Busy week

First of all, I dropped my ipod in the bath this week. It was fully submerged for around 2 to 3 seconds. Bottom line is, after an evening in the airing cupboard  contained within a Tupperware box full of rice, it revived and is now as good as new. Far from this being the main news of the week, I nevertheless thought that after 6 years and counting of exemplary service, my ipod deserves some recognition.

But to business. This week's task was to investigate phrase origins and had a great response from some of you, requesting investigation into several common phrases. Pretty interesting reading it was as well. For instance, the phrase 'to have a field day' developed from 18th century military exercise in fields, unsurprisingly. And the phrase 'with bated breath' is simply an adaptation from the original 'abated breath'. In other words to bring down, lower or depress your breathing in response to an exciting situation.

As was pointed out to me, a great deal of these phrases come from falconry - under the thumb, wrapped around your little finger and fed-up. But there are plenty of other ones. A selection of these are as follows...

Hang fire - Comes from when guns used gun powder to ignite the spark from the iron plate when a gun is fired. Sometimes, the powder didn't fully ignite straight away and could go off a few seconds later or sometimes even longer. This became known as 'hang fire'.

Bootleg - From when cowboys used to keep illicit materials such as guns and alcohol literally inside the long legs of their boots in the wild west.

Let the cat out of the bag - Shady origins for this one but the most widely recognised one refers to when people used to sell pigs. Crafty farmers would replace the pigs with cats in bags to act like a pig. Presumably the buyers, too stupid to look in the bag at the time would get home, looking forward to unwrapping their pig and would get a great surprise when a cat popped out.

Someone did ask me the origin of  'never pat a rabid dog on the head'. Now I'd never heard of this one but I looked it up dutifully. I couldn't find much, but to be honest with you, it's pretty self explanatory - don't pat a rabid dog on the head because it might bite you and you'll get rabies. That's just good advice.
 
Anyway in the process of   looking at these a special mention should go to William Shakespeare for making loads of stuff up. All of a sudden, sorry sight, good riddance, in a pickle (my personal favourite) and in stitches were all courtesy of the big man as were a few words... bandit, assassination, blanket, bump, scuffle and puking.

If he can simply make up words, I see no reason why I cannot. I have been trying to get my own word - frell - to stick in peoples' minds for many years now. It means 'fridge smell' and can be used as a verb, adjective and noun. (to frell, frelly and frell). Simply put, it refers to the unpleasant smell that builds up in fridges, causing innocent fridge items to become sullied, or frelled. Let's all start using it.

I'm aware that this is becoming quite an essay so to tie things up, a few little bits of news before I go. I have finally managed to secure residency in London. Moving into a nice house in West Acton before the week is out! Tremendous! Also I have joined the gym finally which is just as well because I've signed up to the Wokingham Half Marathon in February. I must be mental.

Big it up to Alan Davies by the way who was awesome on saturday. And one final plug... Gun Hill Riffs have a gig on the 21st October at Facebar in Reading. Tickets are £5. If anyone wants to come let me know!

Next week's task.. How to tie a bow tie.

W

Balloons!

 Hello! I've been making balloon animals. It's well fun. You may say that's not particularly productive but I would disagree. You never know when one of these might come in handy. Impromptu childrens' birthday parties etc....
Here are some of my masterpieces.

A poodle

 A monkey (Honestly the photo doesn't do it justice)

Not a lot else has been happening this week. I may well be moving to London finally though, maybe start of next week as long as all the reference and contract stuff can be sorted. It is my birthday tomorrow unfortunately which means I will be edging ever closer to 30. (I'll be 27). Off to see Alan Davies at the weekend so I'll review his show for those thinking of seeing him.

Other than that I'm going to getting a bit educational with my task this week and looking at the origins of common phrases. If there are any that you've ever wondered about then let me know and I'll look into it.

W

Interesting times

The past 7 days were kicked off, as expected, by the speed flat mating. A singularly odd experience.I'll take you through it. I was ushered into Sway Bar in Holborn by a bloke who I'm pretty sure was the lead singer from Elbow. He gave me a sticker on which I was instructed to write my name, budget and preferred area, then sent me in to look for people wearing 'flat available' stickers. To be honest, the caliber of the participants wasn't high - exemplified by the guy who had written that he wanted to live 'somewhere cool' on his sticker. Still, the beer was cheap and by the end I'd made some unexpected new friends that I would never have made in normal circumstances. Worth doing.

 The rest of my week has been spent variously eating out in Chelsea and getting expensive parking fines, more flat hunting (I'm getting closer) and discussing the theory of relativity at some length in the pub with my mate Tom. Personally I'm not convinced and some day I'll prove that time is in fact constant, time travel is not theoretically possible and Einstein was quite simply wrong.

Onto my weekly task. As you may or may not be aware, I set myself the task of learning how to broadly draw the political map of the world from memory. I also said this would include capitals. In retrospect this was an outrageous addition and as such, the capitals will have to wait for another week. As for the map, I've managed it. Good fun as well. Below is the video evidence should you not believe me.

