Blastronaut

Similar boat man. So much furniture, so many stairs. Legs are completely gone now and not from the drink for once. Noticed a massive bruise on my foot this morning and was initially a bit concerned I couldn't feel it yet, then realised it was actually pretty sore after but basically nothing compared to the rest of my body. Also a bit disappointed, was really looking forward to having a boozer right across the road but I popped in for a quick half and within minutes had caught the attention of a few headcases that remembered me from school 20 odd years ago. I've always been quite partial to dodgy boozers for the sheer entertainment value but the reality of being a known face in one when I live literally directly across the road with a young family has me thinking I'll need to wait until my legs have recovered and make the more civilised establishment 100yards further up the road my "local".

I hear you on the whole acoustic thing. I've only got two, a cheap Japanese 70's thing I got for £30 as a doer upper and 12 string my dad sort of acquired and I ended up inheriting. All I've got here in the new digs so far is the SG, and the Firebird and 12string since I thought they both were a bit neglected and both deserved more love. Only really good deal I've got on Gumtree was that 4x12 I just gave away to my brother in law. £50. Originally saw it listed for £80 when I was looking for a single 12" speaker cab and was tempted but it seemed like overkill. Few days later guy had reduced it to £50 and immediately messaged the guy and uncharacteristically said to missus "I need the 7seater for a few hours, where will put the car seats?".

Ha. Nice one! How do you find these deals man? Do you flip most of them for a profit or is every wall and bit of floor at your house just covered with guitars? I've just tried to thin out my collection of gear a little. Gave the 4x12 away and sent most of my less favoured guitars off to temporarily live in my mums loft, the idea being I might find it easier to justify buying a new guitar and cab if theres not already loads cluttering up the house. After maybe 6 months and as many purchases I'll start gradually sneaking the old stuff back in when the missus is at work or something.

Ah it is what it is. He's one of four, fair to say I was already used to the chaos by the time he got old enough that his needs become more apparant. In a few ways (aye alright, very few) he's less work than his sister's. Plus, the sooner they talk, the sooner they talk back. Kindle is a good shout tbh, especially for stuff I really want to read. I dunno though, something about it just isn't the same as having a good old-fashioned bookshelf.

He's autistic, but that's really just scratching the surface tbh. Completely non-verbal and has a severe developmental delay. Fucking obsessed with numbers though, used to be number cards, then he discovered all our books have page numbers.. First thing he does is flick to the last page to check the last page number then he proceeds to rip out pages and line them up in number sequences.

Good drummers are hard to come by man. Keep hold of 'em. One of my closest mates is a pretty decent drummer who sadly doesn't play much these days through a combination of health issues, other responsibilities and his recent (somewhat impressive) homebrew operation that's taken over most of his free time. Most of my favourite bands are fairly guitar centric but if I was pressed on what I love so much about them I have it's the drummer. I'd maybe even go as far as putting Paul Gilbert in there, but maybe stop short of putting Carcass and Cardiacs in.

No joke man. Oldest daughter keeps her books locked in a cupboard. Missus brings home loads of the old stock and discards so we can leave them lying around as decoy books for him (the hope being he'll stop looking around for our books) but it only really distracts him for 10 or 15 minutes. He's soon back to tearing the house apart, probabaly looking for something he caught me reading 3 weeks before hand.

I had a copy of his book "Thatcher Stole My Trousers". Think I managed to read about a quarter of it before the lad got his hands on it and ripped out all the fucking pages. Did the same with my copy of Hitch22 aswell. Nightmare, have to hide all the books from him. Funny thing is my other half is a librarian.

Ah that's some great info. Sad as it is the right wing connotations with these boots isn't a new thing. Alexi Sayle wrote a fucking wonderfully sarcastic song on the subject. Can't be having bigots appropriating footwear, or even just clothing in general.

Ill have to look into this! Didn't know any of the new docs were Chinese made. Might explain why the pair my missus bought a few months ago completely destroyed her feet way beyond the usual expected "breaking them in" phase. This pair I'm on are fucking ancient, as much as a decade. Fuck knows exactly. I met a bloke at a wedding a good few years back who had a sideline as a mobile shoe-repair guy*, had him replace the soles and he patched up other things (forget exactly what and lost his number and forgot his name by now). * sounds mental but he seemed to make a killing focussing on the wealthier wee towns and villages around here that attract the hillwalking community. Absolute win in the "Smalltalk with strangers at a wedding" stakes.

Fucked if I know. That's surely a question for her.

Likely deserved for someone who's appealing to a football forum for clues on who might have been in their "lounge" other than immediate family. Mad game of cluedo could be about to kick off here if @trophyshy goes quiet.

