Dag it's hard sometimes isn't it? Life barnacles you with the small stuff, clagging you, weighting so it's hard just to keep on walking, keep your head up; hard just to get by. And every day on this board we hear about some of the shit that hits the 21st century media elite in so-called civilised modern Britain... boyfriend fucking with an ex, burglars fucking with your underwear. Just the small stuff can drag you down if enough of it pounds you at once. Minidisc breaks, coffee soaks your trousers, train pulls out just as you're running in, boss dresses you down, rain soaks you through...that's enough to get the whole day screwed.
So when you get a run of things that give you pleasure, especially if they're unexpected or free, you feel like Santa's dropped a gift in your lap and might take it back any minute, realising it was for the next kid. But nice things do happen: nice things you do when you make time for yourself, nice things you discover unexpectedly, nice things you allow yourself as a rare treat for the central human being in your life, nice things people do for you -- whether startlingly generous gestures from those you know or small but cheering acts of kindness from strangers -- and nice things you do for others, earning the secondary warmth and light that spills off from their gratitude.
I bet some good things, one good thing, happened to you today. Okay, so make it this week if you must. Please let's cherish the little cheering pleasures of our lives. If you have the time and energy, make the way you tell us about it into a kind of gift for the board, too, a packet of prose that might itself, in turn, give pleasure.
I'm volunteering this thread because Monday 20th to Wednesday 22nd September 2004 have become such a near-unbroken run of modest successes and small but surprising pleasures that I'm now waiting for something to go badly kaput and make me remember these three days with bitter nostalgia. My little bursts of contentment are no big deal in themselves, just odd stuff that didn't go wrong, or went more right than I'd anticipated; but they seem to add up to what I'd call a base-level happiness, and maybe most of the time that's the best we can expect.
Thinking about my list, I realise it tells me something about myself, about my conception of happiness... and also about my response to it, my suspicion of happiness -- my related tendency to be dissatisfied as a general state, as though that signifies ambition or drive, or aspiration. Maybe your list will tell you interesting things also.
Prelude: After lunch in my office I had a three and a half hour break before I needed to be back at work for a 4pm meeting. I'd anticipated this as a nuisance but actually it became a very-mini-vacation, given more relish by the vague naughtiness of doing it all during official hours.
Pleasures:
1. The "Very Important Products" range in Habitat, transforming the store's entrance hall into an odd but endearing gallery-shop. Odd because the displays aren't of anything especially valuable or even beautiful; the 4 champagne glasses with blown bubbles in the base are designed by an Olympic diver, which seems as perverse as asking a glass-designer to try an Olympic dive but does give the exhibition its touchingly amateurish quality. Lennox Lewis provides an alarm clock like something from the Innovations catalogue. A 1990s supermodel -- Linda Evangelista perhaps -- has contributed a quite supremely stupid lamp made of a bendy hose with a flower on the end; it looks like something from Marianne Dreams / Paperhouse, a schoolgirl's drawing brought to ugly life. The whole set-up is unsure whether it's an everyday shop display or a modern museum, caught between accessibility and chest-out ego. The plinths are grubby; the objets d'art have affordable prices beside them. The artists' names and sternly serious portraits look slightly absurd next to their work, either tossing off the totally banal (Ewan McGregor, a director's chair) or labouring over something that gives a sweet insight into their own home lives, their own priorities and bugbears (You imagine Lennox Lewis poking his tongue out as he draws the ruled lines on his alarm clock, adding all the wish-fulfillment detail. "important to get up on time," he mutters, shading in the black digits. "a man's gotta be punctual.") Only a couple of the invited guests are designers -- Blahnik with his? (her? funny how the name resonates without you even knowing the gender) dildo-shoehorn, Paul Smith to follow in the next wave with a snazzy coathanger. The others, a C-list party of almost hilariously-inappropriate names, are chosen only because of their fame in other fields, and you feel that could backfire. Sharlene Spiteri's CD rack, for instance, is one of the most obviously practical, well-designed items, yet would you want to own anything by the woman who sang "Say What You Want" while Chris Evans hamster-grinned? Would it be any kind of cachet to own glasses inspired by a diver, and why would you spend £25 on them when you could surely buy more attractive items, designed by designers, for the same price? And yet. You have an urge to buy something from this range... not because of the celebs but because you like the basic idea. Examining the feeling, it's partly the desire for a souvenir from a minor cultural event, a record of this interesting experiment, this charming little landmark in Britain's 2004 retail culture. And partly sympathy, the way you'd feel inclined to buy something from a local arts exhibition. Curiously, but typical of the almost dreamlike incongruity, you find yourself gravitating to Sterling Moss's black leather letter-trays. Not quite convinced, you leave without souvenir.
2. L’Occitane: if the Body Shop was a sixth form college, this would perhaps be an evening class MA, unless you’re merely falling for a con of luxuriously-coarse cardboard packages (the rough finish of expensive dollar bills, of raw wood… the curious prestige of things unfinished, natural, plain, in contrast to what now seems the vulgarity of smooth, processed neatness), French sales assistants (or rather one assistant, assistante, at the back of a store small as a private room, giving a sense of personal ownership, bonjour monsieur!), prices that allow them to treat you to a little extra, a bonus vial of fragrance slipped into your bag as though it was a personal gift even though you just spent £24 on a bottle of cologne and shouldn’t be grateful for tiny freebies. You bought a shower gel, there must be a posher and more pleasing French term for it, from this store last week and have returned to splash out more on the next bottle in the range. The L’Occitane mystique – the sad truth is that this is probably just a slightly upmarket chain, like Monsoon, but still you are buying into their corporate mythos like a happy sucker, and hell if it makes you happy – includes stories of how the fragrance got its name, which typically you lap up as though it was history or Madame Bovary. Yet the real truth is that you entered this shop last week, having passed it on the way to work countless times, because your dad’s bathroom was decorated with L’Occitane products when you visited the previous weekend. You are endeavouring, on a level you can’t even pretend is semi-conscious, to smell like your dad… or more elegantly put, to inhabit this specific aspect of his, in your eyes, success and stability. It should be an embarrassing revelation that you are becoming like your parent. This feels, instead, like putting a deposit on a bigger house… like preparing to move “up”, into something more bourgeois but nevertheless rather comfortable and pleasing.
3. You detour down to Piccadilly, on a mission you didn’t manage last Saturday because of the Swiss Re… to try the set-up they have at their Waterstones, with four perfumes supposedly fitting four specific novels. Your motivation here is the same as with Habitat; a desire to participate in something that seems at least mildly brave and interesting, a worthy experiment by a retail chain. The literature they provide – the leaflet that is, not the novels – has the same satisfying cachet as L’Occitane’s cologne boxes. “Naso e Parnaso… Italian perfumier Laura Tonatto… explores the relationship between literature and our sense of smell.” The fragrances lurk, pinkish paste, at the base of fat glass test-tubes on backlit displays, one on each floor. A strange combination of feeling cultured and ridiculous, the juxtaposition of literary criticism and bending over to smell almost as if gakking a white line or snorting a Vick’s inhaler. Ah yes, of course, Proust, wonderful.. how could we…yes, the madeleine…immortal prose… and then the mucousy <HAAARK> of physical connection with scent, so much cruder than the communion with text on a page. And yet…somehow the fragrances do escape the connotations of their most obvious parallels, the scratch-and-sniff book, the Boots counter, the impregnated strip at the edge of a magazine ad. They’re unusual, of course – “tobacco and verbena” for (ah! but yes of course…) Madame Bovary, “burnt juniper” for a novel by Gabriele D’Annunzio – and also delicate, surprising in their combination of flavours, unlike anything pre-packaged… convincing you of the leaflet-story about Tonatto’s expertise in recreating the scents of “the 1st century BC from museum archives”.
