Out On The Tiles

I've fucked up. I've fucked up so badly you wouldn't believe it! No, don't get me wrong, I haven't done anything against any person or persons, but, still, I have fucked up big time.
Anyway, this is probably - and I stress the word probably - one of the last nights of my life that I have a drink. As Ronnie Barker once said: "I'm going straight I am, straight as an arrow."
Bevvy has fucked me up for the last time, I've had enough!
Back to good things, went to see the Junkman's Choir at the Dublin Castle in Camden. What a blinding gig. Half of the band were in the much-loved 80's Ayrshire outfit N'yah Fearties. The Castle was pure rockin and rollin and a great time was had by all. Had a word with with one of the band beforehand, with much of the conversation centring on our past visits to Rugby Park - he being an avid follower of the Killie boys and me being a companion to tnr on his visits to the great cathedral of football in the mid to late 80s (when, it must be said, the side were languishing in the lower regions of Division II - i.e. the lowest division there was).
Talking of football, I, being a receiver of Celtic info, got a really weird e-mail tonight. In among the invitations to buy all things Celtic from the club's publicity department is a suggestion to buy programmes from their Champions League fixtures, including, and I think I have the correct wording here, "for the rising force" of Shakhtar Donetsk. Now, sorry, even for a rabid pro-Tic boy like me, that's nothing but pure utter shite. Teams are not a "rising force" just cos they beat us, for fuck sake. They may finish above us in the Champions League, but they are hardly going to storm the football palace.
On a more important note, got a flyer through the door tonight saying that a planned "area meeting" at a local school has been cancelled. "due to circumstances beyond our control." I think this relates to another flyer that we received a few weeks back that was promptly put in the bin - wish I had kept it now. Anyway, the previous leaflet was about stamping out crime in the area - no name, address or organisation of who was speaking or putting this initiative together. So Reidski and 'er indoors think: "dodgy."
I'm all for local people doing something to improve the local area, but I want to know who the fuck they are and why they are doing it. What I don't want is arseholes of whatever political hue pretending to do something under cover of organising their own little revolution or counter-revolution. I don't do much in the way of political activity these days, but, if this meeting does get rearranged, I should make the effort to go along. Methinks it is some sort of right-wing mob (BNP? NF? who knows?) trying to muscle in and create more tension in an area which, I fear, is heading for worse times before it gets better. For what it's worth, they are going to have me to contend with at least - my gym work may come in handy for this one.
As I say at the beginning of this post, I have fucked up pretty badly in the last day or so. Hopefully I can recover, but I'm not sure.
Goodnight, good folks!

The Pop Place

Had a great night out last night. Went to see Trashcan Sinatras, a great band from my home town. Had thought previously that as the Trashcans were in town, I would probably bump into another exile, who I only ever seem to see at their gigs in London. So, standing at the bar waiting for my Guiness to be poured, it was no surprise to see Gary Lindsay. We reminisced for a bit - and I just had to mention THAT night at my house - before watching a stupendous set by Frank, Davey and the lads. I've not managed to get my hands on their new album yet, but, as Gary said, you always know what you're going to get from Trashcans - quality! The new stuff does sound good.
I was sure that I spotted Tracyanne, singer from the excellent Camera Obscura, in the audience standing on her lonesome, but, believe it or not, the Reidski was far too shy to go up and talk to her.
Enjoyment at the Trashcans set was soured - only ever so slightly - by the news that Aberdeen had beaten Celtic, but certainly not enought to spoil the enjoyment at the music.
Had a nice beer and chat with the band afterwards. While I find it rather stranger to see people I have known for years - went to school with singer, worked with the bass player - sign autographs for fans from Japan, US, London and elsewhere, it doesn't surprise me because they are so fucking talented and good at what they do. Check this piece out for a taste of their global appeal.
I booked a day's leave today as a result of a visit from gas engineer to repair the hob - it's been out of action for a week. Before going on, I should mention that when reporting hob fault I also mentioned a minor fault with oven (which didn't stop it from working, by the way). Repair geezer turns up - at 7.30am, thus me wasting a day's leave which I didn't have to take - minus any spare parts for hob repair as they had only told him of oven fault. So, no change on the hob front (more roasts, take-aways and microwaveable meals for another eight days) and the oven working slightly better than it had done.
'er indoors and the boy are off to see her mither, so it's a two day pass on the town for Reidski.
A little domestic affair to deal with first - go buy guinea pig food and hay, tidy up a bit, do the dishes and all that stuff - then it's maybe a trip to the cinema and a 48-hour drinking session, only interrupted by a three-hour shift at work on Friday morning. I may even make a return visit to see Old Boy - a Korean (?) film I saw two weeks ago but missed the first 20 minutes as result of falling asleep during the trailers.

Born Again Cretin

Three blogs in 24 hours - you lot really are getting a treat.
Just back from pub where I watched Liverpool do Millwall 3-0 - an extremely flattering scoreline to the scousers indeed. Can't really say that I enjoyed watching said scousers try to rip down Millwall's anti-racist banners, while fighting with our stewards - northern arseholes!
Earlier in the evening, I had reason to laugh at myself.
As the boy was at friends for dinner, I thought I would treat myself to chick pea curry (the boy doesn't eat such things, which is, it must be said, one of my favourite quickie meals).
Got all the ingredients together - i.e. tins of chick peas, tomatoes, curry paste and chopped up onion - but, after putting cooking oil into saucepan and then attempting to light cooker, it hit me - the cooker's fucking broken and it has been since last week. So, back to plan one which was chicken en croute in the oven. Left it in too long and burned the pastry. What a wanker I am!
Before I go, 'er indoors has just come out with a weird statistic that she heard from an environment health officer at work today. It seems that, on average, every chocolate bar in the country has seven insect legs in it. Just thought you lovely people out there would want to know that.

