Smells Like Spleen Spirit ...

Do I look like I have no idea? Do I display the countenance of a fool? Whatever my friends say at this point, I'd like to think that the depths -- or shallows -- of my mental abilities are not immediately obvious at first glance.

I passed an Italian clothes shop in the City of London which appeared to be in the midst of a closing down sale. I have, in the past, picked up a rather nice pair of brogues from a similar shop having a similar sale so I popped in to see if any footwear bargains were available. The shop assistant caught my eye and I asked whether he had any brown brogues; he enquired as to my shoe size and I told him: size nine. After browsing a few boxes I was informed that although he didn't have any in size nine, he did have sizes eight, seven, and six.

"That's great!" I said, "I sometimes take a six."

"Really!" He sounded pleasantly surprised.

"No," I replied.

Maybe I'm being a little harsh but, why, knowing my size, did the assistant not simply say that he had none that would fit? A half size either way might have been worthy of comment but three sizes too small is really not going to tempt me.

Similarly, when looking on the Internet for a weekend city-break, I was presented with fifty-odd hotels for my chosen period. Most of these hotels, on closer inspection, had no room available over the period I required. Why are you cluttering up my time with things that useless to me?! Why are you presenting me with choices I can't make?!

Probably it's merely to annoy me ...

The Beginning of Something Grape ...

So here it is, the first post. Over the next ... forever ... I shall use this space to rant and rave about politics, popular culture and pretty much anything that gets my goat. (Apparently the saying "to get one's goat" comes from the practice of keeping goats with skittish race-horses, the goat allegedly providing a calming influence on the horse: unscrupulous trainers or owners would steal the goat from the stables of a rival, thus leaving them with a rather frenetic thoroughbred.)

Anyway, here we go into cyberspace!

Regards,
Stace.