"Why don't you revert?" My mother asked me after I'd inadvertantly whinged about what a cruel world I live in. Revert? What do you mean 'revert'?
"Oh" She said with that air of confidence I would receive a revelation of commonsense as she defines it, "Go back to being Mister..."
For my mother it's a matter of self esteem. She all but admitted that during our conversation. It isn't really a matter of status because she would never accept I was above her in any case, regardless of legal an
Still waters run deep. I know this to be true, and while creating and maintaining conversation is a skill of mine, it is equally true that not everyone is good at this skill.
Lately I've been on the dating circuit, and have met a wide array of interesting chaps. Some have been quite conversant, but there has been a gnawing at my viscera that something's not quite right with them...and I've learned the hard way to listen to my viscera on such matters. Some have been, well, perhaps overly r
So much for drizzle. We had a right downpour yesterday afternoon. The weather is the same today, a grey day with a sense of dampness in the air. Certainly there's some great piles of darker cloud in the vicinity threatening to make my day wetter than planned, so my trip to the supermarket is starting to look risky. Hey, that's life in the wilds of Darkest Wiltshire.
I find the habits of Swindoners a little odd when confronted with changes in weather. We seem to be a few days behind, continui
Not to be outdone by the recent weather in California, a dramatic if understated outburst of dampness took place yesterday afternoon. Our first rain in ages! A very light and persistent drizzle that was a refreshing change from all the good weather we've been... What am I saying? One benefit of the lightly damp evening was an absence of late night revellers entertaining us with drinking songs and impromptu boxing matches, but very considerately the local police prevented us from boredom by pass
Yesterday afternoon I made my way home through that familiar alleyway that riuns along the old college site. It is something of a rubbish tip, a place for personal drug deals, and even sometimes the odd bonfire or two. The discarded clothes, rotting wood, rusty springs, smashed plastic shells of consumer electronics, incomplete graffiti, and broken bottles and stones are something I've wearily become used to. As I leaned forward to avoid the ever-increasing expanse of foliage, the troughs dug by
Gotta love springtime here in NorCal. Warm, but not hot...until that semi-random storm comes racing in. The last couple of weeks have been glorious, outside of Tuesday and Wednesday--those days seem to be reserved for stormy weather. It's all rather confusing, really. I would love to go for a bike ride, but I'm going to chicken out and instead do some much needed yoga indoors. And poor, poor Bella...she's not happy with me at all. All she sees right now is sunshine, blue skies and birdies
For some strange reason I seem to have been co-opted as the local guide. Some guy stops me in the high street and asks where the supermarket is, even though his friend already knows and can't get a word in edgeways. Another chap wants to know where a certain solicitors office is. A lady stops me in the street and I confirm she isn't lost. I'm thinking of selling guided tours of Swindon. Or perhaps there's an opportunity to make a living exploiting the rich variety of wildlife and colourful grafi
Right then. Another day, andother blog entry. A quick browse of the internet news site reveals the usual outbursts of optimism from politicians and malicious violence from maladjusted mental cases. You know, all these near-fraudulent promises and murders make you feel a bit tired of the world. How could you possibly tire of day after day of sunshine, put-downs by pompous claims advisors, and the endless red tape of DIY benefits processing?
I think you need a certain level of detachment. As h
Mondays are a different schedule than most. While I'm at home all day, I'm working--it's my day to do anything creative for whichever project needs the most attention, I have online office hours, and tonight I start up a private tutoring for a colleague's son. (Which reminds me, I need to create a document to tabulate the hours and invoice...crap, one more thing to do...)
This morning started out at 7...well, to be honest, it started out earlier, as Bella decided that she wanted me up and
Well would you believe it? Stephen Hawking, one of the worlds most foremost scientists, has announced that aliens almost certainly exist and that we shouldn't meet them because they'll be horrible to us and nick all our resources. Joking aside, I agree the risks of cultural shock are very real and as I've written a couple of times in the past, contact with more powerful and sophisticated civilisations isn't such a good thing. I also note that it's taken until now to for Mr Hawking to reach that
This morning was for the first time in weeks a typical Swindon day. Uneven grey clouds obscure the sky and the ground is damp from the rain of the early hours. There's a distinct smell that arises at times like this, a sort of grassy odour amplified by wet vegetation.
