It ain't easy
Oct. 21st, 2005 10:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksPeople think that working at home is a dream option, but it isn't. Well, not always. It's great when you feel like working. But on mornings when working is just about the last thing you feel like doing, there are rather too many distractions available at home than are good for you. At work just about the only distraction is a bit of web-surfing. Here, I can do a bit of cooking, tidy up, wash up, put the clothes in the washing machine, even play for a bit on Pokerstars. Not good news, at all, when you have to have a newsletter on the streets by 11am. But, professional that I am, it gets done.
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My uncle was on television yesterday. Well, when I say "on television", what I mean to say is that he had his one moment of fame in a movie. Yes, my uncle Dave (now many years dead, I would guess) is the opening character in the Hammer film "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" (1959). He is the man you see come flying through a window, do a bit of swimming and then get roasted in front of the fire. It was here that he got just about his only ever speaking part, since he was actually a stunt man (hence the flying through the window). I guess Hammer found it easier to get a stuntman who could speak a line than an actor who could fly through a (previously closed) window.
My uncle was also the first person to take me to 100 miles an hour. The good thing about the movies was that when you were working you could make quite a bit of money, even as a humble stunt man. So when, sometime in 1961, he came back from Hollywood, he was accompanied by a rather nice American car (I forget its make, but I remember that it was pink and a convertible). It was in this, on the A40 on the way back from Wendover in Bucks, that a rather young Peter Birks was transported at 100mph in order that he got to school on time on the Monday. Not many five-year olds in central London in those days got dropped off at infant school in a large American pink convertible. Most people round there were still saving up for a TV set.
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My shopping can get a bit random at times. I used to make lists, but now I just go to Tesco's and pick up what I think I need. This can have strange fractalish results. Last night I came back from the supermarket and began loading up the cupboards. Incredibly, I noticed that I had run out of coffee. For me, this is akin to running out of salt. As Peter Kay has observed, it just doesn't happen. So I went back to the supermarket a couple of hours later and bought three jars of Blend 37, just in case. To accompany this amazing error, I also noted that I now had four, yes four, bottles of Lea & Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce.
Perhaps I had better go back to making lists.
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My uncle was on television yesterday. Well, when I say "on television", what I mean to say is that he had his one moment of fame in a movie. Yes, my uncle Dave (now many years dead, I would guess) is the opening character in the Hammer film "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" (1959). He is the man you see come flying through a window, do a bit of swimming and then get roasted in front of the fire. It was here that he got just about his only ever speaking part, since he was actually a stunt man (hence the flying through the window). I guess Hammer found it easier to get a stuntman who could speak a line than an actor who could fly through a (previously closed) window.
My uncle was also the first person to take me to 100 miles an hour. The good thing about the movies was that when you were working you could make quite a bit of money, even as a humble stunt man. So when, sometime in 1961, he came back from Hollywood, he was accompanied by a rather nice American car (I forget its make, but I remember that it was pink and a convertible). It was in this, on the A40 on the way back from Wendover in Bucks, that a rather young Peter Birks was transported at 100mph in order that he got to school on time on the Monday. Not many five-year olds in central London in those days got dropped off at infant school in a large American pink convertible. Most people round there were still saving up for a TV set.
+++++
My shopping can get a bit random at times. I used to make lists, but now I just go to Tesco's and pick up what I think I need. This can have strange fractalish results. Last night I came back from the supermarket and began loading up the cupboards. Incredibly, I noticed that I had run out of coffee. For me, this is akin to running out of salt. As Peter Kay has observed, it just doesn't happen. So I went back to the supermarket a couple of hours later and bought three jars of Blend 37, just in case. To accompany this amazing error, I also noted that I now had four, yes four, bottles of Lea & Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce.
Perhaps I had better go back to making lists.
