Posts by Rich Lock
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You can't go past Ferrero Rocher. Really
Oh Ambassador, you are spoileeeeng uzz.
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'Alive', or 'lively'?
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I am extremely annoyed* about having to bow out of this one as I am currently one of The Unclean.
Russell has been informed that there are now two spare places.
In my absence, please treat ScottY gently. He's not used to being in public without his normal minders. As long as you keep the loud noises and bright lights to a minimum, he should be fine. And absolutely no jelly and icecream. Or alcohol.
*well, as annoyed as it is possible to get from the centre of a listless, self-pitying flu-fug.
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A dirigble! Tethered to the ground of your choice, but open to the skies - off you float at the first hint of an 8 or 9
(This would be My Serious Choice...)Keeping it inflated and ready to go at a moments notice could be tricky. But even so, I think it beats my first choice of yurt.
WRT the chimney issue: when we were doing Serious House Renovations last year, I recall that we had our cracked chimney stack wrapped and plastered over in much the same way as you would plastercast a broken limb (except weatherproofed and painted, obviously).
Can't seem to find any info online, but possibly something worth thinking about? I'm assuming it's now relatively quake-proof?
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"Next thing they'll be reporting will be that Dr Evil, the Quantum Organisation, and/or the Taliban deliberately triggered the quake."
This would never have happened if they'd left Hubbard in charge of South Cantebury Finance. Lousy interfering government. -
I'll keep you in line
If you'll bring me the cheque
Just take your time
I'll take all you can get
You'll keep no secrets from me
All I want is a little more back this time
Shut your mouth
Put your money into it'Precious', by Fur Patrol
Dedicated to Alan Hubbard.
And staying on the Julia Deans tip:
__Don't talk to me like I'm one of your cynical peers
Talk to me like a lover__Is one of the best lyrics I've heard since ages ago. And anyone who doesn't own a copy of her recent solo album, 'modern fables', should go out immediately and buy one.
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After having a very civil drinking disagreement with someone recently over Holmes's cocaine use, I came home and picked up my copy of Adventures, flipped it open, and the cocaine is mentioned on the first page (A Scandal in Bohemia):
Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature.
That I think indicates that, however often the word is mentioned, the drug use is habitual.
Emma, if you want to crush your friend and leave them weeping on the floor about how wrong they were, then let the sign of four be your weapon of choice:
Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantelpiece, and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle and rolled back his left shirtcuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist, all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally, he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined armchair with a long sigh of satisfaction.
Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance, but custom had not reconciled my mind to it. On the contrary, from day to day I had become more irritable at the sight, and my conscience swelled nightly within me at the thought that I had lacked the courage to protest. Again and again I had registered a vow that I should deliver my soul upon the subject; but there was that in the cool, nonchalant air of my companion which made him the last man with whom one would care to take anything approaching to a liberty. His great powers, his masterly manner, and the experience which I had had of his many extraordinary qualities, all made me diffident and backward in crossing him.
Yet upon that afternoon, whether it was the Beaune which I had taken with my lunch or the additional exasperation produced by the extreme deliberation of his manner, I suddenly felt that I could hold out no longer.
"Which is it to-day," I asked, "morphine or cocaine?"
He raised his eyes languidly from the old black-letter volume which he had opened.
"It is cocaine," he said, "a seven-per-cent solution. Would you care to try it?"
"No, indeed," I answered brusquely. "My constitution has not got over the Afghan campaign yet. I cannot afford to throw any extra strain upon it."
He smiled at my vehemence. "Perhaps you are right, Watson," he said. "I suppose that its influence is physically a bad one. I find it, however, so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment."
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I'll keep you in line
If you'll bring me the cheque
Just take your time
I'll take all you can get
You'll keep no secrets from me
All I want is a little more back this time
Shut your mouth
Put your money into itDedicated to Alan Hubbard.
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Look out of the window on a fine day: is the sky nearest the horizon a nice shade of brown? No? Then you're fine.
Well, it's quite noteworthy that if I apply your test from my office window (down by the ferry terminal) on a nice, still, sunny winters day like today in Auckland, usually I'll be able to see a very noticable brown smear hanging over West Auckland and the Waitaks.
And my wife has had some minor dealings with air quality surveys for Auckland, through ARC. You would be unpleasantly surprised by the results.
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as has happened in Australia a few times.
And the UK. Horror stories about PPP-built hospitals are numerous.
And Scotland has it's own version of the bridge to nowhere in the shape of the isle of skye-mainland link. The locals are ecstatic about having to pay roughly five times as much to cross, as they did when it was the government's responsibility.