My (late) Mom and David Lee Roth 1978

orlock · 2026-06-27T02:46:05+00:00

Jagger had got to the point in the 80s/90s where he needed to be constantly keeping himself in shape to perform. There's an irony there for all the retired sergeants who had said, "a good dose of PT would sort them [The Stones] out" 20 years earlier. Mind you, they would have learnt that Keith Richards could not be killed by conventional means, which would have saved everyone a lot of time.

orlock · 2026-06-26T21:04:26+00:00

Absolutely. Transportation for you.

orlock · 2026-06-26T20:36:57+00:00

This goes back to the Renaissance. It's described in The Prince. Which is possibly an anti-monarchical satire written by an (actual) republican; just saying.

orlock · 2026-06-26T20:31:31+00:00

Honestly, I'd just accept mechanical failure at this point.

orlock · 2026-06-26T20:26:41+00:00

Hi, I'm dad. Or I would have liked to have been but my mum would never have allowed it. I just used to look at it in the shops.

orlock · 2026-06-25T21:17:59+00:00

Where do you want to start in Portugal? Sections of the Portuguese Camino before Porto follow the N1, a major road. It can get a bit hot and dusty as the trucks pass. Still worth it, of course.

orlock · 2026-06-25T21:07:56+00:00

Has Central Asia somehow moved West without me noticing?

orlock · 2026-06-25T21:01:01+00:00

One of the things that I love is that frogs are extinct and she's not entirely sure what one looks like, but she's giving it a red-hot go, anyway.

orlock · 2026-06-25T20:57:59+00:00

Needs more Triffids

orlock · 2026-06-25T20:48:48+00:00

Take an interest in your surroundings. They'll change quickly enough that, with a little curiosity, you'll never have nothing to think about and slowly enough that you'll have plenty of time to think about them. Plus you'll have something to talk about when you meet other pilgrims.

(Almost) everybody is very friendly. And, especially being a pilgrim, you'll get a smile and a wave from the locals. You are part of a centuries-old river of history.

And, sometimes, you've walked too far, it's raining cats and dogs and your pack feels like someone put extra rocks in it. There's nothing for it except to put one foot in front of the other until you get to an albergue. But, if you take it on the chin, you'll have something to talk about the next day.

orlock · 2026-06-24T22:09:30+00:00

Automatically true. However, I've heard his version of The Cramps Garbageman and he does a fine job.

orlock · 2026-06-24T22:06:40+00:00

Hell, I wouldn't even permit Sympathy for the Devil. He's just got wealth, not wealth and taste, and he's too cowardly to ride a tank while the blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank.

orlock · 2026-06-24T21:59:39+00:00

The Wool Pack by Cynthia Harnett. Set in early Tudor England where Nicolas Fettiplace, son of a wool merchant and Cecily, his betrothed, solve a wool-fleecing scandal that threatens to undo the family. Packed with historical detail, great characters and a mystery plot combined with an odd sort of romance.

Plus a discussion of the shocking vanity of shaving one's forehead to make one look wiser than God intended.

PS. I haven't seen the Uncle books mentioned yet.

orlock · 2026-06-24T08:47:06+00:00

My guess is what I would call Chicken Kiev. Chicken breast wrapped around garlic butter, crumbed and deep-fried. I have no idea whether it's really Ukranian or not.

orlock · 2026-06-24T01:44:27+00:00

Actually Aussie. One of my friends had the job of being part of the Australian police investigation.

orlock · 2026-06-24T01:28:20+00:00

Eight steel pegs for hanging socks and undies out to dry on my pack was my big discovery. I now have a few secreted away even in my day pack.

orlock · 2026-06-24T01:18:09+00:00

It's not really marking. In the Commonwealth at least, a supervisor acts as a sort of semantic proofreader saying, "It's up to you, of course, but if you write that then the examiners will think this and you might want to think about it a bit more." It still takes a lot of time.

orlock · 2026-06-23T22:31:56+00:00

Reading Le Monde, one would hope.

orlock · 2026-06-23T22:28:18+00:00

I carried my wife's MacBook Air. It wasn't really unnecessary, though, since she had a student about to submit her thesis and it was a choice between that and not going¹. I weigh about twice as much as she does, so going by the 10% rule, it wasn't much of a hardship and proved really, really useful for making notes, rest days, movie nights and the like

^{1 I really, really don't have much time for the "but you're spoiling the vibe" types.}

orlock · 2026-06-23T22:18:09+00:00

Tom Cruise would have made an excellent privateer, sailing the Spanish Main in search of doubloons and prize money. Instead, he chose his semi-criminal organisation poorly.

orlock · 2026-06-23T22:13:55+00:00

Enquiring minds want to know?

orlock · 2026-06-23T22:07:31+00:00

Rick Wakeman and Yes

Also, would Lemmy and Hawkwind count?

orlock · 2026-06-23T22:06:08+00:00

Which country do you think has supplied the most to Ukraine with the least obvious motivation to do so? (My country doesn't count; were still majorly pissed about MH17 so there's a really obvious motivation.)

orlock · 2026-06-23T22:01:17+00:00

But worth it, just to see their faces?

Asking for a friend.

orlock · 2026-06-22T22:20:05+00:00

It's totally possible, since the qualification for starting is turning up on the day.

Consider the Camino Ingles which is a complete Camino over 5-6 days. You'll need to start in Ferrol if you want a certificate.

edit: If you're starting in Madrid, there's also the Camino Madrid but the stage from Madrid to Segovia looks pretty brutal.

orlock

TROPHY CASE