The Official Nonsense Thread

[Caspin]

Home again. So nice to be back - the hotel wifi was good and the bed was OK but they were trying to kill me with that coffee, I'm pretty sure of it, and the room was hotter than hell! It was worth it to have seen that play though - amazing! Not everyone's cup of tea, plenty of s3x and violence and very modern staging. Really seedy, actually, but that's fine because I am a grown-up and am allowed to watch such things.

Stratford was lovely and this morning I spent several hours just sitting on a bench watching swans, geese, ducks and coots gliding up and down the river. Very restful. Anyway, I may post a picture if I can find a bit of energy.

Seems like TS4 is getting very mixed reactions, speaking of which I shall now go and watch LGR's review.

Hope you are all OK, my little polenta and clementine sponge cakes.

[Minty]

Interesting times up here. The Yes campaign is now in a very narrow lead & Rangers look set to collapse again as part of their assets have been frozen for unpaid back wages to a former employee - as their whole operation is run to the last penny spent, it's now countdown time to going into admin again.

The big surprise is Tommy Sheridan getting a rousing reception in Dundee last night at some public meeting. Most reckoned he was finished after the News Of The World business but I think the whole business with George Galloway of late has rehabilitated him to a certain extent with the public - after all, Sheridan foolishly destroyed his own political career over pursuing a point of principle instead of being smart enough to let it drop; while Galloway's a vicious toerag appealing to people's worst instincts.

A lot of people call him a firebrand, but I was always impressed by the way he went to places like Fettes and Conservative Clubs on invitation to argue his case, & was able to appeal to that old style paternalist type Tory that's never been comfortable with the social price paid for economic growth. If he could stop calling people "Brother" & "Sister" like a 60s hippy, he might get back into Holyrood again where he could do some good.

[Caspin]

Ah, here is Minty, my little lavender shortbread (sorry - it's because Bake Off is back on telly and I can't stop thinking about new recipes). Interesting times indeed. I am nervous for Scotland and expect to remain so, no matter what the outcome of the vote.

Here are some pictures from Stratford. This is the view from my favourite bench, with the river side of the RSC in view and lots of water-birdies going by. They are ridiculously well-fed ducks with the constant arrival of groups of kiddies with their grannies and grandads to feed them loaves. I started to wonder whether anyone in the town actually ate any bread themselves, since so much of it seemed to end up in the river.






Last time I visited Stratford... ahem, 21 years ago (what?!).... I went in one of those little rowing boats and fell out, so I can tell you from personal experience that the river is not very deep.

A weird feature of the town is that a lot of the lampposts are sponsored by other towns or indeed countries. I am not sure why. Some of them are just normal lampposts. Here is Glasgow's representative, as an example:




Others are more outlandish in design. The most elaborate one I spotted was from Israel, with an assortment of characters sitting on it. However it was the nearest one to the theatre, so that would explain the embellishments.




So there we go.

[Minty]

Interview this morning, fingers crossed!

[Caspin]

No, don't cross your fingers. It'll look weird in the interview. I will cross my fingers on your behalf.

Good luck!

[Minty]

That was a bit of a trek to get there, & they seemed rather disinterested in me so had to fight hard to make them care. I put it down to being first thing on a Tuesday morning when it sinks in for many that the weekend's a long way away

Was pretty surprised on the way back how heavily the Yes campaign are out & about. They mean business far more than the No people, that's to be sure. I also noticed that it's the No people that are being told to "F off" by passers by instead of the Yes people now. There seems to be something of a "perfect storm" going on - Salmond needed a miracle, he got one, & the wind is being whipped up some more by the No campaign doing all manner of stupid actions only convincing people the more Yes are going to win.

The Daily Record gave Salmond & Darling an edition of their horrible rag to edit last week (I don't like them because of what they did to a good friend - another tale for another day). The excuse was it was to give both sides a chance to put their own case forward in the interest of democracy & make themselves look so important (in reality its circulation's in freefall) - but considering how biased it's been towards Labour & how nasty to the SNP down the decades (playground name calling extent), all it succeeded in doing is convinced most that Yes are about to win & the Record's frightened its circulation will completely collapse if it's seen as too associated with the losers. They lost a lot of readers over being a Rangers/SFA propaganda sheet during the "Big Tax" business a few years back (lots of predictions about "armageddon") & couldn't really afford losing any more.

Speaking of losing, who was the bright spark at Tory central office who decided it would be a good idea to ask people in Clacton on Sea about what they thought about their Tube station when they're 60 miles away from the nearest one?

Sorry to see Joan Rivers died, although it was good to read all those wisecracks she came out with. She did a special year's ago with Bob Monkhouse which was labelled "the silver tongued wit meets the acid tongued wasp" & it was one of the funniest shows I'd ever watched. I always thought that Judge Judy was trying to be Joan Rivers too much (avoid the British copy of her show, it's embarrassing)

[Caspin]

Sounds like you had a heck of a day. You must be master of interview survival by now. I hope someone's poured you a nice big drink now it's over with. I will have one too, why not. Also, thank you for thinking to come back and say how it went. These days I feel as though hardly anybody ever gets back to me on any matters, no matter how important, and my head is full of unanswered questions and wonderings!

I laughed when I saw that Cameron, Clegg and Milliband are heading north on some kind of "please don't leave us" begging trip. I cannot think of anything more likely to support the Yes campaign than that trio arriving on the scene.

My last day off tomorrow. Boo hiss! But do not fear - that is still one more day of picture spam of pixel cats!

[Caspin]

Today I had a sudden desire to make chranachan. So I did. There's loads! Now I have to hide it from myself until tomorrow. Fortunately I prepared for this difficulty by buying jaffacakes, which act as an effective distraction. Think I will watch some more 'Breaking Bad' now.





Hope you are all well. Night-night!

[Minty]

Cranachan I remember having at some pre-Christmas do with friends after Uni. That's all I can remember from that evening (other than never be persuaded to go to a ceilidh hosted by a bunch of happy clappies - I think it's all that repressed energy needing an outlet, but their idea of Strip The Willow is mine of being drawn & quartered!)

Sir Donald Sinden dead & Ian Paisley as well all in the one morning. Two old hams gone the same day. It really does feel like the end of an era. Strange how "Never The Twain" started being rerun only a few weeks before Sinden snuffed it, & might have known that Paisley would choose to sign off on the 12th!

Oh by the way, I got that job

[Caspin]

You did! I'm so pleased! Aw MINTY!