4. Feeling worthy after the trip, which after all was connected with literary history and appreciation, you read more hardcopy from the LRB on the tube back to work. The hunk of free printout is satisfying – again, worthily educational in its way compared to reading an abandoned tabloid or the Metro cartoons, but also chewily good, a textual Snickers bar. Having an A4, no-frills version for free is even more rewarding than having to wrangle daintily with the real thing, a double-size, pastel-watercoloured newspaper without spine-staples – and this printout is customized, its contents a run of James Wood, Frank Kermode, Terry Eagleton, Dog in the Night-Time, War Against Cliché, Autograph Man... just the meat, no filler. At the other end of the tube you overcome a silly shyness and visit Knickerbox, where two French-African women coo, gently-tease and compliment you. It’s her birthday? No? Oh you’re a nice man. And you know her size? What a gentleman isn’t he…she will be the happiest woman in London. Maybe in South London, you counter modestly, proud of keeping up the right tone and banter even if you do sound like a second-hand Hugh Grant. The real objective, when buying underwear for girls, is simply not to blush – and though you succeed, you’re surprised to realise how much you’re sweating.
5. Returning to work with a Pret mocha as reward…the act of carrying a shopping bag in one hand and sucky-top cup in the other makes you feel, as always, like Sarah-Jessica Parker. When this kind of take-out coffee was new, you used to love the illusion of cosmopolitan swinginess, the zooty purpose it gave you to stride down the street with a latte-to-go. Funny how that appeal hasn’t entirely died. This, you realise and cherish momentarily, is the kind of scene you imagined yourself in if you thought of your future career: neat dark suit flashing glossy lining as it flaps open, breezy bags, go-go coffee… zipping back to work for a “meeting”, vaguely imagined. The George Orwell paperback and LRB printout in the bag, the pretentious cologne and the pink underwear are just bonus points. And reaching work, as usual a few smiles and nods, shouts across a courtyard, the exchange of what you can at least fool yourself are genuinely-friendly banalities… I’m just off to see your boss… yes, have fun then, see you at the Greyhound tomorrow, yeah?… the sense of a collegial context, the reminder that for all your nagging conscience background-nudging that you should get out of this little place, you actually like going to work, and like everyone you work with. As if to punctuate the point, one of the guys from your corridor has left a bamboo plant on your desk as a present.. At times like this, almost saturated with gratitude for the good things that have come your way in such a short few hours, you wonder why you’re so driven by dissatisfaction…why you always have this motivating notion to move on, to look elsewhere, to feel unhappy with your lot, to pick holes in what you’ve got.
I have posted enough that belongs on a personal journal! Your turn; or, what the hey, thanks for your indulgence anyway. Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
Unfortunately I had another "moment of pleasure" (K. Bush) that happened an hour later and can't fit into what now seems a neat story-arc with a sense of closure... but for accuracy and the sake of completeness, I should add I finished my working day by stopping at Wendell's Deli under the London Bridge arches. Again, somewhere I've walked by countless times and always half-planned to stop at until it became a humble fantasy: one day I won't be rushing for the 16.55 and I'll buy a big chunk of sausage there, paper-wrapped and stuck with a label.
Today, my successes making me feel like I was lightly-charmed, a character in a romcom or sitcom where nothing really bad (only amusing frustrations) can happen, I ducked across the commuter stream and bought, indeed, a big chunk of chorizo which the man allowed me to taste first, and as a final gesture of thanks and acknowledgement to the day's pleasures, some chocolate halva.
Posted by discodamage (Member # 66) on :
i was going to write about the habitat stuff range but you did it with much more elegant befuddlement than i could have managed.
the only nice thing that has happened to me today was walking across blackheath and enjoying the noise that a flock of starlings (maybe, i dont know) made as they took off. it was like a sort of...fizz of wings. oh, and also, i laughed out loud on the tube, a rare but guaranteed pleasure; if anyone has today's/ yesterday's standard i highly recommend they dig it out and quietly enjoy the resemblance between michael crawford in his woman in white fat suit and tom jones' equally terrifying botox bellow on the page that follows it. if you turn swiftly from one page to the next, flick-book style, the effect is quite disarming.
i also heard someone say this on the tube, which gave me a whole-body shiver of quite grimly pleasurable hatred:
i mean, i know maybe six or seven very intelligent 24-year olds, and not one of them is earning more than £25k- its crazy.
only in london.
other than that, its been a... funny day. not funny ha-ha.
[ 22.09.2004, 18:41: Message edited by: discodamage ]
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
thanks for keeping me company on this thread Disco! you remind me of something else not good, but striking:
in the entrance of Waterstones Piccadilly, a well-groomed thirtysomething woman plugged one ear with her fingers, holding her phone to the other, and snapped, with a threat of tears in her voice, "no, the hurricane is not an excuse."
this is like how them angels talked in Wings of Desire! more good things that made you happy please everyone!
Posted by sabian (Member # 6) on :
I'm not eloquent or very good with words even... So, I won't try to make this any literary achievement.
Good thing that happened today: I was informed that I am nearly guaranteed a position in the first week of Nov to start a teaching course. Basically, I'll be getting qualified to teach people stuff that I know... Instead of posting my knowledge base on these forii for you freeloaders!
Me, in charge of others' educations! AHAHAHA! Fools!
Posted by discodamage (Member # 66) on :
that is ace, sabian. well done.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
Yeah, well done Sabian, I think you would make a very good teacher: amiable, approachable and patient with the tech'tards.
Only one interesting thing has happened to me so far this week. One of the technicians took me over to the new machining workshop. It was like every scary factory scene in every Bond and SF film; incredibly sinister claws moving jerkily but really fast, changing angles and switchiing between blades and drills and then suddenly stopping. "Oh, these are the new computerised ones," the technician said proudly. They let computers run massive, tooled up machines! I bet the machines secretly manufacture robots at night.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Nice work, Sabian. Not only do you get to feel superior to the group of rets you'll undoubtedly be put in charge of, you also get paid for it. It'd be like real life TMO for £££s!!!
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Oooh! I just noticed Kovacs's post! Does anyone else think he should have a blog?
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
You should think about whether something nice and good has happened to you this week, Misc, and share it to cheer us.
Posted by Bailey (Member # 261) on :
Good things of the past week
Being given a minidisc player by a near-stranger A friend sending me the cutest pair of knickers in the post (long story) Watching Super-Size Me and deciding to change my diet. Seeing friends I don't see enough of.
Posted by Lucid (Member # 531) on :
quote:Originally posted by discodamage: i was going to write about the habitat stuff range but you did it with much more elegant befuddlement than i could have managed.
the only nice thing that has happened to me today was walking across blackheath and enjoying the noise that a flock of starlings (maybe, i dont know) made as they took off.
That's a murmuration of starlings godamit.
I found out that the collective noun for giraffes is a tower.
I also did a liver flush at the weekend, this yielded 25 small stones, the largest about the size of my little finger nail, which was nice.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
I guess the nice thing for me over the last few days was the release of The Music's new album. This has been a slow drip pleasure of course, as tracks leaked and singles were released and radio sessions were broadcast over a period of a couple of months. Then the whole album, some tracks still unheard, arrived on Monday. And it's crap. But wait. It's a grower. It's a volume 11 album, turn it up and it comes to life, listen a few times and you're singing along, a few more and it's stuck in your head. And the live versions are better and I'm going to see them next week in Blackburn.
