cupid_stunt

sorry luscious being, my fingers came over all The Crying Game there... must slap my wrists..

hey, are there any more drinks planned for us singeltons?

Daizie, not sure my ex would agree entirely with you but in my defence, i have my moments... :)

hmm, the spectre of redundancy/ job loss is never a good thing for anyone working at the coal face...

Yep HS, you'll know it's me at the next EDF drink up as i'll be conspicuously sipping my over-priced orange and cranberry mix.

yes. the touch is a great piece of kit. the more gigs the better. forget the faddish iPhone get a Crackberry instead.

Maybe not my worst hangover but the reason i no longer drink.. Manhattan, New York earlier this century. Was at a downtown bar called Joe's Pub, enjoying the generous free bar that my then job bought me. Was hanging out with the local gliterrati and ended up making a cupid stunt of myself. Not sure if you know anything about the Yanks but they 'free' pour their drinks. i was on Patron shots, followed by a bottle of beer, followed by Bacardi and cokes. Repeated this order about too many times and rapidly descended into foolish Englishman abroad antics. You know, 'let's all do the conga.. altogether now' all by myself. I have the footage! Left in the wee hours and ended up sleeping on the platform at Grand Street station like a bum. Woke up in the neon half-light to find a rather large rat chewing the denim of my left leg. Still sloshed, i ran out of the station screaming like Carrie on helium. Head pounding like a nutter and leg bleeding, managed to get to the local hospital's ER. They wanted to section me as they thought i was so disturbed/ drunk that i had developed an English accent. Convinced them i was kosher south London and had to take a painful anti-rabies course for weeks. Ever had to take an injection in the deltoid? Hurts more than a Cliff Richard comeback. Unsurprisingly, the strongest thing i now drink is my spit.

to mockers: yes the pound has been steadily losing its value for some time, hadn't you heard? that's not to say ???s isn't worth her weight in gold....

...taken a week or two off over Easter or has the spectre of the office/job not being there on return scared you into staying close to home?

Pennies and Mockers, please let us know what you really think! hehe He's OK in the flesh. Dependent on the circumstances in which you meet him, he's an affable chap. A bit like a bloke you really should despise (think say J Oliver/ C Moyles) but can't quite....

Yep, for the practicality of the iPlayer alone, i'm happy to pay the stealth tax. It's a pity that even now they have a fair number of clock watching under-employed staff at TVC. And i should know, i used to be one of them before my obscene pay-off :-$ Another topic for another post methinks....

Personally, I look forward to seeing him on TV and reading his weekly 'up-my-own-jacksy' thoughts online in The Sunday Moan, uhm, Mail. Are you with me EDF?

it's all in the name

Huggie, Besides, an indulgence in ornaments wasn't the cause of our current issues, it was banks over-extending credit to rather unsuspecting individuals who were buying houses with debt they couldn't hope to repay in their own lifetimes. Hmm, Whatever happened to self-restraint? No one had a gun pointing at their head (or wallet) as far as I can work out. i'm sure we'll beg to differ but surely we as indivuduals have to take responsibility for our actions, as do the banks for theirs... One group will struggle to come to terms with this, one never will... As for the rest of your post: word!

Hi Huge One, (Yes I've heard the rumours about you and seen the pics) thanks for the reply... To answer your points, my thoughts are these.... Why should you care about other people buying expensive goods, it's their money? Part of the problem was that most people bought expensive goods (cars, houses, holidays) on credit, ie it wasn't their money! This is why the majority of us whom were prudent are all up sh*t creek without a paddle economically. We are all in the same boat :( The buy now, worry later ethos is officially dead. That's why i say know the value of everything not simply the price. I'll be paying, my kids and possibly their kids will be paying out for the mess this economy is currently in for a while yet... Why do you think that your idea of value is the right one? My idea of value is simple. When i purchase something i ask myself: do i really need it or do i simply want it? My idea of value is by no means the 'right' one but hey, it works for me! Why do you want to force other people to follow you? Like Michael said, 'I'm a lover not a fighter'! I'm not asking anyone to follow me but i think that we're all in this mess because the idea of 'me' instead of 'we' ran rampant for too long. It'd be nice to think that we could all learn from the mess we're in but what do i know? I'm a cupid stunt :) Disclaimer Alert! And for the record... I?ve lived on both sides of the coin. I?m a well-educated, postgraduate corporate executive, who worked in an emerging technology for many years. About 10 years ago I got bored with my oh-so?fantastic pay packet, went into a creative industry and now make a comfortable living being an artsy ponce. I?m not bitter or resentful about anybody doing their thing but some of the stuff I see selling in LL shops, makes me SMH (Shake My Head). You couldn?t give away some of that stuff on eBay! Message to Admin: The Organ Grinder says: Admin, sort out your servers! Feed the monkey who?s grinding away keeping it chugging some more nuts!

and they call me a cupid stunt!

Couldn't be bothered to read the four pages of comment beforehand (well, they do call me cupid stunt for a reason) but my addled points are these: Ask someone on a limited fixed income how the recession has altered their life and they'll tell you, it hasn't ie, i was skint last year and nothing's changed.... Benefits haven't increased in real terms, food's gone up and those lil stealth taxes - car, tv licence, etc, - have held or increased in price. East Dulwich's micro-economy is to my mind, about as safe as free chicken in Peckham's KFC, ie not very. No doubt some over-priced and pretentious East Dulwich shops will close down but that's because they are serving a tiny minority of people whose disposable income has now been curtailed. Though i don't wish redundancy or lay-offs on anyone - having been a casualty of it myself - one thing i've learnt this past year is to make sure you have some sort of contingency plan. That said, a blank space on a CV is no big deal but i digress... My only hope regarding this econmic situation is that it'll force us all to really examine the money in our pockets and how we spend it, ie actually purchasing things based on their 'value' and not their 'price'. Once we have confidence in the value of things across the board then things might just start picking up...

Living South mag is at least two thirds smaller than what it was 18 months ago.. I know this as I'm an advertiser and keep editions. I do not think this is all because of the 'downturn' either, more i think because advertisers (who still exist!) have found more effective/ cheaper/ efficient ways to reach all corners of south London. SE Magazines are great but owing to their popularity/ limited distribution not always easily found. And yes, am a big fan of print publishing in general but i was born in the '70s, which makes me officially old skool (apparently)! :)

Haven't seen it yet as my local DVD merchant's been tugged. :( For anyone interested in their own well-being get his you'll-soon-swear-by-it book Solitary Fitness. No matter what you think of the dude/ nutter that is Bronson, it puts many a health pro to shame.

I watched show 4 on iPlayer and wanted to like it... laugh even but you know: you simply can't polish a turd. i had more of a giggle with my badly ruptured hernia in King's last week. No wonder people refuse to pay their licence fee....