WHO NEEDS A LEFT HAND ANYWAY?

Another typical drama-filled morning..  It started off with an awakener text from my mate Dave requesting my presence for breakfast at a local eaterie. The temptation of cooked English breakfast was too much for my slightly hangover-esque head from last night's work's night out so I duly agreed to get myself in the shower in pronto time and look reasonably human with a promise of being a witty and refreshed dining companion. We called in first to the local Post Office to collect my new Sky HD box and with a skip in my walk and Budweiser or two still worryingly on my breath, we headed in the direction of a cafe for a full English and a read of the newspapers. Dave being a very clever and very kind techie friend offered to fix up my Sky box and being a lazy-arsed inpatient girlie when cabling up things is mentioned, I of course agreed with the offer of buying breakfast as payment. 

Driving back to my house, we had the windows down and I'm daydreaming about high definition with my hands wafting outside in the warm breeze, when Dave does an impromptu 'up' press on he electric window button and traps my fingers in the process. In a high pitched sort of stifled scream with something on the lines of 'DAVE, DAVE, DAVE...FINGERS' the car came to a shuddering emergency stop with Dave and I propelled forward with my fingers, arm and shoulder blade going backwards. The look of horror on his face whilst realisation set in and the window released my crushed fingers was awful to see. With numerous apologies and back home with a numb, blackened finger swelling up to the size of a cumberland sausage and there's no lasting damage but a lot of laughs about stumps, typing my blog using only one hand and regret at not being able to knit my Royal Wedding characters for another week or two, and all was forgotten whilst Dave fixed up a million cables and installed the much-awaited Sky HD box to my newly purchased replacement LED tv. So an evening ahead of rest and relaxation in front of my televisual experience nursing a finger the size which is now the size of a tuna baguette. 

ROYAL WEDDING? KNIT ONE, PURL ONE....

If your invitation for the Royal Wedding hasn't yet landed on your doormat, don't despair. If like me, you're working on the day of the Royal Wedding and will miss the televisual event of the century, don't worry. Because you can now knit your own Royal characters and reenact the big day in the comfort of your own living room (or office). Forget the souvenir tea towels, plates, mugs and commemorative coins, because there's now a knitting kit containing patterns for ten characters from William and Kate's forthcoming wedding. The designs in Fiona Goble's (is that her real name?) book also contain extra patterns for 'guests' - that would be the Beckhams and Elton John/David Furnish and baby Zachary then? 

Knit the tissues, there'll be tears from the Queen, Camilla and Prince Edward...

The bride and groom. I love Kate's tiara, rouged cheeks and engagement ring. 

Yep, you can even knit Corgi for the vacant pageboy position...

.. the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr George Rowan looking resplendent though perhaps a little unholy when sharing mucky jokes with Prince Harry and comparing knob size...

No, it's not Elton John, but the REAL Queen complete with pearl necklace,  diamond brooch and one eye higher than the other. 

IT'S ALL GREEK TO ME....

The reunion of the Jolly Girls hit Lancaster last night when we all became Stavros Flatley's and ventured into a newly opened Greek restaurant. The evening started somewhat strangely on my part as I had one of customary 'blond moments'. As RJ had asked me to stay over for the evening, we'd arranged for me to pick her up first, then drive into the city centre to meet up with the others. I'd had a long and pretty tricky day at work. I'm just on the last legs of a bad cold and still feeling a bit under the weather. It's dark, and I couldn't remember RJ's house number from my last visit several months ago. I recall her front door being white and there being a hanging basket outside. House located, bottle of expensive plonk in hand, I rang the doorbell and turned round in a high-pitched 'HIII-YYAA', to see a 21 stone bearded bloke with wild hair stood in the doorway. Although momentarily stunned, I tried to stay calm whilst trying to nonchalantly glance past him for any sign of RJ being held captive, and then just blurted out something on the lines of 'hi, you don't me but I'm from Blackpool and I'm looking for my friend and you have a white door and I think I'm confused because of sinusitis so I'm just going to go now and very sorry for troubling you, goodbye'. To this man's credit, although he had quite possibly the scariest serial-killer unhinged appearance, he was extremely kind and asked who I was looking for and did he want to accompany me to try and locate my friend. If the thought had momentarily crossed his mind that I might be a patient out on leave from the nearby Ridge Lea psychiatric hospital, he didn't show it. Whilst backing away up his path and waving my goodbyes, thanks and promises to keep in touch, I then tripped up on a loose paving stone and did one of those great 'oh f*ck' moments with arms outstretched. Four doors down and RJ was standing on her doorstep with arms folded, laughing having heard every word of it. 
And so to the Greek restaurant where we met up with the other two girls. I don't remember any of us drawing breath for the next 4 hours. Not having had Greek food since I last went to Cyprus yonks ago, it was actually pretty good and inexpensive. We ate lots of squashy cheese things with pastry. I noticed RJ had squid and I passed up on the offer of sampling that. Lots of minty yoghurty things which RJ and I managed to capture on the front of our clothes and where our nicknames of the Monica Lewinsky's of Lancaster were born. We caught up on all the gossip and made our plans for future outings. I noticed we were the last ones to leave with waiters asleep on the stairs longing for their beds. Great night out. Big thanks RJ and it seems you're not the only blonde in our gang x

GET ME THE MANAGER.....

