OCTOBER 31: THE BELMONT SHORE DOG PARADE AND COSTUME THINGY
AFTER five years of trying we finally made it to the doggy parade on Second Street. As this year's coincided with Hallow'en there were both kinds of costumes — Star Wars and slutty. So without further ado, here's some photos.
Easily the best costume of the day. But I bet he lost out to some kid in a crappy store-bought Twilight costume.
"WHERE MY BITCHES AT?"
There's a black pug suspended from the front of this... thing.
This dog is scaring the shit out of me.
WE'RE off to see Where The Wild Things Are. I've been waiting to see this for ages so expect some words about it later. And some video of last night's demolitions at the Irwindale Speedway.
OCTOBER 30: I STAND CORRECTED. I ALSO SIT, WALK AND RUN CORRECTED
TODAY I got an email from James concerning a factual error he spotted in the October 17 edition of Planet Mut. Obviously we here at Mut Towers were horrified to discover a mistake had been made and so are rushing out this special 12.46am issue to rectify the matter. Here's the email that caused all the trouble:
Mut,
Speaking of explosive food, you've reminded me that I've a bone to pick....ever the problem with nailing your colours to the mast with blogging but the world is full of critics.
Remember PM 17 Oct: 'What's that, Sarah? It's a conker? Oh bugger.'
Well 't ain't a conker...it's a sweet chestnut* and, frankly one of the joys of this time of year. They come off the trees in the woods by the bucket load and are pretty good eating — explosive if you forget to prick the skins with a knife but, once roasted, really good.
Roast by popping in a bit of foil and then dropping in the fire. Piccies attached.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Chestnut
And here are the piccies:
They do look good. Unfortunately, the joys of this time of the year are more along the lines of bright orange, massively over-processed sweets. I'll take the chestnuts any day.
OCTOBER 29: FUN WITH CORN
THIS is an ear of strawberry Indian corn. I got some while we were buying our pumpkin last night as I want to take macro shots of it, but then I saw the label:
"Whole ears may be popped in microwave"? I didn't need to be told twice...
Note the debris from the practice run and my utter inability to find the microwave's start button after I turn the light off. And it doesn't taste too bad, either.
OCTOBER 27: U2 LIVE AT THE ROSE BOWL II
TWO more U2 vids from Sunday night's concert. No, I'm not putting the Black Eyed Peas on here. If you want to commit the equivalent of genital mutilation on your ears and eyes by watching that crap you'll have to wait for Planet Ev to launch.
OCTOBER 26: U2 LIVE AT THE ROSE BOWL
EV FILMED this last night at the U2 concert in Pasadena. She also recorded some Black Eyed Peas performances so it looks like I'll have to steam-clean the Flip to remove the taint of suckage from it. Still, enjoy "The Unforgettable Fire", which is one of U2's best songs and light years ahead of the pants they're producing these days. More to come soon.
OCTOBER 25: POSTCARDS FROM THE FRIDGE
MY GOOD friend Sarah (she of the hazelnut hunt) and I have been exchanging postcards for the best part of a year now. There's no special reason for it, it's just something we do. We began by trying to send each other the tackiest postcards possible (I easily won with the sparkly Tinkerbell card) but then I got hold of some unused vintage 50s and 60s cards at one of the "antique" stores on the Orange Circle. Here's the one I just sent:
The Los Angeles International Hotel, with its 650 heated, air-conditioned and soundproof rooms, its coffee shop, three cocktail lounges and dining rooms, its Penthouse Restaurant and parking for 2,000(!) cars must have been popular with travellers in the 60s, especially as it's about two blocks from LA International Airport, or LAX as it's now known. The postcard's reverse side included its address and I decided to look it up on Google Maps. What would this impressive landmark look like now?
Oh, it's a giant car park. Somehow I'm not surprised.
