And out in the open et al
Indeed. Out in the open and in front of everyone, well me anyway.
I was on the train going to Belfast from dear old Bangor Town. There I was, sitting on the double seats, you know, the ones that face each other. I like to sit there especially on the left side going with my back to the engine. I like to see where I've just come from. Where was I, oh yes. We were just about to leave the station when these two giggly girls got on and sat facing me. I thought, free country, sit where you want, just don't spill my coffee. My COFFEE that I have been looking forward to for over a week now. (I am not allowed coffee any more but I thought, ah stuff it, one won't hurt.)
Seem to be going off at a tangent here. Let's get back to the main story. Yes. Two giggly girls. About 20'ish (I later found out that one of them is 21 on the 21st March next year) Anyway, I'm sitting playing my Nintendo DS just to pass the time. I look up for a moment and out of the corner of my eye I notice that these giggly girls are holding hands. No harm there. Good friends. Then, further along the tracks they start kissing. Very good friends. Not that I could help it, but overhearing, not listening, their conversation pieces I get the total picture. Lesbians! Not that I go out looking for them, after all, they are people. Please don't think I am a prude. The last time I saw Lesbians was in Toronto when I went to see a band called The Dayglo Abortions in a rock joint called Ian's Place in downtown Toronto. No, they weren't in the audience, they were part of the stage show.
Is it me, my age, my train of thought or what? Apart from witnessing this show of affection towards each other both of these girls talked the biggest load of gack all the way from Bangor to Belfast and beyond non stop.
Should there be any males/females of the gay persuasion reading this please don't get your knickers in a twist. Not on my account anyway!
Comments as usual. Click the title upstairs and gack away
Byeeeee
Posted :: Thursday 11/13/2008 6:13:00 AM
You want some good news then!?
OK. You want some good news then? Here it is. This is the best good news that I have had for some time now. No, nothing to do with my wife. Nothing to do with my health. Nothing to do with the economic climate (thank feck!) It might have something to do with a current story about phone calls to an answering machine. Whose answering machine? Think Fawlty Towers for a while. Ce!
Yes, I got 2 tickets for the Russell Brand Stand Up Comedy Show in January. My wife will be able to walk about by that time so I thought she could do with a good laff. Apparently the BBC don't think he is funny anymore. I think they got rid of the wrong man. I don't think Jonathan Ross is all that funny. Maybe his time will come. Anyways. We are looking forward to the Russell Brand show next month. Each to their own when it comes to taste. Bearing in mind, my taste is always better than.....
Away from that. More good news. Halloween is over. No more begging at the door at all times. These kids nowadays, they don't even do it the traditional way anymore. They make it easy for themselves by shouting yet another Americanism at you. My dogs bark at any noise and they certainly scare the feck out of them when i answer the door, yet again, holding a barking, growling pair of dogs by the ruff with just the tiniest threat of letting them go. It's like them telling them that if they let another firework off within earshot of them they will really do damage. (a lot of them's there, wasn't there?)
As my wife get's a wee tad better day by day I am finding more time for myself. After i have done the washing / dusting / hoovering / cooking / shopping / cleaning etc, i now have 3 hours a day to myself. That's 2 hours to sleep and 1 hour to get dressed / undressed / downstairs / upstairs / check mails / check blog gack etc. Not bad eh?
As I mentioned above, I check my blog every day. I really look forward to seeing new gack posted. No matter what it is I like to read what you think of things. Here's one to put your witty minds to. My daughter is going to take me to see the new James bond movie soon. What string of puns can you put together using only the Bond film titles? I look forward to reading your witty gacks.
Don't forget about the Rolling Stones. They are still around. There is still a lot of stuff I don't have. I trust that you are still looking and not just forgotten.
