UK Watercooler Conversation 5: TOmorrow Sometimes Knows

spent my christmas in nyc, it was marvellous. a truly excellent city. i want to go back sometime this year as there was so much i never got around to doing and i want to do it all while its all so fresh in my mind.

happy new year too!

But! We're happier now, and I'm back at work, hiding in the office on my first day as The Guy In Charge (eeek!). I haven't actually seen anybody today, so I might get away with fiddling with Active Directory Perl scripts all day if I'm lucky...

My newest discovery is... the Streatham Lidl! What on EARTH is that shop about? It is either terrifying or the best thing ever. I've got weird Greek herbal toothpaste and sicilian lemon juice and a map of Europe for £2.49 and SAINT CLAIR port which I had to have, even though I don't like port, just for its name. Ooh, and a big book of Steam Engines (Captain Anderson would sooo disapprove).

My New Year was great - the transport strike provided me with a convenient excuse NOT TO DO A BLOODY THING, so I stayed in my lovely new flat (with my orange table and my fuchsia cushions) and made a giant curry (Saag Paneer actually works really well with Sprussels Brouts instead of spinach), drank my Tio Nico sherry and watched ALL SIX HOURS of To The Ends Of The Earth. My mania for Captain Anderson is very much restored, oh joy. On New Year's Day, I wrote 10,000 words more of my story. Oh yes.

My New Year was rubbish - I was asleep in bed with an awful cold. Which, of course, disappears as soon as it's time to come back to work.

I am glad to hear you finished TTEOTE. I speed-read most of it again over the past week, trying to fact-check bits for my ha-HEM story.

(for people who have not read the book: yes, I know where I am: it really does have a Chapter ?)

A ha-HEM story? You're not writing Captain Anderson slashfic, are you?

And no, it is not slash. It is just a continuation of the story. I was so desperate to know what happened to the Captain after he left Sidney Cove and returned to England, that I ended up having to write it myself.

Ha ha ha why haven't I thought of this pun myself?? :D

I haven't been in. We are loyal to Aldi.

(x-post a vacuum cleaner writes - they always do break within a few months, or most usually just out of warranty)

Lidl is just awful!

How does it work? Is it bin ends and rejects and buyouts of stuff that has gone bad, like Crazy Eddie? Or is it just bizarre European brands that I've never seen before becuase I've not been to Greece.

The super-low prices of Europe’s answer to Wal-Mart come at a cost: the rights, wages and dignity of the company’s workforce. . . .

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/KYE/x-kye-Mar2005.htm

(I wouldn't shop there cos I can only imagine the rubbish that goes into things from there, but some of you lefty-types might want to know stuff like this.)

(Or, actually, maybe that was Ed and Rob.)

i've never had the food myself but my sister says its dreadful.

MMM, nummy sag paneer for lunch today, leftovers from New Years. Except I ran out of Sag so I used Sprussels Brouts instead, and they are v. v. v. nummy.

Apparently the MD hates the smell of curry, but you know what? I hate the smell of cigar smoke, so we're even. Hah!

This is the first day in weeks I haven't had any and I'm really craving it.

I've been reading my past 3 weeks' emails all morning and I still haven't finished. Came back to work to a new boss, which is interesting. He's only in part time. Apart from that, hardly seems like I've had a holiday at all.

How's everyone? I can't be bothered reading old threads to find out, so what's news?

How far back do you want us to go with the new, though? I mean, you know I've bought a house and Pink is having a baby, right? ;-)

::drools::

NEVER SAY DIET!!!

Ok, I'm trying to avoid obvious things like chocolate because the were a fright yesterday, but I hate the very idea of dieting.

BECAUSE REGENCY GENTS DIDN'T WEAR ANYTHING OMGLOL!!!1111!!ROFFLE

Actually, you are wrong! Drawers were invented during the Regency Period! So hah! However, because Captain Anderson was an old fashioned type (as evidenced by the fact that he wore his hair long, rather than in the short style, and because his uniform was somewhat out of date) he probably WENT COMMANDO!!!

