I should be asleep, but I've been kept awake by memories.  I'm going back to my hometown next week for an extended trip, and it made me think of the old Central Library there.

Do you ever have one of those memory sessions where it's like you're really there?  I could smell the Library - the mix of old books and floor polish.  I could hear the ( Read more... )

I have two friends, A (girl) and B (boy).  We've been friends since college.  We shared a house together.  We got drunk together.  We went through relationships and break ups and all sorts of other traumas together.  And when we graduated we stayed friends ( Read more... )

 It's 4:30 and I can't sleep. All I can think about is rioting. I'm genuinely scared. There's rioting in Liverpool, but that's miles away (there's a river between me and them) but I'm awake ( Read more... )

Today is Day 0; or perhaps Day 1; or perhaps Day 7, depending how you count it, of the Tachperiment.  It's only just occurred to me that since I am sat at home, hardly ever seeing another human soul, I can try out those little fashion experiments that have always been in the back of my head but which I've never done for fear of ridicule.

Example ( Read more... )

 I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself.  The Magnum Opus is up to seven and a half thousand words, and the stuff seems to be pouring out of me.  I'm a bit afraid that I'm over writing in fact.  The seven thousand words has so far consisted of Our Hero having a drink with a friend, going home, then going out for a drink on his own, and I'm a bit ( Read more... )

I feel like Woody Allen, as today was my first appointment with the psychiatrist.  Yes!  I have a therapist!  Except not a proper therapist like Frasier Crane; this being the NHS, I've got a man who takes a lot of notes and who I then won't see again for a month.  Exciting none the less.

It was a weird experience.  For an hour I sat and described my ( Read more... )

Urgh, I'm so overweight now.  Thanks to Robert  I checked my BMI, and now I've received official confirmation that I'm a fat bastard.  I've suspected it for a long time but I've managed to con myself into thinking it was a healthy weight, just a filling out, but no.  It's just fat.

So I have to cut back on the eating and do some exercise.  The ( Read more... )

I'm feeling... aimless.  I had a strong, carefully composed plan to go and collect three railway stations for my other blog.  I planned the route, got the train times, was all set up to go.  And then I was hit by this big stack of indifference.  A whole world of ennui.  Suddenly the idea of leaving the house - of leaving my bed even - just became ( Read more... )

The Internet can be soulless, cold and daunting; it's a million rooms filled with a million books and no-one's given you a map (though Google can sometimes turn the lights on).  I kind of like it that way.  Because of my shyness, I like to be able to hide and vanish into an impersonal world where I don't have to deal with people. I hate having to ( Read more... )

I have a secret.  It's something I should be ashamed of, but I'm not.  I love my Lego ( Read more... )