Strawberry Disappointment

We all make mistakes. Sometimes we act on those mistakes, believing what we are doing is right, even though it does slightly rankle that you are acting on what you believe to be the correct course of action. That happened to me recently.

The Strawberry changed their menu. Instead of the black laminated card (admittedly past their sell by date) we got a printed couple of sheets on a clip board protected by a textured plastic sheet. This didn't look good. My worst fears were confirmed when their excellent Curry Top Chips had disappeared from the menu. Yes it's pub food , yes it's quick , and great value for money and it was always a quick lunch option and it was gone. I thought I have no reason to go back to The Strawberry because they don't have Curry topped Chips.

I relented because I couldn't actually remebery what was on the menu bar unspecified toasties and a fish finger butty. So I went in today, checked the new menu and right in the middle of the front page was the  Topped Chips or Baked Potato options. How the hell did I miss that. Yes the menu has had a slight revamp but it still has everything worth having so that definitely made may day, as The Strawberry is an excellent pub and their bar meals are excellent and great value for money.

The lesson to be learned is if something is not exactly what you want or what you think, go back and double check it, you may find you are mistaken and get the result you require more quickly.

Incidentally tomorrow the blog will pass quarter of a million visits, I know a lot are robots, but it's still a success to go with my Christopher Lee and Nick Cave slideshow.s

So the obvious song is Split Enz "My Mistake" a band I saw several times in the seventies who produced some amazing music.

Tangence or Tangience

Both real word, click on Tangence or Tangience to see the definition. They came into my head because I was just again thinking of the tangential nature of almost everything to do with me. On Sunday's Post here I started on about getting up early, though my slow CD clearance via Discogs which took me on to my favourite Pirates song which led to me discovering  Sons of Pirates and then chatting with Mick Green's sons via Facebook. Almost like a Pinball game of events and connections.

Talking of Pinball, I was in The Strawberry today and they have a Kiss Pinball machine!! I mean what's that about? KIss were always the worst bandwagon jumping poodle rockers with the perfect business model of being facepainted so everyone was replaceable. The ultimate corporate toy rock band.

So I could have shared something by Kiss, but when you are talking Pinball it can only be Elton John's take on "Pinball Wizard" in Ken Russell's feature length pop video masquerading as a film (loads of highlights though such as Tina Turner's "Acid Queen". YOu also get The Who on stage too and those hilarious boots.

A Rather Good Day .. so far ..

Well a lot of good things have happened today. I ran into a good friend who I hadn't seen for ages and got an invite to a 50th birthday party next year (to go with a wedding invitation from another friend) so probable lots of great things going to happen tonight I'm sure.

I then got a call from Screachtv who told me I'd won a £25 voucher to spend at The Strawberry ! That was unexpected and a nice surprise.

I watched a program and a film "Rescue Dawn" (well it's a Werner Herzog film with Christian Bale, what's not to like) on BBC iPlayer on my Samsung Note phone, and was majorly impressed with the quality and experience.

I've had some minor surgery, well half of it, resulting in 10 stitches , which need removing next week, so that was slightly worrying , but the doctor was brilliant and didn't spill too much blood. The NHS is brilliant.

And I managed to find the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix version of Signal 30 by Public Service Broadcasting. Just how good is that
!

Slippin' And A Slidin' into Leningrad

Well looks like winter is coming. I was coming home tonight, cars were frosted up and the footpaths had a layer of frost and were , in parts very slippy. Had been out to The Strawberry and caught up with a lot of friends before getting a taxi home via ABC .

So this is just a short post before I go to bed as the frost bites outside.

The eponymous video is by may favourite Finnish Rock band , the wonderful Leningrad Cowboys featuring Maya Paakari. I was going to go for the Little Richard original or maybe the John Lennon or Buddy Holly cover but you can't knock back the Leningrad Cowboys. Brilliant stuff. Have a brilliant weekend , really pleased at discovering this!!

Behind The Wall Of Sleep

When I was young I had problems sleeping , which persisted up to getting a job as a computer operator working continental shifts which meant I learnt to sleep anytime anywhere when the opportunity came. Certainly didn't do me any harm . I can sleep on buses , trains anywhere where it's safe to do so. In my life I've never missed a train stop and only missed a bus stop twice so I do have it down to a fine art.

The problem is my body is so well adjusted to the concept is I get  situations like now. Yesterday I had a lot of important stuff on at work , I had a hospital appointment in the morning and needed to provide one small report ideally by ten o' clock , plus some data extracts.

Something woke up , I don't know what , so then my mind started racing and thought if I spend an hour now I can get that report done, then I can have a nap during the day when I am bound to need one. Well report and data extracts got done , went back to bed , got up , went to hospital got back and worked through to just after five  (why does everything become really important at 4:30 on a Friday?) , then eventually got out to meet some friends at The Strawberry at six o'clock.

A good night was had by all severely tempted by Lynn and Julie's bowls ofchilli and chips / curry and chips (you must try if you ever go in there), but I resisted , and came home. By half past nine was shattered so went to bed.

Half past three I woke up. I've had six hours of sleep so it's time to get up my body say. My eyes say different , but thought I may as well write this down. I hope what will happen today is that I will have a lie in or nap or something and by tonight I will be back to normal , in fact I know that's what will happen. Anyway I thought an excellent song for this post was The Smithereens "Behind The Wall Of Sleep" , Black Sabbath do a song of the same name probably based on the HP Lovecraft story.. Maybe I can find that soon .