Anniversary Now!

Jumping The Gun A Little -
     For reasons explained below there probably won't be any BOOJUM! tomorrow, so I am anticipating June 16th 2014 by 24 hours.
     What's the significance?  Well I started BOOJUM! a year ago on that date, as a couple of paragraphs of text - I think Ambrose Bierce figured in there somewhere.  Since then I've posted nearly every day, with occasional double posts when I drink too much tea or find photographs I can pad an article with, so the total of posts exceeds 365 slightly - 374 not counting this one.  The total of page-views is slightly skewed by my having a blog since 2007, but only being active on it for a short while before BOOJUM! so I estimate the total number of people displaying taste and refinement to be about 4,800 over the year - now averaging about 19 a day.
     Dull stuff to you, perhaps, but Conrad needs to number-crunch to feel loved and wanted.

Statistics are boring.  Here's a Zombie Rocket Dinosaur instead

     The blog has evolved over time <Mister Hand warns of a lot of back-slapping congratulatory stuff to come> from merely texts to include pictures and then photographs, and from standing in complete isolation to getting promoted on Facebook, and then Twitter.  Initially the posts were anything that popped into my head, but Conrad discovered that this meant up to 2 hours in creating a blog entry as he waited for the Muse to strike - and waited - and waited - and so now he has a small notebook that he makes entries in when the notion takes him.
     So, if you see a large, grey/white-haired, grumpy-looking chap with an impressive white moustache wielding a pen and notebook as he reads a novel - Congratulations!  You've just seen Conrad creating.

Conrad.  Ecstatic with glee about the anniversary

Eels
     I can remember the last concert I went to - "The Australian Pink Floyd" and it must have been many many years ago because I got the tickets from the Virgin Megastore in Manchester.
     Well, tomorrow Conrad is off to see Eels at the Bridgewater Hall, so I shall be going straight from work, doubtless encountering food on the way.  The concert probably won't finish until 10:00 so it will be a case of catching the 83 into Oldham and a 409 from there, arriving home in a mood not conducive to posting a blog.

Mark was pressured into doing this bus drive.  He hates the 409 route, you see.

     But we'll see.
     Eels?  They are the vehicle for Mark Oliver Everett, Mr. E, a chap who takes a pretty gloomy look on life, with occasional bursts of optimism.  Conrad - obviously! - being a completist has all their stuff and can claim to have liked them from their very start upon hearing "Novocaine for the soul" which is a great tune with horribly depressing lyrics.

Hello Coincidence - Meet "Against The Day"
     Yesterday Conrad possibly bored you with a book he'd bought - "Danger On The Line" by an ex-British Railways manager, about accidents on railways since 1945.  Conrad still intends to travel by train despite reading about terrifying accidents, not superstitious he!  Anyway, one of the sources of derailment was problems with "hot axleboxes" - No! not a Swedish punk band - and the company that manufactured roller bearings came up with several mechanical solutions.  The company was called "Timken".
     Conrad had never heard of them before Saturday.  What does he see in the latest chapter of "ATD"?  Mention of 1903 buggies with - Timken suspension.
     I don't think even Phil can come up with a convincing explanation for this one.  Phil?

This is to help you get your bearings

Charlie Chan
     Conrad remembers seeing a season of these films on BBC 2 decades ago, when Sidney Toler was playing the lead role.  Conrad - having only seen them the once - only remembers the plot of one, which had rats infected with bubonic plague to be released on US Navy warships as they traversed the Panama Canal*.
     What Conrad does remember, is that all these films began in the same way.  Charlie would be en route to somewhere, or had arrived to meet another person, and he encountered a friend.  
     Who was promptly murdered.  

What Charlie sees when he comes round to visit

     This, naturally, drew Charlie into the investigation.
     Conrad couldn't help thinking that Charlie's circle of friends would rapidly decrease as 1) Firstly they were being killed off and 2) Those who remained alive would hide if they found their "friend" wanted to meet them. Imagine the telephone conversation:
     Charlie:  Hello, is that Fabio?
     Fabio (cautiously): Er - yes. Yes it is.
     Charlie:  Great!  Listen, Fabio, I'm going to be in Florence tomorrow -
     Fabio:  Hang on - Charlie?  Is that you?
     Charlie:  Yes, Fabio, it's me.  Like I said - hello?  Hello, Fabio?  That's odd, the line's gone dead**.

Father's Day
     Ha!  I got weird tea for my present, wrapped in hand-drawn paper, which makes my present unique:

Extra-large so you can see the design

     And here is the Liquorice tea:

With pen for scale

     This is strange stuff indeed, so sweet that Conrad is glad he didn't put any honey/syrup/muscovado in it.  Good for the digestion - if you're a human.

*  Ah, 1930's plots.  Such creativity! You don't see that in "Sharknado", or "Megaoctopus", do you?
**  As Fabio would be if you turned up, Charlie