Other good thing is that our 4-year-old has settled in to school with complete ease, which we really didn't think would happen in his case as he's a sensitive little soul, and our 2-year-old has settled in to nursery with complete ease, which we completely expected as he's a precocious little fucker. In fact, he was only supposed to go for a couple of morning sessions but we've had to book him in for more just to shut him up.
This thread is definitely blog-land isn't it.
Oh, and I've got completely and totally soaking drenched three mornings in a row cycling in to work. This is actually very unusual as the rain tends to suddenly stop at 08:00 as a rule. Anyway, I don't give a fuck if I get wet because us cyclists are well hard. *blows nose loudly* Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by kovacs: You should think about whether something nice and good has happened to you this week, Misc, and share it to cheer us.
Well my apartment's electrical system gave up the ghost on Tuesday, but luckily it wasn't my fault. Local disruptions caused the problems and thanks to Southern Electric they were fixed the same evening. Sadly, one of my PCs suffered a wicked fate. It will no longer boot - no lights, nothing. So I'm hoping that I'll only need to replace the power supply.
Despite this setback, I'm still feeling rather cheerful, because last Sunday my band started sounding like a proper band for the first time. We got together for four hours, and played louder than we ever had before. But it wasn't just the volume - after tuning up, I didn't feel like I was in control of my hands. I wasn't thinking about the next chord, the strum pattern, the (oh so deliberately ostentatious) stage moves - everything just happened. I don't remember selling my soul to anyone with a beard recently, but this was unnatural!
After running though our short set-list, we penned a new song. We took it from the starting point of a single bass riff to a complete track with drums, bass, rhythm and lead guitar and a great set of lyrics. The whole process took just over an hour. My ears didn't stop ringing until Tuesday night.
TMO GigMeat:Date to be announced... Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65: This thread is definitely blog-land isn't it.
I don't think this is a fair criticism. I have a livejournal account, but should that mean I don't post anything lengthy and personal on here too? The point of my thread wasn't the sparkly-gush of "I've got a lovely new pair of shoes" for 1000 words, <afterthought> have any of you got shoes too, but to invite a sharing of the little nice things that emergy [ETA -- typo: emerge plus energy! ]from everyday life, because there has been a fair bit of gloomy personal news on here recently.
If I confined my mini-essay above to livejournal, firstly a lot of people here whom I like and respect would never read it, and secondly none of you would ever contribute the little, cheering things that might have happened to you this week.
If anything indulgent and diary-like got the response "take it to your blog", we wouldn't have had much of a board for the past 4 years.
[ 23.09.2004, 05:51: Message edited by: kovacs ]
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
I am both repulsed and attracted to LIVER FLUSH!
How do you feel? Is your skin glowing? Do you have the urge to rollerblade everywhere?
Tell more!
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by kovacs:
quote:Originally posted by dang65: This thread is definitely blog-land isn't it.
I don't think this is a fair criticism.
Not a criticism guv, just agreeing with previous observations and commenting on my own post which was about my kids starting school/nursery which even my own family don't want to hear about. Classic blog material.
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
I meant really that I felt Misc wasn't fair to criticise, as you had contributed, Dang -- but as Misc then came up with a lengthy post, I retract any blame.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Oh Kovacs. I was merely saying that it read more like a blog entry than a thread. I didn't necessarily mean it in a bad way, nor did I say that you shouldn't have posted it. If anything I was encouraging you to blog - thereby allowing others to read about your always entertaining outlook on life.
Dang on the other hand was just being mean. I always thought he had something against you, but he's probably just jealous of your success and lifestyle.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
Fucking wank! Wrong fred.
[ 23.09.2004, 05:54: Message edited by: Thorn Davis ]
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Fucking wank! Wrong fred.
By the sounds of it, you're looking for *this thread, Thorn.
Posted by turbo (Member # 593) on :
This week is my first back at work after a great holiday, so by all intents and purposes it should be a crap week. However, I feel really refreshed and relaxed and even getting a speeding fine this morning didn't put a damper on things. We took my parents out for dinner on Monday night to thank them for lending us their car and they were so thrilled that both phoned me the next day to say thanks and how lovely the evening was. That made me feel really good. Also, my best friend called me from Singapore (where she is living at the mo) and we had a lovely long chat. It made me realise that true friends are friends wherever they are in the world. That also made me feel really good. I'm just feeling really positive and cheerful, so this is a good week.
Posted by Astromariner (Member # 446) on :
My bank loan came through on Tuesday. I wanted to take a picture of the figure on the ATM screen so that I could frame it and put it on my desk. That evening, I logged on to amazon.co.uk and spent over one hundred pounds on books that people have recommended to each other on TMO and I've never read. A big fat parcel containing the assorted works of Hari Kunzru, Douglas Coupland, David Lodge, Paul Auster, Chuck Palahniuk, Graham Greene, Zoe Heller, William Boyd, WBC Pierre, and Lauren Slater is being speeded to my house as I type! This is very exciting.
Posted by Bailey (Member # 261) on :
I love Astro. Posted by Astromariner (Member # 446) on :
:glow:
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
One of the researchers who I sent off to the King's Cross district of Brussels has brought me back some Belgian chocolate! With a ribbon round it and everything. This makes up for taking a bite of weetabix saturated with sour milk this morning; despite the bottle clearly proclaiming 23 Sep as the use-by date.
Posted by Lucid (Member # 531) on :
quote:Originally posted by Abby: I am both repulsed and attracted to LIVER FLUSH!
How do you feel? Is your skin glowing? Do you have the urge to rollerblade everywhere?
Tell more!
I reckon it needs all the help it can get, poor neglected squishy thing that it is. It was quite extraordinary - I could feel them moving like a tiny mouse under a duvet. The colander has never recovered. At the mo - the jury is out. I did feel good but I think my liver is filling in the spaces the stones occupied at the mo.. which is a recouperating jobbie. Can't be good for you though, having stones in your liver, can it?
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
On Sunday I'll be playing through Radiohead's old P.A. system.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
quote:Originally posted by Bailey: A friend sending me the cutest pair of knickers in the post (long story)
This was supposed to be our secret.
Good things Though I'm getting a little bit tired and wired now, (I was back in the capital both Monday and today) I had a great time in London last weekend and this weekend D and I are in Barcelona.
Perversely enough, I'm also quite enjoying work at the moment: good coverage in the nationals for some of my stories and some even better stuff just on the horizon. Not a lot of appreciation from my superiors but them's the breaks, I suppose.
Saw Shaun of the Dead, which was enjoyable and Something's Gotta Give which was excerable. Moral: never allow a pregnant woman to make a choice in a video shop.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Sorry - that was a really bland post. Posted by philomel (Member # 586) on :
I am actually in the worst fucking mood I've been in for months due to a combination of sleep-lack, first flush of virus, overwhelming work stress (hark! procrastination!) and the onset of my first PMT for three months. TMI? Undoubtedly.
But! Good things have happened recently. Little bursts of happiness sparking through the red mist perpetually hazing my vision this week.
