Watercooler 0: Nothing Is A Problem For Me

We could do a rolling sitting around in the pub all afternoon instead.

Or a Bethnal Green Rolling Pub Crawl.

I think I'd be scared by all this fold dancing. I remember being made to do "country dancing" at primary school, and it wasn't a happy experience.

No, JB, it is MUCH FUN!!! Trust me on this, I wouldn't do anything that wasn't fun. Well, not twice at least.

they had real hay, too, not that rubbish fiberglass stuff.

Also, FP, please email the link to those pictures. (Though I will have to wait until after hours as I assume they are not exactly SFW.)

Like Norman, I'm not at my best today. I've sprung a rib cartilage, which is not nice. Actually it's not totally sprung, but sort of torn. It hurt horribly yesterday, but is relatively OK today apart from certain movements.

We had a square dancing night on one of our school (overnight) trips in Junior High, I think, and it was this big thing that you had to 'ask someone to the dance'--like to be your partner. I (apparently) had no realistic idea of my actual status, and so I asked a really hot (and popular) girl. She politely (bless her heart) declined. I ended up going with a friend.

xpost ow!

Ohmigod, Dr. C, that's awful! How painful! I hope you don't have to do anything strenuous for a few days. No guitar windmills for you.

Ugh, Gooblar, I think that's the kind of thing that put me off formal dances for ages. That whole "you have to ask a partner" thing which is just rubbish. It's far easier and less pressure to just have everyone turn up, whether they have a date or not, and have fun as they chose. (Which is what they did at my high school - I never had so much as a friend date in all three years there.)

Yeah, there was *such* pressure, actually. I think I actually took weeks to get up the courage to ask out K@ra F1tzg3rald, then looked her up in the phone book and called her up, prolly asked "will you go to the square dance with me?" in about .0000001 seconds. Her reply took only slightly longer to be voiced. I had probably never said a word to her before in my life.

Ah, the joys of buying a new car. Over Christmas.

I want to buy a violin. Question:

Should I start with a cheap violin while I'm re-learning the instrument, on the offchance that I get bored with it, in which case I've only really wasted £50/£60.

Or should I go for a better quality, prettier (I'm looking at lovely purple electric violins from Hobgoblin) violin which will tempt me to play more, and be more performance-ready when I get up to speed?

If you can afford the latter, go with it.

Mrs. Dr. C used to play a bit and sez you should never buy a cheap violin, as they can never sound good.

*Good* violins cost £1000 and up! I never even spent that on a guitar!

But there are some mid-range violins at about £250/£300. Electric ones (I'm pretty sure that I'd rather have one with a built-in pickup rather than fiddling (heh) about with installing mine own).

Yeah, I'd say mid-range too. Cheap violins are really shit--I should know, I played one for years!

I didn't know you played violin!

Was this like a school orchestra thing, or proper playing?

I only ever played violin as part of a school orchestra when I was, like, 10. I liked it, but I kept trying to play my brother's cello instead. (He's tone deaf and couldn't make head nor tail out of it.)

I was in the school orchestra, and also the Sussex County Youth Orchestra (second violin, baby!) until the age of 17 when someone finally told me I was a nerd.

You say that like there's something wrong with being a nerd!

Hello! Look around you!

Damn them hecklers.

hello ile, just to let you know that for an indefinite period my mind will be solely filled with the sight of a mole fighting a jetpack warrior over a miniature toytown as japanese investors watch on horrified. arrested development has suddenly become the only sitcom that means anything to me...

Kate, I've been looking at the hobgoblin second hand list and I think you should buy a 12 foot tibetan horn.

Um.

I don't think so.

Where on earth would I keep it?

Email sent, Kate.

I was first clarinet in the Grimsby and District Youth Orchestra, back in the day.

Also, it is £600. That's a bit steep.

I got yer email, FP, I will look after hours.

I've kept meaning to learn violin, but my laziness astounds me sometimes. I too had the predicament Kate now finds herself in re price, but I'm not sure I want to spend £250 on something that I'm gonna give up after a month of making screeching noises.

I went into town to buy my suit for the xmas works party, and I've come out with a beautiful tuxedo for only £130! I now have to learn to tie a bow tie, which I'm sure can't be as hard as I think it is.

sorry.

