nirvana…
And hello from the warm and peaceful world of slothville (and for somebody who made such a palaver about winding up the travelling and sticking to my new close-to-home base instead, I seem to be posting an awful lot from hundreds of miles from it) or more specifically, curled up on a big pink sofa at Champney’s waiting for it to be lunchtime.
After my longest trip for not just a while but the foreseeable future, the settling back in to the new(ish) routine at home has recommenced without hitches and a lively couple of weeks it’s been; a couple of days in my favourite London digs turned out be just the ticket for breaking up the journey and it was a pleasure to finally alight at Scarborough in a completely non-zombie state on the Friday afternoon to sunny skies, delighted fishes and the inevitable mountain of junk mail. The next New York dates are already being mulled over and who knows what the airline seat sale might bring – scarily, Christmas is only thirty three days away!
I do at least now have a tree organised; as some Scarborough visitors may remember, last year marked the swansong of my twenty year old artificial Norway Spruce – bought from Debenhams when I was a window dresser there back in the day – after the third dodgy branch fell off and the second dodgy leg of the four total broke, causing it to stop merely listing a bit to starboard and just fall over altogether. May it rest in peace in the loft. Its replacement is a seven foot Alberta Pine I bought on the internet, so having only looked at pictures (and thus far resisted to urge to drag it out of its box and put it up immediately) I as yet have no idea what it looks like, although I have a feeling I will by the time the advent calendars go up. Whatever happens, it will hopefully fill the void and judging by the picture on christmastreesandlights.com, a sizable chunk of my living room as well. The fishes will have to peer through it like the Viet Cong.
Since the last entry we have also seen the no-doubt-temporary retreat of one Fiona MacTaggart and her mission to have us all queuing at the Jobcentre instead of gainfully self-employed and making ourselves useful, and our clients queuing at the police station on punting charges – one bright spot about the whole sorry episode (and anybody who blinked would have missed it altogether, which I daresay was the aim of Ms MacTaggart when looking both ways before sneaking it quietly onto the list and crossing her fingers behind her back) was the emergence of some new heroes in Parliament of all places – take a bow John McDonnell and Crispin Blunt! I won’t cherry-pick odds and ends of the debate and their contributions here as plenty of people have been over every nuance at length already, but thanks to the ECP some useful bits can be read (and there’s a transcript and some Youtube too – yay!) properly here; I haven’t fathomed out how to do links on a tablet yet so for now just copy, paste and bear with me…
http://prostitutescollective.net/2014/11/05/victory-amendment-criminalise-sex-workers-clients-defeated/
We’ll see what they come up with next. Back at the ranch, this last week in Scarborough has been the busiest yet, and apologies to those who didn’t get through before I left – all will be back to normal on Monday and continue as such until Wednesday 17th December. My London Christmas trip follows from early(ish) doors on Friday 19th, where I’ll be in Waterloo for a bit and then Victoria until close of play on Monday 22nd – yay! As ever, more definite info nearer the time, but mince pies (and the admittedly crap photo this week is not only another successful-ish first attempt on the tablet but serves a dual purpose in signifying that Cooplands brandy mince pies are now available, which as anybody local will know deserves not only a photo, but a parade) will be welcome irrespective of type/variety, origin or time of day. On the subject of awaydays, the punters of the Isle of Man can expect me shortly after New Year weather permitting – last year was a close call, as I remember – for a few days post Christmas break at the (OK, a different) seaside.
Back to it! Update shortly – promise, but after five hours travelling yesterday following the sour faced cow at Scarborough railway station* selling me the wrong type of ticket, I have some serious R&R to get on with.
Phone back on and normal service resumed next week…
*suggestion corner: get a fucking job you like.
Subscribe to blog feed.
About the Author: