Come on England

As I write this, they're losing 1-0 to Northern Ireland, which is absolutely ridiculous. They're a good team, but they haven't come together right tonight at all somehow. It'd be a shame if they ended up not qualifying for next year, as seems a real possibility now. Scotland slightly improved their strictly mathematical chances of qualifying tonight, so it'd be fun if they got to the world cup and we didn't...

While I'm in a footy mood, it's worth mentioning that Boston Utd have now managed four draws and three losses from their first seven league games. They're at home to Rochdale on Saturday, which they'll almost certainly lose too, but I think I might go along and watch. It'd be good to see what's changed in Boston since I moved away.

In other news, we're now finishing work at 5:00 instead of 5:30. Yay! Just seven weeks to go. Must get that CV sorted out.

If I go to Boston on Saturday, I'll spend Sunday practising memory. I'm still surprisingly in the mood. Wonder how long it'll last?

Ireland have won, the commentators are blaming Sven and his system. That's probably fair enough - it's true that Owen never really did anything and Rooney didn't get anywhere near the ball, to his obvious frustration. Instead of passing to them, Beckham was kicking it to Wright-Phillips, who's rubbish. Nobody really played badly, as such, the whole was just a lot less than the sum of its parts...

Extra bonus all-about-me thing

Like everyone, every now and then I get these email surveys designed to clog the inboxes of the world and bring the internet crashing to a halt. I decided to fill one in for a change, seeing as Crispy told me to, and I thought I'd post it here too, just so that the whole world can see my favourite colour...

How much do we actually know about our friends? This
is a questionnaire to get to know them better. Read
through the comments below about you friend and then
make sure you read the instructions at the bottom.
Have fun!
What time is it? 8:59pm
Name as it appears on birth certificate: Benjamin George PRIDMORE
Nickname: Zoomy!
Piercings: Eww
What is the most recent movie you've seen in the
theater? The Incredibles. I don’t go to the cinema much.
Place of birth: According to the birth certificate, Pilgrim Hospital, Fishtoft. Everyone else in the world would tell you that the hospital’s in Boston, but you can’t argue with the General Register Office.
Favorite food: Anything sweet.
Ever been toilet papering: Do I look like an American trick-or-treater?
Love someone so much it made you cry: No.
Been in a car accident: A couple, involving my motorbike and not looking where I was going.
Croutons or bacon bits: Bacon
Favorite day of the week: Saturday
Favorite restaurants: Burger King
Favorite flower: Crocuses
Favourite sport to watch: Footy
Favourite drink: Squashed frog!
Favourite ice cream: Thorntons peach flavour that they don’t do any more.
Disney or Warner Brothers: WB. And Daffy, not Bugs.
Favourite fast food restaurant: See ‘Favourite restaurants’
What colour is your bedroom carpet: A sort of dirty beige, that used to be a sort of clean beige.
How many times did you fail your driver's test: None at all! But then, I’ve never taken one.
Before this one, from whom did you get your last
email: A German fan who wants to know how my memory system works.
Which store would you choose to max out your credit
card: Toys R Us
What do you do most often when you are bored: Eat sweets.
Who will respond to this email the quickest: Crispy, because I told her to.
Who is the person you sent this to that is least
likely to respond: Pretty much everyone, really. Let’s face it, nobody in their right mind responds to these things.
Who are you most curious about their responses to this
questionnaire: Everyone! I’m quite giddy with anticipation!
Favourite TV show: At the moment, Codename: Kids Next Door.
Who is your boyfriend/girlfriend: Everyone in the world.
Ford or Chevy: Neither. Some kind of bubble car.
What is you favourite colour: Green!
What are you listening to right now: Droning football commentary. Now Owen makes a run across the box, Beckham picks him out…
Lake, Ocean, or river: Ocean.
How many tattoos do you have: Eww.
which came first the chicken or the egg? The egg. Dinosaurs laid eggs before there were chickens.
How many people are you sending this email to: Nine. I’ll stick with the mailing list I’ve got.
Time you finished this email: 9:14pm
*Return directions: Now, here is what you're supposed
to do..Don't spoil the fun.
Copy (Not forward) this entire email and paste it onto
a new email that you will send Change all of the
answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to
a whole bunch of people you know INCLUDING the person
who sent it to
you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of
little known facts about those who know you. Remember
to send it back to the person who sent it to you.

For Now No Sorrow

I tuned into Radio Derby for some reason last night. I'm not what you'd call a regular listener - they've interviewed me twice, and this is probably only the second time I've ever listened to them, which seems profoundly ungrateful of me. But my radio that I never listen to has been tuned to 104.5FM since the builders were in here last year when I was away, so that's what came out of the speakers when I turned it on. And the song that was playing has been stuck in my head ever since. It's called 'For Now No Sorrow', by George Papavgeris, and I'm going to have to check out more of his stuff.

