A couple of pictures from yesterday. The Red Arrows, against a dramatically cloudy sky. They picked a good day for it, didn't they? Couldn't look better against pure blue.
And then there's this... Floor plaque in a crypt we wandered into. That sounds...not quite right. It was open to the public. There was no breaking and entering involved.
Although Sherlock did say he wanted the plaque for his bedroom. I imagine by the time he's fourteen, he'll want the walls painted black with glow in the dark skulls and posters of Mozart and Nicola Tesla taped to his ceiling. Something like that.
Not pictured: a lot of naked (and occasionally clothed) people on bicycles. If you want to know why, you can check the comments in L's blog, but I prefer it without context. Just loads of people riding bikes in the nude.
It's been a lovely weekend. Back to usual tomorrow, and I have work as well. I'm glad I'm doing this job, and I wouldn't want to stop, but there are times that I dread getting called out, not knowing if it'll be someone who's had enough vodka to kill a cow or a kid who's done nothing but exist in the same flat as his father when his father's had not quite enough vodka to kill a cow.
I fell asleep briefly last night watching L watch the football with Sherlock, both of them intent, in much the same posture, hunched forward, hands gripping knees. I woke up at their collective shriek of...I'm not even sure whether it was victory or defeat, I didn't see the goal. Just flailed a bit and fell off the couch. I just feel incredibly lucky sometimes, and that was one of those times, despite being prostrate on the floor with a small cat helpfully licking my hair while Sherlock laughed and Greg asked me if I'd hurt myself...and then laughed.
106 comments:
Maf clearly thinks you need grooming.
I think the shriek was purely indignation, neither victory or defeat. Sherlock is becoming a proper fan - spending more time complaining about the ref than watching the game ;)
What colour collar do you think Maf should have? I thought maybe as she's cone-free now the collar wouldn't seem so bad to her...
I probably do need grooming.
Blue? Sherlock wanted to get her a harness and take her for walks. I'm not convinced.
Think we need to get her one with a bell? I mean, it's not like she can stalk anything apart from us and the degus...
http://www.coolcatcollars.co.uk/breakaway/skull-and-crossbones-cat-collar.html
if only it were sparkly too we could probably get one for Sherlock, to warn people when he's on the prowl...
I was going to say it should have skulls, but somehow I knew I wouldn't need to. Not in this house. :)
All I can imagine with the bell is her moving and scaring herself.
I can definitely imagine her waking me up, too, by shifting on your head and ... saying tinkling sounds wrong ;)
I dunno how she'd take to a leash. She seems content enough to eat, sleep and chase the odd toy.
That plaque is fabulous. Does it say anything on it about the person being a pirate, I noticed the shovel and pick there too.
Sorry you have to deal with things like that, John, but I'm sure the victims appreciate having such a caring person on their side. You both do an amazing job having to cope with the darker side of life and it must surely be helpful in a way that you have each other to turn to and understand what you are going through.
Love the skull collar, definitely one like that, though I think the tinkling should be kept to a minimum. :)
Sadly domestic violence and drunken violence both go up exponentially during the big football tournaments. As do house fires. So..well, can't promise it will be a good shift.
If England get knocked out that'll be the worse night.
Yeah, I believe it.
Joolz - couldn't read the rest of the plaque, really. but you can annoy Sherlock by asking about the spade, and whether it's because pirates like sand castles ;)
Right, Maf is brushed. Shall I start on John?
Yes please.
will you purr like a chainsaw, like she does?
I might snore like a chainsaw...
Ha. I'll try not to wake you if anything too exciting happens in this match.
Or we could call it a night and go to bed. What times are you working tomorrow?
In the day, 7am to 7pm. We can stay up, I don't mind. I like dozing on you.
You can have the marmalade menace doze on you then. Now she's messed up my brushing efforts by re-styling all her fur with her tongue.
I won't be following suit. No matter how much you make my hair stick up.
Hmm, you mean you don't have a tongue like a giraffe? Could've fooled me ;) (I mean long, not black!)
Oh that was a FANTASTIC goal. Apologies to both of you...
...and bed.
Ooh! I know that plaque! The Cafe in the Crypt, below St Martin in the fields! It's one of my favourite spots for a pot of tea when I'm in London :) That's my favourite plaque, too (because what's cooler than a skull & crossbones???)
I appear to be sucking at this World Cup thing, but I did pick up a couple of points overnight, so I don't feel so bad. Well done to the table leaders, though.
