Hitting A Half Century

No!  Nothing To Do With Cricket
Surely by now you have realised that your humble scribe knows nothing of and cares less for sport of any kind, at least until Jaffa Cake Eating or Fig Roll Devouring are up there as Olympian choices.
     Heck, this isn't even about me, it's about Degsy hitting the big Fifty.  Hence his half-century.  Which is the letter "L" in Roman numerals, and I made an hilarious pun about it on his card.  Which you'll just have to take on trust, I don't have time to pander to your sketicism.
     "Ah, cynical and jaded, both Conrad's prime character traits!" I hear you judge, and really you aren't far wrong.
     Anyway, Degsy is partly to blame for me posting this so late.  Any brickbats, please direct at him.  For we went to Yo! Sushi in the Manchester Arndale Centre* for tea tonight, joined by Darling Daughter, as a celebration of his L-plate status. 

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 I didn't get there until 5:15 a.m. and already Table 4 was a wasteland of different coloured bowls.  Of course I then had to stuff myself with sushi, which takes a long time as sushi are small and I am large.  Darling Daughter was also horrified as Conrad devoured handfuls of the delicious pickled ginger that the management so thoughtfully provide for free, which is one of the best bits about Yo! Sushi.  Thank you, managers!

The definition of delicious in nutrition

 Then we had the travel torment of rush-hour traffic in Manchester, then more traffic out of Manchester - was it stalking us, the rascal? - and I only sat down to type out this tat a scant few seconds ago.  Not only that, Pub Quiz is Go! this week, so I have a window of opportunity that is gradually shrinking.  

      

 A Laugh At Lunch
I have to thank Pete for providing yesterday's intellectual diversion, by giving me a copy of The Metro and thus the Cryptic Crossword.  I couldn't finish the damn thing over lunch, however.  This was not due to lack of mental acuity on the part of your humble scribe, but rather more to Javed and Pete's incessant chit-chat and banter.  Pete held forth on power-napping whilst using public transport, which he recommended as a technique.  Javed gave a practical reason why this is a spectacularly BAD idea - he'd fallen asleep on the train to Huddersfield and woken up in Newcastle.  It may be a city of culture, Newcastle, however, if you don't actually reside there in a domicile, all the culture there is will, Conrad feels, seem a bit hollow.
     Also, your modest artisan being literally dozy, deliberately falling asleep on the bus is a no-no.

     Talking of papers, here's yesterday's scrounged copy of "i".  Or "i" if U prefer.

Smashed it!

     Not entirely sure about the "Stand Off Half" but then refer to post one for Conrad's expertise on sport.

The Flophouse And "R.I.P.D."
The only real drawback to getting a lift into work with Degsy is the absence of The Metro, but since First Bus also fail to supply it (there you go, two epic themes referred to in yesterday's blog) it's a movable moot point, all the more so thanks to Pete.
     The lack of a cryptic crossword is compensated for by the spirit-lifting banter of listening to the Flophouse podcasters - Dan, Stewart and Elliot.  This trio never fail to send each other into fits of laughter, which is quite infectious and a good set up for the day.
     I shall now mention what they did, the film "R.I.P.D."  

R.I.P.Dire

     Conrad has seen this film and couldn't recall a single thing about it.  Nada.  Nul. Nought.  It stars Ryan Reynolds.  Still nada.  Jeff Bridges?  Ah, yes, I kind of - no, gone again.  Still nada.
     The Flopsters are not kind to R.I.P.D.  They criticise it as lazy film-making, made by someone who simply filed the numbers of a series of better films.  In fact, remember that Indonesian zombie film that rips off "Aliens" by simply reciting the whole script over their execrable cinematic taint?  That's "R.I.P.D."'s relationship to "M.I.B."

Ryan and Jeff as we see them

     The Flopsters do point out, with a touch of awe, that James Hong, the elderly Chinese man in the picture above, has 387 credits on IMDB, which either smacks of studio laziness or the best agent EVAH.

Finally -
Please see below for the world's biggest Everton mint:

*  Yes, I understand this specificity is padding the word count.  However, I like to be precise and keep you well-informed.  Terrified, but well-informed.