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Daily Tip:
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| 2 days left |
| 06.24.04 (1:34 am) [edit] |
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I get married the day after tomorrow. No wonder I can't get anything written down here. My Hattrick team went out of the cup 1-8 in the first round as well. They'll have to manage without me next week...
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| Passports and grief |
| 06.18.04 (4:39 am) [edit] |
Well... the passport story is completed this morning as I pick up my new one from the UK Passport Office.
It's been a struggle and I've had stress - not to mention a 'phone bill - that I don't need, but now I can rest assured that I can go on my own honeymoon, one week on Sunday. It's another unwanted lesson to me in how well I deal with stress and "officialdom", but it's also a lesson in how that officialdom deals with the public, and how hard I'd find their job. On both my visits to the Passport Office my attention was distracted by people on either side of me who were being knocked back simply because they hadn't read the forms properly and who were becoming vilely abusive to the staff. The punter is stressed because he needs his passport: this I understand because I had that stress. I had all (and more) of the documentation required, and 2 previous UK passports to back me up: I could show that I had taken it seriously, and still it was not easy. One person next to me yesterday had had her application signed by a croupier(!) and had not had her photo signed off by anyone at all and had filled in her form in blue ink, but still claimed it was the Civil Servant's fault that she couldn't get her passport that day. The desk staff keep coming back for more, 'cos it's their job. I don't know if I could.
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| Aarg. |
| 06.17.04 (4:29 am) [edit] |
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Just had to spread this squirm around.
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| European vote-o |
| 06.10.04 (5:45 am) [edit] |
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I was the only voter in the polling station. The presiding officer looked pleased to see me. The turnout's going to be pathetic isn't it?
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| War on terror since 1972 |
| 06.08.04 (4:41 am) [edit] |
"Will Inspector Sand please proceed to Basement n on the Kent side."
"All rail staff to maintain radio silence please."
I'm at Victoria station today waiting for the train to leave for the short hop to Battersea Park station, when these familiar harbingers of station closure due to a "suspect package" are heard. What are we on the train thinking?
(A) "Oh my God, we're all going to die."
(B) "Remember the time that guy was killed by a bomb in a waste-paper basket outside Smith's? How long ago was that?"
(C) "Get this bloody train out, it's late already".
If you answered (C) you're probably closest to the mark.
At the time of writing nothing untoward seems to have happened.
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| Site I like, and other matters |
| 06.04.04 (1:47 am) [edit] |
How nice to appear, however briefly, on the Old Grey Poet's blogroll.
In some ways I don't know why I enjoy the site so much because nothing much ever really happens - they move house, they go to Starbucks, they go to B & Q, legs ache and photos are taken. In most hands this would be a dull and self-centred affair, but it is written so well that it's always a pleasure. (Better than this rubbish anyhow! - ed.) It went "off-air" for a long time after being 'flamed' by some idiot or idiots, and it was with joy that I found it had returned.
If I were attempt something in a similar vein - I certainly have the family for it! - I know I'd never be able to sustain it.
Worry: I'm going to Capri on my honeymoon in 3 weeks and I'm still on the 'phone to people about the documents I need for my new passport, all because I stupidly allowed a name-change when I married the first time. Respect due to to Sheila at Redbridge Register Office for her fine efforts this week!
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| Nothing |
| 06.03.04 (3:36 am) [edit] |
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No post for over a week. Bad Boggins. Brother from NZ, wedding plans, guests, carnivals, broken systems. 23 days left!
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Reading list 2k4
Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens
Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett
No1 Ladies' Detective Agency - A. McCall Smith
Poachers - Jim Franklin
Emotionally Weird - Kate Atkinson
Tears Of The Giraffe - A. McCall Smith
Scenes From Clerical Life - G. Eliot
The Mulberry Empire - P. Hensher
The Mauritius Command - P. O'Brian
Three Hands In The Fountain - Lindsey Davis
The Card - A. Bennett
Morality For Beautiful Girls - A. McCall Smith
The Hotel New Hampshire - J.Irving
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter - M Vargas Llosa
Two For The Lions - Lindsey Davis
Tragically I was an Only Twin - The Complete Peter Cook, Ed. William Cook
The Kalahari Typing School For Men - A. McCall Smith
Martin Chuzzlewit - Charles Dickens
The Full Cupboard Of Life - A. McCall Smith
The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time - Mark Haddon
The Course Of Honour - Lindsey Davis
Flashman and The Tiger - George MacDonald Fraser
The Emperor's Tomb - Joseph Roth
The Accidental Tourist -Anne Tyler
Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen
The Children of Dynmouth - William Trevor
August - Gerard Woodward (couldn't finish it)
General Gordon's Khartoum Diary - ed. Lord Elton
Breathing Lessons - Anne Tyler
Coming Up For Air - George Orwell
The Good Soldier Svejk - Jaroslav Hasek
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