September 26, 2003
H!@£ F@£$%^ S£$%^!!!!
H!@£ F@£$%^ S£$%^!!!!
Currently Listening To: Stay Together for the Kids from the album "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket" by Blink 182
I was looking for some reading material on amazon.co.uk and I saw the shit they have on sale there for self-serving parents to read to their kids. Its called shit like "children don't divorce" or "its not your fault".
"Here Timmy, mum and I have decided we'd rather sleep around and to be honest you're just not important enough to us for us to try and stay together, so here motherfucker have a picture book"
The books have a reading age of about 5-8 years. That's pretty fucked up in my opinion. Stop trying to cover your fucking back and just accept that you're raping that kid's world. 5 years old?! She doesn't even know right from wrong by law! All she has is that family unit! You think that tearing apart the very foundation of her person can even minutely be mended by brainwashing her with a children's book? At the end of the day its about putting yourself before your kids so no amount of fucking kid's literature (which might I add is just fucking evil) is going to nullify that particular fact of the matter.
Later
John
September 24, 2003
Pass the Bandwidth!
Pass the Bandwidth!
Currently Listening To: All You Wanted from the album "The Spirit Room" by Michelle Branch
Well the broadband is still non-functioning which is getting rather annoying. As it happens it's not One.Tel's fault. Guess who's to blame? That's right!! It's my old friend BT!! Huzzah!
It's as if they have a department entirely dedicated to screwing over the people who abuse them online.
"Oh that John. We still remember what he said about our Anytime service. What's that? He wants Broadband? HAHAH!!! LIKE THAT'S EVER GOING TO HAPPEN!! MWHAHHAHHAHHAHA HAHHAHAHHAH HAHHAHAHHAHHAA!!!"
Lee's decided to go out and get pissed, props to him. Apparently there's a party on tomorrow night which I'll be going to (crash the decent London Colleges' Parties!) so I might actually meet an attractive single female this year. Bloody miracle :D
In case you didn't know Lee isn't the smallest guy on the planet, neither for that matter was the guy who came with him to pick up some stuff from the flat (Lee intends to pass out in a drunken stupor at this guy's house) so I might actually be in with a chance if the rest of those two are a representative segment of this party's attendance.
In reality I probably shouldn't even be looking for anyone to hang out with, I'd probably depress the hell out of them which is a real fear for me at the moment. Last thing I need is to unload all my baggage on some poor unsuspecting girl.
In other news I have surpassed my father and my esteemed grandfather in the internet stakes by being the #1 google search result for John Swaine. I attriibute it entirely to this blog as the other links which come up are for some screwy miscellanious stuff I've written either in comments on websites or on the Newton Mailing List. Given my father's presence in other media I consider this quite an achievement. Unfortunately the little 2 lines of description of the site contains, rather prominently, the term "Fucking Fuckmunches" which is far from the sort of thing I ought to present to the world hehe. Not really anything important but it's fun to know :)
Later
John
September 23, 2003
Archives
Archives
Currently Listening To: #9 Dream by John Lennon
I managed to get blogger to finally upload my archives right (well Kev did as I don't have admin access to the domain because it's his :) ) but for reasons unbeknownst to me its plain ignoring my instructions left for the URL of the archive path for linking:
This is the URL corresponding to the directory on your FTP server where you want to keep the archive files. If this is left blank, Blogger will assume that the FTP directory for the archives is a subdirectory of your main blog directory and determine the URL accordingly.
The archive links in the bottom window of this template ought to link to "http://www.plastic-rabbit.co.uk/nef/archives/whatever_archive.html" but instead link to the root of the site as would be the default if I had left the field that I explained above, empty.
Most perplexing but still, one step at a time I guess :D I ought to be thankful that they're uploaded at least :)
Later
John
September 22, 2003
Apologies
Apologies
Currently Listening To: Sick cycle carosel by Lifehouse
Sorry I haven't posted for a while. The simple fact of the matter is that I hate angst ridden blogs of teenagers who post about how much pain they are in and consequently I refuse to depress anyone reading this journal with my woes. Regrettably that leaves me with little else to post as the past week hasn't had a lot else to it :(
To illustrate the matter simply, I made it a rule never to listen to "stay together for the kids" on the Blink 182 album "Take off your pants and jacket" for the same reason I don't listen to Adam's Song, I found the subject a bit too harrowing for me. In the past few weeks "Stay Together For The Kids" has climbed to #10 on my iTunes most played auto-generated playlist.
