ramble on

I had a rather bizarre moment earlier today. I was accosted in M&S by a little man* who wanted me to be greener with my emissions, so to speak. I agreed wholeheartedly as it involved a promise of less monthly outgoings, Hydro-electric power, keeping it all in Britain, greener energy etc, etc, ad nauseum . . . all well and good. However, as the conversation went on he started to be a little er, well, flattering. He claimed that I looked too young to have children of 25, 22 and 17 and that I dressed "much more funky than most people in their 50s"! He said that you can tell most people in their mid-50s because of the way they dress. As he then went on to say, that he didn't have to flatter me as he already had the sale, I'm still not sure what was meant, but I did find it a little odd. Perhaps I'm too middle class and English to accept comments like that innocently.

Apologies, Mr Man if it was all innocent but I went to a boy's Grammar School in the 60/70s. I'm not talking about homophobia just that we tend to keep things like that to ourselves, really. I don't think I've ever been described as "funky" before.

I spent most of the day buying walking boots and other walking gear.

Last night I went out with many of the chaps that were involved with the aforementioned Female singer album lark. It has promoted lots of discussion in our staff room and also means we've got some recommended music to add to our MP3 players. All well and good. The next one is based on Cover versions. Already the discussions have started in our house. I raised the issue of traditional songs - as far as I'm concerned, all traditional songs are cover versions. So, gentle readers, am I right? What's the consensus? I need your help to decide this issue.

By the way, if ever you're in Ipswich and need to eat some genuine Indian food, try the My Keralam in St Helen's Street. I guess I'm advertising here but what a brilliant menu. Loads of genuine Southern Indian food - including fish. I had a curried trout with a fish sauce and it was excellent. Really inexpensive, too. I hesitate to say "cheap" as that has connotations. It's near The Dove - a fine drinker's pub. We also found St Peter's ale on draught in The Fat Cat. A blog soon, perhaps on the aesthetics of St Peter's bottles (and the contents).

This last part sounded like a cheesy 1970's Curry House advert - "an hour from now, you'll wish you'd had one".

One more thing, a discussion evolved about punchlines to jokes. It transpired that people from different parts of the country know different jokes that end in the same punchline. The particular one that cropped up ended in "paint it blue and join the police force". I won't bore you with the joke, but suffice to say one of the versions was positively digusting. I also won't say which one was mine . . .

*At 6' 3" everyone's a "little man" to me. No slur intended.