Very strange journey home from work today, very strange indeed the 17.39 was visited by a bona fide nutter full blown loony, although to look at him he looked reasonable, aged late 20s smartly dressed, seemed quite normal, just this side of London Bridge his phone came out, and rather than stick some headphones on he played it loud so the whole carriage could hear it, just what you need after a day of deadlines! one of our more fearless carriage dwellers politely asked him to turn it down, which was his queue to reveal his less than friendly nature, the poor fella who asked him to turn it down was treated with a tirade of abuse, and was threatened, when others in the carriage stuck up for our man, the nutter announced to all in the carriage that he would take al; of us on, now looking around there were some big fellas in that carriage and our nutter was asking for all sorts of trouble, it was only as we passed though Maze Hill we noticed what this violent and threatening man was actually listening to, Iron Maiden? The Killers? Marilyn Manson? no.....Brotherhood of Man, by now the carriage had twigged there may be a few sandwich's missing from this particular picnic, and the titters started, now I don't like tittering ( i dont like any coastal town) but this evening I was beginning to chuckle a tad, the chuckles from all and sundry burst into loud laughter when picnic fella started to sing along with Angelo every few lines he would spit out obscenities at anyone who looked at him, its a shame Woolwich Arsenal appeared, I was keen on finding out what was next on his playlist!

Oh and whilst we are on the subject of food emporiums, can I mention the local Beef Clown (Macdonalds to you) I go in there for breakfast now and again, never lunch though, but I there is a manager that works there, I shall not tell you his name (Ali), but if he were my boss he would have had a right hander very quickly, watching this twat in action is everything you should not do as a man manager, he is loud, bullying and this morning I saw him push a member of staff, I am sorely tempted to contact the Beef Clown Head Office and complain about him.

Across the road from my office is a Greigs Bakers, very handy for as pie muncher such as myself, so far so good, so I can nip out of the office across the road and grab a sandwich and obilgatory pasty/sausage roll, great so far, sadly it all goes tits up once you attempt to purchase anything from the imbeciles that work there, now I would have thought working in a shop in the City that a reasonable grasp of the English language would be useful, not here in Eastcheaps very own Greigs, oh no ask for a pastie and you get a cheese and onion melt (whatever that is) they really do struggle, but that is overcome with a bit of pointing and smiling! sadly the customer service levels are appaling! they are rude, and snappy and I have never heard them ever be nice to anyone, there rude behaviour is met with knowing smiles from all of us regulars of this place, today after a stressful morning I decided to fight back, having ordered my items the female at my till ushered me along to the next till to make a payment which had a queue already, I had been in her queue for 10 minutes at this stage so I did not take kindly to being told to queue again, so I said no I will pay here just as your last customer did, she did not take kindly to this at all and told me, and anybody else listening that i was holding the queue up, i stood my ground and said i was not prepared to queue again and would pay here, she told me she was busy, I proceeded to let her know that I too was very busy and just wanted to pay for my items and get back to work, and just for effect I added a magic phrase which galvanised the poor woman into actually doing her job and operating her till, i said "chop chop then" and lo and behold she took my money!
So when faced with poor customer service, make your request then add the words chop chop.....it works!!!

Morning all, work is going well, my role is changing slightly, I will be spending only 3 days a week in the the office in the City, the other two I am off out an about, next week I am in Marlborough and Bath, the week after it looks like two days in Bristol, which may give me a chance to pop in and say hello to my Aunt and Uncle, and the Tuesday after Easter I am off to Dubai for 4 days work! The boss has told me to get a move on and pass my driving test as their will be a nice new shiny VW Passat when I pass! Young Finch is quite keen on me getting a car for some reason! She who must be taken shopping has also declared I need to be driving, so that's me told...

Had my new double glazing fitted the other day, house is so much warmer, and I have designed my new kitchen which will be in by the end of the month.

Young Finch has selected his options for school, Geography, Triple Science, English, Maths, History and French, he seems happy with that little lot, and is determined to get himself to Uni.

She who loves to shop is not good in the kitchen, she will admit that herself, she is awful, this is a regular topic of discussion at work, we look forward to the text telling us what she is cooking, and then try and work out how it will go wrong, Mark my admin fella is a keen cook, we sit and swap recipes a fair amount, yesterday he sent me a recipe he thought she could manage which i publish below, for some reason she did not like it!!

4 - 5 lb. Chicken
1 cup melted butter
1 cup stuffing
1 cup uncooked popcorn
Salt/pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Brush chicken well with melted butter salt, and pepper.
Fill cavity with stuffing mixed with popcorn.
Place in baking pan with the neck end toward the back of the oven.

Listen for the popping sounds. When the chicken's arse blows the oven door open and the chicken flies across the room and lands on the
table, it's done and ready to eat.