I think they ought to force anyone having kids to listen to that song at high volume 30 times at least.
Best Wishes
John
September 18, 2003
Untitled
Currently Listening To: Letting the Days go by by Talking Heads
My sincere apologies for the insane HTML screwups going on in the rendering of that last post. It loads fine in preview and in other settings but something about my blog's layout just makes it go crazy ;)
Later
John
"Live it. Love it!"
"Live it. Love it!"
Currently Listening To: Five O'Clock World by Vogues
Yep the Hong Kong advertising board is going on another spending spree it seems. Each day when I watch the TV my beloved isle is spammed all over the place. In true keeping with the history of Hong Kong tourism advertisements Jackie Chan can be seen, only at the beginning this time but it still counts as his requisite cameo.
Hong Kong is the only place that advertises itself on its own TV. I don't often see ads which say "England! Boy does it kick ass!" on the TV here, occasionally I see "Visit York" or something but never anything which just advertises England as a country (generally because those who are watching the channel have already made England their home)
 |
A division of the "shut up and make money" ministry |
Anyhow as I understand it "Hong Kong: Live it. Love it!" is the new slogan for the Hong Kong Tourism Board, anxious to make up for the number of 'fraidy cat tourists scared off by SARS (I think I made my opinions on that subject clear before - namely that I'd consider it an excuse for really cheap air travel to the Land of the Shiny Green Suit).
 |
| It's everywhere! |
Well its coming up to 3pm now and I want to call up my family. In addition to which I have some washing to pick up from the kitchen which ought to have dried by now.
(edit: I changed the layout to stop it from going crazy, sure its uglier than my usual style but I'd rather that than have it the unreadable mess it was being rendered as before ;) )
Later
John
Insane
Insane
Currently Listening To: Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me from the album "Greatest Hits" by Elton John
Today was, well, interesting.
I didn't get nearly enough sleep and was woken up by my suitibly violent mac alarm (set to play "Right Now" by SR-71 at a ridiculous volume). I was obliged to put the last few things in order regarding the flat to make sure it was presentable to the people who were coming to view it.
One of the chief reasons I didn't get much sleep was that I called my father up in Hong Kong to inquire as the situation regarding cashflow. The news I recieved was suitibly poor to oblige me to continue my use of the flat indefinitely and hence leave my friends in the lurch. Thankfully a felicitous arangement has been arrived at which will result in Lee's security of accommodation and my own financial solvency.
Anyhow Lee and Richard arrived at the flat on what was supposed to be the first stop on the way towards signing a contract for the flat in Tavistock Place (the place that was on, then off then was gazumped and then de-gazumped). I explained the situation and we organized ourselves. Richard seemed intent on getting me into as much crap as was possible. Irrespective of how many times I produced and re-produced the offer of a place for him at this flat he deliberately left it out of all of his phone calls and described himself as "screwed". To this end his mother is apparently immensely pissed off with me for quote "pulling out at the last minute" I shouldn't honestly care but he is an old friend of mine and I would have liked to think that his family thought reasonably well of me. Especially when I had no option in the matter and offered a Fallback option on many occaisions. In the end he got a spot at The Castle which is this peculiar house inhabited entirely by magic players who seem content to live in a domecile with fewer matresses than inhabitants by virtue of their erratic and diverse sleeping times.
My good friend Sean informed me that he found an article on my father in the South China Morning Post. Unfortunately it seems to make note of a lot of bad stuff so I have requested a copy for my own personal dilectation. The press in Hong Kong hounds my father quite often, particularly the chinese papers but on the whole the english papers are respectful and keep their distance. The article is supposedly anomalous in that context being a bit on the evil side. Still curiosity is a trait of mine ;) Sean is very kindly scanning/sending it to me.
