Monday 29 June 2009

The great holiday experiment and yet I find myself up just after 7AM.

Today begins with a bang. I have not been this productive from a writing perspective in months. Outside the day is warm but inside all is cool. This is exactly what I was hoping for from these times.

When I briefly pop into my room and find Facebook open on my computer there is an instant message from The Girl saying “guess what happened?” Unfortunately for the first time in history she is no longer on Facebook so I am unable to respond/reply but I guess this has something to do with what the Albanian waiter was telling me on Facebook last night. I guess the roof has fallen in on our office after all.

This week I am dipping in and out of “Breakfast Of Champions” again in the hope of finally finishing the book so that I can see/watch the movie without a sense of guilt. Despite my American Friend’s recommendation this is a strange book lacking some kind of coherence at this time.

Mid morning the post arrives and it is two seven inches, some magazines and some DVDs. This is going to be a good week, I have lots to do and nothing to get bored about.

Around 12.30 dad calls up to tell me that he has been to the hospital for his check up and that the car is now ready to borrow if I need it. I say sure and he comes to pick me up as we head to PC World to exchange the external drive I was heading out to exchange yesterday.

It is a truly hot day outside, suffocating and miserable. This fact is compounded when dad decides to take the long route to Stanway to PC World and we get caught up in some roadwork. The people laying the tarmac look like they are frying, they are totally made of stern/strong stuff. As we pass Colchester Zoo I spontaneously suggest a visit but the old man doesn’t want to do it. No one ever wants to go to the zoo.

We pull into PC World car park and dad drives right into a handicap spot. Well, I guess he does have one of those orange badges but still it doesn’t seem right. I exchange the drive easily as a man that speaks too fast and too low deals with me, I have no idea what he is saying to me and I just reply with stock answers such as “yeah”, “no” and “the weather’s hot.” I think that may be how I spoke a few years ago.

As we step out the store we casually walk through the alarm barriers and set them off. No one moves, no one comes running to check that the drive is paid for. OK, next time I am in PC World I will walk out with something larger.

On the way home we stop off via Kent Blaxill where the old man seems to need some piece of hardware or something. I call the office and speak to The Girl who gives me low-down on the heavens falling in on the building. It sounds bad but she also sounds pretty casual about things. I worry about what has been destroyed and ruined and curse the reality of how as we appear to be getting a grip on things in the department, this pile of shite happens to us. These things always occur when I have time off on holiday.

When dad drops me off back at the flat I set about getting the replacement drive up and running and yet again it proves resoundingly ropey. I come to the conclusion that neither of my machines can cope with the drain of having two external drives going through their USB drives. I can’t be bothered returning it again though.

In the afternoon I begin watching Slumdog Millionaire out of morbid curiosity to see what everybody has been raving about. After thirty minutes I switch the tripe off. What kind of politically correct sheep herd mentality has deemed that this film is worthy of anybody’s time. It truly is awful. How can any sensible and right thinking person not be repulsed by the sight of some kind diving head first into a big pile of shit just in order to get the autograph of some no mark. The whole torture and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire spiel also sucks. Why in my wildest imagination should I be expected to give a flying fuck about any of this? I turn the movie off just as the main character’s brother is being persuaded into poking his eyes out.

Away from this shit I pick up the Have I Got News For You DVD that covers the first years when Angus Deayton hosted with stupid hairstyles. In the end I sit and watch all three hours of the main disc in one hit. Those are three hours I am never going to get back. It is a pretty fulfilling experience at times and definitely funny to see the vibe of the early days of the show but I question how much worth there is in watching (very) old editions of the show now.

By the time the disc is finished it is now early evening and teatime. Looking through my other DVDs remaining in shrink-wrap I pull out the movie Idiocracy which Tank Riot has vehemently recommended and appeals to me because it has a Maya Rudolph co-star. It is a Mike Judge joint and in the end it is OK, not mind blowing but fun all the same.

With the summer evening serving up a wonderful breeze this Monday represents some of the greatest moments that this summer is likely to offer.

In the end with the TV permanently buzzing in the background always ready to distract me I attempt to do some writing with pieces both for Diskant and No Pictures.

Eventually I fall asleep as the late night movie Anita And Me plays out on my bedroom TV.