OCTOBER 24: LANDING AT LOS ANGELES
OCTOBER 23: I'M APPLYING FOR A NEW JOB
DEAR British Airport Administration: I would like to apply for the post of Carry-On Luggage Screener at Terminal 3 of Heathrow Airport. I believe I have the skills necessary to be top notch at this job:
1. I am an officious prick.
2. I am more than capable of standing around doing feck all.
3. I can be a patronising twat to regular people or an insufferable arsekisser to anyone who seems remotely superior/richer/more intelligent than me. I am capable of switching between these modes at the sight of a pair of Gucci sunglasses or Rolex watch.
4. I enjoy being a bastard.
5. I am a firm believer in doing a job properly and am happy to take my time examining the contents of a person's rucksack if I think it will make them miss their flight.
6. As a patriotic Briton I believe it is my duty to protect the UK from terrorism and will unselfishly volunteer to physically examine any pretty teenage girl required of me.
7. I am not fluent in any of the five official Heathrow languages (Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi, Tamil and Pashto) and unfortunately I am unwilling to go on a course to learn one of them as this might make passengers' lives easier.
8. If an opportunity to chat to my colleagues arises, I will immediately take it instead of dealing with the backlog of luggage that has built up thanks to me standing around doing feck all for the past 10 minutes.
Finally, as I am the last person on the planet who should be given any kind of authority whatsoever, I believe I am perfect for this post.
Yours sincerely,
Mut.
I TOOK this one at about 7am on October 14 from my parents' back garden. I love the sky when it's like this. It looks like the sun's shining through a sheet of grey silk.
OCTOBER 19: BOOKS, FOOD, RANDOM STUFF, THANKS AND GOODNIGHT
EV, I HAVE no idea how this happened but on the way to Safeway I somehow acquired five more books. I can only assume I've been sleep-bookbuying again. Remember that big grey suitcase I was supposed to leave here? I might have to will be bringing it back.
It was during my trip to Safeway to get more chocolate for friends that I browsed the meat counter and found such classic British cuts of meat as these:
Now I realise that the idea of eating, say, lambs' hearts or ox tail or pig kidneys might make some of you Yanks chuck, but I'd take them over the focus-grouped-out-of-existence bullseye of blandness that is Slack Anus. In case you're wondering how the hell you cook lamb's heart, there's a recipe here.
I ALSO had the huge privilege of taking Roxy out. Roxy is a manic five-month-old black Labrador that belongs to Becky's cousin and as Ev is a massive fan of Labradors I jumped at the chance to not only walk her, but take millions of photos.
Flynn hands Becky the Sacred Bag of Poo.
And it's my last night here. Christ, I hate them. I was supposed to meet James for a quick Coke tonight but I don't feel 100% and do not want to risk ending up sick as a parrot and praying for death over Wyoming like I did last time so I begged off. So I'm sitting in front of the PC feeling depressed, lonely and tired and wishing I could have a few more days with the family... then a few more... then a few more... But I have to go back to the USA and at least I can look forward to coming home again in May.
Now for the roll of honour: to Flynn and Becky for the movie, Chinese food and Roxy the nutjob Labrador; Sarah for the fantastic day out hunting hazelnuts and for thinking of the Bengal Lounge for dinner; Nikki for letting a couple of people she hadn't seen for 10 years sit in her kitchen and rabbit on for hours; Blunty for going to Penarth and Witley Court with me, and for the advice on photography (not that I listened); mum and dad for putting up with me, cooking, running around and laundry; James for somehow managing to keep his eyes open during brekkies at the Royal; Paul and Louise for Sunday lunch; Lisa for the dinner and endless coffees; and to our taxi driver for turning up at 5am a week early and giving me a good laugh.
MOST of all I'd like to thank little Siān Rose for being the perfect sprog. She's always happy, smiling and pleasant and made my trip complete. I'm going to miss her terribly and it's odd knowing that next time I see her she'll be walking and talking. And with that, I'm off to bed.