The alleyway past the old college site remains as unloved as ever. It never ceases to amaze me where this rubbish comes from. On a regular basis piles of discarded clothes appear, crumpled and dirty, often with a soiled mttress
Typical. I've run out of stuff in my cupboards. No matter how organised I try to be I always forget something on my trips to the supermarket. So once again I scramble around for the last few coins in my pockets and head for the shops in an optimistic mood. Turning the corner that leads off the main road and along a pedestrianised street, I cou;d hardly fail to notice the crowd of supermarket employees stood around chatting and enjoying the sun, not to mention a few cigarettes.
I wonder wha
For some reason I woke very early this morning. I mean, it was still dark outside, so this must have been about five o'clock or something daft. Even dafter was the impulse to get out out of bed, pack the pack, and head the heck out toward the hills. So naturally I obeyed this impulse because my intellect hadn't woken up yet.
You see this time of year is a bit awkward. Sure, it's very chilly in the first light of dawn, but any exercise in warm clothing produces nothing but sweat. In cold cond
I sat down yesterday in the Town Gardens to enjoy a good book in the warm sunshine and chilly breeze. All that was missing was that seaside ambience.
Swindon does have a seagull population which is a bit strange since we don't have any sea shore whatsoever, and you'd need to travel some distance to find any expanse of dull grey water. I wonder if they've heard about this global warming thing and reserved nesting space for when the worlds melting icebergs raise the sea level to Swindon Town
I think most are aware of Habitat for Humanity, and if not then you probably know of a program like it. Essentially, those deserving folk who are down on their luck and need a place to live apply to have a dwelling built for them...with the catch that they must have certain qualifications, and they must put a certain number of hours in to the building of their home. It's a great program, one that's received a lot of warranted attention. So you probably can understand the outcry when you read
I woke up this morning to bright sunshine yet again. How much longer can this go on for? We brits aren't used to good weather. Extended bouts of sunny days makes us go all loopy, doing daft things like jumping off bridges into dangerous rivers, slowly roasting ourselves where-ever we find a spot to lie down, and discovering how far you can stretch fashion before foreigners are visibly nauseous. I have an uncontrollable urge to buy bottles of cheap cider and watch the world go by. Hang on... What
Yet another sunny day. Pretty darn chilly this morning as I strolled through the park devoid of the birds returning from winter in tropical climes (or are they grounded by volcanic ash too? Must be tough cleaning those feathers). All in all, it's turning out to be a chilly day all round.
I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. My title has been impugned. My claims advisor not only bluntly refused to acknowledge it but she took every opportunity to criticise my behaviour and even th
Last night was the first time this year that I slept with the window cracked. Wow, I forgot how great that is. Oh, I perhaps could have done it earlier in the year, but I've opted not to, and instead kept the apartment a bit warmer. I tend to favor warm places in general, which is probably why I like some aspects of the South Bay. It's about 10 degrees (that's Fahrenheit) warmer in San Jos
Yesterday afternoon was one of those hazy lazy days. I snoozed on a park bench and even though I wasn't there for very long, I spotted the effects of sunshine on my face in the mirror when I got home. Woah that's red. What else can I do now my leisure time has increased?.. Uhhh... Oh I know, lets try to get a fantastic sunset photo. Now's the time, with volcanic ash causing all sorts of colour effects in the atmosphere. There was a saffron edge to the grey-blue cloud as the sun got lower, and fa
This little ash-burst in Iceland has got some people in paranoid moods of late. Oh, I don't mean those who are traveling--honestly, if I was one of them, I don't quite know what I would do, and as I see it they have every reason to be pulling their hair out. No, I'm referring to the enviro-tards who scream at anyone who even has the audacity to place their plastic cup in the regular trash, instead of bringing it home and put in the recycle bin. Some of the people who take up the same general
Sunday morning... Time once again to step over the casualties of last nights binges and make my way to where I sit now, typing out this blog entry. What struck me was how quiet everything was. A solitary electric tool echoed in the back streets on the west side of Swindon hill, whining away with it's owners delirious need to reduce his untidy house to matchwood. Oh sure the church bells were trying to keep christians occupied on their day off but for some odd reason it didn't seem as intrusive a
I left my home this morning in bright sunshine. There's a clear blue sky out there and although last night got pretty chilly, the sun has already warmed things up nicely. You'd never guess that a cloud of volcanic ash was floating overhead and stopping airlines from flying at the cost of
It's over! It's all over! My work experience placement has come to an end after thirteen weeks of banter and back-breaking labour. My boss thanked me for my efforts and apologised for not being able to take me on permanently. "Are you sorry to be leaving?" She asked me.
It did feel like a bitter-sweet moment. On the one hand we'd had a fun day. Antics and malarkey throughout the morning, but sadly Miss L was on the receiving end of a management ambush after I'd given her a stockroom rally st
