Costume parties, fancy dress parties - call them what you will, they're certainly a lot of fun, aren't they, and just about everybody knows that.
Less well-known perhaps is that, according to a recent study, costume parties in the work environment also offer a chance, particularly for employees with poor "staff appraisal ratings" to pick up some extra "brownie-points".
Do you remember local man Todd Shaw's outstanding performance at the Precision Intermedia office Hallowe'en party at Bell End last year, the story that was making all the headlines for it-seemed-like weeks (source: Onion News Worcestershire Desk) ?
What initiative and creativity that guy has! And Lois and I are sure that rival intermedia small firms in the little local village of Bell End, the beauty spot that's been dubbed North Worcestershire's "silicon valley", will be "queuing up" to offer Shaw a job after he's dismissed in a few months' time, even it's on a short-term gig-economy one-night-only basis next October.
So all in all, we see a bright future for Shaw, "moving forward", no question about that!
the picturesque village of Bell End, the local beauty spot that's been dubbed
"North Worcestershire's Silicon Valley"
Have you had your email from Fundelia yet? As a heads-up, this is sort-of what it'll look like when it "plops" into your email digital in-tray, maybe later today, so keep checking!
And I've sent my entry in already to the great Annual Funidelia Costume Competition - have YOU sent YOURS in yet?
And it'll come as no surprise to you that I've opted this year to upload the best photo of me in the Renaissance Scholar Hat that I bought from the company recently.
It's possible that I'm the only "punter" ever to have ordered this at-first-sight unattractive hat, and I can understand that they want to "drum up a little business" by selling more of these Renaissance Scholar Hats - they've probably got a bunch of them "collecting dust" on their shelves. And this year they've seen a chance to trade on my personal local prestige and popularity in order to "shift" some of this old stock - but we'll see!
Well, I don't object to that - they're a lively young "start-up" company, and I've been following their progress with interest. And I must say I admire their general "can do" attitude.
These are the two photos I've managed to find:
[Isn't "three guesses" a bit over-generous, considering there are only 2 candidates? - Ed]
Yes, you're right first (or second) time - I've picked the photo on the right, obviously hoping for a spin-off "sponsorship" deal with OneStop Convenience Stores, who are currently marketing the featured sausages.
flashback to late October 2023 - pre-Halloween zombies have "taken over"
our local OneStop - but only in fun!. Lois, however (see through left-hand door),
is more than willing to battle them in Aisle One - what a woman I married!!!
So watch this space - I'll keep you up to date with any prizes and deals I pick up along the way, that's my special promise to YOU!
19:15 And if anybody out there still doesn't see the importance of having a range of hats in your hat drawer, take a look at this article from yesterday's Washington Post, sent to me by Steve, my American brother-in-law.
Steve writes: "The National Weather Service office serving the Washington-Baltimore region said the 265-mph wind speed was the second-highest measured since records began in the 1950s. The only higher wind speed recorded at a comparable altitude was 267 mph on Dec. 6, 2002."
And Steve recalls how, in 2002, flying over to England for Christmas with my sister Kathy, they experienced this world record wind speed for themselves. The typical 5 hour flight time from Philadelphia to Heathrow was cut to just 4 hours - wow!
And I remember how, in the 1990's, when I occasionally used to travel to Washington on business and/or to see Kathy and Steve, how nice it was on the return journey, to be told, just before take-off, that the flight time was going to be shorter than the outward flight from Heathrow. And that was just because of the normal prevailing winds that flow west to east, winds that the plane can "hitch a ride on".
flashback to 1993: Me with my daughters Alison (18) and Sarah (16),
on a visit to see my sister Kathy and husband Steve in Norristown PA,
and also to meet up with some of the girls' former
Elementary School classmates from our time in the US 1982-5.
"But when will the Washington Post 'high winds' story start to impact here?", I hear you cry.
Well, looking at the local weather forecast for Wednesday morning, I wonder if this is when the consequences of the current Atlantic situation will manifest themselves hereabouts - luckily the wind speed will have dropped to about the 40-45 mph range by the time it gets to Malvern, probably due to its overland passage over Wales, but we'll see.
Lois and I will still be wearing our warmest hats, no matter what - even in the house haha!
flashback to January 25th: Lois wearing her
special "Scottish hat" for our Burns Night supper
I wonder..... !
Our weather's like that in the UK, though, isn't it - very variable, and I guess we just have to put up with it.
But if you try hard you can even make it into a "fun" thing, can't you, as we see tonight on TV during a rerun of Episode 3 of the BBC's 1990's dramatization of Lady Chatterley's Lover, the novel by acclaimed writer DH Lawrence.
Connie, who's Lady Chatterley, has a husband, Sir Clifford, who's impotent and paralyzed from the waist down due to a war wound, but Sir Clifford has generously given Lady Connie the green light to have affairs with other men - he's desperate to have a male heir, and he can't see any other way round the problem. And he's promised to bring the boy up at their mansion "like it was his own", which is nice.
Connie's husband, Sir Clifford Chatterley (James Wellby),
impotent and paralyzed from the waist down
In this episode it's nice to see that Connie has, for the moment, found happiness with her husband's gamekeeper, Mellors, and that the two lovers are taking a traditionally British "grin and bear it" attitude to the weather.
Italians famously won't leave their house if there's a single cloud in the sky, but that wouldn't work in the UK, would it. Be reasonable!!!
Yes, "Grin and bear it!" - that's what we say, isn't it. Although in this episode "Grin and bare it" might be a more appropriate watchword, as Connie and "Mellors" decide to go out for a run through the woods, in the middle of a horrendous thunderstorm, and "get it on" out there in the drenched undergrowth. You've got to admire their spirit, though, haven't you!
But it's nice, isn't it, that the two of them have seemingly found true happiness with each other, as much for Connie, as for poor Mellors himself, whose wife has run off with somebody else, we learn tonight.
When in the gamekeeper's scruffy cottage Lady Connie and Mellors are preparing to make love on the Mellors' conjugal bed, Connie asks if his wife is likely to put in an appearance and interrupt them. At this point we see the gamekeeper finally "opening up" about his wife.
"Not a nice woman", just 4 words, but in Mellors' homespun Yorkshire philosophical kind of a way, a bit of a damning verdict on Mrs M there, no question about that - oh dear! And it's not a review that Mrs Mellors can ever really quote verbatim in her cv is it, without raising a lot of questions at job-interview time that she might prefer not to answer!
Fascinating stuff, though, isn't it!!!!!
[I don't think you've shown that beyond all reasonable doubt! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment