Grass Blind

There’s nothing else that it could be other than rolling hills on red fields or fault lines depicting the passage of time or an earthquake. Perhaps it could be a group of clouds at sunset, or the sand dunes of a desert. You can even hear the wind whistling through. In a bedroom it could depict the many creases in a duvet. How about the wavy lines that you see in the morning as your eyes come into focus, though it may be a bit worrying if you see the colours as well. I suppose in a kitchen it could represent a pot of sauce boiling over or some vegetables ready to be sliced. It could even be the strokes of a knife. There’s also the option to have the same design in different colours just to make things a bit more alien. At least you’ll know what room you’re in.

 

"The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning"

-Pele.

Easy things are often overlooked. Simple little things like completing a task early or paying a bill that’s cheaper than you expected creates little victories that require very little effort of you. Other tasks seem mountainous, but you just want to get them done. You can try and break them up into smaller tasks but you have to persevere no matter what’s stopping you. But there’s also other people involved. You may be able to delegate your tasks but you have to integrate yourself with others so that they can help you to focus and manage your time, but you may also have to reach some sort of compromise to gain their support and offer your services in favour of them at a later date. It’s then a strenuous test, and you’ll be glad that it’s all over and things are finally starting to go your way. A sense of achievement follows.

Colour Blind

It’s a circular Easter design combined with a planetary alignment that’s gone wrong. Is something being absorbed to echo osmosis or a cooking process? What are all the red rings about? Will these colours match or contrast? Will they inspire me with inspiration should I choose to keep the blind down and not let in any sunlight so I’m hiding away the rainy day? And what about when it’s dark outside anyway? It all looks very pre-school. I’m not even sure if I’m looking at it the right way up. This design would probably have gone with our old kitchen, but I don’t feel that it compliments the new grey slate design. There’s two large circles that might but they don’t justify the other ones, especially when the light shines through it. It’s a contest for each circle to block the other one out. But it’s not my decision, especially when I’m not spending much time in this room anyway. 

 

To England, with Love

This is a forgettable film with a beige cast whose actors have very little skills. It’s in a similar frame to tacky Christmas films where a stranger comes to reside in a small community and undergoes an epiphany which transforms their way of life. Rather than an exploration of England as promised, we’re treated to a brief shot of London and a cabbie before viewing the rest in a rural coastal town. I took a good guess at the cab fayre and got pretty close. Even the film crew got lost with the charm of it all since there are plenty of shots of the scenery and extensive coverage of the steam railway. The argument scenes between the couple-to-be are just too forced at times and erupt quite randomly. Toward has spent too much time in action films and doesn’t like to be kept still, while her partner has little experience, and it’s all quite predictable without any mystery.

Going Blind

It was time to start our house renovation. As well as replacing the slat blinds in the dining room where my niece had broken the interconnecting cords, we also wanted a new roller blind for the kitchen and another for my bedroom. I wanted to go back to curtains but it was hard to argue when someone was offering to do them as part of  a deal. And although the fitter’s shop was open, we were required to either make an appointment or be prepared to wait outside until the previous customers had finished browsing and no more appointments were expected. The shop had a factory attached which was on an industrial estate with its own small car park with a council housing estate opposite. To make things easier, we both wore facemasks and disposable gloves. There was a large range to choose from, and as well as hanging racks to flick through there were also hundreds of books filled with patterned samples.

Sussex Titles Finally Stripped!

I really hate how this ginger kid has got a hold of the media and has exposed more than we need to know. Perhaps there are some racist comments that have transpired, but he’s usurped them in the wrong manner by airing the dirty laundry in public. As a result of this, it seems that he’s chosen to abandon all the duties bestowed on him, but at the same time he’s wanted to remain in the public eye for the exposure. He’s even wrote a book on the so-called hardships that he’s experienced while growing up, not realising that he’s had a lot of privileges which have been paid for by the expense of others. It makes him look like a spoiled brat and it’s just a cry for attention. Even the charitable events that he organises are beginning to lose credibility by being associated with him. Is he really that short on cash?

Lightning Man #watertower 15

What a helpful and handy fellow! It’s a novel place to put lighting in. it saves cables from having to be tied around branches, though this is probably the cheapest and ugliest option. Instead, someone’s had to physically drill through this figure and feed a wire through it. It also creates a fun backdrop for kids to lean against the trunk and do a handstand in intimidation of the figure above them. Worryingly, there’s an extra piece of wood hanging between the figure’s legs. It’s hard to say whether this is a result of vandalism since it’s less noticeable if you picture the figure standing upright. Maybe the original piece was a metaphor for trying to feed rubbish into the trunk to encourage people to hide it or take it home. Or perhaps there was a plan to put a litter bin inside the trunk, but the standard issue council bin was too large for the tree.

