Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009 - 23:00

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner.. except that I'm not. Maybe I'm just like my mother.. she's never satisfied. Maybe I don't really wanna know how your garden grows. Who gives a flying furcluck?

1. Indeedly. A fairly typical sunday - woke up late, arsed about all day with music and TV, failed completely to do the househunting that I really should be making the time and effort to do.. but I just can't face it. In the afternoon I did some laundry and in the evening I did some ironing.

2. Olive, the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names.

3. For some reason, I've got really bad cramped-up calves. I think this was basically because I was sat with my ankles resting on my portable oil heater thingy. This provided a bit of pain at times.. esp. when I decided to sprint downstairs and put my washing in the drier. Ouchyness indoodly.

4. I was reading a bit about liguistics this weekend, especially w.r.t. themes in liguistic purism. The idea of Anglish (a version of English where the roots are original Germanic/Saxon, as opposed to Norman/Latin affected) is an interesting concept, as was the sheer amount of effort and complexity assocaited with gender neutrality. Make you ponder, it does. It makes me aware too that I am thirsty for knowledge.

5. "Hey, you watch the ticker, I'm going to go and microwave a bagel and have sex with it".

6. I'm a bit frustrated that I've not started my new novel yet - Will Self's 'Liver', which I have been carrying around in my work bag for the past week. It's mainly that it's more difficult to make the effort to begin a book than it is to continue reading one you've already started. Plus I've been tired on the way home from work every day this past week. Plus it's a hardback, and hence is a slightest fraction more difficult to start (for some reason). Anyone else find this, w.r.t. the last point?

7. I hope I don't have gut rot tomorrow - I ate coconut macaroons (and a big cup of milk) for dinner, and sometimes coconutty stuff can give me a bit of the squits. But it's so damned nice...

8. The trouble with sleeping in was that I had a number of slightly disturbing dreams this morning whilst drifting in and out of conciousness during my lie-in. Most odd was some kind of game show where contestants were trying to guess the species of an animal from it's juice. All the animals they named were mammals (squirrel, horse, tiger, cat..) so I am assuming it was their milk they were drinking.. but.. even less palatable alternatives are possible.

9. Middle of last week, I meant to say something about it here, I ended up chatting with a workmate in the laboratory, and conversations turned a bit odd. I know I'm a science geek, I accept that people sometimes think I know a lot of shit, and in some way I appreciate the fact that people will talk to me and ask me questions 'cause they think I might know the answer.

10. But nevertheless, I was left feeling a bit puzzled and worried for my work friend after a conversation with her about various sexually transmitted diseases and what the signs might be, and how I (as a bloke) would feel if I found out my girlfriend had an STI. In the end I tried to provide the microbiological answers that I could, and reassure her that most things are treatable.. whilst still skirting the issue of whether she (or 'her friend') actually has something nasty. Hope they just go get screened for whatever.

11. Had to call in to work this morning to ask one of the lab staff to do a wee favour for me. Amusingly, the customer services lady who answered the phone didn't recognise my voice, or even put two and two together when I gave my name. Silly moo - it's not like I share an office with her for thirty or forty hours a week!

12. Another shooting in London today. There's probably some complicated quirky reason associated with socio-economic deprivation and all that behind it, but on the face of it I do wonder why so high a proportion of violent crimes involve black communities. I wonder whether the detailed layered socio-economic 'excuses' are the zebra in the room, when a horse of 'black men/culture is frequently violent and criminal with no real excuse' makes more sense.

13. There's a sort of aesthetic symmetry when two football teams are playing each other, and their strip colours are chromatic opposites, so to speak. For instance Wolves vrs Cardiff this lunchtime was gold shirts and black socks vrs blue shirts and white socks. There are plenty of other examples - blue vrs yellow for instance.

14. Squeaking of the Wolves game, I listened to the commentary on the radio this lunchtime. It was quite entertaining to hear - though much of this was due to the amusement gained from listening to Jacqui Oatley flirting with Tim Flowers (as opposed, necessarily, to the football it's self). The game finished 2-2, Wolves getting a late equaliser when the Cardiff goalkeeper let a cross/shot slip through his hands and over the line.

15. In the top division, Fulham beat West Brom 2-0 at Craven Cottage (The Baggies missed a last minute penalty), which met with my approval. Liverpool were poor, drew 1-1 against Man City, and many peeps think that means the title race is over. Everton drew 0-0 against Newcastle, despite being a man up for the whole of the 2nd half.

LISTENING TO:- I loaded my iPod with a whole new pile of songness earlier, in preparation for another working week. Having an appauling short-term memory, however, I've not much of an idea of what sort of thing I picked.