OCTOBER 19: DORMICE, DRAGONS, CIDER, HAZELNUTS, AND CREAM TEA (PART II)
WELCOME back. After phoning Sarah at 8am to find out exactly what we did after leaving the Dean Heritage Centre, I'm now able to bore the crap out of you again.
We decided to drive around for a bit to see the sights, although we kept in mind at all times that we were in the Forest and therefore the further in we went the louder the banjos would get. If we were waylaid by a marauding gang of Cinderford chavs they'd probably make her a member of the tribe and gangbang me to death. With such cheery thoughts in our minds Sarah decided to drive down a dead-end lane where I spotted this:
I love worn-out, run-down and general industrial decay so Sarah kindly pulled over and I risked my life to jump out and take some photos.
After that short interlude we drove on and realised we were near the village of Newnham on Severn near the Severn Estuary — in other words, miles from where we wanted to be. By this point we'd given up on dormice and hazelnuts and Sarah had the brilliant idea* of going to Broome Farm near Ross.
So Rossward we headed, back through Cinderford, on to the Hereford road and down a narrow country lane. For the Americans reading this, yes this road is two-way. I'd never heard of Broome Farm so Sarah filled me in on the details. Broome Farm is famous for three things:
1. Llamas.
2. Cider.
3. Cream teas. Unfortunately, they've stopped doing cream teas til Easter so Ev, we're coming here in May. Sarah went in search of cider to buy while I had a free sample of apple juice as I'm a total wimp (one sniff of the barmaid's apron and I'm anyone's). Then we set off to have a look around, starting with the big barn where the apples are sorted and turned into mush for the fermenting process.
After checking out the cider-making process we set off on a walk around the orchard.
PIGGIES!
These porkers were the perfect end to a great day out. Wait, no they weren't — the Indian meal at the Bengal Lounge was.
*This is not sarcasm.
OCTOBER 19: PIGGIES!
OCTOBER 18: EV'S GOING TO KILL ME (AGAIN)
I PICKED these up for £15 at the second-hand book stall in the market. I think I might have a problem involving buying books. Well, not a problem buying them, I'm an expert at that, I mean a problem buying too many books. Oooo good, another psychological problem. Just what I need.
OCTOBER 17: DORMICE, DRAGONS, CIDER, HAZELNUTS, AND CREAM TEA (PART I)
THIS has to be a quickie (fnarr fnarr) as Sarah's picking me up for brekkies soon and I've got a shedload of pics to Photoshop. It's also going to be a three-part two-part update as me and Sarah did and saw so bloody much yesterday that I need a week just to go through the 630 photos I took.
Our basic plan of action was to head to Monmouth in a desperate effort to find me a new Wales baseball cap (we failed) and then shoot off to the Forest of Dean in search of dormice and hazelnut shells. Why were we looking for dormice and hazelnut shells? There's a big project here in the UK to map the distribution of dormice and one way of finding them is to look for hazelnut shells and they way they've been eaten; if the shell has a hole that makes it look like a fairy clog then you're on the right track. Filled with this knowledge and some of Waitrose's finest sarnies we headed off in search of nuts and very scientifically chose the first layby we saw to carry out our nut hunt. Well, I say "we", I really mean Sarah as I was too busy taking pics.
If you look closely, in the background you can just about see the boots of the Lesser Spotted Weston Hobbit.
Success! What's that, Sarah? It's a conker? Oh bugger.
With no sign of fairy clogs or dormice (the lucky little buggers spend three-quarters of their lives asleep) we got back in the car and drove off through the forest, doing our best to not get lost. We passed the Dean Heritage Centre and decided to have a quick look.
Ev, when we get a house I'm buying this, painting it red and putting it on the front lawn.
Attracted by the sound of petrol engines we headed to the opposite end of the car park for a look. A group of men were carving statues out of treetrunks with chainsaws, so it was out with the camera once again...
I thought this was a red squirrel until I noticed the horns, cloven hooves and wings.
Ev, when we get a house I'm buying this, painting it red and putting it on the back lawn.
