NOTA'S Sleep Thread

[none of the above]

Heh... the old sunbather...

So I should just go out wearing a couple of shells (not that they show up much on this pic) and a tail? Is there a special pond for aquatic viewers too, blooming hell the Queen thinks of everything.

I'll get freckles...

[Man-Erg]

I forgot you will need a hat too!

[none of the above]

Of course.


Meh, mobile interwebs is bollox atm... off where we are allowed to go on work PC.

[none of the above]

Ahh, Junior Q was visiting this evening and has learned more of the wisdom of Process Capability in his ongoing occasional engineering apprentice homework. Very good... I still keep in contact with his real boss (not that spangle SirQ) to see he's doing OK.


So, today in my happy morning at work the talk turned to pie makers. I had no idea these things existed until someone posted a link to one on G+... blimey, it's like a toasted sandwich maker but it does pies instead... excellent.
At one point there were three people in my office all with a laptop pointed at various sites selling these items, the funniest one was a "Pop Pie Maker" which does six pies on sticks like lollies.
I imagine though like the millions of toasted sandwich makers lurking in backs of cupboards in the world it's a product that is full of novelty value and will never be one of those things that gets worn out.

And no I do not want a repeat of the coffee maker situation, you know who you are.


The Baron has been away a week now and I have taken on a massive task with the latest digi art series. People have suggested so many subjects on the theme that I've had to spend a lot of time reading up... the more I read the more things I want to do. It's a never ending cycle... I have to stop reading a start doing more.


I have just had a mail for a Hawkwind gig in London... hmmm, Focus?? They still going...?
Not the shop, they went long ago.


*wanders off to see about prices*

[none of the above]

So, back in the happy normal world I have been locating tickets for a mate and his people to get into that Carfest thing. Having seen the prices I'm not surprised tbh, that ginger twit Evans was spouting off about it though on the radio this morning I heard on the grapevine.
I was asked, and I had a good think (difficult but possible) a few calls and I found a way surprisingly. It's probably a decent weekend out but personally I think it's a bit overblown as an event if you had to pay full price.


It was bus driver chum JimtheCrazyman's birthday today... and now, like the Icelandic international man of mystery and comedian (just how many other pics has he managed to squirrel away ) forty eight. I got him a box of his fave Seabrook Wasabi crisps... twenty four packs of spicy excellence. Possibly not a good idea as I was on the phone to his OH (my brother's OH's sister ) and she says he's on a diet. Oops...


Had a bit of an on-line discussion today about Ai Weiwei’s exhibit “Sunflower Seeds” which was recently bought by the Tate... I'm not the biggest fan of this sort of thing but I managed to find someone that finds it one of the most important works ever made. Heh heh, cue a whole day of ever increasing miffedness... I posted a pic of a pack of mustard seeds as my last comment. This is probably going to rumble on a while.


I listened to the most excellent new album earlier, I see my review tally is well over a thousand now. I could get a job on one of those formulaic "talent" spotting TV programs that keep the peeps happy at this rate. Fortunately the viewers would just be those that have no Bieber records about their person...

[none of the above]

Ahh, night work... I remember doing that when I was young.


Anyway, one can tell I was out doing stuff (top secret) this morning as there's a whiff of comedian knocking about on here... offering to sex chicks (chickens not women, they come to sex him), poking about in wee threads, getting dramatic over something I can barely remember and writing daft poems. There you see, that's the sort of stuff some of us have to put up with every day. Thankfully the corporate machine grinds into action after one pm when the high flyers have had their lunch... us part timers are wandering off home soon after that, ace...


The premise of my own working life is a long and convoluted tale, but suffice to say though I decided I would retire early a long time ago and that was really the catalyst to spur me out of the well of crap I dwelled in then I was also subsequently struck by a couple of things I had read...

Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remainder sliver of your life in modest comfort. You may never reach that end anyway.

Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play. Find something you enjoy doing. Do it. Over and over again. You will become good at it for two reasons: you like it, and you do it often. Soon, that will have value in itself.
Adrian Tan

Today as always, men fall into two groups: slaves and free men. Whoever does not have two-thirds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be: a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar.
Friedrich Nietzsche

So, to cut a long story short (bath getting cold now ) having taken these quotes to heart I have managed to gather all that into a real life working routine... I would explain at great and no doubt tedious length but it's nearly time for kip.



Heh, I have been playing on-line chess with the far away Baron (that cybering nonsense never occurs to us ) and I think my trusty old electronic chess game machine I'm using just to know where all the pieces are appears to have been switched on at some point by accident somehow, accidentally and completely by accident in an accidental fashion.

I've gone from playing like DogOfNOTA to recreating some classic moves by Kasparov... oh well.

[none of the above]

Well... I would write some stuff here as it's been an eventful day indeed but unfortunately I've typed out a load of waffle which has gone on my usual site but I can't copy it here as there's too much info to be suitable for this particular board... much as I used to like it I find the atmosphere now far less appealing here tbh. I have little time for that...


