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November 08 What I've been up to in recent weeks - part one...For those of you who don’t bother with the nation’s favourite waste of time – otherwise known as the social networking website Facebook! - this is the first part of a compilation of my ‘status updates’ on Facebook from the last few weeks.
Given that I don’t seem to ever find the time these days to update my blog here on www.softbulletin.co.uk, this will give those of you who are sufficiently interested in my antics a vague insight into what I’ve been up to lately…
Monday 21st September 2009
Rich thanks everyone who's sponsored him for his appearance last week on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth. The total raised is now over £300! If you'd like to add to this amount, please visit www.plinthparrot.co.uk. Rich will be keeping this site up and running until the end of the month, but will then be closing it down so he can work out a final total and get a cheque off to the National Parrot Sanctuary...
Tuesday 22nd September 2009 Rich and Miss Brown have decided they're going to take the plunge and live together! Though to be fair, it probably won't make a huge amount of difference - after all, Em has long since assumed control of numerous aspects of domestic life within Fisher Towers.. not least her habit of filling Rich's Skyplus box with all manner of 'Make Me a Supermodel'-type programmes!
Wednesday 23rd September 2009 Rich suspects a lot of music fans will be in mourning today, following the bombshell yesterday that Cockney knees-up legends Chas & Dave have decided to split up! For Rich, the news brought back memories of an unfortunate episode back in 2007 when he himself nearly ended up getting sued by the 'Snooker Loopy' duo! Bit of a long story..!
Thursday 24th September 2009 Rich is really enjoying his job at the mo. Today he's doing an assembly - and he's decided to base it on the lyrics from 'Two Little Boys' by Rolf Harris! Next week meanwhile, to mark Nottingham's famous Goose Fair, Rich's class will be making model dodgems! Any empty margarine tubs, please send 'em this way..!
Friday 25th September 2009 Rich played footy last night wearing a pair of shorts that were once part of the Blackburn Rovers reserve team kit. Bit of a long story as to how they ended up in Rich's possession! Rich would however like to thank his brother for pointing out that the shorts may have once been worn by Robbie Savage - and furthermore, that the most punchable man in football may have also once farted in them! Cheers Al..!
Saturday 26th September 2009 Rich had a great night out last night with his school colleagues, and feels lucky to work with so many tremendous people. A special mention must go to the comedy genius Mrs Gospel, whose well-rehearsed 'falling backwards off stool' routine brought immense mirth to the assembled hordes! Oh, and Miss Willis too - whose recent engagement was the whole reason for the shindig in the first place..!
Sunday 27th September 2009 Rich has discovered this weekend that he's made the news pages of the latest edition of 'Cage and Aviary Birds' magazine - his second appearance in this noble publication in a matter of weeks! The headline for the story is 'Plinth man raises cash for parrot sanctuary' - and this has tickled Rich no end. 'Plinth man' - it sounds like the name of some kind of superhero..!
Monday 28th September 2009 Rich has had a busy weekend - so much so that it feels like he's going back to work today for a bit of a rest! Friday night was an engagement booze-up, Saturday night was a birthday booze-up... although ultimately, the most decadent event of the last few days was actually during Saturday daytime, when Rich attended a one-year-old's birthday party! Rock'n'roll..!
Tuesday 29th September 2009 Rich had an enormous hammer blow dealt to his masculinity last night, when he went to B&Q but couldn't locate the piece of hardware he was after - thus resulting in him having to ask a member of staff to help. Aforesaid member of staff gazed upon Rich with pity, in that way that B&Q employees are presumably trained to do whenever they encounter men who clearly know shit all about DIY and tools and stuff..!
Wednesday 30th September 2009 Rich has been reading the autobiography of Jeff Stelling, genial host of TV's 'Soccer Saturday'. Very entertaining - particularly Jeff's explanation of the format of his own show: "The programme doesn't show any actual real football. There are no goals, shots or near misses - so it's a bit like watching Derby County"!
Thursday 1st October 2009 Rich , now it's October, feels like the grim reaper of time is beginning to close in on that period of life known as his twenties! Significant milestones on this descent into middle age are starting to become a daily ocurrence. Last night for instance, he watched his final Forest match as a 20-something. Happily, they won 2-0. You Reds!
Friday 2nd October 2009 Rich is off tonight for a mooch around Nottingham's legendary Goose Fair, where he's muchly looking forward to partaking in the traditional local delicacy that is mushy peas with mint sauce! If he's feeling particularly adventurous, he may also sample another of the fair's famous delicacies - yes, the iconic 'cock on a stick'! And yes, that's cock as in 'cockerel'. Stop sniggering at the back now..!
Saturday 3rd October 2009 Rich and the gang muchly enjoyed their trip last night to Nottingham's legendary Goose Fair! Lots of cliches were successfully ticked off - including a visit to the freak show and its infamous two-headed trout, and Rich winning his missus a crap cuddly toy on one of the sideshows like the suave so-and-so that he quite evidently is!
Sunday 4th October 2009 Rich is recovering from an awesome night out in Leeds celebrating his mate JHH's 30th! For the main part of the shindig, JHH had hired a private karaoke room - where several entertaining hours were spent murdering various classics! Randomly, the night also involved an encounter with notorious former international drug smuggler Howard Marks!
Monday 5th October 2009 Rich is off to start a new week on the primary education frontline - and is hoping for a nice quiet one after the madness of last week's Goose Fair theme week! That said, aforesaid theme week saw Rich make a useful discovery - namely, that the kids in his class will all work like trojans if you tell them that a tin of mushy peas is up for grabs as a prize to the hardest worker of the day..!
Tuesday 6th October 2009 Rich has signed up as a volunteer to answer phones for Children in Need next month! It'll be the seventh successive year Rich has done it - & as in previous years, he's being proper hardcore and working 'All Night Long'! This gruelling shift is known to Children in Need veterans as 'the Lionel' - & in tribute, Rich is toyin...g with the idea of dressing up as Lionel Richie! Anyone know where one can buy a rubber Lionel mask?
Wednesday 7th October 2009 Rich is traversing his final few days of bachelorhood before Em officially moves into his house at the weekend. It's all very exciting really! Though Rich still isn't quite sure exactly how he's going to find enough space in his gaff for Miss Brown's plethora of dresses and shoes..!
Thursday 8th October 2009 Rich wishes to purge his soul of sin, and thus hereby confesses to his latest televisual guilty pleasure - namely, Masterchef! It's quality TV - largely due to the hilarity of Greg Wallace, one of the judges. He's basically a tubby Phil Collins lookalike who's really angry all the time. Last night, it looked like he was act...ually going to smack one of the contestants just because he'd undercooked a pork chop!
Friday 9th October 2009 Rich went last night to see a David Bowie tribute artist! It was very entertaining, with 'Dave' starting off rocking the jumpsuit and crimson mullet of Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie... before disappearing off stage momentarily and then reappearing in the sharp suit and braces of 80s Bowie! Sadly though there was no further change to 'Gobin King from the Labyrinth' Bowie..!
Saturday 10th October 2009 Rich is looking forward today to catching up over lunch with his mate Charles, who's up in Nottingham on a bit of a flying visit. As well as being an all-round cool guy, Charles happens to be an enviably talented photo journalist. He has a website with loads of his photos on it that's well worth a look - if any of you are interested, it's at www.charles-fox.net/news
Sunday 11th October 2009 Rich and Em embark today on their first full day of living in sin, what with Miss Brown having officially moved into Fisher Towers yesterday! Happily, the big move went very smoothly, with Rich somehow managing to transport all of Em's possessions in just one trip! If cramming the most amount of stuff into a Renault Megane was an Olympic sport, Rich would definitely be a gold medallist!
Monday 12th October 2009 Rich has had a great weekend, spending quality time with friends and family. He also spent Sunday morning being filmed stumbling around Nottingham wearing lots of make-up, having agreed to appear as an extra in a zombie film that his mates Steve and Susan are making! Rich wore a Forest shirt whilst doing this, which will hopefully be visible in the finished film when it's completed!
Tuesday 13th October 2009 Rich is 30 today, and wishes to say a big thanks to everyone who's sent him birthday greetings and gifts. Miss Brown in particular has outdone herself. In honour of the fixation Rich has had with trucks ever since he first saw the film 'Convoy' on telly when he was about four, she has bought him a voucher to do a 'truck driving experience'! Ten four good buddies - watch out for them smokeys...!
Wednesday 14th October 2009 Rich had an awesome birthday! At work, everyone was really nice to him all day - kids included! - with some people even getting him presents! Special mention on that front must go to Mr Savage, who ceremonially presented Rich with a single Wagon Wheel! After getting home meanwhile, Rich had an epic Indian banquet cooked for him by his girlfriend! A good start then, all in all, to the dreaded thirties..!
