Modern Vespa

Excellent story!

London still has a few rent controlled places - I live in a block with some of them and they are perhaps paying £25 a week!

The oddest landlord was one who let himself into the house when no one was in and went through the drawers. He found some blu tack in a desk and wrote a note on it "Don't stick this on the walls". A 24 carat loon.

Outta there toot sweet!

Glad you managed to get it sorted out so quickly - one thing I can't stand is any sort of insecurity over my living arrangements.

We're no longer at the mercy of landlords (although our last one was fine) and I've probably never been happier with a living arrangement. Admittedly it was this last move that finally afforded me the space and cash to finally get a scooter so that's bound to have helped.

(Come to think of it, I've never personally had a bad experience with a landlord, but I've heard enough horror stories to know I wouldn't like it much.)

I did a YouTube search for GTV.......

East Dulwich. Not too far away.

Don't you just hate people who go yeah yeah yeah yeah then just when it really matters go erm no I've ( insert pathetic excuse here ) decided not to do it now.

My advice is if you are going to a gig only get two tickets and don't tell anyone else because whenever you book more for friends who say " Yeah we'd love to come " then they will always find some crappy excuse to drop you in it 2 days before the gig and then you have to phone round the friends that you didn't invite in the first place.

Arse.

Bill X

Wonder and Mr Wonder well done on the new gaff.

Know what you mean mate, i ended up asking the world and his wife about that last Specials ticket with no luck and would you believe that two people said the day after the gig that they would have gone!!

Yup, got my fingers burnt once too often and it's strictly tea for two these days.

Anyway my spare Eddie Izzard ticket has been taken care of after many texts to the right people.

Still annoying though.

Bum

Bill X

WELL DONE!!

You can always invite yourselves round for a cuppa on your way home (we're in SE1).

Well done on the new digs Wonders.

I have a reasonable landlord, he is the local methodist clergyman. Nice enough guy but a complete loon. When I moved in (with a heavily pregnant Sue and a 3 year old) there were no carpets and building works not finished all over the place. Needless to say I had nowhere else to go, so moved in and it was all finished within a couple of days. It was a real pain in the arse, but he has been so apologetic ever since, that after 3 and a bit years he has never put the rent up and does pretty much anything I ask of him. So I am happy here for now.

I am sorry I let you both down on the tickets.

so how do I top a pygmy hippo this year? we agree to not buy each other christmas gifts but we always buy each other silly presents leading up to christmas. Today i came home and Sue has bought me a new coffee mug with pictures of my GTS on it. She had it made for me. she's luverleee

Also Dave from london scooter body shop called today and my GTS is done! yay! £300 instead of £270 but hey I am sure it will be worth it. Pick it up Monday!!

My post was in no way aimed at you Marc.

My landlady's a crazy old Jamaican, who luckily rarely comes round, but when she does she's always wearing a shower cap. She spends half the time telling us that she wants us out a.s.a.p. and the other half saying " God bless you darlings, you're the best tenants I've got." Badly dressed loon.

Just heard that desert island discs will be available as a podcast from tomorrow - about bloody time!

First up will be morissey

Its been on the iplayer for a while...

i prefer podcasts as they are automatically updated onto my ipod which allows me to play them in the car during my commute.

i am a big iplayer fan when i'm at home though.

Am I the only one in the world without an Ipod ?

I'm keeping you company Bill. No iPod. Also my phone is *only* a phone, and is invariably turned OFF.

Thank god for that. Like you I use my phone to phone, text and send the odd picture after all it's what phones do isn't it ? Well apart from the picture bit.

I think that there's a novelty aspect to new technology that creates a "must have" value to some products.

Me ? I'm a bit of a Luddite which is probably the reason I don't have a Facebook page or a My Space thing.

Just changed the fuel filter on the GT but still managed to snap off one of the small lugs that slide into the body just above the retaining screw on the lower panel.

I'll get it plastic welded but it's still an arse.

Bill X

Who's free Saturday lunchtime?
manfetti coming to town

I spent a very wet and cold weekend firstly working at Blenheim Palace (Saturday night) then at the Royal Chelsea Hospital (Sunday night).

