Snap!

The weather is wonderful, it's Queeny's 80th birthday and the fly-by in her honour went over my house on it's way. This had never happened before, so I was a bit caught off guard and scrambled to find my camera.

Where the hell is it???!!! I missed the first wave, found my fricking camera, caught the second and third and that looked like it until after an unexpected delay the Red Arrows turned up. So I didn't get that on camera either *sigh*

Walked down to Shepherd's Bush expecting to catch a train into London only to find that the Central Line wasn't running this weekend. Damn! I'd forgotten about that! So with the help of essential Snapple replenishment I carried on walking up to Notting Hill and into Hyde Park to chill out in the shade under a tree and grab a sandwich. *phew*

There's a lot going on in London today. The Foo Fighters were on in Hyde Park. The tickets still hadn't sold out and the queue for the box office was phenomenal. There's a West End Live event going on in Leicester Square this weekend with casts of London shows performing out in the open.


Also going on was a London Motor show promotion. I took a few pics of an MTV Pimp My Ride UK promotional car being shown off, the minis from the Italian Job, and even the Pink Panther's car!

Then off to Trafalgar Square where a big Sri Lanka food, dance and music event was going on...

Blimey! And boy is the weather just perfect for all of it!

I just LOVE London when it's buzzing like this!!!

Not all was quite hunky dory though.

I got home, dumped my stuff off and popped out to do some grocery shopping. But the key snagged in my front door and after I pulled it out it snapped in two!!!

What the f***!!!!! I looked at my front door key, now in two pieces.

At least it hadn't broken off in the lock. Then I would really be screwed!

So a five minute trip to the local supermarket turned into a ninety minute round-trip back into London (from where I had just come), to get the spare set of keys that I have at work and then back home...

Whatever next!? Nothing, I hope.

Fingers and toes crossed...

They're back.....though not for long.

So there I was earlier on in the week, in my bathroom, just changed, getting ready for work.

I pulled the plug out and grabbed the spongy scrubber thing that I use to wipe down the bath after I use it. (No nasty rings around my bath, don't you know!)

It was in my hand when I noticed that something was crawling on it. Instinctively I dropped it. It bounced off the edge off the bathtub and plopped into the water.

Where it had bounced, and all around the edge of the tub there were now dozens of fricking ants!

They were back :(

Where the sponge has landed, in the water, there was now an expanding circle of dark, frantically squirming but thankfully drowning nastiness.

Ergh!

I use the sponge every day, so in just 24 hours a whole colony of ants had moved into it!

I grabbed the shower head and aimed it at the ants on the edge of the bath, taking great pleasure in blasting them into the bathtub proper.....to drown. Ha!

The last of the water drained down the plug hole. I peered in at the damage done.
There must have been about a hundred waterlogged ants and result!, three large queen ants!

"Get away from my flat....you bitches!" (crap rewording of Aliens classic line) I said as I aimed my shower head at them and flushed them down to their doom.I then chucked a load of bleach onto the sponge and down the plughole (just to make sure.)

And you know what? Since then, for the past few days, no more ants! Fingers crossed that they won't come back...Though I wouldn't bet against it...

PS: I thought about getting some cool drowning ant pictures (as there were such an amazingly large amount in such a small place) but I'd rather the memory just fades away.

Hell is cooler than my flat

So I spent Wednesday to Friday feeling sick with a high temperature. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that we are now going through a freaking HEATWAVE!

So there's me in my flat and the temperature is at 29 degrees C and I'm thinking "Why me?!"

A friend managed to drag me out on Saturday evening where after a few cans on lager chilling out down by the river in Richmond, I started to feel better.

Now why hadn't I thought of that earlier?!

We watched a pissed old man think really long and hard about whether or not he would jump into the river to retrieve a football he'd been kicking around. Everyone around us was silently willing him to do it but our collective telepathic powers were, unfortunately, no match for his sense of self preservation.

On Sunday I tested my recuperative powers by walking down to Holland Park, hopping on a train to Titanium Court Road and then walking back to Shepherd's Bush (bush bush bush). I got a bit hot but managed to get back in one piece. The streets were quiet and the parks full. Even the pubs were steaming full with people watching the World Cup.

So I dragged myself into work today and despite flagging a bit near the end of the day, I survived. Got my barnet chopped in the evening (which, let's be honest, doesn't take long for me) , did the much needed food shopping that I had been putting off all of last week (no more pot noodles for me!) and then watched the footie in the evening after a refreshing shower.

PS: Was only joking about the pot noodles. I'm not THAT desperate!

It's a scorcher! And something big starts today...

Fire!

Summer has arrived and I am off sick with a freaking cold!
I'm all bunged up with a lovely runny nose, sore throat and high temperature. I'm not sure how effective staying at home is either, as the thermometer in my flat tells me that it's 26 degrees C!

