Weather slips to No.2

Recent studies* show talking about the weather, that bastion of banal British conversation, has been overtaken by an equally trite topic – how was your journey**?

Unlike the weather – where the conversation tends to run dry after a minute or so – discussions about your car (or bus, train, bike, etc) journey to any destination can be epic and take in many sub-topics including route taken (and possible alternative routes), weather (before, during and after) conditions, accidents, jams, delays, sights, landmarks, music, etc. The scope is almost endless – as endless, in fact, as the journey itself probably felt.

*Probably
**Only, of course, if one or more of the party has actually taken a journey to get where they are

Voyage

I boarded a clipper bound for the Asias
In the year 1869
When the weather was rough
But I was rougher.

I read the World Atlas like a book
From start to finish.
And later,
Much later,
I put faces to the names.

Architect Drawers*: Important Update

Yes, I actually bought some architect drawers at the weekend – in an antiques/junk shop in Warminster. No, they're not really nice old ones but they're still great. I got them down from £120 to £100. A relative bargain, I reckon. They open and close real smooth and although quite new have a 50s or 60s retro feel to them. I'm pretty happy. Oh, and I got an old coat rack too – down from £89 to £60. Yes, I know this should really be in Barngains (www.barnflakes.com > barngains) but it feels more spontaneous doing it here.
* See post January 06 2008

The New Shape

Backstage at a Lionel Richie concert, I met a beautiful, kooky French woman who told me she'd invented a new shape and got it patented too. She worked in PR.
Typical French I thought, and asked her what the hell she was talking about.
– I've got it in my bag, she said, and proceeded to take a shape out of her handbag. I was intrigued; it was a shape I'd never seen before.
I asked her what she was going to do with her shape.
– Photo holders, she said.
– Eh? I said back.
– You know, holders for photos. I'm going to manufacture them.
I loved the concept of a new shape, never seen before, but the idea of photo holders and manufacturing them, I don't know, it somehow took away from the essence and purity of the shape. Still, that's the hard reality for a new shape. You can't just be a new shape. You've got to have something to do.