In Which Conrad Gets Wet

Yes, The Ice Bucket Challenge
Actually Mo - scarey K-Mo - at work had already nominated me, a few weeks ago, and I kept putting it off and delaying and prevaricating.  Not that I intended to chicken out of it, it's just that there are so many demands on the time of an apprentice world-dictator.
     Then yesterday, who takes the challenge but the Pavlou sisters, and whom does Anna nominate?
     Why, Conrad.  
     Thank you, Anna - no, really, it made me (as MacBeth would have said) screw my courage to the sticking place and fill a bucket with water and ice*.  Give it twenty minutes to thoroughly chill and then have one assistant empty the bucket over Conrad whilst another films the whole chilly encounter.

A couple of trays of ice cubes and a bottle of ice I kept in the freezer.

 It wasn't quite as bad as I expected, and I'd do it again in summer, but that's all the ice-baths for this grumpy old man for the moment.

International Music
I showed off my recent CD purchases on Saturday, but managed to post them upside down, so here they are right way up:

Everyone likes bagpipes!

     I know what you're thinking "an excuse to post a photograph and bloat the blog whilst having little to no valid intellectual content" - very prolix - but No!  There is a deeper purpose here.  That's Scottish music being played by Canadians, and Russian music being played by Germans, which goes to show there is hope for the world -

 - But Not If The Mechanoids Arrive!
Conrad suspects that if he keeps on mentioning Doctor Who - DOCTOR WHO - then that might attract more visitors, as the whole world loves Doctor Who, even more than bagpipes**.
     So let us visit the good old days of Black and White television, and the First Doctor, and some metal monsters that the Beeb hoped would become as popular as either Daleks or Beatles (or a hideous mutant hybrid known as a "BeaDal" oh!  Hello Jeremy): the Mechanoids:

Mechanoid and Dalek grooving on the dancefloor, apparently

     As you can see, they were pretty hefty affairs, requiring if I remember properly, several people to move them around, and they were awkward and clumsy, not popular with their operators at all.  Nor is that all!  Their mighty armament of a supposed "super flamthrower" couldn't be deployed for real as the death of the whole recording studio staff alongside the cast would have meant a rapid end to the episode.  No, the effect was created by overlaid cartoon squiggles for the most part.

As a super-flamethrower, slightly more deadly than a Bic lighter.

     You might also notice that they share one major weakness with the Daleks***.

Filberts
Conrad noticed the use of this term in a recipe, possibly one in the Co-Op pamphlet he picked up this weekend.  He had heard it elsewhere and vaguely associated it with nuts.  Looking it up on the internet, it appears to be a variety of hazelnut.

Dilbert.  Close enough.

Today's Metro-malleting
This splendid source of papier-mache - my daughter swears by it - appears to be suffering from short-term memory loss and wilfully selective observation.  They bang on about Kate Bush in a minor eulogy and how she's so so fantastic, and she has lots of albums in the top 100 and her kiss can cure alopecia -
- hang on, this is the same Kate Bush they were slagging off last week?  About how fans were not happy with her not performing hits?  The big article trailled on the front page with another big photo article inside?
     Reprehensible rag!  Make your addled mind up!

Gate Bush.  Close enough

     There was more witless non-news about Justin Beaver on a quad bike, too.  
     Just wait.  When I take over the world some people - and papers - will <Mister Hand intervenes to prevent the nervous and small children becoming frightened>

Finally
As ever Conrad will stop at nothing in his exploitation of small cute animals in order to increase blog traffic^, and this time is no exception.

The urban feline blends in perfectly with it's surroundings

     Spot the cat!
     No, I meant "try and find the cunningly hidden cat on the cover", not that it's called "Spot"^^.  This is Jenny, senior of our two cyborg sentry cats, 



* Some people use normal room-temperature water, the cads.
** Did I say "Bagpipes"?  Sorry, I meant "Bagpuss"
***  STAIRS!
^ Well he does draw the line at "Read my blog or the puppy gets it!"
^^ Do keep up!