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

That's after the late-un on Tuesday (The Specials) and Old Billingsgate on Thursday........pooped is an understatement. I'm geeting too old for all these late nights.

I have an iPod, a Shuffle and my old iPod which broke but I can't bear to let it go. Tragic.

I thought I'd lost the Shuffle yesterday when I was caught in a downpour on the M25 and it cut out with a huge POP right in the middle of 'Money for Nothing' (I had it clipped to the back of my glove), but ten minutes later it suddenly POPped back into life and scared the pants off me.

Congrats on the move, Wonder Twins! Let's have some SE meetups in the New Year (I may be BR1 these days but my heart has never left SE13).

What a strange chap
Looking forward to Baroness Scotland, she must be a gas.

Me thinks desert Island disks would make a good [NSR]

Be warned. It's madness in there.

Thanks for the pressie suggestions. Settled on some Wright & Teague
jewellery in the end as I know it's a favourite of mrs kam's.

oh me i think!

just back from iceland yesterday and manchester just a couple of hours ago.

iceland is amazing. spent hours soaking in a volcanically heated outdoor spa/pond/thing with silica mud masque all over my face whilst a blizzard raged around us. followed by a head-shrinking sauna then a lovely meal of unpronounceable pickled fish things and lamb smoked with ambrosia and blueberries.

manc's not bad either not a shell suit in sight and i still have my phone.

OK - I propose 12:00 lunch at "The Distillers", near the top of Fulham Palace Road. Easy tube for Matt (Hammersmith), and a friendly council for scooter parking.

http://www.thedistillerspub.com/Findus-ByCar.aspx

Note - it doesn't open until 12:00, so don't get there too early!

I guess it's OK if you like that sort of thing. Knots hands.
Genie I think you should consider a career in travel writing.
12 days and counting and I can leave the country again.

We could actually count lunch with Manfetti as our unofficial Christmas Meet ?

Lunch with Manfetti sounds like a piece of Art or an Album by Snow Patrol.

Bill X

hello peeps sorry for the delay in getting on here .. just to let you know .. im back to work today .. no more sick leave .. so same again next year .. right lets find all those trip hazards .. he he he

Not sure whether to say 'congratulations' or 'commiserations' on that one!

My but it's cold. I was so sure the ET4 wouldn't start that I gave myself plenty of extra time, and lo! it booted right up.

The top box lock was frozen, though. It's always some damn thing with that bike.

Bloody hell that's a quick mend - or are you still on crutches and destined for desk-duties for the time being?

Getting back to work will be a bit of a shock at first, but at least it'll be good to be with workmates again and not going stir-crazy at home.

Woah! It the resurrection! Good for you. I hope you got yourself a top solicitor for compensation - if you don't I know some utter, utter bastards who would make the Devil turn pale in court.

I want to see Spider in a Solicitors-for-You kind of advert where he looks at the camera and says "A total F###ing W##ker pulled out in front of me and I got a hundred farzand parnd ! in his best Daniel Day Lewis voice.

Seriously though Mate well done on your swift recovery.

Glad to know you are well enough to return to work.

Bill X

I still think that you should be able to take a sledgehammer to the offender's car as part of the package of compensation.

Or his face saying see how you like it you blind knob !

Are you still stiff Spider ? oooohhh eeerrrr Missus.

great to hear you're back on your feet spider

also ... sorry it's not in my usual poor taste, but this was spotted today in a university coffee shop....

Oh god, that means the fish puns will start all over again...

Perhaps the signwriter was hard of herring?

I like the instructions to EAT LEARN LIVE.

It reminds me of a Russian or German propagander from the early 1940's.

Love and Rockets

Bill X

either that or they didn't pay attention in 'school'

No fish, but these cartoons are fowl: http://www.acem.eu/cartoon/

Presumably someone got paid to produce this patronising carp.

Pathetic, patronising EU sh*t.

Catroon 1 - junctions - 2/3 of accidents at junctions where the bike has right of way and the driver is on her phone. So where are the patronising cartoons at the intellectually challenged car driver?

I think I might be a day glo derek for the rest of the winter. The Hammersmith Gyratory will kill me otherwise.