Talking to the animals

David & I paid a visit to Whipsnade Wild Animal Park last week, which was very nice, if a little windy, but I can hardly blame them for that. The penguins smelt of fish and the lions were very scary. Cost a bloody fortune to get in! So if you are planning a visit, I recommend cutting down on life's little luxuries for a month or so in preparation.


They say 90% of men have tried...

I popped up to Yorkshire this weekend to show off my car and give her a good run: she was GORGEOUS by the way. What a lovely smooth ride she is... Anyway, It was lovely to see everyone and Barney has recently acquired two mice, named Lucifer & Beelzebub, who are very cute indeed. Behold the Princes of Darkness:


Gimme five!


What do you mean, do I make you feel like dancing?

Tasty little swedish number

So the big news of the week is that I've gone and got myself a car. Well, I'd had two scooter accidents within 1 1/2 months and was beginning to wonder whether if the thing about bad things happening in threes was true and, if so, whether I'd be lucky enough to walk away from a third... Plus I'd really like to be able to trundle up to Yorkshire a bit more often. So started looking at cars. As I was going past a Saab used car specialist, with no intention of stopping, I happen to see a rather lovely looking black 900s Coupe on the forecourt for a very reasonable price indeed. Intrigued, I stopped to take a look and ended up going for a test drive. Well, I was so impressed with the smooth drive that, after doing a bit of insurance research and doing my sums, I went back the next day and bought her. I love her very much indeed. Brief spec for those who are interested: 2.3l engine, power steering, electric windows, alloy wheels, 10 CD multichanger and very nice Sony stereo, full service history (mostly at the garage where I bought her), brand new clutch and battery, engine you could eat your dinner off. Drives like a dream and, though I say it myself having never been that interested in Saabs previously, looks like one too. Been a bit of dispute about the name though. I (jokingly at first) christened her 'Thor', as she is Swedish and black as thunder. However, I have been reliably and reasonably informed that I cannot call her (for all cars, as you know, are female) Thor and that technically I should call her by the feminine version of that name. Which of course is Thora. Quite different connetations, I think you'll agree.


Thor. Or Thora. You decide.


Does my bum look big in this?

Anyway, I'm now driving around as much as possible and enjoying every second.

By the way, just bought the Kaiser Chiefs' album, which is storming. Thoroughly recommend it.

Who Should You Vote For?

Yesterday I was sent a link to a site which gives you a series of questions about tax, immigration and so on and then, after asking who you expect you will be voting for and matching your replies with actual party policies, it makes a suggestion about who you should vote for in the next election. Here are my results:

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Liberal Democrat

Your actual outcome:

Labour -18
Conservative -25
	Liberal Democrat 44
UK Independence Party -5
	Green 27

You should vote: Liberal Democrat

The LibDems take a strong stand against tax cuts and a strong one in favour of public services: they would make long-term residential care for the elderly free across the UK, and scrap university tuition fees. They are in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, but would relax laws on cannabis. They propose to change vehicle taxation to be based on usage rather than ownership.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Interesting, huh? I'm just so relieved it didn't tell me I should be a Tory...

In other news, I'm on two weeks annual leave at the moment and have done pretty much bugger all so far. There are definitely things I should be doing but frankly, I just want to slob out while I can. I was, as is inevitably the case when you have some time off work, ill for the first few days with a nasty gastro bug and I'm only now beginning to eat properly again. But it's now half past twelve, and I'm still in my PJs. So sue me.

A tentative return...

Hello everyone. Firstly, although I can't believe there's anyone who doesn't already know, let me explain why I haven't blogged for...well about 3 months now. The short version is that I split up with Tudor in January so it seemed somewhat trivial to think about blogging. I also didn't want to air our dirty laundry in public, as it were. Tudor never liked me blogging at the best of times - he didn't really get it and found it distasteful that anyone could read what we've been up to - so I didn't want to upset him any more than was strictly necessary. But as things are settling down a little, I thought I'd start it up again, tentatively of course, and let you all know I'm okay. Which I kind of am. I'll not be getting too personal, don't really think that's fair on anyone, but I'll let you know if I've been up to anything really interesting!

For example. Two weeks ago I had a bike accident. Classic story, I was coming over the brow of a hill, saw someone waiting to pull out from a side road at the bottom and something told me that he was about to do something stupid so I began to slow down, although, with hindsight, not enough, obviously. Sure enough, just as I approached him, he pulled out and I had to brake hard to avoid him. I'm not sure if he just didn't see me, or thought he just had enough time to pull out before I reached him. Well, I would have got away with it if it hadn't just started raining pretty hard and the road surface, which was newly laid, was obviously pretty slippy. As soon as I touched the brakes the bike slipped from under me, leaving me bouncing down the road at 30mph. The driver in question drove off (I hope for his sake) oblivious. I was lucky, nowt was broken, but I did have a nasty gash to my chin - thanks to the shoddy behaviour of my Roof Boxer helmet which I urge everyone to shun - which took 3 stitches, although I was investigated for a fractured jaw at first, which put the willies up me I can tell you. Other than that, just grazed knees and elbows. Thanks to all at the West Middlesex A&E which was great. Anyway, I'm now on the mend, stitches are out and the gash is healing very very nicely, as you can see:


HIDEOUS. But the scar isn't too bad...

And last weekend I went to a wedding where they had, in addition to a spit roast pig AND a spit roast lamb, a chocolate fountain:


A chocolate fountain. A fountain of chocolate. A FOUNTAIN of CHOCOLATE

As I still had my stitches in at that point, I had several comments to the tune of "Excuse me, but you've got some chocolate on your chin..."