It's folk, I should warn you, and according to his website he's written so far 147 apparently very similar-sounding songs, so it might get old quite quickly, but this particular one is somehow really catchy, and I just love the lyrics. You can find them here, if you're so inclined: http://www.folk4all.net/ForNowNoSorrow.htm

Also, there was a really good episode of Codename: Kids Next Door today - 'Clues'. Maybe not the best episode ever, but the first few of this new batch were a bit lame, so this one was a breath of fresh air. It takes definite skill at cartoon-writing to set up a murder mystery with six suspects all with their own motives, throw in a batch of brilliant character moments with some of KND's best supporting cast and bring it all to a conclusion in an 11-minute episode.

I feel like I should be doing something

Well, actually, I know I should be doing something - finding a job. But that's not what I mean. I seem to be between ambitions at the moment. I need some kind of driving obsession to consume my mind, and none of the various ones I have on the back burner at the moment (winning the WMC again, collecting every Looney Tune and Merrie Melody, learning to play othello properly, writing books, learning music) are really firing me up right now.

I'm never quite satisfied unless I'm on a quest of some kind. I'm sure one of the ones listed above will come to life in my brain again shortly, but it would be nice to come up with a new one to pursue in the meantime.

I sold some of those RNIB raffle tickets to work people today, after leaving them lying around untouched for however long it is. They don't have to be back till September 23rd, so there's plenty of time yet. Work continues to be slightly irritating, which you'd think would motivate me to find a less doomed job, but I'm just not in the mood.

If music be the food of love

I own an electric keyboard which I use for the sole purpose of propping open my bedroom window. I'd never considered this worthy of comment before, or listed it among my eccentricities, but my brother (who's used to my strangenesses and indeed shares many of them) noticed it this weekend and pointed out that this is somewhat unusual.

To be fair, I didn't buy it for its window-holding-open ability, it just happens to be the right size. But I don't play it, and never have. I bought it back in early 2002, or maybe 2001, with the intention of learning to play it, and have made very occasional attempts to do so ever since. The problem is that I have no patience, and can never admit to myself that I'm not good at something. So rather than starting from the beginning and trying to learn the basic principles of which notes are which, chords and octaves and things, then moving on to playing some simple tunes, I get a piece of complicated sheet music, sit down and try to work out how to play it. Then when I keep going wrong, I give up.

I would also like to be able to play the guitar. I have dreams of being in a pop group some day. And I'm not quite ready yet to accept that it's unlikely to ever happen. As a wise but fictional man once said, if you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything. So all I have to do is get my mind to cooperate with my dreams.

I'm Back

By which I mean that I'm still here, but I'm back to being the kind of person who lives on his own and has nothing better to do than blog.

Anyway, I haven't really got anything exciting to talk about. Work has been a bit of a drag lately, and is probably going to carry on in the same vein - showing the people taking over our jobs how we do them. If there's one thing I hate, well, it's probably not that, but if there's a whole pile of things I don't really like, then telling someone how I do my job is pretty high on the list. I'm not very good at it, and I always have the feeling that a) I'm doing something in an extremely stupid way, or b) someone will notice that I don't really do anything worthwhile. Just paranoia, you understand, but it's disturbing.

Also, I still haven't got round to fixing my CV. I'll do it some time this week. Or maybe I won't, we'll see.

Family Ties

Sorry I didn't post anything last night, my brother's round for the weekend and it seemed rude to ignore him while writing about his visit for internet nerds to read. Anyway, I'll resume talking about my life once I've stopped having one again.

Coningsby and Tattershall

I got a letter today from HSBC, telling me that following careful consideration they are having to close their Coningsby and Tattershall branch on 2 December 2005. All accounts are being transferred to the Boston branch, and the letter also reminds us that you can use self-service cash machines 24 hours a day, suggesting that we use the HSBC machines in Boston, Woodhall Spa, Horncastle or Sleaford. Rather than the other banks' cash machines in Coningsby and Tattershall, presumably.

I don't know why I've got this letter in the first place. As far as I know, my account has always been at the Boston branch, even when I was living in Tumby Woodside. That's the branch I went to when I wanted to open the account, anyway. I don't think I've ever been inside the one in Tattershall. Perhaps their system automatically registers the closest branch as your local one? Anyway, it's fairly irrelevant to me now I live in Derby, isn't it?

Still, it's sad to hear about that branch closing down. It suggests that the twin villages of Coningsby and Tattershall, where I spent a lot of time as a littlun, aren't prospering in the 21st century. And that's a shame. They're nice places. They have (or had) an old-fashioned friendliness about them that was something unusual even in the 1980s, from what I've heard about other places in those days. Even in the nineties, after I'd stopped going to school and cubs in Tattershall and Coningsby respectively, I used to cycle up to the weekly car boot sale at Tattershall leisure centre on a Sunday, and come to think of it often take money out from the cash machine at the Midland bank on the way. I'm getting all nostalgic, now. I'll have to go back there and see what a dump it always was, just to get it out of my system.

Tattershall is famous for its castle, which is fair enough. It's a cool place, although being red brick (albeit one of the oldest red brick buildings in the world) it doesn't look much like a proper castle should. But Coningsby's number one (and only) tourist attraction is the one-handed clock on its church tower. I have never seen why this should be considered a good thing. Surely that's just laziness on the part of the clockmaker? Oh, I've already put one hand on the thing, I won't bother with the other. The people of Coningsby only ever need to know the approximate time, anyway...