Thursday 15th October 2009 Rich enjoyed watching the England footy team's 3-0 win against Belarus last night. For Rich, highlight of the match was every time the commentary team on telly mentioned the name of one of one of the Belarussian defenders - the brilliantly-Christened Igor Shitov! The campaign for Forest to sign Shitov starts here - the potential for funny songs would be endless. "You're Shitov, and you know you are.." etc! What I've been up to in recent weeks - part two...
For those of you who don’t bother with the nation’s favourite waste of time – otherwise known as the social networking website Facebook! - this is the second part of a compilation of my ‘status updates’ on Facebook from the last few weeks.
Given that I don’t seem to ever find the time these days to update my blog here on www.softbulletin.co.uk, this will give those of you who are sufficiently interested in my antics a vague insight into what I’ve been up to lately…
Friday 16th October 2009 Rich is wondering what on earth the surprise is that his brother Al has got planned for him for tomorrow for birthday! All he's been told is is that he needs to be out of bed by 9am and ready to "go somewhere"! Knowing what Al is like, Rich is beginning to feel slightly worried..!
Saturday 17th October 2009 Rich is now just hours away from finding out what the surprise is that his bro has arranged to mark his 30th! With Al having had a year-and-half to plot revenge after Rich stitched him up on HIS 30th, Rich is fully braced for ritual humiliation. The sinister grin that's appeared on Al's face whenever Rich has tried to fish for info almost certainly confirms that horseplay is afoot! Watch this space..!
Sunday 18th October 2009 Rich is very hungover but nonetheless buzzing after a brilliant day of surprises yesterday to mark his arrival at the big 30! First there was a surprise cinema screening of 'Children of the Corn', and then a surprise party - both attended by loads of Rich's friends and family, some who'd travelled a long way to be there! Huge thanks to everyone who conspired to pull all of this off - you know who you are..!
Monday 19th October 2009 Rich is back down to earth with a bump this morning, as he drags himself out of bed at silly o'clock ready for another week of graft at the educational coalface. He can't stop smiling though about the events of the weekend! As well as all the shenanigans that took place for his birthday, there was also of course the small matter of the mighty Forest deservedly beating Newcastle on Saturday evening! You Reds..!
Tuesday 20th October 2009 Rich is enjoying his week at work so far. Yesterday he managed to impress an entire class of eight and nine year olds - which is not an easy thing to do, cynical little tykes that they are! Sadly though, it was Rich's successful humane capture of a wasp that had flown into the classroom that earned the kids' admiration, as opposed to any of his actual teaching..!
Wednesday 21st October 2009 Rich is loving being a Forest fan at the mo! Last night's 1-0 win against Barnsley was the Reds' fifth success on the bounce, and puts them just a snifter away from the top of the Championship. What's more, there are few victories sweeter than those secured by an injury time winner - particularly when the scorer then gets sent off by the ref for celebrating too wildly! Guy Moussi - you are a legend!
Thursday 22nd October 2009 Rich is currently loving the new albums by Mancunian monkey man Ian Brown and American nutjobs the Flaming Lips! It's certainly been a relief over the last week or so to discover that, when you hit your thirties, you don't suddenly lose touch with what's what in the world of music... and find yourself gravitating, as was feared, towards bland middle-of-the-road toss like Keane and David bloody Gray..!
Friday 23rd October 2009 Rich has arrived a day that felt like it was never going to come - yes, it's the final day of what's been a gruelling half-term at work! Saying that, Rich is enjoying his job at the mo. His current favourite thing to do is finding tenuous excuses to put music on in the classroom. The other day for instance, Rich had the kids writing newspaper reports - and so naturally, the band Editors were duly whacked on the stereo..!
Saturday 24th October 2009 Rich and Em went off last night to see the Izzard - yes, Eddie Izzard, who was performing at Nottingham Arena as part of his latest stand-up tour. Verdict? Well Miss Brown loved him - but then she's long been an Izzard fan. Rich however didn't really 'get' him. Though he did call the BNP a bunch of ballbags, which makes him a sound bloke even if you don't find him that funny...
Sunday 25th October 2009 Rich is down in deepest darkest Sussex, visiting his great friend Mr Andrew 'The Lothario' Best. Good times! Though currently, Rich isn't actually sure what bloody time it is, as he's just woken up not knowing whether his phone - which he uses to tell the time - has automatically reset itself to Greenwich Mean Time or not! A call to the speaking clock may be inminent..!
Monday 26th October 2009 Rich is back from Sussex after a torturous journey by train. Back in 2007, Rich travelled all the way from Beijing to Moscow on the Trans-Siberian railway. And he shits you not, but Tunbridge Wells to Nottingham last night actually felt like it took longer. If he ever hears the words 'rail replacement bus' again, Rich may actually cry..!
Tuesday 27th October 2009 Rich went to the National Parrot Sanctuary yesterday to hand over the cash he raised through his recent plinth exploits! And chatting to the guys who run the place, there was a very amusing revelation - namely, that when Rich first visited the sanctuary with his brother Al, it apparently caused mass panic... as they'd mistaken Al for an infamous animal rights activist and thought he'd turned up to cause trouble!
Wednesday 28th October 2009 Rich and his bro are off to Wembley Arena tonight to see hirsuite rock legends ZZ Top! Rich has found ZZ Top hilarious ever since he was about three and first saw the video for 'Gimme All Your Lovin'! And the fact that the one non-bearded guy in the band is called Frank Beard has long been Rich's favourite piece of useless trivia...
Thursday 29th October 2009 Rich is pleased to report that ZZ Top rocked immensely last night at Wembley Arena! As well seeing the grizzled rock legends, Rich and his bro also went on a guided tour prior to the gig of Wembley Stadium just over the road. Amusingly, there were some Germans on the tour - so when we got to the Jules Rimet trophy it was all a bit [reverting to Jim Bowen voice] 'Look at what you could've won..'!
Friday 30th October 2009 Rich is poorly - as in proper, 'coughing-his-guts-up-and-even-been-down-to-the-doctor's-and-everything ' poorly. Why is it so often the way, when you're a teacher, that you're veritable a picture of health for the entire duration of term-time - but then, as soon as the holidays come, your immune system goes to shit and you get ill?!
Saturday 31st October 2009 Rich , despite having ingested more drugs over the last few days than Pete Doherty probably does during an average weekend, is still feeling as rough as a hedgehog's ballbag. A trip up to Chester that was planned for today to partake in 30th birthday celebrations for Rich's mate Charlene has thus had to be cancelled. All in all, it is fair to say that Rich is not a happy camper at the moment...
Sunday 1st November 2009 Rich loves his missus for many reasons, but her eye for a second-hand furniture bargain isn't one of them! This week, Em spent £60 on a wardrobe that actually fell apart when attempts were made to merely move it across the room! Efforts to fix it were fruitless, so it was decided to cut losses & head to Argos to buy ANOTHER wardrobe... & also to take the lemon Miss Brown had been sold down the tip. Expensive lessons!
Monday 2nd November 2009 Rich is ready to head into work bright and early for the start the new school half-term, having made a Lazarus-like recovery over the last 24-hours or so from the nasty chest infection that's plagued him for most of his week off. As always, Rich's holiday beard has been shaved off so he looks nice and smart on his return to the office - though he does have imminent plans afoot on the face furniture front..!
Tuesday 3rd November 2009 Rich went to Nottingham's Savoy cinema last night to see the Michael Jackson 'This Is It' movie. Worth a look. After his last trip to the Savoy though a few weeks ago, Rich found it a bit dull going there on his own free will - as opposed to being dragged there blindfolded, and then being forced to face one of his biggest childhood fears by being made to watch a horror flick about sinister children in the Deep South..!
Wednesday 4th November 2009 Rich and some of his pals, given that November has now been officially renamed Movember, have committed themselves to spending the entire month attempting to grow moustaches! This cultivation of facial topiary is all to raise money for a fantastic charity - for more info and to donate, go to http://uk.movember.com and search for 'rich fisher'
Thursday 5th November 2009 Rich is lying in a darkened bedroom feeling pretty poorly, having had a bastard of a headache yesterday that wouldn't go away and ended up developing a full-blown migraine. Being ill is officially rubbish, and Rich is feeling pretty miserable. Anyone know any good jokes that might cheer him up?
Friday 6th November 2009 Rich is still off work recovering from the humdinger of a migraine he had on Wednesday night. He's starting to feel better though, and is also in much better spirit than he was yesterday - largely thanks to the stellar response he got to his appeal for people to send him jokes to cheer him up. Big thanks to Marc, Robin, Andrew, Lisa and Max for their best comedy efforts..!
