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MY JOURNAL -JUNE 2003

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Monday 30th June 2003

20.00 Hrs

Weather : cool but dry and some late sunshine

Watched the first of my two new Quatermass DVD's today - "The Quatermass Xperiment". ( Bit of trivia for you. It was the first in a long line of the famous Hammer Horror films). I have seen it before, but that was many years ago so I had forgotten much of it. In terms of horror it was fairly lame (but  that's how I like them), but as a sci-fi classic it was enjoyable. It is rare to get an old sci-fi film without a barmy American General in it, but this was one of them. It was a shame that for  the sake of American sales they had to cast an American as Professor Quatermass. In the original BBC television series, which the film was based on, he was played by a very English person and I would have preferred that in this film. If things are quiet tomorrow I may well watch the second DVD - Quatermass II.

After I had written the last entry Yesterday, and things had quietened down, I became aware that I was feeling rather bored and lost. I read someone complaining about coming down from the weekend high at some point today. It is a good way to describe it. I did feel exceptionally good over most of the weekend even though I actually did very little. It must have been the company that did it.

I cannot believe that there is no such word as "quietened", but my spellchecker can't find anything like it ! Well anybody who doesn't believe that word exists is welcome to step outside with me (and buy me a dictionary) !

16.00 Hrs

Weather : scattered showers and a few sunny intervals ( how English !)

What good is toilet paper that you can pierce just by blowing your nose on it ? I won't continue where this logically leads to.............

06.35 Hrs

Weather : Grey skies and copious rain

The last day of the month and lots of things to do. I must renew my TV licence before they get too stroppy. I must prepare the July page for this very on line journal.

I think I had a good nights sleep. I can't remember what time I fell asleep, but I think it was soon after midnight. From there it was non stop until 6.30, so at least 6 hours in one go. Not bad. Things are getting back to normal.

In an amazing case of synchronicity the brand new episode of Futurama ( but the same old never ending Sky advert breaks) was about parallel universes - the same as the book "Mostly Harmless" that I had finished reading earlier on.

I promised to reveal the meaning of life today. It is quite simple. Your role is to do bad things, not good things. That needs more explaining. You actually do bad things to your identical self in the parallel universe. Only one of you can get to move on to a higher level. So by making the good choices you actually do bad to your other self, thus reducing their chances of moving on. Of course this theory falls apart if there are a multitude of parallel universes. Although with sufficient booze a more substantive theory could be developed where you are vying against a multitude of almost identical selves, but this will have to do for 6.55 on a rainy Monday morning.

Sunday 29th June 2003

16.00 Hrs

There is nothing so nice as lying on your bed wearing only your underpants on a hot sunny day with a nice breeze coming through the open window and reading a good book. Well, actually there are several things, but this was nice anyway. I have just finished reading Douglas Adams' "Mostly Harmless". I did think to write some sort of review to it, or it give a précis about the story, but I'll do neither. Instead I shall copy a few quotes that mean something.

"Anything that happens, happens" (You now know the entire contents of page 1)

"Anything, that in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen" (You now know the entire contents of page 3)

"Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again " (You now know the entire contents of page 5)

" It doesn't necessarily do it in chronological order" (You now know the entire contents of page 7)

" Everything you see or hear or experience in any way at all is specific to you. You create a universe by perceiving it, so everything in the universe you perceive is specific to you." (Quote from page 93)

All these quotes mean something. What they mean to you or I is irrelevant . Their importance is that they mean something !

Tomorrow I shall reveal the meaning of life ! ( cue fanfare of trumpets)

10.30 Hrs

Weather : bright and sunny

Fell asleep fairly fast, before midnight, last night. This morning I awoke at 4.44 am ( two thirds 666 !) and felt really wide awake. So I got up and fed Nelly ( Schiba seems to be away again) and turned the PC on. Wrote a short e-mail and had a quick surf. Pleased to see that B also reported a good day yesterday. I went back to bed as I realised that just under 5 hours sleep was not enough, and after reading another 10 pages of "Mostly Harmless", I fell asleep and didn't wake up until just gone 10 am. I seem to recall having a dream about my PC being broken in to by hackers. Oddly it was one of my PC's that is not connected to the internet. 

One extra thought about yesterday : I'm surprised I didn't get sunburn. I have had only minimal exposure to strong sun this summer, and yesterday I was out in the sun with no protection for a fair amount of time.

