Staplegun.

OK, so I was going to show lots of pictures of peas and things today, but now I'm not.

One of the good things about having to journey to Orange is that I get a chance to catch up with a friend of mine who lives and works there (she's a colleague who works in that office). She also just happens to be Greek.

Over the weekend her family were going to a pre-wedding meal of some sort, and were all dressed up. En route, her brother decides to stop off for some cigarettes, and they stop at a little Tesco (spit) Metro. Anna (my friend) and her mum wait in the car while her brother (Harris) nips inside for the fags, merrily chatting away. After a short while, they realise he has been rather a while, and get out to go look for him.

When they enter the shop, it's an absolute mess. Half the shelves have been knocked over, her brother is bleeding from a cut lip, and is covered head to toe in Lenor.

It turns out that some smackhead had come in, spotted Harris, and yelled something along the lines of: "I hate you Iraqis and Kosovans. I'm gonna kill you."

Needless to say, the poor bugger landed one punch and spent the next five minutes severely regretting his decision to go shopping. The security footage (sadly soundless) is testament to that, and apparently the police were heartily amused. Smackhead was well known around those parts, and even tagged. Pity the poor sod got away.

Yes, my friend's family are going to press charges, but the police decided not to arrest Smackhead that evening as they knew he wasn't going anywhere, and would take far too much manpower to do so while he was still high - best let him whimper off home and come down before arresting him the following morning.

What gets me, however, is that this guy is known locally as an absolute and utter (and any minors should probably stop reading now as the rest of this blog involves lots of swearing) cunt. The police know it, the locals know it.

Why the fuck was he not locked away? I am all for tagging - I think it is a fine way to reintegrate people back into society. It offers them a chance to prove themselves, and Big Brother an opportunity to keep an eye on them - but only for those who aren't liable to menace society, and not as the only course of punishment.

And most definately not for wankers who wouldn't recognise an Iraqi (or in this case, a Grecian) if they beat seven shades of shit out of them.

What is the best punishment for them? I don't know - I try to be a liberal, and I guess academically I am, but when it happens to people you know it's different. Right now, I think that Smackhead should be castrated just for what he said, never mind what he did, but that's just my emotions doing my talking for me.

I think if I chose my response carefully, and logically, I'd probably just prefer he had his eyelids staplegunned shut.

VeggieCam.

Well, it's been a while since I've done a VeggieCam update, so here goes.


 

As you'll no doubt see from the piccie, I've purchased myself a fine propagator, and put some seed potatoes in there for chitting (stop sniggering at the back). I have no idea when these are supposed to be planted out, so I've already put one of them outside in a pot under a bellboy to see how it does. Considering that everyday since I planted it it has either frosted over or snowed I'm guessing that even under that exceptional protection the poor spud will have popped its clogs.

The other seedlings you'll recognise from your family albums are (from left to right) Leeks, Onions, Cabbages and Peas (just in case you can't read the labels). And no, I don't know why my onions are doing that - they did the same thing when I planted them straight out last year, and all I ended up with were little pathetic baby onion things that weren't even suitable for pickling. Maybe I'm doing something wrong (more than likely). I'll just leave them be and see how it turns out.

One of the peas has also been sent outside under a bellboy for bad behaviour. I'm fairly confident that it's dead by now, but I'll look into later and report back. If the weather improves I'll treat you all to some closeups of the plants under bellboys tomorrow. But that's only if you're really good. 

Can you tell what it is yet?

 


 


While waiting for my car to be fixed, I went out for a walk and stumbled upon this little curiosity. I daresay that somebody else had stumbled on it previous to me (apart from whoever put it there) as it had been partially dug away.

I cleared the rest of the mud away from it the best I could, and tried to pull it up - no joy. I little further invesitgation revealed that it was attached to a pole or chain of something below the ground. I'd be darned if I were going to dig the whole lot up, but I can't help but be intrigued as to what use it may have once had.

It lay about eight feet away from a small river, though I can't believe that any boats regularly used it (far too shallow, in my humble and ill-informed opinion).

Any guesses?