Your comments as usual by clicking above title bar. All newcomers most welcome. I need to know that there are people out there who read this gack
Tarrah for now
Posted :: Tuesday 11/4/2008 7:26:00 AM
She talks, She walks
Yeah! She talks and then She walks. Well, She walked to the middle of the room and back to her bed again with the help of two physio's. She bein my wife who has just gone through, yet again, surgery on her spinal cord. The surgeon, yet again, removed a dermoid cyst (not sure about the spelling there, but never mind) from my wife's spine. The good thing is this time, the pain she suffers 24 / 7 might just altogether disappear. we will have to wait and see. Also while he was in there, he fixed up some of her nerve endings. Just like that. Like something you would expect Hawkeye to do in M.A.S.H. 'Oh, here's some damaged nerve endings, let's just fix these up while I'm in here at no extra cost' As a result, my wife can now feel things in her leg that she couldn't feel before. And no, it's not my hands!!
She is surely on the mend. Maybe this time next week she will be home. (Remember. Clean the house, change the bedclothes, throw out the Chinese takeaways, clean the loos, brush the doggies and everything else)
Apart from the regular visits to the hospital, I haven't really had time to do much else. It's just as well I have a half fare pass for the public transport otherwise it would have cost me twice as much (who's the first to see the ridicule in that line?)(answers on a postcard only please addressed to 10 Downing Street) I had no idea that train fares had gone up so much in the past couple of years. Bus fares are just as bad. Why can't we adopt the North American way of ab / using public transport. Get on, pay a dollar and go where you want. At least that's the way I did it when I was last there. Make out you're lost and they take pity on you. Just make sure it's a different driver each time.
Since my wife went into hospital the phone has not stopped. No, it's not people looking for payment of overdue bills. I keep on top of those no matter what. It's just people phoning to inquire about the missus. (note the downgrade from my wife to the missus) When people are on the phone it's always less formal as these are friends. I can afford to be less formal. Unless, of course my good friends Liz and Phil the Greek from Buck House get one of their minions to telephone on their behalf!
All I seem to have done this blog is refer to topics regarding my wife. Here's something different that doesn't concern her at all, until I get back that is. A 35 year Annual School Dinner!!! Or, to be more precise, a 35 year annual piss up with a food fight in the middle. I think this is happening next month sometime. It will be a good chance to meet up with some good and not so good school chums of years ago. Details after the event, maybe!
Well, I better get ready, I need to leave here soon to go for another big train ride. Have a rather hurried lunch, beg my daughter to give me a lift to the station, grab a coffee at the coffee place, buy my half price ticket, get on the train and go.
I must remember to get dressed as well
Choo choo for now
McDuff
Posted :: Sunday 10/26/2008 5:41:00 AM
WSS (Winter Soup Supply)
Yep. That time of the year again. Mickmak shears his sheep. I make my Winter Soup Supply. Carrot & Coriander / Vegetable / Celery / Asparagus / Lentil and others that I think of as the day goes on. I now have one freezer full of Chinese Takeaway containers full of home made soup. I think I have enough to last until maybe the end of December. Not bad for a lay out of £15.00 for the ingredients. Not only that, it's healthy as well. Have you ever looked a tin of soup and read the ingredients list. Just look at the amount of salt and sugar goes into one tin. With my soup there are only the natural salts and no sugars. I'll outlive you all!!
Many thanks to Mickmak. He gets the gold star and a teachers pat on the head. A package arrived all the way from OZ addressed to a colleague of mine. It contained not just one Rolling Stones item, but a whole 7 items. Yes. Plural. As in more than one. This is what I call good. If only other peeps would understand the importance of the issues at stake. There are hundreds, if not thousands of Rolling Stones items just lying about in peeps attics and basements and garages and cupboards etc. They are not being put to their full use. If they were within my collection then they would be put to their full use. Contact me through the web site to arrange to have your items shipped immediately.
