Goodbye Mr Postgate

The first voice I remember other than my parents. Noggin the Nog (when it was on Blue Peter) was on the TV when my baby sister was brought home from hospital, my first memory aged 4. Gentleness, sucky blankets, coal fires and dippy eggs.

A real gent and a very British genius.

Slow ginger death

I hope the rest of you are enjoying The Devil's Whore , and not simply because of John Simm's scar, which I find curiously mesmerising, but also the amazing pallor of Angela Riseborough takes me back to my youth , before tanning salons, when everyone in Northern Ireland looked like this......

Redheads are being bred out of existence now with the dual Darwinist pressures of foreign holidays blistering their pasty carcasses and the fact that the UV lights in nightclubs make freckles go green, thus rendering their owners unshaggable.

My own titian tresses have not been passed on to my offspring (the first question after their birth was not 'Has she got the requisite number of limbs?' but 'She isn't ginger is she?') thanks to me making the unusual lifestyle choice of marrying a semi-Belgian. Perhaps in future gingers will be prized for their rarity value but I can't see it myself.

Also,I thought I was just a bit lazy and busy to be prolific at this blogging lark but it turns out I'm at the vanguard of an exciting new movement see here.

Full Metal Fandango

I'm sure you all enjoyed a laugh at the discrepancy between the avatars and reality in the Second Life divorce saga. Presumably supermodels and film stars chose fat, balding, bespectacled alter egos.

Whilst we are on the topic of technology and sex, which we sort of are, Mr realdoc has developed a crush on this 'blushing young lovely' (his words....eeeeuuugghh sounds like the person who writes the blurb on page 3 of the Sun, who I met at a party once and who wasn't quite as repellant as you may think, but I digress.)

This young lady plays a Terminator on the Sarah Connor Chronicles and Mr realdoc's admiration has led us to several discussions on whether the homicidal metal mercenaries from the future possess full working parts and whether this young lady's fandango (copyright TME) in particular would be accomodating (him) or would incorporate an impressive arsenal (weapons rather than the football team -me). So any ideas?

***UPDATE*** Fandango has made the word cloud, hurrah! Although arse has now gone.....arse, arse, arse, arse. Maybe the blog gender analyser will get my gender right now.

The queen of cyber CBT

Is it just me or is there a sense of ennui hanging over this particular corner of the blogosphere at the moment? What with patroclus threatening to quit entirely, annie on a break, the non-appearance of Tim's review of the Wire or the fact that geoff has pains in his legs and GSE can't get enough things to hate. If that isn't enough the 'W' has fallen off my laptop (which means thatI have to employ a piece of wire if I want to post a question).

I wonder what we can do to cheer everybody up a bit. I thought that the election across the pond may help but the general view seems to be, 'nice man but I bet it won't change a bloody thing'. I am therefore issuing a challenge: try to post something amusing or inspiring which will give us all a lift in these grim post-crash, pre-Christmas days...that's right let's all think positive shall we.

O bollocks to this shitting w

This is the dawning of a new era*

The first day of a new golden era dawns. Well he hasn't managed to change the weather in Ballykissarse yet but still he can weave the words can't he. Something about seeing that black family on stage in that sea of people made me cry until Mr Realdoc pipes up...'Well at least the bullet-proof glass industry will survive the recession now'.



*On the first Specials album good song.




P.S. There is a stupid man on woman's hour saying there are no female bloggers and giving that stupid woman, who moved up North and thinks she deserves a medal, another bloody namecheck. Now some stupid woman is mentioning blogs that are useful............useful nobody told me they were supposed to be useful

Stolen meme thing

vicus did this meme and I thought it rather splendid so I have nicked it. I left out some questions as they seemed a bit irrelevant to me.





1. Put your ipod on shuffle


2. For each question press the next button to get your answer.


3. Don't cheat








What would best describe your personality?





Lady Madonna - The Beatles








What do you like in a girl/guy?





Brass Buttons - Gram Parsons





How do you feel today?





Learning To Fly - Pink Floyd





What's your life's purpose?





Reach Out I'll Be There - The Four Tops





What's your motto?





Never Can Say Goodbye -The Communards





What do your friends think of you?





Fido, Your Leash is Too Long - The Magnetic Fields





What is your life story?





What Can I Do? - Antony and the Johnsons





What do you want to be when you grow up?





Bright College Days - Tom Lehrer





What do strangers think of you?





Karma Police - Radiohead





How's your love life?





Goodbye to Love - The Carpenters





What will they play at your funeral?





Picture This - Blondie





What's your biggest secret?





These Boots are Made for Walking - Nancy Sinatra





What do you think of your friends?





Everybody Knows (Except You) - Divine Comedy





What song do you listen to when you are sad?





Decatur - Sufjan Stevens





In love?





Not a Crime - Gogol Bordello





What's your signature karaoke song?