Right, more to come when I have read the article :)
Later
John
September 15, 2003
Trekkin'
Trekkin'
Currently Listening To: Rocket (I can't do without your love) from the album "Go Ballistic" by Uncle Jay
Yeah I spent the whole of today walking around London. I love London as has been said a great many times in the past and today I had a wonderful time wandering its glorious streets.
I followed my normal route, down Victoria Street which has suddenly lost a massive building complex which was there when I left (only a solitary pile driver stands to give me a clue that anything had ever existed there before) so I look forward to seeing what is built there in its place since the bastards blew up the nearest Post Office and Books Etc in the process :)
Then I turned past New Scotland Yard and wandered towards St. James' Park. Unfortunately there were no squirrels to be seen and the grass had gone a scorched yellow in the unyielding summer sun. What is more I did not spot one Mallard Duck which was most disappointing :) One of my favourite views of London (and I have many) is on the bridge across the river through St. James' Park. If you turn to your left you can see Buckingham Palace striking through the trees and a beautiful willow on the banks of the river.
From there I got onto the Pall Mall and walked along till I reached Trafalgar Square, which was having its roadways altered when I left London for the summer and from there onto Covent Garden and into Leicester Square.
My reasons for visiting were dictated largely by my stomach I am sorry to say as I went to Chinatown to pick up some Vitasoy™, Dark Soy Sauce and some Lee Kum Kee Garlic Chilli Sauce for my Mum who devours the stuff :)
From there I walked back to Charing Cross to catch the tube and head to Chancery lane to deliver a package to some dude at HSBC.
Then back to the flat, slightly worn but satisfied. A good day :)
Then I discovered that two wonderful items of good news had passed my way
I first of all found 2 Nintendo Game & Watch games in their original packaging only to discover out of curiosity that the buggers go for £20 each on eBay (huzzah!).
Then whilst reading through The Times (a luxury I can now afford to treat myself to since I get out more) I discovered that Ryanair was doing another one of its "OMG!! FREE FLIGHTS!!!!one!one!!!" Naturally I snapped up a pair of tickets to go to Italy for a nice Saturday - Tuesday stay with my Aunt. On the subject of which I think I ought to call up Aunty Jilly and see how she's doing and ask her if she wants to meet up for a cup of coffee or something. Anyhow bottom line is I'm due for a windfall and got a return to Ancona for 2p. Oh yeah!!
Later
John
Octopus Returnnnnnnns!!!
Octopus Returnnnnnnns!!!
Currently Listening To: Time Of My Life from the album "Time Of My Life" by Toploader
Anyone who's lived in Hong Kong in the past few years knows what an Octopus Card is. They will also know, and tell you, that it is pretty much the centre of your world.
The phenomenon is pretty well described here. I may have written in my blog before, but I spotted a good few months ago a sign which said something along the lines of "Many ticketing services will be closed as they are being prepared for Oyster Smartcards". I supposed that they wanted to differentiate their service and just took it for what it seemed - London was getting Octopus.
However sadly some of the best things about the Octopus cards, its wide acceptance, its 'top up' utility are all missing.
In fact the London Transport Octopus Card is such a complete and utter travesty that its just as well its known as the 'Oyster' Card because otherwise it would be seriously maiming the good reputation of Octopus.
For instance; The Oyster card can only be used to purchase massive fat monthly/annual tickets (monthly is only available on the tube no less). The whole idea behind Octopus was that you used it to pay for things like you would a debit or credit card and this calculation was done instantaneously, you passed your card over the sensor when you went into the station and then again when you exited the other place and the computer calculated your fair and deducted it from your account. Oyster in fact completely trashes the simplicity and time saving nature of Octopus by obliging you to use a convoluted web system to buy a big-ass travel card. So in fact all you have is a cool little beepy thingy instead of a physical card, bleh.
Equally Oyster cards can't actually hold any form of charge. They don't contain bank details and no money ever, ever, ever passes through the system. All the card knows is that you are allowed to go wherever you want within a certain zone. Topping up Octopus cards is a simple matter, you approach one of the billions of machines around Hong Kong and insert your card followed by a crispy note/Credit/Debit card and then credits your account with the money.