Saturday 7th November 2009 Rich is just about back in the land of the living, and is looking forward to heading out later to watch Forest play Bristol City. One drawback though of the recent development whuch saw Miss Brown ditch her old flat in order to come and co-habit with Rich at Fisher Towers is the fact that Rich no longer has the luxury of a parking space just a few minutes' walk from the ground. Where is he going to park?! November 07 RICH HAS UPLOADED SOME NEW PHOTOS TO THE WEBRich has just uploaded a selection of new photos to the web - an album titled 'Wembley Stadium, ZZ Top and other autumn shenanigans'.If you're reading this note on Rich's website, www.softbulletin.co.uk, then simply go to the photo section of the site to view these snaps. If, on the other hand, you're reading this note on Facebook - well, simply click here to be redirected to www.softbulletin.co.uk .October 27 RICH HAS UPLOADED SOME NEW PHOTOS TO THE WEBRich has just uploaded a selection of new photos to the web - an album titled 'Epic celebrations for Rich's 30th birthday'.If you're reading this note on Rich's website, www.softbulletin.co.uk, then simply go to the photo section of the site to view these snaps. If, on the other hand, you're reading this note on Facebook - well, simply click here to be redirected to www.softbulletin.co.uk. October 04 RICH HAS UPLOADED SOME NEW PHOTOS TO THE WEBRich has just uploaded a selection of new photos to the web - an album titled 'A trip to Nottingham's Goose Fair... and a night out in Leeds'.If you're reading this note on Rich's website, www.softbulletin.co.uk, then simply go to the photo section of the site to view these snaps. If, on the other hand, you're reading this note on Facebook - well, simply click here to be redirected to www.softbulletin.co.uk... September 20 What I've been up to over the last few weeks - part one...For those of you who don’t bother with the nation’s favourite waste of time – otherwise known as the social networking website Facebook! - this is the first part of a two-part compilation of my ‘status updates’ on Facebook from the last few weeks.
Given that I don’t seem to ever find the time these days to update my blog here on www.softbulletin.co.uk, this will give those of you who are sufficiently interested in my antics a vague insight into what I’ve been up to lately…
Friday 14th August 2009 Rich , when he logged on yesterday to the official Nottingham Forest website, was very surprised when the first thing he saw on the news page was a photo of a group of fans including himself, his brother and various friends! Bit of a long story as to what the photo in question is doing on there! Very amusing though…
Saturday 15th August 2009 Rich is pleased to report that the Fisher-Brown summer road trip across France and Spain has gotten off to a pleasingly successful start! After crossing to Dunkirk last night on a ferry and then getting a kip in the car like the hardened road warriors that they are, they are now hammering down the road to Rouen (did you see what Rich just did there?!)
Sunday 16th August 2009 Rich and Em are in Rennes, with just a couple of hours' driving to do today to get to Rich's mum and dad's house in Brittany! Weather here is gorgeous, though Rich and Em had a bit of a sphincter-twitching moment yesterday when Rich decided to drive round the big roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe in downtown Paris. French motorists are utter loons!
Monday 17th August 2009 Rich and Em are loving the tranquility of rural Brittany, having arrived here yesterday. Being the sophisticated people that they are, they have begun embracing French culture in earnest - yes, by quaffing industrial quantities of local bread, cheese and wine! Rich is also excited about the possibility of seeing some badgers, as there are apparently some that live just behind Rich’s mum and dad’s house where they are staying…
Tuesday 18th August 2009 Rich is intrigued by the fact that, in Plevin [a village near his mum and dad's house here in Brittany], the local God-botherers all worship this long-dead missionary dude called Father Maunoir. The church has a sinister effigy of him, and even sell ‘Pere Maunoir’ merchandise!
Wednesday 19th August 2009 Rich and Em have had a tremendous time at Ma and Pa Fisher's place in Brittany. Like the Littlest Hobo though, they must keep on moving on - and so today, they bid farewell and head south for the Pyrennes... where they are spending a few days at Em’s mum’s house. Rich only prays that he’ll surbive the long journey without Miss Brown subjecting him to any Bon Jovi when it’s her turn to be in-car DJ!
Thursday 20th August 2009 Rich and Em have just spent the night under canvass at a campsite near Toulouse, having covered nearly 500 miles of road yesterday on the journey south from Brittany. Toulouse keeps making Rich think of the immortal 'Ace of Spades' by Motorhead – “You know I’m born TOULOUSE, and gambling is for fools…”
Friday 21st August 2009 Rich and Miss Brown are muchly enjoying the terrific hospitality of Em's mum and her husband, having finally arrived at their place yesterday after completion of the epic 600-mile drive down from Brittany. They live in a gorgeous village called Puivert in the shadow of the Pyrenees. Weather is glorious, with temperatures topping 40 degrees celsius! Happily, the village has a lake to cool off in…
Saturday 22nd August 2009 Rich 's sojourn in the south of France has been largely soundtracked so far by the tones of, of all people, Paul Anka! The venerable crooner has an album called 'Rock Swings', in which he covers a selection of contemporary rock songs, from ‘Eye of the Tiger’ to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, in a big band stylee! Highly enjoyable and entertaining…...
Sunday 23rd August 2009 Rich is a bit sad that today is the last day of the 'France' part of his and Miss Brown's road trip. Highlights of the last couple of days here in the Pyrenees have included a day trip to Carcassonne and a spot of medieval jousting! Tomorrow, him and Em will be heading off for a few days in northern Spain, making a detour on the way via Andorra (just for the sake of being able to tick off another country!)
Monday 24th August 2009 Rich is on the road to Barcelona! Final shenanigan in the Pyrenees was to visit Rennes-le-Chateau, a place many people believe to be the final resting place of the holy grail. Sadly Tom Hanks wasn't there looking for it. Shame, as Rich wanted to take him to task about his diabolical failure to save Wilson the football from getting swept away in ‘Castaway’…
Tuesday 25th August 2009 Rich and Em had a mental day yesterday! 400-odd miles driven, two international frontiers, and six litres of tax-free vodka from Andorra for equivalent of just twelve quid! Best of all though was a self-driven white-knuckle tour of downtown Barcelona in a nifty little yellow car that has GPS that tells you where to go. See one for yourselves at gocartours.es. Lunacy!
Wednesday 26th August 2009 Rich and Em had a very enjoyable day in yesterday in the very striking city of Valencia. Having camped right by the beach, they will today be heading to the nearby town of Bunol for the infamous 'La Tomatina' fiesta. This happens every year and is basically the world’s biggest food fight – thousands of people all pelting each other with tomatoes! Bring on the madness!
Thursday 27th August 2009 Rich and Em had a mental day yesterday! As well as La Tomatina - from which they are still picking bits of tomato out of every orifice! - they also managed to drive all the way back up to France! This included a white-knuckle drive through the Pyrenees, where at one point their car – whilst in motion – got charged at by an angry horse that appeared in the road from nowhere!
Friday 28th August 2009 Rich is enjoying some quality beaver action, what with him and Em having camped last night next to a lake that's full of the furry critters! Sadly, today is their last day in France before heading home. Still, at least this means Rich won't have to put up for much longer with Miss Brown laughing at his piss-poor attempts to pronounce most French words! Like Girls Aloud, Rich tends to let the funky music do the talking..!
Saturday 29th August 2009 Rich and Em have just docked in Dover - and now, in true Smoky and the Bandit style, face a race against time to get back up to Nottingham in time for Forest's big match against the mutton-botherers from Derby! Rich is then heading off after the match for a stag do up in Liverpool! Busy times..!
Sunday 30th August 2009 Rich is feeling rather cock-a-hoop today. Usually, coming home from one's holiday and having to face up to the dreaded return to work would be a depressing time. However, watching one's footy team record a sweet victory over their local rivals – and aforesaid rivals then proceeding to squeal about it like pathetic little children – goes quite a long way to soften the blow. You Reds!
Monday 31st August 2009 Rich , had things panned out a bit differently, would have been down in London last night to see Michael Jackson at the O2 Arena. Wacko once of course said that if you want to make the world a better place, you should take a look at yourself and make a change. In tribute to this beautiful sentiment, Rich is off to have a shave…
Tuesday 1st September 2009 Rich is about to embark upon a day that he's not particularly thrilled about. First and foremost, today sees him return to to the primary education battleground after the long summer break. More ominously though, the fact that it's the first day of September means that Rich has just entered his final full month as a 20-something!
