Quarterstaff - August 07 2002

07.06 am. The alarm went off at 6.15 am but I didnt get up till
quarter to seven. I put Ker Plunk on again. I fed the cats, and with
Tabby I had to move the bowl about till he was happy with the situation
and decided to eat. Longhair wasnt that fussy, and in fact ate some
biscuits while I put the food out. He has put on a lot of weight
recently and my wife calls him a Forest Cat because of it.

Yesterday (06) was a lot better. I had purpose again. I messaged Erin
from the train, and even had time to buy a can of Sprite, but it was
the 8.27 and not the 8.22 train that I got to London.

During the morning I did the tapes, and began the lengthy process of
JCL submission to setup the datasets for downloading and import later
during the day. I didnt get any email from Erin, so I guess she wasn't
online this morning.

At lunchtime I rang a bit early and her phone was off, so I messaged
her and she said that she wasn't busy, just waiting for the bus. So I
rang her and we talked for 45 minutes. I think we spoke for the length
of the bus journey. We spoke about a lot of things, like what I will be
doing when I am on holiday, Lord of the Rings on DVD, and what she
wants to do next year or after that. But I dont think we can see that
far at times. Especially when you read about hospitals stocking
radiation pills. Many years ago, back in the Cold War, my wife's dad
was going to build a fully stocked fallout shelter in the back garden,
but this so completely freaked everybody that he didnt bother and built
a house instead and sold the old place.

I bought my panini and latte in Starbucks which i had in the office and
then spent the rest of the afternoon downloading the new files and
importing them into SQL Server, which is my job. I will have to check
the reports tomorrow for accuracy. I messaged my wife to make sure she
was going to get Lord Of The Rings on DVD.

I left at 5.15 and got the train home. I read Sophies World on the
train and it is getting to the surreal bit now.

I had a bath, got changed, and played guitar. This time I put down a
crude bass line to a song I had been working on, revamped the Weller
song which I posted on the forum, and added another song that I think
sounds just a little bit like Green Day.

I made the point of playing them to my wife, and she said "you made all
this up? Who's it about?" - that was the first song 'Here She Comes
Now' - and listened to the other two songs, while I cooked baked
beans.

Then we spent the rest of the evening watching Lord Of The Rings. This
was a very long film, and it is still very very good. I thought of Erin
for a while when I watched the film, trying to imagine her as a
character in the film. Nobody wants to be a hobbit, and when asked,
most blokes pick Strider or Boromir, but usually Strider as he doesn't
meet an untimely end. I wonder just how many people watched Lord Of The
Rings last night, i reckoned quite a few thousand, and I bet the
ratings were truly appalling for television last night.

Reading seems to be a bit confused. My niece has to pick up her exam
results the day we are supposed to go up to Reading. I may have to
pioneer on my own and go up on Wednesday night, maybe stay with my
brother, and make an early start for the field the next day. This will
need me to have my own two man tent, sleeping bag and rations, and
water. But where to pitch the tent? And will I be able to set it up
without it raining?

I may be able to get the black and silver neckerchief this weekend as
someone recommended a place to go see about it. I am still figuring out
what to wear to combine comfort with utility, whatever. I expect I will
wear the battered Levis nad hope they dont fall apart. I wore the Clash
t shirt tonight I will give to Erin. I hope she likes it. Yeah, well it
will be clean when I give it to her of course.

The latest on my brother's issue is that his girlfriend has moved back
to the flat while he is on holiday, and then will move back with
friends when he returns. I dont know if they will sort things out. My
wife said she will be getting her hair cut very soon. I made a joke
that she should have a crop like me, because she can carry off short
hair you see. I am still deciding whether to have my hair cut again. I
may do if I got to Camden again. I may even go up there at the weekend,
I am not sure yet.

Of course I will need to take a camera to Reading. I expect I will be
able to get some good pictures.

I would love to be able to take a massive caravan truck, the ones with
a ladder up the back, with its own toilet and shower and kitchen. And I
can imagine the noise the generator will make. But I am not a
particularly good driver, and I don't think I would be able to handle a
huge caravan truck like that.

The party is now up to seven people including me, and I expect I will
have to go up their first then the rest of them will arrive by taxi - a
long story.

I like talking to Erin, we talk for hours and that's great.