An emotional day.
This morning Humphrey was in such a good mood that we decided to try and get him out of the cage again. We opened the door and this time, after about 10 minutes he flew out! He bumbled about in the air for what seemed like an hour and then landed on the curtain rail looking confused and scared.
It was then that we realised we both had to go to work and so he should really be back in the safety of his cage….but how ?
After some discussion I got the step-ladder out and climbed up to get him. We had to move the ladder a few times before I could get close, but when I eventually plucked up enough courage to grab him he was terrified and made a squarking noise I’d never heared before. I got him back in the cage but was very upset as it seemed like he might have been hurt and there were downy feathers all over the gaff, including in my shirt, hair and beard. So, like it says in all the good parrot books, I apologised repeatedly to him in a very soft voice 🙂
Anyway, he’s happy as larry now, preening, eating and eeking so he looks fine.
Then this afternoon I went to the funeral of Betty Shreeve. She was one of my dad’s best and oldest friends and such a cool woman. I’ve known her since birth. It was a very emotional funeral. Being a Humanist funeral it was very dignified too and thus none of that religious shit; it was about her and not some bizarre medieval deity. They played “Whiter shade of pale” and “memories”. That was when the sniffles all started. We were all blubbing like fools. My poor dad especially.
Ah well – at least we all had th eopportunity to remember what a wonderful woman she was.
A good friend of mine that I’ve known since school is getting married. We left it right to the last minute to confirm we were planning to go and then realised that we’d lost the invitation…so I left a really wanky message on Adrian’s (the groom-to-be) voice mail and he sent me a lovely e-mail saying that was fine. He also listed a few people who were also coming. Each one of them was listed together with their S/O. Before I knew what I was doing I’d replied saying:
“Damn we’re all couples. This is what the 30s is like I suppose. Kids next. Then divorce. Then lots of self-indulgent destructive alcoholism until the funerals all start.”
too late – I sent it…sorry Adrian – I didn’t mean to piss quite so heavily and widely over the kindling.
Nice weekend tho’. On saturday I met up with Alex for a “Freedom for Palestine” rally. We stood it out for an hour or so, which is pretty good I think, and then went on a magical mystery tour that involved Maplin, the Pub and the Science Museum. Superb.
Humphrey the parrot is still very nervous.
Some of my earliest memories are of my parents friends. Big, friendly, funny people who used to listen and make me laugh. As I grew up they changed from friendly grown-ups into kind, interesting, intelligent people. I’d want to stay up late so I could join in.
Today during a call to Stella and Chris to tell them out our new parrot (current favourite name is “Humphrey”) I found out that one of their oldest friends, Betty, died on sunday. The last time I saw her was at her partner, Tony’s funeral and at the time neither of us were in a fit state to hold a conversation. Now, after a long battle with cancer she too has gone. This is very, very sad – the wrong people go.
I only hope that I’m wrong and in fact there is an afterlife for the worthy, because she and Tony will surely be there. Probably sitting listening to Jimi Hendrix accompany Billie Holliday as I type.
I miss you both.
Our DSL is fucked – again.
Every time our DSL has gone down in the last few years it has, with one exception, been down to total incompetence within BT. Yet again, it’s BT’s fault. How do I know ? Because we’re no longer getting sync on our line – that means we are no longer talking to the DSLAM – the only explanation I can come up with is that we have been unplugged.
USELESS BASTARDS! SORT IT OUT!
So back to 56k (British bloody fucking telecom yet again)
Clare Short has resigned. Everyone is talking about whether we handled the Iraq invasion properly, and whether Tone has got carried away, and whether we did enough to prevant bad things happening whilst we were ridding poor Iraq of their nasty dictator.
WHAT ?
Why is everyone talking bollocks ? No-one is talking about the fact we’ve been lied to, the fact that this war had fuck-all to do with human rights and WMDs – it’s about OIL!. It’s about GREED! It’s about MONEY! Why are you still pissing about with this pretense Clare ? You aren’t that stupid, you know what’s going on, so why are you still talking shite ? You’re the same as the rest of the scum in parliament – no sympathy from me.
Last night Channel 4 re-assured me that it still does have a bit of soul left. Following that filthy shitumentary on Heather Mills I felt that C4 was finally dead – Michael Grade would never have aired something that cack – and yes I do remember “The Word”.
But last night they showed “Beyond Iraq and a Hard Place” – an hour of Bremner Bird and Fortune that told anyone watching about all of the things that have been coming to light on the underground media for the last few months. Things that should, by all rights, cause the downfall of the UK and US governments.
Sadly the only people watching it were people who already know it. In the old days this would make me feel cynical and despondent – now it makes me really fucking angry.
Why did it happen ?
A freely distributable pamphlet that asks some very important questions about 9/11. If you have a problem reading it then try this related site: http://www.rememberjohn.com/
Why did it happen ?
Exposing the myth that The Stone Roses were anything more than a poncy talent vacuum.
or “count your blessings” as my my mum would say.So I am.
So it’s not all bad – even though the plastic-buring-psycho has started again…and those jelapeno pepper have given my bowels a load of jip….and…
Being a sad git I did the BBC national IQ test yesterday (the flash one). It really does demonstrate how dodgy the whole concept of intelligence is. All IQ tests do is demonstrate how well you perform in an IQ test. God help you if you weren’t English or suffered from dyslexia.
This time I got 120, on other tests I’ve got anything between 110 and 140 so what does that say ? It says that no-one really knows what intelligence is. It also says that I’d had a couple of bottles of wine beforehand…not that I’m trying to find excuses of course…grrrrr
On the other hand, there was someone in the studio who got 140 – bastard! And he was a city trader. Bet he’s got a big cock too.
[ additional – I just tried this IQ test and got 159 – even more confusing. If you need your ego boosted after the BBC one then give it a go ]
Michele bought me some really appropriate birthday presents this year. One in paticular really got me going: a pack of paper for printing onto black t-shirts. What a toy. We had our first go on saturday, printing a t-shirt for Steve the Copper with a picture of Mr. Slow on it (look at the photo and you’ll see why). After wasting about 5 sheets dealing with the usual printer type problems…grrrr…we got one that looked great. Steve certainly seemed to like it. After presenting it to him, Brodie, Steve, Michele and I went down to the Curry Centre in Lewisham and ate too much. It’s so good to see that place open again. They’ve been there since 1965 and when they got closed down recently Michele and I were quite upset. Especially when we noticed the Bailiffs notice pinned to the door. Not to sure about the new “modern” decor, I always liked the traditional taj-mahal/flock wallpaper style, but the food was still good – and they gave us all Brandies on the house – nice people.
It’s another Bank Holiday weekend thank god. So far I’ve done another t-shirt, for myself this time. It sort of looks like this, and we’ve done a card for Ralph (michele’s step dad). Quite a creative weekend all in all.