Life is good, if you don't weaken

So it's 12.30. Raining gently on the roof. A good night for story telling, but no crowd. I'm getting pain again. All the time. Especially after I eat. And when I forget to eat. No win situation I'm afraid. Actually, I'm not afraid anymore I don't think. Actually I just don't think anymore. So news from the night? I saw a nice play, which we analysed until it fell apart in our hands. I got stuck on the tube, just before Victoria station on the d & c line. Two girls, well women really, told me a great story about a pot-bellied gym instructor who ironically teaches abs. His fatness is the irony there, I don't mean he teaches ironically. I'd hoped it would be like one of those coming-of-age feel-good American teen dramas, where the unlikeliest of instructors wins the kids over through his kind heart, Zen-like composure and blinding technique revealed only at some hugely significant and vastly pivotal point just before the smallest of the gang goes on to win the day and get the girl in the climatic final face off. Sadly however, he's just a keep fit hypocrite. One of the girls had three great tattoos, came from Canada, was very very sexy and went to the cinema on her own!! What more can you ask for? And for those that know me well, despite not knowing her name, yes I did try a Google search. No joy. Still I did at least put a message on one of those isawyoutoday.com sites.

Deckchairs and Decadence

Conversation from tonight:
a: Does Colombia have good beaches?
b: Ahh yes, lovely beaches,
c: Beg pardon?
b: They have nice beaches. I am hoping to go to the beach soon.
c: To Colombia?
b: No to the beaches here.
c: Oh.
b: Do you know any nice beaches?
c: The cumbersands are popular. But I don't recommend beaches. 
    (pause)
c: They're much too decadent.
a: Decadent?
c: People just lazing around in the sun. And the clothes of course. I don't approve of them. 
    (longer pause)
c: I prefer fresh water. Lakes, rivers that sort of thing... Small rivers preferably.

-- Love, Punctually

"Love is a combination of lust and pity." -- A line from a novel I bought today, a graphic novel. And as I read it, I realised, with a sense of owning up to a long ignored realisation, that that sentence perfectly captures a relationship in my life. I want to pounce on this girl everytime I'm around her, and, like Mr T, she pities the fool. Also from the book I developed the new technique of double dashing -- Like that! Cool huh? I've been a single dasher for too long - it's just not nearly as effective. From now on I shall only use a solitary hyphen in mid sentences and at weekends. Come to think of it; my friend signs off with a double, and he's the CEO of a huge company, and has an OBE! So maybe there's something to this. It might be one of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And while we're on this punctuation theme, what the barrel monkeys are semi-colons for? Does anyone know when you are actually supposed to use them? Why do they exist? Is it just when you can't decide whether to use a comma or a full stop, so you go for both. And they're so addictive; once you start you can't stop. Signing off -- john.

Scared Witless Witness

When I left my house this morning there were two Jehovah witnesses on my doorstep. Unfortunately one of them was stunningly beautiful. She gave me a magazine with a picture of a nuclear explosion on it, and asked if I was worried about the threat of nuclear war. I replied I was not. She stated that many people are, but there was no need to worry as the bible predicted the event. It did not reassure me that my nuclear annihilation or slow painful termination from radiation sickness has been foreseen.

Past Glass Pavements

Here is a diary note I found from April. I publish it here so as to note it: Today is April. April showers are, predictably, showering. As I was walking I was caught out in one. Out of the blue it poured down. As I continued walking, it continued raining. Then it stopped. As quickly as it had started. I stopped. Staring at the ground, coated in a layer of fresh, unslimed water I could see a perfect reflection of the sky, like looking at a lake, or a mirror, but instead on the shoddy pavement of a street. The sky was bright blue, and full of large fluffy clouds. I pondered for a moment before realising I had broken my stride and continued on.

More Julianne Moore

Julianne Moore, an actress with possibly the most pervasive screen presence. Slowly and subtly working her way to become one of my favourite actresses, and yet neither conventionally pretty, nor in any of my top three films. So how did she do it? Let’s try listing her films so far, well that I’ve viewed anyway. Short cuts, can’t really remember this as it was many years ago. I’m sure it was just one of these things I watched on fast forward. Moving on, Evolution, Magnolia, Far From Heaven, The Big Lebowski. Films I haven’t seen Hannibal, The Hours, that new romantic comedy with Pierce Brosnan, surely a mistake. Some film with Jude Law I think, err The End of the Affair. And that’s it really. So why do I like her so much? Well Lebowski and Magnolia were both great films, and she had great roles in both of them. She reminds me slightly of a girl I knew, though not as pretty. That girl was soooo pretty. Hmm, I wonder where she is these days?

A public blogging

And finally, the site is up, the world can read, the blogs are go. This is the first blog i've made now that i've uploaded the blog to my main site. I will be posting blogs every other day now for the forseeable future, so feel free to come and watch my life happen. I write this from a Pontins Holiday Camp where I am staying with 1500 christians from knightsbridge. It's a strange life.

DVD's make the world go round

Going through my dvd collection I realised that roughly ten percent of them were not mine. Further more, ten percent of mine were missing, presumed lent. I’ve asked around and compared stats, and this seems to be average. A ten percent changeover range, a buffer zone I guess. It would probably apply to videos as well, but they are so ugly and clunky I think it would be better to ignore them for now. Considering most people would borrow one or two dvds at a time, lets say three at most, but rarely, that would give us an average of 1 friend borrowing 1.5 dvds at a time. So lets say I have 60 dvds, ten percent of 60 is 6, so 4 friends have borrowed dvds from me. And if they have the same buffer dvd zone 4 of their friends will have borrowed dvds. Surely it would be possible to link everyone in the world through their dvds? I call it the six dvds of separation theory.

Train Strain

Sitting on the train, a woman boards, we make eye contact and she takes a seat opposite me. We look away, the train pulls away, I think of what to say. The train slows to a speed, we flee the city to the town. I wait for my moment, the opportunity to knock. She drops her paper. Purposefully I think. Here’s the moment to seize, the chance to grab. I weigh up the pros and cons. And then she cuts through my procrastinations as she deftly swoops down and plucks the stranded sheets from the floor. Hmm. That didn’t go quite to plan. I attempt eye contact once more. The reception is noticably frosty.