Today is the day.
It is the day that I noticed that Christmas lights had started going up in town.
It is the day that my friend noticed the first Christmas tree up at the local bowling alley.
And it is the day that I heard for the first time since last Christmas that bloody song by wizzard.
I am utterly astonished.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
I had the dubious of pleasure of being in London the last couple of days with work and randomly ended up on Oxford Street. It's not my favourite place on earth by a long shot, its too noisy, to busy and too many people but I had something to buy while I was there so along I went.
Now for once I just happened to look up a bit from where I was going and what struck me was that while there are an awful lot of modern and pretty faceless buildings along there, there are also an awful ot very old and in some places quite grand buildings as well. Some of the architechture is beautiful and the decoration ornate and just very pleasent to look at. Yet in the vast majority, in fact I think every case, the front of the ground floor has had some dreadful shop front put in that quite simply ruins it. I know that they are trying to bring in the punters and wantto show off what they are selling, that's quite obvious, but surely there is more to our environment, and I include our urban environment, than the ability to sell stuff more effectively?
Maybe something to debate another day.
While in London I had the horror of staying at the Ibis Hotel in Euston. Thankfully I wasn't paying, HM Government was footing the bill, £135 a night for 47 people. And HM Government has been soundly ripped off.
Lets start with the room. It was meant to be a double bed, actually it was two single beds pushed together. The window over looked the railway line into Euston. It was meant to have a bath, actually it did have a bath but it was 4 feet long. I am 6 foot 2. Need I say more? The towels were the size of postage stamps and the sink took at least 15 minutes to empty. There was perhaps 9 inches space between the bed and the wall it was that small. The loo roll was like sand paper.
Then there were the staff. Most of them couldn't speak English to an acceptable standard for a customer service position and the bar staff were rude and distinterested and didn't know how to pour beer.
And then the food, are yes the food. The starter that we all got was apparently salad. What it consisted of was one limp lettuce leaf, 2 slices of cucumber, 2 small gerkins and a pile of tinned sweet corn. It was revolting.
The main course was a choice, not that we had any kind of waiter service, this £135 a night hotel, yes remember that, £135 a night, could not even serve us at our tables. I ended up with veggie lasagna. It was luke warm, greasy, tasteless and the vegetables were watery. It was pretty grim.
Pudding was fuit salad, that I strongly suspect was tinned, and it took the skin off the inside of my mouth.
All in all the Ibis Euston is an absolute disgrace.
Now for once I just happened to look up a bit from where I was going and what struck me was that while there are an awful lot of modern and pretty faceless buildings along there, there are also an awful ot very old and in some places quite grand buildings as well. Some of the architechture is beautiful and the decoration ornate and just very pleasent to look at. Yet in the vast majority, in fact I think every case, the front of the ground floor has had some dreadful shop front put in that quite simply ruins it. I know that they are trying to bring in the punters and wantto show off what they are selling, that's quite obvious, but surely there is more to our environment, and I include our urban environment, than the ability to sell stuff more effectively?
Maybe something to debate another day.
While in London I had the horror of staying at the Ibis Hotel in Euston. Thankfully I wasn't paying, HM Government was footing the bill, £135 a night for 47 people. And HM Government has been soundly ripped off.
Lets start with the room. It was meant to be a double bed, actually it was two single beds pushed together. The window over looked the railway line into Euston. It was meant to have a bath, actually it did have a bath but it was 4 feet long. I am 6 foot 2. Need I say more? The towels were the size of postage stamps and the sink took at least 15 minutes to empty. There was perhaps 9 inches space between the bed and the wall it was that small. The loo roll was like sand paper.
Then there were the staff. Most of them couldn't speak English to an acceptable standard for a customer service position and the bar staff were rude and distinterested and didn't know how to pour beer.
And then the food, are yes the food. The starter that we all got was apparently salad. What it consisted of was one limp lettuce leaf, 2 slices of cucumber, 2 small gerkins and a pile of tinned sweet corn. It was revolting.
The main course was a choice, not that we had any kind of waiter service, this £135 a night hotel, yes remember that, £135 a night, could not even serve us at our tables. I ended up with veggie lasagna. It was luke warm, greasy, tasteless and the vegetables were watery. It was pretty grim.
Pudding was fuit salad, that I strongly suspect was tinned, and it took the skin off the inside of my mouth.
All in all the Ibis Euston is an absolute disgrace.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
This one of my favourite websites
http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/
Some of what is one there is funny, some poingaint and some just deeply deeply tragic. I find it comforting though.
We all have moments where we feel odd, where we feel that we are a freak because we feel and think things that we would never dare say out loud because we would look stupid or weak or just plane weird.