Wednesday 2nd September 2009 Rich is chortling about his holiday photos. Of all the snaps, he's particularly amused today by the ones of Lourdes - a bizarre place him and Em visited as they meandered through France. Rich is thinking about claiming to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary on Carlton Hill, and seeing if it creates a similar influx of tourists into his local area! What I've been up to over the last few weeks - part two...For those of you who don’t bother with the nation’s favourite waste of time – otherwise known as the social networking website Facebook! - this is the second part of a compilation of my ‘status updates’ on Facebook from the last few weeks.
Given that I don’t seem to ever find the time these days to update my blog here on www.softbulletin.co.uk, this will give those of you who are sufficiently interested in my antics a vague insight into what I’ve been up to lately…
Thursday 3rd September 2009 Rich had a lovely evening yesterday catching up with his Australian pal Binni, who's been up in the shire of Nottingham this week. One of the highlights of the evening was Rich's introduction to an item of tableware that he was previously unfamiliar with – namely, grape scissors! Anyone own a pair? They seem altogether unnecessary, but somehow brilliant..!
Friday 4th Septemner 2009 Rich played football last night for the first time in several weeks, having had a break from it while he was away on holiday. And having spent much of his holiday lazing around and imbibing lots of cheese and wine, his return to the fray hurt quite a lot and he woke up this morning aching from head to toe. Mind you, Rich does have his own personal physio to tend to his aching limbs, so he can’t complain really..!
Saturday 5th September 2009 Rich has successfully survived his first week back on the primary education battleground after the summer holidays, although he's bloody cream-crackered! Sometimes Rich feels like he's not really cut out for this 'work' business – and that he should try and persuade Em to get a high-powered job with a huge salary, so he can be a househusband and just potter around at home all day..!
Sunday 6th September 2009 Rich is a page three stunner! Yes, the fact that he is soon to appear on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth dressed as a parrot has made the headlines in the latest edition of 'Cage and Aviary Birds' magazine! Available for £1.50 from all good newsagents – and probably a fair few crap ones too!
Monday 7th September 2009 Rich is off into work bright and early, ready for his first day with his new class. Though with Rich having changed this year from teaching Year Three to Year Four, he knows most of the little urchins pretty well already, having taught half of them last year! Hopefully they won’t come back all feral, having had the last seven weeks to run amok..!
Tuesday 8th September 2009 Rich is living his life under the full glare of the media spotlight at the mo! Yesterday, his place of work was all over the local and national news, what with it having joined forces with two other schools to become the biggest school in the country. Though naturally, this pales in significance compared to Rich himself being on page three of the latest edition of ‘Cage and Aviary Birds’ magazine..!
Wednesday 9th September 2009 Rich and Em have been housesitting this week for Em's sister, who is away on holiday. They have muchly enjoyed this opportunity to take leave of reality and pretend that they live in a swanky modern gaff with a huge telly... and no less than three toilets! The resident menagerie has however confirmed Rich’s long-held suspicion that cats are actually evil…
Thursday 10th September 2009 Rich is well pleased with Derren Brown! Not because of this business with the lottery numbers - rather, because the TV illusionist fella, being a fellow supporter of the National Parrot Sanctuary, has posted details on his website about Rich's impending appearance on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth! http://derrenbrown.co.uk/blog/2009/09/support-parrot-zoo-london-4th-plinth
Friday 11th September 2009 Rich wishes his pals Mike and Diane a tremendous wedding day today up in Merseyside. He's sorry he can't be there for the ceremony - though to be fair, it would've been taking the piss a bit to have had the day off, what with him having been back at work barely a matter of days having had six weeks off! Looking forward to the evening do though tonight..!
Saturday 12th September 2009 Rich had an awesome time last night at the wedding evening do of his pals Mike and Diane. Was great to catch up with the Scouse crowd - and highlight of the night was when, in a nod to Mike's love of metal, the DJ momentarily abandoned the usual wedding guff in order to play ‘Harvester of Sorrow’ by Metallica! Presumably a song that Metallica wrote about a really shit carvery pub they once went to…
Sunday 13th September 2009 Rich had a great day yesterday up in Liverpool, which remains one of his fave places having lived there back in the late nineties/early noughties. With Em having never been before, Rich showed her all the sights - including a trip on the 'Magical Mystery’ bus tour, which goes to lots of Beatlers-y places such as Strawberry Fields and, um, Ringo’s old house! Randomly, Rich and Em also met a Forest legend! As you do…
Monday 14th September 2009 Rich is getting very close to his hour of fame on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth - yes, he goes up there, all parroted up, at 10pm tomorrow! Brilliantly, he's had complete strangers sponsor him over the last few days - possibly as a result of his exploits having been mentioned by Derren Brown on his website. Should you wish to sponsor Rich too, you can do so online with Paypal or a bank card at www.plinthparrot.co.uk
Tuesday 15th September 2009 Rich is amused to learn that the parrot suit he's wearing on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth this evening - yes, the day has finally arrived! - is the same as one Peter Crouch was pictured wearing a few years ago, on a Liverpool FC fancy dress night out! You can watch live webcam coverage of Rich taking to the plinth tonight from 10pm til 11pm at www.oneandother.co.uk
Wednesday 16th September 2009 Rich had a brilliant time last night standing on the Fourth Plinth in London's Trafalgar Square dressed as parrot! There were too many funny moments to mention here, but a big thanks to everyone who came along to watch. Rich of course got up to all this plinth-based nonsense to raise money for a charity. You can still sponsor him at www.plinthparrot.co.uk
Thursday 17th September 2009 Rich has stuck a selection photos online depicting his stint the other night on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth! You can view them at www.softbulletin.co.uk. Meanwhile, on a more pressing matter, Rich has been given a cabbage and some green beans by someone who has an allotment. Anyone got any inspirational ideas for recipes that these could be used in?
Friday 18th September 2009 Rich discovered yesterday that he's not actually been the only person to take to Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth dressed as a parrot! You can watch webcam footage of the other parrot dude's entire hour on the plinth at www.oneandother.co.uk/participants/Nick_P... while Rich’s own appearance is at www.oneandother.co.uk/participants/Rich_fisher. Who was the cooler parrot?
Saturday 19th September 2009 Rich had a great time last night catching up with his pals Kev and Becky and their wee boy Oliver. Rich is still laughing about the fact that 18-month-old Olly has decided that his favourite thing in the whole world is the A-Team van! And Becky's casual revelation that she has a crazy uncle who busks in Leicester city centre playing the kazoo and singing Jesus songs!
Sunday 20th September 2009 Rich is amused today by news of cheesy balladeer Chris de Burgh having got in a huff and written a snotty letter to a journalist who wrote a scathing review of one of his gigs! You can read the review and de Burgh's response at www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/0911/1224254268225.html. Well worth a look! September 19 RICH HAS UPLOADED SOME PHOTOS TO THE WEBRich has just uploaded a selection of new photos to the web - an album titled 'Weddings and other assorted shenanigans from over the last few months.If you're reading this note on Rich's website, www.softbulletin.co.uk, then simply go to the photo section of the site to view these snaps. If, on the other hand, you're reading this note on Facebook - well, simply click here to be redirected to www.softbulletin.co.uk... September 16 RICH HAS UPLOADED SOME PHOTOS TO THE WEBRich has just uploaded a selection of new photos to the web - an album titled 'Rich spends an hour atop Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth dressed as a parrot'.If you're reading this note on Rich's website, www.softbulletin.co.uk, then simply go to the photo section of the site to view these snaps. If, on the other hand, you're reading this note on Facebook - well, simply click here to be redirected to www.softbulletin.co.uk... August 31 RICH HAS UPLOADED SOME PHOTOS TO THE WEBRich has just uploaded a selection of new photos to the web, in four separate albums. These albums are entitled as follows...1) Trip to Amsterdam to watch the England footy team play Holland;2) Summer road trip part one - Nottingham to Brittany via Paris;3) Summer road trip part two - Brittany to the Pyrenees;4) Summer road trip part three - Pyrenees to Spain and then home againIf you're reading this note on Rich's website, www.softbulletin.co.uk, then simply go to the photo section of the site to view these snaps. If, on the other hand, you're reading this note on Facebook - well, simply click here to be redirected to www.softbulletin.co.uk... August 13 What I've been up to over the last few weeks...For those of you who don’t bother with the nation’s favourite waste of time – otherwise known as the social networking website Facebook! - this is a compilation of my ‘status updates’ on Facebook from the last few weeks.
Given that I don’t seem to ever find the time these days to update my blog here on www.softbulletin.co.uk, this will give those of you who are sufficiently interested in my antics a vague insight into what I’ve been up to lately…
Tuesday 21st June 2009 Rich thought he was onto a promising thing yesterday, when Miss Brown rang and asked him to come over to hers for an evening of screwing. Alas though, it ended up being the 'other' type of screwing - yes, she needed help with some DIY! That said, the ensuing trip to Homebase led to Rich making an exciting purchase of a cheese plant! May it bring a bountiful harvest of gorgonzola when in bloom..!
