living without water must be a nightmare! sorry, that's blindingly obvious.. i am one of the thousands of people in the anglian water area affected by a bug - cryptospirriliamsomethingorother - it means we have to boil water to drink, prepare food, clean teeth, feed pets etc. i've got bottles of water filling up in strategic places, its a real hassle but at least i don't have to walk several miles to fill a bucket from a well or polluted river.

i'm watching a depressing programme in the 'disarming britain' series on C4. not sure what i find more disturbing; the proliferation of weapons and the reality that 'everything's a weapon' (knife, gun, hammer, fence post, brick) or the fact that all the 'youth' they interview speaks american street wherever they are in the uk. they all talk about fear; fear of being shanked (stabbed). everyone's carrying so i gotta carry. and loyalty and respect.. 'that's where you want to be' 'you need respect'. 'when we are outnumbered that's when we get stabbed'. they wear colours. 'this means more to us than anything else in the world'.

machetes, axes, kitchen knives, automatic guns

when it comes to 'outsiders' they go for the ones that look weak - this mindset means they need to look like its not worth picking a fight with them. this seems to make it different from football gangs in the past: they wanted to fight, it was about violence of itself. some of these dont like the violence - stabbing seemed to disgust them; it was too visceral, too bloody, too much mess - guns are better: bang bang job done no mess all over you. frightening.

the reason i'm watching (apart from it being useful for work) is because i don't want to spoil andy murray's chances of winning wimbledon. in his last match he was cruising until i started taking an interest then it all went wrong. i went out and he recovered. same thing happened today so i went out. he recovered to 2 sets each, i switched on and he lost a point - i switched over -

good luck andy

and why?
and why is it so awkward to change the covers on them?
sheets and blankets may be passe but they are so simple

anyone wishing to change my bedding on a regular basis please apply below

1. What is in the back seat of your car right now?
my cambridge utd scarf and discarded sandwich packet

2. When was the last time you threw up?
i can't remember

3. Whats your favorite curse word?
wanker and the one we can't use

4. Name 3 people who made you smile today?
Poe (not strictly a person..)
norma
that's all..

5. What were you doing at 8 am this morning?
glaring at my alarm clock and going back to sleep

6. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
rearranging garden furniture

7. Have you ever been to a strip club?
No.

8. What is the last thing you said aloud?
"see you later"

9. When is your birthday?
in april

10. What is the best ice cream flavor?
hard: i do like the local italian's vanilla bomb served with zambucca

11. What was the last thing you had to drink?
freshly ground espresso

12. What are you wearing right now?
ramones T-shirt, combats

13. What is the last thing you ate?
veggie sausages, egg, toast, mushrooms

14. Have you bought any new clothing items this week?
Nope

15. When was the last time you ran?
1980

16. What's the last sporting event you watched?
am watching tennis - jancovic being patched up

17. What's the last sport you played?
badminton - but not for several weeks, my 'team' has disintegrated

18. Who is the last person you sent a comment/message on myspace?
I don't use myspace.

19. Ever go camping?
yep, last july i was in pembrokeshire but got back before the floods!

20.Do you have a tan?
i have some tan shoe polish.. does that count?

21.Have you ever lost anything down a toilet?
ewan mcgregor

22.What is your guilty pleasure?
guilt

23.Do you use smiley faces on the computer a lot?
not a lot.

24. Do you drink your soda from a straw?
what is soda?

27. What are you doing tomorrow?
watching the tennis then the football and maybe in between doing some writing

28. Where is your mom right now?
mom? my mother is in wales

29. Look to your left, what do you see?
hundreds of books

30. What color is your watch?
white metal

31. What do you think of when you think of Australia?
kangaroos, convicts and alan border

32. Ever ridden on a roller coaster?
Yes, from brighton to california via alton towers - they are all overrated

33. What is your birthstone?
bloodstone.

34. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive through?
i don't do fast food - i have never bought a McD's i just use their 'restaurants' for the toilets.

35. What is your favorite number?
9

36. Do you have a dog?
No. but my mates do so i 'share' the fun

37. Last person you talked to on the phone?
my mate marc

38. Have you met anyone famous?
yep: kate bush, valerie singleton, alan moore, bob wilson,

39. Any plans today?
no plans, just letting life take me wherever.

40. How many provinces have you lived in?
what is a province?

41. Ever go to college?
this is american - i have been to university, still there ten years later

42. Where are you right now?
In my living room - watching the tennis

43. Biggest annoyance in your life right now?
management at work

44. Last song listened to?
rock and roll ain't noise pollution by ac/dc

46. Are you allergic to anything?
stress, kiwi fruit and lots of other things

47. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?
red converse

48. Taste in your mouth right now?
mustard

49. Are you jealous of anyone?
Not really, not a helpful emotion jealousy

50. Is anyone jealous of you?
maybe.

51. Do you love anyone?
yes, several people

52. Do any of your friends have children?
Yes.

53. Do you eat healthy?
some of the time

54. What do you usually do during the day?
there is no usual really

55. Do you hate anyone right now?
i hate mrs T and mugabe's not on my xmas list - but real people? no, i am angry with several but hate is too strong a word

58. Do you own any big sunglasses?
no very big

59. Have you ever been to Six Flags?
sixfields ...yes

60. How did you get one of your scars?
i stabbed myself between the knee joint when i was about ten - i was fencing with a samuri paper knife and i missed!