The fact that the Oyster card is not a cash card is also one of its most obvious shortcomings, whilst Octopus was created by the 4 main travel firms in Hong Kong (MTR, KCRC etc) for the purpose of travel payment the way it was set out meant that it gained an incredible degree of acceptance for other applications. For instance now you can buy a latté at Starbucks, order a coke from a drinks machine, pay for your groceries, pay to park your car or any number of other things by simply passing your card or wallet or bag or what have you past a reader. That simply won't happen with Oyster because it is just a glorified travel pass and has no commercial back-end.
Finally will someone point out to me why we are implementing a system designed to save precious seconds from the highly efficient train-every-2-minutes Hong Kong transport system in the London Underground which is lucky if it gets trains running with 7 minute headways? Perhaps fixing the goddamn system instead of adding new features might be a better idea, particularly when said features are just poorly implemented features enjoyed by other gamers- Wait a minute.. This is EXACTLY like Ultima Online! Transport for London are OSI incarnate!
Ultima Online is an MMORPG (a massively multiplayer online Role Playing Game) and OSI were the developers who instead of fixing gaping bugs in the system just kept on stringing players along with new exciting features.
There are many reasons why Octopus cards have reached total saturation in Hong Kong (8 million cards for 6 million people!) and none of them can be found in the Oyster card.
I also remember something else I said to my sister when I thought London Transport would be implementing an Octopus system.
"Goddamn given that a) London Transport always fucks things up and b) Octopus is the coolest thing ever, the amount of fucking up necessary to get Octopus to suck will be truly epic"
Boy was I right..
John
Octopus Returnnnnnnns!!!
Currently Listening To: Time Of My Life from the album "Time Of My Life" by Toploader
Anyone who's lived in Hong Kong in the past few years knows what an Octopus Card is. They will also know, and tell you, that it is pretty much the centre of your world.
The phenomenon is pretty well described here. I may have written in my blog before, but I spotted a good few months ago a sign which said something along the lines of "Many ticketing services will be closed as they are being prepared for Oyster Smartcards". I supposed that they wanted to differentiate their service and just took it for what it seemed - London was getting Octopus.
However sadly some of the best things about the Octopus cards, its wide acceptance, its 'top up' utility are all missing.
In fact the London Transport Octopus Card is such a complete and utter travesty that its just as well its known as the 'Oyster' Card because otherwise it would be seriously maiming the good reputation of Octopus.
For instance; The Oyster card can only be used to purchase massive fat monthly/annual tickets (monthly is only available on the tube no less). The whole idea behind Octopus was that you used it to pay for things like you would a debit or credit card and this calculation was done instantaneously, you passed your card over the sensor when you went into the station and then again when you exited the other place and the computer calculated your fair and deducted it from your account. Oyster in fact completely trashes the simplicity and time saving nature of Octopus by obliging you to use a convoluted web system to buy a big-ass travel card. So in fact all you have is a cool little beepy thingy instead of a physical card, bleh.
Equally Oyster cards can't actually hold any form of charge. They don't contain bank details and no money ever, ever, ever passes through the system. All the card knows is that you are allowed to go wherever you want within a certain zone. Topping up Octopus cards is a simple matter, you approach one of the billions of machines around Hong Kong and insert your card followed by a crispy note/Credit/Debit card and then credits your account with the money.
The fact that the Oyster card is not a cash card is also one of its most obvious shortcomings, whilst Octopus was created by the 4 main travel firms in Hong Kong (MTR, KCRC etc) for the purpose of travel payment the way it was set out meant that it gained an incredible degree of acceptance for other applications. For instance now you can buy a latté at Starbucks, order a coke from a drinks machine, pay for your groceries, pay to park your car or any number of other things by simply passing your card or wallet or bag or what have you past a reader. That simply won't happen with Oyster because it is just a glorified travel pass and has no commercial back-end.
Finally will someone point out to me why we are implementing a system designed to save precious seconds from the highly efficient train-every-2-minutes Hong Kong transport system in the London Underground which is lucky if it gets trains running with 7 minute headways? Perhaps fixing the goddamn system instead of adding new features might be a better idea, particularly when said features are just poorly implemented features enjoyed by other gamers- Wait a minute.. This is EXACTLY like Ultima Online! Transport for London are OSI incarnate!