As I write this gack I am in the presence of a television that is switched on. It is Saturday night. It is 8.00ish. It is UTV. Yes. It's The X Factor! I think, now this is only what I think, that everyone who cries should be immediately disqualified. that would make the cut the programme down to about 2 weeks. Then its over. After all, if I can sing without bursting into tears then anyone can. (well I used to be able to sing, usually with 10 pints inside me for a bit of Dutch Courage)
Viking has a new job everyone. He is not allowed to use the t'internet by his boss. Should this be construed as harassment in the workplace? Make your views known at the bottom by clicking on the title bar at the top. If that makes any sense to you. In my last job, the one I had before I retired, I used the t'internet anytime I wanted to. Well, I was the only one there so it didn't really matter!!
I am still making use of the brief spells of good weather to put the garden to rest for the Winter. Almost done. I did manage to get a reliable person to come and measure up for the new fence that I want put up. I have known this guy for a long time now and i have / had every faith in him. He came on Monday, measured up, on his way out he told me he would give me a call the next day. Is tomorrow the next day yet???? I still haven't heard from him. Come to think of it, I haven't even seen the other guy who was supposed to call last Sunday. Maybe he got confused and thinks its next Sunday (tomorrow) or next Sunday (next week)!!!! I might end up doing the feckin' job myself after all. Nobody seems to want to work these days.
All gack remains the property of the author, copyright 2008 unless so wanted for educational purposes.
Please feel free to add personal gack by clicking on the title above
Ta Ta
Posted :: Saturday 10/4/2008 2:20:00 PM
Not so bored now!
No. Definitely not so bored now. I have too much gack to read every day thanks to you lot. Cheers for that. You seem to have jolted me out of my mini depression. blue skies are ahead, maybe.
Things happen in 3's, so I am told. usually bad news. The 3 that I have had to contend with are funerals. last week I attended a funeral of an ex neighbour of mine from my younger days. She was a widow and a very nice happy lady. Always had time for a chat to ask about the family etc. i did manage to catch up with her eldest son who went off to America about 35 years ago. No different. I recognized him straight away.
Second funeral was earlier this week. The step father of a girl that was my wife's chief bridesmaid at our wedding. Great guy. Loved life and was a great storyteller.
The third funeral is tomorrow (Friday). A gentleman who was associated with Bangor Abbey. Now, as you all know I am not a churchgoer but I enjoy the social side to church life. This man did as well. He was always asking after our daughter when she was away in the States and how she was enjoying herself. I think this will be a rather large funeral as he was well known amongst the Parish and beyond.
I hope that is the end of funerals for a while. I need something bright and happy to happen in my life.
The other day while I was pottering about the back garden one of the dogs managed to get out through a hole in the hedge. The other one followed immediately after her. What do I do? i can't run after them. I can't even climb over the fence to go after them. I'm calling and calling after them. the dumb blond one comes back of her own accord. That's one. I lock her in the kitchen and try to do something about the redhesd. This is not a good thing for me to do. As I am still on the slow road to recovery after my illness I find myself getting more and more breathless. As a result I am nearly in collapse mode.
I manage to get to the house and I sit down gasping. After a while I phone my wife to see if she can come home to look for the dog. She does. She will. She has. The redhead was found about 6 gardens away not sure where she was. Her break for freedom had managed to confuse her so much that all the gardens looked the same to her. Punishment for the both of them was imminent. What to do with them. i know. Put them in the kitchen and don't talk to them for the rest of the day. That'll teach them. Rest of the day, my a**e. we were cuddling them and playing with them after 20 minutes. how can one do that to 2 such lovely loyal pets. Even though they require a wee bit of knowledge about the gardens further down the road.
I now need to find someone to put a new fence up. This is a job i have been putting off year after year. It has to be done soon. The fence I have is the original one from when we bought the house. It has seen better days. Anybody know of anyone who is competent at this type of work? I can no longer manage do these sort of jobs due to my health problems, so please let me know.