This morning, up early through inability to doze, squinting against the bright fresh light spilling down my street. I was almost at the corner of the road when my friend pointed out a squirrel on a fence, mouth hanging open and stuffed with nut. It regarded us, beady-eyed and bushy tailed (more so than any fluffy bunny), perched a mere metre from my head. It was brindled grey and brown, so close you could see the individual hairs as they shaded in tone, the faint pulse of the heart beating aginst the ribs, the dark drool staining the fur round its mouth. Its eyes were black. It leapt down, closer, body arching in an S as it moved, tiny paws clutching for grip. This pleased me, inordinately. Since my dramatic vermin rescue mission, I tend to regard the rodent population of my street with an almost maternal pride. I could have saved its life. Oddly, there's often a squirrel at the same place at the same time in the morning, sometimes scurrying across the road, sometimes scampering up the fence, claws scritching against the wood. It's part of a morning routine that I find quite pleasing. Breaks up the monotony of befuddled stride along Holloway Road and spiral down the stairs to an overpacked tube breathing stale air and other people's sweat.
Other pleasure: discovering when I got to my desk that I had four left over pyramids of toblerone softly melting next to my monitor. I bit the top off and let the base chocolate dissolve on my tongue and into and coating my tastebuds. Chewing the nougat nuggets that make my spit taste of honey.
Last night people-watching at Curzon Soho with my father who smoked Marlboro Reds and discussed the potential ban. Inhaling second-hand smoke in the almost-smug knowledge that I can practically classify myself as a non-smoker again, after a nine month interlude of happy puffing at soggy roll-ups and Marlboro Lights. Someone in a club told me that I was a 'fantastic smoker' as I spilled cigarettes from my too-small purse and lit up from tealights in fat glass pots. I gave up the next day as ash and the smell of smoke on my fingers spiralled my hangover into epic proportions. Anyway, back to Shaftesbury Avenue. Cinema in general makes me happy, even awful films. The drama of slouching into deep, cushioned seats surrounded by strangers, squirming through the adverts and scanning the trailers for potential. And films on the big screen, all-encompassing in a way that even the largest TVs can't begin to match. O yes, Code 46, which I hadn't read about and proved to be good: another happy moment. I'm beginning to prefer to go to see films with no sense of what happens, as it prevents crushed expectations and allows opportunity for pleasant surprises.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
quote:Originally posted by philomel: This morning, up early through inability to doze, squinting against the bright fresh light spilling down my street. I was almost at the corner of the road when my friend pointed out a squirrel on a fence, mouth hanging open and stuffed with nut. It regarded us, beady-eyed and bushy tailed (more so than any fluffy bunny), perched a mere metre from my head. It was brindled grey and brown, so close you could see the individual hairs as they shaded in tone, the faint pulse of the heart beating aginst the ribs, the dark drool staining the fur round its mouth. Its eyes were black. It leapt down, closer, body arching in an S as it moved, tiny paws clutching for grip. This pleased me, inordinately. Since my dramatic vermin rescue mission, I tend to regard the rodent population of my street with an almost maternal pride. I could have saved its life. Oddly, there's often a squirrel at the same place at the same time in the morning, sometimes scurrying across the road, sometimes scampering up the fence, claws scritching against the wood. It's part of a morning routine that I find quite pleasing.
There is a famous Edwardian print entitled "Philomel & The Squirrel" which used to adorn the walls of the parlours of well-to-do families throughout the land. It was a best-seller in the two or three years leading to the Great War. Virginia Woolf describes it as "the very latest thing in Kitsch ... utterly horrid" in an early draft of The Voyage Out. It depicts a rosy-cheeked young girl extending a hand (the other is in a fox fur muff) to a squirrel clinging to the end of a branch, its nose twitching with curiosity. The girl is wrapped in a long scarf and an expensive-looking charcoal dufflecoat. Woolf continues: "Decca sensed she was becoming more and more furious as she studied the print. What stupid or vulgar impulse had stirred in Helen's breast to make her bring such a thing into the house? Something about the child's vacant expression incensed her beyond reason ... After tea, [she] ordered the maid to take it into the yard and burn it." Posted by squirrelandgman (Member # 201) on :
This cheered me up no end yesterday. It is a 30 minute 40mb mix by some geezer called poj. It is the typical 30 seconds of many songs type affair but unlike many it works really well. There are moments that had me proper grinning on the way up to Liverpool St. Tracklist is... Vivaldi - Summer, Presto [from the 4 seasons] Ty - do you want more? Missy - Get your Freak on The 45 king - 900 Number Cypress Hill - Insane in the Membrane Pete Rock and CL smooth - Its like that Daft Punk - harder, better, faster, stronger AC/DC - Back in Black Pepe Deluxe - Salami Fever Grandmaster flash - The Message The Mohawks - The Champ Whodini - Five minutes of Funk Dusty Springfield - Spooky Tweet - Oops [oh my] Queens of the Stone Age - The lost art of keeping a secret Walter Murphy - Fifth of Beethoven RJd2 - Ghostwriter Kriss Kross - Jump Million Dan - Dogz and Sledgez Fatback Band - Fatbackin' Beyonce - Work it Out Black Crows - Hard to Handle NWA - Straight Outta Compton Michael Jackson - Billie Jean Erick b and Rakim - I know you got soul Spanky Wilson - Sunshine of your love NERD - She Wants to Move Beastie Boys - Triple Trouble ? - Intergalactic Wheels of Steel Man Parish - Boogie Down Bronx Prodigy - Girls Audio Bullies - Face in a Cloud Kelis - Trick me
Posted by philomel (Member # 586) on :
Posted by Sidney (Member # 399) on :
Well, FWIW, I thoroughly enjoyed Kovacs' thread opener, elegantly eloquent as it is.
Anyway. I had to travel up to York yesterday for a meeting. I wasn't looking forward to it - a three and a half hour journey to talk about project management and construction timetables and tender returns blah blah boring blah. However, the people I met with were infused with such positive commitment and eagerness that I immediately felt buoyant. The project seemed to come to life on paper as we talked about all the good that it would do and the things that it would achieve and how much it meant to local people. I was impressed by how well prepared and knowledgeable these people were and by their belief in what they were doing. As the meeting went on, it became apparent that they actually appreciated me taking the time to travel to York to see them and that they had benefited from what I had to say. They also arranged lunch for me, which was thoughtful and kind. I came away from the meeting not griping to myself about the long journey as I had been on the way there but feeling a vague sense of fulfillment and happiness. Dare I say it, is this what people refer to as job satisfaction??
I have a similar meeting in Bradford next month, where my contact has offered to take me for an authentic Bradford curry. I am looking forward to this.
Posted by rooster (Member # 738) on :
Froopy and I had to go into town yesterday for a doctor’s appointment. Usually a drab task, but I think it was the best day I’ve had this week. Beautiful out: sunny, not too warm, and we each took the train and met downtown. I actually love going to the hospital – the people rushing everywhere all in one building remind me of a video game, SimTower perhaps, and every time I’m there I have to purposefully put one foot in front of the other to keep from plopping in a corner and just getting lost in their buzz. The exam itself was unpleasant, but it was strangely cool in a marital bonding way to have Scott in the room with me whist they tinkered with my innards. He was, as a boy would be, fascinated with all the strange and wondrous gynecological gadgets, and this amused and distracted me from the doctor’s horrible rending. At the end of it all, we did get a live image of our son or daughter, who seems to already be entranced by his/her thumb and alternately waved at us and happily? sucked away.
