Up in the air

I like bridges. The soaring views, the ability to zig zag a city, crossing from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, often completely different ones, lifting yourself up one side, and dropping yourself down in a totally different place, with a different atmosphere and different things to do. I like the way that, as you climb onto the bridge, the buildings drop away, and you get a proper horizon looking down the river, and a different perspective on the city.

upintheair1

I like bridges.

Or, at least, I *think* I like bridges. I like bridges in theory. And so I plan a walk, and it involves a bridge, and I think thatll be nice, I like bridges. And then I go up on the bridge. And then I remember the one thing I don’t like about bridges.

It’s bridges.

Read More »

francis the jolly blue biro

In a state of complete blockedness at work, I have decided to change direction and become a bestselling children’s author like JK Rowling.

Francis the jolly blue biro: a story for children.

Once upon a time there was a blue biro called Francis, who lived on a desk in a bedroom with his friend Julian, who had a felt tip.

Francis spent his day basically lying around on the desktop, every now

and again being picked up and used to write on pieces of paper.

Sometimes he lay next to Julian, and sometimes he didn’t, but that didn’t affect their relationship overly much as sometimes felt tips and biros need a bit of personal space, as much as sometimes they need the company of other pens.

Francis and Julian, as many best friends do, enjoyed a comfortable silence for many hours together, mainly because they couldn’t talk.

Because they were pens.

The God of Francis and Julian’s world was a big pink person, who every now and again would scoop them from their horizontal resting places, and prop them in a big white jar with a whole big multi-cultural community of pens, where they would nestle snugly with other biros and felt tip pens. It was always easy to tell Julian from the other felt tip pens because they were all different colours. But! As you can see, once Francis was in the jar with all the other blue biros, it was very difficult to tell which was…

Hang on. Which was he?
Oh sod it, let’s just say he was this one.

Francis had no discernable personality characteristics, being a biro, and couldn’t even write upside down.

Which was rubbish.

He was used only now and again, and one day the God of his little penny world left his lid somewhere, and didn’t put it back on again, and his little rolly nose got all dry and he couldn’t even write at all without a whole bunch of really vigorous scratching and scribbling first which was pretty sore for little Francis—or would have been apart from the fact the he wasn’t, of course, a sentient being and had no capacity to register pain.

And then one day, the big mean God of his sad little desktop world left him on the floor, and someone stood on him, and he broke in the middle and all his insides leaked out all over the carpet, and the last sounds that Francis heard, before he slipped out of this world, were angry voices cursing his very existence,

swearing, and cursing,

and shouting.

And that was the end of Francis, and no one cared.

Not even Julian.

The End.

Oh, stop crying kid, it was only a fucking pen.

I have changed my mind, perhaps I won’t be a children’s author.

Ten people I would not invite to a hypothetical dinner party, part two

Ten fictional people I would not invite to a hypothetical dinner party.

Not even if I had a big enough table, could cook, and they existed at all.

  1. Jessica Fletcher from Murder she wrote (People die when she comes to your house. That’s not a good party trick.)
  2. James Bond (People blow up when he comes to your house. That’s a pretty good party trick, but he still ain’t coming).
  3. Hamlet (dour)
  4. Frankenstein’s Monster (Monster)
  5. Disneys version of Tigger (bouncybouncybouncybouncy. Really fucking annoying. I don’t want to end up punching a cartoon tigger. This is supposed to be a dinner party)
  6. Bridget Jones (See Tigger. Plus, whiny)
  7. Jesus Christ (Just covering all my bases, since I put him in the historicals list. Dont want to offend any atheists. Also, beard)
  8. Dr Jeckyll/Mr Hyde (Split personalities fuck up seating plans. Also, murderer)
  9. Forrest Gump (Or, in fact, any character portrayed by Mr Hanks)
  10. Flipper (limited conversationalist. Also, removal from water would lead to his death by the middle of the pre-dinner cocktail. Dead Dolphin a general dinner-party-downer.)

Twelve people from history that I would not invite to a hypothetical dinner party

Ever. Even if I did have a big enough table.