Wednesday 22nd June 2009 Rich had a day of great hilarity yesterday. First of all, he went to the cinema to see Bruno - which is utterly offensive, but painfully funny. Sacha Baron Cohen is a twisted genius! Even funnier than the film though was the news about Sven Goran Eriksson possibly coming to Notts County. Lock up your daughters, good people of Nottingham..!
Thursday 23rd July 2009 Rich had an emotional reunion last night with the mighty Forest, having attended the Reds' pre-season friendly match away at Rotherham United! Alas, the game was pretty dire. Indeed, judging by their underwhelming showing last night, Rich is struggling to fathom how the Reds managed to beat Portugese giants Sporting Lisbon the other week in one of their other pre-season games…
Friday 24th July 2009 Rich hosted another Curious Magpie vintage clothing party at his house last night, what with the first one a few weeks ago having been a riotous success! Once again, a highly enjoyable evening. A reporting team from the local rag even turned up to do a story! Rich is hoping his giant collage of photos from when he took Stuart Pearce to Glastonbury will be visible in the background will be visible when the photos are published!
Sunday 26th July 2009 Rich is having a very entertaining weekend! Yesterday saw him go and watch Forest play a pre-season friendly game away at Notts County - Notts' first match since Sven took the helm. The randy Swede came out to wave to the crowd before kick-off – however, the Notts fans’ applause was drowned out by the Forest rabble chanting “You’re only ‘ere for the fanny”! Priceless..!
Monday 27th July 2009 Rich has had a busy weekend largely spent entertaining his pal Marc, who's been down from Scotland. As well as a trip to the beach - albeit the artificial one currently set up in Nottingham city centre - highlights of the last few days have included a white knuckle ride in a tuk tuk to go and see a film at the world’s smallest cinema!
Tuesday 28th July 2009 Richa white knuckle ride in a tuk tuk to go and see a film at the world's smallest cinema! is still chortling about the weekend! Saturday night involved a trip to one of the local parks here in Nottingham for 'Proms in the Park'. This event saw Rich prove how cultured he is, by correctly identifying which instrument was the bassoon! He also schmoozed with the mayor! Though him and Miss Brown then lowered the tone by playing tennis, using her flip flops as bats and a tomato as a ball..!
Wednesday 29th July 2009 Rich is highly amused by a story he's just seen in the news, about some dairy farmers launching a piece of cheese into space to mark the 40th anniversary of man setting foot on the moon! He is however altogether less amused by the outbreak of swine flu this week in his house...
Thursday 30th July 2009 Rich went to see Reverend and the Makers do an in-store gig yesterday at Nottingham record shop Fopp. Afterwards he got the Rev to sign a copy of his new album as a present for his swine flu-stricken housemate - complete with a 'get well' message! Happily, Emilie was well chuffed – and Rich just hopes now that this has earned him sufficient karma points for the swine flu Gods to decide that he won’t catch the dreaded bug!
Saturday 1st August 2009 Rich went to see Bill Bailey last night at Nottingham's Theatre Royal. VERY amusing! There were far too many highlights to mention here, but his description of Lionel Richie as a 'horse-faced drivel-monger' was certainly one of them. He also played a bit of ‘Ace of Spades’ by Motorhead on a sort of Iranian lute-type instrument!
Sunday 2nd August 2009 Rich enjoyed going for a shuftie yesterday at Nottingham's Riverside Festival - including a go on the dodgems! Needless to say, being behind the wheel of such a powerful vehicle couldn't help but bring back memories for Rich of his and his pal Ed’s epic journey to Mongolia last summer in a Peugeot 106. Hard to believe in some ways that a year has passed since that rather silly adventure..!
Monday 3rd Augst 2009 Rich, for the second day running, is feeling nostalgic about his and Ed's trip to Mongolia this time last year. Strangely enough, Rich actually has another pal - the infamous Jonny Heald - currently doing THIS year's Mongol Rally! It's now 16 days since Jonny set off – and impressively, him and his team-mate have made it as far as Kazakhstan and been up to all sorts of horseplay!
Tuesday 4th August 2009 Rich is very excited by the fact that he's bagged the opportunity next month to spend an hour stood atop the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square! He's planning on taking to the plinth dressed as a parrot, and getting people to sponsor him - with all money raised going to the National Parrot Sanctuary! Full info about the plinth project can be found at www.oneandother.co.uk
Wednesday 5th August 2009 Rich is flogging off some of his treasures on eBay to try and raise much-needed holiday money - including his miniature of the Brian Clough statue and, um, the spandex rock god jumpsuit he wore when he entered the UK Air Guitar Championships in 2003!
Thursday 6th August 2009 Rich is feeling pretty virtuous, having managed to get rid of his old computer this week by using the website Freecycle! For anyone who hasn't heard of Freecycle, it's well worth a look. It's basically a bit like eBay, only everything listed on there is free – the idea being that people use it to find new homes for stuff that would otherwise end up in landfill…
Friday 7th August 2009 Rich’s impending weekend is set to be all about weddings - given that he's attending one today, and then another one tomorrow! Big congratulations to Emma and Simon [today] and Gaz and Louisa [tomorrow]. Really hope the omnipresent rain holds off...
Saturday 8th August 2009 Rich has just enjoyed watching his girlfriend shriek delirously, having just taken her on a drive into the Leicestershire countryside - a drive which led arrival at a racing circuit, whereupon Rich casually revealed to Miss Brown the exact nature of the ‘well done for passing your driving test’ surprise he arranged for her for today. Excitingly, she is to shortly drive an Aston Martin several laps round the track!
Sunday 9th August 2009 Rich is chuffed that footy season is finally underway! Though he wasn't amused yesterday when he discovered that Miss Brown doesn't have any kind of radio in her flat - which meant he had to go outside and sit in the car to listen to the live coverage of Forest’s opening game away at Reading. The things you end up doing in the name of following your team..!
Monday 10th August 2009 .verage of Forest's opening game away at Reading. The things you end up doing in the name of following your team..!Rich is all marriaged out, having been to two weddings this weekend! Both were ace. Wedding number one had the best evening disco ever, with tunes ranging from the Clash to 'Groove is in the Heart'. Wedding number two meanwhile featured a reading from Genesis. Fortunately, this proved to be nothing to do with Phil Collins as Rich had feared..!
Tuesday 11th August 2009 Rich has been busy getting everything sorted ready for his fundraising stint next month on the Fourth Plinth in London's Trafalgar Square. You can now sponsor Rich online using either Paypal or a debit or credit card - simply visit www.plinthparrot.co.uk to do so. Furthermore, Rich has also successfully sourced the parrot outfit that he will be wearing during his hour on the plinth. Oh yes – there’s no going back now..!
Wednesday 12th August 2009 Rich is off today on a bargain £79 day trip to Amsterdam, to watch the England footy team play Holland in a friendly match! Coach left Nottingham at 1am - now at Folkstone about to get the 5.15am Eurotunnel to Calais. Due to arrive in the 'Dam at noon, where a free afternoon awaits before the match kicks off at 8.45pm local time. Then heading straight home again after the match! Good times..!
