ABC Wednesday - S

So here are my pics for the letter 'S' - The mighty Status Quo!


This is the usual line up when playing Gerdundula just before they play each other's guitars like this

I will admit to having stolen these photos from Rocky Road on FLICKR as they are so much better than the ones I have taken at Quo gigs. (see what I mean? I guess the difference is between indoor and outdoor lighting)


I get so much stick from my friends and family when I attend an annual Quo gig at the end of the year, but I think they are fantastic entertainment value and as long as they are still touring, I will still go.

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What a weird weekend of weather

I suppose we should have expected it as it was a Bank Holiday!
Saturday started very damp and windy, but although the wind continued, the afternoon was very hot and sunny. Enough to tempt me and Mrs DeeJay to perform the dreaded weeding of the allotment where they were trying to stifle the poor seeds that are just shooting (cabbage, broad bean, dwarf bean, beetroot and carrot. The six rows of potatoes are coming on a treat as are the raspberries, gooseberries and rhubarb (some of which we pulled and stewed on Saturday). we also followed that with some garden clearance and grass cutting before resting for an hour, admiring our handiwork with a gin and tonic.

Sunday also started wet but cleared well enough for me to play golf in the afternoon. It was then that I realised just how much rain we had over the Friday and Saturday nights with a veritable lake across the third fairway with ducks swimming on it. I wish I had my camera with me.

Yesterday was another story - a complete washout! So I managed to spend some time practising my guitar playing which seems to be stuck in a bit of a rut at the moment so I have challenged myself to find a number that I will learn all the way through. Favourite, although maybe a little challenging towards the end is Throw Down The Sword by Wishbone Ash. I have just rediscovered them when I uncovered one of their albums in my collection that I haven't played for ages.

By the way did I tell you that I have been having acupuncture treatment?
I have been suffering quite badly with sinusitis and rhinitis since the beginning of the year and nothing my GP has given me has worked. 6 weeks ago I went to a local Chinese herbalist and acupuncturist and completed a 6 week course on Saturday. The improvement is quite marked and I am going to persevere with a second course which according to Dr Susan Sun will be a complete cure and also will have strengthened my Chi which according to her was low. Who am I to argue about something I know nothing about - I simply know that it seems to be working for me

ABC Wednesday - R

R is for RX8 - this is my baby (well actually one of two as my other one is my motorcycle but more of that in 4 weeks time)

And here again with several of his cousins at a track day


For those of you not into boy's toys, here are a couple of pretty pictures
R is for RUSSETT

or perhaps R is for REEF on our holiday to The Maldives

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New week Post

A pleasant but not a particularly eventful weekend.
I was lucky with the weather on Friday afternoon when I played my first golf match so far this year - and narrowly lost thanks to my opponent's lucky 40+ foot putt from off the green!!

Good weather allowed me to tend the allotment on Sunday where all six rows of potatoes are now showing good signs of growth, onions and shallots are well above ground and some of the seeds that I sowed a week or so ago are appearing. - I bet this morning's frost gave them a shock though. Frost in the 3rd week of May - what is going on!!
I also gave the lawns at home a really good cut (including the edges courtesy of Mrs DeeJay) and they are looking immaculate this year thanks to the Green Thumb treatment that I mentioned some weeks ago.

Poor old JT didn't fare so well at the Le Mans Moto GP this weekend where he left the track in a very ungainly manner. The race was fantastic though with many battles going on. Is it me or are these guys riding harder than ever this year?
I managed to find some time to ride mine this weekend and have used it for work again today. Its great to be able to get out on it again after the horrible winter. This Wednesday the bike club that I belong to have our annual Fish & Chip ride out starting at a dealer's in Folkestone and ending at our usual Fish & Chip shop on the south coast with some superb roads in between.

History mystery

I haven't seen this for a long time and thought I would share it with those who have never seen it before.
I am not sure how entirely accurate it is because looking at Wikipedia it disagrees with John Wilkes Booth's birth date by 1 year. But hey its still pretty spooky!


Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird.

Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.


John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.'
Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln' made by 'Ford.'

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here's the kicker...

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe , Maryland
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

Creepy huh?

ABC Wednesday - Q

QUEER VEGETABLES!



As Mrs Nesbitt rightly comments, Q is a difficult one
However, I know this is cheating a little but I thought they are such fun.

Another one that is not so obscure

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ABC Wednesday - P

How appropriate that this is where the hotel is that I am staying in this week - Potsdammer Platz, Berlin. One taken outside but the other from the inside of the spectacular Sony Centre

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The business trip to forget!

I have a meeting in Berlin tomorrow and Thursday that I would not have been able to get to on time if I left tomorrow morning, so I decided to go a bit earlier today and get some sightseeing in this afternoon as I have never visited Berlin before.
I left home at 06:30 this morning and at the time I was supposed to be landing in Berlin I was still in London.
As we were about to take off this morning the pilot performed an emergency stop on the taxi way as there was a flood of aviation fuel pouring from one of the wing tanks.
A troupe of firefighters led us from the plane and several hours later we boarded a plane to Munich where we then had to wait for a connection to Berlin. -- I arrived at 6 p.m. this evening - so much for the sightseeing!

To top it all I then realised that I had forgotten my security device that allows me to input realtime security codes to access my email etc via VPN, so I then spent 30 minutes on the phone to the helpdesk to get some emergency access. It was a good job I did as I already had over 100 new emails since Friday (what with Monday being a Bank Holiday in the UK) who knows how many it would have been up to by the time I get home on Friday.