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Chrissie

I Must Be Serious

I do watch sport occasionally. Just not football. Football is the work of the Devil. (If you’re American: I mean soccer.) Mostly it’s athletics or tennis I tolerate fairly well.

So Tim Henman’s into the second week of Wimbledon. Again. Will he actually make it through to the final this time? I think, probably not. Having said that, this tendency to slag him off because he’s never won does piss me off a bit. I mean, let’s bear in mind the stream of no-hopers (at least in the men’s game) England has produced, like, for as long as I’ve been alive, pretty much. Tim’s track record is incredibly consistent and creditable.
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Going, Going, Gone! [redux]

We drove past our new flat today. There’s an estate agents board out the front which says SOLD… and for once, I’m looking at those words and knowing it means the place is ours. Bar the formalities.

That’s an incredibly peculiar feeling. Apart from several brief, abortive periods of moving away to my own place, I’ve lived in this house for just over 19 years. Which is the bigger part of my life. Even worse, I’ve never really liked this house, or the street, or the neighbours. It’s a long time to be living somewhere you don’t like.
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Reading the Small Print

Yes, I am reading something at the moment. Watching Touch of Evil a couple of weeks ago gave me the urge to read the eponymous Orson Welles biography by Barbara Leaming.

This has been in our house for a while now, and mom’s already read it. She didn’t like the writing style much. On the whole, I tend to agree—the sentence structure and phrasing is often awkward, and somewhat quaint… but there’s a lot of interesting stuff underneath the stylistic problems.

I’m much more keen to read the Frank Brady bio, Citizen Welles, but it appears to currently be out of print in the UK. If anyone sees a copy going cheap in a second-hand store, hey, drop me a line.
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Definitely Maybe Moving

Well, yes, we might have a new home! The flat’s location is okay. In fact, in terms of public transport, it’s excellent. The estate is a bit, uh, mediocre. The flat itself is just average, and needs to be completely redecorated. But it could be a lot worse.

It was brand new on the market, so we were the first to view it. Mom decided to say we were interested. We got a call late this afternoon from the estate agents to tell us the seller was agreeable, so it’s ours if we want it.

As always, for me, mixed feelings. Somewhere just a wee bit nicer would make me feel better, really. But, the truth is, nothing else vaguely acceptable and within our budget might turn up for another six months. Our financial situation is bad. The car’s MOT and tax is up early next week, and we can’t afford to renew it, so until we move and have more spare cash, the car’s out of action.
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Same Old Deal

The New Deal appointment I had today didn’t go terribly well, really. The person I saw seemed intent on using the word ‘mandatory’ every other sentence and underlining every single point with the clear threat of benefit cessation.

Who trains these people? Are they given any hints whatsoever about basic psychology? Or are they so used to dealing with half-witted, apathetic zombots that someone with an individual point of view is an alien concept? What is the purpose of emphasising all the negative aspects of this wretched system instead of trying to create the impression that something positive can come out of it? I might actually respond to positivity—I certainly won’t respond to browbeating, implicit threats or horribly negative words like ‘mandatory.’
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Boring Geeky Stuff

Like the new logo? I’m still working on the site here and there. I haven’t used graphical logos for some time, because some browsers (IE 5 & 6, at least) have issues with locally cached copies of transparent gifs. I wanted to use a jpeg instead. Hey, they look better, anyway.

What I didn’t know, until a few days ago, is that you can convert HTML colour codes into RGB ones using Windows Calculator (scientific mode), meaning you can enter the exact RGB codes into just about any decent paint prog and have a perfect match with your background, or any other colours coded into your site. No need for transparency! (Unless you’re using a textured background, anyway.)
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TV or not TV

Okay… some television comments, as promised.

Big Brother—I’ve resisted! I resisted the first series almost completely; I wavered a little on the second; and last year, my resolve broke down very quickly and I watched most of it. (Obviously, Jade was robbed.)

Anyhow, this year, I’ve not watched it at all. Not a second. And I’m quite happy about that. In principle, I think it’s an idiotic concept that provides little genuine entertainment. Unfortunately, if you expose yourself to it, it’s almost impossible to not get hooked. The best bet is to avoid it altogether.

A few words on American import shows. In recent years, the Big Two UK terrestrial channels (BBC1 and ITV) have shown almost no American material on prime-time slots, or even close. I’m not sure why. The days when shows like Hawaii Five-O or Quincy would be shown at 8:00pm are long gone. Too many effing house makeovers and airport documentaries to fit in, I guess (read: unimaginative tat that is dead cheap to produce).
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Going, Going, Gone!

I guess it’s time for the latest, highly entertaining house move news. *sigh* We found out (yesterday) that the flat’s already been sold. In fact, it was already sold, bar the formalities, prior to Monday when mom went to see it… shame the estate agents didn’t bother mentioning this and saving her a journey. They were very apologetic, but it’s quite shabby. I won’t mention which estate agents it was, though.
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A Career Move

The flat-viewing was today. I had a New Deal appointment, so I couldn’t go, but mom gave me a detailed report. We’re both in a state of uncertainty, I guess. Mom has reservations about the patio door—she forgot to check if it was double-glazed or not (not double-glazed = easily smashed). [Note added later: the estate agent specs state it is double-glazed.] My reservation is where the flat is. I just don’t like the place. The flat sounds great overall, but the location sucks as far as I’m concerned. I’m trying to figure out if I can bear to spend the next x-number of years there.

I really don’t know. We need to move badly. That badly? Maybe.
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