 

An Inconvient Route #dreamdiary 172

I’m on the south side of London. I need to get across to the north side to catch a train home, but there’s been a line closure on the underground and I’ve got to find another line to cross under the Thames. The only line that’s available is the circle line which is absolutely packed. Knowing that I’m going to be home much later than planned, I decide to seek out a mobile battery for my hone or I’m not going to get very far. I google my nearest Argos and start planning a route for it after making sure that my item’s available. I arrive at a large red-brick building with similar shops but I can’t locate my destination. I get my phone out to plot a new route, and it turns out that I’ve still got a little bit to walk. The map suggests that I cut across the delivery roads of the red-brick building, and in the process I spot a road sign for Argos. I follow its direction which leads me down a dirt-track to a shanty building with an Argos sign on the side. And it’s closed.

What Hangs Above #watertower 14

From the colour of this building, you may think that the owner’s a big Irish supporter, but it just ties in with the theme of the pub. Without it, it’s just going to be another house of no particular merit. Then there’s the ornaments planted on the first floor and hanging down below them. I hope they’re secure and that no-ones tried to knock them off. Someone’s gone to great efforts to get them there, hopefully not via the upper windows. It does make you think that this is a place where you might come to forget about things and leave them behind, though there’s a risk that there’ll be pinned up on the wall as part of the furniture should you feel the need to return and reclaim them. I wonder if there’s any weird artefacts placed inside those buckets for curious minds or if they’re still even there. Even the beer that they’re advertising has stopped production. There might be a different branded bucket in its place.

Imagine an approach where something went wrong in a venue and the venue wasn't to blame...

As a manager, it’s your responsibility to take charge of your surroundings. What’s hindering you? What can be avoided? What’s high risk? If you’ve got everything right, the only reason that things can go wrong is because of other people. You never know what reactions might occur. It could be something as simple as a chair not put back in its place for someone to trip over. With the right foresight, planning and training, you can make this a reality. If you can predict that it will happen, you can think of how to react to it correctly so that you’re helping the situation rather than being labelled as a cause of it, especially if the blame clearly belongs to somebody else. It’ll make you look cooperative in the eyes of the community, and it’ll help you to avoid a lawsuit. If you haven’t got a plan in place then you’re going to get a lot of bad publicity very quickly.

Ruby Ruby Ruby

Few people are fans of supermarket curries. They’re usually prepacked in ice and watered down to  make a quick buck for a quick meal. But this one was actually decent. The chicken was tender and was put in the most succulent of sauces which had a decent spice whilst also being creamy. It was accompanied by a coconut rice which was seasoned and even had sultanas for a nice, sweet taste. The only thing that lets it down is the portion size. I decided to add a naan bread to mine which was toasted to perfection in the air fryer, and there was enough sauce for me to dip into its container after I had decanted it onto a plate. Even the plastic seemed a decent quality as I like to create a bed of rice to put my curry onto, and the sauce usually drips out of the tray into the rice compartment, but not in this case.

Meet the Gang #watertower 13

There’s some interesting players in this establishment. They’re all dressed smartly in black trousers, white shirts and black ties, and they’re always happy to serve, but it does make them look like undertakers. The landlord is softly spoken with a London accent, and he’s keen to do anything he can to promote his business. He’ll happily invest in anything with open hospitality if he knows the gesture will reach out and generate more sales. He likes to use as many search terms as possible in his publicity to try and got noticed online. His partner is clearly the accountant of the team and never seems to crack a smile. The youngest is also the tallest and he’s built like a bouncer, but he’s always happy and chirpy in his hospitality and it’s amazing how he fits behind the bar. He’s always keen to compliment anyone with a good sense of humour, but he never fails to displease his masters.

Cup or Cone?

I love heading out to the ice cream bar. We’d do it often while on holiday after a meal, particularly if the sundaes weren’t cheap or available and if we were restless after our entrees and wanted to stretch our legs on our way back to our accommodation. Sometimes there’d be a crazy golf course where we could burn off excess energy while our parents watched while sneaking in a drink at a nearby alfresco bar. But there’s an age-old question, and it might even define who you are: cup or cone? I always like to keep on the move, so I always opt for the cone. It’s versatile and you can take a lick while still having a hand free while focusing on your surroundings. You can also eat the vessel without having to worry about disposing your container, except maybe the serviette that you’re given to help keep yourself clean since it’s very messy. However, if you like to stop and savour the flavour, you’d go for the cup. Even though it’s less food (which is why it’s slightly cheaper), you’d want to look for a place to sit rather than take it with you. You might even have the option to dine in. order a second scoop and you know that the server is going to have to stuff the first one deep into the cone.