Good sleeps to all!
I still vote for a purple collar. It will go well with her fur. :)
Maybe one like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002RUUMEA?pc_redir=1402500188&robot_redir=1
Well we have our first player in double digits and we got 11 perfect scores out of the games yesterday so everyone is doing brilliantly with anonybob and Nameless getting 2 each and SH managing 3 after all her doubts. :)
The table is as follows:
Lestrade - 10
Small Hobbit, Nameless, REReader - 9
Sherlock, Joolz, Desert Wanderer - 8
kholly, Z, anonybob, mag, Paula - 7
Lancs Anon, MT88 -6
graham22, KT - 5
ro - 4
The fixtures for today are as follows:
Iran v Nigeria
Joolz 0-3, Lestrade 0-2, Lancs Anon 0-3, Small Hobbit 1-2, MT88 0-3, Desert Wanderer 0-1, kholly 0-2, Z 2-2, anonybob 0-1, graham22 1-0, mag 1-3, Paula 1-1, Nameless 0-2, Sherlock 0-1, REReader 0-1, ro 2-2, KT 2-1
Germany v Portugal
Joolz 1-1, Lestrade 1-0, Lancs Anon 1-1, Small Hobbit 1-1, MT88 3-2, Desert Wanderer 2-2, kholly 2-1, Z 0-1, anonybob 2-2, graham22 3-2, mag 3-2, Paula 1-0, Nameless 1-1, Sherlock 1-1, REReader 0-1, ro 0-0, KT 2-3
Ghana v USA
Joolz 1-2, Lestrade 1-1, Lancs Anon 0-1, Small Hobbit 2-0, MT88 1-0, Desert Wanderer 2-0, kholly 1-1, Z 1-3, anonybob 1-2, graham22 2-3, mag 1-1, Paula 1-2, Nameless 0-1, Sherlock 1-0, REReader 0-1, ro 1-2, KT 2-2
Good luck today :)
Ahaha, and now I see I'm coming dead last I feel bad all over again!
I wouldn't worry, ro , fortunes change very quickly in this thing, I'm sure you'll be right back up there soon, today could be your lucky day. :)
Hope your day is going okay, John.
Just had a meeting about the new law that's come in today - against forced marriages. We're now up to date with what we need to do.
Ro - just noticed the way John tried to style out the whole crypt thing, to make it sound like we did interesting educational things...but you outed us completely as basically everything revolving around coffee ;)
I'm sure cake was involved as well... ;)
err..cream tea, actually!
*looking up cream tea*
Close enough!
Hope everybody's day is going well. I shouldn't complain since my life is on the whole pretty great, but will: I came here expressly to be cheered up by John's falling-off-the-couch anecdote. A pleasant counter to some of the shitty people out there fooling way too many others. I swear to god, crappy lying liars whose lies affect the welfare of children need to be struck by lightning.
(Thank-you for the vent and cheering blog entry)
fA
Sorry you had an unpleasantness, fA, and I hope your day improves.
Ro, I shouldn't worry, yesterday was my day, today will be someone else's.
As for the domestic violence during football tournaments - Gloucestershire police have been having a big push on this issue.
fA - I've been in a similar situation, most of the morning, except without the children. Someone with such a serious alcohol problem he is sadly very easy to take advantage of. And it's very difficult for us to get information from him. I'd like to think I have a better chance than some others, but when he can't even remember who I am from one minute to the next, getting sound evidence is incredibly challenging.
fA, sorry you're having such a rough time. Glad the blog can cheer you up.
I think someone needs to cheer Portugal up...
And if anyone sees my husband, can they check he's mainly alive and mostly unharmed? Although I'm suspecting very busy...
Thanks guys, for the kind words. Today was more frustrating than dreadful, thankfully.
I hate injustice and unfairness possibly more than is appropriate and those buttons got punched. Every now and then the bubble I tend to keep between my emotions and life gets pierced and today was one of those days. I'm just a bit too precious a flower sometimes.
fA
I nearly forgot the football!
I will be trying to see the U.S. lose to Ghana later on. If pigs fly and we win I will be eating SO MUCH humble pie, as my "defeatist" views are not popular with some of my [delusional] friends! ;-D
(Hope John is on his way home on time!)
fA
Don't worry, fA--I chose the same as you. I mean, I love my country, but this is football.
