Gus Mears

I've long enjoyed the concept of robin's being loved ones. We had a particularly friendly blighter who turned up at the house shortly after my Dad died. Then he flew in through the bedroom window and took a massive shit on the bedspread, doing little to add to the charm and whimsy of the idea.

Melvyn Bragg with a fistful of chicken nuggets at Bracknell Maccy D's. Chose double ketchup as his dip options, the mad twat.

It's Vince, the same man who thought ZZ Top were at the bleeding edge of culture until about 2012. He'd probably end up hosting it all on Bebo.

Always thought All Things Must Pass had one of the greatest discrepancies between album quality and cover quality. It's the best Beatles solo album and we've got George sat with gnomes. Rubbish.

Mrs Mears passed her driving test today. Very proud, especially as she's in her 30's and from foreign lands without roundabouts.

Deadly Derek Underwood has shuffled off his bowling boots at 78. One of England's best ever. He'll be taking ten-for's up on that sticky wicket in the sky.

Maybe this ought to be posted in the dull man thread, but I'm enjoying this very long and very boring series of Farming Simulator videos. Perfect fodder for the last 20 minutes before I go to sleep. The person making them isn't particularly interesting and often doesn't have much to say, so there's nice long pauses while he bales hay and plants fields for me to drift off to. 'Questionable priorities'. Apt.

Continuing the Deathrey trend of vaguely funerial scenes. Banging album. Banging cover.

I'm sad to report that I didn't make it. Was great fun until the parachute didn't open. Thoughts are with my family at this difficult time.

Not planning on using a parachute. Will that impact my odds?

Jumping out of an aeroplane tomorrow. Will cheer me up loads if I don't die.

's are go.

What were you buying there? Was it a lovely lumpy lumpy lovely chicken wrap?

New year. New celebrity deaths.

Place for any BirdChat, robins to condors. Coming out of a conversation in the things that cheer you up thread. It gets you like gardening does. Went recently some local lakes and marshland where rare migratory birds sometimes hang out and saw an advert for a local bird watching group. Ten years ago I would have ignored it completely but now? I'll have signed up by the end of next year I would imagine. One of the worst things about the house I live in now is the lack of birds in the garden. Last place, despite the fact it backed on the GWR mainline and was in the centre of Reading, had shit loads - red kites and buzzards overhead, robins aplenty and blue tits nesting in the end of the bathroom which was the highlight of the pandemic, watching the brood grow and fly away. Just pigeons wallowing the bird bath now.

Things that you know will be terrible before you watch them/listen to them. Inspired by this forthcoming show straight from Alan Partridge's dictaphone.

Spotted while having a browse on Wikipedia. I would have changed my name to Roy Jones too. What are great names you have come across? My favourite in my friend circle is the mighty Asher von Hippel, a name I can only imagine his (German) Dad and (Indian) Mum designed after each being given half naming rights and deciding upon it entirely in isolation from each other.

I know we have the social media directory, but frankly I didn't want ruin it by spamming Tweets from McFadden's Cold War, AKA the best Twitter account in history. It's the same joke over and over again and I don't care. It's brilliant. Anyway, what Twitter accounts should I be following that aren't McFadden's Cold War?

A thread for me, HG and probably Chilli. Definitely King Coconut too. One of the best things I have seen in the past couple of months is the Play That Goes Wrong. Slapstick absurdity and a set that collapses lots, it's top. Also saw a horrendous production of Winter's Tale the week before last. Up its own arse to an absurd extent. The entire crux of the play is that Leonetes is supposed to not be sullied to the extent that he can't be resurrected in the second act. You had Leonetes here playing Phil Mitchell. Going mental every three seconds, punching his child, kneeing his wife in the gut, beating the shit out of his mates, shouting randomly. I don't know why the director felt that this was meant to make me like him in the second act. The best part of the play was when they did this bit showing Leonetes' dead wife on the screen, lot like Taker after he got put in the casket in '93. But the technician fucked it up, so while Leonetes is blubbing and wailing as per, the screen says 'TEST, TEST. PLEASE INSERT WIRE'. I've got Mikado in a fortnight, same all male cast who I saw do Pinafore last year and they were outstanding. Very much looking forward to it. What are you watching in the theatre? Is it good, is it bad?