Thursday 13 March 2008

Bliss is a day off work tomorrow!

I’ve been quite busy this week so I haven’t had much opportunity to post, although to be honest there’s been very little going on beyond work so I’ve not been inspired to post so much.

I have the day off tomorrow – lots of carry over to use before the end of March - so I’m going on a jaunt out to the
Barnes Foundation in Pennsylvania with Melissa. I’d never heard of the place – Melissa so has her finger on the pulse of these things - but according to their website its “home to one of the world's largest collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early Modern paintings, with extensive holdings by Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir and Modigliani, as well as important examples of African sculpture.”

Fancy that!!

I’m looking forward to it anyway, even if I do still have to get up at 7am to make a 9am train from Penn Station to the middle of suburban Pennsylvania.

The unfortunate thing about taking a day off is that I’ve been squeezing 5days worth of work into 4days, since my deliverables won’t wait. Today I’ve been pretty much keeping my head down with iTunes on shuffle. I store a lot of my music on an external hard drive that I often play through iTunes while I’m working. It helps drown out the cacophony of Jose B in the cube next door. The man needs a mute button.

Anyway this fabulous ditty just rebounded off my eardrums, it’s an oldie, well 1999, but such a goodie. I mean how can you not adore a songwriter who is capable of crafting a catchy tune about the UK’s national bus service? Especially when the aforementioned song includes the lyric “but it’s hard to get by when your arse is the size of a small country”?

The British people I know say they cannot help, but hum this tune whenever they take a coach service. I’m actually quite disappointed by the video though. It’s the first time I’ve seen it today – don’t you just lurve YouTube – and…well…where are the BUSES dammit!!!

Anyway, enjoy National Express by The Divine Comedy, but don’t blame me if “ba ba ba da ba ba ba da…” runs through your head for an entire day afterwards ;-)



14 comments:

Sister Sassy said...

Fun fun! But I kinda hate you right now. Just kidding, I sort of had a half day today but that was because i had a ENT appointment that was insanely late (GRRRR) and the dentist. NO FUN AT ALL!

Have fun with your friend! :)

Flowers said...

yay! i love that one....but i don't love national express. christ, i used to have to get it when i was travelling back home from uni for the holidays. ug. what a horrible way to travel.

have tomorrow, fish!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE the Divine Comedy! Really need to listen to them now, although that's made difficult by the fact that I left my iPod on a flight back to the UK last week, and it wasn't handed in. Grrrrrr.

fishwithoutbicycle said...

Hey Sassy, don't hate me too much, I had to bring my work laptop home to work until well after midnight to finish a presentation so that I can enjoy my day off. Phew!!

Have a great Friday and a fabulous weekend. Fish x

Hey Flowers, I haven't travelled by National Express in years, it was when I was at Uni too, travelling from London to Wakefield. 3.5hours by bus. Do you remember the hostess would take orders for sandwiches? I used to always get a tuna salad and a packet of cheese and onion crisps ;-)

Dylan, I would be soooooo gutted if that were me. I feel so bad for you. I'm going to send you a couple of tracks to tide you over.

Blur Ting said...

It's so nice to take the day off and doing something you love. I should do it one day too. It's not easy to find a friend who can take time off and go gallivanting with me. Enjoy!

fishwithoutbicycle said...

Hi Blur Ting, thanks for the well wishes, taking a random day off is lovely, I highly recommend it :-)

Sid said...

I couldn't read pass the title. I hate you. It's not fair.

fishwithoutbicycle said...

Hey Sid, oops sorry. Don't worry it's almost the weekend. Have a good one :-)

Kitty said...

have fun on your day off. Woohoo!

Haven't heard that song before. I like how 'feel good' it is. Something about it sounds old timey.

fishwithoutbicycle said...

Thanks Kitty, glad you like the song :-)

Agnes Mildew said...

Goodness me! I thought I was the only person who liked the Divine Comedy! When I mention it to anyone, they give me a very blank look...I love the words to this song and sing them with gay abandon when my iPod is hooked up to the fag lighter and the DC's albums are loaded up. Good, happy stuff!

fishwithoutbicycle said...

Hey Agnes, glad to find a fellow fan :-)

Spandrel Studios said...

Hope you enjoyed your jaunt to the Barnes. They have a very unusal way of displaying the art that's especially helpful for students, I'm told. The large Matisse paintings in the hall are among my favorites.

fishwithoutbicycle said...

Hi Spandrel, thanks for stopping by. I did enjoy the Barnes, although when my friend and I left we were both suffering from a bit of gallery lag. That's a LOT of art. We both thought we'd have enjoyed it more if they'd had a cafeteria where you could take a break :-)

I'm a bit over Renoir after seeing 180 of them, but I did love a lot of the Cezanne's and Matisse's work. I really liked the Matisse on the staircase, "The Joy Of Life" I think it was called and the smaller works by Hugo, Pinto and Demuth.