Space, Time And Skladniki

"Skladniki"
It sounds like a race of peculiarly vicious and evil aliens from Doctor Who, doesn't it?
     "The ruthless and relentless Skladniki closed in on Number Ten, their blasters annihilating all who got in their way, until, cackling with evil delight, they vapourised the entire Cabinet into a haze of dust particles -"
     Yes, yes, I have blatantly and obviously - obviously! - violated BOOJUM!'s rules about politics, although in my defence if this is Doctor Who we could be talking about the Cabinet of 1928, rather than that of the modern day, which I bet a few of you would be crossing your fingers over.
     Be that as it may, let us proceed to the truth.  No, Skladniki are not hideous* monsters with green warty skin, poison fangs and a prediliction for attractive young underclad men**.  It's actually Polish.

Skladniki, surely?  Grimy fellers. Lack of spit and - er - polish.

     "What?  Those chaps who fought at the Siege of Tobruk in the Second Unpleasantness?" you ask.  "And who stormed Monte Cassino?"
     Yes, that's the -
     "And who invented the closest thing to a liquid Weapon of Mass Destruction, "Polish Pure Spirit?" "
     Yes.  Can I -
     "Which is good in mixers and for cleaning the heads on recording-"
     EXCUSE ME!  Can I have my blog back?  Thank you. Thank you loads.
     I think that's enough for this Intro.  Let the motley begin!

Polo.  Not Just Polo, Prince Polo!
I'm not sure if I've told you how Conrad likes Polish cuisine. At least the variety you find on supermarket shelves under the "Polski Sklep" section.  It used to be a bit of a chore to find pickled peppers until our East European brethren arrived here in numbers.  Now you can get all sorts, including the interestingly titled "Prince Polo".
     

It's a classic, apparently.
I think the "XXL" is a dig at Conrad's sheer size.

     Conrad bought this despite knowing nothing about it.  He did take a photo of the ingredients list on the back, which might very well serve as inspiration for the blog for a couple of weeks, viz:

"Skladniki" - second down on the left

     "Amonu", "Skrobia" - again, they sound like aliens from Doctor Who, even though they're probably only emulsifying agents or an anti-caking powder.
     Now, what is Prince Polo when you get down to it?  Actually not something that Conrad would have bought if the wrapper had been transparent:

Chocolate wafer, you see.

     I do like the Polish air of superiority, though.  This isn't a mere Polo - probably because Nestle already have a copyright on that - it's NOBILITY!

It's Been A Long Time Jack, Welcome Back***
If you have any Tragic Violin Soundtracks, now is the time to play them.  Conrad, after being made redundant back in <cough cough>, had to apply for many positions before getting an interview, which is a long and tedious process indeed.
     "So what?" I can hear you ask, which is shockingly impolite.  Don't forget I know who your ISP is and what you've been searching for on the Internet  -
     "Tell us more!" I hear you request.
     Well, one of the things I had playing in the background was "Samurai Jack".

Jack and his foe, Aku

     This was a corking animated series about Jack, a noble and principled samurai warrior who was sent thousands of years into the future.  He fought the minions of Aku, who always turned out to be robots, meaning that the bodycount could be both 1)  Enormous and 2) Bloodless.
     However, old Gennady Tarkovsky, the creator, didn't manage to finish the story.  Jack is still stranded in the future, or at least he was until I read the above.
     All twenty four fingers and toes crossed!

Yes, Yes, I'm Getting Around To That
I did mention about Space and Time in the title.  
     WRONG!  This isn't about Doctor Who.  Ha!  I do like to mix it up now and then.
     No, this is about that group that Conrad loves to bits, The Mars Volta, who might be described as "Bonkers mathcore prog-metal".  Of late I have been playing "The Bedlam in Goliath" which has the bonus of a morning of preventing people from sitting next to me.
     One line from "Cavalettas" did take my fancy, as I've wondered and pondered about it before:

"It's just a matter of folding space and time."

     Excuse me?  "Just"  "Just" a matter of something that has eluded the grasp of human science and technology for the - sorry?  Oh. Apparently Art has some input here:

     Er, quite.  Folding.  Space and time.
     Conrad - get your hair washed you scruffy rascal!

"The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors Even"
NO!  Put your tongues back in, you sewer-minded rascals.  Conrad refers to Art-
     NO!  Not Art Department, that coal-chewing sloven who lives in the septic sump here at the Mansion and who is responsible for producing the blog's artwork.  Capital letters Art.  You know, painting and sculpture and high-concept shizzle like that.

Marcel Duchamp's masterpiece

     This is an artwork done on glass, that suffered extensive accidental cracking, as you can see.  I bring this up to underline a point about the phones of the young folk at work.  Behold!

     Unfortunately for Conrad, Alex had replaced her previously shattered phone.  But there you go.

Time to pack it in and pimp, promote and promulgate the blog because it is but 14 minutes until Doctor Who.  What?  Were you expecting, perhaps, the Badger Parade^?


* OH ALL RIGHT!  "Differently appearanced".  Satisfied?
** BOOJUM!  Turning sci-fi stereotypes on their heads.
*** Yes, this is a line from The Chameleon's song "Souls In Isolation"
^ Sorry, rained off.