I've just dug out that box from the loft, I've found a couple of Tony Hancock Society magazines from 1995, a few fanzines with CD stapled to the front with acts such as 'Sacred Hoop' and 'Dom and Roland'

Ooh, my old over head project slides from my 'School' days A near full set of the Prolapse (they're a group) mail outs!

It's like opening up an ancient Egyptian tomb! Only with tat!

Well, thank you iTunes autofill....

I found a CDR in here, they're dying at an appaling rate, should have kept going with Cassettes, or splashed out for pressed CDs.

There's my message to the alternative music scene of the late 90s early 2000s.

WhatDoesThisButtonDo? wrote:

a few fanzines with CD stapled to the front with acts such as 'Sacred Hoop'

/

Just look at some of these jewels from yesteryear!






How much is a skip hire these days?

I feel unsettled. Having some champagne and a joint or three in bed. 

I was going to take my son to an exhibition or whatever he wanted. But I was instead informed that a girl of 13 and he had other plans - namely shopping, cinema (a film called Transit - looks rather good actually), and a pizza. 

I said why not bring her here after? Apparently that wasn't even deserving of a verbal response, only a look. All I know is that she's called Aimee, is a friends cousin, and was also in Provence last week.

Is 12 not rather young for that sort of thing?

Not if she's 13 and he's 12, CT.

Also, he's never going to take his Mum's advice on a date.

Anyway, he's bl**dy 12.

Dates indeed.

The dizzy heights of precocity.

The cork just burst from the bottle, nearly giving me a heart attack. A quarter of the contents are now soaking into my carpet and the contents of the ashtray are all over my white sheets. I presume something involving headphones is the reason he hasn't come to check what the scream of surprise was about.

Nightjar wrote:

Not if she's 13 and he's 12, CT.

Also, he's never going to take his Mum's advice on a date.

Anyway, he's bl**dy 12.

Dates indeed.

The dizzy heights of precocity.

Exactly. How precocious. My thoughts entirely.

What kind of safeguards have you - and this 13-year-old harlot's - parents put in place for this 'date' anyway?

What did they do - go off to the Knightsbridge Minema to watch a 18R torture-p*rn movie on their own and then go for a snakebite on Gloucester Road after?

Please let's not get into that situation that happened the last time we spoke.

Y'know, when he was playing f**tball in the park...


See, I remember this stuff.

Nightjar wrote:

What kind of safeguards have you - and this 13-year-old harlot's - parents put in place for this 'date' anyway?

What did they do - go off to the Knightsbridge Minema to watch a 18R torture-p*rn movie on their own and then go for a snakebite on Gloucester Road after?

Please let's not get into that situation that happened the last time we spoke.

Y'know, when he was playing f**tball in the park...


See, I remember this stuff.

Cine Lumiere and Franco Manca. Safeguarding in place - home by 10pm.

He was playing football, and merely running some errands on the way home. And they decided no action was required. There is no legal age for a child to be out (or in) alone - it's about their maturity. As we've established, he's fairly precocious.

Although you've raised a very pertinent point - I'll get their number tomorrow and have a chat with them.

When I was 12 I was quite happy listening to East 17 and smoking with my friends. I didn't go about town on dates.

cosmictanya wrote:

He was playing football, and merely running some errands on the way home. And they decided no action was required.

OK, good, but the last time things were a bit edgy (what with various agencies sticking their oars in as I recall), anyway...

Franco Manco: too much, albeit tasty, pizza base.

I've gone off them.

They Make you feel all bloated with dough.

Yes, all thanks to one nosey b*****d who evidently didn't know their job well enough. My lawyer stepped in when a kids club at the YMCA or some such horror was 'suggested' as a remedy to be 'actioned'.

It turns out that there is no legal age to be doing your own thing, entirely depends on the child and the family situation. A more senior SW closed the case and apologized. I feel for people that can't afford to find out what the law states and have its attack dogs warned off - they should be ashamed of themselves, going around picking on single parents. I fell out with my brother over that - he's one of their number. So actually they caused far more than they attempted to solve at this address.

I've never been to Franco Manca. I don't really approve of pizza outside Italy. I think the casual nature of it all is a cause of obesity.

I did once go to a Pizza Express in Belsize Park with a Mexican woman who was sleeping with the same guy I was over in Belgium. We got on better than either of us did with him. I wish she was still in Europe - lovely girl. She moved to Miami.

I didn't have pizza - I had some kind of pollo & pasta. It was quite nice now I think about it. I'd go again.

I am very drunk, and liable to become drunker

Mind you, that's nothing to be proud of, is it? What have I come down to

Go on girl, get it down you.

I might ring hideous Hector in Belgium and tell him how dreadful he was in bed. It's all coming back to me now - my hip went into spasm and he took my screaming and swearing and agonized expression as extreme pleasure and a sign to go even faster.

Whatever happened to the Minema NJ? I used to go to the Head Gardener on the same stretch when I was rebelling from my mother - she used to take us to a salon with a glass catwalk, spotlit styling stations, and a living room area full of fiercely fashionable anorexics with music too loud to talk to anyone. Everyone had huge hair - far wider than their bodies. No matter what instructions I gave, they'd cut it differently to what I asked for. So I started going to the Head Gardener for a time.