Burnley

Yes, Indeed!
As you must be aware by now, gentle reader, Conrad has stumbled upon amazing coincidences between what he dubs the "intro" part of the daily blog, and the fact that these titles happen also to refer to football clubs in the Premier and First Division.
     Don't worry, there will be further coincidences later on.  O yes.  
     Anyway, see here a burn:

Ah, that water looks particularly cold!
And rather black.

     As you may - or may not - know, "burn" is a term used in Scotland for a stream or river.  The stream in the picture above is probably coloured black due to the peat it travels through.
     Now we see Scottish ley lines, which might probably definitely pass through several burns:

Specious drivel!

Hence the title of today's blog - and once again marvel at the coincidence that there is indeed a Football Club called "Burnley"!  Who knew*!

Beetroot Burgers
This might sound an odd recipe, but made with gluten-free oats, carrots and obviously - obviously! - beetroots, it's actually quite palatable.  The trick is to get rid of excess moisture - the oats soak up some of it, and the eggs in the recipe bind it together - before shaping it into burgers, as you then fry them to give them a certain degree of setting and shape.

Purple porkless burgers

      Wonder Wifey first scoffed at the very idea of "Beetroot Burgers", but who scoffed the last two ...
     Next: Polenta Pizza

"Vim"
I had to explain this to Katie at work recently.
     "How are you?" she asked, hesitantly, worried about what Conrad might have been up to the night before with guns and electricity.
     "Full of vim!" I replied, to her puzzlement.
     "What's that?" she asked, again hesitant, worried about what kinds of illegal pharmaceuticals Conrad might be referring to.
     "Exuberance! Energy! Outgoingness!" I breezily replied**.
     Let me repeat a bit of doggerel I cam out with on Monday:

"Look at me I'm full of vim.

I will not let the gremlins win.

I am "Can Do" in human form.

I''ll make those gremlins feel forlorn."

     Which sums up Conrad's unfailingly cheerful and optimistic outlook on life.

Hmmm.  If Conrad is full of this it would explain a lot about him ...

Coincidence Mark 1
I was reading my bargain-bin edition of The Manchester Regiment on the bus into Manchester itself today - no that's not the coincidence, do be patient! - and I came across a photograph of the Mortar Platoon in action in Holland, at a small town called s'Hertogenbosch.

The town looking a bit the worse for wear

     Where did Conrad spend the summer of 1982 working in a pickled-onion factory?
     That's right, s'Hertogenbosch.

Damn, I Shall Have To Stop Insulting It
Latin, I mean.  If you read the blog with any regularity you know I frequently call the language of Rome - if it's a dead language, but still in use, then it must be a ZOMBIE language***.
     Matt, who will probably regret ever mentioning the fact that he is a Classical scholar, was kind enough to give me this today:

     I flicked idly through it, and was struck by the information page about date of publication, etcetera^:

24th Reprinting!

     It's been reprinted at least once a year every year since 1991.  They might only be small print runs, but good lord aloft that's a lot of people reading it!

Coincidence Mark 2
I don't know if I've mentioned "Travelling Man" before or not.  It's a comic shop that I pass on my way to the homeward bus stop, and, being a big kid since graphic novels are for grown-ups, I often make a divert and come away with a slim volume of artistic story-telling.
     Say hello to Claw The Thin Ice:

"Codeine", "JFK" and "Ice Skates are my faves so far

     I work with Ian, one of the band's guitarists, who provided Conrad with the CD above.  It is really rather good.  And CTTI have played twice at Travelling Man as Haroon, the owner^^, is into music big time.
     Plus, he was present at the "Dream Themes" gig.

Coincidence Mark 3?  Only You Can Judge!
Conrad spotted this advert in that chip-wrapper The Metro today and it creased his brow a smidgeon:

     Is this some peculiar joke?
     I refer, obviously - obviously! - to that classic film "Blade Runner", which has a clutch of villainous Androids of the Nexus 6 class running about and being "retired".
     As ever, answers on a postcard to the Mansion.

The Screaming Voles
Chipping Sodbury's finest, the Voles came back together in 1995 after going off to do solo projects for a while.  Drummer Bash Corrigan did a Masters at Harvard in Cybernetic Systems Design, singer Boxy Inflected spent time in Japan and South Korea working with local musicians, bassist Biff Bunkum built a recording studio and second guitar/keyboard player Ivor E Keys became a local councillor for the Liberals.  Here's a track from "Rubber Vole", entitled "Still Heavily Medicated After All These Years":

"Evil as ermine!  Evil as ermine!

We may be middle-aged

But we're still utter swine!

Evil as ermine!  Evil as ermine!

     They were very well received when playing "Later", Jools himself taking over keyboard duties for their songs ""Close to the Wedge" and "Shine on you crazy Humphrey Davy safety-lamp"

Rubber Rat.
Come on, rubber vole inages are really rare!

* Keep your suspicions to yourselves, thanks.
** I love being brimful of enthusiasm, it annoys people so.
*** I enjoy this strained analogy so much that I will be forlorn when I stop using it.
^ I bet this is Latin, too
^^ A thoroughly decent chap who knows his comics.