Anyway, so it's quite hard to sleep at night but there I was last night just nodding off in the early hours when I heard a loud bang followed by the sound of breaking glass.
"It'll just be the kids off the local estate setting off fireworks," I thought to myself but then there was a strange, unfamiliar crackling noise too.

I looked out the window and.... "Bloody Hell!", there's a fire outside the building opposite.
It didn't look too large but they all start small don't they and it was generating a plume of smoke. So I looked for my phone to ring 999 but then could hear through my open window that a few hours where already doing so. Either they've all got woken up or I'm not the only insomniac in the block tonight.

Sure enough, far off in the distance I can hear the sound of a siren, though this isn't a rare thing as both my local police and fire station are within two blocks.

Whilst waiting for the local fire fighters to arrive I spotted someone down below, seemingly out for a stroll. They were creeping up to the fire to get a closer look. Next thing I know, they've gone around the corner, come back and chucked some liquid over it.

Okay, now this could either be a clever, or very stupid thing to do...

The fire did seem to flare briefly when they did this. If they'd been a local drunk chucking their can of beer over it then things wouldn't have gone well, but lo and behold, it must have been water, the fire fizzled out.

And just then the fire brigade arrived, inspected the ex-fire, reversed and drove off!

All the excitement did the trick for me, as in so far as I can remember, I fell asleep straight after this.

Alleluiah! Summer is here...

So, unlike last weekend when I was out and about all day, every day, I had a nice quiet weekend to myself this time out. And the weather was perfect. Last weekend, in between moth fighting sessions, I managed to get soaked by the wonderful English weather three times! That'll teach me to leave home without an umbrella. After all these years, you'd have thought that I'd know better!

So this weekend was spent strolling around London, bumping into version-3-point-1 (momentarily), and taking a few photos here and there. I hung out in Trafalgar Square for a while, (mad) people and (evil) pigeon watching. I ended up chilled out, lying in the grass, in Hyde Park before walking home as the sun set through Notting Hill, Holland Park and Shepherd's Bush. I was knackered after all that!

Today, I went to the cinema to see United 93, the film about the hijacked 9/11 plane that didn't make it to its target. It was one of the most intense, emotional films that I have seen since Schindler's List. And more so because of how close to modern times it is. I take planes all the time and some things were too close for comfort. I could relate to the ordinariness of the flight before all hell broke loose. I could hear a few people sobbing through the movie and I could feel tears well up in my eyes at one point. Needless to say, everyone left in complete silence.

Oh, and I booked my holiday the other week. I'll be flying into Beirut, then from Lebanon into Syria and finally making my way down into Jordan to visit Petra and float in the Dead Sea. Three months to wait before I go though...

The Silence Of The Moths

So, it was with some trepidation, heart pounding, that I put the key into the front door of my late mother's flat. What lay beyond?

I expected the flat to be dark and humid, curtains drawn and a plague of large rubbery moths zero-ing in on me for disturbing their new squat as soon as I walk in through the entrance.

My hands would try to ward them off unsuccessfully. Discarded cocoons would crunch underfoot on the half eaten carpet and I would stumble. As I scream they fly into my mouth...

Later I wake up to find myself in complete darkness, pushed into the bath, unable to move, in a giant cocoon whilst a giant moth man comes to eat me...slowly....

As you can see, I had thought about this, waaaay too much!

Of course, it was nothing like this. I managed to fight off the moth man that was living in the bathroom and fend him off with a can of insecticide and flush him down the loo.

Seriously though, the moths were just tiny clothes moths and there weren't that many of them. They hadn't propagated that well because: (and I learnt this from the interweb, so it must be true.)

a) There weren't any clothes left in the flat.

b) None of the fibres left in the house, such as the carpet, were natural. Clothes moths only really go for natural fibres such as wool or cotton.

c) There were a few spiders doing the rounds and lots of dead moths already in a few hidden, dark corners where the webs had done their work

So to cut a long story short, I bought two cans of Rentakill wasp and moth killer for less than four quid, covered the flat in it and went back on the Monday to vacuum up the dead bugs.

The whole place has never been cleaner!

So all's well that ends well. *phew!*

Doobrie 1 - Evil Moth Empire 0

A plague on your house!

No pictures this time....They just wouldn't be nice...Read on to find out why.

So, I'm just getting ready to go to bed on Thursday night when I notice that I've had a missed call during the day when I was ay work. I check and find a rather distressing voice mail.

"Hello Mr Doobrie, this is Debbie from the agency selling your late mother's house. We had somebody go to see it yesterday and well, you appear to have a moth infestation. There are LOADS of moths (she really emphasised that word) and a rather unpleasant smell coming from the bathroom. They were even crawling on the walls as we entered. We had to just close the door and leave the flat. Just talking about it is making me itch, could you please ring be back IMMEDIATELY (emphasised by her again) to get this resolved."