After a good look at the chainsaw wielders we hopped back into Sarah's car and headed off for further adventures. Trouble is, I'm finishing this update about 12 hours after I started it and I'm so knackered I can't remember where we went next. But tune in again to find out!
OCTOBER 16: EV'S GOING TO KILL ME
FIVE of these books cost the princely sum of three quid. The other five cost a total of £31.50. Now Ev, love, I know what you're thinking — you're thinking, "I'm going to rip his nads off and feed them to Emric for buying 10 new books when he's got a backlog of more than 150". But before you advance on me with the garden shears, Ev, take a second to consider this: 10 books at £34.50 means I got each book for only £3.45. Surely, Ev, you have to agree that that's a great price? And I did get you a Witley Court fridge magnet...
OCTOBER 15/16: WITLEY COURT
IT RAINED, it poured, and for all I know the old man snored. After five days of pretty outstanding weather someone somewhere suddenly remembered this is Britain in October and turned on the water. Still, it made for some atmospheric shots at Witley Court and some pretty bloody interesting driving conditions on the M5.
I took a total of 529 photos on this trip, burning through about 12 gigs' worth of SD cards. Amazingly my ten-dollar knockoff battery lasted the entire day, proving once again that if you pay $50 for a Canon battery you're insane. Anyway, this morning I got that 529 pics down to about 100 and then down to about 80. So sit back, relax and enjoy the phenomenal amount of copying and pasting I had to do to put 'em on here. As always, if there's a red arrow at the top right corner it means click the pic for the bigger version.
I'm taking the car back to Hereford in a min, but I will annotate some of these pics when I get back. On a personal note, I am well happy with them; they are some of the best photos I've ever taken.
OCTOBER 16: JAMIE, THIS IS A FRY-UP
CLOCKWISE from left: fried bread, fried egg, blob of HP Sauce, fried bacon, fried mushrooms. Not pictured: tea, toast and orange juice.
OCTOBER 15: TASTE TEST — DONOR KEBAB POT NOODLE (AT 5AM)
A POT NOODLE might not be everyone's idea of a good healthy breakfast, but as I'm not a good healthy person I didn't think it would make much difference. This little beauty caught my eye in Safeway Morrison's the other day. Donor kebab flavour? And only 90p? I spy and easy update. Only thing is, I didn't think I'd be making it at 5am. I also didn't think I'd video it and put it on YouTube, but there you are.
There you are: the whole complicated process in three minutes. And the taste? The chili sauce overwhelms just about everything (which in the case of a Pot Noodle is possibly a good thing) but what I could sense of the flavour it's not too bad, with a hint of mint and a definite taste of lamb. Shame it looks horrendous:
As we all know, donor kebabs originated in Greece. Trouble is, the Greeks don't eat them, they tie them around the necks of lepers so they can smell them coming. Credit is due to Pot Noodle for keeping up this fine Hellenic tradition.
BLUNTY and me made it to Witley Court. The weather was shite for the first time since I landed but that didn't stop us from having a good look around and taking literally trillions of photos. Well maybe not trillions, but I took 529 so close. I wanted to edit and put them online tonight but as I can't keep my eyes open at the mo I think I'll leave it until I inevitably wake up at 5am.
OCTOBER 14: PENARTH PIER
ON WEDNESDAY I headed down to Blunty's place in South Wales and the pair of us took our camera gear to Penarth Pier, just outside Cardiff. I haven't seen him in two years (Blunty, not the pier) and we had a good time taking pics, comparing techniques and discussing the relative merits of ISO numbers and f-stops. Well he did, I just nodded and made it seem like I knew what he was talking about.
And as Blunty's due here in an hour to go to Witley Court in Worcestershire, I'm going to shut up and get on with the photos.
Me and Blunty shadowed on the sea.
Berk and camera in perfect harmony.
Then we spotted the doggie...
I must have taken about 80 shots of this dog. It was the first real test of my 75-200mm lens and it did a pretty good job of getting in close.