Though I suspect he'd be cold, down by Antarctica...

Except the sherry, of course.

Mentally ill to be sent to short breaks in hotels on the NHS, according the Guardian

Hurrah! yes! This is the best idea, ever! Make mine the Dorchester, please!

[This isn't a post about sport, in case Kate objects, it's a post about Travel.]

Except I don't feel like growling this morning, because I'm in too good a mood. So instead I'll have Captain Anderson shout at you:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/JaredHarrisPhotoGallery/TV%20Series/The%20Ends%20of%20the%20Earth/bvgold02.jpg
"BY CHRIST!!! NO FOOTBALL ON THE QUARTERDECK OR I'LL HAVE YOU ALL FLOGGED AT THE GRATING IF I CHOOSE, SIR, OR PUT IN IRONS IF I CHOOSE, SIR, SOD YOU, YOU SODDING BY-BLOWS!!!"

DO YOU NOT KNOW THE POWERS OF A CAPTAIN UPON HIS OWN THREAD?!?!??! IF I SAY IT'S FOOTBALL, IT'S FOOTBALL, BY CHRIST, YOU IGNORANT FOOL, DO YOU THINK A CAPTAIN OF THE LINE KNOWS NOT TRAVEL WHEN HE HEARS IT? STUFF AND NONSENSE, I SAY, SIR, STUFF AND NONSENSE!!!

My new year was the most dismal yet I think - I was at the in-laws, Matt fell asleep at 10pm to the badly hidden dismay of his mother, then I got violently ill all of a sudden and spent midnight throwing up. Lovely.

Moving on Saturday!

(Sorry, that has nothing to do with anything, but this is annoying me.)

I'm really wound up and angry and tense and everything, and it's really hard to separate that from the emotions that the subject produces in me.

When your stress levels are low, little bothers you. When your stress levels are high, everything bothers you.

Anyway, was that "bedroom" bigger than my closet? I bet someone could sleep in there. When I sell my flat, I'll say that it's a two bedroom and see if I get any takers. There's electricity in there, too!

I do like the bloke who's leaving, I'm just not sure I can deal with going to a pub in my current state of mind. Sigh. I mean, he's gone to the pub already. I guess I'll just go down and say goodbye and good luck and stuff, but not hang around for a drink.

And Mark, in that situation, I don't know what's going on, but if people are going through phases where they're not being quite rational (and yeah, I go through those phases myself) then it's best just to stay out of their way.

Fucking February. How can one month be so short and yet so annoying? This morning: huge cold sore that appeared overnight, and a packed bus that has only a few spaces left. One of these spaces is right next to the girl I have a crush on. Do I sit next to her, possibly introduce myself, and try and strike up a conversation? Or do I practically jump out of my skin when I realise that I might have to sit next to her, trip up and fall into a different seat glowing red with embarrassment?

I am starting to remember why crushing is No Good...

I am starting to remember why crushing is No Good...

aw man :( i'll swap you, i could do with a good crush. there's a little bit of sweetness lingering from last year's arse-over-tit all-consuming megapash, but nothing's gonna happen there i guess, so... and i seem to not be seeing this luke person any more, which is a Good Thing, i thought it was gonna be v difficult but he was v calm about it and said he saw it coming anyway.

also last night i saw the wal-mart-is-evil film at limehouse town hall (for free! courtesy of these brilliant people www.spacehijackers.org) and omg they are total evil irredeemable cunts.

and also the prince charles is showing a streetcar named desire on saturday at 1pm £3 for members £4 for non-members in aid of amnesty. anyone fancy it? i have never seen it.

Emsk, Streetcar Named Desire is so so so good. Tell us about walmart!