*sigh* They had a mice infestation last year which they paid to fix and I had my ant infestation and now this!!! Whatever next?! A plague of locusts?!

Plus the timing was brilliant. Here's me going to bed with the sound of this woman saying "LOADS of moths" ringing around in my head. Nightmares here I come!

I'm not keen on creepy crawlies but will deal with them if need be just to prove that I'm higher up the food chain than they are but here I was having visions of leathery moth wings assaulting me as I enter my mum's flat and cocoons all over the place with half the carpet and funiture eaten away. A lot could have happened in the nine months since I'd last been there. And what about the smell coming from the bathroom? What the hell is that supposed to be? Is that where their nest is or has something died in there???!!!

So I slept really well that night. I had a dream that I was in that scene from "Silence Of The Lambs" where Clarice Starling is wandering around in the moth infested dark whilst the killer is stalking her with his night vision goggles on.

To be continued....

The Great British Summer

Brazil Nuts!

The Sultan's Elephant

So, I saw Mission Impossible III on Thursday down at the Marble Arch Odeon. I thought that it was an okay movie. Nothing ground-breaking but good brainless entertainment and a good night out nonetheless. I was interested in all the bits set in Shanghai as it was only eighteen months ago that I was there.

Then, on Friday I spent some time getting my money's worth wandering around the Michelangelo Drawings exhibition at the British Museum. Also discovered that it's a great place to meet members of the opposite sex! Then read something over the weekend that said that the V&A was the number one museum for meeting future partners. Wow! Who'd have thought it!? I'll have to check that out next!

On Saturday, we were lucky to have a warm dry morning but with rain forecast (surprise!) so I hurriedly walked into London to hunt down the Sultan's Elephant...

As it was it wasn't that hard to find. It seems as if any event organised in London nowadays draws huge crowds. So I walked past Buckingham Palace and down The Mall. I knew that something was going on as the Mall was closed to traffic. So I turned down into Pall Mall and things were still quiet. The streets were still sealed off, so I knew that I was getting close.

Then I spotted my first clue. A row of cars seemingly wrecked by the side of the road. I was so intent on looking for the elephant that I almost walked past without noticing. The cars were stitched together, literally! The rope that was sewn through their bodywork was made to look as if it went into the tarmac too. Tres cool!


Then ahead I heard music. I turned the corner into Waterloo Place and there was a giant puppet of a girl with little kids swinging backwards and forwards on her arms! Getting better...

I then carried on towards Trafalgar Square and just as I walked past Haymarket I saw a sight that took my breath away! It was like a scene from a monster movie. There down the other end of the street coming around the corner was the mechanical elephant that I had been searching for! Three stories high it turned onto Haymarket with hundreds of people milling around its feet taking pictures or just plain staring in astonishment!

A huge childish grin plastered itself onto my face. It was just so f***ing amazing! I hadn't known what to expect and this was too cool! I walked towards it and joined the local paparazzi snapping away. Shots from the front, from the side. How could something so large and obviously so heavy move so gracefully, I wondered?

I knew that it's destination was Trafalgar Square, so I headed there before it got there. By now the giant girl had finished playing with the kids and was now walking into the Square joined by the huge elephant. I got a good central spot and just carried on grinning.

They had closed off most of the major roads around the West End but, in my opinion, it was so original and amazing to see, that it was all so very worth it. Though I had only just seen an hour or two's worth of the event, it had in fact started on Thursday with a giant capsule smoking in the street having apparently crash landed from space and ended up on Sunday with the giant girl blasting off in her rocket

I look forward to seeing what the French theatre group who orchestrated the spectacle plan next for us Londoners. I'm sure they will be back.

Quick Quick Slow Slow

Had a nice bank holiday weekend that started off hectic and then slowed to a snail's pace...

Saturday involved travelling up to Liverpool (three and a half hours to North West England) to see Liverpool win their last home game of the season 3-1. Then a mad rush back to Lime Street station to catch the train down to Alfreton (two hours cross country) in Derbyshire, where one of my best friends live, then a quick change of clothes later, we meet up with one of my other best friends and we head out to celebrate in Mansfield (unfortunately the closest town with any semblance of night life.)


Then started to slow down a bit after all the travelling and drinking on Saturday by laughing our collective heads off on Sunday morning at an episode of Takeshi's castle on Challenge TV that had all the contestants dressed up in monster costumes.

In fact it was probably the funniest episode that I've ever seen!...of anything!!!