                                                                                                                              Saturday 28th June 2003

22.25 Hrs

 I have had a good day out today. Met Barbarella at Forbidden Planet as arranged and did some shopping. Managed to buy "Mostly Harmless" by Douglas Adams, a book I have been after for a couple of months now. Also got two ancient Quatermass films on DVD. After that checked out Morgans' computer warehouse - some very good bargains, but nothing I really needed. After a quick drink up to Camden.Wandered around a few shops then into the pub for a couple of pints. Overall a good day only marred by the final Connex train adding an extra 14 minutes late to a 20 minute wait at Lewisham. I now feel tired, but not exhausted, but still ready for bed. I also developed a nasty headache on the way home. Since I have eaten it seems to have eased a bit so I will not take any painkillers just yet.

Perhaps I'll write some more thoughts on today tomorrow.

06.15 Hrs
Weather : a bit overcast
 I am adding this part of today's entry using Mozilla composer on my Linux box. I know that this is going to cause a great deal of confusion when I come to update again using Windows, but it's got to be tried.
Managed a continuous sleep last night with no waking up at silly hours in the morning. Fell asleep just before midnight and was awoken by Nelly at 5.50 am demanding her breakfast. That is a little unusual as I don't think she has done that before. She was very attentive though and as soon as she realised I was awake and looking at her she started purring away. She led me all the way to the landing, but was a little upset when I stopped off for a pee. She sat in the bathroom still purring as I did the necessary and then led me all the way down to the kitchen purring her head off. Once she realised that I was washing up a new plate and opening a tin she just sat watching me and didn't attempt to cajole me any further. She just sat there with that regal look in her eye waiting for her slave to get on with it.
Now let's see if I can upload this and keep a local copy on the hard disk.

And now back to Windows. The above experiment nearly worked. Mozilla added the file extension html, whereas all these pages are saved as htm and I found the old and new version files listed as two separate files on the server. I think for the sake of simplicity I will stick to doing this journal under Windows - apologies to all open source fanatics. Maybe if I add any sections to this web site I'll do those as new from Linux.

Friday 27th June 2003

21.05 Hrs

Weather : still feels rather humid indoors, but lively and fresh outdoors.

Thought I'd started some sort of flame war by e-mail earlier ( see earlier, about snappy e-mail). In some ways I hate e-mail. Face to face, or by phone, any small misunderstanding is so easily corrected that it is usually hardly noticed. But when things are in writing and the information is not in real time it is so easy to make a complete balls up of the communication. I do love writing on the PC as it liberates me from my awful handwriting 

( correction - childish scribble), but sometimes it is hard to describe some things without writing something that looks like a bloody legal contract. Perhaps I am too trusting that people will understand my simple witterings, but I don't think I will (or want to) change.

By way of a change, let's bring on the comedy element. Appearing at a theatre 10 minutes from here is a show I don't think I'll be going to see (seen it on Eurotrash anyway).

Lewisham Theatre  penis puppets

13.45 Hrs

Lunch was off for today, but I still have tomorrow to look forward to and the possibility of a few pints by the river (Thames) at Spice Island on Monday or Tuesday. I hope the weather stays cool and breezy tomorrow as inner London can be a hot and sweaty place and I don't want to turn up looking like something just dragged out of the river. It can be as hot as it like if we go to Spice Island as it is a lot cooler by the waters edge. I hope we do get there as it will be another chance to check out my new camera. I fancy some "touristy" pictures of The Thames.

Spent the last hour surfing through the Live Journal entries of a lot of people. I do find it do surprising that with such an apparent wide network of friends, both real and cyber, so many people complain of being lonely

 ( sometimes overtly and sometimes by oblique reference). I have now been offered the chance to join Live Journal, but I am not sure if I want to yet. Although there are provisions for privacy it feels too public, and of course it is difficult to decide what should be public and what should be private - especially when the mood you are in might determine your choice at an irrational time. For now I think I'll stick to this format. It is both public in a literal sense, and yet private by way of obscurity. While you're reading this , dear reader, bear in mind that what you are experiencing could be unique. It is possible that you are the only person in the whole universe who has read these words (apart from me, the writer - obviously). There, doesn't that make you feel special ? 

