The Duck Pond
Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Interesting weekend. Got an almost full bottle of coke thrown at us from a high window when walking home from Scholars. Luckily noone was hurt. Aber always gets markedly rougher in the summer I've noticed. Getting rather pissed off with various things at the moment which is bringing me down.
Thursday, July 17, 2003
Matt got a job in Aberystwyth for next year \o/
I dreamed about work last night so I'll feel like I've worked an extra long day when I finish today.
Watched Pirates of the Carribean last night. It was ok but mildly disappointing. I was incredibly impressed at how the heroine always managed to keep her hair perfect and her make-up smudge free throughout the entire kidnap drama. I really must see her stylist. The whole thing reminded me of Monkey Island really, with fewer jokes, and I can tell I'm not the only one who thinks so.
Finished The Wee Free Men yesterday. Tremendously good book. Didn't realise it was a kids book when I bought it but the only difference from his other books is that there's less filth and things are explained more. Very entertaining anyway, I'd recommend it to anyone.
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
So terribly damp and sticky. Heat wave due to end soon though \o/ a bit stupid, I feel, to have a minimum working temperature but not a maximum one. We looked it up yesterday because it was too unbearably hot to work here. Maybe they thought it was unnecessary in this country.
I had a bizarre dream again a few nights ago. I did blog about it the other day but something messed up somewhere and I ended up losing it all. Today I am writing it in word to try to prevent the hair tairing frustration of losing it all again.
Well it started with Matt and me, sitting at a table outside, at a mobile cafe set up in a huge fete/fair thing. We were just chatting away merrily as you do when some old lady made some remark to us. I can’t remember exactly what now but I think it was a bit patronising. Matt retorted with some smartarse comment, which I also can’t recall but the woman got really angry and started screaming and beating her fists into Matt’s chest. We were both horrified so Matt pushed her over and we legged it out of there, going through a wide, high, but short tunnel. Matt stopped just before the exit but I urged him to continue round the corner on the other side so that she couldn’t find us. We lay panting on the grass on the other side for a while discussing what the living hell that was all about when the woman emerged through the tunnel, however instead of the distinguished, neat looking woman of before she was in rags, her hair all matted and dishevelled, her nails were more like talons and there was a mad look in her eyes. She didn’t spot us at first but strangely was bent double, inspecting things in the long grass at the other side of the tunnel. She suddenly looked up and noticed us and I could feel terror rising in me. She ran over and attacked Matt, tearing huge chunks of flesh out of his face and arms. He was helpless to escape and I knew I had to draw her attention away so I shouted “hang on Matt, I’m going to get help”. As I expected, she dropped him and ran after me but I had already started running. I knew I had to get back through the tunnel to the fair before she caught me so that other people could help me but I didn’t get quite far enough when she grabbed me. I turned and fought her and eventually overpowered her. I then dragged her screaming through the fair by her filthy hair, through throngs of curious people shouting, “look what she did!” and pointing at Matt who was following a little way behind, clutching his face, obviously in some amount of pain. There were lots of gasps and muttering and people made way for us. Some people were taking photographs and I noticed that a bloke at one of the stalls had set up a video camera. Then I woke up thinking “oh my”. For a couple of hours after waking, thoughts of that mad old woman filled me with dread. I described the dream to Matt and we played dream detectives to try to work out what it all meant. We came up with a fairly plausible explanation but I’m not going to describe it here as it’s a bit personal.
Went swimming in the sea yesterday. It’s so cool to be able to do that after a hard day’s work. Swimming where there’s creatures everywhere and the possibility of sudden jellyfish always terrifies me which is precisely why I knew I had to do it. I made it out to the first buoy and was very impressed. I at no time looked down to try to see what else was in the water around me - I always work on the priciple that ignorance is bliss in these situations. I certainly hope the things that brushed past my legs were bits of floating seaweed. Anyway I’m still alive and didn’t freak out too much or anything although I did gibber a bit at times and there was a point where I was a couple of metres away from the buoy when I thought “what the hell am I doing!” and nearly swam back but I managed to get a grip and make it to the buoy and then returned to dry land feeling very brave and pleased with myself.
Friday, July 11, 2003
Eurgh, surely it's against the laws of nature to have a hangover after only two pints.
I binned the rest of the smoothie and I don't tink I'll ever be able to look a raspberry square in the whatever you can substitute for eyes in small fruit again.
Bah I never have anything to say anymore, I used to have loads to bang on about on here but now I realise I'm just writing the same old crap, day after day and I really don't have the motivation to be more original. I find that several times in the day I shall think "ooh I shall blog about that!" but you can guarantee that I've completely forgotten it by the time I have the opportunity to blog.
Wednesday, July 09, 2003
Found out who dies in the hairy pothead book and if you're like me and have only seen the 2 films then you won't be that bothered anyway as it's a character that only appears in the 3rd book or something. Apparently there are many characters that nearly die and that JK Rowling wrote the book planning to reveal that someone dies before it was released so confirming it was just a big publicity stunt after all. Lawyers please note that I am not suggesting tha anyone here is a money grabbing cow, no not at all.
Eurgh must remember to drink water after going to the pub. I didn't drink much but my throat felt like it was full of gravel this morning.
No more raspberry smoothie pleease!
Tuesday, July 08, 2003
Oh what a weekend! Late December back in '63. Or something. Was asked on Thursday whether I would like to go camping in the Cotswolds and even though it was pretty last minute I was dying to try out my new tent and trangia so I accepted. I got the train to Brum straight after work (I think my boss was slightly bemused by me turning up with a huge rucksack) and met Kat, Dof and Matt at New Street. We then all got curreh and went to bed (after eating said curry of course). An early start next morning and it was off to the campsite for fun and frolicking and whatnot. Putting up the tent was amusing as neither Matt nor I had a clue how to put it up or even what it was supposed to look like when put up properly so I think we put it up in remarkable time, considering. It turned out to be one of those huge dome 3-man tent things. After lunch we went walking through barley fields, all trying to impersonate the bloke on Gladiator and almost disappointingly, unlike most rambling camping trips I go on, we didn't get lost. Dinner was the typical camping stew made up of stewed steak with tinned vegetables bunged in, took me right back to going on holiday with my parents when I were but a wee young bairn. We had a bit of cabaret when the local dog, which was this huge black labrador decided it wanted to shag Bob (Kat and Dof's dog) which is absolutely lovely to watch when you're eating as you can imagine. There were children around too - don't these dogs have any sense of modesty? Bob was the bitch and didn't look too pleased about what was going on although didn't try to get away or anything. Dirty thing.
The next day was ok, knackered because I slept as one usually does well camping - sparsely and coldly. We decided to go picking raspberries and as a result I shall be eating raspberry smoothies for the rest of the week! In the afternoon we went to watch Charlie's Angels which was a good film although extremely implausible and smirkable in many places. Really enjoyed it though and *may* see it again when it comes out here.
The new flat is cool - it's so good to have my own space and other such cliches. It's also cool to have a good, full night of unbroken sleep every night and not just one night in sixty, hurrah!
Thursday, July 03, 2003
Just seen Matt off at the station and feel completely munted. It's just taken me no less than four attempts to spell 'completely', that's how munted I am right now. It's going to be weird because I got used to having him round so now the flat is going to seem quite empty.
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
I saw Schindlers List again last night. I can't think of a more horrifying concept than the holocaust.
