So Britney is the sexiest woman in the world, according to the annual FHM poll, the results of which were announced today. In second place was Rachel Stevens, making her the highest placed Briton. I heard her on the radio this morning, saying that she couldn’t understand what people saw in her and that she wasn’t sexy, blah blah de blah. Bollocks – she knows she’s got it, and she knows that she can flaunt it and make money. She wasn’t picked for S Club 7 for her singing talents, I’ll be bound. Faux modesty fools nobody.
Of course, they both trail by a long distance in my personal sexiest woman poll. My winner has beauty, brains and genuine modesty.
Hell and damnation
As I walked down South Street this morning, I passed three typical looking teenage boys in school uniform, waiting outside the convenience store. Nothing unusual in that, you might think.
But there was something hugely disturbing and terrifying about them. Yes, the world needs to be warned…
THEY ALL HAD MULLETS!
What the hell is going on? When did the mullet come back into fashion? It probably has something to do with the abomination that is The Darkness, who have become popular for reasons that completely escape me.
Next thing you know, everyone will be listening to Donovan records again.
Update on the camera pondering
What about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10? Panasonic is not a name I’d associate with cameras, but I’ve read a couple of good reviews.
I really should add a little about what I’m looking for here. I need something that is fairly fully featured, and would suit someone (i.e. me) who is fairly camera-savvy but likes something that is reasonably easy to use. It will mainly be used for work, so it needs to have a good macro capability, allowing me to get a full-frame shot of an individual flower or flower head. It also needs to have a flash so that it can double as a general workhorse for record shots and day-to-day snapping. And, because the photos are likely to be used for posters and larger size printing, 4 or 5 megapixels would be preferred – 3 is not enough.
One of the problems that I have with all three of the cameras that I’ve looked at so far is their size – the Panasonic in particular is quite bulky, and since it will often be carried with me when I’m travelling, it would be useful if it was small enough to slip into my laptop bag. I think the Panasonic fails that test.
More research needed.
Cheerful chappie
At last, a major step forward has been taken in the refurbishment of the flat – new carpet has been laid today in the hallway and living room, and it looks really good. I’m kicking myself for not touching up the paint on the skirting whilst there was no carpet here, but I’m sure that can be overcome. As it is, I’m padding back and forth around the flat, enjoying the warm softness underneath my socks. All good stuff.
With that hurdle overcome, and the carpet in the bathroom and kitchen likely to be finished by tomorrow night, or Saturday at the latest, I’ve arranged for two estate agents to come around next Wednesday and give me their best patter. One of them will be rewarded with the chance to sell this place, unless I get a cash offer in the meantime from one of you lot (I’m not holding my breath). I think the flat looks cracking, and once the windows are done (application going in just as soon as Dave sends me the drawings), I reckon that this will be one of the best one bed flats in Chichester.
Simple but infuriating
We like simple games. Oh yes. But infuriating ones?
Love In The Kitchen
If I was still single, I’d go on this – not least because it is organised by my lovely friend Charlie, and I know her culinary skills to be excellent.
Anyway, it’s just an idea for any single people in striking distance of Brighton who want to give it a go. At the very least, there’ll be a laugh or six and some good food and wine.
Digital photography
Kodak DX6490 versus Olympus C750UZ. Any advice/recommendations?
Rant
It won’t be health, education or Gordon’s flower borders. No, the subject of the rant will be the cost of wedding car hire. How much??! Suddenly I see the attraction of Worra and his "beautiful Nissaaarrrn!" – it would certainly be cheaper. OK, I can see that vintage cars might cost more than a modern car to maintain, and there is the cost of a driver to be considered. But it looks like it might make a fair dent in our budget, as our previously volunteered car has been withdrawn, as the owner/driver is not sure he wants to drive it the thirty or so miles that it would have to cover. Ho hum.
And when I say a fair dent, I mean a bloody great huge dent. The sort of dent that, were it to be inflicted upon a wedding car, would render it unroadworthy. Permanently.
Ironically, the cheapest element in the whole wedding plan is the church. Vicars seem not to respond to market forces by inflating their prices on Saturdays like florists, car hire companies and reception venues tend to do.
So now I’m looking around for other volunteers who might help us out with vintage cars. I’ve got a contact into the world of oily rags and spanners, although he is based around Chichester and so probably doesn’t know anyone in the Kent borders area who could help. All very frustrating.
Training for a rant
I haven’t done the journey between Tunbridge Wells and my office by train for a while, having had the use of Hels’s car for the last few weeks. This morning’s foray into the world of rail was met with a late running train, a filthy train, a train that was cancelled but still ran anyway, a train driven by a driver who only knew how to drive in the "on-off" style of accelerator and brake usage (or whatever the train equivalent is), new rolling stock that shows what shocking state the line is in as passengers are alternately hurled from one side of the carriage to the other – amongst other travails. As compensation, there are some fine views to enjoy, particularly in the Arun valley, which remains one of the finest train journeys to be had in the south of England, and I’ve also been able to get a fair bit of work done, something that is impossible when at the wheel of a car.
Giant pain-in-the-arse for today is that the offer on Hels’s flat has fallen through. One wonders if people go around saying that they will buy a property, purely to raise the vendor’s expectations ready for pin/balloon type deflation, merely as some kind of perverted sport.
And, for added misery, H has got a cold. I’m sure the pseudo-purchasers left the germs around the flat (absolutely nothing to do with the streaming torrent that I’ve endured for the last week or so).
Cripes – what else can we find to moan about? I’m in the mood for a good rant.
Vaughan de Jour
Vaughan on the mystery of Belle de Jour.
I’ll be quite honest – I was quite fascinated by the Belle de Jour site. And, in a way, it has brought blogging even further into the mainstream, as the tabloids (and the broadsheets) get their fishnets in a twist over who may or may not be behind BdJ. I’m sure that it was the high quality of writing and insight into another mind that drew me to the site, and nothing to do with sexual depravity and voyeurism at all.
But now, I find the whole thing a little tiresome. The content at BdJ has veered towards embroilment in the whole "is she a she, or isn’t she, and who is she anyway?" thing, and has become quite tiresome. Some other blogs have become fairly tiresome on the subject, but that tiresomeness is fairly widespread in the blogging community right now. It reminds me of the whole Salam Pax thingy, a good weblog that was spoiled by people busying themselves with trying to unmask the author, rendering the whole thing …well, tiresome.
Thankfully, readers of this site have averted tiresomeness because your author has never made any secret of his identity, and I think that should be the model that all bloggers follow. It’s much more simple that way, and makes it easier for publishers to come running with their cheques for the book deal.
Doesn’t it?