Earthfall - July 07 2002

Yesterday (07) was another one of those very busy days. I woke up at
8am and fed the cats as usual. Then I went online for a bit. I seem to
spend an increasing amount of time online recently. About 12, after I
had a bath, my wife and I drove to Leigh and tried parking behind the
police station. This is usually a waste of time as the carpark gets
full very quickly, we sat there for about ten minutes but nobody was
leaving so we parked in Pall Mall instead. Then we went to the bank. I
have a huge overdraft and still took out ?50 as I thought it might come
in handy later. I also shot off a couple of snaps so I could finish the
film on the camera I had with me, then promptly forgot to take the film
in to be developed. We went to Ugos where we met my brother-in-law, his
wife, and my niece. I had my usual chicken sandwich and latte and asked
the girl in there if I could use her name in a story, she said that was
fine, she didnt own her name.

I went in Fives, bought a few CDs, including a new single by the Vines,
which I listened to in the shop, thought brilliant and bought two
copies, so I could send one to ... as I think they might like it.

Turns out that my niece wants to go to the Reading festival and her Dad
said only if someone went with her. So I said I would go. But the
tickets are sold out, maybe, my niece said. I told her we would search
the internet. We walked back to our house and went online. Half an hour
later the prospects for tickets were zero, even ringing up the agencies
brought comments that everything is sold out, ok? And so we turned to
EBay. After a bit we found an offer of two weekend tickets for ?400, so
we bid a buy-it-now and I am now waiting for the seller to come back to
me. I shall be well annoyed if they don't. I sorted out an email
account for my niece, played her some songs of mine, showed her how to
search for stuff on the Net, and then we went round the corner to the
Record shop and I bought a CD in there, then in the Bookshop where I
bought some more Zelazny, including a copy of Guns of Avalon for ...
and two books for my niece who said she didnt read. I went through the
books and picked out "Wasp" by Eric Frank Russell, and "The Illustrated
Man" by Ray Bradbury, suggesting to her that she read them then let me
know what she thought. We went back to the house and a little later her
Mum came round to take her home. I hope the tickets come through even
though her mum went a bit mental when she found out how much they cost.
Need to see if we do get them, then plan out what to do next in terms
of getting there and back and camping.

My wife went round her Mum's and I went back online, checking email for
a reply. I still haven't heard from ... so maybe they are still busy. I
had a chat with some people I know and offered to read their work or
help them with it. One has a brilliant idea for a story. I mean the
plot, the story itself, the characters, and their motivation is all
thought out. I went in webchat for a bit, then everyone suddenly left
which surprised me, but maybe they had to go out. My wife got back from
her Mum's and we watched Big Brother. The barrier came down and they
had to nominate two people to hear messages from home, and those two
people had to be put up for the public vote next Friday. They chose
them by picking bits of paper two with marks on them, and Kate and PJ
are now up for eviction. PJ was well upset and seeing his family and
Kate cried a bit too. Alex seems to have taken the role as nominal
leader, as it is always him that goes into the diary room at times like
these.

We had tea, and watched an hour of Event Horizon on tv, then more Big
Brother. Then we went to bed. Still nothing on the tickets. Today was
cold and grey and although it didn't rain it was pretty dull outside. I
missed a chat with ... as they had gone out for the evening. I hope
they had a good time.

This evening I listened to a lot of the Velvet Underground. I used to
listen to them all the time. I dont think my wife likes them though,
they are an acquired taste. Apparently the Vines are playing Reading. I
don't know who else is playing, but that's not important. The point is
getting the tickets to go.

I have to get a skip, a large skip, and throw a lot of stuff away. A
lot of the things I thought important to me are no longer that
relevant. Rather strangely, I believe in telepathy, and I got a message
I thought at 11.06 pm which caused me to stand still and think very
hard.

I wrote something which I posted after midnight, it's more of a song
than a poem, sorta in the style of an Edwin Starr song, at least I
think so, because it's not that good a poem as it is.

The world is not essentially a bad place, it's just at times we think
it is. We feel down and then we get up again, and bounce back. We have
to do this often at times because that's the way things happen. You
cannot predict anything because the future is unwritten. You cannot see
that far ahead, although we try to.

I take comfort from my friends and I give them help in return.