The Shed

Apropos of nothing, saw a programme last night which centred on John Prescott's take on the class system in England; very interesting & it surprised me how self concious & insecure JP came across.

One segment though infuriated me - he spent some time with three teenage girls from Lewisham, all of whom were (sorry for the possible generalisation here), what's the word? Ah yes - Scum (one of them who professed to wanting to better herself was complaining she hadn't been given the chance to take her GCSEs as she had been expelled for attacking & headbutting the deputy head); they didn't know who Gordon Brown was, thought the houses of parliament were the same as Buckingham Palace & when asked their political views, one of them said she'd vote the same as her dad - BNP. When one of her friends (who happened to be black) objected to this saying they were racist, she came back & said "oh no - not you: just the ing Pais"...

When JP said later it was people like this he came into politics to help I thought "What The ?" Then it struck me - he didn't actually say it, but what I think he was getting at was these people are so stupid, they are easily led, easily influenced & easily fooled; they need someone to help them & speak for them - because they sure as Hell couldn't do it themselves.

My opinion of JP changed during the documentary - not sure I'm so keen on his (rather manipulative) wife though...

Safeway is a US company - the UK branches were sold off about 20 years ago but kept the old name. Recently were sold again and are now called Morrisons.

Raff wrote: Well, when I last was there (over the Xmas holidays), I did cook up a storm! The presence of an excellent supermarked in the neighbourhood was an encouragement for me to display all my ability. Luckily our new home is still reasonably near this wonderful place, and there is also a branch of Safeway just across the street. Talking of what, I didn't know Safeway was an US chain.... Or is just the Brits reaching out across the pond? Jared, hope you're feeling better now!

There will be oodles of Safeways for you to go to when you arrive. 

I'm sure Alexandria must have a good farmer's market somewhere, but I never looked (there were others closer to where I lived in Maryland).

While your shopping, Raff, could you bring some stuff for me?

I dont belong here, said old tessa out loud.
Easy, love, theres the safe way home.
- thankful for her fine fair discount, tess co-operates

Still alone in o-hell-o
- see the deadly nightshade grow

English ribs of beef cut down to 47p lb
Peek freans family assorted from 17 1/2 to 12
Fairy liquid giant - slashed from 20p to 17 1/2
Table jellys at 4p each
Anchor butter down to 11p for a 1/2
Birds eye dairy cream sponge on offer this week.

Its scrambled eggs.

I missed the Prescott programmme but might be able to pick it up on BBC IPOD.  I had forgotten Safeway still existed,  joined the "I Hate Tesco" campaign a few years ago (after a personal grudge brought about by the mischevious antics of their staff members)  -  I still prefer to visit Waitrose and have always considered it the best store, everything is easy to find, nice food and always have honey roasted peanuts, white maltesers and Yum Yums in stock ... 

Here's a suitable topic for us Shed-ites; the weather...

On the way home from work yesterday, heavy rain turned to sleet, then whilst we were at the pub for a swifty, this turned to heavy snow, which settled to a couple of inches; overnight, the skies cleared & the temperature dropped to approx -4, freezing everything solid & turning my car windscreen into a 2 inch thick block of ice.

If that's not enough of an embuggerance, at some point overnight, we had a powercut (power still off ), so no central heating, I had to wash/shave in just-about-warm water this morning, couldn't wash my hair (I therefore look like a tramp ) and as I sit at my desk at work typing (one-handed), I've been holding on the phone for the electricity suppliers for approx 25 minutes.

Small mercies though, our old wind-up radio provided BBC Radio 4 & the camping stove + old kettle allowed coffee.

Not the best start to the day!

As long as Nick doesn't get off the tour bus in a t-shirt & shorts...

One curious thing I noticed though (with the early snow and all) - you don't often see broadleaf trees like oaks still with leaves on & covered in snow.

Mond you - one of the guys in the pub last night said the last time he remembers snow this early was the notorious winter of 1962 - that's something to look forward to then

Micky told me that he had to turn the heat on last night, since the wind was howling outside. Here it's still unseasonably warm, in spite of the gallons of rain that came down from the sky last night (some of which ended up in my kitchen... long story). High temp for today is expected to be over 20°C, possibly even around 24. This makes things even more inconvenient for me... I don't know yet when I will be able to leave, and the movers are coming next week to take my stuff away - which means I'll probably have to leave some warm clothes for me to take in my suitcase when I finally get the green light.

Raff wrote: and the movers are coming next week to take my stuff away - which means I'll probably have to leave some warm clothes for me to take in my suitcase when I finally get the green light.

I should imagine after all this time and waiting, that clothes wont really be much of an option when you get there will they?    


It's great it's all coming together at long last!