“I didn’t get where I am today…”

On By Laura MorganIn Internet, Small pleasures

I have just had the following exchange with my boss:

Him: Can I borrow a pen?

Me: What kind?

Him: A biro

I hand him a biro. Pause.

Him: Thanks. Can I keep it for…an hour?”

Me: You can keep it forever. There’s a whole stationery cupboard full of them just there. (I indicate the stationery cupboard.)

Him: Wow, really? Great!

I don’t know whether he’s never had to use a pen before, or has always used the same one which has just run out, or if he brings them from home, but I’m glad to have been the source of new and useful information.

All of which is a perfect way to introduce you, if you don’t know it already, to Good After-Morning!, as witty and terrifying a testament to the experience of working for someone very stupid as you’re ever likely to read. Since I’ve had a proper job I’ve been lucky enough to have uniformly kind and competent bosses, but in the dim and dark days of my early twenties I worked for someone who, whilst nothing like as awful as The Boss described therein, bore some striking similarities to her, so my sympathy is fully extented to the Silent Koala (but I do hope he keeps working for her and blogging about it).

Advent song for December 8

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

Why do none of these songs have proper videos? This is another hand-crafted effort by a dedicated YouTube user, but it’s less horrible than some. It was this or a live version, which would have been much less fun. This is a good singalong number for your office Christmas party, should your office Christmas party be featuring music, which mine won’t. Although if you listen closely, it sounds as though Chris has a bit of a sore throat. Get well soon, Chris!

Tree!

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Reasons to be cheerful

I was all set to resurrect last year’s minimalist white and gold decorations in my egg, but when I took them out and plugged them in none of the lights were working properly, and it all looked a bit sad. Elegantly understated only works when it – well, works.

So I ventured out in search of replacements and, without quite knowing what I was doing, found myself buying a real tree. This is the first real tree I’ve ever had of my own, so I think I must definitely be grown up now. It’s decorated with coloured lights and blue lametta and there isn’t really space for it in the front room, but I love it all the same.

(This photo was taken on the beloved’s phone, hence the slight abstract electro quality.)

Advent song for December 6

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

I had a short internal struggle over whether or not to give you the Kim Wilde and Mel Smith version of this song, but the Gladallover advent calendar is, when it comes down to it, all about the music, and Brenda Lee sings it much more prettily (sorry, Kim, I still think you’re lovely).

However, if you find you’re in the mood for a spot of Mel and Kim, you’ll find them here.

Advent song for December 5

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

I thought you might be in the mood for something partyish on the first Saturday of the month, so here are Kirsty and the Pogues doing their thing. True story: two Christmasses ago my friend S managed, accidentally, to invoke a setting on her phone which played “A Fairytale of New York” over the top of her recorded answerphone message, so that anyone who tried to call her had to listen to Shane wailing in the background while they waited to leave voicemail. It was all very odd.

Poll: Which is the best The Power Of Love?

On By Laura MorganIn Music

It’s odd, isn’t it, that there are three songs called The Power of Love which all came out within a year of each other? And not covers of the same song, but three completely different songs? I love the FGTH song, but I think that for me Jennifer Rush sneaks slightly ahead. And Huey Lewis and the News have the most boring song, but they get points for being from Back To The Future, so altogether it’s a close call.

So I’m doing a poll! It may go horribly, embarrassingly wrong if I am the only person to vote, which is quite possible: I can’t always tell from my blog stats how many people who visit actually look at the most recent post. Still, if I am the only person to vote, my favourite will win, so that’s OK.

In case your memory needs refreshing, I’ve provided handy links to each song. So which is your favourite:

The Power of Love by Frankie Goes To Hollywood

or

The Power of Love by Jennifer Rush

or

The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News?

Vote now!

Advent song for December 4

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

The lyrics of this song have nothing at all to do with Christmas, but it has a Christmas video and is on all the Christmas compilations, so it definitely counts.  It’s also a great song. I do like a cheesy Christmas ballad (watch out for several more over the coming days!).

(My laptop is presently in the possession of a nice young man from Brixton who’s going to make it go faster and stop shutting down unexpectedly, so for the weekend’s advent song’s I’ll be experimenting with WordPress’s scheduled post functionality. If the songs for December 5 and 6 appear at the wrong time or not at all, you’ll know I got it wrong.)