The Sound of Music

For those of us who didn't always want the mainstream in terms of our music, there only ever was one place to go - Radio One Monday to Thursday 10pm. The news of John Peel's death, therefore, is very sad indeed. He was a legend in broadcasting, an innovator and pioneer.

Eat or be Eaten

Consuming foodstuffs got even more (*) difficult for me in the last few days. Got a call at work on Friday morning from 'er indoors saying that she thought she could smell gas. I said open the window and leave it until I get home in the afternoon (she went to work, by the way, in case you thought I was suggesting that she should put up with said gas leak for six hours). Got home and thought: "That's either a gas leak or there's a dead mouse in the kitchen." Phoned emergency gas people, who turned up extremely promptly. Gasbloke says hob is unsafe and turns the supply off. Luckily still got an oven and, of course, there's always the microwave, so we ain't starving or surviving wholly on take-aways - although, fish and chips and take away curries have been consumed in the ensuing few days.
Awaiting visit from MFI (who we, unbelievably, took out additional insurance with on cooker when we bought it) on thursday to assess whether we can get it repaired or if we have to get new one.
Now to far more interesting matters. The boy's football team notched their third win on the trot on sunday morning, so the stats now read three losses and three wins. Sunday's 4-3 away victory, like their first win a few weeks back, was against a team who had previously beat them. That all adds up to superb improvement. The boy played well at right back and made a few decisive clearances. It has to be said, however, that 4-4 would have been a fairer result as the opposition had them on the rack for the last quarter of the match.
The whole event was great fun for a variety of reasons. One was that the boy's team won. One was that the boy himself went into the game with a great attitude (after some encouragement from pater over the last week). Another reason was the extremely gorgeous soccer mom of one the boy's team-mates who turned up. The Reidski was in total flirt mood, showing off my own considerable keepy-up skills as the boys were warming up and making sure she heard the word "ex" when showing off the beautiful watch that my ex had given to me for my birthday last week. And the eye contact and passing comments as the game progressed was excellent.
All lechery aside, the game was topped off by the fact that the opposition's ground has a social club as its HQ, so, while the boys were in the changing rooms after the final whistle, Reidski and another couple of geezers downed a quick cheap pint.
The day soured a little later on in my local when a glassing incident occured during the Manc scum v north London wankers game. Everyone is talking about all the incidents during and after the game, but I have yet to read a report which states the truth that that was a truly crap game of footie.
Anyway, I turned 40 last week. Among my pressies was the aforementioned watch, four superb Richmond Fotaine CDs (I have only just discovered them) and the 25th anniversary edition of London Calling.
This week, hopefully, I see Trashcan Sinatras and the Junkman's Choir. The former are playing a tiny venue in east London, so I don't know if there are any tickets available. The latter are on on Friday night - should be fun.
(*) My eating disorder has shown no signs of letting up, but I have eventually got round to getting medication for it. To remind you, I have had an endoscopy and a barium swally, both of which showed nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, solids still have not gone down my throat. Saw the doctor again, who asked me questions such as: "Has your voice got huskier recently?" I answered with a question of my own: "Are you suggesting that I am only now approaching puberty?" Anyway, she gave me pills which are mainly prescribed to angina sufferers. Research has also apparently shown that they can relax the muscles in the gullet and throat, hence I get them.

Alles Klar

The title is a tip of the hat towards this guy . And it relates to one of his own most recent posts! I'm sure it was the subject of a League of Gentlemen character's running gag as well, but we'll think about that one later!
Had a lovely evening tonight - drinks after work and didn't leave the pub until we were shepherded out by the bar staff. The celebration?? I may come back on here during daylight hours and explain!

Reasons For Silence

I have been this but now I'm this!
The little things in life - yeh, Scotland at football are shite, they have shite players who play shite and cannot do anything but make our sporting-loving lives shite!!
But the big things in life - why has the issue of a date for withdrawal of Brit troops and a demand for an apology from Blair for the invasion become a PRINCIPLE?
I personally couldn't give a fuck whether Blair apologises or not - he will go down in history as an imperialist war-mongerer, so why saying sorry now would make a difference I don't know!
More importantly, however, there is a legitimate debate to be had on the merits, or otherwise, of immediate withdrawal of troops. Okay, I might be writing this after a few glasses of nice plonk and some beers, but, immediate withdrawal?? The Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions have come under some intense criticism from sections of the "left" in recent weeks over their stance in supporting UN resolutions which state that their should be some semblance of normal internal state and democratic functions before the invading forces leave.
It's actually a stance which reminds me of an imperialist venture closer to home. While I abhored, and still do, British colonialist control of part of Ireland, I, like the Connolly Association of which I was a member, believed that immediate withdrawal of troops and state bodies would create nothing but confusion and chaos - hence the need for staged withdrawal. That was a legitimate debate to be had and to have in the case for Britain's occupation of Ireland and the Connolly Association was never accused - certainly not from those in Ireland - of selling out in the fight against imperialism.
Unfortunately, sections of the left now, seemingly under the direction of the SWP and the now equally as bonkers George Galloway, think that, even if you were against the war but now don't say "Troops Out Now", you are so obviously in the pocket of the state.
The Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions want a secular state, they don't support the kidnappings, beheadings and killings by the mad mullahs - does that make them collaborators? I don't think so!
I'm watching the footie tomorrow afternoon - fuck the march!