07.00 Hrs

Weather : hazy skies and fairly cool

Got to sleep sometime around 11 pm last night and didn't wake up at 2.30 am for once. I did wake at 3 am though. Nelly said she was starving after not eating for 5 hours, but I made her wait and was soon back to sleep again. Slept right through to just gone 6 and then stayed in bed for little 10 minute naps until just before 7 am. I was very tired last night. Wrote, but haven't sent yet, a very snappy e-mail and probably didn't shut the PC down properly as it ran scan disk when I turned it on just now. Provided it is dry I will probably do the two bus journey over to Ivor's lunchtime pub and have a few pints with him. It would be nice if Dionne was there as well.  

Thursday 26th June 2003

19.00 Hrs

Probably the last entry for today. I'm having an early night after The Bill has finished on TV.

I have just discovered that the catnip plant grows easily in an English back garden. Somehow I had always imagined it was some exotic species of plant. Apparently it is usually available in garden centres. I must get some soon and give the cats a permanent grin.

16.40 Hrs

Had a quick snooze(30 mins ?), but now feel quite groggy. Decided that I will only upload these entries twice a day so I can add one or two lines like this without going to the bother of uploading. 

14.00Hrs

Good : All the extras on the Dr Who DVD "The Dalek Invasion Of Earth"

Also Good : Tesco's mint and yogurt low fat dressing.

Bad : Tesco's packets of thin sliced beef which need a chainsaw to open ( well this one did)

06.50 Hrs

Weather : hazy early morning sun.

Had a pleasant drink in The Ram last night followed by sitting down to watch The Bill that I had recorded earlier last night. After The Bill had a flick around the cable TV channels and found The Fashion Channel showing lingerie. I imagine that I must look like a cat watching birds through a window when that is on......After 20 minutes of that I went to bed at around 1 am. Try as I might I could not switch my brain off. It just kept jabbering away and it wasn't even about what I had seen on The Fashion channel, or even an image I had seen on ebay earlier in the day ! Eventually went to sleep around 2 am so I was too late to wake up at 2.30 am (see yesterday mornings entry). I did awake at 4 am for no reason but was soon asleep again - I don't think I even had to go for a pee. At 6 am I was woken up by two cats singing songs of love and hate in a nearby back garden. At first I though it was my two, but Schiba was fast asleep on the studio floor, and Nelly, having had her bedroom invaded, was asleep in the hall outside the bathroom. Maybe the two of the had had a "discussion" about sleeping arrangements at 4 am and it was they who had woken me up. I can remember two fragments of dreams from last night. The first was a dream about dreaming and somehow used video cameras to prove that someone had been somewhere in their dreams, but the details are far too hazy now. the second was that I was being trained to take apart and re-assemble a raft. I remember the raft was 12 ft x 12 ft, made of a wooden underframe with a wooden decking. It was the sequence of taking off this decking and replacing it which as important. There was 8 different sizes of wooden planking in a binary sequence starting ( and I have just calculated this) 1.125 inches long ( in the dream I thought they were 1 inch long), followed by 2.25 inches, followed by 4.5 inches and so on up to 144 inches. The correct sequence was to take out the smallest pieces first (the least significant bits !), which were in the centre, and to work outwards to the largest pieces. Now if only I could remember the entire layout of the raft I might have found a binary message of world shattering significance in it. But that is not the nature of dreams..............

Wednesday 25th June 2003

17.30 Hrs

Weather : the clouds have scattered, but it feels very humid now.

When I first started this journal I had been inspired by other online journals ( OK one in particular) and thought that if only I had the courage I could moan about how bad life is and how some days I wished I did not exist (not the same as suicide - too many responsibilities for that - cats to feed etc). The only trouble is that since starting this journal, and the other web pages, life has become so much better. For a start I have suspended a project to transfer all my old radio tapes to mp3's and burn them to DVD+R disks. After weeks of that I was seriously getting bogged down in nostalgia. Remembering days when there were so many friends and boozy times. Those were the days when it seemed every studio session with Nigel Grant, Mark Ashton, Steve Ego or Jenny and Di was like a party. What a contrast to now !!! The other thing that has made seem better is the creative aspect of all this. I did witter on about it on last Mondays entry, but I do like being creative. I can't raise the conceit in me to say what I do is great, or even any good, but I am proud of it anyway. So there ! 