Someone's trying to drop some hints and wants to go to Venice I'd guess. Valentines Day soon and all that. Any chance you lost your passport in the days before a holiday to Venice? That happened to me but with Florence. Some 12 years ago and I don't think I've been forgiven yet.

Reminds me I'm needing get some new trainers. Back in the Doc's having just worn through the sole of last favourite pair of gutties. I couldn't be seen in these parts wearing those orange and blue fuckers though, they would attract the attention of the the heavy contingent of weird handshake folk and all manner of awkwardness would ensue when I step into my new local, which is a stonesthrow from the masonic hall and appropriately called The Empire. Trying to get back on topic (though it doesn't really fall under materialism) I've just spent a small fucking fortune on child safety devices having (thankfully) just noticed none of our upstairs windows lock and are massive safety issue for kids bedrooms. Spent a good hour after that wandering around the new digs looking for ways the kids could easily kill or seriously injure them. Probably went a bit overboard and will return half of it once the windows are child-proof and I've reeled myself back in from "oh fuck this place is a deathtrap, I've made a huge mistake" mode.

Dunno how much luck will really help tbh man. The only thing that would likely guarantee an easing of the pressure is probably a total frontal lobotomy.

In other news, after months of delays we finally got the keys to the new house today. You'd think with all this extra time we'd be more prepared to move but it's opposite. Totally blindsided by it, came from out of nowhere. Half the shit we'd packed up months ago and put in the storage unit is already back here and unpacked. I'm currently only two cans deep and I'm already wandering around what has been castle blastronaut for 11 years shouting "how the fuck did you get back here?." at inanimate objects.

I'm only disappointed that this is the Telegraph and not Peter Hitchens writing for Mail.

Pretty solid plan! Is that a wee class 5? If you ask me, what you really want to be doing is getting a shot of the RM into that old Vox! The original Rangemasters were designed before pedalboards were really a thing and were basically meant to be "always on". About the size of a lunchbox and would sit above or out of sight of amp head, rather than something that would be toggled on or off for a bit extra during certain passages. Gallagher and May were both single coil>Rangemaster> AC30 for their core sound most of their careers from what I gather. It's heavily speculated Rory's RM was modified over time but I'm not totally convinced and have my own hair brained theories. Iommi Blackmore almost definitely had theirs modded to be less centered on treble to my ears, but fucked if I know exactly when they used it or what amps they were running at the time.

"I'd give you the guided tour but I'm currently overseas, had to flee the UK following rape and human trafficking allegations. Anyway, I just checked your OnlyFans, fancy meeting up in Romania?" Fucking grim like.

Totally agree. I actually enjoyed the first few seasons and the Tolkien fan in me had invested in it enough to get the first book. My bugbear with Tolkien was all the sporadic pages of (mostly shit) poems and prose for padding. Martin seemed to ditch that in favour of just padding shit out with pages of intricately describing chainmail and armour. For me it's just halfway between Tolkien and Rowling with added tits. Wanted to like, even enjoyed the first few seasons and bits of (what little I managed) of the books. But it all fell apart quite quickly a lot like the aforementioned Lost. Wire, Sopranos and BB were on another level for me. Need to give a shout out to Oz and Northern Exposure for setting us up for this "golden age of TV" but Oz hasn't aged quite as well and NE is hard to find.

The Sopranos hype is absolutely justified. The whole series in it's entirety was just so chilled and weirdly relaxing in a Northern Exposure sort of way. @Renton I had BB the other way around. Sporanos hooked me immediately and even after watching it all several times it's still "comfort telly" for me. BB I think I might not have stuck with if the person who recommended it hadn't said "it's a slow burner, stick with it until the bathtub scene at the very least". Actually surprised now seeing Gemmill highlighting just how much happened in that first episode and knowing it still managed to keep turning up the heat until the finale. The Sopranos is a lot more sedate.

If you're looking for a one-liner: irony is the kids completely non-verbal.

My son's first name is after Oscar Wilde and his full name is a deliberate an play on Edgar Allen Poe. My old man (Alan) passed about a year before the lad was born. Since he was the third born, we were low on inspiration for names, so when my missus said "he looks like a wee old man, he needs an old man name" the poor fucker now has to live with the initials OAP. Probably cruel naming my son over an in joke, but I'll die happy knowing it's a reference to that moment and those words as well as Wilde, Poe and the grandad he never met.

Aye it was a good watch. Arteta is an absolute headcase though. His antics were almost as entertaining as the game and could only have been more entertaining if they'd lost.

Result indeed. Sounds more enjoyable than the skiing if you ask me. I've somehow still avoided it. Fuck knows how. Missus and all four kids have had it, sake for my extended family and my main social circle all got it pretty fucking bad at a party I also attended. Guessing I've had it and was one of the lucky fuckers that was either symptomless or wrote off the symptoms as the usual mild to moderate hangover.