Thursday 13th August 2009 Rich is back in England after his flying visit to the land of edam and clogs - and has had an excellent time! The Holland v England match was a decent game - and Amsterdam itself was lovely too. Though people only seem to talk about its red light district and the fact that you can get stoned there legally, it is without doubt one of the prettiest cities in Europe… August 06 An explanation of what the 'Fourth Plinth' project is all about... A blog entry by Rich This week saw something happen that has excited me enormously – namely, a discovery that I’d been successful in bagging the opportunity to take part in the sculptor Anthony Gormley’s ‘One and Other’ project. And in a nutshell, what this means is that I’ll soon be spending an hour on top of the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square! Now so far, most of the people who I’ve spoken to about this have already had a bit of an idea of what the ‘One and Other’ project is all about. However, for those of you who are reading this and thinking “Eh?”, I guess it’s only fair really to provide you with a bit of an explanation. Without further a do then, let’s just start by establishing that, as well as Nelson’s Column, Trafalgar Square has four plinths. Now three of these plinths have permanent statues stood atop of them. However, the Fourth Plinth has been largely empty since it was first built – and it was recently taken over by Antony Gormley for ‘One and Other’. Essentially, ‘One and Other’ is a massive art project scheduled to last 100 days – and you can get the gist of what it entails by clicking here, which will take you to a video on YouTube. In a nutshell though, One and Other has been providing people the opportunity to spend an hour up on the Fourth Plinth! Then, at the end of the hour, they come down and are replaced by a new person – a process that continues 24/7 throughout the 100 days of the project. All in all then, 2,400 people will be getting the chance to go up on the plinth and basically do what the hell they like! Since the project began in July, hundreds of people have already been up – with each person’s entire hour-long residency beamed live to the world on a webcam at www.oneandother.co.uk So far, people have done all sorts of things. One person decided to confuse passing commuters and Japanese tourists by throwing paper aeroplanes at them! Other people, meanwhile, have used their time on the plinth as a bit of a soapbox – including one bloke who managed to get the assembled crowds in Trafalgar Square to boo the BNP. But how did I get involved? Now having heard about Antony Gormley’s project a few months ago, I decided it would be pretty cool to get a go on the plinth! Largely, I must admit, because I really like the word ‘plinth’! I duly found out then that, to be in with a chance of being among the 2,400 people, you had to enter a draw – which I did. Upon discovering that tens of thousands of other people had also entered this draw, I wasn’t massively hopeful of my chances. However, this week I received confirmation via email that I’ve been chosen to go up on the plinth – a 10pm-11pm slot on a Tuesday night next month! Not an ideal time for me, admittedly. After all, the slot in question is after the restart of the school term – and so it’ll be a case of me hotfooting it down to London at the end of the school day, getting myself on the plinth, and then hotfooting it back to Nottingham again afterwards. I probably won’t be getting home til something like 2am – which is far from ideal really, given that I’ll have unruly children to teach from 8.40am! Still, having to spend a day at work having had a less-than-ideal amount of sleep seems a small price to pay to get to take part in something so unique. The big question is – what am I actually going to do during my hour on the plinth? Well when I applied, I hadn’t really given this much thought to be honest – other than that I’d maybe like to use it as an opportunity to raise some money for a worthy cause. When I found out then I’d been successful in being offered a place, I decided to send an email round various friends and family members, asking them if they had any ideas. Lots of people came back with some fantastic suggestions, which I will share at some point on this blog. In the end though, I’ve decided to go with an idea of my own – to go up on the plinth dressed up as a parrot! I just felt that this seemed appropriate for so many reasons. First and foremost, parrots have always been my favourite type of animal. Secondly, Trafalgar Square is obviously renowned as a roosting spot for billions of birds – although let’s face it, the omnipresent pigeons are a bit drab and grey, and could really do with a parrot in their midst to add a splash of colour! And lastly birds like to be high up – and so being eight metres high, the Fourth Plinth would be a perfect vantage point! But where doers the ‘raising money for a worthy cause’ bit come into all this? Well, I’ve decided that I’m going to try and get people to sponsor me for my plinth-based exploits – and give all the proceeds to the Parrot Zoo in Lincolnshire… a place that does fantastic work in helping unwanted and neglected parrots. You can sponsor me online using either Paypal or a credit or debit card by clicking here. In the meantime, if you’re interested in finding out more about the Parrot Zoo and their work, click here to visit their website…  July 29 RICH HAS UPLOADED SOME PHOTOS TO THE WEBRich has just uploaded a selection of new photos to the web - an album titled 'Julian Clary. tuk tuks, and other recent madness'.If you're reading this note on Rich's website, www.softbulletin.co.uk, then simply go to the photo section of the site to view these snaps. If, on the other hand, you're reading this note on Facebook - well, simply click here to be redirected to www.softbulletin.co.uk... July 20 What I've been up to over the last few weeks...For those of you who don’t bother with the nation’s favourite waste of time – otherwise known as the social networking website Facebook! - this is a compilation of my ‘status updates’ on Facebook from the last few weeks.
Given that I don’t seem to ever find the time these days to update my blog here on www.softbulletin.co.uk, this will give those of you who are sufficiently interested in my antics a vague insight into what I’ve been up to lately…
Sunday 28th June 2009 Rich has had another enjoyable day watching Glasto from the comfort of his sofa! Best band of the weekend so far, by a mile, have been the mighty Spinal Tap! The genius of their performance has however made Rich even more irked about the fact that he had a ticket to go and see them this coming Tuesday - only to be forced to give it away, due to his school having arranged its end-of-year show for the same evening...
Monday 29th June 2009 Rich is sad that the weekend is over. As well as spending much of it enjoying the coverage of Glastonbury, him and Em also planted some vegetable seeds in his garden! Just three or four months of careful nurturing and they should have their own courgettes!
Tuesday 30th June 2009 Rich is currently reflecting on the downsides of having a pet parrot, having had his precious sleep disturbed this morning by by Doris screeching the house down from first light at 4am or thereabouts!
Wednesday 1st July 2009 Rich will be spending part of the day today at work teaching the children who are going to be his new class for next year! It's going to feel strange only having 19 children, having had 31 this year and 34 the year before that..!
Thursday 2nd July 2009 Rich has a guilty confession to make! Despite the fact that he always moans whenever his girlfriend insists on putting it on the telly, he's actually secretly getting quite into the weekly drama of 'Britain's Next Top Model' on Living TV! Don't tell her though, anyone..!
Friday 3rd July 2009 Rich had a very surreal experience yesterday - namely, he got home from work at about 8.30pm to find his housemate Emilie in the thick of hosting a vintage clothing party! A bit like a Tupperware party, only with vintage clothes and lots of ladies sauntering around trying on different outfits and wine a-flowing! It was ace!
Saturday 4th July 2009 Rich is rejoicing in the weekendishness of it all, having had a stupidly hectic week at work. This included two evenings spent looking after his class, as they did their bit for an all-singing all-dancing performance put on to mark the imminent end of Jesse Boot Primary School after an illustrious 74 years! Suffice to say, Rich never wants to hear 'Puppet on a Fucking String' by Sandie Shaw ever again!
Sunday 5th July 2009 Rich is enjoying the weekend. Yesterday involved getting mildly wrecked at an amusing house party, and also a trip to Broadway cinema for a screening of the film 'Hillsborough', with a Q&A afterwards with writer Jimmy McGovern. Interesting stuff. Today meanwhile he's off to a friend's house to drink Pimms and watch the Wimbledon men's final!
Monday 6th July 2009 Rich is dreading work this week. What with his school having had it's big end-of-year performance last week it felt very much like a grand finale - so it's going to feel like a big anti-climax this week trying to get the kids settled back down for an ordinary week of humdrum work. Still, just nine days to go now til summer break-up..!
Tuesday 7th July 2009 Rich has begun to suffer the dire consequences of adding his girlfriend to his car insurance as a named driver. No, she hasn't crashed it or anything like that. However, upon delving in the glove box the other day, he stumbled upon one of life's true horrors - yes, a Westlife CD!
Wednesday 8th July 2009 Rich is feeling grouchy, as Miss Brown has been doing an 'on-call' duty for her job - and his much-needed beauty sleep was disturbed when her phone inevitably rang in the middle of the night! He's proud of Miss Brown though for her ability to deal with emergency situations within literally seconds of waking up...
Thursday 9th July 2009 Rich is proud of the Year Three kids at his school, who this week ran their own market stall as a mini enterprise project... and made a profit of nearly £200! Hopefully the kids will all remember Mr Fisher in 20 years' time when they turn out to be the Alan Sugars of the future! Excitingly, we're using the cash to sponsor five different endangered animals through the WWF...
Friday 10th July 2009 Rich plans to take his class outside today and do P.E. all morning! This was actually the plan LAST Friday, only it hammered down with rain. Hopefully thiis won't happen again, as last week the only thing that could stop kids rioting over the adverse weather was to let them play Singstar all morning instead. Surprisingly, no parents have yet complained about Mr Fisher subjecting them to his rendition of 'Ace of Spades'!
Saturday 11th July 2009 Rich is looking forward today to catching up with his dear pal Ed, who he drove to Mongolia with last summer. Seems scarcely believable, but next weekend it'll actually be a year since Rich and Ed departed on their silly 8,000 mile caper in their battered Peugeot 106...
Sunday 12th July 2009 Rich , after the Westlife debacle a few days ago, has this weekend experienced the altogether more positive side of his girlfriend passing her driving test and being able to borrow his car. Yes, he can now go out and get absolutely ratarsed, and get her to pick him up! Cheers darlin'..!
Monday 13th July 2009 Rich is still chortling about the Julian Clary stand-up gig he went to last night! Uproariously funny for many reasons - not least the fact that the gang of people that Rich went with included his a] Rich's mate John, who actually really looks like Julian Clary; and b] Rich's Gran, who had to have it explained to her what rimming entails!
