Busy blogging if nothing else

First let me introduce you to this, my shiny new blog.  Kind of like the second chapter.  Chapter 1, as you are no doubt aware was Russ' Redundancy Blog a roaring success with at least three readers.  Now I am less redundant, at least for Job Centre and government statistics purposes, a new chapter and a new blog title was needed so a competition was thrown to the wider populace and 'Grand Busy Scoundrel' was chosen as the winner.  Bucket loads of kudos to Mick Long for anagramisng[1] Russ' Redundancy Blog to come up with this here title what you can see now.  Although I have added my name to the start, in no small part in the hope that when I put my name into Google (other search engines are available) it will be listed.

This is where I will fill you in if you care to be filled in on my new working life, training to be a driving instructor which will, no doubt turn into Confessions of a Driving Instructor, general ramblings on life and observations all laced with a healthy sprinkling of grumpiness.

So, what have we been concerned with this week?  I shall tell you.  The Muppets.  By which, of course, I mean the most excellent 1970's onwards TV series and spin off's.  I'm sure many of you have seen the appeal for the Muppets version of Bohemian Rhapsody to beat the X-Factor drivel to Christmas number one.  Now, let me set my stall out; I really don't give a stuff who or what is number one for Christmas, it strikes me as an irrelevance but I must implore you to watch (just listening doesn't do justice) this superb production; you can do so here.  On a Muppet related note, Vic watched The Muppet Christmas Carol at school, another excellent production.  I felt the need to confirm my belief that Michael Caine played a supporting role as Scrooge and imagine my delight to find an interview with Dr Rowan Williams - Archbishop of Canterbury, you don't get much closer to the boss than this guy - listing this as one of his favourite films along with Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev.  I'm sure they're very similar.

Last night I had a few beers with my brother (I refuse to be drawn to the obvious and call my brother a muppet here) and learnt a couple of things.  Firstly, dodgy pubs in dodgier neighbourhoods can be pretty good.  We were a little uncertain about the Pakend but what a cracking local boozer.  We did, however, leave when about 50 zealots came in to sing carols.  Please don't get me wrong, I love Christmas Carols and support the Christian view of Christmas but overwhelming a pub with half a dozen drinkers in doesn't strike me as best way to get your views over.

Secondly, drinking on a school night when you're pushing 40 is stupid.  I can't handle my drink and whilst not really drunk and didn't drink enough to suffer from a hangover this morning, bugger me was it difficult to get up for work today.

Finally, consider the scene, you see a bloke in a bar, you're sure you know him and can't place him.  Several things race through your mind; Do I owe him money? Have we met in very different circumstances that may compromise my professional integrity? Maybe I'm just plain wrong.  I start chatting and we decide that he used to drink at the very salubrious Northend Vaults some years ago when I was working the bar.  I'm not entirely convinced this is the case but at least he is going to be looking for a driving instructor in a couple of months.  Might be worth knowing that.

[1] Anagramising: -adj.  [an-uh-gram-ising].  To take a word or phrase and create an anagram that hopefully makes sense.  Apparently performed largely by project managers who obviously have far too much time on their hands.

(Extract from the excellent yet to be published (or even written) Russ version of the English(ish) dictionary)