Ultima Online is an MMORPG (a massively multiplayer online Role Playing Game) and OSI were the developers who instead of fixing gaping bugs in the system just kept on stringing players along with new exciting features.
There are many reasons why Octopus cards have reached total saturation in Hong Kong (8 million cards for 6 million people!) and none of them can be found in the Oyster card.
I also remember something else I said to my sister when I thought London Transport would be implementing an Octopus system.
"Goddamn given that a) London Transport always fucks things up and b) Octopus is the coolest thing ever, the amount of fucking up necessary to get Octopus to suck will be truly epic"
Boy was I right..
John
Return to the flat
Return to the flat
Currently Listening To: It Must Be Love from the album "The Heavy Heavy Hits" by Madness
Yep I'm back in London and back in the Victoria flat.
I tried to get my broadband to work again but realized that it was inactive which had resulted in me not having to pay for it over the summer! Score!
I thought it was impossible for this to happen but what happened was this:
I tried to shift it to Rowhedge as I might have written, but was foiled by the fact that our name wasn't on the BT bill at Thanet Walk (hurrah for bureaucracy). However what came out of that was that whilst my connection here was suspended, when the whole deal fell through it wasn't reactivated and instead fell into a suspension state as if I hadn't paid my bill.
Ironically this was exactly what I wanted as I didn't feel like paying for a service I wasn't using and I had a year long contract which I couldn't get out of. Tomorrow I can call up and get it re-activated, I'd have done it today but for my late arrival in London.
Anyhow I am back in the flat in Victoria once more and enjoying being alone for a bit. Uncle Joel was here when I arrived as he's about to start lecturing in Brunel University but he left and I have since had the run of the flat once again.
I really love London. Sadly I didn't do much for the last six months of my university term thanks to my Grandmother breathing down my neck for the whole of it. This time however she can't visit because she's feeding horses (hahah!! Reap! Reap! Reap! Just what you sow! - 'Perfect Day' quote).
Tomorrow I'm going to go for a brilliant stroll. I'll go through St. James' Park where I went when I was a kid and I'll walk to Leicester Square and Chinatown to pick up some vital supplies (Vitasoy™). Then I have to drop off some letter for someone at HSBC in Chancery Lane before heading off to some museum or art gallery.. I'd love to go to see the Tate Modern so I'll see if I can't fit it in.
Hmm.. Sounds like I've planned out a pretty full day tomorrow.
Oh and later on I have to call up Grayham Carter, my godmother's brother who has some Student Accommodation I need to scout out :D That's in the evening though
Later
John
September 12, 2003
Ou est mon baggage?
Ou est mon baggage?
Currently Listening To: Lost In Space from the album "Postcards From Heaven" by Lighthouse Family
I neglected to mention that my father arrived safely - he did.
I stayed up to my usually late hour and used the Hong Kong International Airport Website (voted World's Best Airport 2003 - deservedly so as anyone who has flow through it will tell you) to see that the plane landed on time and safely and I called him when I estimated he had arrived at the house in Tuen Mun.
Good to hear he's back in Hong Kong and doing ok. Some people need to realize what that man does and sacrifices and why he does it. Some people are called Lorraine Thompson and need to shut their sub - £15k earning, petty minded, cigarette-stuffed cakeholes :)
Later
John
Flatbeat
Flatbeat
Currently Listening To: The Boy In The Bubble from the album "Greatest Hits - Shining Like A National Guitar" by Paul Simon
The flat hunting continues anew as I decided today to call up some folk on the student accommodation website. One place looks really nice and the landlady has had a lot of interest from "very nice people" (translation: "Nee fookin chance like meat") but I use my eloquent ridiculously posh classical english accent that I adopt when speaking to strangers and charmed my way into a respectable "if I don't hear anything by the weekend you can come and have a look" and since it is my express intention to plonk down the cash immediately emulating the gits who usurped our own flat placement that basically means "If they don't want it, it's yours". Consequently I have to hope that these people find a nicer place.
My accent is a remarkable thing. No one I know is similarly afflicted and it probably has something to do with my ability to mimic very well and my love of that accent itself. Perhaps I merely appropriated it for my own ends after I subconsciously decided that it was the nicest available to me.