And then you look at this site and you realise that we are all just human afterall, everyone has their moments of pain and that at the end of the day we are not alone.
http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/
Some of what is one there is funny, some poingaint and some just deeply deeply tragic. I find it comforting though.
We all have moments where we feel odd, where we feel that we are a freak because we feel and think things that we would never dare say out loud because we would look stupid or weak or just plane weird.
And then you look at this site and you realise that we are all just human afterall, everyone has their moments of pain and that at the end of the day we are not alone.
I have just seen one of the most annoying and patronising adverts ever. It was for one mobile phoen company or another, I forget which, it's not important, essentially along the lines of you can now get premier league and champions league goals on your mobile for £5 a month. And it has hundreds of blokes all whooping for joy at the idea.
What a patronising load of crap..
Following a footbal team is utterly irrational, we all know it, and yes some of us, like me, go to extraordinary lengths to follow their team but this advert really wound me up. It was clearly made by someone with absolutely no idea what it is like to really support a club. I remember going down to Barnet one Wednesday evening in 1993 when the club through the gates open because it looked like the next day the club would go out of business. I stood on the old west bank among many others for what I thought would be the last time. The club though survived because the fans bailed it out. I've been on protest marches to save the club, I've spent hours getting people to sign petitions to keep it alive. And then I've cried openly in joy when they've been promoted.
That is what it's like to be a proper fan, it has nothing to do with this patronising idea that all we want is to see top class goals scored in souless grounds between two clubs we care little about. Being a fan is about sense of place and of community of sticking with it when times are hard and loving it when the good times come again. It's much like being part of a family. So I get wound up when my love of my little club is belittled and used for crappy marketing.
What a patronising load of crap..
Following a footbal team is utterly irrational, we all know it, and yes some of us, like me, go to extraordinary lengths to follow their team but this advert really wound me up. It was clearly made by someone with absolutely no idea what it is like to really support a club. I remember going down to Barnet one Wednesday evening in 1993 when the club through the gates open because it looked like the next day the club would go out of business. I stood on the old west bank among many others for what I thought would be the last time. The club though survived because the fans bailed it out. I've been on protest marches to save the club, I've spent hours getting people to sign petitions to keep it alive. And then I've cried openly in joy when they've been promoted.
That is what it's like to be a proper fan, it has nothing to do with this patronising idea that all we want is to see top class goals scored in souless grounds between two clubs we care little about. Being a fan is about sense of place and of community of sticking with it when times are hard and loving it when the good times come again. It's much like being part of a family. So I get wound up when my love of my little club is belittled and used for crappy marketing.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Well once again it's been a wee while since I posted here, I hope to start getting back into the habbit of posting more often, I'm definately feeling the urge to write!
What I'd like to comment on though is the strange things that bring back memories.
When I was young, and I mean primary school age, I used to spend a huge amount of time at my grand parents who live 10 minutes walk from my parents house. Most of my school holidays were spent there as both my parents worked but the most vivid memories are the sunday evenings we used to often spend round there as a family, particularly in winter. Now what i remember most is some game me and my sister used to play that for some reason involved pearing out of their letter box. The letter box had a metalic smell to it (which, being metal, is hardly surprising!) but that metalic smell, despite the fact it could relate to anything metal, always brings back those memories, most of which are 20 years old now.
Anyone that has read this blog before will know that I was very close to my Nan on that side of my family so you might say that there is some link there that makes the memories associated with that smell so vivid, but why? Why that very small thing? My Nan used to dish out sultunas as a snack but they dont have the same association for me, nor does the old card table of hers that I now have in my front room. I just find it very strange that something liek the smell of a letter box can bring back such memories.
Odd.
What I'd like to comment on though is the strange things that bring back memories.
When I was young, and I mean primary school age, I used to spend a huge amount of time at my grand parents who live 10 minutes walk from my parents house. Most of my school holidays were spent there as both my parents worked but the most vivid memories are the sunday evenings we used to often spend round there as a family, particularly in winter. Now what i remember most is some game me and my sister used to play that for some reason involved pearing out of their letter box. The letter box had a metalic smell to it (which, being metal, is hardly surprising!) but that metalic smell, despite the fact it could relate to anything metal, always brings back those memories, most of which are 20 years old now.
Anyone that has read this blog before will know that I was very close to my Nan on that side of my family so you might say that there is some link there that makes the memories associated with that smell so vivid, but why? Why that very small thing? My Nan used to dish out sultunas as a snack but they dont have the same association for me, nor does the old card table of hers that I now have in my front room. I just find it very strange that something liek the smell of a letter box can bring back such memories.
Odd.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)