Mostly lemon based

Day: May 15, 2007

  • Survey doojit From (and created by) Kathryn…

    What makes you feel…

    Happy?
    Spending time with someone I care about. Good music. Both of these have the ability to raise my spirits.

    Sad?
    Thinking about my dad, and his illness.
    Excited?
    New creative input. A new song, film, book, comic, picture – anything can get me terribly excited. I’m also a car/bike geek enough that, given the right stimulous I can get excited about bits arriving (Oooh! A new distributor…). And with the current situation, progress on my house makes me excited.
    Furious?
    Pretty much nothing makes me furious. I can be quite annoyed by things, but very little actually makes me shouting and kicking things angry. Usually, if anything does it’s myself – usually when I’m trying to do something practical, make a bit of a mess of it, get annoyed at myself, make things worse and then end up shouting/swearing at [the object] when really I’m shouting/swearing at myself. I am best avoided during these moments. As I get older they get less common, although I can still reach the stage of hopping around and kicking mechanical objects.

    I very rarely get upset at people. And when I do, I tend to go quiet.

    Giddy?
    Love.

    Annoyed?
    The destruction of civil liberties, and our willing loss of them. The destruction and privatisation of the NHS by various governments. The inequalities that exist in this world because of sex/gender/race/colour/sexuality.
    Loved?
    Spending time with Kathryn; my family; my friends. All of them make me feel loved :-)

    Terrified?
    Interviews. Interviews terrify me. Sometimes the news is terrifying. I look at the world and I think what the *hell* are we doing?!

    Passionate?
    I don’t really know. Sometimes something just sparks inside me and I know I care – and have to do something. And I can be passionate about politics, people, or the sudden need to cook something insanely complex.

    Nervous?
    Ah, no. Interviews make me nervous. Nervous *and* terrified.

    Thoughtful?
    Reading and films – they’re the two most common ways to make me thoughtful; and obviously discussions with friends; most of my friends have political and religious viewpoints, and we don’t adhere to avoiding discussing religion and politics.

    Hurt?
    When someone says something thoughtless.

    Blissful?
    Curling up with someone I love and relaxing.
    Lucky?
    Looking at my life. For all the bad and hard, I’m lucky. I’ve got a job, a roof over my head, a partner, and friends. What more do I need? (Oh, uh, let’s skip over the 2 cars / 2 motorcycles, then we get into ‘insanely lucky).
    Guilty?
    Buying non-fair trade, non-organic foods. From lidl. Damnit.

    Calm?
    I’m always calm, like an ocean of calmness in the middle of the sea of relaxed. Heh. A space on top of a mountain, looking out at the view. A swim in an Edwardian pool. Eating dinner with my friends and relaxing.

  • Damnit, another pretty book

    Lookie at Core Memory. Prettyness and geekyness.

  • Building, Norwich and so on…

    So, building work progresses apace; well, a-limp is probably more accurate; however there are distinct progress signs, and a feeling of positivity descended (until today when I realised I’d have to pay to get someone to wire the kitchen, which is going to be ‘spensive, ‘cos I suspect I need an RCD unit instead of my current ‘fuse box’). At any rate there is progress, at one point the kitchen was a place of great danger... but now there’s a wall and in fact, plaster. I’m waiting on a ceiling though.

    So anyway, that’s the building work news. I do like to keep you all updated.

    In other news, I spent a fantastic 2 days up in the land of Norwich – relaxing and generally having an awfully good time with Kathryn. I headed up on Friday, and… well, actually Kathryn posted about it here – it seems silly for me to post the same stuff again. But what I will do is share a few pictures with you…

    While we were walking back from Norwich, me with my newly shorn hair, I saw this window. I’m sure I’ve seen it, and possibly even thought it was pretty before, but I actually (in a real change from the norm) took my camera with me…

    It’s such a beautiful window despite the decay…

    And then I’ve finally got some nice shots of Kathryn who amazingly didn’t notice the camera in time to stop smiling…twice.

    That second one, that’s a shot of her taking pictures of an abandoned shopping trolley….through an abandoned shopping trolley.

