The placing of the platypus

Once more, we return to the veritable minefield that is Trivial Pursuit. And to what is apparently becoming the signature beastie for Julie's Gems - the platypus.

Just when you thought the pesky thing couldn't cause us any more trouble, up pops its leathery beak. In all fairness though, the problem isn't due to our mighty monotreme. Instead, it's human hearing all the way. That, and the serial misunderstandings that begin once Julie asks me the question...

Now, why does Abbott & Costello come to mind...

For those of a curious mind, here's where Tasmania happens to reside.

A half-half laugh

Some time ago, we were browsing the internet, looking for things to fuel our joint obsession. No, not naughty cigarettes, I'm referring (not reefer-ing) to our shared interest in hedgehogs.

Spike, Julie and their mascot, Reynard.

Originally simply my own mania, once Julie came to the Spiny Side, she quite happily fell in with my ways. We now have a glass-fronted cabinet quite literally crammed with various hedgehog figures - plus an echidna or two - a large amount of plush 'hog toys, and various other related knick-knacks. Reynard even has his own Facebook page, although he hasn't updated it since he got married and went on honeymoo.... what the hell am I even saying? It's a puppet!

Sheesh...

See? I said it was an obsession.

Any way, on a little stroll through the internet, we happened to chance upon a site that sold items of clothing with, among many other things, hedgehog-related images and phrases. We were particularly taken with a cap.

Yes, I know it's 'shopped. They make them to order.

Since I see myself as having many characteristics in common with hedgehogs (small, round and prickly), I thought this would be great for me. And as it happens, they also make one for the ladies. Yes, 'Half woman, half hedgehog'. If you fancy one, you can visit the [Australian] site HERE.

I suggested that we could sport matching titfers;* Julie, however, seemed to want a different cap made...

Famously so. I keep meaning to visit their shows; they're meant to be highly entertaining.

Visit the Ladyboys' site here.

* 'Titfer' = 'Tit for tat' = hat. Cockney rhyming slang, don'tyeknow.

We're all of a Twitter...

Just a quickie to let you know we finally made it onto Twitter...

So come and join us!
twitter.com/julies_gems

Julie's got it covered.

Now that the weather is finally beginning to warm up, there are a lot more things to see and do with your time off. On the one hand, it's great, because getting out and about means a lot more things around you. By the same token, however, that also means distractions when you're driving. Our dad was notorious for this, which was troubling when the road you were on happened to be little more than a track clinging to one side of a valley...

It does tend to provide a talking point though... hehehe...

Earlier today, Julie and myself were taking a drive through the Sussex countryside. With perfect timing, though, it began to rain at precisely the moment we walked out of the house. Just a few drops at first, but when we got into the car, the spots turned to a spattering, and as we drove away along the seafront, it turned heavier.

Well, crud.
It goes without saying, of course, that the latest weather report had it as being beautifully sunny all day.

I shouldn't moan, really. As we progressed, we passed one of those open-topped tour buses; astonishingly, there were still a couple of determined tourists staring forward defiantly from beneath soggy raincoats. Pillocks. You'd never catch us doing something as asinine as that (*coughs uncomfortably...).

Something else we saw was an open-topped kit car with a Q registration plate.

For persons not in the know, the letter 'Q' is generally not included on a UK car registration plate, as it's considered to be too similar to the number zero. However, for kits, rebuilds and vehicles of unsure origins, the Government whacks a 'Q' right there for everyone to see.

Julie wasn't too worried about that, though. For her, a far more interesting (and fair, I have to admit) point was how wet people inside that car would get. After all, it wasn't even a drop-top (convertible). I pointed out that the interior was probably mostly if not entirely waterproof to some degree. Not only that, if they decided to use it for a shopping run or similar, they could always throw a tarpaulin over the back seat.

Okay. Time to shift gears.

I have a very curious mind, especially when it comes to words. I love how various languages relate to each other, how words can have different meanings but the same historical root, how the English language evolved... well, you get the idea. I'm a word nerd.

When I mentioned to Julie about the possibility of tarpaulin usage, my WN gene switched on and suddenly decided it wanted to know the historical roots of the word. Unfortunately, I wondered this aloud to my wife, someone who has, at best, a most pragmatic approach to the English language.

Well played, love. Well played.

For anyone that is interested in the etymological roots of the word 'tarpaulin', here is the Wikipedia entry.

Of course, if you happen to be anything like myself, you're going to want to look up the entry for 'palling', and thereby doom yourself to hours of chained searches on Wikipedia....

Fancy some crispy soap?

Well, it's Friday - fancy going for a celebratory drink? Or would you rather we got in some beer and wine and settled down to watch a film or play a shambolic game of Trivial Pursuit?
Oh, hang on - we can't have the booze without having some nibbles, can we?

Banana chips, mixed nuts and chilli corn chips.
Damn... I'm hungry now...

Oh... you want something a bit more traditional, you say? Pork scratchings? Dry roasted peanuts? Or do you just want some crisps?*

Mm. OK, you can have those. I'll stick with normal crisps, if ye don't mind. You know, slice the potatoes, fry and season them, that's it. Don't make them from bits of spud that keep falling apart and have to be squashed together. Having said that, Julie likes Pringles, especially as a snack to go with her favoured tipple...

The crabs are [getting] fresh.

Some time ago, on one of our visits up to visit family in Birmingham, it was decided that we would go to a Chinese restaurant. Now, I'm not a connoisseur or anything, but I and many others know that if you go to a Chinese restaurant and the place is full of Chinese people, then you know the food is going to be pretty good and at least somewhat authentic.

Set in the Nechellls part of Birmingham, there is in fact a whole Chinese shopping centre, which includes the said restaurant, a supermarket with all the ingredients needed for Chinese food (and more), plus several other apt businesses for the community. Surrounded by railings and gated, the shopping centre is even built to resemble a sort of stereotyped view of Chinese buildings - think pagodas and apply that to every unit in the retail centre.

Long story short, Wing Wah is a great place to eat, if you're ever in the area, and you can stock up on massive amounts of root ginger too in the Wing Yip supermarket.
Inside, the decor continues along the Oriental theme. However, since it is a restaurant, there are also a lot of items scattered around the place based on the general idea of 'food'.

One area was devoted to seafood, so there were various images of fish on the walls, along with a few fake or preserved crustaceans, starfish and the like.
However, Julie seemed to be distracted by one particular specimen...

Well, really! I knew it was a friendly atmosphere, but that's going too far!

Image courtesy of Piotr Motyka who doodled daily
up until 2012. Here's his blog, now moribund.

Universally unique

Once in a while, I feel compelled to ask Julie how she manages to come up with all the stuff she does. As I have said before, on numerous occasions, it's not as though she is lacking in intelligence. There just seems to be another aspect to my wife that is devoted to straying from the mundane, boring pathways of general conversation.

Sometimes, the reply is a simple, "I dunno", but there are other times when the reply itself becomes another Gem.
Usually, this will take the form of another baffling statement, or Julie will be in something of a whimsical frame of mind and play the 'silly card' for all its worth.

However, there are occasions where Julie will turn out to be prime philosopher material. I imagine it's the unique world view she has.