http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com A fool abroad in London and beyond Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:28:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Ivanov is the first play by Chekhov I’ve seen, although I have read some of his short stories. With titles like ‘A Misfortune’ and ‘She Left Him’, it’s fair to say these are not the cheeriest of tales. There is one innocuous sounding story included in my small collection, ‘At ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/a-comical-misfortune.html He'd probably sounds something like this: The Road to Obama. That is, a bit like Adam Buxton putting on an American accent. http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/if-obama-was-a-smug-git.html Yesterday was Poppy Day, or Rememberance Day, so I gave a thought to the dead. Although British, my mum's Uncle Eric was at Gallipoli. His slender story follows a battle where a pile of corpses was waiting to be buried; amongst the mass of limbs someone saw a hand move. ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/from-poppy-day-to-poopy-day.html   If you're facing the sack - make sure you do it in style. Last Thursday a mate was told that they might be made redundant. She works in magazines and the downturn in advertising meant either she or one of her colleagues would get the bad news the next day. This ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/getting-sacked-in-style.html Here's a slightly overwhelming page to keep you updated on what's going on now. It's so dizzying that after a couple of seconds I felt like switching it off... and getting into the moment. http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/get-into-the-moment.html This morning's ride ride into work seemed a bit sunnier than normal, although the London sky was as grey as ever. Perhaps this was because today, unlike yesterday, I didn't having a screaming match with a reckless driver. But I think it was the news on The Today Programme, a ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/black-is-the-new-black.html One day to go until the US election. Barack must be a dead cert, mustn't he. But what if he gets pipped at the post? What if the reason is a single lazy so-and-so who forgot/couldn't be bothered/was too busy gettin' stupid to cast their vote? What if that person ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/bad-andy-and-cheeky-banksy.html   Stillness Road, Honor Oak Park, SE London Poem 42 n OthI n g can s urPas s the m y SteR y of s tilLnes s -- e. e. cummings from 73 poems See Psalm 46:10 and Dennis Wilson's Be Still. http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/the-mystery-of-stillness.html When America sneezes, the rest of the world wishes they'd used a hanky... The US economy looks like it might have a nasty cold and the rest of us are coming down with bird flu. What's particularly galling is that we just have to put up with the nutters that Americans ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/if-onlytheyd-stopped-it-with-a-handkerchief.html A few years ago I was fed up with London. The walls, the blank faces, the endless noise. I yearned to escape: a small place in a remote part of Scotland beckoned. There I could separate the wheat from the chaff, far away from nonsense of the the capital city. It ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/walden-with-spots.html The markets have gone haywire again today, and the last figures available show that unemployment is up. I was wondering, if we are heading for some sort of great depression-style meltdown, will we all start wearing hats? Back in the thirties everyone in the dole queue, dustbowl migration and workers ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/insulating-your-way-out-of-a-recession.html The campaign to sponsor an athiest message on the side of a bus has reached its funding target in less than 24 hours, says the Guardian. The £5,500 was raised through a justgiving.com page. In bright colours, the message being taken to Londoners reads 'THERE'S PROBABLY NO GOD. NOW STOP ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/donate-to-god-free-laughs.html I can get pretty zoned out in a supermarket. The process has removed grocery shopping to an almost televisual experience. We glide between the silent aisles, led from one colourful box to the next enticing package, before being spat out onto the street. It’s an advert break with no TV ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/street-life.html Deptford can sound a little ominous. Perhaps it’s the word that sounds like just the place to find a pawnshop or loan shark, but then it could be the place’s reputation never recovered after Christopher Marlowe’s murder. That was 500 years ago, but I’d never visited before this weekend. Autumn and ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/alive-alive-o.html There's a new a gadget that shows you how many hits each wikipedia page gets built by a very clever developer fella by the name of Domas Mituzas. He says the program 'access[es] statistics from wikipedia's squid cluster' and simply produces a visual representation of this 'squid cluster', which I ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/wiki-page-traffic-statistics.html Walking the Maré a Maré Sud, Corsica. September, 2008. Dark mountains loom over the centre of the island as you approach Corsica across the strait from Sardinia. Behind, the pink and yellow houses of Santa Theresa Gallura tumble down to the small beach. Ahead, high cliffs topped with the double-cream ramparts ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/the-people-who-walk-the-hillside-in-the-sweet-summer-sun-i.html If you want to know what's fresh and sexy in the world of advertising, the D&AD annual is where you find out. This year their collection of all the best creative work used to sell stuff has been put online for the  first time. Meanwhile the techies are fighting it out with ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/gettin-creative-and-selling-stuff.html The leaves are turning, it's getting darker (especially if you use energy saving lightbulbs) and autumn is definitely here. So, I thought I'd give a final goodbye to the summer with a pizza topping that I discovered in Sardinia last month. Pizza Elena Prepare the pizza base, cover with passata and mozarella ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/last-pizza-of-the-summer.html A couple of years ago (yes, EctaticGaucho.com does have a venerable history) posted on a site that locates groupings of surnames in the UK. Now, those same clever peopleat UCL's Spatial-Literacy.org,  have produced the World Name Profiler which tracks down instances of surnames across the globe, or at least, across ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/where-do-you-think-you-are.html Lucky for George W Bush, he doesn’t have to get himself elected again this November. I doubt he’s worried though, he seems to have done his job pretty well. He’ll be remembered as the most perfect of sheikhs, if he really is a secret member of Al Qaeda. Dubya seems to ... http://www.ecstaticgaucho.com/blog/george-dubya-bin-bush.html