Tuesday 14th July 2009 Rich discovered the other day that Ed Balls, the Government's big cheese for education, is fully aware of some of the shenanigan's that have been going on in Rich's classroom recently - and has made it known that he approves heartily of Mr Fisher's 'creative' approach to teaching. As to how Rich became aware of this , it's a bit of a long story! Amusing though...
Wednesday 15th July 2009 Rich is hoping his esteemed sibling makes a swift recovery, what with him having become poorly this week with Labyrinthitis. Given the fixation that Rich and Al have long had with the film The Labyrinth, the fact that Al has fallen foul of this particular illness ought to be mildly hilarious - however, it's an absolute bitch of a condition. Get well soon Al...
Thursday 16th July 2009 Rich is limbering up for the last day of school before the big break up for the summer holidays! He's going to miss some of his class, and suspects some of the kids feel the same about him. Though this would probably only be because of Mr Fisher's ability to climb on the roof and get their footballs down, rather than his actual abilities as a teacher..!
Friday 17th July 2009 Rich is now just one inset day away from six weeks of freedom! Final day of term with the kids yesterday was fun. As an end-of-year treat, class 11 were allowed to watch the video of Mr Fisher's infamous appearance on The Weakest Link back in 2001! In return, Mr Fisher received an absolute mountain of presents - though he STILL hasn't had his first 'Great Teacher' mug!
Saturday 18th July 2009 Rich is well impressed with his housemate Emilie, who's been doing a spot of modelling lately.. and yesterday appeared in a fashion spread in the Nottingham Evening Post, showing off various examples of 'festival chic' and generally looking fab! Hopefully she won't now start throwing big supermodel-style diva strops all the time, a la Naomi Campbell..!
Sunday 19th July 2009 Rich is reaching breaking point with the veritable mountain of chocolate that he's been grazing on since Thursday, from when all of his class brought him end of year presents. Enough is enough - he's beginning to feel like he's been violated by a box of Celebrations!
Monday 20th July 2009 Rich has had an excellent weekend, what with it having involved the new Harry Potter film, a cheese 'n' wine evening, and a load of mechanical dinosaurs! Alas though today is where he confronts the less glamorous side of his humble profession. Yes, he's off into his school armed with a pair of pliers to spend the day pulling staples out the wall of the classroom he's about to vacate. Fun fun fun..! July 04 RICH HAS UPLOADED SOME PHOTOS TO THE WEBRich has just uploaded a selection of new photos to the web - an album titled 'Curious Magie vintage clothing party at my house'.If you're reading this note on Rich's website, www.softbulletin.co.uk, then simply go to the photo section of the site to view these snaps. If, on the other hand, you're reading this note on Facebook - well, simply click here to be redirected to www.softbulletin.co.uk... June 27 What I've been up to over the last few weeks...For those of you who don’t bother with the nation’s favourite waste of time – otherwise known as the social networking website Facebook! - this is a compilation of my ‘status updates’ on Facebook from the last few weeks.
Given that I don’t seem to ever find the time these days to update my blog here on www.softbulletin.co.uk, this will give those of you who are sufficiently interested in my antics a vague insight into what I’ve been up to lately…
Monday 1st June 2009 Rich can't quite believe the half-term holiday is over and that he's back to work again today. It's been good to have a breather, though the last week hasn't been as productive as Rich had hoped in termsof getting his class's end of year reports written. Most desperate action in the name of work avoidance? Cleaning the oven..!
Tuesday 2nd June 2009 Rich is looking forward to this weekend, when he shall be making a flying visit to Kazakhstan - land of Borat, lest we forget! - to watch the England footy team play the Kazakh national team in a World Cup qualifier match! He may even be getting a game himself..!
Thursday 3rd June 2009 Rich is amused by a news story that his mate Rachel has drawn his attention to, that appeared recently in her local newspaper over in Norwich. Apparently, a bloke in that part of the world has been sent to prison for being repeatedly caught shoplifting "significant quantities" of cheese!
Thursday 4th June 2009 Rich , simple soul that he is, is buggered if he actually understands what today's European Parliamentary elections are all about. Nevertheless, he still approves of them wholeheartedly - as with his school being used as a polling station, he gets a day off work!
Friday 5th June 2009 Rich is looking forward to 3pm today, when he will be downing tools and hotfooting it down to Gatwick - ready to fly off to Kazakhstan for the weekend! Oh, and he bagged five goals at five-a-side last night, so he's feeling confident about his appearance for the England fans' team against the Kazakh fans, prior to the actual Kazakhstan v England game!
Friday 5th June 2009 (later in the day!) Rich is feeling a bit frazzled after a laborious crawl along the M25 almost led to him missing the check-in for his flight to Kazakhstan! Happily though he made it within a whisker, and is now in the departure lounge eagerly awaiting his return to one of his favourite countries on last year's Mongol Rally escapade..!
Saturday 6th June 2009 Rich has arrived safely in Kazakhstan. Amusingly, there are a gang of England fans who have driven here - some of them in a black London taxi. Naturally, Rich cannot even begin to imagine what would possess anyone to drive thousands of miles all the way to Central Asia..!
Sunday 7th June 2009 Rich is back home from Kazakhstan! Amazing trip. Sadly, him and rest of the England fans' team wilted in the baking heat and lost 3-0 to the Kazakh fans. They did however sing the national anthem with a great deal more gusto when the two teams lined up before kick-off than actual England team did a few hours later! Oh, and Rich got interviewed on national Kazakh TV too [though not by Borat, before any of you ask..!]
Monday 8th June 2009 Rich is about to head off back to work bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for an early Monday morning start, scarcely able to believe that he was only 250 miles from China around Saturday teatime! Photos from his Kazakhstan trip can now be viewed online - www.softbulletin.co.uk is the place to go iif anyone's interested...
Tuesday 9th June 2009 Rich is feels like he's drowning at the moment in a choppy sea of report-writing, planning, marking, and all sorts of other work-related nonsense. Still, he's happy, cos he went to see his pal Andrea yesterday in hospital - and it was fantastic to see that she appears - touch wood - to be making great strides on her road to recovery...
Wednesday 10th June 2009 Rich is hoping that the rain holds off today, so as not to scupper his school's sports day! If it goes ahead, Rich himself has been entrusted with the responsibility of being in charge of the most noble athletic event of them all - yes, wellie wanging..!
Thursday 11th June 2009 Rich is well chuffed for his girlfriend's sister and her fella, who this week became proud parents for the first time! Big congratulations then to Laura and James - and a cheery welcome to this crazy world to wee baby Archie..!
Friday 12th June 2009 Rich is somewhat bewildered by the discovery this week that there's a photo of him on the Wikipedia page for the Sky Sports TV programme Soccer AM. It's from when him and his bro and others appeared on the show as 'Fans of the week'...
Saturday 13th June 2009 Rich is excited, as today he's off to meet the baby for the first time. He very much hopes that wee Archie bucks the trend and proves that all babies DON'T look like tiny versions of Phil Mitchell from EastEnders...
Sunday 14th June 2009 Rich has spent most of this weekend hunched over his laptop writing end-of-year school reports for the kids in his class. He has 30 children, and five pages of guff to write about each child - needless to say, it feels like it's taking bloody forever..!
Monday 15th June 2009 Rich wonders if it's a bit wrong that he is so entertained whenever he happens to stumble upon one of those magazines full of 'real life stories', like Take a Break and Chat? He's just been perusing one that includes such gems as 'Dumped over a doughnut!' and 'I was so fat I got stuck in the bath'..!
Tuesday 16th June 2009 Rich is happy to see in the local news that the eejit who vandalised the Brian Clough statue a few weeks ago has been sent to prison for his misdemeanours. Though perhaps a stint stood outside the City Ground on a Forest matchday wearing a sandwich board emblazoned with 'I vandalised the Cloughie statue' would've been a more fitting punishment..!
Wednesday 17th June 2009 Rich is looking forward today to the football fixtures for the new season being published! He is particularly keen to find out when the mighty Forest will be playing freshly relegated Newcastle! And also of course their esteemed sheep-bothering local rivals Derby...
Friday 19th June 2009 Rich , for the second time in the space of a fortnight, is going to work today dressed as a Forest legend! Two weeks ago, Rich's school had 'dress up as a sporting hero' day - so perhaps predictably he went as Brian Clough. Today meanwhile, it's 'dress up as a piece of fruit' day - and so naturally, it's a perfect excuse to be Jason 'Pineapple Head' Lee for the day!
Saturday 20th June 2009 Rich is highly entertained by the fact that his girlfriend is currently reading a Jilly Cooper novel! So far it appears to be ticking off all the expected cliches - lots of tweed-wearing horsey people, and a 'cad' with a double-barrelled surname who keeps spiriting away the heroine for illicit moonlit romps in the haybarn..!