I read one of the archives from this blog just now. It was from last christmas, December 13th I believe. It reminded me of a happier time and just how much fun I had in the flat during that period. It is with a more solemn outlook that I return to it this year, not quite the same euphoric optimism I felt when I embarked upon my first term of university. Events have piled up on me, accumulated in a vast body of oppressive sadness. I've always resented angsty blogs but I find myself in a grey microcosm who's boundaries only momentarily lapse when a song I like is played or I speak to my father or siblings.
The Lighthouse Family are working round the clock to lift my spirits.
Ultimately I feel that I shall do what I always have done, find some empty part of myself and bottle the sadness and frustration, mark it with some tarred paper scrap and store the vial in the part of me that I show to no one.
I also feel remarkably vulnerable at the moment, bound to my fate like a man strapped into a roller coaster, without means to alter its course. I am still reliant on my parents for money and things being what they are it is hardly an enviable tether. I can do nothing except keep my head down and study for the next few months, hoping that things will clear up as they have a habit of doing and that I will carry out my plan: of waltzing off the plane at Chep Lap Kok singing 5 o'clock World by the Vogues after I've received all my qualifications. Getting a flat in central and setting up practice and, meeting the girl of my dreams and raising a family.
My mother has this remarkably odd opinion regarding one's early life, that it is somehow wasted if you don't go out and sleep around before you get married, as if meaningless promiscuity is somehow a deep advantage to one's life. Its like saying you ought to buy small lattés when you go to StarBucks before you eventually go for the Gingerbread Latté Venti.
I might be completely insane here but I though the reason why people date is to find the one person they want to spend the rest of their life with, not with the deliberate intention of going out with that person temporarily. It makes no sense to suggest that one person has lived a fuller life because when he rolled the Dating Dice he took 7 re-rolls to win than the person who rolled it first time.
I'm not, by any means, implying that you ought to approach such things as dates with some sort of seriousness that dissuades you from going out with anyone who is not 'perfect enough' but to suggest that those failed rolls, the times when you didn't get lucky, are somehow to be considered a superior experience to finding the person that you love on the first roll of the dice is idiocy. It is a clear manifestation of all that seems so stupid and shallow about today's culture, where 1 in 3 marriages end in divorce and promiscuity is the measure of one's success in relationships. Some people need to get their heads examined.
Later
John
September 10, 2003
Flat Madness
Flat Madness
Currently Listening To: Feeling Groovy from the album "Feeling Groovy (Single)" by Saint & Campbell
For the past week the flat hunting has simply been a case of telephone wrestling with the landlord. Quite a scrum in fact so I'll fill you in now on all the events.
First of all we had to try and get a 10 month lease.
The landlord wasn't having any of that so she offered a 10 month lease in exchange for a bump in payment which seemed about as economical as having an 11 and a half month lease at the normal price.
With the bump in price Richard announced that he was in the poor house and hence wouldn't be able to afford the place.
Lee went spare because he was right royally screwed as he didn't have a place to stay, I obviously had the flat so I attempted to organize some sort of tenancy for Lee there whilst we stayed and looked for a new place (virtually impossible at this time of year).
Anyhow at this point the landlady softened her position and returned to the normal rent with a lease of 10 months. All seemed good.
Lee got in touch with her to confirm the offer and it was decided that he would go and sign the contracts on Friday.
However guess what happened today? Some random guy came and saw the flat immediately put down the deposit. After we had confirmed that we would be doing so on Friday the proprietor leased it from under our noses! What a sleazy piece of Landlordery.
So anyhow we're royally screwed because its bleedin' impossible to find accommodation now. Thankfully the same place has a flat below the one we saw which isn't quite finished which we'll put an offer in for as soon as Lee has finished swearing. That was the most sleazy trashy and dishonest action I have ever seen perpetrated. Its just as well I chose a third year module concerning the legal relationship between tenant and landlord (yep its a whole third year module).
Whinney
In other news I had to wake up early this morning to feed the frikkin' horses.
It was really cold, I wore 3 layers and am normally cold in the mornings anyway so you can imagine what it was like to be thrust out there after only 5 hours sleep and 3 minutes of waking time (enough to walk the length of the house and dress).