As for the request of a chat page. Maybe. Maybe not. A system has to be devised where I can edit the content just in case there are some bad rips out there who think it's funny to put naughty words in. Words like bum and bottom and willy and and and other such words. Once my geek friend and I can get together to sort something out then it might just happen. In the meantime, keep writing the gack. You're all doing a fine job. The newcomers are coming in nicely so don't you regulars frighten them away by being too sarky towards them. Remember, you were once a newcomer yourself!
I need to go now to water the planters out on the decks (yes, I have two decks, the upper one and the lower one. How many do you have?) It hasn't rained here for some time now and we don't want my planters to dry up now. Do we?
Don't forget the bully part. Bully all your friends / neighbours / relatives to donate Rolling Stones stuff to me. ME that is. Tell them that there is someone out there who can give their stuff a loving caring home to live in. All for free.
For all you newcomers who want to add your gack to this load of twat, just click the title bar.
Speak soon
Byse byse
Posted :: Thursday 9/25/2008 7:33:00 AM
Bored, bored, bored, bored, bo
Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored. Life is so boring at the moment. I'm bored. So bored it's boring. Not just ordinary bored but really actually definitely bored. Do you know what I mean, or are you just as bored?
Let me see. What does the old thesaurus say:-
apathy / doldrums / dullness / ennie / flatness / irksomeness / monotony / sameness / tedium / tediousness / weariness / worldweariness
In other words bored. I am all of the above and possibly more although I can't think of any more words to describe it.
Whew!! Glad to get that off my chest. I feel a wee tad better for that now. Life is starting to look brighter already. I might even go and have a bowl of porridge now. Nothing beats a nice bowl of porridge. Eh!
There are times in one's life when it all seems worthless. For the past couple of days that is the way I have been feeling. If it wasn't for you lot writing your gack I don't think I would ever get up in the morning. Keep the gack coming. It's what I do get up for every morning.
This week nothing really exciting has happened. The usual. Get up. Get dressed. Eat. Do some housework. Cook some dinner. Watch tele. Go to bed. Read. Sleep. Boring.
This week I have no stories. No little anecdotes to share with you. Nothing. Zilch.
Am I getting the message across?
Maybe not. Here it is again just in case you missed it first time round. I AM BORED
I would like to think that next blog I will have something to share with you. Something really exciting. Edge of the seat page turning gack that one just has to read and re read again and again. but this week I'm afraid there's nothing
One thing that did happen. I had some friends over from Canada and a friend up from Cork over the weekend. Met up for a pint or six at one of the local hostelries. Met up with a lot of people from my / our past and had a good ole chinwag about things past and present. Now i know what is wrong. While everyone was getting really merry (want of a better word) I had to sit there and drink tea / coffee as alcohol is now a no-no for me. Maybe thats where the boredom came from in the first place.
Who knows?
Should anyone feel the same as me, take a few tablets and go to sleep. Tomorrow is another day. For the rest of you who wish to comment, click the title bar and make my day. Leave some sort of wittiness that will brighten my day. I really, really do look forward to reading them. As Sir Mick sang many many years ago, 'Honest I Do'
Yours Truly
The Lord of Gack
Myself
p/s Another thing that happened. My Canadian friends very very very kindly brought me a Canadian copy of the latest Rolling Stones CD. Get the hint?
Posted :: Thursday 9/18/2008 1:08:00 PM
More Elephants . Are you sure?
Yes, of course I am. There were definitely more elephants. Not one, but two. Real ones this time and all.
These were not made out of towels by the cabin steward this time. These were real live hugemongus beasts of things. These of course belonged to the visiiting circus that had just set up near the hospital grounds. Yep. I was on my way to hospital, yet again. This time I was only going for minor things. Nothing to worry about. Don't be concerned. Forget about it. Well. You can be concerned a wee tad if you want.
Coming back to the elephants. Great big feckers they were to. The kids that were being walked about in their strollers seemed to be having a good time handing them big tufts of grass. I was just waiting for one of those big trunky things to come over the hedge and suck one of the we things out of it's stroller and start playing with it. (whoever heard of a hedge holding back an elephant anyway?)