You work hard all week and look forward to eating out and having some time to unwind with a good meal and a glass or two. And then you are sat within inches of diners at the next table. A new survey by lastminute.com has found this annoys us the most when eating out. The survey asked diners to list their top three complaints when eating out. 

Cramped conditions with tables crammed together topped the poll with 67%, while 66% complained of slow and inattentive service. Other complaints included being automatically charged for service and restaurants hiking up charges for 'special occasions' such as Mother's Day, Valentines Day. The 'oh no, we're not sitting there are we?' full list of gripes are as follows...

1. Tables too close together

2. Slow and poor service

3. Automatic charges for service, regardless of quality 

4. Price hiking for special occasions 

5. Food slow to arrive due to kitchen being busy 

6. Being made to wait for the bill / check 

7. Being asked to leave the table at a specific time

8. If the set menu is too restricted 

9. Background music / decor. 

All good and valid complaints I see, but perhaps the biggest has been massively overlooked. At the risk of upsetting a lot of people, here goes my singular complaint when eating out:- BADLY BEHAVED CHILDREN.

Ah yes, bless the little darlings for running around the restaurant, screeching and crying. Bless them for charging into other diners chairs and tables and banging into waiters/waitresses legs when trying to serve food. Bless them for ignoring their 26 toys brought for distraction and instead opting for continually banging metal cutlery or cups onto plates or tables. Bless them for coming up to your table and staring at you and your companion with an unblinking death-ray stare (even more cute when there's a stream of snot accompanying the stare). And how cute they are when they delve their pretty little clean fingers into the salad bar, chew on a cucumber, then spit it out over the grated carrot. 

Ah yes, and bless the parents for allowing their children to run riot in restaurants. Bless you for your non-intervention and random deafness when little Rupert is banging crockery on the table. How insightful of you to share the wonder of your loud offspring with other paying customers. Of course we want to have our shoulders, backs of heads banged by your HUGE nappy/accessories bag as your swing round to locate your table. How inspired are you to sit your child in a highchair for approximately 39 seconds before lifting it out to run around or to sit your lap screaming whilst you manage 2 spoonfuls of food. And how I sit back in admiration at your child's creativity in ripping up colouring books, bread and food, and leaving a total mess in their wake for other people to tread into their shoes and carpets. Not to mention some poor waitress on the minimum wage having to clear up the crap afterwards. 

Before I get accused of being a total child and parent hater, actually I'm not. I salute parents who encourage their children to try fine food in a convivial eaterie. I applaud parents who don't expect their children to be mute and sit completely still, but recognise and intervene when their children's behaviour might just be having an impact on other people's enjoyment and peace and quiet. And hats off to parents who take their kids out earlier so as to avoid eating out late in the evening when children are more susceptible to tiredness, grumpiness and bad behaviour.  

Other gripes? Extortionate corkage charges? Plates not warmed up? Being sat near kitchen or toilets? I'll stop there shall I? 

FISHFINGERBUTTY, THE STORY SO FAR.......

Having now become a fully paid up member of the blogging fan club, I feel it's time for a little reflection on the state of things so far in Fishfingerbutty world. What started out as a bit of hobby to pass some time before starting a  new job, has turned into a healthy obsession. Blogging gives you the opportunity to rant, to say nice things about people, to take the mickey out everything and everyone and to connect with others who hopefully have a similar outlook on the world.  It's been great fun and at times, quite a cathartic experience to let rip on issues that really hack me off. Let me say at this point that it pleases me no end when I get comments back on the blogs and a big thank you to the contributors so far on the rantings and anecdotes of a Lancastrian grumpy psychiatric nurse. Only a handful of the posted comments (usually anonymously) are a little off the radar and edge a little into planet la-la land, but comments are always welcome whether good, bad or indifferent. 
One of my fave parts of blogging is Blogger's nifty 'Stats' feature. This provides a geek like me the opportunity to see which posts are the most popular, how many blog hits/pageviews this blog achieves at any given time and provides a list of countries making up the blog's audience. I have to say at this point, I don't get off on the figures or worry incessantly about pageviews. But what really rocks my boat is the parts of world this blog reaches. Yes dear reader - I'm interested in YOU! The main audience comes not surprisingly from the UK followed by North America to a close second. There's been hits from most European countries, the Far East, Middle East and Australasia. Sad I know, but I get really excited when I get 'new' hits from new countries. This week, I had Indonesia, Jordan and Georgia for new hits. I loved that. I nearly wet myself when I recently got my first hit from South America (Chile). Only one hit from Africa so far (South Africa) but I'm waiting with baited breath for my second and fingers crossed for Libya or Burkina Faso. Still haven't got the elusive Japan or any from the West Indies yet but I'm keeping my eyes peeled. 


