No Cake For Conrad

Oh Well, Sophie Can Be My Proxy
     Yes, it's the "Cake and Bake" event in GMEX today, which I forgot about this morning and didn't remember until this afternoon, when I was hobbled by dog-sitting duties, although sister-in-law and neice are there and met Frances from The Great British Bake-Off, with pictures, too*.

Ah, now, that's just showing off!

On Friday at work we got free biscuits, which can't adjust a bad year's financial returns, but with a cup of tea it makes the future look a little rosier.  Compared to the blatant bakery-boasting above they are a little plain:

Hmmm.  I dunno.  Branding your biscuit "Hit" lends itself to those with dirty imaginations.

 On the plus side, I am now 100 pages into Al Murray's "Watching War Films With My Dad", have finished off "Black Watch (see below)" and am going through "The Kraken Wakes**" as instructed by "Screenwriting For Dummies", making a note of the characters.  I've also managed to sink 4 pints of tea thanks to this character -

Makes at least 2 pints per brew

Ah, Yes, Coincidence Again
     "Black Watch" is a memoir by Tom Renouf of his times with the 51st Highland division in Europe during WW2, as part of the Black Watch a.k.a. The Royal Highlanders.  Because their regimental tartan has a very dark weave, before you ask.
     Which Dutch town does Renouf mention many times in 1944?  Why, s'Hertegenbosch.
     Which Dutch town did Conrad work in, at the pickle factory?  Why, s'Hertegenbosch.
     Fun times they were.  Conrad remembers running atop a dyke in a thunderstorm, trying to get back to the factory.  "Oh no!" said Cecile later.  "The dyke is the highest point for miles around - when there's lightning it's the most dangerous place to be!"

What might have been: flash-fried Conrad

Enough Of Creepy Coincidences!
     Yes indeed.  Instead let's look at a couple of films.  Next!

"Soylent Green"
     This was adapted very freely from Harry Harrison's 1966 novel "Make Room! Make Room!" and the only reason it crops up here on BOOJUM! is that part of the title forms part of one of my passwords***.
     It features Charlton Heston and Edgar Robinson - the latter a terminally-ill man who died mere days after filming finished - in a dystopian future where pollution, over-population (world total 7 billion), global warming and giant dustbowls have utterly ravaged the earth.  A jar of jam is an unaffordable luxury item, at $150 per jar.  The oceans are dead.  People can elect to end it all in government-sanctioned Suicide Booths.  Chuck is investigating a murder; don't worry, he's a policeman, he's allowed to.
     There is a major plot twist at the end of the film (which simply didn't occur in the book) that I won't give away.
     All pretty bleak, eh?

Less bleak, more cheerful, eh?

     What rather takes the sting out of the tale^ is that "Make Room! Make Room!" and presumably the film too, are set in the year 1999.  So - Hom. Sap. can congratulate himself on managing to screw things up much more slowly than Harry envisioned.  That, if you like, is progress.  Of sorts!

Yes, all those MP's getting flooded is a disaster.  Yes it is!  It IS!
Oh alright it's not.

"Where Eagles Dare"
     Al Murray Tweeted that this most Boy's Own of all films is on, then added a "Pub Landlord Drinking Game For Where Eagles Dare^^" , which I've copied and may - only may! - follow, because one instruction is to take a drink whenever Clint Eastwood kills a German.  Given that Clint takes out most of the German Army, this is likely to end up badly in the small hours of the morning.

^^ I originally mis-typed "Where Eagles Date".  Can't have that sort of stuff on BOOJUM!  Hoy, you two - get a room!

R.I.P.
     As you already know, Conrad finds the clammy heat of his office environment hard to take, and there's not enough room in the fridge for him and his PC.  So!  Imagine my delight when I spotted a fan at B & M for £0.99.  I put it in my bag - and promptly forgot about it as the bag got slung around, bashed, dropped, kicked, squashed and dropped again.

Now as much used in keeping Conrad cool as the knife and fork

     End result when I rescued it from the depths of bag - it won't work.  The blades stutter around for a fraction of a second, then stop.  Conrad unhappy.

Dogsitting Duty
     I know I make it sound like a trauma, but when your miniature dog-to-be is like this, it's really no problemo:

Yes, cute - until the finger-gnawing and ear-licking commences!

* No, no pictures of Dawn herself, nor Ella.  Get your picture-fix of sweetness from the photo!
**  There's probably a good reason why nobody's ever made a film of it yet.
*** Note to IS - see how I am cleverly vague about which part is which and what?
^  Get it?  Get - oh you do.