Legs, etc.

There were going to be more pictures, but blogger stopped loading them. Maybe later. Especially for the "etc".

Reunion

Had a great meal at the brasserie at the Oxo tower, not actually in the tower restaurant itself, which is apparently the same food at twice the price. There was a verandah overlooking the Thames, but we sat just inside - a beautiful cool breeze from the open door next to the table, but no soakings from the rain that was falling at one point.

My old friends are certainly well-travelled, but one of them still has a lot of her old prejudices. Still, it was refreshing to have a good argument with someone over sensitive issues. Most people these days are too PC to express some of the things you know they are feeling, and a lot of folks are too bland to even have opinions they haven't culled from someone or somewhere else.

JoJo, Oxo is a brand of stock cube. I don't know if anyone was named after that, but the tower is named after it. Don't know what the connexion is, but the windows look like the logo of the foodstuff. I've never been on the London Eye (scared of heights - how am I going to fly?)

Sparrow fart means very early in the morning. Isn't it great? Start spreading it in the US, please!

Phallic Symbols

When Vincent has something in his hands, I know what I wish it was - and I wish it was in my hands.

Number One Squeeze (I wish)

I just randomly dragged the arrow down and saw where it took me. It doesn't matter where you stop, you're bound to find a gorgeous picture when the selection is all Vincent.

Before I found Vincent...

I used to have lots of happy thoughts about various male celebrities in the years BB and BV

(Before Bobby and Before Vincent).

Ah, how I loved George Harrison. I wept when he married. I sobbed when he died.

James Garner was a favourite right from his Maverick days.

Not many muscle-men are to my taste, but I make an exception for Kevin Sorbo.

There was George Clooney, of course.

I wonder who other people's favourite hunks were?

Happy Thursday!

Up at sparrow-fart to let in the men who demolished my old shed and laid a new concrete base for the new one. It's going to look like this, and it's coming on Monday (also at sparrow-fart).

Then this afternoon the dishwasher engineer should be arriving to repair my useless machine for the umpteenth time. Luckily it's insured.










Happier pastimes this evening. I'm meeting up with a couple of old school friends to have dinner in the Oxo tower. For my US friends, that's a restaurant in a tower overlooking the River Thames. The tower has Oxo written vertically on each side - I think it's done with windows, but I've never been there before. In the picture you can see The London Eye, but I don't think you can really see them both in the same shot at quite this angle.

Can't resist

This is the other picture I'll be taking to Canada. I don't feel I can risk taking any naked ones...

What we do to keep cool

I made a great sacrifice today. In order to keep cool, I went to the air-conditioned comfort of the Bluewater Shopping Centre, the biggest shopping centre in Europe (till they build the next one). Guess what? The air-conditioning was having real trouble keeping up with the heat and humidity. I spent lots of money. When I got out of my car at home, the reality of the heat nearly knocked me off my feet.

Still, I did really well. A thingy to plug my ipod into to play out loud; a dress for the reunion; a reversible skirt (leopard print and floral); a memory card for my camera and tapes for my digital video recorder (for Canada); and the latest Terry Pratchett book.

If you've never read Terry Pratchett, you are seriously missing out. It's Sci-fi with a comic twist, set in the Discworld. Just like Earth only different. Start at the beginning with the wizard Rincewind and The Luggage (made of sapient pearwood - you would seriously not like to meet this trunk on a dark night) and continue with Sam Vimes of The Watch.

Odds and Ends off Google and One All-time Favourite

This is one of two I'll take to Canada with me.

A Shaggy Bunny Story

I used to sing with a lovely couple, Sandra and Paul. One evening at a rehearsal, Sandra told me about a phone call she had from someone who wanted to talk to Paul - a financial advisor or something, someone who didn't really know him.

"I'm sorry," said Sandra, "he can't come to the phone at the moment. He's removing the rabbit's eye."

From the clunking great silence at the other end of the line, Sandra knew she'd said something wrong. With a loud clattering of pennies dropping, she added, "It's all right - he is a vet!"

(For those who wonder even so why he was performing this operation, the rabbit had a recurring tooth abscess, and apparently the roots of rabbit teeth are so near the eye that the only permanent solution can be to remove the eye.)

Similar Expressions, Different Effect

The Thirteenth Floor isn't one of my favourite of Vincent's movies, but it does illustrate his acting abilities to perfection. Two characters with the same face but obviously different personalities - quite a feat.

Guess what?

Just through the arch you can see a reddish-brown mass which is my garden shed. The garden is less overgrown now, and today the shed should have been removed to make way for a new one. The man didn't come. The man supplying the new shed put me in touch with a second man. He didn't come.

Looks like the old shed will be staying for at least another year.

Monday Morning Blue

What better remedy for the Monday Morning Blues than Mr Blue? They haven't shown this movie here for a couple of years. One time they pulled it as it was scheduled for the weekend after the Madrid train bombings, which was the right thing to do. Hallmark recycles movies ad nauseam, but now this one seems to have slipped out of the net. It's from not long before he started shooting LOCI, but how slim he is.

The blues are caused by waiting for people who may not show. Last year the appointment for servicing my gas boiler was cancelled without my being asked - or even told - so I hung around all morning for nothing. Today I've confirmed the appointment. However, I can't reach the man who's supposed to be taking down and removing my old shed, so it looks like I'll have to cancel the order.

But while I'm waiting I'll amuse myself with Vincent. If only.

The Planners have done us proud

Amar, who spearheaded the campaign against the development across the road, has just received a copy of the planning department's report on the application. It's pretty clear there are not many things Dr Rahman can do to bring the plans into line with the Council's requirements. Even if he does the surveys mentioned, there are other departments which can then object.

I think his next move will be to reduce the number of houses in the development and improve their design. But he cannot do anything to reduce the environmental impact, and I hope this will discourage him from trying. Sadly, he's a greedy man, and the potential profits is huge - up to £2m.

How to be sexy fully-clothed

We all know how incredibly sexy Vincent is when he strips off, but we also recognise that he is perhaps at his absolute sexiest when covered from neck to toe.

Not that we still wouldn't like a set of pictures of him from all angles without a stitch on...