| Tuesday 28th June 2005 14:32MDT | → 0 Comments |
What has happened so far? Well, on Saturday we went into London to do a bit of shopping. Bf made a point of visiting all the exclusive shops in Bond Street. He has no problem going into places like Prada, Donna Karan, Gucci, etc. but I always find them intimidating - especially the bouncer on the door. I feel like I’m spending a fortune just standing in the foyer.
Sunday was a quiet day. We went wandering up to St Martha’s church and the environs. So far it has continues to be blisteringly hot weather.
Yesterday, we went to Salisbury, stopping off to see Stonehenge on the way. I must admit I was surprised how close they let you get - there is a circular path everyone follows around the stones, which I shared with around 100 Japanese tourists. Bf was only mildly impressed with the ‘bunch of rocks’ and seemed more interested in the nearby fields with cute lambs.
Salisbury is nice, though a little grotty in places. It reminded me a bit of Winchester. When it came to lunchtime, I noticed how short they were on decent restaurants. However, we found a second-hand bookshop that Daryl and Denise mentioned and bf bought what may well be his oldest cookbook so far - from 1887! We visited the quite impressive Cathedral and took many pictures, which I’ll put up when I get round to it.
In the meantime, this town and certainly the area I live in is normally quiet to the point of dullness. In the space of a week since bf arrived, there has been a power cut and now apparently a murder on Pewley Down - less that half a mile away. They don’t know who and how yet but until then, I’ll curtail my evening walks across the downs. What an impression!
There is better news though: the Co-Operative Bank, which I’m with through its internet bank, smile, has told the rabid right-wing theocrats Christian Voice where to get off due to their anti-gay stance. Fantastic! Even better, they don’t mince their words in their press release:
The Co-operative Bank asked Christian Voice to close its account on the basis of the hateful and offensive statements they peddle, and their aim of stigmatising people who are homosexual. These go far beyond the view that ‘homosexuality is a ’sin’: alleging that homosexuals are ‘formed’ via paedophilia (and that they will in turn propagate this further), and that their innate ‘corruptness’ renders them unfit for the police force.
| Thursday 23rd June 2005 17:43MDT | → 0 Comments |
Just come back from RHS Wisley gardens. We were last there in winter when everything was dead. This time there are many signs of life, though I suspect there aren’t quite as many flowers as there could have been - mainly because summer has come late this year. However, bf enjoyed it and it was poptasticly hot. I concentrated so much on putting sun cream on my face and neck that I forgot my arms and now they’re toasted. Oh well.
Yesterday we had a power cut at around 6pm. According to EDF Energy’s helpline, it was a bizarrely selective outage that affected only certain parts of Guildford and surrounded areas. We were just about the start cooking some chicken breasts for dinner when everything went phut. Somewhat annoying as the chicken container had just been opened and I have an electric cooker. In the end, Daryl was unaffected and hadn’t eaten so we decamped to his house and bf cooked a flavoursome chicken meal for us all.
BTW It turned out the power was only off for two hours, so fortunately nothing frozen was lost. I’ll be interested to see what the cause was (surge in the use of fans and airconditioning?).
I can well appreciate Darren Barefoot’s comment about supposedly independent media just being a euphemism for ‘left wing’. In fact, it’s usually more far left than just left - exhibit A being Indymedia which is only ‘indy’ in the sense that it’s apart from mainstream commercial media. Otherwise it’s a variation on Newton’s third law applied to journalism - an equal and opposite reaction to the bias of the right-wing media we know and love. In fact, in Indymedia’s case, it doesn’t even qualify as journalism and covering the supposedly ‘uncovered stories’, rather than being a back-slapping exercise for the latest ‘bring down the capitalist state’ protest. I don’t see it effecting real change as it represents everything wrong with those on the left: long on rhetoric and short on solutions.
| Tuesday 21st June 2005 16:10MDT | → 1 Comments |
Bf is here, safe and sound. His plane landed early and I arrived late at the airport - a somewhat annoying situation. However, we got back to Guildford, had lunch, he got a haircut, walked around and looked at the greenery and now he’s taking a nap.
I brought my work laptop home with me yesterday and, using the magic pixie dust of VPN, I’ve been updating documents and may even hack some code. Why, when I’m on holiday? It’s because there’s a lot to do and I don’t want it all to land on my colleague.
(He cares, he cares!)
| Sunday 19th June 2005 13:16MDT | → 2 Comments |
It has been a scorcher this weekend. Summer seems to have finally arrived, albeit a month late so there may not be so many flowers and miscellaneous greenery for when bf arrives. Hopefully it’ll be sunny on Tuesday too when his plane gets in.
| Thursday 16th June 2005 22:35MDT | → 0 Comments |
Politician’s logic: shortly after a report criticising politicians and Parliament for being remote from and unrespected by the public, a law is passed banning supposedly ‘noisy’ or otherwise ‘unauthorised’ protests outside Parliament. Much as I dislike David Davis, you can’t argue with his conclusion:
… contempt of democracy and a contempt of people’s right to protest.
This seems ripe for challenge under Article 11 (”Freedom of assembly and association”) of the ECHR, especially as it was snuck through as a statutory instrument - thus receiving the barest minimum of scrutiny.
| Sunday 12th June 2005 21:15MDT | → 0 Comments |
Went to a company barbeque today, at the house of one of the directors. It was an experience.
Something has just dawned on me. Whenever I feel miserable, low or otherwise demoralised over life in general, watching documentaries on modern architecture really cheer me up. I’m not sure why - I suspect it’s because architecture represents both an optimistic view of modern and future life but is one of those few outlets of real ‘vision’ in this country that hasn’t been destroyed by cynicism.
| Saturday 11th June 2005 18:44MDT | → 3 Comments |
Gosh, my updates are becoming infrequent. Maybe I’m getting a life? Then again, maybe I’m just getting ready for bf’s arrival. I wonder if he’ll complain about the various furniture re-arrangements I’ve made since he was last here? Damned is he who messes with an interior designer’s perfection.
On 25th May, eurosceptic twit Nigel Farage attempted to make trouble by accusing Commission president Jos
| Sunday 5th June 2005 11:16MDT | → 0 Comments |
Teleglobe - it’s your turn in the doghouse. Recently I’ve been inundated with spam mails offering (supposedly) free computers, DVD players and the like. Mails seem to be being sent via Teleglobe, who state quite confidently:
Teleglobe does not condone and will not permit the use of UCE or spam by its customers and will deal with such complaints according to Teleglobe’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).
However, when you mail their ‘abuse’ address, this heartwarming reply arrives:
abuse@antares.de.teleglobe.net: can’t create user output file. Command output: procmail: Error while writing to “spams” procmail: Error while writing to “/data/abuse/mail/inbox” procmail: Error while writing to “/var/mail/abuse”
| Thursday 2nd June 2005 19:32MDT | → 0 Comments |
There I go not paying attention again. The government has withdrawn its derogation of Article 5(1) of the ECHR, having brought in the only-slightly-less-heinous Control Orders. It’s a step back on the road to civilisation for this country, but only a step.
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