“Don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night.” - Philip K Dick

Well look who's here!

Not me but a face from the distant past! (That sounds like an episode summary - Billy must confront a mysterious figure from his youth, a man known only as fiftywatt!!! {played by Anton Rodgers probably, or maybe Derek Guyler}).
Hello to the shadowy figure of fiftywatt, the first non spambot commenter I've had in a long time, also proprietor of a wonderfully witty blog (http://familiar-unknown.blogspot.co.uk). I can dredge up almost as much TV and movie ephemera as him, but he can phrase it so much better.

In other news life creeps on. Since Billie became independent of transport, and my shifts changed, I'm seeing her maybe once or twice a week, and savings on Dad Taxi petrol outgoings, I can pass on to her in the form of cash (tongue mostly in cheek).

Whilst apparently I'm in the top 10% of earners in the world, I must be doing something spectacularly wrong in this,or (heaven forbid) previous lives (a strange sentence from a devout atheist eh?). 

A leaving do next week, and despite it only being April my first night out of the year, where can I buy a mumu on short notice? A very scant list of attendees to boot, especially since it's for four! separate leavings, I didn't even warrant my own night apparently! Just a quarter of one.

My three Nurse Practitioner colleagues have all been on holiday this week , so I find myself in the unique situation of not only being lonely at home, but at work also, go figure.

Popular culture update - well not much recently, welcome back Game of Thrones (home to literally ALL British and Irish character actors) and Madmen of course, Hannibal and Cosmos remain excellent viewing, but movie wise all I've watched this week was a blu ray of "Blue Thunder". Perfect if like me you love a good formulaic 80s actioner, but some (most?) might find it extremely cheesy and trope heavy, but that's a combination I like, plus it's hard not to warm to Roy Scheider in anything!
(Since Billie asked me to fund her netflix subscription, I suddenly find myself with on demand access too, consequently I binged watched Series 3 & 4 of Blackadder last weekend, such wit and wordplay!)

I see your Nat Jackley Con-Apts and raise you my Edward Malin Mo-Pad ! 

"We'll never make it in time!" from yakkowarner on 8tracks Radio.

“Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first” - Peter Ustinov

“Money cannot buy health, but I'd settle for a diamond-studded wheelchair.” - Dorothy Parker

I'm back,
possibly for one night only.

Whatever need this blog served me seems less important to my older jaded self. Back when apparently one or two people read it, I thought I could use it as a means of getting my views out to real people and even dared to dream of interaction, crazy eh? Now I realise that there's no one there save spammers, and even if there was, they don't care.

The new job continues, I don't want to go into detail , as work policy forbids it, but after the first year or so of financial woes (no weekends means much less pay for me, about £200 per month) it should be great. The work itself is interesting, but as it's a new role finding our way is akin to crossing a swamp, best done daintily and very very carefully.

Billy bought a brand new car (a Vauxhall Adam in fact), and is driving around like an old hand. She's so confident, a fact that makes me simultaneously proud and frightened.

And me? Things continue as ever. I've vowed to lose some weight, and I think I might actually manage it this time. I don't want to be thin, just able to buy a nice shirt or jacket and have it fit.

I don't feel as miserable as once was, but sometimes the future frightens me, it's a lot shorter than it once was, and it looks very lonely. But I'm only one of millions to feel like that I imagine.

I bought a new PC (it metaphorically flies), the first since the wonderful summer of 2007, a couple of weeks after I first "met" Barbara. That date is quite a touchstone for me, but you probably knew that anyway, didn't you?

What popular culture has interested me?
"Hannibal" Season 2 is excellent, "True Detective" was sublime, and "The Winter Soldier" was rollicking good fun.

I've been doing a lot of studying (for work of course), and it's great to be learning new stuff. It seems you can teach an old dog new tricks, or at least new versions of them.

Be seeing you...

"Secrets are dangerous things Audrey" from yakkowarner on 8tracks Radio.

“You can't teach an old dogma new tricks.” - Dorothy Parker