Nailed it
The rugby blog is put on hold for another day (although I will say that if you’re not yet on board with it, today you missed a famous win for the Irish). The reason is largely because I again haven’t found time to write anything of the necessary substance. But also because yesterday’s Comments yielded the answer to a question posed so long ago on this blog that very few of you will even remember it. One of the lovely things about attempting a blog with such a long lifespan is that people can disappear from view and then reappear a long, long time later. The Commenter is called Alexander and he refers to a problem posed in a Can I Help You? feature THIS VERY WEEK a year ago.
Hey Mark,
Really quite a long time ago, I asked you for advice on what to do about a nail sticking out of my bed that’s always slicing me open in the mornings. You said that it would be worth it to remove the nail, and save myself a lot of annoyance and blood. Today I came up with a solution, turning my bed round one-hundred and eighty degrees, so the nail now faces the wall to which it is adjacent.
I’m never gonna get cut again.
Anyway, you asked that I report back to you so that you and your readers might stop worrying about my vulnerable legs. I hope you’ve not been terribly concerned for all of this past year (I found the post, September 13th, 2010) but just in case I thought I ought to let you know.
And Eleven was truly excellent.
So there you have it. Alarming to think that Alexander endured a whole extra year of being cut up before he took the initiative and repositioned the bed; if I’d known he was going to be quite that un-proactive about it, I might have given him more forceful advice on the matter. Still, it’s a happy ending. It makes me wonder if there are other people out there who have disappeared from the realm of the Comment but have potentially important news. If that’s you, do come forward. To Alexander, congratulations on cracking this seemingly intractable worry and I’m sure all the blog’s readers would join me in wishing you many happy nights’ sleep.
Posted by Rachael on September 21, 2011
I am relieved to hear of this development with the nail, even if it took another year!
Cathy, I wish I had any information to track the thieves down but I had no idea about it til now. People can be so infuriating.
Posted by Joelle on September 18, 2011
I’ve not commented in a while but I still read daily before I go to school!
I suppose my semi-important news is that I have 2 weeks left of proper classes before I graduate highschool. I also have 32 hours of exams after that but no biggy. It’s not a unique situation I’ll admit, but I’ve no idea how to handle this next phase of my life and like most other people are scared.
I’m glad Alexander finally thought up a solution!
Posted by Suzanne aka Senior Watsonian on September 17, 2011
Cathy, that’s horrendous … and I sincerely hope the perpetrators are hung, drawn and eighth-ed!!! They are despicable …
As you point out, the implications are extremely far reaching in this age of reliance on everything digital and technical …
And I believe you CAN be loyal to two football teams … apart from when they’re in opposition, of course! You see, I am not originally from the Bristol area so my first loyalties lie with Ipswich Town, which happens to be the town of my birth!
My rallying cries for Bristol City, involving much digit intersecting, are out of loyalty to Mark … he’s most certainly far too busy to do it himself although I have to confess my efforts (and co-finger crosser Jen plus anonymous others) are meeting with minimal success just now … BUT, onwards and upwards!!!
I anticipate getting sacked pretty soon … although my role has never been officially ratified so it’s probably not possible on at least a few technicalities, sub-sections and multi clauses!
I’ll be looking over my shoulder from now on, Jen … but probably won’t recognise you behind the scarf!!!
Please keep nudging me re my TYSIC … the one thing I’ve perfected over the years is the art of prevarication!!!
Posted by Misha on September 17, 2011
Gracious Alexander!
Posted by Jen on September 17, 2011
Alex great news!
Suzanne…I don’t understand…we need to up our good luck rituals…I’ll start wearing my lucky scarf etc…hehe…we can do this!oooo n great news bout the TYSIC…I’ll follow you…not literally but cyberly (not a word but you know what I mean…hehe!)
Cathy…that’s awful…I get seriously wound up by selfish morons…it just seems to be too regular an occurrence at the min…so frustrating!
Mark..looking forward to the rugby blog…my watchin started today!Jx
Posted by Kathryn on September 17, 2011
I hear the match was good this morning; I awoke to the sound of my mother screaming at Tommy Bowe to “RUN!”. Watching Ireland is always nerve-wracking, but in our house it tends to get rather dramatic. And loud.
Posted by Rachel/Pandora on September 17, 2011
Mate, I’ll write your rugby blog for you. It’ll involve many YouTube clips of hakas, people being getting destroyed by Courtney Lawes and the ‘JONNY WILKINSON DROPS FOR WORLD CUP GLORY’ moment. It’ll be awesome/link-filled.
