Town Observations

I had a chance to leg it early enough today, using hard earned flexi credit, to head into the middle of Bristol for a wander around.

The eyes were fully open as usual, what did they see ?

Summer outfits are definitely still In. But then again - we've switched back to Heat Lamp conditions.

Trouble is, "summer outfit" tends to mean really tight outfits which can look great on some people, on others it tends to bring out all the wrong things ... Excess person tends to escape the overly tight outfit in all the wrong places. (I sadly have to watch for that with my t-shirts!) Or ... instead of the tight outfit accentuating and emphasising healthy curveyness, it shows where the ribs are sticking out from half starved fashion victims.

I've still been using my summer jacket lately, which is a light blue denim one I got in Orlando a few years ago. It's light, it has huge inside pockets. Good for carrying my various bits around. I don't trust my wallet in my trouser pockets, there's too much tendency for it to try and work its way out of there. I haven't lost my wallet yet, so that theory must be working.

Book sales ...

Waterstones are doing a "Buy One Get One Half Price" at the moment (stickered items only - grr). But ... with the Michael Cobley books I looked at, the third was in the offer, the first two were not. If I'm going to speculatively buy a new author, I want to start at Book 1 not Book 3. So they stay on the shelf. I think that's a bit sad myself, it's a lost opportunity for a shop that will be struggling enough already due to the competition from online sellers.

More book ...

Spotted all 3 Hunger Games books in HMV in a set for £6. That's cheaper for 3 books than we tend to see books sold on their own. Remarkable deal, if you're thinking of getting the Hunger Games books, that's the deal you want. I almost went for it myself as I was picking up more Stuff there. But ... The Hunger Games was a very well made film. They did a cracking job of it. I may well even buy it when it hits an acceptable price. But ... the backstory behind the action was GOPPING. It was awful !!! The entire last kid standing concept was ripped off from Battle Royale and inserted into a Future Earth society that was utterly nonsensical. So if the only good thing about the film was how they translated the action parts to the screen, I consider the books with the backstory to be a waste of time. Although I may actually buy them at some point to make up my mind properly.

You can only really form a true opinion about something if you're working off relevant facts. If I tell you that Intel cpus are better than AMD, it's coming from valid objective technical factual information that comes from endless articles. If I tell you that Florence & The Machine are awful noisemakers, that's my subjective opinion and you should only take it as your's if you've attempted to listen to them without your ears bleeding.

(I'm not a fan and think they're horrendously overhyped)

People who get in the way

There's lots of these. They'll thoughtlessly spread themselves across a whole pavement, blocking the path for everyone. (This goes for people who have meetings on stairs too). The ultra wide mob aren't so bad if they're going your way (answer = chill pill) but if they're approaching, it's time to get the elbows out.

Yes - I've been known to send rude people flying rather than step off pavements into traffic. Didn't have to go that far today, the rude people decided not to argue ... although I did have to stop myself from running over a child that was taking the lead from a rude parent.

I bought stuff !!!!

Yep. Check outside to see if the sky is falling (hazy but sun's still up). Blu-rays were going 5 for £30 so I picked up Paul, Armageddon, Das Boot, Sunshine and Stealth. Yep. There's some bad films in there but I enjoyed them. Not so sure about Sunshine, need to make my mind up about that one again. Music wise, I've picked up the Ting Tings (Sounds from Nowhereville), Tori Amos (Abnormally Addicted to Sin), Smash Mouth (All Star Smash Hits) and Gabriella Cilmi's Ten.

Greatest hits albums ...

Most bands put these out at some point. Either if their careers are going down the pan, or if the record companies want to exploit the back catalogue. Was surprised to find greatest hits albums by Smash Mouth (music from Shrek) and Voice of the Beehive. The Voice of the Beehive greatest hits was basically a compilation from their first 2 albums, cutting off the really bad tracks. I saw a few more All About Eve collection cd's while browsing. They must have really upset someone at EMI, there's been more collection cd's than actual All About Eve original albums.

Mind you, that could also mean they had a fan in the label who wanted as much of their material out there as possible.


Last bit - I miss my hot chocolate. I used to have a hot chocolate and something munchable when I'd exhausted the potential of wandering around the shops. Trouble is, I started reacting (lactose issues) to the hot chocolate. So I had to switch to something different for the coffee shop visit. I definitely miss the hot chocolate but ... I'm a coffee fiend :-)

And with the mention of munchables ... the athletics looks like it's kicking off and I've not had any popcorn for a while ...

PS I today spotted the most awesome pair of platform soles I have EVER seen. (Even beating Snow Queen platforms!). They must have been at least 6 inches and were made of rubber with a big hole in the middle. Result - they worked like springs and she went Boing Boing Boing wherever she walked.