City As Memory

So, yesterday, while I was here :

I recalled times when I had been here :

and it felt like the difference between :

and :



Goodbye Sarah Jane

Utterly devastated by the news that Elizabeth Sladen passed away today. My first crush as a pre-pubescent Sketchy.

I met her many years later at a Dr Who event at Longleat and as I bumbled some rubbish compliment at her she calmly looked me up and down, smiled warmly and said "Oh, you smell nice!"

And at the end of 'School Reunion', when David Tennant's Doctor hugged her and said "MY Sarah Jane" was I the only one who exclaimed "NO! MY Sarah Jane!"? I doubt it.

Goodbye Sarah Jane.

Life's Unexpected Delights #2

When the bastard Heron which has been stalking your garden pond for weeks is viciously mobbed by a huge flock of gulls. Heh.


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People Are Strange

I guess I've always considered myself 'normal'. But just what the fuck is normal? The same as everybody else? Average? Not tainted by madness? OK, I'm not a serial killer, I don't have sex with animals, I only have one head. But consider the following :

I always remember colours wrongly. If I see a green car, I'll remember it as red and vice versa. I often confuse blue with red also, so it's not a negative colour thing, it's some kind of memory wiring problem. Or does this happen to everyone else too?

I always have to open a packet of crisps/biscuits/sweets/condoms/anything the right way up. Even though it makes no difference whatsoever. It does to me.

If I come home from somewhere and put things down i.e. keys, wallet etc I have to put them all at right angles to each other.

When going to sleep I have to always lie on my left side. It really makes no difference, but I have to do it nonetheless.

When listening to an album I've not heard before I have to listen to a few seconds of each track first before I can play the whole thing from start to finish. This applied to vinyl albums long before CDs existed. CD intro scan was invented just for me.

I find it impossible to urinate if anyone else is in the room. I always head for the cubicle in a public place or hold it in. This has caused me some extremely uncomfortable nights out as it still holds true even if I am very drunk.

When I see a picture of a camel I have to run around in circles for 8 minutes precisely, weeping.

Ok, that last one is not true. But you get my drift. We're all a bit fucked up, yes? I could easily go on all night, but it's getting a bit confessional now. These are the things which make us individual and unique and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Apart from my issues with cottage cheese, obviously...



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Music of the Spheres

Stars sing. I'll just say that again, in an attempt to get my own head around it. Stars. Sing. And I'm not referring to human 'stars'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13009718

I was aware of this, I'm sure I've heard it before somewhere but paid little heed. Yet having just seen a news item on the subject and heard some recordings of different star songs I found I was startled, impressed and strangely moved by this phenomenon.

Of course they're not 'singing' as such, merely transmitting radio signals of different tones which can be used by astronomers to gauge their size, age etc. But - and indulge my strange imagination here - what if it isn't just us who can detect their songs? Nature and life being what it is, and our understanding of the universe being so small, what if there are vast, unimaginable forms drifting through the blackness of cold space, navigating by starsong? Collossal beasts with dimensions that would bugger our minds, interpreting a light-driven chorus of radiosonics as they drift and feed. Perhaps they even home in on the sad songs of dying stars and devour their cores, triggering their supernovea... Who knows....

I really must stop smoking this stuff.


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Life's Unexpected Delights #1

When you break wind and the sound it makes is in exactly the same key as the music you are listening to.

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