Birthday Plans

It’s all getting horrendously organised this year. There’s a fantastic organisation called The Landmark Trust who take quirky old buildings, renovate and upgrade them, then let them out as holiday homes. The catalogue costs £9.95, which also helps to build funds for renovating “new” properties – which I regard as well worth the money.

Come November 5th this year, we’ll be going over to Kent, and staying in one of their properties for the weekend. It’s somewhere close to the arse end of nowhere, and looks fantastic. The photos when I come back will be well worthwhile. I’m looking forward to it already.

Round Tuit

Well, having waited what can only be described as “a fucking eternity” for someone to return the Filofax I left at their house at the start of June, I’ve finally decided that some things can’t wait any more, and applied for a replacement driving licence. It’s one of those things I need to get sorted, as train travel is (as regular readers may have noticed) beginning to piss me off on a regular basis, and I’m going to be doing more of it over the rest of this year. (I’m sure it would be easier to end up involved with someone in the same city, but for now well, it’s just not going to happen, is it?) So the sooner I can also sort out the driving stuff, the better it’ll be, particularly with certain other plans that may or may not (but, quite honestly, are more likely than not) happen. Joe Enigmatic strikes back.

Dipping In

I notice that today the water has gone back on at the Diana Memorial Fuck-up Fountain. Of course, now that la Jowell is in charge, there’s a whole new management structure being put in, and the emphasis has moved rapidly from “have fun, paddle, walk in the water” etc. to “sit on the sides and dangle your toes in” – rather an apt metaphor for our own lovely government.

On the news this morning, the old bag was saying that the visitor figures for the fountain had far exceeded their predictions. How did they come up with these original figures? No-one’s saying, but I’m betting it’s of the “Think of a number, treble it, and add two zeros” ilk. In short, no-one had a keffing clue how many people would go and see it, because there was nothing of a similar kind anywhere in the country. So basically it was guess-work. And the guessing was done badly.

The entire concept has been flawed from the start, as I’ve said several times before. No-one at the planning stage said “How are we going to make wet granite non-slippery?” or even “is that really a good idea?” – they just went ahead, and it turned into a farce. Still, better a farce than a media frenzy equivalent to when she popped her clogs, I suppose.

Useful

There are times where I just think that the internet is ace. No other words for it – it’s just ace. This morning, I’ve been able to get this little lot done…

• Check train times for travelling home on Sunday
• Check addresses for car air-con people in Bracknell/Reading
• Check bank balance, and move money from one account to the other
• Order prints of two photos to be sent here, having left the originals at home
• Talk briefly to two friends
• Update d4d™ (slightly self-referential, but there we go)

and

• Pay two outstanding bills

And all without leaving the house. Of course, now I’m going to go out, so I could’ve done most of it anyway, but all the same – well, the internet’s just ace sometimes, isn’t it?

Business as usual

Unsurprisingly, the hits this week have reduced by about 50% due to the spasmodic updates and so on. Of course, that’s still doing fairly well, which is always good.

I must admit, I still find the readership here surprising, both for who reads it and who doesn’t. I’ve got a couple of close friends who ask about whether I’m still writing and so on, but who never read it. And I mean never. It just strikes me as odd – but there we go, what would I know? Perhaps they read it and simply never comment, never let on that they know what’s been happening with me, and keep it all very quiet. But I’m more prone to believe that they simply don’t read it.

Ah well – sorry, it’s just something that’s been on my mind in the last couple of weeks.

Time Out

Christ, take time out and it all starts happening. Not content with More A Way Of Life going from hardcore cynic to loved-up old hippie in 30 seconds flat* , now Kitchentable’s doing the same.

And of course changes are continuing to go on chez D4D™, so there’s a certain little cynical corner of the web that’s going all pink and fluffy. (Not literally, you understand – I’m staying defiantly Yellow for the foreseeable)

Most unnatural. But still pretty great.

Coincidental

Do you ever get the idea that life is trying to batter your brain into submission, that sometimes the sheer synchronicity is proving to be somewhat difficult to avoid?

Life continues apace, and the time I’m spending in Berkshire is going well (we’ll ignore an episode today with the dog being extremely travel-sick) and all’s looking more and more positive by the day. Upon checking my email tonight, I’ve got mail from an agency about a contract doing WAP and WML work for a company in Bracknell. Talk about synchronised.

I’m not going to go for it – in many ways it would move things far more quickly than we’d be happy with, and also I’m still contracted to Oldham ’til somewhere around the end of the year. But it’s one of those things where yes, everything is conceivable all of a sudden.

I’m gibbering a bit, but all the same – well, it’s just interesting the way life goes, sometimes.