Saturday, 17th June, 2006

Curtains

wine

If you've ever been to my house, and been given the (three second) guided tour, you might have noticed that my bedroom doesn't have curtains in it — just a piece of fabric covering the lower panes to give myself a little privacy from the outside world.

The reason, I guess, is that part of me longs for a romantic, idealised I Live In The South Of France And Get Up With The Sun™ type of lifestyle, unburdened by clocks and regularity, waking up when nature tells me and going to bed when I'm half-cut.

I've got the hang of the "going to bed when I'm half-cut" thing, it's the "waking up when nature tells me" that I have problems with. See, nature is telling me to wake up — and has been doing so since half-past bloody six this morning, and although my brain is in agreement with her (too many thoughts, too many thoughts — argh! Stop the thinking already!), my body is crying out for a good five hours more sleep.

...

On Thursday, my earliness of waking was induced by a knock on the door from a big friendly guy holding a nice red box. (Actually, it wasn't really that early — it was nine o'clock)

"Uh, yeah?" said Siobhan, out of her bedroom window.

"Package for you"

(*clump clump clump and other noises of Siobhan putting some clothes on and going downstairs*)

"Oooh. Virgin Wines"

"Worth waking up for?"

"Aye"

For some reason, they've decided to send me a box full of Shiraz — not my particular favourite by a long stretch — but so far they been OK, if a little meaty for my tastes.

I polished one off last night quite happily in fact, but seeing as it was only eleven, I thought I'd try my hand at one of the bottles I've had left over from the last case they sent me.

I was wankered the first time I tried one of these, and the only thing I remember about it was the extreme amount of sediment in the bottom. The second one I tried seemed to be off somewhat, so I ditched it and put it down to experience.

Last night was the third bottle of it that I opened. I only took a mouthfull, but my tastebuds are still regretting it.

Nasty Wine™ Nasty nasty nasty nasty.

In an uncharacteristic flourish of Watchdogian Consumerist Reactionary Activism™, I penned an grumpy email asking never to be sent the stuff again.

Now, I happen to think that Virgin Wines is a bloody great thing. I get to try out some fantastic wine, at pretty reasonable prices — and sometimes they do extraordinary offers, like selling unlabeled end-of-bin wines at stoopidly low prices.

And I love the happy, chirpy tinge that their website has, and the friendly chatty emails that they send me. My sister (who was the one that put me onto them in the first place) chose to get updates on her phone, and apparently gets friendly phonecalls from them asking her if she wants more wine sent to her (for free, apparently — I think she's one of their most loyal customers )

But I was actually getting a bit narked with them last night. In the post-shiraz-and-one-mouthful-of-piss state I was in, I couldn't see past the chirpiness on their site. I could see all the "If you don't like our wine we'll refund you!" stuff, but I couldn't see how I was supposed to let them know FFS.

Hence the grumpy email.

In the cold warm light of morning, however, with 7am-sunshine streaming in through my non-curtained window, the "Rate Your Wine" section of the website is blindingly obvious.

And I feel a little embarassed, natch¹

¹ I first saw the word "natch" used extensively in the cartoons in Lancaster Uni's Student Union newspaper that the editor-before-the-editor-before-me used to do. I realise I've been using it a lot recently, and that it's crept in under-the-radar (so to speak), but I've made a conscious decision to use it as much as possible seeing as it confuses the hell out of Americans

"We have come to destory your language"

Are Virgin wines related to Virgin airlines at all?

Aye Same company. And positively loads more enjoyable than Virgin Trains

I was thinking about specific Americans, natch

Last One For A Bit (I Promise)

secondlife work building

As much as I realise that the minute I start posting images and movies from Second Life, half a million¹ blog-readers lie back in their chair, let out a collective *yawn*, and flip over to something less tedious, I'm dead chuffed with what I've been doing recently

(Usual 'click to play' malarkey)

It is, perhaps, only of interest if you actually work in the building — and even then only slightly. But still.

I'me going to stop at two floors for a bit — I'm rapidly running out of building materials

¹ A slight exaggeration, admittedly

35 Helvetica Neue Thin, and 'creative' is in 55 Helvetica Neue Roman.