Eeh By Gum* BOOJUM!

    Yes we are back again, after taking an evening off.  Sorry, but those dishes needed doing, and that coconut ice-cream needed making and then there was the Pub Quiz

Star Trek
     With those two words I expect to double my viewing!  Yes, two readers!
My pub quiz partners, Phil and Rosie, brought a Star Trek 1973 Annual to the quiz and presented it to me.  There's a bit of damage to the bottom of the spine, but otherwise it's in excellent condition; no fading, mould, discolouration, graffiti or torn pages.
     I don't recognise the artist's style, so they're probably one of the house artists at Western Publishing.  Not bad in penmanship, but the starship crew's uniforms are a curate's egg, and the plots are - er, well, "under-developed", shall we say.



Purists a.k.a. Trekkies note the unauthentic blazing contrails left by the Enterprise

Work Scheduling
     Maybe this is a truism, but I discovered last weekend that laying out a list of what to do helped to prioritise and actually get things done.  The problem with Conrad is that, at heart, he is an idle flapdoodle who needs a rocket loaded with amphetamine up the bum to motivate him.
     So, gentle reader, after posting this blog entry I shall sit down with pen and notebook** and work out what to do this weekend.

Payday!  Enter haircut.  And books.  Always books.
     My plan tomorrow, besides anything that gets entered into notebook, is to go get haircut at Peppi's in Chadderton.  I've been going there for the past 20 years and yes, I am a creature of habit.  Following that, a trip into the Bustling Metropolis, a.k.a. the Well-Washed Metropolis, of Manchester.  First port of call - the Oxfam shop next to the bus-stop I alight from.  After checking that out, the second-hand bookstall next to Yates'.  Then, Fopp! to buy up the Mars Volta's back catalogue.  Then, home!  and a Mashed Potato Casserole - we have a lot of potatoes.
     I've also ordered £24 worth of books from Abebooks, but there will be 5 of them, so that's a good average, right?  If it were only one book - ah yes that's another story.

One month's purchases by Conrad

 So - Tanks?
     Not entirely.  No.  In fact, this: 


A London Tube Train out of it's natural habitat



Meet "Nellie".  Nellie was a gigantic trench-digging machine that weighed in at 130 tons, back in the day when a digger of 1 ton was impressive.  This little lady's job was to excavate a trench six feet wide and six feet deep, extending ad infinitum, or Berlin, and allowing British Tommies and tanks to walk or motor along in perfect safety.
     I know we won the war, I just wonder how, given ideas and machinery as above.

* A Yorkshire expression.  Translates into English as "Blimey!" or "Crikey!"
** Not only a creature of habit, an old-school creature.  With a fountain pen!