even spammers have friends...

I am in a bit of a quandary. We received some spam, and it looks like it was sent by our friends in Australia. They seem to have set up some kind of internet company selling stuff. This is what they said:

Hi all, the following information is HOT! Do you own a mobile phone? Do you know two people who own a mobile phone? You can cut your phone bills down by 2 thirds and make money by doing so. You could be on your way to earning a large residual/passive income for the rest of your life!

The following website is the doorway to your dreams.

www.blahblahblah/giveusyourmoney.com

Take a look and if you have any questions let us know. We have spent the last week looking into this business opportunity and find it to be all above board and very exciting.

Hope to hear from you soon, either directly through the website or as a reply to this email.

John & Mary
giveusyourmoney

Looks like spam to me. Now I wanted just to bounce it back, but of course I don't want them to think that our email address is dead. I also would like to tell them to fuck off, take our name of their address list, and never bother us again, but they are our friends, and very nice people. There is something very cynical and very unfriendly about this, but it is hard to put my finger on it.

I shall move into Carrie Bradshaw mode now, "what do we do when spammers are our friends?"

By the way, I have changed their names and the link they sent. I didn't even visit it. That'll teach them.

mr mcmuffin on 31 May 2004 @ 02:55 PM ✲ Permalink ✲ Comments (3) | TrackBack

ants in our plants

Mrs McMuffin has made an amazing discovery. She was about to tip out a dead plant from a flower pot when she discovered that it contained an ant's nest. They have built their home in the flower pot. The earth in the pot has been excavated and is honeycombed with little ant tunnels. I took a couple of photos, but the little buggers move so fast it was hard to photograph them. There are ants in the top photo, but they are little blurs of motion. I love the second picture, that is them climbing around the flower pot, because you can get a sense of the scale of the pot. These must be special mountaineering ants. Ain't nature grand?

[I (Mrs McM) just wanted to let you know that we didn't actually evict the ants from their new home. The nest in a pot has pride of place on our doorstep, with a bit of straggly couch grass growing out of the top of it. Beautiful it isn't, but it is useful.]

mr mcmuffin on 31 May 2004 @ 01:15 PM ✲ Permalink ✲ Comments (0) | TrackBack

nandos

Norah has asked me to do a little post about Nandos. There isn't that much to say about them except they sell flame grilled chicken marinated in their Peri-Peri sauce. I thought they were Portuguese, but it turns out that they orginate in South Africa. I don't quite get the connection, but...They have restuarants all over the UK and Australia, and you can buy their sauces in America. While I wondering around their websites, you can get to them all by following the link on the right, I did find this, which I thought was quite funny. I am a little bit obsessed by chicken. I love Nandos.

mr mcmuffin on 31 May 2004 @ 10:59 AM ✲ Permalink ✲ Comments (3) | TrackBack

the day after...

...My bank holiday weekend has consisted of cleaning the house, arguing with Mr McMuffin about lamb of all things and entertaining until about 4am. I actually had to give up before our guests did. Today were both a bit tired and only had the energy to go to the cinema, turning down an invitation to go for a drink in favour of a quiet night in in front of the TV. As there's nothing on that I can stomach watching, I'm here for the next half hour or so.

I don't think I've stayed up this late for almost a year and it gets harder and harder every year. The same goes for drinking, not only can I get drunk on two glasses of wine (but why stop there?) but I am completely wrecked the next day even if I don't have a hangover. Today, of course, I got my passport photos done. I'm carrying my luggage under my eyes in these ones and contemplating the difference a decade makes.

mr mcmuffin on 30 May 2004 @ 10:47 PM ✲ Permalink ✲ Comments (4) | TrackBack

the day after tomorrow

We just got back from seeing The Day After Tomorrow. Great film. Clunky script, saved by some good actors, and the most extraordinary special effects. The two hour film just flew by. Superior trash. Well worth seeing.

mr mcmuffin on 30 May 2004 @ 07:45 PM ✲ Permalink ✲ Comments (8) | TrackBack

first ever rock concert...

I was 19 years old, and had just come down to London from the Orkney Isles a couple months before to start to my training as a Silversmith. Someone had a spare ticket, and I was so desperate to go that I ended up going with a group of
people that I had never met before. We only had one thing in common, and that was our love of Queen. They were my favourite band in the whole world at the time. I had only discovered them the year before after I had borrowed Sheer Heart Attack from a friend at work. We had a tape swapping group going, as listening to music and talking about music was the way in which we passed time in our monotonous jobs. I saw Queen at Wembley Arena on Wednesday 10 December 1980, it was the last night of a three night stint at Wembley on The Game tour.

Freddy was fantastic. I sang until I was hoarse, and my hands hurt from so much clapping. The image that always sticks in my mind is when they played the opening intro to Flash. The stage was in darkness and all we could hear was the dundundundun intro. When it got to the "Flash, aaahaaa" bit, the lights all around Roger Taylor's the drum platform came on streaming beams of the most amazing white light across the audience. Completely dazzling me into the bargain. The white spots stayed in my eyes for ages afterwards.

It was a great night, and still remains with me as one of the best concerts I have ever been to. I even bought a programme, something I don't do anymore. I kept my programme and tickets for years afterwards, but lost them in one of my many moves over the years. I wonder what happened to it.

I love the internet. I remembered going to see Queen in 1980, did a bit of digging around and found a wonderful site with details of all of Queen's concerts. The main picture is from the 1980 tour, and might even have been taken at Wembley, who knows...The site even included a track listing for the gig that I saw.

mr mcmuffin on 28 May 2004 @ 08:19 PM ✲ Permalink ✲ Comments (3) | TrackBack

the get rich quick scheme...

Our great internet get rich quick scheme is no more. I have removed the links from our site. Not because we have suddenly acquired a sense of decency or some such thing, but only because it was a miserably failure. We received only one donation of 10p (thanks Steve). I can't believe that one of those companies who invested billions in the likes of Amazon, couldn't see the potential in our scheme. It just goes to show that being lovely has to be its own reward, because there certainly isn't any money in it.

mr mcmuffin on 28 May 2004 @ 07:44 AM ✲ Permalink ✲ Comments (4) | TrackBack

stop press...

I have finally worked out where Uma Thurman got those unfeasibly large hands from. She stole some of Bjork's. Surely that can't be legal. I can't believe that you are allowed to just take any bits you fancy from other people. Although, Bjork has gone up in my estimation. She hasn't said a word about it. I haven't hear a whisper of a lawsuit or anything. I wonder if that is why Uma and Ethan split up. He just couldn't take feeling inadequate all the time.

mr mcmuffin on 27 May 2004 @ 10:58 PM ✲ Permalink ✲ Comments (0) | TrackBack

eye of slink...

Slinky, of course, has the most beautiful eyes of all of us, but he just will not sit still so I can photograph them properly.

mr mcmuffin on 27 May 2004 @ 10:24 PM ✲ Permalink ✲ Comments (5) | TrackBack

eye of mrs mcmuffin...

Guess who is posting this one. Mrs McMuffin was so taken with my beautiful eye that she wanted one herself. After a few goes, we managed to get this picture. It's not as lovely as mine, and she doesn't have my long eyelashes, but you can't have everything. I guess she will just have to make do with having me.

mr mcmuffin on 27 May 2004 @ 10:11 PM ✲ Permalink ✲ Comments (7) | TrackBack