today i...

The final Ashes Test 2009 - get on Cricket World TV

2009-08-20T02:17:00.001-07:00

visit Cricket World TV and see some very funky office chairs upholstered in the England and Australia colours. Freddie Flintoff owns one of these...if that's not an endorsement of all things cricket then I'm out for a duck.

Which reminds me, I am playing in the High Legh Village Cricket match this Sunday - let's see if I play like a girl.

http://twitter.com/cazimaloo
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=504307969&ref=nf

Michael Jackson - really very good of him...

2009-06-26T03:45:00.000-07:00

It was really very good of Michael Jackson to pop his moonwalking clogs pre next month's London shows. After all, the stress of doing 50 at 50 at the o2 with any existing medical condition would have meant almost certain death during a performance anyway. Can you imagine the scenes of thousands of traumatised MJ fans clammering on stage to 'get a closer look', to touch their hero, to get photos of them with him while he takes his last breath. It would be sick and someone always takes things too far - his body would probably have ended up cryogenically frozen, immortalized in someone's bedroom.

Is India running America?

2009-01-07T06:47:00.000-08:00

Is India running America?

To be continued...

What makes a place 'Bohemian'?

2009-01-07T05:26:00.000-08:00

What makes a place 'Bohemian'?

Lets start with the ever reliable, good old Wikipedia: 'The term "Bohemian" as related to Bohemianism – i.e. describing the untraditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished artists, writers, musicians, and actors in major European cities – has little or nothing to do with the above (description of Bohemian as the term used to describe people of Czechoslovakia), though, often leading to confusion.' Confusion indeed. This question came about when one Restaurant's website described Didsbury, South Manchester as 'Bohemian'. As a resident of Didsbury, I immediately rebelled, reading it out to my office because they were really very interested. It turns out that me following this up with, 'Didsbury is full of chain pubs, there are no independent places at all, it's hardly bohemian!' was a step too far for one Didsbury bubble dweller. I did exaggerate, I'll admit, but if driving through Didsbury village you will see Costa, Slug & Lettuce, Fellucini's, Varsity, Cafe Rouge, O'Neills and Pizza Express so the main thoroughfare proves my point. However, venture down the side roads and it proves Mr Bubbles' point, that there are lots of independent places. He's right. Which begged the question, why does Didsbury seem so utterly lacking in the bohemian lifestyle? Quite simply, the clientele is trying too hard. Trying too hard to be seen in the independent bars and restaurants away from the riff-raff of the chain pub. What is clear in Didsbury is that the punters in Chain or Independent are exactly the same, except one is drinking 'chain' lager, the other is drinking bubbling goblin cider. So, it's the people that make it bohemian and the Didsbury population at large is far from impoverished, marginalized, bohemian. Lets try elsewhere.

Tesco's work plastic fashion

2008-07-23T00:39:00.000-07:00

I couldn't be bothered to go home, grab my stuff for the next working day and face feeling bad about spending another night away from my house and housemates so I went to Tesco. I went to buy dinner for two and to look in the department named 'Clothes', not 'fashion'. I wanted to see if I could avoid wearing the same thing to work two days running. It was a poor choice of shapeless t-shirts (short but wide), vests (gaping under the armpits) and knitwear and polyester high-wasted, low-rise trousers in the light grey usually reserved for men's clarkes shoes so I was in the process of giving up. I spotted a pair of pinstripe trousers on my way back down the aisle towards the safer bet - food - they were ok, wearable for work and for £10...'100% recycled plastic bottles'. Made from...'100% recycled plastic bottles. Amazing! http://www.eartheasy.com/wear_ecospun.htm On the downside, how eco-friendly is this process? Round and round and round and round we go...

Clingfilm

2008-07-23T00:37:00.000-07:00

'Multi-purpose clingfilm' ... ?

Beehive Emphysema

2008-06-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

Having bandied potential reasons around as to why Amy Winehouse might have contracted emphysema (before we found out that she doesn't in fact have it) - the usual: smoking, smoking crack, sleeping in your own sick (?), one soul finally piped up with 'hairspray'...we googled it and you can indeed contract serious respiratory diseases from excessive exposure to hairspray. Whoever said hairdressing wasn't a dangerous career...

Giddy

2008-06-13T00:50:00.000-07:00

I went to view a garden last night, a very big very beautiful garden in the grounds of a great big house. The "conservatory" alone could seat 50 people for dinner. On the tour were the garden designer (beige chinos, white shirt, navy blazer, gold buttons), the gardener (jeans, brown wax jacket, long ginger hair, beard, bottle of beer) and the interior designer (long slick hair, fitted tweed suit - for the country). It's important to understand the relationship between the interior and exterior living spaces. Also on the tour were hoity toity, airy fairy women and their long-suffering husbands. One woman had taken advantage of the champagne and was loving the sound of her own voice. Her orange pashmina wafted around her in the wind as she pawed at the designer and siphoned him off from the group. She was boasting, 'I've got trees...an orchard...yes and I've just taken a cutting of...' She didn't draw breath and presented the crowning glory ... 'and I've got horses...'

'Haven't we all!' Guffawed the garden designer!

Hey fever!

2008-05-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

Hi Pollen Count!

Spring's answer to the Seven Dwarfs...

sneezy

coughy

drowsy

itchy

puffy
snotty
grumpy

visit from the neighbours

2008-05-22T01:25:00.001-07:00

The first all-english champions league final brought my neighbours to the door. I'd never met them but had heard them banging and seen their fires in the yard. Two boys (late 20s) were dressed like overgrown schoolchildren, white short-sleeved shirts and grey trousers. They seemed to have taken their ties off and started to play 'knock n run'...except they were probably never wearing ties and they didn't run, just knocked and rang the bell until I got out of bed, grabbed a hoody and my keys and went downstairs. They said 'sorry' and then 'hello' and then, 'why weren't we out for the football', 'had we stayed in and eaten pizza, drank beer and watched a movie', 'footloose?' Eventually my housemate (who had accused one of them of being a heroin addict two weeks before) appeared at the top of stairs and shouted, 'it's five in the morning!' Oh my god, I had thought it was early but maybe 6:30ish so I politely told them that I had to work so I was going back to bed, one of them kissed my hand and I shut the door.