And we end with this beautiful black labrador.
OCTOBER 13: HAMPTON COURT GARDENS (CAUTION: SHITLOAD OF PHOTOS AHEAD)
NO, NOT the one near London. This Hampton Court is near Leominster, only a couple of miles down the road from Queenswood, and is about 100 years older than its more famous namesake. I'd never heard of it until Monday night when I spotted it on Google Earth. After picking up some supplies at Safeway, consulting my dad's 1987 map of Herefordshire and saying hello to Cressida the crab spider I set off for the wilds of the west Midlands. And I'm bloody glad I did.
I was only going to look around the gardens but as this place actually lets you take photos inside (and use a flash!) I opted for the guided tour, which set me back all of £9. I had about 45 mins before the tour so I set off to look around. The gardens are stunning and I somewhat predictably went apeshit with the camera.
The pale blob with the Swiss Army watch is my hand, which is there for scale. I was scared that this Triffid-like thing would bite it off.
Once through the gardens you come to the back of the house and its immense lawn and magnificent trees.
By this point a large group had gathered to wait for the tour guide so I wandered over. I think I was the youngest one there by about 20 years. Our tour guide Jill arrived and we were off.
The tour lasted about 45 minutes and we were back on the lawn. I did debate heading home but then thought "bugger it", put the macro lens on my T1i and headed back to the gardens.
The mental process behind this photo: "Don't move... click click... don't move... click click... don't OH BUGGER IT."
After burning through a two-gig SD card in the flower gardens I headed for the sunken gardens. I could almost here my lens saying, "Oh shit, here we go again."
By the time I started home I'd wiped out two batteries and my other four-gig SD card. Hope you like the pics. Now it's time to hit the shower and head to Blunty's. Coming soon: Another video of Siān and a taste test on an old fave.
OCTOBER 12: QUEENSWOOD ARBORETUM
TODAY was "pick up the car day" so off to Enterprise in Hereford to see what I could get. I wanted something small as there's only me but ended up with an Astra SXi after a free upgrade. The ceiling's lower than the Mini's so I keep smacking my head but the car doesn't half shift. And, as I discovered while sitting in a layby eating an Asda all-day breakfast sarnie, it even comes with a bright yellow crab spider:
Scared the shit out of me. I think Cressida, as I named her, is living under the handbrake. Anyway, after hiring the car mum suggested I go to Alanwood Arboretum as it would be great for photos. "It's just up the road," she told me, "before you get to Leominster. It's about six miles." Sounds easy, so off I set. I had no problems driving on the correct side of the road again except for one junction where I nearly crossed the road to turn left. Oops. On the way I passed some stunning scenery:
As I drove on through the beautiful Herefordshire countryside it began to dawn on me that I'd gone a bloody sight further than six miles and was in fact on the outskirts of Ludlow with no sign of Alanwood. I turned around and headed back to Hereford when I spotted a place called Queenswood. So I stopped and went for a look around. It really is gorgeous.
I had a go at doing a hand-held panoramic shot, which turned out pretty well:
I got back to the parents' at about four. "Oh that's right," said mum when I told her, "it is called Queenswood." Stone me. I announced I was off for a nap as I'd been up since 5am. Trouble is I woke up at 1am, which is why I'm doing this update at 4am while wondering if I can actually get back to sleep without the help of alcohol and painkillers.
OCTOBER 12: PLEASE LET ME SLEEP TOMORROW
I AWOKE bright and early this morning at five past five. Arse. I couldn't get back to sleep so I read more of Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It's one of those books that I've heard loads about, read the hype but for some reason never really fancied until I picked it up as part of a two-for-one offer at Barnes & Noble. I'm glad I did as I'm thoroughly enjoying it and can't wait til the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire, is out in paperback.
OCTOBER 11: GET WITH THE PROGRAM!
IT'S COME to my attention that some people (ie Ev and Flynn) are wondering why there are black boxes where I said I was enjoying the view while flying over America. If you're puzzled by this, bear in mind I was on an overnight flight.
