MarkCity    |
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 Archives 
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Monday, September 26, 2005
Belle and Sebastian were wonderful. Maggie and I had the best seats in the house, eye to eye with Stuart Murdoch, who kept forgetting the words but who otherwise led the band through a spine-tingling performance. Towards the end they invited a section of the audience onto the stage to join the squillion band members - I was so jealous. As usual, I had to leave before the end and leg it to London Bridge after escaping the maze that is the Barbican. I bought a really cool T-shirt but it's a bit short and I risk exposing my belly when I stretch. Or move. Poor Nancy has had a bit of a relapse. She's still eating but also wheezing and wobbling again. Have to wait and see how she does. Claws crossed. Butter and I are trying to decide where to go on our next holiday. We're off to Miami next month but are already looking beyond that one. We're thinking maybe India or South Africa. We want a beach + culture holiday again, like we had in Thailand. We haven't been away since April 04. My God, the torments of the middle class. 18 months between exotic holidays. Unthinkable. Thursday, September 22, 2005
I spent the weekend ripping wallpaper from the walls of our second bedroom, along with a ton of plaster which means we're going to need to get a plasterer in. One of my favourite beginnings to a sentence is "Nobody ever lay on their death bed wishing they'd..." Done more washing up Spent more time ironing Done more DIY The same goes for staring at a computer screen. I'm incredibly stressed at work at the moment. Most people think my job is a doss, 8 hours of internet surfing, but sometimes I feel more like a juggler of virtual hot potatoes, trying desperately to keep everything from crashing around me and creating, er, mash. I enjoy it, but today I felt myslf go a bit wobbly at around noon, because everything got too much for a moment, and had to go for a walk. I'm alright now. I'm reading the Belle and Sebastian biography at the moment. It's hardly 'No One Gets Out of Here Alive' but between trips to church they have had the odd tiff. And made tons of indescribably beautiful music. I'm going to see them on Sunday at the Barbican. I'm going to stop staring at a computer screen now. Thursday, September 15, 2005
It was a year ago today that I broke my knee, and to mark this momentous occasion I'm - gasp - posting on here. I know, I know, I broke my promise. I've been bad. I will slap my own wrist. It's just that over the last month a curious mix of laziness and busyness have combined to conspire against MarkCity. So here's all the latest news: V Festival Butter and I went to V in Chelmsford with our friends Debbie and Richard. The highlights were Embrace, Goldie Lookin Chain (I take it all back), the Zutons, Franz and Oasis. The lowlight was very definitely the camping. I had forgotten how much I dislike it. The discomfort. The proximity to nature. The pissing in the bushes. Not that there are any bushes at V - one either has to brave the nasty loos or go against the fence. I didn't sleep for 2 nights, not because I was on a wild hedonistic rampage but because the bloke in the next tent was talking about his boring life all night. The highlight was when he and his mates played I-spy. Not ordinary I-spy, mind you. This was 2-character I-Spy. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with BC." "Er, big clock? Big crisps? Is the first word big?" Aaaargh! Butter had a minor nervous breakdown, but I won't go into that. So... V. Music, yes. Camping, no. I know - I'm a big soft wuss. Nancy Nancy has had something of a miracle recovery. After a course of steroids and then antibiotics, she's almost back to her old self. I can hardly believe it. It shows that Butter and I are clearly expert rat nurses. We're now trying to fatten her up (no, not for Christmas) while simultaneously slimming Syd down. Southend We spent the bank holiday in Southend. Yes, two visits to Essex in one month. Southend is a bit like Hastings but even brasher and gaudier. Played crazy golf (I sucked) and pitch n putt (I was alright), drank lots, ate loads of Mexican food, had a barbie, lounged in the sunshine and watched cricket. Yes, I, like everyone else who's sick of our terrible football team, have done something I never ever thought possible. I've enjoyed watching what I previously thought of as the sporting equivalent to an episode of the Archers - ie mind-numbingly twee, middle-English and dull dull dull. Now I... quite like it. That'll do for now. |