Friday, April 17, 2009

A week well wasted

Hello. I'd intended to be watching Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home right about now as part of my prep work for the opening of the new Star Trek movie, but I decided I'd put my own needs aside for the time being and write a new post for you. Why? Because I love you. Yes I do.

Patronising, eh?

OK, so I don't know whether I mentioned this or not, but I've had this week off work. To be brutally honest, I actually haven't done much with it at all. Let's have a quick run-through:

Monday:
Easter Monday, to be precise. Accepted an offer from Big Bro to help me wash Clubbie. Big Bro recently bought a new car too, and because he loves his new car with something approaching (and subsequently zooming waaaaaaay past) utter obsession, he's turned into some sort of car washing guru. No longer is a mere bucket and sponge sufficient! No! There are stages. Many, many stages. Mind you, after two hours, Clubbie was gleaming so strongly that three kids who live down the road were treated for seared retinas and are currently sporting heavily-bandaged eyes.

And despite Big Bro's sweatshop-style car-washing technique I still found the time to lark around.


Although I was quickly admonished for slacking and forced back to work under threat of violence.

Tuesday:
Got my hair cut by usual lady for the first time in aaaaaaaages, and it looks awesome; badgered some delightful lady in the bank and wasted 10 minutes of her day by asking her inane questions about how the drop in interest rates will affect my mortgage when I come to renegotiate it.

Wednesday:
Big Bro's birthday - huzzah! Though he had a dickie tummy, so it wasn't quite so huzzah for him.

Thursday:
Whipped Clubbie in to the Mini dealer to have a fuse replaced. It was done in the time it took me to read the Daily Mail (i.e. about three minutes), and then I headed over to Sparky Ma and Pa's where I somehow succeeded in convincing Sparky Pa that I was an iTunes genius by helping him move his library from one computer to another.

Friday:
A-ha! Friday - the day I'd been looking forward to all week! Why? Because today was the day that Sparky Ma and I had scheduled in our traditional raiding party shopping expedition to Kingston - and for the first time in a long time we both went there with money, not so much to burn, but definitely to spend. And spend we did. After 7-8 hours (according to the car park pay machine) my haul consisted of the following delightful items (and the reasoning behind said purchases):

Ode to Sunshine by Delta Spirit: I can't remember where I first heard about this band, but I really like their slightly ramshackle sound having had a listen to their Myspace page and downloading their session on Daytrotter. Mum bought this for me as the traditional 'thanks-for-taking-me-to-Kingston-gift,' bless 'er! It's a great album, though I'm not to sure about the slightly dodgy-looking chap on the cover…

• Two Topman Deep-V t-shirts: Yes two; a white one and a grey one. I bought a black one last summer and wasn't sure I actually liked it for a long time because it shows off quite a lot of the ol' chesticals, if you know what I mean. Just recently, though, I've really grown to love it in all it's chestical-bearing glory, and seeing as you can get two for a tenner, I thought I'd pick up a couple more. The white one was a complete bitch to find, though, as it was rammed on a single rack alongside white round neck tees, white regular V-neck tees, white baseball tees, and white notch tees; it was like looking for an albino something-or-other in a blizzard. The grey one was equally difficult to locate, but for entirely different reasons; I initially didn't think they had any, and in sheer desperation grabbed for the one grey t-shirt on a rack of many-coloured t-shirts - and what were the chances, it was the one I wanted in my size! The serendipity!

And if you're wondering what they look like on, think something along the lines of this:

Altogether now: KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!

• A G-Star bag: for ages now I've been looking for a new bag for work; the one I've got at the moment is perfectly fine, but it's become apparent that I actually don't need to take that much stuff to work each day and I've only really stuck with it because it carries an A4 writing pad easily enough. But on those occasions when I want to do some writing at lunchtime it's a bit, well, cumbersome to lug around. Anyway, I saw this bag and thought it was nice, but quite expensive. Sparky Ma soon talked me round, though, and before I knew it I'd bought it. It's waaaay smaller than old work bag, but will be far more convenient for if I'm heading out up town and want to carry a few bits with me. On the downside, it's not big enough for an A4 writing pad, but as I've just about filled my latest one up, I thought I'd go for…

• A Moleskin 240pp ruled notebook as used by Earnest Hemingway: I've wanted one of these for ages, because what's good enough for Earnest is good enough for me, and it fits in new bag PERFECTLY. It was £12.75, which is a bit steep but I figure it'll make me look more sophisticated and authoritative when I'm jotting story ideas down.

• iPod headphones: I've come to the conclusion that my ears secrete some kind of unnaturally toxic ear grease when I go running because I consistently have to buy new headphones every year after the rubber bit turns all manky and drops off, which in turn means that my headphones keep falling out. So these are the latest in a long line of headphones, and will undoubtedly require replacing sometime around April 2010.

• Some Lush soap: because I dropped the last bit down the plug hole this morning.

Today also marked the three week anniversary of me owning Clubbie (we're going steady), and Sparky Ma's first trip in Clubbie (she was a bit freaked out about the whole stop/start thing at first, but that soon turned into thinking it was cool, then getting so used to it that it totally became a "meh, whatever" sorta thing).

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm still feeling the effects of the phat Nandos we had for lunch, so I'm going to go lie on my bed like a python that's eaten a hippo or something.

5 comments:

Dinah said...

The Voyage Home is my absolute favourite. It's so awesome, with the whales and San Francisco and stuff.

CyberPete said...

Your shopping trip sounds awesome! I love reading about them.

I am sorry to point out, though, that deep Vs are way too metrosexual and beyond ghey. You'll do all you can to butch them up though.

And just for that I won't make any comments on the soap dropping.

Tim said...

Dinah - It's a good one, isn't it? Are you going to go see the new one when it comes out?

Cyberpete - They go great under shirts though because they don't look too conspicuous. That's the main reason I like 'em, though I think they'll be nice in the summer (and lead to interesting tan lines).

As for the soap, well, in my defense I didn't try to pick it up.

Tara said...

I'm not sure how obsessive my brothers are about washing their cars, but I'm grateful that they all have their own stuff to deal with and don't bother me about the upkeep of my little vehicle.. But it does need a good washing and some body work.

CyberPete said...

We'll have to see photographic proof of your interesting tan lines. Yes, we do.

You never know what happens if you pick up the soap. Something could put your eye out.