AS WELL AS GORGING MYSELF ON INDUSTRIAL BATTERED FISH, I have bought my tubbies more "wild bird" (also I might be putting up a feeder; if I can find a place outside my upstairs window that will hang one...)The Roborovski family went mad when the seeds came out. Momma Spherical led the way and soon was looking like a furry football; Baby Itchy followed and swiftly resembled a miniature version of the same... Bashful was too busy craning her head backwards to peer a look at me (and falling slapstick right over with sawdust all over her head) to bother filling up...
My mind is all set on my latest literary "scheme"... I have embarked upon my gargantuan mountain of research... Fast-paced pop fiction of heartrending intensity is what I intend to serve up to the world on the golden platter of my glittering prose (as if!)... All I am saying here is that I want to write popular fiction, not the ponderously "literary" time-wasting type... If I ever get nominated for the Booker prize or anything similar I shall commit suicide! And that's about all I have to say about writing "write" now...
Which leads me back to Paris. The guy on late night talk radio was chundering on about the British government and local authorities' surfeit of roadway speed cameras and how dangerous these are (actually causing motorists suddenly to break, sending those behind smashing into one another)... good driving is about keeping distance far more than it's about reducing speed... (surely?)... This and stories of local councils fining innocent families for over-packing dustbins or (crime of the century) leaving them out on the wrong day... Spy (sorry "security") cameras everywhere (4,000,000 and counting)... No smoking anywhere ~ except the government won't just ban tobacco completely as they are too addicted to the multibillions it rakes in in taxes they can mis-spend... innocent people slapped with £80 spot-fines for dropping litter as inconsequential as a single match stick, or in one case the end of a sausage roll that wasn't even noticed dropping by the hapless eater (it was, however filmed by an undercover local authority "enforcement officer")... and an £80 fixed penalty that couldn't even be contested as within 30 seconds the local pigeons had eaten all the evidence... this and the poll tax (sorry "council tax" (poll tax by another name though even worse as inhabitants of a house share are "jointly and severally liable" ~ ie the authorities are fully within their rights to bulldoze an entire house's bill on to just one poor resident and to hell with the consequences... all this and parking charges, jobsworths, rude kids, knives and the ineffectual Gordon Brown (yes our prime minister though I'd forgive you for never having heard of him: we wish we never had too...)... all this and I so badly want to flee this country!
Not that I think life is all rosey-tinted abroad or that I shall somehow escape my problems. I'm just fed up of living with this set of national problems and want to be somewhere where other people are complaining about other politicians and I want to be able to give even less of a damn about them than I do nowadays...
And back to cooking: my next ambition is to make my own pizza ~ from scratch (meaning concocting bases from flour, water, sugar, yeast (at least that's what I was told was the recipe))... nearest I've come thus far is buying vulgar value margaritas and chucking veggies of my own atop...
OK gotta go the day is sultry and stormy ~ amazing horizon lightning last night that never fulminated into a full electric storm... is that what they mean by "heat-lightning"?... it was forking sideways horizontally over the rooftops... quite impressive... Have a nice day everyone and don't get too hot and sweaty!!
Looks like things are going okay for you right now. Glad to see it. Yep it's heat lightning. We get a LOT of it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the word picture of the furry seedballs ~ it had me chuckling as I read your post! Security cameras seem to be everywhere here as well. The popular one of the moment is the red-light camera intended to catch people running red lights. Of course, there are warning signs all about advertising its presence so who knows how many people are avoiding being caught. Pizza is fun to make and not so hard as the margaritas!
ReplyDeleteHope things are cooling down there. We have a thunderstorm approaching now ~ I can hear the thunder rolling. We have lost power already this morning so I expect it will go out again before the day is over.
Have a good day Gleds!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI always like to hear about your little flat mates. Funny story about there eating habits.
I have no idea about the side ways lightning must have looked pretty neat.
We're hot here in California, temps tipped into the hundreds again.
Take care,
Janice~
I can't wait to be hot and sweaty, but then I'm one of those strange people who loves the heat...humidity and all. At the moment, it's winter, three layers of clothing and the heater on full blast. Even though it's not cold by North Hemisphere winter standards, it's plenty cold enough for one who hates the cold.
ReplyDeleteHave a good weekend, Gleds.
Politics everywhere is horrible. I love America, but I wish that I could impeach about half of the politicians. All of the decisions this country is making is just screwing us over in the long and short run. I feel like everywhere is so messed up, I wish there was a way to change it.
ReplyDeletePizza is good home made. Do you guys have Pillsburys baking products in England? If so, crescents dough is really good as pizza dough, though it's obviously not home made. = )
After you make your pizza dough, knead it, let it rise once, then spread the baking pan with olive oil and a little corn meal before you flatten the dough on to it, top it, then bake. So good. I make it vegan with veggies and soy cheese.
ReplyDeleteI dislike litterbugs and dopey people who overfill their rubbish bins so that when the truck comes to empty the bin some of their rubbish ends up on the ground which they don't bother picking up and allow to blow away for someone else to pick up ... but if I was the spy police I'd tax the likes of those American fast food takeaway outlets for littering .... big time*!*
ReplyDeleteHope you find a suitable spot for that bird feeder, and make the most of the warm conditions - take your writing outside to one of the parks and people watch *!*
homemade pizza sounds nice.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to go to a western european country with political problems..I think Belgium would be thé choice of the moment..because as far as I know, knowone knows how long Belgium will stay Belgium.
ReplyDeleteGlad I live a bit further north..so I don't have to care (too much).
excusez-moi madame; où se trouve le département des antiquités égyptiens et orientales?
ReplyDeleteit's near the zoo, ...and the zoo? behind the cinema...and the cinema ? just in front of the school? and my tailor is rich and...
i stop saying stupid things ! good sometimes !!! did you manage to make your pizza ?
much love from Mousie, who doesn't forget you, though she doesn't visit very often !!!!!!!!
The hammies are being cuter than ever ... except SQUABBLING which I find very annoying (naughty ITCHY's fault)... no sight get for the bird feeder as my double-glazed window shuts flush and so nary impossible to fit any pumusker to poke outside... thanks for your comments everyone I shall have to get back after the weekend when more time
ReplyDelete;->...
Good luck with the new literary venture! But Gleds, can yoy afford to have scruples?! Take the money and run - with the hammies, of course! xx
ReplyDeleteTheLiberator: I used to know someone DJed under that name...
ReplyDelete