Sunday 21st June 2009 Rich is having a cool weekend. It has thus far involved watching his brother have a white-knuckle ride in a stunt plane, and multiple plates of the finest risotto ever, courtesy of Miss Brown! Best of all though, he found out yesterday that his pals Ruddo and Diane are finally getting married after 13 years together! Congratulations guys!
Monday 22nd June 2009 Rich is amused by his girlfriend's bizarre phobia of people eating boiled sweets whilst travelling in a car! Does anyone know of any stranger fears?
Tuesday 23rd June 2009 Rich went to the cinema last night to see the movie 'Looking for Eric'. Regardless of what you think of Manchester United and Eric Cantona, it's really entertaining. Favourite bit of dialogue? Main character: "Can you remember Nottingham Forest?" Eric Cantona: "No."
Wednesday 24th June 2009 Rich is feeling a bit sad - because once upon a time in his life, the last Wednesday in June was always the day when he'd be heading off to Glastonbury for five days of madness. Alas though, the annual pilgrimage to Worthy Farm is no longer do-able now he's a teacher. Have a good one though, all of those of you who are going..!
Wednesday 24th June 2009 (later in the day) Rich is still grumpy about the fact that he's not going to Glastonbury this year, but has been cheered up muchly by the news this afternoon of Em having sailed through her driving test - thus joining Rich himself in the elite ranks of those who can claim to having passed first time! Big congratulations honeypie..!
Thursday 25th June 2009 Rich is looking forward to his day at work today! The morning is going to be a normal sort of morning in the classroom - however, in the afternoon, him a one of the kids in his class are gonna be bunking off to go and schmooze with the Lord Mayor of Nottingham!
Friday 26th June 2009 Rich , having been awoken by a sudden deluge of text messages from various friends, guesses he now WON'T be going to see Michael Jackson at the 02 Arena in London on the evening of Sunday August 30th..!
Saturday 27th June 2009 Rich & Em just had their own Glasto in the comfort of Rich's house! The evening began watching lots of ace bands on BBC interactive whilst quaffing pear cider and wearing wellies! They then went off to get spiritual by the stone circle - a few bricks laid out by the back door - before retiring to Rich's tent, which is set up in the garden! RICH HAS UPLOADED SOME PHOTOS TO THE WEB Rich has just uploaded a selection of new photos to the web - an album titled 'Glasto at home, and other adventures in June 2009'.
If you're reading this note on Rich's website, www.softbulletin.co.uk, then simply go to the photo section of the site to view these snaps. If, on the other hand, you're reading this note on Facebook - well, simply click here to be redirected to www.softbulletin.co.uk... June 07 RICH FISHER HAS UPLOADED SOME PHOTOS TO THE WEBRich has just uploaded a selection of new photos to the web showing his trip to Kazakhstan to watch the England footy team play against the Kazakh national footy team in a World Cup qualifier match!
If you're reading this note on Rich's website, www.softbulletin.co.uk, then simply go to the photo section of the site to view these snaps. If, on the other hand, you're reading this note on Facebook - well, simply click here to be redirected to www.softbulletin.co.uk... May 31 What I've been up to over the last few weeks...For those of you who don’t bother with the nation’s favourite waste of time – otherwise known as the social networking website Facebook! - this is a compilation of my ‘status updates’ on Facebook from the last few weeks.
Given that I don’t seem to ever find the time these days to update my blog here on www.softbulletin.co.uk, this will give those of you who are sufficiently interested in my antics a vague insight into what I’ve been up to lately…
Tuesday 12th May 2009 Rich was excited yesterday when Miss Brown asked him to meet her at the Joshua Tree. "Wow," he thought, "a trip to the Nevada desert!" Turns out though that she actually meant the posh hair salon in West Bridgford called the Joshua Tree, not the actual thing itself! Doh. Still, they've done a lovely job on Miss Brown's hair..!
Thursday 14th May 2009 Rich 's blender has been dramatically dethroned this week as his favourite kitchen gadget, thanks to Em buying him an electric bread knife! It's genius - literally the best present since sliced bread! (Boom boom..!)
Friday 15th May 2009 Rich has been helping keep the wolf from the door by flogging stuff on eBay! Only thing is, he now has the ballache of having to get everything parcelled up and posted off. Anyone got any bubblewrap kicking around that they don't need?
Sunday 17th May 2009 Rich missed Eurovision last night for the first time in years - a boycott of sorts, out of protest over the lack of the legendary Wogan. Other people's status updates however are suggesting it was a good 'un - anyone care to fill Rich in on all the dirt?
Monday 18th May 2009 Rich and Em are both so poor that, yesterday, they both resorted to using one of those Coinstar machines in Tesco to cash in a load of 1 and 2p coins accumulated over a long period of time! Excitingly, they made £14!
Tuesday 19th May 2009 Rich , whilst already being very fond of his new car, was horrified the other day when he noticed that his rear numberplate is branded with the name of a vehicle dealership in Derby - presumably the place where his motor was first sold when it was brand new. Not wanting to appear to the world to be a sheepshagger, Rich has cunningly stuck a small piece of gaffa tape over the word 'Derby'!
Wednesday 20th May 2009 Rich has got a woman from the Local Education Authority coming into his school today to watch him teach a lesson. He desperately hopes that his planned session with the kids on instruction writing doesn't end up being a woeful crock of shit...
Thursday 21st May 2009 Rich is amused about the fact that the small village where his friends live in Northern Ireland had made news headlines, due to strange goings on involving every single resident being sent an anonymous handwritten letter! For the full dirt, go to YouTube and search on 'Mysterious Letters', and you will find a BBC news report about the whole hoohah..!
Friday 22nd May 2009 Rich had something genius happen at work yesterday. At his school, there's a boy who he taught last year, whose dad runs a pizza shop. And yesterday morning, cos I'd been joking with him for ages that he should bring some pizzas in for me, he arrived at my classroom door laden with TWO 12 inch 'veggie explosions'!
Saturday 23rd May 2009 Rich is deeply unamused by the fact that the Brian Clough statue got vandalised this week. Whoever it was that did it, may your next poo be a very large and gnarly pineapple...
Sunday 24th May 2009 Rich , as a die-hard Forest fan, is feeling slightly soiled - because last night, he went for a night out in the enemy heartland of Derby! It was actually a really good night, and the place wasn't quite as 'Village of the Damned' as Rich had expected...
Monday 25th May 2009 Rich is limbering up to tick off more Bank Holiday cliches! Yesterday he had a barbeque - complete with the genius seating arrangements otherwise known as dragging one of your sofas outside! Today, meanwhile, he's planning to do some DIY!
Tuesday 26th May 2009 Rich , whilst accepting that you shouldn't really revel in the misfortune of others, has been seriously amused by Newcastle United and smug Alan Shearer's pitiful slump into the footballing abyss otherwise known as the Championship. Forest v Newcastle next season - bring it on!
Wednesday 27th May 2009 Rich is enjoying the breather from work otherwise known as half-term, and is amused by the news that Forest are apparently trying to sign a player called Paul McKenna! Endless potential there for amusing headlines..!
Thursday 28th May 2009 Rich , whilst not disputing that Alex Ferguson is a great manager, would like to remind him that, after last night's game, he still hasn't managed to achieve in over 20 years at Manchester United something that Cloughie accomplished in his first five years at Forest - namely, back to back European Cups...
Friday 29th May 2009 Rich is feeling sad but trying desperately hard to think positive thoughts in the hope that it'll somehow subliminally help a very dear friend of his, who got taken into hospital yesterday and is now apparently 'critically ill'...
Saturday 30th May 2009 Rich will be mostly distracting himself today by going to watch a friend drive a Ferrari, and then watching Everton hopefully win the FA Cup final on telly. Oh, and he's also meeting Miss Brown's dad for the first time! His sphincter is slightly atwitch..!
Sunday 31st May 2009 Rich is proud of his pal Andrea - who, though still very poorly in hospital, is starting to show encouraging signs of getting better, much to the amazement of the doctors and nurses, who had gently warned us all to brace ourselves for the worst... RICH FISHER HAS UPLOADED SOME PHOTOS TO THE WEB!Rich has just uploaded a selection of new photos to the web depicting a couple of things he's been up to lately - specifically, a spot of barbeque action in his own back garden... and then a trip to Leicestershire to watch his pal Lisa drive a Ferrari!If you're reading this note on Rich's website, www.softbulletin.co.uk, then simply go to the photo section of the site to view these snaps. If, on the other hand, you're reading this note on Facebook - well, simply click here to be redirected to www.softbulletin.co.uk... |
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