Knob Ends in abundance

Yesterday, in case you hadn't noticed, or live anywhere other than our sainted isles, the weather was absolutely atrocious. Relatively fine periods with strong winds interspersed with these savage squalls that if one was sailing, would have one reaching for the halyards to haul everything in & disappearing below for a mug of hot toddy.

Sadly, when I'm working, I don't have that option. In my job, it's a bit like the US mail,(Or any other mail for that matter,) it's got to go through. It made for some very interesting driving conditions I don't mind telling you. Bearing that in mind, you can imagine my amazement on rounding a corner coming in to Te Kouma (look it up) & seeing about 20 or so cyclists gathered at the intersection getting ready to do the last leg of their ride into Coromandel. Now this bit involves a ride along a straight that is renowned for the wind gusts that roar up the harbour & slam into your vehicle with no mercy pushing you over the white line if you're not careful.

So here's me in my van with a layer of polar fleece & the heater on(the latter MOST unusual for me) & here's these knob ends on their pushbikes clad in nothing but a layer of Lycra in various garish hues, stupid little polystyrene helmets & generally the most inane, idiotic smiles that you could ever imagine. The kicker is that they were actually PAYING to have various parts of their reproductive equipment frozen off. Yes folks, they were part of one of these "Adventure Holiday" deals that you see, where somebody drives along in front of them in a van with indicators flashing & generally pisses the rest of of the motoring public off highly. Now me, if I was going to pay for not enjoying myself, would probably book a visit to Madame Monika's House of Pain. At least it would be warm there I suppose.......

OTHER NEWS

In these days of rising fuel costs etc, one has to do what one can to conserve the stuff. personally, I'm thinking of buying one of these if they ever hit the general market. Not only would they be energy efficient, they also recycle as well

Not too sure about towing the boat though...

While on the subject of knob ends out in inappropriate weather, we be off to Albany this morning. Its our Grandson's 8th birthday. Also, hopefully, the first time in 10 years that herself's 3 kids will be together in one spot for a photo. Yes, we will drive with care, specially on the Harbour Bridge....

Riley, the Receptionist

This is Riley, a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel. he mans the front desk at Coromandel Small Engines & Hire. Mostly he does this when the boss is doing welding out the back. he reckons that if he took Riley home with arc eye, (look it up) his life probably wouldn't be worth living. The rest of the time when he is not on the front desk, Riley is in charge of customer satisfaction, a job that he excells at.

God I love Billy Connelly's Humour

This is a copy of a chain mail letter purportedly originated by him. I think he may have done it originally as an onstage routine...

Hello, my name is Billy and I suffer from guilt for not
forwarding 50 billion fucking chain letters sent to me by people who
actually believe, if you send them on, a poor six-year-old girl in
Scotland with a breast on her forehead will be able to raise enough
money to have it removed before her redneck parents sell her to a
travelling freak show.

And, do you honestly believe that Bill Gates is going to give
$1000 to you, and everyone to whom you send 'his' email?

How stupid are we?

Ooooh, looky here! If I scroll down this page and make a wish,
I'll get laid by a model I just happen to run into the next day!

What a bunch of bullshit.

Maybe the evil chain letter leprechauns will come into my house
and sodomise me in my sleep for not continuing a chain letter that was
started by St Peter in 5AD and brought to this country by midget
pilgrim
stowaways on the Endeavour.

Fuck 'em!!

If you're going to forward something, at least send me something
mildly amusing.

I've seen all the 'send this to 10 of your closest friends, and
this poor, wretched excuse for a human being will somehow receive a
nickel from some omniscient being' forwards about 90 times. I don't
fucking care.

Show a little intelligence and think about what you're actually
contributing to by sending out these forwards. Chances are, it's our
own
unpopularity.

The point being?

If you get some chain letter that's threatening to leave you
shagless or luckless for the rest of your life, delete it.

If it's funny, send it on.

Don't piss people off by making them feel guilty about a leper
in Botswana with no teeth who has been tied to the arse of a dead
elephant for 27 years and whose only salvation is the 5 cents per
letter
he'll receive if you forward this email.

Now forward this to everyone you know. Otherwise, tomorrow
morning your underwear will turn carnivorous and will consume your
genitals.

Have a nice day.

Billy Connolly

PS Send me 15 bucks and then fuck off.

Lets Do The Timewarp Again....

Yes folks, today in 1973, The Rocky Horror Show premiered at the 63 seat Theatre Upstairs in London.

