Listening to: Big Stick – Drag Racing

Welcome to the week people. Had a great weekend here in Flo Rider myself, the highlight of which was spent at the Kissimmee Custom Car Cruise on Saturday night. A really well-organised free event with a great atmosphere, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it’s a weekly happening. Friday nights feature a similar showcase for hot-rods. Expect more car stuff pretty soon.

Listening to: Beastie Boys  – Sabotage

There’s a first time for everything of course, and I just had a first time meet-up with the local Flo Rider constabulary. Given a few white-knuckle driving-related episodes I’ve been involved in over here I always thought that traffic policing would be the specific department of law & order involved in breaking this particular sonic cherry of mine. However, as we know blogsters, life doesn’t always conform to logic.
An address I was called upon to visit had, it turned out, been burgled mere minutes before, the scoundrel in question relieving the property – a holiday rental home – of a humungously proportioned flatscreen TV. Thus the police were duly summoned. And they kept coming; in the end there were 6 officers and 4 squad cars on the scene.
Particulars and fingerprints were taken. Further investigation revealed that the TV-thief, in his haste, had dropped a bail-bond certificate of all things on the floor, (from a previous misdemeanour only a couple of days earlier) containing his name (Iquille, apparently), personal details and address. Not a difficult case for the boys in blue/green to crack one would think.
Seriously, you couldn’t make that up. Or if you did no-one would buy it. If CCTV cameras had been installed, this one would definitely have made it onto the Most Shocking – World’s Dumbest Criminals.

Listening to: Primal Scream – Higher Than the Sun

Happy 2012 pop-kids. Hope yours went with a suitable bang. Myself, I managed to spend the first day of the New Year laying on a sun-drenched beach sipping iced beer. An ambition realised right there, and on January 1st too. Things are looking up. Haven’t managed to update any sooner than this post but hopefully I can improve on this, even it means using the local library for local people over here. That might actually be fun come to think of it. Anyhoo, am looking forward to the oncoming year, despite it being the one when the world is supposed to end. Onward™

Listening to: Velvet Underground – Who Loves the Sun

Good morning people. The rain is beating against the window as I write this, which is perfect because in a hour or so, a cab will arrive to take me to a train that will take to the plane on which I’ll be flying to Florida. I arrive there at 5.30pm their time. Richard Branson has promised a  whole host of in-flight entertainment, so what with that and some free vino, a pleasant trip is assured. See y’all on the other side of the pond.

Listening to:  Wizzard – I Wish it Could be Christmas Every day

Seasonal greetings boys & girls. Christmas Day in Chéz Sonique is a time for musical joyfulness, life-enhancing food & wine, good conversation, and cinematic misery. Yes indeed, if a movie concerning abject Dickensian deprivation isn’t onscreen, then it’s tale of Epic struggle followed by some degree of euphoric, albeit brief, triumph culminating in crushing defeat at the hands of inhumane oppressors out to make an example to others.
No pop-kids, I speak not of Eastenders, but of Spartacus…the 1960 Kirk Douglas – Jean Simmons one.  See above for the saddest ending in movie history. Official. Merry Christmas one and all.

Listening to: Pastor Deacon Fred – Santa Claus Did Not Die For Your Sins

I was introduced to the very wonderful words of Pastor Deacon Fred recently when I discovered his Baptist children’s poem via his very own website. Listen to it by clicking the link at the top of this post. That very poem duly took it’s place within the seasonal selections of my Sonic Santa 2 Yuletide mix, up there on the right. He also spreads his message via Twitter and Facebook. Go forth and look him up pop-kids. Many folks welcome – some definitely not.

Listening to: Amartya Rahut – Punjabi Bells

Kim Jong-Il, Supreme Commander (amongst numerous other titles) of Northern Korea died yesterday, allegedly leaving a cool $4 billion in the bank. He’ll probably be the richest man in his particular graveyard. I loved his performance in Team America: World Police. I respectfully post a favourite scene of my own.

Now watching – Bad Santa

Ok, so yesterday was my last proper day of toiling for the man this side of Christmas. This means no more Satan’s Slip-Road for a while. It’s a bit nicer-looking with added snow, but even more dangerous to traverse than usual. Now it’s just a question of time-management in the run-up to Christmas weekend. Quite a lot to get done between now and then but I’m taking it one day at a time. Also, I’m getting the results of my recent blood-test this coming Friday, and I’m fairly sure that a blood-pressure test will be involved. I need to make like a calm blue ocean for that one. Serenity Now is the key…

  Now watching – The Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show

And lo, the winter sun did beam down upon Chéz Sonique, and all the people in the village did rejoice – mostly because it’s been nothing but howling winds and sideways rain here for the past week, solid. Yes, definitely getting into Christmas character now boys and girls. Listening to good old Traditional Yuletide favourites (see above), getting the decorations down from that 50 year-old suitcase on top of the wardrobe, then wishing they’d been packed away more thoughtfully last year. Money-stress, time-stress, mince pies…it’s all right there in the Bible, somewhere near the back I think.
So, boys & girls, onward into that most joyous of seasons…

Listening to: Brian Eno – The Big Ship

So today was blood-test day.  No big deal, just routine stuff. Gotta love the NHS – just walk in, take a ticket like you do at the deli, wait in line (for not that long)  then have some blood extracted, which then gets the once over by a team of highly-trained experts. No money changes hands. Perfect.  Contrast this with say, the USA, where the same procedure would probably need a couple of thousand dollars put aside and the sheer beauty of the Health Service falls into sharp contrast. Anyhoo, I get the results when I visit the relevant doc on December 23rd.