wednesday, 28 february

there's some sort of sewage backup problem on my floor at work right now. it's pretty grim. this has to be some sort of health and safety violation. can i go home yet?

lunch was pretty grim today, too. why oh why am i hungover. ollie and i seemed to pinpoint the reason just now talking over lunch in the canteen: apparently i drank too much last night. i protest against ollie's tyranny, however, by quoting brideshead revisited: “It was neither the quality nor the quantity that was at fault. It was the mixture.” thankfully i didn't boot through anyone's window.

i do, however, feel guilty about last night (of course). my new friend james came around to my flat, the current state of which can be described (very charitably) as untidy. it's a war zone. so that was embarrassing. and then i was lame and went to bed early instead of being a good host. sorry! still, i had a great evening, so i hope i didn't ruin anyone else's.

tonight, i'm having a drink with my friend nick, and then cleaning the flat (to avoid future embarrassment). and maybe seeing the inside of the gym? hopefully?

tuesday, 27 february

monday, 26 february

what a party that was on saturday night. i was definitely still drunk when i got on the eurostar for brussels yesterday morning. i spent 8 hours in the city going to an open source conference where i understood...very little. anyway, back to the party. cartoon themed. i went as homestar runner (only one person recognised me. clearly everyone has better ways to use their time than i have. sigh). brennan went as marge simpson, with a makeshift dress from a meter of green fabric bought at john lewis, blue posterboard hair, and skin yellowed by an ingenious mixture of saffron and cetaphil. thankfully, he managed to avoid getting saffron on any of my walls.

of course we took the bus to the party. i don't actually remember much of the party, but i wrote down plenty of quotes, which will make quote of the day as time allows. hurrah!

i booked flights for my upcoming trip to spokane & MV today. i'm home for 4 days over palm sunday but not for easter. sigh. and i need to get back to work, here are a few links to new and exciting things on the interwebs:
- first, an an american self-portrait, compliments of my coworker jon.
-secondly, (most exciting news ever) slag patrol rides again. don't miss the 2006 top 10 hidden away on the tricky, anachronistically named "january 2007" page.

friday, 23 february

thursday, 22 february

wednesday, 21 february

right, so. first things first: happy birthday to my best friend brandon, whom i haven't seen in far too long. i hope the coming year brings you every happiness. including a grinning baby girl.

i just got back from ash wednesday mass (bummer on your birthday, there, brandon). anyway, i was reminded of two things. the first was that song we always sang at cataldo on ash wednesday (we rise again from ashes...). the other was fr kemp's course at georgetown, the church and the poor. showing my age, i took that course during the fall semester of 2000. but anyway, in it we talked about luke's gospel. (is it bad that i have a favorite evangelist? either way, it's luke). we also talked a lot about right relationships and the idea that sin is behavior that takes us out of right relationship--with god, with other people or with the world/environment. it's an idea that's stayed with me, and which has really affected the way i view the world. go figure. thanks, fr kemp.

it is AMAZING out today. 55 and partly sunny. i declare it to be the first day of spring, a whole month early. ollie says he was very happy this morning until he realised he was hung over. that's why we're friends.

oh, and i thought this wonkette post (tony blair hates our freedoms) was hilarious. and (lastly), check out the new blog roll link to brennan's photo-a-day site.

tuesday, 20 february

i hate EDF. sorry. i try not to say anything negative in my daily updates, but they were supposed to come around this afternoon to change my prepay electricity over to being billed after the fact. much more civilized, wouldn't you agree? anyway, the EDF guy decided to come at 11.25 instead of after noon. so i missed him. we've rescheduled for thursday morning, and they've promised to reimburse me for my wasted time, but i'm still pretty peeved about the whole thing.

the traffic on grosvenor place was particularly horrendous during my 3 bus rides so far today. i imagine it's the fault of the crazy london congestion charge, which expanded to include, um, all of england yesterday.