Posted by jnhoj (Member # 286) on :
I drove to Manchester today for a registration it turns out I didnt have to go to, but then I met my friend in the queue and I said, "no its alright I'll go to the back of the queue with you." I think I made everybodies day happier! My friend also found fifty pence while we were waiting for the non registration. Then we played pool with broken cues that were bent, but it was ok. I won, but we're pretty evenly matched. I like my friend!
Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
thats a tshirt by the way. currently available on www.digitalgravel.com Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
man i think this is a good day. my friend is temping somewhere and left herself logged into messenger. am now flirting big time with some girl that works there. she sounds hott.
though she just said 'now worris' which may mean she is australian. should i ask her?
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
this has GOT to be some kind of joke:
come on...you must be a horny barsted...jusy say the word and meet up for a bit of the other like???!!!!1 Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
prolly some bored GUY fucking about online. damn, this could have been so great!
i'm fucking getting a bluetooth phone.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
It was such a good day this morning that I actually got the camera out whilst cycling in to work. Will these fit on here? Let's see...
Posted by saltrock (Member # 622) on :
I used to have a journey to work that looked a lot light that. Now I have houses and stuff.
But YAY! Lucky you!
Posted by Bamba (Member # 330) on :
Heh, for some reason I thought it was damo posting those images and was about to wonder out loud why the countryside in the south of America looked so much like middle England.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
quote:Originally posted by Bamba: Heh, for some reason I thought it was damo posting those images
Lol, does anyone else remember when kovacs said he got confused between Dang65 and d666. Those two famously similar posting styles and personalities.
Posted by Bamba (Member # 330) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: Lol, does anyone else remember when kovacs said he got confused between Dang65 and d666. Those two famously similar posting styles and personalities.
Sometimes I don't think Kovacs actually pays any attention, like we're all so interchangable to him that it doesn't matter who he's talking to.
Unless it's Ben. He fucking loves Ben. Posted by Bamba (Member # 330) on :
On a 'small but cool thing' tip, I've been trying out some new skins for Firefox and found one that I quite liked. It was only later on I noticed that, instead of the crappy animated blue E or whatever that you get when a web-page is loading, I now get an animation of pixel art boxes travelling down a conveyor belt and changing colour half way along which made me smile. Look:
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: Lol, does anyone else remember when kovacs said he got confused between Dang65 and d666. Those two famously similar posting styles and personalities.
The best thing about that was imagining kovacs's befuddlement when this poster see-sawed between rabid sputterings about drugs, dance and dicking numerous chicks in the heart of Northern clubland, and self-deprecating witticisms on the perils of middle class family life in the Britain's richest area. And not stopping to consider that maybe they were two totally different people.
Posted by Sidney (Member # 399) on :
Oh Bamba! Or should I say Les Bamba.
Posted by Bamba (Member # 330) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sidney: Oh Bamba!
Wuh? What is it? What've I done?
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
When you all said that cougar's gay, that's when this became a good day.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I'm having a pretty good day today.
I have now shed my hangover that I aquired from gate-crashing a vet's fresher do last night. The guy on the door practically offered us to crash. 'Are you vets are you?' he asked 'Yeeeeees. We're vets we say'
It's important to note that most people who become vets already have some sort of animalistic feature. In particular was a girl who danced like she had cloven hooves. When she asked 'are you a vet then? Haw haw haw!' I replied 'Actually, no. I'm a doctor in cybernetics. *brief pause whilst looking upwards thoughtfully* I decided to study as a vet when I saw a program about a kitten. *another pause*
'What program was this?'
'Well' says I 'It was about a kitten who couldn't meow. All he could do was open his mouth. But no sound came out. Basically (and I do the little gesticulated hand gestures to make it funnier) they replaced his vocal chords with...do you know that technology that they use in birthday cards?....clever stuff....they use one of those, so that everytime it opens its mouth, a pre-recorded 'meow' comes out. So after that, I wanted to do something useful. Something important' *stare meaningfully*
Her; 'Wow'
Also, the new boy in the office/ward just did the best thing. He sits quite a way away, but got a big tissue and started blowing his nose and walking himself on his chair, slowly towards the bin at my end of the room. I turn to watch and disbelieve for a moment that he will blow his nose all the way to the bin. But he does! PAAAAAAARPGH! scuttle scuttle! FRAAAAAAAART! shuffle! Fantastic! He is still blowing it as he is sat by the bin. So perfect is this that I get to say 'You missed a bit' in deadpan style(e)
Posted by saltrock (Member # 622) on :
Today isn't a good day here. It blows. I am going to be soooo glad when it hits 5 o'clock and I can get the fuck out of this office and go and do some serious damage to a large bottle of vodka. Posted by saltrock (Member # 622) on :
Actually, NWoD's kitten's voice has just cheered me up immensley. Thank you NWoD.
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
WRONG THREAD SALTROCK this is about GOOD DAYS start your own. Posted by saltrock (Member # 622) on :
Sorry Aunty Kovacs. Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
Sorry Saltrock go and look at the "hi there" thread about a Puma.
It made me feel genuinely like those girls on Handbag who claim "I am sitting here wetting my knicks while low-calorie Mint Options is spurting out of my nose as I read this thread!!!! PSML!"
I didn't wet anything but I laughed like a lion!
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: He sits quite a way away, but got a big tissue and started blowing his nose and wanking himself on his chair, slowly towards the bin at my end of the room.
Jesus Crust. Some people are just plain rude.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I'm feeling slightly guilty that it took a story that I imagined just for my own bizarre humour to cheer saltrock up.
But as this is a good day thread I had to steer my mood into humour. Fortunately for me, I just had to do a search for a 'Mr Wankling'
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by Bamba:
Les was the Art Technician at my Sixth Form.
Now I'm an Art Technician.
Posted by discodamage (Member # 66) on :
(lol br, i had forgotten how much les looked like a bald version of sam lake, innit)
my art technicians husband was the jewish man who said 'and a filet o' fish for my wiiiife' in that old macdonalds advert. she didnt even like filet o' fishes. (filets o' fish? i dont know.) we knew this because we asked her repeatedly whether she liked the filet o' fish every art lesson for something like three years. repetition never stops equalling comedy when youre 13.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Harshened Boner
My mate has just texted to say that he's feeling a little peaky and has asked if 'possibly I could come to Swindon' instead of hooking up with him. Yeah, thanks mate! Instead of you coming across to London on your day off and showing up for a well planned evening of town painting, I'll travel after work, get there at 8' o clock, see you don't look ill at all, discover someone has actually just made alternative arrangements instead and want to do a mad.
Then, because we had arranged this earlier in the week, I can't go and watch my mate support Good Charlotte tonight.
So now, I have to spend Friday night, on my own. Doing fuckall.
Rage level Posted by Roy (Member # 705) on :
quote: my art technicians husband was the jewish man who said 'and a filet o' fish for my wiiiife' in that old macdonalds advert. she didnt even like filet o' fishes. (filets o' fish? i dont know.) we knew this because we asked her repeatedly whether she liked the filet o' fish every art lesson for something like three years. repetition never stops equalling comedy when youre 13.
My Dad knew the filet o' fish man. What school did you go to?
Posted by discodamage (Member # 66) on :
it was in blackheath.
Posted by Roy (Member # 705) on :
Bluecoats? Tallis? The special school?
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Good things.
1 I've just had a session of reflexology, and far from being the perfectly nice foot massage practised by charlatans that I was expecting, it was in fact magick, with the practitioner able to divine through witch-craft various ailments around my body. I now feel rather chilled, with comfy feet.