I am sitting here writing this. Beside me I have forbidden fruit(s). I am not allowed dairy products. I am now not allowed coffee. I have been trying really hard. Dairy stuff I can do without, (except the cheese) Coffee is a wee tad harder. I haven't had a cup for nearly a week now. Guess what? I have a cup of coffee sitting beside me, with milk in it, all ready for drinking. How's that for being a 'Rebel Without a Cause'.
Mmmmmmmm. Just had a nice, lovely, big, gigantic drink of the stuff. Guess what? I'm still alive!!! Just goes to show. They're not right all the time. But I suppose I better take it easy. Like maybe one cup a week instead of my six cups a day.
I'm in a bit of a quandary at the moment. Advice please.
I have been buying quite a bit of Rolling Stones stuff recently. Now. Here is the quandary. Should I wait for my credit card bill to arrive or just don't bother and keep on buying. I look forward to your comments as usual. Just click on the title for all you newcomers who might be reading this and shouting at your monitor. You will be able to see what happens. You will also be able to read the other comments and advice left by the regulars.
Just got the post there. Guess what? Yep. Another parcel. This one from the good ole US of A. At the moment i don't need to open it because I know whats in it. Do you want me to tell you. Ok. I'll tell you........It's a near mint condition London Purple & White label of Not Fade Away!!! For those of you who don't realize. The first six singles released by the Stones in the US had Purple & White labels.Great innit?
Have to go now as I have my chores to do before wifey gets home. Then again I could go and lie down and read my book for a while and nap for another while and just think for a while and do it all tomorrow.......that's it, do it all at the weekend instead!!!
Byse byse
Posted :: Wednesday 9/10/2008 4:31:00 AM
No More Swedish Nurse
No more Swedish nurse for me. Some geezer behind a desk has decided that the Renal Unit that I attend can be run more efficiently without my Swedish nurse. She is the one who has looked after me every time I visit the Renal Unit. She is the one who was very efficient at looking after me, and others of course, but now she is gone.
The Swedishness of her voice, her lovely Swedish eyes, her blonde Swedish hair, her Swedish..... ok, that's enough. I think you all get the picture. This is a case of this geezer git trying to cut down the running costs of the unit. Never mind the health of the patients who attend it. Bring him to me. I say, bring him to me! I will then explain, politely of course, that we all want our Swedish nurse brought back. Eh!
What a day. The rain has more or less been on all day. I have been stuck indoors all day. Because of the rain I have only been able to watch DVD's, read my book, eat my meals and play around with my laptop. What a day indeed. I did have plans to do things outside today you know. Believe me, I did!
My brother came round and paid me a visit. He is off to Poland tomorrow for a holiday. He, during our conversation, asked me if there was anything Rolling Stones wise that he could get for me while he was away. Nice brother. You see. It's so easy. When you are abroad just think of me and my COLLECTION and have a look for some foreign pressings of Rolling Stones material. It's as simple as that. I mean, you don't have to go overboard. A CD here, a record there, anything at all is always appreciated. Just do it! Pleeeaaase.
I just got word today that my friend who is coming over from Canada next week was due to fly with Zoom. Yep. He lost all his money. He is still coming over via another airline. Maybe he is one of the lucky ones and paid by credit card. I would like to think so. I have used Zoom myself on many an occasion to travel to Canada to visit and i have always found it a very good service. i was sorry to hear about their problems. It means now there are no cheepies over the Atlantic any more. Ah well. I was out there last year anyway. Maybe by the time fuel costs come down another cheepie will have started. Me! Miserly. Get away. I'm what you would call careful with my pennies.
Newcomers thoughts and feelings always welcome. Just click on the title above and scroll down. as for you, the regulars. I, as always, look forward to your gack
Byse byse
Posted :: Tuesday 9/2/2008 8:20:00 AM