Other good news is that I should be having a couple of pints with my friend Kevin in our local tonight. Even better news is that I am meeting up with a couple of people for some shopping in London on Saturday. One of those people is possibly an expert, or at least well versed, in Linux, and could make a useful addition to my address book. One problem with Saturday is that I believe we are drinking in "The Dev" which is, allegedly, a goth pub. I think I might feel a little self conscious going in there with all my hairy mass among all the little pale faced waifs (and wraiths). I shall just have to grit my teeth and enjoy it anyway. Also worried about what music they may be playing (if any). 

Listening to : Paradise Lost - Gothic (CD) ( thought I had better re-acquaint myself with at least one CD that the record companies used to call gothic music)( Should have put on  Paradise Lost - Draconian Times, I used to like that CD a lot when first released)

13.30 Hrs

Weather : breezy  and starting to cloud over.

Call me sad if you want, but I have just bought "Dr Who - The Dalek Invasion Of Earth" on DVD. In glorious black-and-white, Dolby digital MONO, and starring William Hartnel as The Doctor and Carole Ann Ford as Susan ( I quite fancied her as Susan).

09.30 Hrs

Weather : bright and sunny again - so far.

After I finished reading in bed last night I laid awake for about an hour thinking about life, the universe and everything. I have never watched The Matrix, but I have seen most of it (it was used as a region 1 test disk in the workshop where I worked). So I am really only aware of some of the concepts behind it, and not the actual plot. The Matrix concept could explain some things, but I prefer the older sci-fi idea of the brain in a bottle. It could explain why I keep waking up at 2.30am, or thereabouts. Maybe it is when they change the nutrients or something. Many years ago, perhaps 25, I once woke up convinced that I had only just missed someone, or some thing, altering something. But it was like trying to remember a dream. There was something on the very edge of my conciousness that I could not grasp. The other, and much earlier idea (Greek ?), that what I now perceive as reality is, in actuality, just another dream, could also be a possibility. The final thing is, if what I perceive as reality is not reality then whoever is calling the shots has a poor sense of humour on some days.

As I write this rubbish another cat has come into view. It is a randy tabby who has tried to seduce Schiba earlier (poor thing - just 'cos he's got no balls) and just now had his sights on Nelly. He looks similar to a certain Spider and Lugosi, although their mum would probably laugh at such an idea. I took a picture of him from about 25 ft away, and without any optical zoom on the camera he is a little fuzzy when cropped and enlarged. This is what he looks like -Tabby cat

Tuesday 24th June 2003

20.00 Hrs

Weather : a perfect day. Not too hot. Not too humid. Just bright and sunny.

I seem to have spent a considerable amount of today making a multimedia CD. It contains a lot of pictures, some audio and a short video. Alas it is not self running, although I guess I could have done that as well. I discovered that IRFAN VIEW can generate a self standing executable slide show and I have used that to good effect. I am not an artist ( no way !!) , but I am reasonably happy with the cover artwork. It took most of my skills in Paint Shop Pro to do it, and I think I learnt another couple of things on the way. Now the bad bit. I actually spent so long at the PC that I lost sight of what I was doing. Just using the filters in Paint Shop Pro I managed to make some nice 3D metallic looking lettering for the CD cover. I spent so long playing with it and getting excited about how it was turning out that I managed to spell multimedia as multimdeia. I didn't notice until just before I started writing this. I walked past the CD and picked it p to admire my earlier handiwork and it just stuck out like a sore thumb. I can't face going through all that again so it will have to stand. I could bluff it out by saying that it was deliberate as the CD is entitled "A Mess Of Multimedia", but I have admitted it now and it is for someone who will probably read this confession. Ah well - Sorry !

Bugger all on TV again so it will be another early night with the book I am reading = bed at 9pm, sleep at 11pm or midnight or whenever. 

06.30 Hrs

Weather : bright and clear

Last night I did some experimenting with Infra Red photography using the "night vision" option on my Samsung camcorder. The results were not as good as I hoped. I was using the memory stick in photo mode and I am sure that in movie mode (to the tape) the results are better. Below is a sample that I have cropped it and taken out a lot of the green colouring that the camera adds. 

