Ye twittering ... um... yeah, well... here we go...

OK, fair do's. I seem to recall burbling on about not going on farcebunk - I mean facebook - to all and sundry over the last couple of years (their security would appear to suck bitter lemons, and besides, it's well over-hyped, and those who know me *know* that I'm rather averse to jumping on those kinds of bandwagons *wink*

"So, what's this?" I hear you yell... yeah... well... um... *ahem* I jumped on a different bandwagon instead. Twitter. I'm still fiddling with the feed interface and settings, but it's working so far, so even when I've not got an internet connection available, if there's a phone service, I'll be able to send short updates onto here :-)

Gotta love some of these modern techno-gagtetry thingamibobs, aincha? ;-)

Missing half - or all - of the story...

So, here I am, on the way home from work (late in the evening, of course. Driving a bus tends to mean you work some Godawful hours most of the time), and there's some Polak screaming full tilt into his phone. In, of course, Polish. So loud, in fact, that you could probably hear him in Warsaw without the aid of a phone.

Why IS it that folks from across the waters tend to yell full tilt into their phones? Anyone?

Anyhow, as you will probably agree, it's normally bloody irritating - rarely is it damned hilarious - when you only hear half of some aggrieved call on the tram / bus / train (take your pick), but ye gods, imagine how infuriating it is when the daft git's yelling away complete gibberish in a foreign language, and you haven't a blessed clue why he's so up-in-arms! You'd think they'd add subtitles or something, so as to warn you what's going on, like "My cat ate mothers canary, and now dog has chased it up tree in front garden!" (note the stylised lousy 'English is not my first language' grammar *grin*).

Why can't they equip visitors with signs saying things like "I like shouting on the phone" when they pass through immigration?

Aaaaaaaargh!

On Shaving...

Like most of us on this side of the gender divide, I shave daily (well, daily when it's a work-day, and most days in addition, unless I'm being really slothful!).

The first razor I ever owned was a Christmas present from my Grandmother when I was thirteen, if I recall correctly; seems on reflection that my old man copped out and ran for cover (I was apparently one of those 'difficult' brats to teach, lol), and Gran decided that it would be safer all round if I used a Philishave twin-head rechargable electric razor for a first razor. It came in a massive plastic presentation box, with a manual that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Apollo Moon Capsule, and the admonishment to "Actually start using it, young man!". It was a hulking great brute of a thing, compared to modern electric razor offerings.

Over time, I gradually weaned myself off the electric razors (although I still have a battery-operated one for those emergencies and hurried mornings!), and went wet-shave on cartridge razors (Gillette Mach 3 Turbo, being the last ones I standardised upon); then, I got into the re-enactment hobby, and wondered what all the hooplah was about regarding Double Edged Safety Razors, and recalled an old Staff Sergeant in my Company in the Territorial Army mentioning in passing that if the Russians had come over the IGB (Inner German Border) and kicked off Big Mess Three, then all the Army would have supplied were DE blades for shaving.

This got me wondering what the Army issued, what my old man used, and so on, and shortened story, here I am, using a Gillette Slim Safety Razor that was made before I was born, and trying blades from a sampler pack from Connaught Shaving. They're quite cheap compared to a pack of cartridge blades, and you might be pleasantly surprised. But do, please, either read up on, or get yourself taught, the proper way to use a Double-Edged Safety Razor before trying it on your own - you'll find it an all-together more pleasant affair if you do!

Anyhow, previously, I'd tried to use Wilkinson Sword DE blades, but despite massive amounts of care and caution, those ripped my face to bits darn near every time, so never again on those; I've also used Israeli Personna blades (found in a branch of Asda over here), which were far better than the Wilkinson face-rippers, but until I visited Badger and Brush, a portal, forum, and resource for Mens' Shaving, didn't know about the sampler packs that are availble from certain um... retail "Heshtablishments" was how I heard it pronounced once... a good source of these sampler packs is Connaught Shaving (link above), and what a useful place I've found it to be!

I decided upon their 'Popular' sampler pack, containing Astra Superior Platinum (5), Crystal Platinum (10), Feather New Hi-Stainless (10), Gillette 7 o’clock Sharp Edge (5), Personna Platinum Chrome (10), Shark Super Chrome, Wilkinson Double Edge (5), for a total of fifty blades; I won't be bothering with the Wilkinson Double Edge, obviously.

I've used a few of the Gillette 7 O'Clocks, and found them to be not at all bad, then tried my first Japanese 'Feather' blade this morning, and wow, what a difference! It was a joy to use, with only a couple of small nicks and seepages to worry about - I also bought an alum block, to use in place of the styptic pencil that I've hitherto been using, and that certainly was a boon: Closed up all those nicks practically instantly - the pencil wasn't aywhere near as good, let me assure you!

Anyway, we'll see what I think of the rest of the blades in the sampler, but that's a few weeks off, I think.

More when I've done the full sampler pack!

One for the "Think Bike!" campaign...

This is only part of the result of someone not using their eyes when turning across oncoming cycle-based traffic (whether powered or not). Off camera, a young man has broken bones, a head injury - despite his crash helmet - and was, I think, VERY lucky escape with his life.

I won't detail what happened in any detail, as the Police are still considering what action to take.

But I was there. I saw it all. And I'm due to give a witness statement soon.

Folks, please, when you're driving, watch out for the cyclists. The result of not doing so is far too heavy in most cases.

There are idiots, and there are idiots...

And the prize, honking great, lowbrow, amoeba-brained half wit moron that parked right on top of this traffic island is one of them. Vans can get past. Cars can too.

But anything wider, and, well.

You see my point.

And if you believe in the Tooth Fairy...

Then this is, indeed, Summer.

Fundamental shifts in perception...

Had a major shift in how I look at things this morning...

OK, so there I was, getting a lift from a mate to a living history event that we try to regularly attend, and he got saddled with his kids for the day as well. Not as bad as you might imagine, they're actually fairly well behaved, which just goes to show that if you train 'em right, they come out right... (hint hint cough nudge not-so-subtle dig at politicians...!) So, anyhow, as you can imagine, we were minding our Ps and Qs...

And then one of the kids spotted a Roman Catholic priest walking down the road, in full duty order (as one might call it), shirt, black, high-collar (With frontal neck gap); collar, dog, white; trousers, black; shoes, black, highly polished; and coat, frock, full length. No hat, but you can't have everything, I suppose. After a somewhat pregnant pause while the kids in the back digested this not-very regular sight, what did they yell out?

"NANNY MCPHEE!"

How my mate didn't crash the car laughing his block off, I'll never fathom. Took me five minutes of whooping and coughing, and a further fifteen minutes of inane giggling, before I got myself back under control, much to the kids (and my mates') amusement.

But ye Gods (no pun intended!), I'll never look at another RC Priest in the same way again!