Suburbia

We were out cleaning the car today and our neighbours passed us by – “The Bi’s” without saying a word.

How well do you know your neighbours?

This isn’t my concern as to be honest I couldn’t care less about most of my neighbours. Richard did however help clear up the front porch of the old lady across the road as a fox had ripped open her bin bags…

Anyway this lead me to think about the neighbours we have and the names we secretly give them. Obviously the people we like haven’t been nick named – they are just neighbours (such as the old dear across the road).

I just wondered if anyone else labels their neighbours in such a manner?

What kind of names do we give our neighbours and why?

Here’s a brief run down of ours (some details have been omitted to protect the innocent!):

• The Bi’s Named because the man of the house keeps eyeing up Richard and has been seen in the garden on the phone playing with himself.
  The Bi’s are a strange household of northerners who think they are superior to everyone else and yet they are possibly one of the most dysfunctional families I have ever seen (in fact very much akin to modern families in the UK today)
• The Gothic Hand Maiden and the Invisible Man Both very odd characters. He never leaves the house. She is only seen very rarely. The nickname is not ours – it was on a NetFlix DVD that was posted in our door by mistake
• The Lebanese Surely this one needs no explanation, simple name for the two ladies who munch that live in the road.

Now I know that some people may have nicknames for us but I find it interesting we prefer to do such a think rather than actually meet and know people…

I am sure some of you know all your neighbours and are very neighbourly but are you really friends? Are you acquaintances? Would you have ever approached them if you didn’t happen to live in one anothers shadows?

I think the concept of neighbours is rapidly dying out in the UK (well until a TV camera is shoved in someones face following some incident).

As I sit here typing this, listening to the new Natalie Imbruglia album I cannot help but realise how different real life is to the Aussie soap!

What a farce!

It’s been a varied week this week, thankfully capped with a bank holiday.

My direct boss left on Friday so there were the usual hand overs, team lunches and goodbyes to contend with.

I attended the team lunch under some protest as we went to an Indian Curry House. I don’t eat spicy food and am allergic to tomatoes so for me this was torture. I should willing and went, ordering a Chicken Tikka and sharing my Directors spinach cheese dish only to be ill when I returned home that evening.

This pissed me off even more as I was already hacked off that my allergy was brushed aside so that we could instead go to a restaurant which pandered to my colleagues moral and religious beliefs.

Anyway my boss has left so I am staring into a new world (with no current replacement boss) on Tuesday.

Friday evening I attended another leaving party at the rather pretentious Corney and Barrow at St Pauls. I feel my Qype review just about summed the place up!

Typically the bank holiday weather is poor but it hasn’t stopped us getting out.

On a rain-soaked Saturday we travelled into the West End where we attended a production of Bedroom Farce. It’s a play based in the 70′s which features the lives of 4 couples. It’s quite mild and not much of a farce but we did enjoy it and appeared to laugh quite a lot.

Afterwards we caught up with some friends in the Ku Bar. I got plenty of ribbing for my meeting with Dillon but no where near as much as Richard as he bought an iPad the day before.

Our choice of restaurant was full so we took a chance and popped into Nando’s in Covent Garden. What a mistake that was! The service was dreadful. The waiters didn’t know where any of the tables were. Our food took 30 minutes to arrive and all arrived at different times. Two of our dishes went to a different table and when we’d finished we were asked if we had other food on the way. It was an absolute joke. I never did like Nando’s and this just reinforced my opinion.

It was fun in there but I am starting to feel like a middle-aged gay may (at 36!) as most of the guys look pre-pubescent! I don’t ever remember being that aware or fortunate at that age but I am pleased younger guys can do much these days. Although I am reminded by the documentaries Gareth Thomas has worked on that homophobia is still very prevalent in the UK today.

So yes Richard bought an iPad and even though I was reluctant it does have its uses. For one it’s great to own a computer which boots up instantly. The OS is nice too which gives me high hopes for the new iPhone. It’s also very fast. I cannot get use to the accelerometer in it though as it feels alien in such a big device.

I’ve been playing around with Robo.to and find it quite quirky. Basically it’s a micro site you set up so people can view all your online content in one place. I love the instant repeat videos (which work on iPhone) and the home screen icons which automatically create a photo icon of the user when saved (nice touch). Why not give it a go?

Trunkguy Candy has had a lot of interest and reblogs. Thanks for that! I decided to update Trunk Guy to reflect that new developments.

As featured on Trunk Guy Candy

I have not heard anything yet re my application of work to the Royal Academy’s’ Summer Exhibition. Hopefully I’ll find out sooner rather than later. Please keep everything crossed for me.

I write this on Sunday morning in the car as we head up to Charlecote Park. The weathers not great but it’s dry and our picnic is packed. I am sure there will be plenty of photos for you to view on our return.

Whatever you’re doing this weekend, have fun.

Easy Weekend

So it’s turned out to be a weekend where we have time to ourselves.

We had plans but sadly one of our friends was ill so it freed up the day.

It’s been very productive though. I have:

Reupholstered the dining room chairs
Sorted out the transition from Quicken Windows to iBank (100 times better) and (obviously) moved back into the world of blogging.

The latter will only remain if I convince myself the WordPress blog fits in with the look and feel of trunkguy.com. What do you think?

So why blog again? Well I think it’s more personal. It’s my space on the web. I am not conforming to Facebook pigeon holes (or have to). It also allows me to post more than allowed on Twitter.

There’s lots more I could say on the subject. Let’s just see how it goes.

I guess this is a vehicle (as it’s always been) to communicate with friends. They’ve been used to keeping abreast of my activity with the old blog and I took that away.

I realise not everyone has the desire to have a Twitter or FB account therefore this resurrection is enabling open access to “my world” again.

We have a number of friends who have just moved abroad and although I will miss them terribly I hope this helps bridge the geographical boundaries.

My handy work.