I woke up at 2.35am this morning convinced it was time to get up and couldn't work out why it was still dark when I opened my eyes. After a pee and a check to see if Schiba was waiting to come in, I fell asleep again. I slept through until 6am and woke up remembering part of two dreams. The first I can only remember a fragment of. It concerned waiting for a train home (from where ?), and instead of the expected 8 car train just a single carriage turned up. Bizarrely it was an oversized tube train painted red on the outside and pale green inside. The second dream seemed to start with me looking over some railings into the sea. Except it turned out not to be the sea, and was in fact a harbour or dock in London. I was with someone and remarked to this person that the water looked very clean and that I could see lots of fish above the sandy bottom. The water was also shallow and still. He ( I think it was a he) pointed to the distance where the water was now covered in detritus and with a prominent swell. Then I noticed that some sort of sluice gate had been opened, although that was actually out of site behind some buildings, but I could see this huge inrush of water. I wanted to take a better look at this so I started walking around the outside of this dock. Fairly soon I had lost sight of it as there was some wasteground covered with thick Buddleia bushes between the dock and the road. Eventually I went through some sort of subway and up a flight of stairs and came out near, but not in sight of the sluice, although I could hear the water. All the surrounding roads were patrolled by armed police but some where taking a break. They had started some sort of game of cricket or baseball using a hand grenade as the ball and their guns as the bat. Then I woke up. Analyze that one if you can !!!

Nelly viewed in infra red

Monday 23rd June 2003

20.00 Hrs

Weather : fairly bright, some sun, dry, breezy and not too hot.

TV sucks ! There is nothing on the terrestrial channels. Sky is showing the 100th repeat of an old Simpson's episode followed by a re-showing of episode one of Enterprise, and the Paramount comedy channel is showing repeats of repeats of  M*A*S*H. I don't understand how The Paramount comedy channel schedules their programmes. They follow through a series of episodes of M*A*S*H to some arbitrary point and then jump back to a random point and start all over again. They are MAD !

Today could have been very boring, but I bought a couple of magazines ( Linux Format and Classic Rock) and they have provided a distraction ( and I haven't even opened Classic rock yet). I have also been working on another web site unrelated to this one (about some bloke called Ken Myers). For this one I have decided to try for an all Linux effort.  So far it is going OK although the editor ( Mozilla Composer) is not as WYSIWYG as it claims. For instance if you use a blue background all the hyperlinks merge into the background until the page is saved then re-renders them in the wanted colours - most strange. ( Still at least it does not try and tell me I have misspelled colour like this poxy program !!!)

I have come to the conclusion that building web sites is good therapeutic work. It is a way to pass hours and hours and still be doing something creative. I like being creative, but it only seems to be of some value if there is an audience (regardless of whether they appreciate it or not). I hope I am not alone in reading all this work.

I checked my bank balance today. One deposit has gone through so I am still in the black. Provided my big cheque clears during the week my spending spree on Saturday should go ahead. 

06.00 Hrs

Weather : It's pissing down

Awoke to the sound of heavy rain at 5am and couldn't get back to sleep again. Found Schiba asleep on the studio floor. He had finally turned up yesterday afternoon after a 36 hour "hunting trip". I sometimes wonder if he has another home. He nearly ended up spending the night outside in the rain, but I heard the rain start just as I was falling asleep, and decided to get up again and see if he wanted to come back in - he did !

I checked all the pages and links on this web site this morning and everything seems to be working after my major rebuild, but last nights entry does not seem to have worked its way through the system. I wonder how long it will take for this entry to be visible to me on NTL's clockwork servers. Perhaps I will consider alternative ways to do this journal in the future. No plans today except a trip to Tesco. It could be a boring day.

Sunday 22nd June 2003

20.25 Hrs

Weather : cloudy but still rather humid

Well what a day it has been. I seem to have spent a lot of it battling with web pages. After a battle trying to update bits of the web site I decided to delete everything on the web server and start again. It is now all neatly done in sub folders instead of one unholy mess. I also discovered that the first page should be called "index.htm" as all (or most) web browsers look for that at first. So I have edited all the relevant bits and now my website address (which I hope you bookmark) is simply http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bill.kelsey or at least it should be ! I don't know why but some pages are being updated quicker than others. It is probably some sort of local caching at ntlworld as when I checked via another account dial-up it was all working OK, or so it seemed.