Posted by Cathy (traineeflorist) on September 17, 2011
oh and sorry about the Leeds vs. Bristol City result. My hubby is a Leeds fan (don’t hate him even though he’s a Yorkshireman) and I was at last week’s game cheering them on. I am now wondering whether it’s possible to be loyal to two teams at the same time. I don’t want to let either of you down really *sigh*
Posted by Cathy (traineeflorist) on September 17, 2011
Hi Mark, I wanted to apologise for not reading your blog for, well, weeks really. Here’s the reason:-
http://www.heraldseries.co.uk/news/hswallingfordnews/9229006.Cable_thieves_cut__off_entire_village/
Yes, what a wonderful world we live in where thieves are so desperate for scrap metal (in this case copper) that they spend hours on the outskirts of a small Oxfordshire village forcibly wrenching the phone (and ultimately broadband) cables out of the ground, as was later revealed, a whole mile of the stuff.
I felt like my arm had been wrenched out, to use a slightly gory comparison. Like you said in one of your earlier blogs I think (which I have now spent quite a bit of time catching up on), the internet has become a way of life for most of us nowadays but what I think was worse was the fact that for eleven days, the elderly and vulnerable in our village had no means of contacting anyone by landline phone, the doctor’s surgery was unable to function properly without a landline phone, the post office had to shut for the entire period as none of their computerised systems would work and none of the shops, pubs in the village could take card payments so we were all wandering around with wads of cash we had withdrawn from cashpoint machines in supermarkets and on garage forecourts in surrounding towns and villages.
In short, it was a pain in the arse. I have a shop inside a garden centre just outside Oxford so of couse unaffected by all this. However, although I was able to access the internet there, I share the broadband connection with the rest of the nursery (it’s free so why wouldn’t you, ok I’m too stingy to pay for my own) so it’s very slow at the best of times. And of course I only had access to it during work hours so couldn’t do my usual surfing, tweeting, reading your stuff at night as I’d been used to. I did try tweeting (#fuckingthievesstoleourphonecables) and looking at Facebook through my mobile phone but it was hard work as the mobile signal in our little village isn’t great either. Aaaah, technology.
So anyway, as you have helped others in the past with your bloggy comments, I thought it might be worth mentioning that Openreach (posh name for BT) have offered a £1000 reward for any information which leads to the successful location of the perpetrators (is that the right word? oh no, I think I mean wankers) who stole our phone cables that fateful night. I’m not really too bothered about the reward but I wouldn’t mind seeing the thieves hung, drawn and quartered publicly on the village green sometime soon. And I am usually a mild mannered, wet liberal florist with a smile on my face and a song in my heart (as I think you know Mark).
So … I will leave that one with you and all the lovely blog readers then. Thanks in advance for any help you can give, I realise it’s not quite as high up our to do list as finding the suitcase or organising the Eurovision entry but still, it would be good to have it on the list somewhere.
Sorry this was long but it’s nice to be back and reading your fine words once again, looking forward to you returning from Oz so I can badger you properly. Your sister Emma has been doing a fine job of entertaining me in your absence but I miss the facial hair x
Posted by Natalie-Helen on September 17, 2011
I am still here. Just quietly. And end up storing up blogs because I’m very tired in the evenings and likely to be in bed earlier than I used to.
I have no important news. My life is remarkably stagnant. Which is depressing.
Oh well, chin up, pip pip and all that.
^_^
Posted by Suzanne aka Senior Watsonian on September 17, 2011
Oh, Amy … that really, really isn’t cool at all!!!
Genuinely sorry to hear about your parallel to a ‘lost winning lottery ticket’ experience! I sob for you and your story … 
Unfortunately, Mark has a sob story of his own today as Bristol City lost 2-1 away to Leeds through an 86th minute goal and have slipped down the league table.
I fear there are some on here who are not doing their bit and crossing their fingers as and when requested! BOO!!! Jen, where are we going wrong???
Lydia, please check yesterday’s blog …
Posted by lisan66 on September 17, 2011
I missed the match this morning :/ I had my alarm set for 9.25 and woke up at half twelve
Posted by amycool on September 17, 2011
Certainly very good news, and possibly more exciting than hearing about rugby.
I say that, I did once watch one of those Olympic rugby games that are tiny and quick, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
And just because I’m still feeling sorry for myself…I won the chance to dive with sharks and I can’t do it because of incurable health problems. A bit like winning on the lottery and discovering you’ve lost the ticket. Sob story over.