(no subject)

The weekend was interesting & generally pretty good – though sections of yesterday put a serious downer on it all. On Saturday, we went & saw “the blue house”; (ie the house that was blue, not some sort of art show). It was very nice indeed and definitely a contender for buying but with the downsides that a) its rather expensive for what it is, b) its not in a very pleasant area (tower-blocks & 2 main roads nearby – so not very cat friendly) & c) it doesn’t have a proper oven. Aside from that, its well proportioned & meets all the essential requirements (ie, its just like our old house in Leeds, but about 10% larger). Its definitely a contender, but the man selling it wants to remain in place until the summer, so we’d be obliged to remain where we are for a while longer – which essentially would cost us about €6,000 – something that’s a large expense, on top of the other expenses of moving etc. So - on balance - no. And, of course, its below sea level, so that’s that then.

Afterwards, we wandered around town and bought mutual presents, for our respective birthdays (mine tomorrow and C’s in just under 2 weeks time). I know for a fact that BSG season 2 & V for Vendetta have been got, so on that front, I’m definitely happy. Saturday evening, we went out on the town, starting a a jenever bar. Jenever is Dutch gin & they serve it. We got extremely drunk, ate falafel, talked rubbish & discovered an off-licence that sold British Beer at only semi-ludicrous prices. Result!

Whilst hung-over, yesterday morning, I found the BBC’s climate change game & played it for several hours; you play the President of Europe & have to juggle carbon emissions, energy, food, water & money requirements. Its quite good & I can routinely save the planet & be incredibly popular – but at the cost of destroying the economy. I get the impression it’s a zero sum game, in that, if you save the planet, you by default destroy the economy, which I happen to disagree with. I suppose this is why I’ve played it several times now, to see if there’s something I’ve missed, but there doesn’t seem to be (I invest . Anyway, see if you can beat 87% on the environment, 97% on popularity & 1% on the economy I’ve managed to get – here’s the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/aboutgame.shtml

Yesterday evening, Carole went out to the Hashing with the harriers, and I joined later for beer & pizza; enjoyable in itself, but then Jackass 2 was shown. I have to say that it was, without doubt some of the most nausea-inducing waste of 2 hours I’ve ever had the misfortune to sit through. At several points, I was actually fighting the gag reflex, whilst trying to break the spell of the unrivalled horror that captivating me. I would not advise anyone to waste their time, lives, money or sanity to watch this, so please avoid. No, really. I still feel rather fragile from its depiction of people acting like animals & worse than animals, whilst people pay them to act that way for their pleasure. Its sickening and, even now, it makes me catch my breath at the thought of some of the things they did; as a couple of (more savoury) examples, one of them sticks a 6-inch long fishing hook through his cheek & then goes swimming with sharks, whilst one of his “friends” treats him as bait, pulling on him (ripping his cheek) with a fishing rod that’s tied to the fishing hook. In another one, one of them deliberately brands the other & the wound gets septic & disgusting. Those are some fairly mild ones; the rest of it is raw stupidity (running into a wall, or standing in front of a charging bull) or toilet humour of the most disgusting variety; my only surprise – and probably the only reason that people watch it is that – miraculously – none of them ended up dead.

As you can tell, I’m feeling a touch morose. I suppose that its my impending birthday, coupled with a “what have I achieved” mentality that’s left me feeling rather down (enhanced, in part, from last nights film). I also feel rather depressed about the world at present, with the constant stories from the UK about Big Brother (at one point, it was on Sky News, CNN, BBC & EuroNews – at the same time), & the much-reported fragmentation of the UK (which I mainly put down to opposition to an unpopular government, fighting an unpopular war, with no constitutional limits set on it other than “that tradition we [the government] can be bothered with” – rather than a genuine desire for Scottish independence). To cap it all, I’ve been told (this morning) that one of my friends here at work has had to return to the states because his father died last night. So, in all, rather down.

Weight 87 and a half kilos – but after I’d eaten breakfast, so not necessarily a true comparison to previous weeks.

S