All that and an excess of junk food, but no real food, seems to have been my entire day. Somehow I just don't seem to have birthdays like other people. The last one that was actually quite good was my eighteenth where I got my last age related pay rise. Most other have sucked big time ! I am dead knackered now after last nights lack of sleep (and also full of cider and perry) so once I have sent off a couple of e-mails and uploaded this I will be off to bed. Good night !

08.50 Hrs

Weather : What else but rain !

Stayed up to nearly 3am hoping to see the rising sun, but fell asleep before the sky had even shown any sign of sunrise. I wonder what the day will bring - probably nothing ! Luckily I have a new book to read - "Origin" by Stephen Baxter. 

Will my modified fresh cat litter page, with the link to the high resolution cat pictures, ever make it from the upload server to the main world wide web ? Re-uploaded it several times yesterday and once again this morning, but it seems to be stuck. The only way to the new page at the moment is via the link on yesterdays diary entry.

Saturday 21st June 2003

22.00 Hrs

Ten o'clock on midsummer's eve and the sky is still not yet black. I have always wanted to do something special on midsummer's eve. I would like to be with someone special somewhere with a good view of the setting and rising sun. Somewhere like Stonehenge, but without the thousands of other people. The perfect ending would be a simultaneous orgasm just as the sun rose and the first rays hit us. Instead I have to put up with the sub sub bass emanations from some local reggae party.

Tomorrow it is my birthday for what it is worth. I feel it is going to be a very boring day. Maybe I could go out a computer fair, or even trainspotting, but even they seem boring at the moment. I have had a few cards. So thank you for them even though none of the senders are on line and will be able to see this apart from Jodie. Her card made me giggle. See a scan of it here. For the record I will be 48 years old. I think I might surf for some porn now 'cos I'm bored.

14.40 Hrs

Just added the first 8 full resolution pictures to the new cat gallery, and made them available for any non profit reproduction. Out of my loads of pictures these seem the best or most interesting. See them here.

13.00 Hrs

Oh disaster !!! I accidentally left a white t-shirt in the washing machine when washing a brand new bright red t-shirt. It is now a delicate, and rather girly shade of pink. Bugger !

10.00 Hrs

Managed some more sleep in 10 minute cat naps. I've blown out Shepherdswell - I should have been half way there by now. Good news a cheque I have been waiting for all week has finally arrived. I am rich again, or at least I will be when the cheque has cleared. ( I wish my bloody spell checker would realise that I am English and spell cheque the English way !!!) Look out GB I may be shopping on the other side of the road to you (Forbidden Planet) next Saturday.

I think I will spend some time today looking through my cat photographs and choose the best ones for another addition to the cat page

07.30 Hrs

Weather : cool bright start.

Have I caught insomnia by e-mail or have I been hexed for suggesting that a certain camera would be bought ?

A rough night last night. I went to bed intending to read for, maybe, half an hour ( a computer magazine - nothing more stimulating). It ended up at more like an hour and a half and I did not get to sleep until half past midnight. Then at 2.45 I awoke after a nightmare. It concerned some sort of gang warfare. All sorts of things were going on, but I was just a passive observer - almost as if I was watching TV. At no time did I feel threatened or in danger, but the final bit was too unpleasant and I had to wake up to stop it. My last viewpoint was the ground floor of a house. On the floor above a gang member was being generally beaten up and being held under a bath of cold water to make him reveal something. I never saw what was going on, but I could hear it and I didn't like it, so at that point I woke myself up. It was almost like lucid dreaming, which I have managed on a couple of occasions in the past, but not quite. After a pee and a quick tour of the house to say hello to Nelly, and to check if Schiba was wanting to come in, I went back to bed and was asleep 10 (?) minutes later. It then felt I was dreaming non stop about small inconsequential things until I woke up at 6.50 for no apparent reason. Now I have told the story and attended to the mistresses needs ( the master would appear to be out on a hunting trip) I am going back to bed again. It doesn't look as if I will make Shepherdswell today.

Friday 20th June 2003

18.15 Hrs

Weather : bright and sunny

Recently came back from another session at the Catford beer festival. The last session is tomorrow, but I doubt I will be going then. So I threw caution to the wind and had a few strong ones. I could have gone on, but decided not to drink myself legless ! Discovered that the goddess of beer is Ninkasi (new one on me but see picture below). I  bought a few takeaways. A 6 pack of miniature English country wines, a 2 pint container of real cider and a 2 pint container of real perry. The miniatures go on the shelf with other miniatures where they will sit for the fabled rainy day. The cider and perry should get me legless on Saturday night and help while away the hours. I have added some decent pictures taken with my old Olympus C-100 to the beer festival picture page - here.  Lovers of foreign beers might like to check out www.onlyfinebeer.co.uk . Not checked it myself yet, but got the address from a flyer. Now it is time to attack the strawberries, bananas and chicken wings that I got in this morning knowing full well I would need some munchies after the drinking.