2 I'm doing a freelance assignment at a place I rilly like, for good money, and the big editorial cheese has asked me to stay on.
3 My hangover is finally going away.
3
Posted by discodamage (Member # 66) on :
quote:Originally posted by Roy: Bluecoats? Tallis? The special school?
blackheath blowjobs aka the high school.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Bad thing
1 I am drinking a mint option, like a handbagger, thinking it might assuage a hangover chocolate craving without gaining an extra arse. However, the only craving it could assuage would be for a saccharine emetic.
Posted by philomel (Member # 586) on :
I went and stood on the foredeck of the HMS Belfast for free, thanks to organising a photoshoot with the nice marketing lady there. Wind chill factor was pretty cutting as I wrapped my flimsy spring/summer suit round me and grinned through gritted teeth and made polite conversation with my clients. The view was terrific though and fairly unusual, stuck in the centre of the river like a sore thumb. Yeah, so you can get the same viewpoint from a bridge but it's not the same somehow. This was peaceful, among the guns and heavy chains, no traffic roar and only the floating loudspeaker voice of the passing rivertour and the whip of the wind. The water was dirty brown and the metal floor of the ship was painted a pale blue-grey, spotted along the seams with dirty red rust. The barrier at the edge was three strands of twisted wire, taut under my palms and I could imagine being on deck in storms, clinging and slipping against the steel as I gripped my file and tried to prevent my paperwork spilling into the choppy Thames.
Posted by Sidney (Member # 399) on :
quote:Originally posted by Bamba:
quote:Originally posted by Sidney: Oh Bamba!
Wuh? What is it? What've I done?
Oh! I didn't mean Oh Bamba = I meant Oh Bamba = because you reminded me about Les.
I wonder which smilie I would use if I ever had to convey Oh Bamba in an ecstatic way?
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
That's "Ohhh...Bamba "
Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: best thing about that was imagining kovacs's befuddlement when this poster see-sawed between rabid sputterings about drugs, dance and dicking numerous chicks in the heart of Northern clubland,
it was never numerous chicks.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by damo: it was never numerous chicks.
Speak for yourself.
Posted by funkypurplepants (Member # 746) on :
just remembered chocolate in my bag thats been there for about 4 days, putting off opening it till i've posted this fact cos if its all nasty and white like an old dog turd it would ruin the good feeling of finding it at all and leave me nigh on suicidal. The only other possible plus point though it is pretty self centred. I was speaking with a colleague of mine earlier about how shit it is being single and then having one of your (ex)mates tell you all about how they are doing things with your ex-mrs. This is far worse than merely dealing with the fact that my ex-mrs is seeing someone. They could just lie. women! Ex-mates! I dont know.
Posted by funkypurplepants (Member # 746) on :
trying to look on the bright side choc not quite white but it has started going,still tastes nice though a bit dry. Looking foward to my 80p lunch just as much, probably just as stale!
Posted by Uber Trick (Member # 456) on :
On the day you were all originally writing this thread I was on the beach in Spain with my sister, alternating between sunbathing on the Hamacas, swimming in the sea (which was the funniest thing EVER) and drinking beer and eating freshly barbequed sardines at the beach bar in ninety degrees blazing, beautiful sun. Yes, it was a pretty darn good day! Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Youa re doing a Vikram. Louche will not be best pleased.
Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
i've just got back from 10 days in miami. where it was hot and sunny. and i saw ms damo for the first time in 3 and half months.
i win. on the good day stakes. i also win. on the today is a bad day stakes.
[ 05.10.2004, 18:09: Message edited by: damo ]
Posted by scrawny (Member # 113) on :
Que?
Are you ok damo?
Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
oh yeah i'm fine. are you watching nylon? i'm living it. only i think its spelt nashchester.
not as romantic, or as full of product placement.
just a love hangover from spending 10 days together and now looking forward to another couple of months of solitude and wanking. can anyone recommend any good films?
Posted by Uber Trick (Member # 456) on :
Physic was the digital pimp I think, or Thorn. Raz has stuff featuring monks and Disco has stuff with shoes <whispers> Just don't ask Boy Racer! </whispers>
quote:Originally posted by vikram: Youa re doing a Vikram. Louche will not be best pleased.
I'm not scared of Louche, she's a kitten if you know where to tickle her.
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
you rang?
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
Yesterday was a pretty crummy day, even by the low standard that 2004 has set for itself. However! I did go to a press launch in the evening that was amusing for probably all the wrong reasons, but there were a couple of things that made me smile.
Firstly there was a horrifically bad presentation featuring those two fuckheads from The Gadget Show on channel Five. A guy and a girl, who are genuinely untalented running through a poorly rehearsed and badly written script, that they. Enunciated
ALL the wrong WORDS. and. kept.
stopping at inappropriate places. Because they clearly weren't paying attention: to what the words were. THAT THEY were saying.
So you had gems like "Wow It seems like that. PHONE does everything except rub my back. And let me watch TV."
"Well. That's where you're wrong!"
"Don't tell me it *pause* let's me r-rub my back?"
And so it went on. At the end the journalist next to me stood up and said "That is the gayest thing I have ever seen in my whole life", only he said it really loud, and the people who'd organised the event turned round and did this kind of fake laugh and said something like "Oh well! Someone had to say it!", and the journalist went bright red. So that made me laugh.
The other thing that was great was that the 'entertainment' consisted of west end dancers doing performances of songs from musicals. There was a lovely moment during one of the songs from Caberet when the girls fired their legs up into the air in a lovely vee-shape, and the sound cut out, and they all kind of froze and just held the position with this look of terrified "what do we do?" on their pretty little faces. Magic: As if showing your silk clad clunge to a roomful of staring strangers wasn't humiliating enough they had to sit there and do it in eerie silence.
Posted by Waynster (Member # 56) on :
Just when I thought my entire life was washed up career wise, just when I thought all hope was gone, I get an out of the blue a telephone interview at a company I have been trying to get into for a while, and before you know it I have an interview with their Apps manger, departmental director and HR exec next week.
It's proper bo I tell thee!
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Nice one, Waynster. Good luck with the interview.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
Good to hear. Make sure you take all your WildheartsLive photos and tell the panel your favourite Wildhearts songs. Even if they don't ask you- it's a trick non-question.
Posted by fish (Member # 22) on :
Today has not been a good day all round really. But it was just topped off by this little email exchange:
quote: Hi Jon
I forwarded the email to Feeder’s manager.
FYI I’m sorry to inform you that Jon Lee died a few years ago.
All the best
Kate
-----Original Message----- From: Jon Sent: 06 October 2004 16:47 To: kate@feederweb.com Subject: BBC Breakfast tv [Scanned For Viruses]
Hi Kat,
I'm setting up a slot on the programme for Friday morning loosely previewing the England v Wales football match on Saturday. I say "loosely" because we'll be talking more about the historical rivalry between the English and Welsh and about the Welsh sense of identity, rather than about football. I wondered whether this might be the something that Grant Nicholas or Jon Lee might be interested in taking part in? If so, or for any further information, I'd be grateful if you could give me a call on one of the numbers below.
Many thanks,
Jon
Note that not only did I request an interview with a dead member of the band, but I also spelt her name wrong.
Chances of getting requested interview with (surviving) band member: 0/10
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
The BBC: where research and evidence are God. Just ask Greg Dyke.
Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
he didn't just die though did he? he topped himself just before they got big. after years of nothingness.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally e-mailed by Kate: Hi Jo(h)n
I forwarded the email to Feeder’s manager.
