Songs You Get Stuck With

I think our fox is blind in his right eye

I spent the later hours of the last two nights watching the magnificent Roy Orbison on Sky Arts. To me this was four hours of pure undiluted bliss.

I was, as ever, to be found intermittently with my bum sticking up and the top half of my body hanging through the window flashing at Mrs Badger and Mr Fox ... at least this position doesn't induce me to pass wind like a certain bad photographer I know. I will upload my photos as soon as we're home because I'm fast running out of t'Interweb here.

Then as it was a clear night, I went and squished through the moat (hosepipe ban?) that surrounds our tin hut to take some moon, planet and stars photos, I did get a - presumably - amateur radio satellite going over, well at least it was definitely something man made.

I could still hear the music, there's no-one else within hearing distance daft brave enough to live in a boggy old turnip field so our tin hut had been turned into a glorified boombox and it was rocking.

Managed to evict this pair with two minutes to spare before Mr Fox arrived

I soon went back in because it was a bit chilly around the ankles and I'm sure me and the tripod were sinking. I thanked grumpy for coming out to see if I'd been kidnapped, sucked down by the bog or worse (he said he was just on his way - yeah right), and I resumed my earlier position - warm spot - in front of the telly.

After we'd finished singing along in a totally tone deaf - but not caring a jot - kind of way, I sat fiddling with my increasingly annoying android - I've run out of battery juice, but not really - phone, and grumpy decided to watch the next program ... It was chuffing awful!


After two whole minutes of this dreadful row grating on my eardrums I asked himself what it was I was being subjected to, and would he please switch it off!! I was informed it was 'The Troggs', I had vaguely heard of them in my dim and distant past but was fairly certain that I wouldn't voluntarily listen to them.

Being the good egg he is, he promptly hit the off button, switched half the fairy lights off (not as bad as it sounds, you can't see 'em but they give off a lovely glow above the pelmets) and tootled off to bed, leaving me to switch the other half off after I'd done fiddling with my phone.

This I eventually did, and I was just scrubbing the old gnashers and realised that I was humming through my toothpaste ... no, not a wonderful Roy Orbison number as you'd expect, but a bloody Troggs record - 'A Girl Like You'. This caused much hilarity in the bedroom when I told grumpy of my dilemma. Obviously this was because I only know four words of the song, yes, them's 'em  ... and I quite dislike it.

Of course this afternoon I'm still singing 'A Girl Like You' - well, mostly dum de dums - this is despite the fact that I've been listening to Roy Orbison again all morning while I work ... 'dum, de dum de dum, de dum dee dum, de dum de dum, with a girl like you, de dum de dum' ...

McDonalds Gets Go Ahead for Langley Mill - Again

The most recent planning application for a McDonalds in Langley Mill - AVA/2011/0443 came up at the planning board last night (16th April) with a recommendation that it be passed, so it's fair to assume with AVBC that it would be.

This means that we'll soon be spoilt for choice on which way to waddle for our fast food breakfast/dinner/tea/supper or even a snack if we get peckish in-between.

Of course, I suspect that most of us will go by car ... thus preventing many an unsightly grease splat in the middle of the road - when we get squashed by speeding traffic near the exceedingly dodgy Asda roundabout - because we're not really quick enough to get across (even with pedestrian splitter islands) ... hmmm, or is it only me that gets over-stodged and too tired to walk after the smallest amount of fast food? Which is a shame because I like it - yum.

Mind you, this isn't the first time McDonalds have had a planning application in Langley Mill passed. They got planning permission to build a 60 seater restaurant in 2002, roughly (or even exactly) where KFC now stands ...

Update 26th April:
For some weird reason I keep forgetting to add this pertinent bit of info - probably because the vast majority of this post was written on 19th July last year; in anticipation of it being passed on the 22rd July 2011 as McDonalds expected.

Ahem, not only are we getting this totally unnecessary artery-furring (possibly brutally halal slaughtered) fast food - and I use the term 'food' loosely - restaurant. It will be 'open to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with 3 deliveries a week' - or so it says in the documents over at AVBC.

So there you have it, when Asda wake me in the night, I'll be able to stomp down to McDonalds and calm myself down with a dollop of unhealthy fast food gunk ...