Monday, May. 22, 2017 - 23:30

1. You know what, the Xtra Kickin' sour cream and onion flavour Pringles that I bought yesterday are almost inedible because of the amount of garlic/onion powder on them. I managed about a quarter of the tube during MOTD last night, and a further quarter whilst watching a show about the judicial process and trial this evening. This latter programme contained a jury had some annoyingly opinionated and prejudiced people in it, which I suppose reflects real life. I like to consider myself super rational and evidence based, but I suppose I have my own hang-ups too. It was interesting, if contrived in places.

2. I noticed this evening, that on the piece of paper on which the Aussie lady from the phone shop yesterday wrote me intructions on backing up my phone, her handwriting is indistinguishable from that of my mad ex-girlfriend. This was a bit spooky - esp. when I also was thinking of her a little because there was a character in the novel I was reading who reminded me of her in a sense. The nature of longstanding 'love', feelings lasting since childhood.

3. Nicky Hayden, moto GP former champion, has died aged 35. Philippa Roles, GB discus thrower and former Olympian, has died aged 39. David Moyes, Sunderland AFC manager till today, has resigned aged 54. The latter of these three is much less of a tragedy than the previous two. I had steak fajita noodles for dinner. I don't know what the former Preston North End, Everton, Manchester United and Real Sociadad gaffer ate.

4. This evening on the way home, I finished 'The Black House' by Peter May, and very immersive and dark it was too. I will read others from the same series in the future, I am pretty sure - was enjoyable and impressive. On the way home I bought a book ('Moondust: In Search Of The Men Who Fell To Earth' by Andrew Smith) and have read seventy or so pages of it - is an interesting non-fiction tale of a man interviewing the nine people alive in 2003ish who had walked on the surface of The Moon, and what their experiences before/during, plus their lives post-lunar, have been like.

5. Fifty years ago today, The L'Innovation department store in Brussels, Belgium, burned down. This resulted in 323 dead or missing and 150 injured, which was the most devastating fire in Belgian history. The origin of the fire was a source of confusion, with store management first stating that the inferno began in the first-floor children's wear department. That was a contradiction of witnesses who had seen exploding butane canisters in the third floor camping department, as well as fourth floor problems in the kitchen of the store's restaurant. In the aftermath of the fire, there was speculation that it might have been started by anti-American, Maoist protestors in the context of the Cold War and opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War.

6. I learned today that 'tiramisu' means "pick me up", "cheer me up" or "lift me up" in Italian. Speaking of desserts, smulpaj (which means 'crumb pie') is a Swedish dessert a little like a fruit crumble. It differs from traditional pies in that it has no pastry shell, instead, fillings are added directly to the pie dish after greasing. Butter is mixed with sugar, wheat flour and oatmeal to a crumbly dough that is strewn over the fillings. This is then baked to a crust.

7. What can I say about my working day, aside from the aforementioned fact about coffee-flavoured creamy desserts? It was a pretty decent day - not too busy, got some customer phone surveys done (a nine and two tens), two or three quotes sent out, weather sunny, time waiting for the bus not too long. My colleague had nice hair and Cleopatresque eye make-up on after something at the weekend maybe. I ate cheese sarnies for lunch and had tummy acidness. Some kids were playing on the waste ground and didn't kill themselves with masonry.

8. A year ago today I went to Lake Vyrnwy, to Bala and up The Horseshoe Pass with my mate, which was a nice day. I tired somewhat, and there were aspects of the day which were a little forced w.r.t. my not being the most sociable person all the time, but despite it not being the best weekend jaunt I went on last year, it was a pretty damned fine one. Compared to my year so far being a bit quiet, and my mate being signed off work with stress, happier times.

9. I may book some time off - seems necessary to fit it in rather than not. In addition, I may buy some jigsaws from The Works website, after not finding any in their store which I fancied. That said, there's shizzle on Amazon I could get instead. This is a really interesting paragraph, I know.

10. I should probably go to bed. At this rate, with this lack of self-control meaning I don't go to bed early on a school night, I am going to be JACOB'd by the end of the week. Listening to the isolated lyric track of 'Black Hole Sun' this evening was interesting. "..no-one sings like you any more.."