Being overly interested in dictionaries

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a dictionary with me at all times, and I don't read a dictionary as bedtime reading. We consulted one today after an odd discussion regarding what comes after bed in the dictionary. Sensible thoughts such as bede and bedazzle quickly gave way to assessments of words like bedangle and bedbath. I am worried that I might wake up tomorrow morning to find myself being bedangled from my bedroom window by a bedaardvark. Which would be horrific and a stunt that you should not try at home.

Incidentally, the words after bed in the dictionary we were looking at were bedabble, bedad and bedaggle. None of which are words in my book (I only have a small dictionary). And now it is time for my bed!

Advice #32

If you can, you should go to the Stag do or Hen do before a wedding, because the more people you know at a wedding, the more fun it is.

Question #3

Would you mind passing the mushrooms?

Bouncey Invigoration

Having mentioned invigoration last week I thought I should comment another source of invigoration that I was involved in last week. I went to see a Reel Big Fish concert. It's amazingly uplifting music, and great to bounce around to. For those who don't know, Reel Big Fish are a ska band, or maybe it's best to describe it as ska punk. I don't understand the classification system very well, but when I have described it to people since the concert I have described it as "really really fast punky reggae" or alternatively, "fast happy music with guitars and trumpets". Anyway, it's the stuff you should listen to if you're a teenager, and if you're no longer than a teenager, then it will remind you of being a teenager and how great it was. It's not like listening to Blink 182, that kind of fades with age and makes you feel old: no, ska music drags you back and makes you young!

Working on shifts as I was this week, I had a night free for the concert and didn't have to go to work until night-time the following day, so I could have a few beers (of extraordinarily high quality from an obscenely nice pub), bounce around til I broke my glasses, stay up late and still not feel guilty. One thing to bear in mind about going to an incredibly bouncy gig and bouncing in a dance floor with hundreds of teenagers, is that it's sweaty. Very sweaty. And worth it

Advice #31

Keep the fishing line taut at all times.

If you let the line go slack, especially if the fish jumps out of the water, then it is more able to pull sharply on the line and snap it. Terrible!

-Courtesy of the man we call X

Friendly Invigoration

Three friends have recently contacted me after a long period without being in contact, and it is an invigorating experience. It's so nice to catch up after so long. There is an initial guilt that you had not been in contact and that you had not perhaps realised how good it would have been if you had been in better contact. And there are awkward silences where you realise how much of their life you have missed and how much of your life they have missed. And no amount of "catching up" ever quite makes up for it, because you weren't together at the vital moments and you only get the stories once they have been diluted by hindsight, worn down to the bones by the memory and condensed by frequent telling.

That doesn't mean it's not worthwhile. In fact, the opposite. It's so good to speak to people and almost always you get on just as well as you always did. And it makes everything much more exciting when you can tell new people about things and talk to people about things that happened when you were last in contact and it's incredible.

In fact, I will be able to meet one or two of the three in the coming days, and it'll be really exciting. I love keeping in contact with people, even though it can be hard work sometimes, and my feeling at the moment is that yes, it's really worth it. And unless there is a proper reason why not, you can get back in touch with people even months or years after losing contact, cos it's great!

Shrewsbury Town update

How can Shrewsbury Town be seen as promotion contenders? I know that being at home gives you an advantage, but it's ridiculous that they have won only one game away from home this season, but won eleven in thir own Prostar Stadium.

If our away form was as good as our home form, they would be runaway leaders like Leicester are in League 1. I really need Shrewsbury to get promoted, because there are a lot more football teams near me that are in League 1 than League 2, so I could watch them a bit more often.

Sort it out!