Drumming on a bit

I had a grin wider than my face when we donned our 'Working Men and Women' outfits again yesterday.  A big song and dance at St Pancras with us, the Pandemonium Drummers and even some Gamesmakers to raise funds for Mo Farrah's Foundation.

Oh no...the office party...

Do you bank with Lloyds TSB?  Have you had one of these?  It's the second one I've had in the space of a fortnight...and I've had plenty before.  To save you the bother of reading it, I'll just say that it's a letter that explains they've had trouble reaching me, and would I get in touch.  They're easy to ignore, and easy to chuck in the bin.

But for me they're quite important.  Because they mark the bank out as liars.  When I've questioned why they have not been able to get hold of me, they've not been able to explain.  In fact it's fair to say, they're just about the only organisation that can't get hold of me.  And I know exactly who I've had missed calls from...mobile phones are wonderful data recorders.

So there are only two possible answers.  Either the bank are ringing the wrong number which makes them stupid, because they have been given the right number plenty of times before, or they're lying and they have not tried to contact me and they're just trying to make me pay for their tele-marketing activity.  What do you think?

So yesterday we were all sat around in the office with most of our clothes removed.  

It was the day of the office party.

Actually the two events are unrelated.  As these things do, the heating thermostat had chosen to break just before Christmas, with the result that we felt the heat.  It wasn't until the temperature reached 26 degrees and sweat was dripping off our foreheads that we realised something was wrong.  The only solution was to switch the whole thing off.

Fortunately, Christmas lunch started shortly afterwards, so we were able to make merry elsewhere....and problems like that can wait until the New Year before they get sorted

It's OK to hit a woman (I'm joking)

There is triumph in the house, which is better than a Triumph in the house (that's a car joke).

The Boy was awarded 'colours' for his part in The Edinburgh Fringe...an award well deserved.  The Cat has passed her driving test...first time -she will be driving The Cat's Mother's Yaris, we don't own a Triumph.
Last night The Opening Ceremony was voted "Most inspiring TV moment ever"...which is a relief because it could have been Anna Friel's lesbian kiss in Brookside.  Here's the article.

I'm reprising my performance in my costume at the OOC with some others including The Pandemonium Drummers tomorrow evening at St Pancras between 7 and 9 pm.  If you're passing, do give us a wave...and chuck some money at us as we're raising money for the Mo Farah foundation and NUPAC for kids who have been abused.

Last night I met up with a group of fellow OOC performers - I hadn't been able to go to the event organised by our small group, so this one was full of people I hardly knew or recognised.  That didn't stop us all having lots to say to each other...a common bond has been formed..I feel we will be able to do this far into the future...what a wonderful thing that is.  I also discovered that one of the performers was the Falkland Islands Harbour Master, so I guess the Argentinians missed an invasion opportunity this summer.

The other night we were watching the BBC's Top 50 Olympic moments.  It was full of wonderful moments, and some rather sorry commentary from celebs including Jimmy Carr.  At the point the Beeb showed Nicola Adams who won Boxing Gold - the first woman to do so, Jimmy popped up and said it reminded him that "Sometimes it's OK to hit a woman".  It's a sign of the times that he then paused and added..."I'm joking".  Well obviously he was joking...it wouldn't have been funny if he was being serious.  Should he have joked about it...well in my mind absolutely yes, because the joke itself reinforces that it's wrong to hit a woman (or anyone come to that).  I laughed, as did The Cat's Mother.  By unfortunate coincidence as I rolled over in my sleep last night, arms flailing around I managed to clobber The Cat's Mother in the face.

Complete accident. Honest. Not funny.

We should be told

Did anyone else see The Killing?  Those Nordics are an odd bunch, but they do make great TV.  I was so completely engrossed that the only time I noticed there were sub-titles was when I looked away from the screen and thought I'd gone deaf.

Apart from a few absurdities (it never does to think too much about these things) it was a great programme, and it's just a shame we've only discovered it in the third and final series.

I've been so all over the place that I've forgotten what I've written up, and what I haven't.  If you like Steven Sondheim, go and see Merrily we roll along, which is both quite sad and poignant, and fun at the same time.

If you're employed, you may like to know that the notice that your employer has to give you for redundancy has been reduced from 90 to 45 days.  According to the Government this is something that workers will be pleased about.  Yep we all want to rush into being made unemployed when there are no jobs around.

I had to miss one of the Olympic get togethers because it clashed with the last ever School Carol Concert that we would attend.  I love a good Carol Concert, and love to join in.  Once before at a different one, my girlfriend got slapped round the head by a government minister for joining in...these days, that would be front page headlines, and the man would be in court, resigned and shamed.  This time, UP told me off for joining in, but that may have been because I was doing 'yeehas' as the choir did what seemed to be a country and western version of the holly and the ivy...

...The Boy was in disgrace.  It had been the rugby team dinner the night before, and true to tradition, 40 or so of them streaked up the high road.  The Deputy Head Master was not amused, the rugby trip to Wales was cancelled, and all were threatened with losing their School Colours (award).  And there we have it...a clash between tradition and the modern world.  I think the school vastly over-reacted, I think the boys should have adapted their tradition so they streaked inside the school rather than outside.  And I giggled behind my hands.

I woke up to a Facebook message this morning to find that one of my oldest friends had died...cancer got her.  When I say she was one of my oldest friends, I had known her for thirty years, but hadn't spoken for a long time after a misunderstanding.  Much as I had tried to reconnect with her, it hadn't happened, but she had remained one of the people that I had retained deep feelings for.  So two lessons learned...be careful with your friendships for they are precious, and secondly we all grow up expecting that we and our friends will live to a ripe old age...and many won't.  If only I'd been told both those things when I was young and full of fire.

Time passing

A bit stretched for time at the moment...but there's always time for a good YouTube video...an oldie, but a goldie