aliens

While driving home from the climbing wall this evening I listened to a radio programme about SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). In a small way I'm part of this programme in that my computer processes data for them when otherwise occupied. I inherited the computer with this already installed. Anyway this reminded me of a night several weeks ago when I went outside to have a look at mars which has been relatively close to earth recently and had a grand view of the prominent red light in the eastern sky. Then something else caught my attention. A cluster of white lights winking on and off in a kind of sequence moved slowly and laterally across the sky. I watched it for about a minute before my own house obscured the view. I'm not trying to tell you that I definitely saw an ALIEN SPACECRAFT but it was peculiar. I couldn't make out a case for it being a plane or helicopter or fireworks. Its characteristics weren't consistent with any of these. So there you are; I saw a genuine ufo.

moonbeams...

From a film called 'Careful'

shrigley

A postcard by British artist David Shrigley. Says it all really. I think he spent time in a mental institution.
Cycled 25 miles today. Called on a friend on the way home who I haven't visited for a year. We had a conversation about someone we used to work with who is soon to go to prison for benefit fraud. He had plenty of work and money in the bank. Stupid, really.

I think I've swallowed glass

This morning I blearily scraped the bottom of the honey jar hard with a knife and was aware of a grinding noise. I was hungry and barely awake. On eating the toast I bit into a couple of small hard lumps but swallowed them thinking they were.....what? I didn't really think. After returning from climbing at 4pm I inspected the honey jar to find that it was badly cracked and had a hole in it. Quite a bit of glass could not be accounted for. Christ! I am worried. I have had a slight stomach ache all day.
I wonder what the consequences might be. I've heard it is an old murderer's trick to put ground glass in the victim's food and they die a slow horrible death. From prolonged internal bleeding presumably. Will this happen to me and, if so, how long will it take? When will I be able to consider myself in the clear? Is there any point in going to hospital? What would they be able to do? Very little, I reckon. That glass has a long journey to make. Will it make it harmlessly? Is there a potion I can take which will dissolve it? Very unlikely.
Could have been worse, though. Could have been small, uncut diamonds.
I'm off to the bathroom now to spit into the sink and check for blood. I'll have to check the other end too over the coming days, weeks, months.
Watch this space.

my brother

My brother. I haven't seen him for five years. My fault as much as his. This is not his normal appearance.

bus station blues

I did not get up until 2pm today. There were only three hours of light left.

Yesterday's main events were thus:

Tried to catch a bus to Ingleton to meet a friend at the indoor climbing wall there. No bus arrived at stand 13 so 30 mins later I rang my friend and left a message saying I couldn't make it. As I left I reconsidered the layout of the bus terminal and realised that I had been waiting at stand 12 because the signage was a little misleading to the unfamiliar. I had little to do during my long vigil at the bus station but did not find time to stand back and make sure I was waiting in the right place or confirm it with another passenger. Instead I chose to pace around moodily as my bus came and went. I watched people get onto it. Public transport failures can get you down, especially when it is cold and dark and you could be travelling in a car if you hadn't recently tried to wind down the frosted-up window and broken the mechanism.

Other journeys-gone-wrong come to mind. Such as the London Underground train I got on with the intention of travelling two stops to meet a friend. I was on the correct platform and the train I got on was going in the right direction but perhaps I should have been suspicious when relatively few others got on. The reason for this soon became clear as the train cruised through all stations until fields appeared at the outskirts of north London. The first stop was Luton Airport where, luckily, I crossed the track and hopped immediately onto a train going back to London. Somehow I made my appointment.

Back to yesterday.

Visited my friend, the polymath David Wright, in the evening and watched him install some new media equipment. I Wasn't feeling too talkative, though. Later played a board game called Carcassonne with David and Peter Yeandle. The game was good but I don't pick up board game strategy very quickly so relied on their advice for my moves. I came last.

The largely obsolete phrase "play the white man" came up ( not for the first time) between me and Mr Wright. Perhaps it could be the name of a board game about racism and racial stereotypes. The game would feature such characters as mean jews, indian givers, thieving gipsies.....etc etc etc.
I doubt, though, that a manufacturer would be keen to risk such a project. In fact, I'm certain.

Have you ever wondered what your native language sounds like to a non-speaker? I have and have wondered if it is possible by a special kind of mental effort to defocus one's mind and hear English as a foreign tongue - just the stream of sounds devoid of meaning. I believe it is and have had limited success. Try it! Find your own methodology. You will be attempting something seldom tried in human history. Be careful not to get stuck there, though.

Best wishes for tomorrow

spain 99

Spain 1999

launch

I've heard that many people blog a couple of times then quit. There must be millions of stillborn blogs out there.
Perhaps there's a name for them in blogland.

It's colder than a witch's tit in this room.

So I'm going to bed probably to worry about the thing I have to do on friday. I don't actually have have to do it but it will seem as if I'm not trying if I back out. There's very little you can be made to do because you can nearly always simply lie on the floor and refuse to move or speak. There is always that option.

Now I feel slightly better about friday. Blog on !