Food, glorious food

Here

....but we can't miss out our loyal gentlemen readers!

Beauty hints for the ladies....

The sounds of the great outdoors

Listen to, and learn about creepy crawlies at "Songs of Insects"

Irritating video

Look, I'm sorry OK? But I predict you'll be sitting next to someone on the Meto with it installed as a ringtone sometime soon!

Image resizing

OK, you're probably not interested, but I was SO impressed with this when I saw it that I had to put a link to it somewhere so I could watch it again.....and it might as well be here as anywhere!

All the worlds a (Northern) stage.........

Northern Stage presents

Our Friends In The North by Peter Flannery

Directed by Erica Whyman

Designed by Soutra Gilmour

Northern Stage presents the first ever revival of Peter Flannery’s Our Friends in the North, the play that inspired the hit television series. A magnificent chronicle of the 1960s and 70s in the North East of England, London and what was to become Zimbabwe, Our Friends in the North charts a devastating defeat of left wing aspirations. As the thirst for power fights it out with idealism, corruption takes root and a trail of victims is left in its wake.

Spanning two decades, the play sees this changing world through the hopes and temptations of Tosker, Mary, Geordie and Nicky, four young people from Newcastle whose lives take very different paths. Starring 14 performers playing 43 characters across 17 years, Our Friends in the North is a spectacular epic. It is also hugely pertinent this year as another era of left-wing power sets out to earn our trust.

The revival celebrates the play’s 25th anniversary and is the first ever production since it was originally produced by the RSC in 1982.

Sat 29 September - Sat 20 October at 7pm (except Sun) Sat 13 & Sat 20 October at 1.30pm

Northern Stage, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RH Telephone +44(0)191 230 5151 Email mailto:info@northernstage.co.uk?subject=Enquiry

A face from the past

Some of you might remember Lyz Oates....though she's Lizzie Lines these days. I was clearing out one of my seldom-used email accounts this morning and found a months-old email from her (nestling amongst the spam) with a link to her blog....everybody's at it these days! She and her partner Russell are building their own house in Diss, Norfolk.....so if you fancy reading something more substantial than the fare dished up here go to Vastu or Bust and read of their exploits and the progress of their eco-house. Above, Lizzie in her foundations!

Fashions 2000

Must have blinked and missed this lot!

Feline funny

I can relate to that! The artist just missed out one thing.....the human trampoline area. Imagine, if you will, a constantly shifting chalk outline on that bed (you know....the sort you see in TV crime scenes), locate the dead centre of the digestive tract of that chalky representaion (as in the PRECISE point that results in an involuntary OOOOF and jack-knifeing of the upper and lower body when impacted upon) and, lo and behold, that's where any cat worth it's salt will choose to tread/jump onto/bounce on it's inevitable progress to any other area mapped.

Oh, and something else worth remembering before you visit the local cat rescue shelter.....cats prefer to sleep 'nose to tail'.....that's YOUR nose, THEIR tail!!

Hot off the scientific press

Word from the scientists is that redheads may become extinct as early as 2060!
The current National Geographic magazine reports that less than two per cent of the world’s population has natural red hair, created by a mutation in northern Europe thousands of years ago.
Global intermingling, which broadens the availability of possible partners, has reduced the chances of redheads meeting and producing little redheads of their own.
If the gingers really want to save themselves they should move to Scotland. An estimated 40 per cent of Scots carry the red gene and 13 per cent actually have red hair.

Via Neatorama

The joys of parenthood.....

Two videos......

Thespian Thrills....

The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett

Sept 18th to 22nd Sepember, Peoples Theatre

"It’s 1974 and there are strange goings-on in a quiet, tree-lined street in Camden, London. An old homeless lady has parked up in her dilapidated camper van and is living in happy self-sufficiency. When the council instruct her to move on, a nearby resident invites her to roll the van into his garden. Little does he realise that she will stay there for the next fifteen years. Bizarre but true, this comedy-drama is based on the diary of Alan Bennett and his relationship with his very own bag-lady Miss Mary Shepherd, a well-educated, piano-playing ex-nun and would-be politician. In typical Bennett style this unlikely duo are both hilarious and moving as Mary takes up a unique place in the beleaguered writer's life for well over a decade."

Google has just made it much easier to embed an interactive map in a blog

So here's a first try.....

View Larger Map

So you thought American kids TV was bad....

....but things could be a whole lot worse! So you just take heed Sarah and Hails, Richard and Janet....and any of you younger folks that have a hankering for procreation for that matter....just ask yourselves, is it really worth it?
This is "Kure Kure Takora", loosely translated as "Gimme Gimme Octopus", who....
"can turn into anything from a dopey iguana to a vacuum cleaner to a guitar. His best-friend is the weak-willed squash Chonbo. While friends he has no problems leaving him for dead if he has to make a fast getaway. Like everyone else in the world, Kure Kure is in love with the fickle pink walrus Monro. His greatest fear is being doused with vinegar and being served as Sudako (pickled octopus)."
......and all of a sudden, the Teletubbies makes perfect sense!
Kure Kure Takora has it's very own Wikipedia entry. Read it.....you know you want to.
So ladies and gentlemen, take your seats and we'll dim the house lights........roll that camera Mr Projector man, it looks like it's going to be a long cold winter.......

via Neatorama

The Trouble with Women

Pretty pictures

Duck and Cover

On the same theme as the last post....I remembered I'd downloaded the above LP from the 365 Days Project a while ago, you might be interested in listening (if nothing else the 2nd track gives you a good idea of what the americans were eating in the 60's, and gives you a useful shopping list for 'food for 4 for 2 weeks!)

And then there's this.....Duck and Cover from YouTube

Wonder how many people built these in the States?

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

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