Saturday 2 January 2010

Dream: I’m preparing to meet my friend at Holland Park for the first time in a while.  As I prepare I am at work with work colleagues but the place more represents a college I once studied at.  When I eventually get to Holland Park my friend is already entertaining somebody else but she is happy to see the pair of us.  As she takes out some condoms it is noticed that they only cost 2p.  Suddenly the age of them comes clear and with it a question towards the quality of them.  With this I hear the other person kicking off/up a stink about this and it would appear that this person is a loud and aggressive version of me.  I avoid the guy hiding in a bathroom where he can be heard vocally criticising me and hurling abuse in my direction.  My friend from Holland Park however defends me vehemently as the alternative version of me leaves and disappears.

With this in mind I awaken feeling slightly loved this morning.  Even if it is just in a dream it is a nice sensation to feel defended.

I enter the second day of the year just after 8AM knowing that today is Saturday and a return to the routine for me is on the cards.  Even though I still feel very tired there is a necessity attached to getting out early and doing the Saturday paper run and grocery shop so with this in mind around 8.30AM I get up and going.

It would appear that there was some kind of frost again last night as the windscreen of my car needs some treatment again this morning which reminds me of my need for de-icer when I hit the shop.

On cue I troll down to Asda which thankfully today isn’t too busy as the world still appears to be tugging at the few remaining opportunities to grab some Christmas slumber.

Back home I lounge listening to the Danny Baker show which today has its Christmas special and an interview with Elton John.  The guy actually comes over as likeable and speaking a lot more sense than I would have expected.  Consider me duped.

After this I begin writing with Fighting Talk playing out in the background.  This year I really want to nail writing, I have more plans than ever and with it I fear I may be slightly overreaching, running the risk of, as ever, of spreading myself too thinly.  I wish I had more time to allocate to these things.

This afternoon on TV the movie choices are Spirited Away and/or Innerspace which really aren’t overly inspiring.

Today is FA Cup third round day that comes with “the magic of the cup”, which quite frankly is a load of old horseshit.  This seems to come earlier each year now.  My interest lies with Millwall playing Derby at The Den.  The game ends up at 1-1 which seems an OK result against a side from the division above although considering their recent dip in form and fortunes realistically it wouldn’t have been too much to ask for a victory over them.

Elsewhere on TV the game featured today is Reading v Liverpool and I am ashamed to admit that I am overjoyed when Liverpool choke are unable to do any better than to draw the tie 1-1.  Come Monday when I see the Heavy Metal Manager I will be able to up the gravity of this result to Liverpool having humiliated themselves.

As the evening turns into night I begin drinking to accompany my writing and suddenly the words begin flowing as I guess this is the edge being taken off.  Sadly now with my holidays coming to an end I am finding myself at the most productive I have been.

Accompanying my evening in the background is a set of documentaries about Elvis.  I guess he would have been experiencing some kind of anniversary around now.  Its funny to suddenly be able to put a face to name Charlie Hodge after so many years of listening to Bill Hicks routines mention the guy.  Cilla still looks good and I find myself getting into some kind of Twitter conversation with Alex (from the studio) about her “badger lines.”  Its her hair.

Eventually the documentaries end and my writing peters out although by the time I am heading to bed I am feeling euphoric with what I have come up.  Without even knowing it when I flip on my TV Anchorman suddenly arrives ending the night on a very good high.

It is perhaps fortuitous that I did not flip my TV onto BBC2 at this time because showing was The Assassination Of Richard Nixon starring Sean Penn which, when I saw it on Good Friday in 2008, proceeded to freak me out, catching me at a very low time post Baker Street and pre restaurant questioning my own decisions and somewhat my own sanity based behind the decisions.  Could I empathise with Sean Penn’s character at that time?  Hell yeah, I was experiencing the same kind of emotion that I felt the first time I was shocked by Travis Bickle’s action as opposed to his intentions back in the summer of 1993.  There is a fear in life of having everything go wrong, of being misunderstood and abandoned and the subsequent desperation and acts that follow with this are those than can reduce people’s actions to a most alarming degree.  Such movies of reduction terrify.  Lucky I didn’t watch it tonight then.