Tomorrow I should be up and out early to do the boring 2 hour train journey to Shepherdswell where it is members free ride day for the EPB preservation group. As I write this I am not sure if I can be bothered. This week has been a fairly exceptional week in that it has been a bit exciting, and I am not sure if I need the aggro of the long train journey just to add a little bit more.

11.30 Hrs

Weather : Sunny and breezy (19° C)

I have just added a Sci-Fi page to the website - here.

06.45 Hrs

Weather : A fine sunny start

I am a slave to the cats. One meow and I am up and out of bed to feed them. But I am going back to bed for another hour or so now they are satisfied !

Forgot to moan about Tesco's yesterday - no blue soap !! Had to get the white soap.

It occurs to me that these pages are going to end up about three miles long if they contain a whole month of entries. Must have a think about sub-dividing them - perhaps into weeks.

Schiba looking randy The Goddess of beer

Schiba after looking at too many porno web sites        Ninkasi the Goddess of beer                            

Thursday 19th June 2003

21.00Hrs

Weather : no storm yet and the skies have cleared a lot. Still fairly humid.

Today has passed quite quickly, and mostly pleasantly. I am off to bed soon to do a bit of reading. I need a couple of good nights sleep if I am to stay up all night sacrificing virgins on midsummer's night. Now I wonder if Tesco's have got any virgins in yet ?

16.00Hrs

Weather very humid with probably a storm brewing

Went shopping at about 10am, but had to get New Scientist from WH Smiths. Interesting bit about falling cats in it. It's probably on their web site. If I find it I'll put a link to it here. While in Smiths I bought two books in their 2 for £10 promotion. Stupidly I chose one that I already own - the mammoth book of science fiction. I bought the original up to 10 years ago.

Went back to the beer festival for just one drink this afternoon. I also bought some bottles to take away.

beer bottlesstrong beer !

Check the close up of the Winter Bock - 14.2% !!!!! I took my new camera with me and took a few pictures. Unfortunately the new camera could not cope with the poor lighting and the pictures are really rough, but you can see them here.

 

08.30 Hrs

Weather now clouding over.

Managed another hour of fitful sleep, making it about 6 in total, and the paracetamol and water has worked OK.

This made me smile: I finished an email with "Live long and prosper," and a reply came back with the comment
"You are sooooooooo sad, heheh!", and that from a person who was once trying to learn the Klingon language
:-)

I must sit down and design some emoticons for these pages soon.

As I write this Nelly has just come close to face to face with a fox in the garden. She faced him (her ?) down until he turned away and she bolted back to the open window while the fox ambled back the way he came.

Plans for today : get washed and dressed. Visit Tesco's for food and, hopefully, a copy of New Scientist. If not get it from W.H. Smiths. Do a little reading and then get back to the beer festival. Sample another beer or two. Buy some bottles to take home and take some pictures with fresh batteries in the camera !!!!

 

05.20 Hrs

Weather : Sunny start

My brain hurts ! Back later after a few paracetamol and plenty of water.

 

Pisshead T-shirt

The "Pisshead" T-Shirt

 

Wednesday 18th June 2003

Weather : Cool but sunny start.

22.45 Hrs

I am now putting the entries in a table with a plain colour background to make the entries easier to read.( thanx B.)

Just back from the beer festival and feeling fine, but perhaps a little wobbly and making very good use of the spell checker !!!! I managed 5 1/2 hours at the festival and tasted many different beers all in half pint measures. The only one that sticks out was "pressed rat and warthog". It smelt disgusting but was actually quite pleasant to drink. Trophies brought back were the official beer festival glass. Two beer festival t-shirts (one red, the other white) and a novelty t-shirt. That t-shirt was rather expensive, but I had to have it. It is almost identical to a mötörhead t-shirt, but has pisshead in authentic looking germanic letters above the skull logo. Stupid really, but I had to have it.( I've just said that twice , hic !!!!) 

