BadComrade wrote:I drank a $14 bottle of Lindemans Framboise:

Cripes, you can get the same bottle of that stuff for $4.04 in Asda over here! Although Asda is unfortunately owned by Walmart. But all the same - You can get that for $6 in several bars here! $14 = ouch.

I have the hiccups.

They won't stop.

It is annoying me, and amusing my co-workers.

Last night, Thax Douglas complimented me on the design on my sweatshirt. I nodded appreciatively and repeated the mantra: "snakes on a motherfuckin' plane, man" to him. Recognition struck his face and he confessed that he had forgotten all about that movie...

dontfeartheringo wrote:What about people like me? Will someone put out a little white question mark if I die beside the road?

+1. The question marks are a good idea. (The dying beside the road less so.) How about an exclamation point?

I am writing this in the Camden Tup, wondering how much colder this weather can get - outside, I feel like someone is cutting my face.

I went to a wedding in the Forest of Dean near the border with Wales on Saturday. It was huge, expensive and in a castle. Very great in the main, though I did not enjoy going to a church service for the first time in two years for the blessing; felt curiously angry, which is my own problem.

The best part was the end of the evening, which I spent in the bar of my neighbouring hotel, chatting with a trio of Welshmen, the two best friends and brother of my friend the groom. I cannot get across how funny they were; they had all known each other for 20 years and had this unconscious code in speaking and generally ripping the piss out of each other. I really wish I could have recorded the conversation, as the language and delivery were outstanding. Emyr, the best man, described a typical wedding in their hometown as such:

"You'd be happy if you found a shit in the corner."

This sounds a lot, lot better in his voice.

Herman the Landlord sent a cheery process server to our door this morning to deliver a poorly-composed missive announcing his intention to evict us.

Thanks to his resolute inability to understand clearly written and publicly available information, this act sets the stage for a now-annual ritual in which Herman demands a hearing at the Régie de logement (the Quebec rental board), where he arrives with no documentation of any kind and is lectured sternly by the administrative judge and told that we are right and can stay in our apartment for as long as we like. At which he gets tremendously angry and stomps out of the hearing in a fat-fingered flurry of black gabardine.

I will admit to more than a little schaden in my freude at Herman's flailing around with basic landlord skillz. The guy knows little of how the world works because he's from a community where the men are raised do the important stuff (spend all day in yeshiva) and the women do the extra stuff (handle financial affairs and speak decent French). This community has recently become the focus of unpleasant and ignorant media coverage, and I frequently find myself defending their right to look weird, act funny and coexist with the communities around them on their own terms.

I would think, however, that someone who has spent much of his life learning how to parse complex texts and understand how the law frames his actions would find it worthwhile to read the Quebec Civil Code, before spending a third of a million dollars to purchase part of a crumbling triplex currently inhabited by smartasses who research this kind of shit for a living.

burun wrote:I have the hiccups.

They won't stop.

It is annoying me, and amusing my co-workers.

sound clips?

Benny wrote:

burun wrote:I have the hiccups.

They won't stop.

It is annoying me, and amusing my co-workers.

sound clips?

You need to put your fingers in your ears and get someone to feed you a pint of water. Drink as much as you can take, before pausing for a breath.

Works every time! Promise.

I just spent my lunch break reading this.

Ever since my pal Paul told me about this, I have been intrigued.




Yes, I know it isn't real, but I wish it were.

burun wrote:I just spent my lunch break reading this.

Ever since my pal Paul told me about this, I have been intrigued.




Yes, I know it isn't real, but I wish it were.

All you have to do is walk three blocks from my front door to get an awesome burrito.

When will you be visiting?

Ben