I'm not going to our office Christmas party this year. I can't really see the point, when I could (probably) go out and do something less boring intstead.

Are you talking about Canada again, Gooblar?

Can we have pictures of you in the Tux, JB? Please?

I dunno, I tend to take the view that if I spend a lot of money on something, I tend to use it more, in an attempt to get my moneys worth out of it.

I just wonder if it's something that would be substantially cheaper in the US with their worthless monopoly money. And since I have relations coming over, soon...

Is this from a 'modesty proposal' essay? xpost

(God I realise that I sound like a horny old letch most of the time, with my "Pictures, please!" requests to the boys, but honestly... I'm just a *visual* person!)

How about some hairy brummies instead?

http://www.brumbeat.net/sabbs2.jpg

There was a very, very brief period of time when Ozzy was actually hott. But it didn't last very long at all.

I don't get perved over very often, so it's really not something I mind! I'll be sure to take some pics.

I know what you mean about the part FP, but cos it's a big company they DO put on a good spread, AND we get a day off work to go up to Leicester and back again, AND they pay for the hotel. The whole thing may well be a little dull, but a few of us may just eat some happy pills and dance like monkeys, which will be funny enough.

It's from Gulliver's Travels (talking about the English) xxxxxpost.

I can barely imagine being drunk around my colleagues! Let alone pilled up!

I've refused point blank to go to any more Xmas parties around here.

This is what we get: http://www.the-christmas-company.co.uk/venues/leicester/leicester.htm

(The irony of Br1t1$h G@$ holding a Soviet themed party has not been lost on me)

Being in various states of gonewrongness around work people is great, if only cos it confuses them.

That's almost exactly what we had for our Xmas do last year!

Ha ha ha ha ha, yeah, This looks like a good idea...

We did that one last year kate! It was alright - the bumper cars are the coolest.

Tissp, was it any good, or were you sorely disappointed?

The problem with all these kind of thigns is that they're a bit enforced fun - you WILL have fun in THIS way, otherwise you're just a party pooper. The trick is finding OTHER ways to have fun, of which there are many if you keep your eyes peeled.

We didn't have any fun, enforced or otherwise. We had to sit through a million speeches by wankers bankers and all these awards being given out, for which nobody in our department was even in the running.

A paid-for trip from London to Leicester is probably more worthwhile than a half-paid-for trip from Grimsby to Scunthorpe. In fact, it's at the Forest Pines Hotel - the place I originally nicked the name of - which would have been slightly confusing for me.

At least ours don't have speeches, just the enforced fun and the whole: "you're a bloke! You must therefore drink lots of beer, get drunk, and expect to *like* it when we try to drag you in to stupid party games" atmosphere.

The only high point was getting to see my (then) office crush in a tux.

Hrrmmmm, I wonder if any of the cute hipster boys from Brighton will be coming this year? That's just about the only thing that would make me go.

God, I am *SO* shallow.

Frankly, it was AWESOME.

However, it was more that my company nicked the idea and did it themselves, then decked it out with entertainment and free booze and food--the key part was that there was no "enforced" fun, which probably made it much more bearable.

Argh, I don't know if this is post-lunch slump or just being wound up by idiots, but grrrrr, I'm grumpy now.

People are cunts. That is all.

OH MY GOD

TWENTY FIVE FUCKING POUNDS TO GET TO LONDON AND BACK?

FUCK YOU FIRST CAPITAL CONNECT

I've just realised, it's exactly 2 months until my birthday.

That's a weekly travelcard for me! Shee-it.

OK, NOW I'M BOUNCINGLY HAPPY BECAUSE I FINALLY HEARD FROM DARA!!!!

She's flying into town tomorrow night. Which means she'll be in town for the gig on Wednesday. I'm going to kidnap her and make her come and sing New Order covers with us.

But now I don't know what I'm doing, because I don't know what they're doing. If they go down to Minehead on Thursday, obviously I can't go cause I have to work. But if they go down on Friday, I can throw a sickie and tag along. Oh dear lord... What Would Jesus Do? No, wait, What Would Iggy Do? :-D