we had a PR team dinner last night at gran paradiso, on wilton street. food: 6.5/10. decor: 8/10. service: 5/10. very traditional italian restaurant; popular with politicians, but seemingly unable to comprehend providing a meal for a table of 15 boisterous people who move around the table frequently. really, though, it was a nice meal, and it reminded me of how much i like my coworkers.

can i just say how much i like josh ritter's "bone of song" right now? that's just how i roll.

any ideas for a fancy dress party with a cartoon theme?

monday, 19 february

i think we can all agree that i've been absolute crap at actually doing my daily updates. lent begins wednesday, you know, and i've been thinking about what i ought to do to observe. for the past four years i've given up alcohol for lent. when i told my coworker james that i was thinking of doing so again, he said (no joke), "i guess i'll see you after easter, then".

i'm not sure whehter that's not yet another argument in favor of a dry lent. i'd certainly save a lot of money. but i think i'm going to...wait for it...focus on doing my daily updates more regularly. how is this at all related to lent, you ask? well, it's a bit of a stretch, i admit, but writing these up is a good, centring experience. it provides me with a chance to reflect on what i've been doing and encourages me to be more intetional in what i do in the future. so there.

anyway, it's not lent yet, but i'm going to start ayway.

i had a very good weekend. highlights included a play (wutherig heights) friday night, followed by drinks with mikes. saturday evening i had a chinese new year dinner with christine and keats, and yesterday i had a few people around for roast lunch, after which brennan and i went to a bowling birthday party in bloomsbury. i slept like a rock last night.

saturday night i also went to G-A-Y...a (surprise!) gay club in an old west end theatre called the astoria. why did i go to G-A-Y? because sophie ellis bextor was playing. you know, of "murder on the dance floor" fame. i like her new song as well. anyway, the problem with concerts at clubs is that ms bextor didn't come on stage until 1.30 am, and she was off by 2.15. i didn't get home until 4. which means i'm still knackered.

the concert doubled as a setting for what brennan jokingly called "the peace summit". all that needs to be said about that is that it went as well as it possibly could have...by which i mean it went much better than i had dared to hope and that it was, by all measures, an actually pleasant experience. i just hope james felt the same way.

PS - if you didn't already think ann coulter is a complete nutter, click on that link.

tuesday, 6 february

giving a new blog system a try. feedback welcome.

dare i transition to an actual blog? i've been "blogging" for over six years now, but doing all the HTML coding by hand. that was fine during the heady days of web 1.0 (oh, the anachronism of calling it that), but there's no RSS feed option. so i'm giving jotspot a go, to see if maybe there's room in my aged and addled brain to learn a new trick or two.

why jotspot? well, one: because i can. b: you da ho. three: it offers lots of options to create and manage content from a centralised webpage, so i can eventually transition my photos and my papers over here if i decide that i fancy it. and maybe even all my old blog posts. we'll see. i'm not committing to anything just yet.

anyway, andrew and i had an AMAZING time in marrakech. it's a testament to something or other that we managed to have a fantastic holiday despite the shell-shock i was feeling last tuesday night, just hours before we flew down to africa. i won't bore you with the details; i've already bored both myself and andrew to tears with them.

anyway, here's a selection of thoughts about marrakech:
the plates are very hot ? no crying during mariah carey ? a monkey touched brennan's butt ? lorried! ? detained! ? throwing rocks at runners ? friend? best friend! paid friend! ? offered hash 17 times ? you want massage together? ? first she gives us herpes, then she tells us we have erectile problems ? turkey ? not so good at bartaring ? boy who's not me ? it's gunpowder! it's tea! ? if i ever ______, push me into a pool/in front of a moped/under a bus ? don't make eye contact ? afternoon naps ? smallest. beds. ever. ? i'd probably say the same (sigh) ? too many manbags ? snakes in the square and goats in the trees ? if only the motorbikes had spikes on the front ? prince william head shaped postcards are clearly the way forward

photos forthcoming. probably on facebook.