Here's some FFB stats (ok, just humour me... I warned you I was a geek)


2 new phrases invented by FFB to enter the English vocabulary (Gok Wank and wankwipe)
3 design changes to the FFB blog so far 
13 most comments on one blog 
124 expletives (ok, I'm not so proud of that and will try and mend my ways) 
356 blog posts so far
397 comments by your good selves and responses back
1034 highest viewed blog post (Keeep Dancing blog) 2nd highest (The Sex Factor - Ah hah! Got your attention there didn't I?)
2189 highest monthly blog hits (Dec 2010)
2414 highest referring URL site (www.google.co.uk)
5986 highest pageviews by browsers (internet explorer)


So all that remains for me to say although apologies that it's only in English... A big Hello from the Fishfingerbutty blog, thanks to all of you for taking the time and trouble to keep checking in and please keep the comments coming.... 

SUMMER OF LOVE?

They conjur up symbols of the Summer of Love Woodstock hippy era, of heading off to the beach loaded with surfboards, or of the free-spirited search for adventure for months at a time. The iconic VW camper van (or Bulli as it is known in Germany) was mainly in production from 1950 to 1967 but many versions followed. I absolutely love the iconic VW camper van and would happily give up chocolate for a decade to have one for a summer to head off to Italy or Greece. I suppose Greece because of watching the dreadful film 'Summer Holiday' when Cliff Richard and his goofy friends set off for Athens in a London double decker bus. 

VW have now unveiled the 21st century 'Bulli' at the Geneva Motor Show which VW hope have captured the essence of the old camper van. Ermm... on first sighting, I don't think so. The new version is powered by electric motor and has an integrated iPad system to control the van's entertainment system. However, it does have the 3 person front bench seat of old. Just my opinion, but it seems VW have lost the concept here. The new version looks like any other people carrier. You know, the ones lined up next to the 4x4's at the local Sainsbury's on a Saturday morning and the one's clogging up the roads on the school runs. When BMW reinvented the classic Mini, they made it sexy and cool. It appealed to all (especially to youngsters) and sold in millions. The new VW camper van doesn't have that sexiness nor does it seem to cry out to the old hippies now with disposable income or young free-spirited people (having parents with disposable income) to run off to their VW dealership in search of capturing the wanderlust of adventure. It's just another people carrier appealing to Mr and Mrs Average from the Home Counties with their 2.2 children and a cute dog. I'm this will also appeal to Mr and Mrs Average's compliance to their devotion to the environment and their carbon footprint. How bloody boring.....

LIAM'S BACK....

Oh boy, it's good to have him back. Liam Gallagher ex Oasis frontman has returned this week with his new band Beady Eye and released the band's new track 'The Roller'. According to Liam, the band are so named so as to be placed in record racks next to The Beatles as opposed to 'the f*****g Osmonds'. Liam  certainly not one to hold back on his modesty, has described Beady Eye's latest offering as 'proper rock and roll'. Any band that returns back to musicianship, write their own songs and play their own instruments and gives a credible and much needed alternative to the incessant R&B fodder is absolutely fine by me. I mentioned in a previous blog that I had bought the latest Brit Awards 2011 cd (as I do every year) and was dismayed at finding only a handful of tracks out of the 40 on there that a) I knew b) I liked c) said 'wow that's different'. 

When Oasis swaggered from the streets of Manchester onto the music scene in the 90's, they were suddenly the definitive rock band. Love them or hate them, they scored 23 top 10 singles, eight number one albums and 70 million record sales worldwide. The warring between the Gallagher brothers, the splits, the excesses and the marriages made daily headlines and yet they still managed to fill stadiums with their anthems. 

After the band split in 2009, Liam has now decided to form Beady Eye with band members comprising of ex Oasis members. Effectively, Beady Eye are nothing new.. they are still Oasis with the heavy hint on Beatles-inspired music and with vocals given a huge nod in the direction of John Lennon. Listen to 'The Roller' and you are taken back to Lennon's 'Instant Karma'. It's not going to break new creative ground in music and it remains to be seen whether Beady Eye can reproduce the 'rawness' and innovation without Noel Gallagher, but I for one, am glad Liam and Beady Eye are back. I've missed him. 

Mad for it!