Category
Uncategorized
Previously unclassified posts which I am now in the process of sorting out and categorising properly. If I am successful, this category will disappear. Yay!
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10.31.03In the darkOn Halloween, is it wrong to sit in the dark with all the curtains shut and no light, save for the blue glow of the screen, while small demons hammer on the door, because you feel bad for having forgotten to buy any treats, and you think it might be better to pretend to be an unattended safety nightlight than open the door and confess? Or is it eminently sensible? No wonder people get scared on Halloween. All over the country - the world, even - there are probably people sitting in the dark, like me, unable to open the door ...
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10.14.03I’m not paranoidI know they're following me. First it was McD's, shooting an ad in the flat across the road from us in West Kensington. Then tonight, I stopped off at the shops nearest our house on the way home, hankering for carbonated water with which to make fizzy 'beena. But no, I couldn't go into the shop because there was a lighting van parked outside, and two burly blokes barring the way. And within, a huge crowd of people, including a total stranger behind the till (not our usual friendly newsagent) and a man in what looked to be a pink seethrough ...
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10.14.03The LimeyYou know what I find funny? The life-cycle of a popular link. The Album Cover Challenge has been up for a couple of weeks now. I originally put it together using albums which were recommended to me on Amazon.co.uk, the recommendations off those recommendations and the listmania lists which surrounded any suggestion. It started out relatively small. A few people in the UK linked to it, and there was a steady stream of guesses and requests for the answers. And then suddenly, over the weekend, it exploded. Hundreds of guesses. Hundreds of requests. Metafilter. Number #11 on Blogdex. Some South African radio ...
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10.13.03CincoIt's been five years since I moved back to London, after nearly a decade away studying. In five years I have, variously:Lived in seven different places, in five postcodesHeld seven (possibly eight?) different job titlesLived with fourteen people, two cats and one invisible manMet my soulmate, and fallen in loveBought a computer and lots of other geeky gadgetryOwned six domainsGiven up some bad habitsTaken up othersPaid somewhere in the region of £30K in rentChanged every item in my wardrobe, except a ribbed black (now grey) T shirt which I borrowed from my mate Adam in uni in 1994, and never ...
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10.12.03SplatAnd as if out of nowhere, ker-splat. Spam. Everywhere. Specifically, in the comments of the four blogs running on this site, and mostly for Russian prawn sites, but also, inexplicably, for something else entirely. Pasted below, but with the links removed, obviously, and the keyword replaced with the word "artichoke": and with few duties and a fair bit of reasonably diamond artichoke free time. One thing I'm going to do: make artichokeinolog a list of really great moments in music that artichoke I've experienced or been witness to. Several religious artichoke come imediately to mind. It makes me think christian artichokes ...
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10.08.03Seven minutesThe sky was absolutely gorgeous tonight. Brilliant blue and aflame on the long western horizon with red, bleeding to orange and brilliant yellow, painted bright on wispy clouds. In London, unless you're high up, it's difficult to see very far, because there's alwasy a building in the way. On my way home, I'm lucky to catch brief glimpses of big skies; long views down the Thames to the west. My study also faces west, and from the window, I have an abbreviated view of the sunset - parenthesised between a tall chimney stack and a tree. Captured in this sliver of ...
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10.06.03NervesHere are two men. Two entertainers, whatever they choose to call themselves. To men involved with the world of televisual entertainment, but until now, I hadn't linked them. The first is Donal MacIntyre. On TV eighteen months or so ago, there was a documentary in which MacIntyre wandered the streets of Brixton for three nights, waving expensive electronic equipment around, trying to get mugged while wearing a hidden camera. On the third night, he managed it, as recounted in this concise and accurate rundown of events. The second is Derren Brown. On TV tonight, Brown played Russian Roulette at an undisclosed location ...
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10.01.03SliceI was supposed to be having an operation on September 12. I don't think I mentioned it here, but I'd been on the waiting list for 9 months or so. In June, I went in for a pre-assessment to check whether I was suitable for day case general anaesthetic - in and ont in a day, four days recovery. For various reasons, I wasn't, and so they told me then and there that I'd have to stay in overnight after the operation which meant going onto whole different waiting list instead - the GA overnight stay list. Right. Lost six ...
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09.30.03Pop quiz (#1)Blair, today:"I can only go one way, I've not got a reverse gear." Does this mean: a) The lady's man's not for turning; b) Come on, everyone: time to get out and push; c) Need a new mechanic, as the current one obviously screwed up; d) Missed our driveway, but don't worry, we'll just drive all the way around the block until we get to it again; e) Stubborn to the core and proud; f) Going to use odd metaphors instead of saying what I actually think; g) I actually believe I'm a duff car; h) all of the above? Answers on a postcard to Tony "Brrrrrrrrrm Poop Poop!" ...
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09.30.03*Thonk*Pretty much everyone I know is reproducing at the moment. In the last three weeks, three friends have given birth (and, I found out last night, a fourth, long-lost friend has done likewise) and two have announced they're expecting. A few years ago, everyone was getting married. Now everyone's spawning left, right and centre. I now have more female friends who are mothers or expectant mothers than not. And to be honest, it's all a bit weird. Don't get me wrong; I'm not anti-kids or anti-pregnancy at all - one day I hope to be part of that happy club - but ...
recent posts
- Things I might write about at some point, but not now
- Back from over there
- A Life in Pictures
- The sound of silence
- Here it goes again
- As You Like It
- “Nighthawks” at the Chippy?
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