September 2006
(27th September 2006)
This is not a happy entry. Those people who know me personally - and my moods - can look away now. So. Linguistic things that irritate me. There are the long-term things, which I think are likely to be permanent, like the use of "cheers" to mean "thank you." Or the use of "absolutely" to mean "yes" (the fact that "assolutamente" can also ...
(22nd September 2006)
Some things I wrote down in two notebooks:
At Hazelwood Castle, for a Mother's Day lunch. I go to the ladies. There is a boy in there, aged about 7. He finishes washing his hands at the sink, then says cheerily, "I'm on my own!"
Me: "Aren't you in the wrong toilets?"
Him: "Oh, I don't care about labels."
--
On a plane somewhere. The captain comes over ...
→ Floating
(21st September 2006)
Yesterday I went boating. My talented photographer friend Stephen knows a lot about Hackney Wick. He loves it enough to have spent years photographing it, making books and exhibitions out of it, moving there and buying an inflatable dinghy to sail down the River Lea. The River Lea is an urban river. It flows, but it smells. It has silted over mopeds and moped tyres ...
(17th September 2006)
I promised those kind people who sponsored me to walk 17 miles that I would produce in return some sore feet. Those kind people have given Maggies £900 in cash. The reason I haven't written since the walk ended at 6am yesterday morning is that I didn't realise what level of soreness £900 demands. A lot. To walk 17 miles around ...