may 31, 2004
listening to: clowntime (live) by elvis costello

it's a bank holiday so no work, yay! i've been puttering around in the garden planting lobelia and nasturtiums and there is soil under my nails which is cool. i have all these ideas for some new music; not much will be said about that here - when it's ready it's ready and that will be that. hide the babies! we have way too many cable channels now and strangely enough there is still nothing on... except the great caddyshack which we laughed our asses off at. a classic!

"you'll get nothing and like it!"

ah, bless. declan mcmanus is still one of my favorite all-time singers. so much pain in his voice. not bad for a white guy...

may 24, 2004
listening to: masterplan by my morning jacket

these guys have kind of a neil young-thing going on. anyway, we got TV back and a bookcase and i bought some flower seeds (nasturtiums) and all is well. i added a lame question & answer thingie to the RH navigation here. it's been very lovely in crawley the last couple of weeks so i ain't complaining. soon we go on holiday and i can't wait. where are we going? nowhere! cos everybody knows this is nowhere... and congrats p-boy on the album doing so well, hope the tour is kicking some major arse. i bet it is.

may 21, 2004
listening to: 9 san bruno by gasp

people ask me why i listen to what is commonly referred to as electronica (bad term) when i work; it's groovy and soothing and there are no annoying self-aware lyrics to listen to. the good stuff anyway. so there!

i miss tv... tomorrow comes de satellite man, yay. oh, in england you need a tv license on top of any other cable bills you may have. since the beeb is commercial free, you see. in the states PBS just buggers you every few months with pledge drives and the promise of hideous tote bags and umbrellas. ouch.

may 20, 2004
listening to: one size fits all by leggo beast

well, we did it and we are in our own place. it was a stress fest and my dad and i had a huge fight but hey, it's great! soon pics will be presented but we still don't have internet at home. anyhoo, i feel like some of my identity is returning. our homes are a direct reflection of who we are and how we feel about ourselves, right? so now we get to do all our own decorating & stuff and HEY wow having a shower again rules! blah blah blah... oh yeah, the main point of today's post is:

THE WORST FILM... EVER

the award goes to (drumroll please) FACE OFF. it's like watching the word CRAP scroll before your eyes for 2+ hours. laughable. first off, the entire premise is a joke, "hey, let's swap a guy's face to solve the case" and you get to see john travolta's fucking face floating in water, then HEY guess what? nicholas cage's character (probably since he is SO full of evil evil evil, oo-er) mysteriously comes out of his death-like coma, and PUTS JOHN TRAVOLTA's FACE ON by having his stooges hold a gun to the doctor's head (uh. right.) so if you can even get past that stupidity, the characters are cardboard cut-out one-dimensional stereotypes who you feel nothing for except intense LOATHE because they are making so much money from this shit (in the case of the wonderful cch pounder, whom i met at a box store on wilshire in LA, well it's OK to take the money and run girlfriend cos we all know you are great). after what feels like about 3 hours of teeth-gritted slow-motion explosions and diving-and-shooting, there are a couple of weird plot twists that are almost interesting but at that point i was weak from laughing at the whole shit so it may have been just oxygen deprivation. i did fall asleep at least once. and when they had the opportunity to give the slightest smidge of depth or empathy to cage's character, they don't, a typical hollywood third act "let's end this mess and get the fuck outta here" treatment if i ever saw one. this film SUCKS ASS and if i ever remember who told me it was decent (was it you jason? was it? for shame!) i will send them a bag of flaming poo, with postage due yet. avoid this film at all costs. and maim anyone who suggests you rent it; you'll be glad you did.

may 11, 2004
listening to: soundcard by pier presha

i hate waiting, as many of you know, so i've been all tied up like a box full of knots with nothing to say for almost a week over this house thing. rather than whine and whinge on here i've been internalizing, which is bad. i guess a blog is where you let it all out but maybe i'm still too private a person. anyway, here is a quick recap of things i probably *could* be talking about on here, but am not:

5) council tax sucks - i wish crawley could elect a liberal dem mayor for no other reason than they would eliminate this cruel imposition which seems like a remnant from the days of ancient feudal lords.

4) the rspca - bless them for the work they do, but i don't need to see a tiny dead ginger kitten recreated in an advert to get me to send them money. this is the same problem i have with peta, i am all too aware of the horror so please don't remind me. that rspca ad makes me burst into tears.

3) monsanto gives up its plans to commercially distribute GM wheat in the uk - good news and bad. they've spent billions on test runs here already, so what with wind and all the mutant strain has probably already infected nearby fields so the damage is done. they still manage quite well selling the devil's seed to the world through corn, soy beans and other. why not GM cotton? we don't eat it, and it's the best thing to make clothing out of, but it will drive independent suppliers right out of business. No to GM anything! NO to big business! NO! NEIN! NYET!

2) the 100 maidenbower metrobus - who the fuck needs to arrive at the industrial estate (where 1000s of residents here work) at 9:15 am? why is there one bus at 8:02 (so we have to leave the house at 7 fucking 45) and not another one until 8:24? wouldn't it make sense to have two busses between 8 and 8:15? especially when you consider the traffic at three bridges which makes the 8:24 late every day anyway, it makes no sense!

NOW you see why i don't post every day - i've become a world class dullard! a babbling village idiot! you can thank me later!
1) STOP THE INSANITY - how can bush and blair keep their positions in the face of all the slaughter and cruelty they have inflicted with their endless greed? it makes me MENTAL. my dear hubbsy summed it up beautifully on his page so i won't be redundant, so all i can ask is this: how can getting caught on the receiving end of a BJ be more worthy of removal from office than these crimes against humanity?

i just wanna wake up in our new house, listening to the birds and watching the sun stream in through the window onto our sleeping rescue cats and hear that bush and blair no longer exist. is that so wrong?

ps - no artsy photos this month; it would interfere with the rest of the graphics on this page too much. i may add some more links soon though.

may 5, 2004
listening to: lovely head by goldfrapp

uploaded a new graphic for the links page, i think it's a dandy. my eyes hurt! 20 minutes to the osbournes! a better update tomorrow (i hope). good night.

may 2, 2004
listening to: rock work by ultravox (in my head)

as soon as i have a card i can get stuff from the internet on, i am (re)buying the 1st two ultravox albums on CD. they are awesome. by thursday we should know about the house; i am gathering all my DIY skills onto paper (well, pixels) to make the place more ours. it's very neutral and clean and no grotty carpets to deal with, hurrah! but i stilll want to do some stuff with paint, windows, storage, etc... so that's where my head is at these days. yesterday we scouted around the area a bit and went to *that* lake that we don't really know the name of, and saw baby ducks and coots! baby coots have fuzzy bright red heads - so cute! and we saw an amazing, gorgeous grey heron, just standing in the water looking very regal indeed. derry got some great pix which hopefully he will post. i took pix of very weird things i saw in shop windows which i'll deal with later. today i am looking forward to some lunch. that's about it really! see ya soon roby xxx

oh, and i'm off capitalization again for the time being. too much work, hehe!

may 1, 2004
listening to: derry laughing at something on tv

welcome to the new constructionist age. we may not have created it; but we can still take it over. if you can't read the text, just highlight it! another move may be coming soon - our first house. sigh. my eternal quest for space.