Bruce Springsteen CD today from Barnes & Noble, and here's what came in the package with the disc:-

Now I have no problem with US citizens being proud of their troops (provided they don't do anything silly like commit war crimes'n'stuff - the troops that is, not the citizens). And if people want to give them a dig out by sending them pre-paid phone cards to call their loved ones Stateside, that's fine too...

...but Ireland is a neutral country* and a large number of our citizens are sensitive about certain alleged actions of the US government, things like extraordinary rendition. So you can imagine the indignation they would feel if they got one of these items in their mail**. A bit more cop-on on the part of the mailroom staff in Barnes and Noble probably wouldn't go amiss.

Regards,


djp


*Ireland was neutral during WWII, but we were "neutral" on the side of the Allies. That mindset is as much Joyceuitical as Jesuitical...:-)

** For the record, I'm not particularly bothered by this issue - I merely find it amusing that the US assumes that everyone who isn't against everything it stands for is actually in favour of everything it stands for. Some of us find sitting on the fence quite comfortable, once the initial splinters have been removed...:-)

My faith in the youth of Ireland has been restored...

This is a long and involved tale, so you may wish to take a wizz or something before you settle down to read it, OK?

1. Last year, I took Mrs. P's Yaris for its NCT. In order to prepare for the test, I had to remove those horrible plastic full wheel covers that are held in place by cable ties. These are removed so that the tester can poke around with the wheels or something. After the test (the car passed - thanks for asking), I drove the car home and replaced the wheel covers. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any long cable ties - the short ones I had were useless and within a day or two, we'd lost two of the wheel covers. I'd tried a number of locations for proper replacement covers (not those horrible ones you get in motor factors), but without success.
2. For my birthday, and having no real idea what to get me as a gift, the family bought me a €100 gift card from O2. I'd been thinking of upgrading my mobey for a while, so I used the card to get a new Sony Ericsson model with GPS and everything.
3. Today, I decided that I needed another 2-pin to 3-pin electrical plug adaptor. I keep buying musical kit from Thomann in Germany and they keep sending over items with 2-pin power leads. Now, back in the old days, one used to cut off the 2-pin plug and replace it with a 3-pin, but we don't do that type of thing nowadays. As I only have one 2-pin/3-pin jobby, and I want to use a number of gizmos at one time, I thought I'd better get me a second adaptor.

Now, here's where the story (finally) gets interesting...

I went over to my local branch of Woodys to see if they had an adaptor. No joy. I then went to the nearby Expert Electrical store to see if they had one. Nothing there either. I decided to go into downtown in Nenagh to try one of the electrical stores there. The Expert and Woodys stores are in a retail park, which one exits via a roundabout. As I was heading towards Nenagh, I noticed in a gateway a single, solitary wheelcover for a Yaris. It had obviously been jolted off the wheel by a pothole (and God knows we have plenty of those in Nenagh). Having looked for wheel covers for ages without success, I decided I might as well have that one, but I wasn't in a position to stop there and snaggle it. So I kept driving up to the Centra roundabout, did a yewie and drove back to park opposite the gateway. I ducked out of the car and ran across the road to claim my prize. But as I did, I heard something fall out of my hoodie and hit the road. It was only when I was back in the car with the wheel cover and driving away that I realised that my new mobey was missing.

So I had to drive back to the retail park roundabout and do another yewie to return to the gateway from the opposite direction - all the while cursing my stupidity and imagining that my poor phone had been ground to dust under the wheels of a juggernaut. My road rage, which is never far below the surface, emerged in all its ugliness as I swore at all the stupid motorists who were driving at a needlessly slow pace and preventing me from reaching the gateway...

...hours (well seconds, actually) passed and I was parked outside the gateway, looking desperately for the mobey. Nothing to be seen. Obviously somebody had recognised it for what it was (a brand-new mobile phone with GPS and everything) and had, let's face it, nicked it.

I was just about to head for home and start ringing the phone to see which bastard had trousered it, when two schoolboys, maybe 13 or 14 years old, approached me. One of them held out something in his hand and asked "Hey, is this your mobile?"

Well, of course it was. And I thanked him most profusely. I offered him a financial reward, but I had no notes, so I have him €5 in coins. It was as much as I could give him without delving into tiny coinage.

No doubt my young saviour will attain a more impressive and satisfactory reward in later life. He might even become President of Ireland. After the gender re-assignment, that is...:-)

Regards,


djp

A grand stretch in the evenings...

The lengthening evenings are noticeable now. About 2 minutes per day. It's great to be able to get home from work in daylight...

...mind you, that's not such a remarkable achievement when you realise that I live only 5 minutes walking distance away from the office...:-)

Regards,


djp

Oh be de hokey...

Just discovered that I've sold my first track on my page at Downloadmusic.ie. There's a shock...

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/02/2009

1. (-) - Cyn'd Dc : For David Cortner : In Memory Of Arthur Lee From Bido Lido's... - Z'ev
2. (-) - Python Snake Man -Zilch Fletcher From The Ninth Dimension
3. (-) - Fat Dub - Zoot Sims And The Aggrovators
4. (-) - Test Tube Baby - Zilch Fletcher From The Ninth Dimension
5. (-) - Liebesfreud - Zino Vinnikov
6. (-) - Dream Dream Dream - Zion De Gallier
7. (-) - Float - Zomby
8. (-) - Filling In For Clowns - 7evenwords
9. (-) - Think - The 5 Royales
10. (-) - Cloudy Night At The Observatory - Daniel Prendiville

Practically all the "Z"s, then...:-)

Regards,


djp