WENT to sunny Gloucester with Flynn and Becky to see Zombieland. It didn't quite live up to the hype but is still a bloody funny and gory film. Well worth the seven quid to get in.
OCTOBER 11: THERE'S GOING TO BE A LOT OF THESE SIĀN UPDATES, SO GET USED TO 'EM
"If that flash fires once more I'm going to stick that camera where the sun don't shine."
OCTOBER 11: IN THE IMMORTAL WORDS OF ROBERT SMITH, LET'S GO FOR A WALK
MY WALK was pretty good. Wrapped up in a T-shirt, shirt, jacket, jeans, Doc Martens and a woolly hat I braved the 50-degree temperature and found it to be pretty bloody nice. The air smells of damp grass and soil, the breeze is refreshing and the sky has some character to it. So before I fall asleep again here's some photos.
MUM'S cooking Sunday dinner. Dad's looking after Sian, or it could be that Sian is looking after dad. The house smells of roast lamb, roast spuds, cabbage, parsnips, peas, gravy and mint sauce. It's a boring Sunday afternoon with the parents and I'm loving every minute of it.
OCTOBER 11: IT'S 6AM BUT NOT TO MY BRAIN
JET lag sucks. I went to bed five or so hours ago and was out like a light until my brain kicked in and said, "Wake up, you lazy bastard, it's ten at night". Shit. So as I wait for the sun to come up so I can take my annual early-morning walk, here's some random notes I took during the flight, starting with a video of taking off from LAX last night.
Plane is full of short Korean women. I keep having to help them put their bags in the overhead compartments
Shit, I forgot to pick up Lou's fags at the embarkation point
Just spent 20 minutes fighting my way off plane to get Lou's cigs. Helped about 11 Korean women on the way
Pilot is saying we should land 55 minutes(!!) early
Just followed my ancient tradition of setting my watch to UK time .
Dinner is chicken and rice, although that description probably wouldn't hold up in a court of law
I do not fecking believe it — my reading light doesn't work. This is just taking the piss
I am farting in a way that can only be described as "prolific"
Thinking about getting a new watch on duty free. It's $98. Then again, $98 is a lot of second-hand books
But overnight flights are not all about breaking wind and seething at the lack of light. There's also some stunning scenery to look at and luckily I was at a window seat.
For example, here's the San Bernardino mountains.
The rugged beauty of Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park.
The endless sands of the San Rafael Desert.
The entire state of Wyoming.
The timeless majesty of the Pacific Ocean.
As the sun appears to be rising I'm going to wrap up in my warmest Hawaiian shirt and go for a walk. Later!
OCTOBER 10: GUESS WHO GOT NICKED BY HER MAJESTY'S CUSTOMS & EXCISE? YEP, ME.
YOU are looking at what is possibly the most expensive carton of Lambert & Butler fags in the UK, possibly even the world. My sis asked me to get her 1,000 cigs (cost: $150) and her boyfriend a kilo of rolling tobacco (cost: $95) at the duty-free store in LAX. Being the wonderful brother I am, I agreed to do it as long as Lou actually paid me back.
After landing in London I shot through immigration, picked up my luggage and made for the great outdoors. Then I heard the fateful words of an officer of HM Customs & Excise: "Excuse me, sir, would you mind stepping over here?"
Arse. I first thought it was a random check, then I wondered if they wanted to check my camera gear, then I realised the truth... they'd spotted the bag of 1,000 fags and a key of baccy hanging off my trolley.
Oh dear.
See, the limit for ciggies is 200 and the limit for tobacco is 250g. (Not that I actually knew that). So I had five times the permissible number of cigs, and four times the allowed amount of baccy. And to make matters worse, you can bring in one or the other, not both. Oh, and one other thing: I had confidently walked down the "Nothing To Declare" channel, meaning in legal terms I was lying and as far as HM C&E is concerned, I knew I was lying.
