MarkCity

Saturday, April 19, 2003
 
To make the most of yesterday's glorious weather, Butter and I took a trip to Brighton, the veggie capital of England. We went in and out of every shop in the North Laines - twice - but I couldn't find anything I wanted. Well, apart from some Emily the Strange underwear, but I'm not paying £40 for pants. We drank beer on the beach and tried not to be dazzled by the sun shining off all that sheet-white flesh. One of my former students visited Brighton last summer and was shocked - and perhaps a little excited - by the amount of hairy male skin on display. 'I thought English gentlemen were very reserved,' she said.


Toronto - Sars central

Butter has found a job. She will be (and I have to be careful to get this exactly right) a Trainee International Relocation Coordinator. A young TIRC. The downside is that, from next Sunday, she has to go to Toronto for two weeks to train. This is not only a downside because Toronto is a Sars hotspot, but because I'm going to miss her. Sob! Still, it's great news. I'm not at all jealous.


Oh Mark, don't you love me any more?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is on TV right now. I hate to say this, but it really isn't as good as it used to be. What happened to the wit, the tension, the brilliant one-liners? And the plots are daft. In the episode I'm watching at the moment, the high school principal has lots of knives hidden behind the whiteboard. How unrealistic. At my school, the principal (I mean, headmaster) would never have dreamt of butchering his pupils. That was the chemistry teacher. And there's an Asian girl in it who's been included solely for comedy value: the joke being that she can't speak English. Hilarious. Oh, it's a tragedy - when great shows turn mediocre.