The Doctor Brushes Up

Literally

One of Conrad's foibles, eccentricities or outright oddities is his tendency to watch Doctor Who again the day after it was shown.  Just to cement exactly what happened, and because his memory can be slightly erratic*, and because he frequently misses the pre-credits sequence as he's in the Upstair Lair creating wildly entertaining nonsense** for posting here.

     So.  We have the in-joke of the episode being set in Coal Hill School, which you may remember was the roosting place for Susan, Ian and Barbara in the very first episode.  I also wonder about the deserted building the policeman gets a bit of a toasting in; it seems familiar as in "Remembrance of the Daleks" - one of the best stories ever, in my completely accurate opinion.

The very ace Ace.  Not a girl to argue with.

     Then we have the "grey-haired stick insect" with his barbed wit and casual insulting of Clara, very good, keep it up, no undercurrent of romance here between these two.

<excuse me, got to go refill teacup>

     Ah back with a mug of Russian Caravan tea.  Noble stuff.  Where were we?  Ah, yes, Clara and Mr Pink and the Doctor being argumentative after dealing with the Scovox Blitzer first time around.  Danny Pink has a hard time getting his head around Time Lords and TARDIS's and time travel - probably not the sort of things that tend to make a date go well.  But he does save the world.

The Doctor.  Skilled in hypnotism, Venusian Aikido and Broom-Fu

     Will we be seeing more of the Invisibility Watch?  As the Psychic Paper isn't being touted these days, is it?  And The Afterlife as a big white room - tut, Mister Moffat, tut!  Everyone knows it's barleycorn.

From The High-Flown To The Slightly More Prosaic

There is still a half-pint of strawberry coulis going, plus plenty of Greek yoghurt, so Conrad threw them into a blender with a week-old nectarine.

Et voila!

     Surprise!  It was delicious.  Strawberry coulis and nectarine smoothie definitely works.

More Of Matters Edible

Wonder Wifey acquired a pound-and-a-half of beef brisket for pennies and requested a variant of Sherba (a kind of Moroccan soup-stew) with kidney beans rather than chick peas. And the beef, obviously - obviously! - the beef, or I wouldn't have mentioned it in the first place, would I? - instead of lamb.

As the cooking begins

     It's currently cooking, with the lid off to reduce a bit.  Probably ready by five o'clock.

Against The Day

Now up to page 720.  Typically Tom has moved the focus, from England and cricket to Vienna and pastries, with mention of place-names in Hungarian.  This I can confirm because the only words of Hungarian that Conrad knows (and you can't count "goulash" or "Paprika") are "Fo Utca", which means "High Street".  And hey there you are, "Vasi Ut", a street in Vienna.

Vasi Utca***

Rapscallion

I take it you know what one of these is.  Defined as "a mischievous person", that's exactly what they are.  The word is English (Hooray!  No Latin!) and derives in turn from "rascal", which itself derives from the French "rascaille" (Hooray!  Still no Latin!) It's not used overmuch these days, but you might encounter it here at BOOJUM!, for as you know we do not swear here, as there might be small children reading.  And if you hear Conrad, in an understated hiss pronounced through a murderer's smile behind stoney black eyes, say "rapscallion", there's really no need for swearing.

It's late, it's dark, and this face from two inches away calls you a "rapscallion"
Not a pleasant thought, is it?

Spelling Nazi On The Loose

Conrad may have already mentioned earning the undying hatred of the work's cafe staff by correcting their spelling of "blackcurrent", and he ought to know by now to keep his pie-hole shut intead of annoying the work's shop staff by pointing out "tommorrow" was incorrect on their slate & chalk sign.  He has also annoyed one of the managers by pointing out that we request "stationery" rather than requesting being stood still, and only last week corrected Darling Daughter's misuse of the apostrophe.

Spelling Nazi's are dull.  Here's a T34 tank instead.

Out Of Nowhere -

Dan Dare.  Why?  Because I CAN!

This man has the most fantastic eyebrows of any comics character ever.

Cyborg Sentry Cat Sleeping On The Job

Really!  Thanks to the Edna Wunderhund Extremely Loud Early Warning System, Jenny thinks she can abandon her duties entirely and use the Upstair Lair as her personal dormitory.

"Cat nap" made concrete

     I can see we shall have to tinker with her programming a bit, the rapscallion.

* Okay, very erratic.

** Or complete drivel depending on your point of view.

*** This does sound like a medical term in Latin, I grant you:  "The vasiutca is found next to the Sino-Atricular Node"