FYI I’m sorry to inform you that Jon Lee topped himself just before Feeder got big, after years of nothingness.
All the best
Kat(e)
Posted by Tef-land (Member # 561) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: Only one interesting thing has happened to me so far this week. One of the technicians took me over the new machining workshop.
[Darth teflon] All too easy... [/Darth teflon]
Posted by Waynster (Member # 56) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: Good to hear. Make sure you take all your WildheartsLive photos and tell the panel your favourite Wildhearts songs. Even if they don't ask you- it's a trick non-question.
Ta Veep and Misc. They have already enquired if I will be buggaring off on tour to do drugs and ting, which I have assured them I will only do on a weekly hire basis should the oppurtunity arise. The work is listed on my CV (it helps fill the gaps of long unemployment) and is something of a conversation starter, much like a fine piece of doultonware at a WI Coffee morning. I even got a second interview by offering the interviewer my spare Therapy? ticket for that evenings show.
Posted by Waynster (Member # 56) on :
Fish - what about asking Richey James if he's up for some pre-match banter?
Posted by fish (Member # 22) on :
quote:Originally posted by Waynster: Fish - what about asking Richey James if he's up for some pre-match banter?
Good suggestion! I asked Sony UK... but apparently Richey is "unavailable". Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
are you sure you meant richey james edwards? or rick james?
???
Posted by Waynster (Member # 56) on :
Whoops - jest one err with one of my own.
Mind you, RJ does look a bit like Shirley Bassey - are they related?
Posted by miffysocks (Member # 675) on :
I’ve been trying to think of the good things that have happened in the last week and to be honest, I couldn’t think of any. Everyday has just slapped me harder the last. Then I thought, ‘stop feeling sorry for yourself, lots of great things have happened to you. Your just thinking in the wrong frame of mind’
Then it turned out lots of amazing things have been happening to me and in fact I’m incredibly lucky gal. Take today:
It’s a good thing there was no (and I mean none) hot water this morning, the cold shower surely does something good to your skin and defiantly made me get ready quicker.
Don’t dwell on the pain of getting face wash up you nose ( the cold of the shower made me a slopping washer) Instead, marvel in the success of getting it back out.
It’s great that the toaster set of fire, all those carbs cant be good.
It’s an amazing miracle my car wouldn’t start, long walks in the rain are incredibly exhilarating and give your face a great rosy glow.
When you change your frame of mind, everyday is that one bit more special than the last.
Posted by miffysocks (Member # 675) on :
No wait, ignore all the doom and gloom of the last post for today is a good day. I made Ringo do a sad face on the car bitches thread. I’ll be smiling for the rest of the day
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I got the same sensation when I found out Fish turned his nose up at that hot filthpic.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I just sent an email to 600 people containing the following line - "During this time, access to the server will be intermittent as the server is rebooted and it is recommended that you do not attempt to access any shared areas during this time."
This, coupled with Miffy's heartless abuse on another thread, has made me feel rather happy, safe in the knowledge that the day going to get no worse from this point on.
Posted by Uber Trick (Member # 456) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: shared areas
Currently this phrase is turning me on at a rate of 76.325%
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I'm more concerned by my shockingly bad grammar.
Posted by Uber Trick (Member # 456) on :
And that's exactly what I love about you, Rongo.
Posted by fish (Member # 22) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: I'm more concerned by my shockingly bad grammar.
Posted by Vanilla Online Persona (Member # 301) on :
I’m back in London after being in Foreign for a wee while. London: Rain, crowds and jostling. Cold, dislocated, appalled, dismayed, distraught and Richard Curtis nowhere to be found, I met up with me NW1 posse. Now, Dave, Gawd bless him, is a lovely bloke but a bit on the arrogant side. MA (Oxon) DPhil Grade II Listed Building un all that bollux. There’s always a fight when he’s around. He’ll patronise one of the many plebs that populate London and it’ll kick off. Guaranteed. ‘Lovely to see you. Mwah. Mwah. Was the traffic alright ? How was your journey ? And was it a pleasant trip ? Good. Good. Are you well ? Good. Good.’ Tick the box marked ‘Preliminaries‘. ‘I’ll have a large whiskey and a whisky chaser’ said I, for I greatly favoured both. And, at 11.08 in the morning, the evening began. A few hours later I heard ‘Sorry to hear about you getting dumped by Dearly Beloved. Email is such a bad way of doing it, especially when you’re half-way across the world. They’d been at it for ages I’m told’ You see what he did there ? Half supportive friend. Half knocker of sexual confidence. A.Total.**** . So you can imagine my surprise when the punch that I knew would surely come seemed to spring from mine own fair hand. I recalled from Cervantes ‘Hombre apercebido medio combatido’ and in my book ‘being prepared’ means getting in first and hard. For a while furniture splintered and plaster cracked around our fearsome fisting. Backwards and forwards. Kung Fu Jap Slap Nippy Gippy, Lord of the Dance v. King of the Jungle and therefore, as you may imagine, a bastard to put down in words.
This morning I got a lovely e:apology from His Nibs and this afternoon the offer of a really good contract so that makes today a good day.
Some critics might say the ending was a bit weak, characters were left undeveloped, the hero was frankly unconvincing and there was little sign of any plot.
They’d be right.
Posted by miffysocks (Member # 675) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo:
This, coupled with Miffy's heartless abuse on another thread, has made me feel rather happy, safe in the knowledge that the day going to get no worse from this point on.
You Loves it!
Posted by turbo (Member # 593) on :
I'm having a great day after a hectic week. Our office was full of Americans and bosses and technicians all week and I had to give a presentation to the Americans and we all worked incredibly long hours and the phone kept ringing and I had numerous deadlines looming and I had a headache for 3 days. Today: my headache has gone, my deadlines have been met, the phone has only rung twice, I'm planning to go home at 5 pm on the dot, the Americans have gone back to America, they loved my presentation and my boss is out all day. Also: boss is expecting 4th child early next week, so if his wife is a couple of days early like with child no.3, I won't be seeing my boss for a while. Yay.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
I am having a totally blonde day.
I have just sent my boss off with only half his presentation copied onto OHP transparencies, because I didn't notice it was more than one page long. This is after unstapling the THREE pages, photocopying them (plural) and then stapling the copies (plural) together. And he's going to the Atomic Weapons place in Reading, so if he can only give half a presentation there might be an Atomic War. Sorry about that.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Day comprises a pleasing tying of loose ends. I can almost hear pieces falling into place.
1. The freelance life is exciting, yet uncertain. One day despair at having no forseeable future pay, the next joy at one's gr8ness. I've just been told I've got 2-3 days' work a week as 'consultant editor', for the forseeable at a v healthy day rate. So healthy I don't REALLY need to work the rest of the week. Go me.
2 Last night, nearly home. Phone rings - it is dear heart, pissed as owt. 'Come to this bar - it'll be great. Go on. Please come...' etc. Got tube back the way I'd come, exited, rang to ask exact directions. 'Oh, I'm going home now'. Fumed for hours. Dear heart is going away for 10 days from tomorrow (Saturday), and has told me to 'cancel all arrangements for tomorrow. It's a surprise.' Golly gosh. Marvellous what a bit of guilt can do.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Sorry. that plumbed new depths of smugness didn't it. Sorry everybody.
Posted by Waynster (Member # 56) on :
Amex just called me and asked about my bank account number. They also claimed I had paid my last bill, and switched my card back on.
Yay Friday!