Alfresco Drinking #watertower 12

There’s a lot to consider when drinking outside, even more so if it’s in an area that you don’t own. But where to sit? You want somewhere that’s nice and clean and not covered in a substance that the cleaner thinks that it will wash away the next time it rains, which could be in a long while. You also want somewhere that’s  level without a wonky table leg that tilts the while thing forward every time someone leans forward to pick up their beer. One careful and ill-timed bounce could cause a spillage across the whole table. You also want somewhere that’s your environment without having to inhale smoke or be drowned out by patrons at other tables. You may also want to see each other, which may mean putting up the parasol rather than peering round it all the time, or removing it all together so that you can stay in the sun, that is, if you’re not blinded by it.

A Hair's Length #empress 19

Zhong lay on the ground panting. A low rumbling of laughter could be heard. The empress had somehow grown and he’d slid out onto a clifftop. He was hanging onto a branch. As he pulled himself up, he realised that it wasn’t a branch but a huge plait of hair. He looked down and realised that the empress’ tunnels had collapsed in on themselves to create a great pit. He wondered if she was trapped. He thought that her current size could wipe out the whole block, let alone his neighbour’s farm. At least he was going to cultivate a very large rice field. He suddenly wondered if he would be in charge or whether he’d now be working for the empress, who’d feed exclusively off his crops. He didn’t like the idea of working for a giantess. Perhaps he ought to return to the city, collect his belongings and flee?

Grandstanding Plastic #watertower 11

I hate these glasses. I recognise that it’s a legal necessity in these times where everything that is touched has to be sprayed if not disposed of to minimise the risk to everything, but it’s still undermining a good old-fashioned clean. It’s a sign of mistrust like the licensee assumes that you can’t be responsible for holding proper vessels and you have to be treated like children, if only to protect the cost of replacing them. If you’re unfamiliar face and you immediately start to head outside then it’s tipped straight in if they haven’t served your drink in one already. Yes it’s safer and there’s no mess to clean up as it all goes in the bin and no-one’s going to get stabbed. And it’s much harder to cause harm to someone because of its weight, though you can still use it to cut  someone if you come at them with the right shape and angle. 

 

Address to a Haggis

I’ve always thought of a haggis as a mixture of blackened mincemeat, onions and pepper. I’ve never pictured it as a little ball on two legs running around the forests of Scotland. It seems quite mythical. So I’m expecting some sort of poetical ode read out similar to something that you’d read out on a cold winter’s night in honour of the Scottish bard, but maybe not in a Scottish accent. And I was right. It’s an honour bestowed above all other foods, a luxury that would make other nationalities shudder at the thought of it. If you don’t like the stuff there’s now a vegetarian version, though it’s also very practical as ammo if you must. I wouldn’t recommend it for building fixtures in this day and age though. The latter half is hard to make sense of since you’d need to understand the meaning of the other Scottish words.

What to Choose? #watertower 10

It’s difficult to make a choice at somewhere that you haven’t been to before with such a big menu and you’re not sure if you’ll be back again. It all sounds simple yet there’s plenty of interesting ingredients. There was also  a lack of menus and as they hadn’t printed disposable paper ones I found it easier to take a photo of the wall-mounted one to share with the group. How often do they change it? It must cost a fortune in printing, but you’ve also got to think about the current situation and how it will be served. In the end I think we settled for cobs with a side of chips. It might have been all that was available at the time. It’s a shame that we couldn’t go back to try the full menu. Perhaps it should have been covered over. Maybe it’s a sign of things to come.

Mr Bates Vs The Post Office

This was a very emotional drama. The worst thing was that it was real and that people have actually suffered, and that it took a mainstream audience to demand action, of which a lot of it came too late. I loved Knight’s cynical attitude to the situation, but he wasn’t a character that you could warm to. Instead there was Jo, even though she was a bit naïve. But you could tell from the start that something was going on when it was the same auditors pulling into the Post Office stating that ‘you’re the only one’. When it came to the court cases and procedures, things got a bit hard to follow other than the reactions from the subpostmasters. Yet as it drew to a conclusion, Bates seemed to distance himself from the proceedings and didn’t want anything to do with the finale. Perhaps he was representing the ongoing situation.

Just Bloomin #watertower 9

It’s the oldies section of the park. It’s an area that they haven’t got to move far from the entrance yet it’s sheltered away from the rest of the hustle and bustle. The hedges are strategically placed to be in both the sun and the shade, and they’re placed at different angles for different times of the day. And it’s sociable so there’s a chance of meeting similar people there too to pick flowers, plant seeds, or trim the edge, though the council probably works quite hard to keep it all maintained or pays a subsidy to the local Rotary Club who have their community house just behind it. The path is well worn as if a few laps have been taken, and probably needs to be re-laid every season. Only toddlers are excused from stepping on the grass, and even they might be subject to a telling-off. I wonder if they plant different plants across the seasons.

