Steam

Ive been running out of steam lately....

Does anyone have any spare steam?

Local Delicacy #2

Local Delicacy #1

Logans run

We arrived in town in excitement and relief, booked into the B&B - a large pub with larger screens to watch footie and a motel out back. We phoned our sons and establishing that they were both otherwise occupied for the evening we strolled out in search of nourishment - or failing that entertainment of the palate.
The streets were a shock of colour - males and females in four or six-packs danced up the street in labcoats and devils horns. They cackled to each other in joyous anticipation of the night ahead.
It wasn't just my fur hat with ear flaps and waterproof jacket which made me feel out of place.

We sought refuge in a room which had some similarities to a restaurant. It had waitresses and served food for money - after that common factors were fewer. After waiting for 5 minutes for two people to leave we were ushered to the end bench where two opposing gaps had appeared like the red sea parting. We were kindly assited by our close neighbours in the tricks of getting into the seats without falling flat on your arse.
The food was good - oriental- and the conversation excellent. That is - the conversation of the extremely loud guy two rows behind me. It was far too loud for us to hear each other.

The it dawned on me - that feeling of special strangeness that one gets in a foreign country - but this was England - not one I had seen before - not one I should be allowed to see again.
There was only one possible explanation.
This was Manchester - studenty Manchester - the place where all the over 20's had been slaughtered!

It takes all sorts...but
"Listen Manchester - none of you people know the truth - the only truth is Jesus of Nazareth", he said as he swung from the ceiling of the bus using the two hand grips. "People try to bring me down in this town" he added trying to engage some passengers in his monologue of sometimes rhyming couplets.
I kept my eyes on alert to quickly avert his gaze should he point it at me.
"This is our stop" said my son getting up and standing behind him as he blocked the escape from the bus. He turned and addressed my sone "So you want top get past - aren't you gonna say excuse me. I stepped towards him - attracting his eyes to me and away from my son. I held the gaze as I said "Excuse me" at the same time ushering my son through the space he had made by releasing one hand grip.
As we edged to the front of the bus he shouted "Don't come the big man with me or I'll punch you down like a clown".
"Have a nice day" I said as I got off the bus.

Untitled

Drank wine – not drinking much at the mo’ – enjoy it more when I do – went to a play place today with my son – felt like I’d invaded the space of lots of dull women – familiar feeling – flashback to mum’s and toddlers 17 years ago – “Are you having the baby for the day? Isn’t that lovely?” – They were really nice and didn’t say anything but one of them knocked over my tea and I said sorry…
Ate lots of chocolate and cheese – not really eating much choc this month – it was disappointing but once I remembered it was there it was a foregone conclusion.
Thinking about the sensuality – or not- of food. It must be something like that ‘cos I’m not that hungry most of the time.

Had an idea for a song tonight – something about the pleasure of distant contact as opposed to the real stuff – but I didn’t write it as there was too much wine to drink and choc’n’cheese to eat. I was going to watch a TV remake of the Poseidon adventure ‘cos I loved that film as a kid and I love disaster movies – but after 5 minutes I thought the movie was a disaster so instead I watched a documentary about revolutionary feminists in the 70’s. It brought back memories I can’t have had because I was too young – but I was a bit of a slave to feminists in the 80’s – and I can’t think of a better cause to emasculate yourself in front of.

Better publish before I change my mind.

Projection

Inadvertently - I left my mark on Tollgate house as it disappears.

Desolation about Demolition

I fee l like I'm losing broadmead brick by brick. Its not that I liked it - but I'm missing too much of the process.

I used to work in Tollgate House in the late '80's and I was alarmed today when I saw that it's white sheet/ screen/ shroud was shrinking.

Why couldn't they have blown it up and invited us all to watch?

Give and take

"That'll be £37 for the parts and £35 for the labour and I have to tell you that with VAT it comes to £84.71" said my voicemail.
"Why did he have to tell me" I thought as I went into the small office with the big counter.
"How are you?" he said reaching for the invoice.
"Not too bad" I replied fiddling with my wallet.
"That'll be £84.71" he said.
"So are we paying VAT now" I wondered aloud.
"Oh" he said quickly, "If you're paying cash" He wrote something on the bill. I counted out £75 in cash and put it on the counter.
"Seventy" he said, pointing to the piece of paper where he had written £70 cash and drawn a circle around it. He gave me £5 back.
I smiled.
"I haven't charged you for your keys yet" he said - withholding his grin until just after I started to look worried.
I thanked him and left.

Stepping out

Invention and its well known mother – necessity caused me to venture out on foot over the last two days – the car broke down. Having staggered to the “trusty” garage and secured the loan of another vehicle with which to collect by ailing offspring from the sticks I addressed the task of crossing town to collect said form of transport.

Eventually I settled on the “trusty” train as I happened to know which time it left and that it passed through a station near to my destination. It arrived on time and I settled into listening to my record collection in random order via earphone which kept falling out and playing golf on my mobile phone. Luckily part of my brain was available to hear the train announcer at temple meads who let me know that the trains “passing through” the station I needed was literal. It didn’t stop there.

I hopped out – narrowly avoiding an unwanted visit to a suburban town and a really bad day – to walk to the mile or so to my friends house (earphones falling out as randomly as the tracks were ordered)

Crossed swords

I knew I’d seen him before – but I’ve been here so long – I ‘ve seen most people before – but I had a strong gut feeling that we’d crossed swords in the past. I’m usually good at faces – I have several of my own – but I couldn’t place him. He was just some neighbour at a local meeting who seemed a bit smug and a bit familiar.

I quite appreciated his contribution at the meeting. It was knowing but positive, prissy but practical. But I had a funny feeling I hadn’t always been so keen.

Then I was at this meeting through work and he was there too. We smiled at each other. I recognised him as a neighbour – I don’t know what he recognised me as. When he mentioned where he worked the penny sort of half dropped – you could say –the halfpenny dropped.

So this evening – when I saw him at Tesco’s – the second time I have seen him there (I know where you shop!!!) as I eyed up his 4.99 bunch of flowers and his pre-packed parsnips – I was that much away from shouting across the checkout queue

“What was it that you did to piss me off all those years ago?”.

But I didn’t. Maybe next time.

Comments

What on earth is this foolishness??
Its tedious men talking about tedious stuff to other tedious men.
I really like the writerly way you are so consise…
I have a story about loo rolls…
I can just imagine you saying that.
Don't understand the blog thing?
You should be posting at least twice a week!

Checking Out

I went to Tesco's last night - about 9.30 - too late for me to enjoy it. I bought a packet of tea which bears my name. I thought that the box would be amusing at work. When I got to the checkout I noticed that the box was broken. "Can I leave this?" I said to the woman on the till. "It's broken". She said I could.
Half way through scanning my goods I noticed that she had stopped. I looked at her in a questioning way. "What's up" she said. "That's mine as well" I replied pointing to my stuff. "It's a bit piled up here" she said , pointing to my pile of unpacked shopping. "Oh yeah" I muttered in acknowledgement.
Whilst packing my shopping I told her why I had chosen and then rejected that box of tea. This story didn't make her smile. She asked if it was the last one and I told her that I didn't know but I wasn't going back now.
While I got my card out to pay she closed the till behind the next person. I didn't quite catch her at first when she told me to insert my PIN.
I said goodbye.