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
[ 08.10.2004, 10:19: Message edited by: London ]
Posted by philomel (Member # 586) on :
Two large glasses of white in short succession, paid for by company. I feel pleasantly heady and not at all inclined to investigate the 'racing night' (videos) I have to organise for client.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by philomel: I feel pleasantly heady
If you use this as a chat up line this weekend, you score 50 comedee points.
Posted by philomel (Member # 586) on :
I bet I do now. :madd:
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I don't know how I do it. I manage to just upset people without even trying. Who'd have thought that the close knit antics of a bulletin board could sync menstrual cycles together.
Posted by philomel (Member # 586) on :
I missed the exclamation mark! Also, surely now everyone's dosed up on hormones, the menstrual-synching thang's become a bit obsolete? I will poll flatmates tonight.
And I have champagne now! The day gets better and better and I enforce more shallow PR stereotypes everytime I post. O well. <penance> Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Hey actually I do have a reason to be happy today. I changed the insurance over to the Smart car today from the Puma, and apparently it's so much cheaper that they actually owe me money! No more payments till January!
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
I decided to embrace the comfy familiarity of a chicklit stereotype by buying shoes. Dump the boy with the yellow hair, cry a bit, buy some shoes. Round-toed, T-bar, disgustingly high. Like tango shoes. They make the front of your foot curve like the bones are breaking. Hope that's not a premonition. Sad that the only good thing about this week is a purchase, as though I've become so powerless over my own destiny, so unable to attract goodness into my own life, that consumer muscle is the only one I can flex in order to improve my lot. Yuk.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: And he's going to the Atomic Weapons place in Reading, so if he can only give half a presentation there might be an Atomic War.
Is it open to all? I could really use a laugh.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Today I got offered a job interview somewhere sparkly. I will not get it, but for now I can be pleased.
Also, I went to dinner with mum last night. She is very funny. Won't talk in front of staff. This amuses me still.
Watched the movie Dark City earlier which I think was good, but really am not sure. I do suspect it was shit? Kiefer sucked?
[ 08.10.2004, 11:58: Message edited by: vikram ]
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Oh and today is a good day because:
Yesterday I fixed the earthing problem that caused an unpleasant hum from my record player (do people call them "DEXXX" these days???). This means that when I get home, I will be able to listen to some great music on vinyl.
I paid 99p for a deep fried chicken burger which was absolutely bukkaked in mayo and I haven't vomitted yet!
I don't have to go to work tomorrow.
I sent an e-mail to a colleague named Chris, but accidentally addressed opened with "Hi Christ"
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: Watched the movie Dark City earlier which I think was good, but really am not sure. I do suspect it was shit? Kiefer sucked?
Dark City is one of my favourite sci-fi films. I found it had much more atmosphere and a more intriguing plot than The May Tricks. *Here's an interesting page which notes a lot of similarities between the two.
It's worth noting that Dark City was filmed beforeThe May Tricks
Posted by Modge (Member # 64) on :
Good day...
I saw Rick's identical twin (or Rick) working in a second hand furniture shop in New Cross. Added to my sighting yesterday in Chiswick of omikin's identical twin, my TMOidenticaltwin spotting is going well.
Someone drove past my flat in slow traffic with the theme from The Godfather blaring from their car stereo. Two minutes later someone else drove past with some opera playing at an equally high volume, then someone else with R Kelly. Brockley=diverse.
Soon, The Apprentice is on, an experience which can only be bettered by reading the epsiode recap afterwards on TWoP
[ 08.10.2004, 12:28: Message edited by: Modge ]
Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
has anyone ever spotted my twin?
Posted by discodamage (Member # 66) on :
i am in a different town from london! i am listening to johnny cash sing 'if i were a carpenter' and upstairs my sister is painting her wife's face as a dog. tomorrow they are having the summer fete party and there will be a tombola, a raffle, and face painting. i am going to have my face painted as gene simmons! or maybe a droog. also i have just had my hair cut by a lady who charges nothing for her haircutting services but a drawing of a guinea pig. life is so nice in bris vegas.
(bris vegas posse! my time is limited on this sojourn, but next time i am here we are meating! i promise!)
Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
quote:Originally posted by discodamage: bris vegas.
i have images of rabbi's winning big hands of foreskin on the roulette wheel and singing "shalom, let it ride!"
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
bris vegas would be the coolest place ever. seriously.
Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
thanks i thought that was gonna sit around and kill the thread dead. which with suspect humour like that i guess it should've i mean, really rabbi's shouting shalom and winning big hands of foreskin. what was i thinking?
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
do you think that casino in taba what got blown up was like that?
Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
either that or it was the all you can eat shellfish buffet that exploded due to putrefecation.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Actually - and honestly I don't [i]want[/i[ to be a travel **** - but I have been to that hotel. Not stayed there, just hung out for a bit. For the air con.
Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
travel **** .
Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
i want to be a travel **** i went to the delano and the shore club last week.
and they're rubbish. overpriced over rated and over there.
sorry. here.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
I had a kind of a perfect weekend this weekend - consisting of all the things that make me happy from metal through to just chilling in the pub and feeling euphorically happy. Three splendid shows (with Slayer/ Slipknot proving to be one of the best gig's I've ever seen), hooking up with a bunch of friends to watch the football, a couple of soothing days (sunday n monday) to wind down, getting to watch my favourite movie with someone who'd never seen it before - it was just fantastic. God I love this world.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Thorn
My surprise Saturday organised by R turned out to be champagne at the Sanderson hotel, followed by some treatments in its spa, which is like I imagine heaven to be. All white drapes, and people in white, padding around, with towels that mysteriously appear, and soporific smells in the air. It ruled. Then I had dim sum.
And next w/e I'm going to be in new york, going to a party in the Chelsea Hotel, shopping in a vast outlet maaaaall, and eating brunch ALL DAY.
The only (noxious methane) cloud is that I'm on the cabbage soup diet in an attempt to be able to shop anywhere other than Nice'n'Wide once there. It is causing my bowels some distress.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
If getting plastered, killing ears, intimidating strangers into being your mate, hurriedly buying beer before eleven, drinking it in the streets, roaming the town at night, haw-hawing into the cold empty streets, getting drunk whilst stood still so that your legs buckle, and walking 5 miles home are good things, then I did all of them this weekend.
Bad things; Complete stranger, waking me up at 6 in the morning and sitting on the bed. Nobody knows who he is, he tells me he has just been chased by the police. Scary start to Sunday morning.
Posted by funkypurplepants (Member # 746) on :
england won, should have been better, but better than losing to Wales. otherwise not good, ex-girlfreind's lil brother having a heart bypass op. today, scary shit. Not really doing anything at work my head is somewhere else, but thats cool my job is a doss
Posted by damo (Member # 722) on :
"her indoors" handed in her notice at work, its all going down for her being in nashvegas by the end of feb/march.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Good day: Jack Chick's comics arrived.
Posted by Grianagh (Member # 583) on :
great day as flat is now listed 'for sale'. limited time in poshuptheirownarse city. purchasing tickets to meet up with strangers in glasgow. get to watch cyberized mate lead double life in MiscLand.
all good.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Yes does anyone want to buy our flat?
Posted by fish (Member # 22) on :
Not unless your flat is in a poshuptheirownarse city.
I only live in poshuptheirownarse cities.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
That's exactly where it is.
Sold to the man with the cork moustache and high heels.
Posted by Uber Trick (Member # 456) on :
If we were the Hilton sisters we would buy your flat for our Spanish residence.