I'm home, Sherlock is complaining that Portugal were rubbish, Mrs Hudson is complaining that Ronaldo always looks so sulky when he has quite a pretty face, really, the cat is trying to kill me by wrapping around my ankles and John still isn't home...
Come on Iran!
(I wish I'd done your football thing. Have you only done the group matches or have you done the final 16 and everything? If you haven't done the last 16, will you, and can people join then?)
... I might take up footy training again, if this is one of the new training moves, as it seems to be for the French team:
https://vine.co/v/MIiMnHKhQaq
A song for DS Donovan, to "Come on Eileen"
Poor old Donovan
Sounded sad after the sweepstakes draw
When she picked out Iran from the World Cup bowl
Her DI laughed
Danced a bit
Who'd blame him
Iran, Iran,
Now you must win more than ever
(Come On Iran)
Too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye, aye
And we can cheer just like Brazilians
Come on Iran
Oh, I swear if you can (what she means)
At this moment you mean everything
You in that match
Hope your foes you can catch
Playin' footy
Oh, come on Iran
This DS right here
Would like some bragging rights in Scotland Yard
And maybe a nice bottle of something hard
So win one
Please win one
Please just take one World Cup home
Too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye, aye
And you'll keep the cup forever
Come on Iran
Oh, I swear if you can (what she means)
At this moment you mean everything
You in that match
Hope your foes you can catch
Playin' footy
Oh, come on Iran
Come on Iran, too-loo-rye-aye
Come on Iran, too-loo-rye-aye
That's brilliant DW :-D
You feeling all right, DW?
....why do you ask, Lestrade?
writing a whole song for my sergeant's sorry sweepstake - it's not normal! ;)
Never been accused of being normal. Do I detect a hint of jealousy in your tone, hmm?
In reality, I'm procrastinating quite a lot on things that need doing. A bit overwhelmed at the moment.
If you've got a 'to do' list, I can lend you Sherlock. He's good with those. He'll tell you 90% of the stuff on it is boring/stupid, then persuade you to go for ice cream.
And the only sweet sweet song I need is the sound of 5 balls bulging the back of the net, from the Dutch ;)
I need to recruit Sherlock to substitute for various heads of department around here.
Chin up, DW. All you can do is all you can do, as they say. Hope it's only boring, not seriously anxiety provoking.
Also, I fully support all attentions paid DS Donovan. Her insights into the inner workings of the Yard, DI[GQMF] Lestrade's work group in particular, are most enlightening and often entertaining.
fA
I'll just sit here by you, fA, and maybe together we'll make the other's day seem not so bad. :)
Also. Do you really need five, Lestrade? Two would have suited most people. Five is such an odd number.
I've never subscribed to the theory that more than a handful is a waste, DW ;)
Lovely, DW. It's a tad early here for actual alcohol, but I have a fantastic virtual bar and an open bottle of virtual wine. It may ease the pain.
fA
How's the Doc?
Hope he isn't winning what some of my friends used to call "ER bingo" - A&E bingo for y'all I guess. Puke, Pee, Poop, Pus and Blood across the top of the card, Boy, Girl, Man, Woman, and either Baby or Indeterminable (depending on the qualms of the group) down the side.
fA
The doc trailed in, grunted, showered, arrived on the sofa to be leapt on by his little orange minion, was fed, given tea and is now staring at quite a dull footy match.
Sounds like the British Public got more than their money's worth out of him today, then. And that he's being well cared for. Hope he revives easily.
Have a good evening, all. I'm going somewhere Internet-less (for me) to watch Our Boys go down in defeat. Probably.
fA
Well, they didn't lose, Sally!
fA
Yeah, think they've wrung him out today.
That was a rubbish game, wasn't it? Well done those who predicted a draw, shame it was 0-0 though.
Still, that's about the best start Sal could have hoped for!
And that is how you start that!
29 seconds - fifth fastest goal in World Cup history!
And I'm off to bed. I'll wait and see what the final damage was in the morning!
We will be doing the rest of the competition too, Sally, I'll be putting up a new form to fill in after the first round has finished when we know the names of the teams who have gone through. If I did it now I would have to write 'winner of group A v runner up of group C' or something like that and it would just be confusing and hard to predict if you didn't know which teams were playing. We will just keep the scores going all the way through the competition though.
