I was outbid on the Orson book! Losing one’s virginity isn’t a guarantee of reaching orgasm, etc. 🙂 I’m bidding on something else at the moment, but I’d better not get smug about it.
E-mail news: being a bit flabby is one thing, but being told you look pregnant is another! I don’t tend to fish for compliments I don’t deserve, but this is ridiculous! My name is not Fern Britton and I don’t have my own personal ozone layer. Yet.
Read More »When’s the Baby Due?
Another warm, though not excessively bright, day. The hot stuff is coming! As you can see, I’m making a token effort to get in the mood for the weather… alas, less clothing only tends to prove I need to lose a few pounds. *sigh*
I’ve been thinking about money a lot again recently. I’m not stressing over it, though. I still want to be able to earn some cash from writing at some point—the recent writing I’ve done has been heaps better than any of my earlier work—but it’s going to be a slow road ahead unless I get lucky. (BTW: I’m talking about journalism, not creative/fiction stuff, which is a lost cause to all but the stubbornly dedicated and hugely prodigious.)
So the rat race beckons a little again. I’m resisting. At this exact moment in time, life is fairly comfortable, so I’m not letting the pressure bring me down. In some ways, though, I think the routine of a regular job would benefit me: it would break my horrendous sleeping patterns, for instance. I keep fairly busy—I do most of our shopping these days, as mom’s health is not great and she wants to hold down her part-time job for as long as she can. So I don’t feel useless. But an income can boost a person’s self-esteem and routine isn’t always a bad thing. Hmmm.
Read More »In the Mood
Tuesday afternoon, a spot of shopping in Brum, reaping the following highlights: *New pair of sunglasses. My other pair is four years old and rather… Read More »Lots of Weather
Just watched a fairly interesting TV documentary on all this Mel Gibson/Passion business. I don’t know if interesting’s the right word, really. Hmmm. I’ll give that some thought.
60% of Americans are Christians, apparently. I don’t think this figure surprises me—I’d be curious to hear the comaparitive statistic for the UK. I’d imagine it would be significantly lower, but perhaps I’m wrong.
I wonder how many of these people could articulate a coherent/credible reason for their faith, as opposed to it being something they take for granted, having been indoctrinated from an early age and not having the presence of mind to ask the right (or wrong) questions? Is the dynamic really so different to the acceptance and reinforcement of bigotry (because your parents were, yada yada yada), the status quo, etc? ‘My family/tribe’s dogma/system says thus—who am I to say otherwise [bleating sound]?’
Read More »Ditch the Habit!
The received wisdom apparently goes: as you get older you get more Right Wing, more disposed to religion and more inclined to embrace the establishment. How true is this?
I’m finding that as I get older I get more Left Wing, more staunchly atheist and more rampantly anarchistic. Should I be worried?
Read More »Worry Not
It was nice to get down to London and catch up with Paul again, but there’s always a reluctance to come home! Let’s face it, this is a pretty dismal area. Birmingham, the city, is okay enough, but the rest? Pah!
Paul and I went into the British Museum for a while and looked at a lot of old Egyptian thingies. He tried to take a couple of snaps, but neither came out very well. The last time I went in the place was a school trip back in 1981; it brought back a lot of memories, even though it’s changed a lot since then. The main memory, alas, is of me dying of thirst and not being allowed to go to the canteen for a drink until we’d looked at everything we were supposed to see. School trips simply aren’t designed to be enjoyed.
Horrible, weird, blurry pic in the British Museum. Better luck next time, Paul!
Read More »Expensive Trip!
I did buy some office-friendly clothes today, including a shirt. The venue was H&M. I usually buy stuff from M&S, since we have food from there, but they’re pricey. H&M are cheaper, although their displays are appallingly untidy and disordered. And the clothes are quite dirty in some cases; they had a pale blue shirt I might have bought had they not all been mingingly filthy and creased… okay, they can be washed and ironed, but that’s not the point.
If this sounds like I’m planning to get an office job, well, I’m not. Not really. It would entirely upset my long-term image as an arty-farty anarchist. I’m merely being… pragmatic.
Read More »The Office
Yes: fashion! With all the good will in the world, I wouldn’t portray myself as a style icon. The majority of my wardrobe could be best described as casual—and like seemingly everyone else, I have a pair of those loose jeans that hang around the hips. But what about the more formal side?
I’m not familiar with suits. I’ve avoided offices most of my life, in pursuit of creative directions I have complete control over. It hasn’t been very successful. I remember working one day in an office six years ago (I lasted a whole day!), and I had immense trouble finding something to wear… I scrambled to find a pair of black trousers (which were very old), coupled with a shirt that wasn’t in the best condition of all time, only to find the man and woman in the office with me were wearing jeans! This is not typical of office situations, though.
Read More »Suit You
At a certain point in a person’s life, it seems, their hair sometimes turns to shit. When you were 18, your hair was shiny and lustrous: what went wrong? (If your answer is, ‘It fell out!’, we’re talking at cross purposes.)
My hair used to be very greasy in my 20s, but it got better. Alas, in the last couple of years, it’s gone down the greasy track again. I know it’s not just me—I was talking to someone who’s had the same thing a while back, and her conclusion was, it’s a result of getting older. I’m not inspired by this theory.
Read More »The Fox and the Hair
