Watercooler 0: Nothing Is A Problem For Me

*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

Tissp - the megabus is your friend.

http://www.iggysbread.com/main.html

I'd have to get the megabus from Cambridge->Oxford->London for some bizarro reason

Am considering now leaving work early Thursday and coming down for a bit of StencFAP action depending on where people will be and at what time. I have to get the train from KX at 9pm.

Oops, wrong thread

They're all the same thread.

FP, I just read the end of that story about the painter. I feel like I've been punched in the stomach. I assume that's the point.

He wasn't a painter, he was a carpenter!!! THat was the whole point!

I think the point is kind of feeling "Oh my god, I wasted *how much* time reading that for such a weak pun at the end?"

Exactly. Punched in the stomach.

There was a pun?

Do you know, that's the 3rd or 4th time I've read that story, and I didn't notice the pun until it was pointed out to me?

God, I'm a dummy. :-(

Also, where is Ed with my pictures of Dancing Boys, dammit!

check yr email.

plz to post here!