Out of sorts rambling on ... & on ... & on!!!

These first few weeks of 2007 have been a real mind-bender and have left me completely out of sorts.

 

My thoughts have been pulled from pillar to post and as such l feel that I'm sort of stuck in a state of limbo until something truly kick-starts the year for me.

 

For example, I wonder how many people use the phrase "kick-start" without ever realising that it is a biking term used to start turning over the engine on a motor cycle.

 

I'll bet that some think that it is a footballing term, but honestly .. how many times do you see a striker just boot the ball to the opposing keeper right from the centre spot to start off the game???

 

My first attempt to get a remortgage had to be scrapped, due to the low level at which they would lend me. As such I am over a month down the road, and in more in debt than ever, but thankfully with a promising deal from my existing lender to hopefully salvage something from the financial ruins that is my current credit history.

 

I furthermore wonder how many people use the world salvage without realising that it is a old naval term and not quite the same as rescue or recover, which many seem to get it confused with.

 

I decided to do a spot of people watching the other week, and also as a "man of the world" decided that I would no longer fearfully shun London's seedy Soho area. After all, how can I claim to be a widely travelled man if I close my eyes to something that is less than 10 minutes walk away from my very work office.

 

It was an eye opener, not in terms of semi-clothed women, but of how established and deep routed it is. Noone in government can claim that they are seriously trying to clamp down on the illegal sex trade when there are entire streets of neon sign posted shops of every conceivable sexual flavour almost on number 10's doorstep.

 

Rubbing shoulders. in what was clearly a red light district. with ordinary families, tourists and business suited gentry as well as the expected pimps, market sellers and back alley ladies was slightly unsettling, but what was more so was the uniformed policemen at every other road junction.

 

Compounded with the vast number of CCTV cameras there are in london, it's more than likely that the goverment has, and has had for a large number of years, a fairly accurate list of almost every face that has ever passed through that region and could easily have complied and raided more than 10,000 addresses if they so desired.

 

The truth is clearly that they would rather have one of the major hubs of the UK's sex industry right under their nose where they can easily keep an eye on it, than on cracking down and preventing this sort of thing going on at all.

 

Think of that the next time you read in the papers that a brothel or escort ring madam has been 'uncovered' ... they willingly allow a hundred times that number to continue to run their businesses without fear of being raided or prosecution!

 

But this was only one of many unexpected events to happen to me recently.

 

My heating really has been blowing hot and cold, which has meant I have been unable to enjoy some quality bath time and instead ended up hitting the showers instead. This was a big shock the first time round, as I got all ready and stepped into an almost freezing bath, regardless of the piping hot flowing torrent or steam coming from the tap at that very same moment.

 

After knowing him for a few years now, for the very first time my friend Aiden called me up and invited me down the pub for a few games of pool last Sunday. Back in the days of my pool teaming youth it was my very first regular haunt, but that was in its previous reincarnation, as it has since been fully remodelled inside ( gone are the Victorian style open-bay windows and in are a succession of black leather chairs and open planning ) and also under new management.

 

The table was level and good to play on, despite having to wait for a gay-french-poet lookielike and his scottish friend to play the worst of five ( this is similar to 'the best of five', just without the skill or positional planning required to pot more a single object ball consecutively ).

 

So after what felt like an eternity of watching them play a varient of pool based on 'how long can we keep the balls out of the pockets' and despite, or because, of having a side wager of a few bob I managed to play a few games and even pull off a great clearance including ( doubling the black the length of the table to finish ).

 

Finding songs like Jean Genie, Fat Bottomed Girls and Jump on the cd-jukebox made me public enemy number one, and yet if only I didn't drink 'girlie' drinks I might have had the chance of embarrasing myself by propositioning the attractive slim blond Russian barmaid.

 

Thankfully I was saved from any such alcohol influenced blunder as I don't drink 'manly' drinks and thus I didn't even register on her "worth-flirting-for-tips-ometer" :o(

 

What didn't help my cause was a slurred debate with Aiden over why a few cheesy songs like YMCA, Macarena and Barbi-Girl are emotionlly/intellectually devoid of substance but will stand the test of time, while most other more-worthy efforts are relegated to oblivion far before their time.

 

And so in order to recapture my feeling of lost manliness I went home, grabbing a burger and chips on the way, and stayed up watching late night tv and thinking of D.I.Y. and power tools, Hoo-raw :o)

 

In the last few days I have also met for the first time my friend Susan's fiance, who I was happy to say that I was able to find a few things in common with, despite the fact that he is very religious and at least one part of me was thinking "If Susan hasn't even had chance to introduce him to all of her close friends yet then am I wrong in believing that it is still far too early for them to be booking a church?".

 

However my views are my own and although I did touch on the subject of timing a few times, it was never taken up with any real enthusiasm by either of them, so I wisely left it alone and changed subjects each time.

 

To save this post from becoming unreadably long I will leave the others for another time, save a brief mention of how I embarrased myself in my local supermarket.

 

I was aware that I was already over my credit limit on my debit card, but the house is dangerously short of groceries or cleaning agents and so I checked my balance on the only credit card I know the pin of off by heart and then proceeded to my nearest store and filled up a basked.

 

For days I have been saying that I need to do some paperwork, and it would have helped a ot had I done so before, as then I would have realised that the card I was carryings end date had expired and thus I wasted 20 minutes shopping to only be left no alternative but to leave the shop empty handed and very red faced.

 

So many other things have been whizzing through my mind recently that it was take a month of Sundays do type them here with any justice, so I will have to leave them for another time.