Blastronaut

My hearing is already fucked mate. About an hour ago I could swear I heardl my other half talking about booking a slot for some kinda republican event. "Republicans. I'm booking a slot to pick republicans at the republican farm". Panic over. It was pumpkins. We're picking pumpkins at the pumpkin farm, fucking ages away for Halloween.

Ah fucksticks. Just seen SWANS in Glasgow is sold out for tomorrow. In other news, Byker Grave is a pretty good name for a metal "festival". If any one local has a penchant for really old-school thrash metal I'd highly recommend seeing Hellripper live in early November. I caught them by accident last year in an absolute toilet of a venue, for my money they put the current crop of big mainstream thrash bands to absolute shame.

I've watched that gif loop for a good five minutes and I'm not ashamed to admire that I suddenly feel a lot better about several decades worth of fever dreams. Is this Cyriaks work?

Same. I'm a miserly bastard and I hadn't planned on buying whisky tonight but when I noticed it on offer at the local co-op my inner atheist quite clearly screamed "it's cool man ignore me, this is clearly a sign from a higher power."

You're not wrong btw, good shout. Sweeter than I remember the Sherry Cask version being but I'm no connoisseur by any stretch and my taste buds are all fucked up since kicking the snouts. If it passes the hangover test I'll probably pick this up more often.

Well this is shite. My incredibly lucky several year run of getting completely free full sky and BT Sport's has finally come to an end. I'd forgot how tedious and frustrating streaming platforms could be sometimes. You can probably expect to see me stinking out the IPTV thread over the next few weeks.

Wide eyed and bushy tailed to boot.

That's awful. Poor bloke. Hope you've called the Samaritans.

Dunno who that is bit you've got my attention. Does she drink at The Grill?

We'll see how it goes. Might swap halfway through, seems fair. The other day I was getting comfy reading the racing post and the youngest was chilled watching some shite kids TV. Everything was going great for about five minutes, until I realised I was sat watching Peppa Pig on my own and the lad had fucked off upstairs with the Racing Post.

Ideal. That's me checking train times to Perth. Schools are back on Wednesday so I might not have to resort to such drastic measures but it's good have options for a bit of respite.

The true pro's simply feign illness, injury or just sheer ineptitude and get gullible friends and family to do all the legwork. I can't be sure but I think I learned this simple lifehack the hard way. From my in-laws.

There was a boozer I used to frequent up in Perth that was a bit like this. First time we went in the toilets were flooded, opened the door to see about 9 headcases in there shoulder to shoulder, ankle deep in piss doing lines off the top of the hand-dryer. Barman told us the cleaner was on holiday that week so the bogs would likely stay flooded for at least another few days. Proper shithole but it became a regular haunt since it had the magical combination of cheap pints, live music and a pool table. I'll never forget my old man phoning me once totally out the blue "mind that pub you were talking about the other day, is it down a wee ally, opposite a crèche or nursery or something?" "Aye it is, how?". Panic in his voice: "is it called The Grill?" "Aye that's the one. Actually I'm here right now" "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DRINKING IN THERE FOR? I'VE JUST SEEN IT ON CRIMEWATCH!". It's a good few decades since I've been in, but these summer holidays have been brutal and the kids are seriously testing my patience so I'm now seriously wondering if the pub and crèche are both still open.

Totally appreciate this is sarcasm, but I have huge doubts Gemmill would've moved anything. He likely just has a new address and somebody else did all the heavy lifting.

Man for what little it's worth, my anxiety has been through the roof since we moved house at the start of the year, probably wouldn't take much to tip me over the edge just now but I'm being a stubborn fucker and refusing to take any SSRI's because I hate the bastard things. Mental illness is indeed fucking everywhere. I think the biggest problem is that most folk (especially men) just don't talk about it, which I'm also guilty of. Ta for the heads up, though. I think I'll give that show a swerve for now.

I've got four and will attest to the old adage that you'll likely be more lenient and nonchalant about these things based on how many kids you've got. Used to walk a solid 3/4 of a mile to and from school unattended. Funny that I couldn't imagine letting my own kids do the same, but we grew up in different worlds. Still see it though. My daughter's pal is one of ten (no word of a lie) and before we moved she'd often turn up at the door with her siblings and they'd all play in the garden, which was fine like, until she turned up her (then) youngest sister who was still a toddler in nappies. Two. It's no like they lived next door either. (copied and pasted from Mumsnet).

It's decided then. McDs for the kids dinner tomorrow night.

Good to know, I look out for it. I was gifted a bottle of the Sherry Cask a few years ago and the first sip I think I got a bit angry and probably uttered words to the effect of "WHERE'S THE FUCKING PEAT?" but after another few mouthfuls had calmed down and found myself really liking it, so I'll pick it up sometimes if it's cheaper than Black Label. Our local McDs is next door to a supermarket. I'll typically just order get a coffee and then abandon the missus and kids while they're eating their processed shite to go and browse the whisky isle. Much better system.

Tamnavulin Sherry Cask Edition might be worth a look in the cheap as chips Speyside single malts if you're not looking something peaty. Fairly unremarkable but dangerously smooth. Usually easy to find at £20-£30 a bottle. I'd probably drink it far more often if it was even slightly smokier.

Im not massively fussy but prefer a Brazilian if I'm honest. More seriously, I think this thread has spoken that Black Label is the champion of good quality affordable blends, with Chivas being a close second. I'll sometimes settle for Aldi's Highland Black, Jameson Black Barrel or even Grouse Smokey Black as an alternative if I'm feeling particularly cheap but something about the smokey peat flavours feels a bit artificial and the hangovers are way worse than from Mr Walkers Amber Restorative.

Never occured to me until now that this was the inspiration behind the final Champs album cover. Ammusingly, there was a track on the previous album named "I am the Album Cover".

Some serious Yin and Yang going on in that photo. I'd probably feel more comfortable with the black one but after a quick Google search the black winter doesn't seem like it would be up my street either. Veering off topic, in lieu of pedal building lately I've been on a big midi controller kick thanks to scoring a few cheap "broken" ones that turned out to be fine. Got a Nektar Panorama P1 for £20 thinking I'd repair it and sell it on, but it's a absolute keeper and only turned out to need a factory reset. Total game changer for me when I'm dicking about with cubase.

Few years ago I was on a train and there's was a group sat a few seat behind me drinking and being loud and obnoxious as fuck. I did the same, headphones in to drown the cunts out. When I stood up to get off the train and realised they were a group of my mates and we were all going to the same gig.

Just the usual exercise in limiting the spectrum of any debate.

Nice one! How's the album shaping up btw?