(I must confess that I occasionally shop in Wal-Mart when I'm in America, but they're all rather depressing places, with shoddy lighting and a rather downtrodden feeling - and that's before thinking about their business practices. In contrast, Target shops seem much warmer and friendlier..)

Well, not much more than I said - I looked around the bus for somewhere to sit, almost fell over when I realised her seat was one of the few available, and to try and save my shame (and because I'd be highly flustered if I had sat next to her after that), I awkwardly scrambled into one of the other free ones. And cursed myself all the way into Oxford ;)

i mean, i know many big chains have just as huge a moral deficit (and prob plenty of small ones if they had the chance), but none are as mighty as wal-mart. and it did a really good job of explaining all the knock-on effects that you - or i, anyway - don't even think of.

i DON'T UNDERSTAND why they'll spend such huge amounts on pr exercises and looking good and pretending they're so good to their workers and they care about families and it's a great employment opportunity and whatever, rather than just doing things properly and not having to spend all this money on damage limitation because it would all just be true and it would speak for itself. surely it would cost about
the same? and even if it didn't, when you've got $18.2billion in the bank, what does ten thousand dollars here or there matter to you? what is the POINT of $18.2billion?

my bro and dad are getting all their stuff from asda because that's what they've got near them. i've tried arguing it with them but there genuinely isn't a decent corner shop or greengrocer (which is FUCKING STUPID since they live in the middle of the countryside) or even other supermarket for miles and miles around :( even the asda's like a 15 minute drive away.

some x-posts. archel, why didn't you let him use the staff one? is it cos he was rude to start with?

Actually, I like February. Its brevity is a real relief after the relentless pounding that is January.

I went home early last night (stopped by the pub for five minutes and said goodbye) and ate soup and watched Dune. Which was the right thing to do. I cannot BELIEVE that as a child, I missed the whole Spice = Oil metaphor. I thought it was something mystical. It's the kind of film that's mindblowing when you're 14 but seems a bit of a letdown when you're my age. But still, it was fun.

Argh, it's all too depressing.

Oh, and the bullying thread got "out of hand"? Quelle surprise. Why is it that a thread about bullying is just an excuse for all the bullies of ILX to come out of the closet and say "I reacted to being bullied by BECOMING A BIGGER BULLY so get over it, wimp" if you don't want to act the same way.

God, I'm depressed now. I'm going to go and do some work. One of reports seems to have got lost. Argh.

x-post YAY!!! Hurrah for Boris.

oh and back to my comparitively petty workplace problem! - he asked for cups and I said we didn't have any because it was technically for staff but if he wanted to bring his own cup or fill a bottle I wouldn't mind. I was quite nice!

Boris J is surely the inexplicable kate crush to end all inexplicable kate crushes!

xpost yeah kate i know there's nowhere else :( it's happening over here too, that's exactly my bro and dad's problem... and plenty of people have no choice other than to work at a place like that, either, as well as shop. you don't wanna be exploited like this? fine, fuck off, there's another sucker right behind you desperate for work and ready to take your place. i suspect asda employees are slightly better off than wal-mart ones in that it's harder to suppress stuff like unions here (tho that might just be wishful thinking on my part, i got that idea from somewhere but don't know for sure). certainly the wal-mart employees in wal-mart germany were horrified by what their american counterparts suffered, bc the germans were already unionised and had proper rights and shit, and they couldn't just come in and bust it all down.

argh. the world is ending.

arch that sounds reasonable enough!

wow, emsk, that's even worse than the stuff I knew about! I know in the town that I visit in America (Carrboro, in North Carolina), Wal-Mart is making noises about setting up a new superstore nearby, but the town leadership is having none of it (it's populated by students and hippies, so Wal-Mart may have picked the wrong battle to fight there!)

replying with STOP is meant to stop all these things (although some places claim it can take a week before it works)

Mine too - Saturday.

Work = hell.

I'm all for February. Short month, same pay. Rock.

is it time for a new thread? this one's getting rather heavy.