However feeding horses is not a 1 man game by any means. In fact its normally performed by 2. One to distract the horses and the other to drop the rubber food buckety-plate things. However with 1 man you need to use the rail buckets which are hooked onto the fences.
Now for some of the horses this is ok, they get up, they wait for the nosh patiently and they eat politely. However for some of them eating just isn't enough so they have to kick the feed buckets off the wall whilst they eat, hell yeah that's showing them plastic food recepticals boys!
Consequently for some of the horses you have to sort of pour the feed over the fence into the bucket below because not even I can reach it.
There are 3 horses who do this. One of them is a winsucker.
What is a winsucker I hear you ask? Well its another quite ridiculous horse term which refers to horses who get hooked on biting onto wood and, get this, sucking. Apparently its the horsey equivalent of crack or something because nobody wants their horse to do it and the perpetrating horse tends to get others to do it through a combination of peer-pressure and looking cool (in the way that only sucking on a block of wood whilst exposing your big ol' Horse teeth can make you look).
This all ties into another theme which I've been acutely aware of lately. Horse people have really weird names for both themselves and things. A person was supposed to be looking at our land a few days ago, his name? "Brian Downer". Downer? What sort of a name is that!? There is this trainer who is über interested and is training in this incredible horse we bred from Sillery (now an ex-horse) because we perviously bred 2 others. The first was Score, he got sold and became the a ridiculously successful racehorse who earned $9 million (not for us you understand ;). The second was Sillerant (ours) who seemed just as good as Score but who had an unhealthy obsession with getting himself injured as much as was possible :). The next brother and the final one since Sillery is now in the big paddock in the sky (probably the big glue factory in Dover) is unnamed as of yet but apparently has the fabled "6 Gears". Most horses have 4 gears but some are able to just go completely mental if you put your foot down (Corvette the horse who's family we breed, had 6 gears and came from behind to win the us Hong Kong Derby).
Anyhow I naturally heard about this trainer dude a lot and he was referred to by his nickname "huffer". That was until I found out that his name was in fact, Huffer. I mean for pete's sake! Do people with stupid names just gravitate towards horse breeding/racing!?
Leavin' on a Jetplane
My dad just went back to Hong Kong for another 'tour of duty' so to speak. It'll be a shame not having him around as I really enjoyed the past 2 weeks with him but then I'm used to him having to fly back off to HK for work so its not too bad.
Being in the same house as my grandmother and no-one else on the other hand, is indeed bad. Thankfully she won't be down till tomorrow so I still have time on my own, hopefully I can convince Conrad to head down or something.
Right time for some sitting around
Later
John
September 04, 2003
"I won't loose my place
"I won't loose my place in life, I've been here too long and I've spent too much time"
Currently Listening To: These Walls from the album "Trapt" by Trapt
During this whole ordeal I've looked to a lot of places for comfort, particularly music which has often provided such comfort and I've finally found some that does. Ironically its the stuff I found all that time ago in April (I think, I'll have to check my blogg archives, might have been May) - Trapt. Since I basically spent all my live long day with my mates pimping the band to them everyone I know listens to them, my job was well done :) Now it seems sort of fitting that in a time where things are quite immensely shitty for me the music should sort of pay it back to me. Heh, sounds like a kinda stupid thing to say but there you go, eloquence is not a virtue I prize as highly as normal, given my current situation.
Gee.. The speakers in my mac, in fact just the speaker given there is only one, is really quite fantastically clear. I mean sure I knew it was H&K but I had no idea that it was so clear. Odd huh? And its most likely because the tower normally sits below my desk, a crime I might add given the sheer beauty of it. I'm wondering as to whether I should take some speakers to University with me, see I used to plug it into my HiFi which had a really nice sound to it but I have since donated it to my sister for its MD writing ability along with the MD player I had in Hong Kong.
I spent most of the afternoon, indeed all of it, probably up to 3 hours talking with my dad I came to realize in my mind that through all of her troubles my mother has sort of dehumanized him in some way, not done maliciously but driven by the same demons that plague her today. If anything good has come out of this whole situation it is that I have bonded better with my father and understood him for the person that he is. In turn he's helped me understand who my mother is. I have a greater admiration for him than ever and in turn a certain degree of disdain for a lot of people who portrayed him in a certain manner. Manipulation is something I can't abide and I shall make it my personal prerogative to ensure none of my siblings are subject to it as we have been in the past from people outside our family.
