foolfillment: the blog

When I’m Sixty-Four I reserve the right to be grumpy like a teeneager, as I do for tomorrow when I turn 20.

I’ve never been very good at birthday’s. Most people seem to place great importance on them, ‘oh no, I’m a year older than I was yesterday’, well, no you’re not, you’re a day older. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy them and all of the things they bring, but in the same way I enjoy going away on holiday, they make a nice change for the day but things will still be the same the following day. There are exceptions of course, like turning 17 and being able to drive, but even turning 18 wasn’t much of an excitement, it just meant that if I was going to be thrown out of pubs they’d have to think up a new reason.

It was different when I was younger, the whole day people were going to have to be nice to me, I’d get whatever I wanted for dinner, maybe a lift to and from school. And presents too, and lots of chocolate.

Latterly though I’ve found it hard to get excited about them. Tomorrow morning I’ll no longer be a teenager but I’ll still be exactly the same person I am right now, except I’ll maybe need to shave again. The bit I am excited about is this weekend, my birthday gives me a reason to go home and see all of my family and that doesn’t happen that often so it’s something to really look forward to.

Birthday’s are good in that they give you a reason to be cheerful but the things themselves aren’t that special.
Apart from the presents, they’re good, I liked almost not being able to get in to my flat when I got home today because of all the post behind the door.
Oh, and the drinks, if anyone sees me in the west end on Thursday night feel free to buy me one.

BBC NEWS | Legendary radio DJ John Peel dies

I only ever listened occasionally but he will be missed, seemed like such a warm and friendly person and responsible for so much.

eBay 2 invitations to a wedding I don’t want to go to

Update: Well that took a turn I wasn’t expecting.

Most of you have hit the nail on the head, you know. I still love the old dog, despite what she did to me. And, thanks to the Colchester Massiv’s “Honk if you’re Twinklydog’s Dog” campaign, she got in touch this morning and we’ve had a good chat. It’s a bit of a gamble, but I’m going to pull the auction, go to Aberdeen and see whether she’ll put a stop to this sham of a wedding and marry me instead. Hope you understand. The cab’s outside, I’ve got to go.

twinklydog.net might tell more in time

ugh

One competitive away win, two years ago.

I got this in an email from my Dad today I thought I’d share it with you:

The builder starts on big bruv’s loft on Monday so I spent yesterday morning
re-positioning the pipes away from where the new stairs are going. Also
removed the power socket from the wall that is being knocked down ….. but,
in doing so, trapped their cat under the floorboards until they got home
later at night.

A bit of a shame, he’s ok now I trust?

Well today I recieved a letter from the debt collectors! Apparenly o2 are looking to take money from me for no apparant reason, thieves! The woman on the phone fom the debt collectors pretty much said so too. Following months of them taking money they said they wouldn’t and failing to give it back, as they had promised, I cut my losses and left. My last bill from them was a credit to me, which incidentally never turned up…

Even though I’m no longer a customer I’m forced to carry on fighting with them.

Scotsman.com Sport - Top Stories - Last-chance saloon
BBC SPORT | Football | Internationals | McQueen leads quit calls
BBC SPORT | Football | Internationals | End is nigh for Vogts
BBC 1 Scotland | Moldova vs Scotland | Wednesday 13th October

With a bit of work needing done by Monday it is of course time to start tweaking around here again. I’ve finally got round to changing the recent comments list over there ad I’m thinking aboiut writing another stylesheet seeing as Firefox makes it so easy to use alternatives. More importantly though I’m waiting for Norway to score.

and lots of them. Good for beating off fresher’s flu you see. Every new term without fail I feel bunged up with rubbish germs. It wouldn’t bee so bad but it’s never a proper cold or illness, just enough to make me struggle to concentrate and make me cough and sniffle but not really enough to justify taking a day off. Bah!

However things to cheer me up:

• the man from orange trying to say Sauchiehall Street (I should have known he’d struggle as soon as he said Saint Ehnock Centre)
• The new album by the Delgados
• That I’m going to see the Delgados on Saturday

Your ideas not forthcoming, some answers : Triberg was the town we stayed in, it is the home of Germany’s highest waterfalls and we couldn’t get out of the train because the doors were (of course) locked.

We spent one night in Triberg then braved the trains again and made our way to Furtwangen where we found out that the bus we wanted to get didn’t run that day! Enough to make a man weep, but I didn’t though, I was just really grumpy untill we scrounged a lift from some nice lady who was in the tourist information office. Eventually we made it to Gasthaus Michelhof and set up camp for the next few days. After all our troubles with prison style trains and elusive youth hostels and disappearing buses we decided the best course of action was to not move untill we had somewhere firmly booked to go to. We read and did puzzles from the magnificent Puzzler magazine (an inspired purchase that kept us sane, I can naturally take the credit for buying that one) and were made comfortable by other overly generous campers.

Now, because nobody won last time, the prize rolls over. The person who answers this question correctly wins a romantic trip for two on the Paris Metro, what could be lovlier? That’s not the question by the way, this is: What is the correct response, when you are sitting eating cheese sandwiches with your girlfriend in a tent in Germany and a sweet old lady comes over to your tent, deposits EURO10, squeezes your girlfriend’s cheek says something beyond your comprehension of the german language and trots off back to the restaurant?