After two previews, The Rocky Horror Show premiered at the 63-seat Theatre Upstairs on June 19, 1973 and ran until July 20, 1973. The theatre was run by the Royal Court as a project space for new work. Veteran stage producer Michael White produced the play. The production was a critical and commercial success. Record producer Jonathan King saw it on the second night and signed the cast to make the Original Soundtrack Album over a long weekend which was rushed out on his UK Records label. King was heavily involved in the initial promotion for the show as well as being the other 20% backer of it financially with White. The production transferred to the Classic Cinema on Kings Road from August 14, 1973 to October 20, 1973, a run-down 270-seat venue scheduled for demolition. Transferring again to the Kings Road Theatre, a 350-seat converted cinema, the production ran from November 3, 1973 through March 31, 1979 with many cast changes, until plans for the theatre's demolition prompted another move. The Rocky Horror Show transferred to the 820-seat Comedy Theatre on Panton Street in the West End, the legitimate London theatre district, running from April 6, 1979 until September 13, 1980, closing the play's initial run of 2,960 performances. After occasional productions in the early eighties, the play was revived for the Theatre Royal Hanley tour in 1984, and is still performed regularly in the UK.

1975 saw the now famous Rocky Horror Picture Show being filmed starring Tim Curry as that "Sweet transvestite from transexual Transylvania." I was lucky enough to catch it at the old Hollywood Theatre in Avondale, & NO I did NOT wear suspenders & fishnets.....

Naff is Good

Don't you think ????

Didn't we have us lovely time

We went down to Tauranga yesterday to self administer our Morticia dose. See we need a good dose of Morticia every few weeks. Its good for the soul. The fishing was stuffed anyway. It might be good for the soul, but its bloody tough on the pocket. You see, Herself has these garden vouchers that somebody or other gave her probably for Xmas & they are burning a hole in the travelling trunk that she calls her handbag, so we went looking for pots. I would have preferred to exchange them for bait & boat fuel vouchers, but she wouldn't be swayed. We found some pots. This is them. We couldn't use the vouchers for THESE either.

So , out came the trusty old EFTPOS card yet again. I will admit that they were a bloody good deal, & even more grudgingly admit that I actually found the two white ones. If you look carefully , you will see that the one in the middle has a bit broken off one corner. Herself has a nose for deals like this, & regularly brings home pots with bits broken & glues em up & uses them. The place is like a home for old cracked pots.

After that, we went to Classic Fliers for a look round. Here are some pictures we took....




























Its a great place for a wander round. The one that herself is sitting in is an ex Rhodesian Airforce Hawker Hunter. I'm sat in an old Super Sabre of Korean War vintage. It really is amazing how basic the instrumentation is in these older planes. The one I'm stood in front of is, I THINK, a replica Kitty Hawk, but I'm not sure. Anyway, its a great place to lose an hour or two & possibly a few thousand dollars if you have them to spare for flights.

Looking at my world through a windscreen

So the old country & western song says. I tend to do that a lot. If its not a truck or a van, its a boat windscreen or Sherman's one. Either way, I spend a lot of time under glass. A bit like a goldfish really I suppose. Some times its really bad, like coming home from Coromandel on the Friday night of a long weekend with this endless succession of headlights flashing across your face as they round the interminable number of corners in the road.

Any view from a boat is good for the soul. Some times I feel genuine regret at actually having to stop & anchor somewhere & fish. Joy riding in Top Dog is wonderful. Just a shame that it now takes over $50.00 worth of gas to fill each of the three tanks that I carry.

I had a lovely trip home tonight from Coro. It was one of those wonderful hazy days where its almost impossible to tell where the water ends & the sky starts. A limpid blue for both today changing to a pale buttery yellow with the myriad islands standing out in stark relief, almost black. Couple that with driving our new Toyota van that handles like a sports car. Stubby little gear shift on the dash & a VERY responsive 2.5 litre diesel motor. A real pleasure to drive. Add to that mix some lovely morbid Country Music, ( I'm not allowed to play it at home. Herself says she would rather cut her heart out with a rusty razor blade than listen to it) & you have a picture of sheer bliss. The only fly in that particular perfume was coming round a blind corner to be greeted by 5 or 6 sheep on the road. I didnt hit any, but it certainly got my undivided attention.

If I had a thumb

And I could find the bloody remote, I would change channels. This looks more like a screen saver.. Hot stuff but...