Right.. Now back to some sitting around on MSN/iChat/IRC
Later
John
Freeserve Sucks
Freeserve Sucks
Currently Listening To: American Pie by Don Mclean
My connection has been a total joke as of late. Dammit I could just about handle low bitrates but to have _no_ bitrates - that is to say /lag/ from your own ISP, for whole minutes no less is simply a disgrace.
I've discovered that I actually know all the words to American Pie by Don Mclean just by listening and being able to sing along perfectly. I always thought it would be a cool sort of lifetime goal to learn all the words to American pie and I've achieved it passively :)
Flat wrangling continues. I honestly have gotten to the stage where I only care about broadband haha!
Flat in Victoria - No cable Broadband
Flat in Camden - Lots of cable broadband + friends
:)
If only I had some sort of financial security. I don't blame my father for this, he's the only guy earning for 12 people including my now-subsidized minimum wage mother and by golly does he earn. People who don't understand finances of this nature should shut the hell up, I mean you Lorraine "Your father doesn't care enough about you" Thompson.
Point is I am a bit pissed that everyone is so happy to just leech of my father but there you go, at least my Uncle Jeremy can stand on his own two. In fact the only really leeching going on is from Granny through my grandfather who is bankrolled entirely by my father now. We've been selling loads of horses (hooray) and should be getting a vast amount of money today. £10,000 of which will be spent keeping fecking horses in Australia alive. To Paraphrase Randy Newman in the fittingly apt song "Its the money that I love"
" I used to worry about the starving horses in Australia (children in India)
You know what I say now about the starving horses in Australia (children in India)
I saw Whoooooooah Momma
Money!
Its the money that I love
Money!
Its the money that I love"
If we had our way this farm would be doing a lot of business with McDonalds if you know what I'm saying ;) Soprano's style.
Anyhow I have no idea how I'm gonna face the next semester. I want to go and live in the flat with my mates but the last thing I need is to be in arrears for rent (if that should ever happen). Not that I'd be screwed in terms of a place to stay - I have the flat in Victoria but financially I'd be fucked.
What I need is:
1) About £500 from my dad to clear my credit card (used to pay for such frivolties as "Food" and "Transport")
2) a £1000 loan from HSBC to cover me in case of money from him for rent not arriving on time/at all.
In fact, screw that! What I need is for my father to be paid the £80,000 he's owed. That would be nice given that I need £400 a month to pay rent, £50 a week to cover amenities and what not would be lovely but I got by on £30 last year so in an ideal world £600 a month would be good. So he could just pay for my whole University year in one go. Its like £6000, shove that in a bank account and I could actually gain interest / not be raped by HSBC all the time.
The other thing which pisses me off is my employer. I got paid £50 which means they still owe me £60. Fuck yeah, that sounds good doesn't it!? So instead of getting paid all my stuff in one go, £170 which would have totally cleared my troubles re: credit (I'd certainly sweat it less) I've been paid piecemiel and instead have had that money cut into by goddamn credit interest and extra fees!! For heavens sake!! I mean is it too bloody ask to be paid £170 in one go from your employer instead of it spread over 2 and a half months?!!? Guys its not some huge Bloody sum!! Its a complete joke! maybe if it was in the tens of thousands range it would be understandable but £170!?! You spend that each day on phone calls!
It seems like I'm obsessed with money, well thats because I can't earn any. if I was a barrister in Hong Kong now I'd be ok because at least I knew what I could do to rectify the situation (work my ass off) but I'm in the Uk and I'm a student.
That said I'm not nearly as fucked as Robert Soti, a friend of a friend who I've just learned is my age, has a pregnant girlfriend/wife and no financial support bar his own loan and whatnot. He can't even make the rent for a shitty flat in London, He's totally screwed, I think we all can learn a valluable lesson from him - use Contraceptives :D My heart goes out to him but sadly not my wallet as I am poor.
Right.. Enough of my bitching, go someplace happy :D
Later
John