Toast in a Car!

After a very grumpy and tiresome morning in the office, I am off this afternoon to go clay pigeon shooting as part of a team building event. Team building. And they're letting us use guns. Excellent.

This morning's drive to work took over an hour which is a bit of a record on a non-snowy, no-flood day.

The reason for this is that it is harvest time, and the roads round here are full of huge agricultural vehicles towing trailers of grain. All very nice, part of the great cycle of life and all, but fucking annoying when you have to cross Salisbury Plain at 10 miles an hour, the fifteenth car in a queue behind two of them. With at least seven more cars behind you.

Not that I was counting or anything.

One thing made me laugh - a guy heading in the opposite direction who was driving along with a plate of toast balanced on his dashboard. Breakfast on the move.

Saw a dead cow too. A first for me.

It was lying on its back in a field beside the road, hind legs stuck straight up, front legs kind of curled up over its chest. And boy was it bloated.

There was a Police off-road truck on the tank track next to the field so I assume they were dealing with it. Calling the farmer, the butcher, the tanner, notifying the next of kin, that sort of thing.

Made me feel a bit sad, oddly. I am so used to seeing the cows as I drive back and forth every day; they always look so happy, eating, mooing, blinking their long eyelashes, just wandering about. I felt a small shock of loss when I saw one of them (one of the nice pale yellow ones too, not a brown and white bastard) stark and stiff in a field.

Other news: Our lovely mate Owen came over for dinner last night. I made a rather fab curry, which contained (among other things) peppers, aubergine, chickpeas, cumin seed, coriander seed and chicken.

Bloody great. Mr WithaY made his world famous Bombay Potatoes (ingredients: potatoes, other stuff), and I also knocked up a plum, dried cherry and walnut crumble. With custard. Boy were we full.

We watched The Brilliant Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (or whatever) which was really, really good. Jim Carrey in a serious role. What a revelation. He was superb. And not in the least bit annoying enough to make you want to hit him with a frying pan, which made a nice change.

If you haven't seen it, do so. Although the bit with the woman in the waiting room with a box full of dog toys brought a tear to my eye. What a sap I am.

Also had a guitar lesson (busy night) and can now play the complete "Black Dog" riff. Hurrah for me.