Zulu's Battered Bum

Quote of the moment:
From the Dunmow Daily Blow:

"It has recently been reported that number of teenage delinquents (three to be exact) have begun to behave in a most ungracious manner. Revving up the power in the fecund Ford Kas (TM), a number of gangs of said delinquents have begun to attempt to, in the words of a member of the Classic FM Hoodlums, "spread the word of a music of love and peace, man". However, far from doing something appropriate, such as promoting Naxos CDs, they are, in fact, blasting out renditions of hardcore classical music hits through their car steros at peak volumes. Moreover, they do this in cul-de-sacs where everyone is at sleep. The police have so far declined to comment, but a local called them "bastards". One old man is in hospital after one Ka pulled up next to him whilst blasting out classical music of the Romantic genre. The local hospital says he is in a critical condition, suffering from Motes Arse. To have your say on the "three twats in a car playing classical music at one in the morning phenomenon", call this number...."

- taken from Newspaper Clippings by Mr William Thorne.

I forgot all about that bit... It must have been the sugar overload from the cinema sweets. Ooops. I think ASBO's are in order for all occupants of the vehicle.


The mysterious other man in Prill's life is revealed...

In addition to admiring the student emphasis in this well-composed photograph given by the unmade bed in the background, I'm curious about why that's MugPrill8, when there's no 5, 6 or 7 available online. Can we see them, or are they unsuitable for such a young and innocent audience?

I'm very disappointed that, in their high-speed dashes around marginal constituencies, no party leaders have visited Braintree. It's supposed to be the second most marginal Labour seat in the country, with Alan Hurst beating Brooks Newmark by 358 votes. Since Mr Newmark is said by The Times to be a future main player of the Conservative Party, I'm tempted to let him have a go. Before you slap me, the 2001 votes went thus:



It's pretty clear, having seen that and the similar table from 1997, is that the two main parties are very close and the Lib Dems are a distant third.

Now the sports headlines: Liverpool beat Chelsea to scrape through to the Champions League final. Personally I reckoned Chelsea had a much better chance of winning the final, probably against AC Milan, and thus it should have been Goliath that won.

Zulu Hit By Car

In news rather closer to home, while I was typing that earlier, Zulu started barking in the garden. I went to the dining room window to see him scrabbling at the gate, so I went out of the front door to see what he was after, thinking it must be a delivery man(they often drop parcels behind the gate). Sadly not. Zulu was barking at a family walking along the far side of the road. He ran through the house, shot through the open door and ignored my yells to charge across the road to see them. Nothing was coming along the road right then, but my dad came through from the garden after him and Zulu looped around the family then headed back towards the door.

As he stepped off the pavement he was hit from behind. Fortunately the car had slowed down after seeing him cross the road, so he wasn't sent flying, but he was knocked back onto the pavement and when my dad got to him he was thrashing about and bit my dad's arm when he picked him up. Meanwhile Ben ran out because Zulu was howling and I had to chase him around the junction in my dressing gown.

While my dad phoned the vet for an advance warning and my mum to let her know, I waited with Zulu in the car. He was very quiet and just sat still, snuggling up to my shoulder. I drove to the vet with my dad cradling him in the back and he's staying overnight, but the x-rays have come back clear, he's apparently standing up and quite perky, although dopey from the painkillers. His bum's probably quite bruised too!