(And could raise the dead)

  1. Oliver Cromwell (No fun)
  2. Oscar Wilde (Too much fun. No one else would get a word in. Not even me. And Its my bloody party)
  3. Florence Nightingale (do-gooder)
  4. Rasputin (Evil. Also, beard.)
  5. Jesus (No socks. I’m not too fussy about the hypothetical dress code, but I will insist on hypothetical socks)
  6. Anton Checkov (Coughs on food, consumptive, beard.)
  7. Ghandi (Nice guy, but makes everyone feel bad about taking second helpings)
  8. Tom Hanks
  9. Leonardo di Vinci (I don’t speak any Italian. He only speaks Italian.)
  10. Marquis de Sade (Not at the dinner table, thank you.)
  11. Jack the Ripper (Murderer, probably quite shouty also. Possible beard.)
  12. Lawrence of Arabia (Sandy. Smells of Camel Sweat. No beard, but looks as though he may be thinking of growing one.)

The stupidest cat I ever had

Of the two I’m living with now, one is easier to trick than the other.
They have a stick with feathers on, a toy, and while one is happier to sit and watch it get moved around the floor, it’s pretty simple to get the other running round in circles until he gets dizzy and falls over.
It’s very funny.

Not as funny as the cat my family had though, a long while ago.
He was very stupid.
Cute, but really, really stupid. His name was Bobbins, for flatulent reasons, but thats another story.

Usually they were fed pretty run of the mill food, dry food actually, in an attempt to stop Bobbins getting any more obese than he already was.
Of course, Bobbins was getting fat mainly because he was eating at every other house in the road as well as our own, but we didn’t know that at the time, so we carried on feeding him diet pussy food, in the hope that hed get thinner.
Occasionally, however, for a treat, we’d boil up some cheap fish, and they’d have a little bit at a time, to go with the diet food, which lets face it, must have been horrible, as all diet food is.

Now, bobbins could smell the fish boiling away, as could the other (clever) cat, Poppy. But while Poppy would sit quietly, waiting, Bobbins would make your life hell until he got his fish.

While it was boiling away, in the pan, and while it was sitting in a sieve, cooling down, he’d spring from chair to chair, leap up onto your shoulders, find a place of reasonable height to stand and catch you with his claws every time you wandered past, wander along any shelves he could reach, swing on the door handle, break stuff and fart.

The fish took about 20 minutes to cool to a cat-edible standard.
There was no way Bobbins was waiting 20 minutes.

After about five he would annoy you so much that youd cave in.
Alright, you’d say. I’ll give you some fish, but I’m telling you, Cat, its hot. You don’t want it now, you want to wait. You just don’t know it. Alright. Yes, I’m fetching it. Get your claws out of my arm. NOW, or there’ll be no fish. Stupid Mog.

Then you’d put the bowl on the floor, after mashing it with a spoon to try and cool it, and youd retreat to the stairs, sit down and watch.

Bobbins would rush at the bowl, open his mouth, just get his little cat lips around the steaming fish, and then spring backwards, in surprise. He would look around the kitchen, suspiciously, and his gaze would rest on you. He’d trot over.
paddapaddapaddapaddapadda.

This fish is Hot! he would say. With his eyes. He was a very good communicator, for all his IQ limitations. It is Hot. You have given me hot fish! Why?
“Look, Bobbins!” You would say, and point at the bowl “Fish!”

And he would turn around and look where you were pointing. Oooh! his posture would exclaim, racing over to his bowl. What’s this?! Someone’s given me fish, yum yum yum yum… Ouch!
And with his little puss lips almost around the pile of steaming fish, he’d jump backwards, then look around the room suspiciously.
His gaze would settle on you, and he’d come trotting over.
paddapaddapaddapaddapadda

Excuse me He would say, This fish is hot! You have given me hot fish! Why?
“Look Bobbins!” You’d say, and point “Fish!”

Oooh! Someones given me fish, must eat the nice fish, yum yum yum yum… Ouch!
suspicious look.
paddapaddapaddapaddapaddapadda.
This fish is Hot!
“Look, Bobbins, Fish!”
Ooooh!
padapadapadapadapada, head down, jump back, suspicious look.
paddapaddapaddapaddapaddapadda.
This fish is hot!
“Look, Bobbins, Fish!”
Ooh! etc etc.
Once we did it 12 times before the fish cooled down enough to eat.

