Monday, April 26, 2010

this is somewhere i went away to

We visited Scott's parents for easter.
We went to the pub and we drank bears and put some bets on.

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Later we went midnight fishing and Scott caught a fish straight away.
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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Monday, March 22, 2010

Friday, March 19, 2010

Goodbye to all that

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Thursday, March 18, 2010

a plus saisissante manifestation de l'art des constructions métalliques


You see alot up there, but dont be scared.

There is a girl who lives next door to me who is always sick. I’ve never met or seen her but I hear her all her time. Throwing up.
The first time it was in the morning, and I thought felt for her, I thought she was pregnant and it was morning sickness and that it would pass.
Then I heard it again, another time, in the afternoon. Then not to long after I heard her vomiting in the evening, really hocking it up. Then more and more I’d get up, come home or wake in the night and I’d hear her being sick.
I began to think she was ill. Like it was from chemotherapy or something I didn’t understand or some horribly intense stomach bug. But it kept going and I heard her coughing and coughing till she was sick.
At all different times - coughing and coughing until she was sick.
Sometimes I’d go to the window and look out onto the wall of her building, working out which rooms were bathrooms from their always closed frosted window glass. I’d try and see movement through the shadows and the light. I’d try and see if she was in that building, and if I couldn’t see movement work out she must be in mine, and the echoes travel up the walls and into my apartment, into my room where I’m trying to study under the harsh lamp.
Sometimes I’d feel sick with her when she was vomiting so loudly. I feel each wet lump that rushed up her throat and out her mouth.
Sometimes, not that often, I’d get annoyed at her, interrupting my breakfast with her sickly noise and ruining the quiet that I liked while I read my paper. But mostly I was sad for her, sick of her sickness for her, sick and sad for her.
And now the coughing has stopped.
I never hear her anymore.
Now when I read my paper, eat my breakfast or study and study in the stifled heat of my room, I listen out, I’ll hear a cough from somewhere and wait, bracing for what follows, but nothing does, and I’m without a reason to stop reading, or eating to wonder what’s going on.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

You thought it would be simple; it is extraordinarily complicated.

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Thanks, goodnight.

Fuck it’s cold.
Okay… which way?
Which one is it?
Shit.
Okay, ok… okay there is the florist, turn down there. It’s on the same side as the florist.
Not here, it’s past the Italian restaurant.
What’s the number?
Not here… the keypad has a grey sensor on it.
Not this one.
That one!
Excellent!! Great!!
Shit.
Whats the code..?
It starts from the bottom of the keypad.
7 or 8 or 9….
8 sounds right. Yeah, 8.
8, something, something, something ,1.
Fuck.
Is it on my phone….maybe. I messaged it to someone.
Menu
Up, up, left, Messages.
Down, down, down, down, Sent Messages.
(empty)
SHIT. Why didn’t I change the settings when I got this thing. I’ll do that when I remember.
Phone back in bag.
Bag….WALLET!
Its in my wallet! They wrote it down for me!

Receipt, receipt, money, receipt with code on back
Okay: 85a1

8click 5click aclick 1click.
Big click.
Push.
thank god
warm.
Finally Inside.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

the old man and the key

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I was walking to the train yesterday. There was an old man walking too, along in my direction. He was hunched and I couldn’t see his face.
On the platform I saw he had his house key on a chain around his neck. Someone had thought of that, maybe him, maybe someone who loved him. If it was him then he knows that he’s getting old - if it was someone who loves him then they know too, and probably are worried. With his key around his neck they know that he might get lost but that he’ll never lose his key.
On the train when I sat down in the seat, I found that I was directly opposite the old man. When he sat I could see his face.
He wasn’t nearly as lost and dazed as I thought he would be.
His face was red from the cold, and wrinkled and creased like a cartoon.
He was alert, even if his eyelids did seem too bulky, opening and closing slowly and heavily.
He knows where he is. He is aware. He’s independent.

He was dressed like he was homeless, big old boots, big old coat.
Clothes to fight off the cold
- but I could tell by his face, by his hair that he wasn't not.
Then I saw his hands.
After he awkwardly pulled off his gloves, I saw swollen knuckles, red, purple and strained. Arthritis. Joints that look like searing, nagging, shaking pain.
But he’s aware. He’s alert. He’s watching each stop. Big, slow eyes scanning the map. Calculating his departure.
I watched him till he saw me watching.
When he was gone and I was still on the train I remembered the key around his neck.
I don’t think he wore it because he was too old and dim to keep track of it. I think was so that he could get to it easily - without having to fold and bend his arthritic joints. He wasn’t worried about losing the key. He wanted to avoid the painful, awkward dance of trying to fish his house key out of deep coat pockets, alone in the street, when he gets home.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Friday, December 25, 2009