Shopping

And yes, of course the local supermarket was rigid with people as soon as it opened this morning. I wish I understood that urge to stock up on food as though Nuclear Winter is about to happen. I mean, the shops are shut for – fucking hell – two whole days. I might run out of milk, so I’ll buy six cows-worth, please. Idiots.

This year I’ve come to the conclusion that I simply don’t understand people. And that’s it.


Humbug

Anti SantaHo fucking Ho, and all that.

And, in the true spirit of christmas, BBC has a piece on general humbug at Christmas. Nice to know I’m not the only one.

Also :

Christmas Resistance Organisation.
and
The Anti Santa Liberation Army


All done

Halle-keffing-lujah.

I’ve completed everything for work’s deadline tomorrow. Now it’s just down to a bit of testing, and seeing whether other people have managed to sort their shit out too. But mine’s done – as promised and expected. To say I’m happy about this would be an understatement – it’s a huge weight off my mind for the Festering Break.

Of course this is just version 1. On Jan 2 (or thereabouts) there’ll be v1.1 with some extra stuff I haven’t had time/inclination to do for this first major deadline. But all the stuff that was in the spec for v1 is done, dusted, and ready to go. But this is just the start of the process. There’s a long way to go yet.

bah humbugAlso I’m done with Festering Stuff. Everything’s wrapped and ready to go. I haven’t (so far as I’ve figured) forgotten anyone. I’m done.

We’re off to Norfolk tomorrow for the Christmas Period. Hound goes into kennels tomorrow, then we sod off. There’s posts in the wings waiting to be posted while we’re away, but I expect most people will be not reading them ’til Wednesday when everyone’s back.

But for now I’m going to sod off, walk Hound, then drink a couple of beers. It’s been a good – if busy – day/week, but fucking hell I’m glad I’m at the end of it…


Premature Congratulation

Bah Fucking HumbugYes, the Festering Season is just round the corner. And to celebrate such depressing facts, I’ve changed the title bar a day earlier than I planned to. Live with it.

Lunch today is the work’s “office lunch” – in an Italian, no less. Could be worse – the aim is for no effing Turkey, anyway. It’s only the third work Christmas Do I’ve ever attended, which isn’t bad in eighteen years of working.

Posts may or may not be done this afternoon. Depends on my mood / workload / level of scroogery.

In the meantime, enjoy the title image. It sums it all up, so far as I’m concerned…


Secret Smile

So, we finally caught up on ITV’s drama “Secret Smile” last night. It was on about a week ago, but we’d recorded it – blah blah.

Anyway, my point is this.

If you were being stalked by a decidedly odd man, prone to major head-fuck tricks, occasionally violent, and frankly deeply scary, you’d be a bit worried, wouldn’t you? And if he also had a set of your house keys, what’s the absolute first thing you’d do?

It wouldn’t be to sod about with work stuff, or lie around looking wet’n’wanky, or think about a court case or an injunction, would it? The absolute first thing you’d do would be to change the fucking locks. All of ’em. And make sure that the room that he’d already caught you in because it didn’t have a lock then had a bloody lock. Or at least a bolt. (Me, I’d make sure there was something heavy and convenient in each room. Doesn’t have to be a weapon per se – a nice chunky book in the living room, a rolling pin in the kitchen, a hefty bleach aerosol in the bathroom, that kind of thing.)

The woman in Secret Smile didn’t. Of course, the entire final thirty minutes was based around this premise, so the writer might’ve had to make some extra effort to come to a conclusion. But all the same, it took nine months, and the divvy bint never changed the locks, despite knowing he’d got keys.

I quite like a lot of TV dramas, and find them interesting. I just hate it when they’re so blankly stupid. And yes, I’m aware that it’s all fiction, and been done like that to make it dramatic, but Jesus Wept, let’s at least have something where the people involved have just a smidgen of common bloody sense.


Failure

I tried, God knows, I tried.

M&S for a flying visit to grab a sandwich and go back to work. Shouldn’t have been difficult. Except there’s fuckwits everywhere, dithering about, abandoning trolleys any old place, and generally just being a bunch of tossers. Still, I get what I want and go to the tills. The “Five items or less – Food only” queue. Ha.

When I got there, the queue had five people in front of me. It took fifteen minutes to get through those people. The two in front of me were obviously work colleagues, and kept on and on and on talking – loudly. I don’t need to know about what their office party was like last night, nor why Donna is – apparently – “mental” and “crazy”. (Although it turns out she’s “mental” and “crazy” for the disgracefully original stunts of a) photocopying her arse, and b) flashing her tits at the barman in order to get served. Barking, eh?)

Then they got to the till. By now I’ve done OK, haven’t said anything, and any obscenities and swearwords have been kept on a firmly internal basis – I’ve been good.

They start asking the till person why one tub of biscuits is discounted. She doesn’t know. Frankly, no-one cares. “Oh, it’s just that if any more of them were discounted, I could’ve bought them all and taken them to the office, because the lads there will be able to eat them before they get past the sell-by date, no problem. So, is there any chance you’ve got any more anywhere? Because I’m sure I can take them to the office and there’ll be people there that’ll eat them.” Till person doesn’t care, and isn’t going to fucking look. Blood pressure is rising.
Oh look Tracey, you’ve only gone and got me the wrong crisps. I know you’ve scanned them already, but can you go and get me the right crisps? I don’t like those ones. You don’t mind, do you love? (at the till person) She’ll only be a minute. And while you’re there, Tracey, can you have a look at those biscuits, see if there’s any more on offer? Because then we can take them back to the office, and the lads there’ll eat them

It’s too much, I’m afraid…

For fuck’s sake! No one cares about the biscuits. No-one cares about the crisps. You’re obviously too fucking thick to read the fucking label yourself. You’ve been in the sodding queue for at least ten bloody minutes, and you didn’t notice. There’s people behind you who want to just get their fucking lunch, and go back to work.

Now would you please shut up, pay your money, and fuck off?

They did.


Now that’s what I call belated

A very heartfelt thanks to Ann, for sending me Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s “MirrorMask” book as a belated birthday present.

It arrived yesterday, and is utterly beautiful. I’m going to look forward to going through it more while I’m away over the Festering Season.