It's been quite an astonishing season for nutcases with shotguns in Britain. Sadly there's been all too many victims. Earlier this summer there was that taxi driver in Cumbria who went on a rampage, then Raoul Moat went on the run after threatening and attacking the police in Northumbria. In both cases the perpetrator shot himself. The taxi driver did so alone, Raoul Moat after a six-hour police attempt to persuade him to surrender.
It always seems to end that way with random killers. I noti
Today I thought I'd upload a few pics taken from my back window. Vistas of weather and early evening sunshine. I like them.
I've Been Fired!
My job searching course has now changed. Instead of two sessions a week of two hours each, I now have to wade through a single four hour marathon of trawling through endless internet job sites looking for jobs within reach. Given the average attention span of a human being past his teenage years is a maximum of twenty minutes, I think you can understan
Many years ago I promised a flight in a cessna to one of my workmates. Having already booked an aircraft, I received a telephone call from the flying club telling me that the aeroplane had lost oil in flight. Indeed it had. I saw the little Cessna 150 parked at the back of the hangar with a brown windscreen, a sort of dusty and fly-filled gunge across the plexiglass curve.
No matter. They promised me another airworthy machine that was more or less the same. I shouldn't have any problems. Yet
Just a moment ago I was browsing the local newspapers local hiustory page. It's a regular feature in which we learn fascinating trivia about life in Swindon in times gone by. I was a little suprised by todays entry, concerning the result of bad behaviour in a late victorian school.
Some lads had misbehaved and received corporal punishment for their misdemeanours. The parents complained and the kids got thrown out, getting their revenge by pelting the headmaster with vegetables and threateni
Six is an important number, or at least it is for me. It is after all the age many people believe me to be. I've always had a preference for the number four. No particular reason, just a nicer friendlier number. But why, you might ask, is six so relevant to me?
It's because my life seems to be bounded by the number six. Those idiots out there who've convinced themselves that I'm a devil worshipper (shame on you) will of course by now be jumping up and down excitiedly and pointing red faced t
It's misery month in Britain right now. never mind all tjhose predictions of economic woes and european isolation, it's raining. That might suprise a few people given that Britain has a repuation for damp weather, but you see, most of our dampness is down to showers which do have a habit of catching people out. Today however is wet. It will probably be wet all day. That means I probably will be too.
Yes, It's Happened Again
No I don't mean rain showers, but meteorite showers. The Gemenids a
Once again I trudge despondently into my local Job Centre. The security guard spotted me crossing the foyer and asked "You know your way, Sir?"
Funnily enough, I do. The office catacombs upstairs are well explored by veteran jobseekers like me. I nodded, and he went back to sleep. Once there I was prevented from going to sleep myself by a crafty claims advisor, whose machiavellian tactic was to wear a flourescent yellow jumper. I don't know if such apparel is legal in Job Centres, but at lea
What a morning. As per my usual ritual, I wander down to the library to log on and contact the world out there. I know there is one. I visited it a couple of times.
As it happened, I was furst up the stairs - the security guard was craeless and opened the gate two minutes early. Right then, choose a PC, enter my number.... password... Number 19 in the queue to log on. What?!!!
I amuse myself by tapping on the desk. Wow... Sir Alan Sugar is sat in the cubicle next to me. Seriously, the re
Last night I paused to look out into the yard behind my home as I often do before retiring to bed. This was in the early hours of the night and now that the strong winds across the country have subsided, there was that familiar spooky silence once again.
I did notice an odd halo effect from the moon as the light refracted through the thin clouds hanging limp in the sky. It would have enough to stop superstitious medieval peasants in their tracks and even the lack of hollering from nightclu
"Trust Sicknote to get in the way... Should have stayed in bed..." Muttered AM as he shuffled past on his crutches. Was that comment directed at me? AM doesn't like me very much. Back in the days when the library was at its temporary hut, he had his favourite PC and used to bully people off it when he came in. He tried that with me once... "Come on, Mate, didn't you see my name on the screen?" No, I didn't, because it wasn't there and I couldn't have logged on if it was. And then I had to repeat
As always the weather has dominated my British sensibilities. Our ever changing climate has been a bit different to the one predicted by long range forecasts during the last year, which told us of 'barbeque summers and mild winters'. Ho ho ho.
The culprit has been a static zone of high pressure keeping the warm jetstream from reaching our shores. I think we forget that Britain is on the same latitude as Labrador, and only that jetstream, a high altitude wind from the Carribean, keeps Britain
What a difference a layer of cloud makes in the first embers of daylight! Unlike Wednesday morning, today it was dark again when I made my way to work. It was bound to be one of those days. My boss made her usual cheerful appearance and said "I've got a little job for you."
