cochyn

Ah, you're both test-tube babies?

In the women's bog of a gay bar in Canterbury. I was new there (the bar - and the bog I suppose), so followed this big baldy lad in dungarees to the traps, as he looked like he new where he was going. He wasn't a 'he', turns out.. I wondered why those traps were like a Givenchy dressing room compared to the piss-soaked hell-hole that was most lads' traps in the '90s. The penny dropped when she turned around explained to me that she was in fact a lady. Took a while.

Lethal Weapon (1-4)

My brain literally falls out of my head when presented with any sort of drum; I just turn into a fucking ape trying to open a coconut with a rock.

I've been dicking about with sim racing over lockdown. Fuck me. I've got to say I've a respect for actual pro racing drivers. I've spent ages at it and got 'OK' at it, to the stage where I'm using a few tricks and hanging on for dear life to get mediocre lap times. But looking at the times these guys post on death-defying tracks like the Nurburgring and Spa, you're left wondering how it's physically possible to hustle a ton of steel that fast. It amazes me how anyone can blat around at 150mph driving constantly at 10/10ths mere inches off the back of an opponent's bumper for lap after lap, hour after hour. Beyond the physical demands, there's a very different brain chemistry going on there.

I'm sure you've tried this: but have you dismantled the sink waste pipes & traps beneath the plug fitting? Might enable you to get closer to the main blockage and check there isn't a smaller blockage in the trap itself?

Love the factoid that released version of Strawberry Fields is actually two different takes spliced together. Both were recorded using different keys and tempos. George Martin had to slow one half of the recording and speed up the other so they matched as closely as possible.

Have you tried switching it off and on again?

That's really interesting. I'll be honest; I always thought the 'scouse' mentality was borne from the city's history as a port, and therefore people were more accepting of external influence and cultures. There's an inherent pluralism to it which underpins the scouse culture (in my view - maybe I'm romanticising)? Whereas I see this 'northern independence' as the opposite of that: It's about carving out a fictional identity that doesn't actually exist anymore - if it ever did? I think in any post-industrial region there is a natural potential for blaming the government (or the powers that be) as the bogey-man responsible for their predicament. When to a larger degree, it's global capitalism that is the root cause - in Liverpool's case containerisation and the shift in trade from North America to Europe in the last 80 years, followed by a shrinking planet enabling cheaper labour forces abroad. Factors beyond the control of any national government.

It's fucking horseshit alright: Up here in Yorkshire we've had the 'Yorkshire First' party for donkey's years. They're lucky to get over 60 votes in a constituency of 30,000. There is, and will never be a credible grass-roots public mandate for this kind of arbitrary micro geo-political division and. well lets just call it what it is: populist regionalism. I've long believed in the aphorism that nationalism is the last refuge of the scoundrel and regionalism is no different. I'll bet a pound to a penny that this regionalism has been devised and propagated by a bunch of utter gammons who - as you say, are their own local political elite who just want more of the political pie for themselves. They get a fucking hard-on when thinking they can 'smash the system' and 'go our own way' and now emboldened by Brexit see how the masses can be manipulated to follow their dogma. Unity and co-operation regardless of borders and culture is always the answer and a key driver for prosperity my view. These cunts can go fuck themselves.

@rb14 They're both going to have to learn: love us, love our frivolous stuff collectable assets.

Now that is a red letter email. Congrats. Just asked Ms. cochyn if we can have one in the house. She said yes! It can go in the attic extension. Which we don't have...

Best shitter I ever used was basically a hole in the floor in an Istanbul bar. It was a toilet, but one of those ones built into the floor with a pair of foot rests and nought but a jug of water and a towel to finish off. I’ll tell you now, I felt truly purged, cleansed and reinvigorated after it. It’s all about posture when you poo: get your arse as close to the ground as possible and you’ll have no earthly need for fancy whiz bangs that mechanically douche and dry your rusty bullet-hole. You’ll even start to wonder why anyone bothers with Thomas crappers flawed invention at all.

Four pages in and no mention of Zardoz? Went to see Synectoche, New York with some colleagues when it came out. Half the group thought is was amazing, the other half felt they'd been robbed of 2 hours of their lives watching indulgent shite. The second group were right.

Nah mate that's a regular 12" pizza, two 500ml bottles of coke and two fat Wigan toddlers.

I'm sure their bank balances will help them get over this. Until they orchestrate the next constitutional crisis cash-cow. Fuck 'em, and the Rolls they rode in on.

Haha! Nice one. Followed.

Interesting. #3 was designed by a composer/ conductor who had a bit of clout with the judges and Aus government, so thought he'd 'have a go' at it: Jesus wept... it looks like a grain silo. To be fair, I bet most most of these could gave been delivered close to the $3m budget. Whereas Utzon's ended up costing $104m. Get what you pay for, eh?

It's not so much the Planning organisation (though it is deeply flawed), it's councilors and other elected members getting the casting vote on schemes at planning meetings. Imagine training for seven years as a designer, and after years of experience, working collaboratively with a wide range of specialists for months on a scheme. Only to have it decided upon my a bunch of gossipping florists, soap-box tory boys (with a few eco-warriors thrown in the mix), all with no technical or design knowledge. It's genuinely like having your degree dissertation being marked by nervous but angry five year olds.

Bowie & Bowie for me too. His two best albums IMHO, Hunky Dory being the standout. I love Hendrix, but I find his albums a bit overwrought and too polished in places.

Ah, so is this what's driving the crypto market - disguising capital flight from China?: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currency-china/chinas-furtive-bitcoin-trade-heats-up-again-worrying-regulators-idUSKCN2AT201?il=0 Makes sense since the PRC are cracking down on Hong Kong - traditionally the bagman's transit point for squirrelling cold hard cash out of the country.

Shit. Just make up your own crypto to cover your loses.

Whichever sold the most copies.

The office pool car is keyless entry and keyless go. First time I used it, I pulled up at B&Q and got out expecting it to do all that switching off and locking by itself. After all, it had unlocked itself and started without me doing much. Came back after 20 minutes in the shop: car door was still unlocked and the engine had been running all that time. I couldn't even find the handbrake.

Haha. Got my copy from Chester market, mate. The photocopied cover is getting hard to read.