It's Raining Men-

Hirs

Menhir, which is Breton for 'Long Stone', referring to the single standing stones erected across Stone Age Europe.  No, we're not going off on an Intro all about megalithic structures, I just wanted to explain away my thought processes.  Last night whilst falling asleep Conrad had an idea about Something, and 'menhir' was part of it, but I didn't make a note, so by morning it had vacated my brain.

     THEN, by Wild Coincidence, except for real this time, not lazy scriptwriters, I came across a shocking Tweet.  Art!

     It was accompanied by an explanatory blurb, to wit:  IT'S RAINING DRONES in China Hundreds of drones fell and exploded right into the crowd – they were launched as part of a light show in the city of Liuyang, but something went wrong and the UAVs got out of control. A fire broke out there, — local media

     Thus I recalled 'It's Raining Men'.  For Lo! we are back to our critical analysis of 'Greenland', when fragments of the Clarke comet are visible in the night sky.  I know, I know, comets are more akin to a snowy dirtball than a stone; allow me a little poetic licence.  Art!

     John is privy to a party being held in celebration by folks who either don't know they are doomed, or do know and don't care.  They give a rousing cheer when a comet fragment lands in the middle distance and blows up part of their own city.  How un-neighbourly.  Art!

Woop woop 

     I've put these up out of sequence because otherwise today's title doesn't make sense, but they do show that civilisation is beginning to unravel.  Let us now travel back to Allison and their son Nathan.  Art!

     If you recall, John had retrieved Nathan's diabetic medicine from their car, so Ali and Nate need to get replacement meds.  Displaying impeccable bad timing, they walk into a pharmacy that is, seconds later, invaded by an armed gang of looters.  Again, this collapse of society has taken place over perhaps 6 hours, which is quite a rushed timespan for people to become savage barbarians.

     Escaping to the car park, Ali and Nate cadge a lift off Ralph and Judy Vento, who are travelling in the general direction of Away.  Phew!  Danger averted, hmmm?  

     Don't you believe it.  Art!

     This is Ralph bundling Ali out of the car and stealing her wristband, before driving off with Nathan.  Ali, you see, is not only good at bad timing, she has absolutely no concept that people might want to steal her wristband in order to survive.  So now the Ventos have one wristband, that belonging to Nathan, between three people.  What they ought to have done is steal Nate's wristband and chuck him out of the car too, giving them a wristband each.  But No! the scriptwriters wanted to be able to deliver retribution later on, for a satisfying denouement.  Plus, you know, civilisation breaking down.  Art!

     By Wild Coincidence - I feel this should be emboldened and in upper-case - BY WILD COINCIDENCE John finds a truck travelling north, with room in the back, and it will pass by Lexington, Kentucky, where lives Ali's dad, whom she was trying to reach.  Phew!  Transport crisis averted!

     Don't you believe it.  Art!

     Apologies for the ghastly quality of the photo, my camera picked up anything reflective when the scenes were dark or poorly-lit, and this was both.  This here is Colin Exposition, who relates that the truck is headed for Canada and an airstrip, from which they hope to fly to Greenland, the first mention of this refuge location.  Why Greenland?  Because people have been tracking military flights there, which means said military flights DID NOT TURN THEIR TRANSPONDERS OFF.  Bit of an Ooops! moment.  or - another BY WILD COINCIDENCE moment?  Only you can tell.

     John is as big a doofus as Ali about his wristband, not bothering to take it off or even conceal it, which leads to a dodgy couple of characters picking a fight with him to acquire it.  One wonders which one was going to kill the other if they succeeded.

     ANYWAY once again BY WILD COINCIDENCE this fight in the cargo body causes the driver to swerve madly and sideswipe another car.  Art!

     All 3 fighters and Colin are pitched from the truck, Colin being immediately killed as his function is now redundant.  The two dodgy guys have bitten off more than they can chew as John is a burly guy who been doing construction work since his teenage years.  No 100 pounds sopping wet Allison he.  He seizes Fighter No. 1's weapon of choice, a hammer, and brains him with it.  Art!

What's that Simon & Garfunkel lyric again?

      Fighter No. 2 makes themselves scarce, cradling an arm that John may have broken with that hammer again.  The other people from the truck, of course - obviously! - stand still and watch blankly.

     I think that's enough stones falling from the skies for one Intro.  Next review we hope to have better-quality illos.


Hirs One I Made Earlier

Conrad has been passed-on a jigsaw from Wonder Wifey, whom is on a major jigsaw jag at the moment.  It's been highly entertaining to begin this assembly whilst watching the Youtube Channel for "We Have Ways -", which I used to listen to as a podcast a couple of years ago.  Of which more later.  Art!

Blue Kazoo TRAIN.  Just so we're clear.

     The assembly requires colour and pattern-recognition, which are capable of being managed without any great intellectual commitment, thus allowing bi-tasking.


The Haul

Conrad was running dangerously low on loose-leaf Darjeeling tea, which meant a trip to Babylon Lite and Sainsbury's, who are the only retailer to supply said brew at a reasonable price.  The weather was disgusting, cold, windy, wet and chucking it down.  Thank you so much Storm Amy.  Art!

     Which makes these six packets all the sweeter.  Also, since I was down that end of the town centre, I popped into the Oxfam bookshop, where the lady on the till thanked me for venturing forth.  Art!

     I shall explicate further.  The WHW vlogs I've been watching have been about the Battle Of Britain, and which two iconic aircraft fought in that conflict?  Both the Hurricane and Spitfire.


Traditional Ruffian Values

Which is to say, slapdash execution of minimal requirements in order to poorly maintain large expensive objects.  Art!

Ruffian Keel Over Class submarine

     4 days ago the Mordorvians were embarrassed by the 'Novorossiyisk' diesel-electric attack submarine having to surface near Gibraltar.  They had a fuel leak, you see, which was described as being an explosion risk, as the fuel was leaking inside the sub.  An Ooops! moment.  They didn't have the spare parts to replace the faulty ones, nor anyone who could have done the job either.  Art!

     With the Tartus naval base in Syria now being off-limits, they face a 4,000 kilometre journey to the nearest naval base capable of making repairs, in Kaliningrad.  Probably, and humiliatingly, being towed by a tug all the way as with the 'Admiral Kuznetsov' aircraft uncarrier.

     There hasn't been any more recent info about this in the past 4 days, so it's not clear what will happen here.  I'll let you know.


Here's One Conrad Can Get Behind

Dog Buns, I really miss the musical input of Ian and Dave at the Co-Op, they kept me informed of what to keep track of and listen to.  Art!

     This, gentle reader, is the excellent Icelandic band Sigur Ros, playing at the Royal Albert Hall, alongside the London Contemporary Orchestra, a boy's choir and the 9,999 pipe RAH organ - the keyboardist visible high in the background.  They were there to promote their latest album, 'Atta', which I didn't know existed.  From the article, this appears to be their only gig in the Allotment of Eden, and they will be moving on to play on the Continent with other orchestras.  

     They don't release live albums - you can argue between yourselves if 'Inni' is one or not but I say not - BUT BUT BUT surely this tour calls for one such.  Please!

     This is what I braved today.  Go me!