Next week's task... balloon animals.
Until next time.
W

Back in the UK

Greetings. I am tanned (to a certain extent) and rested. I am also party to an extra stone of weight - or at least that's what it feels like. I need to join the Gym immediately.

Indeed, I have been living well in the last two weeks. I have also been working hard on my weekly task. I wasn't quite sure what it was going to be until I arrived in Menorca but it soon became clear. We stayed at a villa, and in that villa was a pool, and in that pool was a football. It quickly emerged that I and my colleague, fella by the name of Craig, could not rest until we had headed the ball back and forth at least 50 times in a row. A worthy and useful task you might say. Well you'd be right. The first two days we were sub-20 and things were looking bleak. But on the very last day it all came together. Here is the result.

As awesome as this was, we have to move on. In that vein, the task this week shall be more useful. By sunday I will have learnt how to draw the political map of the world by memory complete with capital cities. Expect video evidence.

In other news I am looking for a flat in London still. As such I have agreed to attend a speed flat mate event on wednesday night. I won't lie I am quite terrified at this prospect but it might be fun. Plus I am buoyed by the new-found positivity I have acquired from reading 'Yes man' on holiday. If you haven't read it I suggest you do.

Ps. I'll leave you with a new hobby of mine. I have developed something, which some of you may already be aware of - an 'evil face'. It's so evil, I have genuinely scared myself with it whilst practicing in the mirror. I have recently begun to highjack photos with it and plan on continuing to do so. See below for an example. 

Until next time.
W

More holidays

Well a lovely time was had by all in the Lake District. Without wishing to repeat myself, the place is pretty amazing. The reason for travelling there was of course the wedding of two friends which made it all the more enjoyable and I had the pleasure of performing a song at their service. All went reasonably smoothly!

We also climbed the highest peak in England - granted it's only the 13th highest peak in the British Isles but it was still an adventure and it helped to compensate for the vast amount of food and beer I have ingested in the past few days. I won't joke, the hog roast bun that I had at the wedding deserves several awards. As such, its succulent, dreamy, moist and downright tremendous aroma will stay with me quite possibly forever.

Only a short post today as I'm shortly boarding a flight to menorca for my second holiday in as many weeks. Don't even worry about that. I am aiming to complete one of the items from my list over the course of the next ten days so expect some update from this. Which one it will be however will have to remain a mystery until then. W

Holiday

I have arrived in Windermere this evening of Lake Windermere fame. Frankly, it's a lovely place - like a postcard - and has the feel of Cornwall to it but with more hills. I'm here for a wedding and it promises to be a cracking long weekend! We're off kayaking tomorrow morning and this brings me to an interesting subject.

Following the recent success of the olympics I have been pondering the best way for me to win a gold medal in the Rio olympics in four years time. Now this may seem far fetched, and nothing I am about to say makes it any less so. However, based on a number of factors I have decided the only way I can do this is to train myself to perfection in the 200m kayak sprint. This starts tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

In further shocking news, my hair is now regular length. I cut it and I'd do it again. I have no regrets. None whatsoever. Especially since, as it was such a big occasion, I had it cut at a Toni and Guy establishment, where they washed it and let me sit in the back massage chair. It was well good.

Still no news on flats in London. Unfortunately I didn't get that last one but I'll keep trying. Once I'm back from my holidays I'll be looking more and also beginning to work through my weekly tasks. Not decided which one I'll start with yet but I have an additional task to add to the list. One week out of the next 50 or so will be dedicated to breaking a world record. If anyone can think of which one i should break then let me know. That Rowntree fruit pastille advert seems to suggest it's impossible to have a fruit pastille in your mouth without chewing it for any length of time. Maybe that's somewhere to start?

Until next time.

Making progress

So far, everything is proceeding as I had forseen it. To update, I have now moved back into my parents house for the interim - an experience in itself - and have begun to bring my plans into fruition. I was sorry to see the north disappear in my rear view mirror (or more accurately in the wing mirrors of the massive van I hired to transfer everything. Honestly it was awesome. Like riding down the M1 in a throne-like armchair.) But the north is now but a distant memory - although one that I sincerely hope will never be lost.

My band - Gun Hill Riffs - had their first gig this past sunday evening. A resounding success from all accounts. Stand by for some uploads of some of the songs. Most enjoyable it was too and hopefully it will be the first of many.

I am currently looking for a place in london, and went to see a couple of places last night. One place in Barnes (a considerable hotbed of poshness) looked an absolute steal, so fingers crossed my ever growing hair didn't put the potential flatmates off too much. My fingers are currently crossed.

Talking of which my hair is becoming more of an issue by the day. Do I grow it to rockstar length or do I cut it and return to looking half respectable again? I have just applied for a role as an extra in a feature film for september which specifically says 'no long hair' so maybe my subconscious knows something I don't.

These are the things that are occupying me currently. Expect more updates to follow now that things are starting to normalise.

W