Then off to celebrate my friend's daughter's twelfth birthday, after she had opened all her presents, including a wet suit (don't ask!) with a nice local pub lunch followed by the car ride back down to London (two and a quarter hours.)

Phew!

After all that I didn't even leave the house on Monday having one of those couldn't be bothered to do anything-type days. So I just taking the time to catch up on a load of TV and movies.

I've started to get itchy feet again and so have started checking out holiday options for August. So far Cambodia/Vietnam looks favourite....Though it's not as if I can book anything as my new debit card still hasn't turned up at my local bank! *sigh*

It's not all bad news though. I got a letter from the council telling me that I had been overpaying my council tax due to a clerical error resulting in my flat being put into the wrong tax banding!

For the last seven years!!! Yeah, they never noticed.

They refunded me over nine hundred quid! Cor blimey guv'nor! Oh, and in case you were wondering.... That's how I can afford to go on holiday.

I'm all excited!!!

Okay, so they just gave me the money back with no interest but it's better than a kick in the teeth, right?

Tomorrow I plan on popping along to the Marble Arch Odeon (soon to be right next door to where my office is moving...that'll be handy!) to see Mission Impossible III whilst getting high on Maltesers, because mixing lots of chocolate and diet coke gives me a chemical high!

Then Friday I'm off from work a bit earlier than usual to check out the Michelangelo exhibition at the British Museum. (finally!)

The weekend? I have no idea. Yet.... Though it may involve trying to find this...

Another Card Bites The Dust

A typical journey in today. Travelling in on a packed Hammersmith & City train, we are asked to get off at Edgware Road to what is an obviously already absolutely jam-packed platform in the hope of catching the rammed-full train just coming in on the opposite platform. *sigh*

Luckily for me, I only have one stop left to go so get out and do the ten minute walk instead. Granted the exercise is good, right?

But unfortunately:
1) I strained hamstring muscles over the weekend, so walking isn't as comfortable as it should be at the moment.
2) Walking alongside a busy main road for ten minutes isn't all that brillant either.

I got into the office and check my e-mail to find one from play.com telling me that my card had been refused. What?! *sigh* I have had a few weird problems over the weekend where my card was fine in some places but not so in others.

So I ring my bank to find out what's going on.

"There has been possible fraudulent activity on your card, sir. Did you not get a letter from us last week asking you to confirm this?"

"What?!!! No. I havem't received anything." I wonder to myself if I've left something unopened assuming that it's an advert or some other piece of junk mail.

It turns out that some gambling site registered in Gibraltar had twice tried to withdraw money from my account. *big sigh*

This is the second time in three months that this has happened to me. I look back over my transactions and they are all for large well-established outlets....All that is apart from one....

My jaw drops. I used my card to buy a carpet in Morocco. I KNEW that I should have used cash!!! Damn! Damn! Damn!

I explained this to my bank but they didn't seem all that bothered but they cancelled my card and now I have to go through the rigmarole (oooh, never typed that word before) of waiting for a new card and moving anything across that was using the old one....

Alarm Bells!

Something strange happened to me this morning. I was woken up by the sound of my new alarm clock (something that my brain is still adjusting to the sound of) so I got up and switched it off.

It's on a chest of drawers near the foot of my bed rather than next to me and that's how I prefer it as it forces me to get out of bed to switch off rather than just reaching out, hitting it and going back to sleep straight away.

Anyway, as I mentioned, today, I flick the alarm switch off and lie down for a few seconds. But I can still hear it ringing. Weird!

I get up and switch it off again...

I can still hear it going!!!

I look at it. The alarm switch is off but it still shrilly rings at me.

Damn that new alarm clock. What's going on????

That's when my brain caught up with me and said "You're still asleep, you muppet!" (It's quite a sarcastically cruel brain sometimes.)

Sure enough, I was dreaming that I had switched the alarm clock off but in the real world it was still making a racket!

*big sigh*

And slowly and surely drew their plans against us...

I went to see War Of The Worlds at the Royal Albert Hall today.
No not the one with the placenta eating alien freak boy but the electro-hippy-trippy one from the 70s conducted by Jeff Wayne.

I'd bought the tickets months ago and only just realised late last week that the time was almost upon me to go!

Just as well that I remembered. It was a unique experience. Live music, light show, performance and CGI movie all in one. Plus there was the 25 foot tall war machine whose legs descended part way through the first act with lasers flying and explosions going off!

A shiver went down my spine as the animated Richard Burton started his commentary and the first bars of the opening tune played by a live orchestra and rock band inter-mixed kicked in.

It was tres cool baby!

The only down side is that back home, I feel ill now. I think that I've come down with something. My temperature is soaring and I ache all over. *sigh*

Oh well, a good night's rest should help. So g'night everyone!
(or good morning/day/evening depending on when you're reading this!)