Shell without the Bomb

She’s blonde and cute with petite short hair with the small height to match. If it’s long enough, she’ll tie it into a ponytail. She likes to keep fit by playing sport. At times she’s the ultimate blonde, but she’s not afraid to ask questions to find out more, even if it embarrasses her slightly. She has a few freckles around her cheeks and a pair of thick glasses which gives her an intellectual look. There’s some small perky lady lumps in just the right place to keep things interesting, with a small but curvy tight behind that’s mostly encased in jeans. She likes to keep herself wrapped up tight and isn’t keen to leave anything on show. She likes conversation but doesn’t like to initiate it often and likes to keep things quiet and polite without drawing attention to herself. She likes to keep things girly like a horny teenager.

Flow of Life #watertower 8

I wonder if the individual squares represent different trades of the town. It’s not good for the tree. It’s ironic that someone’s destroyed nature to create art which represents nature, though it’s probably cheaper than piping in a fountain or employing a man to pour water out of a bucket all day long. They might have had trouble in finding someone who was toned the same. I suppose they had to give him trousers otherwise people would think that he might me doing something else. I suppose it could also be a bucket full of ropes. Hopefully the tree was rotten or dangerous and had to be pulled down anyway. I’d like to think it’d be there the next time we visit without being painted or vandalised. Or maybe a new sculpture would be put in its place. They could even make an exhibition, although more trees would have to be cut down.

Assembling Marvel #dreamdiary 171

I’m in the cinema with my friend. We’re watching the latest Marvel film. It opens with a character attempting to open a giant door alongside another character. Everyone should know how the door opens since it’s in the first scene of the very first film but everyone seems to have forgotten this, including the lead character. The sequence is completed successfully but Thor reveals himself to be trapped and bound inside the bolt mechanism while stuck in another dimension. My friend asks me how he ended up there. Luckily, there’s no-one else in the cinema so I have no problem answering him that I haven’t seen the latest Thor movie. Above us, Thanos arrives at Earth in his ship. We suddenly need to work out which character is aligned to who before things get too complicated. Then Loki arrives and he’s managed to summon from Mjolnir his vault to free Thor.

A Deviant Decoy #watertower 8 #sherduck 14

Buttons would wonder how that would work. Perhaps with a stick and a piece of fishing wire he could conjure up a floating bottle by attaching it to his  deerstalker. But most likely it would cause him to fly straight into a wall. But Sherduck was already off as the laughs rang out from the retirement party. Perhaps embarrassment had already got the better of him and he was seeking a shelter to sleep everything off and deny everything in the morning…

…Sherduck stormed down the corridor. He’d already pickpocketed one of the other technician’s keys much earlier, but he’d had to put on a show to prove to everyone that it wasn’t his fault that someone had left their key in the lock. Hopefully he’d be in and out before the morning watch cottoned onto the fact that he’d broken protocol yet gain, though he must remember to tidy up better this time. 

"You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

-Steve Jobs.

There’s something that you’d love to rely on every time, but other factors often prevent them from happening. A train could be halted by strike action, civil unrest, power failure or the weather. But you need to find something that makes you tick and wills you to keep going whatever the circumstances. It’s those thoughts which inspire you to add a little bit more to your activity. It’s a comfort that everything will be all right or things will get better. It could be something as little as starting fresh the next day, but you do need to make sure you get some rest to prepare yourself for it. And there’ll be no school of thought that’ll make you invincible. Everyone gets defeated by something. The key is to learn to accept it and discover how you can do better should the situation arise again. Learn when you should give up, but keep going when you can.

Too Much Water #watertower 7 #sherduck 13

‘Well, of course they’d be connected’ said Sherduck, ‘but if the butt did belong to the victim then it would close things quite rapidly and wouldn’t give us much of a lead.’

The night got later. The retirement party was starting to stagger, and even the barduck had started to yawn. The technician team had already been and gone to get their drinks in, briefly and curtly announcing to Sherduck that they’d set up the database the best they’d could and they’ve left the computers running to search for matches. Sherduck asked for the key to the tech room but they didn’t trust him to go in there without alcohol. There then followed an amusing incident where Sherduck drunkenly attempted to pickpocket the key out of the technician’s pocket but ended up falling off his bar stool, at which point the barduck thought it would be an excellent excuse to ask them to leave.

Dad or Pops?

It sounds a bit dodgy. It’s not a pet name if someone else is using it. It’s almost as if there’s a sugar daddy involved. Surely you’d know if you’re ringing your own daughter and alarm bells would be ringing if you weren’t. It’s more of a grandfather name than a father. And if you don’t know who the term is being referred to then you really should be concerned. Is there something going on? Do we need to read between the lines to work out what’s happening? Wouldn’t you be concerned, especially if a racism card is thrown and you’re the opposite colour? There’s a right not to intervene but there’s also concerns for morality, welfare and well-being. Surely you’re going to realise that something is up? There might be an element of insecurity involved but it’s better to act to protect before something harmful happens and there’s a lot more trouble that needs investigating.