they pulled this, why? this is the 21st century right?

what is roger federer wearing in his interview (BBC)? a quasi-cricket jumper with gold trim and initials monogrammed in gold thread on his breast and matching baseball cap..yuk!

saddam hussein slaughters his own people
we invade iraq
robert mugabe slaughters his own people
we take away his knighthood

?

arsenal sign a new winger/forward/midfielder (wenger will probably convert him into a sweeper or goalie) - sammy nelson ... er sorry sami nasri who is the new 'sammy nelson' (sorry that should read the 'new zidane') while over at the newly christened Trade Recruitment Stadium (snappy huh?) Gary Brabin is appointed as jimmy quinn's successor in the management hot seat. who is he? he's the new paul jewel by the sound of him.. "now then now then calm down calm down". i liked quinn, he had real style and had that team playing above themselves at times, i wish the new guy luck but am still unsure why Cambridge let such a good manager go.

as for me i have completed half a revised chapter for my book and cut the back lawn (which is big oh you doubters) which i think is not a bad effort for a monday.

much more seriously my traveling friend goes under the knife tomorrow to exchange half a leg for her life: it sounds dramatic when you put it like that but it is. they believe that they can stop the spread of cancer by removing most of her leg below the knee. she's just 31. i haven't heard a peep of a complaint from her in the last year, no self-pity, no despair, just a quiet determination to carry on with her life. she popped down before she went to say goodbye and give me half a bottle of wine and a hug. typical of her to think of others even when she must be going through all sorts of conflicting emotions, including fear.

strange bloke john wilkes.. radical politician, xenophobe, anti-scot, collector of 'erotica', magistrate, firing on the crowds out side the bank of england, lord mayor of london, first man on the moon*, wilkes did it all. and so i have stolen his identity (temporarily i insist) and put his whizz up as me h'avatar sunshine, lovely jubbly

for info on the man hisself..
http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/summer03/wilkes.cfm

* i made that last bit up, in case you're from wikipedia...

summer exhibition. slow train in fast train back, lots of hot tube trains inbetween. highlights of the show: chris orr's prints, the jeff koons egg, a magritte-like gordon the engine emerging from a fireplace, a strange sepia print of 19th century railway carriage, with a ghost-like female corpse hanging from the rope handholds. then down to the Tate and the wonderful bridge! took lots of photos, saw the anti-facist march, huge pictures on the side of the power station/gallery. back to goodge st via a walk up to holborn from st paul's. late afternoon curry at the excellent sagars veggie indian on percy street, 5mins from euston.
good day

happy solstice blogsters!
mind you with the rain drissling down outside it doesn't feel much like the summer

I am off to the summer exhibition at the RA today with the travellers, looking forward to it. we might also pop down to the tate just to make a culture rich saturday

i think it was about 24 years ago when i was at stonehenge on solstice morning, wandering amongst the stones not really sure where i was - the penultimate or last year of the free festival. happy daze

feeling fed up with the collapsing economy? sky high fuel prices? housing market meltdown? war? terrorism?civil servants who leave laptops on trains? knife crime? the erosion of our civil liberties? ronaldo?marioandlisa (urrghhh!)?

well help is at hand

still feeling low?

try this

what the world needs is more felicity kendals

last night i went to see a living legend of rock (not a legendary living rock.. he was one of the fantastic four or was that the gang of four or five go wild in zummerzet?.. i digress.) the travellers had been given tickets to see bruce 'the boss' springstein at the millennium stadium cardiff. but m. fromagon had gone and double booked himself (the chaffinch!). instead i went with his better half and stayed over at me mums last night. so what of bruce? I have to admit to never being a fan of the Boss. I, like many others of my generation, failed to realize that we were born to run and none of us were born in the USA and frankly, if we were, would not have shouted about it. but i was curious. we spent most of the long evening (he came on at about 8.15 and was still going when we left at 11 to get the parcio and ridio..that's welsh) watching the crowd. ours were standing tickets so it was weird to be on the pitch (concrete actually - apparently they just paint it green when there's rugby on) where i have watched arsenal a couple of times. there was a mix of people of all ages - i saw quite a few families - and everyone was there for a good time. highlights were seeing very drunk 50 somethings teeny bopping about and swaying to the music and two coppers joining in the mexican wave

as for bruce, well i have to hand it to the man, he can still rock at 98 or however old he is. he was on for nearly three hours with hardly a break and not much chatting and he worked the crowd relentlessly. its not my sort of music but he does it well and his fans love him. coming out of the stadium just after eleven we were greeted with the chaos that is cardiff city centre on a saturday night: it was like being in a documentary on channel 4! lads in fancy dress and lasses in virtually nothing but a smile, falling over, throwing up, fighting, arguing with the local the heddlu (that's welsh too) and generally at the stage where they don't care about tomorrow and probably won't meet it in their own bed. cardiff is a great city: its lively, fun and very friendly (the cops and stewards i met and talked to were very welcoming), the centre is brash but hey, there's plenty of culture over at cardiff bay. i could live there (but the girls are a little scary). as for bruce, well I won't be downloading his back catalogue but i'm glad i went.

may a recommend this for a few minutes distraction from the cares of the world
http://thesurrealist.co.uk/slogan.cgi?word=goldfish