If you wanted to you could join now, I don't have a problem with that if nobody else does. You would be at a points disadvantage as people have already scored quite a few (especially Mr 'I'm in double digits' over there), but the lowest score is only 4 which you could soon match if you had 2 perfect scores. It's entirely up to you if you wanted to come in knowing that you had ground to make up. That goes for anyone else too if they wanted to join in. You would have to ignore the matches up to and including the current game of Ghana v USA and start with tomorrow's fixtures onwards.
What does anyone else think of that?
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS USA!!!!!
Woooo! Thanks USA and Ghana, for scoring exactly the same as my guess! :D
I'm totally up for Sally joining in mid-round, if she likes.
Ro - just noticed the way John tried to style out the whole crypt thing, to make it sound like we did interesting educational things...but you outed us completely as basically everything revolving around coffee ;)
I am totally down with life being about the pursuit of caffeine! And I really can't think of many places cooler to drink the good stuff than in a crypt! That cafe was a brilliant idea. It's one of the places that really makes me feel in touch with human history, too - to see the grave markers from centuries past makes me feel connected to people who died so long ago. And so many of them, in such a small place ... Like the song says, "where ever you go, take a look at your feet - down six feet deep there's dead men's bones" - I really feel that in London (not so much here in Australia, the country's too vast).
Only the last game earned any perfect scores today, the others being a bit more of a surprise. After a few of us saying that teams rarely score more than a couple of goals we have had five 3's, a 4 and a 5 so far. What do we know! ;)
The league table is as follows:
Lestrade, Paula - 11
Joolz, Nameless, REReader - 10
Small Hobbit, Z, anonybob - 9
Sherlock, Desert Wanderer, kholly, mag - 8
Lancs Anon, MT88, graham22, ro - 7
KT - 5
The fixtures are as follows:
Brazil v Mexico
Joolz 1-1, Lestrade 2-0, Lancs Anon 4-2, Small Hobbit 2-2, MT88 2-2, Desert Wanderer 2-2, kholly 3-2, Z 2-0, anonybob 3-1, graham22 4-3, mag 3-2, Paula 2-2, Nameless 2-0, Sherlock 2-2, REReader 1-0, ro 2-0, KT 3-4
Belgium v Algeria
Joolz 2-2, Lestrade 3-0, Lancs Anon 0-0, Small Hobbit 1-2, MT88 2-1, Desert Wanderer 1-2, kholly 1-2, Z 2-1, anonybob 1-0, graham22 3-4, mag 3-0, Paula 2-0, Nameless 1-2, Sherlock 1-0, REReader 1-0, ro 2-1, KT 3-0
Russia v South Korea
Joolz 2-0, Lestrade 2-0, Lancs Anon 0-2, Small Hobbit 2-1, MT88 0-1, Desert Wanderer 1-1, kholly 1-0, Z 3-1, anonybob 1-1, graham22 1-0, mag 1-0, Paula 3-2, Nameless 1-1, Sherlock 1-1, REReader 1-0, ro 3-0, KT 2-3
(I'm being told that whilst someone joining now could maybe catch up on the points for the games still to come, they would possibly have an unfair advantage in selecting which teams go through depending on what results are already in so if that makes everyone want to say no to late joiners then that's fine)
Good luck for today's fixtures. :)
That's a beautiful picture.
God, it's been ages since I've had a chance to check your blog, *prepares herself for about three hours of reading*
How is everyone?
Me, I'm all for Sally (or anyone else who wants to) coming in, it's all for fun!
Ha, DW, brilliant!
O.k. I bought everyone a drink, and then coffee and dessert to do penance for my lack of faith in the home team! And those are my good friends. The workmates tomorrow are gonna be brutal!
Ah well, there are worse reasons to eat humble pie!
fA
I'm quite happy for Sally to join in. As for having an unfair advantage in which team will go through, it's "a game of two halves", so lots could change.
What I want to know is how RR, who claims to know nothing about the game, is doing so well? ;)
That's very true, SH, tables could all change by the end, I'm certainly hopeful that our Group D table certainly will. ;)
We are only 14 games down in this first round so there are another 34 games for people to be able to catch up so it is possible. If everyone else is amenable then the more the merrier as far as I'm concerned. Do you want to have your say Greg/John as these are your blogs?
She can join in as long as there's a clause saying she can't beat me ;)
Ok so if anyone wants to join in now and play along with us then feel free, it’s all for a bit of fun as you’ve seen so far and positions can change from day to day so everyone still has an equal chance of winning and as the lowest current score is still only 5 then a couple of perfect scores will soon see you caught up and in the game.
http://www.carryon.org.uk/worldcup2014/index.php/614726/lang-en
Here is the link for the entry form so if you ignore the first 14 matches and start putting in your scores with the Brazil v Mexico match and fill in everything after that you’ll be good to go. Kick off for the first game of the day is at 5.00 pm GMT so if you could have your entry in by then I can include all 3 games for today on your score sheet. If the entry comes in after that game has started then I’ll count it from before the start of the next game.
