"It Had Rained In The Night"

A Chance Choice Of Title*
     But also very true.  It did rain last night, and this morning, and this afternoon and will probably go on to rain this evening and tonight.
     English weather.  Never one to let you down with dull predictability or a pattern sustained over weeks.  Great for breaking the ice - excuse the metaphor - at parties.

"So - d'you come here often?"

The Dutch, Christmas And Powder Metallurgy
     I'm not sure if the expenditure in words here will justifiy the punchline.  Here goes, anyway.
     The Dutch are an industrious and laid-back lot, rather like mellower Germans.  What is their name for that fat bloke in red who delivers presents on 25th December?  "Sinter Klaas", which has been corrupted in English into "Santa Claus".
     All well and good, except! Conrad will have you know that there is a process known as "sintering", which is used to fuse together things like metals in powder form at less than their melting point.
     What's the Dutch for "Class"?  Why, "Klasse".
     I predict trouble around the 24th of December in Utrecht and Nijmegen at their industrial sites where sintering goes on, oh yes.

Sin Tin Ring.  Close enough

Comic Books In Comic Books
     This struck me earlier today whilst finishing off "So you want to be a supervillain?"  In the universe of Marvel and DC, not to mention Dark Horse and Exploding Seagull**, do any of their comics mention or display comics within their own strips?
     Not a trick question, Conrad is curious.  There is the famous example found in "Watchmen", but that's the only one that can be turned up in the rubbish-filled skip that is his mind.
     No!  I am not going to "take a quick look" at any of my collection, as this would turn into a "very long look indeed crap it's already midnight".  Maybe later.

Al Murray.  A comic book

Camouflage Your Cat
     Like Conrad, and the Mansion of BOOJUM!, I expect many of you have cyborg sentry cats for the purposes of deterring burglars.  Ours have the optional extra of laser-cannon eyeballs, a mixed blessing in summer when there are flies in the kitchen.
     Anyway, if - as we have found word tends to get around amongst the criminal community when their ranks get thinned out by lazer vapourisation - you aren't getting any trespassers any longer, and your cats are getting out of practice, try camouflaging them.  Yes, this is cheating and entrapment but since nothing remains of the burglar's remains except a cloud of meaty-smelling fumes, the police can't do anything.

Method One: cover with tea-towel.  Effective, if a bit lumpy

Same method, different towel.  Just for a bit of contrast.

Bin-bag drapery.  Not successful.  Will only fool burglars with very poor sight.

The tea-cosy.  Not approved by Conrad, he needs that cosy for his tea!

Laundry basket.  Highly effective.  Cat not so sure.

Cat-as-author, just recharging the imagination batteries.  Not sure about this camouflage - too much like competition

A Reconstruction Of The Event
     If you will observe the picture below, you will notice that from the top shelf to the worktop is a distance of about one metre.

     This is the distance that small wine bottle fell, onto a glass chopping-board, next to a thin-walled glass and next to the glass teapot.
     Nothing broke!  Nor even chipped.  Conrad suspects this good fortune is to be counter-balanced by sinister and evil happenings later on - if another blog comes out later today, expect to hear grim tidings, gentle reader.

Excitement!  Thrills!  Going Around Columns With A Pen!
     Conrad has not descended to the depths of middle-aged inanity where the best thing about the day is a cup of tea nice sit down reading the Telegraph chair, but this sails close to the wind:

Naval and Military Press's bi-monthly catalogue.  That' got your pulse pounding, eh?

     Conrad has bought enough books of these chaps that they continued to send this paper even when he was unemployed and not spending money on books.  I like to circle the ones I have in black pen, and highlight the ones to go on a list for payday.  Not exactly rock and roll, but it does stop Conrad from vandalising bus-stops***.

Finally, Edna
     This is why she is also called "Shred-na".

Well done Edna! That wicked packing material will never threaten us again!

     And in "butter-would-not-melt" mode:

*  From "Against The Day"
**  Yes this is a real publishers, they did Eric "The Goon" Powell's early stuff.
*** Not as easy as it used to be thanks to that metal-mesh plastic they use now