Anyway, I had an exceedingly amusing day and I might waffle on a bit tomorrow (later) once I have a spare mo. Seeing a chap about some chickens and going to pick up a stone birdbath (not the one I'm getting out of now ) with a mate... swapped for a painting of an osprey holding a fish.
I may have to re-name Castle NOTA as Swapshop Towers... it's all good.

[none of the above]

There's been an outbreak of bizarre invitations on another site... as long as you're a female that is. Most amusing... as are the replies, feisty is the motto there.


So... a day of food (is that Capt. Obvious I see there), unusual vegetables, a wayward hen and a birdbath... oh and some more solar lights.

Blimey it's later than I thought, I've been busy. Anyway I hauled a mate out to go and see some hens this morning, these belong to someone I know nearby that posts on a gardening forum. I wasn't buying (if that happens there will be, as my dad would say... ructions ) but just invited over to look and ask stuff, plus it's nice to see on-line chums. As I was passing through with an osprey painting after they had a bit of a look I've managed to get lumbered with doing a cockerel portrait somehow.


Then it was onto picking up the stone birdbath. It is not one solid piece thankfully but even in bits it's only just manageable. This is where the inappropriate cucumber made an appearance in the day but modesty forbids me to go into detail, plus the owner of said cucumber would perish from the reflected glow from their own face... suffice to say if I wasn't one for doing all those "exercises" (heh, get a chuff with a grip like a blacksmith) then I would in fact have pissed myself laughing.


Awww... must go... just writing that has brought tears to my eyes...

[none of the above]

Hurrah, St George's day... a day for digging out those dodgy old footy flags and stuffing them on the windows of your car to flop in the drizzle. How English is that...



So, it's also the official Shakespeare birthday (or when he went up to the theatre in the sky)... so a busy day for those that are big fans of the bard. Namely SirQ, who it seems spent the whole morning thinking up more replies for the "Insult the person above in a Shakespeare styleee" thread.


Ahh, it makes me chortle... is there anything I write on-line that isn't seen by people I actually know?? Really real life real peeps no less... have a little ponder about that thread readers...



I got a proper letter today, well I had two but one is an early birthday card from one of my aunts as they're going on hols soon. Usually all I get is complaints from the council (blah pay blah ten months blah not twelve blah whinge) and hopeful questions from Anglian Water as to when it would be convenient for me to pay them, when I'm in a sodding bill paying mood is the answer.
Anyway, I look into the other letter and it's from Ponceyshire... a hand written invitation to go out for a nice meal, dress code top hat & tails and from a certain Major Bloodnok.

Why my dad can't just phone up like normal people I don't know.


I need names... names for two hens. I shall start an appropriate post tomorrow and see what the rest of the astro geeks can come up with. I have had a single suggestion already but John seems a bit of a rubbish name for a chicken.



Top tip... wander down to the supermarket at around six pm on a Saturday and pick up wads of nice organic bread for 30p a loaf.

[Joyofsox]

I need names... names for two hens.

Sage and Onion.

[none of the above]

Bad Soxy... but still, no worse than some of the suggestions so far. Of which there are many... forget how many people I can reach sometimes. I will have to have a think.



So, up in the sky somewhere heading for Spain of all places is the happy wanderer known as Baron von Wonka (not by his mum though). I love those on-line trackers so you can see where everything is in real time, boats/planes/satellites... not that he's on a satellite I suppose. That would be ace though... what would be even better is to be able to steer the plane from here too.


Blimey, all afternoon I've had a chum yakking on the phone about how she's split up with her chap, blah... I told her ages ago he was a wingnut but she wouldn't listen (I am the plain speaking mate). What it does do is leave me to eye up the vast array of second hand chaps I know and point one or two in her direction. Also this age is of pre-owned ones that normally come with ready made anklebiters so no effort required, she'll be hooked up in no time.
As is the way with these things one stays away from the weird t**** on the net and all is good.


Been chatting with an amusing person in Australia about solar ovens... I've no idea if they would work here but it sounds a good thing. Obviously in UK it would mean not having any dinner for weeks on end but I'm sure it might work once in a while.


Had some tickets for the Tate Modern for an exhibition in June so I have gathered some happy volunteers, mainly my fellow BA course students... good for a day out hopefully. It better be sunny by then, this "drought" is getting on my tits...

[H. Franklin Layne]

Sweet dreams, NOTA!

[Man-Erg]

I need names... names for two hens.

Sage and Onion.

My suggestion of Korma and Tikka was met with quite unladylike language!

[none of the above]

I need names... names for two hens.

Sage and Onion.

My suggestion of Korma and Tikka was met with quite unladylike language!

I want nice names...

[Man-Erg]

I need names... names for two hens.

Sage and Onion.

My suggestion of Korma and Tikka was met with quite unladylike language!

I want nice names...

You like a curry though.