Justified and Ancient - KLF





What is your greatest desire?





The Masochism Tango - Tom Lehrer





How will you die?





Ther She Goes Again - The Velvet Underground





Do people secretly lust after you?





All the Way To Reno - REM





What's the best advice you will ever get?





Smokestack Lightnin' - Howlin' Wolf








Well, I'm not sure that was very enlightening although the combination of having a personality like Lady Madonna and having to 'Say Goodbye to Love' is a bit worrying.

Heroes of the new enlightenment

Apparently the end of civilisation as we know it means that we will have a flowering of culture as people try to find more meaning in their lives than has hitherto been the case. Instead of dreaming of acquiring such trinkets as this, this or this, we will sit about penning sonnets, planning our allotment, making do and mending and talking to our children. Except in our house, where the main topic of conversation seems to be the X Factor and how lovely and smiley Cheryl Cole is and to think I thought she was just a cheap Northern slapper when actually she is a little china doll who you would just like to have sitting on your mantlepiece giving you encouraging little smiles and hugging you every time you feel a bit crap.*


Apropos of nothing at all, is anyone else in the world watching this, it is a bit buried in the schedules after the Billie Piper sex thing on ITV2 but has made me laugh a lot. Alan Statham was on it last week as a super villain with the power to turn off lights. They should get Cheryl on with her superpower being the ability to turn cynical old munters into softies.


*I was going to insert a lovely picture of Cheryl here but in all the ones I saw she appears to have her tits or fandango on display so I haven't bothered.

Things I have Learnt This Week

1. The proper way to refer to calculus is 'the calculus'. That's what Prof. du Sautoy called it last night in the very wonderful Story of Maths - BBC4.


2. Any, admittedly tenuous, grasp I thought I had on how economics works has evaporated. Does anyone out there know what the fuck is going on?


3. How to play A, E, and D (and their minor equivalents) on the guitar. Also I can do the beginning of Smoke on the Water which is really very easy.


4. Attempting to assist teenrealdoc with her French homework when your main source of knowledge is Foux de Fa Fa is a bit of a waste of time. *


5. This doesn't work.



So there you have it - lifelong learning in action


*Although I can ask for my favourite soft drink. "Jus de pamplemousse et jus d'ananas dans un melange s'il vous plait."

End of the world?

If you have read my blog for a while you may be aware that Mr Realdoc is a bit of an apocalypse junkie so at the moment he is in his element, hoarding cornflakes, making plans to farm the lawn and investigating how one gets a gun license. In his opinion a blink of an eye will take us from the collapse of a number of large financial institutions to a Survivors type scenario in which he stars as the one member of the human race with the foresight to make sure no-one will go without a decent breakfast.



I think if we hoard stuff bigger, meaner people will come and take it off us so I am using my last days wisely by comparing different types of gin. (this is the best!) and watching all the extra bits in my DVD box sets (David Tennant's video diary - yummers!)

PS No-one commented on babydoc's little sylvanian going up Everest, he really did you know!

Back from the Grave.....3

Right, first sorry for deserting the blog for so long. No real excuses I just ran out of things to say. I have been reading all your blogs and listening to a variety of podcasts so I think I'm more or less up to date with the goings-on. Meeting some old friends last weekend has given me a kickstart to try again so here goes. An update

• I am back being a proper doctor again...hurrah. Medical management was not for me and doctors are stroppy bastards generally so it was rather like herding cats.

• Mr realdoc had an epiphany on holiday due to this place and now spends a lot of time throwing himself at the North Atlantic in a vain attempt to reverse the aging process. (think King Canute in a wetsuit)

• Teenrealdoc is now taller and gobbier than me and spends a lot of her time trying to convince me why, despite the fact that Angel is hotter, Spike/Buffy is the more romantic pairing.

• Baby realdoc is now in big school and growing taller and gobbier by the day. The Sylvanians are being a bit neglected despite the fact that one of them, Dusty Evergreen??, recently scaled Mt. Everest.....no really!

*

• Ballykissarse is in the grip of a cultural renaissance with a modern art gallery, an experimental theatre company and an indie rock venue all opening since I last spoke to you.**

• I am a little older, more gnarly and saggy, but still in search of the perfect post-modern sitcom, life-changing novel or piece of music. I have watched all 5 series of The Wire and was blown away. I watched the entire run of Bonekickers and wasn't. Although Hugh Bonneville is my new unlikely sex symbol after Lost in Austen. I am listening to Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver and as a result will probably buy a lumberjack shirt and move into the shed. So I'll sign off now and hope to keep this updated at least once a week, laters.

* A work colleague, Dr Nigel Hart, at the summit of Mt. Everest March 08

**This is complete bollocks of course....but we have got a new Lidl.

**********UPDATE********* Doing a pathetic round of the blogroll to drum up some business but I can't seem to comment on a lot of blogs at the moment. But I'll keep trying.