Welcome to the Slaughterhouse....

On return from my birthday tour of the northern United kingdom (of which more to follow), we were thrust straight back into London life with an invite to Helen's house's halloween party. We were both tired and fragile after two weeks on the go, so imagine our consternation as we wandered into deepest Nunhead to be confronted by a sign saying "welcome to the Slaughterhouse". Inside was like some kind of mass murder had taken place, except from what I could gather it seemed to be humans vs beasts. Good old London town, where pigs feet are available from all good corner shops...




The full pics are available here

If you're bored tomorrow evening

And are not irritated in the extreme by Graham Norton, why not watch "Who do you think you are" at 9pm on BBC1? He ends up in my mum's home village and visits the church where I was baptised and our local pub (in fact there's now a picture of him hanging on the wall in the pub, right next to one of Prince Charles pulling a pint).

How to be a writer

I was reading an interview with Douglas Copeland yesterday, and he was explaining how he got into writing... He'd been out in Japan being an illustrator for a magazine but got ill and had to return home to his bedsit in Vancouver. Whilst he was in Tokyo, he'd written his mate a postcard which she'd then stuck on her fridge - this happened to be read by a "magazine editor friend" of hers who ...

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Click on this

You could win the contents of a page of Woolworths' new Big Red Book, simply by firing a real live catapult at a target. Kind of like Ant & Dec's Saturday night Takeaway, but better....

Anyway, what you do is register for the launch (geddit) of the catalogue, then if you're lucky enough you get to fire a real catapult, somewhere in a field in Rutland or somewhere, whereby you choose your ...

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Happy anniversary

As I sit here polishing off my second can of lager and stubbing out my 6th fag, it's hard to believe that this time last year I was the healthiest I've been since being a stalwart (i.e. occasional substitute) of the most mediocre rugby team my school had seen for years.

Yes, last Sunday marked the first anniversary of "the 10K". The reason for the blog, the proof that even a couch potato can drag himself round Hyde Park if the notion takes him. It all seems very long ago - the hot summer and routine of jogging.... I kind of miss it as I sit here shivering, wheezing and still drying out from being caught in the pissing rain this afternoon....

Just noticed I only posted 5 times in September

Rubbish.

To be fair I was moving house, but this time last year I don't think that got in the way. So to my army of two readers, I apologise. It won't happen again.

So, err, here's another post. Just to get the numbers up.

Poland

So, Poland....






Unfortunately my camera is currently knackered, so the only photos I managed to take myself whilst behind the iron curtain were these two - summing up how grim the place really is. I truly felt like a spy as I sat on the terrace, eating fish and chips and looking out at ships sailing past on the Baltic.... I'm starting to think that during the Cold War, all the leaders of the ...

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Greetings to my friends in Libya

And in Romania

Yes, bizarrely, I have had hits on my blog from such far-flung exotic locations as Tripoli, Bucharest and, erm, Brentford.

Speaking of football....

Had the pleasure of visiting the Emirates stadium last Tuesday for the Carling cup game between Arsenal and Newcastle. The Arsenal juniors destroyed the opposition without ever actually scoring a goal, at least until the final 10 minutes when they stuck two in right in front of us. The stadium is easily the best I've ever been in - it looks like a squat UFO as you approach it, and inside it's so compact it's hard to believe that you're sharing it with over 60,000 people. 60,003 on that particular evening, in fact.

Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy

Yes, for once I'm not embarrassed to admit I'm a Rangers fan.... A quite stunning 3-0 demolition of French champions Lyon this evening in the Champions League...

As the Norn Irish purple patch comes to a sudden end, is it time for the other pish team i support to give me more nights of European glory?!