Got official notice yesterday that I will be unemployed on 21st May 2011. I think my boss and the HR department probably have never had an easier redundancy notice to give; there was laughs, jokes and one really nice compliment handed to me by our head of service.
Also on Friday, but half a day earlier, I played with Microsoft Video Maker and 'created' my first video - although to be fair it was just a series of still photos. 36 hours I'd deleted it and replaced it with something even better. The video - a bit of free PR for my friend Steve Messina's band Blow Up Hollywood could be the beginning of something new and exciting to keep me occupied while I try and find a new job. Go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af0BWFIdPyw to check it out; share it with your friends; post it on your social networking site and better than all of that go and buy stuff from www.blowuphollywood.com. No, they're not broke, but they are considering taking on a UK and European agent/representative... This is why I'm trying to boost their profile in Europe. My argument is that most people I've played BUH's music to have liked it; several have gone and bought stuff; heck, even muso friends have stated the band are much better than their modest successes, thus far. I mean, they have 6 albums out, another in the pipes, so it's not like they're some flash in the pan, fly by night, bunch of chancers now, is it?
Wednesday night was fun. I went round Hippie Dez's to watch Spurs' last Champions League game (probably for a year or so unless results and form start to side with them) and as usual had a laugh and a joke and couldn't care less about Gomez's howler that meant the Spanish side won a game they were always second best in. Dez is a Chelsea fan, so we both went out of the competition this week; he was a lot less happy than I.
Tuesday we won the pub quiz for the 4th time in 5 weeks and yet still failed to win the jackpot that is sitting at around £150 now and would, seriously, be a nice fillip for Team Squonk (as quizmeister One Ell affectionately refers to us as). It's nice to see something with Squonk attached that isn't crashing and burning! However, despite an evening of fun, frolics, bad ponytails and beer, it was marred by a strange chemical smell emanating from where we were sitting. it wasn't as I first suspected, someone's arse, but it did give me a blinding headache and said headache has lasted with me right up until today. If I die, someone sue The Vic for me please!
As I stated in a previous blog, the early part of the week was spent marvelling at the amount of beer I drank last Friday, the lack of a hangover on Saturday and the exceptionally grand day spent with my old pal Pat Fish aka the Jazz Butcher! Plus, for much of the week the weather wasn't as bad as it could have been!
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Let's, in fact, talk about the weather, especially as it is a stock favourite of mine.
Are we turning into India?
Not the massively hot days and fourteen feet of rain in 20 minutes, but the fact we seem to get all of our rain now mainly at the time of year when we want it least. I put my spuds in last week and I've been having to water them - something that you don't expect to have to do in April - you know the saying - April Showers. Well, springs in this country have been getting drier and finer, autumns are like slightly warmer versions of spring and the summer just tends to be masses of clouds and rain avoidance. A couple of weeks ago, during that really nice spell (the one I said would be the end of summer), the skies were blue and big and clear of clouds - skies I remember from summers like 1976. I can't remember a day in the last 10 years between June and August where it has been clear blue sky from dawn till dusk - it just doesn't happen any more.
And I heard it for the first time on Friday afternoon. The utterly stupid words, "We've got to have a good summer because we deserve it!" I deserve to get a decent job or win the lottery or have Karen Gillen profess her undying love and desire to get naked with me - but it aint going to happen. Is it? I've banged on about people thinking that the weather is dictated by what people deserve for as long as I can remember - time to move along; nothing new to be seen there, just wishful thinking wankers...
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Despite the fact that I'm now (rushes into the bathroom to stand on the scales)... 16 stone, it appears that many friends, colleagues and acquaintances are ignoring my MASSIVE gut and rushing to tell me how healthy I'm looking. Just on Friday, a good, long-standing colleague of mine said how well she thought I was looking. Mentally I'm feeling better too. In general, I'm feeling better than I have for at least 6 months and it must all be down to my latest medication. Heck, I even ran after the ball with one of the dogs yesterday. it did look like a whale trying to dance a waltz with a dingo, but it wasn't a sedentary stroll.
If I want to be slightly conceited for a second - I think I'm getting my mojo back. It's come out of hibernation and is working its magic again. This calls for a woo and a hoo!
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http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2486213913/ is a clip for a new film starring David Hyde Pierce, better known as Niles Crane in Frazer. it looks rather brilliant, especially if you always wondered if Niles had any balls!
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Off for an early birthday meal with the wife and RnB tonight. It might be one of the last times I go to the mighty Pooja for a while - treating my impending redundancy seriously for as second. But it was slightly odd and also quite good to be sitting in the pub on Thursday and hearing two people discussing the finer points and merits of Pooja. I couldn't help butting in to their conversation, because that's me. but we all agreed that the food is great, the service is ... patchy and it is the best Indian restaurant in the vicinity.
Have I ever mentioned that while me and t'wife are good friends with the guys that run the place - they think (and have done for years now) that my name is Poll...
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I'm happy with the serialisation of my comics autobiography so far. It's proving to be a little harder work than I envisaged because I'm editing it again before it goes up and I'm adding bits to an extra chapter I've included that will appear near the end - all the bits I forgot to put in or forgot about. But I've been pleased that so many people who aren't really interested in comics have been reading it - hopefully, if they don't get bored to death, they might learn something from the first half at least; all the juicy stuff doesn't start until August, so hopefully perseverance will be the order of the day!
Now, all I have to say is: F.O.T
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