    And finally, I thought it was about time I had a new picture of myself, it’s not like I’m that narcissistic, so you don’t often get to see me…so, um, yeah, anyhow – it’s my Journal, why’m I justifying it?! Anyhow, this is me in the Sainsbury Centre for the Arts (or some approximation of that name).

    Of course, the interesting thing about that picture, apart from looking like some gloriously 1970’s white shiny plastic future is that it’s actually shot in the toilet. Yes. But I was so enamoured with the sparse, utilitarian whiteness of it, but at the same time it’s faint feelings of futuristic luxury that I had to get a shot.

    We were there to look at the photography exhibition (from the V&A) and also to nose at the art nouveau display. Both were interesting, whilst the photography exhibit – a lot of the images were excellent – as you’d expect, but failed to speak to me in any meaningful way. At the same time, there were some really fantastic images which were just incredible. Inspiring…

    The art nouveau display was also interesting, I’ve always struggled with art nouveau, because I adore some components, and other bits really just do nothing for me. Again, like the photography exhibit there was some stuff which was incredible, and again some stuff which failed to reach me at all. What did reach me though, was watching one of the staff discussing a tattoo – it’s interesting to hear people who really know about art discussing tattoos, reminds you that they are an art form in and of themselves.

    Anyhow, after a cream tea (yum, and surprisingly reasonably priced, although why I say it’s a surprise when I’m in a place that’s let me view lots of art for free….not sure) we headed back through the rain, and Brick declared he wasn’t going anywhere. Now I know I wanted to stay there with Kathryn, but this did lead me to have a stressed few minutes. See, the screw that holds the points in place, it’s stripped of thread so only kinda loosely holds them. So the timing wanders slightly – which hasn’t really been an issue once the car was running, but has been a little bit of an issue when starting. Thankfully I’d got a receipt in the car to use as a feeler for the gap, and having adjusted it he started quickly enough. I’ve just disassembled the points, slapped some threadlock on the base and put them back together – hopefully that’ll hold it okay until I get the electronic ignition from the Viva club bloke.

    On the way to the photo exhibit we ran into a little abandonment, shots of which are here.
    In other positive but unrelated news, my tyre arrived today for the ‘zedly Cherry, so I shall (on Thursday, I hope) disassemble the wheel and run it down to my local tyre place. All being well, we could be MOT’d and back on the road by the end of the week.

  • Abandoned Norfolk

    So, while wandering with my girlfriend we came across pseudo abandonment. It’s odd, because the adjoining buildings are part of an active university faculty, but these buildings, which one presumes are simply completely surplus to requirements are clearly in severe disrepair. There’s a sign up on one for planning permission to convert it into a bar…

    Whilst the fencing wasn’t exactly set up to prevent entry (there was a huge gap in it), the buildings themselves seemed fairly well sealed…

    This is actually the roof of what appears to have at one time been a stable. Further along it’s completely collapsed, big gaping holes allowing water straight into the building, this bit however is fairly much intact.

    A shattered light fitting hangs from the wall; I’m not sure when we stopped using ceramic for light fittings, but I think probably in the 50s…

    Interestingly it shows signs of having been rewired though, so perhaps the building’s been actively maintained until more recently.

    And another shot of that roof.

    On the opposite side of the courtyard there’s a barn-like building; a selection of broken and boarded up windows and doors bar entry; it appears to have some storage use – despite its condition. It’s even got new padlocks on some of the doors – despite the fact they don’t look like they’ve opened for years.

    For some reason that glass in the previous shot was a complete nightmare to focus on. I’ve no idea why. It took about four shots before I got one that was in focus!

    Looking downwards through the missing glass panes, you could see into the barn like building.

    But from another angle you could actually see directly in – and it also appears to have been used as a stable…

    Then there was this pair of round windows… reminds me of “playschool”.

    In between them was this door; freshly padlocked and yet overgrown and with the metalwork the padlock’s attached to showing no signs of having been moved at any point in the recent past. No scrape marks…

    Oddly, near my girlfriend’s house there’s a bit of abandonment, well, several bits, and so just ‘cos I’m too lazy to stick it in another post, here’s the abandoned shopping trolley :-)

    Hope you enjoyed the pics :-)