Misfits Mid-Life Crisis Adventures in East and West London & Essex (The NEXT Chapter).

Week 258 Saturday 25^th until Friday 31^stMay 2019.

Happy bday this week to my brother Paul.

My friend from April rang on Monday from Germany to catch up telling me about her adventures since we said a hurried goodbye a couple of weeks ago.  I casually mentioned it was bank holiday her reply “another one”!

 “Parklife”.

The end of May is a said time for Monday to Friday workers.  Over the last seven weeks there has been Easter which of course is two days off, then Mayday at the start of May and this week’s Spring bank holiday.  After the telephone call I did a little research.  It turns out that the UK, Hungry and The Netherlands have the lowest number of bank holidays in Europe with eight.  The country with the highest is Finland with 15 (I have a couple of friends there, no wonder there always smiling).  Maybe this is the real reason that so many people in the UK want to leave the EU!  Outside of Europe, India and Colombia have 18 days while Thailand, Lebanon, South Korea and Japan only have 16.  If you have been reading this shiz for a while you will know I love to travel and am desperately looking to escape London, maybe I should be making plans to settle in one of these countries.

 “Warp speed”.

I can only speak for myself, but those eight days are precious, because I don’t have to get up before sparrow fart! sit on the tube or suffer the office!

 “Dropped by a Fox (probably) in the back garden”. 

The next bank holiday is end August, then it’s a long wait until Crimbum.  There was talk a few years ago about moving some of the days around to space them out better.  As well as a political party who said that if they were elected (they weren’t) they would create a new bank holiday.  The idea of adding a new date is a good, but I wouldn’t want the current dates messed around with.  Imagine if things went the other way and the number bank holidays were cut to help the economy.  Within hours there would be hordes of people on the streets.  Surly no politician would ever consider that or would they!

 “Its the time of year, again”.

Bank holidays are a time for people to relax and decompress from the normal stress of the working week.  For many this means sitting in holiday traffic jams.  Which are made worse because of train engineering works that take place closing lines and stations, adding to the misery on the countries crumbling road network.  Then there are the loving sprogs constantly saying that there bored every few minutes.  The parents (or other care giver) are probably glad to be going back to the hell that is work and normal routine after the stress of statutory day off.  That’s the beauty of being single, I do what I want, with no accountability to anyone.  Though I have also “enjoyed” terrible traffic on the odd Bank holiday when I foolishly decided to venture beyond the front garden. Seriously everyone loves a bank holiday, but it would be nice if there were a few more.  I wonder if my friends in Finland have room for a small one (before anyone says it, I know that in reality I am a huge lardy arse, but they might have a garage) I could earn my keep by cleaning out there Sauna.

 “MOZ crushing her 32gms of mixed nuts (more on that next week).

And Now For Something Completely Different……

 “Such a cutie”.

They say, “good things come in small packages”.  This is certainly the case with the smallest member of the household, the adopted Hamster.  Its only when I clean out her home, a multi-level cage with plenty to occupy her including several houses that she takes over the living room.  Everything gets dismantle allowing me to give all the components a good clean.  If you were wondering, while this takes place the little girl is running around, burrowing in sawdust or asleep in a tube inside a huge translucent plastic storage crate.  This is when we can handle her better.

 “Taking over the living room”.

She doesn’t ask for much, a few nuts!  Running from hand to hand and using me as her personal loo by peeing and pooping in my hands, what I call a Hamster blessing!  So, the least I can do is make sure that she is comfortable.  If I stopped 100 people in the street most of them would say that Hamsters are boring, because they don’t show emotion like a cat or dog.  How wrong they would all be!  She shows plenty of emotion in her own way.  I find cleaning out her home really therapeutic.  The best things really do come in small packages.  She give me so much love, it’s the least I can do, make her happy and as comfortable as possible.

 “I just liked the sun reflection”.

And Finally……

Taking a picture I said to my friend who was reading and not looking at me “I’m taking a pic of my Beaver (a small gift from Canada) for RAC”.  It got the smutty laugh I expected.

 “My Beaver!”.

My Mid Life Crisis Conts……

 “Writing this shiz, while watching Richard”.

This week I have mainly been watching:  

“Alien”, (1979).  “Aliens”, (1986).  “Aliens: Extended Special Edition & Commentary”, (1991).  “BBC Radio One: Big Weekend”, “Mumford And Sons”, (25/05/19), “Billie Eilish”, Fouls, Pale Wave, Two Door Cinema Club”, (26/05/19).  “Chernobyl”, (S1, ep 4).  “Click”, (TX: 25/05/19).  “Doom Patrol”, (S1, ep 15).  “Happy!”, (S2, ep 10).  “Have I Got News For You”, (S57, ep 9, TX: 31/05/19).  “High Hopes”, (S1, ep 6).  “In The Dark”, (S1, ep 9).  “Killing Eve”, (S2, ep 8).  “MISFITS”, (S2, ep 1 to ep 4).  “Not Going Out”, (S10, ep 7).  “Operation Avalanche”, (2016).  “Shadowhunters: Mortal Instruments”, (S1, ep 1 to ep 4).  “Sliced”, (S1, ep 1 to ep 3).  “Springwatch 2019”, (ep 1, TX: 27/05/19)(ep 2, TX: 28/05/19)(ep 3, TX: 29/05/19)(ep 4, TX: 30/05).  “Summer Of Rockets”, (S1, ep 2 & ep 3).  “Tacoma FD”, (S1, ep 1 & ep 2).  “The Hot Zone”, (S1, ep 1 to ep 5).  “The Looming Tower”, (S1, ep 5).  “The Planets”, (S1, ep 1, TX 28/05/19).  “The Ranganation”, (S1, ep 2, TX: 27/05/19).  “Trucking Hell”, (S1, ep 17/05/18).  “What We Do In The Shadows”, (S1, ep 10).  “Wynonna Earp”, (S1, ep 2).  “Years And Years”, (S1, ep 3).     

This week I have mainly been listening to:  

“13 minutes To The Moon (BBC World Service)”, (S1, ep 3, 26/05/19).  “30 Animals That Made Us Smarter (BBC World Service)”, (S1, ep 10, 27/05/19).  “Anti Social Show”, (ep 10, pt 1, 11/01/17).  “Griefcast”, (ep 82, 29/05/19).  “Iain Lee (Highlights)”, (24/05, 27/05, 28/05, 29/05/19).  “LBC Podcast: Nick Abbot (Whole Show)”, (25/05, 31/05/19).  “NASA: Gravity Assist”, (30/05/19).  “NASA: Houston We Have A Podcast”, (ep 94, 31/05/19).  ”Rule Of Three”, (31/05/18).  “Strange Times”, (ep 303, 27/05/19).  “The Adam Buxton Podcast”, (ep 94, 25/05/19).  “The All New Angelos And Barry Podcast”, (31/05/19).  “The Nick Abbot Habit”, (31/05/19).  “The Rabbit Hole”, (ep 80, 30/05/19).  “Morrissey”,  “The Bluetones”,  “The Strokes”,  “Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic OST)”,  “James”,  “The Village People”,  “Charlotte Gainsbourg”,  “The Pouges With Kirsty McCall”,  “Ash”,  “Faithless”,  “The Verve”, “Massive Attack”,  “The XX”,  “Lorde”,  “Madonna”.