Little jobs? Now that they've discovered stock they didn't know they had, they're dropping prices on almost everything and my boss informed me that my job was to write the new price on every tag. That meant checking throu
Okay, I'm single, yes? So what? A great many older men are for one reason or another. I can already hear the population of Swindon England saying "Yes but....". Yes but nothing. It's circumstance, not a statement of sexuality, fashion, manhood, or any other concept these overgrown children struggle with. In particular the youngsters of my home town have been testing my patience with the most ignorant questions and attitudes imaginable. That's the reality of modern sub-culture, kids growing up di
Nature programs often fail to satisfy. David Attenborough is of course an old hand at it (no pun intended) and knows the score, which is one reason why his programs are worth a glance or two even if he does get a litle messianic occaisionally.
Last night though he was nowhere to be seen. Instead we had a guy from India relating the tale of a tigress released into a nature reserve to repopulate an area cleared by poachers. Like many people I find big cats absolutely irresistible. Powerful, d
Yesterday morning the weather was overcast, another typical dull British day and disappointing after the spell of spring sunshine we've been enjoying. By lunchtime the sun had burned off the cloud and it was a gloriously warm day. So much so I decided to go for a stroll, and headed north to Seven Fields.
Thats an area of farmland surrounded by housing developments and designated public space, although its still used as hay meadows amongst the wooded hillsides. There's an unspoiled quality to
There are those who say I don't write enough about sex. Certainly they want more gossip about my girlfriends, but unfortunately, since becoming long term unemployed I can no longer afford them, and in any case, women aren't usually turned on by flirtacious old fogies unless they also happen to be filfthy rich. Despite continued investigations by the Department of Work & Pensions, it appears I'm just another poverty stricken claimant.
However, I shall not be daunted. Here then is the scan
Bored... Very bored... Okay, lets turn on the television. You never know, there might actually be something worth watching. I think most of us have noticed the irony of having hundreds more channels and hundreds less to watch.
As it happened, I stumbled on a program about sexually predatory women. Now, before you think I'm about to embark on a fantasy, this was a program that looked at the the changing morality in modern times with female affluence and internet anonymity, not to mention outr
The universe is going down the plughole. It really is. I used to think the epicentre of this phenomenon was Swindon, but apparently there's a place far far away that's sucking in galaxies at a huge rate. I learned that from a science program on television last night.
Science is fun. Now before you all click on a link to another part of the world wide interesting net, bear with me. You see, I had this sort of conversation with J a couple of days ago. I made an observation that the science pro
The nights are very short at this time of year and very ealy this morning the daylight announced its presence through the curtains. Had I not stayed up late last night investigating the possibilities of electronic music, I might have noticed. Still, I did wake earlier than usual, and somewhat bleary eyed wandered down to the supermarket for a few odds and ends. Luckily I was just concious enough to put some clothes on.
So lets see... A loaf of bread (so I won't starve), a bottle of bleech (s
I see from the news that there's plans to create a new bank holiday. Another one? hey I don't mind at all, it's another day of work... Or it would be if I had a job. It does seem a bit strange though. For a government trying so hard to oil the wheels of transport policy, why do they want to clog up the motorways with parked cars again?
Is it merely another example of the Labour Party attempting to buy favour with a disillusioned public? Vote for us and have new holidays? Given that this gove
My search for gainful employment continues. Here in Britain we have job agencies, people who sell people to companies as employees. I don't know about you, but thats perilously close to slave labour in my view. However, the reality is that if I want a well paid job, then I'll probably have to do business with them. Then again there are job agencies and there are job agencies. Some inhabit plush air-conditioned office, others have small dingy first floor rooms with coffee making equipment that wa
This morning I happened to drop by the library, expecting some light entertainment. It was sheer murder. Teams of children were engaged in a treasure hunt, following clues read out by their adult overseers, running here and there, chanting loudly in that tuneless way that kids do. In particular, one clue revolved around the number of cubicles where I'm sitting, so there's a continual stream of children counting.
"Whats special about cubicle thirty five, children?" Asked the teacher.
You
You know it's a funny thing. Women always say that middle aged men are weighed down with emotional baggage and you know what? We are.
The reason is partly biological. Us blokes go off the boil a little and get steadily lukewarm as we realise out fragile bodies aren't coping with the demands we desperately want them to. Instead, we have to claim we're getting steadily cooler but you just know you're not convincing anyone. It's getting harder to keep hold of the harem. The aggressive young ma
Once more unto the Job Centre, dear friends, once more...
Apart from my regular signing days I sometimes get called in to attend a more serious interview. I think that's just in case I've charmed the pants off my advisor and get away with all manner of shenanigans. As if. Most of the time I feel one step away from a cancellation of payments and believe me, the Job Centre's do that on purpose. Maybe it's right that they should in that claimants shouldn't get too attached to claiming the dole
The weekend is here and the rain has gone away. It's official. The weatherman ruefully told us to look forward to a good one and he was was correct. He so loves those amber triangles on the screen with "Weather Warning" emblazoned upon it. I think it really makes his day.
The Hybrid Is Here
Quite a few years ago, on another site, the discussion on the forums got around to the merits of the hybrid car and its ecological impact. At the time, I was wholly dismissive. This was of course the era