My gloriously adorable idiot.

Un Sac de Voyage?!

Sitting on the Sofa for three hours this evening, after Id finally got through putting other peoples children to bed.

Sitting on the sofa for three hours, wrestling with Oscar Wilde.
And he’s a big fucker, too.

I mean, you’d think if I was going to pick a classic playwright to tussle with, I could at least have picked someone like Samuel Beckett, who was old and thin and weak and would have been out after a couple of punches to the knees.
Or George Bernard Shaw, who had a beard that you could grab onto while you were kicking him in the nuts.

But no, not on the reading list for next week. So Wilde it was.

And I’m having to research a play I really love; The Importance of being Earnest, which is great.
But for some reason, it took me 3 hours to get through 6 pages of it.
For… some reason.

Or perhaps some reasons.
I was watching television. That was one reason. And then I had to change a fuse, and get a sandwich. And a cup of coffee. More reasons.
And play with the kittens, and then one of the girls woke up. And then something good came on television.
And then I had a sudden compulsion to use the phone.
And then the toilet. And then the phone again. And then there was something else on the television.
And I have the concentration span of a carton of Orange Juice.
Those were some reasons.

ALSO: It was in French.
That was the over-riding reason.
It was, well, it is, in French. Its sitting there, on my bedside table, glaring at me. In French.
And I don’t read french. I don’t speak French, I did 4 years of French 10 years ago, and received quite poor grades for it.

But something deep in me seems to believe strongly that I know how to read French.

This is the second time that I’ve borrowed a script from the Library in French, and I’ve no idea why I do it.

I’m looking around for a different angle on the text, a different edition, edit, something that might help understand the evolution of the play through production or the fine-tuning of the playwright over time. And then lo and behold, I find a translation, and I think “Well now! Won’t this be fascinating, learning a little something about how the wordplay translates, and all that, yes, this will be brilliant!”

So yes, when I pick it up, it seems like the best idea in the world, and I go, I check it out at the desk,
and its only when I’m outside, walking away from the library that I realise…

Je ne parle pas français.

In love with Beaumarchais

Yesterday a classmate who’d missed a seminar asked if she could look over my notes.

I instinctively agreed, but getting them out of my bag, realised that the first paragraph alone read;

Take for example, the f***ing greeks. They start from the beginning, you have the whole unity of action s**t, everything happens, and you’re left with a conclusion. It may be a whacked-out, f***ed-up, bloody and sickening conclusion.
But at least the damn thing ends.

I really don’t think Ive got the hang of the whole writing notes thing yet.
But reading? Reading I’ve got.
Ive got reading down.

I keep surprising myself, and this sounds stupid, by how much I like theatre.
I mean, I thought I liked it a bit, but no, I was wrong.
I like it a lot.

And I’m in love with Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais.
Yes, I know it’ll never work, were from completely different classes, he’s part of the aristocracy, Im not, hes married, in the secret service – which is dangerous, my french isn’t very good, he’s been dead for 200 years, he’s a writer (and they’re always trouble), he’s been in and out of prison, so many reasons he shouldn’t be the one for me, I know.
But how can I not love him?
The man writes like a dream and has the kind of life that makes you realise what the concept of A Life Thoughly Lived might be. I love him.

I’m being a nerd, I know, but I love the fact that I can pick up The Marriage of Figaro, and find a characters who wander into rooms and forget what they came in for.

I always think of classical drama as stuffy, or inhuman (apart from Mr Shakespeare, obviously, who makes a good exception to this and most other rules) but I was completely wrong. I was an idiot.
Plays are about people. Always.
Sure, they might be about people in big dresses shagging their brothers and stabbing their servants, but people are people.
There’s going to be something in there that we recognise.

Hopefully not the shagging siblings bit.
Because thats icky.

Anyway, nerd as I may be, boring as I may be on my chosen THING, I’m happy to be a bore.
Because for today, and at least tomorrow, I shall be in love with Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais.
Which is at least better than last week, when I was in love with John Webster, who although easier to type, had been dead twice as long.
And probably had syphilis.
But didn’t they all. Ah, writers.

Do all writers still have syphilis by the way? Just asking.