Met up with, and hi to, H, Kevin, Arm, Mark, and Jodie, and also  some chap from Sweden.

There should have been a link to some pictures, but as soon as I turned my camera on it said "low battery" and switched itself off again - bastard !!!! It should have given me at least two snaps warning that the batteries were knackered. However all is not lost. The nameless swedish chap had a camera and is e-mailing a pic or two to Kevin who will send them on to me and I will post them here. Also I want to spent a short time at the festival tomorrow afternoon to buy some takeaways of German or Belgium beers. I will be taking the camera with me, with fresh batteries, and will post a couple of pictures then.  

10.00 Hrs

I had a rough night. Went to sleep on top of the duvet and woke up at 5am feeling like I had been fighting the duvet all night. My neck was stiff and my head and left arm ached. It was as if I had found every single lump and ruck in the pillow and duvet and tried to sleep on them. Had a pee and tried for sleep again. Got up at 6am and fed the cats and went back to bed again. Then up at 7am to let Nelly back in. Finally I went back to sleep and woke up at 9.30. I still feel groggy. Looking forward to the "Owl and Pussycat" - The logo for the 11th Catford Beer Festival.

Beer festival logo 2003


Tuesday 17th June 2003

Weather : Heavy rain early this morning. Hot and humid during the day until thunderstorm at 4pm followed by more rain.

19.00Hrs

Poor old Schiba got caught out in the thunderstorm and it was an hour after it stopped before he came in all wet and bedraggled. He got some real tuna for his troubles and that cheered him up. He hates thunder, but Nelly seems hardly worried about it at all.

I've been listening to an old LP this afternoon while transferring it to the PC for subsequent burning to a CD. The LP is called "Stuntman" by Edgar Froese ( a member of Tangerine Dream). I had completely forgotten what it was like, but found it rather pleasant in a chill out sort of way.

Once again I've been nowhere and seen no one - apart from the Job centre and my local WH Smiths. tomorrow promises to be better. It is the start of  the Catford Beer festival - conveniently 10 minutes walk away. I should be seeing a couple of people there at 5pm.

08.38 Hrs

Feeling a little tired. Late night last night and I got up at early to rescue Schiba who was out in the rain. He came in looking really dazed and confused. He is now fast asleep in the front room.

I keep reading about cats who have been declawed. I am sure it is done humanely, but it is still barbaric. Cats need their claws as much as we need our fingers.

Got to sign on at 10 am - what a tedious thing that is.

Schiba


Monday 16th June 2003

Weather : Hot, bright with some haze (25° C)

21.00 Hrs

Today has been a good day. It didn't seem as if it would be at first. I've just watched "Enterprise". A good episode only spoilt by ending on an end of series cliffhanger and Sky's bloody interminable adverts !

Received a very pleasant surprise during the afternoon - a nice reply to my carefully written email about ugliness.

Finished reading the Edmond Cooper book - a sad  ending. Finished copying the Monty Python LP to CD via the PC.

It is cooling off now and Nelly and Schiba are coming more alive. Schiba has suddenly become hungry. It is funny trying to watch him eating Iams. He is a very messy eater and he scatters the crunchies everywhere. 

12.00 Hrs

Spent far too long this morning writing an email on the subject of ugliness. I think I made it as concise and as small as possible. Then went to Tesco's and came back feeling very hot. Maybe the subject of ugliness touched a raw nerve as I have just eaten too much breakfast/elevenses/dinner as a midday meal. I now feel too hot and bothered to go out to take some pictures on the Uckfield line. I'll probably spend the rest of the day reading "Five To Twelve" by Edmond Cooper. A story set in the near future  where women are the dominant sex.

Both cats still lolling around in the heat.

Todays picture :

Nelly looking pensive  


Sunday 15th June 2003

Weather : Hot, bright and sunny (25° C)

22.00 hrs

A thoroughly lazy day. Been nowhere, seen no one. Achievements today were :- transferring side one of Monty Python LP to wave file on PC and cleaning up the noise and scratches. Also constructed this web page as a test to see if I like the idea of a web journal.

Finished reading Harry Harrison's "One Step From Earth".

Nelly and Schiba have spent the day dozing. Sometimes in the sun and sometimes in the shade.

 

 

copyright Bill 2003