Thursday, March 22, 2007

Random Tuesday #3 (Thursday Edition)

The King is Dead, Long sleep for me
Hope you all had a great St. Patricks weekend. Mine was far busier than I, or my poor wallet, had anticipated or wished for. Friday, Saturday and Sunday saw me hitting the town having promised myself that 1 night would be as often as I’d venture out.

Ignoring the fact that my bank balance had more than a tinge of pink about it, last weekend saw the start of the new Formula 1 season in Australia and I wanted to watch the race live. As bad as this may sound, I have dragged myself out of bed for each of the last 11 years to watch the opening race of the new season live. Michael may not be around anymore, but I was determined to see what F1 would be like post-Schumacher. In my opinion, apart from a few notable exceptions, Schumacher has generated much of the excitement and interest in the sport over the past 13 years or so. In his role as Dick Dastardly he was nearly always in the action and could never be discounted. It would be interesting to see how F1 and I would cope in his absence.

I managed to get home Sunday morning with about 10 minutes to spare before the race started at 3am. I had had a good night by then and didn’t feel like I was sacrificing much by leaving a little early. Sitting down on the sofa I watch Kimi Raikkonen, Schumacher’s replacement at Ferrari, make a good start and take the lead.

At the end of lap 1 he had around 2 second lead over Nick Heidfeld in the BMW.

Next, Kimi was sandwiched between Mclaren drivers Alonso and Hamilton, explaining to the camera in his monotonic manner how he had just won his first race for Ferrari.

It appears that I fell asleep and an 11 year tradition now lies in ruins.

Google Desktop
Recently, I’ve felt like changing my image somewhat and I’m considering growing a beard, or some facial hair. Previous attempts at this have been disastrous but recently I find that a shave once every 36 hours or so is needed to keep me looking someway tidy. In a wider context, this rate of growth puts me in line with some 14 year olds but it represents a marked improvement for me. As recently as a few months ago my average would have been about twice that putting me in line with some 14 year old girls. Perhaps now I have the means to do something on the southern plains of my head to offset my concerns over the steadily receding hairline further north.

Yes, for a year or two now I’ve been facing up to the fact that my hair is giving up the ghost and starting to detach itself, with some frequency, from my ceann. My fear is that I’ll end up looking like Mr Burns by the age of 30 at this rate. I've resolved that when that day comes, off the lot will go. No comb-over for me thank you.

My paranoia was awoken on bank holiday Monday when I got my hair cut short for the first time in a long time. I went to the Grafton Barber and although chuffed to see that Johnny Depp had been there before me, I was initially appalled with the results. However, after some reflection, I now feel that some facial hair might suit the new Do.

Segueing beautifully, I believe that my Google Desktop has a bit of the HAL about it and is observing me, reading my thoughts and messing with my mind. I know that sounds absurd but hear me out.

With the above two concerns occupying my thoughts of late, I was a little unnerved when my Google Desktop Word-A-Day informed me yesterday that ‘pognography’ is the art of growing a beard (Hands up all those who misread that first time through).

A sign, perhaps, to go ahead with the beard?

However I got the distinct feeling I was being mocked on seeing today’s Word-A-Day.

‘Pilgarlic’: A bald headed person.

Squeak Squeak
My damn shoes are starting to annoy me.

As outlined in the first Random Tuesday, I am required to wear a suit to work and with it, shoes. Although some of the office has carpet, the corridors are tiled and my shoes have recently developed the annoying habit of squeaking noisly with each step I take.

This annoys me as now the entire office can hear me coming and going and as a rule I dislike people knowing my business, even when my business is their business.

This new habit also makes a mockery of my shoes 'Hush Puppies' branding.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would have said Schumacher was part of the reason I stopped watching F1. "Oh look he has won again. Q'uelle surprise."

Eamonn said...

I take your point sk. 01, 02 and 04 were rendered processions by his dominance. However in 97 and 98 he turned what should have been processions for the Williams and Mclaren teams into season long battles that went to the wire. You could also make an argument, although not as strong, for the 94 and 95 seasons. So overall he kind of balanced out.

Anonymous said...

Except those were ten years ago. In the mean time, for me F1 became a dull by the numbers procession of Ferrari victories. The last year there was some real excitement was when Schumacher broke his leg and wasn't in it! But that is just my view :-)