Oh dear, oh dear.
The officer was very polite and explained everything to me. I thought I'd be able to pay the extra duty until I found out it was two hundred quid for the fags alone. Then he allowed me to keep one carton of 200 cigs but the rest would have to be destroyed. It dawned on me that they thought I was bringing the stuff in for my own personal use, so I managed to shovel a couple of references to my sister into the conversation, as well as the fact that I'd chucked fags well over two years ago. In the immortal words of Big Vern, I'm takin' you wiv me, slaaaag!
After filling out a couple of forms that spent a very large amount of words to tell me I'd been a naughty boy and that if I did it again I'd be banged up, I was allowed to go on my way, pushing my trolley and clutching the saved carton of Lamberts which is going to cost my sis the best part of £150. And it will, oh yes it will.
BABY Siān is growing bigger all the time and is just gorgeous. She can crawl faster than a PT Cruiser can accelerate and is either happy, very happy or cute. I have been scaring her with my shaved head and metallic smile but I think she's warming to me. And I'll do the flight update tomorrow, complete with video.
OCTOBER 8: GOING HOME
MY BAGS are packed, my passport, ticket and green card are ready, my taxi (Ev) is sorted and I just have one more day before I fly back to Britain for 10 days. Ironically it's the thing that caused my depression — the redesign of the paper — that got me the time off; my editor allowed me to have it in reward for doing the work. Still, mustn't complain as it means I get to see the family and baby Siān again.
But it'll be an odd trip for two reasons. One, Ev can't come as she doesn't have any time off left (in the worker's paradise that is America, you only get 10 days off... and yet people think they're lucky) so I'll be going on my own. This is the first time I've been home alone and it's going to be strange without her there. I don't know what she's more worried about — the plane crashing or how much damage I'm going to inflict on our bank balance.
The second reason is that I haven't experienced a British October since 2003. I can't really remember what they're like. I'm hoping for lots of yellow/brown/red leaves, crisp evenings, misty days and some rain, but knowing my luck it'll piss down the entire time I'm there. And it'll be dark by five in the afternoon. But who cares, I'm going home.
OCTOBER 7: THE PORN MIX
OCTOBER 5 7: THE LA COUNTY FAIR (UPDATE DELAYED DUE TO CRAPPY FTP PROGRAM)
THE Los Angeles County Fair was everything I expected it to be — packed to the gills with white trash, teenage hobags, all manner of fried foods and $4 bottles of water. But seeing how I'm knackered and the laundry's almost done I'll STFU and let the camera do the talking...
Ev bought some deep-fried Oreos, so, not to be outdone...
... Shelly bought some chocolate-covered bacon.
Here it is. Note the small sachet of salt in case chocolate-covered bacon isn't unhealthy enough for you.
Thank Christ, a Pink's. Now for some decent food.
Two chilli dogs? That'll do nicely.
There you have it. I'm off to bed.
OCTOBER 4: SOME RANDOM PHOTOS
WHY didn't I take my other lenses? I ended up lumbered with the crappy 18-55mm one that came with my T1i. The fact they give the lens away for free should have told me something. It's nice to have a wider lens but the image stabilisation doesn't really seem to make any difference and it's about as sharp as Courtney Love. Note to self: leave the 28-105mm on next time.
OCTOBER 1: TASTE TEST — STARBUCKS “VIA” INSTANT COFFEE
STARBUCKS make instant coffee now? That's a tad odd coming from the company that's the acme of hipster cool. These freebie samples were left on our desks one morning (I'm assuming by the Starbucks Pixie) and I've just got around to trying mine.
Here's a steaming mug of "Via". It's nice to see that Starbucks is keeping up its tradition of using Italian words in silly ways. And the taste? See, the problem I have with Starbucks is that while the lattes are great, their basic coffee is bloody awful — way too bitter with a nasty aftertaste. And Via tastes much the same. Why couldn't they have done an instant version of Komodo Dragon?
