Unidentified Flying......Er.....Gritters?

So, apparently, snow was not the only thing to appear in the sky above southern England last Wednesday. Several people from Kent to Surrey reported seeing several glowing orange balls of light, seeming flying in some kind of formation. This was also reported by a policeman at Gatwick....therefore it must be true ;-)

Anyway, some all knowing official type bloke suggested that the reported 'invasion' was merely the flashing orange lights from the gritting lorries, which had been out in force due to the forecast of oodles of snow which was imminent.

Hmmmmm, now I'm an open minded person and have seen some stuff which beggars belief, such as a friend wearing chalottes (don't know how to spell it), pixie boots and a reversible jumper (but it was the 80s), but gritters being mistaken for UFOs? I supposes it's possible....the flashing light refracting off ice particles at an angle of 45 degrees would bounce the light stream into the curvature of the atmosphere to generate the effect of a grouping of spherical orange craft in the early morning sky....right?

Who am I kidding, even Mckay doesn't have enough exposition to get round this one. In my official capacity of the reportage of the truth on this, my own humble blog, I can emphatically report that.....the officials are talking out of their arse!

Oooh, Pretty!

Woke up to a delightfully Dickensian scene this morning, which officially put the kibosh on January as a mild month....that is of course if you describe 'mild' to include the worst storms in 17 years? neh, whatever.


In the grand tradition of British weather it arrived early enough to cause the utmost of travel chaos and was but a happy memory by lunch time.

Flotsam and Jepsam

Story of the week has to be that of the beached ship the Napoli, the cargo ship damaged in last weeks storms that was beached by the coastguard before it had a chance to sink and cause oodles of damage to the environment from oiling leaking into the sea...that however is not the story.

While watching the news tonight a lone reporter stood in the pitch black on a cold Devon beach to talk about the, ahem, 'potentially dangerous cargo' which had been washed ashore....of course he would have been alone and in the pitch black if it wasn't for the 100 or so people around campfires and armed with torches scouring the beach for whatever they could find.

The British public, you gotta love em...the 'dangerous cargo' apparently includes wooden barrels, an assortment of car parts, perfume, wine casks, nappies and around 50 BMW motorbikes...all of which have been 'rescued' by the locals. One bystander rolling a barrel up the beach was asked by the reporter what it contained 'It's empty' replied the man 'but it's a nice barrel anyway'. Another young chap with a steering wheel was asked if had owned the type of car to which it belonging 'nope, but someone on e-bay will.'

Some may look upon these scavengers as greedy souls, portraying our nation as a bunch of thrifty opportunists with no regard to other peoples' property....I however say pish to that! For one, the products lost will be covered by the insurance of the ship (and if they hadn't been found decent homes would have become either fish food or landfill) and second the ship was on it's way from China, where the products had been made, the same China who nicks more and more of British trade and jobs each year...making products on the absurdly cheap and yet somehow costing us stupid ££.££ in tax!

Personally my father and I found the whole situation laugh out loud funny, if Devon weren't so far away I'd be there myself....it gives new meaning to the term 'January Sales'.

According to the report the fuzz it going to be putting a stop to this 'frenzied scavenging' in the next 24 hours and there was pictures of some strange orange substance which was beginning to wash ashore from one of the containers. The reporter theorized it to be some of the potentially harmful substances, which so far seemed allusive....my dad and I theorized it to be potentially Lucozade or Sunny D, which so far seemed more likely!

Thar She Blows!

It's nice to know that Mercury Point isn't quite as cheap as we thought....okay so the cooker switches off every few minutes, there's no locks on the bathroom doors, the walls are so thin you can hear your neighbour doing EVERYTHING and the lifts are about as reliable as British rail at the first sign of autumn....but apparently the building doesn't fall down in 99mph winds. Which, in the grand scheme of things, has got to be a bonus. Though I'm not too sure about the whole swaying thing, messed up my inner ear/balance and by the end of the night I thought I'd been downing shots of Tequila.

Let's just say that being on the thirteenth floor during last nights hurricane force winds was one of those 'things to do before you die' moments, thankfully the latter has been put off by at least another couple of weeks. Next on the list a lightening strike or perhaps in the path of a tornado!

In other news the popularity of ADB spawned a second screening up in London, on the same day but earlier...I feel a little less special now, it was kinda nice knowing that I was part of a select , if perhaps slightly unbalanced and eccentirc, group of people who were getting the chance to see this film for the first time in the UK....now we'll be the first group of people after the other screening....oh well, such is life.

Oh and finally there is big changes afoot in the world of Stargate: Atlantis. I have just watched the latest episode via *cough* YouTube* cough* and there are going to many disgruntled fans of a certain doctor of the Scottish persuasion. The only part that I found a little hard to swallow, and this from a lifelong fan of sci-fi, was the whole radioactive exploding tumours thing....me thinks someone has been watching a few too many episodes of vintage Docotr Who. Still the final scene betwen Carson and McKay was really well done, I'll admit I had a lump in my throat and perhaps a tear in one eye....okay maybe two eyes.....and a bit of a sniffle.....Okay so we're talking Gwyneth Paltrow on Oscar day, stop going on about it!

Thanks Mr. Hewlett!

I'm officially happier than Happy McHappy from Happyville in Happyshire on the planet Happy!!!

Why one asks?

Because I not only have tickets to the Wolf Pegasus 2 convention in London on the weekend 2-4 Feb, but I have just managed to obtain the most coveted item of a ticket to the special screening of A Dog's Breakfast for Thur 1st Feb. The screening of the film which I may have mentioned a couple of times on this site and at which David and Kate Hewlett will be in attendance and available for a (short) Q & A session afterward.

I have a very warm and fuzzy feeling inside and possible haven't been quite this excited since Father Christmas bought me a Superted teddy bear circa 1986.

P.S. As of 20.48 hrs the tickets for ADB were sold out and considering the thing crashed for about half an hour from 20.02 that has to be a record!

As a final note I have just read that DH is trying to organise a possible second screening and/or find a second venue which has more seating since the tickets sold out online in 20mins. This astounded both Hewlett himself and the good people at the Wolfevents website (which we mad fans broke) who have never seen such a reaction to obtain tickets!

For Josh

Link to ADB screening tickets (shush!)

http://www.wolfevents.de/catalognew/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4&zenid=f4d9e5eb1a5507a836ee0d044ff1f8ce

Link to interview with David Hewlett about Stargate: Atlantis, ADB, life, the universe etc (equally shush!)

http://stargatesg1.com/MediaPlayer.aspx?contentItemId=213844&channelContentItemID=30070

Funny Video

Here's something which made me smile today...I wouldn't mind trying out the last one....but then I'm evil and will probably be going straight to hell.


Asians Are Funny - video powered by Metacafe

ADB News

Some quite exciting news on the A Dog's Breakfast movie front, since Mr. Hewlett and co will be in the London area for a convention in Feb he is currently looking for a venue to screen ADB on Feb 1st.

I really, really hope this goes ahead...the only potential problem on my part is that I have a hand in date for a 3,000 word essay on Feb 1st.....hand in essay or go to a screening of ADB......hmmmm, now that's a tough one.

P.S. In all the excitment I nearly forgot....Happy New Year!