So do you want to play, Sally, it might be more fun than relying on Iran for your world cup hopes, though the possible glory might not quite match up to the Met’s cash and booze incentive. ;) I’ll leave Greg’s clause up to him, you’ll have to brave his wrath if your score creeps up to match his. J
Do you fancy having a go, fA, with your new found enthusiasm and team spirit. ;)
Any one is welcome so please do come and play. J
She'll be far too busy to do it before 5 ;)
SH, I can only assume that knowing nothing whatsoever about the game is very nearly as big an advantage as knowing lots!
Thanks, Joolz, but I'll continue to give the competition a miss. If I entered, I'd start to care too much about watching the matches, and it'd bother me when I couldn't (We are all crazy in our own special ways.)
Good day to all!
fA
The last time I did a March Madness bracket set (university basketball finals, for those who don't know), a girl I knew, knowing nothing about college basketball, made her predictions based on which mascot would win in a fight. So, in the University of Michigan Wolverines vs the University of Maryland Terrapins, she picked the wolverines, figuring they would beat a turtle in a fight. She ended up winning the pool. I knew another girl who picked based on the colors of the uniforms, and she came in third.
Hi, Joolz. I submitted the form, but it wouldn't let me skip the first games, so I just entered a random name without any scores.
I know nothing whatsoever about football, so we'll see how I do, lol. Hope I did it right.
I don't know anything about other country's teams - beyond who has historically done well. I didn't even look at the tables Joolz gave us for help, just went with my gut.
Sal says she'll do it later, but possibly not in time for anything but the last match today. She's got quite a pile of paperwork to do ;)
I do like some of the people I work with. There were a couple of plastic pigs with construction paper wings suspended over my desk this morning. :-)
fA
John should do it and I can help him do his scores and then if he wins he has to share it with me.
Do you have a system, Sherlock?
Hey, does that mean if you win I get a share for helping you, Sherlock?
No because you're an adult and it's your job to help and anyway you didn't do it very well because I'm not doing as well as you.
I don't have a system but we should try to beat Lestrade.
I think coming in at this stage is a win - win situation because if you do really well you can say you have amazing skills & if you don't do so well you can say it wasn't your fault cos you came in late. ;)
Yes I have your entry, Piplover, thanks so I'll include you for all 3 games today. Anyone else can join whenever and I'll start counting from the time you join. Thanks. :)
They sound like a right laugh, fA. :)
All right, why not. We can give it a go.
Yes! You need to think about it hard because Mrs Hudson said I can help her make strawberry shortbread and then we can do it.
I feel oddly proud that he puts baking (or possibly eating) above betting :)
Y'all are raising that boy right. ;-)
fA
We did ours Joolz and we're eating pizza Lestrade made and we've got shortbread and cream and strawberries after and we just put a dash in for all the games we've already seen and I hope it worked like that.
That sounds like the perfect summer supper, Sherlock, and now I'm all hungry thinking about it... ;)
Thank you John and Sherlock, I've got your entry and it worked fine with the dashes so you'll be entered from the 11.00 match between Russia and South Korea. Good luck and enjoy your homemade pizza and homemade biscuits, it sounds delicious. :)
Ooooh, full of things I can't eat, so I will just fantasize about eating them instead.
And I got the job I was applying for! *dances*
Congratulations!
Well done, Becca! Fantastic news.
Congratulations, Becca. I'm delighted for you.
Mazel tov, Becca, that's awesome!
That's great news, Becca, congratulations. :)
Oooh, just in the nick of time, Sally. The anthems are playing but I have your score sheet so you're good to go. Good luck. :)
Blame some git who kept putting more piles of work on my desk.
I'll have a word with Dimmock for you, Sal ;)
Come on Russia, I need two goals from you or the day's been a total washout!
Congratulations, becca! I still haven't heard about my job. I think I need to call them tomorrow.
Oh, and I'm back from the wilderness.
Ella
*scrolling back to check*
Looks like one goal from Russia will do for me...
Congratulations Becca!
And good luck Ella.
Sleep well, everyone.
fA
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