Life, And Other Natural Disasters...

Yesterday, as I was out and about, I noticed the number of motorbikes out on the road, and it was difficult not to feel a searing rise of envy...

natal felicitations to beastbriskett!!

Having one of those days today.  Constant reminders of things I can't do any more; won't be able to do in the near future if at all...

And I'm not sure if anyone can understand those feelings.

Last night was Hairy Bikers night at the local bookstore.  They did a good hour-long chat to the audience of about a hundred, then, despite the usual "we could talk all night", they were ushered out to the obligatory signing.  And as always, they were genuinely pleased to see everybody, which meant that queuing took a while, especially as I was at the end of the queue.  As I approached Dave, there was a cry of "Aha!  The famous koala!"  I was quite touched that they seemed genuinely concerned about my redundancy; to prove my new found fame, my copy of the latest book was signed thus:-

With a parting hope to "see you next year", I headed off down the escalator, then realised that I had not had the obligatory photograph.  So, since I had never done it before, much to the amusement of the Hairies and the horror of the bookstore staff, I ran up the down escalator.  Which explains why I am a little red in this picture...

Two weeks ago, I was dribbling over a copy of the Hairy Bikers Cookbook.  And not over the recipies.  I  found out that they would be at a bookshop signing in Portsmouth today.  And so, I queued to get my copy signed, pay homage and discuss Lutfisk.


I phoned rock_bear.  "What do you mean, you didn't discuss haemerroids and prosthetics with them???"  Battered by a nasty case of telephonic Fierce Eyebrows, I beat a hasty retreat back into the shop and thrust the phone in to Dave's hand.  "I'm being growled at...Talk to the bear!"  And so two slightly confused Hairy Bikers got the full rock_bear experience.  Without a side order of eyebrows.

P.S.  And they are even cuter in real life...

So... the last ten days. Weekend before this was a long weekend starting on the Thursday when I met Russ over in Brighton when Rocky was in town. Did the usual stuff, breakfast, lunch and coffee, wandered around and ate chocolate cake. Oh and Russ desparately tried to persuade me not to sell the motorbike.

Friday - met up with Bob and Fred at Greenwich. As a keen astronomer, the observatory was the place to visit for Bob. Met up with Stuart later and headed over to the Kings Arms for the BearHug meet, where we were largely ignored, thus proving to Bob that British bears are much the same as their Boston counterparts.

Saturday - mosied back home slowly; the route from Victoria to Portsmouth, for some reason, is a lot more pleasing than the route from Waterloo, despite being about 40 minutes longer.

Stuart came round for dinner Tuesday night; now that he's no longer with Richard, this could happen more often - I think Richard seemed to me to be a bit wary of Stuart's excursions. Nothing went on when he was down here, but from what Stuart has told me...

Spoke to Douglas Friday night, I miss him so much.

Yesterday - day trip to France. Excellent meal of a Lamb Tagine followed by some chocolate confection(!) Picked up the usual stuff you can't get at home in the hypermarket.

And that's it. Boring day today - which will inevitably start with good intentions and fail miserably. Oh well...

Beastie go koff koff splutter.

Beastie need a new battery.

Ick.